"What I can't believe is that this issue is taking on a rediculous magnitude. I don't understand why anyone of the staff doesn't say something like 'sorry guys, that was maybe not too kewl, we'll create a permanent thread where you can bitch about/. all you want', or something like that."
Agreed. I think that's what has resulted in this issue gaining such grassroots support. It's because of the fact that the issue was a strong critique of the Slashdot system, and the editors won't even deign down to speak to the mere consumers that pay their rent. The arrogance that they've displayed is just unbelievable. Rather than addressing the serious and legitimate issues raised, they prefer simply to mod the whole thing down with no explanation. When they finally do respond on K5's thread, they do so from a high and mighty horse, full of contempt, apparently offended at the notion that mere readers might attempt to suggest that the system is not perfect and calling them 'idiots' 'who won't contribute anything of value anyways'.
Why is it so damn hard for them just to be willing to discuss the way things are run with the people who are part of the system? And CmdrTaco's arrogance about this site and its readers is also legendary. Is finding people who think they know best for everyone and aren't afraid to let them know a job requirement for becoming an editor? Why is it that the editors are so loathe to talk to their own site's visitors directly on the forums, so that we know what they're thinking?
There ARE somewhat good reasons (though I disagree with them mostly) that they could use to justify what they did, and if they presented one of those, even though I disagree, I would say ok, it's their site. But what really gets me angry is that they respect their customers so little that they won't even respond.
And how, pray tell, would the government publishing the list of websites be different than them publishing the list of films that have been censored? They've been black-listing films for years, and I don't see any pipe-bomb toting militants demanding that Elementary School Spanking 16 be released or else they'll blow up the parliament building.
Frankly, I find my confidence to be even more 'slightly lacking' from their refusal to reveal what they're hiding than I would if they just showed me the list.
I disagree, something can be censorship even if it's technically accessible, and I think you'd agree if you thought about it for just a moment.
What if everytime before someone watched a program which criticizes the government, they have to first go to the store, purchase a special Dissent Card from the convenience store, come back from the store, step through a series of 99 arcane menus on the television to activate the Dissent Mode, stick the Dissent Card in their television, and then wait for a 2 day cooling off period before being able to view said content. The material is still accessible, but this is clearly censorship.
It becomes censorship at the point where it is made even slightly more difficult to access based solely on its content. Now even though it's not as extreme a case as the one I described above, that's still exactly what happened here at Slashdot.
I consider myself a pretty avid Slashdot reader, I mean, I post, and that in itself puts in like the top 10% of most avid Slashdot readers right there. And I had absolutely no idea what was going on and that posts had been censored through moderation bitchslap until it was brought up on Kuro5hin! How the hell is someone supposed to know to browse at -1 to see the censored posts when they don't even know they're there? You can't seriously expect me to browse at -1 all the time and wade through the ascii goatse and page extending posts just on the off chance that the Slashdot editors are 'not-censoring' posts do you?
If it is done in such a way that there is no reasonable chance of people ever finding out that material existed, then that sure as hell sounds like censorship to me.
Re:Has anyone actually watched this crap?
on
Star Ballz Trumps Lucas
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Yup. Just from the amount of publicity this POS is getting on/., they've probably already ensured that this is more people than would ever have seen this crap.
They only open their mouths like in one scene in the whole two demos, and that was enough to get me to groan out loud......
If Lucas had just let well enough be, natural selection would have taken its natural course on this piece, and no more than 10 people (the 10 friends of the dudes who made this thing) would ever have watched it, or even heard of it.
The anti-globalization people are against globalization, and sweatshops are only one form that this takes. More fundamentally than sweatshops, it's the way that the powers that be that are calling the shots on a global level are making the destitute more destitute, and themselves richer. One way that they do this is through sweatshops. Another way is by levying sanctions against poor countries unless they levy laws dictated by us that are obviously not in their best interest. The jig is up for Ukraine, and either way they lose.
