J
Jasper Janssen
Guest
On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 12:46:19 -0600, [email protected] wrote:
>On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 14:42:42 GMT, Jasper Janssen <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>>Human-powered or AC powered as you choose, laptop costing $100 in
>>quantities of a million or so. They are considering bringing versions of
>>this on the market for Westerners as well -- I know I'd buy one at 2-300
>>or so to take on my vacation.
>
>You can get used, full-sized laptops for <$200, and they will probably
>be more capable than the $100 thing with a crank.
No, you can't buy laptops for <$200 that still work. Especially not with a
functioning battery. Anything that price is probably a P1 instead of P2,
and this thing is supposed to be a 500 Mhz processor of one variety or
another. Also, lighter and more efficient with its energy than any
full-size laptop. You just try handcranking one of those on a backpacking
vacation in the Alps.
>>Crank-powered radio. Originally developed for the third world, now also
>>sold for disaster use in the West.
>
>I have yet to see a review of one of these that really abuses the
>thing physically or even tests it to its ultimate mechanical failure.
>If you're going to depend on something in an emergency, you want it to
>WORK. The original one came out about 15 years ago if I recall, and
>now there are hundreds of brands of cheap knock-offs. If you're
>designing a mechanism to be operated by everyone from children to big,
>burly pro-wrestler types, you have to make the thing robust, and that
>means expensive. Unless of course you are trying to make a fast buck
>from the paranoid, terrorist fearing, gullible American public.
Sure trying to honour the email address, aintya. Crank mechanisms don't
need to be different for a pro-wrestler or a child. It's the rest of the
thing that needs to be robust, but that's no different from the previous
variant of emergency radio which was a battery powered one with lots of
spare batts in the closet.
Jasper
>On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 14:42:42 GMT, Jasper Janssen <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>>Human-powered or AC powered as you choose, laptop costing $100 in
>>quantities of a million or so. They are considering bringing versions of
>>this on the market for Westerners as well -- I know I'd buy one at 2-300
>>or so to take on my vacation.
>
>You can get used, full-sized laptops for <$200, and they will probably
>be more capable than the $100 thing with a crank.
No, you can't buy laptops for <$200 that still work. Especially not with a
functioning battery. Anything that price is probably a P1 instead of P2,
and this thing is supposed to be a 500 Mhz processor of one variety or
another. Also, lighter and more efficient with its energy than any
full-size laptop. You just try handcranking one of those on a backpacking
vacation in the Alps.
>>Crank-powered radio. Originally developed for the third world, now also
>>sold for disaster use in the West.
>
>I have yet to see a review of one of these that really abuses the
>thing physically or even tests it to its ultimate mechanical failure.
>If you're going to depend on something in an emergency, you want it to
>WORK. The original one came out about 15 years ago if I recall, and
>now there are hundreds of brands of cheap knock-offs. If you're
>designing a mechanism to be operated by everyone from children to big,
>burly pro-wrestler types, you have to make the thing robust, and that
>means expensive. Unless of course you are trying to make a fast buck
>from the paranoid, terrorist fearing, gullible American public.
Sure trying to honour the email address, aintya. Crank mechanisms don't
need to be different for a pro-wrestler or a child. It's the rest of the
thing that needs to be robust, but that's no different from the previous
variant of emergency radio which was a battery powered one with lots of
spare batts in the closet.
Jasper