The main selling point of Wacom tablets is exactly this, the reason they can so much for the Cintiq is because it's about as close to drawing on real paper/canvas as you can get with a computer. And as you stated, you can replace the nibs to get a different feel.
IMO (as someone who's used Wacom tablets for ages and prefers them to regular mice) the only real downside to Wacom tablets is that they take up a bit of space and are expensive but once you get used to using the stylus or the tablet mice (up with those is "up" on the tablet, not "forward" on the mouse) you'll have serious issues with regular mice.
The downside to using a conductive stylus is that performance-wise they don't even come close to comparing to a "real" active digitizer (like a wacom tablet) so those of us interested in using a tablet as a digital sketchbook (cmd/ctrl+z beat using an eraser any day since your document doesn't get worn out when you erase that damn line for the 20th time because it's just not right). Using a conductive stylus for drawing is like using crayons for drawing, it may work for certain tasks but it's very limited and with a proper digitizer and good software you can get the "crayon effect" anyway (and even better since you'll have pressure sensitivity).
Incidentally the main reason I'm disappointed with the iPad is that I was hoping for something like a cross between the iPad and Axiotron's Modbook, scaled-down performance and light-weight while still having a stylus.
Actually, RobertLTux's reply was directed at the AC parent that read "How is this drummer so grateful if he's deceased?" and not zmollusc's post. Also, in a lot of places the Grateful Dead really are practically unknown (here in Sweden the most common reactions to any mention of the dead tend to be either "The what?" or "Oh, I think I heard one of their songs, they're one of those bands that sound like credence (clearwater revival), right?" and any attempts to actually explain further what the Grateful Dead were tends to end up with people assuming they sound like either The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix).
Actually, 20 people calling at the same time may very well be needed, if one person calls the operator may just decide that they're full of shit or that it's just one person overreacting, I once called 112, the swedish equivalent of 911, after finding a passed out beaten up and drunk man in a ditch, they essentially told me "no ambulances are available right now, take care of him yourself", I called them three more times before they finally relented and decided to send a police car to take the guy to the hospital, took the police about two minutes to get there which was pretty impressive considering I had been told in previous calls that all police units and ambulances were in a neighboring town some 25 km away due to a large number of festival-related disturbances*.
* This touches on another issue I have with emergency operators, if you only have one "spare" unit don't tell me there are no units in town, you don't think I'll figure out that you were lying to me once you realize I'm calling about a real emergency?
I'm going off-topic here but I wouldn't say those emails even remotely proved "how climate change is a hoax", what they did prove however was that there were/are some questionable practices among a subset of climate researchers, I have yet to see any proof of the emails proving that climate change (caused by humans) is a fraud, just that the data these researchers were using was being modified in some very questionable ways.
The problem isn't that it's government-mandated, the problem is that it's mandated by a government that doesn't fear the voters and will gladly let itself be bought by wealthy special interest groups.
Unfortunately more and more governments are adopting this view of the world...
Yes, and if you had read any of my previous replies to replies stating this I pointed out that such a device is practically useless if the reason for wanting a stylus isn't "I'm clumsy and can't hit the screen using my fingers" but rather "I want to draw/sketch/paint/do 3d modeling" since the precision is still awful and it lacks basic features that any consumer-level active digitizer will have (pressure sensitivity for one, this is a deal breaker btw, I can live without it sensing the angle of the stylus but without pressure sensitivity it's useless).
Actually, they're not suspended in time. The show generally takes places in whatever year a particular episode was produced, so a Simpsons episode from this year will have modern gadgets, the family has upgraded to an LCD/plasma TV and touches on current events, but if you look at an episode from one of the first seasons it is current to its era and not to today. The characters don't appear to age though, but technically they could just as well be said to be their age in the first episode of the show plus the number of years the show has been running.
Maybe I'm missing something but shouldn't you be able to just share the prefix and other configuration data using radvd/rtadvd and then use your switches to determine the MAC and thus also IPv6 address of all IPv6-enabled hosts on your network? To me it seems straightforward but maybe I'm missing something here...
