Except that a trackball is not a disc. The words rotary disc, as well as the picture on the article, bring to mid the "wheel" on the iPod. Integrating the single spinning disc with four buttons (Up, Down, Left, Right) and the ability to spin it, I assume.
More important to me than the four buttons is the rotary disc itself. The thumb wheel on the iPod makes for ridiculously easy scrolling through lists, long and small, with both fine control and super speed. That same ability on the desktop would be quite nice for:
Navigating folders
Any lists
Video editing
Brightness & Contrast settings
Pretty much any place a simple, unlimited movement with variable speed control is useful. In short, all over the place.
I think a disc would be much more convenient than a scroll wheel. While the wheel consumes less surface space on the mouse, the limited range of motion of your finger makes scrolling long distances with it painful. However, I can trace circles on a surface with my finger with much less effort.
While it's extremely unlikely that Apple would pursue two completely different platforms at the same time, I think we would be most likely to see different processors in different markets, i.e. the 970 in the consumer line, the Opteron in the server line, or some division like that.
It will probably be something like the Audible system that works with iTunes. You load the file. It checks with the service (using the account info you supplied) as to whether you can have that song. That info is then cached so you can use the computer offline, and put the songs on the iPod.
EMI realizes that the Internet isn't just an avenue for music theft, it's rapidly becoming the most significant way to make money with little unneccesary investment.
They provide the music, other people handle the packaging, shipping and shelfspace, if you will and they collect the money.
They don't even have to pay to have the CDs pressed or the cover art printed.
I may be crazy, but I don't want a miniature keypad that mimics Graffiti! If your interaction system is designed around pen-based text input and you get rid of the pen-based text input isn't it time to re-design the interface?!
Graffiti is easy to learn and becomes accurate with use - I don't want a keyboard in my pocket.
Is it the Pismo? If so, you can replace that processor with something a bit more speedy.
I've been eying a 500MHz G4 for my 400MHz PB G3 for some time now. The ~$300 price tag is keeping it out of reach.
I don't find 10.2.5 too terribly slow, though the boot times are now much loonger than they were with 10.1, and my PowerBook can take almost 30 seconds to sleep at times.
Of course, the processing power I have became available when the P3 wasn't widely available.
USB 2.0 works fine, except all devices downstream from a hub have to work at the same speed. This means: You need to buy a hub to put your keyboard, mouse, printer, digital camera, memory card readers, etc on so that your other devices can take advantage of USB 2.0's speed, and then only half of it, if I recall the spec.
I agree with the huge number of repetetive programs.
Yes, there are thousands of programs available on the PC that aren't on the Mac.
Here are a few of the reasons there are more titles available on PC:
Deer Hunter 1-5 (Note: I've played this. I have friends who hunt who've played this. It's like hunting in Oregon Trail, without the rest of the game...) Big Game Hunter 1-4 Bird Hunter 1-3 Barbie's 43,000,000,000 pink programs. Solitaire - not the different kinds, the 18,000 versions of Klondike. --- Macs have never needed 18,000 versions of Klondike. I have used 2 versions of Klondike on Macs - the first was designed for the original Macintosh. It worked properly through OS 9. That's over a decade of use for a single program, across six substantial changes to the operating system, eight different processors encompassing two architectures.
I understand variety offers choice, but there is something to be said for simplicity.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could set up a caching proxy to establish a verification process with the items being cached from that server - that way the server could perform checksum verification on the file and approve the copy for distribution.
It seems that it could be an easy implementation. The proxy requests the file verification in, an XML-RPC request is returned from the server to perform the checksum, the resulting data is sent via SOAP, and approval is given or denied, causing the cache to be used or flushed.
I don't know enough about it to say how difficult it would be to have the proxy determine if the service is available, though. It needs an acronym if it's going anywhere. How about Verify Cache Request (VCR)?
Prodigy Internet had (may still) a "Community" clause in their TOS, which essentially indicated that activities that weren't community-oriented (things like never disconnecting, spam, porn...) were violations of the TOS.
With something like this within an actual community it might be acceptable to change traffic priority on a publicly owned service; the argument being that the bandwidth consuming nature of P2P software is not inline with community ideals, and therefore is subject to restriction.
A "Community Ideals" clause is broad and may allow the invocation of something rare should an issue require litigation: common sense.
I think Apple is most likely to aim for a product that streams only - no copy, no local saving.
