I wanted to like the OLPC -- no I wanted to *love* the OLPC. I wanted to love it so much that I wanted to tell the world how awesome it was, and how everyone should participate in the give one get one program.
Then mine arrived in the mail.
Initial reactions were off the charts. The packaging was even excellent! The machine is sturdy, well-built, solid, cleverly designed, rugged, and absolutely perfect for it's purpose. I can't say enough about how many of the design decisions were fantastic. The keyboard was perhaps smaller than I had anticipated, but with the intended use case scenarios even that didn't detract from the brilliance of the hardware.
And then I turned it on.
Anyone who says that the interface is revolutionary or different is trying to put a nice spin on it. Yes, some of the organization and terminology is novel, and one could even praise some of the attempts at getting you to re-think how computers work. But the entire thing feels astonishingly like X Windows from the late 1980s. The interfaces are clunky and inconsistent, and worst of all it suffers from a pervasive design philosophy of "because we could" not "because we should." I could easily forgive a lack of graphical polish, but it's much more difficult to forgive the nearly-20-year giant leap backwards in interface design.
I know what the slashdot crowd is thinking... "it's open source! Write a new UI yourself!" but that's not the point. My point is that I wish the OLPC project had spent half the effort on the software that they did on the hardware -- if they had, then maybe we really would have a device that would change the world. Who knows... maybe a version 2 will have a new UI that actually will.
There's no doubting that the wintel duopoly is a cycle that's nearly impossible to break. As we see more and more services transition to the web, however, compatibility at the OS layer becomes less and less important. Five years ago one used to lament over how they would love to use a different OS, but "the applications I use" are Windows-only. That day has come and gone... these days many people don't even know that a computer can be used for things other than browsing the web -- heck even that term is out-dated, as today's web-based applications are far more sophisticated than simply browsing.
As a very biased Mac convert, I'm constantly amazed at just how incredibly crappy XP and Vista are. Tonight, in fact, I set up a new computer for my wife who is using XP on a brand-new Dell laptop. There were about 5 times during the setup process where I honestly had no idea which option to select, because the wording of the choices were either esoteric, or what I really wanted was a fourth option "none of the above" yet that option didn't exist. Then, after all was finally said and done, using the thing was an amazingly frustrating experience, with seemingly endless offers/popups, some masquerading as os-level services, some more obvious overtures to purchase 3rd party software.
I've never been more convinced that the market is ripe for a shakeup... and more specifically that OS X (and Leopard) have the chance to break the Windows monopoly. Once MS's marketshare dips into the 70% range, there will no longer be an assumption that you "have" to run Windows for any reason other than you prefer it -- and once that happens watch out. There isn't a sane person who can look at Windows and OS X side-by-side, for a mass-market consumer audience, and actually say that Windows is the better choice.
[Remember I said I was biased... the point here wasn't to chest-thump about the Mac, but to point out that MS's advantage of being the "default choice" might disappear... and if so we might see their marketshare plummet faster than you can imagine]
If you are just a regular person, like me, who takes video of your life, and you want to share it with more of the people you know (your friends and family, and the people they know too), then Multiply's social communications platform is second to none. You can share original-quality video, plus photos, blog entries and more -- all in one place.
Bah. Slashdot has just about as many trolls, dupes, and other worthless garbage as it ever has (trust me). And it's still just as great as it ever was.
Perhaps I'm being overly naiive and/or simplistic, but isn't the "Mysterious future" feature supposed to eliminate dupes? I saw this one coming half an hour ago... certainly someone reported it as a dupe, no?
Actually, there's quite a bit of difference between Yahoo! 360 and Orkut (other than the fact that Yahoo's service might actually work;-)
If you're looking for similarities between 360 and other products, look at multiply.com. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery --- guess I should be sincerely flattered.
I respectfully disagree with your "tries too much" assertion. Look @ the history of all of these sites... initially they all did one thing, but now LJ offers photos. Friendster offers blogs. etc. etc. etc. They're all converging on one thing which is "social communication" -- something that Multiply has been doing for over a year.
Rather than share your pix with a bazillion people who don't give a crap, the guys at Multiply (disclaimer: of which I am one) figured out that the people who might be interested are the people who are in your social network.
Picture flickr + friendster + blogger. That's Multpily. A generation ahead of the sites mentioned in this article.
Most blogging sites are exactly that samael, and you've hit the nail on the head.
Multiply.com is a bit different though; they've integrated blogging with social networking and basic communication (like e-mail), so the people in your life who might actually care to read your blog, get automatically notified. Between that and it's support for Photo Albums, it might have a leg up on basic blogging sites like blogger and LJ.