The idea is to keep it simple, assign a standard network size that's big enough for just about anyone and assign the same size network to everyone instead of messing around with the IPv4-style "You get _one_ IP, you over there get a/28, and that guy in the corner gets a/24, Joe was an early adopter so he's got a/16 and Steve over there had some good arguments for why he should get a/20, and lucky Dan over there has a/8..." mess.
Well sort of, it's not an active digitizer, even if you use a homemade stylus for it you still won't get pressure sensitivity, angle sensitivity or sub-pixel precision.
I want a stylus so I can draw, paint and sketch, and for that the Pogo stylus and those homemade ones just aren't good enough, it needs to have an active digitizer.
And I suppose it was touch-sensitive? and that it had sub-pixel precision? and what about tilt sensitivity? Because these are all standard features with a "real" active digitizer.
Precision that is ±15px and without pressure sensitivity just isn't enough.
That's probably true but my experience tells me the precision won't be anywhere near that of a Wacom tablet since it'll essentially be a "fake finger" (so no pressure sensitivity).
But I'll keep my eyes open and decide if I'll buy an iPad for the other features and development possibilities or if I'll just get a Modbook.
I feel the same way except instead of note-taking I want to be able to sketch/draw/paint with it, it doesn't have to be a full-fledged Painter clone but a decent digitizer (on-par with say, the old Graphire3) and something along the lines of Sketchbook Pro (damn good program with only one real shortcoming, there is no way to rotate your workspace unless you actually want to rotate the actual image which results on data loss over the long run, but it's sweet on a tablet or a Cintiq).
I have no idea what Windows apps you are using where drag and drop does not work. I have never run into a Windows application where drag and drop does not work. I have used multiple different gui's for *nix systems and also have not run into any drag and drop issues.
Pick ten applications from companies that aren't Discreet-,Microsoft-, Adobe-, IBM- or OtherHugeCorporation-sized and see how may handle drag and drop everywhere where a user might conceivably consider dropping stuff (and no, dropping the wrong thing on it should not result in "UNHANDLED EXCEPTION DIE COCKSUCKING BASTARD LUSER!!").
Also, I was under the assumption, correct me if I am wrong, that OSX now works with Intel based chips, which would mean that if we are looking at it strictly from a OS standpoint, Apple has no control over hardware. Since you went into issues that Windows has, I am going to assume you went on a basis of OS only and not a full hardware and software standpoint.
So when you buy a random PC whitebox from an OEM it's not just "random pile of hardware that doesn't explode when powered on" + "Windows" + "drivers with the OEM's logo tacked on to the installer on the rescue disk"? Because with Apple products they pick a small set of hardware and make sure it actually works with the hardware, "actually works" meaning that you won't run into silly stuff like the NIC working because the driver is completely broken (happened to me on an OEM Windows box a few months ago) or that the graphics card drivers are "OEM only" and the OEM forgets to include them (running on generic VGA driver) and insists on you downloading the drivers from some FTP server in Taiwan that is unreachable 90% of the time and gives you
I am also curious as to what this "Apple way" is when it comes to software "Just Working". Getting an internet connection working again on a Mac is always fun.
Yes, you pick the interface you want to configure, set up IPv4 (and IPv6 if you're using it) and then you're up and running. What exactly were you trying to do, spend six hours desperately trying to find the "Start" menu so you could click on "Control panel" as you did on your Windows box?
Well, iLife is pretty limited (which is why I've used it a grand total of once per version just to see if it's gotten better), I'll give you that, but the operating system and hardware aren't.
My personal opinion is that the main reason a lot of creative (both "artsy" types and developers) like Apple's products is because the user interface and the physical products are designed to, as they say, Just work. This includes staying out of your way and letting you get to work but also to not pull the "Microsoft approach" to user friendliness by renaming things to make them "easier". There's a reason the market for customization of the look and feel of OS X is a lot smaller than the market for similar products for Windows.
Of course, there are several reasons why this works for Apple, a couple of these are partially because they have full control over the hardware and operating system which allows for tight integration and coupled with this are the development tools and the user interface guidelines. Another influence which I think is major is that third party developers know that Apple's customers generally expect software to behave in a certain way, something which isn't true to the same extent with Windows and other *nix systems. An example of this would be drag and drop, if a Windows application fails to handle drag and drop properly most people just dismiss the error message, restart the app and think nothing of it, after all, drag and drop is generally hit or miss with Windows apps, if an app for OS X failed to handle drag and drop properly most likely users would complain and consider it a screwup on the developer's part.
