The Avigo PDA by Texas Instruments had something like this - You had
big on-screen buttons like "ABC", "DEF", etc. and you just tapped the
set that had the letter you wanted. I.E. If you wanted to type "Hey"
you'd tap GHI, DEF, WXYZ. And the Avigo would try to figure it out
based on a list of words it knows matching that pattern, its context,
etc.
It sounds silly, but it really does work, despite the "guessing"
that's involved. I used my Avigo for well over two years, and 90% of
the time it got the words right. And if not, I could teach it new
words. I liked it a LOT better than Graffiti on the Palm that ended up
replacing my beloved Avigo. Graffiti is okay, but honestly, there
really are better solutions, and the Avigo's was one of them. If this
"air keyboard" works as well and on similar principles, then I think
it will be a decent alternative to Graffiti just because of that.
That's the one thing I miss about that little machine, it's a shame it
didn't creep over into the PalmOS arena. Here is a screen shot of the
on-screen keyboard for the Avigo, and a brief description of it.
Here's a quick explanation of a journaled filesystem, courtesy of LinuxPlanet.com:
The term "journaled" means that the filesystem maintains a log or record of what it is doing to the main data areas of the disk, so that if a crash occurs it can re-create anything that was lost.
...
The idea is that the system can crash at any point in this process but that such a crash won't have lasting effect. ... So when the system reboots, it can simply replay the journal entries and complete the update that was interrupted, or it can back out a partially completed update to restore the file's previous state. In either case, you have valid data and not a trashed partition.
Basically, it means no more long disk checks at startup after a crash or power outage.:) And it virtually eliminates disk fragmentation too, I believe. Hope that helps.
Hear hear. I do 40-80 mile bicycling tours every weekend, and it'd be nice to have an easy way to carry a PDA aside from using irritating bicycle bags or belts.;) Hmm, wonder how well AvantGo would work on this watch...:P
KDE, in its current state, is really a remarkable piece of software. The fact that all this was built by our community in such a relatively short span of time is nothing short of incredible. It took Microsoft much longer to stea-- I mean, innovate, Windows. And here we have KDE, which can meet and exceeds many aspects of Microsoft's cash cow.
That said, KDE does have some flaws, obviously. There are lots of little areas that need work, but they are getting improved at a very pleasing rate. Inconsistences in the interface are disappearing, the overall look and feel of KDE is very solid, and some really awesome features have been added. Not to mention Konqueror, which deserves special mention on its own - a speedy, standards-compliant browser developed in such short time, and comparable to anything Opera/Mozilla/whoever can dish out.
KDE isn't perfect, but it's a true testament to what the OSS community can achieve. *raises his RC Cola can* Here's to the continued success and innovation of KDE, GNOME, and all the other projects that have given us so much in such a small amount of time.
What? Set active scripting to 'prompt' mode, so that I can decide when I want it used? What? Turn it on momentarily while I access Windows Update? What? Add Microsoft.com to my trusted sites list momentarily?
Sure, you have a point about someone who comes on here and Slashdot and gripes about it. Of course they can turn it on or off as they please, or set it to prompt mode. That's because they know it is a security hole.
But what about Joe IE User? The fine folks over at Microsoft.com tell him he needs to swich on Active Scripting, so he does. Does he question its security? 99% of the time Joe and Jane of American Street aren't going to even know what Active Scripting is, much less the dangers of leaving it turned on. They'll just do what Microsoft tells them, and won't think another thought of it.
Microsoft is looking out for the needs of the consumer, right? That's what they always say. So why should I not trust their recommendations so I can update my Windows? Surely they Know What's Best For Me(tm) in order for me to go where I want to go today...
> I have a feeling the latest versions will fail to capture the awe I felt when seeing what was actually possible with the processing power of a 286.
Heh unfortunately for us, you are almost guaranteed to be right. Why? Consider what Wolf3D was when it came out: it was the (semi-)3D shooter. There were no others, and nobody had expectations for what it should be, since it was unprecedented. Now we've got Unreal, UT, Tribes 1 & 2, Quake 1-3, Deus Ex, Fakk 2, Red Faction, Rainbow Six, and a billion other first person shooters.
And sadly, at their core, they're really all the same. Sure, they have varying levels of strategy and tactics required, but when you get down to it, you're killing people/creatures in first-person. Yeah, you may be grabbing a flag, or destroying an objective, or searching for a key card. But those are all simply extensions of what began with Wolf 3D, DOOM, etc.
