Umm, also note that it was day.month.year- *periods* not slashes. According to worldwide standards, a period as a delineator denotes that it is in that format. Some folks will write the European format with slashes as well.
I am not sure why we americans use our silly middle-endian format. Seems to me little-to-big or big-to-little (like the Japanese with 2003-10-24) makes more sense than middle-little-big.
Isn't it great when some schmuck thinks he's coming up with a great joke? Ooooh, Aexia managed to make a dis on Slashdot's editing. Slashdot's mistakes are so few and far between that we can all just ignore that this one was just plain incorrect.:)
Re:Different markets.
on
YOPY Arrives
·
· Score: 1
Oh, and I forgot to mention- I love my little Jornada 720. Screw a 1 GB microdrive- they're overpriced and don't hold much compared to the options I have with the J720. Thanks to its PCMCIA slot, I have a 2 GB PCMCIA harddrive which only cost $80. The same kind of drive as is found in the iPod. If I was willing to shell out that kind of dough, I could easily get 30 GB of storage for my PDA.:)
Re:Printer drivers can be very light
on
YOPY Arrives
·
· Score: 1
Some PDA makers do provide printer support.
WindowsCE includes the ability to print from the device. Note, however, that this is taken out in PocketPC (along with some other features in vanilla WinCE 3). However, my Jornada 720 and other Handheld PC 2000 and vanilla WinCE devices can print via the network or IR.
My Newton 2100 also has printer drivers for a handful of printers. As did older Newtons. Another thing the Newton did well, but almost everyone else seems to have dropped the ball on...
Likewise, I'm tired of your brand of ignorance. The Zaurus has little in the way of software. No matter how many half-assed apps are listed on ZSI, there is little in the way of good apps. There are definately some gems (Konq and Opera come to mind), but for the most part, the state of software on the Z is pretty sad.
Yes, you can run just about any app from Debian ARM, but what does that get you in the way of useful PDA apps? Nothing. Your argument wouldn't be so bad if the Z had a bigger screen and ran X by default. Yes, you can run X under or instead of Qtopia... but what good is running most X11 apps on a 320x240 screen!
Oh, the power Linux and the ignorant zealouty of some of its users...
Re:Different markets.
on
YOPY Arrives
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The whole PMT vs PDA thing is bullshit. It's something Zaurus users use to help rationalize the fact that they've spent a boatload of money on a PDA that has a very poor screen and even worse battery life and very little software selection.
You, and countless others on Slashdot, have talked about all the fun little LUG and show-the-boss demos you can do on the Zaurus. Guess what? Pretty much all of them work on WinCE and also PocketPC (which is a superset of WinCE).
Yes, on Windows CE you can do SSH. Telnet. X11 (using Xfree86 no less). You can program in Perl (perl/tk even), Python, Ruby, Squeak Smalltalk, and Tcl/Tk, among plenty of others. You can do rdesktop. VNC. You can play oggs and mpegs. War driving and wifi monitoring. Hell, on my Jornada 720, I do all of this stuff. I also use it for writing all of my papers in LaTeX.
Unlike the SL-5x00 or even the SL-C7x0 Zaurii, the J72x's keyboard is actually useful for more than a thumboard. The C700 has a keyboard which looks like something you may be able to touch-type on, but it's not. It's a little larger than the kb on the SL-5x00, but not much better. On the J720, I type almost as fast as I do on the desktop, which is a huge positive. On other PDAs- the Axim or the Newton 2100- I have real handwriting recognition. The Zaurus and its goofy thumboard wouldn't be so bad if you could get some form of HWR or even semi-decent character recognition, but there isn't any to be had.
I've owned a Zaurus. After a month, I sold it. My problem is probably that I've actually used other PDAs before getting the Zaurus. I went in expecting something that didn't suck quite that hard. I wasn't expecting something that was as useful as a NewtonOS, WinCE or PalmOS PDA, but something that wasn't as bad as it as.
