The Sciphone CPU looks a bit slow these days. If they had a faster one with a keyboard I'd consider it, especially if it had the keys missing from the Tmobile G2 (no brackets, for example).
Ah, but it comes with Swype! There's no need for a physical keyboard.
I'm being somewhat serious. I love the physical keyboard on a blackberry, but haven't found any others that even come close. I was reluctant to switch to an all-glass handset, but after getting used to swype it's not bad at all! The only issue is that for some reason they don't support the DEL key in any of the terminal emulators I've used.
Or control. Or meta. Just try using emacs over ssh with a glass keyboard. Or vi. Or a curses interface.
There's a distinct lack of usable keyboards. The G2 doesn't have the 5-rows of the G1, which is a disappointment. What good is it having ssh on your mobile device if you can't use it?
I bought a SIM card in France and it came with an envelope into which I was to deposit a copy of my identity papers. The instructions claimed that the card would stop working 14 days after activation unless the papers were received.
I learned about 1000 Chinese characters when I was actively studying Japanese, which was just as software input methods were first becoming available. The amount of mental energy and practice necessary to keep it up was untenable, and I eventually switched to correct recognition as input systems became nearly ubiquitous. I've lost about 2/3 of the characters in the intervening years, but I can still pick up a book and read with my old dictionary handy for the confusing parts.
With writing there are some even more confusing issues, because there are a number of similar-looking characters. You wouldn't confuse them reading (because of context) or in typing (because the input method is based on pronunciation) but they would be a big bugaboo for hand writing. So not having to deal with that type of confusion leaves your brain with more cognitive space to deal with other issues.
Here's a link to the FCC and OET regulations that the cell company has to comply with. If there are multiple antennas from different installations, they have to take those into account too.
... Sure, a few of the hardcore nerds in engineering still have their HP somethings... The TI-Nspire also features a "testing mode" LED indicator, designed to stop potential cheating...restricting geometry features on the handheld during the test....Essentially, because it is commonly used on tests, the educational customers who drive most of the sales... would really like the calculator to be a "trusted" black box capable of doing only what it says on the tin, not doing arbitrary computer tasks(like storing notes, or doing symbolic integration and differentiation when the kids are supposed to be learning that).
So, what you're saying essentially is that HP calculators are used by people who actually do engineering, and TI calculators are used by people who are required to fit the artificial restrictions of standardized tests.
If it doesn't require firmware someone will figure it out. It's unlikely it requires firmware though, unless they specifically decided it had to somehow. I can believe some other parts might be omitted though (maybe a diode or jumper as mentioned) but I bet it's no biggie. Now, what's the SMT supercap part they use?
Enterprise customers are often those who are the most interested in security and in forms deployment. If Adobe offered a safe, secure, standards-compliant forms processing mode for PDF, enterprise would be the first market.
Adobe should move away from JavaScript and move to declarative form definition and validation, which carries no risk of code attacks from errant JavaScript. In fact, there is a standard for validating forms declaratively, called XForms. It lets you write validation expressions for saying when data is valid, required, readonly, or calculated from other data (i.e. totals), and also lets you assign data types using the widely-deployed XSD type names (integer, URL, string, regexp string, etc).
XForms is modular enough that it's been incorporated into ODF, and there's no reason other that it can't be used in PDF to define and validate forms, other than that Adobe has a vested interest in maintaining its proprietary technology forms instead. There are a number of folks who would be quite ready to help Adobe incorporate XForms into PDF.
There are in-browser JavaScript implementations of XForms (here, here, and here), server side implementations a la GWT (here and here), and mobile implementations (here).
I've been working with XForms for many years, and find it an excellent solution for deploying rich internet applications; we've switched implementations a few times, and have had to do only minor changes to our applications, so using a standard preserves our investment in stuff already written.
Until someone shows me something with a keyboard, I am sticking with my BlackBerry.
The G1 was a good first attempt but everything since has been an iPhone wannabe, all shiny and pretty but missing that important item.
