And when you input the glowing food & beverages, I wonder will the output also glow?
No, probably not. Proteases in the stomach (i.e. pepsin) should pretty much disassemble the glowing components.
If they didn't, you probably wouldn't notice anything anyway, though it would certainly make drug tests more interesting ("Sir, we have strict rules against plutonium consumption").
Remember, this isn't like cheering for your favorite football team. I purchase whatever chip provides the greatest value/price ratio. I'm still a fan of AMD, but would switch to Intel in an instant if they matched their prices.
Strict brand loyalty is a dangerous economic force. A history of quality products, more compatible 3rd party applications, and better tech support contribute to the value of a product, and should be considered. But factors like popularity (independent of compatibility) and company size/worth should be ignored. I honestly wouldn't care if Intel were the world's biggest, nastiest corporation -- it's the chips that matter.
I think there's more potential elsewhere. Glow-in-the-dark Christmas trees are simply too weird. What sort of lights/ornaments to you put on a glowing tree with? Do you rewrite your Christmas songs ("O' Glowing Tree...")? They're probably ugly as hell, though.
I'd like to see glow-in-the-dark shrubs along your driveway (so you can see at night). Glow-in-the-dark ivy would be interesting on building exteriors.
And why limit your gene splicing to plants? How fun would it be to have a glow-in-the-dark dog?
Anybody know if the chemicals responsible for phospholumenescence are toxic? If they're not, you can do really neat stuff. Glow-in-the-dark fruit could be the basis for easy-to-find midnight snacks and exotic resturaunt entrees. Better yet, glow-in-the-dark algae, making for glowing beverages.
What's faster, touch-typing or Graffiti? I'd bet that it's the latter. The smaller the input device, the more focused you have to be to make precision inputs. Our coordination is pretty much a constant function of our muscle ranges. No matter how fast we type on full-sized keyboards, scaled-down versions will still have us searching for each key, even if we know how their layout (presumably QWERTY).
Besides, it'll just look strange -- kinda like Schroeder playing his toy piano. I'd rather see a wireless version of the Twiddler.
First of all, something is not bad strictly because WinCE tries to implement it. It just means it could be implemented better. We don't shun operating systems just because Win98 is "clunky, annoying, and slow" -- we strive to outperform it.
But please, tell me why PDAs have to be strictly PDAs?? Why does it matter what the original design spec is? The personal computer was designed strictly for business use. There were no multiplayer games, rendering programs, and web browsers -- but I don't see you complaining about these "novelties"!
What do you see wrong with a pager, voice recorder, and music player in the palm of your hand? Too compact for you? I for one would prefer not to carry a separate pager, CD player, daytimer, laptop, atlas (vs GPS), and web browser in my pocket.
Tell me also, how can the Palm become a "better" PDA by enhancing only core functions? How good can an to-do list get? Aren't they pretty thin already?
If my palm computer can offer me twice the function in the same package, I'm not going to complain. You may see nothing but novelty, but I assure you that the features you listed above are critical to many (including me).
I can understand eBay prohibiting stock sales on their site, even without the SEC's involvement. If they continued to allow trades (by not addressing this), they'd probably be overwhelmed by volume.
Stock auctioning in an environment where the auction runs a couple of days is very risky. No sensible bidder will bid more than the national market price. However, if the stock price drops before the auction ends, the seller will make out nicely. It's like the bank-end of shortselling, and a nasty gamble for the buyer. Again, I understand why eBay wouldn't want this taking place.
What I don't get (help me out here) is why the SEC is involved. Does this mean that I can't sell my stock certificates to anybody I want to? I personally think the SEC was camping eBay, waiting for someone to try and sell stock. Why else would it be noticed so quickly?
I agree that there is a strange significance here. The idea of visualizing computing in 3D isn't new. But relating actions to their realworld counterparts (kill --> death) in a 3D world is downright Gibson.
First you have the Palm. Then you add a modem. Then a bunch more RAM. Then arbitrary peripherals. Then color. Now a hard drive.
