Those 45 to 90 minutes you spend stuck in traffic each day, inhaling noxious fumes and watching your paycheck dwindle in the form of consumed gasoline, are about to get a lot more nightmarish should you choose to ride this. Though the origin of these images are unknown, we're assuming they were snapped somewhere in Asia (or the ninth circle of Hades); essentially, this here public transportation option enables riders to login via a connected PC and get to work before work technically begins. Of course, we've all ideas most riders just fire up
Quake III and get a little LAN action going, but seriously, what kind of torturous mind thought this up? Ever heard of
telecommuting?
Update: Seems these buses are
all about bringing technology to rural areas that might not otherwise have access. Killer!
posted Nov 10th 2008 8:38AM
...
I need this... now.
oh good, i thought i was the only other one who thought this was awesome.
:)
Yes Since this has Windows XP and NOT Vista.
I really wonder why they didn't install Windows Vista.
Any figures ?? A ha ha ha ha !!
I don't think we will be seeing these on our Greyhound buses in the US anytime soon.
Given that the PC's have to be powered by the batteries on the bus they need to be low powered, and probably don't have the potential to run Vista. Microsoft is lucky that they have another perfectly capable OS to use.
they better be bolted down!
It is in Bangalore, India
Er, that would make little sense, considering there's Japanese (I think) written on the side of the bus, and also on the building in the background.
Although Japanese uses alot of Chinese characters, I am fairly sure it's in Chinese.
Guys, it says "People's Republic of China" on the bus.
Banglore? O rly?
1. Chinese text on the side of the bus
2. Left-hand drive bus
3. Chinese people on the bus
You fail.
The nerds on the bus go...
BOOM HEADSHOT.
BOOM HEADSHOT
BOOM HEADSHOT
All day loooong.
99 geeks on a bus.. 99 geeks on a bus.. you BOOM HEADSHOT one, pwn him out, 98 geeks on a bus..
@ Erb and Patriks...
You guys made my day...
:)
Halo LAN party would be soo fun on this thing...
my thoughts exactly - this thing could be a lan party on wheels.
Not very smart to use glossy screens with all that sunlight.
Yeah, the glare shown in the photo was my first reaction. My second reaction was why would you not use laptops for this? Then I realized that filling a bus full of businessmen using laptops wouldn't be original and wouldn't get any press.
I fear for humanity. No, really, I do.
So, you already have to get on an overcrowded public bus, then you have to continue to brave the motion sickness associated with attempting to read on a moving vehicle, just so that your boss can suck a little more energy out of you? This sounds sick, and I hope that I am never put in a situation that no matter where I am im expected to be working. You gotta have a little seperation of work and personal.
And are all of those computers running XP? Haha, new concept from Microsoft huh? And what about privacy, I can see some serious screen watching going on there... hahaha.
SCREENLOOKER!
Considering that the commute is a part of the job, (you wouldn't drive two hours or more a day if you didn't have to, would you?) I'd rather be payed for my commute, and be able to use company transportation. If this is economical for the company, It seems like a win-win. Unless you're salaried, I suppose.
Notice how they're running Windows XP...and not Vista? Maybe the picture is from 2006 so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
If you can log on to your work PC from the bus, why not do so from home and skip the whole "go to work" thing and save money on not renting an office at all?
Sorry, your idea is to sensible.
Did they hear of laptops... ?
If it means I can come in to work 45-to-90 minutes later than normal, I'm all for it.
No. It means you'll WORK on your normally boring bus ride in AND out of the city. And, you will not get paid for it. And you will be in on time and you wont leave early either. Sorry.
it's in China. don't you see the ugly simplified Chinese on the bus?
ditto this guy. that's pretty obviously Chinese on the bus.
I don't think simplified characters are ugly, and they help when you're trying to write something and you don't want to draw fricken' painting.
Short bus... Microsoft... 'nuf said.
So sorry that some of you see working while your already commuting to work is "hellish". I guess the few of us who have reached the next plateu by working hard during and after work are just poor saps and are totally misguided. Don't complain when you work hard and your boss doesnt reward you. Move on to another job that does. Besides, i'd love to be able to do my banking and other internet activities while i am commuting. Now, try to see positive aspects of this. Before you know it our cars will drive us to work and we can do whatever we want with a divice like this. I would video chat with my mom a continant away or check in on my brothers new born son.
Now, where do you want to go today?
Maybe you were replying to a deleted comment, but who was saying that they weren't rewarded for working hard?
I, for one, don't mind my commute to work, but I wouldn't want to begin working before I get there on a regular basis, nor would I want to continue working after hours on a regular basis (though I have done it on occasion).
The point is, there is a TIME for work. If such a thing as this existed and they weren't compensating you any extra for it, I'd say it's horrible.
I kinda enjoy having a good half hour or so to gather my bearings before working, and another half hour to do the same once the day is through. So my commute is far from "hellish". Quite the contrary, it's my chance to relax.
I don't get it. If you can use your commute time and count that as part of the work day, what is so wrong about that? Now, instead of leaving home at 6am and getting home at 8pm, you save a good couple of hours. I honestly don't see what's so bad about this idea.
If people can work on their Blackberries on the train, why not work on PCs on the bus?
Looks more like a movable training environment to me. We had one at SAP UK for a while and it was a pig to train people on. Being 6-foot tall, standing on a hot bus (ours was a full size coach) with 12 people, their PCs, screens and a couple of servers was not a pleasant teaching environment.
