It seems to me that processor speeds have relly shot up in the last 6 months. Before, there was always a nice tie between the advances in processor speed and the extra needs of Windows. This arrangment worked well for both parties in that everyone felt they had to have both to be right with the world. Has Intel (and AMD) now said to heck with MS we're going to put all the speed we can into our machines? Or, are we seeing a MHz race between Intel and AMD? With a viable competitor, Intel can no longer trickle out improvments at their own pace, they have to deal with someone else matching and exceeding their pace. What does this bode for the future of processors?
I notice one of these, ductape.net, offers IMAP accounts on their free service. But, they only give 2MB. Are there any other free services offering IMAP with more space?
I'm in KCK too. I'll admit that it gets worse as you go west, but Missouri is much worse for hicks than Kansas. And I'm sure those in KCMO would say just the opposite, but as an outsider from Illinois, I have to say KS is better.
The main complaint that I've heard from the people in my office is that they can't easily get their Outlook contacts and calendars to sync with the Palm. Granted, Palm has their own Desktop contacts and calendar, but let's be honest. People don't buy a Palm for the desktop applications, they buy it to link with what they are using now. And unfortunate as it may be, most people are using Outlook. There are some syncing tools, but it would cut down on the problems I hear about if Outlook syncing was built in.
Being a lover of history, I am always looking for parrallels from the past with problems of today. This paragraph then, cuaght my attention:
In 1978, record sales began to fall, and the major labels blamed a larcenous new technology: cassette tapes. The international industry even had an outraged official slogan: "Home taping is killing music." The idea was that music fans--ingrates that they are--would rather pirate songs than pay for them, and that sharing favorite songs was a crime against hard-working musicians (rather than great word-of-mouth advertising).
This helps me remember that as fast paced as our world may be, we're really just handling the same problems that have been dealt with in the past. The article goes on to say how the emergence of MTV and Rock Videos saved the music industry now, and that if the Music Mavens don't stop blocking every new technology that comes along, they miss their own savior. Bravo for a great article and let's hope the RIAA will study some history as well.
Agreed, Sony is making some very nice products. The only problem I have with Sony is their use of MemorySticks. Yes it's great if all you own is Sony, but there are plenty of other flash memory standards and we don't need another one, especially one that comes with a Sony tax. Aside from that, Sony is what keeps PalmOS alive.
Didn't Palm announce a while ago their intentions to phase out their hardware business and simply license PalmOS?
Exactly. The OS is holding the hardware makers back. Handera and Sony both had to back proprietary hacks to get some of their advanced features to work. Palm (OS) needs to kick it in gear to keep their partners from leaving. Handspring has already mentioned that a PocketPC version of the Treo is not out of the question.
MS will never win because WinCE devices have... pitfalls
But, you forget the one thing they having going for them. Integration! Joe blow consumer wants to be able to move seamlessly from his desktop to his PDA. MS does that out of the box, Palm, does not.
I own a Palm device, actually an Handera 330. I've had one in some form for 5 years. I like my Palm. I want to keep buying palms, but I won't be able to. </preface> <rant> As much as I hate to say it, it appears to be only a matter of time before Microsoft takes over the handheld arena. Palm, like Netscape before it, is not the suffering saint being crushed by the giant, but rather a bunch of incompetent fools. They have has 95% of the market in handhelds just a few years ago, and what have they done with it? Nothing! They issue late releases that tought minimal imrpovements and then pull stunts like this. If it were not for Sony and Handspring, I believe that Palm would already be gone. Please! Get your act in gear or leave the party. </rant>
This site a is a great idea and seems to be pulled off very well. I only have one concern. Are sites like this, with no advertising, bound to be drowned in their own success? The more popular they become, the more their cost of existence goes up. They may become more popular and respected, but they may eventually have to close because they are serving too many people. Maybe this is too synical a view, and I've forgottent that as they become more popular, they will also recieve more donated support and thereby expand through the combined resources of all the interested parties.
Tim O'Reilly is a truely balancing force in the _computer_ world. Who else would have been able to get heads of MS and open source together on a stage and keep a fight from breaking out. He has contributed countless advances to _computer_ technology, and it is his level headedness and fairness that makes his opinion still respected and not discounted as some crazed lunatic as Stallman's points are offten seen.
But aren't the patent inspectors doing _some_ research? I know they have alot of patents to look at, but what kind of research are they doing? Not just relying on personal background I hope!