You're making me drool. What's wrong with these features? I can think of great uses for each. But god-forbid we end up with a multipurpose tool in our shirt pockets! That's anti-thetical!
Ridiculous. Computers were originally made for elementary number-crunching and corporate database management. "3D games? That's unnatural!"
If you're so adverse to fancy add-ons, take comfort in the fact that prices on simpler machines will always drop in order to compete with newer ones. So I'm actually surprised you're not promoting the mindless additions.
The Palm is nice because you can back it up, but if you lose it, you're out $200. Lose a notebook and a trip to the drugstore will get you a new one.
So the question is value. If you can't afford to lose the info in your notebook, then your notebook has value, and you'll try not to lose it. With a Palm, you don't have to worry about losing info, but the machine costs so much that you'll also try not to lose it.
My point is that so long as you compare them with respect to the same function (here: storing info), neither can be argued to be better. You're both wrong.
Have you tried to watch a full length DVD on a portable with no extra power supply
$2000 Gateway Solo laptop on my last flight to Boston. Running-time: 139 min. I wasn't spinning my HD the whole time (as I was watching a movie), but I did play half-life afterward.
The point I was making was that laptops used to die after 30 minutes. It's not hugely better now, but it's definitely better.
People take this funny philosophical stance against color. Granted, color isn't required to satisfy the functions of a Pilot, but neither is the PDA itself (I could still use a daytimer). PDA's offer speed and compactness in the same sense that color can help visualize the data stored in the machine. Neither is required, but both are nice. Seems like an obvious choice so far...
Some argue that color sucks off too much power. However, with the rate that technology develops, there's no doubt that battery life will evolve to match the increase in consumption. Laptops with 10" screens used to last 30 minutes on bulky batteries. Today's portables can play full-length DVDs with plenty to spare.
Color certainly doesn't affect the size of the PDA. And to that effect, competition will shrink them down, too. Processors will get faster and smaller, memory cheaper yet, and wireless networks more prevalent.
I for one want a powerful electronic tool in my shirt pocket. I want to be able to play 3D games, browse the Internet, watch TV, video conference, listen to music, etc. If you're among those of you who believe on principle that PDAs should be limited to black-and-white phone numbers, you're setting yourself up to be left behind.
People are generally taking a stance against color. Why? Granted, it'll suck off a bit more power in early generations, but who cares?
At the rate that technology develops, there's no doubt that battery life will evolve to match the increase in consumption. Laptops with 10" screens used to last 30 minutes on bulky batteries. Today's portables can play full-length DVDs with plenty to spare.
What about the size of PDAs? Competition will shrink them down, too. Processors will get faster and smaller, memory cheaper yet, and wireless networks more prevalent.
I for one want a powerful electronic tool in my shirt pocket. I want to be able to play 3D games, browse the Internet, video conference, listen to music, etc. For those of you who believe that PDAs need to be limited to 4 basic apps on principle, you'll just have to ignore new features, because capitalism won't care.
Technology is GUI'fied and simplified not because the application of technology is inherently boring -- it's because the implementation is.
How often do we gripe as a 3D "File transferring....." status meter slowly creeps across the screen? But imagine what effect this would have on audiences if the file transferred at a more instantaneous rate. Blink and you miss the plot. Not to mention the loss of "perfectly-timed" suspense...
Along similar lines are giant fonts, telnet sessions that appear to run at 1200 baud, and viruses more complex than MS Office. The underlying applications are the same, but they're embellished to make them noticable by the audience.
I'm actually surprised how often filmmakers include technology in key aspects of their plot. IP numbers and whois (though both incorrectly) were mentioned in "The Net", which largely preceded Internet hype in media/commerce. Remember the writable optical discs used in Mission Impossible? These guys really love showing off applications, to the point where they can almost be considered visionaries. Yeah, they miss the details, but the applications generally remain realistic.
What we all need to remember is that we are talking about entertainment, and not education. You can nit-pick a movie to death on technical details -- or you can just sit back and enjoy the movie for what it's worth.
