for various crafts / hobbies --- e.g., every heat box design I've seen for curing epoxy when making a fiberglass-laminate (archery) bow uses a bank of ###-watt light bulbs.
Here's a classic old usenet post which pretty much sums up the state of things back then:
From: Steven W. Schuldt Subject: Re: write once, run where? Date: 1997/11/18 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 290389819 References: Organization: MediaOne -=- Northeast Region Reply-To: sschu...@mediaone.net Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
In article mmalcolm crawford
writes: > "Ellison says Apple's NC will roll out in March" > http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/All/971114ellison1A3DE > > OPENSTEP developers might be worried by Ellison assertion that 'Apple's > future lies with the development of its Macintosh operating system. "What's > important at Apple is the Mac OS. It doesn't have some of the multitasking, > high-end features that Windows has, but it's the Mac OS that's strategic to > Apple, not Rhapsody..."' > > Time, perhaps, for those with an interest in Rhapsody to remind Apple of the > fact. > > Best wishes, > > mmalc. > This stuff absolutely gives me the heebee-jeebees. He has said a number of these things over the last couple of weeks to the effect of, "forget Rhapsody, Apple has Steve". You know, Larry, Steve, Cambell, York et al don't have to go down into the mines and actually shovel code to make a living in this world. It isn't as if Steve was there for me this afternoon, leaning over my shoulder helping me code my gargantuan web app. What do they care how hard my job is? Can you see the boardroom? "Sure, MacOS forever, great. Yeah, yeah, Java blah blah blah. Love that webtop. Pass the bong..." Fellas, down here in the trenches battling the Win32 hordes is no picnic, we'd like some real help. For example, it would help to have a real weapon. It's like we're yelling:
Developers: "They're flanking us, pass me that musket!" Apple: "Here's your slingshot.", Developers:"The musket, the MUSKET dammit!" Apple: "Hey, how about these Chinese throwing stars!" Developers: "Aaaaahhhh..."
I like Larry Ellison, and I believe in the vision of the NC (albeit a slightly different one than Larry's), but is this just line-towing corporate-speak while Rhapsody cooks or is the whole Rhap initiative being subtly shafted behind the scenes to bail out Larry's disastrous NCI initiative?
Let me state for the record that I know people that have seen the movers and technology at NCI up close and personal, and to be generous we are not talking about anything proximate to Avie and NeXT-caliber. This stuff is crap and ORACLE knows it, hence the recent folding of NCI and re-absorbtion into the mothership. The MacOS, cute and spunky as it is (hopping around gamely on it's spindly little legs), is out of it's depths as the '90s scream to a close and Apple _ought_ to know it. NT, although awkward and unweildy, becomes less crap with every passing quarter - and festooned with every advantage infinite bushels of cash can buy will kick the living snot out of Allegro and that scotch-tape and spit freeware abortion that is the NC server from ORACLE. It'd be like sending your grandmother and Gomer Pyle into a room to battle Dolph Lundgren to the death. NT will stomp on that combo so hard there will be nothing but blood and broken teeth left on the pavement. QTML, Rhapsody and the OpenStep frameworks are the only technologies Apple has that can weather the coming NT 5 firestorm and come out alive. It will really frost my ass if the Apple NC turns out to be merely a wedge to prop up ORACLE's shitty NC server and cartoonish, scandalously lame Java webtop. ORACLE needs Apple's technology and not the other way around. Here's hoping Larry figures that out and learns to like the idea. He'd have a shot if he'd euthanize his sick pet and leverage OpenStep. I could do in an aft
Yeah, the amusing thing is how other graphic designers would tell me I was wasting my time using a NeXT Cube and how the first couple of MacWorld Expos after Apple bought NeXT were filled w/ Mac-fans clapping to rehashes of old NeXTworld Expo presentations.
NeXTstep could be installed almost completely on a ~300 MB disk (the Developer tools were just a bit too big for that to fit, so one had to spring for a 426MB or larger disk to have everything plus room to work).
NeXT CPUs were 25 MHz (the original 68030 and the later 68040) or 33 MHz (68040 ``Turbo''). There was also a NeXT RISC design which was never released and it also ran on SPARCs, HP-PA ``Gecko'' RISC workstations and of course ``white'' hardware running on 80486 25MHz and faster machines.
Mac OS X 10.6 minimum requirement per Apple is for a 5 GB HD --- actual usage is a bit less than that.
