Great, something else to put with my $400 ipod, $200 cell phone, and $300 PDA. The question is, *when* are they going to start talking to each other? I would love to actually be able to use the HD in my ipod to hook up with other portable devices. I really only need/want *one* HD.
Does it allow mark up of text? Can you search through your books? Bookmark a page? Cross reference books? Are we going to actually get some intelligent addition to text than just a stupid conversion of paper->binary? These things are obvious. They aren't hard to implement. Why haven't they been done before? Do these big companies *really* lack so much imagination!?
Also, if it does do PDFs, which would be a major reason I'd care, how fast will they be rendered? If I have to wait 20 minutes per page, I'll take paper thank you.
That's cool, but notice certain ipod-owning companies are not on there. I quickly looked over the members list, and it looks like it's mostly hardware manufacturers, and one TV company (20th century Fox).
When my last Ipod got stolen, I thought about getting an MP3 player from another company. Call me brainwashed, but I couldn't find any other that came close to the look/feel/features of the ipod. So the DRM compatibility thing is nice, but until Apple signs on, or *someone* (how fracking difficult can it be!?) makes a nicer pod, it won't be noticed/used by most people.
It's a stupid debate about whether Google is evil or not over this. Obviously they would not be able to buy the shows without guaranteeing the TV companies some type of protection. This has plenty of pluses: competition for apple (maybe videos released that have *good* quality), creating a larger market without the need for iTunes, and *maybe* (although I'm not really that hopeful, it will run under linux. Yeah, not that likely.
One thing I would like to see is a DRM converter. I don't like DRM's, and would like to see them go away. Given that isn't about to happen any time soon, at least being able to convert from one DRM to another is a decent substitute. This could easily make Google a preferred company to buy from.
First, it's a bit weird he compared Einstein to Watson and Crick. It's true, that Watson and Crick are known for discovering DNA, but stole heavily from Rosalind Frankin. Additionally, they published a single finding. Einstein wrote *several* groundbreaking papers: brownian motion, photoelectrical effect, special theory of relativity, general theory of relativity. The photoelectric effect showed that light is a packet, or quanta, giving birth to quantum mechanics.
Second, why should we expect another Einstein, or Newton? Given that anyone's accomplishments must be measured relative to the common populace, we would expect people of such stature to be rare.
There are many factors that go into what makes someone great. Part of it is certainly being in the right time and place. Another is the social climate. Is Einstein the equal of Newton, or vice versa? That is difficult to say. They lived in completely different times. Could one do the same accomplishments as the other? One common element that appears between the two is that they were both fairly prolific (Newton did calculus, physics, and ironically enough, why light is a wave). I'd be curious if other people could come up with other historical science figure that also had several major findings. Feynman? Turing?
Perhaps the parallels between Google and Netscape are as close as some speculated. Could Google be trying to write their own 'OS'? I doubt very much that they actually want to write an entire OS, but I suspect they do want to be able to provide internet-applications, as they have already started on this endevaour (toolbar, and Google Earth). What do they need to do this? Servers to provide content (check), a multi-platform GUI (Firefox toolkit?, Opera?), and a language to bind them together (Python?).
AJAX is working for Google fairly well right now, but it's probably not an end-all answer. Javascript is fine for writing small apps, but it's not that great of a language. And even with the distance diminishing between browsers, it's still a pain to write cross-browser code. One of the great accomplishments I've seen of javascript (besides maps.google) is the FCK editor, but even that can be slow, and takes large amounts of memory.
Looking ahead, I suspect Google knows that Javascript will eventually have to dumped. M$ already has an answer,.net. They have their browser, and they can afford not to have to worry about being cross-platform.
In the end, the web browser is not a great for doing things besides browsing the web. On top of that, with EOLAs legal suit against embedded applications, full fledged internet apps seem to be the only way to go. If Google is to survive, they need the tools and framework in order to deploy such apps.
It's not clear that one can easily do an objective study on usability, as it can mean very different things to different people. It should at least be done with segregated populations (e.g. power-users vs. novices).
Some examples: * A novice might look for how obvious it is to do a certain task, whereas an expert user might instead prefer what can be done fastest (e.g. notepad vs. emacs).
* Related: How much time does this person use a computer/this application can be an important factor. If I rarely do 3d design, I want to be told how to do everything, and have obvious controls (i.e. > 3 parameters might boggle my mind). However, if I work for Pixar, the verbose messages, and dumbed down controls (i.e. 30 parameters might just not cut it for what needs to be done).