You know, I've always been kinda sketched out about those anti-WTO anti-globalization protestors who tear up cities everytime a trade meeting is held. They claim that these globalizing organizations just make the poorer countries and peoples even poorer and more destitute, and all to serve the selfish interests of a few powerful Western corporations. I wasn't sure how much I believed that, I was kind of undecided about the issue, but it doesn't get much more cut and dry than this.
We have a starving nation and people who are the poorest of the poor. And we are imposing trade sanctions (where trade sanctions are starting to seem inhumane even against the likes of Fidel Castro's and Saddam Hussein's regimes) against these people. And for what? To protect the interests of Western intellectual property companies? It's hard to imagine that these sanctions won't fail to cause at least one more starvation death among the poor masses that live in the Ukraine, and it really does seem like what the anti-globalization people have been saying all along is coming true. Apparently Western corporate profits really are more important than 3rd world lives to those who are currently in power.
"But the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, which represents the international recording industry, said Ukraine had missed its "last opportunity to avoid... U.S. trade sanctions.""
Seems kind of strange that a London based recording industry group that I have never even heard of here in the US appears to be bandying around the threats of United States trade sanctions.
Between them and the RIAA and MPAA it's like the freakin' Brotherhood of Evil or something........
"I can't understand why you'd want one of the Palm-line"
There are IMO only two reasons to buy a Palm OS handheld these days, but they are two of the most important factors in handhelds. Palm OS handhelds, on average, completely blow away PPC handhelds, on average, on size. And Palm OS handhelds, on average, completely blow away PPC hanahelds, on average, on battery life. Considering that portable usage is what could be called the defining characteristic of PDAs as opposed to regular general computers, these are obviously pretty big things to take into account. On those two reasons alone I got a Clie instead of a PPC.
There are also two (IMO bad) reasons that are frequently trotted out by Palm supporters. That PPC is a big, slow, hard to use operating system, and that PPC is made by Microsoft. While the first of those is an opinion matter, these days the PPC interface has improved a lot, and a lot of people are just bitter about how much the original WinCE sucked. The 2nd argument, well, I guess that's up to the person.
So there you go, hopefully now you understand why anyone would want one of the Palm-line. If battery life and size are not high on your priority list, I would 100% recommend you to go with the PPC line, no reservations. But then again, your handheld can be the best handheld in the world, but if it's out of batteries, or if you didn't bring it with you cause it feels too big in your pocket and is sitting at home on your desk, then it doesn't make one bits difference.
Seems like the level of Sony bashing on Slashdot is almost as high as the level of Microsoft bashing........
I'll be the first to admit that Sony has bad product support. But funny that you say that it doesn't exist according to Sony's website and that you can't find the software to support your 1.5 year old PDA considering they just released the Windows XP support update for it just at the end of December......
http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/clie/softupd at es/S300/index.html
Please mod the parent post down from its current positive moderation as uninformed.
I find it hard to believe that you actually own the 760 and say those things, but on the off chance that you aren't trolling, then you are simply underinformed on the 760 you own. It plays regular mp3s. In fact, you have to buy a special magic gate memory stick that doesn't even come with the machine to get access to the DRM 'features' (ie proprietary ATRAC format playback).
Maybe you'd be a lot less disappointed in your product you purchased if you plugged it into your computer and tried putting some mp3s on that blue memory stick that came with it.
Heh, yup, the n710 could always play mp3's. But you will note I said the original Clie 700, which was the same model released here in Japan by a month or two before it was in America. At first it couldn't play MP3s at all. The patch was created later on due to overwhelming demand, and the American 710 customers got to be lucky enough just to ride on the fruits of the complaints of Japanese customers......
As I recall in millimeters, the Clie wins in thickness over the M505 by a slim margin, maybe by a millimeter or three. Pretty insignificant, and basically invisible to the naked eye. But I guess they are being truthful even through their marketing speak........
heh, no speculation about it, just fortunately for us it all flopped.
