Slashdot Mirror
Linux on a Wrist Watch?
OnlyNou writes "IBM Develops Prototype of
Wrist Watch Running Linux only a prototype, but it shows big blue has a lot of time on it's hands." The article is pretty vapourous: Its just a press release saying that they've done it. No pictures of linkage, so if anyone finds something informative, please post it. Update by HUNQ: Here is the picture of the watch, and it's DAMN CUTE! (credits goes to Linux Weekly News)
Reminds me of an old SNL commercial in the 70s where they had an LED wristwatch. It took 4 buttons to be simultaneously pressed to see the time. It took 2 people to press all the buttons together.
Linux, which was developed by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, is used for many basic functions of Web sites, but is not yet considered mature enough for heavier business tasks.
Who'd they get this quote from? Some kid in HS telling them how Linux is a 1337 hax0r OS?
Cute article, mostly fluff. There are about 4 hard facts in it.
1)Linux is an Operating System. Kinda like Windows, (GEE!)
2)IBM put Linux on a wristwatch.
3)Linux Torvalds has something to do with all of this.
4)IBM isn't going to sell the watch, boo hoo.
No offense to the author of the article, but WHERE DID YOU GET THAT QUOTE?
How many supercomputers do you know run by NT? Which webserver has the highest marketshare? Is it IIS? Noo... Where do you come up with this stuff? Most computers are developed with some form of Unix, it might not be Linux, but certainly more people trust a Unix than trust NT. No offense, but I trust Linux WAYYY more than NT based on REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE.
Eh...
Seriously, though - this reminds me of research at getting a network running through skin connectivity. Combine that with really small wearable processors, and you get to transmit files to your friends by shaking hands with them. The original implementation I remember was that you'd have a shoe that traded business cards with other people's shoes, by shaking hands. Crazy.
Education is the silver bullet.
as for my work, I actually work for an internet company that has already realized that Linux and Free Software are good things, and where management actually cares more about what you have to say than about what your watch is made of. if yours doesn't, hey, we're hiring =)
as long as I get to do cool stuff, I won't =)That's nice, but pure research is only useful when the results are released. If IBM had to do interesting things to the kernel to get it to scale down to this extent (and I'll bet they did), they should release the changes if this research is to be anything but a waste of time.
--
Some keywords for the NSA in the Lord of the Rings universe: One Ring bind find Sauron quest Nazgul freedom
...will it have an integrated MP3 player?
Remember the big protest because they were going to put up a satellite transmitting on OSCAR (or was it AMSAT?) frequencies? It sort of died after that (good riddance).
Free BeOS, runs from a Linux partition
Doesn't the average human have space enough for three or more watches? Why limit ourselves to watches that only do useful things like tell time? Accessorize!
>The Data Link is Windows only, and in the two years I have been using NT4 and W2K, my rig has been rock stable
You have not read the licence. The watch is only licenced for use with Win 3.1, WfW, and Windows 95.
If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
I thought the 5 alarms was a small bonus compared to the 150 phone numbers!!! Not to mention the appointment beeper, the to-do list and birthday reminder. It's personally saved my a$$ numerous times. I really don't care that it's made by Mircosoft, 'cause it's actually a *GOOD* product! I guess I also enjoy the bragging rights at geek parties that I've got the heavier wristwatch. :)
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
I have not worn a watch since about 1989, and I have never been in a situation where I wished I had one. The need for a timepiece on your wrist is a complete illusion.
I can only assume you never ride public buses.
I not only remember it, I'm wearing one right now! It's useful, really! Sure, I've lost the software to actually program it and I've never really used it for anything even when I had the software, but there's nothing quite like holding your watch up to your computer screen to program it with a bunch of flashing lines. Try it. It will change your life.
I am not an idiot. Please use my name to email me.
"That's right, I'm quoting myself."
-Upsilon
http://a lllinuxdevices.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-08-07 -005-03-PS-WL-WB
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Infuriate left and right
Wasn't this watch in Knight Rider?
Or are you going to sit and admire it, and then go out and get a real watch, a gold watch that actually conveys status and meaning to the rest of society?
Well, I thought a watch was for you to know what time it was. Apparently I was mistaken. So, given that I have now been educated that the purpose of a watch is to convey status and meaning to the rest of society, the point of this watch is even clearer. It's just as much a status symbol as a cell phone, PDA, laptop, etc. "My watch runs Linux, what does yours run?"
Now, if we for some reason want to want to think of a watch as a functional device, as opposed to a status symbol, the advantages of putting linux on a watch are obvious. The code that runs watches previous to this was designed to...run a watch. Whereas linux running on a watch is a general-purpose OS adapted to run on a watch. Which means it can easily be extended to create all sorts of futuristic wrist-devices, i.e. phones, remote-controls, etc.
--- Where's my X.400 protocol decoder?
NightHawk
Tyranny =Gov. choosing how much power to give the People.
Shouldn't it be "IBM has too much time on it's wrist"?
I, personally love the watch, it would go well on my exgf and match her cute glasses, but I would picture the production model with either a chrome or gold finish, or removable plates. Perhaps iMac colors, which are strangely fashionable (nobody conservative would have thought in the 80s, now they would all wear one).
Eh...
Please turn off all electronic devices until 10 minutes after takeoff.
Some of us have realized that it is even more productive to not wear a watch at all. Why carry a clock with you everywhere you go when there are clocks everywhere, and you are surrounded by people who wear them as fashion statements.
By not wearing a watch, I actually manage my time better, and I have no temptation to glipse at the time over and over when I am anxious.
I have not worn a watch since about 1989, and I have never been in a situation where I wished I had one. The need for a timepiece on your wrist is a complete illusion.
Watches are shackles, dude. Loose it and you will be happier.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
My question is: What is the point? If you think about it, Linux is just a piece of computer code (esp. on a device like this). What functionality is the computer code adding to this wristwatch? Nothing over a RTOS, that's what I can tell you. It's just a hunk of computer code that does absolutely nothing without something to run in it - and what are you going to run? MPG123 on a watch? Are you going to practice Bash shell scripting while you're out? Or are you going to sit and admire it, and then go out and get a real watch, a gold watch that actually conveys status and meaning to the rest of society?
Free BeOS, runs from a Linux partition
Obviously you missed the point. Kurzwiel is a respected futurist, and the work wasn't sci-fi - it was a futurist's predictions for the future. And Kurzwiel is one amazing fellow - he hasn't been wrong yet. I trust his vision here.
