All-
I'd love to make a souped up version of this for OHS/DKR use:
(Read about in May 2000 Popular Mechanics)
"Cybiko Introduces First Handheld Internet Wireless Entertainment System
At Toy Fair 2000"
http://ca.us.biz.yahoo.com/bw/000211/ny_cybiko_2.html
http://www.cybiko.com/
http://www.cybiko.com/what.asp
US $149.00
The Cybiko system combines instant messaging, interactive gaming, email
and
personal information manager (PIM) capabilities in an all-in-one device.
... Available in four translucent colors, Cybiko has a full QWERTY
keyboard to compose messages, LCD display, .5 MB memory (expandable to
16MB), a high frequency transmitter and Vibration Alert feature. The
unit measures 4.8 x 2.8-inches and weighs under
four ounces making it light, thin and small enough to carry in a book
bag, purse or shirt pocket. ... With Cybiko, kids and teens can
communicate instantly with others within a radius of 150 to 300 feet,
depending on the environment, creating
their very own virtual community.
Wow!
Imagine what we could have for $1000 by the end of this year by
integrating technology that already exists:
Develop a beefed up version supporting a distributed file system like
Freenet...
http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
Using technology like this 6GB in 14 ounces $500 portable audio
player/recorder:
http://www.nomadworld.com/products/nomad-jukebox/
And a two mile radio range:
http://commerce.motorola.com/consumer/QWhtml/2way_comp.html
Maybe with a next generation StrongARM 600Mhz processor:
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/em050399.htm
Like a faster version of:
http://www.pfu.co.jp/BossaNova/Specifications_e.html
Running Squeak (and maybe Linux) as an open source OS/Development
environment:
http://www.squeak.org
Using Bootstrap OHS/DKR type ideas for the interface...
http://www.bootstrap.org/ohs/
Powered by solar energy and/or Baygen radio windup technology and/or
fuel cells.
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm?dp=303&ts=1050244
And with a digital camera for fun and creation of educational how-to
tutorials...
(And on the spot news reporting...)
http://www.eyemodule.com/splash.htm
And remember that in five years this entire thing will cost US$100 each.
As an alternative, this could be a set of HandSpring modules instead:
http://www.handspring.com/products/springboard_news.asp
Consider a couple of these souped up devices given to each village in
Africa. Anyone with $1 billion for true development aid to 500,000
African villages? (This is just the cost of one unfinished dam or one
shut down nuclear plant.)
Consider millions of these devices airdropped into Iraq and Yugoslavia
-- instead of more expensive cruise missiles! Anybody got $1 billion to
spend on ensuring democracy with a true defense against tyranny in those
places? (This is probably what the U.S. military's spends on gas/oil for
a month cruising the area...)
This is like a system I wanted to develop and deploy pre-Y2K just in
case...
But it still has much value in preparing for any potential (natural,
political, economic, biological) disaster, as well as aiding the
development of democracy.
It's somewhat like the wearable crystsls described in The Skills of
Xanadu" by Theodore Sturgeon (available in his book The Golden Helix),
although the one thing it lacks is easy self-repliaction...
Developing and then deploying this sort of device is the sort of thing
the UN or a major foundation should fund (if they were on the ball).
But luckily, there is hope from toymakers!
-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com
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