The biggest surprise when I tried to switch to the Zaurus is the software. One can find a lot more *adapted* Unix/Linux software for Windows CE than you do for the Zaurus. With the Zaurus, you can compile anything pretty easily out of the box; but what use is that when it's a huge PITA to use? I never once found any nice integrated package for doing LaTeX and a lot of other things on the Zaurus.
If the Zaurus is a "PMT" because it is only good at doing some admin-ney things, and PalmOS devices are "PDAs" because they do the PIM stuff well, what are WinCE devices? PDMT?
The only thing I wish I had on my WinCE Jornada 720 that the Zaurus has is Opera 6. It's a sweet browser. The Jornada 720 has IE and NetFront, which are both pretty good, but Opera on the Zaurus was fast and nice.
And for those with PocketPC experience who are about to reply saying "PocketIE blows!" Don't bother. PIE for PocketPC 2k and 2002 does blow. It (literally) has the feature set of IE 3, with a couple things like SSL added on. Internet Explorer for vanilla-WinCE and Handheld PC 2000 on the other hand has a feature set like IE 4.5 and 5. Except it's not as flaky, spazzy or bloated as its desktop counterpart. (thank "Bob!")
Re:Bit pricy still - but competitive for it's mark
on
YOPY Arrives
·
· Score: 1
cool idea, but cut the price in 1/2 for the same cash I can get a SL-5600 with twice the processor speed.
You were correct in saying that you can get a SL-5500 for $200. However, you cannot get a SL-5600 for $200. They are quite a bit more expensive. Most places still have it for $500, although you can get it a little cheaper elsewhere.
Also, the 400 MHz XScale PXA250 found in the SL-5600 isn't twice as fast as the 206 MHz StrongARM in the SL-5500, the Yopy, or the iPAQ 3x00. Please read some of the stuff around before you go around making such blantantly incorrect statements. The PXA250 at 400 MHz is about the *same* speed as a SA-1100 at 206 MHz, on Linux *and* Windows CE. With the SL-5600, you pay more than twice as much than the SL-5500 for a better RAM config, better battery life (though the XScale, which uses less battery life and a bigger battery) and a bigger number on the CPU speed.
The Zaurus is also a cool idea that just hasn't worked out. Most anyone who has used another PDA for anything other than showing off at a LUG meeting finds the Zaurus to be very lacking in software. The built-in PIM apps suck, there is no real HWR (and the char recog is slower than molasses), the screen is utterly unacceptable (on the SL-5x00 models), and the battery life on the 5500 is utter shite. But it's Linux, and that seems to be enough for some people. Call me crazy, but I gave up on liking something only because it was Linux a long time ago, but I'll happily use it on the PDA again when it doesn't suck so bad.
First, PocketPC 2k and 2002 is Windows CE 3.0, with some exta software. The core OS is the same.
Second, WinCE has been pretty stable for me. Granted, I'm not running this crashy ticketing app. The only experience I have with WinCE is using it as a computer (not just a PIM) on various small computers, PDA sized devices. That is, I use my Jornada 720 and Axim for programming in Smalltalk perl/tk (not just writing code, testing it as well), writing papers in LaTeX, email, telnet/ssh, web browsing, and other stuff. While WinCE hasn't been rock solid, it's been quite a bit more stable for me than any Win95 or 98 installation has been. Which doesn't say much, granted, but it's also been more stable than Linux has been on the PDA for me.
A month and a half ago, I bought a Zaurus SL-5500, which runs Linux. I had to reboot it far more than I have any WinCE or Newton OS PDA I've ever owned. So much for Linux's reliability... Should we extrapolate that this applies to all places Linux is applied?
I'm a Mac user at home, but at work its Windows. At least in the Windows version of Dreamweaver, DW checks to see if the file has been touched outside of Dreamweaver. There isn't integration with an external editor, but it works on the assumption you may need one. I'll have a file open in Dreamweaver and the same file open in emacs or jedit at the same time. I'll make a change to it in emacs/jedit. When I click on DW, it noticed its been edited outside of DW, and asks if I should reload. It'd be nicer if I could check a box to make it assuem that the external edit was intentional, and to load the new version when I switch back to dreamweaver...
