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I found this http://www.sony.co.jp/en/Products/BAT/ION/Catalog- e.pdf PDF at the Sony site. It's the catalog for their LiIon batteries. No price given.

But I would like more specific info if people have it. Things like part numbers and specs and prices.

I searched the Sony-fukushima website and didn't find much.

Why not use an emulator on a laptop... VAIO + N64 Emu ~= Joy...

Umm, I did and it seems to be a rip off of the iBook crossed with the styrofoam container my Hardee's Bicuits'n'Gravy came in.

I know people want more variety with Macs especially because *I'd* like more variety myself (specifically graphics card and bus speed on TiBooks). Apple doesn't do it in-house because of a few things - diminishing returns, clarity in their consumer/professional model lines (because people are dumb you should try your best to not confuse them) and because what they have made, they've made spot-on. Because of form factors and additional work necessary, they can't just swap out the paltry video card on the iBook for something meatier, and they certainly can't make it a slot graphics card on the TiBook so you can pick and choose what card you want.

Inviting others to do MacOS portables? That's either a bad joke or you are perhaps the most incorrect assessor of "what Apple should do." Having other companies make MacOS laptops would offer little besides a way for people to have a good laugh at the expense of the companies that tried. I'm not saying the 'Books are perfect but they are already as good as it gets. It would be hard to fit something in lower and it would be hard to fit something in higher. Competing on the same field, you might get one or two models that, through some genius, offer alternates of equivalent value for price - what good does that do Apple? They're not really going to generate more sales that way because the people that would buy these other portables would have, nine times out of ten, bought the similar Mac models otherwise. Again, people are dumb, do not confuse the customers by offering them too much choice. One other reason is that Apple would want to require standards - namely USB, Firewire and 802.11 - because they are all essential parts of Apple's strategy, whereas PC makers are still not completely up to speed on them. To fit those into the laptops, then you'd definitely not see a sub-$1000 laptop without the word "shit" soon becoming synonymous to it. If there was a line of Apple hardware to pick for the tired "open the hardware" arguments, you picked the wrong one - and we already saw how well opening the desktop models worked.

AFA a pointing device, I will always prefer the trackball, which no one I know of offers anymore on a laptop. I dislike trackpads (and the one on the iceBook is too big), I hate pointers or whatever IBM calls those damn nubs. On the other hand, when I do buy a Apple portable, I'll probably just buy a USB wacom tablet and go make artwork in the park. Lovely.

I think more people are aware of minidisc than you think, but see no need for it. Where minidisc is great is portable, fairly high fidelity (no, I am not an audiophile) recording. Great for concerts, "taping" of lectures, etc. Unfortunately most people don't have a regular use for this. On top of that, the real win for mp3 versus minidisc, is minidiscs only record real time. To transfer an hour of music from your mp3 collection to a minidisc player takes an hour of recording time. Why buy an MD player when I can get 2 hours of music in a couple of minutes from my PC to my mp3 player? This could change with the Net-MD, but I think they have some weird limited-number-of-check-in-and-out thing on it to prevent from biting the SONY-music hand that feeds it, but that too may be a stumbling block for MD's success.

psxndc

You should check out the Sony SO502iWM here.
This cellphone sports an ACTUAL 8mm stereo line/optical combo input jack for realtime audio encoding to ATRAC3 (Minidisc recording format) on Memory Stick. (MS slot at bottom of phone) You can see how all the possible hookup options here. I've personally seen this phone and its very compact. Dimensions are 105mm × 50mm × 28mm, just a hair thicker and wider than a Nokia 8260 when folded. Plus it features a 160x120 full-color screen, full iMode functionality, 100 minute talk time and a wired LCD stick remote (displays song titles and phone numbers) for operating music playback and basic phone functions without taking the phone out of your pocket! Its been selling since the beginning of Summer 2001 in Japan.

You should check out the Sony SO502iWM here.
This cellphone sports an ACTUAL 8mm stereo line/optical combo input jack for realtime audio encoding to ATRAC3 (Minidisc recording format) on Memory Stick. (MS slot at bottom of phone) You can see how all the possible hookup options here. I've personally seen this phone and its very compact. Dimensions are 105mm × 50mm × 28mm, just a hair thicker and wider than a Nokia 8260 when folded. Plus it features a 160x120 full-color screen, full iMode functionality, 100 minute talk time and a wired LCD stick remote (displays song titles and phone numbers) for operating music playback and basic phone functions without taking the phone out of your pocket! Its been selling since the beginning of Summer 2001 in Japan.

Sony seems like they're trying the lowest cost route to getting Internet Appliances to the US Market. I hope the slow showing for the eVilla won't stop Sony from trying some of their other appliances here.