"Since they've clearly got "secure music" in mind, will we see a day when their stock MP3 player won't play "non-secure" music? If they did so, how open is the Sony hardware to creating third party players that would play "non-secure" music."
All of Sony's standalone 'MP3' players to date don't play mp3s, they play ATRAC's and that's it. The public has collectively taken one look at them and said (cool designs they might be but) 'you want to make it HOW inconvenient for me to do the things I want to do' and failed to purchase them. They must have released at least 3 of those things now, truly beautiful designs all of them, and they've all been tremendous sales flops I think. Even more pertinently, originally the Sony Clie 700 couldn't play mp3s, only ATRACs. And people hated it, and complained so much that Sony gave in and released a patch so that MP3s could be played as well. So in short, it's not the end of the world yet. Sony tried to bring it about, but fortunately they were too clumsy about it, and the public was too discerning (or inconvienced) to fall for it.
What we have to be worried about now is just Sony learning from its lessons and coming back with an implementation that doesn't totally suck. Then we're all in trouble.
These exist. They're called Pocket PC's. You can get a Toshiba eGenio, featuring a 206 Mhz processor, 240x320 64k screen, dual expansion slots, a reasonably small size (for a PPC) and then drop in a CF Microdrive for a gig or two of storage and be off and running.
The Handera is definitely a good machine, I'd put it right up with the Sony Clie line for best/most innovative Palm OS design. It's maybe the geek's PDA. But I can't resist a jab at a line you made.
"But the flexibility and capability of my unit *far* outweighs the benefits of a measly MP3 player." Hehe, '*far* outweighs' in more ways than one......
"Only compatible with Sony headphones, Sony memory stick, Sony software etc etc."
Funny, my Clie 760 right now has a pair of generic no name headphones attached (didn't like the clip ons that came with it), has a Sandisk memory stick inserted, and is running a myriad of programs designed by 3rd parties. Oh, and don't forget my 3rd party stylus......
not so bad anymore. Previously this was true, but now that the cheapest price on the net is around $50 for 128 megs, that seems fairly reasonable to me, comparable with other flash memories (besides CF, which is the king of cheap, but super big unfortunately).
And memory stick production has been picked up by other manufactuers as well now. Lexar and Sandisk, I forget who else.
I'm rather fond of them myself. All the toughness of compact flash cards, with a size compromise with the flimsy smart media form factor cards.
I have a Clie 760, the Japanese version of the 750. It works great. The high res makes all the difference in the world. There's a reason after the Clie 700 was released in Japan it stayed on the #1 best selling Palm OS spot ever since (maybe not anymore now though). After you use hi-res you just can't go back anymore. The standard 160x160 screens just look like pure crap. Especially here, with the Japanese fonts with the extremely intricate details, on the 160x160 displays I would call that borderline useable, just barely legible. 320x320 produces a beautiful smooth chinese character. Add in using an ebook reader like Wordsmith that can do ClearType (the LCD font smoothing technology) and they really look completely smooth to me, no jaggies at all. So if the reason that you stopped using Palms was because of the bad screen resolutions, I urge you to drop by your local electronics retailer and take a look at the new Clies on display and see what you think.
PS the Clie 415 is an exception to this. It is B&W and has a hi-res 320x320 screen, but is completely illegible due to bad contrast. Don't use that as an example.
Heh, I know it's cliche to point out America-centrism on Slashdot now, but the GPS has already been released here in Japan. I've played with it at the big Sony display building in Ginza. Neat little toy......
Sure would be nice if that Canadian National Research Council could make a copy of whatever format they're storing their 3D digital copy of into something that I could browse on my computer over the Internet. Off hand, I don't know about this domain enough to suggest anything, but maybe VRML or even a Quake 3 map would work?
I dunno, I sure don't have the time or means right now to be making a trip to the original Zhang Fei Temple in China, but it sure would neat to be able to do it virtually and walk around in the temple over the Internet on my computer.........plus this way I'd be able to see the temple in its original location like it was built, instead of moved to wherever is convenient after its reconstruction...
