Lack of Bluetooth means dongles for wireless kybd/mouse:((((
Also, what is the current status of opensource HWR? Real English (at least) and not any artifical gesture junk like Palm has.. I'm talking at least Symbian, and at best Newton 2.0 level.
My Opera on P800 is functional, but not too great. It's slow, and it has difficulty with stuff like Mapquest when it autoscales graphics. Also, it really needs to be rotatable by at least 90 degrees.
I think what would be really sweet would be a Firefox port to Symbian, and a situation whereby a user's bookmarks, autofill and cached password information was sync'd between handheld and stationary browser installations.
In theory, Apple could knock this out of the park with a Safari port to symbian so you could have a portable music/video/phone/internet pdaphone that isyncs bookmarks, addresses, calendars, etc.
I have Vonage. This pisses me off. Luckily I have a cellphone that has better 911 support (though if I'm stuck in a sinking boat in the East River I'm screwed) and no small children so I can live with it, but it's something that needs fixing.
I know Vonage and the rest are being frozen out of the 911 system to some degree by the non-VoIP incumbents, but they need to make a bigger stink all the time and push much harder for equal access to 911. TOS is not enough.
Granted, they're a private company and all, but a few more horror stories met by corporate intransigence and waffling will kill their business. It's in their interest to fight for 911 access much more vigorously and publicly. They should have PSAs calling for 911 access running on all the sunday shows and be screaming about it whenever their corporate officers are being interviewed. This won't happen until one or more customers are dead because of the lack of full 911 support.
Nothing ever happens unless people die. Road signs, product safety, etc. Folks push it until people die.
Hell, Ford even makes a hybrid SUV, for christ's sake. I mean, a hybrid SU-freakin'-V. C'mon - has there ever been a bigger oxymoron?
Actually, given consumer demand, hybrid SUVs are a much better way of reducing fuel use in the US. They make _more_ sense in the US market than unpopular small cars. The RX400h is going to ROCK the US market: it's more efficient and FASTER than its non-hybrid stablemate.
Personally, I still think it's stupid not to go with diesel-electric hybrids. But, I guess you take what you can get.
Also, I doubt battery tech will get a whole lot better short of nanotech, though high-speed spinning mechanical capacitors are intriguing...
The only problems I ever had with K3b were related to permissions and getting thru Linux's clunky ATAPI burner support. In fact, I had an LG DVD/CDRW, though it wasn't one of the notorious ones. K3b also automagically hits freedb when ripping and burns id3 tags as CD TEXT, great for car CD decks that don't take MP3s but do display CD TEXT. I wish iTunes could do that!!!!
I've burned tons of discs flawlessly and effortlessly in K3b. I've done so off network shares (NFS and SMB). It got to the point where windows people were asking me to burn their stuff off shares because their windows apps would crash or coaster.
So, YMMV.
(OffTopic: When I showed off my KDE desktop (Baghira, Apollon, K3b, Konqi, Kopete, KMail, etc) to windows power users, I came pretty close to converting them on the spot. They loved the UI consistency and integration.)
I'm firmly in the 3 button camp (UNIX/Linux user) but two is better than none, and I can see why they're doing that - especially given Apple's "interesting" notions about mice.
OS X really needs middle-mouse-button copy/paste support. Some apps already have ctrl-k support, but when I switch between work box and home box I always find myself having to remember to apple-c/apple-v when I want to copy stuff like search terms, etc..
(and when Finder goes Cocoa, please please PLEASE put the Services menu in the right-click contextual menu, with selections apropos the item highlited...)
Frankly I hope Apple will make all kybds and mice BTO options and not bother bundling them. It would save precious drawer space.
I'm interested in how they're going to blow away the MX1000 Logitech mouse, it so far looks pretty unbeatable as far as non-bluetooth wireless mice go.
(still, a wired version with the laser assembly would be great for a premium gamer mouse..)
I dont care about the innerworks if I am a (l)user.
Yes you do, if they provide easy, useful, and logical functionality.
For example, in OS X, the underlying frameworks and the OS integrate addressbook, email, chat so that every entry in your addressbook, if it has an email address, that email address bypasses your junk filter. If you're reading an email by someone in your addressbook who's logged into AIM or who is running iChat (or an iChatalike) on Zeroconf, a green dot will appear next to their name indicating that they're available for chat.