* Certain paradigms might make sense to people who are used to using certain types of systems. Files and folders make perfect sense to many people, but certainly not to everyone (e.g. my mother). We think these simplified analogies work better for novices, but that isn't always the case. People think differently, and different analogies will make more/less sense dependent on their world view.
After playing around some more, I did notice some other cool features. The compass allows you to switch orientation. Also, the scratch pad at least implements some of my previous rants.. although the lesser of them.
The right-click feature is nice, but it could be better. Something I wish google-maps would implement for a while. Similar to how ppl have hacked google-maps for things like subways -- you shouldn't have to create a whole new webpage. If google-maps allowed you to create a file (e.g. say in your gmail account) that created predefined paths, how great would that be? User defined landmarks, paths, and comments (imagine you could put stickies anywhere you wanted) could make google-maps a *really* powerful and innovative tool. Something I won't expect M$ to ever do.. their right-click is more one-upmanship than actual innovation.
As for the bird-eye view -- very cool. The satellite maps don't do much much good. However, once again, somewhat limited. The map work in an almost similar way to google-map (albeit more clunky, and difficult to navigate with the mouse), but then there is a new view for birds-eye view.. not very compelling.
All in all, no good reason to jump ship. It doesn't appear to provide anything that google couldn't implement in a weekend, and the technology isn't nearly as polished. Google may open 'beta' to the public, but it's usually pretty well-polished by the time the casual user gets to it. Even small things, like google still has trouble with some addresses, is not nearly to the degree that live-maps is having..
Microsoft, I would like to commend you for your wonderful mice. They are superior to all other mice in the field. Your addition of the scroll wheel, not only saves strain on my wrists, but helps to make me a lazier human being. Kudos!
I have the song in stuck my head now, "What the world needs now, is another web browser, like I need a hole in my head"
In seriousness, though, perhaps the is the start of the much heralded extenability of mozilla-based product. Let the web browser select the media, but then create an appropriate interface based on media (i.e. the example they give, is an editor for blogs). I don't think it's a *new* idea, but rather an someone finally implementing an idea that's been around for a bit.
My fault, you are correct. It's the FPW. I love it. It's well worth the money.. especially since it's fairly cheap considering it's size. You might want to wait for Dell to have it on sale again (that's what I did.. it was actually around Christmas time).
As for text editing, it's great. It's really bright. Too bright in fact (it is a serious problem if there is someone else in the room trying to sleep). It's range goes from bright to really bright, as it's dim function doesn't go very far. LCD's are much nicer on the eyes than CRTs, it has really good resolution, and the width is a major benefit.
I've watched movies on it, and played games, and I have been thoroughly satisfied. It has really good specs (up there with Apple's).
It does rotate, but because doesn't have any extra inputs to the computer, there is no way to automatically detect that, so you have to manually change it. Also, it has USB ports on the the side, which I plug things like mice into (very useful to getting rid of wire clutter), but it then makes it a pain to rotate it. I also have really had no reason ever to do so.. Cool that it does, however.
It seems weird that you are looking for new things -- what's wrong with what you are currently using? While I can understand wanting to tweak some of your tools, if you've been coding for some time now, you probably know your habits best by now.
Some obvious things that come to mind: (1) For programming, it's especially nice to be able to have at least two editing windows open side by side. The Dell 2005FP is great for this -- I've owned mine for about half a year, and still marvel at it. I have trouble using smaller monitors now. (2) Editors are really a religious preference. Emacs isn't perfect, and there are a lot of things you can find wrong with it, but personally it's still the best editor out there. I've tried using the newer graphical editors, but in the end I always go back. The languages you suggested are probably going to be supported by most editors. However, just because the editor supports a language, doesn't mean it won't support it well. There are some very small things that many editors get wrong (especially with C++, I've found), which is one of the reasons I've stuck with emacs for so long. (3) Mice is yet another religious preference. Personally, my favourite mice continue to be Microsoft's Explorers. I recently bought the cheaper Logitech version, and still wishing I didn't just pay more money. If only M$ could stick with the HW business... (4) I've tried a plethora of keyboards. The flat no-nonsense keyboard ended up being my favourite. I tried one of the ergonomic weird shape keyboards for about a week, and maybe I was doing something wrong, but it started to hurt my wrists (never had that problem before). Even if I was somehow typing wrong, in the end, you really should just use what works for you. While you might find someone raving about some new product etc., it just might not work for how you operate.
Your best approach is to try to slowly fade new things in. I suspect if you take someone's advice and get a bunch of random 'highly rate' applicances, you will be unhappy in the end.
