It's kind of a PIM/Explorer replacement. It lets you structure and link your info any way you feel like, and has a flashy but quite functional GUI. I've been using it off and on for 3 years or so. I tend to use it as more of a content manager and use Outlook/PDA instead for most PIM functions, but Brain does both well, if you take the time to link up your info right.
I watched the video clip in the article [msnbc.com], then you'll know what I mean.
Yeah, the host was obviously Unclear On The Concept of what the Roomba was designed to do. He just put it down and expected it to seek out the mess and clean it up in a 30 second spot, and appeared frustrated when it didn't.
Rather, this is one of those things you start up when you go off to work and you come home to a clean room. Much like the dishwasher. You shouldn't expect a lot of intelligence at a price point lower than most PDAs.
My brother had it done. He does not regret it, but he did say that the experience can be phychologically very uncomfortable. If you are the least bit squeamish about people playing with your eyeballs with scary tools and having your head and eyes locked into one position for a duration, then forget it.
They can't put you under anesthesa (sleeping gas) because you must keep your head and eyes still, and sleeping people tend to move both. Bummer.
I've heard that some places will offer you a mild sedative to help with that. A couple guys at a place I used to work had the surgery but turned down the sedative, and regretted it afterwards.
People don't seem to want to spend even the extra $20 or so for the feature.
Mine was $70 or so, cheaper than an Intellimouse Explorer.
Re:Degradation of the video quality?
on
USB KVMs Compared
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· Score: 1
I had the 2-port Omniview and, although the USB and audio switching worked pretty well, the video ghosting was terrible, even with really fat video cable. I thought it was my el cheapo Magview LCD, until I traded the Belkin for an Aten. The form factor sucks to high heaven -- cables come out of all four sides of the box, and my laptop doesn't have a PS2 port, so I can't just chuck the thing under my desk and use the hotkeys -- but the performance is great.
Distance from Sun (AU) 80.858 Speed relative to Sun (km/s) 12.255 Speed relative to Sun (AU/year) 2.585 Ecliptic Latitude 3.0 Declination (J2000) 25.78 Right Ascension (J2000) 5.012 hrs One-way light time (hours) 11.31
------------------- Functional radioisotope thermoelectric generators: Priceless.
Sony's new Clie is the first Palm-based handheld to nix the permanent silk-screened input area in favor of a software-based area displayed at the bottom of the new, larger LCD screen.
Absolutely I agree with you. No need to muddy the waters by suggesting it's attached to a political agenda. It potentially alienates a whole lot of people who might otherwise think open source is a good idea.
Dell is selling them at 10% off of $399. At least they were last month. Plus you get a rebate that includes a spare battery, 8MB card and a couple other things. So I picked one up for just over $350. It flat out rocks.
if you are one of those people like me who has about 25 windows open at any given time - you'd see what a strong point they have beyond the filesystem notion; it makes more sense to put similar tasks and data in groups together, to have a fairly flat set of groups, and to be able to switch between these contexts.
Being a 25-window-user myself, as most of us probably are, it seems to me that a better metaphor than "desktop" would be "control panel". Different sets of tools could be arranged on the screen to accomplish different tasks. If you want to browse the Web, you get Web tools. If you want to listen to music, your computer "looks like" a stereo system, and you get music tools. If you want to monkey with your configuration, you get admin tools. The trick is then making it easy to switch interfaces quickly. This can be done with multiple desktops, of course, but it takes work to set it up. I know I would love to have my computer figure out what it is I'm doing ATM and hide everything that's not relevant, instead of me having to keep track of all my minimized windows myself.
I do like what MS has tried to do with My Docs -- make it easy to keep track of my files -- and they have taken that a little further with the My Music/My Pics subfolders (what's with all this "My" stuff anyway? I know whose files they are!), but it creates another problem. My Docs has become a huge dumping ground, and if I want to organize anything other than music or visuals, I have to do it myself. Seems to me that the desktops or control panels in the above scenario would solve that problem by only showing you the music files, or gamesaves, or what-have-you, that you are likely to need in that context.
What marketing genius came up with the name?
on
This is IT?
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· Score: 1
They must be planning to sell thousands of them to retirees. Sort of a cross between a Rascal infomercial and a Celebrex ad...
The Amazing Segway! Not sold in stores!
"Now I can walk through the park with my grandson again!" -Arthur, 65
...is available at this page on NASA Watch. Cowing's take (and he leans Democrat, IIRC) is that: 1) Triana began as a pet project and was kept alive as such, 2) the science was added later to further justify it, and 3) in the process of adding useful science, the cost blew up. Here are some interesting quotes that may help cut through the spin:
...the original low cost (one of its purported selling points) has ballooned to the point that criteria used to justify the cancellation of other missions should be invoked - yet won't be for fear of offending the Vice President.
...it is refreshing to have someone in a high government position (such as the vice president) who stays up late at night thinking about these things - and (apparently) has the technical ability to understand the concepts involved. If only Mr. Gore had translated this interest into practice and NOT supported a cut in NASA's budget 7 out of 8 years in a row.
