At least on the OS front, all of the companies (including Apple) have taken the easy way out...
Looking at the usability, and yes, sales, of Windows Tablet PCs, it wasn't rocket science to figure out that existing OS's just weren't going to work. They just weren't designed for touch, and add-on hack to try and accommodate it were clunky at best.
Given the expense and size limitations of decent touch sensitive screens, and the increasing muscle available to smart phones, they were a natural place to build a touch based OS. Because of the limitations of the phne platform (again, processor, memory, etc. but also the appliance aspect of the devices, not to mention vendor locks...) The OS for a phone could also be much more limited in its' capabilities while still being well ahead of the curve.
Apple, taking the easy way out, used their phone OS on the iPad. The iPhone OS is polished, capable and elegent enough that they can get away with it for a while... But in doing so they are more or less ignoring the fact that the iPad is not the same type of device as a phone or iPod.
Of course, since Apple is getting all of the attention, all of the praise, and all of the sales and profits (the important parts)... everyone else is thinking that they should use a phone OS for their competing tablets also.
It is a stopgap, at best. Someone needs to take the time, do the research, and do the work to write an OS for these devices instead of trying to patchwork add and remove bits and pieces of systems clearly designed for other purposes.
I think it depends on expectations. Most of the time, I could care less what the food looks like. Presentation plays absolutely no role in 99% of the food I eat. If things like atmosphere and occasion are the primary reasons I am eating.. then sure, make it look pretty.
Also, a minor quibble, but you generally can smell food (cooking or being served) long before being able to see the food. Ever been walking through the mall and smelled the cinnabon? From 10 stores away?
Of course, the sight and smell are reasons I can't stand any kind of seafood, long before the taste hits my palate and informs me I should have known better than to believe the jackass who swears that this kind of fish, cooked in this particular way doesn't taste fishy...
Again, this proves just how utterly clueless judges (and politicans) are of how the Internet actually works.
Uh, which part actually proves that? Actually:
The part where anyone that wants to can just connect to isohunt through a proxy, or that 2000 other sites both better and worse have/will pop up to replace it.
The MPAA seems to be following the same tactics (kindof, bear with me) cops use to try and stop drug use... Tell everyone to just say no and try to marginalize users as criminals and undesirables... Start ramping up penalties for small users, then start going after the bigger fish... Slowly working up the chain until...
I agree 100%.. but I also have to wonder WHY it is up to the site to prevent US users from accessing it. If it is legal in his country, but not in others, how is it HIS responsibility to police its' use in those other countries? Shouldn't it be up to the individual to run the risk of violating the law? You can't really claim isohunt is in the distributing end of things either. Technically, it would be the ISPs and hosting providers that are distributing...
Again, not like this will change anything for anyone, other than maybe a couple of bookmarks by people who don't know any better, or are SO loyal to isohunt that they go through a proxy...
That is an argument that I keep hearing, and it is simply wrong. The very logic of the argument is flawed. It is one-way thinking... Seems to me that if you want to develop for both platforms, you are still free to. Just write your code in Objective C, and use your fancy cross-platform tools to port it to android.
it's not rocket science, people... THINK about your arguments, don't just repeat something you heard somebody else say that they heard another guy say he heard from his sister's niece's best friends dad...
joking aside... some of the newer TVs with LED backlighting actually do something like this... Lighting up the picture with thousands(ish?) of independent LEDs (as opposed to a couple of souped up flourescent tubes) means they can selectively dim or turn off entirely sections of the backlighting. So when large parts of the scene are dirk, large parts of the backlighting is dimmed as well, thus increasing the contrast. It also saves a bit of power, making it easier for them to meet energy star standards, etc...
While I agree with your statement.. I would also point out that there were specific reasons for that design choice... Even mathematical proofs behind those choices.
Technology has brought us better ("purer") phosphors (I use the term generically, I know LCD displays don't use phosphors anymore) which have increased the gamut range in newer displays. I think we are getting to that tipping point where simply throwing more information on the screen (wider gamut, higher resolution, higher frame rates, etc) is going to give less and less of a perceptual return for the effort.
While you are looking at that link (yeah right) notice the first image shown, representing the gamut of a "standard" CRT monitor. notice that each corner of the triangle is one of the phosphor colors Red, Green, and Blue. Now see where the yellow stripe is? How far outside of the triangle do you think they can push a yellow "corner"? Even if they push the yellow ALL the way to the edge of the visible spectrum, you end up with a very small increase in the overall "number" of colors being shown.
