I have never read any credible estimates of oil lasting 1000 years. I have read long estimates for coal and natural gas though. I hope that turning natural gas into methanol and running this in either a direct methanol fuel cell or a reformer to produce hydrogen to run a hydrogen fuel cell will displace gasoline before the oil runs out. You can also produce methanol from certain biomass inputs, but this will probably remain more expensive for a long time. We certainly don't need 3 grades of gasoline (in the US) and one of these tanks should be easy to convert to methanol.
Maybe, but "lots of power" and "low smog" are not mutually exclusive goals. I've often read that diesel trucks in Europe are much cleaner than those in the US and they still manage to carry stuff. The Honda Insight is a 2 seater car, the Toyota Prius is a 4 door compact, and in the future we will hopefully see advanced technology used in vans, small trucks and SUV's. In fact I hope that by 2007 we will see fuel cells in big trucks, buses, and cars.
Re:I Want Handwriting Recognition on the Screen
on
Apple's New Trackpad?
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· Score: 1
I agree. It is going to make for a more expensive screen and possibly a performance hit (brightness, power consumption). You also have to deal with some kind of cover that is replaceable so the surface doesn't get scratched. All that aside, I still want one on my ideal laptop which would be more of a webpad, but with a real (>4GB) hard drive and a keyboard that could be separated from the main unit (so I could decide not to bring it).
I really think pen based GUI's will take off when people are able to talk to their computers more. Typing is faster than writing even for bad typists, and it is more convenient to use a trackpoint or trackpad while typing. But most people can talk much faster than they can type, and if you input via voice, you can hold the pen the entire time and use it for GUI navigation (much easier than a mouse and no RSI) and for limited text editing (strikeout, copy, paste). This leads to the obvious conclusion that the Mac has it right for the number of mouse buttons - no point in the user getting used to two or three buttons since when they use a pen, they will lose these features (and hovering for that matter).
Re:Smartboard, Excellent Alternative to MS Natural
on
Ergonomic Keyboards
·
· Score: 1
I have been using one of these for a couple weeks now, and I definitely like the layout more than a standard keyboard. (Black is not available anymore.) I actually would prefer roughly the same key feel with no noise, but it isn't much worse than old IBM keyboards. The right space bar sticks occasionally which may end up being a problem. I may try out the Kinesis too which I first thought was too radical, but I'm adjusting to this one much faster than I thought I would, so perhaps the Kinesis wouldn't take that long either.
I'm interested in 200-300 ppi screens for portable photo display and perhaps motion video at the HDTV resolution of 1920x1080 (note this resolution is now an option under Windows). At this resolution, 200 ppi gives a screen diagonal of 11" (28cm) diagonal which is fairly portable. This form factor allows for a CD-ROM drive to be stackable or integrated which is a plus, though I might prefer a form factor closer to that of a common (HDTV ratio) print in the US (4"x7.1") when 270 ppi becomes cheap enough. I wonder what is the common print size in Europe - A6?.
It would be great to have a very sensitive touch screen integrated with this technology if it didn't hurt the image quality significantly. This could be like writing on paper with.5mm pencil!
I'm not concerned about fonts or icon problems at all, it can't be that difficult for the various Linux desktop projects to create some new icons twice as big, and in fact a lot of icons are way too big now and would look great at 200 ppi. Then create some 200 dpi fonts for the X server. As far as Windows goes, Microsoft will fix the problem when enough consumers are asking for a fix - again it can't be that hard for them either to just offer a new Display Properties option: Windows Standard (extra extra large). Non-Microsoft apps will quickly follow suit.
Compact hardware is almost getting to the point that I'd actually be interested in a palmtop. Take this display, integrate a low power CPU, a small 5-10 Gig drive, GPS, camera, mic, speaker, lots of ports, wireless keyboard, a touch screen, a few dedicated buttons (so the pen interface is not needed for simple things) and voila - a big market. If anyone knows of an open hardware project with similar goals, I'd love to find out about it. - dara
I never understood why Sony didn't originally market the MD as general computer storage. If it had, there would be MP3 MD players by now and perhaps even MD drives in laptops. I know 150MB isn't huge, but the disks are small and protected from the elements better than CD's. The other floppy replacement technologies don't look that much better even today and how long has the MD been out?
