The Zenbook has one major flaw: the screen is TN instead of IPS (MacBook Air), and costs more. For the price difference you can actually buy a Window7 to install on the MacBook, so in the end, you pay the same for a better screen.
I read somewhere Asus will release Zenbooks with IPS - those might change things. In any case, always do a side-by-side comparison at a store before buying.
Some months ago I was on the brink of buying an Asus Zenbook, but ended up with a MBA because of the screen.
On paper the Zenbook looked great, but in the store I noticed the screen was TN and looked dismal compared to the IPS of the Apple. I'm a Windows guy, but the Zenbook suddenly felt cheap, and I wanted to go back home with a light laptop.
So I bought the MBA, slapped WIn7 on it and been very happy with it since. (kept OSX in a tiny partition for support/backup, and installed 3rd party drivers for functionality not available from vanilla Boot Camp).
A simple fall is not the same as a projectile from a kid's tantrum. To be fair though, it survived several other accidents like that before. This one must have been an unlucky landing right on the screen; the phone had a protective cover that would have cushioned any other angle of impact.
The iPhone has a glass screen that is very prone to cracking. I imagine it's a case of form over function, since glass looks nicer than plastic. It's not so pretty if ever the phone falls on a hard surface flat on the screen. This means an iPhone won't survive the ninja powers of a 2-year old who managed to grab your phone when you least expected it, to use as a hand grenade...
Also, for some stupid reason the screen was designed in such a way that changing it means also replacing the digitizer (the touch pad - glued to it) so you end up paying quite a pretty penny for repairs (between 1/3 and 1/2 of the price of the phone!).
One feature that I don't see mentioned in this discussion is the ability to read graphics files out of.zip or.cbz archives. The standard e-reader screen (6-7 inches) is not very good for Letter or A4 sized color comics, but works very well for black & white manga. As far as I know, only the iRiver kindle can read.zip and.cbz for this purpose, but there are probably other readers out there with the same ability?
I know the whole thing is probably not to be taken too seriously, but looking at the paper I would say there are at least a couple of shaky assumptions.
First he's defining a rate of people who live in London. That ignores people moving in or out, or even people willing to move closer. So the figure should be higher I think.
Then he mentions he will only find 5% of "physically attractive" candidates. In other words, he is limiting himself outside of 2 times the standard deviation of the population. That's a really sample of the population. In other words, guy's too picky:-)
He should try lottery or SETI@Home next. From TFA:
But in the end Backus defied the odds. Asylum reported that Backus has a girlfriend of about six months. "She's from London," he told the Web site. "And she meets all my criteria."
Actually that's a great point. If pixel resolution can be made fine enough, why bother with one big LCD panel + active glasses, when you could just stream to a couple of small displays in front of your eyes?
Some of those already exist (they can also serve as portable DVD players), but they're quite pricey. I guess once there is a lot of 3D media available, those players they will become more common. They can't be too difficult to manufacture to existing small LCD resolutions (perhaps not full HD but good enough for SD).
You'd want X86 for backwards compatibility, unless you can emulate (DosBox) or simulate (Wine), then I agree it's irrelevant. The former works great already, but the latter still has some time to go (but gets better every year).
Btw there are already a few interesting hardware products done in ARM, check the GP2X Wiz and the OpenPandora (although those are geared more towards gaming than general-purpose computing).
I'd like to see a brand that positions itself as the "under $100" Notebook and delivers at least the same specs as the EEE PC 4G.
In other words, instead of trying to replicate a laptop, just cram everything you can for the price. They could then update the product every year; at that price you can afford the upgrade often.
Probably not going to happen, as it would kill margins. But all the current machines will be available second-hand sooner or later and should reach that price point.
Publish an app for zero cost that packages an FOSS compiler and source code, with detailed instructions on how to add your own image. Then you push a button to compile it and it has the exact same function.
Bonus points if it jailbreaks the iPhone... but then it won't last a picosecond on the Store.
Look up the GP2X and the Pandora. They're primarely designed as game consoles so they're smaller and pack less Mhz, but they are fully open platforms based on ARM. They have TV out and USB for a keyboard if you want to use it as a PC...
I live in a city where every coffee house offers free open wifi to everybody. You don't even need to buy to get on it. And my town's neighborhood management council offers free wifi in the largest public areas (where most of the shops are). And they still manage to make money. If you're outside using the net and get thirsty, you're most likely to get into the coffeehouse and get a cup of something.
The thing is that once most places offer free wifi, not having it is a disadvantage.