I blame it on Lucas not having Joseph Cambell on as mythological advisor. Cambell is responsible for adding a lot of what makes the original trilogy so damned great- a well thought out myth story that speaks to the most basic of archetypes. Joe is dead, and wasn't on hand to help with Episodes I or II and certainly not III.
I wish Joe was around to advise Lucas on the new Star Wars episodes- I and II are fun, but don't have the same pull as something like the OT. A big part of that is a lack of a cohesive mythology, which someone like Joseph provided.
I don't know if there are any Live distros for the Mac anymore... There used to be a version for LinuxPPC though, a release or two their most current release (which isn't all that current anyway). I am not sure if it was on a bootable CD- I think it was a 100-200 MB file you downloaded and double clicked "Boot LinuxPPC Live" and bam, you were in. No need for a CD, although that was prolly doable too.
The poster isn't asking about Linux in general on Mac hardware- read it again. The poster is asking about a *live* distro for the Mac. If you don't know what a live CD distro is, it's the kind where you toss in a CD, and it boots a full Linux install. Sets up a RAM disk, perhaps a folder on your Mac OS HFS+ or Windows harddrive and is a usable system without having to do an install. Examples are Knoppix- like he mentioned, or DemoLinux.
Surprise! Such a service does exist, and at the prices I mentioned. $10/month for tethered downloads plus $1/song you want to keep. It's MusicNow, and I saw it listed in a BusinessWeek story linked to from pressplay's website.
Sure you could have both... If one company provided both in one package, there'd probably be $10/month sub fee, then $1/song if you wanted to "convert "it to a sold song. This price may change as they found people were doing more conversions fo owned songs or doing more rentals. No reason you can't subscribe to a service like this one, and buy the song from someone like Apple, freeing up 'space' in your queue (if there is such a thing) in the rental service, while owning a real copy which you can burn or copy to multiple devices.
For $10/month, who do you get? How many songs or albums? What format are the downloads in? Do you get to *keep* the downloads? Any DRM?
It looks like MP3s. Which is good. Is it all really just encoded at 128 though? Any option to get something better?
After reading your claim about finding a lot of stuff, I checked for a bunch of industrial crapola I've always wanted. It had a bunch of it, although no Skinny Puppy.
I was never into PC games, but a console fulfills the same part in my life for me. I play a fair amount of GameCube and N64 games, and they work well on that. I've gamed on the PC just enough to not want to put up with the hassle.
Python certainly isn't the first semi-mainstream language to provide higher-order features. Smalltalk has been around in one form or another for 30 years. Smalltalk may not be the flavor-of-the-day like Python, but it's a proven, mature system which probably has been used for more 'mission-critical' systems at businesses than Python. As Python mature and Smalltalk evolves into something else, this is bound to change.
Anywho, Perl has more users than Python, has been around for longer and boasts the same higher order techniques and advanced types that support FP well.
Not that I'm telling you to switch to Perl or Smalltalk- everyone has their preference.
I stumbled on to Python 6 years ago and was seriously impressed. A year and a half or two after that I found Squeak Smalltalk and was utterly blown away. Contained all of the stuff I liked about Python, but had more of it! Utter simplicity and total consistency. A hacker's dream- you can change anything about the Smalltalk system within the system itself. Want to experiment with changing the way the language works? No need to drop down to C as you would with Python.
If you like Python or Ruby and have an open mind, it's definately worth checking out Smalltalk. If you'd like to try out an implementation that has good Unix integration, check out GNU Smalltalk; if you'd like to try an implementation that takes computing to the next level with a truly innovative GUI toolkit, check out Squeak. Both are open source, naturally.
