What is the benefit of this technology over TTY or using text messaging? I don't know what you or the GP means (in a mobile phone context) by TTY, but there is one definite benefit: immediateness. That is, lack of latency in message delivery.
When you send text messages back and forth, there's a delay with every delivery. For the equivalent of speech, this would be like calling the moon. Plus, you have to go into the inbox and open new messages all the time -- not very conversation-like or, for that matter, IM-like.
I'm a LN developer by day, and the word I hear is that for LN8, the *designer* part is... utterly unchanged.
I expect it to keep on handling copy-pasting beyond line 2000 incorrectly. I expect it to keep on doing "General LSE failures". And, I expect the Linux client to be just that -- the client. I haven't had the strength to try the dual-booting Linux image yet, because I'm all but certain that it hasn't got the tools that I (as a developer) need.
For one, why does the display always have to be 'on top of' the keypad? You have to hold the thing with both hands, or nearly drop the phone while reaching for the * 0 # keys. Instead, flip it around so the display is *below* the keypad. Go on,try it with your own phone, right now (just ignore for now that your keys will be upside down): -- One-handed typing will be much easier, as you can hold onto the phone more firmly while typing. Also note how the 'thigh' of your thumb will not obscure the display. -- Two-handed speed-texting will be much more 'private' because your thumb's thighs will keep your display hidden from everyone but you (the teens will love this!). I've blogged about this before, too (if you can call it that, as it was before "blogging" was called that).
I fully understand both your posts -- they container/content difference, as well as the fact most consumers would --or should-- not care about those finer points (they just want their content).
But the GP has a point, and it's this: In a popular operating system, file types are identified solely on extension. So it's not even possible to tell a Vorbis file from a Theora file in the file manager, because they both show up as "Ogg media file". In that light, it is perfectly understandable that people refer to "ogg-anything" as simply "Ogg". The problem is not, therefore, with the user, but with the software.
There are three ways around this: -- in the short term, drop the files in VLC and see what happens (more accurately, "see vs. hear" what happens). -- in the mid term, perhaps extensions should be renamed "ogv", "ogt", and "ogs" for Vorbis, Theora, and Speex respectively. But what then of Ogg files that contain FLAC, or MPEG, or whatever codec you can think of? -- in the long term, the file manager needs a deeper understanding of file contents to determine file types, but this can in turn lead to vulnerabilities.
I keep hearing references to using USB sticks to have 'your own' computer when your at a cafe or similar establishment. I have never understood this -- perhaps Denmark is different from the rest of the world on this point, but the cafes I have seen, the first thing they do is to disable the USB drive. Surely, you would not be able to *boot* from USB at 99.9% of cafe computers? Or am I entirely off the track here?
You buy socks to wear once only? Wow, what a wasteful habit.
When I buy socks, I make sure to buy 10 or 20 pairs at a time, and if possible of a generic brand that will still be available when I need to buy socks again.
Then I don't care about correct pairing at all (almost: there are my socks, and those of my wife). Any two of mine will make a pair. Any one sock that is worn out is tossed (the other is kept), and any one sock that is lost is just a replacement for a half-pair...
It's also the hardest because it's extremely difficult to perform a scientific experiment to test it. There are millions of variables to control, and uncontrollable, and you can't grab X governments at random and make them do something, dividing them neatly into control and test groups. (That's why it's hard for people to come to agreement about the matter.)
Could MMORPG's and realistic computer models of human economic behavior change this? Maybe. Perhaps "Jennifer Government: NationStates"?
That's my sentiment exactly. You want something? Decide what it's really, truly worth to you, bid that, and walk away... either you win or you don't. If you don't, it wasn't worth it. Period.
Personally, I'm curious where you go as an alternative? I was looking for an "as-new" Tungsten T3 (which is out of stock) or a new-ish Psion Series5 (which they stopped making almost a decade ago). Where could I find that without investing a month' time browsing forums, and perhaps end up getting had anyway?
