Nope, not read any Ben Bova. I'm fairly new to sci-fi, having only starting reading anything other than non-fiction a few years ago. I'll check that series out- I'm always interested in hearing about books and series that are good.:)
Re:Reality Dysfunction: Space opera at its best...
on
The Cassini Division
·
· Score: 1
With a book series so huge, there has to be a lot more worth while throughout 4000 pages than the ending. I agree that the ending was a bit weak- and abrupt. I think there area lot more things that could've been done, but I had derived so much enjoyment out rest of the book that I didn't feel jacked because something more flashy didn't happen in the end.
How is this supposed to be an OQO killer? Granted, I can't get through to the site- it's 'dotted. However, I've seen the specs as posted here, and to me- as a person who really wants an OQO bad- it doesn't look like it'd replace the OQO.
Mostly, this thing doesn't have a display. Or touch screen. Making it a portable computer, but not a palmtop. The OQO is cool for a number of reasons, but one of them is that it is a real and quite fast machine in the form factor of a PDA. Yet, it can be "converted" into a real desktop or real laptop using docking stations. With an OQO, you can slip it into the docking station and expand it with a new AGP video card or new PCI cards. This is just a low-lower mini-ATX board. Nothing that special, although I'm sure there are some folks who would find the V5 useful.
I mean, this Nimble thing doesn't even run on a battery. It is very portable, in that it's small enough to take your office machine to and from home, keeping monitor, keyboard, etc at each location.
The only thing I've seen that comes close to being an OQO killer- but is just as much vaporware- is the MCC, or the Mobile Computer Core. Like the OQO, you can slip it into a number of "docks," making it a PDA, a notebook, or a desktop. I'd rather have the MCC's PDA over an OQO because it has a bigger screen but without being too big, but such dreaming is worthless when no one will make one of these...
Reality Dysfunction: Space opera at its best...
on
The Cassini Division
·
· Score: 2, Informative
For those looking for some books to read this summer, check out Peter Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" "trilogy." In paperback, its actually 6 books- The Reality Dysfunction (Parts 1 and 2), the Neutronium Alchemist (Pts 1 and 2), and the Naked God (parts 1 and 2). The series probably totals about 4000 pages in paperback, and is really just one huge book. It'd do someone little good to read the first and give up.
However, do not be dismayed- it may be a huge read, but it is worth it. Hamilton's universe is vast and very detailed; a million subplots that aren't just filler.
It takes place in the 27th century; humanity is basically divided into two camps- Adamists and Edenists. Adamists are what most folks would think of as the natural progression of today's society; and Edenists are a group of commies that have a form of genetically-engineered telepathy (called "affinity") and rely on organic technology. Humanity really only knows of two other sentient species other than themselves. It sounded cheesy to me at first, but it is an amazing series. I only finished it 6 months ago, and I'm having to stop myself from reading it again...
if you're that hard up to show the world you're a big nerd, perhaps this is more up your alley. Pros? You can use a much more substantial PDA, enter text a lot faster, and get beat up much more often!:)
MS SPOT watches with GRPS internet connectivity? I may have missed something, but the articles I've seen about the new MS SPOT watches have nothign to do with GRPS. They get their data via the FM band, and it is one way. That is, the SPOT watch can recieve information about weather, stocks, etc, but it's not two way and it ain't GRPS. Story here.
Do you have any photos of these? None of the stories I read had any photos, just words.
I have to say I agree. Your PB and choco analogy is good, and what I was trying to thunk up. Perhaps the author is thinking we will move to wetware, maybe that we'll have semi-sentient biological computers doing our processing.
I'm an aspiring computational ecologist, majoring in biology, minoring in CS. (for the uninformed- ecology != environmentalism or anything of that sort) I'm in Minnesota, although at the other end of the state.
I don't think biology will rewrite CS. It will influence it, for sure, but there isn't anything fundamentally different between a biological solution and a technological one. I think as we learn more of the bigger picture in various biological fields, when we truly understand it, we will integrate that knowledge into applied CS. We've been reading the book for some time now, but we really don't know enough about the subject matter to really apply it.
I think there is a lot of use for biomimicry in computing. I think integration of biological elements into our computers is quite a bit far off and perhaps a bit sci-fi-ish for now, but taking ideas (algorithm would often be an understatement) that work well in biological systems and using them in computing is something we can do now with some success.