1. Stupid patents granted 2../ers find prior art in 5 minutes 3. We gripe until next time
Why doesn't the patent office just post to slashdot to find prior art?
Seriously though, if prior art is so easy to find, why isn't the patent office finding it? Or is it that they are interperting the patent request to be something different than what we are? I would really love to know if there is something wrong with the Patent Office, or with our understanding of patent law. Lets clear this up and start working to fix the system, or update our own understanding.
Why aren't people just switching to Mozilla instead of Netscape? One reason I think is the problem with plugins. Why is it so hard to get Mozilla to recognize plugins? I've installed the Real plugin 10 times and can't get Mozilla to recognize it. Fix that problem and I'll get my mom to use it. Until then, she's stuck with an incomplete version in NS6/7.
There are so many pages out there that have been developed with IE specific features, that making this switch too soon would stop people using the AOL browser all together. If they roll this out slowly, it will give developers time to switch. That's why it's more important than ever to notify sites that do not work well in Mozilla and NS6 so that the developers get the message and get their sites fixed. That being said, if AOL would make a rock solid commitment to moving to gecko, it would really light a fire under the developers and thier bosses to be proactive in finding the problems in their sites. I'm no fan of AOL, but if they can help get standard based web pages more common, then I'm all for them!
It's good to know that the digital will still be broadcasted. Thanks for clearing that up. Actually, Hughes, DirecTV and DishNetwork are all the same company now. That is a little scary.
I haven't been following this too closely. Does this mean that everyone will have a cable or sattelite connection to watch TV? For people in rural areas, that really means the only choice is satelite. Currently there is only 1 real company (DirecTV) that provides that service. Isn't the government handing them the market on a silver palter? I'm confused!
There's already too much corn most years anyway. The government pays farmers to leave ground fallow. If a new market is opened for corn, it will simply mean that the acres that are now growing weeds will be growing something useful. I don't think we're talking about plowing up National Parks here.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that processor speeds have relly shot up in the last 6 months. Before, there was always a nice tie between the advances in processor speed and the extra needs of Windows. This arrangment worked well for both parties in that everyone felt they had to have both to be right with the world. Has Intel (and AMD) now said to heck with MS we're going to put all the speed we can into our machines? Or, are we seeing a MHz race between Intel and AMD? With a viable competitor, Intel can no longer trickle out improvments at their own pace, they have to deal with someone else matching and exceeding their pace. What does this bode for the future of processors?
I notice one of these, ductape.net, offers IMAP accounts on their free service. But, they only give 2MB. Are there any other free services offering IMAP with more space?
I'm in KCK too. I'll admit that it gets worse as you go west, but Missouri is much worse for hicks than Kansas. And I'm sure those in KCMO would say just the opposite, but as an outsider from Illinois, I have to say KS is better.
Where in Kansas where you, just out of curiosity?
Still in Kansas myself, and happy to report a high, relatively, concentration of geeks here.
I guess I'll have to upgrade my Desktop version. I didn't remember that question being in there. My mistake then.
The main complaint that I've heard from the people in my office is that they can't easily get their Outlook contacts and calendars to sync with the Palm. Granted, Palm has their own Desktop contacts and calendar, but let's be honest. People don't buy a Palm for the desktop applications, they buy it to link with what they are using now. And unfortunate as it may be, most people are using Outlook. There are some syncing tools, but it would cut down on the problems I hear about if Outlook syncing was built in.
Being a lover of history, I am always looking for parrallels from the past with problems of today. This paragraph then, cuaght my attention:
In 1978, record sales began to fall, and the major labels blamed a larcenous new technology: cassette tapes. The international industry even had an outraged official slogan: "Home taping is killing music." The idea was that music fans--ingrates that they are--would rather pirate songs than pay for them, and that sharing favorite songs was a crime against hard-working musicians (rather than great word-of-mouth advertising).
This helps me remember that as fast paced as our world may be, we're really just handling the same problems that have been dealt with in the past. The article goes on to say how the emergence of MTV and Rock Videos saved the music industry now, and that if the Music Mavens don't stop blocking every new technology that comes along, they miss their own savior. Bravo for a great article and let's hope the RIAA will study some history as well.
Agreed, Sony is making some very nice products. The only problem I have with Sony is their use of MemorySticks. Yes it's great if all you own is Sony, but there are plenty of other flash memory standards and we don't need another one, especially one that comes with a Sony tax. Aside from that, Sony is what keeps PalmOS alive.
Didn't Palm announce a while ago their intentions to phase out their hardware business and simply license PalmOS?