Lucas' motives for killing a character will not make the story better or worse. It's entertainment, for god's sake! Take it at face value.
You clearly don't enjoy many movies. I (for one) am far more interested in a strong storyline combined with quality cinematography and talent than how much the movie costs and whom it caters to.
r
P.S. It's funny how long, antagonistic articles are better at eliciting karma, isn't it?
The article suggests that IBM doesn't use a particular distribution of Linux (while Dell sticks entirely with RedHat). How can you provide consistent tech support to your customers if their operating systems change everytime a new distro is out? What does IBM ship to customers who just say 'Linux'?
Seems like IBM will have to decide on one or two packages..
Wrong. The earth doesn't move too quickly with respect to the sun (1 revolution every 365.25 years). If a satellite remained directly between the earth and sun, it would be more or less holding still with respect to the center of the earth, so by definition it couldn't be orbiting.
This satellite orbits around the earth in a north-south direction, following meridian lines through the poles. Therefore, it's either noon or midnight directly under the satellite. The plane of orbit rotates at the same rate as the earth's period around the sun: 365.25 days.
This low-orbit satellite orbits between 6 and 7 thousand miles above earth (roughly 1 earth radius). From this height, you can see the entire earth. If the satellite took a picture of the edge of the earth, it would see nothing but the sides of buildings.
We know that these pictures are taken from a great height because the perpective is orthogonal -- parallel lines look like parallel lines, and do not converge visually to vanishing points.
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And when you input the glowing food & beverages, I wonder will the output also glow?
No, probably not. Proteases in the stomach (i.e. pepsin) should pretty much disassemble the glowing components.
If they didn't, you probably wouldn't notice anything anyway, though it would certainly make drug tests more interesting ("Sir, we have strict rules against plutonium consumption").
Remember, this isn't like cheering for your favorite football team. I purchase whatever chip provides the greatest value/price ratio. I'm still a fan of AMD, but would switch to Intel in an instant if they matched their prices.
Strict brand loyalty is a dangerous economic force. A history of quality products, more compatible 3rd party applications, and better tech support contribute to the value of a product, and should be considered. But factors like popularity (independent of compatibility) and company size/worth should be ignored. I honestly wouldn't care if Intel were the world's biggest, nastiest corporation -- it's the chips that matter.
I'd like to see glow-in-the-dark shrubs along your driveway (so you can see at night). Glow-in-the-dark ivy would be interesting on building exteriors.
And why limit your gene splicing to plants? How fun would it be to have a glow-in-the-dark dog?
Anybody know if the chemicals responsible for phospholumenescence are toxic? If they're not, you can do really neat stuff. Glow-in-the-dark fruit could be the basis for easy-to-find midnight snacks and exotic resturaunt entrees. Better yet, glow-in-the-dark algae, making for glowing beverages.
What's faster, touch-typing or Graffiti? I'd bet that it's the latter. The smaller the input device, the more focused you have to be to make precision inputs. Our coordination is pretty much a constant function of our muscle ranges. No matter how fast we type on full-sized keyboards, scaled-down versions will still have us searching for each key, even if we know how their layout (presumably QWERTY).
Besides, it'll just look strange -- kinda like Schroeder playing his toy piano. I'd rather see a wireless version of the Twiddler.
YES!!!
See, there are plenty of uses for color... you just have to expand your imagination a bit.
People are so bent on black-and-white because "it was designed to be black-and-white".. good to see your enthusiasm for a change.
Do you work for Microsoft by chance?
First of all, something is not bad strictly because WinCE tries to implement it. It just means it could be implemented better. We don't shun operating systems just because Win98 is "clunky, annoying, and slow" -- we strive to outperform it.
But please, tell me why PDAs have to be strictly PDAs?? Why does it matter what the original design spec is? The personal computer was designed strictly for business use. There were no multiplayer games, rendering programs, and web browsers -- but I don't see you complaining about these "novelties"!
