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Handhelds Hardware

The Disposable Computer 358

Posted by CowboyNeal from the humble-beginnings dept.
sp00 writes "A disposable paperboard computer has been developed and is already in use in Sweden. Developed by Cypak AB, the paperboard computer can collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data, the company says." Pretty impressive, given that they say it has a mere 32K of memory.
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The Disposable Computer More

The Disposable Computer

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  • 32K?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:39PM (#8472420)
    Jeez, no one would ever want to buy that underpowered machine! Give me 640k, and we will talk. ;-)

    • Re:32K?! (Score:5, Funny)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:19AM (#8472677) Homepage Journal
      Jeez, no one would ever want to buy that underpowered machine! Give me 640k, and we will talk. ;-)

      Oy! Yer spoilt! I used to program in 32K and I liked it!

      Why, some of the finest programming and games I've ever seen fit in 32K. It's all slop nowdays. Widgets, buttons and things thag go Bing! and need 256 MB to do it in.

      • Re:32K?! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by KronicD ( 568558 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @03:35AM (#8473391) Homepage
        Yeah, i know what your talking about, i'm in a programming principles class at uni and i was quite pissed off when he said theres no reason to use byte, short or int anymore since all machines have memory to spare we should store every variable as a long.

        I think this attitude is whats causing much of the bloat situation now days.

        • Re:32K?! (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Herkules ( 460636 )
          Noop! It has to do with code reuse. The code just gets more genral and bigger. But it also gets easyer to develop.

          So we get big and slow quick and cheep.

          (quick = less hours)
          (less hours = cheeper)

        • Re:32K?! (Score:5, Informative)

          by Urkki ( 668283 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:38AM (#8474013)
          • i was quite pissed off when he said theres no reason to use byte, short or int anymore since all machines have memory to spare we should store every variable as a long.

          Well... For most current computers, long takes as much space as int, 32 bits (or 64 bits for 64 bit CPUs). And for any individual variable, it'll take at least that amount of memory even if it's 1 bit bitfield (not sure if common x86 compilers by default pack variables to take less space if they can, though).

          So using anything else doesn't really gain you anything in space, but it may well hurt you in peformance (and code re-use).

          Bloat comes from copy-paste coding, and slowness comes from incorrectly chosen data structures and algorithms. This all arises from poor design, so for example the programmer is often faced with decision to change entire existing code to make some piece of it more generic, or copy-pasting that piece and modifying it a bit to fill the new need.

          • Re:32K?! (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Aidtopia ( 667351 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:25PM (#8476626) Homepage Journal
            [S]lowness comes from incorrectly chosen data structures and algorithms.

            It is certainly true that a bad algorithm can result in slow code, but most of the difficult performance problems I've had to tackle in the last several years are more closely related with bloat. In other words: virtual memory thrashing.

            Data structures are often suspect when thrashing is a problem. If nodes are scattered far and wide, then the page file can get a workout. Powerful, dynamic containers often have high-overhead per node and make little if any effort to improve locality of references. More than once I've had to replace an STL map with a hash table in order to get decent performance. (I don't intend that as a blanket condemnation of STL, it's probably just a funky implementation.)

            But it's not just data structures. Code bloat in general increases working sets. The structure of code, with long chains of hooks in message passing and method invocation, can result in skipping through dozens of pages.

            When programs were simpler, smaller and more procedural, performance problems appeared inside loops. Number crunching is still this way.

            But today we have interactive, event-driven programs implemented with deep object hierarchies that mask how much code is actually being called. A single button click to bring up a dialog can trigger tens of thousands of lines of code scattered all across virtual memory. Branch prediction doesn't help here. Level 1 caches don't help. Pipelines are stalled. The processor waits for the VM manager to deliver the next instruction to RAM. With hardly a loop in sight.

            We have few tools to fight this type of performance problem. You can get more RAM or use less memory. You can try to improve the locality of your data structures and your code, but those efforts are often at odds with a lot of modern practices such as object-orientation, enhancement by derivation, and letting the VM manager and the garbage collector worry about it.

            Hardware has gotten inconceivably faster, but software has hardly picked up the pace (in most domains). Sure, the code does more today, but the factors still don't add up. And it can't totally be explained by a bunch of bad algorithm choices. Code bloat is a big problem.