I must admit I haven't done the experiment yet, but I always thought the level was the same (if you assume the starting and finishing temperature of the water is the same). Objects that float in water displace an amount (mass) of water that equals the mass of the floating object. Thus when the ice melts it exactly fills in what it had displaced before. As far as any analogy to to global warming goes, the reason that there might be a problem with sea levels has nothing to do with floating icebergs. I believe it has to do with 1] temperature expansion of water (water expands when it gets warmer too) and 2] melting of ice that is supported by land (e.g. Antarctica). - dara
Personally, I don't give a damn which desktop is prettier, nor what a poll would say at this point. The real issue for most users is (as you would guess) usability. How fast and how many mouse clicks (or keyboard shortcuts) does it take to perform a certain action (and is it even possible to perform this action?).
I have used KDE 1.x a fair amount, briefly played with pre-2.0 (a lot of which is unusable), tried the most recent Redhat 6.1 binaries for GNOME, as well as some projects outside these two desktops (Netscape, Staroffice, Wordperfect). I find certain things easier in Gnome (the addressbook is much better than KDE's), other things easier in KDE, and certain things easier in outside projects. Hence mix and match is still the reality for me. In the future, if there is enough cross-fertilization and evolution, I might be happy doing everything in one project.
As far as the license thing goes, I only give a damn about QT not having the same status across platforms as does GTK. In my mind, I want to learn to use (and to contribute to one or two) software projects that are ported to as many OS platforms as possible (Linux/*BSD, Windows, Mac, OS/2, Be,...). Then I can teach what I know to as many other users as possible. Kword looks to have great potential, but if AbiWord has what I need (not yet), I'd rather become familiar with that program as my standard word processor, since I can use it on Windows and Linux.
I'd love to see some sort of database on the web that compares the functionality of the components of the different projects (Gnome, KDE, Gnustep,...). I know some people are keen on the idea that competition results in faster improvement. If this were true (and I'm not sure that it is), it would be even better to have each component in a class be compared with one another as opposed to comparing entire desktop projects. (e.g. which is more usable: Excel, StarChart, Gnumeric, Kspread, Oleo, or something else?). Last time I looked at http://sal.kachinatech.com/index.shtml, it didn't have direct comparisons, but perhaps this has changed.
I'm sorry, I haven't used Wordperfect for Linux that much, and obviously I missed this feature. I've spent more time with Staroffice since the free download for Windows and Linux appealed to me. If I missed it in Staroffice also, I'll really feel stupid - thanks for pointing it out, I'll have to try it again sometime. - dara
I don't believe Starwriter or Wordperfect has any level of grammar checking. This feature of Word is not perfect of course, but hopefully it will keep evolving, and it is already somewhat useful. - dara
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I have never read any credible estimates of oil lasting 1000 years. I have read long estimates for coal and natural gas though. I hope that turning natural gas into methanol and running this in either a direct methanol fuel cell or a reformer to produce hydrogen to run a hydrogen fuel cell will displace gasoline before the oil runs out. You can also produce methanol from certain biomass inputs, but this will probably remain more expensive for a long time. We certainly don't need 3 grades of gasoline (in the US) and one of these tanks should be easy to convert to methanol.
Diesel, Natural Gas, Methanol, Propane, Gasoline (maybe two grades) - it's already getting complicated isn't it?
Maybe, but "lots of power" and "low smog" are not mutually exclusive goals. I've often read that diesel trucks in Europe are much cleaner than those in the US and they still manage to carry stuff. The Honda Insight is a 2 seater car, the Toyota Prius is a 4 door compact, and in the future we will hopefully see advanced technology used in vans, small trucks and SUV's. In fact I hope that by 2007 we will see fuel cells in big trucks, buses, and cars.
I agree. It is going to make for a more expensive screen and possibly a performance hit (brightness, power consumption). You also have to deal with some kind of cover that is replaceable so the surface doesn't get scratched. All that aside, I still want one on my ideal laptop which would be more of a webpad, but with a real (>4GB) hard drive and a keyboard that could be separated from the main unit (so I could decide not to bring it).
I really think pen based GUI's will take off when people are able to talk to their computers more. Typing is faster than writing even for bad typists, and it is more convenient to use a trackpoint or trackpad while typing. But most people can talk much faster than they can type, and if you input via voice, you can hold the pen the entire time and use it for GUI navigation (much easier than a mouse and no RSI) and for limited text editing (strikeout, copy, paste). This leads to the obvious conclusion that the Mac has it right for the number of mouse buttons - no point in the user getting used to two or three buttons since when they use a pen, they will lose these features (and hovering for that matter).
I have been using one of these for a couple weeks now, and I definitely like the layout more than a standard keyboard. (Black is not available anymore.) I actually would prefer roughly the same key feel with no noise, but it isn't much worse than old IBM keyboards. The right space bar sticks occasionally which may end up being a problem. I may try out the Kinesis too which I first thought was too radical, but I'm adjusting to this one much faster than I thought I would, so perhaps the Kinesis wouldn't take that long either.