I didn't feel it was a cliffhanger more than a rushed ending. It was a really nice ride until the very last level where suddenly a lot happens without any previous hint to it. I loved the game, but I couldn't help feeling they could have done a better job if they took the time to expand the last half a bit more to allow for smoother storytelling.
To be fair though, it's not the first nor the last game that suffers from production pressures to get it out of the door. I rather get a game with gret start and a fishy ending than no game at all because the company went under.
But here's hoping. If they expand the universe a bit, allow you to roam around more, and give you some side quests (a la Zelda) then it could be a great game.
The "golden equation" actually comes from anime's source material, manga. There is an excellent book (comic/manga) called "Even a monkey can draw manga", which, under covers of parody, dissects most of the common stereotypes of manga (and thus anime). It points out that depending on the intended audience age you'll very often find the same elements because to be successful, you just need to copy other successful stuff (thus the title). The book itself is a manga, so interestingly it proves that the medium is not at fault, just the commercialism of it. There are certainly some works that are less marketable, but a very interesting or original read (same as comics and any other medium, really).
Except for the english-like language, most of HyperCard's features can be simulated on the web using Flash. You just need to adapt the paradigm a bit... e.g. a card in a stack is instead a frame on a (stopped) animation.
I've remade some of my early crappy games in Flash and released them online. With a bit of a framework (i.e. button components, dialog boxes) you can recapture the same feel and fun while creating stuff. I've chosen to use B&W graphics, but you don't need to be constrained by that...you've got mp3 sound, video, truecolor, etc.
The ultimate step would be for somebody to do an Hypertalk interpreter, so you could use it in a very similar manner as the original. But I suppose Apple's trademarks will prevent that from happening...:-(
There is not much feminine representation in CS classes (mine was supposedly "full of girls" yet it was only 1 girl per 3 guys) as you would have in, say, literature classes. Even in companies, you will typically find much lower percentage of women in IT compared to HR, for instance.
It seems to be something about technical fields, because in other relatively technical areas (business, accounting, finance) you find many women in important places if you look internationally (even as CEOs).
I would tend to think the cause is social pressure and some degree of indoctrination since birth, reinforced by an educational feedback loop of some sort (early choices may drive away from technical fields). There is certainly a bias (in US society at least) to allow more freedom in guys than in girls. It's not a good thing but it is what it is.
In general I notice that there's quite a bit of movie inspiration for the themes. So you need to see what movie genre would be good. Personally I'd love to see GTA based in 80s Hong Kong inspired from the John Woo movies. Or one located in Japan in the 80s or 90s. Or they could go retro and have one based on a ronin in the EDO period. Sure, no autos there, but you still get the theme of the lone guy trying to get his slice of the cake by any means chosen by the player.
Oh man, I had written the below ages ago, and now there's a relevant story on/. ! (yes I could claim prior art but I'm not SCO;-D )
!!! welcome to the ENIAC democompo!!!
We are happy to announce the opening of the first demoparty dedicated to the ENIAC. If you wish to participate, please agree to observe the following party rules:
1) Bring your own ENIACs. We do not want to see viruses on our system.
2) If you plug your ENIAC to the wall power plug, the PC, Amiga and Atari ST demomakers will saw your head off. At your own risk.
3) To give electrical power to your machine, we provide a bicycle room with attached generators. Please let us know a week in advance of the size of your group, so that we can get enough bicycles for everyone.
4) You are responsible of finding your own spot in the party room. Our ENIAC is already taking half of the available space.
5) It is forbidden to step on the wires.
6) "Flame" demo effects are forbidden. When we tried to achieve one, the vacuum tubes caught fire and we had to call 911. They were not very happy about it.
7) It is forbidden to spray paint graffiti on our ENIAC.
8) Domestic animals are forbidden. We will not pay for any damage caused by the stench of burned fur coming out of relay boxes.
9) You are responsible looking after your ENIAC. Dishonest persons may want to steal it at night.
10) It is STRICTLY forbidden to sleep on top of the ENIAC units.
11) Bring your own spare vacuum tubes and resistors. If you forget them you can buy them at the party but we will set the price... don't say we didn't tell you...
12) Musical creations are forbidden. Our musician tried to compose something and provoked the death of five dogs while trying to complete "Woof Woof ZAPPP !!", played with his newly created Music Tracker "LiveWireDogeeh".
13) Graphical creations are forbidden. Our graphist found a horrible death after making a vacuum tube box explode in an attempt to automatically create a drawing of Pamela Anderson on the floor with the glass shards. The result was not so great anyways.
