The Boston Globe puts mainframe computer technicians on the endangered species list, cell phones are all the rage in Africa despite the lack of electricity in some regions, an upstate NY school bus equipped with GPS will never get lost again, smart cards proliferate in Philly, and the Baltimore Sun attempts to make sense of HDTV.
Raise a glass to all of the middle-aged men and women who maintain big, corporate mainframes. They’re people too, says The Boston Globe, and they’re an endangered species because they can’t lay off the Twinkies.Who’ll mind the mainframes? [Boston Globe]…
The Union-Tribune says Africa is the world’s fastest-growing cellphone market and answers the question, “How does an African family in a hut lighted by candles charge a mobile phone?” Cell phone frenzy in Africa, world’s top growth market [Union-Tribune ]… A Brockport, NY school is testing a bus equipped with an on-board GPS system attached to a Nextel modem. Unless Otto from The Simpsons happens to be driving your kids to school, how often do towns have to issue an Amber Alert for an entire bus? The vehicle also has a front-mounted camera, “a student scanning device” (?), and, best of all, two panic buttons, which, I assume, are simply seat ejectors for the bullies. School bus tests GPS system[Democrat and Chronicle]… The Philadelphia Parking Authority s experiment with smart cards is such a smashing success, residents will soon be able to use them in taxis, trains, and parking garages too. Surprisingly, a city official isn t worried that all of these smart cards will probably result in less revenue from their cash cow, parking tickets. Smart cards for parking – and more [Philadelphia Inquirer]… A Baltimore Sun writer finds HDTV complex and confusing, so gives a brief primer on the technology…and subsequently proves how complex and confusing it is by saying high-def TVs can “produce 1040 lines” of resolution. Unscrambling the high-definition TV picture [Baltimore Sun]
