h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is, though it is more expensive than you'd want to hear. My father's hotel has given us one and I daren't use it!

What on earth is C+? But yeah, everything could be cheap and wireless, it just couldn't be today, because the companies need to make enough money off of the top-of-the-range stuff to be able to research more top-of-the-range stuff.

My take on what's meant by something happening is that the people who haven't paid attention to this technology, or who dabbled in it and discovered that they were so badly intimidated that they didn't come back for seconds, have finally seen the reality: this stuff is here to stay....for a couple of hours, after which it'll look similar and do a whole lot more.....and people either have to come to understand what's going on or get left behind.

I'm encountering a lot of people that have no idea what I'm talking about when I speak , which usually means bandwidth or simple hardware stuff; I'm constantly being reminded that there are utter beginners at all of this stuff among us, and they're the ones that was this evolution to slow down a bit.

Not being a mobile-phone user, I'm having trouble getting excited by the prospect of a WAP phone of any generation, however for the overly-stimulated and the constantly-moving, this'll probably become vital in the same way that the mobile phone did.

I didn't get to see the TW piece either, and keep hoping to be able to download it with QT; I can get all of Steve Job's stuff, why not this?...Couldn't even hear it because the Mac whatsit was not carrying it, apparently..... Maybe it'll be out on floppy soon.

Fruitbat

Responding to PrAK's message:

1)the people who wield the power NEVER like someone coming along and taking it away, especially when they replace that power with something much better;
2)see above;
3)Those that don't like to think for themselves are going to find themselves floundering in a society that prefers to, or they'll hire someone to do it for them, or they'll have to learn how to;
4)Short of imposing the kind of rigid behaviours and limitations imposed by the Chinese government upon its poeple - which isn't very likely in America, given the ranting and raving about Freedoms that come from there so much - I don't think a restriction on the basic freedoms is possible, much less likley.

My feeling is that the existing systems, which Douglas has pointed out are several hundred years old, may've worked at one time and were handed down to us because they continued to serve us....to varying degrees. Now that a dramatic social evolution is happening in the course of ten years, and is accelerating, those structures are going to start creaking and groaning as they struggle to keep up - and discover they can't.
I think you'll find that the mass of frustration with governments of every country is going to increase, because while they're supposedly protecting our rights, they're also taking far too long and costing far too much to do it.

If all that's not enough: those that are wanting to do the opprssing usually have no, or very little, knowledge of what this technology can do or how to use it well. Anyone who does know will know that suppressing it is impossible, and censoring it is futile/impossible.

Fruitbat

C++ is a really complicated (to me) programming language that makes a lot of really neat software run the way it's suppposed to. To be good at that language, one must be extremely logical, mathematical, and really determined. Thus, I'm a dead-loss at JavaScript, much less C++ (JavaScript is loosely derived from C++ and makes all kinds of nifty web-window stuff happen).

Remember the film 2001? The scene aboard the space station when Heywood phones home? Clarke and Kubrick decided that by the time we got into space regularly, the cost of a long-distance call would be reduced to what they listed it as within the film. I'm assuming that once the technology is here, someone'll find a really innovative use for it that'll startle everyone because it was so obvious that nobody saw it before.
Also, the MASSES have to pick something up to make it a real hit, and so far computer technology hasn't hit the masses becasue many of them either don't know anything about it, or can't/won't afford it.


Fruitbat

That's cool if you live in the USA, but in the UK they are changing the rules...

Any email ever written will soon be eligible for examination by any government agency that cares to...

The govenment won't have to tell us anything if for any slight reason they don't want to...

It will be illegal to tell any of your friends that you're email has been bugged/sifted through with a fine toothed comb, in case it tips them off to the fact that it's happening to them, too...

and if these rules exist in the UK, they can look at your email, and your friend's email and your family's email...

...you doing anything you shouldn't, cos soon, they're gonna know, and they can give that information to ANYONE!

(sweet dreams...)

PrAK (jiggled his head)

The other day, my son left his mobile phone next to my pc.
A few seconds before the phone rang, my monitor screen acted as if it had been struck by lightening. Then the phone started ringing. I shudder to think of the effects on the human brain.

hmmmm...emf strong enough to violently effect a moniter on connect will have to consult some of my white mice friends with this perhaps they are going too far in the quest for marketing mutants

We've got so many ways at looking at the internet right now that sometimes it seems like an impossible tangle. Everybody's trying to combine the Internet with something else. We have set-top boxes, which allow you to browse the Internet with your television set. Computers, of course, which you can now watch tv on and have mpeg video conversations with your buddies via telephone lines. Several gaming platforms like Playstation and Nintendo offer Internet access with the proper equipment. And the most recent craze - the Internet and cell phones. So far we haven't come up with a coherent, workable way of putting any of these things together.

Everybody's trying to make the Internet portable. The question becomes: how portable does it need to be? I don't really need to be able to browse the Internet on my cell phone. If I had a cell phone, that is. Let's say I do - okay, either I'll be driving with it, I'll be at work, or I'll be in a public place, either grocery shopping or eating out or watching a movie. All bad places to be browsing the Internet. I'd rather do that on a laptop computer, or something very like it. Something small enough to put in a purse, but big enough to hold a keyboard. If you really wanted to combine the cell phone with the computer, make it a detachable unit, so that the phone can go anywhere you are, but you can still leave the laptop in the car.

Leave your laptop in your car???
You must live in a better neighbourhood than me

When everyone has internet plugged into their brains or optic nerves, so that they can never get any piece and quiet - I will start a business turning these things off so that people can enjoy their lives - and I hope to get very rich.

Like to invest in my company?

.. That should be "peace and quiet"

Unless they're wanting a piece of quiet. Hmmm....

One of the good things about having an ugly vehicle is that nobody thinks to look inside the vehicle for good stuff to steal. It helps if there's wads of duct tape stuck to it here and there, and it's especially good if one window's broken out and covered by a plastic bag (& more duct tape.) My car isn't that ugly, but it's ugly enough!

You could always have a brand new ugly vehicle - like the Chrysler PT cruiser or whatever it is called. People who like this kind of thing but don't have one may steal it or smash the windows to see what's inside. Perhaps the complete Elvis anthology on CD or $2 in change?

Oh... I'd love to have the PT cruiser - or maybe that Predator thingie. Yeah, it's ugly - but COOL!

You don't need the internet everywhere you go. That'll be just rediculous!

Some strategic places are important though:
Work - for work..... and the odd distraction....
Play - the playstation and tv are a good start,
Bathroom - some times a magazine is not enough entertainment.

Places where it should be avoided, and this is where people have gone wrong in the past, is places like the microwave. When you're cooking, timing is everything, so you don't want to be too dstracted. Also a car; like mobile phones don't cause enough accidents! I recall someone trying to merge a microwave with an internet console. Not a good idea.

What sort of websites would be appropriate for the bathroom?

http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/uranus.html ???

A New Zealand manufacturer has developed a prototype refrigerator that scans the barcodes of grocery items. These barcodes are sent to (via the Internet) your local supermarket where they are added to your weekly shopping list. You can add or delete items on the list when you activate the shopping list by informing the supermarket (via the Internet) you want the grocery items delivered to your home. You pay (via the Internet) by credit card - a facility also available in the outside door console on your refrigerator.

An internet connection - similar to the above and fitted in the toilet roll dispenser - to comics.com could be an invaluable addition to the bathrooms of 2001

I agree. Comics and,......toilet rolls....the neccessities of life!