Given that, while pricey, most cell phones are seen as things to be thrown away, and the ipod is seen as something you never want to get rid of, it never made sense to me to marry the two. One of the biggest issues is that most people I know have no great loyalty to any cell phone company (they all treat you like dirt, so you switch according to where you live, which is cheapest when your contract is up for renewel, etc.). If it was possible to switch your mobile across companies, this might have a better chance, but as people have noted, the d/l rates are still bad. But consider people who *don't* have internet access -- it makes sense from apple's POV to try, as this provides coverage that the previously did not have.
In the end, however, spending that much money that is tied to something you will likely have to ditch in the near future just doesn't make sense.
Of course, ipod minis didn't make much sense to me either.. so my predictive powers aren't so great.
It has been known for some time that transcription factors can help determine what other genes can be transcribed. For example, in maintaining circadian rhythms in fruitflies there is the PER and TIM (timeless genes). These bind to the gene promotors, creating a negative feedback system, such that both are inversely proportionate to each other, and are antiphase with CLK/CYC transcription factors:
Since it looks like many people are interested in Skype, giving room for an auction-type atmosphere, will they eventually opt for the 'buy it now option'? And what is the reserve price set at? Will they fall victim to all the annoying 'features' currently found on ebay?
Without doubt there are many logistics (and technology) to work out. So while perhaps it is very (if not extremely) forward looking, it might not be without merit either.
For example, with our progression towards automanufacturing, it might possible for self-constructing robotic colonies (in the far future) to not only collect of resources, but creating the necessary products, tools, etc. as well.
Why bother on Mars? Well, assuming that we don't care about possible life forms there that may or may not exist, it saves us from further destroying the Earth. Not just mining, but think about manufacturing processes. Besides which, if we're ever going to get off this planet, and take over the galaxy, we need to start somewhere. It will be a great drive to develop needed technology.
As for energy, there are the obvious sources (like nuclear or solar). Perhaps by then we will have better methods..
I tried dreamhosting, but after a month of them continually screwing up the setup (they would fix one, thing and break another, and never both to actually check if things *worked* after the fix), I switched to Rimuhosting. While more expensive, it's great, as you can run whatever you want to. I switched from using PHP to ModPython fairly easily. I also love the fact that you can use Debian (my personal pref) or Redhat. Their servers are fairly stable (in the beginning there was some trouble, but after being switched off a faulty server, things are good).
Slashdot Mirror
Two words: Spontaneous generation.
Great, something else to put with my $400 ipod, $200 cell phone, and $300 PDA. The question is, *when* are they going to start talking to each other? I would love to actually be able to use the HD in my ipod to hook up with other portable devices. I really only need/want *one* HD.
Does it allow mark up of text? Can you search through your books? Bookmark a page? Cross reference books? Are we going to actually get some intelligent addition to text than just a stupid conversion of paper->binary? These things are obvious. They aren't hard to implement. Why haven't they been done before? Do these big companies *really* lack so much imagination!?
Also, if it does do PDFs, which would be a major reason I'd care, how fast will they be rendered? If I have to wait 20 minutes per page, I'll take paper thank you.
That's cool, but notice certain ipod-owning companies are not on there. I quickly looked over the members list, and it looks like it's mostly hardware manufacturers, and one TV company (20th century Fox).
When my last Ipod got stolen, I thought about getting an MP3 player from another company. Call me brainwashed, but I couldn't find any other that came close to the look/feel/features of the ipod. So the DRM compatibility thing is nice, but until Apple signs on, or *someone* (how fracking difficult can it be!?) makes a nicer pod, it won't be noticed/used by most people.
It's a stupid debate about whether Google is evil or not over this. Obviously they would not be able to buy the shows without guaranteeing the TV companies some type of protection. This has plenty of pluses: competition for apple (maybe videos released that have *good* quality), creating a larger market without the need for iTunes, and *maybe* (although I'm not really that hopeful, it will run under linux. Yeah, not that likely.
One thing I would like to see is a DRM converter. I don't like DRM's, and would like to see them go away. Given that isn't about to happen any time soon, at least being able to convert from one DRM to another is a decent substitute. This could easily make Google a preferred company to buy from.
Second, why should we expect another Einstein, or Newton? Given that anyone's accomplishments must be measured relative to the common populace, we would expect people of such stature to be rare.
There are many factors that go into what makes someone great. Part of it is certainly being in the right time and place. Another is the social climate. Is Einstein the equal of Newton, or vice versa? That is difficult to say. They lived in completely different times. Could one do the same accomplishments as the other? One common element that appears between the two is that they were both fairly prolific (Newton did calculus, physics, and ironically enough, why light is a wave). I'd be curious if other people could come up with other historical science figure that also had several major findings. Feynman? Turing?