            Fight code bloat.

        • Re:32K?! (Score:5, Informative)

          by zero_offset ( 200586 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @08:16AM (#8474174) Homepage
          Speaking as a programmer whose first programming experience was Z80 assembly with 4K of RAM, I had to seriously revamp my thinking in recent years, but basically 32-bit processors work significantly better with 32-bit values. Also, except when memory is statically allocated and you've forced the compiler to pack memory allocated to your variables, that carefully considered allocation of a single byte is going to take up 32 bits of actual memory anyway, because once again, the CPU can access it that way significantly faster.

          In a nutshell, if you use a byte, short, or int, you're slowing down the machine. The only good reason to optimize to that level is when you're expecting memory problems, and as your professor pointed out, that is rarely a consideration these days (especially when you add modern paging techniques to the vast amounts of available physical memory).

          The more interesting question is the chicken-and-egg angle on runtime bloat -- did RAM increase because users needed it to run steadily ballooning applications, or did applications get bloated because cheap-as-dirt RAM meant end user machines had memory to spare? (I suppose both are probably true... which would be a bizarre conclusion if we were actually talking about chickens and eggs...)

      • 32K was enough to go to the moon, and it was enough for me!

    • Re:32K?! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Arconaut ( 674388 )
      Real inovation took place in 8k.

    • Re:32K?! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Mipsalawishus ( 674206 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:49AM (#8472832)
      But does it run Linux???

    • Re:32K?! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by still_sick ( 585332 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @01:23AM (#8472977)
      A few months ago I pulled out my old TRS-80 and the classic "Dungeons of Daggorath" (you pups have no idea what you're missing). It certainly struck me hard that in the instruction manual it specifically states that your system must have AT LEAST 5K of memory to play the game. Mad respect to all the trailblazers who managed to write kick-ass games under those restrictions.
    • Hmmm, I seem to have purchased several computers in my days that turned out to be disposable. I don't think this is a new idea. Of course, each time I bought a new machine (8088, 286, 386 ...) I thought it was the bees knees that would never be replaced. The only new thing would be pricing them at a level that didn't make buying a new machine extremely painful. Also admitting a limited lifecycle upfront is a new idea.

      Of course, on the battle front, there is a large number of computers that only get to liv

  • Obligatory BillG Reference (Score:5, Funny)

    by oldosadmin ( 759103 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:39PM (#8472422) Homepage
    Who needs more than 32k of memory anyway?

    • It was Steve Jobs (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DynaSoar ( 714234 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:07AM (#8472612) Journal
      "Who would ever want more than 16K?" He said it to Woz when Woz was designing the Apple II. Woz wanted to put socketing for 16, 32 or 48K on the motherboard, as opposed to the 16K limit of the Apple I. Jobs was also against the color capabilities. Woz built them in anyway.

      When Jobs hoisted the pirate flag and built the Mac, he specifically left out expandability and color on purpose. It wasn't because of technical considerations, as the Apple IIgs was in design at the same time as the Mac. It was computer design by temper tantrum.

      • Re:It was Steve Jobs (Score:4, Informative)

        by seanadams.com ( 463190 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @03:24AM (#8473359) Homepage
        It was computer design by temper tantrum.

        That may well be, but it's still perhaps one of the smartest moves apple ever made. While the rest of the computing world focused on standardized components, interchangeable io cards and memory, replaceable drives etc... Apple made an all-in-one system whose only interesting upgrade path was a new machine from Apple.

        And so, those who valued a complete, tested, supported system went with Apple, and that was the basis for (one of?) the most successful hardware companies ever.

        You can't argue with success, even if Jobs is a bit of a whack.

        • Re:It was Steve Jobs (Score:3, Insightful)

          by rixstep ( 611236 )
          Uh, I thought this thread was about the Swedish Cypak disposable computer? How did we get talking about Jobs's temper without getting modded as off-topic?

          And as for Jobs making a brilliant move here: I disagree anyway. Woz didn't like what Jobs did, and quit because of it, and I would hardly call a 2% market share 'successful'.