Free BeOS, runs from a Linux partition
Casual Passerby: "Do you know what time it is?"
Person wearing Linux Watch: "Absolutely not, but I run linux on it."
nerdfarm.org
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
It might be a trick of the lighting, but the damn thing looks like it's an inch thick. It shouldn't be a watch, it should be a belt buckle!
Digital watches have never been fashionable -- I don't think wrist-computers are going to take-off any time in the near (or not-so-near) future.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I'm pretty tired of the "geek for geeks" Linux attitude. WHO CARES if they put Linux on an Alien anal probe?
I really believe they should use all that expertise to put Linux running where it matters:
In Grandma's PC.
Easy, friendly, and, above all, forgiving. People don't have the right to make mistakes under Linux. It is wrong. It's a pitty (sp?) nobody is doing hard research to make it friendlier. (sp?). It's not enough to be good, one must be gentle.
Linux will NOT take the world running on watches, refrigerators, toasters or dildos.
[]'s Carlos Cardoso - Becoming a brazilian ProBlogger, typo by typo
This is true, but they were right with the bullet "Everything you do will be more fun!"
Now I even enjoy scooping the cat litter.
Thanks again, Windows.
The streets shall flow with the blood of the Guberminky.
Well, I've got a watch with a minute hand, millenium hand and an eon hand.
And when they meet, it's a happy land.
Powerful man....
Personally, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this.
Of course, you could then move to your other arm, your legs, pocketwatches, your penis...whatever. Imagine your computing power.
What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?
Get a Beowulf cluster of these and we can be as cool as Ricky Schroeder with his arm full of swatches.
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Da**it! I have the model 150 on my wrist right now. it's the best watch I've ever had w/ 5 alarms. that and I love telling people I download programs to my watch. The only problem is this word in gold lettering at the bottom...
da w00t.
da w00t. mtfnpy?
Seriously, all analog watches can be used as sun compasses. It's a couple of steps, but an interesting trick:
First, hold the watch horizontal. Then, hold something thin over the center of the watch, making a sundial-like shadow. Line this shadow up with 12:00. Now, true North is half way between the hour hand and the shadow. You do need, however, to correct for daylight savings and have the correct time.
Of course, there's always the GPS watch...
I love my datalink. The original Model 70.
The thing is waterproof, shockproof, and works without delays. I sync it to atomic clock once a month.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Leonid S. Knyshov
Find me on Quora
since when do printed bus schedule times and the actual arrival of the bus actually coincide?
I do not have a signature
True enough... I haven't used a watch in ~7 years. There is, however, one situation in which a watch is very convenient: Testing.
Admittedly, a watch might distract you a little during a test, but many is the time I have sorely desired the knowledge of whether I had time to erase what I had written, in order to correct a minor mistake.
Other than that, about all a watch does for you is give you a weird white spot on your arm (if you are lucky enough to get outside, that is :-)
----(o)----
Sounds like my foolish datamemo watch.. I bought it, so I could read the numbers without my glasses, and never did quite figure out what to do with the memory function.
Probably has something to do with the fact that I don't really touch phones anymore.
Weapons of Mass Analysis
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
This Microsoft time must be why all their products are delivered late and unfinished. Probably also why they slow down a perfectly fine computer.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I've actually had the privilege to work in IBM research in Yorktown NY. It's the greatest place to work in the world. All because they have Lego Mindstorm! Certainly the largest collection of geniuses west of MIT and east of Palo Alto. (All geniuses love Legos.)
Is this a hoax? If not, I want my flying-car-in-a-briefcase.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
You can find the software here
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Username taken, please choose another one.
I haven't worn a watch since my high school days, which is now about 10 years ago, and I'm doing just fine.
Too bad I had to learn to use a calendar, though. I didn't really forget appointments or deadlines, but not writing them down gave me the leeway to postpone action until the very last minute. Result: poorly planned meetings and messy reports.
>Journaling Filesystem: If my watch goes down, I won't lose my other timezone settings.
That implies that IBM is going to finish the port of JFS to linux so that they can put it on their watch... yeah, that makes sense.
Devil Ducky
Devil Ducky
MY peers would get out of jury duty.
It's always been super-annoying that the braindead wristwatches don't know anything abut leap years, summertime and so on. Why can't the stupid thing handle that itself, just like all computers do? (at least those with /usr/share/timezone).
That by itself is enough for me to want to run Linux (or *BSD) on the wristwatch. I'm fed up of that damn braindead Casio digital watch I have.
TA
"Hey buddy, what time you got?"
:)
A: Time to buy a watch.
Just wait for some crazy MechE student's to get bored enough.
:-P
If you think education is expensive, try ignornace
"Linux in a box!" "Linux on a wristwatch!" What next...? "Linux on your pap smear!" "Linux in your mom's underwear drawer!" "Linux in your rectum!" "Linux on the earlobe of a midget!" Who the fuck cares? Get a life people
Although I think that using "a combination of the rolling wheel and touch sensitive screen" to interface with the watch is just a little too annoying. Can you imaging writing anything with that? It's already annoying enough to set normal watchs, can you imaging rotating in the new date after the battery dies?
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
In 1960s the french actually tried decimal time :)
/hour, 100 seconds /minute, e.g. 5:00:00 is 12:00 noon
It was a good idea, unfortunately it never caught on (of course, here in the US the entire metric system 'never caught on' despite being our official standard for decades now).
I wrote an amusing java applet which is viewable on my homepage, which impliments a kind of "metric time."
10 hours / day, 100 minutes
Actually, it would make more sense in terms of nomenclature to have 1000 seconds / minute, such
that one has hours (decirotations), minutes (millirotations), and seconds (microrotations), e.g. 7:50:000 would be 6:00 PM.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
...would be lots and lots of public KVM kiosks that would let us use the watches (and other portables) in a ergonomic and wireless kinda way. I would even vote for <insert objectionable political candidate here> to see such a thing.
i) does it have a battery backed clock?
ii) will it tell the correct time after 2038?
iii) how much pr0n can I fit on it?
Is it just me or does anybody else feel that there is a little problem of missing keyboard/input device on this thing?
Steve Mann is a professor at the University of Toronto in Canada, of which I am a student. I've seen his linux-powered watch. Most of the time he just runs a full-screen xclock on it.
