Well, the iBook is a portable...meaning miniaturized, small keyboard, touchpad.
I think that an iMac-flatpanel will be more similar to the PS2 with Linux kit (LCD-flatscreen, keyboard, mouse). Perhaps, since it is an iMac, the main unit and the screen must be one...so think of it as an LCD screen where the socle is the main unit. Keyboard and mouse via USB on the side. It's probably just my imagination, but I would design it that way.
Yes, I think "sneaking back" is the good term. I have been a die-hard x86 lover since the late eighties -- not only MS, I was an OS/2 lover too, and now Linux and OpenBSD. I've invested a lot in x86 hardware (I have 6 machines running at home) over the years.
Yet, since I saw a G3 in action two years ago at my uncle's place (he is an artist), I got interested. Now, my old laptop (P120/32MegRAM, running Linux) is getting really old. How long will it live? 6 months perhaps, but replacement is probably due next year? I didn't make up my mind yet, but an iBook is now definately an option! I want to try OS X, Yellow Dog Linux, perhaps even NetBSD. Plus they look good! If they can get *me* interested in their hardware, they must be on for a comeback: two years ago, I would have laughed a Mac user in the face...Now I say: cool show me how it works.
Troll moderation? Nice... must be due to my nick or an American that can't cope that I think that the calls from the planes were "hard". Honestly, those made me *cry*.
A fact is that GSM networks all over the world collapsed or overloaded when the 11/09 events happened... What makes anyone think video transmissions from cell-phones would be different? Yes, this is my troll acount, but it doens't mean I troll all the time.
Oh, 200 years ago people did make appointments...ever heard of an "audition with the king"? Of course: you had to go to the castle, ask for your appointment and hope. But really how different is it from today? You still need to make appointments "the conventional way" (that is asking and hoping) nowadays. Nobody gets an appointment "right away" because you have a cellphone. That's just timeshifting: instead of making a mental note and calling later, you call immediately. Note that if someone wants an appointment with me, he has to call or email me and then -perhaps- I'll consider giving him some time next week.
15 years ago plenty of people wanted to call when waiting on a bus and that is why often a phonebooth was near the busstop (at least it often is in smaller villages).
Nothing really changes, you know... Guessing what users will do is quite a hard task: remember WAP? How many use it? It was "the thing that users will jump on". Sure, everyone has a WAP-phone, but people who really often use it? Nah, no way. I'm talking about frequent usage by common users: only future will tell. I'm all for more bandwith, more multimedia, more fancy stuff...but then I am a geek and it needs to be affordable to get widely adopted, otherwhise it'll stay a geek-toy that few will use. BR
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not against new technology. I just try to put me in the schoes of "Joe Normal Consumer".
There always is a "need" for some kind of technology: I have a cellphone, to get to your example. The reason I bought is (5 years back, they were very expensive then) was that I was a student and had often to take the train and needed to tell my parents when I arrived. Since that day I had a cellphone, nowadays I still do but I use it max. once a month when I really could have avoided it.
The real question here is: what value do video-cellphones add to the "Joe Normal Consumer". If there is none (e.g. WAP), it won't be embraced.
Well, there is always the "lazy way": give money to the one that wants that present and let them choose themselves. That is how I handle this situation.
Sure, the situation you describe might have been very interesting (great, people sending live-video from *within* the towers....how would that look on CNN...not good, believe me...the calls from the plane were alreaduy "too hard").
The wireless networks would have collapsed within three minutes, having the same net effect: no video coverage at all.
I'm still wondering when I personally could use it... Only on very very rare occasions, which most of the time are forseeable and thus a regular camera would do (or computer/webcam setup). Okay you lose the realtime, but you gain quality.
Besides, how many times do you visit an Apartment in your life *and* want a second opinion of your friend? Even the most mobile people will not move more than once in a year. Even if this friend is an architect who could point out faulty stuff in the apartment, viewing over cell-phone won't give him a decent impression to make a good judgment. He'd better come in person and use your regular cell-phone to make an appointment. Also think of the lighting: notice how often normal pictures/normal video have bad lighting? This will not be good on a portable vidphone.
I know this is slashdot, but real-life interaction beats any electronic interface man can invent.
