I've been looking to get a programmable keyboard, and from what I can tell this looks like a good one. I just have a couple of questions.
How does the programmable part of it work? Do I hit a key telling it to record, then type what I want, then press a key again to stop recording then press which key to save the recording to?
Does it record the delay between keypresses as well, so that those delays are incorporated at playback?
Which/how many keys can be programmed?
Does it depend on the OS's keyboard driver to perform the macro, or does the keyboard itself send the series of steps in the macro as if you had typed them?
I can atach commands to so the one labelled Web/Home opens up Mozilla, the Messenger one opens Yahoo!Chat &c. You realize that by not opening IE/MSN Messenger with those buttons, that you are probably violating the DMCA in some way =P
I keep all my keys on my Model M at work switched around fairly randomly in what has come to be the "ICOLQZ" layout. Even my boss nor the network admin can use my keyboard, since they both can't touch type.
So far over the past few years, nobody has messed with my computer, and in the few times that the network admin had to do something, he has me sit down at my computer and do it while he told me what to type =D
I think a lot of people are not getting this point.
- Microsoft is a big company who can buy in bulk - They are losing money on each Xbox - They would have used less costly hardware if it existed - A DIY PC will most likely not have as small of a footprint as an Xbox (yeah, leave the jokes aside).
Many of the posts in this article fail to meet the sub $200 price, and even on top of that, they often leave out 5.1 sound AND how about a graphics chipset which is at least comparable to the Xbox? Geforce 4 MX is *NOT* anywhere in the same league as the Xbox chipset.
The parent poster is correct. It is very highly UNLIKELY that a less expensive alternative will be found which compares to a loss leader product.
Bonus geek points for those who get this without looking it up... =D
Re:Red Rag at a Bull....
on
Pac-Man Reloaded
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Very simple...
When you had 8-bit processors to build games on which you wanted to make money, you didn't exactly have much room to goof off with the gameplay and make up for it in the audio & visual department.
Games back then were good becuase there had to be a compelling gameplay if they wanted to sell games. They had to hire programmers and game designers, and 100% of the budget was spent on them.
Nowadays, companies can cheat and hire a small handful of programmers, then spend 90% of the development budget on musicians, graphics artists, motion capture actors, content managers, 3d model builders, etc.
This leaves little time or money to spend on developing such "frivolous" things as gameplay.
People go back to the old games for fun gameplay, because that's all the old games had.
Patenting things which are fundamental *atoms* of information technology should not be allowed. It would be like patenting algebra or the number pi.
The original premise of the patent process (to promote the advancement of invention) does not in practice apply to software development. Software will advance just as quickly on it's own with or without patents being involved.
As a matter of fact, in many ways patents on information technology is actually slowing down the advancement of the field. Just look at all the workarounds that have to be implemented to avoid some basic principle of information technology. It's getting quite maddening (in all senses of the word).
Content monitoring has nothing to do with the post you responded to.
Disconnecting a downstream customer who does not respond to complaints has nothing to do with monitoring their content.
If you get several well-justified complaints from different, unconnected sources about someone within your juristiction, you give that person time to respond to the complaints. If he does not respond in a satisfactory manner, you cut him off.
I always wonder about these "free energy" machines in so much as I wonder if maybe someday someone might invent something which pulls energy directly off the rotation of the earth or something similar.
Locally, it would appear that such a device would be generating energy from nowhere, but in fact it's pulling it from a resource we don't readily see.
What if someone finds a way to extract energy from sources which we don't immediately see, but he is immediately tossed in the loony bin with padded walls before we give them a chance?
If you think pay stubs are a problem, how about hospitals which now entirely track patient records on a computer. A relative of mine works in a corporate-owned hospital which switched over to electronic patient records a few years ago.
Makes it nice an easy to "fix" the database when a patient didn't recieve adequate care, in order to make it look like the hospital did provide the necessary care.
At least on paper it was a bit more obvious when the forms were modified, especially if hundreds of pages of forms were modified.
Now that can all be done in a few keystrokes, without a trace of evidence of the changes.
On top of that, the system is still quite buggy to this day. When it comes to medical software, there is NO EXCUSE for blatant bugs. This software should be engeineered and tested well beyond that of most software. Yet, I've heard of ridiculous bugs in the system which could easily be cause for some major lawsuits.