--
Patrick Doyle
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
I can just see it now...
Psst buddy...wanna buy a watch? I'm running a special on beowolf clusters...
Speaking of vendor-propriatary time, check out Swatch Beat Time. (I must confess that I own and use one of these watches.)
-Waldo
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Industrial designers are coming up with some bizarre ways of using all this new technlogy. In my ID studio class we're trying to come up with wireless gizmo ideas to enter in a Motorolla competition. One guy came up with a bluetooth enabled PDA in the form of an origami frog. The frog is made of either MIT's electronic paper or one of the new light emitting polymers. Yeah, it sounds unlikely but who in say, 1974 would've believed the PalmIIIx's LCD display possible?
"In a hierarchy every employee will rise to his level of incompetence". The Peter Principle
This Linux-watch is pre-alpha.. They're probably figuring how to run it at all, not yet considering user interface to be a top priority.
Stop the brainwash
I was once working on a project with some guys from Israel, Denmark, and other places and we kept trying to meet but we were having some... "communication difficulties" determining what time we were meeting. So we decided to go with .beats, Internet time, whatever you want to call it. At least then we had one source of an absolute time. We only did that a couple times, but for the first time at a mall I noticed the swatch store (something I would usually edit out of my vision (ignore)) and thought it might be cool to have a watch that could display time in .beats.
Last months issue of the Linux Journal had a whole article on a watch running Linux, with an Xfree86 display.
But the important thing is will it run wine? i don't know about you, but i don't think i would be able to live without having MS-Bob around with me everywhere i go.
IBM will be giving an overview of Linux today (8/8/00), see
http://www.ibm.com/investor/events/
given its off the investor page, this might be a
high level presentation.
Steve Mann did this a couple of years ago:
3 993.html
http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue75/
http://www2.linuxjournal.com/l j-issues/issue75/cover75.jpg
Called the WearComp, another evolution of the idea of wearables.
From the article:
A GNU/Linux Wristwatch Videophone
This fully functioning prototype, designed and built by Steve Mann in 1998, was demonstrated in 1999 and later used to deliver a videoconference at ISSCC 2000.
by Steve Mann
Take a read - well worth it!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
yeah, I'd have to agree. Remember those watches that had a calc in them? remember what the key-pad was like? ever tried to use one?
Wish list: Okay, maybe have a phone or PDA as the centre for my personal network. Use bluetooth to talk between them. This watch updates its time from my phone that is updated through GSM or WAP or whatever. I would be great to interface with my calendar/appointments and beep when I get mail.
Oh, and of course scroll /. headlines :)
__
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
Good point there. Is that round-looking thing on the side a mouse or something (not that'd I'd ever dream that it could run X)?
Email me.
Don't trust anyone over 90000.
+++ATH0
I can handle a PDA running Linux. I can even handle a calculator running Linux. But a watch? What's next, a Linux powered hearing aid?
Forgot to mention - yes, it runs Linux - plus it has a camera and runs X as well!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Anyone else thinking that IBM just invented the "Really Big Pen"??
;-)
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
how many of you got a goofy grin when you got to this part of the story:
:) linux rapidly becoming an industry standard... i can't wait.
``With Linux rapidly becoming an industry standard, it's important that developers be able to create new applications across all platforms, including pervasive devices, and the intent of IBM's research is to further that work,'' IBM said.
i mean...
The Palm succeeded because it has an interface more suited for a PDA. A wristwatch is going to need something even more stripped down than that. Strangely enough, a GUI is not what is needed for a watch like this. Pure alphanumeric with a few graphical characters is probably what is needed here. Something for the user interface researchers to work on here. As cute as it is to see the command line on a watch, its not very practical.
To be blunt, a watch is a data display device only. Merging the watch with the pager makes perfect sense and putting your address and appointment book in it. Not sure I'd want to try reading some of my email with it. Maybe just a summary of what is in my PDA through wireless. That is what I really want. A wireless interface between my PDA and my watch to keep the data between them in sync and so I can use my PDA as the data entry device for my watch.
This falls into the Convergence thread we had elsewhere, about ergonomics and why you don't want a device for doing everything. A watch is good for displaying small amounts of text instantly and with minimal controls for wading through it. It also has a convenience factor to it that is unmatched by any other consumer device. You don't want to load too much gadgetry into it and try to make it do too much. You really just want it to be a specialist device among many. Its not there to replace a PDA any more than a PDA replaces a laptop or a laptop replaces a workstation.
To use a decimal time coordinate system we'd also need to develop a decimal earth coordinate.
:-)
Actually, that would fit rather nicely with the metric units of distance already in use. I believe the meter was arbitrarilly designed to be one millionth of the circumference of the earth (I don't recall if it was at the eqautor, or at some longitude passing through Paris).
Given that, use 1000 metric degrees per circle, and you have (at the equator) almost exactly one kilometer per degree longitude, and at all lattitudes one kilometer per metric degree latitude.
Although for navigation (in aviation at least) it wouldn't be any more difficult to use metric minutes and hours with existing units of degrees or distance (nautical miles per metric hour might be silly, but km/mh wouldn't be).[1] For shipping, using sextants to measure off distances, it would make less sense.
It would definitely be a tradeoff: converting units in physics, and navigation for cars and planes would be as easier, or at worst as easy (no more divide/multiply by 3600), but boat skippers would have a tougher time.
Of course, since shipping (and aviation for that matter) uses different units for distance, they could continue using the depricated, archaic 24 hour system while the rest of us switch to the more elegant metric approach.
[1] For reasons of safety (and existing instrumentation) it is unlikely aviation will ever switch from using feet for altitude, nautical miles for distance, or degrees for direction. Switching from inches Hg to millibars, and from 24-hour time to metric time, would be pretty trivial though. Ironically, aviators do use celsius for most temperature measurements -- that conversion was easy to make with no safety implications to speak of (but even so, it isn't 100% complete. A feSomew weather stations still report temperature/dew point spreads in faranheit).
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Watch (ha!) out for viruses: "cat 1 /dev/poisoned-pokey-thing-on-watch-back"
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Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
-pf, link whore
Make affiliate bucks
add this to my pocket protectors and HP SuperCalculator, and....
dang it, I don't want to be a chick repellant.
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but seriously...