One appliance that caught my eye was the AirBoard webpad (rough translation here) that broadcasts internet and TV from a base station. Now that I would buy. ; )

-= RIman001 =- --

IPv6 does not have any more support for QoS than IPv4

Maybe it has something to do with the Kame project having QoS built-in. Someday I will have time to experiment with AltQ

Unfortunately, that day seems far away.

doh! extra space in the the url...

http://www.sony.co.jp/en/SonyInfo/News/Press/20010 3/01-0323E/

hmm how come i can't get rid of that extra space between the 0 and 3?

wanna see the new CLIE?

I don't know about Linux but wireless webpads did come out at least in Japan

Here's Sony's Airboard. Walk anywhere in the house, no keyboard, no wires, browse the web, watch TV, watch a video. Prop it up in the kitchen to view a recipe. Read slashdot on the toilet. It's out!

Need to type? I touch screen keyboard appears. -g

It's really cool that you all are jumping on the MP3 band wagon but it's still not ready for prime time IMHO

All the audio manufactures have release MDLP (at least here in Japan) Here's Sony's Models MDLP uses the same MD discs ($2 each) but stores 320 minutes of music per disc (5 hours 20 minutes). That beats the crap out of most MP3 players. On top if which the players run for 100 HOURS!!!!!! on 2 batteries.

Sony also has 2 MP3 Cell phones. The c404s and the SO505iWM I was thinking of getting one until I realized that (a) they are $400 (b) they only store 64meg of data on a $160 memory stick. That's maybe 2 hours of music on $150 media where as for $20 I can carry around 53 hours of music on 10 MDs.

Why would any one choose MP3 today? Maybe next year there will be some descent players with descent battery life. Then we need to get memory cards to be $2 each. Until then, what's the point except that it "seems" cool. IF you really think about it, if your point is to listen to music while you are away from your computer then it's clear that MP3 is not the way to go yet.

It's really cool that you all are jumping on the MP3 band wagon but it's still not ready for prime time IMHO

All the audio manufactures have release MDLP (at least here in Japan) Here's Sony's Models MDLP uses the same MD discs ($2 each) but stores 320 minutes of music per disc (5 hours 20 minutes). That beats the crap out of most MP3 players. On top if which the players run for 100 HOURS!!!!!! on 2 batteries.

Sony also has 2 MP3 Cell phones. The c404s and the SO505iWM I was thinking of getting one until I realized that (a) they are $400 (b) they only store 64meg of data on a $160 memory stick. That's maybe 2 hours of music on $150 media where as for $20 I can carry around 53 hours of music on 10 MDs.

Why would any one choose MP3 today? Maybe next year there will be some descent players with descent battery life. Then we need to get memory cards to be $2 each. Until then, what's the point except that it "seems" cool. IF you really think about it, if your point is to listen to music while you are away from your computer then it's clear that MP3 is not the way to go yet.

It's really cool that you all are jumping on the MP3 band wagon but it's still not ready for prime time IMHO

All the audio manufactures have release MDLP (at least here in Japan) Here's Sony's Models MDLP uses the same MD discs ($2 each) but stores 320 minutes of music per disc (5 hours 20 minutes). That beats the crap out of most MP3 players. On top if which the players run for 100 HOURS!!!!!! on 2 batteries.

Sony also has 2 MP3 Cell phones. The c404s and the SO505iWM I was thinking of getting one until I realized that (a) they are $400 (b) they only store 64meg of data on a $160 memory stick. That's maybe 2 hours of music on $150 media where as for $20 I can carry around 53 hours of music on 10 MDs.

Why would any one choose MP3 today? Maybe next year there will be some descent players with descent battery life. Then we need to get memory cards to be $2 each. Until then, what's the point except that it "seems" cool. IF you really think about it, if your point is to listen to music while you are away from your computer then it's clear that MP3 is not the way to go yet.

I sent this info to Slashdot on November 19th!!! The day it came out in Japan. Of course like every other story I submit to them it was rejected. I think it's one of those anti-asian baises or is it just that Slashdot doesn't want to post new news, just news from other websites? Otherwise, reading some of the comments. It is NOT, $4000, at least not in Japan. It's selling for 278000 yen or less than $2600 US. Also, it is NOT wireless. Wireless is an option. You can buy one of the about 20 different wireless internet cards available here in Japan. There are cards that are 64K bits and there are cards that are basically 2 cards so you get 2 64k connections at twice the price (for the service not the card) The cards are available from all 6 different cell phone companies over here. NTT DoCoMo even has a CompactFlash wireless card. These are wireless USE ANYWHERE cards. They are NOT the 11mhz ethernet cards. The thing that sticks out about the PGC-GT1 is that it comes with internet broadcasting software so connected to some service so if you want to broadcast video it's all setup to do it.