I also see the additional possibility that you can only stream a song to one person at a time, thus ensuring that the RIAA won't come after them, and possibly making iTunes a perfect base for setting up an MP3 server for a company or group.
iCommune may survive because it is contrary to Apple's method of maintaining personal choice with a resonable level of restraint.
Unrelated question: Do you think Gateway has been playing off Apple in their commercials too much? The Profile commercial playing leapfrog with the iMac, the Rip Burn Respect campaign?
OK, so another run through and a little more scrolling and I found it. Many apologies. The Premium Licensing Program is brand new, as described on the Shared Source Licensing page. Text of the paragraph is as follows:
In April 2003, Microsoft announced the Windows CE Shared Source Premium Licensing Program. Shared Source Premium Licensing expands the Windows CE Shared Source licensing program with broader license rights and more Shared Source code. The Program is designed for Windows Embedded ecosystem companies that are helping to bring Windows CE-based devices to market. The Shared Source Premium Licenses offer greater accessibility, flexibility and opportunities for innovation in products based on Windows CE.NET.
Agreed, the article is heavily biased toward what Intel is doing for the cause, and apparently he never heard of Apple.
USB adoption: While not critical to the article, the introduction of the iMac was a big help for USB adoption.
Plug-and-Play: He mention Windows 95 was the first OS to support Plug-and-play. It's not exactly the same thing, but Mac OS 7 was fully capable of detecting new cards and using drivers for them if they were available. I was able to add Ethernet, multiple display, etc to a Mac IIci without so much as a floppy disk.
PCI Express: He goes off on how great and legacy-free this is, while he notes that PCI Express will use the "classic PCI driver model..." - HOW IS THIS LEGACY FREE?!
Here's a thought for a legacy-free PC right now:
USB
FireWire
Serial ATA
AGP
PCI
Ethernet
A single system controller, no north/south bridge
For a compact system that could be made right now, put a single HD & optical drive on Serial ATA, put one AGP slot for a video card, one AMR for an optional modem, and a PCI slot if you don't want on-board sound. Put a USB port on front and 2 on back. Put a FireWire port on front and 2 on back. 10/100/1000 Base-T RJ-45, with the same PCI slot for Fiber or Fibre Channel to taste. This could be thin enough to be a "monitor stand" or small enough to innocuously sit with books on your desk.
If you wanted ultra-legacy free, you could use just Serial-ATA, USB & FireWire - you can transmit both TCP/IP and video streams over FireWire, and there are ethernet adaptors for both USB and FireWire. Of course, you would need an independant FireWire controller for video.
I wouldn't plan on cooperatively editing a document with someone I didn't trust to have respect for my work and the document itself.
One of the great benefits of this is you could simply use the document itself to talk over an issue while presenting various examples and changes, all within the same program.
Perhaps less than a "techie" seach engine, an option to start somewhere down the list would be good. For many "uncommon" searches, weeding out the top of the list would be a good start. Other than that, how do you break down into "This is a popular technical page, this is a popular general page..."
You can purchase Build Your Own Database-Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL, 2nd Ed from bn.com.
Barnes and Noble assured me that, indeed:
Not Currently Available.
A new copy is not available from Barnes & Noble.com at this time. A used copy may be available from our network of book dealers.
I cannot. There is one used copy of the book available. If they knew they had the only copy, it'd probably be on e-bay.
It was a great departure from the.xyz file extensions that DOS used, which allowed for only one application to control all files of a certain type. The inability to easily switch a file's "creator" value was annoying, though there were several programs that would do it for you. There was the awesome capability of the Finder that allowed you to drag a file onto a application, which would become highlighted if it supported the file type.
When PC interoperability became an issue, there was the PC Exchange (later File Exchange) Control Panel that came with a large list of.xyz to type/creator combinations.
If someone had come up with this concept in UNIX it would undoubtably be touted as one of the greatest features of all time. Indeed it was such a useful, natural design that BeOS included metadata in the BFS, which is an awesome filing system by every report I've ever heard.
The only qualm I ever had with the Type and Creator system was the inability to switch easily, something remedied with a small app, or 15 seconds in ResEdit.
Re:Metadata benefits
on
A Better Finder?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Mac OS X opens the program in it's default application - determined by metadata if there is any, determined by the extension if there isn't. You can bring up the Contextual Menu and choose from a list of other programs registered to handle that file type, if you so choose.