I suggest the open mind because Smalltalk isn't Java. It isn't C++. Even Python can look like legacy compared to Smalltalk sometimes. Just like an old C hacker or C++ fan needs an open mind to be able to look at Python without immediately dismissing it because it doesn't look like C/C++/Java, a Python or Ruby user must keep her mind open when looking at Smalltalk for the same reason.
For those interested in trying out an open source Smalltalk that has access to all the.NET libraries and compiles to IL, check out #Smalltalk. And no, nothing was sacrificed to run Smalltalk on.NET as is done with some.NET languages. The #S developers implemented what the CLR didn't support, and made sure it still worked sensibly with.NET. A good example of how new languages on the.NET CLR don't have to just be "syntax skins."
I can't say I'm too pumped about Doom 3. I play UT or Q2 or Q3 on that machine or my iBook (with a ATI Rage 128!) every once in a great while and it's good enough. By the time all the folks at LAN parties stop playing Q3 or UT (probably with Doom3!), I won't even feel like playing occasionally.:)
There was never any drives for storing data on MiniDiscs. However, I do agree it wouldn't been perfect- how great would it be to have a re-recordable disc like that which could do MP3s and other files and audio? I'm not sure how much a MD would've held in data- a MD holds 72 minutes of compressed music. It's a lossy compression that degrades over time with successive digital copies. You could probably only get 100-200 MB of data on the MD to reliably retrieve and copy.
The closest things that I've seen for storing data on MDs was a SCSI drive for directly ripping and burning the audio from and to a MD. One could use some conversion or stenography scheme to make your data into some audio format the MD would believe. Reconsitute on the other end. Mmm, mmm, good. This would probably decrease the data capacity a fair amount, though.
The GC discs aren't quite just 3" DVDs. It's pretty much that, except the data is read from the outside in, rather than the inside out. A smart copy protection measure that has been the only one to hold up in current and last generations' disc-based gaming systems.
I was in Germany on an exchange trip 6 or so years ago, and my host family had taken me to a botanic garden where they had a speciment of this species. I was totally bummed- I had finished flowering before I saw it, and was all wilted and dead-looking.
Even dead it was surreal, the sheer size of it. The size of the pot, the size of the dead leaves... it was rad.
Ok, I admit it, I'm a plant nerd. I've always been interested in plants, be it plant population ecology or ethnobotany or the care and feeding of entheogenic plants. Now a days I'm an aspiring computational ecologist. So yeah, I'm a sucker for this stuff.
I definately agree that Newton OS's real HWR is much better when used on a big screen- I used an MP2100 for 4 years as a PDA (schedule and all of my college lecture notes) and portable computer (telnet, irc, web, LaTeX) and then switched to an iPAQ 3150 for the development of Dynapad. On the iPAQ I used CalliGrapher, which is actually shares a common ancestor as the print recognizer in Newton OS. That is, they were both derived from the old CalliGrapher. CalliGrapher is really nice, and available on any WinCE or PocketPC PDA. I use it these days on my Dell Axim and the Jornada 720 (although not often, it has a real keyboard [not a thumboard]).
I'm certainly not as efficient writing on such a tiny screen, often only getting one word on each line, after getting used to it, I now get similar WPM as I did on the luxurious Newton screen- 40-50 WPM. A helluva lot better than I can do on any thumboard, especially on the Zaurus SL-5x00's (which is crappy)... but the masses have never cared about results. They have always wanted something else, something that I don't have a word, phrase or name for. Thumboards are part of this, and most people think that they can type fast on a thumboard just because it is a type of keyboard.
for those jonsin' to read a review that isn't slashdotted (yet), brighthand has one.
gotta admit that the backlit keyboard is sweet- something i've not seen on any Psion, Linux or WinCE keyboarded PDA.
now for the question:
Does this model have Graffiti 2, or is that only in the brand-new PalmOS 5.2.1? Graf 2 can be used without a stinkin graffiti area, which would be much better for something like this, considering its screen size.