Ebay may be rotten, but at least it's organized. You can't argue that, can you?:-D
Why you do NOT want a smallest-possible m-ITX NAS
on
Small Form Factor PCs
·
· Score: 1
mini ITX form factor Mobos cost 2x what they should. Their cabinets cost 3x what they should. This is true!:-(
Just give me a cheap box that's as blank as possible and mounts a CD drive horizontally. That means the case on;y has to be 6" wide, not 11". I can give you some pointers if you are in need. Just say the word.
I want a mini ITX computer, with as small a fan as possible to be a NAS. I don't want to rain on your parade, but you might want to rethink putting a smallest-possible fan on a small ITX to make a small NAS. I know, I've done it, and it's not exactly bliss. Unless of course you can stick it in a basement or broom closet, in which case size would be a minor issue(?). Or unless you don't give a hoot about noise, maybe that's the case. But if your goal is inconspicuousness in general (to meet WAF) rather than avoiding eyesores in particular, read on.
My (slimserver) media server is based on a Via Epia 10k and housed in an Antec Aria case. On paper, the Epia is impressive; and the Aria is a thing of beauty -- that is to say, it has a calm design and a nice silent 120mm PSU fan for main ventilation. But I have learned that smallness can work against you.
The Epia 10k came with a choleric little 40mm fan; the first thing I did (ordered it along with the board, actually) was to replace the heat sink and mount a slower 80mm fan -- bigger fans provide better cooling at lower noise levels. I will need to further replace this setup with a 120mm intake fan and some crafty airflow management, because it still makes too much of a swooshing noise as it sits here beside my desk (small home, ugh).
So I have a hard time understanding why you might want a smallest-possible fan (again, unless you have severe size constrains rather than a desire for inconspicuousness). Also, most hard disks (of any useful size) generate a respectable amount of heat. You can't stick a number of them in a box and not ventilate it properly.
My point? My next system will more likely be cased in an Antec P-180. It's rather large, but then it is both very stylish and very plain; and the size affords the use of so many more noise-reducing methods to make it much less conspicuous than my present setup.
I'm rather curious about the 11th dimension. I used to think that anything beyond, oh, five dimensions was totally weird, but then I saw this [1] explanation --- but it only goes to 10.
So, what's going on in the 11th, or are these completely different sorts of dimensions? (I'm no scientist...)
The only problem is presentation of that data to our biological brains. For that we'd still need some sort of electrode grid or something. Not an easy problem, but at least if it's solved once it's more or less solved for all time. I very much agree with your view about manufacturability, but I do want to say that the presentation, or interface, is not necessarily as big a problem as you think -- it's just untested.
When a baby is born, it's not fully aware of its body and all the sensory inputs that it provides; the brain has to learn to interpret all those signals. And is amazingly good at it -- take for instance the balance nerve and the very rich information it provides -- with a reasonable amount of training it becomes "second nature", so to speak.
There are several scientific experiments now (and for the past, oh, ten years) where humans have had simple electrodes implanted and connected to simple computer software. These people report that at first, an electrode signal 'feels' like for instance a tingle in a particular spot of the body; but given time they grow used to the sensation and can tell it apart from an actual touch.
So if a simple signal (say, the eqivalent of an "you have email" LED) can be learned by the brain, it is quite consceivable that more complex signals (say, positioning data from a 3D mouse or virtual object) can be learned if given ample time and training. Users (if that is the term) have been able to move a screen cursor in two dimensions with nerve signals alone.
To me, this suggests there is some measure of excess capacity in the human nervous system. Or, if likened to a serial communication line, unutilized bandwidth. Nobody knows how much more 'traffic' you could potentially train your brain and body to process.
Mind you, I'm not saying we can hook a DSL into our necks, but I see the eventual possibility of a much richer human/computer interface. To think, to be able to move about in a metaverse without two-and-a-half-D controls!
The real scoop is when the digital forensics in the far future reverse engineer the Word document format (but get it wrong) and find document after document that contains information that could not possibly have been known way back then...
why does the display always have to be 'on top of' the keypad? Because... In one handed typing my hand hide about half of the screen... That is not a problem for me. it seems you have differently shaped hands than me.
who the hell decided that a phone's keypad should be the inverse of a standard numeric keypad? I wonder what happened first: phones with keypad or keyboards with keypad? Since my last post I've done a bit of research, and it appears to be the computer keypad predates the phone keypad. That is to say, the computer keypad is made to mimic the calculator keypad which positively predates the phone keypad. Bell Labs made tests in the early 60's where they sampled a whopping 18 different layouts; two of these being the "123 top row and zero beneath 8" and "789 top row and zero beneath 2" layouts discussed here. Since then phone makers have supported both layouts (and others), precluding any chance of amalgamation.