We certainly didn't move whilst teaching given there was a cable out the back which plugged into the customers net connection.
The side of the bus is already half-blue...
*BSOD Joke for anyone who doesn't get it*
it wasn't very good
*cough* tool *cough*
cant they just make 3G onboard for everybody's laptop, instead of this ugly thingy with large LCDs taking all the space.
Pr0n On A Bus!
insert windows crashing joke here
Coolty @ Nov 10th 2008 9:38AM
The side of the bus is already half-blue...
*BSOD Joke for anyone who doesn't get it*
You mean the joke about 4 comments above yours?
The computer on the bus goes beep beep beep
beep beep beep
beep beep beep
The computer on the buss goes beep beep beep
'cause the NT loader is borked
Thank you...I'll be here all week. Try the veal...
Low ranked? WTF? Thats' funny right there. Microsoft goons must be tripping the votes again.
This is perfect for telemarketers and other ne'er-do-wells that need to keep one step ahead of the police. Watch out for Die Hard 5: The Short Bus.
"are about to get a lot more nightmarish"
shut up darren!
The guinea pig nearest to photographer is already trying to start crysis
What is the possibility to have multiple monitors, keyboards, and mouse as projectiles in a bus crash?
I'll take the regular mass transit mode, please.
I remember reading a story from a couple years ago about Google already doing this in the Bay Area. They've got buses that pick workers up, and the bus has a net connection so they can get some work done on the commute.
Microsoft also has a dozen or so routes that they do this on for employees at Redmond.
If you're even half as productive on the bus as you would be in the office, you're still overall getting more time at home overall. And you don't have the stress of battling the traffic yourself. And the bus gets to go in the car-pool lanes.
It would have been better if they used Wyse X90 thin client laptops. Would have been much lighter and sell of a damage/flight risk. Use a comprehensive connection broker that will allow these guys to be connected to their work desk stations and viola! they are clocking in hours before they get in.
Haha, I just read a thread on here about how the Chinese Government was creating half-way houses in order to quell internet addiction in China. I didn't understand how they could be THAT much more addicted than us in regard to internet usage, but that picture kind of sums that up for me.
What next? Some dude with a whip in the aisle?
Don't forget the beating drums.
Hey guys, this is a mobile computer training bus that Microsoft has donated to help rural Chinese learn how to use computers. It's from last year. Microsoft has donated six of the buses to "serve as computer training centers on wheels as they circulate to rural villages throughout one of China’s most populous province".
"Agricultural workers in China climb aboard high-tech InfoWagons as Microsoft launches rural-computing pilot programs in China and India intended to fuel social and economic empowerment for the world’s underserved populations."
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/apr07/04-22RuralComputing.mspx
Slow news day, huh folks? :o)
"Hey guys, this is a mobile computer training bus that Microsoft has donated to help rural Chinese learn how to use computers. It's from last year. Microsoft has donated six of the buses to "serve as computer training centers on wheels as they circulate to rural villages throughout one of China’s most populous province"."
That explains the huge increase in illegal copies of Windows and Office.
yep. Darren Murphy is a douche and a moron. I wonder why he blogs here. He's an idiot for not back-checking his news. This is old news, these buses were meant for rural areas, and Microsoft donated these to help the people. And this idiot called Darren Murphy didnt even apologize that he made a stupid post. What a moron this guy is.
Uh. No. There are a great majority of us out here that refuse to do one ounce of work unless we get paid. If we arent getting paid, then we're not working. Sorry. Some of us are fed up with the way corporate America treats is software developers. Its time to unionize. By 2010, the majority of software developers will be protected by unions. Like to see these corporate thugs call us at 2am for some software glitch that WE TOLD THEM would happen if they cut the development time and budget to meet the unrealistic marketing jackass' schedules.
Well. That was a long time coming.
Won't happen. You unionize, some punks with internet access in a third world country will gladly take your work for half your asking price. Software development isn't physically restricted, plus development doesn't need an army of programmers anymore - anyone with brains and time on their hands can do that. What software developers in first world countries need to do is show why their programming skills are superior to overseas grunt work in a financial way. Plus, use the laws to your advantage - eg. privacy laws around cross-border flow of information.
Plus, you unionize and those that don't join the union resent you. Just ask the people at Accenture when they bought part of the Telstra's IT department about 6 years ago (their SAP development team), who happen to be part of a union (when they were still a federal govt entity) - Accenture hated those guys, because they were causing problems.
@AL: "some punks with internet access in a third world country will gladly take your work for half your asking price"
Did you just wake up? This has been happening in huge numbers since the late 90s! Ask anyone who used to program for Bank of America or Wachovia or Citibank or Chase/JP Morgan.
Get with the program! Software jobs are outsourced in huge numbers for a LONG time. Unionizing and making it criminal act to outsource would be Utopia, but we can dream.
Noooo!! Please driver wait just a second while I save this file.....
Microsoft has 'Connector' buses all over Seattle area that bus the blue badges (non contractors) in to work. All these buses have Internet access so you can get on the corpnet and work.
Hey, I have a better idea. just provide a simple PC with USB booting enabled, and then all the farmers can just bring their USB stick with OS on it and boot from there.
lol xp nice :D
can it run crysis :P ?
wow this bus is asking for a BREAK IN from thieves.