So yes, Return to Wolfenstein will almost certainly not be as breathtaking as the original was. But that's because, in the grand scheme of games, it's just another approach to a formula we've been playing with for the last decade.
Don't get me wrong - Tribes 2 and the new Wolf are awesome games, and I love 'em to death. But if you're looking for awe-inspiring innovation similar to what Wolf 3D brought to the gaming industry in the days of yore, it's not likely you'll find it this time around. Doesn't mean it's not a great game though.;)
Despite that using the mouse may scientifically be proven to be faster, I (and many others) use the keyboard because it is more comfortable. Even if I lose a fraction of time in the process, I'd rather type a key combo than dig through pull-down menus and icons.
This is like saying because a car gets you someplace faster than a bicycle, it's inherently better. Well, no, that's not always true, because bicycling is what some people enjoy and are more comfortable with. Scientific research be damned, I love my keyboard.:)
I've used many different distros over the years - Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Storm, Caldera, etc. While they all had their good points, I didn't truly like any of them as much as I like Slack (although Debian did come close). Why?
Part of it is simplicity. With distributions like, say, Mandrake, you get a lot of decisions made for you. That's the whole idea behind Mandrake and its kin. To hide the complexities underneath from the average user. But in so doing, they weave a tangled web that can be quite annoying for a power user to undo or modify to their needs. This is the opposite of Slackware - it gives you a powerful base of core software, with a few extra goodies thrown in. But if you really want to only install 50MB of stuff, you can do that. Don't want X? Gone. No KDE? No problem. And so on, and so on.
For people like me, Slackware is a wonderful distro. It allows one to start out with a very functional system with more than enough to get started, and build their system from there. Unlike the other newbie-ized setups, KDE and GNOME are not thrust down my throat. I happen to like WindowMaker, and even before the installer nicely offered that as an option, Slackware was more than happy to oblige my choice of window manager. And while many would cite the fact that Slack is a non-RPM distro as a weakness, I don't miss it. In the past, compiling things would be a more worrying prospect for me, especially during the turbulent times when glibc wasn't yet standardized across the distributions. But honestly, I'm not bothered by compiling my software, and I generally don't have the problems I occasionally had with RPM systems (ever try to upgrade RPM itself? how many times have you had to upgrade tar or gzip?).
All distros have their place - Slackware's place is with the power users, who don't want to be stuck with a Windows-wannabe setup. Slack harkens back to the day when men were men, installers were text, and Linux was Linux. And that's just the way I like it.;)
Anything that the publisher doesn't think is worth publishing anymore should be PD.
Perhaps, but we're not talking about something that's "not worth publishing anymore." We're talking about The Sims, which Maxis has made, and continues to make, thousands of dollars off of. Not only that, they're going to be rolling out an online expansion of it, not to mention the various add-on packs they keep selling for the game.
So in Maxis' eyes, there is zero reason to consider putting The Sims out as open source or public domain, or whatever. There's still moolah to be made, after all.
I do agree in a way, though. I think many companies would be smart to open source or give away games that are no longer profitable. Especially if those games have sequels. "Hey everybody, download Diablo 1 for free, and check out the open source Linux port in the works! And hey, if you like that, boy have we got a sequel for you..."
> It doesn't seem to take much to build a game using existing cross-platforms toolkits that rival Direct3d.
Maybe, but their code is already written for Direct3D, and that's what their developers know. They're not going to pour the money into training developers to use totally different tools and platforms, and pay for the development time to convert everything to OpenGL/AL/SDL whatever. Your points are valid, except in a case such as this - the code is already there, and they're not going to re-write it all.
I just know somebody is going to say, "open source it, we'll port it!" or something like that. But think about it - if you were a company like Maxis, would you give away the source code to your best-selling game that you've put millions into (and received that much as well)?
I've used REBOL quite a bit, and I'll say one thing up front: this is not going to be a Microsoft killer, or a.Net killer, or whatever. But REBOL is very good at what it does, which is offer a high-level interface to web, e-mail, etc. scripting. The language is pretty nice once you get into it. But for 99% of my scripting, I still use Perl. Will that change because of REBOL? I doubt it.
Slashdot Mirror
We can't do AI on big-ass supercomputers, you expect me to believe these little wristpade have AI in them?
Keep in mind that their use of the term "AI" is just buzzword-ese. But the basic idea of what they're talking about is not impossible.
Not as stupid as it sounds...
