Some fundamental thoughts on public-top.

How soon can everyone in the world has a computer, and what happens if 99% of the people on the planet is connected to the Internet? Ok, let's not talk about this here in this very first post. I'm getting straight to the point and leave the fancy intros later.

So, what should a real public computer looks like?

1. No Desktop (so it would be a portable).
   
   Today we have the technology to make small machines that perform 99% of the non-technology oriented tasks. By NTO task I mean things like browsing the web, playing multimedia files, internet communication, document editing etc. So other things like encoding HDTV, rendering Maya 3D Models and playing WOW (grow up and grab yourself a PlaysBox Wii mate!) are out. A lappy give you less fan whine, more room space and a smaller utility bill -- most people (those who won't be reading this) care about these things more than DirectX 10 support or RAID performance in their machine.
   
   
2. Cheap (Economically)
   
   A typical laptop computer cost between £500 - £ 1000 today in Britain. So if you are working on minimum wage that's about 100 - 200 hours of bloods and tears. Remember Britons are one of the richest populations in the world and UK has the highest minimum wage on the planet. Also remember computers don't sell much cheaper in Africa, India or Rural China (if you take the VAT out). So how much should a reasonable lappy cost? £100 - £150 I'd say. Why? We'll get to that later.
   
   
3. Pretty
   
   Apple got it right (sort of), SONY etc. are catching up. But Dell, along with other top 5 computer vendors on the planet appears that they never get it, especially after they bought Alienware. Why should a computer look pretty? Damn, that's something a civilized man sits along over 5 hours in his office (and some extra times at home probably) every day. If I'm buying a Dell for my granny, or my kid, they will just be friggin scared. ----->
   
   Thin and light, quality design and build plus less plastic equals pretty. CEOs graduate from MIT and HBS will never get it.
   
   
4. Ease of use.
   
   If we rank the hardness to use of the current OS line-up in a scale of 1 - 100 (where 100 is designed by/for Mars residence), Linux gets about 110, the fancy version (Ubuntu/Suse) gets about 80, Windows 60 and Mac OS X 50. Sadly, the average size of human brain make most people willing to use an operating system that scores between 5 - 10.
   
   Do you know why BMW will be bought by Ford later today? Because if you buy a BM and the first thing you do when you sit into the car is to adjust the onboard computer to optimize the car performance for your next journey. BMW proudly announced there is a billion possible settings you can make, from changing the suspension hardness, horsepower output to the voice of Satellite navigation system. The truth is, if you spend 10 minutes to do the setting, it probably make you arrive at work 1.5 minutes earlier.
   
   Ever used those BT Internet KIOSK on the street? You should. Because that's how a PROPER operating system for public-top should behave. HUGE buttons, LIMITED functionalities an NON-expandability. Perfect! That gives us a system that a 6 year old can use without taking a training programme, never crashes and you don't have to worry about the drivers. It is an operating system that Apple said they are making / trying to make, but they are too afraid to make it too different from Windows.
   

So that's it. To design a computer bearing this four principles in mind, we get a laptop that is good for the true public. That, is a public top.