Slashdot Mirror

At any rate, only a person with truly innovative and revolutionary approach has the insight to guess how technological advances will influence societies. Gates' approach has been to buy out companies he can't compete with, and then re-branding the acquired products. It was true with PC-DOS v1.0, and it continues to be true to this day.

The "Global" computer/videophone in Earth: Final Conflict is probably the wave of the future, with some changes:

1) it will have to be "malware-free" - people won't use it if they can't trust it.

2) it will need a better form factor, something that can fold up and fit in your wallet or shirt pocket, or maybe even be embedded in clothing or your body. The Global's slide-out screen is a good start but not good enough.

Hey, they use gestures to fly in Earth: Final Conflict but it looked a little to much like they were always being a bit inexact in their movements. Don't know that I want controls that have no feed back to them.

Maybe my next PDA will look like the communicator in Earth Final Conflict (www.efc.com) ;)

Here is a pict of the communicator

-- Ben (mox@mox.ca)

See the synopsis of the episode of Earth: Final Conflict

While some of the lack has to be due to the low picture quality, some of it is simply due to the fact that phones are NOT A VISUAL MEDIUM. A person using a phone is doing so to communicate verbally, not with body langugae. Until a new form factor emerges for visual communication (I like the communicators in EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT) I think this kind of work is a dead end.

EFC is a great sci-fi show IMO (this is all opinions though, heh). There is a little bit for everyone, from political intrigue to romance. It's going into its fifth session now. They've definately invested quite a bit into their web presence, having several different websites written from the perspective of various characters in the show.

Bear in mind I don't have cable but here are my favorites:

1. Earth: Final Conflict
   This show started out very well and has lagged after about season 2 but has been interesting throughout. Go count up how many characters they've killed since the beginning... (www.efc.com)
2. Stargate SG-1
   I've read the books, seen the movie, and I just can't get enough of this show or the series of books by Bill McCay.
3. Dark Angel
   I can't believe I didn't see this in the comments. The plot is a little tired but I still find this to be an excellant show, mostly thanks to Jessica Alba.
4. Roswell
   I don't know what it is but I am just hooked on this show.
5. 7 Days
   Who wouldn't want to go back in time and save the world every week? (Besides it has a good dynamic between the characters.)
6. The Invisible Man
   This show makes for some entertaining Saturday night viewing.
7. Angel
   The characters make this show.
8. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
   Super powers and demons, generally good writing.
9. Star Trek: The Next Generation
   Still better than Voyager at times.
10. Star Trek: Voyager
    I think they ended this in a very unsatisfying way but I was bored long before it ended.
11. Charmed
    Mystical powers just facinate me.
12. Andromeda
    When I first heard about this my first thought was "Hercules in space." but I'll give credit where even the tiniest is due. I've been suprised by a few of the episodes.

I'd also like to mention these shows:

• Witchblade
  I want to see the series
• Farscape
• Lexx
• Babylon 5
  I missed a big part of the story, but it was good
• Space: Above and Beyond
  I only saw a few episodes but I liked the ones I saw
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  I miss the whole Bejoran/Kardasian/Federation/Dominion setting
• M.A.N.T.I.S.
  Around the time when X-Files came out this was on at the same time, and was a cool show on it's own
• X-Files
  Way back when, the stuff now really sucks
• The Outer Limits
  Since this was on late on Sundays I hardly ever watched it but most of the stories I saw were very good

The Gene Roddenberry series (actually, an excellent show if you manage to follow it EVERY week) has been doing the whole ficticious web site thing for several years. I remember the first time I checked out www.efc.com and found links to both the Talon view of our world and the Resistance opinions, as well as semi-nuetral little Auger (well, he was at the time, anyways)... Anyways, I think that's an execellent use of the web, until the Internet becomes so cluttered with those sites that you don't know what reality is anymore... but then, when was the last time you were able to say with authority that anything you found on the web (slashdot excluded, of course :) was accurate??? :-) "You can't keep the Democrats out of the White House forever! And when they get in, I'll be back, with all my criminal buddies!" -- SideShow Bob

It's sad that the only real use for this that I can think of is fabric purchasing (a miniscule market), or pr0n (a huge market). But for the latter, we need a much larger surface...

If you really want to see how far this technology can converge, take a look at Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict. They have a device that takes Star Trek's Communicator and tricorder, as well as GPS and video phones and combines them into something they call a "Global" This video clip shows a Global about 4 seconds into the clip. This is what I really want to have in my pocket...

If you really want to see how far this technology can converge, take a look at Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict. They have a device that takes Star Trek's Communicator and tricorder, as well as GPS and video phones and combines them into something they call a "Global" This video clip shows a Global about 4 seconds into the clip. This is what I really want to have in my pocket...

Handspring, now being paralleled by Palm, seems to understand already that color is not king. It's the applications. Palm III's and V's (especially) are fairly difficult to extend, in a physical sense, without disrupting their sleek form factor. Handspring's Springboards (which even Jeff Hawkins admits was inspired by the Game Boy's cartridge slot) and, now, Palm's future use of Sony's Memory Stick are the next step. The ability to modify the capabilities of your handheld/PDA - specifically, to add in plug in communications capability is just the first step.

The answer is Oxygen or something like the "Globals" that appear on the television program Earth: Final Conflict. Look at all of the two-in-one PDA/cellphones on the market already: Nokia, Ericson, Motorola (well, sort of, anyway), etc. Sure, color is nice, but communication is king. Just my (sort of) humble opinion