Sounds good, but actually it doesn't work very well. e-ink is just not responsive enough for that sort of application. You will find the text lagging behind the pen, which makes it frustrating .
Also add that Sony just don't seem to get usability, thats why Apple have been beating them for the last 10 years.
The open university are going to move there beginning programming course from javascript to scratch(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_%28programming_language%29)
I have read books on PDF on my sony e-book reader.
How successful it is is dependent on the book. Some work very well, some don't. The latest e-book readers make an attempt to re-flow the text, however books with images are less successful at this.
I like paper books, but PDF can be a reasonable alternative
I've just got myself a Sony e-book and while I like it it has limitations when compared to books.
Its great for books with a narrative such as novels, but for text books reference books it major limitations is the navigation. With these types of books I want to flip backwards and forwards across multiple pages. Find Index, locate Subject etc. You cannot do that easily with a e-book so locating information even with search tools becomes a pain.
Lets not also forget that HD is not a widely used system. Its closed source and only used in North America. In Europe DAB is the standard, so good luck using or selling the zune outside the states.
Hands up all who thought at the time hmm, AOL and Time Warner, now that's a good idea. Equally ebay, skype, yes I can see the synergy there.
OK sometimes someone sees something the rest of us can't and makes a billion, but its amazing how many times ideas that look really stupid to most of us are actually really stupid. Of course the people who pay for it are the common employee's who don't get asked their opinion.
I have high hopes for this http://www.plasticlogic.com/. Although initially it will be aimed for business use (i.e expensive) hopefully the technology price will come down
I used to buy computing books about once a month. eventually I realized that apart from a few most were never read.
If I download a book, it gives me a chance to read it. If I really like it I will but it. Maybe as an author you are missing the buy for the hell of it sales, but the consumer is getting a fairer deal.
In the embedded world many of those items are still required skills, however I will admit they are not as important as they once were.
On the other hand I often worry how little my windows programming colleagues understand about the mechanics of computers especially when it comes to such things as parallel programming and network stacks.
Intel's i960 was a nice chip for embedded development. One of its nicest features was the large number of individual interrupt vectors which is really useful when you want to hang off a large number of I/O devices off it. Compare that to the x86 where they have to share interrupt vectors. For some reason however Intel decided to drop the whole line and move to ARM architecture instead.
However the second one is a what might of been. During the 80's we did a lot of development using INMOS T2 and T8 transputers. They were a joy to use and made parallel programming at software and hardware level so easy and natural. The next iteration was to be the T9000. It promised a lot, much improved execution speed, a faster and more flexible processor interconnects. It looked so good we had even sold our next project based on it. However when we started getting the first samples there was obviously something wrong. Bits of the chip did not work or would fail. At the end of the day it looked like INMOS just could not deliver. The T9000 never became a reality but anyone who used transputers how good they were and and could if it had been done right with enough finance could of fundamentally changed the computer industry.
The zune was never going to be a the ipod killer that MS hoped it would be and it is difficult to see why MS entered the market.
Basically if you are going up against the gorilla that is Apple in the ipod market, you have to have something that differentiates markedly. The only thing the zune had was the wireless sharing. However two problems with that. Firstly it was hopelessly crippled by MS usually DRM fan boys. Secondly it relied on enough mass usage of the zune so that there was a chance someday you might meet another zune user. If you took that away you were left with a nice MP3 player competing with all the other nice non apple MP3 players in a sea made by Apple. And remember an ipod is not just a music player but is the focal point of a whole industry providing ipod addons. Zune never had a chance.
The question is what could compete with ipod? History has shown that it would either take a whole new technology shift(wireless music ???) or Apple to make a mis-step. So far Apple has shown they are not likely to do the latter, in fact you have to be impressed how they do not sit back and wait for the competition to catch up, but are constantly pushing the envelope. This makes it very hard to compete against. You only have to look how a few months after the zune was produced apple produced the itouch so totally changing the market before the zune ever got going.
So what about MS. Probably what they should of done instead of spending millions on Zune was got into phones. Here they have a slight advantage in that their software runs the corporate world so if they made a phone that seamlessly connected then corporate world would probably buy a few.
However even here they have a few problems. Firstly it would eat away at their mobile OS market, since they would be competing against the same people who buy there software from them at the moment. This would almost certainly push these same manufacturers to android and the like. Secondly MS hardware sucks. They just do not have the ability to integrate the software and hardware into one unit, in the same way apple do. This must be partly to do with their reliance on 3rd party hardware suppliers to do the hardware design, then having to fit their software to it.
In the end of the day, MS should really concentrate on doing what it knows best, making operating systems for gray boxes
As far as I understand personality tests, they indicate tendencies. For example some people may be more prone to plan ahead and others more spur of the moment. The tests do define these quite well, however what they do not measure is the coping mechanisms people have developed to overcome situations which do not match there personality types. For example many people such comedians which you would consider extravert's are actually deeply shy, but have managed to generate an external face to overcome there shyness. I would be deeply sceptical of deciding on someone job suitability just on the basis of such a test.
