In the 1980s, I came to the same conclusion, being horrified at how 'personal' computers then (and alas, even now) were hard to use, expensive to maintain, and not very compelling in operation, except when running games. So, in 1984 I prematurely formed a company to develop a 'replacement' to the 'PC', and we hope to launch such a machine within the next few years. While a trojan horse entry into this space by games consoles may seem like a good idea, they lack the form factor to make.net such applications practical. (We conceived the.net idea way before MS anyway and it's been in our business plan since the 1980s.)
Phase 1 of our somewhat ambitious, but carefully laid plan is available at http://www.onumber.net.
We look forward to sharing more about our machine(s) on Slashdot when the time is right. Much work to do. Rather walk the walk than talk the talk anyway, so time to go.
My company developed a multimedia system that recorded (crude greyscale) video to a hard drive, in real time, with random access to files. We also wrote a groundbreaking proposal for a digital information storage media standard (UDiS Media). Said proposal sent to various major electronics companies and written up in at least one British computer magazine. In the UDiS Media proposal, we described a machine (based on the aforementioned multimedia system that would record TV programming based on content of interest. When? In 1988. We intend to develop our machine and it will be good to know that our 'prior art' (which was demonstrated in the UK in 1988, and in the USA in 1991) will at the very least mean SonicBlue / ReplayTV will not be able to sue us when it comes to some of the basic claims. A final point of interest, I just today found out that my US patent attorney represents SonicBlue. What a tangled web we have weaved.
Slashdot Mirror
In the 1980s, I came to the same conclusion, being horrified at how 'personal' computers then (and alas, even now) were hard to use, expensive to maintain, and not very compelling in operation, except when running games. So, in 1984 I prematurely formed a company to develop a 'replacement' to the 'PC', and we hope to launch such a machine within the next few years. While a trojan horse entry into this space by games consoles may seem like a good idea, they lack the form factor to make .net such applications practical. (We conceived the .net idea way before MS anyway and it's been in our business plan since the 1980s.)
Phase 1 of our somewhat ambitious, but carefully laid plan is available at http://www.onumber.net.
We look forward to sharing more about our machine(s) on Slashdot when the time is right. Much work to do. Rather walk the walk than talk the talk anyway, so time to go.
My company developed a multimedia system that recorded (crude greyscale) video to a hard drive, in real time, with random access to files. We also wrote a groundbreaking proposal for a digital information storage media standard (UDiS Media). Said proposal sent to various major electronics companies and written up in at least one British computer magazine. In the UDiS Media proposal, we described a machine (based on the aforementioned multimedia system that would record TV programming based on content of interest. When? In 1988. We intend to develop our machine and it will be good to know that our 'prior art' (which was demonstrated in the UK in 1988, and in the USA in 1991) will at the very least mean SonicBlue / ReplayTV will not be able to sue us when it comes to some of the basic claims. A final point of interest, I just today found out that my US patent attorney represents SonicBlue. What a tangled web we have weaved.