By default, if you don't have a photo for someone's addressbook entry, the system uses their AIM icon if they have one. That icon syncs to phones via iSync (if you have a phone that displays photos in the addressbook, like my P800). When someone calls, their addressbook photo appears on the phone.
All this stuff is done by having a systemwide addressbook and other standard systemwide info stores, all addressable cross-app via built-in frameworks. Not to mention that the info stores can, where applicable, be housed in open standards storage systems like LDAP or WebDAV. The next rev of OS X will bring Jabber, and I hope that Jabber will get the USB treatment (invented elsewhere but popularized by Apple until taken up by the rest of the world). And all this is without even mentioning iLife integration!
At this point, all the stuff you get FOR FREE OUT OF THE BOX WITH OS X is as powerful as Exchange/Outlook if you build a WebDAV and LDAP server to handle the data stores. It's just not integrated with that left-side button bar interface.
This is really superb, rich, intuitive, easy technology, and GNOME comes nowhere close. KDE is closer and advancing steadily. Being a UI fascist is only part of the battle: I would take intuitive functionality over consistency any day, and OS X is the living example that the choice is && not ||.
Now if only the OS X services menu were a right-click option.. Bloody carbon finder...
ps: Cool feature would be to have a GPS receiver built into a laptop, and have it change its settings (timezone, network config, etc) based on where it is. Privacy aside, of course..
Well, while I'm calling the kettle black, here's a few nice KDE bits:
* KParts * KIOSlaves * DCOP * launching URLs from the kicker panel's cmdline applet * konqueror and konqi-based file manager are totally tits. * KControlCenter is _totally_ integrated, and I wish it had a distro-independent configuration manager for system params (like interfaces, disk configuration, passwd file management, maybe an LDAP administration frontend).
Also, if you don't like the theme elements, you can CHANGE IT. Duh. Personally, I think the Baghira stuff is hella sweet, and when I rip my OS X fonts over (thanks to fondu) I can get some very pretty Lucida Grande and Helvetica Neue (not to mention a really swank Futura).
KDE use to be alot more flexible, integrated feel, and easy to use, but that is no longer the case anymore.
Care to share what you're smoking with the rest of the class? KWallet, Konqi, KAddressbook, KCalendar, KMail, all this stuff is integrated or in the process of being integrated, in emulation of Mac OS X. KDE has made amazingly huge leaps in integration just comparing 3.0 to 3.3. With the onward march towards groupware, integration will improve, and thanks to KParts and DCOP it will be rich and awesome. GNOME doesn't come close without unbelievable CORBA-style bl0at.
Under MacOSX and WIndows, when you install an app it is included automatically in the taskbar.
What version of OS X are you talking about? I've installed a number of apps in many different ways (carbon installer, OS X standard pkg, drag-and-drop) and I have yet to see a single one of those apps register on the Dock as part of the installation. Granted, they appear when you launch them, and you can then 'permanentize' them, but the installation process doesn't do it.
Gnome is on the right path and will be on par with Windows if its not already.
This is a bug, not a feature.
The right path is Mac OS X + better themability, more advanced functionality (but with layers that start with sensible defaults and allow 'advanced' users to plumb the depths), and scriptability in open languages.
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For me, the metric is whether or not the flying toaster GL xscreensaver will send accelerated toast across all screens.
If not, it's not ready yet IMHO.
From there, of course, with a decent # of screens you could have a KILLER FPS cave.
All this stuff breaks Xinerama, unless that has been updated to work properly with OpenGL.
:/
I would have really loved a GL-capable Xinerama back in 2001
.. with fondu.
Mac fonts (particularly Helvetica Neue, Lucida Grande, and Futura) look pretty darned good on Linux, though I still prefer OS X's 'softer' rendering..
... make a clean break, and pull all AFP (and preferably AFP-sourced articles) out of the general search as well as the news site.
Black hole those bitches.
Lack of Bluetooth means dongles for wireless kybd/mouse :((((
Also, what is the current status of opensource HWR? Real English (at least) and not any artifical gesture junk like Palm has.. I'm talking at least Symbian, and at best Newton 2.0 level.
My Opera on P800 is functional, but not too great. It's slow, and it has difficulty with stuff like Mapquest when it autoscales graphics. Also, it really needs to be rotatable by at least 90 degrees.