Too bad for the patient that their records can be probably be easily "fixed" before any evidence is gathered.
I remember doing some volunteer work for the school system, and at nearly the end of the school year I was asked for suggestions on what to spend the remainder of the department's budget on. They didn't care what it was for or how much it cost, as long as it could be justified as being applicable to the department.
The whole reason for this being, if they don't spend their entire budget one year, they will get cut the next...
This could be true, but the major counterpoint to this is that a consumer-grade operating system will attract consumer-grade software development practices.
Military grade operating systems will attract military-grade software practices.
A mistake like this should never have been made in a military application. Using a consumer-grade operating system meant a much wider group of people to pick for the job, which means they were all the more likely to pick someone who wasn't completely competent to do a thorough design and review of the software.
If they had chosen a more robust operating system, their choices for developers would have been a lot more limited, but the competence-per-developer factor would have been a LOT higher.
I'm sure a great deal of Americans will be outraged at this waste of money
Hardly. Most (read 95% of) Americans don't get "outraged", unless the second daily showing of Friends gets pre-empted or the local Starbucks changes the brand of creamer they use.
Apathy doesn't even begin to describe the scale of blind contentment here in the US...
Slashdot Mirror
I've been looking to get a programmable keyboard, and from what I can tell this looks like a good one. I just have a couple of questions.
How does the programmable part of it work? Do I hit a key telling it to record, then type what I want, then press a key again to stop recording then press which key to save the recording to?
Does it record the delay between keypresses as well, so that those delays are incorporated at playback?
Which/how many keys can be programmed?
Does it depend on the OS's keyboard driver to perform the macro, or does the keyboard itself send the series of steps in the macro as if you had typed them?
Does it do laundry?
This is what we call "what goes around, comes around".
Never let your (especially computer illiterate) girlfriend determine what perhiperials are best for your computer.
It disheartens me immensely to know that yet antoher Model M has slipped into a landfill somewhere =(
I can atach commands to so the one labelled Web/Home opens up Mozilla, the Messenger one opens Yahoo!Chat &c.
You realize that by not opening IE/MSN Messenger with those buttons, that you are probably violating the DMCA in some way =P
I keep all my keys on my Model M at work switched around fairly randomly in what has come to be the "ICOLQZ" layout. Even my boss nor the network admin can use my keyboard, since they both can't touch type.
So far over the past few years, nobody has messed with my computer, and in the few times that the network admin had to do something, he has me sit down at my computer and do it while he told me what to type =D
I think a lot of people are not getting this point.
- Microsoft is a big company who can buy in bulk
- They are losing money on each Xbox
- They would have used less costly hardware if it existed
- A DIY PC will most likely not have as small of a footprint as an Xbox (yeah, leave the jokes aside).
Many of the posts in this article fail to meet the sub $200 price, and even on top of that, they often leave out 5.1 sound AND how about a graphics chipset which is at least comparable to the Xbox? Geforce 4 MX is *NOT* anywhere in the same league as the Xbox chipset.
The parent poster is correct. It is very highly UNLIKELY that a less expensive alternative will be found which compares to a loss leader product.
I thought the XBox itself doesn't have an OS installed, and that the OS comes on each disc?
Monkeys! Yes. That'd be new and fresh.
(Lightbulb on!)
I'd pay full price and buy a LARGE popcorn and LARGE soda just to see an officially licensed movie which combined Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.
Wow.
They'd resurrect MST3k just for this one movie alone...
the case is entering a 'discovery' phase
I can't help but keep reading this as disc-covery every time I see it in the disc-cussion here.
yes, [sic]
set_bugs = 0;
My favorite command from Zork Zero:
give jester the bird
(the bird was the pigeon)
Bonus geek points for those who get this without looking it up... =D
Very simple...
When you had 8-bit processors to build games on which you wanted to make money, you didn't exactly have much room to goof off with the gameplay and make up for it in the audio & visual department.
Games back then were good becuase there had to be a compelling gameplay if they wanted to sell games. They had to hire programmers and game designers, and 100% of the budget was spent on them.
