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I worked an hour on a detailed reply for you, Tom, and then, naturally, Digital Express crashed. Might so do again. So I'll keep this relatively short. I hope it's helpful.-David R ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Wed, 11 Aug 1993, Thomas Andrew Newman (of Internet's Communet mailing list, devoted to community computer networks) wrote: > No matter what kind of a computer you use and what kind of a connection you > have (SLIP, dialup, etc.) most of the time, I suspect, you are reading and > writing text. > > I would like to know how cheaply a TeleReader could be made, using > off-the-shelf parts. Such a product would probably be better than an old > Apple II (new chips do much more than old chips); it might even be as > cheap. It would certainly be easier to repair - just replace a module. > With off-the-shelf parts, maybe $400 in volume. With custom parts, much less--*perhaps* less than $150 within two years or so if vendors *really* cranked up the production lines. The secret, of course, would be to use highly integrated chips and other tricks to drive down the cost of manufacturing. And although my proposal mentioned something more sophisticated, I'd go along with a modest start if that's what people wanted. Features and stats of the TeleReader: --Operating system. GUI. Perhaps Windows, perhaps Mac. Let the Microsoft and Apple (and others, including IBM!) compete. Certainly there'd be room for more than one OS. If the OS happened to be Windows--even Windows as a full operating system, as opposed to a mere environment--Microsoft would have to make it *much* more stable. And it would help if the OS were simpler than the present Windows. What's more, for people just wanting to download books and exchange messages, the interface would be confined to a few simple icons. Ideally the system would be telephone-easy, just as you want. But it could allow the user to switch in a more complicated versions as he or she progressed. --CPU. 386SX or a Motorola chip in the same range. I know you had in mind a computer that was little more than a terminal, but prices are dropping, and we might as well give the kids a *real* computer with at least a 25Mhz clock speed. BTW, I'd be open to use of chips other than a 386SX. I'm just trying to give you an idea of something that would be the minimum. In two years 25Mhz chips will be throwaways, almost. --RAM. At least 2MB-4MB. Prices go up and down, but the long-term trend is *down*. --Mass storage. A floppy and hard drive. Obviously solid-stage mass storage would be the real solution, but let's keep prices low. The HD would be 40-60MB at least. Most of the software would be in ROM to save HD space. Yes, there could be easy ROM upgrades. --Display. I'd hope that it could be LCD, but if not, then a very sharp b&w CRT in the same box as the CPU. The machine might look quite Macish *if* we went the CRT route. In the TeleRead proposal, I suggested a tablet-style computer (propped up by a wire stand when you were typing at your desk), but that could come later. The CRT could be a little bigger than the Mac's, maybe 10 inches. The software would easily let the user vary the size and style of style when reading. --Keyboard. Detachable. Use standard industry keyboards if possible. You could buy them in bulk for all of $15 or $20. Several keyboard styles might be available. Avoid debacles like the PRjr keyboard. Make it *fun* to write and type. --Mouse. Would come in different sizes for kids and adults. Note: Another possiblities for the first TeleReaders could be a trackball built into the keyboard. Eventually TeleReaders would also have a pen-style interface. --Modem. In the next two years there might not be that many dollars difference between 2,400 and 9,600 bps. It's just a matter of the right chip coming along. --Sound card (or equivalent). If price allowed. --Printing. My price estimates don't include printers; I don't think schools and libraries should mess with lending them out--printing could be done at the school or library. Besides, children could modem in homework. People buying TeleReaders privately could use them perhaps with small, economy-priced inkjets. Yes, the above computer would be better for older children than for younger children--it wouldn't be as rugged as what I had in mind. But as I said, it's a start. > If the computer industry put their minds to making a computer just for > >using the Internet I'm sure they could sell them at a price most people > >could afford. Viz., the Walkman, the digital watch, the answering machine, > the discount store's televisions and radios and telephones. All of these > products were prohibitively expensive before the industry decided to get > serious and develop highly integrated special purpose chips for them. > Right on! The Feds and local and state schools need to tell the computer industry: "You can still sell us deluxe boxes with CD-ROM and similar trimmings, but as of such-and-such date, we're going to spend X percentage of our computer dollars on TeleReaders. Here are the basic specs and the price range we want. How about turning your designers loose? You'll discover a whole new market beyond libraries and schools. You can also sell the same machines to private individuals." As noted in an earlier message, the Wall Street Journal recently reported findings that "More than one-third of U.S. households have no discretionary income." Who says we don't need more affordable computers? I hope that school boards will pass resolutions asking local congress members to start a TeleRead program--including not only the machines, but also an affordable national database of the kind described in my proposal. The freshest version of teleread.txt is available from me via e-mail and now includes comments from Communet member Jack Frisch, Professor Emeritus of Communication and the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The new teleread.txt also tells how TeleRead could help Free-Nets and the Internet. Tooo, the proposal tells how we could use electronic forms to cost-justify TeleRead. They could save small business people and other citizens tens of billions of dollars in time and money in their transactions with government at various levels. Before a pen-style interface appeared on TeleReaders, people would still have to confirm their transactions via paper. But that wouldn't be the end of the world. Gov. workers could print out the completed forms and mail them back to the taxpayers, etc., for signing. Writers are small business people, and believe me, I had better things to do than to spend a good part of the morning at Alexandria City Hall recently. I had to go from office to office and suffer the usual delays. With TeleRead I could easily have done everything online and via mail. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David H. Rothman "So we beat on, boats against [log in to unmask] the current...." 805 N. Howard St., #240 Alexandria, Va. 22304 703-370-6540(o)(h) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------