Ok as I sit here speaking into my tablet PC with voice recognition software I see no reason for keyboards.
Seriously though a) how many people actually have a place in their lives for a PDA for their primary source of data entry. b) how many people own a tablet PC at home. c) With voice recognition how often is that the primary source of data entry?
Given that all three of the above might account for 1% of the population I would think that keyboards will be around for quite some time. I remember taking keyboarding back some 12 years or so ago. I still keep up the skills and it has proven great for me.
I think that what is being suggested is right and wrong though. As a whole we do need keyboarding classes just so we can get data entered quickly and spend more meaningful time on other things. On top of that we need to be more computer literate as a society. Out of all you on tech support how often do you still get hit with the laugh material of people turning on and off their monitors to reboot their computers?
We have a great tools at our finger tips but very few people know how to use them well. Lets get people using the technology well before we start worring about how to improve it.
Actually I found an article recently for Bell Canada that actually allows for TV over the phone lines. I can't find the article right now but here is the jist of it:
If you are in a condo that is equipped with VDSL you just need what amounts to a cable box on your desk and not only do you get TV services equal to their ExpressVu services but you also get ADSL service as well, 4mbps down 800k up. Unalike cable though all the stations are digital instead of everything above channel 72 or what ever.
I don't know how things are going on the US side of the border but up here the next year looks like it will be interesting. Cable taking phone business and phone business taking cable.
As funny as this sounds my girlfriend plays more games then I do so normally it is me getting the controller/keyboard away from her so I can play.
After we play for a couple of hours we settle down have dinner maybe watch a little Slayers.
Thankfully though I haven't had to deal with an overly addictive game since I started dating again. I guess my solution would just be introduce her and get her hooked;) That always seems to help.
Actually I was just at one of Intel's channel conferences and they surprised me a little.
It seems that the new PCI-E X16 port will support up to 75 watts of power. I'm pretty sure this exceeds current use but feel free to correct me on this.
It has been pretty much mandated that everyone here in our IT department gets a cell phone. Even most of the development staff who never field support calls get them.
After making the mistake of noting when I would be pormoted to a Sys-Admin job, from support, I noticed that BlackBerries were a cool device that would let me stay in touch with the servers. A lot of pushing and pulling went around and eventually I got one. Now that I have it I don't find that I really use it that often. Most of my e-mails are when I'm travelling places and it is like "Snow is bad. 30 minutes delayed." kind of messages.
Really, if you aren't allowed to use a cell phone in the office I wouldn't panic. If for some reason a server does go down and you don't notice just calmly point out "Sorry I didn't get an alert to this and couldn't respond." Better yet get your work e-mail to pick up those alerts so you still stay in contact even when at your desk.
If you are in a situation where you are expected not to be at your desk then just ask your boss how you should be notified of these events. You can always let your boss figure out the logistics of letting you get your job done after such a ruling gets passed.
I have noticed that many people are complaining that since all the good anime will cost too much and thus most of the anime will suck.
Well I would be happy with that? Why? Most of us who have collections of Anime I'm sure already have the "good anime" on DVD. This leaves all the "crap" that we haven't seen or heard about. I would take my chances with seeing a rare anime that I never would have seen normally because of it's obsecure nature.
But I'm sure for most people out there they will still have an occasional good piece of anime.
I'll be happy to expand my horizons with both a bunch of crap and some good stuff which I have never seen.
Most of the times I have seen the comparison between the two cost isn't the number one factor. Normally it is "Proprietary vs. Open", "Low administrative needs", "Stability" or "Security" that tops the list.
Though the thought of a cheap OS might be appealing to some people I'm sure that isn't the only reason why people migrate away from the OS.
If you ask me Microsoft is barking up the wrong tree on this one.
There would be an easy way to deal with this though. Keep a personal journal on your "Windows" box. Have it compromised and then all the information that you aren't allowed to tell anyone will be public knowledge. After all wasn't there a report a little while ago about Security not being Microsoft's top thing?
A very simple Microsoft solution that keeps everyone happy.
I found over the years of both in school and out that something came to light.
You can work in groups all you want. Heck you can have the entire class as a group BUT you all get marked together. Some teachers allowed for peer review but most didn't. I can see their reasons why.
If you are doing in a group when you are in a work enviornment you don't assess the success of the project to any individual over another. Either the project works or doesn't. If you find that someone in the group isn't pulling his/her weight then you can get rid of them. Assign them to a different group or in the real world...."Fire them".
