Ape::Tracks

Little Green Laptops

I can still vividly remember how much I wanted a computer, and how happy I was to eventually get one*. For some children today a computer would cost their parents' annual income. It was rather moving to read about the first real deployment of the One Laptop Per Child computers, and see the photos of the children:

Link: ivan krstić · code culture » First OLPC deployment: now it’s real

There are going to be disappointments, and problems, and scandals, but the project is marvellous and will improve people's lives - not just the children's but their families and communities. The "give them food instead" argument is both astonishingly ignorant and somewhere between patronising and downright racist. Most people in the world have enough food, and have enough clothes - they need access to education, information and communication, tools to create things, and a voice.

*Although technically I got the tape player, joystick and software, and my eldest sister got the computer.

Power

The lights at home did some disturbing flickering last week, so I've started thinking about replacing my dead UPS.

A basic UPS can handle about 400w. My PC's power supply can provide up to 450w, but how much does it actually use?

I've now got a gadget that connects between a plug and mains socket and gives a live reading of the watts being consumed. Power usage on the PC ranges from 90w to 120w. It was fascinating to see power consumption rise while email was being downloaded. We tend to think of the virtual activity within computer networks being completely distinct from the real world, but in reality even an email attachment has a carbon footprint.

There was one disturbing discovery. The PSU is a recently bought Antec HE, an ATX2.2 'high efficiency' power supply. It gives off less heat, and has an 85% efficiency. This is all very good, and might well account for the lower than expected power usage. Unfortunately the power meter showed that when the PC was turned off using the soft-power button, and should have been almost completely off, it was still consuming 20w! Twenty watts is quite a lot of power for what I assumed was a small circuit to detect a powerup request. To put it in context, a Nintendo Wii games console uses less than 20w when being used to play a game. The PC was doing nothing.

I normally avoid 'standby' modes and had no idea I was wasting so much power. I've now set the PC to boot when 'power is restored' and then switch it off at the 'hard' switch too.

MSX -> Wii

My first computer, after years of hoping for a C64 (or anything really - I tried begging for a ZX81 at one point) was a Toshiba MSX. And it was good. The hardware itself was excellent, and the games were great: typically European games on tape and Japanese games on cartridges. Konami carts were particularly good but almost prohibitively expensive - £20 was an awful lot to pay for a game back then (most tapes were about £8 I think).

I've been hoping that MSX would join the old systems on the Wii's Virtual Console service, and it seems I'm in luck - it's going to happen. As well as giving the opportunity to play Penguin Aventure on a TV, the MSX will also be the first home computer on Virtual Console. Maybe we'll be seeing BBC Model B games appear next :-)

Link: News: New formats confirmed for Virtual Console - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

(Beyond the rosy glow of nostalgia I have to admit the MSX standard wasn't perfect: the built-in BASIC was full of useful, easy features but was horribly crufty and slow (thanks Microsoft!) All MSX systems (even the low-end Goldstar model) were much more expensive than the c64 and ZX Spectrum. Lower initial sales and uncopyable cartridges meant much less of the playground piracy that drove sales of Spectrums.)

Turning Yellow

Last year I lit my spare room with a low-energy UV 'sunlight' lamp. While packing up my stuff to move house I noticed that many of my classic (OK, junk) computers had become slightly yellow on one side - the side facing the lamp.

I've not had much trouble with the old Macs (apart from the Mac Plus). The worst affected seems to be Acorn kit, even if it's never been exposed to sunlight. Some of it turns a particularly foul I-don't-want-to-even-touch-that colour.

This article at Vintage Computing explains the phenomena of yellowing plastic - it's actually a reaction caused by flame retardants.

Link: Why Super Nintendos Lose Their Color: Plastic Discoloration in Classic Machines

Not much on AppleTV right now

The AppleTV gadget looks neat and has a good price but a closed product tied to one supplier of content isn't going to tempt many people until it has some actual content. The UK iTunes store currently offers 0 TV shows and 0 movies.

I can buy* "Tin Toy" and a few other Pixar shorts for £1.89 each, but so far that's it.

Of course, if the AppleTV box can run MythTV I'll be queueing up to get one. It's good value at £200 just as a remote iTunes node, even without the video features.

(*Buying DRMed products isn't really buying in the traditional sense, of course. You just borrow them from Apple)

Apart from the maths and physics involved, yes, they are the same.

Judith Davies, who has a daughter at the school, said: “Many people campaign against mobile phone masts near schools, but there is a great deal of ignorance about wireless computer networks. Yet they are like having a phone mast in the classroom and the transmitters are placed very close to the children.”

Health fears lead schools to dismantle wireless networks

Scientific evidence is inconclusive, but some researchers think that children are vulnerable because of their thinner skulls and developing nervous systems.

Wifi uses the same signal as baby monitors but unlike baby monitors the signal is not constant. The wifi units are also further away from users than baby monitors are from babies (I believe baby monitors are usually fixed to cots). Babies have very thin skulls. As far as I know the "Exposing Large Numbers Of Babies To 2.4Ghz Microwave Radiation" experiment puts us all in the clear so far.

Given the almighty faff I've been having with wireless networks recently they should go with a wired network because it's going to work.

If there's one thing worse than people who can't discriminate between different forms of radiation it's Netgear wifi bridges that kill TCP connections and Linux wifi drivers that have a mind of their own. :-) Unfortunately A. isn't keen on me taping cable over the walls or pulling up the new flat's floor yet, and she has a point.