.NET is basically bill gates' snake-oil solution to all those registry/DLL hell problems. Bill Gates is a true genius. He's made installing and maintaining windows apps so ridiculously difficult and expensive that businesses and consumers will actually buy into the idea of having their applications on someone else's server.
The best feature of the TRS-80 is that the second you press the power button, you're ready to go to work. Computers of today still don't have that capability. Kinda makes you rethink the definition of "obsolete".
From a usability/GUI design perspective, many of the applications shipped with Agenda are a complete disaster. The hardware (that the user directly touches) does not appear to be designed by anyone who seriously considered the day to day usage of the PDA from the end user perspective. Buttons are put places for no logical reason, and places where there should be buttons lack them. The stylus that shipped with my Vr3d has a slippery metal shaft that makes it hard to write.
In terms of support, the agenda website has many outdated/non-existant areas. On top of this, the lead programmer/CEO/spokesperson for agenda, Brad LaRonde just got fired for no apparent reason.
You don't need to fight a war against an enemy that constantly falls on their own sword. This is all a damn shame, since the CPU and other features (like built-in audio and consumer IR) of the Agenda outclass the palm in many respects.
Apple spent far more resources than Microsoft developing their UI, and many of the choices they made were because they were shown to be effective in the usability lab. Microsoft made many of their UI decisions not because they were well thought out and well tested, but because they were different from apple and less likely to get them sued (though Apple filed suit anyways). If you try to do the opposite of what is well researched, you'll often end up shooting yourself in the ass. Of course, if you've got a monopoly, it doesn't matter how unusable the damn thing is.
If the linux community is to succeed in the market, they will have to accept that the people who designed and used what they consider to not be a "real computer" actually know a hell of a lot more than they do in a certain area. If they are smart, they will accept their guidance.
I've been thinking about this one. One idea I've had is "liberating" some of Jacob Berkman's code from the gnome panel (simply as a matter of laziness, since they already have a "top of the screen widget" and have dealt with all the Xlib root window cruftiness) and then bonobize it, and then hack Gtk at the lowest level possible to communicate with the bonobized menu widget. Of course, you'd have to deal with updating that menu every time you switch to a different application.
KDE does the global menu bar (from what I've heard) through giving the WM a few clever hints. I really should check out their code when I have time. It's probably a much more sane way of doing it than my previous suggestion.
I'm going to patent monopolies buying off the court system. I should make a ton of money, especially since the patent will provide a barrier to the entry of Open Source in the hot influence peddling market.
Interesting you mention that. My father is a psychiatrist and he carries around huge databases of psychoactive drugs on his palm. He couldn't live without it.
--You can instantly call forth a date or number without flipping tons of pages to get at it.
--It has a backlight. Useful for looking up directions at night, and also if you're using the bathroom and the power goes out (happened to me. I admit it).
--PDA's are often smaller than a paper organizer, but are able to provide much more detailed information. You can compress an amount of information that would fill 100 paper organizers into something that fits into your pocket
--The ability to save a copy of your information in a safe location. True, if you back up your Palm and then lose it, you're out $150. But for some people, losing $150 is not half as bad as losing the phone number of a client with a million dollar contract, which could happen if they use paper (which can't be backed up--easily).
But you're right that there are some geeks who are more interested in PDA's as cool technology promoting such and such OS than as tools for doing valuable work. If linux PDA companies cater to the first group and not the second (which is what they've been doing) and ignore usability issues (which they've constantly been doing) linux will never become a mainstream PDA OS. A linux PDA is destined and damned to failure. A PDA that just happens to use linux, that might have a pretty good shot.
Christian--someone who follows the teaching of christ. They preach that we should love everyone and be tolerant of those different from ourselves. They might believe in creation as opposed to evolution, but they are tolerant of other viewpoints of "how we got here". These people are generally decent and honorable folk who believe in the improvement of humanity.
Christian fundamentalist Idiot--someone who actively tries to enforce their religious dogma on society. For these people, following the teachings of christ is optional. Not believing in the process of Evolution doesn't not make you one of these people. You have to go above and beyond the call of duty and actively try to ban teaching of evolution in schools. Even worse, in america, these people have virtually banned school sex education education in many rural parts of the united states. In the rural parts of my state, a teacher cannot explain to students how to properly use contraception. Whole pages of textbooks are ripped out. The only kind of birth control method that can be taught is abstinance (also known as the "Just lie back and think of Jesus" method. Not too terribly effective). I find it especially disgusting that many of the rural areas in question are poor have far less social services for teenage mothers than urban areas. These christian fundamentalist idiots are responsible for giving america the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the western world. Would christ want this?
house, with a boarded front door. There is a small car here. A grue is chasing your ass and you have 5 seconds to start the car and drive away before he eats you. Would you rather have the ignition placed next to the steering wheel just like you expect on all other cars, or would you rather have a little variety and have to go searching around for it?
Remember, you only have 5 seconds. Choose well, grasshopper.
/me Pulls out monty python German-Enligsh dictionary
Sir you are mistaken. I never went home with the Shriners and the goat was a consenting party.
How do I say that in your native tongue.../me flips to English-German section
Ihre Brustwarze sind sichtbar.
"Who are the hackers in your neighborhood?"
"In your neighborhood..."