In direct contrast with Google's rock-solid reliability, Orkut works for me approximately 1 in 10 times that I try to use it. And by "works for me" I mean just the most simplistic, basic functions like returning a page instead of a server error. They've had this problem for months, and it only seems to be getting worse.
Why people are using this service and not some of the alternatives, I have no idea. Were I google, I'd jettison it quickly before it more seriously erodes my brand.
There's a company that already does this in pretty dramatic fasion -- multiply.com. Take the social networking from Orkut (only make the site actually work), add blogging like blogger or livejournal, social bookmarks like delicious, e-mail like gmail and photo-hosting like flikr -- what do you get? Multiply.com.
If these freedoms are not important to the user, there is no disadvantage to using proprietary software and no clear advantage to using free software. In other words, we're talking about how we use software, not the freedom of the press or the right to bear arms, and convincing people that software rights and basic constitutional rights are on the same level is an exercise in futility.
That's like saying that if buying a gun is not important to a particular citizen, then there is no disadvantage to not having a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that right.
Just because fewer than 100% of society doesn't exercise a given right, that in and of itself doesn't make it any less important.
I'll put in a shameless plug for my company's site Multiply which offers free blogging, digital photo album support, and much much more. The best part is that it's built on top of a unique messaging system, based on your social network, which routes notification messages when entries are added and/or replied to. It's pretty neat, and built entirely on free software. Give it a try!
Blogging isn't new. Photoblogging isn't new either. What is new is a site called Multiply which is a convergence of digital content publishing and management, and the "six degrees of separation" of sites like Orkut and Friendster (heck you can even import your Orkut contacts if you want).
How many of you maintain a blog that nobody reads? As someone most cleverly put it, most blogs are "the sound of one hand clapping." But because of the integration of social networking, the people that will read your blog on Multiply are your roommate's sister, your friend's cousin, and your buddy's brother -- people like that. Of course there are tools to control access as well, so if you want to publish something just for your contacts (or even a subset of that), you can do that too.
Similarly if you are a photographer, the photo printing sites like Shutterfly and oFoto almost go out of their way to make it painful to share your photos on-line (you see, they only make money if you print them, and if you share them on-line you might not need to). With Multiply on the other hand sharing your photos is as simple as a few clicks. When I uploaded pics of my halloween party, for instance, over 200 of my friends (and their friends) read it within a day of me posting. Now *that* is cool.
Finally, if you're a lurker, there's no better place... you get to see what's going on with everyone in your network, and get to see things you never would have otherwise. One of my friends has a cousin stationed in Iraq who posted pictures of Sadam's palace -- unbelievable! And I never would have seen them if it wasn't for the connection on Multiply. That's only one example out of dozens and dozens.
Try it out... you won't be disappointed.
MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I'm one of the founders of Multiply. That doesn't mean I think it's any less cool though!;-)
I've owned the SL-5600 and now the SL-C760 and use it on a daily basis. I love it! I was looking forward to Sharp's new device with more anticipation than I care to admit;-)
What I wanted however, was decidedly different than what they seem to have provided. Here's a short but simple list that would turn the SL-C760 into a must-have device.
larger screen the strength of the 760 is undoubtedly the beautiful screen. At 640x480 and with a pixel density you have to see to believe, it's almost *too* good -- and by that I mean it's almost 800 pixels wide, which would mean you could really surf the web without having to scroll horizontally. There's clearly space in the bezel and the unit is practically screaming for an additional 160 pixels of width to fill out the top portion of the flip.
built-in WiFi and (I guess) bluetooth this is the industry standard and it's hard to not see it as a major issue that it's not included. Yes you can get CF cards (and I've tried them all!) but having a separate card is bulky (they all stick out of the unit ruining the beautiful form factor), it's one more thing to buy and carry around, and it's one more thing to suck the battery since it's not integrated into the MoBo and power management system.
faster processor and more memory the unit is tantilizingly close to being able to run a full version of Linux (Mozilla, X, gnome/KDE, whatever) but isn't quite fast enough. Having to suffer through a "pocket browser" and a "pocket editor" is frustrating when the real things aren't that far away. Hobbyists have created special stripped-down versions of popular software (minimo is a pocket-mozilla) but I shouldn't have to hack the ROM to get the full potential out of the unit.
See? I told you it was a short list. The C760 is nearly perfect. Nearly. But this latest model is no better.
Slashdot Mirror
I wanted to like the OLPC -- no I wanted to *love* the OLPC. I wanted to love it so much that I wanted to tell the world how awesome it was, and how everyone should participate in the give one get one program.
Then mine arrived in the mail.
