Some have been successful in the past... I can think of the Carmen Sandiego series to name one...
These days it's all about money and profits though, and if edu-tainment doesn't pay, then you'll have a hard time getting game warehouses to finance you...
"A trackpad is just pointlessly annoying for me, because I have to remember to turn it off or I'll 'hit' it accidentally while typing (sometimes just by waving my hand over it, remember), and even if it is off, I'm left with a nagging feeling it's wasting space, which annoys my tender european design sensibilities"
I think ergonomic design dictates that you need an area to rest your wrists, lest your hands get tired from just hanging in midair. So even if the laptop comes without a trackpad (a la IBM) the designers still leave empty room for that purpose.
I personally use the little thimble/nipple type thing in the middle of the keyboard and find it the best for me. I can touch type and operate the pointing device without moving my hand position. Compaq / HP laptops come with both trackpad and thimble/nipple pointing devices, which is great for the flexibility.
Just look in the digital camera, PC and gadget sections in ebay and you find numerous of powersellers making it big on ebay. Most of the stuff comes from Taiwan or that sort of region and the sellers themselves reside in other countries (e.g. Australia).
They make the buyers pay for the tax as it enters their country, which helps them sell at a greatly reduced price. Plus, they don't maintain a storefront and thus can reduce their prices even more because their costs are less.
Personally, when shopping for digital cameras, I found ebay to be the cheapest by far. Even online stores (based in the country) can't compete. The only drawback is the risk, and the lack of warranty when something breaks.
[rant]Another off-topic point: I personally hate the way ebay is being saturated by these storefronts -- they mass list their items so that one genuinely looking for a 2nd hand bargain has to sift through all the "spam" these guys introduce.[/rant]
There are a few candidates in the link below, including KlipFolio and Netropa:
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/misctools/fwne ws.html
I remember attempting to get into these things a couple of years back. I installed a few news tickers on my 2nd computer at work in the hope that I would stay informed of news, weather, stock quotes, etc. throughtout the day.
However, I found that despite it being always there, I tended ot ignore it. To assimilate the information, I had to consciously watch it, which sort of defeats the purpose. I found it more productive to actually take five mins to hit a news website, and then get back to my work.
I know! Let's just get all the fathers and father figures around the world pretend that they are Santa Claus and get THEM to leave presents under the tree for their children when they're fast asleep? They could even dress up, leave sooty footprints leading from the fireplace, and eat the milk and cookes to make it look like it was the real Santa!
We've had our eye on you for some time now. It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're OpenOffice, an open source multi-platform office productivity suite. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias NeoOffice/J that has been engineered to run natively on Mac OS X. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.
"Since that first historic operation in 1954 surgeons have learned how to transplant virtually every vital organ in the human body"
What about brain transplants? Like if someone had a terminally ill body but a perfectly good brain, theoretically they could extend their existence by assimilating.. err i mean finding another host. I wonder whether that's been done before?
I heard a while back that it was unsuccessfully performed on some primates - the recipient survived for a couple of hours (or was it minutes) and then died.
How's this for an idea -- what if you could print out the data track as a CD label? Probably a silly idea, but you could cut down on cd burning times, use both sides, and also re-use cd's by labelling over the top.
If you're using Java... "PMD is a Java source code analyzer. It finds unused variables, empty catch blocks, unnecessary object creation, and so forth. "
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pmd/
It confirms my theory why beer from our local township brewery tastes better than others... the workers relieve themselves behind trees next to the river...
I 2nd the comment regarding the iPod and the UI. I just recently got an iPod Mini (blue!) It's amazing how one thumb can control everything through the click wheel and how natural it feels after you get used to it.
A few players such as this Sony and perhaps the Creative Muvo2 look good on paper, but specs aren't everything. A lot of it also comes down to the UI and how easy it is to use. If I have to scroll through 5G of songs with only a one line display (ala Muvo2) to find one song, you can forget that!
Great... just another excuse to keep a generation of socially deprived, physically stagnant kids glued to the computer when they should be playing racket ball or bikes with their friends outside.
True true. Another example -- I can't believe that McDonalds have trademarked the phrase "I'm lovin' it" (plus a dozen over translations of the phrase in other languages)... that is just so wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
These days it's all about money and profits though, and if edu-tainment doesn't pay, then you'll have a hard time getting game warehouses to finance you...