I used to use, between work and home, a trio of machines all running at a base speed of 25 MHz --- my NeXT Cube, a Mac Quadra (forget the model number) and a ThinkPad 755c --- the NeXT was the winner hands down and I truly regretted not being able to get OPENSTEP running on the ThinkPad (this after buying OPENSTEP 4.2 from Apple expressly for that purpose and using up quite a bit of Apple's tech support phone time). Robust, elegant, fast, efficient, stable (the only crashes I had on my Cube were associated w/ hardware failures --- I went through 3 HDs in the decade that I had it running).
Arguably, Mac OS X feels about as fast as NeXTstep on black hardware, so is responsive enough --- and the machine is regularly backing itself up, and to be honest w/ myself, I do run a lot more programs (usually have the entire Creative Suite running) these days which do a bit more (as much as I complain about it, having a nice multi-line H&J algorithm in an interactive page layout program as InDesign does is quite nice --- AppleScripting makes it almost as automatable (w/in the limits of Adobe's license) as TeX).
I suppose I should try to get OPENSTEP running on a portable again --- the problem is I prefer for my portables to be pen computers and the only HWR for NeXTstep which I'm aware of is Instant TeX's trainable recognition of math symbols.
``CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is where it all began in March 1989....When they settled on a name in May 1990, it was the WorldWideWeb.''
It was OPENSTEP 4.2 --- which Apple actually sold for a time, along w/ providing free Y2K patches and free upgrades to NeXTstep 3.3 or OPENSTEP 4.2 to license holders of earlier versions.
Amusing rumour is that ``Yellow Box'' was so named because Bill Gates, when asked if he'd develop for NeXT stated, ``Develop for it? I'll piss on it.''
As nice as Mac OS X is though, I'd still rather have NeXTstep:
- Display PostScript
- built-in PANTONE colour library
- vertical, movable menu bar w/ tear off menus and pop-up menus
- top-level Print, Hide, Quit and Services menu
- TeX provided by default and supported by the nifty TeXview.app
- inspector-provided sort options for Miller-column filebrowser view
- re-sizeable Shelf which can store multiple file selections as a single icon
- nifty apps which made use of Services and Display PostScript like beYAP.app, Altsys Virtuoso, poste.app &c.
since handedness is significant when wielding a sword / pistol / tennis racket / ping pong paddle &c.
While Nintendo has been very good about providing the option to select handedness, other companies haven't been as acommodating --- Red Steel 2 in particular requires right-handed sword-wielding and some of the combinations seem to be difficult to enact (and visually confusing on-screen) when done left-handed.
Yeah, and even now, there isn't anything conceptually as nice as PenPoint:
- iPad --- no stylus, no handwriting recognition, functionality bound up in special purpose apps, security features make sharing data between apps or constructing integrated documents difficult
- Tablet PCs --- adapted Desktop user interface w/ Tablet functionality bolted over mouse-oriented features
- Android --- intended for small screen smart phones, doesn't handle screen rotation or larger sizes well
The sad thing is how interesting and innovative PenPoint apps and vendors have morphed (or vanished) --- FutureWave's SmartSketch, a PenPoint, stylus-centric vector drawing program became Flash, while PenMagic, PenSoftSlate &c. have vanished.
>hopefully authors will someday realize that ebooks allow them to cut out the middle man.
Believe me, we do not want authors self-publishing --- I've seen raw author manuscripts and graphics and save for a very, very talented few, they are not something one would want to read of their own free will.
Publishers add a great deal of value by:
- filtering out texts not worth publishing
- editing text for consistency / readability / style
- paying for a nice book design which suits the material
- processing graphics so as to be suitable for printing / viewing
- arranging text, tables and graphics on a page so as to allow easy finding of them from the point of mention
Look around Lulu or Smashwords and see what doing w/o such results in.
Reading 3 books on an ebook reader (which otherwise would have been purchased as printed books) puts one ahead (of course in a library situation this is ameliorated by the sharing out of the book among many readers).
That said, I mostly read public domain classics which I get from sites like www.mobileread.com
Not really fringe cases, and requires a bit of effort, unless one uses \frenchspacing (which is not the default) so one _will_ need to think about it, since TeX by default adds more space after a period, so one must indicate which periods do not require additional spacing, e.g.:
Dr.\ Knuth was very concerned with the typography of his published articles and books. This resulted in his development of \TeX\ when early systems for page composition were unable to match the old styles. While it handles many things automatically, it does require a certain attention in the preparation of the text, i.e.\ indicating normal width spaces by preceding them with a backslash. \vfill\eject\bye
And okay, so long as the company is up-front about it and prices the add-on content fairly in relation to the additional amount of playtime which it adds and works it in in a way which doesn't disturb the gameplay experience:
And until recently the battery life wasn't that great either (technology is finally catching up to the early promise) --- I still have to use 9-cell extended life batteries in my Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 (and unfortunately Fujitsu has discontinued their ST-6012)
William (who has been using pen computers w/ Wacom styluses since the NCR-3125)
While it would be nice if they could keep companies like Fujitsu in the slate market (they recently discontinued their Stylistic ST6000 line and HP/Compaq has yet to replace the TC1000/1100/1200 line), there are a couple of slates running (or which can run) Windows 7 available:
Unfortunately, the marketplace has mostly switched over to convertibles (pending the release of devices intended to compeat w/ the iPad). This has gotten so bad that some people purchase the Axiotron ModBook:
The problem is finding units which have them --- picked up a Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 w/ one and it's perfectly readable in direct sunlight --- I use it as a map display unit on long trips.
