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Environmental Issues By Alan J Hartley |
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The Wind Up Computer. |
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Wind up pocket lights are a great emergency stand by in the event of power cuts, or even just for occasional use as they never need their batteries checking after long-term storage. The latest torches use L.E.D lights that have extremely low power requirements thereby giving a very bright, but efficient light that will run much longer than more conventional bulbs. Other, recent innovations, include Media Players and even a small, portable, pedal power, generator that comes with a large 12V battery from which power can be drawn at different voltages to power all manner of small electrical items from mobile phones upwards. It sounds like a good idea for camping, but then again most campsites have electrical power laid on these days.
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However, since the first “Wind Up
Radio” people have dreamt of creating a cheap, wind up computer so
that everyone in the World could get on line. Nicholas Negroponte was
the scientific brains behind the project with the UN Secretary General,
Kofi Annan, pushing the idea out to the world. The “Green Machine”
as it was to be called would use flash memory instead of a hard drive
and although it would serve all the functions of a modern computer the
whole thing would be simpler from its construction, through it’s
operating system to the programs it would run. It would be tough and
fully mobile giving users access to the Internet and computer power
anywhere.
The project was named “O.L.P.C.” or “One Lap Top Per
Child.” There was much hype over its proposed low target selling price
of $100. Sales were expected to reach hundreds of millions and indeed
many were sold. As the years ticked by improvements were made and power
requirements were reduced, however, even with a promotional charity idea
in America, where children could buy a machine at twice the price for
themselves and donate one for free to a child in a third world country,
the great dreams for the green machine seem to have come to little. New
machines are still being planned and developed with launch dates
proposed and new even lower prices dreamed of, but it seems that the
“Green Machine” was only really an early idea for what we now call a
"Netbook," "Palm Top," or "Tablet." Computer. The only
difference was that it was to have a wind up generator. Back in 2009 the
“Green Machine” was re-developed so that the generator was an
optional clamp on extra!!!