Does anyone see anything replacing keyboards anytime soon?
Should children still learn to write as well as type?
I think they should because handwriting has a number of advantages:
You can do it with mud on a wall, or even paper, so the hardware is very cheap. This makes it a more useful and ubiquitous skill than typing, which means that a good HWR machine has a shallower learning curve.
It doesn't suffer from ambiguity like speech. Listening machines will need to have very advanced grammar/semantic algorithms to correctly distinguish between IP, ip, I pee, and aye pea. Imagine the nightmare of dictating that last sentence to a human, let alone a machine. I suspect that this makes it impossible to get 100% accuracy with speech recognition machines whereas 100% HWR accuracy is very feasible, provided you write clearly.
You can write with one hand which is very useful for handheld devices. I typically scribble notes on my Newton while holding my telephone to my ear with my other hand.
With the combined cursive and print recognition in the later Newtons Apple actually solved most of the problems. I used the cursive HWR a lot and found it a better interface for a handheld device than a keyboard. I hate Graffiti because I think in words, not letters. IMO good OS-wide HWR for handheld devices is inevitable in the long term.
I wrote a php script that only offers an email address or allows form submission if the client can answer a simple question correctly. Seems to work well except once about a year ago when someone was stil trying to enter 'Clinton' as the name of the president.
Here's an example
when I click a link in Firefox, should it behave as a left-click and open the page in the current tab, middle-click and open the page in a new tab, or right-click and open a context menu so I can...
As a left click, like in all other applications. Apple-click opens the link in a new tab/window, like in other applications, and CTRL-click gives you a comprehensive floating menu like in all other applications.
Like in all other applications! Like rental cars. Beautiful.
For those that don't know - most professional photographers used to shoot on slide film, aka reversal film. Why? Much better colour rendition than print film. One of the reasons why commercial stock houses want it on slide film. That said, slide film isn't always "accurate" in it's colours.
Actually slide has much less latitude (analagous to a scanner's 'Density range') and less colour accuracy. You can get over-saturated, lossy colours with neg too by using cheap consumer neg stock or the Kodak 'HC' varieties or Ektapress, but no neg film will match reversal's poor luminosity latitude. Reversal/trannies/slides are used in pro and press simply because you can see them by holding them up to the light. Try comparing three similar portrait negs. See? So the wrong one gets printed and the editor gets angry. An experienced pro knows that negs can give punchy results using high saturation printing, but slides can never give you print film's tonal subtlety and colour accuracy. Punch is lossy like salt. You can add it later but you can't take it away if there's too much to start with.
Weirdly it was the convenience of slide that won it dominance in the pro market, not image quality.
And slide is called 'reversal' because the process 'reverses' the traditional negative.
No. Reversal means slide film, specifically the Kodachrome and Ektachrome ('E') derived processes. 'Reversal' refers to part of the chemical process which 'reverses' the negative to form a positive. Negative was the original Fox Talbot process. Prints from slides are called 'R-types' as they must be reversed too.
If you don't like Real's business strategy, DON'T USE IT.
In UK you have to pay a TV license fee, by law. This license funds the BBC. The BBC broadcasts online using Real format. I prefer not to install untrustworthy Real which means that I can not listen to BBC Radio 4 on my computer, DESPITE having been required by law to pay for it. I PERSONALLY resent the fact that some part of my BBC tax is paid to Real for their inferior media server licenses and have written to BBC to ask them to move to the much cheaper ogg or Quicktime media serving. The BBC replied with expected corporate smoke.
I was at a market on a Mojave reserve. I queued for an unlevened mutton sandwich. The Mojave woman charged two Indians before me a dollar. When she handed me my sandwich she said "3 dollar", presumably because of my white British skin. She wasn't remotely embarrassed about her flexible pricing scheme. Vendors in the UK rip us off because they can.
As a currency attached to failing socialist policies, the Euro represents inflation, declining value, and ultimately poverty. As a Brit I would rather adopt the US dollar than the Euro, but at least the pound Sterling allows the Bank of England some control over fiscal policy. That control has recently enabled us to outperform the Euro. That's why UK goods and real estate have a high price to foreigners. If you want really cheap holidays, don't come here, go to Moldova. Prosperity always looks expensive from the outside.