NeXTSTEP looks quite nice to me as well. A helluva lot different than Motif.
Plenty of newer NeXT boxes and white hardware running NeXTSTEP or OpenStep were color. Even for copies of NS/OS on b/w machines, NeXT still paid the Pantone color licenses. NeXT was a platform that did many things very well. And when your display is greyscale, you better have accurate colors when you're going to be printing. Heck, back then, a Pantone license was a good idea on a color monitor. Apple's ColorSync existed before the first NeXT cube was released, though.
And Motif was designed with Windows 3.x in mind. I don't think it's close enough to think of Motif as a knock-off, but there are similarities that make it a bit uncomfy.
You can get brand new, very functional PDAs for around $200 now a days. The Dell Axim PocketPC X5 is such a model- and unlike the POS device, can read MS LIT format, which the majority of for-sale ebooks are offered in (along with the Adobe EBook format- which isn't readable on *any* PDA).
I've read ebooks on my PDA for a while- starting on my Newton MP2100 and now my Jornada 720. The J720 runs vanilla Windows CE rather than PocketPC, and MS is dumb enough to have no MS LIT reader for their own platform. So, to read purchased ebooks, I use CLIT to convert from.LIT to HTML on my work windoze machine. (the J720 is my only windows machine at home) Works like a charm, and could get you reading LIT-format books on pretty much any device.
You can also get various ebook-specific devices for cheap. At OfficeMax the otherday, I saw a FranklinBook man or something like it- it has a big screen and was on sale for $50. It can be used for playing MP3s and a bunch of PDA stuffs, but I imagine there aren't many apps out for it- but it is good for reading books. And since you can give it HTML, you can always just convert those LIT format books and pass it on...
I will be going on a 2 week trip to Europe next month, living out of a backpack. We have 2x128 MB CF cards for the camera, but those wouldn't hold all of the photos we plan on taking during the trip.
My solution? I happen to have a Jornada 720 PDA and a 2 GB PCMCIA drive for the machine. The plan is when a 128 MB card if filled up, to move the contents onto the 2 GB drive. The PCMCIA harddrives are the same as in the iPod. You can get them in sizes ranging from 2 GB (a measly $70) all the way up to 30 GB (around $450). The PDA itself can be had for $300-450, depending on some factors. However, this was a good solution because I already had the hardware- it doesn't seem like a good idea for someone starting from scratch.
But then again, spending $350 on the J720 and then $70 on the 2 GB PCMCIA drive makes a lot more sense than buying $650 (!!) worth of SD/CF cards as someone else recommended as being a reasonable solution. At a decent quality, this 2 GB PCMCIA drive holds at least 10k images. I plan on recharging while at hostels and the occasional hotel. I am considering getting a solar panel as well, but I've not yet decided.
Would be great for journaling on the trip as well- I know I'd like to document all of my adventures and thoughts if I were taking a trip around the whole world!
This is *much* cheaper than the same space in a IBM CF MicroDrive, CF or SD cards.
---
The other option that may make sense is buying a camera that uses media like mini-CD-R discs. My uncle has a fancy Sony digital camera that burns the photos he takes on to the 3" CD-R disks. It was an expensive camera, but it takes awesome photos and wouldn't require a computer or a slew of expensive media like SD or CF cards.
I just looked it up, and you can get them cheaper than before. I remember my uncle paying $1000 for his fancy-pants CD-R burning Mavica, but it looks like you can get a camera which does that now for quite a bit cheaper.
The $500 MVC-CD350 and the $700 MVC-CD500 look like decent models. Definately seems to make more sense to pick up one of these rather than buying $700 worth in SD/CF media!
Umm, why would MS cutting off Office make Apple release OS X for x86? They wouldn't gain much by it, they'd likely end up fucking themselves over. Or, do you think that magically, OS X for x86 would take over all the Windows installations? As if. Most people would stick with Windows. Because idiots like what they're used to.
yes, java emacs. but gosling emacs real emacs. hell, i'm sure gosling emacs efuns AND gosling emacs efuns. i mean, this is gosling- at least NeWS was a good idea.:)
You got me there! Come to think of it, I have seen drivers for DOS written in QBasic and QuickBasic (similar but different BASIC products both by MS).:) I guess I should say that it isn't impossible, but QBasic doesn't have the support for calling C/C++ libraries built-in in the same way many Pascal implementations do.