Also it wasn't long ago that handwriting analysis was a common method used to filter applicants, despite it having the same scientific value as astrology.
At the end of the day they are all mechanisms for passing the buck for hiring people.
Holy crap do they also wallpaper the walls at Microsoft with 100 bills just before they repaint them so they can figure out how to waste money even faster?
Yes, but its was still less wasteful than developing Vista
Very true. I've been using Vista since it was available on Newegg, and have had almost no problems (not none, but then again, it isn't like people have no problems in any OS). It works beautifully, people crying about Vista are either a) unfortunate in the fact that their hardware/app isn't supported (and this isn't the majority of the problems), or b) spreading FUD. Hurrah for you. You have played Microsoft roulette and we have a winner!
The truth is I am sure Vista is fine for many people. I do assume Microsoft did some testing before release, however even with a brand new PC you just don't know how Vista will run. And why bother when you do know windows XP will run just fine,(and probably faster). Also if you look at what Vista gives you over XP, there is not a lot there to make it a must have upgrade especially with the afore mentioned risks associated with it.
My no 1 request on the wish list is to be able to easily write custom packet filters to extend coverage over protocols Wireshark does not understand. The microsoft version (netmon) does allow it, although its not as clear as it should be. I do note wireshark has a rudimentary lua in interface, so maybe this will be added later.
Still it is one of the most useful tools around and free to boot!
All good points. It is also worth mentioning that windows CE != windows. It won't run windows applications unless they are specially written for it. Fortunately Linux does not have such issues
The problem of GUI design is most people come to it with little or no understanding of what underpins it. Basically we a talking about communicating with humans and therefore we need to understand the human psychology. Therefore I would start with books that explain how people visualize objects or how they approach problem solving. While studying other designs have merit, often the mistake is to repeat a design in another situation where it is less appropriate. Also the process of convention is also important. Windows is so ubiquitous that it is difficult to move away from its principles, but that doesn't mean that it is a good GUI by any stretch of the imagination and until you can understand why there is little chance of you writing a good one of your own.
Another important area is how the GUI is designed and tested. The process is very different to software since it requires fine grain of iteration and extensive interaction and analysis of test users.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds good, but actually it doesn't work very well. e-ink is just not responsive enough for that sort of application. You will find the text lagging behind the pen, which makes it frustrating .
Also add that Sony just don't seem to get usability, thats why Apple have been beating them for the last 10 years.
The open university are going to move there beginning programming course from javascript to scratch(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_%28programming_language%29)
I have read books on PDF on my sony e-book reader.
How successful it is is dependent on the book. Some work very well, some don't. The latest e-book readers make an attempt to re-flow the text, however books with images are less successful at this.
I like paper books, but PDF can be a reasonable alternative
I've just got myself a Sony e-book and while I like it it has limitations when compared to books.
Its great for books with a narrative such as novels, but for text books reference books it major limitations is the navigation. With these types of books I want to flip backwards and forwards across multiple pages. Find Index, locate Subject etc. You cannot do that easily with a e-book so locating information even with search tools becomes a pain.
Lets not also forget that HD is not a widely used system. Its closed source and only used in North America. In Europe DAB is the standard, so good luck using or selling the zune outside the states.
Hands up all who thought at the time hmm, AOL and Time Warner, now that's a good idea. Equally ebay, skype, yes I can see the synergy there.
OK sometimes someone sees something the rest of us can't and makes a billion, but its amazing how many times ideas that look really stupid to most of us are actually really stupid. Of course the people who pay for it are the common employee's who don't get asked their opinion.
I have high hopes for this http://www.plasticlogic.com/. Although initially it will be aimed for business use (i.e expensive) hopefully the technology price will come down
Collision detection leaves a lot to be desired. However it is kinda cool to driver a cruise line up Rotterdam high street.
But all in all I'll stick to ShipSimulator 2008
I used to buy computing books about once a month. eventually I realized that apart from a few most were never read.
If I download a book, it gives me a chance to read it. If I really like it I will but it. Maybe as an author you are missing the buy for the hell of it sales, but the consumer is getting a fairer deal.
In the embedded world many of those items are still required skills, however I will admit they are not as important as they once were.
On the other hand I often worry how little my windows programming colleagues understand about the mechanics of computers especially when it comes to such things as parallel programming and network stacks.
Three words:
IE Tab plugin
Nuff said.
Intel's i960 was a nice chip for embedded development. One of its nicest features was the large number of individual interrupt vectors which is really useful when you want to hang off a large number of I/O devices off it. Compare that to the x86 where they have to share interrupt vectors. For some reason however Intel decided to drop the whole line and move to ARM architecture instead.
However the second one is a what might of been. During the 80's we did a lot of development using INMOS T2 and T8 transputers. They were a joy to use and made parallel programming at software and hardware level so easy and natural. The next iteration was to be the T9000. It promised a lot, much improved execution speed, a faster and more flexible processor interconnects. It looked so good we had even sold our next project based on it. However when we started getting the first samples there was obviously something wrong. Bits of the chip did not work or would fail. At the end of the day it looked like INMOS just could not deliver. The T9000 never became a reality but anyone who used transputers how good they were and and could if it had been done right with enough finance could of fundamentally changed the computer industry.