(heh, and if they released a Quake 3 map or something like that, that precisely modeled and displayed the original temple, it sure would be hilarious if they served it up too, even though I can't see that actually happening. You'd have the tourists walking around to look at the temple, when campers would jump out with whatever the default weapon is in Quake 3 and start hacking away at them)
(or how about this. They just open sourced Quake 2 right? Maybe that would make it a better medium to be releasing this on than Quake 3, seeing as it's free and all)
Ah, good old blackmail/insurance. Take a picture of someone doing something unethical or illegal, and zap it off to a few friends for safekeeping. If anything happens to you, the pictures get published. (Maybe I watch too many movies)
I mentioned this in a previous story already, but since you bring it up, I'll mention it again. Hehe, the advertising campaign for these still picture phones here in Japan is actually centered around this application. The commercials all go something like:
Guy is supposed to be meeting Girl, but instead is sleeping at his desk. Girl's Friend sees this and whips out her trusty picture phone, snapping a picture and sending it off to Girl. When Guy shows up to meet Girl, he gives some lameassed excuse that he was very busy, and is so very sorry he is late. Girl whips out her phone, and shows him the picture of him snoozing at his desk, leaving him stammering and stuttering to try and cover his ass. Outside, we see Girl's Friend doing a victory dance as the theme music comes up for the commercial.
Pretty funny stuff really; I'm sure that my description makes it sound pretty lame, but they're actually some of my favorite commercials on TV. Not quite the blackmailing evil bad guys type blackmail that you had in mind haha, but blackmail none the less. Hehe, selling products by playing on people's desires to conive and scheme against each other.......
Admittedly the Japanese are a very tech-gadgety type people, but here in Japan newer cellular phones have still cameras on them and people love them, they're pretty popular, so that kinda answer the poster's rhetorical question. I can only imagine that moving cameras will be even more popular. All modern cell phones here have beautiful color displays, and it's pretty sweet being able to take a picture of something with your cell phone and then send it to your friend's cell phone where it can be instantly viewed. Not necessarily super useful but pretty fun, especially among the younger set.
And NTT DoCoMo's quasi-3G service (FOMA) has full bidirectional motion video, so that addresses the original post more directly. Quality could be better, but they are those video phones you always see in sci-fi, and mobile to boot......main thing that's keeping adoption low is that at the moment their service is only available in the Tokyo region last time I checked. Maybe since then they've added a few more regions, but service is pretty limited still. But I recall reading an article about how DoCoMo was surprised by how large demand was still, with it surpassing their initial estimates, so I guess adoption on those is going just fine too. Right now it's mainly geared at businesses, with the hype surrounding applications like using the camera to show progress at the work site to be people back at the office and things like that, but as price comes down, obviously it will become more mainstream.
Anyone remember that show from back in the day? Starcade I think it was called? Can't help but think of that when I think of a tv show about video games. It was on back in the heyday of coin op arcade games (mid to late 80's), and the show was hosted by kids as I recall and they'd play arcade games. I loved that show......I was crushed when it was canceled. I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it. Maybe it was the very first tv show about video games...
Alright, enough pointless nostalgia for one day, just sitting here thinking about it hehe......
yeah, maybe, I considered that possibility. But my point still stands that it would be nice to get some more accountability and feedback into the system of submitting stories. Usually, when I submit something like this that I feel is terribly interesting, it doesn't ever show up. Occasionally it does later, sometimes by a couple days, sometimes by a couple hours (like this one). But if we could browse articles at rejection levels, or we could browse articles through article moderation, like I suggested, these wouldn't even be issues......it's just frustrating as hell seeing that rejection notice next to a story that you feel is really something, and then to see some completely stupid story appear on the mainpage just moments later......