In other words. Yes, technically, there is some room for improvement, but the reality is a resounding "not much" especially when you start factoring in the way the brain interprets vision and color and "fills in the blanks" as needed.
As long as marketing allows them to charge twice as much for adding 25% or less to the manufacturing costs, they'l do it.
Re:Confusion Over Source of Ire
on
Flash Is Not a Right
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Couple the above with the fact that there are a lot of social games out there and lightweight games running Flash already that might have hoped the iPad would just automagically support their game
You just inadvertently stated exactly what I have been thinking all along... There are a lot of people who have a lot of existing apps written in flash. There is a lot of money floating around the iPhone/iPad app store right now, so that is where they want to be. What they don't seem to want to do is put any more work into all of these existing apps to optimize them in any way shape or form for the platform. They want to just press a button that says "compile for iPhone/iPad" and start rolling in the money...
It doesn't work that way. Odds are that you chose to program in flash because it was the hot field. There was a lot of work and money and opportunity in that area, so that is where you went. Now the money and opportunity are somewhere else, and you are complaining that you have to learn something new or do something different to get access to it? Sorry charlie...
If you are looking to follow the fads, expect to change brand names regularly. How many of you are still wearing your parachute pants?
A la carte would def be the answer for us consumers, yeah.. But the cable companies have fought it tooth and nail for a long time, and I don't see that changing anytime soon..
This is really where I see the opportunity for Hulu (or another similar service)... If I were running Hulu...
1)-I would keep a selection of free, ad supported content.
2)-Then offer subscription based service for ad free content. Subscriptions could be for individual shows, or packages (based on interest, like science or kids, etc.. AND more traditional packages like those seen with cable now) This would give people the freedom to pick individual shows, or to stay within interest subjects but still being able to "channel surf" and discover new shows... IOW, a "cloud-based, personalized web2.0 streaming media DVR" to plug as many buzz words in as possible... The streaming and DRM would be invisible and tied in with the subscriptions, and hopefully keep the "content providers" happy.
Here in Las Vegas... We DID top %20 unemployment for a while, and it seems headed back that way again. I would imagine detroit is in worse shape... Just because the AVERAGE is lower, does not preclude specific instances from being higher...
They will do it the first job that they can justify it.. If they are getting paid for the work, it is a deductible expense for the equipment. That can turn a $500 wedding into a $13,500 job when tax time comes around... (fuzzy math, I know... But the point IS valid.)
When you spent $2500-$3000 for the camera body, and close to that much for EACH lens (and photographers, while maybe technically able to get by on 2-3 lenses, usually have several more than that) Plus flash, tripod, other accessories... By the time you get to the full setup, it is pretty easy to get into the $15,000-$20,000 range. And you want them to throw all of that away, because "they should get with the times already" ? Tell you what.. Throw away (NOT trade in) your Ferrari and buy a Prius, and see if you think it was worth it.
We may have only been taking direct temperature readings for a relatively short time, but there is stall a LOT of data from indirect sources that show us a pretty long history of the temperatiies across the globe. Ice core samples, tree ring ananysis, amber deposits, geologic studies, archaeological evidence, etc etc.. Combining all of that data gives us a pretty clear record of what temperatures were like, what the atmosphere was like, and the correllations between the two.. Doing the math on how much crap human society is pumping into the air, and otherwise polluting the system is not necesarily a simple thing to do, but it IS pretty straightforward.
Does all of this mean they are right? Not absolutely, no. But if you do something 49 times, and the SAME thing happens every time.. Wouldn't you bet that the same thing is going to happen the 50th time you do it?
I was going to be try and be a bit more tactful in my response (...Then WTF am I doing on Slashdot!?...) But was going to say basically the same thing.
Despite the preachy marketing-speak... This really isn't news. Steve doesn't want to sell porn in the App Store, he's not under any obligation to. As many many other posters have already pointed out, there are many other options for getting porn on your iPhone. I don't expect to walk into the local Albertson's or other grocery store and buy a copy of "Anal Invaders 14: Wsidom of the Turtle". If I want to buy porn, I go to the porn shop right next door. (And I live in Las Vegas, where I can expect to walk into that same grocery store, buy a Gallon bottle of burbon and sit at a slot machine... That's also the reason the porn shop is right next door...)