The zune was never going to be a the ipod killer that MS hoped it would be and it is difficult to see why MS entered the market.
Basically if you are going up against the gorilla that is Apple in the ipod market, you have to have something that differentiates markedly. The only thing the zune had was the wireless sharing. However two problems with that. Firstly it was hopelessly crippled by MS usually DRM fan boys. Secondly it relied on enough mass usage of the zune so that there was a chance someday you might meet another zune user. If you took that away you were left with a nice MP3 player competing with all the other nice non apple MP3 players in a sea made by Apple. And remember an ipod is not just a music player but is the focal point of a whole industry providing ipod addons. Zune never had a chance.
The question is what could compete with ipod? History has shown that it would either take a whole new technology shift(wireless music ???) or Apple to make a mis-step. So far Apple has shown they are not likely to do the latter, in fact you have to be impressed how they do not sit back and wait for the competition to catch up, but are constantly pushing the envelope. This makes it very hard to compete against. You only have to look how a few months after the zune was produced apple produced the itouch so totally changing the market before the zune ever got going.
So what about MS. Probably what they should of done instead of spending millions on Zune was got into phones. Here they have a slight advantage in that their software runs the corporate world so if they made a phone that seamlessly connected then corporate world would probably buy a few.
However even here they have a few problems. Firstly it would eat away at their mobile OS market, since they would be competing against the same people who buy there software from them at the moment. This would almost certainly push these same manufacturers to android and the like.
Secondly MS hardware sucks. They just do not have the ability to integrate the software and hardware into one unit, in the same way apple do. This must be partly to do with their reliance on 3rd party hardware suppliers to do the hardware design, then having to fit their software to it.
In the end of the day, MS should really concentrate on doing what it knows best, making operating systems for gray boxes
As far as I understand personality tests, they indicate tendencies. For example some people may be more prone to plan ahead and others more spur of the moment. The tests do define these quite well, however what they do not measure is the coping mechanisms people have developed to overcome situations which do not match there personality types. For example many people such comedians which you would consider extravert's are actually deeply shy, but have managed to generate an external face to overcome there shyness. I would be deeply sceptical of deciding on someone job suitability just on the basis of such a test.
Also it wasn't long ago that handwriting analysis was a common method used to filter applicants, despite it having the same scientific value as astrology.
At the end of the day they are all mechanisms for passing the buck for hiring people.
Holy crap do they also wallpaper the walls at Microsoft with 100 bills just before they repaint them so they can figure out how to waste money even faster?
Yes, but its was still less wasteful than developing Vista
Ignoring the obvious joke, I got my MSI wind(well the rebadged version of it) for £279 and I am very happy with it, after a few initial issues
see www.msiwind.net for a very good forum
The truth is I am sure Vista is fine for many people. I do assume Microsoft did some testing before release, however even with a brand new PC you just don't know how Vista will run. And why bother when you do know windows XP will run just fine,(and probably faster). Also if you look at what Vista gives you over XP, there is not a lot there to make it a must have upgrade especially with the afore mentioned risks associated with it.
My no 1 request on the wish list is to be able to easily write custom packet filters to extend coverage over protocols Wireshark does not understand. The microsoft version (netmon) does allow it, although its not as clear as it should be. I do note wireshark has a rudimentary lua in interface, so maybe this will be added later.
Still it is one of the most useful tools around and free to boot!
Check out HiPe(High Performance Erlang), part of the erlang OTP which compiles erlang to native code
All good points. It is also worth mentioning that windows CE != windows. It won't run windows applications unless they are specially written for it. Fortunately Linux does not have such issues
You might also want to point out that this would turn the ISPs into police and give them some of the powers of police
Actually its worse than that. It will be the BPI who will b doing the policing. They will pass the names onto the ISP's.
It also was replaced in 1995 by a cable drawn system, so no longer exists
This is another failiure in the long history of trying to detect gravity waves.
As a matter of interest what would be the consequences to modern physics if Gravity waves do not exist?
The problem of GUI design is most people come to it with little or no understanding of what underpins it. Basically we a talking about communicating with humans and therefore we need to understand the human psychology. Therefore I would start with books that explain how people visualize objects or how they approach problem solving. While studying other designs have merit, often the mistake is to repeat a design in another situation where it is less appropriate. Also the process of convention is also important. Windows is so ubiquitous that it is difficult to move away from its principles, but that doesn't mean that it is a good GUI by any stretch of the imagination and until you can understand why there is little chance of you writing a good one of your own.
Another important area is how the GUI is designed and tested. The process is very different to software since it requires fine grain of iteration and extensive interaction and analysis of test users.
One suggested book is Human-Computer Interaction by Jenny Preece(and others)http://www.amazon.com/Human-Computer-Interaction-Jenny-Preece/dp/0201627698/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1199374522&sr=11-1/