Slashdot Mirror
More important to me than the four buttons is the rotary disc itself. The thumb wheel on the iPod makes for ridiculously easy scrolling through lists, long and small, with both fine control and super speed. That same ability on the desktop would be quite nice for:
- Navigating folders
- Any lists
- Video editing
- Brightness & Contrast settings
Pretty much any place a simple, unlimited movement with variable speed control is useful. In short, all over the place.I think a disc would be much more convenient than a scroll wheel. While the wheel consumes less surface space on the mouse, the limited range of motion of your finger makes scrolling long distances with it painful. However, I can trace circles on a surface with my finger with much less effort.
While it's extremely unlikely that Apple would pursue two completely different platforms at the same time, I think we would be most likely to see different processors in different markets, i.e. the 970 in the consumer line, the Opteron in the server line, or some division like that.
It will probably be something like the Audible system that works with iTunes. You load the file. It checks with the service (using the account info you supplied) as to whether you can have that song. That info is then cached so you can use the computer offline, and put the songs on the iPod.
EMI realizes that the Internet isn't just an avenue for music theft, it's rapidly becoming the most significant way to make money with little unneccesary investment.
They provide the music, other people handle the packaging, shipping and shelfspace, if you will and they collect the money.
They don't even have to pay to have the CDs pressed or the cover art printed.
I may be crazy, but I don't want a miniature keypad that mimics Graffiti! If your interaction system is designed around pen-based text input and you get rid of the pen-based text input isn't it time to re-design the interface?!
Graffiti is easy to learn and becomes accurate with use - I don't want a keyboard in my pocket.
Is it the Pismo? If so, you can replace that processor with something a bit more speedy.
I've been eying a 500MHz G4 for my 400MHz PB G3 for some time now. The ~$300 price tag is keeping it out of reach.
I don't find 10.2.5 too terribly slow, though the boot times are now much loonger than they were with 10.1, and my PowerBook can take almost 30 seconds to sleep at times.
Of course, the processing power I have became available when the P3 wasn't widely available.
USB 2.0 works fine, except all devices downstream from a hub have to work at the same speed. This means: You need to buy a hub to put your keyboard, mouse, printer, digital camera, memory card readers, etc on so that your other devices can take advantage of USB 2.0's speed, and then only half of it, if I recall the spec.
Fun times, old comics.
Nothing particularly interesting to say, sorry.
I agree with the huge number of repetetive programs.
Yes, there are thousands of programs available on the PC that aren't on the Mac.
Here are a few of the reasons there are more titles available on PC:
Deer Hunter 1-5 (Note: I've played this. I have friends who hunt who've played this. It's like hunting in Oregon Trail, without the rest of the game...)
Big Game Hunter 1-4
Bird Hunter 1-3
Barbie's 43,000,000,000 pink programs.
Solitaire - not the different kinds, the 18,000 versions of Klondike.
---
Macs have never needed 18,000 versions of Klondike. I have used 2 versions of Klondike on Macs - the first was designed for the original Macintosh. It worked properly through OS 9. That's over a decade of use for a single program, across six substantial changes to the operating system, eight different processors encompassing two architectures.
I understand variety offers choice, but there is something to be said for simplicity.
I like the idea of tracking corporate lie trends - that could have substantial use in trading, especially if you broke it down by Line of Business.
Also, was it just me, or did the use of the word "stock" seem humerous given the comments about stock prices, the potential merger, etc?
Wouldn't it be nice if you could set up a caching proxy to establish a verification process with the items being cached from that server - that way the server could perform checksum verification on the file and approve the copy for distribution.
It seems that it could be an easy implementation. The proxy requests the file verification in, an XML-RPC request is returned from the server to perform the checksum, the resulting data is sent via SOAP, and approval is given or denied, causing the cache to be used or flushed.
I don't know enough about it to say how difficult it would be to have the proxy determine if the service is available, though. It needs an acronym if it's going anywhere. How about Verify Cache Request (VCR)?
Prodigy Internet had (may still) a "Community" clause in their TOS, which essentially indicated that activities that weren't community-oriented (things like never disconnecting, spam, porn...) were violations of the TOS.
With something like this within an actual community it might be acceptable to change traffic priority on a publicly owned service; the argument being that the bandwidth consuming nature of P2P software is not inline with community ideals, and therefore is subject to restriction.
A "Community Ideals" clause is broad and may allow the invocation of something rare should an issue require litigation: common sense.
I think Apple is most likely to aim for a product that streams only - no copy, no local saving.