AJAX is working for Google fairly well right now, but it's probably not an end-all answer. Javascript is fine for writing small apps, but it's not that great of a language. And even with the distance diminishing between browsers, it's still a pain to write cross-browser code. One of the great accomplishments I've seen of javascript (besides maps.google) is the FCK editor, but even that can be slow, and takes large amounts of memory.
Looking ahead, I suspect Google knows that Javascript will eventually have to dumped. M$ already has an answer, .net. They have their browser, and they can afford not to have to worry about being cross-platform.
In the end, the web browser is not a great for doing things besides browsing the web. On top of that, with EOLAs legal suit against embedded applications, full fledged internet apps seem to be the only way to go. If Google is to survive, they need the tools and framework in order to deploy such apps.
It's not clear that one can easily do an objective study on usability, as it can mean very different things to different people. It should at least be done with segregated populations (e.g. power-users vs. novices).
Some examples:
* A novice might look for how obvious it is to do a certain task, whereas an expert user might instead prefer what can be done fastest (e.g. notepad vs. emacs).
* Related: How much time does this person use a computer/this application can be an important factor. If I rarely do 3d design, I want to be told how to do everything, and have obvious controls (i.e. > 3 parameters might boggle my mind). However, if I work for Pixar, the verbose messages, and dumbed down controls (i.e. 30 parameters might just not cut it for what needs to be done).
* Certain paradigms might make sense to people who are used to using certain types of systems. Files and folders make perfect sense to many people, but certainly not to everyone (e.g. my mother). We think these simplified analogies work better for novices, but that isn't always the case. People think differently, and different analogies will make more/less sense dependent on their world view.
I'm beginning to question whether Korea even really exists..
Oh the (cloned) humanity of it all..
I'm almost never on a windows machine, so I haven't had a chance to give it a try .. maybe I'll reboot when I get home..
After playing around some more, I did notice some other cool features. The compass allows you to switch orientation. Also, the scratch pad at least implements some of my previous rants .. although the lesser of them.
The right-click feature is nice, but it could be better. Something I wish google-maps would implement for a while. Similar to how ppl have hacked google-maps for things like subways -- you shouldn't have to create a whole new webpage. If google-maps allowed you to create a file (e.g. say in your gmail account) that created predefined paths, how great would that be? User defined landmarks, paths, and comments (imagine you could put stickies anywhere you wanted) could make google-maps a *really* powerful and innovative tool. Something I won't expect M$ to ever do .. their right-click is more one-upmanship than actual innovation.
As for the bird-eye view -- very cool. The satellite maps don't do much much good. However, once again, somewhat limited. The map work in an almost similar way to google-map (albeit more clunky, and difficult to navigate with the mouse), but then there is a new view for birds-eye view.. not very compelling.
All in all, no good reason to jump ship. It doesn't appear to provide anything that google couldn't implement in a weekend, and the technology isn't nearly as polished. Google may open 'beta' to the public, but it's usually pretty well-polished by the time the casual user gets to it. Even small things, like google still has trouble with some addresses, is not nearly to the degree that live-maps is having..
I'm happy to say, I don't get it. *And*, I would like to keep it that way. Please don't enlighten me. I'm a happier person this way.
49% of the sci-fi viewership *still* has trouble getting a date.
Microsoft, I would like to commend you for your wonderful mice. They are superior to all other mice in the field. Your addition of the scroll wheel, not only saves strain on my wrists, but helps to make me a lazier human being. Kudos!
I have the song in stuck my head now, "What the world needs now, is another web browser, like I need a hole in my head"
In seriousness, though, perhaps the is the start of the much heralded extenability of mozilla-based product. Let the web browser select the media, but then create an appropriate interface based on media (i.e. the example they give, is an editor for blogs). I don't think it's a *new* idea, but rather an someone finally implementing an idea that's been around for a bit.
Might come in useful if the tectonic plates ever get a bit slippery...
My fault, you are correct. It's the FPW. I love it. It's well worth the money .. especially since it's fairly cheap considering it's size. You might want to wait for Dell to have it on sale again (that's what I did .. it was actually around Christmas time).
As for text editing, it's great. It's really bright. Too bright in fact (it is a serious problem if there is someone else in the room trying to sleep). It's range goes from bright to really bright, as it's dim function doesn't go very far. LCD's are much nicer on the eyes than CRTs, it has really good resolution, and the width is a major benefit.
I've watched movies on it, and played games, and I have been thoroughly satisfied. It has really good specs (up there with Apple's).
