On the one hand, costs up because there are more calls to the support desk; on the other, fewer desks and more flexible working.

"Local authorities hoping to introduce similar [Bring Your Own Device] schemes should view it as a way of supporting employees and helping to bring about job satisfaction, according to [Blackpool head of ICT services Tony] Doyle.

Thanks @jforbes for the link; note this is where the article originally appeared - on the Guardian's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/">Government Computing Network</a>.

A thorough review of all aspects of the device, including the software:

Even assuming the distribution itself isn't causing problems, a surprising amount of software has yet to be ported to the Pi's ARM11 instruction set architecture. At present, it's impossible to view Flash content, the only version of Firefox available is the archaic 3.6.3 version, and getting Java to work is an exercise in futility.</p><p>
For now, a modicum of Linux know-how is a prerequisite for Pi use.</p><p>

As increasing numbers of developers and hackers get their hands on the boards, however, this will change. We've already heard that Oracle is being drafted in to create a Pi-centric Java VM while Adobe is rumoured to be looking into the possibility of porting an existing ARM build of its Flash Player to the Pi.</p><p>

In short, the Pi promises much - but the software just isn't there yet. For end-users hoping to get going with their new Pis straight out of the box, it could prove a problem - but improved software is on the horizon, and developers from user-friendly and lightweight distributions like Puppy Linux are already working to get their systems up and running on the devices.

It's the software that really has to do the job. The hardware is up to it.

One Laptop Per Child arrived in Peru. How well did it fare?

An <a href="http://www.iadb.org/en/research-and-data/publication-details,3169.html?pub_id=IDB-WP-304">evaluation</a> of the laptop programme by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) found that the children receiving the computers did not show any improvement in maths or reading. Nor did it find evidence that access to a laptop increased motivation, or time devoted to homework or reading. The report applauded the government for providing much-needed hardware: less than a quarter of Peruvian households had a computer in 2010. But it now needs to improve teacher-training and the curriculum, said Julian Cristia of the IDB. Above all, the classroom environment needs to change.

This may not come as a surprise. But it goes back a long way.

"Wearable computing is a broad term. Technically, a fancy electronic watch is a wearable computer. But the ultimate version of this technology is a screen that would somehow augment our vision with information and media.

"…A person with knowledge of the company’s plans told me that a “very small group of Apple employees” had been conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices.

"One idea being discussed is a curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist; people could communicate with the device using Siri, the company’s artificial intelligence software."
"Over the last year, Apple and Google have secretly begun working on projects that will become wearable computers. Their main goal: to sell more smartphones. (In Google’s case, more smartphones sold means more advertising viewed.)"

"The average selling price for Double Data Rate 3 (DDR) in the 2-gigabit (Gb) density—the bellwether DRAM product—is projected to drop to $1.60 in the third quarter, down 24% from $2.10 in the second quarter. The dive would be the biggest decline for the year, following a surprisingly solid second quarter during which pricing fell only 5% from the first quarter. Moving into the fourth quarter, the price could plummet another 22% to $1.25—dangerously close to cash costs for many manufacturers. Only a year ago in the third quarter, pricing stood at $4.70."<br />
<br />
There's been a fall in demand, while yields are about to rise. The money now is shifting towards NAND Flash.