Small Supercomputer, XPC, Notebook, and Gaming Thingy

kidgenius, SpinnerBait, and anonymous readers wrote in with four fun tales of small devices doing cool things. IBM has built a supercomputer the size of a TV, using 1000 PPC-based CPUs. Shuttle recently began shipping their AMD Athlon 64 based XPC, the size of a breadbox. Sony has a new 0.4" thick VAIO notebook (scroll down). And a European company is about to introduce the Gametrac, a handheld WinCE gaming gadget with 3D, Bluetooth, SMS, MP3 playback, MPEG4 video playback, camera, and -- interestingly -- GPS tracking. "The system allows the parents to establish 'fences,' which, when entered by the child, cause a notification to be sent to the parents in the form of either an SMS message or an email." Hmmm.

GPS tracking

[El]

"Alarm is sent to parents when device is carried outside of prescribed zone." Uh, won't that simply teach children to set the device down before wandering off?

vaio not so thin

[Anonymous Coward]

once again the battery is the limiting factor -- but this time not for uptime, but because it is 0.8" thick. :P

allows parents.

[happyfrogcow]

it's one thing to be pissed about a government tracking you, but if parents want to track their children, so be it. don't make it sound so big brotherly.

however, i don't think it would be good parenting (though, really.. who am i to judge) to use tracking like this as a first, second, or even third option. a little trust goes a long way.

Tracking children

[Space cowboy]

How is it that adults can never seem to remember just how elusive they were themselves, as children :-)

Here's a hint to the parents - they'll leave it at home if it gets them into trouble :-))

Simon

almost a good design

[utexaspunk]

that laptop is pretty dang sweet sweet, with one glaring exception- the placement of the keyboard. laptop designers learned a long time ago that putting the keyboard up against the front edge is no good for using the computer on your lap. it's better to have it toward the back so that your wrists have a place to rest.

could use a bigger HD, too, for my tastes...

Re:smaller is not always better

[Anonymous Coward]

well the draw back is the battery - these machines would be popular if they gave more than 4-6 hours at best of usage! Lets face it batteries suck!

Jesus H, 1000 CPUs must be hot

[unassimilatible]

1000 CPUs in a little box?

That thing could cause a China Syndrome if not cooled correctly.

Re:Tracking children

[Anonymous Coward]

How is it that the children can never realize that the world has changed since their parents were kids.

Don't believe me? Watch an episode of Leave it to Beaver and lets talk. Today that title would be a p0rn series.

I'm sure the Smart family (had their child abducted in Utah) would have loved to have had some device to track their daughters whereabouts.

Eventually these things will get down to the size where they can be integrated into jewelry. And yes, that can be a good thing.

And like all good things it can be abused. That will vary from parent to parent, just like behavior varies from child to child.

Re:allows parents.

[freeweed]

But that's precisely where the term "Big Brother" came from in the first place. Orwell wanted something that sounded warm and friendly (family, someone who looks out for your well being), but taken to the illogical extreme.

To me, the term fits today's paranoid parent perfectly.

And to all of those who will reply "they're my kids, I can do what I please with 'em" and "wait till you have kids and you realize just how hard it is to keep them out of trouble"?

These are the exact same arguments I heard growing up when beating your kids became child abuse. However will we discipline little Johnny if we can't give him a good whuppin? Well, sometimes abuse isn't just physical.