FWIW, I think it's a pretty cool idea. It is supposed to stream back a continuous feed of the Earth's sunlit side to be accessed via the Web. If nothing else, it would be a neat screensaver.:)
I just don't think the fact that it's being mothballed can justifiably be used as a political football against the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (tm). Better projects get stuffed at NASA hourly.
Of course, you could argue that a sequel to "Tron" has already been made: "The Matrix," also a story about people projected into computers battling the computer intelligences that run that world, albeit with its very '90s sensibilities of being wired and how powerful CGI can get.
The first thing I thought upon seeing Matrix was that it was Tron in reverse. Same theme of technology advancing to the point where it subjugates its creators, reflecting and magnifying their flaws. For more possible Tron sequels, cf. Terminator. For possible prequels, cf. Frankenstein.
Slashdot Mirror
It's kind of a PIM/Explorer replacement. It lets you structure and link your info any way you feel like, and has a flashy but quite functional GUI. I've been using it off and on for 3 years or so. I tend to use it as more of a content manager and use Outlook/PDA instead for most PIM functions, but Brain does both well, if you take the time to link up your info right.
Yeah, the host was obviously Unclear On The Concept of what the Roomba was designed to do. He just put it down and expected it to seek out the mess and clean it up in a 30 second spot, and appeared frustrated when it didn't.
Rather, this is one of those things you start up when you go off to work and you come home to a clean room. Much like the dishwasher. You shouldn't expect a lot of intelligence at a price point lower than most PDAs.
I can't decide if it should be +1 or -1 though.
I've heard that some places will offer you a mild sedative to help with that. A couple guys at a place I used to work had the surgery but turned down the sedative, and regretted it afterwards.
Nope, we just have to wait until November 15. But until then, we can check out the new trailer!
Isn't this the basic idea behind Star Trek's "subspace" communications?
Mine was $70 or so, cheaper than an Intellimouse Explorer.
I had the 2-port Omniview and, although the USB and audio switching worked pretty well, the video ghosting was terrible, even with really fat video cable. I thought it was my el cheapo Magview LCD, until I traded the Belkin for an Aten. The form factor sucks to high heaven -- cables come out of all four sides of the box, and my laptop doesn't have a PS2 port, so I can't just chuck the thing under my desk and use the hotkeys -- but the performance is great.
Distance from Sun (AU) 80.858
Speed relative to Sun (km/s) 12.255
Speed relative to Sun (AU/year) 2.585
Ecliptic Latitude 3.0
Declination (J2000) 25.78
Right Ascension (J2000) 5.012 hrs
One-way light time (hours) 11.31
-------------------
Functional radioisotope thermoelectric generators: Priceless.
I guess now we'll find out if Mac users really are smarter.
Shouldn't that be iServe?
Is it possible to write a Star Wars review without comparing Jar Jar to Stepin Fetchit? Who is this guy, anyway?
Funny, I thought Bernie wrote all the words...
Handera beat them to it about a year ago.
Regardless, I think this will be my next PDA, as soon as Best Buy has another one of their 20% off sales.
Absolutely I agree with you. No need to muddy the waters by suggesting it's attached to a political agenda. It potentially alienates a whole lot of people who might otherwise think open source is a good idea.
I personally think that copyleft is silly. It should be copyfree but I guess that isn't as catchy as copyleft.
Nor does it have the political connotations.
The flaw in the argument is the unspoken idea that you can have success or you can have integrity...
Ford bought Jaguar, btw. And Jag is now winning reliability awards. Think about that one...
...since I doubt the Canon PS100 is still $600...
Dell is selling them at 10% off of $399. At least they were last month. Plus you get a rebate that includes a spare battery, 8MB card and a couple other things. So I picked one up for just over $350. It flat out rocks.
I do like what MS has tried to do with My Docs -- make it easy to keep track of my files -- and they have taken that a little further with the My Music/My Pics subfolders (what's with all this "My" stuff anyway? I know whose files they are!), but it creates another problem. My Docs has become a huge dumping ground, and if I want to organize anything other than music or visuals, I have to do it myself. Seems to me that the desktops or control panels in the above scenario would solve that problem by only showing you the music files, or gamesaves, or what-have-you, that you are likely to need in that context.
The Amazing Segway! Not sold in stores!
"Now I can walk through the park with my grandson again!" -Arthur, 65
FWIW, I think it's a pretty cool idea. It is supposed to stream back a continuous feed of the Earth's sunlit side to be accessed via the Web. If nothing else, it would be a neat screensaver. :)
I just don't think the fact that it's being mothballed can justifiably be used as a political football against the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (tm). Better projects get stuffed at NASA hourly.
The first thing I thought upon seeing Matrix was that it was Tron in reverse. Same theme of technology advancing to the point where it subjugates its creators, reflecting and magnifying their flaws. For more possible Tron sequels, cf. Terminator. For possible prequels, cf. Frankenstein.