Slashdot Mirror

Nice freakin' job Slashdot! How about some links to pictures of the product and sony's page on it!!!

Well, this LCD isn't designed to just "connect" to a computer. If you read the data sheet on the page (this thing) you'll see that the interface specs include one hsync line, one vsync line, and three lines for each color (RGB.) You just need to generate logic pulses according to the timing charts around page 9 or so. So how do you interface this LCD easily with a PC? You don't, you need to convert the VGA signal to something this display can understand, or even DVI if you're lucky enough to have a card that supports it.

Pie menus are a naturally efficient way to operate a tilt-sensitive user interface. Scrolling up and down through one-dimensional linear menus with a device that can tilt in any directions is a waste of the device's potential.

Here's a cool research paper from Sony's Computer Science Labs, about "tilting pie menus". I love it! I can't wait till all cell phones can sense tilt. Tilt control rocks!

Tilting Operations for Small Screen Computers
By Jun Rekimoto, Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc.
More details: Tilting Operations for Small Screen Interfaces (Tech Note)
HTML version from Google

-Don

Pie menus are a naturally efficient way to operate a tilt-sensitive user interface. Scrolling up and down through one-dimensional linear menus with a device that can tilt in any directions is a waste of the device's potential.

Here's a cool research paper from Sony's Computer Science Labs, about "tilting pie menus". I love it! I can't wait till all cell phones can sense tilt. Tilt control rocks!

Tilting Operations for Small Screen Computers
By Jun Rekimoto, Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc.
More details: Tilting Operations for Small Screen Interfaces (Tech Note)
HTML version from Google

-Don

Pie menus are a naturally efficient way to operate a tilt-sensitive user interface. Scrolling up and down through one-dimensional linear menus with a device that can tilt in any directions is a waste of the device's potential.

Here's a cool research paper from Sony's Computer Science Labs, about "tilting pie menus". I love it! I can't wait till all cell phones can sense tilt. Tilt control rocks!

Tilting Operations for Small Screen Computers
By Jun Rekimoto, Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc.
More details: Tilting Operations for Small Screen Interfaces (Tech Note)
HTML version from Google

-Don

I use BT to sync my calendars and address books between my PDA, Notebook, and Phone. I also use to do some small file ( click "Send via BT" -> click to choose the device -> click Send. 4 clicks in total, not bad.)
BTW, not only Apple but other brands also got BT built-in. SONY's latest VIAO(Japanese only, use the fish) is one such example.

SONY's PDA, Notebooks(Japanese only, use the fish), Apple's PowerBooks, are a few examples of BT+WiFi implementations. I am sure there are many other similar coming.

It runs fine for some months now and I can't see any reason why I should change to Linux or another *BSD (I love pf).

You can use pf with FreeBSD pf_freebsd-1.0_7 as well as ipf and ipfw. For me the reason for using OpenBSD for firewalls in the past was that it had altq integrated in kernel and that time if you wanted to use altq with FreeBSD you had to apply patches for "release" kernel version. Now altq is in FreeBSD kernel too.

I'm sorry, come again? HP and Sony don't perform R&D? You're myopic, right?

Dell may just be a product shop turning out commondities, but I think you're way off base about HP and Sony. Either that or these links are just a figment of my imagination.

Tilting Operations for Small Screen Interfaces (Tech Note)
By Jun Rekimoto, Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc. www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/papers/uist96.p df

HTML version from google:

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:xf0Rxikgk34J: www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/papers/uist96.p df+tilt+pie+menu&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

-Don

Tilting Operations for Small Screen Interfaces (Tech Note)
By Jun Rekimoto, Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc. www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/papers/uist96.p df

HTML version from google:

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:xf0Rxikgk34J: www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/papers/uist96.p df+tilt+pie+menu&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

-Don

Linux on the U101

Dynamism U101 page

Sony U101 page (in Japanese)

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

but sony has an even smaller one out in Japan. Although the specs aren't comparable...I just happen to be biased toward smaller machines myself

ALTQ

... in quicktime format (mplayer can do this) movie can be found here

video link here

visit earth2willi.com!

the blurb from Sony talks about a 65nm fabrication process .. isn't that 0.065 um? i've lost of track of silicon nowadays but isn't that bloody tiny?

aibo's OS is Apelios ASIMO's OS is VxWorks

Rumor nothing. The stripped-down version of the Pentium M, called the Mobile Celeron 600A, is used in the Sony U101 subnotebook. See here or here (use babelfish or just check out the screenshot) for some info on the CPU. And you can order one in the US from Dynamism or Japan Rush.

But my setup uses ipfw and not as in the example pf, I am not sure it's possible to setup ALTQ with ipfw (ideas are welcome!!). IPFW does support bandwith throttling in combination with Dummynet.

Here is another white paper I found: Managing traffic with ALTQ.