Not many new units being made w/ such displays though.
Slashdot Mirror
for various crafts / hobbies --- e.g., every heat box design I've seen for curing epoxy when making a fiberglass-laminate (archery) bow uses a bank of ###-watt light bulbs.
Here's a classic old usenet post which pretty much sums up the state of things back then:
From: Steven W. Schuldt
Subject: Re: write once, run where?
Date: 1997/11/18
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 290389819
References:
Organization: MediaOne -=- Northeast Region
Reply-To: sschu...@mediaone.net
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
In article mmalcolm crawford
writes:
> "Ellison says Apple's NC will roll out in March"
> http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/All/971114ellison1A3DE
>
> OPENSTEP developers might be worried by Ellison assertion that 'Apple's
> future lies with the development of its Macintosh operating system. "What's
> important at Apple is the Mac OS. It doesn't have some of the multitasking,
> high-end features that Windows has, but it's the Mac OS that's strategic to
> Apple, not Rhapsody..."'
>
> Time, perhaps, for those with an interest in Rhapsody to remind Apple of the
> fact.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> mmalc.
>
This stuff absolutely gives me the heebee-jeebees. He has said a number of
these things over the last couple of weeks to the effect of, "forget Rhapsody,
Apple has Steve". You know, Larry, Steve, Cambell, York et al don't have to
go down into the mines and actually shovel code to make a living in this
world. It isn't as if Steve was there for me this afternoon, leaning over my
shoulder helping me code my gargantuan web app. What do they care how hard my
job is? Can you see the boardroom? "Sure, MacOS forever, great. Yeah, yeah,
Java blah blah blah. Love that webtop. Pass the bong..." Fellas, down here
in the trenches battling the Win32 hordes is no picnic, we'd like some real
help. For example, it would help to have a real weapon. It's like we're
yelling:
Developers: "They're flanking us, pass me that musket!"
Apple: "Here's your slingshot.",
Developers:"The musket, the MUSKET dammit!"
Apple: "Hey, how about these Chinese throwing stars!"
Developers: "Aaaaahhhh..."
I like Larry Ellison, and I believe in the vision of the NC (albeit a slightly
different one than Larry's), but is this just line-towing corporate-speak
while Rhapsody cooks or is the whole Rhap initiative being subtly shafted
behind the scenes to bail out Larry's disastrous NCI initiative?
Let me state for the record that I know people that have seen the movers and
technology at NCI up close and personal, and to be generous we are not talking
about anything proximate to Avie and NeXT-caliber. This stuff is crap and
ORACLE knows it, hence the recent folding of NCI and re-absorbtion into the
mothership. The MacOS, cute and spunky as it is (hopping around gamely on
it's spindly little legs), is out of it's depths as the '90s scream to a close
and Apple _ought_ to know it. NT, although awkward and unweildy, becomes less
crap with every passing quarter - and festooned with every advantage infinite
bushels of cash can buy will kick the living snot out of Allegro and that
scotch-tape and spit freeware abortion that is the NC server from ORACLE.
It'd be like sending your grandmother and Gomer Pyle into a room to battle
Dolph Lundgren to the death. NT will stomp on that combo so hard there will
be nothing but blood and broken teeth left on the pavement. QTML, Rhapsody
and the OpenStep frameworks are the only technologies Apple has that can
weather the coming NT 5 firestorm and come out alive. It will really frost my
ass if the Apple NC turns out to be merely a wedge to prop up ORACLE's shitty
NC server and cartoonish, scandalously lame Java webtop. ORACLE needs Apple's
technology and not the other way around. Here's hoping Larry figures that out
and learns to like the idea. He'd have a shot if he'd euthanize his sick pet
and leverage OpenStep. I could do in an aft
Yeah, the amusing thing is how other graphic designers would tell me I was wasting my time using a NeXT Cube and how the first couple of MacWorld Expos after Apple bought NeXT were filled w/ Mac-fans clapping to rehashes of old NeXTworld Expo presentations.
