I was also going to mention the perldoc, Larry Wall (et al.) wrote some really entertaining stuff, a real pleasure to read.
http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.h...
The value proposition with ARM WinRT is new, you get a copy of Office (desktop version) with every license. This hasn't been done before, at the price that an ARM WinRT license goes for ($85-$90) you get the OS and Office, thus sharing a slice of the massive revenue Office brings.
I don't think MS is worried about OEM's taking the opportunity seriously, I think they genuinely want to push the envelope on design and quality, it's like saying "if you can't beat this (Surface), then you are going to lose.", that is a legitimate business strategy.
Early on in the article you used the phrase "the HTML5 Metro interface" this is a misnomer and demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of the platform as a whole. Metro is not HTML5 however you may write a Metro Style App in HTML5+JavaScript (are we just saying HTML5 now?). In addition you may write a Metro Style App (all of which will work on ARM) using C# and a subset of.NET through the Metro CLR, or in C++.
The only unknown is whether or not Microsoft will eventually port the Desktop CLR to ARM. It has not been announced for the release however one must consider that it may happen at some point in the future.
You may read this article to obtain a better understanding of an (admittedly confusing) situation.
I also wish this was being talked about more, I am not interested in 10 hour battery life, I'm interested in a 15 day battery life for a tablet - it doesn't require a back-lit LCD 60Hz screen, but an app store would be nice.
I wonder at this point what the best multi-purpose e-ink tablet is?
WinPhone 7's killer app: makes AND holds actual phone calls.
On a serious note I think the combination of 3rd party hardware with minimum specs and an itunes-like sandboxed app store could be a real challenger. Let's not underestimate the traction of Office either - the '97 bailout of Apple by Microsoft wasn't just about the $150 million after all. Office Mac truly gave Apple room to breathe and it continues to do so.
I think, far from dropping the ball on 'slate' form-factors, Microsoft has given away a great idea in the form of the Courier - a book-like, protected and familiar form. Clearly, based on recent news, they are not going to make and market such a device.
I would enjoy making one. I have the know-how to emulate the functionality witnessed in the tech demos of the Courier, in.net. Really, they have all the important ideas laid out - what form factor, what you want to do, how it can benefit YOU. Seeing the desire for the product and the opportunity to make one is a situation that comes along rarely. In form it is basically an evolved Nintendo DS, easily possible, challenging to make cutting-edge.
As with many Microsoft ideas it is ahead of its time - already on high-end Dell tablets one can purchase a touch-screen which is friendly to both finger and stylus. This will only get more common - right tool for the job. To focus exclusively on fingerprint-sized interaction on a non-keyboard device is a mistake, why can't I use my fingernail? duh.
I own and use an HP TC4100 Tablet, Nokia N800, Wacom tablet an iPod Touch and a Sony E-Reader. Have used an iPad,
Yeah because On2 is going to be able to takedown Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Hitachi, Fujitsu, LG, Philips, Fraunhofer, Sharp, Seimens? You're joking right? These companies have a far more vast patent portfolio than some little dinky company like On2 could ever dream of having.
What I need to know, then, is why these giants didn't ever get around to shaking down On2 before it was open-sourced.
It truly does seem that Apple is intentionally crippling OSX in order to promote an agenda, I don't begrudge any corporation formulating a plan to make money and following through with it, but the DRM debacle has taught Apple that shackling your customers, in this case by intentionally not providing the best web experience possible, is a recipe for increased profits.
I, for one, will not support this strategy. I hope in the future, much as the separation of church and state in politics, there arises a mandated separation of hardware and software (OS) vendors. I realize there are gray areas and fuzzy lines in this separation but in order to protect ourselves as consumers (like we do as citizens) this is seeming more and more necessary.
However we open a door for a lot of bad implementations of HTML5
The door is already open, an HTML5 canvas renderer and implementation in Flash is definitely possible, much like Chrome Frame for IE it could help spur adoption for legacy browsers. Silverlight could accomplish the same thing - possibly in a more complete way since custom video decoders can be written for it.
Think about this issue inside-out, what happens when full web browser functionality is replicated in Flash(AIR) or Silverlight(OOB)?