Bah, like you type on the phone keypad, the same way you do on a keyboard! What matters, is that it is standardised on the phone keypads and on keyboards, but as you type differently with both devices, there is no real necessity/advantage that both should be the same. I don't understand what you're trying to convey with the first sencence, but I should think most people who work with numbers (finance and software workers, etc.) punch numbers the same way -- not differently. It causes me no end of confusion (and misplaced calls) to have these two numeric keypads on my desk, and they're not using the same layout. It's annoying and just stupid.
So you see, for the last decades it's been the phones that have been different from the rest, and instead of matching phone keypads to calculator keypads, they just kept on doing it their own way.
I am very interested in this approach. However, I do not run my own mail server, not am I particularly knowledgeable in the matter (I am 'merely' much affected by it).
Is there some persuasive resource (articles, how-tos, and the like) that you could point out which I could forward to my web host in order to convince them to improve their service? (Currently they use both SpamAssassin and SpamCop, but I am still plagued by more than half of my inbox being spam.)
What's wrong with the interface? Describe one you think would be better, maybe someone will implement it. Okay, I'll gladly bite! Here are a few pet peeves of mine:
For one, why does the display always have to be 'on top of' the keypad? You have to hold the thing with both hands, or nearly drop the phone while reaching for the * 0 # keys. Instead, flip it around so the display is *below* the keypad. Go on,try it with your own phone, right now (just ignore for now that your keys will be upside down): -- One-handed typing will be much easier, as you can hold onto the phone more firmly while typing. Also note how the 'thigh' of your thumb will not obscure the display. -- Two-handed speed-texting will be much more 'private' because your thumb's thighs will keep your display hidden from everyone but you (the teens will love this!).
For another, who the hell decided that a phone's keypad should be the inverse of a standard numeric keypad??!? That's just plain daft! Not so long ago, some phones were one way, some the other; but then some moron decided that the One True Way was NOT the way of every single keyboard. What?!?! That makes no sense!
How about that? Who will be the first to implement that? And, will they be able to patent it, now that it's described here?
Oh man, you're cruel!:-D I wonder just how much trouble you'd get in if you actually did something like that. But a fake file, appropriately labeled, in a glass-windowed frame (think fire alarm switch) would be a very humourous thing to have on the wall in such a place!
Yes that's it, the roaming profiles. And the bit about 3rd party-storage, I've got my own ftp space thankyouverymuch.:-p
I am aware of SeaMonkey but have not looked at it in detail; I did not think it's an official product (also the thing about the "few faithful followers"). Do you know if it's compatible with Firefox extensions, or has a life all it's own? (I'm using a ton of extensions...)
I can understand how it could be necessary for things like the original Mac and Windows 95. But why for yet-another-version of an established product?
For the same reason Windows Vista used to be called by the codename 'Longhorn' or that Ubuntu 6.10 is referred to by the codename 'Edgy Eft'. Because when they start working on the release, they don't know what they will end up calling it. "FF3" could just as easily end up being FF2.5 instead of FF3 if they don't end up with all the features that they wanted. Yes and no. They ought to have a pretty clear picture of wether they are aiming for a an upgrade (minor version bump), a full resease (major version bump), or a new product altogether (new trade name). Yes, I realize that these are big projects, but they are (suuposed to) adhere to a roadmap. By the time you get to selecting which features to include, you'll know what order of vorsion bump you're aiming for. Or not.:-p
MS Longhorn: Sure, they need a trade name to stick on the box, and think Windows 2100 ain't gonna cut it. I can understand that.
Ubuntu: They *know* that their releases are steadily incremented. If they can count, no need for funny names. Hmm.... but I can see how that gets boring...
I for one am very much looking forward to improvements in the Bookmarks department.