Slashdot Mirror
"What I can't believe is that this issue is taking on a rediculous magnitude. I don't understand why anyone of the staff doesn't say something like 'sorry guys, that was maybe not too kewl, we'll create a permanent thread where you can bitch about /. all you want', or something like that."
Agreed. I think that's what has resulted in this issue gaining such grassroots support. It's because of the fact that the issue was a strong critique of the Slashdot system, and the editors won't even deign down to speak to the mere consumers that pay their rent. The arrogance that they've displayed is just unbelievable. Rather than addressing the serious and legitimate issues raised, they prefer simply to mod the whole thing down with no explanation. When they finally do respond on K5's thread, they do so from a high and mighty horse, full of contempt, apparently offended at the notion that mere readers might attempt to suggest that the system is not perfect and calling them 'idiots' 'who won't contribute anything of value anyways'.
Why is it so damn hard for them just to be willing to discuss the way things are run with the people who are part of the system? And CmdrTaco's arrogance about this site and its readers is also legendary. Is finding people who think they know best for everyone and aren't afraid to let them know a job requirement for becoming an editor? Why is it that the editors are so loathe to talk to their own site's visitors directly on the forums, so that we know what they're thinking?
There ARE somewhat good reasons (though I disagree with them mostly) that they could use to justify what they did, and if they presented one of those, even though I disagree, I would say ok, it's their site. But what really gets me angry is that they respect their customers so little that they won't even respond.
And how, pray tell, would the government publishing the list of websites be different than them publishing the list of films that have been censored? They've been black-listing films for years, and I don't see any pipe-bomb toting militants demanding that Elementary School Spanking 16 be released or else they'll blow up the parliament building.
Frankly, I find my confidence to be even more 'slightly lacking' from their refusal to reveal what they're hiding than I would if they just showed me the list.
I disagree, something can be censorship even if it's technically accessible, and I think you'd agree if you thought about it for just a moment.
What if everytime before someone watched a program which criticizes the government, they have to first go to the store, purchase a special Dissent Card from the convenience store, come back from the store, step through a series of 99 arcane menus on the television to activate the Dissent Mode, stick the Dissent Card in their television, and then wait for a 2 day cooling off period before being able to view said content. The material is still accessible, but this is clearly censorship.
It becomes censorship at the point where it is made even slightly more difficult to access based solely on its content. Now even though it's not as extreme a case as the one I described above, that's still exactly what happened here at Slashdot.
I consider myself a pretty avid Slashdot reader, I mean, I post, and that in itself puts in like the top 10% of most avid Slashdot readers right there. And I had absolutely no idea what was going on and that posts had been censored through moderation bitchslap until it was brought up on Kuro5hin! How the hell is someone supposed to know to browse at -1 to see the censored posts when they don't even know they're there? You can't seriously expect me to browse at -1 all the time and wade through the ascii goatse and page extending posts just on the off chance that the Slashdot editors are 'not-censoring' posts do you?
If it is done in such a way that there is no reasonable chance of people ever finding out that material existed, then that sure as hell sounds like censorship to me.
Yup. Just from the amount of publicity this POS is getting on /., they've probably already ensured that this is more people than would ever have seen this crap.
They only open their mouths like in one scene in the whole two demos, and that was enough to get me to groan out loud......
If Lucas had just let well enough be, natural selection would have taken its natural course on this piece, and no more than 10 people (the 10 friends of the dudes who made this thing) would ever have watched it, or even heard of it.
The anti-globalization people are against globalization, and sweatshops are only one form that this takes. More fundamentally than sweatshops, it's the way that the powers that be that are calling the shots on a global level are making the destitute more destitute, and themselves richer. One way that they do this is through sweatshops. Another way is by levying sanctions against poor countries unless they levy laws dictated by us that are obviously not in their best interest. The jig is up for Ukraine, and either way they lose.