So part of the reason is the centralized control from Apple and part of the reason is that users have come to expect little to no user interface issues which forces Apple to make good development tools and developers to put in extra effort to make sure things work.
So what technology is in a Porsche that's not in other cars? And no "slighly better $FOO, superior $BAR.." don't count, do they use a joystick instead of a steering wheel? do they use some kind of hover technology instead of wheels? are they fusion-powered? Because what we're comparing here are the Cintiq (monitor + digitizer, fairly rare) to "common" solutions (touchpad or mouse), even when comparing a plain vanilla digitizer (which is still a bit of a "luxury" item) and the Cintiq the latter clearly has something the first doesn't (combination of monitor and digitizer).
No, the reason the Cintiq is expensive is because currently it's for the "early adopter"/"high end"/"specialist" market, if someone decides to start marketing a device like this to attach to your computer (perhaps even usable as a separate computing device, check out some of the apps for the iPhone like Logitech Touchmouse or various VNC clients) targeted at every Tom, Dick and Harry you can be sure the price will drop...
How about a 10" multitouch + stylus-enabled LCD for use as an input device, it shows what's on-screen but at a lower resolution, meanwhile you've got your primary display in front of you running in full res, couple this with some form of visual feedback on the main monitor and it might be pretty interesting (it would basically be like a Wacom cintiq with multitouch support and the primary display separate from the Cintiq).
Slashdot Mirror
The main selling point of Wacom tablets is exactly this, the reason they can so much for the Cintiq is because it's about as close to drawing on real paper/canvas as you can get with a computer. And as you stated, you can replace the nibs to get a different feel.
IMO (as someone who's used Wacom tablets for ages and prefers them to regular mice) the only real downside to Wacom tablets is that they take up a bit of space and are expensive but once you get used to using the stylus or the tablet mice (up with those is "up" on the tablet, not "forward" on the mouse) you'll have serious issues with regular mice.
/Mikael
The downside to using a conductive stylus is that performance-wise they don't even come close to comparing to a "real" active digitizer (like a wacom tablet) so those of us interested in using a tablet as a digital sketchbook (cmd/ctrl+z beat using an eraser any day since your document doesn't get worn out when you erase that damn line for the 20th time because it's just not right). Using a conductive stylus for drawing is like using crayons for drawing, it may work for certain tasks but it's very limited and with a proper digitizer and good software you can get the "crayon effect" anyway (and even better since you'll have pressure sensitivity).
Incidentally the main reason I'm disappointed with the iPad is that I was hoping for something like a cross between the iPad and Axiotron's Modbook, scaled-down performance and light-weight while still having a stylus.
/Mikael
Actually, RobertLTux's reply was directed at the AC parent that read "How is this drummer so grateful if he's deceased?" and not zmollusc's post. Also, in a lot of places the Grateful Dead really are practically unknown (here in Sweden the most common reactions to any mention of the dead tend to be either "The what?" or "Oh, I think I heard one of their songs, they're one of those bands that sound like credence (clearwater revival), right?" and any attempts to actually explain further what the Grateful Dead were tends to end up with people assuming they sound like either The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix).
/Mikael
Actually, 20 people calling at the same time may very well be needed, if one person calls the operator may just decide that they're full of shit or that it's just one person overreacting, I once called 112, the swedish equivalent of 911, after finding a passed out beaten up and drunk man in a ditch, they essentially told me "no ambulances are available right now, take care of him yourself", I called them three more times before they finally relented and decided to send a police car to take the guy to the hospital, took the police about two minutes to get there which was pretty impressive considering I had been told in previous calls that all police units and ambulances were in a neighboring town some 25 km away due to a large number of festival-related disturbances*.
* This touches on another issue I have with emergency operators, if you only have one "spare" unit don't tell me there are no units in town, you don't think I'll figure out that you were lying to me once you realize I'm calling about a real emergency?
