we've had a burst of UK nostalgia about this being the 25th anniversary of the release of the sinclair spectrum.
And certainly it launched a generation of machine code programmers and hackers. I'll even admit to having a spectrum plus (not to mention a jupiter ace), even though I was paid to work with real computers.
But it's funny. Looking at the spectrum reminded of the QL, another sinclair computer, and one far more interesting for its implications, because Strathclyde University launched a plan to give/lend/lease QL's to students in 1986/87, something hat was pretty revolutionary at the time give that most university networks consisted of classic time sharing solutions and a few computers on slow serial lines.
Strathclyde's adoption of the QL, while doomed because they chose the wrong platform, was revolutionary in its realisation that computers were an adjunct to learning and not just a glorified calculator/typewriter replacement...
also posted on my journalspace blog
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Linux and the Library of Congress ...
Interesting article in LinuxWorld (http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/03/26/1157212) on the US Library of Congress's use of opensource tools digitizing rare books/materials and also for making them accessible over the web.
Worth checking out if you're interested in this kind of thing ...
Worth checking out if you're interested in this kind of thing ...
P2P Lockss and private solutions
In February I wrote about using P2P and Lockss to make a basic archiving solution.
Interestingly the Lockss people picked up on this post and sent me a nice email with some information on people who were also working on a similar solution based around a private lockss archive model.
However, I've got to have a mea culpa here - their email went off to my Yahoo account where there was a filter that was supposed to forward on email to a couple of different accounts depending on what it was - except it didn't work and the mail just sat in the inbox. As I don't actually check my yahoo inbox very often it sat there for an embarassingly long time. Basically shows you can be too much of a geek sometime ....
Interestingly the Lockss people picked up on this post and sent me a nice email with some information on people who were also working on a similar solution based around a private lockss archive model.
However, I've got to have a mea culpa here - their email went off to my Yahoo account where there was a filter that was supposed to forward on email to a couple of different accounts depending on what it was - except it didn't work and the mail just sat in the inbox. As I don't actually check my yahoo inbox very often it sat there for an embarassingly long time. Basically shows you can be too much of a geek sometime ....
Easy neuf ...
Came across this little curiousity in today's herald tribune (see http://iht.com/articles/2007/04/02/technology/neuf.php ). A major French ISP has started renting low cost information access devices running linux. I wonder how long it'll be before they do a google apps bundle?
Certainly it's an interesting application of the 'nearly a thin client' model to sell broadband, the inbuilt software is there only to make the box seem usable as a home computer. Of course you could buikd your own using damn small linux and boot it from usb drive or whatever
(More details at http://www.groupeneufcegetel.fr/dyn/File/presse_en/060921CP_Easyneuf_EN.pdf : if you can read French googling for easy neuf brings up a range of other links)
Certainly it's an interesting application of the 'nearly a thin client' model to sell broadband, the inbuilt software is there only to make the box seem usable as a home computer. Of course you could buikd your own using damn small linux and boot it from usb drive or whatever
(More details at http://www.groupeneufcegetel.fr/dyn/File/presse_en/060921CP_Easyneuf_EN.pdf : if you can read French googling for easy neuf brings up a range of other links)
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