However, IBM does not have plans to commercialize the Linux watch itself, a spokeswoman said.
that sucks. so, basically, I'll never get one unless I steal it. *sniff*
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I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
To use a decimal time coordinate system we'd also need to develop a decimal earth coordinate. Which would also be nifty, but it would be niftier to develop one based on radians to make it easier to do the math. I can see it now : "What time is it?" "Pi. Break for lunch!"
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
cool very dick tracy esk, linux though ? who would have thunk it. I guess i could always strap my palm to my wrist, and call that a watch.
People are quick to poke fun at logging into your watch, the fact that you'd have to lug around a keyboard to interact with it, etc., but consider that you can build your own interface, make your "watch" do whatever it is you wanted to do. Start up the scripts while it's plugged into your base station, and use its 4 buttons (or whatever) to interact with your software.
The advantage to putting Linux on this is that you can suddenly use any of your existing development tools and languages to build the wristwatch of your dreams. You want multiple time-zone support? Piece of cake. A count-down timer that has a 13-minute starting point instead of just 10 or 15? 50 different alarms? A custom alarm tune? Hack it in!
Sure, it's only a watch, but with something like this on your wrist, it's a watch you can do whatever you want with.
For about a week I was telling everyone "I don't own or run any Microsoft products AT ALL". Then as I was saying it to Person #10, I looked at my watch. D'OH!
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
IBM is two years behind on this one, playing catchup to the Open/Free Source community again.
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about the first 30 posts i saw were people ranting about how useless this is. Isn't this great? I mean...When cars started coming around, they really sucked...they were loud, slow, uncomfortable, and dangerous. Now...you can get a benz and be respected by a total stranger. Its the same with the watch.
::
It doesnt even have to mean that the watch itself is one day going to evolve into a desktop...But it could bring much better things...A tracking system...A pulse monitor...It could hold all your genetic information as means of identification...And it could all be configurable through a linux 'clock' shell! We cant expect things like this to just magically appear...It's not a movie...It's real life, and things have to evolve to a posistion where it is respected by society.
We ARE moving in a right direction.
-Swift
-Swift
http://lwn.net/daily/linuxwatch_pen.php3
take a look at this link for an article at linux journal about a GNU/Linux based videophone on a watch :)
Put a Bluetooth radio on it along with the Linux Bluetooth stack, link it to your Bluetooth aware cell phone and you've almost got a Dick Tracy watch.
Of course, it's probably esier just to use your cell phone.
To have the time continuously updated, simply type this in any shell:
watch date
It was exactly for this reason (that they tried to move the dateline) that it never caught on. If they had kept the dateline where it was an just decimalised... well, it wouldn't have caught on either, but you know.
Hamish
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
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now we need something like the holo device used in star wars to project the endor mission profile in the briefing room--only it has to be small enough to fit on the watch, so you can use linux (preferably voice based input ( so is it dash or minus rf??--harkens back to the dilbert cartoon with wally shouting DELETE--)) on the nifty holo screen...
talk about a commuting hazard!!!
mov ax, 13h
int 10h
You're a U.S. citizen, ain't ya?
{Wait, so am I. Nevermind.)
Dan
When does linux cease to be linux? It seems to me that this version of linux would be so broken down and rebuilt that it would no longer be linux, but just a bunch of code, just like what's in every digital watch. Someone should define what makes linux linux. If you break linux down over and over, when does it stop being linux?
Shouldn't that be "Dr. SuSE Linux"?
-Vel
Preach it brother! Watch-free since '93 :)
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"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
I also know what time it is when I am at a gathering with beer and music, it is party time.
Lastly, if you stop all the clocks and blot out the sun, I will still instinctively know when it is 7:00 PM Central Standard time on Tuesdays without fail, because that is when it is time for me to sit down and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Still not clear as to why you think I might need a watch. :)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
You could easily be 10 years old and rather precocious, I suppose, so:
.rc extensions, the configuration files for all those kernel modules. Again, get a good Linux book which will do a much better job of explaining this than any of us could.
1) Yep, but you need to learn how to configure it first. You can read about the basics here if you like. Invest in a Linux book, though. I recommend one by O'Reilly.
2) Sure, if you spend a few weeks hashing out a concept for a business, learning how to use Apache, building a website and physically provisioning it. What kind of business do you want to start?
3) Yep, it's a shell. What's beneath it is the actual nuts, bolts, and gears of the operating system, which is called the kernel. How do you get there? Well, if you mean "how do you change how it works," by fiddling with all those nifty files with
Or, you could be a troll. But then, I've only wasted a minute or so of my time on you, which is really not much skin off my nose.
Love, 'Kruzr
Email me.
Don't trust anyone over 90000.
+++ATH0
"Hey buddy, what time you got?"
A: Eh, I stopped wearing watches when I saw this post on Slashdot...
If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
I think that says it all.
[|]
A linux powered toilet.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
IBM ought to be looking at clever things like the HP calculator initiative. Lots of "Pointy-Haired Bosses" are incipiently tech-savvy, but don't want to show off their skillz for fear of being mistaken for a technical lackey. Anyone who could program the numerical solution algorithm for the Black-Scholes option pricing PDE into a Hewlett-Packard Financial Analyst (and believe me, you won't get through an MBA if you can't) should be able to handle the comparatively trivial installation of Red Hat 6.0. That's the way to go.
Creating nerdy watches so that the junior interns go "I want one" isn't going to sell a single unit of Linux to the people who really generate the sales orders.
-- the most controversial site on the Web
1) Keep your business card on your watch. When you shake hands with someone else wearing a similar watch, it trades business cards.
2) Let your watch talk to your PDA through your body's electric field.
3) Let your watch and your PDA talk to your MP3 player through your body's electric field.
4) Automatically synch your watch, your PDA and your MP3 player when you sit down at your computer (Though I think the protocol was too slow to download MP3s last time I read about it.)
Down sides:
1) Your body, PDA, Watch and MP3 player would have to run Lotus Notes.
2) If you want to run the latest thing from Lotus, you'd have to be running Windows.
3) Who knows what your watch, PDA and MP3 player are REALLY talking about? They could be conspiring to kill you!
4) They'll recruit your computer in their evil plot when you sit down at your computer. They might even have a chat with your car on the topic.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
funny munging
I love hi-tech toys as much bas the next guy, but I think this is going a bit far!
"What time is it?"