/Mikael
What country in Europe would this be?
I'm going off-topic here but I wouldn't say those emails even remotely proved "how climate change is a hoax", what they did prove however was that there were/are some questionable practices among a subset of climate researchers, I have yet to see any proof of the emails proving that climate change (caused by humans) is a fraud, just that the data these researchers were using was being modified in some very questionable ways.
/Mikael
The problem isn't that it's government-mandated, the problem is that it's mandated by a government that doesn't fear the voters and will gladly let itself be bought by wealthy special interest groups.
Unfortunately more and more governments are adopting this view of the world...
/Mikael
Yes, and if you had read any of my previous replies to replies stating this I pointed out that such a device is practically useless if the reason for wanting a stylus isn't "I'm clumsy and can't hit the screen using my fingers" but rather "I want to draw/sketch/paint/do 3d modeling" since the precision is still awful and it lacks basic features that any consumer-level active digitizer will have (pressure sensitivity for one, this is a deal breaker btw, I can live without it sensing the angle of the stylus but without pressure sensitivity it's useless).
/Mikael
Actually, they're not suspended in time. The show generally takes places in whatever year a particular episode was produced, so a Simpsons episode from this year will have modern gadgets, the family has upgraded to an LCD/plasma TV and touches on current events, but if you look at an episode from one of the first seasons it is current to its era and not to today. The characters don't appear to age though, but technically they could just as well be said to be their age in the first episode of the show plus the number of years the show has been running.
/Mikael
Maybe I'm missing something but shouldn't you be able to just share the prefix and other configuration data using radvd/rtadvd and then use your switches to determine the MAC and thus also IPv6 address of all IPv6-enabled hosts on your network? To me it seems straightforward but maybe I'm missing something here...
/Mikael
The idea is to keep it simple, assign a standard network size that's big enough for just about anyone and assign the same size network to everyone instead of messing around with the IPv4-style "You get _one_ IP, you over there get a /28, and that guy in the corner gets a /24, Joe was an early adopter so he's got a /16 and Steve over there had some good arguments for why he should get a /20, and lucky Dan over there has a /8..." mess.
/Mikael
Well sort of, it's not an active digitizer, even if you use a homemade stylus for it you still won't get pressure sensitivity, angle sensitivity or sub-pixel precision.
/Mikael
I want a stylus so I can draw, paint and sketch, and for that the Pogo stylus and those homemade ones just aren't good enough, it needs to have an active digitizer.
/Mikael
And I suppose it was touch-sensitive? and that it had sub-pixel precision? and what about tilt sensitivity? Because these are all standard features with a "real" active digitizer.
Precision that is ±15px and without pressure sensitivity just isn't enough.
/Mikael
That's probably true but my experience tells me the precision won't be anywhere near that of a Wacom tablet since it'll essentially be a "fake finger" (so no pressure sensitivity).
But I'll keep my eyes open and decide if I'll buy an iPad for the other features and development possibilities or if I'll just get a Modbook.
/Mikael
I see nothing about stylus support, guess I won't be buying one then.
It would have been a perfect device with stylus support, now it's just not for me (although I do see a lot of possibilities for others).
/Mikael
I feel the same way except instead of note-taking I want to be able to sketch/draw/paint with it, it doesn't have to be a full-fledged Painter clone but a decent digitizer (on-par with say, the old Graphire3) and something along the lines of Sketchbook Pro (damn good program with only one real shortcoming, there is no way to rotate your workspace unless you actually want to rotate the actual image which results on data loss over the long run, but it's sweet on a tablet or a Cintiq).
/Mikael
...Many ISPs react the same if your computer is listening on port 25 (acting as an open relay)
Of course, practically all mail servers listen on port 25 since that's the standard port for receiving unencrypted incoming mail...
/Mikael
I have no idea what Windows apps you are using where drag and drop does not work. I have never run into a Windows application where drag and drop does not work. I have used multiple different gui's for *nix systems and also have not run into any drag and drop issues.
Pick ten applications from companies that aren't Discreet-,Microsoft-, Adobe-, IBM- or OtherHugeCorporation-sized and see how may handle drag and drop everywhere where a user might conceivably consider dropping stuff (and no, dropping the wrong thing on it should not result in "UNHANDLED EXCEPTION DIE COCKSUCKING BASTARD LUSER!!").