          • Re:It was Steve Jobs (Score:3, Insightful)

            by rixstep ( 611236 )
            Incredible. I accuse the moderators of slacking, when the entire discussion gets off-topic, and they call this comment off-topic.

            I guess brown shirts are required clothing for mods at /.?

      • Jobs was right (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dmoen ( 88623 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:09AM (#8473949) Homepage
        When Jobs hoisted the pirate flag and built the Mac, he specifically left out expandability and color on purpose. It wasn't because of technical considerations,

        Yes, it certainly was. The Mac was not Apple's first computer with a mouse and a graphical interface. That was the Lisa, which nobody bought, because it was too expensive. A colour Mac would have required a huge frame buffer in order to provide adequate resolution. The memory costs of this would have pushed the price too high. Also, the 7MHz CPU was not fast enough to draw text and windows on a colour graphics display (again, unless the resolution was too small to be useful).

        And keep in mind that the Lisa, despite its immense cost, was also black and white. So was the Xerox Star (another failed GUI computer that cost too much).

        The Mac was not the first personal computer with a GUI. It was the first GUI computer that was cheap enough for ordinary people to buy. The hardware limitations you mention were necessary to keep the cost down.

        Doug Moen

  • a mere 32K of memory (Score:5, Insightful)

    by the_other_one ( 178565 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:40PM (#8472428) Homepage
    I remember when a 32K Commodore PET was a cool thing.
    If they print double sided could they emulate a Commodore 64.
    In a few more years ... Just imagine a cluster .... in a three ring binder.

  • If it crashes... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tebriel ( 192168 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:41PM (#8472433)
    If I get Windows running on this thing (with 32k!) and I get a BSOD, do I just throw it away and get a new one instead of a reboot? Or even better, could I mail it to MS and ask for a new one?

  • Nothing new... (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrashPoint ( 564165 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:41PM (#8472436)
    A computer you use for a few days and then throw away? Hell, Dell's like twenty years ahead in that market.

  • Finally... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:41PM (#8472437)
    ..a computer I can actually wipe my ass with when I get pissed at it.

  • $$$ for recycling (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Supp0rtLinux ( 594509 ) <Supp0rtLinux@yahoo.com> on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:41PM (#8472438)
    So what's the payout for collecting pounds of these and returning them to my local recycling center?

    The difference between disposable and classic is age. My three year old PC is disposable. My 15 year old PC is a classic and goes for $9,000 on Ebay.

    The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers [nccomp.com]

    • Re:$$$ for recycling (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous User 2000 ( 597007 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:19AM (#8472679)
      The difference between disposable and classic is age. My three year old PC is disposable. My 15 year old PC is a classic and goes for $9,000 on Ebay.

      The difference between disposable and classic isn't just age, but period. Your 15 year old computer is worth someting because it was one of the first of it's kind. If you try to sell the computer you own today 15 years from now it wont be worth crap.

    • Re:$$$ for recycling (Score:3, Interesting)

      by freshmkr ( 132808 )
      My 15 year old PC is a classic and goes for $9,000 on Ebay.

      In 1989, a top-of-the-line PC was a 386 or something. How in the world does a 386 command $9K on eBay? I guess you're exaggerating. But by way of comparison...

      A glance at my posting history reveals a more than passing interest in the Apple Lisa. The Lisa 1, an especially rare collectible computer, goes for around $10K whenever it shows up.

      --Tom
    • Actually, I wasn't exagerrating for once. Rather, I didn't quote enough time. I was referring to my Radi Shack (Tandy) TRS-80 complete with every accessory ever made, all games and software, and a tape drive for disk storage. Many of the components were never used, others I have more than 1 of. Total Ebay value based on others' listings is $8000 to $10,000.

      The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers [nccomp.com]

  • Re: Disposable Computer (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:42PM (#8472449)
    Imagine....a Beowulf cluster of these!
    *sigh*
  • By the time the box puts a 5 lb hard drive in, they'd upgrade to the beige metal box high end model.

  • Article Text (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:43PM (#8472459)
    It Had To Happen: The Disposable Computer
    March 4, 2004 (11:40 a.m. EST)
    By W. David Gardner, TechWeb News

    A disposable paperboard computer has been developed and is already in use in Sweden. Developed by Cypak AB, the paperboard computer can collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data, the company says.

