I have a bad feeling about this…

Dibold Media Player?!?
Yes, this is an ATM that has re-booted and defaulted to the base OS. That would be Windows… Come on people! Realize that you should use the right tool for the right job! Sure, you can haul lumber and roofing tar in a sports car but you would be a fool for doing it! Something that needs to be bullet proof, like and ATM, needs to run from and embedded system that upon a fault defaults to somthing that people can’t get to. The kids were able to bring up the media player now but what happens if the next unit that goes belly up lets the user gain access to transaction records (card numbers?) or even the internet (who knows how long a device like this would remain un owned on the ‘Net!) And yes, Dibold makes electronic voting system… I would like to know if anyone has looked into the ‘relationship” between them and Microsoft.. “Your building an electronic voting system? Here, we would like for you to use our nifty one size fits all OS. Don’t worry, its secure…” Give me a break…

Mac update

After many hours of booting, re-booting, re-setting the CUDA, different hard drives, and loads of swearing, the G3 has OS X on it. Thank you, thank … I t hink the memory I was using was bad (Apple bad is still PC good, annoying), but it could have been anything.
Its faster than my desktop Mac but not by much. Next step is to see if I can add another IDE hard drive to it.

AMD Personal Internet Communicator

AMD Personal Internet Communicator
Ah, another ‘Internet only’ computer system. The specs look good and the price looks as if it might not be a loss leader for a monthly pay service (iOpener). If the WinCE on it will let a user control the USB ports it might make a nifty PC for all sorts of things. MP3 player for your car maybe? Brain for a robot? Can you load Linux on it??

    AMD Personal Internet Communicator (PIC)
    Codename: Emma
    Processor: AMD Geode GX500 366MHz @ 1W
    Memory: SDRAM DDR 128MB
    Hard Disk: 10GB
    I/O: 4xUSB, 56KB Modem, Audio
    System: MS Windows CE for Hand-held computers
    Softwares: IE, Messenger, Spreadsheet, & more
    Manufacturer: Solectron
    Price: 185$ without monitor – 249$ with monitor