Can't we ditch JavaScript and _just_ use Flash - a nice blockable scripting engine that isn't integrated so deeply with HTML that disabling it breaks scores of sites with otherwise useful information? If I want maximum battery life I block scripting, period. If I want fancy UI doo-dads and continuous browser-server communication I can enable Flash. What I don't want is great gobs of busted HTML when I don't want to run any kind of scripting engine. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, I'd like it if JavaScript became a "can't".
I also have an n800 and use it to read.pdf every night (there is a download to let you set the lcd to 1/128 brightness), during the day I read the same book on my Touch Pro but the n800 has a much better screen. I use Evince to read the pdf files, it is one of my favorite pieces of software.
Evince lacks reflow but I can maximize the font by reducing the margins to 0 in Acrobat.
Evince beats the WinMo Acrobat reader because it remembers your page when you re-open the file, this is a feature not to be underestimated. On the other hand WinMo Acro has reflow and zoom which make a book readable on a very small screen. WinMo Acro. though, doesn't remember your settings per book, or at all, which makes it irritating when the device needs to be rebooted ( every 2 to 3 days )
The next evolution for me is probably going to be e-ink in the form of a Foxit eSlick Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ebook/) I have handled the Sony readers in the Sony store and they are really nice to hold, too expensive but hopefully the eSlick will be as good and cheaper.
I agree they will support the tags but will they add Theora or will it be plugin-dependent?
I guess open-source plugins are the lesser evil but it is hard to imagine Theora penetration achieving critical mass without easy IE integration, and without that YouTube will remain Flash due to the h264 licensing debacle.
step 1: buy lots of old computers step 2: buy some serial cables step 3: beowulf the computers step 4: use the rs232 cables with appropriate mices. step 5: make sure you are using linux step 6: direct the serial signals appropriately step 7: either use a vm xp or linux to play the game step *: never give up trying to make it work, remember, your time is infinite - spending $300 for a dell vostro is like spelling the word "DEFEAT" in a snowbank with dead penguin bodies.
I have been using a Radtech BT600 (http://www.radtech.us/Products/BT600.aspx) for a couple of weeks now and I am very impressed, it nicely addresses your USB charging issue and, in a pinch you can use it as a USB mouse also.
The build quality is very good, a solid mouse though it is a little on the small side it doesn't weigh very much and even though I have a lot of bluetooth devices it can pair with it consistently chooses the right one.
Installation was perhaps the smoothest I have ever experienced (Vista x64) - I paired it with the computer and everything just started working within 5 seconds.
It has a convenient recessed off switch on the top, time between on/off switching is about 1 second. Tracking is on par with my favorite wired Intellimouse. The buttons are nice, not too sensitive the left/right are a bit loud, the side buttons are a bit stiff but not bad and the wheel is quiet with a good feel.
I don't know much about the battery life but one review claimed 2 weeks with it switched on all the time.
This is the mechanism used to clean the CCD in many high-end digital cameras and since the rovers are obviously built to withstand very high magnitude vibrations why not use a similar system on them?
The rover could be parked on an incline, identical to the technique used to get them maximum solar exposure during "winter", and then vibrate the dust off the panels.
Even the smallest cell phone has a vibrator, they are small and light-weight I'm not sure how energy-efficient they are but I'd wager the power generating improvement would more than offset the expenditure.
Slashdot Mirror
pwn3d
I was also going to mention the perldoc, Larry Wall (et al.) wrote some really entertaining stuff, a real pleasure to read. http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.h...
Somehow nothing was affected in my Windows Phone 7 contacts list which amalgamates across: Exchange(x2), Facebook, MSN and Gmail.
I feel like I should be angry at this but it just didn't affect me.
MicroTwitFaceNokiRimBbmTerest
dotcom
The value proposition with ARM WinRT is new, you get a copy of Office (desktop version) with every license. This hasn't been done before, at the price that an ARM WinRT license goes for ($85-$90) you get the OS and Office, thus sharing a slice of the massive revenue Office brings.