    "Initially, it will be used in industrial-specific applications as an enhanced and secure RFID device," said Cypak marketing director Strina Ehrensvard in an email. "Today, in pharmaceutical and courier packaging as a data-collection device; tomorrow maybe for interactive books, lotteries, passports, and voting cards."

    With just 32 Kbytes of memory, the paperboard computer's functionality is somewhat limited at present, but the firm believes its future will be broad. Cypak has entered into an agreement in the U.S. with MeadWestvaco Healthcare Packaging, which has marketing rights to the product and technology in the Americas.

    Ehrensvard said the device is currently in use in a trial sponsored by a Swedish university involving compliance monitoring of pharmaceutical packaging. The trial tracks when a medicine tablet has been taken out of a package; it is then placed on a Cypak scanner connected to a PC on which the information can be viewed and stored. Ehrensvard said the paperboard computer is being considered in another healthcare application, as well: doctors would use it to help authenticate the administration of pharmaceuticals.

    The Cypak product utilizes RFID technology that is based on printable sensors and electronic modules. The components are integrated on a variety of products, ranging from packaging and plastic cards to adhesives. In healthcare applications, Cypak says the paperboard computer time-stamps medicine dosages, which can be integrated with a patient's electronic diary. It can deliver sound reminders, too.

    Cypak has also developed a companion device--a smart card with an integrated numerical keypad. The firm expects this to be used initially in applications demanding high security. By entering a unique PIN on a card, a user can connect to the Internet and exchange data. Cypak says the card's encryption can't be copied or broken, enabling it to deliver "military-class security."

    "The paperboard computer concept and the PIN-on-Card are the same core technology--components integrated in different products," Ehrensvard said. "They exchange information to a PC with the same reader."

    Cypak offers the components on an OEM basis for about $1 each. The firm added that OEM components for its readers are available for approximately the same price in large volumes.

    The firm has developed a tamper-proof package technology with the Swedish Postal Service. Called SecurePak, the packaging technology stores sender and receiver relevant data and alerts receivers of any possible package tampering before the package is opened.

    Cypak will demo the products at the CeBIT 2004 exposition, in Hannover, Germany, later this month.

  • Worlds Largest Cluster (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Supp0rtLinux ( 594509 ) <Supp0rtLinux@yahoo.com> on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:44PM (#8472469)
    Well, with this configuration the power receptacles would take up more room than the cluster nodes. So imagine 1,000,000 of these in a box the size of a filing cabinet? And along these lines, can you unplug it and store it with your other files?

    The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers [nccomp.com]

    • Well, actually...

      5 Volt DC Power Supply, Jameco Part Number 112070 [jameco.com]
      1.9" x 2.2" x 1.95"

      Full height file cabinet, Office Mac Item Number 01200578 [officemax.com]
      52" x 25" x 15"

      So you could fit about 2392 of them in that file cabinet... SORRY I'M BORED!!

  • On the next The Screen Savers... (Score:4, Funny)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:45PM (#8472472)
    Their mod specialist Yoshi DeHerrera will show off a cardboard case PC. (Web story is already posted here. [techtv.com])

    This was actually a delayed segment from last week. Yoshi cut his hand working on setting up his demo on how he did it last time he tried to do this segment. He needed to leave the studio to get stitches and missed most of the show as a result.

  • Beowoof? Bah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by tloh ( 451585 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:46PM (#8472475)
    Forget about clustering, I want to see someone overclock one of these without the thing smoking and going up in flames!

  • Re: Disposable Computers (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:46PM (#8472476)
    In Soviet Russia...
    the computer disposes of YOU!
    *ducks*

  • Excellent! (Score:5, Funny)

    by nmoog ( 701216 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:47PM (#8472480) Homepage Journal
    Now I can use my disposable cell phone [slashdot.org] to dial up and post my photos from my disposable digital camera [slashdot.org] and ask disney why I cant find anymore disposable dvds [slashdot.org].

    Oops. Better get back to work. Else no disposable income.