You can get libraries for various Pascal dialects for using real databases, not goofy homemade flat file jobbies- various SQL, even ODBC. Heck, from some Pascal implementations, you have access to all the stuff you can get through COM+, which is a lot, at least on Windows.
No, Turbo Pascal 2.0 can't do all of this. But you wouldn't use an old C compiler as the basis for comparison either.
Read what I said in my post, the one you replied to. I talked about Pascal being a language just about as capable as C++, C or Java *not* QBasic. It's easy to hook up Pascal to modern C or C++ libraries, in QBasic it is not. Heck, it may be impossible.
I don't know about you man, but I got my start in BASIC on my Radio Shack PC-3, handheld computer. That was the bomb. And then GWBasic- QBasic wasn't out when I learned BASIC. What are you, 14?:P
Why? Pascal isn't a toy language. It's been used for real work and real applications often within real companies for a long time.
I wouldn't say QBasic is a toy either, but it's certainly not as useful as it was in the days most folks with a PC ran DOS console apps. Pascal, on the other hand, has kept up with the times as far as libraries and the like. You can write full-own GUI apps that use the OS's native GUI library.
Yes, I know you noted that Pascal was in another league, but in a way to imply that Pascal is still below the likes of C. It may not be as popular, but it's just as powerful.
While I'm not a fan of PalmOS for my PDA, I think the PalmOS would make a better platform for programming games than do most consoles. I mean, if Sony wants me to spend $200 on a portable console, it better be pretty damn powerful- a lot more than my GBA. There's no reason you couldn't have a 100-200 MHz ARM-based PDA and gaming machine that went for $200, with a decent dpad/button configuration.
After all, that other company is doing it with the Helix. I don't think they've released the specs on the POS device they will be using, but never fear- if they pull it off, you will have a combo PalmOS/Gaming device eventually. But Sony could pull it off- and they'd have a much higher chance of succeeding than this new outfit making the Helix.
They also call the GameCube "toy-like," so that too must just be for kids. That must be why the GC is cheaper than the PS2 (although the difference ain't what it used to be)- the PS2 is a real man's tool, while the GC is for wee chilluns. Thanks for explaining that Sony!
(and I bet this kind of bullshit works on a lot of people. Esp dumb meatheads.)
Heh. That's exactly what I thought when I saw this story. The NGage is another case of one device that does a few things in a mediocre way.
The GBA does what it does damn well. There are cell phones which do a good job of that too. It is certainly possible to create a device which is the convergence of a cell phone, game device and cell phone- but this isn't that device.
I have a GBA, but I regret getting it just a little. The kinds of games I play most often I can get both on my PDA and my GBA- Snood mostly. But there are a lot of other fun games for which I love my GBA- Zelda, Mario Kart,
Come to think of it, most of my regret is that I bought the GBA version of Snood rather than spending that money on the PocketPC version.:P
No, I wouldn't whip out my GBA while out with my friends on a Friday night. But then again, I wouldn't bring my GBA with me unless I was going to be gaming some for sure. When I'm out with my friends, I'll often bring my PDA with me, but rarely take it out for a small distraction. I mean, why bother going out with your friends?
All the folks in the Matrix are being fed human goo? I had wondered about that. Even if dead human puree is on the menu, the system would still break down, energetically. With machines expending energy, there needs to be some input on the basic level, the difference between the (total calories of human goo in first generation - total calories expended by machines during next generation)
Unless, the machines only need a relatively small amount of people to power the matrix, and so far they've not run out of 6-billion+ human-gooage, doing a good job at rationing it over the years while they look for a mean of primary production.. Eventually they will need it- energy from the sun- in form of solar panels or plants.
While newer MS systems will have WSH, older systems don't necessarily..
Nope, Windows 95 doesn't. However, if you are supporting a really old machine like this, you can simply have the user install it- it's nothing complicated. If they're already installing the PerlScript runtime especially, it's not that big of a deal...
