Friday, January 4, 2008

Turn one computer into two, three …ten Free!

I don’t think HP, Dell, Toshiba, Intel, AMD, Microsoft will like this idea! But a Canadian software company is already out with the software and they are giving it out free!

As I was stumbling through the net today, I came across an article in Digital Journal that shows that Userful.com has produce a software that can allow one desktop computer to be splitted into ten! You only need to add extra video cards and usb cards so as to accommodate the extra monitors and keyboards for the 9 extra users.

The main gist is that the software is free! What effect will that have on the big hardware producers. Then won’t Microsoft get angry that 10 people are using the same software that is licensed for just one user!

Read the rest of the article here.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not that I want to burst your bubble, Bro, but the claim has one foot in Fantasyland.

First, go to Windows Task Manager and watch how much CPU% you alone use. Over 50%? Undoubtedly. That means that, if you put another 'you' sharing your computer, you'd soon be bogged down butting heads because both of you would be waiting for the CPU to catch up to you.

Want to put 10 of you on the same computer? Then Windows Task Manager should never show you (alone) using more than 10% of CPU capacity. If that's true, why did you spend so much money on a computer that has so much capacity you can't begin to use it all?

Doesn't this claim in Digital Journal make you skeptical? "Userful is also finding an innovative way to be green in the PC market. It says 10 monitors, mice and keyboards on a single computer reduces CO2 emissions by up to 15 tones per year per system." So it seems that each single user would save 1.5 tones of CO2 emissions per year. I bet you didn't think your own computer put out 1.5 tones of CO2 a year, let alone "save" that much. Let's see... 3000 pounds of CO2 in a 365-day year is 8.2 pounds a DAY in 'savings'. With any gas as light as it is, how many cubic feet of gas is it that would weigh 8.2 pounds? MANY THOUSANDS! If you save this much, how many thousands of cubic feet of CO2 does your computer produce anyway?

Moral of this story: Corporate Public Relations exists solely to put a positive spin on everything related to the company. Is it any wonder they exaggerate (or even LIE)? Use your own common sense. Otherwise, I know someone who will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

BroTee said...

@tx972
Thanks for dropping by and commenting on this post.
I am not a technical person. I was just fascinated by the article and I felt it will be a wonderful development especially in the third world countries where owning a personal computer is still consider a luxury.
If the corporate entity Useful.com is lying about the claim, then they are undoing themselves. The online community will simply label them LIARS!
Thanks anyway for taking time to teach a non-tech like me. Cheers