I don't think MS is worried about OEM's taking the opportunity seriously, I think they genuinely want to push the envelope on design and quality, it's like saying "if you can't beat this (Surface), then you are going to lose.", that is a legitimate business strategy.
Early on in the article you used the phrase "the HTML5 Metro interface" this is a misnomer and demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of the platform as a whole. Metro is not HTML5 however you may write a Metro Style App in HTML5+JavaScript (are we just saying HTML5 now?). In addition you may write a Metro Style App (all of which will work on ARM) using C# and a subset of .NET through the Metro CLR, or in C++.
The only unknown is whether or not Microsoft will eventually port the Desktop CLR to ARM. It has not been announced for the release however one must consider that it may happen at some point in the future.
You may read this article to obtain a better understanding of an (admittedly confusing) situation.
In consideration of the PM bad wigs are excluded from this bill.
I also wish this was being talked about more, I am not interested in 10 hour battery life, I'm interested in a 15 day battery life for a tablet - it doesn't require a back-lit LCD 60Hz screen, but an app store would be nice.
I wonder at this point what the best multi-purpose e-ink tablet is?
Great adventure - beautiful worlds, amazing creatures, great sound, Nali!, bonus: learn FPS controls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal
Also, UT3 needs more players :-(
Did someone let them know that the company they hired to back up their data is garbage? (i365, a Seagate company: https://services.seagate.com/contact.aspx)
They must be using all that Maxtor ( http://www.maxtor.com/home-en-us.html ) junk to store the data.
I wish New Orleans could catch a break, just one time.
WinPhone 7's killer app: makes AND holds actual phone calls.
On a serious note I think the combination of 3rd party hardware with minimum specs and an itunes-like sandboxed app store could be a real challenger. Let's not underestimate the traction of Office either - the '97 bailout of Apple by Microsoft wasn't just about the $150 million after all. Office Mac truly gave Apple room to breathe and it continues to do so.
I think, far from dropping the ball on 'slate' form-factors, Microsoft has given away a great idea in the form of the Courier - a book-like, protected and familiar form. Clearly, based on recent news, they are not going to make and market such a device.
I would enjoy making one. I have the know-how to emulate the functionality witnessed in the tech demos of the Courier, in .net. Really, they have all the important ideas laid out - what form factor, what you want to do, how it can benefit YOU. Seeing the desire for the product and the opportunity to make one is a situation that comes along rarely. In form it is basically an evolved Nintendo DS, easily possible, challenging to make cutting-edge.
As with many Microsoft ideas it is ahead of its time - already on high-end Dell tablets one can purchase a touch-screen which is friendly to both finger and stylus. This will only get more common - right tool for the job. To focus exclusively on fingerprint-sized interaction on a non-keyboard device is a mistake, why can't I use my fingernail? duh.
I own and use an HP TC4100 Tablet, Nokia N800, Wacom tablet an iPod Touch and a Sony E-Reader. Have used an iPad,
Angels, call me!
Yeah because On2 is going to be able to takedown Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Hitachi, Fujitsu, LG, Philips, Fraunhofer, Sharp, Seimens? You're joking right? These companies have a far more vast patent portfolio than some little dinky company like On2 could ever dream of having.
What I need to know, then, is why these giants didn't ever get around to shaking down On2 before it was open-sourced.
It truly does seem that Apple is intentionally crippling OSX in order to promote an agenda, I don't begrudge any corporation formulating a plan to make money and following through with it, but the DRM debacle has taught Apple that shackling your customers, in this case by intentionally not providing the best web experience possible, is a recipe for increased profits.
I, for one, will not support this strategy. I hope in the future, much as the separation of church and state in politics, there arises a mandated separation of hardware and software (OS) vendors. I realize there are gray areas and fuzzy lines in this separation but in order to protect ourselves as consumers (like we do as citizens) this is seeming more and more necessary.
mod parent up, we've all been there, wait, we are still there.
However we open a door for a lot of bad implementations of HTML5
The door is already open, an HTML5 canvas renderer and implementation in Flash is definitely possible, much like Chrome Frame for IE it could help spur adoption for legacy browsers. Silverlight could accomplish the same thing - possibly in a more complete way since custom video decoders can be written for it.