You can't have group work and not mark heavily on the individual because it is group work. Otherwise you might as well assign individual projects.
There are times for both it is just tricky finding out when it is good to do each.
For as simple as this may sound I would think that the MPAA and the rest have thought about it and I do admit that I haven't read the full article, I will on the subway ride home.
Given the simple view of "Why not just download the file to your hard drive and write it to a CD?" If for some reason you can't watch it straight from your CD-ROM, because it is write protected, just copy it to your hard drive. Remember the day that you downloaded it and then change your system clock to that time?
This would, I imagine, defeat the problem of it disappearing.
The only reason why I bring this up is because I think a poll actually said something along the lings that 60%+ of new computers have CD-Rs in them. Let alone the near 90% I would expect from the people here:)
I read this somewhere in Popular Science some years ago. I remember that I may have just started college back then so that would date it at least 6 years ago.
Not only was GM doing research but every other car company was as well. They were all assisting what was then a start up company to do the research for them. Each company paid a dollar value into the project and would get a share of the findings.
I thought back then this was interesting but now it is nothing more then expected.
After reading though the article I had a sore neck from the marketing groups bashing me saying "This is the way it will be!". It seemed that the software developer's reaction to all of this was kept quite small. I would love to hear them talk about it as well to get their take.
I'm sure once they start getting told about how long it will take to program in the billboards and other such events and be able to keep them random. I can see the developers saying "Sure we can do this but it will push the time line back 'x' hours and the development cost will go up by 'y'." This might just have the company second guess their rates. I hope it might actually have companies stop trying to get in due to the additional costs that will be passed on for the advertising of "their" product.
It is times like this when I'm happy I play Blizzard games. Who ever heard of someone drinking Coke while on the battle field. Advertising like that would just be too obvious. I hope Blizz never bows down to this kind of crap.
What is all the panic about???? Currently the way things work with the ESRB is stricly on the companies whim to have the game rated. Many companies already do this with pleasure, Blizzard Entertainment.
Would the requirement of having games rated be so different? As I have seen it looks like more and more companies are submitting to the ESRB.
Personally I think this is a good move but I'm still young and don't know any better.
"We can build a better product than Linux," he said. "There is always something enamoring about thinking you can get something for free."
If Microsoft can build a better product then Linux answer me this...."Why is it that Linux is gaining popularity as something more stable then Windows?" I'm sure you can add in many more reasons why Linux is better then Windows but this is a good start.
Is this the real reason why Microsoft fears open source? They actually have to start producing products that can actually compete with Linux.
Well over the years I have noted several things that have seemed to shorten memory spans. I think the latest before this was that caffine reduces one's memory. Now take into account that more people are drinking coffee/tea/pop in larger quantities so in a way yes memory will be getting shorter.
Now my brother has an increadable memory compared to anyone else I know. My memory is filled with crap about what IPs do I go to. How would I route X though Z while not bothering Y. My memory is dealing with a very selective view of life. As I'm sure many of the readers here do. I don't know the first thing about wood working but I can setup and get an entire network going by myself and not have to worry about stability:)
I think the real questionthat should be asked now is not "How short are our memories getting?" but "How specialized are our memories getting?" I'm sure we could find that there are similarities.
I admit that I am a Blizzard fan so this will be slanted;)
The first version of War3 was called Warcraft Adventures which was scrapped because the project wasn't viewed in good light late in it's programming. I think the release date was only months away when the project was scrapped to the dimay of both us Blizzard fans and War3 team.
Resources were then temporarily redirected to Diablo 2, the previous years vaporware #4 item, to finish the product. Nearing the end resources were again reallocated to start a new project called WarCraft III.
Now that War3 had been announced not even a year has passed before this is declared vaporware. Am I the only one that can find humor in this?
I remember when the media clamined that the internet be an all new type of media filled with information on demand. However I think after doing that for long enough they realized that they were putting nails in their own coffins because they were driving people away from themself and to the new medium.
Now we see the turn around. The media is now claiming that the internet is harmful to our children, should we have them. Advertising is no longer working in such a passive manner so they need to make it more obtrusive to the user. Now information is travelling in much the opposite. It is what they demand. No longer the user.
After all the comments that I have seen here I think many people are starting to shy/avoid places that have advertising that is "in your face" style like GeoCities and similar sites. I know personally I have given up my own site on GeoCities and moved to my own domain which I am still building.
Oh how I remember the "good old days" when high speed backbones consisted of 64k lines and the internet was fast and useful. For the world's greatest tool why must it be full of junk?
