A $20 8-Bit Wikipedia Reader For Your TV 167
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Wired about another entry in the ongoing quest for low-tech-high-tech educational tools to take advantage of distributed knowledge: "The Humane Reader, a device designed by computer consultant Braddock Gaskill, takes two 8-bit microcontrollers and packages them in a 'classic style console' that connects to a TV. The device includes an optional keyboard, a micro-SD Card reader and a composite video output. It uses a standard micro-USB cellphone charger for power. In all, it can hold the equivalent of 5,000 books, including an offline version of Wikipedia, and requires no internet connection. The Reader will cost $20 when 10,000 or more of it are manufactured. Without that kind of volume, each Reader will cost about $35."
Re:Blurry text (Score:2, Interesting)
The answers are simple, if the country uses SECAM that isn't a problem usually, if they use NTSC or PAL, simply turn off the chroma signal or use 40 columns.
Cool, but (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Blurry text (Score:3, Interesting)
My first 3 computers hooked up to an old SDTV. In fact as I recall it was a Black & White TV.
But did you tie an onion to your belt? ;-)
I don't usually talk to myself, but:
1. Timex Sinclair 1000
2. TRS-80 Color Computer 2
3. TRS-80 Color Computer 3
Oh, the irony! :-)
Er, I can't talk, given that the first computer I used was a ZX81 (i.e. UK version of the TS-1000), and the first three machines I used were connected to black and white tellies, including my Amiga at one point(!)
Re:Blurry text (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact in today technological society there are already more people reading more from screens of some kind, than from paper.
Facts like these could stand a little batter anchorage.
Teletext exists since ages and nobody complains about it being unreadable.
They might, if all they had to go on were the screen shots in the Wikipedia. Teletext [wikipedia.org]
Re:Blurry text (Score:3, Interesting)
So THAT'S how it's done! I saw one once with lowercase and never could figure out how they did it.
So, was it just solder another 2716 (or was it a 2708) on top, pull up the CS line and tag it to a 74LS138 somewhere?
God, why do I still remember all this stuff?
Re:Blurry text (Score:3, Interesting)
My first 3 computers hooked up to an old SDTV. In fact as I recall it was a Black & White TV.
But did you tie an onion to your belt? ;-)
Of course, because that was the style at the time.
My system was called the Ohio scientific super board 2. It had a 6502, audio cassette interface and video modulator. Software was a little boot menu which you got after reset. The menu said D/C/W/M. D was for mysterious disk drives and I believe it would load a sector from a disk and jump to it. We weren't millionaires so we never used it. C reset RAM and jumped to BASIC. W Just jumped to BASIC. M jumped to a machine code monitor in a 256 byte ROM. The system came as a single PCB, with the keyboard soldered to the card. My dad sourced a power supply and built a timber case for it.
It was the best toy a kid could have, bar none.