Slashdot Mirror
neither does Japan, and possibly other Asian countries, although I do not know which ones in particular. Japan has traditionally used CCYY-MM-DD.
Umm, also note that it was day.month.year- *periods* not slashes. According to worldwide standards, a period as a delineator denotes that it is in that format. Some folks will write the European format with slashes as well.
:)
I am not sure why we americans use our silly middle-endian format. Seems to me little-to-big or big-to-little (like the Japanese with 2003-10-24) makes more sense than middle-little-big.
Isn't it great when some schmuck thinks he's coming up with a great joke? Ooooh, Aexia managed to make a dis on Slashdot's editing. Slashdot's mistakes are so few and far between that we can all just ignore that this one was just plain incorrect.
Oh, and I forgot to mention- I love my little Jornada 720. Screw a 1 GB microdrive- they're overpriced and don't hold much compared to the options I have with the J720. Thanks to its PCMCIA slot, I have a 2 GB PCMCIA harddrive which only cost $80. The same kind of drive as is found in the iPod. If I was willing to shell out that kind of dough, I could easily get 30 GB of storage for my PDA. :)
Some PDA makers do provide printer support.
WindowsCE includes the ability to print from the device. Note, however, that this is taken out in PocketPC (along with some other features in vanilla WinCE 3). However, my Jornada 720 and other Handheld PC 2000 and vanilla WinCE devices can print via the network or IR.
My Newton 2100 also has printer drivers for a handful of printers. As did older Newtons. Another thing the Newton did well, but almost everyone else seems to have dropped the ball on...
Likewise, I'm tired of your brand of ignorance. The Zaurus has little in the way of software. No matter how many half-assed apps are listed on ZSI, there is little in the way of good apps. There are definately some gems (Konq and Opera come to mind), but for the most part, the state of software on the Z is pretty sad.
Yes, you can run just about any app from Debian ARM, but what does that get you in the way of useful PDA apps? Nothing. Your argument wouldn't be so bad if the Z had a bigger screen and ran X by default. Yes, you can run X under or instead of Qtopia... but what good is running most X11 apps on a 320x240 screen!
Oh, the power Linux and the ignorant zealouty of some of its users...
The whole PMT vs PDA thing is bullshit. It's something Zaurus users use to help rationalize the fact that they've spent a boatload of money on a PDA that has a very poor screen and even worse battery life and very little software selection.
You, and countless others on Slashdot, have talked about all the fun little LUG and show-the-boss demos you can do on the Zaurus. Guess what? Pretty much all of them work on WinCE and also PocketPC (which is a superset of WinCE).
Yes, on Windows CE you can do SSH. Telnet. X11 (using Xfree86 no less). You can program in Perl (perl/tk even), Python, Ruby, Squeak Smalltalk, and Tcl/Tk, among plenty of others. You can do rdesktop. VNC. You can play oggs and mpegs. War driving and wifi monitoring. Hell, on my Jornada 720, I do all of this stuff. I also use it for writing all of my papers in LaTeX.
Unlike the SL-5x00 or even the SL-C7x0 Zaurii, the J72x's keyboard is actually useful for more than a thumboard. The C700 has a keyboard which looks like something you may be able to touch-type on, but it's not. It's a little larger than the kb on the SL-5x00, but not much better. On the J720, I type almost as fast as I do on the desktop, which is a huge positive. On other PDAs- the Axim or the Newton 2100- I have real handwriting recognition. The Zaurus and its goofy thumboard wouldn't be so bad if you could get some form of HWR or even semi-decent character recognition, but there isn't any to be had.
I've owned a Zaurus. After a month, I sold it. My problem is probably that I've actually used other PDAs before getting the Zaurus. I went in expecting something that didn't suck quite that hard. I wasn't expecting something that was as useful as a NewtonOS, WinCE or PalmOS PDA, but something that wasn't as bad as it as.