Think about this issue inside-out, what happens when full web browser functionality is replicated in Flash(AIR) or Silverlight(OOB)?
Can't we ditch JavaScript and _just_ use Flash - a nice blockable scripting engine that isn't integrated so deeply with HTML that disabling it breaks scores of sites with otherwise useful information?
If I want maximum battery life I block scripting, period. If I want fancy UI doo-dads and continuous browser-server communication I can enable Flash. What I don't want is great gobs of busted HTML when I don't want to run any kind of scripting engine. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, I'd like it if JavaScript became a "can't".
once, just once, I'd like to be in the position to answer that question that way,
nice one
I really hope we don't have to go through another "skip intro" phase.
Of the three main objections to Flash: Proprietary, Resource Hog, Inaccessible - this standard addresses exactly one.
I also have an n800 and use it to read .pdf every night (there is a download to let you set the lcd to 1/128 brightness), during the day I read the same book on my Touch Pro but the n800 has a much better screen. I use Evince to read the pdf files, it is one of my favorite pieces of software.
Evince lacks reflow but I can maximize the font by reducing the margins to 0 in Acrobat.
Evince beats the WinMo Acrobat reader because it remembers your page when you re-open the file, this is a feature not to be underestimated. On the other hand WinMo Acro has reflow and zoom which make a book readable on a very small screen. WinMo Acro. though, doesn't remember your settings per book, or at all, which makes it irritating when the device needs to be rebooted ( every 2 to 3 days )
The next evolution for me is probably going to be e-ink in the form of a Foxit eSlick Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ebook/) I have handled the Sony readers in the Sony store and they are really nice to hold, too expensive but hopefully the eSlick will be as good and cheaper.
atb good luck
I agree they will support the tags but will they add Theora or will it be plugin-dependent?
I guess open-source plugins are the lesser evil but it is hard to imagine Theora penetration achieving critical mass without easy IE integration, and without that YouTube will remain Flash due to the h264 licensing debacle.
Interesting discussion about HTML5 video implementation
step 1: buy lots of old computers
step 2: buy some serial cables
step 3: beowulf the computers
step 4: use the rs232 cables with appropriate mices.
step 5: make sure you are using linux
step 6: direct the serial signals appropriately
step 7: either use a vm xp or linux to play the game
step *: never give up trying to make it work, remember, your time is infinite - spending $300 for a dell vostro is like spelling the word "DEFEAT" in a snowbank with dead penguin bodies.
I have been using a Radtech BT600 (http://www.radtech.us/Products/BT600.aspx) for a couple of weeks now and I am very impressed, it nicely addresses your USB charging issue and, in a pinch you can use it as a USB mouse also.
The build quality is very good, a solid mouse though it is a little on the small side it doesn't weigh very much and even though I have a lot of bluetooth devices it can pair with it consistently chooses the right one.
Installation was perhaps the smoothest I have ever experienced (Vista x64) - I paired it with the computer and everything just started working within 5 seconds.
It has a convenient recessed off switch on the top, time between on/off switching is about 1 second. Tracking is on par with my favorite wired Intellimouse. The buttons are nice, not too sensitive the left/right are a bit loud, the side buttons are a bit stiff but not bad and the wheel is quiet with a good feel.
I don't know much about the battery life but one review claimed 2 weeks with it switched on all the time.
All in all I am very happy with this mouse.
What about a vibrator?
This is the mechanism used to clean the CCD in many high-end digital cameras and since the rovers are obviously built to withstand very high magnitude vibrations why not use a similar system on them?
The rover could be parked on an incline, identical to the technique used to get them maximum solar exposure during "winter", and then vibrate the dust off the panels.
Even the smallest cell phone has a vibrator, they are small and light-weight I'm not sure how energy-efficient they are but I'd wager the power generating improvement would more than offset the expenditure.
Any list without the Bunny Tracks UT mod is worthless!
Hundreds of maps, Maverick the gold standard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWIKUUY6alg&feature=related
Ah, I wonder if it will run on my 9600 - brb