You know, I've always been kinda sketched out about those anti-WTO anti-globalization protestors who tear up cities everytime a trade meeting is held. They claim that these globalizing organizations just make the poorer countries and peoples even poorer and more destitute, and all to serve the selfish interests of a few powerful Western corporations. I wasn't sure how much I believed that, I was kind of undecided about the issue, but it doesn't get much more cut and dry than this.
We have a starving nation and people who are the poorest of the poor. And we are imposing trade sanctions (where trade sanctions are starting to seem inhumane even against the likes of Fidel Castro's and Saddam Hussein's regimes) against these people. And for what? To protect the interests of Western intellectual property companies? It's hard to imagine that these sanctions won't fail to cause at least one more starvation death among the poor masses that live in the Ukraine, and it really does seem like what the anti-globalization people have been saying all along is coming true. Apparently Western corporate profits really are more important than 3rd world lives to those who are currently in power.
"But the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, which represents the international recording industry, said Ukraine had missed its "last opportunity to avoid ... U.S. trade sanctions.""
Seems kind of strange that a London based recording industry group that I have never even heard of here in the US appears to be bandying around the threats of United States trade sanctions.
Between them and the RIAA and MPAA it's like the freakin' Brotherhood of Evil or something........
"I can't understand why you'd want one of the Palm-line"
There are IMO only two reasons to buy a Palm OS handheld these days, but they are two of the most important factors in handhelds. Palm OS handhelds, on average, completely blow away PPC handhelds, on average, on size. And Palm OS handhelds, on average, completely blow away PPC hanahelds, on average, on battery life. Considering that portable usage is what could be called the defining characteristic of PDAs as opposed to regular general computers, these are obviously pretty big things to take into account. On those two reasons alone I got a Clie instead of a PPC.
There are also two (IMO bad) reasons that are frequently trotted out by Palm supporters. That PPC is a big, slow, hard to use operating system, and that PPC is made by Microsoft. While the first of those is an opinion matter, these days the PPC interface has improved a lot, and a lot of people are just bitter about how much the original WinCE sucked. The 2nd argument, well, I guess that's up to the person.
So there you go, hopefully now you understand why anyone would want one of the Palm-line. If battery life and size are not high on your priority list, I would 100% recommend you to go with the PPC line, no reservations. But then again, your handheld can be the best handheld in the world, but if it's out of batteries, or if you didn't bring it with you cause it feels too big in your pocket and is sitting at home on your desk, then it doesn't make one bits difference.
Seems like the level of Sony bashing on Slashdot is almost as high as the level of Microsoft bashing........
d at es/S300/index.html
I'll be the first to admit that Sony has bad product support. But funny that you say that it doesn't exist according to Sony's website and that you can't find the software to support your 1.5 year old PDA considering they just released the Windows XP support update for it just at the end of December......
http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/clie/softup
Please mod the parent post down from its current positive moderation as uninformed.
I find it hard to believe that you actually own the 760 and say those things, but on the off chance that you aren't trolling, then you are simply underinformed on the 760 you own. It plays regular mp3s. In fact, you have to buy a special magic gate memory stick that doesn't even come with the machine to get access to the DRM 'features' (ie proprietary ATRAC format playback).
Maybe you'd be a lot less disappointed in your product you purchased if you plugged it into your computer and tried putting some mp3s on that blue memory stick that came with it.
It's out in Japan, and Sony refuses to comment on release dates for it, if ever, in the rest of the world.
Heh, yup, the n710 could always play mp3's. But you will note I said the original Clie 700, which was the same model released here in Japan by a month or two before it was in America. At first it couldn't play MP3s at all. The patch was created later on due to overwhelming demand, and the American 710 customers got to be lucky enough just to ride on the fruits of the complaints of Japanese customers......
As I recall in millimeters, the Clie wins in thickness over the M505 by a slim margin, maybe by a millimeter or three. Pretty insignificant, and basically invisible to the naked eye. But I guess they are being truthful even through their marketing speak........
heh, no speculation about it, just fortunately for us it all flopped.