The Avigo PDA by Texas Instruments had something like this - You had big on-screen buttons like "ABC", "DEF", etc. and you just tapped the set that had the letter you wanted. I.E. If you wanted to type "Hey" you'd tap GHI, DEF, WXYZ. And the Avigo would try to figure it out based on a list of words it knows matching that pattern, its context, etc.
It sounds silly, but it really does work, despite the "guessing" that's involved. I used my Avigo for well over two years, and 90% of the time it got the words right. And if not, I could teach it new words. I liked it a LOT better than Graffiti on the Palm that ended up replacing my beloved Avigo. Graffiti is okay, but honestly, there really are better solutions, and the Avigo's was one of them. If this "air keyboard" works as well and on similar principles, then I think it will be a decent alternative to Graffiti just because of that.
That's the one thing I miss about that little machine, it's a shame it didn't creep over into the PalmOS arena. Here is a screen shot of the on-screen keyboard for the Avigo, and a brief description of it.
Thanks. ;)
... Somebody's got it in their sig here, and it goes something like this:
"I may not like what you have to say, but I will fight for your right to say it."
Here's a quick explanation of a journaled filesystem, courtesy of LinuxPlanet.com:
The term "journaled" means that the filesystem maintains a log or record of what it is doing to the main data areas of the disk, so that if a crash occurs it can re-create anything that was lost.
...
The idea is that the system can crash at any point in this process but that such a crash won't have lasting effect. ... So when the system reboots, it can simply replay the journal entries and complete the update that was interrupted, or it can back out a partially completed update to restore the file's previous state. In either case, you have valid data and not a trashed partition.
Basically, it means no more long disk checks at startup after a crash or power outage. :) And it virtually eliminates disk fragmentation too, I believe. Hope that helps.
Hear hear. I do 40-80 mile bicycling tours every weekend, and it'd be nice to have an easy way to carry a PDA aside from using irritating bicycle bags or belts. ;) Hmm, wonder how well AvantGo would work on this watch... :P
Nobody cares, but here goes. :)
KDE, in its current state, is really a remarkable piece of software. The fact that all this was built by our community in such a relatively short span of time is nothing short of incredible. It took Microsoft much longer to stea-- I mean, innovate, Windows. And here we have KDE, which can meet and exceeds many aspects of Microsoft's cash cow.
That said, KDE does have some flaws, obviously. There are lots of little areas that need work, but they are getting improved at a very pleasing rate. Inconsistences in the interface are disappearing, the overall look and feel of KDE is very solid, and some really awesome features have been added. Not to mention Konqueror, which deserves special mention on its own - a speedy, standards-compliant browser developed in such short time, and comparable to anything Opera/Mozilla/whoever can dish out.
KDE isn't perfect, but it's a true testament to what the OSS community can achieve. *raises his RC Cola can* Here's to the continued success and innovation of KDE, GNOME, and all the other projects that have given us so much in such a small amount of time.
What? Set active scripting to 'prompt' mode, so that I can decide when I want it used? What? Turn it on momentarily while I access Windows Update? What? Add Microsoft.com to my trusted sites list momentarily?
Sure, you have a point about someone who comes on here and Slashdot and gripes about it. Of course they can turn it on or off as they please, or set it to prompt mode. That's because they know it is a security hole.
But what about Joe IE User? The fine folks over at Microsoft.com tell him he needs to swich on Active Scripting, so he does. Does he question its security? 99% of the time Joe and Jane of American Street aren't going to even know what Active Scripting is, much less the dangers of leaving it turned on. They'll just do what Microsoft tells them, and won't think another thought of it.
Microsoft is looking out for the needs of the consumer, right? That's what they always say. So why should I not trust their recommendations so I can update my Windows? Surely they Know What's Best For Me(tm) in order for me to go where I want to go today...
So, wait. Al Gore invented the internet, Bill Gates created open source... This is getting confusing!
Screw this. I'm going back to AOL, where it's so easy, no wonder it's #1!
> I have a feeling the latest versions will fail to capture the awe I felt when seeing what was actually possible with the processing power of a 286.
Heh unfortunately for us, you are almost guaranteed to be right. Why? Consider what Wolf3D was when it came out: it was the (semi-)3D shooter. There were no others, and nobody had expectations for what it should be, since it was unprecedented. Now we've got Unreal, UT, Tribes 1 & 2, Quake 1-3, Deus Ex, Fakk 2, Red Faction, Rainbow Six, and a billion other first person shooters.