Slashdot Mirror
I think they should because handwriting has a number of advantages:
- You can do it with mud on a wall, or even paper, so the hardware is very cheap. This makes it a more useful and ubiquitous skill than typing, which means that a good HWR machine has a shallower learning curve.
- It doesn't suffer from ambiguity like speech. Listening machines will need to have very advanced grammar/semantic algorithms to correctly distinguish between IP, ip, I pee, and aye pea. Imagine the nightmare of dictating that last sentence to a human, let alone a machine. I suspect that this makes it impossible to get 100% accuracy with speech recognition machines whereas 100% HWR accuracy is very feasible, provided you write clearly.
- You can write with one hand which is very useful for handheld devices. I typically scribble notes on my Newton while holding my telephone to my ear with my other hand.
With the combined cursive and print recognition in the later Newtons Apple actually solved most of the problems. I used the cursive HWR a lot and found it a better interface for a handheld device than a keyboard. I hate Graffiti because I think in words, not letters. IMO good OS-wide HWR for handheld devices is inevitable in the long term.I wrote a php script that only offers an email address or allows form submission if the client can answer a simple question correctly. Seems to work well except once about a year ago when someone was stil trying to enter 'Clinton' as the name of the president. Here's an example
- So as they say, news of my (OOo) death is premature.
Originally Twain wrote 'reports of my death are exaggerated'. It's the way you tell 'em...- Apple has never sold a crippled OS
7.5.1?- when I click a link in Firefox, should it behave as a left-click and open the page in the current tab, middle-click and open the page in a new tab, or right-click and open a context menu so I can...
As a left click, like in all other applications. Apple-click opens the link in a new tab/window, like in other applications, and CTRL-click gives you a comprehensive floating menu like in all other applications.Like in all other applications! Like rental cars. Beautiful.
- "If there were no Apple it would be necessary for Microsoft to invent one"
No. Geniuses create monsters. That's why it happened the other way round. It's called Natural Order.- For those that don't know - most professional photographers used to shoot on slide film, aka reversal film. Why? Much better colour rendition than print film. One of the reasons why commercial stock houses want it on slide film. That said, slide film isn't always "accurate" in it's colours.
Actually slide has much less latitude (analagous to a scanner's 'Density range') and less colour accuracy. You can get over-saturated, lossy colours with neg too by using cheap consumer neg stock or the Kodak 'HC' varieties or Ektapress, but no neg film will match reversal's poor luminosity latitude. Reversal/trannies/slides are used in pro and press simply because you can see them by holding them up to the light. Try comparing three similar portrait negs. See? So the wrong one gets printed and the editor gets angry. An experienced pro knows that negs can give punchy results using high saturation printing, but slides can never give you print film's tonal subtlety and colour accuracy. Punch is lossy like salt. You can add it later but you can't take it away if there's too much to start with.Weirdly it was the convenience of slide that won it dominance in the pro market, not image quality.
And slide is called 'reversal' because the process 'reverses' the traditional negative.
No. Reversal means slide film, specifically the Kodachrome and Ektachrome ('E') derived processes. 'Reversal' refers to part of the chemical process which 'reverses' the negative to form a positive. Negative was the original Fox Talbot process. Prints from slides are called 'R-types' as they must be reversed too.
Maybe Balmer wrote the message in a bistro? Bistromathics: http://www.earthstar.co.uk/bistro.htm
- some things are VAT exempt (examples, anyone?)
Children's clothes, diesel for farmers (the dyed pink kind).As a currency attached to failing socialist policies, the Euro represents inflation, declining value, and ultimately poverty. As a Brit I would rather adopt the US dollar than the Euro, but at least the pound Sterling allows the Bank of England some control over fiscal policy. That control has recently enabled us to outperform the Euro. That's why UK goods and real estate have a high price to foreigners. If you want really cheap holidays, don't come here, go to Moldova. Prosperity always looks expensive from the outside.