How it was in Mozilla was actually better than Firefox now, the context menu in the app/toolbar menus were so good you'd hardly ever need to use "Manage Bookmarks". Anyway, people are allegedly no longer using bookmarks in favour of tag clouds and what-have-you... probably why it was never deemed important enough to implement the store-your-bookmarks-on-an-FTP which has been discussed for so long.
Maybe a ceramic surface on the enclosure will help. I know it's used in exhaust piping and other high-heat applications, but whether it's viable I don't know -- I have no idea what (and how big) an IDF is, or how you would go about insulating it.
But if you can't move the heat away from the equipment, can you move the equipment away from the heat? Why is it that it needs to be that close? Can't you put only a subset of the equimpent (sensors, antennae, &c) close by and move the bulk of it to a safer location where heat isulation/dissipation is more easily handled?
[Disclaimer: I'm a big Mac fan so don't take this as a mindless Slashdot bash rant. I'm currently looking to buy a new PDA, and I *want* this even though I know for sure I don't *need* this. But that's Apple for you...;) ]
[9:48am] We have invented a new technology called multi-tuch [sic]. It works like magic, you don't need a stylus, far more accurate than any interface ever shipped, it ignores touches, mutli-finger gestures, and BOY have we patented it! Lies! What this is, is Fingerworks[1] technology. They "mysteriously" shut their doors around april 2005, in a flurry of rumours of having being bought by a secretive company. Fingerfans started a forum of their own to keep the community alive.
Some of us were rather surprised the latest keyboard change from Apple was that weird one and not a straight embedded Fingerworks number. But apparently they have been wanting to make this new thing the biggest coup possible.
So they did *not* invent this thing. Develop it further, quite likely; and patented it, most definitely (go, patent war flames).
Personally I think the whole $100 laptop thing is a huge marketing gimmick to prime the populations of third-world countries for consumerism (Linux aside, $100 cost aside, it still falls victim to engineered obsolescence). The following would be true for any contraption: the device needs not change if the usage pattern does not. I have a PDA that by current standards are outright archaic, but it fulfills my needs just as perfectly as when it was new. Sure, new products offer more features, but that does not detract from the old product; unless you are made to think the product you have is no longer good enough.
It is my impression that the whole idea of creating a brand new interface is to escape the eternal upgrade spiral. On the surface, they do away with folders and mainstream OS vendors, but consider how this affects the entire paradigm of computing. In a few years these people will be old enough to work in an office (not saying they will, it's just a possibility), and set me tell you, I think they're not going to *want* to touch Windows, MacOS, or KDE/Gnome with a fire poker -- it's too messy. They won't want to work on their computer, they'll want to work on their *tasks*.
You and I can do a lot more by donating to charities or 'adopting' a child through a group like World Vision. Great! By all means, if you are so inclined, fund and donate all you like!:o) But this is completely separate from the OLPC project. Both are valid options in their own right; it's just that you can't make individual contributions to one of them.
I used to work for an electronics recycling company, whose business was increasing partially because of SB20 and SB50 and partially because a lot of companies were no longer being allowed to ship their junk computers (many components of which are toxic waste) to third-world countries to be disposed of or scrapped, as opposed to properly recycled stateside, for a fee. We got all kinds of junk, from Dreamworks to Viewsonic, but I couldn't handle the third-world pay anymore. I don't know the "SB*0" you mention, but I for one think shipping waste "under the carpet" *should* be regulated, if not avoided altogether.
I think the "OLPC" is just a first wave in a new corporate strategy to "legitimately" dump difficult-to-dispose-of old hardware and then sell new hardware in developing countries. Irrelevant. This has nothing to do with old hardware. The entire concept targets an environment where traditional computer devices would be useless (power, wired networking, harsh conditions, &c).
As you state in a later post, hardware failures are a different topic; that's mostly a question of build quality and durablity. While it is to a high degree possible for a manufacturer to skimp in this department, and thus encourage more purchases, it's not my impression that the OLPC project has chosen this path -- quite the opposite.
Slashdot Mirror
When you send text messages back and forth, there's a delay with every delivery. For the equivalent of speech, this would be like calling the moon. Plus, you have to go into the inbox and open new messages all the time -- not very conversation-like or, for that matter, IM-like.
