Asustek Computer Inc. (Asus) predicts that the Eee PC it has started selling with Microsoft Windows XP Home edition on board will outsell the original Linux-based version by a ratio of 6 to 4 by the end of this year — a heady prediction considering the Windows machine costs nearly twice as much as the cheapest Linux one.
Call me crazy, but that looks like 3 to 2 to me. Why say “6 to 4”? People will pay twice as much for Windows? That’s the norm, not a surprise. The surprise will be if people who value security will pay twice as much for less.
Th Eee PC is cute and definitely a good effort, but it seems too small to me to be useful. The video reviews show perspective. Instead of a unified package, I wish they could make one that is modular — pull off the screen and use it like an ipod/iphone, attach a keyboard to the bottom and it’s a notebook, clip it into the dashboard and it’s a media/gps…
As the price of gold soars a story comes to light about a scam in Ethiopia:
Five senior executives from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and three chemists from the Ethiopian Geological Survey were arrested last week for their alleged involvement in a gold fraud scandal.
The NBE, which exports gold, reportedly bought 300 kilograms of fake gold from a trader. The Ethiopian Geological Survey inspects any gold the NBE buys and offers quality assurance, but an official from the survey said the trader replaced real gold with the fake gold after he had received certification.
From the second canto of Kavikanthabharanam by Kshemendra
With his own
eyes a poet
observes the shape of a leaf.
He knows how to make
people laugh
and studies the nature of each living thing.
The features of ocean and mountain,
the movement of sun, moon and stars.
His thoughts turn with the seasons.
He travels among different people
learning their landscapes,
learning their languages.
as quoted in The Cane Groves of Narmada River
a blog about the poetry of information security, since 1995