I also see the additional possibility that you can only stream a song to one person at a time, thus ensuring that the RIAA won't come after them, and possibly making iTunes a perfect base for setting up an MP3 server for a company or group.
iCommune may survive because it is contrary to Apple's method of maintaining personal choice with a resonable level of restraint.
Unrelated question: Do you think Gateway has been playing off Apple in their commercials too much? The Profile commercial playing leapfrog with the iMac, the Rip Burn Respect campaign?
Damn job! Interfering with my ability to play with Safari at home. I can't wait to see how the tabbed browsing implementation looks/feels.
OK, so another run through and a little more scrolling and I found it. Many apologies. The Premium Licensing Program is brand new, as described on the Shared Source Licensing page. Text of the paragraph is as follows:
In April 2003, Microsoft announced the Windows CE Shared Source Premium Licensing Program. Shared Source Premium Licensing expands the Windows CE Shared Source licensing program with broader license rights and more Shared Source code. The Program is designed for Windows Embedded ecosystem companies that are helping to bring Windows CE-based devices to market. The Shared Source Premium Licenses offer greater accessibility, flexibility and opportunities for innovation in products based on Windows CE .NET.
I can't find anything on Microsoft's site about this. Is this change that new or are they planning on keeping it to a select few companies?
Here's a Real Wearable. The upside is it's free. The downside is that everything is an add-on.
USB adoption: While not critical to the article, the introduction of the iMac was a big help for USB adoption.
Plug-and-Play: He mention Windows 95 was the first OS to support Plug-and-play. It's not exactly the same thing, but Mac OS 7 was fully capable of detecting new cards and using drivers for them if they were available. I was able to add Ethernet, multiple display, etc to a Mac IIci without so much as a floppy disk.
PCI Express: He goes off on how great and legacy-free this is, while he notes that PCI Express will use the "classic PCI driver model..." - HOW IS THIS LEGACY FREE?!
Here's a thought for a legacy-free PC right now:
- USB
- FireWire
- Serial ATA
- AGP
- PCI
- Ethernet
- A single system controller, no north/south bridge
For a compact system that could be made right now, put a single HD & optical drive on Serial ATA, put one AGP slot for a video card, one AMR for an optional modem, and a PCI slot if you don't want on-board sound. Put a USB port on front and 2 on back. Put a FireWire port on front and 2 on back. 10/100/1000 Base-T RJ-45, with the same PCI slot for Fiber or Fibre Channel to taste. This could be thin enough to be a "monitor stand" or small enough to innocuously sit with books on your desk.If you wanted ultra-legacy free, you could use just Serial-ATA, USB & FireWire - you can transmit both TCP/IP and video streams over FireWire, and there are ethernet adaptors for both USB and FireWire. Of course, you would need an independant FireWire controller for video.
I wouldn't plan on cooperatively editing a document with someone I didn't trust to have respect for my work and the document itself.
One of the great benefits of this is you could simply use the document itself to talk over an issue while presenting various examples and changes, all within the same program.
Actually, Apple created IEEE-1394 - it was FireWire before it was an IEEE standard.
Perhaps less than a "techie" seach engine, an option to start somewhere down the list would be good. For many "uncommon" searches, weeding out the top of the list would be a good start. Other than that, how do you break down into "This is a popular technical page, this is a popular general page..."
Indeed, google is mentioned as a method for finding answers to technical issues in a recent Microsoft survey I participated in.
Google is the Next Big Thing.
Though slashdot was certain that I could:
Barnes and Noble assured me that, indeed: I cannot. There is one used copy of the book available. If they knew they had the only copy, it'd probably be on e-bay.It was a great departure from the .xyz file extensions that DOS used, which allowed for only one application to control all files of a certain type. The inability to easily switch a file's "creator" value was annoying, though there were several programs that would do it for you. There was the awesome capability of the Finder that allowed you to drag a file onto a application, which would become highlighted if it supported the file type.
.xyz to type/creator combinations.
When PC interoperability became an issue, there was the PC Exchange (later File Exchange) Control Panel that came with a large list of
If someone had come up with this concept in UNIX it would undoubtably be touted as one of the greatest features of all time. Indeed it was such a useful, natural design that BeOS included metadata in the BFS, which is an awesome filing system by every report I've ever heard.
The only qualm I ever had with the Type and Creator system was the inability to switch easily, something remedied with a small app, or 15 seconds in ResEdit.
Mac OS X opens the program in it's default application - determined by metadata if there is any, determined by the extension if there isn't. You can bring up the Contextual Menu and choose from a list of other programs registered to handle that file type, if you so choose.