I'm a LN developer by day, and the word I hear is that for LN8, the *designer* part is ... utterly unchanged.
I expect it to keep on handling copy-pasting beyond line 2000 incorrectly. I expect it to keep on doing "General LSE failures". And, I expect the Linux client to be just that -- the client. I haven't had the strength to try the dual-booting Linux image yet, because I'm all but certain that it hasn't got the tools that I (as a developer) need.
Prove me wrong, oh please do!
For one, why does the display always have to be 'on top of' the keypad? You have to hold the thing with both hands, or nearly drop the phone while reaching for the * 0 # keys. Instead, flip it around so the display is *below* the keypad. Go on,try it with your own phone, right now (just ignore for now that your keys will be upside down):
-- One-handed typing will be much easier, as you can hold onto the phone more firmly while typing. Also note how the 'thigh' of your thumb will not obscure the display.
-- Two-handed speed-texting will be much more 'private' because your thumb's thighs will keep your display hidden from everyone but you (the teens will love this!). I've blogged about this before, too (if you can call it that, as it was before "blogging" was called that).
I fully understand both your posts -- they container/content difference, as well as the fact most consumers would --or should-- not care about those finer points (they just want their content).
But the GP has a point, and it's this: In a popular operating system, file types are identified solely on extension. So it's not even possible to tell a Vorbis file from a Theora file in the file manager, because they both show up as "Ogg media file".
In that light, it is perfectly understandable that people refer to "ogg-anything" as simply "Ogg". The problem is not, therefore, with the user, but with the software.
There are three ways around this:
-- in the short term, drop the files in VLC and see what happens (more accurately, "see vs. hear" what happens).
-- in the mid term, perhaps extensions should be renamed "ogv", "ogt", and "ogs" for Vorbis, Theora, and Speex respectively. But what then of Ogg files that contain FLAC, or MPEG, or whatever codec you can think of?
-- in the long term, the file manager needs a deeper understanding of file contents to determine file types, but this can in turn lead to vulnerabilities.
I keep hearing references to using USB sticks to have 'your own' computer when your at a cafe or similar establishment. I have never understood this -- perhaps Denmark is different from the rest of the world on this point, but the cafes I have seen, the first thing they do is to disable the USB drive.
Surely, you would not be able to *boot* from USB at 99.9% of cafe computers? Or am I entirely off the track here?
You buy socks to wear once only? Wow, what a wasteful habit.
When I buy socks, I make sure to buy 10 or 20 pairs at a time, and if possible of a generic brand that will still be available when I need to buy socks again.
Then I don't care about correct pairing at all (almost: there are my socks, and those of my wife). Any two of mine will make a pair. Any one sock that is worn out is tossed (the other is kept), and any one sock that is lost is just a replacement for a half-pair...
Could MMORPG's and realistic computer models of human economic behavior change this? Maybe. Perhaps "Jennifer Government: NationStates"?
http://www.nationstates.net/
That's my sentiment exactly. You want something? Decide what it's really, truly worth to you, bid that, and walk away ... either you win or you don't. If you don't, it wasn't worth it. Period.
:-D
Personally, I'm curious where you go as an alternative? I was looking for an "as-new" Tungsten T3 (which is out of stock) or a new-ish Psion Series5 (which they stopped making almost a decade ago). Where could I find that without investing a month' time browsing forums, and perhaps end up getting had anyway?
Ebay may be rotten, but at least it's organized. You can't argue that, can you?
My (slimserver) media server is based on a Via Epia 10k and housed in an Antec Aria case. On paper, the Epia is impressive; and the Aria is a thing of beauty -- that is to say, it has a calm design and a nice silent 120mm PSU fan for main ventilation. But I have learned that smallness can work against you.
The Epia 10k came with a choleric little 40mm fan; the first thing I did (ordered it along with the board, actually) was to replace the heat sink and mount a slower 80mm fan -- bigger fans provide better cooling at lower noise levels. I will need to further replace this setup with a 120mm intake fan and some crafty airflow management, because it still makes too much of a swooshing noise as it sits here beside my desk (small home, ugh).
