Problem with PDA USB Hosts - battery power
on
The Future of the PDA
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· Score: 2, Interesting
One of the issues with being a USB host is that PDAs generally don't have the battery capacity to supply USB power. The Nokia 770 (great device BTW), for example, can act as a USB host but will only work with powered peripherals (which excludes thumb drives) unless you use a powered hub in the middle.
Obviously having to lug around a powered hub or search for a wall socket for your peripherals limits the usefulness somewhat. (Although there is a niche of battery-powered USB hubs.)
Linux-based operating systems like Linspire are inherently safe from viruses, however you can still pass along email viruses to vulnerable Microsoft Windows-based computers. That's why we offer VirusSafe.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Surprised no one mentioned yet, answer is obvious
on
High End Video Capture?
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· Score: 1, Funny
IIRC I have had multi-button mouse software (think it was Logitech) that did something like this; wasn't implemented very well though. Sony Vaios also have this "jog dial" that when you click lets you select software to launch. Also implemented poorly (being Sony, more flashy than usable.)
Again, the key is all in the software implementation. Don't see why an enterprising utility writer couldn't come up with something (indeed if there isn't something already.)
I've been on a dual monitor setup for six years now, using Ultramon for much of that time. I find it works for me to have the taskbar application button just on the same monitor as the window, although it also has an setting to duplicate everything across both task bars. This fixes the problem of having the button on a different monitor to the window (in Apple's case, for the menu, different monitor would be even more absurd.)
It also has a host of options for quickly popping windows between monitors, maximising across multiple monitors (useful for spreadsheets, Gantt charts etc), different display profiles (1 mon, 2 mons, work, home, projector, etc.) It really is invaluable if you use Windows with more than one monitor.
Pop-up menus could be useful. The problem I guess is picking something easy that will work globally in the OS. Where did you imagine them popping up? Opera has a very handy F12 quick settings popup menu, and a very handy change window function where you right-click and use the scroll-wheel on your mouse to select a new window.)
(Windows's Taskbar has a similarly annoying flaw regarding multi-monitor setups)....it extends the taskbar onto the secondary monitor, along with a host of other things - invaluable for multiple monitors.
...it was a limited availability product, produced to have something cheap for the education market, which was very important to Apple. IIRC you have to be a student or educational institution to buy one. Besides, I doubt it will be making the Intel transition and all mainstream Macs since that announcement have been LCDs (as are basically all PCs sold now, so he was only very so slightly ahead of himself.)
Neither is the multi-mouse, I think Macs still come with the one-button by default, so big deal Apple produce an optional add on (other companies had for years.)
...it's just his page (and the home page); the style sheet actually specifies "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" and that's what's used on most of the rest of the site. You know what they say about "a little knowledge" and comic sans...
...from the 2000 campaign, that was featured in Fahrenheit 9/11. Two seconds on Google will get you plenty of info. It was intended as a joke, but was jumped on by Bush's opponents, probably because it just rang too true.
AFAIK basically all laptop drives will require near 1A for spin-up, although they will use significantly less for continued operation. Certainly I don't think there are any that will spin up on 500mA (although I may be wrong.) Some USB ports will manage this although it is by no means guaranteed. My experience is with TravelStar drives (a 4200RPM one at 1A followed by a 7200RPM at 1.1A.)
There are an increasing number of "Exchange Alternatives" out there for those that bother to look. Yes, MS Exchange is about Calendaring and there are also many separate calendaring tools out there as well. Having separate calendar and mail clients allow your site to choose the best of both.
Out of interest, could you suggest some Exchange server calendaring alternatives. Preferably that allow Outlook calendar sharing. They don't have to do mail. I have to set this up for a small company (c. 8 people) and am a bit scared about Exchange. They would have to run on a Windows server tho, don't have a Linux box in this place.
...to use the enclosures with combinations of certain higher-power laptop drives and certain computers that don't supply enough power to a single USB port. As most laptop drives are ~1A and the USB spec is 500mA this can end up being quite a few. I know I have to use the Y cable with my laptop (as the USB2 port is on a PC card) and my Shuttle, but don't need to use it on a computer in work.
With a Y-cable you will never need an external power supply, which is very handy and the key difference between a 2.5" and a 3.5" drive - far less to lug around.
Of course the point is moot if you are using Firewire which provides enough power for any laptop drive.
...a Pinnacle Showcenter connected to a PC with a TV tuner. Works really great, but my experience with these things is that they _need_ an ethernet connection and are univerally flaky over WiFi (not just the Pinnacle, _any_ WiFi media receiver.)