Well it has always been long noted that anyone trying to start something new with little backwards compatability is doomed to fail. Look at the long legacy of it.
What will make more sense to to is build a processor that has near equal performance then that of the old cips when it comes to 32-bit code as well as support 64-bit code. Once you are in the market and have wide support on the next generation of processors drop the 32-bit support and have a new 64-bit processor thus giving a boost on performance and improving what is already there.
If this really is the route that AMD will be taking then all the more power to them. I don't want to have to run 2 computers just so I can use 32-bit apps AND 64-bit apps.
I know over the past long while I have been using my little P2-233, back when 300 was the upper end, and I have yet to have any problems with it. Everyone is saying that it will run apps slower then the new 1gig processors but I really don't care about a couple tenths of a second here or there. Besides my average usage is only about 40%.
I have recently installed a SCSI Barracuda drive from Seagate and I have noticed a definite improvement in system performance. Given that the big bottle necks in my system right now are my hard drives and lack of memory, 160meg SDRAM, I figure it I improve those first then maybe I won't need to get a new processor.
There is a simple reason why RIAA doesn't go after the MP3 format. With the force that is behind it that is both maintaining it and using it RIAA just simply isn't big enough. If places like Microsoft feel the format is justified they will fight back and considering the funds that both of them have it would be such a long case it would be similar to the case that MS has vs. the DOJ.
They can't go after WinAmp as it is owned by AOL and thus would have similar support.
As for Real? That might be the best start and hope that it could be used to set ruling that could be pushed on the others. As far as I know Real isn't as rich as AOL or MS.
Well from what I read if Rambus has it's way it will result in SDR and DDR SDRAM to cost more then RDRAM. Given that this is true I think this will pose a problem to many developers. Companies like Microsoft pride themselves on being able to create OSs for the next value of memory that is currently being used for the base line, eg. 32meg to 64meg and now 128meg. Given the new prices that could be coming out this will spell certain doom for this line of thinking.
I can't wait to buy my $1,500 stick of new memory.
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Ok as I sit here speaking into my tablet PC with voice recognition software I see no reason for keyboards.
Seriously though a) how many people actually have a place in their lives for a PDA for their primary source of data entry. b) how many people own a tablet PC at home. c) With voice recognition how often is that the primary source of data entry?
Given that all three of the above might account for 1% of the population I would think that keyboards will be around for quite some time. I remember taking keyboarding back some 12 years or so ago. I still keep up the skills and it has proven great for me.
I think that what is being suggested is right and wrong though. As a whole we do need keyboarding classes just so we can get data entered quickly and spend more meaningful time on other things. On top of that we need to be more computer literate as a society. Out of all you on tech support how often do you still get hit with the laugh material of people turning on and off their monitors to reboot their computers?
We have a great tools at our finger tips but very few people know how to use them well. Lets get people using the technology well before we start worring about how to improve it.
Actually I found an article recently for Bell Canada that actually allows for TV over the phone lines. I can't find the article right now but here is the jist of it:
If you are in a condo that is equipped with VDSL you just need what amounts to a cable box on your desk and not only do you get TV services equal to their ExpressVu services but you also get ADSL service as well, 4mbps down 800k up. Unalike cable though all the stations are digital instead of everything above channel 72 or what ever.
I don't know how things are going on the US side of the border but up here the next year looks like it will be interesting. Cable taking phone business and phone business taking cable.
As funny as this sounds my girlfriend plays more games then I do so normally it is me getting the controller/keyboard away from her so I can play.
;) That always seems to help.
After we play for a couple of hours we settle down have dinner maybe watch a little Slayers.
Thankfully though I haven't had to deal with an overly addictive game since I started dating again. I guess my solution would just be introduce her and get her hooked
Actually I was just at one of Intel's channel conferences and they surprised me a little.
It seems that the new PCI-E X16 port will support up to 75 watts of power. I'm pretty sure this exceeds current use but feel free to correct me on this.
It has been pretty much mandated that everyone here in our IT department gets a cell phone. Even most of the development staff who never field support calls get them.
After making the mistake of noting when I would be pormoted to a Sys-Admin job, from support, I noticed that BlackBerries were a cool device that would let me stay in touch with the servers. A lot of pushing and pulling went around and eventually I got one. Now that I have it I don't find that I really use it that often. Most of my e-mails are when I'm travelling places and it is like "Snow is bad. 30 minutes delayed." kind of messages.