William
NeXTstep could be installed almost completely on a ~300 MB disk (the Developer tools were just a bit too big for that to fit, so one had to spring for a 426MB or larger disk to have everything plus room to work).
NeXT CPUs were 25 MHz (the original 68030 and the later 68040) or 33 MHz (68040 ``Turbo''). There was also a NeXT RISC design which was never released and it also ran on SPARCs, HP-PA ``Gecko'' RISC workstations and of course ``white'' hardware running on 80486 25MHz and faster machines.
Mac OS X 10.6 minimum requirement per Apple is for a 5 GB HD --- actual usage is a bit less than that.
I used to use, between work and home, a trio of machines all running at a base speed of 25 MHz --- my NeXT Cube, a Mac Quadra (forget the model number) and a ThinkPad 755c --- the NeXT was the winner hands down and I truly regretted not being able to get OPENSTEP running on the ThinkPad (this after buying OPENSTEP 4.2 from Apple expressly for that purpose and using up quite a bit of Apple's tech support phone time). Robust, elegant, fast, efficient, stable (the only crashes I had on my Cube were associated w/ hardware failures --- I went through 3 HDs in the decade that I had it running).
Arguably, Mac OS X feels about as fast as NeXTstep on black hardware, so is responsive enough --- and the machine is regularly backing itself up, and to be honest w/ myself, I do run a lot more programs (usually have the entire Creative Suite running) these days which do a bit more (as much as I complain about it, having a nice multi-line H&J algorithm in an interactive page layout program as InDesign does is quite nice --- AppleScripting makes it almost as automatable (w/in the limits of Adobe's license) as TeX).
I suppose I should try to get OPENSTEP running on a portable again --- the problem is I prefer for my portables to be pen computers and the only HWR for NeXTstep which I'm aware of is Instant TeX's trainable recognition of math symbols.
William
And that's different from putting a folder in the Dock how?
You said:
> Well, the WWW didn't exist in 1989
I didn't say it did, but that NeXTstep was available in 1989, and hence in the 90s. From:
http://info.cern.ch/
``CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is where it all began in March 1989....When they settled on a name in May 1990, it was the WorldWideWeb.''
William
Then what would you say about an OS which:
- was \textsc{unix}
- supported the initial versions of http
- was used to develop a graphical web browser and editor named worldwideweb.app[1]
NeXTstep, available in 1989
William
1 - _Weaving the Web_ by Sir Tim Berners-Lee --- http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Weaving/Overview.html
It was OPENSTEP 4.2 --- which Apple actually sold for a time, along w/ providing free Y2K patches and free upgrades to NeXTstep 3.3 or OPENSTEP 4.2 to license holders of earlier versions.
Amusing rumour is that ``Yellow Box'' was so named because Bill Gates, when asked if he'd develop for NeXT stated, ``Develop for it? I'll piss on it.''
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/14/gates_says_jobs_saved_apple/
As nice as Mac OS X is though, I'd still rather have NeXTstep:
- Display PostScript
- built-in PANTONE colour library
- vertical, movable menu bar w/ tear off menus and pop-up menus
- top-level Print, Hide, Quit and Services menu
- TeX provided by default and supported by the nifty TeXview.app
- inspector-provided sort options for Miller-column filebrowser view
- re-sizeable Shelf which can store multiple file selections as a single icon
- nifty apps which made use of Services and Display PostScript like beYAP.app, Altsys Virtuoso, poste.app &c.
William
since handedness is significant when wielding a sword / pistol / tennis racket / ping pong paddle &c.
While Nintendo has been very good about providing the option to select handedness, other companies haven't been as acommodating --- Red Steel 2 in particular requires right-handed sword-wielding and some of the combinations seem to be difficult to enact (and visually confusing on-screen) when done left-handed.
William
Yeah, and even now, there isn't anything conceptually as nice as PenPoint:
- iPad --- no stylus, no handwriting recognition, functionality bound up in special purpose apps, security features make sharing data between apps or constructing integrated documents difficult
- Tablet PCs --- adapted Desktop user interface w/ Tablet functionality bolted over mouse-oriented features
- Android --- intended for small screen smart phones, doesn't handle screen rotation or larger sizes well
The sad thing is how interesting and innovative PenPoint apps and vendors have morphed (or vanished) --- FutureWave's SmartSketch, a PenPoint, stylus-centric vector drawing program became Flash, while PenMagic, PenSoftSlate &c. have vanished.
William
you wrote:
>hopefully authors will someday realize that ebooks allow them to cut out the middle man.