So I have a hard time understanding why you might want a smallest-possible fan (again, unless you have severe size constrains rather than a desire for inconspicuousness). Also, most hard disks (of any useful size) generate a respectable amount of heat. You can't stick a number of them in a box and not ventilate it properly.
My point? My next system will more likely be cased in an Antec P-180. It's rather large, but then it is both very stylish and very plain; and the size affords the use of so many more noise-reducing methods to make it much less conspicuous than my present setup.
I'm rather curious about the 11th dimension. I used to think that anything beyond, oh, five dimensions was totally weird, but then I saw this [1] explanation --- but it only goes to 10.
So, what's going on in the 11th, or are these completely different sorts of dimensions? (I'm no scientist...)
[1]: http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php
When a baby is born, it's not fully aware of its body and all the sensory inputs that it provides; the brain has to learn to interpret all those signals. And is amazingly good at it -- take for instance the balance nerve and the very rich information it provides -- with a reasonable amount of training it becomes "second nature", so to speak.
There are several scientific experiments now (and for the past, oh, ten years) where humans have had simple electrodes implanted and connected to simple computer software. These people report that at first, an electrode signal 'feels' like for instance a tingle in a particular spot of the body; but given time they grow used to the sensation and can tell it apart from an actual touch.
So if a simple signal (say, the eqivalent of an "you have email" LED) can be learned by the brain, it is quite consceivable that more complex signals (say, positioning data from a 3D mouse or virtual object) can be learned if given ample time and training. Users (if that is the term) have been able to move a screen cursor in two dimensions with nerve signals alone.
To me, this suggests there is some measure of excess capacity in the human nervous system. Or, if likened to a serial communication line, unutilized bandwidth. Nobody knows how much more 'traffic' you could potentially train your brain and body to process.
Mind you, I'm not saying we can hook a DSL into our necks, but I see the eventual possibility of a much richer human/computer interface. To think, to be able to move about in a metaverse without two-and-a-half-D controls!
The real scoop is when the digital forensics in the far future reverse engineer the Word document format (but get it wrong) and find document after document that contains information that could not possibly have been known way back then...
Bell Labs made tests in the early 60's where they sampled a whopping 18 different layouts; two of these being the "123 top row and zero beneath 8" and "789 top row and zero beneath 2" layouts discussed here. Since then phone makers have supported both layouts (and others), precluding any chance of amalgamation. Bah, like you type on the phone keypad, the same way you do on a keyboard! What matters, is that it is standardised on the phone keypads and on keyboards, but as you type differently with both devices, there is no real necessity/advantage that both should be the same. I don't understand what you're trying to convey with the first sencence, but I should think most people who work with numbers (finance and software workers, etc.) punch numbers the same way -- not differently.
It causes me no end of confusion (and misplaced calls) to have these two numeric keypads on my desk, and they're not using the same layout. It's annoying and just stupid.
So you see, for the last decades it's been the phones that have been different from the rest, and instead of matching phone keypads to calculator keypads, they just kept on doing it their own way.
I am very interested in this approach. However, I do not run my own mail server, not am I particularly knowledgeable in the matter (I am 'merely' much affected by it).
Is there some persuasive resource (articles, how-tos, and the like) that you could point out which I could forward to my web host in order to convince them to improve their service? (Currently they use both SpamAssassin and SpamCop, but I am still plagued by more than half of my inbox being spam.)
For one, why does the display always have to be 'on top of' the keypad? You have to hold the thing with both hands, or nearly drop the phone while reaching for the * 0 # keys. Instead, flip it around so the display is *below* the keypad. Go on,try it with your own phone, right now (just ignore for now that your keys will be upside down):
-- One-handed typing will be much easier, as you can hold onto the phone more firmly while typing. Also note how the 'thigh' of your thumb will not obscure the display.
-- Two-handed speed-texting will be much more 'private' because your thumb's thighs will keep your display hidden from everyone but you (the teens will love this!).
For another, who the hell decided that a phone's keypad should be the inverse of a standard numeric keypad??!? That's just plain daft! Not so long ago, some phones were one way, some the other; but then some moron decided that the One True Way was NOT the way of every single keyboard. What?!?! That makes no sense!
How about that? Who will be the first to implement that? And, will they be able to patent it, now that it's described here?