Interesting! I've never heard of this. I use Windows at work, but Mac OS X or some other Unix at home, and I really know little about Windows specific development. With this and PerlScript, I could create happy little apps for work that distibute easily, are small, and can run with the base ActivePerl install- no need to get a GUI toolkit. Thanks AC... whoever you are.:)
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Nope, not read any Ben Bova. I'm fairly new to sci-fi, having only starting reading anything other than non-fiction a few years ago. I'll check that series out- I'm always interested in hearing about books and series that are good. :)
With a book series so huge, there has to be a lot more worth while throughout 4000 pages than the ending. I agree that the ending was a bit weak- and abrupt. I think there area lot more things that could've been done, but I had derived so much enjoyment out rest of the book that I didn't feel jacked because something more flashy didn't happen in the end.
How is this supposed to be an OQO killer? Granted, I can't get through to the site- it's 'dotted. However, I've seen the specs as posted here, and to me- as a person who really wants an OQO bad- it doesn't look like it'd replace the OQO.
Mostly, this thing doesn't have a display. Or touch screen. Making it a portable computer, but not a palmtop. The OQO is cool for a number of reasons, but one of them is that it is a real and quite fast machine in the form factor of a PDA. Yet, it can be "converted" into a real desktop or real laptop using docking stations. With an OQO, you can slip it into the docking station and expand it with a new AGP video card or new PCI cards. This is just a low-lower mini-ATX board. Nothing that special, although I'm sure there are some folks who would find the V5 useful.
I mean, this Nimble thing doesn't even run on a battery. It is very portable, in that it's small enough to take your office machine to and from home, keeping monitor, keyboard, etc at each location.
The only thing I've seen that comes close to being an OQO killer- but is just as much vaporware- is the MCC, or the Mobile Computer Core. Like the OQO, you can slip it into a number of "docks," making it a PDA, a notebook, or a desktop. I'd rather have the MCC's PDA over an OQO because it has a bigger screen but without being too big, but such dreaming is worthless when no one will make one of these...
For those looking for some books to read this summer, check out Peter Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" "trilogy." In paperback, its actually 6 books- The Reality Dysfunction (Parts 1 and 2), the Neutronium Alchemist (Pts 1 and 2), and the Naked God (parts 1 and 2). The series probably totals about 4000 pages in paperback, and is really just one huge book. It'd do someone little good to read the first and give up.
However, do not be dismayed- it may be a huge read, but it is worth it. Hamilton's universe is vast and very detailed; a million subplots that aren't just filler.
It takes place in the 27th century; humanity is basically divided into two camps- Adamists and Edenists. Adamists are what most folks would think of as the natural progression of today's society; and Edenists are a group of commies that have a form of genetically-engineered telepathy (called "affinity") and rely on organic technology. Humanity really only knows of two other sentient species other than themselves. It sounded cheesy to me at first, but it is an amazing series. I only finished it 6 months ago, and I'm having to stop myself from reading it again...
if you're that hard up to show the world you're a big nerd, perhaps this is more up your alley. Pros? You can use a much more substantial PDA, enter text a lot faster, and get beat up much more often! :)
MS SPOT watches with GRPS internet connectivity? I may have missed something, but the articles I've seen about the new MS SPOT watches have nothign to do with GRPS. They get their data via the FM band, and it is one way. That is, the SPOT watch can recieve information about weather, stocks, etc, but it's not two way and it ain't GRPS. Story here.
Do you have any photos of these? None of the stories I read had any photos, just words.
I have to say I agree. Your PB and choco analogy is good, and what I was trying to thunk up. Perhaps the author is thinking we will move to wetware, maybe that we'll have semi-sentient biological computers doing our processing.
I'm an aspiring computational ecologist, majoring in biology, minoring in CS. (for the uninformed- ecology != environmentalism or anything of that sort) I'm in Minnesota, although at the other end of the state.
I don't think biology will rewrite CS. It will influence it, for sure, but there isn't anything fundamentally different between a biological solution and a technological one. I think as we learn more of the bigger picture in various biological fields, when we truly understand it, we will integrate that knowledge into applied CS. We've been reading the book for some time now, but we really don't know enough about the subject matter to really apply it.
I think there is a lot of use for biomimicry in computing. I think integration of biological elements into our computers is quite a bit far off and perhaps a bit sci-fi-ish for now, but taking ideas (algorithm would often be an understatement) that work well in biological systems and using them in computing is something we can do now with some success.
NeXTSTEP looks quite nice to me as well. A helluva lot different than Motif.