I think what would be really sweet would be a Firefox port to Symbian, and a situation whereby a user's bookmarks, autofill and cached password information was sync'd between handheld and stationary browser installations.
In theory, Apple could knock this out of the park with a Safari port to symbian so you could have a portable music/video/phone/internet pdaphone that isyncs bookmarks, addresses, calendars, etc.
I have Vonage. This pisses me off. Luckily I have a cellphone that has better 911 support (though if I'm stuck in a sinking boat in the East River I'm screwed) and no small children so I can live with it, but it's something that needs fixing.
I know Vonage and the rest are being frozen out of the 911 system to some degree by the non-VoIP incumbents, but they need to make a bigger stink all the time and push much harder for equal access to 911. TOS is not enough.
Granted, they're a private company and all, but a few more horror stories met by corporate intransigence and waffling will kill their business. It's in their interest to fight for 911 access much more vigorously and publicly. They should have PSAs calling for 911 access running on all the sunday shows and be screaming about it whenever their corporate officers are being interviewed. This won't happen until one or more customers are dead because of the lack of full 911 support.
Nothing ever happens unless people die. Road signs, product safety, etc. Folks push it until people die.
... Indictments for securities fraud to follow. ;)
Let's hope in the re-re-rerelease we get an Episode I and II that _don't_ suck, and an Episode IV wherein Greedo fires first.
Hell, Ford even makes a hybrid SUV, for christ's sake. I mean, a hybrid SU-freakin'-V. C'mon - has there ever been a bigger oxymoron?
Actually, given consumer demand, hybrid SUVs are a much better way of reducing fuel use in the US. They make _more_ sense in the US market than unpopular small cars. The RX400h is going to ROCK the US market: it's more efficient and FASTER than its non-hybrid stablemate.
Personally, I still think it's stupid not to go with diesel-electric hybrids. But, I guess you take what you can get.
Also, I doubt battery tech will get a whole lot better short of nanotech, though high-speed spinning mechanical capacitors are intriguing...
... should be interesting, there's at least a Tyan board (K7M that handles AMD's low power K7 chip. It's socket A with DDR333 memory.
This mobo is purely a microformat web/mail/office unit, no AGP or PCIe, but it could make a pretty slick little microserver or homebrew blade..
Of course, YMMV.
The only problems I ever had with K3b were related to permissions and getting thru Linux's clunky ATAPI burner support. In fact, I had an LG DVD/CDRW, though it wasn't one of the notorious ones. K3b also automagically hits freedb when ripping and burns id3 tags as CD TEXT, great for car CD decks that don't take MP3s but do display CD TEXT. I wish iTunes could do that!!!!
I've burned tons of discs flawlessly and effortlessly in K3b. I've done so off network shares (NFS and SMB). It got to the point where windows people were asking me to burn their stuff off shares because their windows apps would crash or coaster.
So, YMMV.
(OffTopic: When I showed off my KDE desktop (Baghira, Apollon, K3b, Konqi, Kopete, KMail, etc) to windows power users, I came pretty close to converting them on the spot. They loved the UI consistency and integration.)
I'm firmly in the 3 button camp (UNIX/Linux user) but two is better than none, and I can see why they're doing that - especially given Apple's "interesting" notions about mice.
OS X really needs middle-mouse-button copy/paste support. Some apps already have ctrl-k support, but when I switch between work box and home box I always find myself having to remember to apple-c/apple-v when I want to copy stuff like search terms, etc..
(and when Finder goes Cocoa, please please PLEASE put the Services menu in the right-click contextual menu, with selections apropos the item highlited...)
Frankly I hope Apple will make all kybds and mice BTO options and not bother bundling them. It would save precious drawer space.
I'm interested in how they're going to blow away the MX1000 Logitech mouse, it so far looks pretty unbeatable as far as non-bluetooth wireless mice go.
(still, a wired version with the laser assembly would be great for a premium gamer mouse..)
Cuz you're out of work and have nothing better to do?
Oh wait, that's me.
*sigh*
Gotta wonder if it would help out FPS snipers, though if it introduces latency that would be questionable..
Can they get their Tivo Linux distro up on that box? Are its architecture and component ICs supported?
That's why I stick with O'Reilly almost exclusively.
.. What can it do that K3b can't?