Why would they? You don't see McDonalds asking people to try Burger King as well...
When's 1.2 - "Ken Park" coming out?
I think ergonomic design dictates that you need an area to rest your wrists, lest your hands get tired from just hanging in midair. So even if the laptop comes without a trackpad (a la IBM) the designers still leave empty room for that purpose.
I personally use the little thimble/nipple type thing in the middle of the keyboard and find it the best for me. I can touch type and operate the pointing device without moving my hand position. Compaq / HP laptops come with both trackpad and thimble/nipple pointing devices, which is great for the flexibility.
For important stuff, I always resort to pen and paper, and a nice two ring binder. Things don't end up "lost" that way... :D
Now tell me why I bought a $59.99 textbook for my Business Data Communications class again? :/
They make the buyers pay for the tax as it enters their country, which helps them sell at a greatly reduced price. Plus, they don't maintain a storefront and thus can reduce their prices even more because their costs are less.
Personally, when shopping for digital cameras, I found ebay to be the cheapest by far. Even online stores (based in the country) can't compete. The only drawback is the risk, and the lack of warranty when something breaks.
[rant]Another off-topic point: I personally hate the way ebay is being saturated by these storefronts -- they mass list their items so that one genuinely looking for a 2nd hand bargain has to sift through all the "spam" these guys introduce.[/rant]
Windows. Nuff said. :D
Maybe before articles are released to the general public, it should be pre-released to a "dupe checking" circle of readers... :)
Could bring a new meaning to the term "war driving" :D
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/misctools/fwn
I remember attempting to get into these things a couple of years back. I installed a few news tickers on my 2nd computer at work in the hope that I would stay informed of news, weather, stock quotes, etc. throughtout the day.
However, I found that despite it being always there, I tended ot ignore it. To assimilate the information, I had to consciously watch it, which sort of defeats the purpose. I found it more productive to actually take five mins to hit a news website, and then get back to my work.
Just my 2c.
I know! Let's just get all the fathers and father figures around the world pretend that they are Santa Claus and get THEM to leave presents under the tree for their children when they're fast asleep? They could even dress up, leave sooty footprints leading from the fireplace, and eat the milk and cookes to make it look like it was the real Santa!
We've had our eye on you for some time now. It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're OpenOffice, an open source multi-platform office productivity suite. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias NeoOffice/J that has been engineered to run natively on Mac OS X. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.
How is this different to the hundreds (ok I exaggerate) of other "boot off a usb keydrive / cd rom" distros out there?
What about brain transplants? Like if someone had a terminally ill body but a perfectly good brain, theoretically they could extend their existence by assimilating .. err i mean finding another host. I wonder whether that's been done before?
I heard a while back that it was unsuccessfully performed on some primates - the recipient survived for a couple of hours (or was it minutes) and then died.
Another one for the Half Bakery methinks... :D
If you're using Java... "PMD is a Java source code analyzer. It finds unused variables, empty catch blocks, unnecessary object creation, and so forth. "
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pmd/
Agile Development? Extreme programming? Bah, bring in Klingon Programming!
It confirms my theory why beer from our local township brewery tastes better than others... the workers relieve themselves behind trees next to the river...
A few players such as this Sony and perhaps the Creative Muvo2 look good on paper, but specs aren't everything. A lot of it also comes down to the UI and how easy it is to use. If I have to scroll through 5G of songs with only a one line display (ala Muvo2) to find one song, you can forget that!
Sounds like another case of Y?BIC (why? because I Can) or DSOTAOS (Do Something Outrageous So I can appear on Slashdot)...
Palm is dead / dying... the abandonment by Sony is only confirmation of this undeniable fact.
Great... just another excuse to keep a generation of socially deprived, physically stagnant kids glued to the computer when they should be playing racket ball or bikes with their friends outside.
True true. Another example -- I can't believe that McDonalds have trademarked the phrase "I'm lovin' it" (plus a dozen over translations of the phrase in other languages)... that is just so wrong.
Careful though, it'll only be 5 or 6 shots before they adapt to our phaser frequency modulation.