It does rotate, but because doesn't have any extra inputs to the computer, there is no way to automatically detect that, so you have to manually change it. Also, it has USB ports on the the side, which I plug things like mice into (very useful to getting rid of wire clutter), but it then makes it a pain to rotate it. I also have really had no reason ever to do so.. Cool that it does, however.
It seems weird that you are looking for new things -- what's wrong with what you are currently using? While I can understand wanting to tweak some of your tools, if you've been coding for some time now, you probably know your habits best by now.
Some obvious things that come to mind:
(1) For programming, it's especially nice to be able to have at least two editing windows open side by side. The Dell 2005FP is great for this -- I've owned mine for about half a year, and still marvel at it. I have trouble using smaller monitors now.
(2) Editors are really a religious preference. Emacs isn't perfect, and there are a lot of things you can find wrong with it, but personally it's still the best editor out there. I've tried using the newer graphical editors, but in the end I always go back. The languages you suggested are probably going to be supported by most editors. However, just because the editor supports a language, doesn't mean it won't support it well. There are some very small things that many editors get wrong (especially with C++, I've found), which is one of the reasons I've stuck with emacs for so long.
(3) Mice is yet another religious preference. Personally, my favourite mice continue to be Microsoft's Explorers. I recently bought the cheaper Logitech version, and still wishing I didn't just pay more money. If only M$ could stick with the HW business...
(4) I've tried a plethora of keyboards. The flat no-nonsense keyboard ended up being my favourite. I tried one of the ergonomic weird shape keyboards for about a week, and maybe I was doing something wrong, but it started to hurt my wrists (never had that problem before). Even if I was somehow typing wrong, in the end, you really should just use what works for you. While you might find someone raving about some new product etc., it just might not work for how you operate.
Your best approach is to try to slowly fade new things in. I suspect if you take someone's advice and get a bunch of random 'highly rate' applicances, you will be unhappy in the end.
Given that, while pricey, most cell phones are seen as things to be thrown away, and the ipod is seen as something you never want to get rid of, it never made sense to me to marry the two. One of the biggest issues is that most people I know have no great loyalty to any cell phone company (they all treat you like dirt, so you switch according to where you live, which is cheapest when your contract is up for renewel, etc.). If it was possible to switch your mobile across companies, this might have a better chance, but as people have noted, the d/l rates are still bad. But consider people who *don't* have internet access -- it makes sense from apple's POV to try, as this provides coverage that the previously did not have.
.. so my predictive powers aren't so great.
In the end, however, spending that much money that is tied to something you will likely have to ditch in the near future just doesn't make sense.
Of course, ipod minis didn't make much sense to me either
It has been known for some time that transcription factors can help determine what other genes can be transcribed. For example, in maintaining circadian rhythms in fruitflies there is the PER and TIM (timeless genes). These bind to the gene promotors, creating a negative feedback system, such that both are inversely proportionate to each other, and are antiphase with CLK/CYC transcription factors:
P ages/C/Circadian.htmld ian
(first link I found on the subject)
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/Biology
http://www.scienceden.com/mbiology/research/circa
Since it looks like many people are interested in Skype, giving room for an auction-type atmosphere, will they eventually opt for the 'buy it now option'? And what is the reserve price set at? Will they fall victim to all the annoying 'features' currently found on ebay?
Without doubt there are many logistics (and technology) to work out. So while perhaps it is very (if not extremely) forward looking, it might not be without merit either.
For example, with our progression towards automanufacturing, it might possible for self-constructing robotic colonies (in the far future) to not only collect of resources, but creating the necessary products, tools, etc. as well.
Why bother on Mars? Well, assuming that we don't care about possible life forms there that may or may not exist, it saves us from further destroying the Earth. Not just mining, but think about manufacturing processes. Besides which, if we're ever going to get off this planet, and take over the galaxy, we need to start somewhere. It will be a great drive to develop needed technology.
As for energy, there are the obvious sources (like nuclear or solar). Perhaps by then we will have better methods..
Great, there goes the neighborhood!
add a couple features, perhaps a family movie or two, and call it the Aristrocrats?
No, I won't expand on what I mean.
I tried dreamhosting, but after a month of them continually screwing up the setup (they would fix one, thing and break another, and never both to actually check if things *worked* after the fix), I switched to Rimuhosting. While more expensive, it's great, as you can run whatever you want to. I switched from using PHP to ModPython fairly easily. I also love the fact that you can use Debian (my personal pref) or Redhat. Their servers are fairly stable (in the beginning there was some trouble, but after being switched off a faulty server, things are good).