In other words.. If this was anyone but Steve Jobs, talking about any other platform but the iPhone... Nobody would care... Google THAT
Instead, the court should have asked: if Stengart had left a written letter to her attorney in her desk when she left Loving Care, could Loving Care have used that letter in preperation for court cases?
Actually, if the letter was still in a sealed, addressed envelope... Then she could reasonably expect that the company would not be able to open it and read the contents, much less use anything they read in court. If the letter was NOT sealed it would be a different story.
IANAL, but I would think that the correlation of sealed envelope -> password protected personal email account would be an easy one to make.
The summary makes it sound like there is a shortage of malware for students to study... Maybe it is because of all the linux boxes in the academic labs??
when I read your subject line, my first thought was of some geek artist manuvering the existing space junk into specific positions, so that when viewed from earth, it would read: "If you can read this..." Or maybe a line drawing of Tux...
The guy is even scarier in person... I was stuck doing support for Earthlink many a moon ago... and this guy called in for help... spent most of the time telling me all about his website. I'm slightly amazed it is still around... Scary!
Stretch a ladies nylon stocking over the whole thing... This will take some experimenting to figure out the exact best method (maybe one over the base, one over the screen...), but has the advantages of: -being extremely cheap -easily removed/replaced -thin/flexible/transparent enough to cover the keyboard, and even the screen with -should filter out the worst offender category of sand/dust without seriously impeding air flow -will also cut down on glare and reflectivity
SO you would rather the insurance companies be the only ones with unfettered access to your information?
I think the REAL reason Dr.s aren't too keen on the E-records is lawyers and liability. Every person who sees that data is another risk of a malpractice suit in their eyes.
And let's get over this E-Records" thing already... Face it.. you doctor is already using computers, and storing your information on them... The real issue is data portability. Info from Dr. A should be accessible to Dr. B when needed, and we should ALWAYS have access to our own data...
Slashdot Mirror
At least on the OS front, all of the companies (including Apple) have taken the easy way out...
Looking at the usability, and yes, sales, of Windows Tablet PCs, it wasn't rocket science to figure out that existing OS's just weren't going to work. They just weren't designed for touch, and add-on hack to try and accommodate it were clunky at best.
Given the expense and size limitations of decent touch sensitive screens, and the increasing muscle available to smart phones, they were a natural place to build a touch based OS. Because of the limitations of the phne platform (again, processor, memory, etc. but also the appliance aspect of the devices, not to mention vendor locks...) The OS for a phone could also be much more limited in its' capabilities while still being well ahead of the curve.
Apple, taking the easy way out, used their phone OS on the iPad. The iPhone OS is polished, capable and elegent enough that they can get away with it for a while... But in doing so they are more or less ignoring the fact that the iPad is not the same type of device as a phone or iPod.
Of course, since Apple is getting all of the attention, all of the praise, and all of the sales and profits (the important parts)... everyone else is thinking that they should use a phone OS for their competing tablets also.
It is a stopgap, at best. Someone needs to take the time, do the research, and do the work to write an OS for these devices instead of trying to patchwork add and remove bits and pieces of systems clearly designed for other purposes.
poor analogy.. typography and graphic artist geeks will be glad to point out why.
I think it depends on expectations. Most of the time, I could care less what the food looks like. Presentation plays absolutely no role in 99% of the food I eat. If things like atmosphere and occasion are the primary reasons I am eating.. then sure, make it look pretty.
Also, a minor quibble, but you generally can smell food (cooking or being served) long before being able to see the food. Ever been walking through the mall and smelled the cinnabon? From 10 stores away?
Of course, the sight and smell are reasons I can't stand any kind of seafood, long before the taste hits my palate and informs me I should have known better than to believe the jackass who swears that this kind of fish, cooked in this particular way doesn't taste fishy...
Again, this proves just how utterly clueless judges (and politicans) are of how the Internet actually works.
Uh, which part actually proves that? Actually:
The part where anyone that wants to can just connect to isohunt through a proxy, or that 2000 other sites both better and worse have/will pop up to replace it.
The MPAA seems to be following the same tactics (kindof, bear with me) cops use to try and stop drug use... Tell everyone to just say no and try to marginalize users as criminals and undesirables... Start ramping up penalties for small users, then start going after the bigger fish... Slowly working up the chain until...
Until they catch themselves??