Ehm....for plain snapshots a cellphone with integrated digital camera (cheap versions of course 640x480x24 in jpeg) would be more than enough. You don't need a fancy video codec for that.
How many times do you want to temporary record some kind of moving video: I recon, when Aunt Stacy falls with her face in the aniversary cake I'm sure it will be great to see that a 100 times...but then you were probably not filming anyway;-)
Question: when was the last time you did videoconferencing?
I know, I attended some courses back in 1998 that were given by means of videoconferencing, but that's about it. I also have a friend who is often in Mexico and uses a webcam to talk to his familiy here at certain times: apart from that....sorry, never saw a real life example. Video conferencing is still a very small nice.
Best reply I got up until now: I didn't think of it as a handheld wireless webcam. Sounds fine, but on the other hand, how many times did you call a friend which you wanted to show him/her something in your surroundings. Most of the time you call someone to make an appointment or the like (well, I do...) I thought it would be nice to show text or something from a paper/screen but I don't think the quality will allow that (unless Nancy is *really* good). Well best idea so far, but not really an killer app...
But do they use it? I mean, it's all nice to show off but if those phones are not really practical they are a non-issue. So you have video payphone, but you need to call your ma: now well ma has a normal phone (as most people do, even in Japan, I think), so the picture stays black. Unless a lot of people actually *use* it, it makes no sense. As a comparision, 5 years ago, I read in my cell phone manual something about SMS. I loved the idea and wanted to try it: bummer, to whom could I send it since virtually none of my friends had a cellphone. I send my first SMS about 2 years after the purchase of the phone, mostly because *then* cellphones were popular (and I had a dinosaur model *grin*)
I still don't get this hype about "video-on-cell-phone". Now correct me if I'm wrong but standalone "videophones" were "to be the future", they never catched on. Why would it be different for cell-phones even if you have the bandwith?
I just can say: cool a new codec, which will perhaps allow me to watch some extra pr0n on this slow computer....but then I'm running Linux and this thing is proprietary, so implementation probability is about 10%. However the chinese got their hands in it, so not all is lost.
Why didn't they provide links to pictures of this CG star. I never heard of it but I love japanese looking chicks (I find them cute, I love cute girls). It doesn't have to be pr0n, I like normal sexy pics too...
Guess I qualify as one of those hormone laden guys they talk about in the article.
Ratings have nothing to do with the quality of a show, it is all about the popularity of the show. The Simpsons are popular, mainly because of the quality of the earlier shows, and I suppose many people are like me: they watch the Simpsons because they used to be good, and you hope that a good episode will come along. Of course I am really disappointed every time I watch and I don't even know if we are watching the latest season here (Europe is always at least one season behind)
Someone in this thread mentioned X-Files being bad and being milked, but I actually like the new character which took the place of Scully's partner (I forget the new one's name all the time). It brings some fresh air in the series (which was dying, really). Of course this is personal meaning
I have the vague impression that I shoudn't try that link...
Whore? Well, could have been....except it didn't work and I really did buy the CD's. So who is better? The karmawhore who tries to get some points and really buys the thing or the the troll that claine *BSD is dead and doesn't give a shit?
And those who don't believe the "will buy", well....I just filled in the form: 1 T-shirt + 1 OpenBSD 3.0 + 33 EUR donation => totals up to 100 EUR and I'll just keep down my beer consumption next month...:-)
I don't know about you, but I am going to *buy* the CD. These guys need all the (financial) support they can get. A platform build from the bottom to be secure is worth money. I heard that merely the name "OpenBSD" keeps script kiddies from even trying to hack.
Well, it's a regular W2K Professional setup: it does have some services running, like Norton Antivirus, Seti@Home and WinRoute (a routing software, this workstation doubles as gateway). The bootup is really not very long (I'd say less than 3 minutes, but I never timed it). I'm not going to change the config of this machine in any case, not even to try: it is our family computer and my brother and sister would kick my butt hard if I said "sorry, experimenting, you won't have the internet for 5 days". So I really have to believe you on your word about the 45 minutes.:-)
It is a custom-build PC, we made it about 6 years ago: my dad was foolish enough to give me "carte blanche" on building a new PC. He didn't know one could spend that much on a PC *grin*, it cost a little bit less than a small car back in the day! Note that he *never ever* gave me carte blanche again *grin* On the other hand, this PC is still there up and running and even playing Halflife without too many problems (mainly due to the VooDoo2 I bouhgt later on), so I still think it was worth the investment.