Really, if you aren't allowed to use a cell phone in the office I wouldn't panic. If for some reason a server does go down and you don't notice just calmly point out "Sorry I didn't get an alert to this and couldn't respond." Better yet get your work e-mail to pick up those alerts so you still stay in contact even when at your desk.
If you are in a situation where you are expected not to be at your desk then just ask your boss how you should be notified of these events. You can always let your boss figure out the logistics of letting you get your job done after such a ruling gets passed.
Just something to think about.
I have noticed that many people are complaining that since all the good anime will cost too much and thus most of the anime will suck.
Well I would be happy with that? Why? Most of us who have collections of Anime I'm sure already have the "good anime" on DVD. This leaves all the "crap" that we haven't seen or heard about. I would take my chances with seeing a rare anime that I never would have seen normally because of it's obsecure nature.
But I'm sure for most people out there they will still have an occasional good piece of anime.
I'll be happy to expand my horizons with both a bunch of crap and some good stuff which I have never seen.
Most of the times I have seen the comparison between the two cost isn't the number one factor. Normally it is "Proprietary vs. Open", "Low administrative needs", "Stability" or "Security" that tops the list.
Though the thought of a cheap OS might be appealing to some people I'm sure that isn't the only reason why people migrate away from the OS.
If you ask me Microsoft is barking up the wrong tree on this one.
Or am I off on this one?
Alf was right. He knew it 15 years ago and we are just now figuring it out!
Listen to TV aliens. They know more then you think.
There would be an easy way to deal with this though. Keep a personal journal on your "Windows" box. Have it compromised and then all the information that you aren't allowed to tell anyone will be public knowledge. After all wasn't there a report a little while ago about Security not being Microsoft's top thing?
A very simple Microsoft solution that keeps everyone happy.
I found over the years of both in school and out that something came to light.
You can work in groups all you want. Heck you can have the entire class as a group BUT you all get marked together. Some teachers allowed for peer review but most didn't. I can see their reasons why.
If you are doing in a group when you are in a work enviornment you don't assess the success of the project to any individual over another. Either the project works or doesn't. If you find that someone in the group isn't pulling his/her weight then you can get rid of them. Assign them to a different group or in the real world...."Fire them".
You can't have group work and not mark heavily on the individual because it is group work. Otherwise you might as well assign individual projects.
There are times for both it is just tricky finding out when it is good to do each.
For as simple as this may sound I would think that the MPAA and the rest have thought about it and I do admit that I haven't read the full article, I will on the subway ride home.
:)
Given the simple view of "Why not just download the file to your hard drive and write it to a CD?" If for some reason you can't watch it straight from your CD-ROM, because it is write protected, just copy it to your hard drive. Remember the day that you downloaded it and then change your system clock to that time?
This would, I imagine, defeat the problem of it disappearing.
The only reason why I bring this up is because I think a poll actually said something along the lings that 60%+ of new computers have CD-Rs in them. Let alone the near 90% I would expect from the people here
I read this somewhere in Popular Science some years ago. I remember that I may have just started college back then so that would date it at least 6 years ago.
Not only was GM doing research but every other car company was as well. They were all assisting what was then a start up company to do the research for them. Each company paid a dollar value into the project and would get a share of the findings.
I thought back then this was interesting but now it is nothing more then expected.
After reading though the article I had a sore neck from the marketing groups bashing me saying "This is the way it will be!". It seemed that the software developer's reaction to all of this was kept quite small. I would love to hear them talk about it as well to get their take.
I'm sure once they start getting told about how long it will take to program in the billboards and other such events and be able to keep them random. I can see the developers saying "Sure we can do this but it will push the time line back 'x' hours and the development cost will go up by 'y'." This might just have the company second guess their rates. I hope it might actually have companies stop trying to get in due to the additional costs that will be passed on for the advertising of "their" product.
It is times like this when I'm happy I play Blizzard games. Who ever heard of someone drinking Coke while on the battle field. Advertising like that would just be too obvious. I hope Blizz never bows down to this kind of crap.
What is all the panic about???? Currently the way things work with the ESRB is stricly on the companies whim to have the game rated. Many companies already do this with pleasure, Blizzard Entertainment.
Would the requirement of having games rated be so different? As I have seen it looks like more and more companies are submitting to the ESRB.
Personally I think this is a good move but I'm still young and don't know any better.
"We can build a better product than Linux," he said. "There is always something enamoring about thinking you can get something for free."