Exactly. The danger series had good keyboards, as did the antediluvian Motorola T-900 series. I could clock nearly 30WPM on those. And as much as I like the folks at Palm, I couldn't use their chiclets at all.
The G1 keyboard is just barely tolerable. I've noticed the amount of actual work I get done on my G1 is a tenth of what I used to do. Sure, I can see web pages more clearly and get the info I need more quickly, but as far as acting on it, without an ergonomic keyboard, I can't do much typing.
I wish Android partners would give up on being what David Pogue calls an iPhone wannabe, and focus on the real promise of small mobile devices.
Or, else, stop agreeing with as the Onion's quote attributed to Steve Jobs, "People who use keyboards are standing in the way of progress."
Photographing documents is always terrible with phones because they have no variable focus. So they use a pinhole camera for infinite focus, but it fails at less than about 3 meters.
This is not the case with all devices. The HTC Dream/Android G1 has an autofocus lens. You can hear it focus. It beeps and uses a red/green framing indicator to show whether focus worked. It seems to focus down to about 3".
So Apple is afraid people are going to run programs in BASIC in a sandboxed virtual application emulating an 8-bit 6510 microproessor? There's just no justifiable reason for this. Except...religion. It's like religious dietary restrictions, which serve to remind the faithful that they are members of the tribe.
Or maybe Apple just does it to keep the iPhone in the news, despite its lack of multi-processing, keyboard, or the freedom to install your own applications. Nah...it must be a religion.
Does it support the W3C standard for MVC
on
Opera 10.0 Released
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Does it support the W3C standard for MVC markup yet, or is Opera still cherry-picking stanards that suit its business model more than those of its users?
This would be a good fit with the Ubiquity XForms implementation hosted on Google Code as well. It's aimed adding in-browser MVC (model-view-controller) support to IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari, based on another W3C recommendation, XForms 1.1.
For example, see this tutorial on how to style hints on triggers (multi-modal word for "buttons") declaratively. (This is from the SVN trunk so it will load all the JavaScript implementation files individually rather than as a single library.)
Actually, try getting a ham license and you will find plenty of equipment and help experimenting with microwaves. I regularly see TWTs, brick oscillators, http://home.swbell.net/k5oe/K-Band/K-Band.htm">K-band (24 GHz) and X-band (10 GHz) equipment in the under $100 price range. Even the old Gunn Diode Oscillators can provide some fun. Hams even launch their own satellites and send their own microwave and VHF/UHF signals to the moon and back.
When you're in a disaster, you're not really interested in getting help from other people who are also in the affected area, who are also without power.
You want help from people *outside* the affected area. And if this goes forward, they won't be able to hear you. Which means there's no reason to keep the radios in the first place.
You could consider ham radio a decentralized network of frequency-agile autonomous intelligent agents.
And most of them have batteries.
Re:Decent text editor still not included right?
on
Emacs Hits Version 23
·
· Score: 1
Would you say the same about Eclipse instead of Emacs? They serve much the same purpose, except Emacs has more smaller extensions done by individuals, and Eclipse has more large extensions done by corporate-supported developer teams.
It would be nice of both Opera and IE supported other W3C standards that are necessary for Rich Internet Applications. The HTML5 crowd likes to position XForms against HTML5, but that's not really the case. XForms uses a model-view-controller architecture, and lets you bind data to presentation, with a logic layer in between. It's the same architecture used in Flex and Silverlight, which are the the real competition for RIA applications. Even Ruby on Rails has an MVC architecture, though it's defined as a split agent (between server and browser). XForms allows split-agent implementations, but the content you author is the same whether the agent is all on the client or split with a partial server-side implementation.
Slashdot Mirror
The Sciphone CPU looks a bit slow these days. If they had a faster one with a keyboard I'd consider it, especially if it had the keys missing from the Tmobile G2 (no brackets, for example).
Ah, but it comes with Swype! There's no need for a physical keyboard.
I'm being somewhat serious. I love the physical keyboard on a blackberry, but haven't found any others that even come close. I was reluctant to switch to an all-glass handset, but after getting used to swype it's not bad at all! The only issue is that for some reason they don't support the DEL key in any of the terminal emulators I've used.
