Microsoft BOB

It's also the time you start wearing a gold chain, grow a mohawk, and start pitying fools.

Low speed. Less maneuverability than an airplane. Lame.

> ...experienced Slashdot hams

Homer: Mmm... experienced Slashdot hams.

Tell that to all the Apple fan-boys out there.

It's doable, provided the American people are comfortable with the use of nuclear weapons. After all, the in-service ICBM only costs $7,000,000 each. Just a couple of those should be enough to annihilate just about any nation. No exit strategy required.

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

FTFA:

"Parents can pay for the computers upfront or lease them from the district, with the option to buy after three years. The payments should work out to about $20 to $25 per month, Hayes said. The cost also includes free tech support.

"We realize for some families that will be a stretch," he said. In those cases, the district will provide financial assistance.

Students who don't participate will be able to borrow a school-provided laptop during the day, but they won't be able to take it home, Hayes said."

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IMO, $20-25/mo is a fair plan. That should be well within the finances of most families, and as they noted, they will provide financial assistance.

That said, using a unified platform is not a bad idea, but why make students buy heavily marked up hardware? Why not Netbooks with Linux?

It was just a gag by David Copperfield, using smoke and mirrors. It got way out of hand and he sends his apologies.

I don't own an Apple mobile device, but Opera Mini has always been a fixture on my Windows Mobile devices for the past couple years. When I found out Opera Mini 5 was going to have a native WM version, I was overjoyed (no more waiting for the JVM to start)

As far as my opinions of the browser: No, Opera Mini doesn't have Javascript, Flash, Java, or HTML5 support, but that's not critical. Why? Simple: when I'm browsing on the go, that content doesn't matter. I want the text, images, and a proper layout, and I want it quickly. I've used full browsers on Windows Mobile before (Opera Mobile, IE Mobile 6, Iris Browser) and none of them render fast enough. Furthermore, Flash is terrible on mobile devices - slow and battery consuming.

A quick speed test to prove my point: My favorite web comic (Air Force Blues) on a 5Mbit Wifi connection takes roughly 15 seconds to render on Iris Browser 1.1.9*, but only 2 seconds through Opera Mini 5. Sure, not having JS means I get to miss out on the comments below the comics, but that's a small price to pay.

So is Opera Mini a full browser? No. I do think that it is a good general purpose mobile browser, especially if you're in a country where the Telecom companies all have caps on mobile data (I'm looking squarely in your direction, Canada).


* Iris Browser is based on Webkit, and uses SquirrelFish Extreme for JS. It was probably one of the best full browsers for WM before RIM bought out Torch Mobile and they stopped WM development and distribution.