"I dunno, I'm just re-booting my watch!"
They want a watch that will sync with a computer, like the Timex DataFlash or whatever the hell they call it. They are being lazy, so they want a pre-packaged OS. And it's a lot easier to shrink down linux than it is to shrink down WinCE. I write embedded code for DSP's, and I wish we didn't have to write every single little serial transfer line in ASM, but we are restricted to using this processor for various reasons. If IBM can make a watch, put in a processor that can run Linux, and easily code a little transfer mechanism for it, so be it.
Lots of little computerized devices run various OS's, like Linux - so it's not a big deal!
-nosilA, who is moderately annoyed that there are two "we run linux on this cute little thing" stories in a row.
I don't know if anyone has noticed this, but how exactly do you enter data/commands into the watch? There doesn't seem to be any keys on the watch and the screen looks like its so small that if it did have pen recognision that you would have to write one letter, wait and then the next letter.. etc
:)
Ahh what ever happened to that voice controled linux distro? Look out dick tracy
Multi-tasking: "Look honey! I'm telling the hours AND the minutes simultaneously!"
Journaling Filesystem: If my watch goes down, I won't lose my other timezone settings.
Scriptability: No more trying to figure out what watch band hole to use. Just setup a cron job to periodically ioctl(IOTIGHTEN, "/dev/band").
Multi-user: My friend can tell the time while I'm busy using the stopwatch.
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
Absolute nonsense. When I look at an analog clock, I know what time it is practially instantly. For me, there is a "significant productivity hit" in reading numbers off of a digital clock, and then translating that to a picture of hour and minute hands in my head. My internal representation (Private data members?) of time is analog.
And, out of curiosity, why do you think the FAA required clocks in airplane cockpits to be analog until just a couple of years ago? You can read an analog clock out of the corner of your eye.
Bingo Foo
---
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
Digital *watches* may be better for accuracy, but I think I prefer analogue *clocks*, as they can be read from greater distances to give a "good-enough" first-order analysis of how late I am to a particular meeting. Usually, if there are a multitude of suits attending, the number will be quite high :-)
plus, pure-mechanical analogue watches with clear bezels are more interesting, IMO, than the circuit-board design of a digital one. Seriously, I wear the watch almost exclusively for the "oooh, a shiny thing" effect. Otherwise, the NTP-synch'ed clock on my puter, along with an appointment scheduler interrupting my train of thought, does better for me as it frees me from having to glance every 5 seconds nervously for the time to change.
--
What's next, a Linux powered hearing aid?
Sure - only it's one with voice recognition, speach synthesis, and a wireless link to babelfish...! You laugh... give it 20 years, max.
---
All I want is for daylight wasting time to end, and for the day to start at dawn, not midnight. Is that too much to ask for? :)
You mean that's what those numbers on sign at the bus stop are for? I always thought they were tracking numbers or something
Devil Ducky
Devil Ducky
MY peers would get out of jury duty.
DAMN! Now I'll have to wear one watch for each Linux distro or risk being shunned at the local LUG. Let's see
Red Hat
Caldera
Debian
Suse
Slackware
...(repeat ad nauseum)
Steven
-- I have marked myself unwilling to moderate-- I don't have other accounts to artificially inflate the karma of
Don't think for a second that this is merely a pointless gimmick - it's a necessary component for truly Free Time.
No longer will we need to be tied down by vendor-proprietrary time: the ability to hack time to our own open source, GPL'd, and entirely bizarre standards.
"You're five minutes late."
"Not by my watch, you whore of Casio! I'm 37 chimpanzees early, for insert-deity-here's sake!"
"Foiled again! Damn you and your Free Time!"
http://dotslash.dynodns.net/00/08/07/147245/linuxw atch_pen.jpg
please only use it if you can't get lwn to load.
As always, if anyone with any kind of authority wants my mirror down, please mail me and let me know.
where is the keyboard interface
Seriously, though, people who learned to tell time on analog time tend to interpret it differently than people who do digital time. The shape of the hands gives you a feel for how much of the day has gone by, and how long it is until some event (e.g. the next hour or half-hour), and if you're using a digital clock you have to burn milliseconds of brain-CPU figuring out those things, which are more often what you really wanted to know than "tell me the numbers you see on your clock". Also, analog folks are more likely to say things like "quarter past three" than "3:14:47pm" - usually rounding to the nearest 5 minutes is just fine.
I personally prefer digital wristwatches (my current one also has GPS:-), and my computer tells me time in nice clear digital instead of adding yet another cluttery low-resolution Microsoft icon. But when I'm in the train station wanting to know how much I need to rush to get to the train, or whether I've missed it and should go for the next train, I want to just *see* the clock, not calculate minutes.
Grateful Dead lyrics, from W alk In The Sunshine by Barlow&Weir:
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
We already knew this, but hey! This can easily refute the people who say that Linux isn't downward scaleable. "Hey, see my watch? It runs Linux! How's THAT for downward scaling?"
However, IBM does not have plans to commercialize the Linux watch itself, a spokeswoman said.
That's a very smart move. Anyone remember the Timex Data-Link watch? I'm not sure I totally buy this as research, though - because if you back up a bit:
``Designed to communicate wirelessly with PCs, cell phones and other wireless-enabled devices, the 'smart watch' will have the ability to view condensed email messages and directly receive pager-like messages,'' IBM said in a statement.
Erm, all of this for "research"? Sounds like a marketable product to me....but again: "IBM, REMEMBER THE DATA-LINK?"
Linux, which was developed by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, is used for many basic functions of Web sites, but is not yet considered mature enough for heavier business tasks.
It's not? Well jeez, I guess the millions of businesses that run Linux exclusively aren't considered 'Heavy.' Those Corporate Internet Solutions Providers are going to be disturbed to hear they aren't considered a "Heavy Business Task", and that their Linux infrastructure is only handling the "basic functions" of their operation.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Take a look at the (recently added) picture of the watch. Look closely at the screen... :)
# cat hw
Hello Watch
Nice alternate "first program"
-- Sig (120 chars) --
Your friendly neighborhood mIRC scripter.
* Q
P.S. If you don't get this note, let me know and I'll write you another.
The obvious communication method for a Beowulf cluster of wristwatches would be Bluetooth . Arm fulla Viking technology (Actually Harald Bluetooth was a couple hundred years after Beowulf was written...)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I think a lot of people are jealous of the engineers at IBM (I know I am), because they get to sit around and get paid huge amounts of money just to screw around and try new stuff. If only the rest of us could be as lucky...