...with larger sizes on the horizon. Although I agree I would prefer if they used SD, which is now the most common card format (having overtaken CF some time ago.) At least the RS-MMC cards can be used in SD devices, and they are actually quite cheap. The 770 takes all RS-MMCs, it doesn't need low voltage like most phones (although I presume there is a battery benefit to going with low voltage.)
The only real limitation is the RAM; it would indeed by nice if they doubled or quadrupled this as it tends to run low on memory if you have a lot of large pages open (or numerous applications.)
The 770 is still light-years ahead of any other mobile device I've ever used (Palm OS or Pocket PC.) There is simply no comparison. The screen real estate is good, but the greater issue IMHO is the fantastic browser that it uses - there is very little that can come close to Opera in the mobile arena.
(a) the projectile hits the atmosphere at extremely high speed when it leaves the tube when it comes out of the ground, or (b) you have to figure out how to build this vacuum tube very high up into the upper atmosphere.
Most of your arguements seem to be on the lines of 'we can build this thing that is 500m high with conventional technology, so to build something 500km high we just do the same thing, but do it a thousand times more.' Which, unfortunately, doesn't really work (or we would have a space elevator made out of a conventional cable long ago.)
...you can spend weeks trying to clean a spyware infection, while backing up data and reinstalling can be done in a few hours (most of which you are just waiting around and can do something else anyway.)
Whether this is a good call mostly depends on how much different software you use and how customised you have it. But arguably most people who use lots of highly-customised software are computer-savvy enough to avoid a spyware infection in the first place.
If you are looking a office worker's computer that is just running say Office and a web browser, format and reinstall is often substantially easier than attempting a manual clean (if the automated cleans fail.)
Oh, and by the way - people who get spyware infections aren't stupid; computer sysadmin work just isn't their specific domain. They have better things to be doing (such as their actual work.) I know there are plenty of things I don't know about.
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One of the issues with being a USB host is that PDAs generally don't have the battery capacity to supply USB power. The Nokia 770 (great device BTW), for example, can act as a USB host but will only work with powered peripherals (which excludes thumb drives) unless you use a powered hub in the middle.
Obviously having to lug around a powered hub or search for a wall socket for your peripherals limits the usefulness somewhat. (Although there is a niche of battery-powered USB hubs.)
From the very page you link to:
Linux-based operating systems like Linspire are inherently safe from viruses, however you can still pass along email viruses to vulnerable Microsoft Windows-based computers. That's why we offer VirusSafe.
Sounds reasonable to me.
...use a Wiki.
IIRC I have had multi-button mouse software (think it was Logitech) that did something like this; wasn't implemented very well though. Sony Vaios also have this "jog dial" that when you click lets you select software to launch. Also implemented poorly (being Sony, more flashy than usable.)
Again, the key is all in the software implementation. Don't see why an enterprising utility writer couldn't come up with something (indeed if there isn't something already.)
I've been on a dual monitor setup for six years now, using Ultramon for much of that time. I find it works for me to have the taskbar application button just on the same monitor as the window, although it also has an setting to duplicate everything across both task bars. This fixes the problem of having the button on a different monitor to the window (in Apple's case, for the menu, different monitor would be even more absurd.)
It also has a host of options for quickly popping windows between monitors, maximising across multiple monitors (useful for spreadsheets, Gantt charts etc), different display profiles (1 mon, 2 mons, work, home, projector, etc.) It really is invaluable if you use Windows with more than one monitor.
Pop-up menus could be useful. The problem I guess is picking something easy that will work globally in the OS. Where did you imagine them popping up? Opera has a very handy F12 quick settings popup menu, and a very handy change window function where you right-click and use the scroll-wheel on your mouse to select a new window.)
After I erased my hard drive, my address book was gone! Hah!
(Windows's Taskbar has a similarly annoying flaw regarding multi-monitor setups). ...it extends the taskbar onto the secondary monitor, along with a host of other things - invaluable for multiple monitors.
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/
...it was a limited availability product, produced to have something cheap for the education market, which was very important to Apple. IIRC you have to be a student or educational institution to buy one. Besides, I doubt it will be making the Intel transition and all mainstream Macs since that announcement have been LCDs (as are basically all PCs sold now, so he was only very so slightly ahead of himself.)
Neither is the multi-mouse, I think Macs still come with the one-button by default, so big deal Apple produce an optional add on (other companies had for years.)
Good refutations BTW.