"Since they've clearly got "secure music" in mind, will we see a day when their stock MP3 player won't play "non-secure" music? If they did so, how open is the Sony hardware to creating third party players that would play "non-secure" music."
All of Sony's standalone 'MP3' players to date don't play mp3s, they play ATRAC's and that's it. The public has collectively taken one look at them and said (cool designs they might be but) 'you want to make it HOW inconvenient for me to do the things I want to do' and failed to purchase them. They must have released at least 3 of those things now, truly beautiful designs all of them, and they've all been tremendous sales flops I think. Even more pertinently, originally the Sony Clie 700 couldn't play mp3s, only ATRACs. And people hated it, and complained so much that Sony gave in and released a patch so that MP3s could be played as well. So in short, it's not the end of the world yet. Sony tried to bring it about, but fortunately they were too clumsy about it, and the public was too discerning (or inconvienced) to fall for it.
What we have to be worried about now is just Sony learning from its lessons and coming back with an implementation that doesn't totally suck. Then we're all in trouble.
These exist. They're called Pocket PC's. You can get a Toshiba eGenio, featuring a 206 Mhz processor, 240x320 64k screen, dual expansion slots, a reasonably small size (for a PPC) and then drop in a CF Microdrive for a gig or two of storage and be off and running.
Seems like exactly what you're pining for.
The Handera is definitely a good machine, I'd put it right up with the Sony Clie line for best/most innovative Palm OS design. It's maybe the geek's PDA. But I can't resist a jab at a line you made.
"But the flexibility and capability of my unit *far* outweighs the benefits of a measly MP3 player." Hehe, '*far* outweighs' in more ways than one......
Ouch, +4 informative for this?
"Only compatible with Sony headphones, Sony memory stick, Sony software etc etc."
Funny, my Clie 760 right now has a pair of generic no name headphones attached (didn't like the clip ons that came with it), has a Sandisk memory stick inserted, and is running a myriad of programs designed by 3rd parties. Oh, and don't forget my 3rd party stylus......
not so bad anymore. Previously this was true, but now that the cheapest price on the net is around $50 for 128 megs, that seems fairly reasonable to me, comparable with other flash memories (besides CF, which is the king of cheap, but super big unfortunately).
And memory stick production has been picked up by other manufactuers as well now. Lexar and Sandisk, I forget who else.
I'm rather fond of them myself. All the toughness of compact flash cards, with a size compromise with the flimsy smart media form factor cards.
I have a Clie 760, the Japanese version of the 750. It works great. The high res makes all the difference in the world. There's a reason after the Clie 700 was released in Japan it stayed on the #1 best selling Palm OS spot ever since (maybe not anymore now though). After you use hi-res you just can't go back anymore. The standard 160x160 screens just look like pure crap. Especially here, with the Japanese fonts with the extremely intricate details, on the 160x160 displays I would call that borderline useable, just barely legible. 320x320 produces a beautiful smooth chinese character. Add in using an ebook reader like Wordsmith that can do ClearType (the LCD font smoothing technology) and they really look completely smooth to me, no jaggies at all. So if the reason that you stopped using Palms was because of the bad screen resolutions, I urge you to drop by your local electronics retailer and take a look at the new Clies on display and see what you think.
PS the Clie 415 is an exception to this. It is B&W and has a hi-res 320x320 screen, but is completely illegible due to bad contrast. Don't use that as an example.
Heh, I know it's cliche to point out America-centrism on Slashdot now, but the GPS has already been released here in Japan. I've played with it at the big Sony display building in Ginza. Neat little toy......
Sure would be nice if that Canadian National Research Council could make a copy of whatever format they're storing their 3D digital copy of into something that I could browse on my computer over the Internet. Off hand, I don't know about this domain enough to suggest anything, but maybe VRML or even a Quake 3 map would work?