More apps are better, but the best thing is competition. If Nero being available for Linux means K3b getting better (and vice versa) I'm happy.
Still, for what I need it for, K3b is pretty useful.
I dont care about the innerworks if I am a (l)user.
Yes you do, if they provide easy, useful, and logical functionality.
For example, in OS X, the underlying frameworks and the OS integrate addressbook, email, chat so that every entry in your addressbook, if it has an email address, that email address bypasses your junk filter. If you're reading an email by someone in your addressbook who's logged into AIM or who is running iChat (or an iChatalike) on Zeroconf, a green dot will appear next to their name indicating that they're available for chat.
By default, if you don't have a photo for someone's addressbook entry, the system uses their AIM icon if they have one. That icon syncs to phones via iSync (if you have a phone that displays photos in the addressbook, like my P800). When someone calls, their addressbook photo appears on the phone.
All this stuff is done by having a systemwide addressbook and other standard systemwide info stores, all addressable cross-app via built-in frameworks. Not to mention that the info stores can, where applicable, be housed in open standards storage systems like LDAP or WebDAV. The next rev of OS X will bring Jabber, and I hope that Jabber will get the USB treatment (invented elsewhere but popularized by Apple until taken up by the rest of the world). And all this is without even mentioning iLife integration!
At this point, all the stuff you get FOR FREE OUT OF THE BOX WITH OS X is as powerful as Exchange/Outlook if you build a WebDAV and LDAP server to handle the data stores. It's just not integrated with that left-side button bar interface.
This is really superb, rich, intuitive, easy technology, and GNOME comes nowhere close. KDE is closer and advancing steadily. Being a UI fascist is only part of the battle: I would take intuitive functionality over consistency any day, and OS X is the living example that the choice is && not ||.
Now if only the OS X services menu were a right-click option.. Bloody carbon finder...
ps: Cool feature would be to have a GPS receiver built into a laptop, and have it change its settings (timezone, network config, etc) based on where it is. Privacy aside, of course..
Answering trollware with trollware, I see?
Well, while I'm calling the kettle black, here's a few nice KDE bits:
* KParts
* KIOSlaves
* DCOP
* launching URLs from the kicker panel's cmdline applet
* konqueror and konqi-based file manager are totally tits.
* KControlCenter is _totally_ integrated, and I wish it had a distro-independent configuration manager for system params (like interfaces, disk configuration, passwd file management, maybe an LDAP administration frontend).
Also, if you don't like the theme elements, you can CHANGE IT. Duh. Personally, I think the Baghira stuff is hella sweet, and when I rip my OS X fonts over (thanks to fondu) I can get some very pretty Lucida Grande and Helvetica Neue (not to mention a really swank Futura).
KDE use to be alot more flexible, integrated feel, and easy to use, but that is no longer the case anymore.
Care to share what you're smoking with the rest of the class? KWallet, Konqi, KAddressbook, KCalendar, KMail, all this stuff is integrated or in the process of being integrated, in emulation of Mac OS X. KDE has made amazingly huge leaps in integration just comparing 3.0 to 3.3. With the onward march towards groupware, integration will improve, and thanks to KParts and DCOP it will be rich and awesome. GNOME doesn't come close without unbelievable CORBA-style bl0at.
Under MacOSX and WIndows, when you install an app it is included automatically in the taskbar.
What version of OS X are you talking about? I've installed a number of apps in many different ways (carbon installer, OS X standard pkg, drag-and-drop) and I have yet to see a single one of those apps register on the Dock as part of the installation. Granted, they appear when you launch them, and you can then 'permanentize' them, but the installation process doesn't do it.
Gnome is on the right path and will be on par with Windows if its not already.
This is a bug, not a feature.
The right path is Mac OS X + better themability, more advanced functionality (but with layers that start with sensible defaults and allow 'advanced' users to plumb the depths), and scriptability in open languages.
FTA:
"Module Size 1,875mm x 1,080mm x 45mm"
That would map to nearly 1mm square pixels.
AK-56 is a chinese knockoff of the soviet SKS, which is also manufactured in pakistan.
.. Totally different games in style and theme, but both are tons of fun.
And, TTR won the 2004 Spiel Des Jahres!
I mean, I assume if it's from MS it'll come defaulting to 'evil'.. But the Krusty Doll has a mode selector ;)