Good question. I don't know exactly how many radios we have around Mars right now- but yeah, the book does describe how the initial "abort" sequence (that leads to his stranding) damages all the radio equipment they have with them to talk to earth. All the suits, vehicles, etc are only designed to talk to other (ie- local/near) and not long haul to earth. Not sure how realistic that is, but that's what I got from the book.
Not that I disagree with your post, but you can't use "sci-fi" as the evidence that future, utopian societies will "do it better."...It's right there in the latter part of the name, the "fi" part.
The average digital cable customer already pays almost $75 a month, according to research firm Centris. And many subscribers pay more than $100 to tune in to everything from "The Daily Show" to "Jersey Shore."
I understand, preferences are preferences, but tabs on top always made the most sense to me. The address bar is an attribute of the current tab that you looking at. Going back and forth in history, all are functions within the context of the tab- so it makes sense that the address bar isn't global....but like I said, preferences are preferences.
I had the same same setup. Plus, I had the first generation models that still had commercial advance built into it. Those were the days. I dumped it because I was tired of the hacked IR/remote solution and just went with cable provided PVR, which I regret now, although I did have an experience with Moxi DVR via my cable provider that I did enjoy. That was a decent UI
As for a browser in a smart phone, I am not convinced either. The screen is too small. Netbook maybe, a netbook with a flexible screen may work too. Or a smart phone with a flexible attachable screen in a roll. But how to work on a mobile phone screen? It is just too small.
I don't do much work on my mobile phone anyway, but browsing the web, and doing quick queries, I do ALL THE TIME and I have my phone in my pocket all the time too. It's a natural fit- I only use my laptop a couple times a week nowadays.
I do usability for a living, and know that consistency and 'expected" behavior/locations are very important. I'm at odds though on things like this- the reason I use Opera is because I like that the UI is a little different. I like that Chrome and Opera are willing to try something different in their UIs- frankly, that's one of the things I really like about Chrome is the absent menu bar. I've turned it off of my Opera installs for as long as I've been able to, (and I have a FF plugin as well doing the same)
I paid for Opera back in those days. Sure a free browser is nice, but I'm willing to by software, particularly software I use 99.0% of the time I'm on my computer. I always viewed it as: what's it worth to me to have a browser with mouse gestures and tabbed browsing et al? Certainly the price of a couple of meals at TGI/Applebees/Shenanigans
Free and crappy/boring wasn't as good a deal as the 20 or 30 bucks I paid for the best UI out there at the time.
Amen brother- to me, the built in mouse gestures and cached history and customizable interface, the many milliseconds I've saved with those features alone are worth the random milliseconds of rendering time or scripting.
Me too. "Security" is an earned label that, for whatever the reason (coding, smaller market share, etc) Opera has earned. I don't particularly care that Firefox is more open with disclosing bugs than Opera may be, the bottom line is that since 2000 I've used Opera with nothing but confidence.
What about advance features in the desktop version? For example, dragging the route in google maps desktop to avoid a certain road....can you do that via the mobile version on Android (I can't on iPhone). I like that feature
Their only saving grace are those that try to precariously do 10 million things on their phone while driving- flipping back and forth from music player, to phone, to GPS to...heaven forbid, text messaging, all that requires UI navigation- then reseting back to GPS functions. I think stand alone makers are fighting a losing battle, but they can bank a little bit on the notion of dedicated functions in automobiles.... ie, driving/moving user interfaces are NOT the place to converge functionalities and abstract them with menus and navigation. Dedicated UIs have a reasonable place in autos.
Offline (no data) access is the only real motivator right now- plus bottlenecks, if not of hardware (running your music, GPS, phone, etc) then certainly of UI. Managing your music while using it's GPS might not be effecient, but certainly manageable....although I don't disagree with you, it's more compelling then a stand alone unit (have have both, and use my iphone more than my gps)
Slashdot Mirror
Good question. I don't know exactly how many radios we have around Mars right now- but yeah, the book does describe how the initial "abort" sequence (that leads to his stranding) damages all the radio equipment they have with them to talk to earth. All the suits, vehicles, etc are only designed to talk to other (ie- local/near) and not long haul to earth. Not sure how realistic that is, but that's what I got from the book.
I smell a reboot of the Cannonball Run franchise!
Someone get C.W.McCall on the line!
Not that I disagree with your post, but you can't use "sci-fi" as the evidence that future, utopian societies will "do it better." ...It's right there in the latter part of the name, the "fi" part.
...to the conversation on Slashdot, is the only time I don't feel comfortable doing so.
oh well.