The biggest surprise when I tried to switch to the Zaurus is the software. One can find a lot more *adapted* Unix/Linux software for Windows CE than you do for the Zaurus. With the Zaurus, you can compile anything pretty easily out of the box; but what use is that when it's a huge PITA to use? I never once found any nice integrated package for doing LaTeX and a lot of other things on the Zaurus.
If the Zaurus is a "PMT" because it is only good at doing some admin-ney things, and PalmOS devices are "PDAs" because they do the PIM stuff well, what are WinCE devices? PDMT?
The only thing I wish I had on my WinCE Jornada 720 that the Zaurus has is Opera 6. It's a sweet browser. The Jornada 720 has IE and NetFront, which are both pretty good, but Opera on the Zaurus was fast and nice.
And for those with PocketPC experience who are about to reply saying "PocketIE blows!" Don't bother. PIE for PocketPC 2k and 2002 does blow. It (literally) has the feature set of IE 3, with a couple things like SSL added on. Internet Explorer for vanilla-WinCE and Handheld PC 2000 on the other hand has a feature set like IE 4.5 and 5. Except it's not as flaky, spazzy or bloated as its desktop counterpart. (thank "Bob!")
cool idea, but cut the price in 1/2 for the same cash I can get a SL-5600 with twice the processor speed.
You were correct in saying that you can get a SL-5500 for $200. However, you cannot get a SL-5600 for $200. They are quite a bit more expensive. Most places still have it for $500, although you can get it a little cheaper elsewhere.
Also, the 400 MHz XScale PXA250 found in the SL-5600 isn't twice as fast as the 206 MHz StrongARM in the SL-5500, the Yopy, or the iPAQ 3x00. Please read some of the stuff around before you go around making such blantantly incorrect statements. The PXA250 at 400 MHz is about the *same* speed as a SA-1100 at 206 MHz, on Linux *and* Windows CE. With the SL-5600, you pay more than twice as much than the SL-5500 for a better RAM config, better battery life (though the XScale, which uses less battery life and a bigger battery) and a bigger number on the CPU speed.
The Zaurus is also a cool idea that just hasn't worked out. Most anyone who has used another PDA for anything other than showing off at a LUG meeting finds the Zaurus to be very lacking in software. The built-in PIM apps suck, there is no real HWR (and the char recog is slower than molasses), the screen is utterly unacceptable (on the SL-5x00 models), and the battery life on the 5500 is utter shite. But it's Linux, and that seems to be enough for some people. Call me crazy, but I gave up on liking something only because it was Linux a long time ago, but I'll happily use it on the PDA again when it doesn't suck so bad.
First, PocketPC 2k and 2002 is Windows CE 3.0, with some exta software. The core OS is the same.
Second, WinCE has been pretty stable for me. Granted, I'm not running this crashy ticketing app. The only experience I have with WinCE is using it as a computer (not just a PIM) on various small computers, PDA sized devices. That is, I use my Jornada 720 and Axim for programming in Smalltalk perl/tk (not just writing code, testing it as well), writing papers in LaTeX, email, telnet/ssh, web browsing, and other stuff. While WinCE hasn't been rock solid, it's been quite a bit more stable for me than any Win95 or 98 installation has been. Which doesn't say much, granted, but it's also been more stable than Linux has been on the PDA for me.
A month and a half ago, I bought a Zaurus SL-5500, which runs Linux. I had to reboot it far more than I have any WinCE or Newton OS PDA I've ever owned. So much for Linux's reliability... Should we extrapolate that this applies to all places Linux is applied?
I'm a Mac user at home, but at work its Windows. At least in the Windows version of Dreamweaver, DW checks to see if the file has been touched outside of Dreamweaver. There isn't integration with an external editor, but it works on the assumption you may need one. I'll have a file open in Dreamweaver and the same file open in emacs or jedit at the same time. I'll make a change to it in emacs/jedit. When I click on DW, it noticed its been edited outside of DW, and asks if I should reload. It'd be nicer if I could check a box to make it assuem that the external edit was intentional, and to load the new version when I switch back to dreamweaver...