I can just imagine the staff meetings:
Engineer 1: Did you taste the coffee this morning? It was horrible...
Engineer 2: Yeah, maybe we should throw Linux on the coffee maker and see if that helps
Manager: Sounds good to me. Do it. And if you get it to make a mocha, I'll give you a bonus.
Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
like the subject says: how _do_ you type on a watch. The picture showed a command shell and one of the linked articles mentioned a "touchscreen" but it doesnt mention how it actually works.
were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
"No problem, hold a a sec" (types in the following):
[root@localhost]$ date
[root@localhost]$ Mon Aug 7 10:44:49 EDT 2000
"It's 10:44"
"Thanks"
---------------------------------
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
but a comment such as, "it's ... CUTE" makes me wonder where the female slashdot news posters are.
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
You know, text entry on a watch, while painfully slow and inaccurate, *can* be done. Anyone remember the old Casio Data Bank watches? Sure, they we *really expensive* -- like $50-75. Yes, they only held a few hundred reminders or phone numbers. They were also designed in the late eighties, which leads me to believe that we might be able to improve on the design just a bit.
It seems to me that there are a number of potential uses for something that small, secure, and cheap, even without extensive user I/O. How about a few MB of storage space, so you can use it like a handful of floppies? (I've often wished that my 8MB Palm was willing to cough up even 1-2MB so I could take some new downloads, umm, I mean, Word documents, home from work.) Or, add a low-power RF tranciever, and use the thing as a local pager -- get up and walk around while your code compiles, or get pinged when email arrives, etc. (Hell, then the damn things *could* exchange business cards, etc.)
If it's running Linux, on a standard (if stripped down) kernel, all these and more are possible from the software side; as with many such barely-marketable ideas, however, getting the hardware build seems like it would be a significantly larger challenge. I wonder if those IBM boys are gonna need that prototype after the press have snapped a few pictures...
how exactly do you enter data/commands into the watch?
Well, IBM seems to be pushing speech recognition a lot, so maybe you talk to it.
Fetch, Strappy, Fetch!
No! Bad Watch! Unmount that CD now!
Will in Seattle
Here is the picture of the watch, and it's DAMN CUTE! Linux Weekly News
Go away, nothing to see here, move along.
*looks both ways*
MINE!!! MINE DAMMIT!! ME FIRST!!! GIMME!!!!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
So how is input entered? Is there tiny keyboard to go with it, and a special dialing wand? OR, does it have something to do with that little wheel on the right?
What do you mean reboot your watch? This is a Linux watch ... you must be thinking of MSFT's new project, the WinWatch (TM,R,S,T,U,V). Keeps perfect time until you have to reboot, but you have to do that once a day, and then you look like you have fleas while you shake your hand vigorously.
But it's in color!
Will in Seattle
That is fine as long as there are clocks around. There are time when you want to know if you can spend some more time in the bookstore before heading over to the movie theater (or whatever) and there just aren't any damn clocks around. You can go without a watch as long as there are clocks around and your life is predictable and controlled. And you can live without a wallet by just putting the things you will need for a particular excursion into the world until you get home next. That doesn't mean your somehow more enlightened and in control.
:)
(still like your sig.
Brings new meaning to the phrase "Handshake" ...
Will in Seattle
Damn. That was the most incoherent and buggy message I've ever written. What I meant to say was: "Bull."
Check out http://www.anoto.com/ They have a new bluetooth based pen which would be an ideal companion to this watch. The pen is strong on input, but weak on output. The watch is the other way around. I saw this demoed a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty damn cool.
So, if you lose your watch in some bushes, do your friends ask you:
"Got Root?"
Will in Seattle
if you get the BSD version, does it have a little devil on the faceplate, with a pitchfork for the hour hand and the tail for the second hand?
But they're real secure!
Will in Seattle
http://lwn.net/daily/linuxwatch_pen.php3
--
Infuriate left and right
turning the dial is probably what that pen is there for...
--
We have the fact sheet on AllLinuxDevices.
Some of the features:
---
Michael Hall
Michael Hall
mph.puddingbowl.org
Since she has her own version of a Palm Vx, maybe she'll do her own IBM Linux Watch.
...
Costs a little more, but the solar-powered and jewelled wristband just adds that elegent touch to any DefCon
Will in Seattle
They'll scoot by on their Razors, bump into you, let the body current make the connection, and hack your watch so you miss your bus.
Hey, you should have used an original password and shouldn't have been in root - whaddya expect?
Will in Seattle
Linux in a box?
Linux on a wristwatch?
Suddenly the segfault story about linux on an transistor doesn't seem so ridiculous!
Maybe they can go further. Linux in a meson?
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
It is very rare that anyone needs to tell the time accurately. Most of the time, you're just interested in the nearest 10/15/30 minutes. The great thing about an analog watch is that you rarely have to parse the entire thing - you just have to get a general idea of where the hands are, and after a while of wearing one, you intuit the rest.
With analog watches, it's also easier to figure out (generally, again) intervals, since you can skip the arithmetic, all you're doing is pattern-matching different locations of hands. Analog watches are also easier to read in low-light conditions, since being able to see the general placement of hands is significantly easier than trying to discern the difference between digital 0 and 8 in the dark. Analog watches are generally less bulky than digital watches, and more likely to survive if water leaks in.
It's all a question of comfort, certainly not productivity. This is why I wear analog watches. Some people may process information differently to me, and prefer digital watches. More power to them.
This is a fallacious argument, because it assumes that the extra milliseconds are cumulative time taken away from productive work. If you look at your watch while wandering down the street, you've lost nothing. Even while you're working, you're constantly task switching between productive and un-productive thoughts, so a few milliseconds extra to look at a watch is just part of that the noise.
Charles Miller
--
The more I learn about the Internet, the more amazed I am that it works at all.
Linux Journal had an article about GNU/Linux on a wristwatch with videoconferencing last month, here is a link to the appropriate month with a picture of the watch on the cover even!
http://www2.linuxjournal. com/lj-issues/issue75/index.html
A couple of weeks ago I was attending the NexTech Computer conference. Durring that time we were allowed to visit IBM R&D. While I was their I learned that the researchers are alowed to work on what they want. This is why they even started to use linux in the first place. Oh and I got to see the Transmetta maching in action in thier testing labs. Got some pictures too. Inside and out. I liked the cover for one of the drives that said, "Transmetta Mobile Linux hd #002" Also one of the transmetta researchers let me see some crusoe chips. I even got to hold them. Just bragging.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough RAM to hold any time conversion routines so it just spits out seconds since the Epoch.