I sent this info to Slashdot on November 19th!!! The day it came out in Japan. Of course like every other story I submit to them it was rejected. I think it's one of those anti-asian baises or is it just that Slashdot doesn't want to post new news, just news from other websites? Otherwise, reading some of the comments. It is NOT, $4000, at least not in Japan. It's selling for 278000 yen or less than $2600 US. Also, it is NOT wireless. Wireless is an option. You can buy one of the about 20 different wireless internet cards available here in Japan. There are cards that are 64K bits and there are cards that are basically 2 cards so you get 2 64k connections at twice the price (for the service not the card) The cards are available from all 6 different cell phone companies over here. NTT DoCoMo even has a CompactFlash wireless card. These are wireless USE ANYWHERE cards. They are NOT the 11mhz ethernet cards. The thing that sticks out about the PGC-GT1 is that it comes with internet broadcasting software so connected to some service so if you want to broadcast video it's all setup to do it.

I think this guy must be trying to get a job at Sony.

His "art" Looks Like Barf.

http://www.son y.c o.jp/sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/PCOM/Acc/PCDA-J1A/

Although I must say, there is something to be said for that, er, sophisticated-looking keyboard. (Maybe this is it.)

Seriously, one of the major selling points for the VAIO series has been (no, not the easy-to-pronounce name) its very high-tech, executive look. Business users and geeks alike are proud to be carrying these little gems of late-twentieth-century innovation. The iBook is less popular with professional users for these very reasons, but (1) it is still quite popular on account of its design, which is more whimsical but still very sophisticated; and (2) its target demographic has never been professional users.

This design, however, feels very much like the shiny plastic vacuum cleaner sitting in my closet. Sure, it works, but it's flimsy; the plastic handle flexes under applied torque, and the little plastic "accents" are starting to fall off. The iBook may "look like a toy", but I fear the new VAIOs may "look cheap like a toy."

http://www.sony.co.jp/sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/PCO M/PCG-C1VJ/hard.html

Here is the URL: http://www.sony.co.jp /sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/PCOM/PCG-C1VJ/

I have owned the Pilot 5000, Palm III, and now the Handspring Deluxe Visor. I love them all, but I admit I lust after my friends' PalmV. Palms are just too big sometime...for instance to carry to a club.

I was holding out for the new Sony palm-OS pda until I read the specs and discovered that they are not much skinnier than the Handspring and PalmIII. Still, I like the idea of the "jog dial" for scrolling through text. Sony seems to do innovation and user design very, very well (versus the ugly new Palm M100s-IMHO). All sizes are h x w x d.

• 4.5" x 2.8" x 0.6" (Sony PDA)
• 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.7" (Handspring Visor)
• 4.5" x 3.1" x 0.4" (Palm V)

My advice is to skip the Visor and Palm VIIx, and get the Palm V + external modem--if you will actually use it or wait for the Sony model.

The problem with fair queueing on modems is that the internal buffer inside the modem is usually quite large (on the order of 10 packets), and this buffer isn't subject to queueing. AFAIK the buffer must stay inside the modem for reasons of Tradition and V.42b. All real-time/fair queueing algorithms must muck with the output queue. For real network cards rather than modems, this means NIC drivers can reorder packets inside the FIFO onboard the network card. Each hardware NIC driver must have fair queueing support to deliver a good implementation. Therefore, it will never happen with traditional modems. You will have to buy a new modem, which may not exist yet.

I think you are talking about fair queueing w.r.t. ``Linux-diffserv'' because diffserv is the name of an IETF fair queueing working-group.

There is a lot of research on fair queueing. It deals with issues like the one you discuss, voice packets pre-empting large FTP packets. However, all the papers I've read are a much more advanced discussion than knee-jerk reactions like introducing another complexity into the protocol stack. They typically start with a GPS model in which each packet is 1 bit long, and then generalize the results for discrete packets. The ordering of the packets is actually a lot more interesting than their size.

This research was basically completed about five years ago with Hui Zhang's HFSC algorithm, which is implemented in the ALTQ package for *BSD. ALTQ is part of the KAME IPv6 stack that the three BSD's are importing into their trees and tracking as it evolves.

The relevant aspect of these algorithms is their ability to allocate bandwidth and latency separately and predictably. A high-bandwidth, high-latency FTP connection can share the same packet-switched link with a low-bandwith, low-latency VoIP connection. This is what ``real-time scheduling'' means. Although usually those words refer to CPU scheduling, the ideas and algorithms involved are similar if not identical.

This software is a real Computer Science answer to the age-old phone company allegations that only circuit-switched networks will ever reliably carry bounded-latency multimedia streams. It is not new, although it may be new to Linux or to popular use. If implemented on the whole Internet, it's basically proven that these algorithms can guarantee a clean, low-delay connection with no dropouts.

There are other papers about how to distribute some of the processing so these algorithms can scale to the core backbone, as well as stuff about extending them to wireless networks. Some of this research may be ongoing.