I'm interested in 200-300 ppi screens for portable photo display and perhaps motion video at the HDTV resolution of 1920x1080 (note this resolution is now an option under Windows). At this resolution, 200 ppi gives a screen diagonal of 11" (28cm) diagonal which is fairly portable. This form factor allows for a CD-ROM drive to be stackable or integrated which is a plus, though I might prefer a form factor closer to that of a common (HDTV ratio) print in the US (4"x7.1") when 270 ppi becomes cheap enough. I wonder what is the common print size in Europe - A6?.
.5mm pencil!
It would be great to have a very sensitive touch screen integrated with this technology if it didn't hurt the image quality significantly. This could be like writing on paper with
I'm not concerned about fonts or icon problems at all, it can't be that difficult for the various Linux desktop projects to create some new icons twice as big, and in fact a lot of icons are way too big now and would look great at 200 ppi. Then create some 200 dpi fonts for the X server. As far as Windows goes, Microsoft will fix the problem when enough consumers are asking for a fix - again it can't be that hard for them either to just offer a new Display Properties option: Windows Standard (extra extra large). Non-Microsoft apps will quickly follow suit.
Compact hardware is almost getting to the point that I'd actually be interested in a palmtop. Take this display, integrate a low power CPU, a small 5-10 Gig drive, GPS, camera, mic, speaker, lots of ports, wireless keyboard, a touch screen, a few dedicated buttons (so the pen interface is not needed for simple things) and voila - a big market. If anyone knows of an open hardware project with similar goals, I'd love to find out about it. - dara
I never understood why Sony didn't originally market the MD as general computer storage. If it had, there would be MP3 MD players by now and perhaps even MD drives in laptops. I know 150MB isn't huge, but the disks are small and protected from the elements better than CD's. The other floppy replacement technologies don't look that much better even today and how long has the MD been out?
I must admit I haven't done the experiment yet, but I always thought the level was the same (if you assume the starting and finishing temperature of the water is the same). Objects that float in water displace an amount (mass) of water that equals the mass of the floating object. Thus when the ice melts it exactly fills in what it had displaced before. As far as any analogy to to global warming goes, the reason that there might be a problem with sea levels has nothing to do with floating icebergs. I believe it has to do with 1] temperature expansion of water (water expands when it gets warmer too) and 2] melting of ice that is supported by land (e.g. Antarctica). - dara
Personally, I don't give a damn which desktop is prettier, nor what a poll would say at this point. The real issue for most users is (as you would guess) usability. How fast and how many mouse clicks (or keyboard shortcuts) does it take to perform a certain action (and is it even possible to perform this action?).
...). Then I can teach what I know to as many other users as possible. Kword looks to have great potential, but if AbiWord has what I need (not yet), I'd rather become familiar with that program as my standard word processor, since I can use it on Windows and Linux.
...). I know some people are keen on the idea that competition results in faster improvement. If this were true (and I'm not sure that it is), it would be even better to have each component in a class be compared with one another as opposed to comparing entire desktop projects. (e.g. which is more usable: Excel, StarChart, Gnumeric, Kspread, Oleo, or something else?). Last time I looked at http://sal.kachinatech.com/index.shtml, it didn't have direct comparisons, but perhaps this has changed.
I have used KDE 1.x a fair amount, briefly played with pre-2.0 (a lot of which is unusable), tried the most recent Redhat 6.1 binaries for GNOME, as well as some projects outside these two desktops (Netscape, Staroffice, Wordperfect). I find certain things easier in Gnome (the addressbook is much better than KDE's), other things easier in KDE, and certain things easier in outside projects. Hence mix and match is still the reality for me. In the future, if there is enough cross-fertilization and evolution, I might be happy doing everything in one project.
As far as the license thing goes, I only give a damn about QT not having the same status across platforms as does GTK. In my mind, I want to learn to use (and to contribute to one or two) software projects that are ported to as many OS platforms as possible (Linux/*BSD, Windows, Mac, OS/2, Be,
I'd love to see some sort of database on the web that compares the functionality of the components of the different projects (Gnome, KDE, Gnustep,
- dara (written with AbiWord for Windows)
I'm sorry, I haven't used Wordperfect for Linux that much, and obviously I missed this feature. I've spent more time with Staroffice since the free download for Windows and Linux appealed to me. If I missed it in Staroffice also, I'll really feel stupid - thanks for pointing it out, I'll have to try it again sometime. - dara
I don't believe Starwriter or Wordperfect has any level of grammar checking. This feature of Word is not perfect of course, but hopefully it will keep evolving, and it is already somewhat useful. - dara