What time is it?
965660410
IS
Unless you spend your entire life at bus-stops, it doesn't make a difference. When you leave the house (or classroom, or cafe or workplace or whatever), you have lot's of clocks to visually prompt you to leave. Once your underway, having a watch doesn't change a thing. If you're late for the bus, you'll still be late even with a diamond-studded Rolex.
**>>BELCH
And, to join the system (become a junior Time Lord), read up on NTP!!
Don't settle for anything less than UTC for your timekeeping needs.
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
Linux in a box,
Linux under rocks,
Linux in a watch,
Linux in your cr*tch,
Linux in your hair,
Linux everywhere.
Everywhere, we don't care,
We'll shove Linux everywhere.
[Disclaimer: I truly support what Linux, GNU, the Open Source community, et. al. are trying to do, but gimicks are not the way. Please, think before you stick something into a random hole]
-={(Astynax)}=-
-={(Astynax)}=-
"Darkness beyond Twilight"
Seriously, though... Take off your watch for a couple months and you will find that you tend to adjust to knowing how long you are browsing books.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Now they can release a wrist-watch which gives unix-time!
:)
Actually, when you think about it it could be more useful than it seems at first. Once linux boots on it, how hard is it going to be to add a copy of mpg123 and have it as an MP3 player as well?
Of course, like 95% of the other geeks that read slashdot my first thought was 'Kool! I could telnet into my wristwatch!'
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
except by then we'll all be using
64bit watches
yeah it is actually on the cover
the article is on page 86
anyway i could just be jumping to conclusions because they watch may very well be a different watch but i wanted to complain and make a fool out of myself so i could be a "karma whore"
here is the online article
Another link with info is All Linux Devices.
Chris
Next thing you'll know we'll have an innovative triple-ply toilet paper running Linux with Tux on each square with his tongue sticking out.
it's good they aren't running windows on it, cause it would be more like: Casual Passerby: could you tell me the time please? Person wearing watch: yeah... oh sorry, my watch seems to have crashed...
That's not scary? Correct, the scary bit is this- I doubt I can make a plus boot Linux, because IBM's watch has EIGHT TIMES the ram of these little computers o_O not to mention 8M 'disk' to boot off as opposed to the 800K floppy...
Still, it looks very likely that I can at least get vi onto one of these little buggers eventually. I'll call them linux training boxes, a sort of art project :)
I was watching ZDTV on my dish this weekend and they showed one at the PC expo in NYC. The device had a tiny LCD that was set in a watch "cover" - but a little skewed like it was quickly thrown together. It had a ribbon cable coming out of it to another machine - my guess is the watch was just a display and the ribbon just showed the display off another device. They mentioned IR or Bluetooth synchronization but for now it's simply vapor. Good idea - just several months out.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
...because i need a multi-user operating system on my wrist.
wish
---
for people to fsck with while they're supposed to be paying attention to the road!
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."
Now that's Pretty Freakin' Cool. IBM has certinly been doing some cool development around Linux - first their 41,000 "machine" super server, now a wristwatch. PFC.
"...yea... I was all messed-up at a party and instead of just reading her 'romantic preferences' file I downloaded and caught a nasty virus."
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."
I don't wear a watch either. Haven't worn one since 1991. When you carry around a mobile phone and palmpilot at all times, there's hardly any need for another expensive gizmo to tell you the time.
Smithers: What time is it?
Bart: It's ten eight-four....no, wait...what comes after twelve?
Smithers: One.
Bart: No! After twelve.
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
I want that watch.
The "Linux on a Watch" from the LJ article doesn't actually run Linux. The thing on your wrist is really just an X display (and webcam) with a watch band. The processor and OS are hooked to your belt (or in another room, IIRC). The time is told using a modified version of oclock.
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
He looked at his watch
Found only "kernel death"
-SpeakerEnder
-SpeakerEnder
Thou art God.
Redmond, WA - Microsoft today announced the release of Microsoft Time 2000. This updated version of their popular package incorporates 6 all new hours into the day.
The US DoJ slammed microsofts innovation claiming it was an attempt to force their competitors 24 hour system out of use. MS would not speak to us directly but did issue the following statement:
We are not trying to force anyone out of business but are merely trying to cater for customer demand. Our users wanted more time in the day to surf the internet and drink beer so understandably we have built this into our product.
Industry Analysts fear customers will be taken in by the microsoft hype and are warning that unless you clock is sufficiently powerful then you will find that time runs too slowly to be useful.
I have got to get me one of these.
Thank god its not CE.
"What time is it ?"
"I dunno, my watch just has a blue screen!"
until (succeed) try { again(); }
until (succeed) try { again(); }
http://alllinuxdevices.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=20 00-08-07-005-03-PS-WL-WB
IBM could be considered a major gateway for Linux becoming more "mainstream." linux needs the support of the big companies in order to win over the average consumer.
press any key to clear the tiny seti-at-hand screen saver.
Bob.
I got sick of scratching my watch on things as I reached behind stuff. Now I'm against things you can't take off and put aside easily. Even my Palm belt-pouch thing has a quick-release catch.
I've been thinking about the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (the novel, not the guide someone's putting together) with the comment about how under evolved we are because we think digital wristwatches are a good idea, and how true that's becoming...
I bought a watch with a lifetime guarantee...
When the mainspring goes, it slashes your wrist!
"Information wants to be paid"
Ctrl+Alt+Down
[XEmacs: elisa]
Ctrl+Alt+Down
[XClock: Mon Aug 7 10:44:49 EDT 2000]
"It's 10:44"
"Thanks"
Ctrl+Alt+Down
[Enlightenment received signal SIGSEGV]
--
How many of you people actually read these articles? Because it's obvious you're not getting the full story. Let me enlighten you:
In other words...get over it, guys. Sorry, no linux watch for you. Not from IBM, anyway.
And as for Mr. "No good will come of this" (my third link) -- Judging from Takako's comment, I'd say this will help a lot more than it can harm. After all, if Linux can be scaled down to fit on a wristwatch, it can obviously be used for [insert name of portable device here].
