Paper Computing Among the Young

PpCNerds writes: "On April 10th, 2002, Dearborn High School students Mark Stanislav, Luke Duncan, and James Turner won First Place Gold in the Science and Engineering Fair of Metropolitan Detroit with their 'Paper Computer' Practical Application project. Many may remember the Paper Computer from past Slashdot and Wired Magazine articles. With the help from friend and Computer Engineering student Alex Fisher, who is also quite handy at this sort of thing (Wearable Computer), the group of geeks were able to turn this project into a success in the eyes of SEFMD judges with 2 and 1/2 months of research and contacting people in the field. This win takes Mark, Luke, and James to the Intel sponsored International competition in Louisville, Kentucky."

I'm at a loss of words

[seann]

or.. images.

What does this thing look like?
is it just a hacked up wireless net card + x10 camera, etc?

More details please?

The ever powerfull google

[Catskul]

voyez-le
http://www.wdhsvideo.org/wdhs/wearable/ [wdhsvideo.org]

Re:The ever powerfull google

[seann]

over priced.. 5K?

Re:The ever powerfull google

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to remember that you're including labor fees. ...these aren't little chinese sweat-shop workers building this, heh.

Re:The ever powerfull google

[teamhasnoi]

If this is true:

His name is Ralph. He is a fully functional computer, that can surf the net, play games and write papers at the same time as you walk down the hall, walk to your car or as you're sitting in class.

I would most likely 'Ralph' trying to do all those things simultaneously.

Ouch

[BrianGa]

...the group of geeks were able to turn this project...

Sure, label them geeks on one a large, national web site. That will go over real big in the locker room at High School...

Re:Ouch

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately for them, most high school jocks don't read Slashdot.

Re:Ouch

[aztektum]

Yeah but what self respecting jock will own up to /.?

"He's a geek!" "How do you know?" "Uh..."

More disposable electronics!

[andaru]

One of the possible uses mentioned is take-out menus from restaurant chains.

I'm sorry, but the paper ones that litter the sidewalk daily are bad enough without having disposable electronics in them.

Now we can wash more lead and mercury into the bay! Remember, just because you can throw it away, doesn't mean you have to. I've been using the same disposable razor for 15 years now :).

Seriously, though, I think the focus should be about extending the use life of the things we produce, not decreasing it. Until recently, I had a 100MHz system which had only just started to be unsuitable for what I do (I'm a software engineer, so I edit text more often than I watch movies). When I got my new system, I found someone who could realistically use my old system (for email, web surfing, and 1 or 2 track pro-audio recording (it has Digigram audio hardware) ).

The next time you have an urge to run out and buy some cool toy, ask yourself two questions: 1.) do I really want this, and 2.) who can realistically use my old one?

Re:More disposable electronics!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good thoughts, but a bit impractical for some of us.

I just last week decommissioned my old Pentium 90Mhz. I tried to give to my local public school, but it was far too slow for them (this is not a snooty suburban school either, its probably 80% low-income students).

I guess I'll just recycle it, but it seems these days "recycle" is just a synonym for "dump somewhere in china."

If anything, I feel inclined to upgrade more often as a result, so that I may give away older equipment before it becomes completely worthless.

I'll take a notebook full of paper computers

[PD]

And I'll just write "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" on the front cover.

This is rediculous

[Catskul]

It seems like all they did is buy all of the components and plug everything in (with the exception of the power supply).

http://www.wdhsvideo.org/wdhs/wearable/meet_ral. ht m