  • REAL Notebook computers. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Chr1s-Cr0ss ( 743037 ) <ChriszumaNO@SPAMcomcast.net> on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:47PM (#8472486) Homepage
    Well, it seems we will finally be able to refer to something as truly a "Notebook computer"

  • The advantages of paper-computing (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:48PM (#8472488)
    Look at pr0n then shred the evidence...

  • I need this (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Saint Stephen ( 19450 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:50PM (#8472495) Homepage Journal
    Somebody help me: I keep my todo/dates, todo/tasks, books/want, books/have, tidbits in a plain Unix text file and I maintain it with a text editor and print it using a2ps -2. My life fits in two columns landscape mode.

    Whenever I need it, I print it, at a cost of 17 cents on my inkjet. When I need to update it, I simply use a pen and "sync" at home later.

    I can fold it, put it in my pocket, access the data randomly instantly, and easily add graphics or test with a 0% error rate. However it gets expensive at 17 cents per sync.

    All I need is a little bit of memory (32k) and a read-only display screen, super-tiny, and cheap as hell. If America wasn't ass-backwards, I'd just SMS the stuff to my cell phone.

    As an employee at Microsoft I had TWO of the top of the line PocketPCs : I played quake on them, wrote some C programs, and put them away as toys. I need to do WORK, as a technical person, not a salesman. All I need is digital paper.

    What can I use?

    • Re:I need this (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Brianwa ( 692565 )
      If you're not looking for something new or fancy, you may like a Tandy 100 or 102. They are ancient laptops, however, they do exactly what you want. They get great battery life on four AAs, however, it will not fit into your pocket. Take a look at Club 100 [club100.org] and see if it is what you want.
      Then again, you could get a cheap Palm and a keyboard.

    • Re:I need this (Score:3, Informative)

      by zero_offset ( 200586 )
      If America wasn't ass-backwards, I'd just SMS the stuff to my cell phone.

      Give up your ass-backwards ways. I'm in Florida and I send text to my cell phone all day long. Some of my servers send activity reports every few hours. I also threw together a simple web page to help friends and family members send messages to my phone. Easy.

  • 32k is more than I dreamed of a few (25) years ago (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rcpitt ( 711863 ) * on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:53PM (#8472519) Homepage Journal
    32K is a lot of RAM. It's enough to do a fairly useful voice recognition system, or word processor, or even spreadsheet.

    I know - because that's how much RAM my Radio Shack Model 1 had after I'd purchased the add-on module and populated it with the extra 16K of RAM (the main module could only handle 16K) and before I pushed the limits by moving to 48K.

    Note that the module plus 32K extra RAM (to bring the system to 48K) was about $2,000 Canadian at the time.

    This is not insignificant - at least not if you've ever used something other than Windoze ;)

    • 32K is a lot of RAM

      These days, relatively high-level CAD functions can be done with a $599 el-cheepo machine (I still wonder why some 3DLabs cards cost $1K).

      Aside from modelling the entire universe and rotating it, texturized and shaded, in real-time, why does anyone need a videocard that costs more than, say, $500? Is this why Intergraph went out of the hardware business?

      My experience has been in relatively complex models of large piping systems, and today's processors, affordable RAM and displays
      • It really depends on what you do. Of course for Internet, word processing, etc, el Cheapo is fine. Even for Photoshop, Flash, and most coding, it's fine.

        For CAD you might get by. I've got no experience with CAD software. But for 3d modelling and rendering, the state of the art truly still isn't fast enough. A fast graphics card is necessary for showing the textured model on the fly. The better the card, the better this model, the easier it is to work on and see how it'll look compared to the real thing. T

  • New excuse for not doing homework (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:53PM (#8472521)
    "My dog ate my computer sir"

  • OH MAN (Score:4, Funny)

    by sudotcsh ( 95997 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:53PM (#8472522)
    Cypak says the card's encryption can't be copied or broken...

    AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! ...

    AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

    *whew*! I needed that.

  • Is it allowed to call itself a "computer"? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:55PM (#8472539)
    There are devices marketed as calculators that have more than 32k of memory these days...

    High-end wristwatches are starting to behave like low-powered computers with a small black and white pixel-based display, the beeping speaker, and ability to accept wireless input. We're not calling those computers, just "smart watches".

