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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 =)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.
http://a lllinuxdevices.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-08-07 -005-03-PS-WL-WB
--
Infuriate left and right
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.
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.
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.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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.
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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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...
This is EXACTLY the point.
Too many companies only do projects to have a product at the end. And then they complain that they are behind or dont have the training to do some other practical project.
Historically the most used inventions were made by mistake. How does anyone expect to create something REALLY good when the outcome is already set in stone.
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
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?
>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.
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
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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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.
Funny how snobbish "geeks" can be against things purely because of their preconceived notions about them.
I love a nice quality mechanical watch (and the good ones generally come in gold cases, which are not the expensive part of the watch!). That's not because I'm trying to impress anyone (I'm not), but because I'm a mech hacker, too, and I appreciate the elegance of a really nice mechanical hack like that required to do a nice watch.
Have a look at the Jeager-LeCoultre Reversos with hands on both sides (keeping in mind that the hands on the opposite side must run "backwards") and tell me that's not a neat hack - remember, there are a *lot* of great hacks going on outside computers - some of which are at least 2000 years old. (Look up "Antikythera Mechanism" on your favorite search engine for the oldest documented hack of this kind.)
That said, I don't wear a gold Swiss watch every day, in fact, at the moment, I have on a nigh indestructible Timex Indiglo analog watch, which takes with aplomb the daily thrashing I give it without undue concern for scratches, water, and the like. (I do have to say that I despise digital watches with a passion: analog is better, and mech analog better still: after all, seconds aren't atomic, so watches *should* have true sweep-second hands rather than the ridiculous goose-stepping horrors the Japanese have foisted on us...)
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
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
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
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
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.
IBM is two years behind on this one, playing catchup to the Open/Free Source community again.
--
To have the time continuously updated, simply type this in any shell:
watch date
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Things seem pretty foggy, but I would guess that this is pretty much a proof of concept kind of thing. Rather like writing the letters IBM with a scanning-tunneling electromicroscope (since they started moving atoms with the beast, do they still call it a microscope?). IBM's done several impressive "proof of concept" pieces that were rather useless practically. Consider it an etude.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
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?
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.
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.
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Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
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.
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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.
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!"
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
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.
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!
"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."
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...
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?
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.
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.
http://lwn.net/daily/linuxwatch_pen.php3
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Infuriate left and right
We have the fact sheet on AllLinuxDevices.
Some of the features:
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Michael Hall
Michael Hall
mph.puddingbowl.org
Yeah, but they already have a voice-recognition cell phone watch ... so you just need to wear two watches and let the skin current provide the data transfer circuit.
Will in Seattle
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
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"
Another link with info is All Linux Devices.
Chris
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 :)
...because i need a multi-user operating system on my wrist.
wish
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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)
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.
http://alllinuxdevices.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=20 00-08-07-005-03-PS-WL-WB
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...
are you kidding? why would I want to spend my $$ on a GOLD WATCH of all things? of all the things I could do with my attention, time and money, choosing a watch that "conveys status and meaning to the rest of society" ranks pretty damn near the bottom.
$5 casio (or no brand) watches are the best. you can buy a whole box of them, and take the next one when yours goes in the washing machine or falls behind the bed or whatever.
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
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
..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
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."
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...