(I was an AF theater comms officer dealing with this issue in 04-05)
...chargin'
one of these days these boots are gonna charge your gadgets too.
Thanks for all the work and passion- and thanks for fighting to keep the experience what it (mostly) always has been.
The average digital cable customer already pays almost $75 a month, according to research firm Centris. And many subscribers pay more than $100 to tune in to everything from "The Daily Show" to "Jersey Shore."
-meant to include this in previous post.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/06/news/companies/cable_bill_cost_increase/index.htm
Doesn't seem like he's getting ripped off
I understand, preferences are preferences, but tabs on top always made the most sense to me. The address bar is an attribute of the current tab that you looking at. Going back and forth in history, all are functions within the context of the tab- so it makes sense that the address bar isn't global. ...but like I said, preferences are preferences.
I had the same same setup. Plus, I had the first generation models that still had commercial advance built into it. Those were the days. I dumped it because I was tired of the hacked IR/remote solution and just went with cable provided PVR, which I regret now, although I did have an experience with Moxi DVR via my cable provider that I did enjoy. That was a decent UI
replayTV was around before Tivo, I had one and loved it.
Or a better "digital wallet" -paypal-like in functionality.
Why repair what is not broken?
Innovation.
As for a browser in a smart phone, I am not convinced either. The screen is too small. Netbook maybe, a netbook with a flexible screen may work too. Or a smart phone with a flexible attachable screen in a roll. But how to work on a mobile phone screen? It is just too small.
I don't do much work on my mobile phone anyway, but browsing the web, and doing quick queries, I do ALL THE TIME and I have my phone in my pocket all the time too. It's a natural fit- I only use my laptop a couple times a week nowadays.
I do usability for a living, and know that consistency and 'expected" behavior/locations are very important. I'm at odds though on things like this- the reason I use Opera is because I like that the UI is a little different. I like that Chrome and Opera are willing to try something different in their UIs- frankly, that's one of the things I really like about Chrome is the absent menu bar. I've turned it off of my Opera installs for as long as I've been able to, (and I have a FF plugin as well doing the same)
I paid for Opera back in those days. Sure a free browser is nice, but I'm willing to by software, particularly software I use 99.0% of the time I'm on my computer. I always viewed it as: what's it worth to me to have a browser with mouse gestures and tabbed browsing et al? Certainly the price of a couple of meals at TGI/Applebees/Shenanigans
Free and crappy/boring wasn't as good a deal as the 20 or 30 bucks I paid for the best UI out there at the time.
Amen brother- to me, the built in mouse gestures and cached history and customizable interface, the many milliseconds I've saved with those features alone are worth the random milliseconds of rendering time or scripting.
Me too. "Security" is an earned label that, for whatever the reason (coding, smaller market share, etc) Opera has earned. I don't particularly care that Firefox is more open with disclosing bugs than Opera may be, the bottom line is that since 2000 I've used Opera with nothing but confidence.
The original intention of my post *was* UI overhead in the context of in car distractions.
That's how I think it will play out as well. That's some good insight there Lou- consider that my +1 mod
True, and I agree with you, but the devil's in the details- like when you're texting Judy that you're going to be late and you miss your offramp exit.
But yes, voice, gesture, control etc are all very viable answers to my original concerns
What about advance features in the desktop version? For example, dragging the route in google maps desktop to avoid a certain road....can you do that via the mobile version on Android (I can't on iPhone). I like that feature
Their only saving grace are those that try to precariously do 10 million things on their phone while driving- flipping back and forth from music player, to phone, to GPS to...heaven forbid, text messaging, all that requires UI navigation- then reseting back to GPS functions. I think stand alone makers are fighting a losing battle, but they can bank a little bit on the notion of dedicated functions in automobiles.... ie, driving/moving user interfaces are NOT the place to converge functionalities and abstract them with menus and navigation. Dedicated UIs have a reasonable place in autos.
Since they do a good job at analyzing the route from A to B, it seems logical that the app should be able to cache maps along the route of a direction
Also, seems possible to get a map of cell coverage to overlay it on the route and do heaving caching for areas that have no/spotty coverage.
Seems mindnumbingly simple to implement using a google account. I always email the link to myself and then pull it up on my phone.
Offline (no data) access is the only real motivator right now- plus bottlenecks, if not of hardware (running your music, GPS, phone, etc) then certainly of UI. Managing your music while using it's GPS might not be effecient, but certainly manageable. ...although I don't disagree with you, it's more compelling then a stand alone unit (have have both, and use my iphone more than my gps)