I was assuming the engine will be above/after the "skydiving area" with a grate to keep people out, and it would draw in fresh air from outside. That could work. But it's still not a zero-G simulator, it's a falling at terminal velocity simulator.
You know resistive touch works with any object at all (like a finger, which is what I use most of the time) and only offers the stylus as an option, vs capacitive which requires a human finger and wouldn't be any more accurate with a stylus (made of human flesh x_x or a good enough simulation I suppose...)
If Gnome's not an option I plan to use XFCE as my main desktop manager. The only real advantages of Gnome were the separated menus (although a Win7-style searchable menu would be best) and that it's practically an "industry standard."
Yeah it's really too bad, it seemed like Ubuntu would really bring Linux to the desktop, no joke. Then they all went on this collective LSD trip and we're still trying to figure out why they're spinning in a field in their underwear.
True, a touchscreen is primarily a mouse substitute for handhelds. There are some specialty apps where a touchscreen could be better, but then you might as well bring up the P5 glove or those brain wave controllers.
Yep I recommend rooted Nook Colors for anyone who asks about ebook readers. No sense buying a dinky toy tied into one particular company's book store. Get a tablet computer that can read ebooks.
Yes, but on my last 3 PDAs they've made excellent mouse substitutes for handheld devices. You get the functionality of a mouse with nearly the accuracy,* all in a device that takes up no extra space and has no moving parts.
*with more accurate resistive touch, you Apple guys wouldn't know about that
I use my laptop for most things. I use my PDA when I'm away from home. I use a desktop at work and when brute force is needed at home - for gaming.
I salvaged a netbook and now I'm looking to see if anyone needs a free computer really badly. I'm thinking of using it as a "workshop PC" to keep my more expensive laptop away from the soldering equipment, greasy fingers etc. but I really can't find a use for it.
I probably couldn't find a use for a tablet either.
Right now I have a PDA, a laptop and a desktop. The desktop is pretty much just for gaming. The laptop is for Most Tasks, and the PDA is for Most Tasks Also.
Now the desktop has only one shortcoming: it's not portable. But this is acceptable because you must sacrifice portability to get bleeding-edge performance at a reasonable price. This will never change.
The laptop and PDA have many: The laptop doesn't make calls, have mobile data, have a proper camera, or fit in my pocket. The PDA has a small screen, small keyboard and limited I/O capabilities, and it's specs are a bit on the weak side (but this gap will become smaller with time, just as average desktop and laptop PCs have similar specs today).
So to rectify these problems, my dream device is this:
A landscape slider phone like an N900 that docks with a laptop body, like the Motorola Atrix does. This laptop is convertible so I can turn it into a tablet if I find that form more convenient. Now the PDA can have a big screen, big keyboard and full I/O capabilities, and the laptop has mobile data, can make calls and can take proper pictures if necessary. I just have to choose between them.
My idea for the OS? An average desktop Linux distro, but I'd want the desktop manager to change to something like Nokia Hildon or MeeGo UX on the PDA screen, and to something like Gnome2 or XFCE on the laptop screen. Makes you wonder if it's possible to run the same apps in multiple desktops simultaneously? Hmm...
Ultrathin laptops work well, they just might not have Starbucks cred but who cares.
Going into Starbucks with unfashionable devices is great fun, the bigger and more hackerish the device, the better. It's like plopping down in a seat at a Paris fashion show wearing filthy military gear and lighting up a big stinky cigar, and not giving a fuck what the pansies think. Much like parking a muddy 4x4 at a formal event. I've done that too.
Sorry, only devices I've spent more than $150 on are ones that I know I can run anything I want on, so that basically as long as the hardware's good I can MAKE it do what I want.
As a programmer, I see the iPad as a huge opportunity. For whatever reason, people who have them are purchasing software for them. Much more than they ever did with their PC. People use these things all the time online and off. It's the best thing to happen to this industry in a long time.
Yeah until Apple starts treating the developers as bad as the device owners (yeah the device owners don't see the lock-in as "bad" but developers sure will).
People are purchasing software for the iPad because they don't have much of a choice, the App Store is only viable for commercial software. It costs money to offer a product through the App Store so free software doesn't make sense, so you only see apps that cost something, or apps that are basically shareware like Angry Birds.
Make no mistake, this is bad for the industry in the long run, even if there is a short-term benefit to mobile software devs.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll admit I didn't finish RTFAing. If it's a glider then it looks sufficient.
I'm racist you say? LOL
Are you just automatically assuming that, because they are in Africa, they have no chance?
Almost seems insulting.
If you looked at the pic of the "shuttle" in TFA you'd understand. I want the guy to succeed too, but...just look at that sorry thing...
I was assuming the engine will be above/after the "skydiving area" with a grate to keep people out, and it would draw in fresh air from outside. That could work. But it's still not a zero-G simulator, it's a falling at terminal velocity simulator.
Sounds like he's building something like a "skydiving tunnel" but that's not exactly a zero-G simulator...