    So, this really is more about "smart paper"... paper with a few chips in it and therefore the ability to beep. Only a small upgrade over the musical greeting card. :)
    • Its more powerfull than some of the old 8bits.

      Cool, Rogue on paper, ohh wait thats AD&D.

    • Re:Is it allowed to call itself a "computer"? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rebelcool ( 247749 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:45AM (#8472813)
      back in the 1940s, a "computer" was a young woman who sat in front of an adding machine punching in numbers. It was actually quite awhile before the electronic machines came to be known as 'computers'. I'm sure many early designers would laugh at the thought of their complicated multi-ton kilowatt consuming monstrosities being named after the job a 19 year old girl did.

      What it is called depends on its use. You don't call a PDA a computer do you? Even though it clearly is one.

      If this device is in fact used for computing, then it is in fact, a computer.

  • Spys applications (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tdwebste ( 747947 )
    This could be real handy when you need to distroy the encryption device without a trace that it ever existed.

    A spy gets caught with what looks like a fussy picture of her family stored in the spy's pda. And with no trace of a encryption device, I guess it must be just a bad picture.

  • Oh god (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jeffkjo1 ( 663413 ) on Thursday March 04, 2004 @11:58PM (#8472554) Homepage
    Sometime within the next 20 years, if we continue this trend, we're going to have more crap IN landfills than we will actually in service.

  • Chip specs (Score:5, Informative)

    by nmoog ( 701216 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:00AM (#8472566) Homepage Journal
    Theres some intersting specs [cypak.com] about its S2C chip on the Cypak website:
    8-bit microprocessor

    32kBytes non-volatile FLASH memory with >10 years of data retention.
    2kBytes Static RAM
    It also mentions using 128bit AES encryption, with RSA under development.
  • I always wanted some Windows toilet paper

  • disposable cellphone (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ende ( 154873 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:02AM (#8472585)
    I'm still waiting on the disposable cell-phone [hop-on.com] .....

  • Good for distributed computing, I bet. (Score:5, Funny)

    by infernow ( 529374 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:04AM (#8472595) Homepage
    (I apologize in advance for this one)

    They're probably great at running Folding@Home.

  • Offspring (Score:2, Funny)

    by krusadr ( 679804 )
    Does this mean that a computer and a printer can reproduce?

  • 'Scratch Space' (Score:3, Funny)

    by scorp1us ( 235526 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:08AM (#8472622) Journal
    When you run out of memory, just add a 'scratch pad' and malloc some more 'pages'.

    'Scratch space' wasn't meant to be taken littlerally!

  • Windows? (Score:5, Funny)

    by JohnGrahamCumming ( 684871 ) * <`slashdot' `at' `jgc.org'> on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:14AM (#8472656) Homepage Journal
    Perhaps they can get it to run Windows, sell them on rolls and I'll be able to wipe my butt with Microsoft on a daily basis.

    John.

  • Prophetic (Score:2, Funny)

    by krusadr ( 679804 )
    Quote from flashing Adobe ad on /. front page...

    "And I need to design paper forms that are identical to the paper ones"

  • tattooing computers on disposable employees
    (to better manage the workforce inventory)

  • Is this really a "computer" or data storage? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 1iar_parad0x ( 676662 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @12:24AM (#8472715)
    ...the paperboard computer can collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data, the company says.

    What do they mean by process? It sounds more like data storage. This is quite different than a computer. What kind of calculations (or computations) can it do?

    All of the examples could easily be implemented on this paper computer with nothing more than a clever encoding scheme and be decoded by a real electronic computer (PDA) with a scanner.

    In short this sound like a new type of ticker tape. The PDA and scanner would be the "Turing machine" (or processor).
  • "In the future, you're going to get computers as prizes in breakfast cereals.
    You'll throw them away because your house will be littered with them."

    -Robert Lucky; c. 1984

    This might be a good time for me to start learning parallel architectures.

  • At $1 per it's only likely to be used in tracking high-dollar items, if used in an inventory chain at all. I write inventory software and am looking forward to cheap rf tags to make tracking and consumption easier; however, this ain't it - not yet anyway, at least for mainstream inventory tracking.