I agree 100%.. but I also have to wonder WHY it is up to the site to prevent US users from accessing it. If it is legal in his country, but not in others, how is it HIS responsibility to police its' use in those other countries? Shouldn't it be up to the individual to run the risk of violating the law? You can't really claim isohunt is in the distributing end of things either. Technically, it would be the ISPs and hosting providers that are distributing...
Again, not like this will change anything for anyone, other than maybe a couple of bookmarks by people who don't know any better, or are SO loyal to isohunt that they go through a proxy...
That is an argument that I keep hearing, and it is simply wrong. The very logic of the argument is flawed. It is one-way thinking... Seems to me that if you want to develop for both platforms, you are still free to. Just write your code in Objective C, and use your fancy cross-platform tools to port it to android.
it's not rocket science, people... THINK about your arguments, don't just repeat something you heard somebody else say that they heard another guy say he heard from his sister's niece's best friends dad...
joking aside... some of the newer TVs with LED backlighting actually do something like this... Lighting up the picture with thousands(ish?) of independent LEDs (as opposed to a couple of souped up flourescent tubes) means they can selectively dim or turn off entirely sections of the backlighting. So when large parts of the scene are dirk, large parts of the backlighting is dimmed as well, thus increasing the contrast. It also saves a bit of power, making it easier for them to meet energy star standards, etc...
They look an awful lot like /.
seems they are having an identical argument over it also... How odd.
While I agree with your statement.. I would also point out that there were specific reasons for that design choice... Even mathematical proofs behind those choices.
Technology has brought us better ("purer") phosphors (I use the term generically, I know LCD displays don't use phosphors anymore) which have increased the gamut range in newer displays. I think we are getting to that tipping point where simply throwing more information on the screen (wider gamut, higher resolution, higher frame rates, etc) is going to give less and less of a perceptual return for the effort.
Especially while watching American Idol...
I think the word you are looking for is "Gamut"
While you are looking at that link (yeah right) notice the first image shown, representing the gamut of a "standard" CRT monitor. notice that each corner of the triangle is one of the phosphor colors Red, Green, and Blue. Now see where the yellow stripe is? How far outside of the triangle do you think they can push a yellow "corner"? Even if they push the yellow ALL the way to the edge of the visible spectrum, you end up with a very small increase in the overall "number" of colors being shown.
In other words. Yes, technically, there is some room for improvement, but the reality is a resounding "not much" especially when you start factoring in the way the brain interprets vision and color and "fills in the blanks" as needed.
As long as marketing allows them to charge twice as much for adding 25% or less to the manufacturing costs, they'l do it.
Couple the above with the fact that there are a lot of social games out there and lightweight games running Flash already that might have hoped the iPad would just automagically support their game
You just inadvertently stated exactly what I have been thinking all along... There are a lot of people who have a lot of existing apps written in flash. There is a lot of money floating around the iPhone/iPad app store right now, so that is where they want to be. What they don't seem to want to do is put any more work into all of these existing apps to optimize them in any way shape or form for the platform. They want to just press a button that says "compile for iPhone/iPad" and start rolling in the money...
It doesn't work that way. Odds are that you chose to program in flash because it was the hot field. There was a lot of work and money and opportunity in that area, so that is where you went. Now the money and opportunity are somewhere else, and you are complaining that you have to learn something new or do something different to get access to it? Sorry charlie...
If you are looking to follow the fads, expect to change brand names regularly. How many of you are still wearing your parachute pants?
Whether the firmware is available or not.. it would be a good idea to disassemble it and look for evidence of FOSS infringement.
A la carte would def be the answer for us consumers, yeah.. But the cable companies have fought it tooth and nail for a long time, and I don't see that changing anytime soon..
This is really where I see the opportunity for Hulu (or another similar service)... If I were running Hulu...
1)-I would keep a selection of free, ad supported content.
2)-Then offer subscription based service for ad free content. Subscriptions could be for individual shows, or packages (based on interest, like science or kids, etc.. AND more traditional packages like those seen with cable now) This would give people the freedom to pick individual shows, or to stay within interest subjects but still being able to "channel surf" and discover new shows... IOW, a "cloud-based, personalized web2.0 streaming media DVR" to plug as many buzz words in as possible... The streaming and DRM would be invisible and tied in with the subscriptions, and hopefully keep the "content providers" happy.