14) The Bicycle Room has an excellent drink vending machine [rubs hands].
15) The coders are not allowed to access the ENIAC switches while the demo is running.
16) Any vacuum tube that fries during the demo cannot be replaced.
17) The "Plasma", "Shadebobs" or "Lens" demo effects are forbidden. Our coder placed some pot in the relay box so that we were stoned by the smoke and saw all kind of weird stuff.
18) If somebody does not respect these rules, people may be pissed off and quit the ENIAC scene !
The competition prices are as follows:
1. A brand new ENIAC 2. A Z80 building kit for every member of the group. 3. A box of General Electric vacuum tubes.
It's "impossible" in the sense that once the cost goes above a certain threshold, no company will ever bother implementing it unless mandated by a court or if it is under watch by a regulatory body (e.g. banks watched by the SEC).
So implementing it is politically unacceptable for a company whose mandate is to maximize profit for its shareholders (like most for-profit companies) but only real product/course of action is to control the means of distribution. The "rights" of the end users are the least they care about. If they could get away with it, they would charge for every pair of eyes and ear every time one "experiences" the content.
I'm not trying to demonize them; but a lot of actions of "content companies" make sense if you take the view that maximizing profit is their main driver. What we need to truly defeat it is either find an alternate (legal) business model for artists or other "content providers", and find ways to (legally) make "content distributors" irrelevant. Of course the latter will fight toe and nail and use every political mean they have to keep their paychecks, like some corporate version of Luddites.
I don't mean to belittle the efforts that went into building these, but I was a bit disappointed to see that it was not the real "Operation" game but some big table with big holes in it. The robots use some type of magnet to pick up metallic objects instead of tweezers to pick up small plastic things. The holes are also big squares instead of the squiggly holes that make the original interesting.
Of course, making an autonomous robot that plays the real thing would be an order of magnitude harder. Hopefully some of the contestants had so much fun they'll go on to try to create that sometime in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
The Zenbook has one major flaw: the screen is TN instead of IPS (MacBook Air), and costs more.
For the price difference you can actually buy a Window7 to install on the MacBook, so in the end, you pay the same for a better screen.
I read somewhere Asus will release Zenbooks with IPS - those might change things.
In any case, always do a side-by-side comparison at a store before buying.
Some months ago I was on the brink of buying an Asus Zenbook, but ended up with a MBA because of the screen.
On paper the Zenbook looked great, but in the store I noticed the screen was TN and looked dismal compared to the IPS of the Apple.
I'm a Windows guy, but the Zenbook suddenly felt cheap, and I wanted to go back home with a light laptop.
So I bought the MBA, slapped WIn7 on it and been very happy with it since.
(kept OSX in a tiny partition for support/backup, and installed 3rd party drivers for functionality not available from vanilla Boot Camp).
Seconded. The NDS XL would be easier to grab, see, and use (it comes with a bigger stylus).
And it's cheaper than an iPad...
A simple fall is not the same as a projectile from a kid's tantrum. To be fair though, it survived several other accidents like that before. This one must have been an unlucky landing right on the screen; the phone had a protective cover that would have cushioned any other angle of impact.
The iPhone has a glass screen that is very prone to cracking. I imagine it's a case of form over function, since glass looks nicer than plastic. It's not so pretty if ever the phone falls on a hard surface flat on the screen. This means an iPhone won't survive the ninja powers of a 2-year old who managed to grab your phone when you least expected it, to use as a hand grenade...
Also, for some stupid reason the screen was designed in such a way that changing it means also replacing the digitizer (the touch pad - glued to it) so you end up paying quite a pretty penny for repairs (between 1/3 and 1/2 of the price of the phone!).
One feature that I don't see mentioned in this discussion is the ability to read graphics files out of .zip or .cbz archives. The standard e-reader screen (6-7 inches) is not very good for Letter or A4 sized color comics, but works very well for black & white manga. As far as I know, only the iRiver kindle can read .zip and .cbz for this purpose, but there are probably other readers out there with the same ability?
I know the whole thing is probably not to be taken too seriously, but looking at the paper I would say there are at least a couple of shaky assumptions.
First he's defining a rate of people who live in London. That ignores people moving in or out, or even people willing to move closer. So the figure should be higher I think.
Then he mentions he will only find 5% of "physically attractive" candidates. In other words, he is limiting himself outside of 2 times the standard deviation of the population. That's a really sample of the population. In other words, guy's too picky :-)
He should try lottery or SETI@Home next. From TFA:
But in the end Backus defied the odds. Asylum reported that Backus has a girlfriend of about six months. "She's from London," he told the Web site. "And she meets all my criteria."