Nowadays, companies can cheat and hire a small handful of programmers, then spend 90% of the development budget on musicians, graphics artists, motion capture actors, content managers, 3d model builders, etc.
This leaves little time or money to spend on developing such "frivolous" things as gameplay.
People go back to the old games for fun gameplay, because that's all the old games had.
Patenting things which are fundamental *atoms* of information technology should not be allowed. It would be like patenting algebra or the number pi.
The original premise of the patent process (to promote the advancement of invention) does not in practice apply to software development. Software will advance just as quickly on it's own with or without patents being involved.
As a matter of fact, in many ways patents on information technology is actually slowing down the advancement of the field. Just look at all the workarounds that have to be implemented to avoid some basic principle of information technology. It's getting quite maddening (in all senses of the word).
[...] whoever hires them is covered, unless they had knowledge of illegal practices by the spammer. How many CEOs are super tech savvy?
Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.
Equating the responsibility of junk mail with the responsibility of toxic waste really should not require much of a stretch of the imagination. =)
Content monitoring has nothing to do with the post you responded to.
Disconnecting a downstream customer who does not respond to complaints has nothing to do with monitoring their content.
If you get several well-justified complaints from different, unconnected sources about someone within your juristiction, you give that person time to respond to the complaints. If he does not respond in a satisfactory manner, you cut him off.
Simple enough. No content monitoring involved.
I'll work for free as long as you give me food, water and a bed.
Uh... you forgot internet...
Maybe this will make room for some sensible applications, like maybe a plain calculator? Or how about increasing the limit to more than 20 notes?
Where did you get 150k from? I got a count of 66,747 from their list of beta testers here and here...
I got in on a promotional deal, and I was included in the list, so I'd presume that this list is mostly all-inclusive...
I always wonder about these "free energy" machines in so much as I wonder if maybe someday someone might invent something which pulls energy directly off the rotation of the earth or something similar.
Locally, it would appear that such a device would be generating energy from nowhere, but in fact it's pulling it from a resource we don't readily see.
What if someone finds a way to extract energy from sources which we don't immediately see, but he is immediately tossed in the loony bin with padded walls before we give them a chance?
"I'm a 10th level Jesus, just got my first disciple! How do I get him to go aggro again?."
I want more of this! Can't.... stop... laughing =D
The only technical information they've given about the problem they had last night was that they were having a problem with Oracle.
If you think pay stubs are a problem, how about hospitals which now entirely track patient records on a computer. A relative of mine works in a corporate-owned hospital which switched over to electronic patient records a few years ago.
Makes it nice an easy to "fix" the database when a patient didn't recieve adequate care, in order to make it look like the hospital did provide the necessary care.
At least on paper it was a bit more obvious when the forms were modified, especially if hundreds of pages of forms were modified.
Now that can all be done in a few keystrokes, without a trace of evidence of the changes.
On top of that, the system is still quite buggy to this day. When it comes to medical software, there is NO EXCUSE for blatant bugs. This software should be engeineered and tested well beyond that of most software. Yet, I've heard of ridiculous bugs in the system which could easily be cause for some major lawsuits.
Too bad for the patient that their records can be probably be easily "fixed" before any evidence is gathered.
I remember doing some volunteer work for the school system, and at nearly the end of the school year I was asked for suggestions on what to spend the remainder of the department's budget on. They didn't care what it was for or how much it cost, as long as it could be justified as being applicable to the department.
The whole reason for this being, if they don't spend their entire budget one year, they will get cut the next...
This could be true, but the major counterpoint to this is that a consumer-grade operating system will attract consumer-grade software development practices.
Military grade operating systems will attract military-grade software practices.
A mistake like this should never have been made in a military application. Using a consumer-grade operating system meant a much wider group of people to pick for the job, which means they were all the more likely to pick someone who wasn't completely competent to do a thorough design and review of the software.
If they had chosen a more robust operating system, their choices for developers would have been a lot more limited, but the competence-per-developer factor would have been a LOT higher.
I'm sure a great deal of Americans will be outraged at this waste of money
Hardly. Most (read 95% of) Americans don't get "outraged", unless the second daily showing of Friends gets pre-empted or the local Starbucks changes the brand of creamer they use.
Apathy doesn't even begin to describe the scale of blind contentment here in the US...