What do you see wrong with a pager, voice recorder, and music player in the palm of your hand? Too compact for you? I for one would prefer not to carry a separate pager, CD player, daytimer, laptop, atlas (vs GPS), and web browser in my pocket.
Tell me also, how can the Palm become a "better" PDA by enhancing only core functions? How good can an to-do list get? Aren't they pretty thin already?
If my palm computer can offer me twice the function in the same package, I'm not going to complain. You may see nothing but novelty, but I assure you that the features you listed above are critical to many (including me).
I will, however, be laughing at you.
why? ellipses connote a trailing thought, suggesting that more should be said on the subject...
I can understand eBay prohibiting stock sales on their site, even without the SEC's involvement. If they continued to allow trades (by not addressing this), they'd probably be overwhelmed by volume.
Stock auctioning in an environment where the auction runs a couple of days is very risky. No sensible bidder will bid more than the national market price. However, if the stock price drops before the auction ends, the seller will make out nicely. It's like the bank-end of shortselling, and a nasty gamble for the buyer. Again, I understand why eBay wouldn't want this taking place.
What I don't get (help me out here) is why the SEC is involved. Does this mean that I can't sell my stock certificates to anybody I want to?
I personally think the SEC was camping eBay, waiting for someone to try and sell stock. Why else would it be noticed so quickly?
I agree that there is a strange significance here. The idea of visualizing computing in 3D isn't new. But relating actions to their realworld counterparts (kill --> death) in a 3D world is downright Gibson.
First you have the Palm. Then you add a modem. Then a bunch more RAM. Then arbitrary peripherals. Then color. Now a hard drive.
You're making me drool. What's wrong with these features? I can think of great uses for each. But god-forbid we end up with a multipurpose tool in our shirt pockets! That's anti-thetical!
Ridiculous. Computers were originally made for elementary number-crunching and corporate database management. "3D games? That's unnatural!"
If you're so adverse to fancy add-ons, take comfort in the fact that prices on simpler machines will always drop in order to compete with newer ones. So I'm actually surprised you're not promoting the mindless additions.
r
Really.
The Palm is nice because you can back it up, but if you lose it, you're out $200. Lose a notebook and a trip to the drugstore will get you a new one.
So the question is value. If you can't afford to lose the info in your notebook, then your notebook has value, and you'll try not to lose it. With a Palm, you don't have to worry about losing info, but the machine costs so much that you'll also try not to lose it.
My point is that so long as you compare them with respect to the same function (here: storing info), neither can be argued to be better. You're both wrong.
Have you tried to watch a full length DVD on a portable with no extra power supply
$2000 Gateway Solo laptop on my last flight to Boston. Running-time: 139 min. I wasn't spinning my HD the whole time (as I was watching a movie), but I did play half-life afterward.
The point I was making was that laptops used to die after 30 minutes. It's not hugely better now, but it's definitely better.
Or you could just get rechargable batteries and not have to deal with the damn wire (paying for itself). Palms can run for weeks on 'em.
I want color!
People take this funny philosophical stance against color. Granted, color isn't required to satisfy the functions of a Pilot, but neither is the PDA itself (I could still use a daytimer). PDA's offer speed and compactness in the same sense that color can help visualize the data stored in the machine. Neither is required, but both are nice. Seems like an obvious choice so far...
Some argue that color sucks off too much power. However, with the rate that technology develops, there's no doubt that battery life will evolve to match the increase in consumption. Laptops with 10" screens used to last 30 minutes on bulky batteries. Today's portables can play full-length DVDs with plenty to spare.
Color certainly doesn't affect the size of the PDA. And to that effect, competition will shrink them down, too. Processors will get faster and smaller, memory cheaper yet, and wireless networks more prevalent.
I for one want a powerful electronic tool in my shirt pocket. I want to be able to play 3D games, browse the Internet, watch TV, video conference, listen to music, etc. If you're among those of you who believe on principle that PDAs should be limited to black-and-white phone numbers, you're setting yourself up to be left behind.