But my setup uses ipfw and not as in the example pf, I am not sure it's possible to setup ALTQ with ipfw (ideas are welcome!!). IPFW does support bandwith throttling in combination with Dummynet.

Here is another white paper I found: Managing traffic with ALTQ.

the ibm pc110 started it all back in the mid-90's. i have one actually. it's tiny, a pain in the ass to type on until you're used to it and terribly underpowered. i can imagine one of these things being more powerful, but even smaller? speaking from esperience, it'd make it useless to most every user (though i do admit, the server room maintenance idea was good). that's why i've been keeping my eye on similarly powerful machines of a usable size.

the sony vaio u-101 is the brand new update to the vaio u series. most notably to the speed and memory enhancements it adds a lay-flat design and a display that rotated to landscape with the push of a button which is nice for reading e-books or any long document.

and my favorite the jvc interlink mp-xp7230. also the latest in it's series. it's much larger than the vulcan and u-101 placing it at the smallest end of the sub-notebook category rather than a real mini-pc. i've used one of these and typing isn't even an issue. the pointing decive is a tried and true, blue, rubber nipple in the center of the keyboard with laptop-style mouse buttons along with a touch pad below the keyboard. no proprietary mega ports here. everything is seperate so there's no need for an expensive port replicator or converter dongle which we will all eventually loose.

both of these devices have been mentioned before and linux runs perfectly on both aside from some yet to be reproduced proprietary features you'll never miss anyway. and for those of you worried about jvc's first forray into this area, i can tell you it ran rock solid both on and off ac power for three months wile the friend i borrowed it from was away at basic training.

if the ink weren't still wet on my mortgage papers, i'd sure as hell have a jvc interlink mp-xp7230, fully expanded with an external cd-rw/dvd-rom.

Pick one:

Sonny...?

Or do you prefer:

Sony...?

I think that's an IR reciever on the left side of that picture. That's integrated into the current models (under the display) - so you only have to deal with three plugs out of the box - USB mouse, main power, and Ethernet (it has a modem too, though)

Dynamism sells these things to foriegn customers and has an english description - I don't know anything about that company though.

Also, on Sony's page here they have a little widget which'll give you a 360 degree view around it (click the action button when you see it). (note: I have no problem with this page on Mozilla 1.2.1 under linux.)

a little googling found this based on the crusoe chop, and it gets 9hrs off teh battery, i think the site said the vaio works off of the crusoe as well.

be sure to link pics of th finished project in your sig when your done, id like to see what you end up doing with it.

Look at the main picture in the gallery.

What's with the multi-sided dice? Trying to appeal to the ex-D&D-now-Linux-crazed geeks out there?

Tell me you weren't making orgasmic moaning sound effects after going here and clicking "action" after rotating around to the sides... :D

1. TWiki for a perl cgi-bin based wiki
   
2. phpwiki for a php based wiki
   
3. jspwiki
   
4. even palmWiki!
   

This tips sheet is pretty much the most helpful piece of get started info. If you can get ALTQ in your system, then I would personaly start with Section 2.1 (hint: don't bother adding it staticly to your kernel, the klds work fine).

As a member of the team working on the Lewis project, I'd like to provide some additional technical details. It should also be noted that the Lewis project is not intended to replace human photographers. It's an easily accessible research-oriented endeavor to explore human/robot interactions in a real-world environment.

Specifications:

• Pentium III 800Mhz CPU
• Linux operating system, kernel v2.2
• Wireless ethernet
• Sony DFW-VL500 digital 1394 camera
• Approximately 4' 6" tall, 2' diameter, 300 lbs with batteries
• 4 12V deep cycle lead-acid batteries provide nearly 6 hours of continuous use between charges.

Processor - Lewis is a B21r mobile research robot from iRobot Corporation. It's powered by a single 800Mhz Pentium IV processor. This CPU must handle all of the motor drive and low-level robot tasks such processing the data from the large array of sensors. On top of this CPU load is the task of finding faces, navigating crowds, and taking and processing the photos. The two additional processors to be installed in the future will allow Lewis much more power for its photographer duties.

Camera - Lewis currently uses a Sony DFW-VL500 [technical manual] digital 1394 (Firewire) camera. This has a 1/3" CCD that produces 640x480 color images at up to 30 frames per second. Image output is YUV 422 format and is not compressed. The built-in 12X zoom lens is sensitive to 14 lx (F1.8). Higher-resolution 1394 cameras are available, but these do not have built-in lenses; this is bad because focus, aperture, and zoom must be fixed.

Safety - The entire enclosure is lined with bump-sensitive panels, so that if the robot runs into anything, the currently executing program is terminated, the motors are halted, and the brake is applied.

Operating System - The operating system on Lewis is a standard Linux distribution using kernel version 2.2. Various libraries for control of the motors, sensors, pan/tilt unit, and camera are used.