Plenty of newer NeXT boxes and white hardware running NeXTSTEP or OpenStep were color. Even for copies of NS/OS on b/w machines, NeXT still paid the Pantone color licenses. NeXT was a platform that did many things very well. And when your display is greyscale, you better have accurate colors when you're going to be printing. Heck, back then, a Pantone license was a good idea on a color monitor. Apple's ColorSync existed before the first NeXT cube was released, though.
And Motif was designed with Windows 3.x in mind. I don't think it's close enough to think of Motif as a knock-off, but there are similarities that make it a bit uncomfy.
You can get brand new, very functional PDAs for around $200 now a days. The Dell Axim PocketPC X5 is such a model- and unlike the POS device, can read MS LIT format, which the majority of for-sale ebooks are offered in (along with the Adobe EBook format- which isn't readable on *any* PDA).
.LIT to HTML on my work windoze machine. (the J720 is my only windows machine at home) Works like a charm, and could get you reading LIT-format books on pretty much any device.
I've read ebooks on my PDA for a while- starting on my Newton MP2100 and now my Jornada 720. The J720 runs vanilla Windows CE rather than PocketPC, and MS is dumb enough to have no MS LIT reader for their own platform. So, to read purchased ebooks, I use CLIT to convert from
You can also get various ebook-specific devices for cheap. At OfficeMax the otherday, I saw a FranklinBook man or something like it- it has a big screen and was on sale for $50. It can be used for playing MP3s and a bunch of PDA stuffs, but I imagine there aren't many apps out for it- but it is good for reading books. And since you can give it HTML, you can always just convert those LIT format books and pass it on...
I will be going on a 2 week trip to Europe next month, living out of a backpack. We have 2x128 MB CF cards for the camera, but those wouldn't hold all of the photos we plan on taking during the trip.
My solution? I happen to have a Jornada 720 PDA and a 2 GB PCMCIA drive for the machine. The plan is when a 128 MB card if filled up, to move the contents onto the 2 GB drive. The PCMCIA harddrives are the same as in the iPod. You can get them in sizes ranging from 2 GB (a measly $70) all the way up to 30 GB (around $450). The PDA itself can be had for $300-450, depending on some factors. However, this was a good solution because I already had the hardware- it doesn't seem like a good idea for someone starting from scratch.
But then again, spending $350 on the J720 and then $70 on the 2 GB PCMCIA drive makes a lot more sense than buying $650 (!!) worth of SD/CF cards as someone else recommended as being a reasonable solution. At a decent quality, this 2 GB PCMCIA drive holds at least 10k images. I plan on recharging while at hostels and the occasional hotel. I am considering getting a solar panel as well, but I've not yet decided.
Would be great for journaling on the trip as well- I know I'd like to document all of my adventures and thoughts if I were taking a trip around the whole world!
This is *much* cheaper than the same space in a IBM CF MicroDrive, CF or SD cards.
---
The other option that may make sense is buying a camera that uses media like mini-CD-R discs. My uncle has a fancy Sony digital camera that burns the photos he takes on to the 3" CD-R disks. It was an expensive camera, but it takes awesome photos and wouldn't require a computer or a slew of expensive media like SD or CF cards.
I just looked it up, and you can get them cheaper than before. I remember my uncle paying $1000 for his fancy-pants CD-R burning Mavica, but it looks like you can get a camera which does that now for quite a bit cheaper.
The $500 MVC-CD350 and the $700 MVC-CD500 look like decent models. Definately seems to make more sense to pick up one of these rather than buying $700 worth in SD/CF media!
Umm, why would MS cutting off Office make Apple release OS X for x86? They wouldn't gain much by it, they'd likely end up fucking themselves over. Or, do you think that magically, OS X for x86 would take over all the Windows installations? As if. Most people would stick with Windows. Because idiots like what they're used to.
yes, java emacs. but gosling emacs real emacs. hell, i'm sure gosling emacs efuns AND gosling emacs efuns. i mean, this is gosling- at least NeWS was a good idea. :)
You got me there! Come to think of it, I have seen drivers for DOS written in QBasic and QuickBasic (similar but different BASIC products both by MS). :) I guess I should say that it isn't impossible, but QBasic doesn't have the support for calling C/C++ libraries built-in in the same way many Pascal implementations do.
You can get libraries for various Pascal dialects for using real databases, not goofy homemade flat file jobbies- various SQL, even ODBC. Heck, from some Pascal implementations, you have access to all the stuff you can get through COM+, which is a lot, at least on Windows.