And sadly, at their core, they're really all the same. Sure, they have varying levels of strategy and tactics required, but when you get down to it, you're killing people/creatures in first-person. Yeah, you may be grabbing a flag, or destroying an objective, or searching for a key card. But those are all simply extensions of what began with Wolf 3D, DOOM, etc.
So yes, Return to Wolfenstein will almost certainly not be as breathtaking as the original was. But that's because, in the grand scheme of games, it's just another approach to a formula we've been playing with for the last decade.
Don't get me wrong - Tribes 2 and the new Wolf are awesome games, and I love 'em to death. But if you're looking for awe-inspiring innovation similar to what Wolf 3D brought to the gaming industry in the days of yore, it's not likely you'll find it this time around. Doesn't mean it's not a great game though. ;)
Despite that using the mouse may scientifically be proven to be faster, I (and many others) use the keyboard because it is more comfortable. Even if I lose a fraction of time in the process, I'd rather type a key combo than dig through pull-down menus and icons.
This is like saying because a car gets you someplace faster than a bicycle, it's inherently better. Well, no, that's not always true, because bicycling is what some people enjoy and are more comfortable with. Scientific research be damned, I love my keyboard. :)
I've used many different distros over the years - Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Storm, Caldera, etc. While they all had their good points, I didn't truly like any of them as much as I like Slack (although Debian did come close). Why?
Part of it is simplicity. With distributions like, say, Mandrake, you get a lot of decisions made for you. That's the whole idea behind Mandrake and its kin. To hide the complexities underneath from the average user. But in so doing, they weave a tangled web that can be quite annoying for a power user to undo or modify to their needs. This is the opposite of Slackware - it gives you a powerful base of core software, with a few extra goodies thrown in. But if you really want to only install 50MB of stuff, you can do that. Don't want X? Gone. No KDE? No problem. And so on, and so on.
For people like me, Slackware is a wonderful distro. It allows one to start out with a very functional system with more than enough to get started, and build their system from there. Unlike the other newbie-ized setups, KDE and GNOME are not thrust down my throat. I happen to like WindowMaker, and even before the installer nicely offered that as an option, Slackware was more than happy to oblige my choice of window manager. And while many would cite the fact that Slack is a non-RPM distro as a weakness, I don't miss it. In the past, compiling things would be a more worrying prospect for me, especially during the turbulent times when glibc wasn't yet standardized across the distributions. But honestly, I'm not bothered by compiling my software, and I generally don't have the problems I occasionally had with RPM systems (ever try to upgrade RPM itself? how many times have you had to upgrade tar or gzip?).
All distros have their place - Slackware's place is with the power users, who don't want to be stuck with a Windows-wannabe setup. Slack harkens back to the day when men were men, installers were text, and Linux was Linux. And that's just the way I like it. ;)
Perhaps, but we're not talking about something that's "not worth publishing anymore." We're talking about The Sims, which Maxis has made, and continues to make, thousands of dollars off of. Not only that, they're going to be rolling out an online expansion of it, not to mention the various add-on packs they keep selling for the game.
So in Maxis' eyes, there is zero reason to consider putting The Sims out as open source or public domain, or whatever. There's still moolah to be made, after all.
I do agree in a way, though. I think many companies would be smart to open source or give away games that are no longer profitable. Especially if those games have sequels. "Hey everybody, download Diablo 1 for free, and check out the open source Linux port in the works! And hey, if you like that, boy have we got a sequel for you..."
Maybe, but their code is already written for Direct3D, and that's what their developers know. They're not going to pour the money into training developers to use totally different tools and platforms, and pay for the development time to convert everything to OpenGL/AL/SDL whatever. Your points are valid, except in a case such as this - the code is already there, and they're not going to re-write it all.
I just know somebody is going to say, "open source it, we'll port it!" or something like that. But think about it - if you were a company like Maxis, would you give away the source code to your best-selling game that you've put millions into (and received that much as well)?
Love or hate Perl, Larry Wall has some interesting thoughts and comments on REBOL.
I've used REBOL quite a bit, and I'll say one thing up front: this is not going to be a Microsoft killer, or a .Net killer, or whatever. But REBOL is very good at what it does, which is offer a high-level interface to web, e-mail, etc. scripting. The language is pretty nice once you get into it. But for 99% of my scripting, I still use Perl. Will that change because of REBOL? I doubt it.
Nice toy anyway, though.