The Mindstorms book has quite a bit on Visual Basic.
O'Reilly writes plenty on Microsoft. But they seem to be pretty objective about it, with titles like "Outlook Annoyances".
People are generally taking a stance against color. Why? Granted, it'll suck off a bit more power in early generations, but who cares?
At the rate that technology develops, there's no doubt that battery life will evolve to match the increase in consumption. Laptops with 10" screens used to last 30 minutes on bulky batteries. Today's portables can play full-length DVDs with plenty to spare.
What about the size of PDAs? Competition will shrink them down, too. Processors will get faster and smaller, memory cheaper yet, and wireless networks more prevalent.
I for one want a powerful electronic tool in my shirt pocket. I want to be able to play 3D games, browse the Internet, video conference, listen to music, etc. For those of you who believe that PDAs need to be limited to 4 basic apps on principle, you'll just have to ignore new features, because capitalism won't care.
Technology is GUI'fied and simplified not because the application of technology is inherently boring -- it's because the implementation is.
How often do we gripe as a 3D "File transferring....." status meter slowly creeps across the screen? But imagine what effect this would have on audiences if the file transferred at a more instantaneous rate. Blink and you miss the plot. Not to mention the loss of "perfectly-timed" suspense...
Along similar lines are giant fonts, telnet sessions that appear to run at 1200 baud, and viruses more complex than MS Office. The underlying applications are the same, but they're embellished to make them noticable by the audience.
I'm actually surprised how often filmmakers include technology in key aspects of their plot. IP numbers and whois (though both incorrectly) were mentioned in "The Net", which largely preceded Internet hype in media/commerce. Remember the writable optical discs used in Mission Impossible? These guys really love showing off applications, to the point where they can almost be considered visionaries. Yeah, they miss the details, but the applications generally remain realistic.
What we all need to remember is that we are talking about entertainment, and not education. You can nit-pick a movie to death on technical details -- or you can just sit back and enjoy the movie for what it's worth.
Better yet, Chewie could be mistaken for a colony of tribbles and accidentally blown away.
Lucas' motives for killing a character will not make the story better or worse. It's entertainment, for god's sake! Take it at face value.
You clearly don't enjoy many movies. I (for one) am far more interested in a strong storyline combined with quality cinematography and talent than how much the movie costs and whom it caters to.
r
P.S. It's funny how long, antagonistic articles are better at eliciting karma, isn't it?
Wow... I sorta thought Norway played some role in it, but figured I was just confusing the two. Thanks for pointing that out!
r
Do they even have a Nobel Prize for *anything* involving computers?
:)
Just the application of computers in other Nobel fields. If somebody uses Linux to bring about world peace, they might send Linus to Stockholm.
The article suggests that IBM doesn't use a particular distribution of Linux (while Dell sticks entirely with RedHat). How can you provide consistent tech support to your customers if their operating systems change everytime a new distro is out? What does IBM ship to customers who just say 'Linux'?
Seems like IBM will have to decide on one or two packages..
I don't know about wearing black paint, but you're right about pixel averaging. My mistake!
This is not the same as geostationary.
I didn't say that is.
but you also never loose solar power.
Wrong. The earth doesn't move too quickly with respect to the sun (1 revolution every 365.25 years). If a satellite remained directly between the earth and sun, it would be more or less holding still with respect to the center of the earth, so by definition it couldn't be orbiting.
This satellite orbits around the earth in a north-south direction, following meridian lines through the poles. Therefore, it's either noon or midnight directly under the satellite. The plane of orbit rotates at the same rate as the earth's period around the sun: 365.25 days.
This low-orbit satellite orbits between 6 and 7 thousand miles above earth (roughly 1 earth radius). From this height, you can see the entire earth. If the satellite took a picture of the edge of the earth, it would see nothing but the sides of buildings.
We know that these pictures are taken from a great height because the perpective is orthogonal -- parallel lines look like parallel lines, and do not converge visually to vanishing points.