--
--
"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
Of course, you'll have to carry your printer along with you, but that's so cool. Then, as an alternative, simply putting a bracelet on you existing printer might just do the trick if your printer as a Print Test Page button with the time and date on it. Or maybe you could also carry your printer in a bag back. You'll be free to get the time and date anywhere you go within 15 feet of the power plug in the wall!
Does anyone know how secure IBM's distribution is?
I mean I wouldn't want hackers breaking into my watch. I mean, my God, they could do something as drastic as...as... change the time! Then I'd be forced to depend on the clock on my wall, on my phone, on my computer, etc...
In that case what if I were to forget my password, or if those hackers were to change it? Would I be locked out of my watch?
credo quia absurdum
IBM had best not release it calling it a "Smart Watch." That name was taken about 15 years ago, by Tandy, for the add-on chip which provided the Tandy 1000 series with a clock which did not need to be reset on each bootup. Much like the CMOS chip does for most semi-modern computers of today.
Open your mind/eyes and you will see..
:)
This is a step in a forward direction.
For over five years I have been thinking and dreaming about the watchphone becoming reality. I even had the idea of registering watchphone.com, but unfortunately when I first got pulled myself together years after, it was taken, and have been nothing but a dummy page ever since. I kick myself in the butt today for my lack of activity at the right time.
Anyways, with running a unix system on the wrist watch, you are heading in the right direction (and concidering IBM now plan to make huge mobile investments with divisions in Europe counting 5000employees in this sector alone, they obviously are going for keeps). Having the unix system on the 'watchphone' as I call it, you have compatibility and scalability of the future. You have a terminal, which will be empowered by highspeed wireless connectivity solutions(hence IBM's future plans) from which you can control your security camera at home, watch the kiddies while being in the other room, watch your home, and activate automatic functions when away so when you return home, your bed has been prepared, your coffee is ready, dinner is ready, etc.. You can also do video/phone conferences, multimedia sessions, communicate with the entire world from that thing on your wrist.. 'I've got the whole world, in my hands.. - would partly become true' its called convergence of technology, its the future, and IBM knows it!
Combine it with some of Seiko/Epson's new display techology or whatever comes next, this is quite enchanting..
Having speculated in this area, made drawings, designed user interfaces, etc.. for years just for the fun of it, have been exciting.. seing it come true will be awesome.. now I come to think of it.. the device was also described in one of William Gibson's books too..
Should IBM, Nokia or alike be interested, then I would happily participate in the R&D of this.. contact me at caspera@sophistic.com
But it was for videoconferencing or the like - the watch had a small color display and a camera. It even ran X. This was in last month's Linux Journal, or the one before that.
Admittedly it's not hard to tell the time on an analog watch, but those few milliseconds more it takes, multiplied by the thousands of times you look at your watch, is a significant productivity hit. Anybody who wants a watch to tell the time rather than send some stupid conformist message, will use a digital watch. And it's not like you can't get stylish looking digital watches; watch companies simply prefer to sell analog watches because they can make more money on them.
Moderate me down if you want, but really, I find it hard to believe people of the 21st century are still using analog clocks and watches to tell the time!
It seems to me that embedded computing will get
easier and easier as the platform becomes more
and more powerfull, until computing is "pervasive"
like intel's vision of "quantum computers in a
ring". So, who needs a brain dead OS when the
hardware is becoming powerfull enough to run
anything we want.
-Dave
IBM always seems to come up with cool devices that might or might not be useful.
They have a device you can wear on your shoulder and when you shake someones hand, if they have the same device, it transfers your business card information THROUGH your arm. It would be used at tradeshows, etc.
There are many other devices but I forgot all the specific. Bottom line is, IBM has more R&D ppl then god and they are constantly turn out new ideas and products. This watch sounds cool, but the microdrive will be a more useful product.
--LordRashmiIm to lazy to make a sig...
There was a picture of a Linux wrist watch on the cover of July 2000 issue of Linux Journal. There was also a technical arcticle explaining what exactly the wristwatch was.
D, A, T and E.
Bob.
..or is there's no time displayed on the watch?
So instead of glancing at my watch to tell the time do I have to somehow call date on the command line?
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
it looks like a dial to me, not a microphone. Perhaps you dial through the letters, hit a button to go to the next spot, and dial some more.
This watch should only be good until 2038... :)
"Excuse me, do you have the time?
"Yeah, sure. It's..."
[root@localhost]# time
0.0u 0.0s 0:00 5% 0+388k 0+0io 0pf+0w
"Oh $#!&@!"
[root@localhost]# date
Mon Aug 7 17:50:22 UDT 2000
"Uh, it's 17:50... which I think is 3:50 PM, oh shit... then you need to subtract the difference between Pacific Time and Universal Mean Time, which is.... wait. Is it Daylight savings? Oh, ok... then you subtract 8 hours from Universal time, which means it's 7:50 AM... yes. It's 7:50 AM, ma'am!"
"Uh, thanks..." (slowly backs away)
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Only a true geek with no social life would think that a watch like that is Cute. It's a sad, sad, statement upon our society when people think that a watch is Cute just becuase it has a computer in it - nevermind the fact that it's ugly and doesn't tell time! If you want a really cute watch, go here.
Actually I can see a reason for making a watch like this. Ever see the movie "Dick Tracy?" He had smll watch that he could talk to people through, and it did other stuff too. So, if you meet a girl that happens to be a impressed by things like that, and her name is Tracy...it improves your chances. Oh wait, that's not it. Um, I think the excuse IBM probably used was something more to the effect of: "We wanted to make a small enough O.S. distribution and hardware that we could fit onto a small piece of equipment, much as we would with any embedded system that needed a full O.S. on it. We used a wristwatch sized computer so we would be able to demonstrate how small the computer and OS is to non-computer users to be amazed at."
In other words...they thought it would be 31337 to have linux watch. Just wait until it comes with a cover on the top in the shape of Tux and have it interface with the pokemon watch.
Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
Let us gather together and rise up against the evil thick techno-watch monopoly, Casio! Damn you and your 80's synth watch complete with Samba _and_ samba2!!
Today on the rid: Napster in the Crapster
ridiculopathy.com
The newest site on themes.org.
:-)
Watch.themes.org
hehehe
Eh...