3)-profit
Here in Las Vegas... We DID top %20 unemployment for a while, and it seems headed back that way again. I would imagine detroit is in worse shape... Just because the AVERAGE is lower, does not preclude specific instances from being higher...
It is the most efficient information engine I have ever seen
Yep.. it burns through a lot of work, and produces a lot of noise pollution and hot air. All because you were too lazy to walk to the mailbox.
They will do it the first job that they can justify it.. If they are getting paid for the work, it is a deductible expense for the equipment. That can turn a $500 wedding into a $13,500 job when tax time comes around... (fuzzy math, I know... But the point IS valid.)
When you spent $2500-$3000 for the camera body, and close to that much for EACH lens (and photographers, while maybe technically able to get by on 2-3 lenses, usually have several more than that) Plus flash, tripod, other accessories... By the time you get to the full setup, it is pretty easy to get into the $15,000-$20,000 range. And you want them to throw all of that away, because "they should get with the times already" ? Tell you what.. Throw away (NOT trade in) your Ferrari and buy a Prius, and see if you think it was worth it.
We may have only been taking direct temperature readings for a relatively short time, but there is stall a LOT of data from indirect sources that show us a pretty long history of the temperatiies across the globe. Ice core samples, tree ring ananysis, amber deposits, geologic studies, archaeological evidence, etc etc.. Combining all of that data gives us a pretty clear record of what temperatures were like, what the atmosphere was like, and the correllations between the two.. Doing the math on how much crap human society is pumping into the air, and otherwise polluting the system is not necesarily a simple thing to do, but it IS pretty straightforward.
Does all of this mean they are right? Not absolutely, no. But if you do something 49 times, and the SAME thing happens every time.. Wouldn't you bet that the same thing is going to happen the 50th time you do it?
I was going to be try and be a bit more tactful in my response (...Then WTF am I doing on Slashdot!?...) But was going to say basically the same thing.
Despite the preachy marketing-speak... This really isn't news. Steve doesn't want to sell porn in the App Store, he's not under any obligation to. As many many other posters have already pointed out, there are many other options for getting porn on your iPhone. I don't expect to walk into the local Albertson's or other grocery store and buy a copy of "Anal Invaders 14: Wsidom of the Turtle". If I want to buy porn, I go to the porn shop right next door. (And I live in Las Vegas, where I can expect to walk into that same grocery store, buy a Gallon bottle of burbon and sit at a slot machine... That's also the reason the porn shop is right next door...)
In other words.. If this was anyone but Steve Jobs, talking about any other platform but the iPhone... Nobody would care... Google THAT
Instead, the court should have asked: if Stengart had left a written letter to her attorney in her desk when she left Loving Care, could Loving Care have used that letter in preperation for court cases?
Actually, if the letter was still in a sealed, addressed envelope... Then she could reasonably expect that the company would not be able to open it and read the contents, much less use anything they read in court. If the letter was NOT sealed it would be a different story.
IANAL, but I would think that the correlation of sealed envelope -> password protected personal email account would be an easy one to make.
The summary makes it sound like there is a shortage of malware for students to study... Maybe it is because of all the linux boxes in the academic labs??
when I read your subject line, my first thought was of some geek artist manuvering the existing space junk into specific positions, so that when viewed from earth, it would read:
"If you can read this..."
Or maybe a line drawing of Tux...
The guy is even scarier in person... I was stuck doing support for Earthlink many a moon ago... and this guy called in for help... spent most of the time telling me all about his website. I'm slightly amazed it is still around... Scary!
Stretch a ladies nylon stocking over the whole thing... This will take some experimenting to figure out the exact best method (maybe one over the base, one over the screen...), but has the advantages of:
-being extremely cheap
-easily removed/replaced
-thin/flexible/transparent enough to cover the keyboard, and even the screen with
-should filter out the worst offender category of sand/dust without seriously impeding air flow
-will also cut down on glare and reflectivity
For $1 a try, I figure it is worth mentioning...
SO you would rather the insurance companies be the only ones with unfettered access to your information?
I think the REAL reason Dr.s aren't too keen on the E-records is lawyers and liability. Every person who sees that data is another risk of a malpractice suit in their eyes.
And let's get over this E-Records" thing already... Face it.. you doctor is already using computers, and storing your information on them... The real issue is data portability. Info from Dr. A should be accessible to Dr. B when needed, and we should ALWAYS have access to our own data...