Believe me, we do not want authors self-publishing --- I've seen raw author manuscripts and graphics and save for a very, very talented few, they are not something one would want to read of their own free will.
Publishers add a great deal of value by:
- filtering out texts not worth publishing
- editing text for consistency / readability / style
- paying for a nice book design which suits the material
- processing graphics so as to be suitable for printing / viewing
- arranging text, tables and graphics on a page so as to allow easy finding of them from the point of mention
Look around Lulu or Smashwords and see what doing w/o such results in.
William
I crunched the numbers on this a while ago ( http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=619831&postcount=11 ).
Given that each hardcover book releases ~8.85 pounds of CO_2 ( http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/emeraldcity/2008/06/paper-vs-paperl.html )
And a Sony ebook reader (I used the weight of my old Sony PRS-505, 9 ozs.) requires ~16 pounds of CO_2 to manufacture (CO_2 footprint for energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/carbon.html role in manufacturing: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/49730 and ratio of 12 to 1 for energy usage to weight: http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f05001.htm )
Reading 3 books on an ebook reader (which otherwise would have been purchased as printed books) puts one ahead (of course in a library situation this is ameliorated by the sharing out of the book among many readers).
That said, I mostly read public domain classics which I get from sites like www.mobileread.com
William
You said:
``It's better than many point and shoot cameras''
According to:
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html
it has ``still photos (960 x 720) with back camera''
If it had the same camera capabilities as the iPhone, I'd agree --- but either those numbers are wrong, or it's seriously crippled as a camera.
William
Their ``Royal'' font format.
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/truetypehistory.mspx
Microsoft got access to it by trading to Apple their ``TrueImage'' PostScript clone (seen that used anywhere lately?)
William
Never heard of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley?
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Daley-Vows-New-Gun-Ordinances-97328384.html
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/gregory_kane/Kane-Chicago-mayors-comments-wound-gun-control-advocacy-95833474.html
William
Excellent point --- that's why I always put \frenchspacing in my files.
Not really fringe cases, and requires a bit of effort, unless one uses \frenchspacing (which is not the default) so one _will_ need to think about it, since TeX by default adds more space after a period, so one must indicate which periods do not require additional spacing, e.g.:
Dr.\ Knuth was very concerned with the typography of his published articles and books. This resulted in his development of \TeX\ when early systems for page composition were unable to match the old styles. While it handles many things automatically, it does require a certain attention in the preparation of the text, i.e.\ indicating normal width spaces by preceding them with a backslash.
\vfill\eject\bye
William
2001:
``A group of Indian scientists and engineers has developed a handheld computer to help the poor and illiterate join the information age.''
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1442000.stm
2010:
``Both licensees may seem to have stopped actively marketing their Simputer devices''
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simputer
Depends on the aliens --- Hal Clement's 1952 short story ``Halo'' touches on this w/ an interesting twist.
William
And okay, so long as the company is up-front about it and prices the add-on content fairly in relation to the additional amount of playtime which it adds and works it in in a way which doesn't disturb the gameplay experience:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/6/
William
They've been available for years now --- but they're expensive enough that most people won't buy them:
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Cintiq-12WX-12-Inch-Display/dp/B00115OFJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1279042099&sr=8-1
List price $1,199.99 --- on sale ``just'' $947.54 at the moment.
William
They're available, and expensive, and not selling that well:
http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_J35.asp
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=home
And until recently the battery life wasn't that great either (technology is finally catching up to the early promise) --- I still have to use 9-cell extended life batteries in my Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 (and unfortunately Fujitsu has discontinued their ST-6012)
William
(who has been using pen computers w/ Wacom styluses since the NCR-3125)
It's a combination of hardware and software --- there was fabulous work done on tablet interfaces early on:
- Go Corp.'s PenPoint
- Apple's Newton MessagePad
The problem was they were too slow / battery life was too short.
William
While it would be nice if they could keep companies like Fujitsu in the slate market (they recently discontinued their Stylistic ST6000 line and HP/Compaq has yet to replace the TC1000/1100/1200 line), there are a couple of slates running (or which can run) Windows 7 available:
http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_J35.asp
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/archos-9-pc-tablet/1805-3126_7-33800951.html
Unfortunately, the marketplace has mostly switched over to convertibles (pending the release of devices intended to compeat w/ the iPad). This has gotten so bad that some people purchase the Axiotron ModBook:
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=home
and then install Windows on it, which indicates there is a market...
William
which are indoor / outdoor viewable.
The problem is finding units which have them --- picked up a Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 w/ one and it's perfectly readable in direct sunlight --- I use it as a map display unit on long trips.
Not many new units being made w/ such displays though.