Also, I was under the assumption, correct me if I am wrong, that OSX now works with Intel based chips, which would mean that if we are looking at it strictly from a OS standpoint, Apple has no control over hardware. Since you went into issues that Windows has, I am going to assume you went on a basis of OS only and not a full hardware and software standpoint.
So when you buy a random PC whitebox from an OEM it's not just "random pile of hardware that doesn't explode when powered on" + "Windows" + "drivers with the OEM's logo tacked on to the installer on the rescue disk"? Because with Apple products they pick a small set of hardware and make sure it actually works with the hardware, "actually works" meaning that you won't run into silly stuff like the NIC working because the driver is completely broken (happened to me on an OEM Windows box a few months ago) or that the graphics card drivers are "OEM only" and the OEM forgets to include them (running on generic VGA driver) and insists on you downloading the drivers from some FTP server in Taiwan that is unreachable 90% of the time and gives you
I am also curious as to what this "Apple way" is when it comes to software "Just Working". Getting an internet connection working again on a Mac is always fun.
Yes, you pick the interface you want to configure, set up IPv4 (and IPv6 if you're using it) and then you're up and running. What exactly were you trying to do, spend six hours desperately trying to find the "Start" menu so you could click on "Control panel" as you did on your Windows box?
/Mikael
Well, iLife is pretty limited (which is why I've used it a grand total of once per version just to see if it's gotten better), I'll give you that, but the operating system and hardware aren't.
/Mikael
Somehow your .sig seems very appropriate, IHBT IHL I'll HAND.
/Mikael
My personal opinion is that the main reason a lot of creative (both "artsy" types and developers) like Apple's products is because the user interface and the physical products are designed to, as they say, Just work. This includes staying out of your way and letting you get to work but also to not pull the "Microsoft approach" to user friendliness by renaming things to make them "easier". There's a reason the market for customization of the look and feel of OS X is a lot smaller than the market for similar products for Windows.
Of course, there are several reasons why this works for Apple, a couple of these are partially because they have full control over the hardware and operating system which allows for tight integration and coupled with this are the development tools and the user interface guidelines. Another influence which I think is major is that third party developers know that Apple's customers generally expect software to behave in a certain way, something which isn't true to the same extent with Windows and other *nix systems. An example of this would be drag and drop, if a Windows application fails to handle drag and drop properly most people just dismiss the error message, restart the app and think nothing of it, after all, drag and drop is generally hit or miss with Windows apps, if an app for OS X failed to handle drag and drop properly most likely users would complain and consider it a screwup on the developer's part.
So part of the reason is the centralized control from Apple and part of the reason is that users have come to expect little to no user interface issues which forces Apple to make good development tools and developers to put in extra effort to make sure things work.
/Mikael
So what technology is in a Porsche that's not in other cars? And no "slighly better $FOO, superior $BAR.." don't count, do they use a joystick instead of a steering wheel? do they use some kind of hover technology instead of wheels? are they fusion-powered? Because what we're comparing here are the Cintiq (monitor + digitizer, fairly rare) to "common" solutions (touchpad or mouse), even when comparing a plain vanilla digitizer (which is still a bit of a "luxury" item) and the Cintiq the latter clearly has something the first doesn't (combination of monitor and digitizer).
/Mikael
No, the reason the Cintiq is expensive is because currently it's for the "early adopter"/"high end"/"specialist" market, if someone decides to start marketing a device like this to attach to your computer (perhaps even usable as a separate computing device, check out some of the apps for the iPhone like Logitech Touchmouse or various VNC clients) targeted at every Tom, Dick and Harry you can be sure the price will drop...
/Mikael
How about a 10" multitouch + stylus-enabled LCD for use as an input device, it shows what's on-screen but at a lower resolution, meanwhile you've got your primary display in front of you running in full res, couple this with some form of visual feedback on the main monitor and it might be pretty interesting (it would basically be like a Wacom cintiq with multitouch support and the primary display separate from the Cintiq).
/Mikael