...it's very easy for users to get their stuff into it quickly.
...it's just his page (and the home page); the style sheet actually specifies "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" and that's what's used on most of the rest of the site. You know what they say about "a little knowledge" and comic sans...
...still no free printer.
...from the 2000 campaign, that was featured in Fahrenheit 9/11. Two seconds on Google will get you plenty of info. It was intended as a joke, but was jumped on by Bush's opponents, probably because it just rang too true.
AFAIK basically all laptop drives will require near 1A for spin-up, although they will use significantly less for continued operation. Certainly I don't think there are any that will spin up on 500mA (although I may be wrong.) Some USB ports will manage this although it is by no means guaranteed. My experience is with TravelStar drives (a 4200RPM one at 1A followed by a 7200RPM at 1.1A.)
IT can design something that works fine without end-user input
Indeed. Unfortunately it may not do what the end-users required.
There are an increasing number of "Exchange Alternatives" out there for those that bother to look. Yes, MS Exchange is about Calendaring and there are also many separate calendaring tools out there as well. Having separate calendar and mail clients allow your site to choose the best of both.
Out of interest, could you suggest some Exchange server calendaring alternatives. Preferably that allow Outlook calendar sharing. They don't have to do mail. I have to set this up for a small company (c. 8 people) and am a bit scared about Exchange. They would have to run on a Windows server tho, don't have a Linux box in this place.
...to use the enclosures with combinations of certain higher-power laptop drives and certain computers that don't supply enough power to a single USB port. As most laptop drives are ~1A and the USB spec is 500mA this can end up being quite a few. I know I have to use the Y cable with my laptop (as the USB2 port is on a PC card) and my Shuttle, but don't need to use it on a computer in work.
With a Y-cable you will never need an external power supply, which is very handy and the key difference between a 2.5" and a 3.5" drive - far less to lug around.
Of course the point is moot if you are using Firewire which provides enough power for any laptop drive.
...the music industry would stop the sale of CDs tomorrow (a generally un-DRMed format, despite the glaring exceptions.)
...for Ireland anyway, we get a minimum of 20 days "annual leave" plus 9 public holidays (Christmas, New Year's Day, etc.) So it's 29 in total.
...a Pinnacle Showcenter connected to a PC with a TV tuner. Works really great, but my experience with these things is that they _need_ an ethernet connection and are univerally flaky over WiFi (not just the Pinnacle, _any_ WiFi media receiver.)
...at $1,300 - or maybe even less - recently. So maybe there is long-term hope.
...with larger sizes on the horizon. Although I agree I would prefer if they used SD, which is now the most common card format (having overtaken CF some time ago.) At least the RS-MMC cards can be used in SD devices, and they are actually quite cheap. The 770 takes all RS-MMCs, it doesn't need low voltage like most phones (although I presume there is a battery benefit to going with low voltage.)
The only real limitation is the RAM; it would indeed by nice if they doubled or quadrupled this as it tends to run low on memory if you have a lot of large pages open (or numerous applications.)
The 770 is still light-years ahead of any other mobile device I've ever used (Palm OS or Pocket PC.) There is simply no comparison. The screen real estate is good, but the greater issue IMHO is the fantastic browser that it uses - there is very little that can come close to Opera in the mobile arena.
...they want to standardise the hardware/software configuration so they can support it?
...for video compression, e.g. the PCI bus would not be the bottleneck, the encoding would be.
(a) the projectile hits the atmosphere at extremely high speed when it leaves the tube when it comes out of the ground, or (b) you have to figure out how to build this vacuum tube very high up into the upper atmosphere.
Most of your arguements seem to be on the lines of 'we can build this thing that is 500m high with conventional technology, so to build something 500km high we just do the same thing, but do it a thousand times more.' Which, unfortunately, doesn't really work (or we would have a space elevator made out of a conventional cable long ago.)
...you can spend weeks trying to clean a spyware infection, while backing up data and reinstalling can be done in a few hours (most of which you are just waiting around and can do something else anyway.)
Whether this is a good call mostly depends on how much different software you use and how customised you have it. But arguably most people who use lots of highly-customised software are computer-savvy enough to avoid a spyware infection in the first place.
If you are looking a office worker's computer that is just running say Office and a web browser, format and reinstall is often substantially easier than attempting a manual clean (if the automated cleans fail.)
Oh, and by the way - people who get spyware infections aren't stupid; computer sysadmin work just isn't their specific domain. They have better things to be doing (such as their actual work.) I know there are plenty of things I don't know about.