I blame it on Lucas not having Joseph Cambell on as mythological advisor. Cambell is responsible for adding a lot of what makes the original trilogy so damned great- a well thought out myth story that speaks to the most basic of archetypes. Joe is dead, and wasn't on hand to help with Episodes I or II and certainly not III.
I wish Joe was around to advise Lucas on the new Star Wars episodes- I and II are fun, but don't have the same pull as something like the OT. A big part of that is a lack of a cohesive mythology, which someone like Joseph provided.
I don't know if there are any Live distros for the Mac anymore... There used to be a version for LinuxPPC though, a release or two their most current release (which isn't all that current anyway). I am not sure if it was on a bootable CD- I think it was a 100-200 MB file you downloaded and double clicked "Boot LinuxPPC Live" and bam, you were in. No need for a CD, although that was prolly doable too.
The poster isn't asking about Linux in general on Mac hardware- read it again. The poster is asking about a *live* distro for the Mac. If you don't know what a live CD distro is, it's the kind where you toss in a CD, and it boots a full Linux install. Sets up a RAM disk, perhaps a folder on your Mac OS HFS+ or Windows harddrive and is a usable system without having to do an install. Examples are Knoppix- like he mentioned, or DemoLinux.
Surprise! Such a service does exist, and at the prices I mentioned. $10/month for tethered downloads plus $1/song you want to keep. It's MusicNow, and I saw it listed in a BusinessWeek story linked to from pressplay's website.
Sure you could have both... If one company provided both in one package, there'd probably be $10/month sub fee, then $1/song if you wanted to "convert "it to a sold song. This price may change as they found people were doing more conversions fo owned songs or doing more rentals. No reason you can't subscribe to a service like this one, and buy the song from someone like Apple, freeing up 'space' in your queue (if there is such a thing) in the rental service, while owning a real copy which you can burn or copy to multiple devices.
For $10/month, who do you get? How many songs or albums? What format are the downloads in? Do you get to *keep* the downloads? Any DRM?
It looks like MP3s. Which is good. Is it all really just encoded at 128 though? Any option to get something better?
After reading your claim about finding a lot of stuff, I checked for a bunch of industrial crapola I've always wanted. It had a bunch of it, although no Skinny Puppy.
I was never into PC games, but a console fulfills the same part in my life for me. I play a fair amount of GameCube and N64 games, and they work well on that. I've gamed on the PC just enough to not want to put up with the hassle.
Python certainly isn't the first semi-mainstream language to provide higher-order features. Smalltalk has been around in one form or another for 30 years. Smalltalk may not be the flavor-of-the-day like Python, but it's a proven, mature system which probably has been used for more 'mission-critical' systems at businesses than Python. As Python mature and Smalltalk evolves into something else, this is bound to change.
.NET libraries and compiles to IL, check out #Smalltalk. And no, nothing was sacrificed to run Smalltalk on .NET as is done with some .NET languages. The #S developers implemented what the CLR didn't support, and made sure it still worked sensibly with .NET. A good example of how new languages on the .NET CLR don't have to just be "syntax skins."
Anywho, Perl has more users than Python, has been around for longer and boasts the same higher order techniques and advanced types that support FP well.
Not that I'm telling you to switch to Perl or Smalltalk- everyone has their preference.
I stumbled on to Python 6 years ago and was seriously impressed. A year and a half or two after that I found Squeak Smalltalk and was utterly blown away. Contained all of the stuff I liked about Python, but had more of it! Utter simplicity and total consistency. A hacker's dream- you can change anything about the Smalltalk system within the system itself. Want to experiment with changing the way the language works? No need to drop down to C as you would with Python.
If you like Python or Ruby and have an open mind, it's definately worth checking out Smalltalk. If you'd like to try out an implementation that has good Unix integration, check out GNU Smalltalk; if you'd like to try an implementation that takes computing to the next level with a truly innovative GUI toolkit, check out Squeak. Both are open source, naturally.