Good for him, but not very good for his theory...
Actually that's a great point. If pixel resolution can be made fine enough, why bother with one big LCD panel + active glasses, when you could just stream to a couple of small displays in front of your eyes?
Some of those already exist (they can also serve as portable DVD players), but they're quite pricey. I guess once there is a lot of 3D media available, those players they will become more common. They can't be too difficult to manufacture to existing small LCD resolutions (perhaps not full HD but good enough for SD).
The comic in question is "Cold Equator" (Froid Equateur) from Enki BIlal. He's French comic book artist and filmmaker of Serbian origins.
At least in the World Chess Boxing organization website, they give proper credit to the guy (with photos and all).
The comic is very good too, part of the Nikopol trilogy. Check it out.
I for one welcome our no evil doing overlords.
You'd want X86 for backwards compatibility, unless you can emulate (DosBox) or simulate (Wine), then I agree it's irrelevant. The former works great already, but the latter still has some time to go (but gets better every year).
Btw there are already a few interesting hardware products done in ARM, check the GP2X Wiz and the OpenPandora (although those are geared more towards gaming than general-purpose computing).
I'd like to see a brand that positions itself as the "under $100" Notebook and delivers at least the same specs as the EEE PC 4G.
In other words, instead of trying to replicate a laptop, just cram everything you can for the price. They could then update the product every year; at that price you can afford the upgrade often.
Probably not going to happen, as it would kill margins. But all the current machines will be available second-hand sooner or later and should reach that price point.
Publish an app for zero cost that packages an FOSS compiler and source code, with detailed instructions on how to add your own image. Then you push a button to compile it and it has the exact same function.
Bonus points if it jailbreaks the iPhone... but then it won't last a picosecond on the Store.
Look up the GP2X and the Pandora. They're primarely designed as game consoles so they're smaller and pack less Mhz, but they are fully open platforms based on ARM. They have TV out and USB for a keyboard if you want to use it as a PC...
I live in a city where every coffee house offers free open wifi to everybody. You don't even need to buy to get on it. And my town's neighborhood management council offers free wifi in the largest public areas (where most of the shops are). And they still manage to make money. If you're outside using the net and get thirsty, you're most likely to get into the coffeehouse and get a cup of something.
The thing is that once most places offer free wifi, not having it is a disadvantage.
I didn't feel it was a cliffhanger more than a rushed ending. It was a really nice ride until the very last level where suddenly a lot happens without any previous hint to it. I loved the game, but I couldn't help feeling they could have done a better job if they took the time to expand the last half a bit more to allow for smoother storytelling.
To be fair though, it's not the first nor the last game that suffers from production pressures to get it out of the door. I rather get a game with gret start and a fishy ending than no game at all because the company went under.
But here's hoping. If they expand the universe a bit, allow you to roam around more, and give you some side quests (a la Zelda) then it could be a great game.
The "golden equation" actually comes from anime's source material, manga. There is an excellent book (comic/manga) called "Even a monkey can draw manga", which, under covers of parody, dissects most of the common stereotypes of manga (and thus anime). It points out that depending on the intended audience age you'll very often find the same elements because to be successful, you just need to copy other successful stuff (thus the title). The book itself is a manga, so interestingly it proves that the medium is not at fault, just the commercialism of it. There are certainly some works that are less marketable, but a very interesting or original read (same as comics and any other medium, really).
Except for the english-like language, most of HyperCard's features can be simulated on the web using Flash. You just need to adapt the paradigm a bit... e.g. a card in a stack is instead a frame on a (stopped) animation.
:-(
I've remade some of my early crappy games in Flash and released them online. With a bit of a framework (i.e. button components, dialog boxes) you can recapture the same feel and fun while creating stuff. I've chosen to use B&W graphics, but you don't need to be constrained by that...you've got mp3 sound, video, truecolor, etc.
The ultimate step would be for somebody to do an Hypertalk interpreter, so you could use it in a very similar manner as the original. But I suppose Apple's trademarks will prevent that from happening...
It's about statistics.
There is not much feminine representation in CS classes (mine was supposedly "full of girls" yet it was only 1 girl per 3 guys) as you would have in, say, literature classes. Even in companies, you will typically find much lower percentage of women in IT compared to HR, for instance.
It seems to be something about technical fields, because in other relatively technical areas (business, accounting, finance) you find many women in important places if you look internationally (even as CEOs).