Initial reactions were off the charts. The packaging was even excellent! The machine is sturdy, well-built, solid, cleverly designed, rugged, and absolutely perfect for it's purpose. I can't say enough about how many of the design decisions were fantastic. The keyboard was perhaps smaller than I had anticipated, but with the intended use case scenarios even that didn't detract from the brilliance of the hardware.
And then I turned it on.
Anyone who says that the interface is revolutionary or different is trying to put a nice spin on it. Yes, some of the organization and terminology is novel, and one could even praise some of the attempts at getting you to re-think how computers work. But the entire thing feels astonishingly like X Windows from the late 1980s. The interfaces are clunky and inconsistent, and worst of all it suffers from a pervasive design philosophy of "because we could" not "because we should." I could easily forgive a lack of graphical polish, but it's much more difficult to forgive the nearly-20-year giant leap backwards in interface design.
I know what the slashdot crowd is thinking... "it's open source! Write a new UI yourself!" but that's not the point. My point is that I wish the OLPC project had spent half the effort on the software that they did on the hardware -- if they had, then maybe we really would have a device that would change the world. Who knows... maybe a version 2 will have a new UI that actually will.
There's no doubting that the wintel duopoly is a cycle that's nearly impossible to break. As we see more and more services transition to the web, however, compatibility at the OS layer becomes less and less important. Five years ago one used to lament over how they would love to use a different OS, but "the applications I use" are Windows-only. That day has come and gone... these days many people don't even know that a computer can be used for things other than browsing the web -- heck even that term is out-dated, as today's web-based applications are far more sophisticated than simply browsing.
As a very biased Mac convert, I'm constantly amazed at just how incredibly crappy XP and Vista are. Tonight, in fact, I set up a new computer for my wife who is using XP on a brand-new Dell laptop. There were about 5 times during the setup process where I honestly had no idea which option to select, because the wording of the choices were either esoteric, or what I really wanted was a fourth option "none of the above" yet that option didn't exist. Then, after all was finally said and done, using the thing was an amazingly frustrating experience, with seemingly endless offers/popups, some masquerading as os-level services, some more obvious overtures to purchase 3rd party software.
I've never been more convinced that the market is ripe for a shakeup... and more specifically that OS X (and Leopard) have the chance to break the Windows monopoly. Once MS's marketshare dips into the 70% range, there will no longer be an assumption that you "have" to run Windows for any reason other than you prefer it -- and once that happens watch out. There isn't a sane person who can look at Windows and OS X side-by-side, for a mass-market consumer audience, and actually say that Windows is the better choice.
[Remember I said I was biased... the point here wasn't to chest-thump about the Mac, but to point out that MS's advantage of being the "default choice" might disappear... and if so we might see their marketshare plummet faster than you can imagine]
Nor I.
If you are just a regular person, like me, who takes video of your life, and you want to share it with more of the people you know (your friends and family, and the people they know too), then Multiply's social communications platform is second to none. You can share original-quality video, plus photos, blog entries and more -- all in one place.
ROBERT R. PROVINE's response was almost exactly that religion -- or rather the complete lack thereof -- was his dangerous idea.
You've been coming to this site for 8 years yet your ID is over half a million? ;-)
Bah. Slashdot has just about as many trolls, dupes, and other worthless garbage as it ever has (trust me). And it's still just as great as it ever was.
d00d... get a bigger monitor.
You must be new here :-)
/. user ID #54 :-)
Says the AC to
Perhaps I'm being overly naiive and/or simplistic, but isn't the "Mysterious future" feature supposed to eliminate dupes? I saw this one coming half an hour ago... certainly someone reported it as a dupe, no?
Actually, there's quite a bit of difference between Yahoo! 360 and Orkut (other than the fact that Yahoo's service might actually work ;-)
If you're looking for similarities between 360 and other products, look at multiply.com. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery --- guess I should be sincerely flattered.
[I work for Multiply]
I respectfully disagree with your "tries too much" assertion. Look @ the history of all of these sites... initially they all did one thing, but now LJ offers photos. Friendster offers blogs. etc. etc. etc. They're all converging on one thing which is "social communication" -- something that Multiply has been doing for over a year.
Rather than share your pix with a bazillion people who don't give a crap, the guys at Multiply (disclaimer: of which I am one) figured out that the people who might be interested are the people who are in your social network.
Picture flickr + friendster + blogger. That's Multpily. A generation ahead of the sites mentioned in this article.
Most blogging sites are exactly that samael, and you've hit the nail on the head.
Multiply.com is a bit different though; they've integrated blogging with social networking and basic communication (like e-mail), so the people in your life who might actually care to read your blog, get automatically notified. Between that and it's support for Photo Albums, it might have a leg up on basic blogging sites like blogger and LJ.