Or control. Or meta. Just try using emacs over ssh with a glass keyboard. Or vi. Or a curses interface.
There's a distinct lack of usable keyboards. The G2 doesn't have the 5-rows of the G1, which is a disappointment.
What good is it having ssh on your mobile device if you can't use it?
I bought a SIM card in France and it came with an envelope into which I was to deposit a copy of my identity papers. The instructions claimed that the card would stop working 14 days after activation unless the papers were received.
I learned about 1000 Chinese characters when I was actively studying Japanese, which was just as software input methods were first becoming available.
The amount of mental energy and practice necessary to keep it up was untenable, and I eventually switched to correct recognition as input systems became nearly ubiquitous.
I've lost about 2/3 of the characters in the intervening years, but I can still pick up a book and read with my old dictionary handy for the confusing parts.
With writing there are some even more confusing issues, because there are a number of similar-looking characters. You wouldn't confuse them reading (because of context) or in typing (because the input method is based on pronunciation) but they would be a big bugaboo for hand writing. So not having to deal with that type of confusion leaves your brain with more cognitive space to deal with other issues.
Here's a link showing a bunch of the similar characters: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Easily_confused_Chinese_characters
That list doesn't include the first one I encountered: claw and melon. Melon has a claw, but claw doesn't.
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/722a.htm
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/74dc.htm
You might also like the Propfire Firefox Add-on which will give you SFI, A/K, and SSN in the bottom of your browser.
Here's a link to the FCC and OET regulations that the cell company has to comply with.
If there are multiple antennas from different installations, they have to take those into account too.
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/
... Sure, a few of the hardcore nerds in engineering still have their HP somethings... The TI-Nspire also features a "testing mode" LED indicator, designed to stop potential cheating...restricting geometry features on the handheld during the test. ...Essentially, because it is commonly used on tests, the educational customers who drive most of the sales... would really like the calculator to be a "trusted" black box capable of doing only what it says on the tin, not doing arbitrary computer tasks(like storing notes, or doing symbolic integration and differentiation when the kids are supposed to be learning that).
So, what you're saying essentially is that HP calculators are used by people who actually do engineering, and TI calculators are used by people who are required to fit the artificial restrictions of standardized tests.
If it doesn't require firmware someone will figure it out. It's unlikely it requires firmware though, unless they specifically decided it had to somehow. I can believe some other parts might be omitted though (maybe a diode or jumper as mentioned) but I bet it's no biggie. Now, what's the SMT supercap part they use?
Is the cap left off the board so you can just put one in yourself or is it size-reduced as well?
Hellscrhreiber was used in the 1930's. It uses a font to send text over a wire (or radio) link, as off-on pulses for pixels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellschreiber
Some hams still use it, for kicks. It's got good performance in noise (weak signal mode).
Enterprise customers are often those who are the most interested in security and in forms deployment. If Adobe offered a safe, secure, standards-compliant forms processing mode for PDF, enterprise would be the first market.
Adobe should move away from JavaScript and move to declarative form definition and validation, which carries no risk of code attacks from errant JavaScript. In fact, there is a standard for validating forms declaratively, called XForms. It lets you write validation expressions for saying when data is valid, required, readonly, or calculated from other data (i.e. totals), and also lets you assign data types using the widely-deployed XSD type names (integer, URL, string, regexp string, etc).
XForms is modular enough that it's been incorporated into ODF, and there's no reason other that it can't be used in PDF to define and validate forms, other than that Adobe has a vested interest in maintaining its proprietary technology forms instead. There are a number of folks who would be quite ready to help Adobe incorporate XForms into PDF.
There are in-browser JavaScript implementations of XForms (here, here, and here), server side implementations a la GWT (here and here), and mobile implementations (here).
I've been working with XForms for many years, and find it an excellent solution for deploying rich internet applications; we've switched implementations a few times, and have had to do only minor changes to our applications, so using a standard preserves our investment in stuff already written.
Until someone shows me something with a keyboard, I am sticking with my BlackBerry.