I would tend to think the cause is social pressure and some degree of indoctrination since birth, reinforced by an educational feedback loop of some sort (early choices may drive away from technical fields). There is certainly a bias (in US society at least) to allow more freedom in guys than in girls. It's not a good thing but it is what it is.
In general I notice that there's quite a bit of movie inspiration for the themes. So you need to see what movie genre would be good. Personally I'd love to see GTA based in 80s Hong Kong inspired from the John Woo movies. Or one located in Japan in the 80s or 90s. Or they could go retro and have one based on a ronin in the EDO period. Sure, no autos there, but you still get the theme of the lone guy trying to get his slice of the cake by any means chosen by the player.
Living is fatal.
Oh man, I had written the below ages ago, and now there's a relevant story on /. ! ;-D )
(yes I could claim prior art but I'm not SCO
!!! welcome to the ENIAC democompo!!!
We are happy to announce the opening of the first demoparty dedicated to the ENIAC.
If you wish to participate, please agree to observe the following party rules:
1) Bring your own ENIACs. We do not want to see viruses on our system.
2) If you plug your ENIAC to the wall power plug, the PC, Amiga and Atari ST demomakers will saw your head off. At your own risk.
3) To give electrical power to your machine, we provide a bicycle room with attached generators. Please let us know a week in advance of the size of your group, so that we can get enough bicycles for everyone.
4) You are responsible of finding your own spot in the party room. Our ENIAC is already taking half of the available space.
5) It is forbidden to step on the wires.
6) "Flame" demo effects are forbidden. When we tried to achieve one, the vacuum tubes caught fire and we had to call 911. They were not very happy about it.
7) It is forbidden to spray paint graffiti on our ENIAC.
8) Domestic animals are forbidden. We will not pay for any damage caused by the stench of burned fur coming out of relay boxes.
9) You are responsible looking after your ENIAC. Dishonest persons may want to steal it at night.
10) It is STRICTLY forbidden to sleep on top of the ENIAC units.
11) Bring your own spare vacuum tubes and resistors. If you forget them you can buy them at the party but we will set the price... don't say we didn't tell you...
12) Musical creations are forbidden. Our musician tried to compose something and provoked the death of five dogs while trying to complete "Woof Woof ZAPPP !!", played with his newly created Music Tracker "LiveWireDogeeh".
13) Graphical creations are forbidden. Our graphist found a horrible death after making a vacuum tube box explode in an attempt to automatically create a drawing of Pamela Anderson on the floor with the glass shards. The result was not so great anyways.
14) The Bicycle Room has an excellent drink vending machine [rubs hands].
15) The coders are not allowed to access the ENIAC switches while the demo is running.
16) Any vacuum tube that fries during the demo cannot be replaced.
17) The "Plasma", "Shadebobs" or "Lens" demo effects are forbidden. Our coder placed some pot in the relay box so that we were stoned by the smoke and saw all kind of weird stuff.
18) If somebody does not respect these rules, people may be pissed off and quit the ENIAC scene !
The competition prices are as follows:
1. A brand new ENIAC
2. A Z80 building kit for every member of the group.
3. A box of General Electric vacuum tubes.
Good luck !
It's "impossible" in the sense that once the cost goes above a certain threshold, no company will ever bother implementing it unless mandated by a court or if it is under watch by a regulatory body (e.g. banks watched by the SEC).
So implementing it is politically unacceptable for a company whose mandate is to maximize profit for its shareholders (like most for-profit companies) but only real product/course of action is to control the means of distribution. The "rights" of the end users are the least they care about. If they could get away with it, they would charge for every pair of eyes and ear every time one "experiences" the content.
I'm not trying to demonize them; but a lot of actions of "content companies" make sense if you take the view that maximizing profit is their main driver. What we need to truly defeat it is either find an alternate (legal) business model for artists or other "content providers", and find ways to (legally) make "content distributors" irrelevant. Of course the latter will fight toe and nail and use every political mean they have to keep their paychecks, like some corporate version of Luddites.
I don't mean to belittle the efforts that went into building these, but I was a bit disappointed to see that it was not the real "Operation" game but some big table with big holes in it. The robots use some type of magnet to pick up metallic objects instead of tweezers to pick up small plastic things. The holes are also big squares instead of the squiggly holes that make the original interesting.
Of course, making an autonomous robot that plays the real thing would be an order of magnitude harder. Hopefully some of the contestants had so much fun they'll go on to try to create that sometime in the future.