OK. This isn't gonna be something for the usual computer user - PC or Mac, but how about the occasional user? Sure, I wouldn't want to use it as a wordprocesser, but have you ever seen someone who has never used a QWERTY keyboard in their life try to type a letter? About one key a minute - I'm serious. And handwriting recognition has improved a lot - my handwriting is bearly readable, but software can read it. The software that comes with a projector/touch sensitive whiteboard at school (called a SmartBoard - no link, sorry) can read my handwriting fine - OK speed isn't good compared to a touch-typist, but what about someone who wants to use it to scrawl shopping lists down, it'd be fine.
Only problem is, who would pay the price of a laptop for a glorified paper notepad?
OK - one good use I can think of this BXXP - if this evolves into a "meta-protocol", like HTTP has done in the way it can cross firewalls with ease (anyone read the RFC for the hyper-text coffee pot control protocol?), then since its based on XML, it will presumably be able to describe what content is being passed over each stream - like mime types, but able to pass a whole lot more info.
This means that a firewall could conceivably be configured to parse the XML stream, and then firewall the individual streams. This also expands on the possibilities of things like the pics-rating scheme - a piece of content could describe itself in detail - not limited to those categories. Firewalls and logs could be based on this data.
OK, all well and good - but how much overhead is this going to put on the firewalls? If it has to parse an entire XML stream for each request, far too much. Sure, we'll know exactly what's being downloaded, but will your average user wait around to download it? So these kind of features probably wont be implemented.
But if it opened a new TCP socket each time, and placed any content header info right at the top, where headers belong, it would work....hmmm, does this sound anything like a certain protocol beginning with a 'H' to you?
To sum up - yes, its a great idea, but practical considerations make it a bad idea, IMHO. But who knows? Everything could change, and maybe slashdot will have to change that line below the comment box from "Don't forget the http://" to "Don't forget the bxxp://"...:)
The only problem I could see with a 64-layer Z-plane screen is that without having an extremely deep screen (read: tank), the layers would be far too close together to have much effect - except possibly produce a blured, hard to read image. I think that true-3D output has potential, but this implemtentation of it leaves a lot to be desired, even if it is delevoped further. But solutions like goggles have their drawbacks, too - no good if more than one person needs to watch at the same time, for example, and a pain to adjust. While a true-3D monitor would be nice, I think the novelty would wear off before long - do we actually NEED true-3D for most applications? Could you justify spending $8000 on a toy?
No that hard - there are hardware (ie not green/red) 3D glasses around - or used to be, so it can be done. But I don't like the idea of a driver bug switching the projectors on full - especially since it would probably use lasers. I pefer my eye surgery to be done by a (hopefully) qualified professional, not my PC games!
Slashdot Mirror
OK. This isn't gonna be something for the usual computer user - PC or Mac, but how about the occasional user? Sure, I wouldn't want to use it as a wordprocesser, but have you ever seen someone who has never used a QWERTY keyboard in their life try to type a letter? About one key a minute - I'm serious. And handwriting recognition has improved a lot - my handwriting is bearly readable, but software can read it. The software that comes with a projector/touch sensitive whiteboard at school (called a SmartBoard - no link, sorry) can read my handwriting fine - OK speed isn't good compared to a touch-typist, but what about someone who wants to use it to scrawl shopping lists down, it'd be fine.
Only problem is, who would pay the price of a laptop for a glorified paper notepad?
This means that a firewall could conceivably be configured to parse the XML stream, and then firewall the individual streams. This also expands on the possibilities of things like the pics-rating scheme - a piece of content could describe itself in detail - not limited to those categories. Firewalls and logs could be based on this data.
OK, all well and good - but how much overhead is this going to put on the firewalls? If it has to parse an entire XML stream for each request, far too much. Sure, we'll know exactly what's being downloaded, but will your average user wait around to download it? So these kind of features probably wont be implemented.
But if it opened a new TCP socket each time, and placed any content header info right at the top, where headers belong, it would work....hmmm, does this sound anything like a certain protocol beginning with a 'H' to you?
To sum up - yes, its a great idea, but practical considerations make it a bad idea, IMHO. But who knows? Everything could change, and maybe slashdot will have to change that line below the comment box from "Don't forget the http://" to "Don't forget the bxxp://"... :)
The only problem I could see with a 64-layer Z-plane screen is that without having an extremely deep screen (read: tank), the layers would be far too close together to have much effect - except possibly produce a blured, hard to read image. I think that true-3D output has potential, but this implemtentation of it leaves a lot to be desired, even if it is delevoped further. But solutions like goggles have their drawbacks, too - no good if more than one person needs to watch at the same time, for example, and a pain to adjust. While a true-3D monitor would be nice, I think the novelty would wear off before long - do we actually NEED true-3D for most applications? Could you justify spending $8000 on a toy?
No that hard - there are hardware (ie not green/red) 3D glasses around - or used to be, so it can be done. But I don't like the idea of a driver bug switching the projectors on full - especially since it would probably use lasers. I pefer my eye surgery to be done by a (hopefully) qualified professional, not my PC games!