Oh man, you're cruel! :-D I wonder just how much trouble you'd get in if you actually did something like that. But a fake file, appropriately labeled, in a glass-windowed frame (think fire alarm switch) would be a very humourous thing to have on the wall in such a place!
Yes that's it, the roaming profiles. And the bit about 3rd party-storage, I've got my own ftp space thankyouverymuch. :-p
I am aware of SeaMonkey but have not looked at it in detail; I did not think it's an official product (also the thing about the "few faithful followers").
Do you know if it's compatible with Firefox extensions, or has a life all it's own? (I'm using a ton of extensions...)
For the same reason Windows Vista used to be called by the codename 'Longhorn' or that Ubuntu 6.10 is referred to by the codename 'Edgy Eft'. Because when they start working on the release, they don't know what they will end up calling it. "FF3" could just as easily end up being FF2.5 instead of FF3 if they don't end up with all the features that they wanted. Yes and no. They ought to have a pretty clear picture of wether they are aiming for a an upgrade (minor version bump), a full resease (major version bump), or a new product altogether (new trade name). Yes, I realize that these are big projects, but they are (suuposed to) adhere to a roadmap. By the time you get to selecting which features to include, you'll know what order of vorsion bump you're aiming for. Or not.
MS Longhorn: Sure, they need a trade name to stick on the box, and think Windows 2100 ain't gonna cut it. I can understand that.
Ubuntu: They *know* that their releases are steadily incremented. If they can count, no need for funny names. Hmm.... but I can see how that gets boring...
I for one am very much looking forward to improvements in the Bookmarks department.
... probably why it was never deemed important enough to implement the store-your-bookmarks-on-an-FTP which has been discussed for so long.
How it was in Mozilla was actually better than Firefox now, the context menu in the app/toolbar menus were so good you'd hardly ever need to use "Manage Bookmarks".
Anyway, people are allegedly no longer using bookmarks in favour of tag clouds and what-have-you
"the next version of Firefox, codenamed 'Gran Paradiso'"
Why are they using code names?
I can understand how it could be necessary for things like the original Mac and Windows 95. But why for yet-another-version of an established product?
As I see it, either they might as well call it "the upcoming Firefox v3", or they should not (want to) discuss it publicly at all.
Or is it just to keep Marketing occupied with something harmless?
Maybe a ceramic surface on the enclosure will help. I know it's used in exhaust piping and other high-heat applications, but whether it's viable I don't know -- I have no idea what (and how big) an IDF is, or how you would go about insulating it.
But if you can't move the heat away from the equipment, can you move the equipment away from the heat? Why is it that it needs to be that close? Can't you put only a subset of the equimpent (sensors, antennae, &c) close by and move the bulk of it to a safer location where heat isulation/dissipation is more easily handled?
Some of us were rather surprised the latest keyboard change from Apple was that weird one and not a straight embedded Fingerworks number. But apparently they have been wanting to make this new thing the biggest coup possible.
So they did *not* invent this thing. Develop it further, quite likely; and patented it, most definitely (go, patent war flames).
[1] http://www.fingerworks.com/
:) Seeing as how 'regular' users can already download Sugar, your post seems very likely -- great!
It is my impression that the whole idea of creating a brand new interface is to escape the eternal upgrade spiral. On the surface, they do away with folders and mainstream OS vendors, but consider how this affects the entire paradigm of computing. In a few years these people will be old enough to work in an office (not saying they will, it's just a possibility), and set me tell you, I think they're not going to *want* to touch Windows, MacOS, or KDE/Gnome with a fire poker -- it's too messy. They won't want to work on their computer, they'll want to work on their *tasks*. You and I can do a lot more by donating to charities or 'adopting' a child through a group like World Vision. Great! By all means, if you are so inclined, fund and donate all you like!
As you state in a later post, hardware failures are a different topic; that's mostly a question of build quality and durablity. While it is to a high degree possible for a manufacturer to skimp in this department, and thus encourage more purchases, it's not my impression that the OLPC project has chosen this path -- quite the opposite.
Not to be a nitpick, but with the advent of 100Hz CRT's that should only be a problem if you (like me) haven't got one! :)