Check out my Multiply site or start your own.
Disclaimer: I work for Multiply.
In direct contrast with Google's rock-solid reliability, Orkut works for me approximately 1 in 10 times that I try to use it. And by "works for me" I mean just the most simplistic, basic functions like returning a page instead of a server error. They've had this problem for months, and it only seems to be getting worse.
Why people are using this service and not some of the alternatives, I have no idea. Were I google, I'd jettison it quickly before it more seriously erodes my brand.
There's a company that already does this in pretty dramatic fasion -- multiply.com. Take the social networking from Orkut (only make the site actually work), add blogging like blogger or livejournal, social bookmarks like delicious, e-mail like gmail and photo-hosting like flikr -- what do you get? Multiply.com.
Try it. You won't be disappointed.
Was the "online game" in this case, perhaps, porn? I can't imagine anyone paying $6.95 / hour for, you know, just a regular game.
That's like saying that if buying a gun is not important to a particular citizen, then there is no disadvantage to not having a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that right.
Just because fewer than 100% of society doesn't exercise a given right, that in and of itself doesn't make it any less important.
I'll put in a shameless plug for my company's site Multiply which offers free blogging, digital photo album support, and much much more. The best part is that it's built on top of a unique messaging system, based on your social network, which routes notification messages when entries are added and/or replied to. It's pretty neat, and built entirely on free software. Give it a try!
My Multiply page
Are you including drug dealers in your "nonviolent drug offenders"?
Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. Prison is too good for them. MHO of course.
Yeah, what he said! Only with one order of magnitude more significance!
Who remembers Chips & Dips? And the glorious Meept? And goatse (the first time)? Aaah.... those were the days....
News.com story
Blogging isn't new. Photoblogging isn't new either. What is new is a site called Multiply which is a convergence of digital content publishing and management, and the "six degrees of separation" of sites like Orkut and Friendster (heck you can even import your Orkut contacts if you want).
;-)
How many of you maintain a blog that nobody reads? As someone most cleverly put it, most blogs are "the sound of one hand clapping." But because of the integration of social networking, the people that will read your blog on Multiply are your roommate's sister, your friend's cousin, and your buddy's brother -- people like that. Of course there are tools to control access as well, so if you want to publish something just for your contacts (or even a subset of that), you can do that too.
Similarly if you are a photographer, the photo printing sites like Shutterfly and oFoto almost go out of their way to make it painful to share your photos on-line (you see, they only make money if you print them, and if you share them on-line you might not need to). With Multiply on the other hand sharing your photos is as simple as a few clicks. When I uploaded pics of my halloween party, for instance, over 200 of my friends (and their friends) read it within a day of me posting. Now *that* is cool.
Finally, if you're a lurker, there's no better place... you get to see what's going on with everyone in your network, and get to see things you never would have otherwise. One of my friends has a cousin stationed in Iraq who posted pictures of Sadam's palace -- unbelievable! And I never would have seen them if it wasn't for the connection on Multiply. That's only one example out of dozens and dozens.
Try it out... you won't be disappointed.
MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I'm one of the founders of Multiply. That doesn't mean I think it's any less cool though!
Check out my Multiply site for an example of what you can do.
What I wanted however, was decidedly different than what they seem to have provided. Here's a short but simple list that would turn the SL-C760 into a must-have device.
the strength of the 760 is undoubtedly the beautiful screen. At 640x480 and with a pixel density you have to see to believe, it's almost *too* good -- and by that I mean it's almost 800 pixels wide, which would mean you could really surf the web without having to scroll horizontally. There's clearly space in the bezel and the unit is practically screaming for an additional 160 pixels of width to fill out the top portion of the flip.
this is the industry standard and it's hard to not see it as a major issue that it's not included. Yes you can get CF cards (and I've tried them all!) but having a separate card is bulky (they all stick out of the unit ruining the beautiful form factor), it's one more thing to buy and carry around, and it's one more thing to suck the battery since it's not integrated into the MoBo and power management system.
the unit is tantilizingly close to being able to run a full version of Linux (Mozilla, X, gnome/KDE, whatever) but isn't quite fast enough. Having to suffer through a "pocket browser" and a "pocket editor" is frustrating when the real things aren't that far away. Hobbyists have created special stripped-down versions of popular software (minimo is a pocket-mozilla) but I shouldn't have to hack the ROM to get the full potential out of the unit.
See? I told you it was a short list. The C760 is nearly perfect. Nearly. But this latest model is no better.
Well said. If I only had a mod point to give....