You know resistive touch works with any object at all (like a finger, which is what I use most of the time) and only offers the stylus as an option, vs capacitive which requires a human finger and wouldn't be any more accurate with a stylus (made of human flesh x_x or a good enough simulation I suppose...)
If Gnome's not an option I plan to use XFCE as my main desktop manager. The only real advantages of Gnome were the separated menus (although a Win7-style searchable menu would be best) and that it's practically an "industry standard."
Yeah it's really too bad, it seemed like Ubuntu would really bring Linux to the desktop, no joke. Then they all went on this collective LSD trip and we're still trying to figure out why they're spinning in a field in their underwear.
Netbooks filled the niche of dirt-cheap computers that were needed when the 2008 recession struck.
The overwhelming majority of them had Atom CPUs so I don't see how those killed them off.
True, a touchscreen is primarily a mouse substitute for handhelds. There are some specialty apps where a touchscreen could be better, but then you might as well bring up the P5 glove or those brain wave controllers.
Yep I recommend rooted Nook Colors for anyone who asks about ebook readers. No sense buying a dinky toy tied into one particular company's book store. Get a tablet computer that can read ebooks.
Yes, but on my last 3 PDAs they've made excellent mouse substitutes for handheld devices. You get the functionality of a mouse with nearly the accuracy,* all in a device that takes up no extra space and has no moving parts.
*with more accurate resistive touch, you Apple guys wouldn't know about that
There's still Gnome2, XFCE, KDE, LXDE...
I use my laptop for most things. I use my PDA when I'm away from home. I use a desktop at work and when brute force is needed at home - for gaming.
I salvaged a netbook and now I'm looking to see if anyone needs a free computer really badly. I'm thinking of using it as a "workshop PC" to keep my more expensive laptop away from the soldering equipment, greasy fingers etc. but I really can't find a use for it.
I probably couldn't find a use for a tablet either.
Right now I have a PDA, a laptop and a desktop. The desktop is pretty much just for gaming. The laptop is for Most Tasks, and the PDA is for Most Tasks Also.
Now the desktop has only one shortcoming: it's not portable. But this is acceptable because you must sacrifice portability to get bleeding-edge performance at a reasonable price. This will never change.
The laptop and PDA have many: The laptop doesn't make calls, have mobile data, have a proper camera, or fit in my pocket. The PDA has a small screen, small keyboard and limited I/O capabilities, and it's specs are a bit on the weak side (but this gap will become smaller with time, just as average desktop and laptop PCs have similar specs today).
So to rectify these problems, my dream device is this:
A landscape slider phone like an N900 that docks with a laptop body, like the Motorola Atrix does. This laptop is convertible so I can turn it into a tablet if I find that form more convenient. Now the PDA can have a big screen, big keyboard and full I/O capabilities, and the laptop has mobile data, can make calls and can take proper pictures if necessary. I just have to choose between them.
My idea for the OS? An average desktop Linux distro, but I'd want the desktop manager to change to something like Nokia Hildon or MeeGo UX on the PDA screen, and to something like Gnome2 or XFCE on the laptop screen. Makes you wonder if it's possible to run the same apps in multiple desktops simultaneously? Hmm...
MOD PARENT UP!
I'll never buy a tablet.
Ever.
I will buy a convertible laptop, I wanted one last time I bought a laptop but they were way too expensive, maybe when this one's obsolete.
That's the only method I knew of detecting (out of sight) nuclear explosions until this.
Secret Nuclear Test...somehow it just doesn't sound right.
Ultrathin laptops work well, they just might not have Starbucks cred but who cares.
Going into Starbucks with unfashionable devices is great fun, the bigger and more hackerish the device, the better. It's like plopping down in a seat at a Paris fashion show wearing filthy military gear and lighting up a big stinky cigar, and not giving a fuck what the pansies think. Much like parking a muddy 4x4 at a formal event. I've done that too.
Sorry, only devices I've spent more than $150 on are ones that I know I can run anything I want on, so that basically as long as the hardware's good I can MAKE it do what I want.
There you go, blaming the tool once again when you need to be blaming the person that lacks education to use the tool.
...or not use the tool, in this case.
I'm going to try to log into your account with the password "trustno1". You have 30 seconds to change your password.
Yeah the US is only AT&T, Verizon and the comedy relief sidekick Sprint. There, the names are named.
The comment above argues otherwise:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2399712&cid=37220642
As a programmer, I see the iPad as a huge opportunity. For whatever reason, people who have them are purchasing software for them. Much more than they ever did with their PC. People use these things all the time online and off. It's the best thing to happen to this industry in a long time.
Yeah until Apple starts treating the developers as bad as the device owners (yeah the device owners don't see the lock-in as "bad" but developers sure will).
People are purchasing software for the iPad because they don't have much of a choice, the App Store is only viable for commercial software. It costs money to offer a product through the App Store so free software doesn't make sense, so you only see apps that cost something, or apps that are basically shareware like Angry Birds.
Make no mistake, this is bad for the industry in the long run, even if there is a short-term benefit to mobile software devs.
Does it save some resource (maybe electricity) on the tower side by any chance?