I dunno, I sure don't have the time or means right now to be making a trip to the original Zhang Fei Temple in China, but it sure would neat to be able to do it virtually and walk around in the temple over the Internet on my computer.........plus this way I'd be able to see the temple in its original location like it was built, instead of moved to wherever is convenient after its reconstruction...
(heh, and if they released a Quake 3 map or something like that, that precisely modeled and displayed the original temple, it sure would be hilarious if they served it up too, even though I can't see that actually happening. You'd have the tourists walking around to look at the temple, when campers would jump out with whatever the default weapon is in Quake 3 and start hacking away at them)
(or how about this. They just open sourced Quake 2 right? Maybe that would make it a better medium to be releasing this on than Quake 3, seeing as it's free and all)
Ah, good old blackmail/insurance. Take a picture of someone doing something unethical or illegal, and zap it off to a few friends for safekeeping. If anything happens to you, the pictures get published. (Maybe I watch too many movies)
I mentioned this in a previous story already, but since you bring it up, I'll mention it again. Hehe, the advertising campaign for these still picture phones here in Japan is actually centered around this application. The commercials all go something like:
Guy is supposed to be meeting Girl, but instead is sleeping at his desk. Girl's Friend sees this and whips out her trusty picture phone, snapping a picture and sending it off to Girl. When Guy shows up to meet Girl, he gives some lameassed excuse that he was very busy, and is so very sorry he is late. Girl whips out her phone, and shows him the picture of him snoozing at his desk, leaving him stammering and stuttering to try and cover his ass. Outside, we see Girl's Friend doing a victory dance as the theme music comes up for the commercial.
Pretty funny stuff really; I'm sure that my description makes it sound pretty lame, but they're actually some of my favorite commercials on TV. Not quite the blackmailing evil bad guys type blackmail that you had in mind haha, but blackmail none the less. Hehe, selling products by playing on people's desires to conive and scheme against each other.......
Admittedly the Japanese are a very tech-gadgety type people, but here in Japan newer cellular phones have still cameras on them and people love them, they're pretty popular, so that kinda answer the poster's rhetorical question. I can only imagine that moving cameras will be even more popular. All modern cell phones here have beautiful color displays, and it's pretty sweet being able to take a picture of something with your cell phone and then send it to your friend's cell phone where it can be instantly viewed. Not necessarily super useful but pretty fun, especially among the younger set.
And NTT DoCoMo's quasi-3G service (FOMA) has full bidirectional motion video, so that addresses the original post more directly. Quality could be better, but they are those video phones you always see in sci-fi, and mobile to boot......main thing that's keeping adoption low is that at the moment their service is only available in the Tokyo region last time I checked. Maybe since then they've added a few more regions, but service is pretty limited still. But I recall reading an article about how DoCoMo was surprised by how large demand was still, with it surpassing their initial estimates, so I guess adoption on those is going just fine too. Right now it's mainly geared at businesses, with the hype surrounding applications like using the camera to show progress at the work site to be people back at the office and things like that, but as price comes down, obviously it will become more mainstream.
Anyone remember that show from back in the day? Starcade I think it was called? Can't help but think of that when I think of a tv show about video games. It was on back in the heyday of coin op arcade games (mid to late 80's), and the show was hosted by kids as I recall and they'd play arcade games. I loved that show......I was crushed when it was canceled. I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it. Maybe it was the very first tv show about video games...
Alright, enough pointless nostalgia for one day, just sitting here thinking about it hehe......
yeah, maybe, I considered that possibility. But my point still stands that it would be nice to get some more accountability and feedback into the system of submitting stories. Usually, when I submit something like this that I feel is terribly interesting, it doesn't ever show up. Occasionally it does later, sometimes by a couple days, sometimes by a couple hours (like this one). But if we could browse articles at rejection levels, or we could browse articles through article moderation, like I suggested, these wouldn't even be issues......it's just frustrating as hell seeing that rejection notice next to a story that you feel is really something, and then to see some completely stupid story appear on the mainpage just moments later......