    However, it's right up there for the applications they outline - pharmecutical inventory tracking where a vial of drugs can cost a couple of grand.

  • At least it will be easy to case mod!

  • Imagine... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...a ream of these paper computers.

  • There must be something seriously wrong (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @01:46AM (#8473076) Homepage Journal

    with Slashdot when 95% of Score:5 comments to such an interesting article are "Funny." That having been said, I believe that our community as a whole (id est Slashdot at large) seems to completely lack any professionalism regarding cryptography by writing on the front page that "the paperboard computer can collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data, the company says." which is supposedly 'Pretty impressive, given that they say it has a mere 32K of memory.' Surprise: To "collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data" you don't need million times more memory than said data! Film at 11! What will be "impressive" next? The fact that strong crypto can use only few cycles per byte on general purpose processor? Wow! How impressive! Really? I don't need 4GHz Pentium 5 with 4GB of RAM to "collect, process, and exchange several pages of encrypted data"?

    Give me a break! This article is great news and really worth reading, but for much more important reasons than those that kids today think that you need ten hundred megabytes of ram to encrypt and store ten kilobytes of plain text. I, for one, feel insulted by such article summaries, because everyone who knows that I am a Slashdot user might think that I must be completely incompetent looking at the front page.

    I might only suggest for everyone who wishes to post stories about cryptography to read at least Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier first. This is the absolute minimum if you don't want to make an idiot out of yourself. Why cannot we talk about the serious implications of using RFID technology to build this machine instead of posting completely unintelligent jokes in the lines of "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those! It might have 640kB of RAM! Who needs more?" This is stupid at best and insulting at worst. I urge you to start posting insightful, informative or at least interesting posts before it is too late and this discussion is already archived.

    What I am personally most concerned about is how disposable are the active and passive (semi-)conductor elements which are printed on this boards. Does anyone have any experience in disposing them? It is not very clear in the article.

  • Flushable (Score:5, Funny)

    by wrmrxxx ( 696969 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @03:03AM (#8473304)
    Very handy for when the SCO cops show up. Quick, everybody, flush the computers down the toilet!

  • 32k|encryption (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jago25_98 ( 566531 ) <slashdot@phon[ ]pw ['ic.' in gap]> on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:17AM (#8473804) Homepage Journal
    bah "32k should be enough for anybody!"

    "Cypak says the card's encryption can't be copied or broken, enabling it to deliver "military-class security.""
    ^ well fate is tempted. I'd say slashdotters will take about 3 months to crack it after being distributed commonly... :)

  • Paperless society (Score:3, Funny)

    by dargaud ( 518470 ) <slashdot2@gd a r gaud.net> on Friday March 05, 2004 @09:28AM (#8474667) Homepage
    So now we can become a truly paperless society, once they come out with version 1.0 of WipeMe for this system...

  • Old news... (Score:3, Informative)

    by MrScience ( 126570 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @11:27AM (#8476002) Homepage
    I wonder if this guy [slashdot.org] will be remembered? He tried to do it in the US ten years ago.

  • What happend to printable PC's? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @11:49AM (#8476256) Homepage Journal
    A year or so ago, we read about annonucement of a printable comptuer..

    Was going to be uses by the US census.. And was never heard from again...

    What ever happened to them?

  • Just a smart card (Score:4, Interesting)

    by owlstead ( 636356 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @01:08PM (#8477076)
    Come on guys. This is just a smart card chip with some sensors put on it. It has a non-ISO 14443 type A or type B interface, which means you can only use the readers provided by Cypak.

    On top of that it only uses AES encryption. Great. Most smartcard processors can do any symetric cryptography and DSA and RSA as well. 156 / 1024 bit 3DES/RSA is common nowadays and higher asymetric encryption is on the horizon, if not there. 16 bit processors are quite common as well, with 32 bit processors just around the corner. You can host web servers on smart cards for some time now.

    Obviously there are some interesting things to this story. What kind of wireless protocol will they use? How do they connect the sensors? What kind of sensors are available? What kind of operating system can be used? How easy is it to integrate it into some piece of clothing (eg)?

    And 1 dollar per CPU is very good value I suppose.

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