I love older machines in general: the challenge to make P-I class machines do what everybody claims to need a P-IV for. Well, most of the time I know what I do:-)
You will probably find this strange, but at home I have a PPro200 with 128Meg RAM and it runs W2K like a charm. However this machine ran NT4-SP6 before, the original poster was referring to NT3.51 which probably implies even older hardware.
So I know it works, I woudn't bet on it as a server with W2K... As soon as I find the cash to replace the PPro200 (it's used as a workstation) with something better the PPro200 will be merged to a OpenBSD fileserver. (It's full-scsi, so I expect it to perform really well as a fileserver).
I could really imagine some other fun things to do with ice-cream and a girlfriend except eating it (I mean the ice-cream, not the girlfriend)
*evil grin*
Slashdot Mirror
I think that an iMac-flatpanel will be more similar to the PS2 with Linux kit (LCD-flatscreen, keyboard, mouse). Perhaps, since it is an iMac, the main unit and the screen must be one...so think of it as an LCD screen where the socle is the main unit. Keyboard and mouse via USB on the side.
It's probably just my imagination, but I would design it that way.
Yet, since I saw a G3 in action two years ago at my uncle's place (he is an artist), I got interested.
Now, my old laptop (P120/32MegRAM, running Linux) is getting really old. How long will it live? 6 months perhaps, but replacement is probably due next year? I didn't make up my mind yet, but an iBook is now definately an option! I want to try OS X, Yellow Dog Linux, perhaps even NetBSD. Plus they look good!
If they can get *me* interested in their hardware, they must be on for a comeback: two years ago, I would have laughed a Mac user in the face...Now I say: cool show me how it works.
A fact is that GSM networks all over the world collapsed or overloaded when the 11/09 events happened... What makes anyone think video transmissions from cell-phones would be different?
Yes, this is my troll acount, but it doens't mean I troll all the time.
15 years ago plenty of people wanted to call when waiting on a bus and that is why often a phonebooth was near the busstop (at least it often is in smaller villages).
Nothing really changes, you know... Guessing what users will do is quite a hard task: remember WAP? How many use it? It was "the thing that users will jump on". Sure, everyone has a WAP-phone, but people who really often use it? Nah, no way.
I'm talking about frequent usage by common users: only future will tell. I'm all for more bandwith, more multimedia, more fancy stuff...but then I am a geek and it needs to be affordable to get widely adopted, otherwhise it'll stay a geek-toy that few will use. BR
There always is a "need" for some kind of technology: I have a cellphone, to get to your example. The reason I bought is (5 years back, they were very expensive then) was that I was a student and had often to take the train and needed to tell my parents when I arrived. Since that day I had a cellphone, nowadays I still do but I use it max. once a month when I really could have avoided it.
The real question here is: what value do video-cellphones add to the "Joe Normal Consumer". If there is none (e.g. WAP), it won't be embraced.
Well, there is always the "lazy way": give money to the one that wants that present and let them choose themselves. That is how I handle this situation.
The wireless networks would have collapsed within three minutes, having the same net effect: no video coverage at all.
Besides, how many times do you visit an Apartment in your life *and* want a second opinion of your friend? Even the most mobile people will not move more than once in a year. Even if this friend is an architect who could point out faulty stuff in the apartment, viewing over cell-phone won't give him a decent impression to make a good judgment. He'd better come in person and use your regular cell-phone to make an appointment. Also think of the lighting: notice how often normal pictures/normal video have bad lighting? This will not be good on a portable vidphone.
I know this is slashdot, but real-life interaction beats any electronic interface man can invent.
How many times do you want to temporary record some kind of moving video: I recon, when Aunt Stacy falls with her face in the aniversary cake I'm sure it will be great to see that a 100 times...but then you were probably not filming anyway ;-)
I know, I attended some courses back in 1998 that were given by means of videoconferencing, but that's about it. I also have a friend who is often in Mexico and uses a webcam to talk to his familiy here at certain times: apart from that....sorry, never saw a real life example.