No, Turbo Pascal 2.0 can't do all of this. But you wouldn't use an old C compiler as the basis for comparison either.
Read what I said in my post, the one you replied to. I talked about Pascal being a language just about as capable as C++, C or Java *not* QBasic. It's easy to hook up Pascal to modern C or C++ libraries, in QBasic it is not. Heck, it may be impossible.
I don't know about you man, but I got my start in BASIC on my Radio Shack PC-3, handheld computer. That was the bomb. And then GWBasic- QBasic wasn't out when I learned BASIC. What are you, 14? :P
Why? Pascal isn't a toy language. It's been used for real work and real applications often within real companies for a long time.
I wouldn't say QBasic is a toy either, but it's certainly not as useful as it was in the days most folks with a PC ran DOS console apps. Pascal, on the other hand, has kept up with the times as far as libraries and the like. You can write full-own GUI apps that use the OS's native GUI library.
Yes, I know you noted that Pascal was in another league, but in a way to imply that Pascal is still below the likes of C. It may not be as popular, but it's just as powerful.
(No, I'm not a Pascal user myself, not anymore.)
While I'm not a fan of PalmOS for my PDA, I think the PalmOS would make a better platform for programming games than do most consoles. I mean, if Sony wants me to spend $200 on a portable console, it better be pretty damn powerful- a lot more than my GBA. There's no reason you couldn't have a 100-200 MHz ARM-based PDA and gaming machine that went for $200, with a decent dpad/button configuration.
After all, that other company is doing it with the Helix. I don't think they've released the specs on the POS device they will be using, but never fear- if they pull it off, you will have a combo PalmOS/Gaming device eventually. But Sony could pull it off- and they'd have a much higher chance of succeeding than this new outfit making the Helix.
They also call the GameCube "toy-like," so that too must just be for kids. That must be why the GC is cheaper than the PS2 (although the difference ain't what it used to be)- the PS2 is a real man's tool, while the GC is for wee chilluns. Thanks for explaining that Sony!
(and I bet this kind of bullshit works on a lot of people. Esp dumb meatheads.)
Heh. That's exactly what I thought when I saw this story. The NGage is another case of one device that does a few things in a mediocre way.
:P
The GBA does what it does damn well. There are cell phones which do a good job of that too. It is certainly possible to create a device which is the convergence of a cell phone, game device and cell phone- but this isn't that device.
I have a GBA, but I regret getting it just a little. The kinds of games I play most often I can get both on my PDA and my GBA- Snood mostly. But there are a lot of other fun games for which I love my GBA- Zelda, Mario Kart,
Come to think of it, most of my regret is that I bought the GBA version of Snood rather than spending that money on the PocketPC version.
No, I wouldn't whip out my GBA while out with my friends on a Friday night. But then again, I wouldn't bring my GBA with me unless I was going to be gaming some for sure. When I'm out with my friends, I'll often bring my PDA with me, but rarely take it out for a small distraction. I mean, why bother going out with your friends?
good one. Geothermal energy would be great for machines or humanity. But with geothermal, why bother with people anymore, other than for amusement?
All the folks in the Matrix are being fed human goo? I had wondered about that. Even if dead human puree is on the menu, the system would still break down, energetically. With machines expending energy, there needs to be some input on the basic level, the difference between the (total calories of human goo in first generation - total calories expended by machines during next generation)
Unless, the machines only need a relatively small amount of people to power the matrix, and so far they've not run out of 6-billion+ human-gooage, doing a good job at rationing it over the years while they look for a mean of primary production.. Eventually they will need it- energy from the sun- in form of solar panels or plants.
While newer MS systems will have WSH, older systems don't necessarily..
Nope, Windows 95 doesn't. However, if you are supporting a really old machine like this, you can simply have the user install it- it's nothing complicated. If they're already installing the PerlScript runtime especially, it's not that big of a deal...
I don't know about ladies, but there is this one for men...
Interesting! I've never heard of this. I use Windows at work, but Mac OS X or some other Unix at home, and I really know little about Windows specific development. With this and PerlScript, I could create happy little apps for work that distibute easily, are small, and can run with the base ActivePerl install- no need to get a GUI toolkit. Thanks AC... whoever you are. :)