I suggest the open mind because Smalltalk isn't Java. It isn't C++. Even Python can look like legacy compared to Smalltalk sometimes. Just like an old C hacker or C++ fan needs an open mind to be able to look at Python without immediately dismissing it because it doesn't look like C/C++/Java, a Python or Ruby user must keep her mind open when looking at Smalltalk for the same reason.
For those interested in trying out an open source Smalltalk that has access to all the
I can't say I'm too pumped about Doom 3. I play UT or Q2 or Q3 on that machine or my iBook (with a ATI Rage 128!) every once in a great while and it's good enough. By the time all the folks at LAN parties stop playing Q3 or UT (probably with Doom3!), I won't even feel like playing occasionally. :)
Why the Sam Hill should I buy ANOTHER new card when there's simply no compelling reason to upgrade?
You shouldn't.
I've found no compelling reason to upgrade past my Voodoo 3 and TNT1, so I haven't. And I don't forsee doing so any time soon. Or perhaps ever.
Yup, it does.
There was never any drives for storing data on MiniDiscs. However, I do agree it wouldn't been perfect- how great would it be to have a re-recordable disc like that which could do MP3s and other files and audio? I'm not sure how much a MD would've held in data- a MD holds 72 minutes of compressed music. It's a lossy compression that degrades over time with successive digital copies. You could probably only get 100-200 MB of data on the MD to reliably retrieve and copy.
The closest things that I've seen for storing data on MDs was a SCSI drive for directly ripping and burning the audio from and to a MD. One could use some conversion or stenography scheme to make your data into some audio format the MD would believe. Reconsitute on the other end. Mmm, mmm, good. This would probably decrease the data capacity a fair amount, though.
The GC discs aren't quite just 3" DVDs. It's pretty much that, except the data is read from the outside in, rather than the inside out. A smart copy protection measure that has been the only one to hold up in current and last generations' disc-based gaming systems.
I was in Germany on an exchange trip 6 or so years ago, and my host family had taken me to a botanic garden where they had a speciment of this species. I was totally bummed- I had finished flowering before I saw it, and was all wilted and dead-looking.
Even dead it was surreal, the sheer size of it. The size of the pot, the size of the dead leaves... it was rad.
Ok, I admit it, I'm a plant nerd. I've always been interested in plants, be it plant population ecology or ethnobotany or the care and feeding of entheogenic plants. Now a days I'm an aspiring computational ecologist. So yeah, I'm a sucker for this stuff.
I definately agree that Newton OS's real HWR is much better when used on a big screen- I used an MP2100 for 4 years as a PDA (schedule and all of my college lecture notes) and portable computer (telnet, irc, web, LaTeX) and then switched to an iPAQ 3150 for the development of Dynapad. On the iPAQ I used CalliGrapher, which is actually shares a common ancestor as the print recognizer in Newton OS. That is, they were both derived from the old CalliGrapher. CalliGrapher is really nice, and available on any WinCE or PocketPC PDA. I use it these days on my Dell Axim and the Jornada 720 (although not often, it has a real keyboard [not a thumboard]).
I'm certainly not as efficient writing on such a tiny screen, often only getting one word on each line, after getting used to it, I now get similar WPM as I did on the luxurious Newton screen- 40-50 WPM. A helluva lot better than I can do on any thumboard, especially on the Zaurus SL-5x00's (which is crappy)... but the masses have never cared about results. They have always wanted something else, something that I don't have a word, phrase or name for. Thumboards are part of this, and most people think that they can type fast on a thumboard just because it is a type of keyboard.
for those jonsin' to read a review that isn't slashdotted (yet), brighthand has one.
gotta admit that the backlit keyboard is sweet- something i've not seen on any Psion, Linux or WinCE keyboarded PDA.
now for the question:
Does this model have Graffiti 2, or is that only in the brand-new PalmOS 5.2.1? Graf 2 can be used without a stinkin graffiti area, which would be much better for something like this, considering its screen size.