A couple of other comments: the camera is not an NTSC video camera. It was chosen because of the easy ability to control zoom, focus, and aperture from software. Since our goal at the moment is not film-quality pictures, this camera suffices.

Sample photos are available on our website. We have been slow in posting samples due to privacy concerns, not because the pictures are bad. We have over 3,500 photos, and I'd say well less than 2% are false hits -- photos of doors, walls, elbows, etc.

If you'd like to contact Sony Japan, this form appears to be a good place to start.

Remember - be polite and direct in telling them that you will not support technology that negates the rights of the customer.

And once you have a market that exists, that will probably very rapidly have cheap blank discs, recorders, PC recorders, etc does anyone seriously consider that "HD-DVD" (blurry MPEG-4 on DVD-9...) has any chance of surviving? I can stick 12 full DVD-9 movies to one Blu-Ray flipper without re-encoding, so its kinda no-brainer.

And if you read specs, people, you already know that both formats (Blu-Ray is already "ready", HD-DVD still under negotiations) will include support to older formats (VCD, SVCD, DVD).

Good article:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=83

...and some extra info:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/2641.cfm
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/blu-ray.cf m
http://www.sony.co.jp/en/SonyInfo/News/Press/20020 2/02-0219E/
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/hd-dvd.cfm
http://www.dvdforum.org/forum.shtml

OpenBSD (and a few of the other BSDs, I believe) has great support for ALTQ (alternate queuing) which does precisely what you want. (It's what I use it for).

Go here for ALTQ.

And here is my altq.conf, if you're curious.

But I feel I should have a go at putting some numbers that I was once quoted out there for /.teers to shoot down. Here goes.

The music industry in the US releases about 30,000 albums every year in total. That's about 600 a week. You can verify this figure plenty of ways - including looking on the web. Now here's where the figures start to be pulled out of someone's arse. It's been said to me by people who should know that some number way smaller than 10% of these releases actually make money. This is the missing information that people like Courtney leave out of their diatribes against those bloodsuckers in "the industry".

So when records go off like a bomb, and record companies sit there raking in the profits, don't forget that these profits go to pay for the other 90% of albums that didn't make any cash.

The record companies are not making that much in total, anyway. Their annual reports are online, so you can check this stuff too.

Basically, I'm just a bit bored with hearing the same old charges raised and accepted without any support

So on to payola. Again, this is essentially a storm in a teacup, with lots of missing information that never seems to get presented. For example, payola is the same story as in the supermarket game.

Did you know that supermarkets make more money from placing the product on their shelves than they do from taking it off their shelves (ie selling it to you and me)? Standard stuff. So it is with payola. The radios make more money playing the music than squeezing in the ads. That's how they can afford to play that "nonstop hour of music" or whatever at lunchtime!

Of course record companies, or anyone, need to pay to get their products placed! I don't know why anyone thinks it is any different! The radios are businesses, and they can play what they like, so they play what is in their shareholders interests to play.

Flame away, but I don't understand the shocked gasps that always follows this kind of "revelation", just like I don't understand how people get away with painting the record companies as ravening beasts, when a simple look at the balance sheet tells you they are out there makin' deals just like every other business since the dawn of time. If they were super-profitable, don't you think everyone would be doing it?

The correct links are here and here.

Try a FITALY keyboard - the Q and W keys are at opposite sides!

If you're into real pain, you can get a dual-mode keyboard which changes between QWERTY and FITALY modes at the touch of a button, and has 2 labels for each key!

Sony's own press-release offers much more information than the article on smartmoney.com. Just like it's predecessor (the SDR-3X), the SDR-4X offers a MemoryStick-slot to supply additional control programs.

Press-release

In this article there's some extra technical information, like the fact that it has 2 64-bit RISC processors and runs the Apertos Operating System (now called Aperios).

http://www.sony.co.jp/en/SonyInfo/IR/Financial/AR/ 2001/f_note-23.html

• PEG-NR70V modes of operation

What it looks like open and closed (from the Japanese site)

It looks like they have a Bluetooth card accessory coming out and a GPS card. There is also what looks like a wireless modem and another type of wireless adapter, but I'm not sure if it's 802.11b, or not.

a couple more views

It can also be used to transfer map/location data back and forth with your Sony Car Navigator (in Japan). And it can function as a programmable remote control for your home theater gear (TV, DVD, VCR, etc). It looks like the camera uses Picture Gear Pocket edition, so the photos are probably compatible with most of Sony's DV and digital still cams (and transferrable by Memory Stick).

It's surprising they didn't put a phone in, but I guess Japanese hipsters wouldn't be caught dead talking into a giant PDA when they have such amazing "keitai" cell phones.