Video conferencing is still a very small nice.
Best reply I got up until now: I didn't think of it as a handheld wireless webcam. Sounds fine, but on the other hand, how many times did you call a friend which you wanted to show him/her something in your surroundings. Most of the time you call someone to make an appointment or the like (well, I do...) I thought it would be nice to show text or something from a paper/screen but I don't think the quality will allow that (unless Nancy is *really* good).
Well best idea so far, but not really an killer app...
But do they use it? I mean, it's all nice to show off but if those phones are not really practical they are a non-issue. So you have video payphone, but you need to call your ma: now well ma has a normal phone (as most people do, even in Japan, I think), so the picture stays black. Unless a lot of people actually *use* it, it makes no sense.
As a comparision, 5 years ago, I read in my cell phone manual something about SMS. I loved the idea and wanted to try it: bummer, to whom could I send it since virtually none of my friends had a cellphone. I send my first SMS about 2 years after the purchase of the phone, mostly because *then* cellphones were popular (and I had a dinosaur model *grin*)
...just imagine youngsters doing prank-calls showing you their arse. (Can't be worse than goat.cx but nevertheless) ;-)
I imagine a bright future
I just can say: cool a new codec, which will perhaps allow me to watch some extra pr0n on this slow computer....but then I'm running Linux and this thing is proprietary, so implementation probability is about 10%. However the chinese got their hands in it, so not all is lost.
Why didn't they provide links to pictures of this CG star. I never heard of it but I love japanese looking chicks (I find them cute, I love cute girls).
It doesn't have to be pr0n, I like normal sexy pics too...
Guess I qualify as one of those hormone laden guys they talk about in the article.
Someone in this thread mentioned X-Files being bad and being milked, but I actually like the new character which took the place of Scully's partner (I forget the new one's name all the time). It brings some fresh air in the series (which was dying, really). Of course this is personal meaning
Actually, I like having my /etc What is a registry? ;-)
Whore? Well, could have been....except it didn't work and I really did buy the CD's. So who is better? The karmawhore who tries to get some points and really buys the thing or the the troll that claine *BSD is dead and doesn't give a shit?
And those who don't believe the "will buy", well....I just filled in the form: 1 T-shirt + 1 OpenBSD 3.0 + 33 EUR donation => totals up to 100 EUR and I'll just keep down my beer consumption next month... :-)
I don't know about you, but I am going to *buy* the CD. These guys need all the (financial) support they can get. A platform build from the bottom to be secure is worth money. I heard that merely the name "OpenBSD" keeps script kiddies from even trying to hack.
A quick google gave me this . Surely there must be more....
I think that in my country all ATM's are Unix based. Most of them are Bull machines, I don't think they do NT.
I'm not going to change the config of this machine in any case, not even to try: it is our family computer and my brother and sister would kick my butt hard if I said "sorry, experimenting, you won't have the internet for 5 days". So I really have to believe you on your word about the 45 minutes.
It is a custom-build PC, we made it about 6 years ago: my dad was foolish enough to give me "carte blanche" on building a new PC. He didn't know one could spend that much on a PC *grin*, it cost a little bit less than a small car back in the day! Note that he *never ever* gave me carte blanche again *grin* On the other hand, this PC is still there up and running and even playing Halflife without too many problems (mainly due to the VooDoo2 I bouhgt later on), so I still think it was worth the investment.
I love older machines in general: the challenge to make P-I class machines do what everybody claims to need a P-IV for. Well, most of the time I know what I do :-)
You will probably find this strange, but at home I have a PPro200 with 128Meg RAM and it runs W2K like a charm. However this machine ran NT4-SP6 before, the original poster was referring to NT3.51 which probably implies even older hardware.
So I know it works, I woudn't bet on it as a server with W2K... As soon as I find the cash to replace the PPro200 (it's used as a workstation) with something better the PPro200 will be merged to a OpenBSD fileserver. (It's full-scsi, so I expect it to perform really well as a fileserver).
I could really imagine some other fun things to do with ice-cream and a girlfriend except eating it (I mean the ice-cream, not the girlfriend)
*evil grin*