2012 February 22 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for February 22nd, 2012

Google’s Ultimate Small Cheap Computer on the Radar

Published by Robert Pogson February 22nd, 2012 in technology. 1 Comment

The small cheap computers of today are like bricks (cell-phones) of a decade ago compared to what Google has in mind. Google is talking of making glasses with a heads-up display of information. Things like GPS readouts, speed, location, news,… It’s everything you can do short of an implant in your brain… I guess that will be next.

I expect someone will put a smartphone in this thing with voice-activation. Perhaps that’s next year, but this looks like a great product to ship for Christmas in 2012.

“According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.
…
They will also have a unique navigation system. “The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click,” Mr. Weintraub wrote this month. “We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.””

Are you drooling yet? I can see a side-effect of such a product being improved posture and stress-relief of the muscles of the neck…

see NYTimes – Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year’s End

- Robert Pogson

US Veterans’ Administrations Looking at Alternative Office Suites

Published by Robert Pogson February 22nd, 2012 in technology. 9 Comments

From the VA’s Request for Information:
“to lower cost VA wishes to pilot alternatives to the desktop installed versions of the Microsoft Office productivity suite of applications. VA Office of Information and Technology intends to solicit proposals for alternative architectures for providing an office productivity suite with similar functions that are offered in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and where available Access, Visio, OneNote and Project. The alternative architecture may be provided through an off-premises cloud system such as Office 365, Google Apps, LotusLive or others. Or it could be provided through an on-premises cloud based terminal server or application virtualization system providing Microsoft Office 2010 as an example. Or it could be provided through a desktop installed version of a lower cost office productivity suite such as OpenOffice as another example. The purpose of the pilot is to understand the issues such as security, supportability, interoperability, ease of use, end user satisfaction, speed, network requirements and compatibility with Microsoft based products over a diverse set of users within a large enterprise setting.” Continue reading ‘US Veterans’ Administrations Looking at Alternative Office Suites’

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.