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Better yet, I wonder how well a setup like HexInput would perform.

It is still wasted space and adds considerable thickness to the phone, not to mention making it more fragile, both to impact and liquids. Above all though, there are much better input methods for a handheld device than a shrunken conventional keyboard!

Most of the people who are attached to physical keyboards are simply creatures of habit. Unfortunately, existing physical and virtual keyboards (as on the iPhone) are targeted at people who are averse to change, even if they are both far from optimal.

As others have already said, using sliding motion(s) for touch based typing is nothing new. One of the methods I haven't seen mentioned in the comments yet is the QUONG layout, or HexInput (has nothing to do with hexadecimal). The thing about HexInput is the hexagon shaped softkeys arranged in a honeycomb pattern, wich gives surrounded keys 6 easily available neighbours for sliding onto.

I tried it once on my DS, using BLARGH Text Editor. After a few practice rounds, I could touch type a lot faster than with traditional tapping based touch typing.

However, as my main language is not English, I would need a custom layout for it to be effective for me in everyday situations.

This might be the optimal layout: HexInput. Or at least, it's designed to work in a similar manner to what's described.

Half a megabyte can fit this Python script, which is very easy to hack around, and the Python runtime, quite easily, IIRC.

Slightly offtopic, but not too far considering the Russian's work in this area. The other day I was poking around to provide some references for the M2P2 technology when I ran across this little beauty. This electric thruster makes Ion engines look downright primitive. According to the various articles, this engine would provide a specific impluse as high as 11,000 (one of the most efficient designs ever created!), but with a relatively high thrust ratio. According to NASA's webpage, they have been testing a workbench model at powers of up to 30 Mw (!), and they believe that such engines could be used for both deep space missions to Mars, as well as providing more efficient second stage engines for ground launched vehicles.

Apparently the Russians have done significant work on this area, and continues to perform experiements on behalf of JPL. It's quite possible that the development of this engine could have an even greater effect on space travel than the Ion engine did!

The only downside to this engine is that it will be likely to require a nuclear reactor for power. This increases weight and adds the danger of a nuclear reactor. The upshot to this is that it is inherently safer than the Orion or NERVA engines, doesn't polute, and can go to Mars and back several times on the same tank of lithium! (Delta-V from LEO to Mars Orbit is about 3900 m/s. Do your own calcs on what that means for an engine with an ISP of 11,000 and a craft that is a mere 25% gas tank.)

Once again, I'm amazed at the technology already in our posession, or close to being so. Now more than ever, I really feel that we're on the cusp of a true space age.

Python is used for twenty-seven open source AI projects on SourceForge, and therefore a Mind-to-Python liaison page has been established at http://mind.sourceforge.net/python.html -- along with fifteen other Open Source AI languages.

Artificial Intelligence in Python at http://www.strout.net/python/ai/ is one instance of how important Python is for AI.

What most open source AI projects lack is a Theory of Mind well-grounded in neuroscience. The http://mind.sourceforge.net/theory5.html page with ample co-references provides not only the fundamental AI theory but also its albeit primitive implementation in both Win32Forth and MSIE JavaScript -- which any AI enthusiast may easily save-to-disk and begin hosting on a personal Web site, as the AI Mind pervades the 'Net and leads us upwards and onwards to Technological Singularity!

"Lefty" is a hack for the PalmOS that sets a flag saying "I prefer left-handed GUI elements". Lefty-savvy applications will see this flag and adjust their screen rendering accordingly.

Pythonica demonstrates how symbolic mathematics can be implemented on a computer. As a research tool, it is inadequate, but it may serve as a useful tutorial for those wishing to understand better how such programs operate. With additional work, it could even be made into a minor math tool useful to those who can't justify the purchase of expensive commercial software.

The Mind Uploading Home Page

An Introduction to Mind Uploading and its Concepts

Aurora - Mind Uploading Resources

Whole Brain Emulation

Cybernetic Immortality

Uploading Sub-Page

Cheers,
RAK