Anyone know which VoIP stacks work with IETF's diffserv ideas or RSVP?

One is the KAME IPv6 project wich is a stack for FreeBSD/NetBSD/BSD/OS.

Another IPv6 stack for FreeBSd/NetBSD is made by INRIA IPv6.

Another interesting site is the Alternate Queueing (ALTQ) for queue and bandwidth management use under *BSDs.

And once you got this all working, why not play with OpenBSD and PGPnet VPN support.

Erik

I'm waiting for a Mobile Communications Device (MCD?) that combines the functionality of a cell phone, two way pager/email, minidisc/mp3 player, web browser, palm VII. The only issue with a device like that would be the size, and unless you'd have some head mounted display, I don't see how you would be able to have a web browser that would also make a decent phone, unless it filpped open like the Nokia 9xxx(?) does. As far as memory sticks go, they seem like a bad idea, we should stick to standards like CompactFlash or MiniDisc for storing our music, where there are many brands of players (yeah, i know sony licensed MS to some other companies so don't flame) available as well as CompactFlash adapters which work in every laptop regardless of operating system. Also, Sony is heavilly backing SDMI which is a Bad Thing, but it won't stop me from buying sony, especially if they come out with This in the States *drools*

But for a huge wow-factor, check out this mini-tower computer. I nearly fell over when I saw this a couple of weeks ago.

In case you're wondering, the three slots on the front panel are for slot-in DVD, 3.5", and MD. As far as I could tell from the demo model, the MD cannot be used for digital data recording from the computer (only audio); but it's still a pretty cool piece of work.

See (in Japanese I'm afraid): here.

I bought the Z505JX a few months ago, which has "only" a PII400. I am very, very pleased with it --- nice screen (12.1 inch, 1024*768), pretty big keyboard considering the overall size, 8GB disk, plug-in CD-R drive, built in modem and ethernet, firewire, etc. And not that expensive really (about 350,000 yen for everything). Don't know when they're going to bring these out in other countries though.

And it runs Linux with no problems too. The disk was even prepartitioned so I didn't have to screw around with the Windows installation (which comes with some nice digital video software).

OO? Microkernels? All nice things to have (since the 1960s, in fact, see Hydra->AS/400 on this page). But people more interested in the future might want to check out "reflective OSes".

Aperios is the name of Sony's OS for that robot dog. I had a link to it but now it seems to be broken. It is just an evolutions of Apertos (the OS formally known as Muse).

I particularly recommend the paper "The Muse Object Architecture: A New Operating System Structuring Concept" (number 24 on this page) for a good comparison of the various ways to design an OS.

OO? Microkernels? All nice things to have (since the 1960s, in fact, see Hydra->AS/400 on this page). But people more interested in the future might want to check out "reflective OSes".

Aperios is the name of Sony's OS for that robot dog. I had a link to it but now it seems to be broken. It is just an evolutions of Apertos (the OS formally known as Muse).

I particularly recommend the paper "The Muse Object Architecture: A New Operating System Structuring Concept" (number 24 on this page) for a good comparison of the various ways to design an OS.

There is not a single complete algorithm in linux that guarantees (or comes even close to) a minimum bandwidth for a class. There's a script that's called 'cbq.init' found on freshmeat that can do traffic shaping w/CBQ, but it's about the only resource for it if you want to experiment with it. You might wanna try this link that shows some graphics on how FreeBSD does the job.

The dog uses the Aperios real-time operating system. More information is available on the Sony site.

I thought it was particularly interesting that it is IPv6 ready. Not many people can claim that for their pets! :-)

Like others who have replied I really wanted a MD computer drive, which you could use for data, and directly rip/record onto. I thought MD data was dead but maybe not, check the stuff here and here . The first link is to a MD digital camera (or video maybe) that uses MD Data II (see the logo at the bottom). That's 640 MB as explained in the 2nd link. That's a lot of pictures!

Now all we need are some MD Data computer disk drives!!!!!!!

The rock'n'scroll idea is cool. Check this guy's page: http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rek imoto.html He has a paper about it, and a lot of other cool stuff about small computers.

It runs Apertos, a reflective operating
system based on an eclectic Japanese dialect of Lisp.

You can find one article in
Advances in Object-Oriented Metalevel Architectures and Reflection, as well as some other references
at the awfully outdated Apertos home page.

BTW, It's not the first thing running on Apertos,
some Sony people I met told me they have some set-top boxes using it, but they never tell (well,
obviously they do when you surprise them asking about such kind of thing).

Damm. Just the kind of excuse I was looking for. Now I'll _really_ have to buy this puppy.

On Yahoo, I found a mirror locator in addition to mirrors at Ohio State, Switzerland, Internet FAQ Consortium, Japan, California, and the United Kingdom. Also noted in the discussion is a Slashdot reader mirror which could get Slashdotted.

So will you embrace and extend this?