If Microsoft can build a better product then Linux answer me this...."Why is it that Linux is gaining popularity as something more stable then Windows?" I'm sure you can add in many more reasons why Linux is better then Windows but this is a good start.
Is this the real reason why Microsoft fears open source? They actually have to start producing products that can actually compete with Linux.
Now that Maxtor is using that many less parts does that mean that they might last longer then a few power on cycles?
:)
I hope I don't have to change the use of their drives from door stops to something productive
Well over the years I have noted several things that have seemed to shorten memory spans. I think the latest before this was that caffine reduces one's memory. Now take into account that more people are drinking coffee/tea/pop in larger quantities so in a way yes memory will be getting shorter.
:)
Now my brother has an increadable memory compared to anyone else I know. My memory is filled with crap about what IPs do I go to. How would I route X though Z while not bothering Y. My memory is dealing with a very selective view of life. As I'm sure many of the readers here do. I don't know the first thing about wood working but I can setup and get an entire network going by myself and not have to worry about stability
I think the real questionthat should be asked now is not "How short are our memories getting?" but "How specialized are our memories getting?" I'm sure we could find that there are similarities.
I admit that I am a Blizzard fan so this will be slanted ;)
The first version of War3 was called Warcraft Adventures which was scrapped because the project wasn't viewed in good light late in it's programming. I think the release date was only months away when the project was scrapped to the dimay of both us Blizzard fans and War3 team.
Resources were then temporarily redirected to Diablo 2, the previous years vaporware #4 item, to finish the product. Nearing the end resources were again reallocated to start a new project called WarCraft III.
Now that War3 had been announced not even a year has passed before this is declared vaporware. Am I the only one that can find humor in this?
I remember when the media clamined that the internet be an all new type of media filled with information on demand. However I think after doing that for long enough they realized that they were putting nails in their own coffins because they were driving people away from themself and to the new medium.
Now we see the turn around. The media is now claiming that the internet is harmful to our children, should we have them. Advertising is no longer working in such a passive manner so they need to make it more obtrusive to the user. Now information is travelling in much the opposite. It is what they demand. No longer the user.
After all the comments that I have seen here I think many people are starting to shy/avoid places that have advertising that is "in your face" style like GeoCities and similar sites. I know personally I have given up my own site on GeoCities and moved to my own domain which I am still building.
Oh how I remember the "good old days" when high speed backbones consisted of 64k lines and the internet was fast and useful. For the world's greatest tool why must it be full of junk?
Well it has always been long noted that anyone trying to start something new with little backwards compatability is doomed to fail. Look at the long legacy of it.
What will make more sense to to is build a processor that has near equal performance then that of the old cips when it comes to 32-bit code as well as support 64-bit code. Once you are in the market and have wide support on the next generation of processors drop the 32-bit support and have a new 64-bit processor thus giving a boost on performance and improving what is already there.
If this really is the route that AMD will be taking then all the more power to them. I don't want to have to run 2 computers just so I can use 32-bit apps AND 64-bit apps.
I know over the past long while I have been using my little P2-233, back when 300 was the upper end, and I have yet to have any problems with it. Everyone is saying that it will run apps slower then the new 1gig processors but I really don't care about a couple tenths of a second here or there. Besides my average usage is only about 40%.
I have recently installed a SCSI Barracuda drive from Seagate and I have noticed a definite improvement in system performance. Given that the big bottle necks in my system right now are my hard drives and lack of memory, 160meg SDRAM, I figure it I improve those first then maybe I won't need to get a new processor.
Can anyone else see the logic in all of this?
There is a simple reason why RIAA doesn't go after the MP3 format. With the force that is behind it that is both maintaining it and using it RIAA just simply isn't big enough. If places like Microsoft feel the format is justified they will fight back and considering the funds that both of them have it would be such a long case it would be similar to the case that MS has vs. the DOJ.
They can't go after WinAmp as it is owned by AOL and thus would have similar support.
As for Real? That might be the best start and hope that it could be used to set ruling that could be pushed on the others. As far as I know Real isn't as rich as AOL or MS.
Well from what I read if Rambus has it's way it will result in SDR and DDR SDRAM to cost more then RDRAM. Given that this is true I think this will pose a problem to many developers. Companies like Microsoft pride themselves on being able to create OSs for the next value of memory that is currently being used for the base line, eg. 32meg to 64meg and now 128meg. Given the new prices that could be coming out this will spell certain doom for this line of thinking.
I can't wait to buy my $1,500 stick of new memory.