What it looks like open and closed (from the Japanese site)

It looks like they have a Bluetooth card accessory coming out and a GPS card. There is also what looks like a wireless modem and another type of wireless adapter, but I'm not sure if it's 802.11b, or not.

a couple more views

It can also be used to transfer map/location data back and forth with your Sony Car Navigator (in Japan). And it can function as a programmable remote control for your home theater gear (TV, DVD, VCR, etc). It looks like the camera uses Picture Gear Pocket edition, so the photos are probably compatible with most of Sony's DV and digital still cams (and transferrable by Memory Stick).

It's surprising they didn't put a phone in, but I guess Japanese hipsters wouldn't be caught dead talking into a giant PDA when they have such amazing "keitai" cell phones.

Forget this stuff. Check out the Vaio PCV-W101. It has TV tuner, DVD, 1280x768 LCD, 2 PCMCIA ports, i.Link, USB and what else.
Japan is filled with those products.

But if the Springboard is a failure, why should we expect the Treo to do any better? The Visor might have been more successful if it hadn't been impeded by Handspring's inept manufacturing and distribution operations.

You mention Sony's older TV models. Sure, they stopped making them, but not before selling a lot of them -- and establishing Sony as a major player in consumer electronics. Actually, those early Sony TVs and radios were more than just gadgets. They were proof that solid-state was the best way to do mass-produced electronics. Nowadays that seems obvious. But 50 years ago when Sony decided to make transitor-based products, it was anything but.

So that cute little TV was more than a product. It was a proof-of-concept with far-reaching consequences. Silly to compare that with anything Handspring has done.

Or maybe you were just trolling...

We have a winner. Either that, or Slashdot need a new moderation option: Misinformed.

Right off the bat, Sluggie is quoting specs from the wrong model. He's looking at the N760, not the T615.

The T615 doesn't have a headphone jack at all. It uses an external MP3 decoder that connects to the hotsync port. The external decoder, and N700's built-in audio, use standard headphones.

bpowell423's points are correct. Sony's prices for cradles, AC adapters, etc. are comparable to others. And PalmOS is PalmOS.

Sluggie's right about expansion, though. For simple memory expansion, I don't think there's a practical difference between Memory Stick and MMC/SD. Step outside the handheld space, and support for either format is equally thin. But I really wish Sony would add Compact Flash support. There's a sled for the T-series in Japan, but it's not available in the States. (If you follow the link, it's the PEGA-CF60. Babelfish helps, but with Japanese, it's as, um, entertaining as it is useful.)

I would be impressed if Sony is making $100 profit on each PS2 unit sold. If we assume a 40% retail markup and that Sony is doing the wholesaling (i.e. no middleman between Sony and the retailer), then Sony has a revenue of $179.97 on each unit. (My sole retail experience was in a different sector, so the retail markup on consumer electronics might be lower, which makes things easier for Sony.) With $100 profit, that would mean that the manufacturing cost is right at $80 per unit. Spreding the $2B cost of the fabrication facilities over 100M units (your numbers from a few posts up) gives $20 from each unit going to cover the facilities, leaving $60 per unit to cover raw materials, wages, and other design costs. It might be possible, but I don't think so. But they should be able to cover their costs with $160 per unit.

Found this .pdf. As of 2001/9/30, PSX total sales are 88.25M units, PS2 19.57M units; PSX software 802M units, PS2 72.5M units. So it looks like there are 9 games sold for each PSX, and 3.7 games sold per PS2...but the PS2 also plays PSX games. That'll make things harder to track. The game division is claiming a $34M operating income in the quarter that ended 2001/9/30, but that's different from a profit. With 4.62M PS2 units shipped in that quarter, $100 profit per would be $462M. Drat, now I've got to figure out where those numbers should fall on a balance sheet.

Anyway, I agree with you that the PS2 is probably profitable, although I doubt the $100 per unit figure. I apoligize for mis-remembering what position you were taking in the discussion, and losing track of your thesis. Take care.

Chris Beckenbach

The Business Week article leaves out Asia and Europe. The PS2 sold millions of units in Japan before it was even released in the US. Sony's latest quarterly report placed the worldwide sales of the PS2 hardware at "over 19.57 million units."

I recently read in the WSJ about the alliance Sony and AOL have recently forged. One of things they are going to be collaborating on is:

The joint development of an Internet browser designed for optimal performance, a consistent experience, and greater convenience on networked consumer electronic devices. Both companies envision not only employing the browser in future Sony products but also making it available to other consumer electronics manufacturers

Are they talking about Mozilla? If not what does this mean for Mozilla? Remember that AOL owns Netscape, who are the biggest contributors to Mozilla. There's also an article about the alliance here. I tried to post it as a story, but it got rejected. Sorry about the offtopic message here.

Manual Looks like the bluetooth in provided via memorystick slot? Anyone translate?

Sounds like GATech need some bandwidth shaping *badly*... Hmmmm, P2P. Hadn't thought of that - it would explain some 350ms I've been seeing...!!