... pitfalls
Exactly. The OS is holding the hardware makers back. Handera and Sony both had to back proprietary hacks to get some of their advanced features to work. Palm (OS) needs to kick it in gear to keep their partners from leaving. Handspring has already mentioned that a PocketPC version of the Treo is not out of the question.
MS will never win because WinCE devices have
But, you forget the one thing they having going for them. Integration! Joe blow consumer wants to be able to move seamlessly from his desktop to his PDA. MS does that out of the box, Palm, does not.
I own a Palm device, actually an Handera 330. I've had one in some form for 5 years. I like my Palm. I want to keep buying palms, but I won't be able to.
</preface>
<rant>
As much as I hate to say it, it appears to be only a matter of time before Microsoft takes over the handheld arena. Palm, like Netscape before it, is not the suffering saint being crushed by the giant, but rather a bunch of incompetent fools. They have has 95% of the market in handhelds just a few years ago, and what have they done with it? Nothing! They issue late releases that tought minimal imrpovements and then pull stunts like this. If it were not for Sony and Handspring, I believe that Palm would already be gone. Please! Get your act in gear or leave the party.
</rant>
This site a is a great idea and seems to be pulled off very well. I only have one concern. Are sites like this, with no advertising, bound to be drowned in their own success? The more popular they become, the more their cost of existence goes up. They may become more popular and respected, but they may eventually have to close because they are serving too many people. Maybe this is too synical a view, and I've forgottent that as they become more popular, they will also recieve more donated support and thereby expand through the combined resources of all the interested parties.
Thoughts?
Just for the curious few, here is a line from the simputer FAQ:
Q: What will the Simputer cost?
A: We expect the Simputer to cost about Rs 9000 when the volumes are upwards 100,000 units.
And for the more curious, that is 9000 Indian Rupee which translates to about $185 US Dollars.
Tim O'Reilly is a truely balancing force in the _computer_ world. Who else would have been able to get heads of MS and open source together on a stage and keep a fight from breaking out. He has contributed countless advances to _computer_ technology, and it is his level headedness and fairness that makes his opinion still respected and not discounted as some crazed lunatic as Stallman's points are offten seen.
But aren't the patent inspectors doing _some_ research? I know they have alot of patents to look at, but what kind of research are they doing? Not just relying on personal background I hope!
Why is the following happening?
./ers find prior art in 5 minutes
1. Stupid patents granted
2.
3. We gripe until next time
Why doesn't the patent office just post to slashdot to find prior art?
Seriously though, if prior art is so easy to find, why isn't the patent office finding it? Or is it that they are interperting the patent request to be something different than what we are? I would really love to know if there is something wrong with the Patent Office, or with our understanding of patent law. Lets clear this up and start working to fix the system, or update our own understanding.
Why aren't people just switching to Mozilla instead of Netscape? One reason I think is the problem with plugins. Why is it so hard to get Mozilla to recognize plugins? I've installed the Real plugin 10 times and can't get Mozilla to recognize it. Fix that problem and I'll get my mom to use it. Until then, she's stuck with an incomplete version in NS6/7.
There are so many pages out there that have been developed with IE specific features, that making this switch too soon would stop people using the AOL browser all together. If they roll this out slowly, it will give developers time to switch. That's why it's more important than ever to notify sites that do not work well in Mozilla and NS6 so that the developers get the message and get their sites fixed. That being said, if AOL would make a rock solid commitment to moving to gecko, it would really light a fire under the developers and thier bosses to be proactive in finding the problems in their sites. I'm no fan of AOL, but if they can help get standard based web pages more common, then I'm all for them!
Okay, you got me. That was funny!
It's good to know that the digital will still be broadcasted. Thanks for clearing that up. Actually, Hughes, DirecTV and DishNetwork are all the same company now. That is a little scary.
How many Euros is that? Oh wait...
I haven't been following this too closely. Does this mean that everyone will have a cable or sattelite connection to watch TV? For people in rural areas, that really means the only choice is satelite. Currently there is only 1 real company (DirecTV) that provides that service. Isn't the government handing them the market on a silver palter? I'm confused!
Most of the good artists are dead and almost all the good stuff can be found used and cheap! The perfect solution.
There's already too much corn most years anyway. The government pays farmers to leave ground fallow. If a new market is opened for corn, it will simply mean that the acres that are now growing weeds will be growing something useful. I don't think we're talking about plowing up National Parks here.
The article doesn't say. What was the previous record?