The G1 was a good first attempt but everything since has been an iPhone wannabe, all shiny and pretty but missing that important item.
Exactly. The danger series had good keyboards, as did the antediluvian Motorola T-900 series. I could clock nearly 30WPM on those. And as much as I like the folks at Palm, I couldn't use their chiclets at all.
The G1 keyboard is just barely tolerable. I've noticed the amount of actual work I get done on my G1 is a tenth of what I used to do. Sure, I can see web pages more clearly and get the info I need more quickly, but as far as acting on it, without an ergonomic keyboard, I can't do much typing.
I wish Android partners would give up on being what David Pogue calls an iPhone wannabe, and focus on the real promise of small mobile devices.
Or, else, stop agreeing with as the Onion's quote attributed to Steve Jobs, "People who use keyboards are standing in the way of progress."
It doesn't have a keyboard. No thanks.
How many apps could just be web pages?
How many apps could just be web pages if there were a couple more form controls for rich internet applications?
The app store is beginning to look more like a paywall attack on the web.
This patent is great news! It means that this obnoxious behavior will be limited to the iPhone.
Photographing documents is always terrible with phones because they have no variable focus. So they use a pinhole camera for infinite focus, but it fails at less than about 3 meters.
This is not the case with all devices. The HTC Dream/Android G1 has an autofocus lens. You can hear it focus. It beeps and uses a red/green framing indicator to show whether focus worked. It seems to focus down to about 3".
Here's a sample of as close as I could focus on an LCD screen:
Reduced from full resolution: http://twitgoo.com/4ffwh
the 1.5MB file: http://graflex.org/klotz/2009/10/g1cam/cam.jpg
So Apple is afraid people are going to run programs in BASIC in a sandboxed virtual application emulating an 8-bit 6510 microproessor?
There's just no justifiable reason for this. Except...religion. It's like religious dietary restrictions, which serve to remind the faithful that they are members of the tribe.
Or maybe Apple just does it to keep the iPhone in the news, despite its lack of multi-processing, keyboard, or the freedom to install your own applications. Nah...it must be a religion.
Does it support the W3C standard for MVC markup yet, or is Opera still cherry-picking stanards that suit its business model more than those of its users?
This would be a good fit with the Ubiquity XForms implementation hosted on Google Code as well. It's aimed adding in-browser MVC (model-view-controller) support to IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari, based on another W3C recommendation, XForms 1.1.
For example, see this tutorial on how to style hints on triggers (multi-modal word for "buttons") declaratively. (This is from the SVN trunk so it will load all the JavaScript implementation files individually rather than as a single library.)
Actually, try getting a ham license and you will find plenty of equipment and help experimenting with microwaves. I regularly see TWTs, brick oscillators, http://home.swbell.net/k5oe/K-Band/K-Band.htm">K-band (24 GHz) and X-band (10 GHz) equipment in the under $100 price range. Even the old Gunn Diode Oscillators can provide some fun. Hams even launch their own satellites and send their own microwave and VHF/UHF signals to the moon and back.
When you're in a disaster, you're not really interested in getting help from other people who are also in the affected area, who are also without power.
You want help from people *outside* the affected area. And if this goes forward, they won't be able to hear you. Which means there's no reason to keep the radios in the first place.
You could consider ham radio a decentralized network of frequency-agile autonomous intelligent agents.
And most of them have batteries.
Would you say the same about Eclipse instead of Emacs? They serve much the same purpose, except Emacs has more smaller extensions done by individuals, and Eclipse has more large extensions done by corporate-supported developer teams.
It would be nice of both Opera and IE supported other W3C standards that are necessary for Rich Internet Applications.
The HTML5 crowd likes to position XForms against HTML5, but that's not really the case. XForms uses a model-view-controller architecture, and lets you bind data to presentation, with a logic layer in between. It's the same architecture used in Flex and Silverlight, which are the the real competition for RIA applications. Even Ruby on Rails has an MVC architecture, though it's defined as a split agent (between server and browser). XForms allows split-agent implementations, but the content you author is the same whether the agent is all on the client or split with a partial server-side implementation.