"In your neighborhooooooooddd"
"Who are the hackers in your neighborhood"
"They're the people coding apps all day"
Microsoft may have a few technically saavy people, but when it comes to making stuff easy to use, microsoft is profoundly incompetant. Where the hell do you think clippy and adaptive menus came from? Remember, you don't have to make anything easy or usable if you're got marketshare and the ears of pointy-haired bosses. Unfortunately, GNOME (and KDE) has decided to adopt many of their standards, which is kind of like trying to pass a test by cheating off the stupidest kid in class. But at least the GNOME code is open and free so I have the option to fork and fix the crappy UI design (which I'm currently doing)..NET is scary because it is basically marketed as a solution to microsoft incompetance that will only breed more. And they will not be forthcoming with the code I need to correct their idiocies. I don't really see any other option but to destroy them. And anyone who copies them.
Barney caused the black plague
Barney started world war I when he shot Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Barney did not speak out against against the Nazi's during the Holocaust
Barney was on the grass knoll
Barney invented AIDS
Barney sold arms to the contras
Barney is depleting the ozone layer
Barney is responsible for the trouble in the tech sector
Barney and the purple teletubby were seen going to an "exclusive" resort in Palm Springs with Bert and Earnie, and were later joined by C3PO and R2D2
Barney is the anti-christ.
Did I leave anything out?
Slashdot Mirror
100 bucks says the evil company wins.
.NET is basically bill gates' snake-oil solution to all those registry/DLL hell problems. Bill Gates is a true genius. He's made installing and maintaining windows apps so ridiculously difficult and expensive that businesses and consumers will actually buy into the idea of having their applications on someone else's server.
No one documented the file format of the data? We should send out a probe to determine whether intelligent life forms exist at NASA.
It's using the Ruling Ring module. See perldoc Net::RulingRing for more details.
"Uncle Richard says 'Invest in world domination. buy GNU Bonds.'"
The best feature of the TRS-80 is that the second you press the power button, you're ready to go to work. Computers of today still don't have that capability. Kinda makes you rethink the definition of "obsolete".
All I needed to know about sex I learned from Leisure Suit Larry. Who says games aren't educational?
From a usability/GUI design perspective, many of the applications shipped with Agenda are a complete disaster. The hardware (that the user directly touches) does not appear to be designed by anyone who seriously considered the day to day usage of the PDA from the end user perspective. Buttons are put places for no logical reason, and places where there should be buttons lack them. The stylus that shipped with my Vr3d has a slippery metal shaft that makes it hard to write.
In terms of support, the agenda website has many outdated/non-existant areas. On top of this, the lead programmer/CEO/spokesperson for agenda, Brad LaRonde just got fired for no apparent reason.
You don't need to fight a war against an enemy that constantly falls on their own sword. This is all a damn shame, since the CPU and other features (like built-in audio and consumer IR) of the Agenda outclass the palm in many respects.
look like Windows"
Apple spent far more resources than Microsoft developing their UI, and many of the choices they made were because they were shown to be effective in the usability lab. Microsoft made many of their UI decisions not because they were well thought out and well tested, but because they were different from apple and less likely to get them sued (though Apple filed suit anyways). If you try to do the opposite of what is well researched, you'll often end up shooting yourself in the ass. Of course, if you've got a monopoly, it doesn't matter how unusable the damn thing is.
If the linux community is to succeed in the market, they will have to accept that the people who designed and used what they consider to not be a "real computer" actually know a hell of a lot more than they do in a certain area. If they are smart, they will accept their guidance.
I've been thinking about this one. One idea I've had is "liberating" some of Jacob Berkman's code from the gnome panel (simply as a matter of laziness, since they already have a "top of the screen widget" and have dealt with all the Xlib root window cruftiness) and then bonobize it, and then hack Gtk at the lowest level possible to communicate with the bonobized menu widget. Of course, you'd have to deal with updating that menu every time you switch to a different application.
KDE does the global menu bar (from what I've heard) through giving the WM a few clever hints. I really should check out their code when I have time. It's probably a much more sane way of doing it than my previous suggestion.
Go wolfpack!!!
I'm going to patent monopolies buying off the court system. I should make a ton of money, especially since the patent will provide a barrier to the entry of Open Source in the hot influence peddling market.
Interesting you mention that. My father is a psychiatrist and he carries around huge databases of psychoactive drugs on his palm. He couldn't live without it.
The advantage of a PDA:
--You can instantly call forth a date or number without flipping tons of pages to get at it.
--It has a backlight. Useful for looking up directions at night, and also if you're using the bathroom and the power goes out (happened to me. I admit it).
--PDA's are often smaller than a paper organizer, but are able to provide much more detailed information. You can compress an amount of information that would fill 100 paper organizers into something that fits into your pocket
--The ability to save a copy of your information in a safe location. True, if you back up your Palm and then lose it, you're out $150. But for some people, losing $150 is not half as bad as losing the phone number of a client with a million dollar contract, which could happen if they use paper (which can't be backed up--easily).
But you're right that there are some geeks who are more interested in PDA's as cool technology promoting such and such OS than as tools for doing valuable work. If linux PDA companies cater to the first group and not the second (which is what they've been doing) and ignore usability issues (which they've constantly been doing) linux will never become a mainstream PDA OS. A linux PDA is destined and damned to failure. A PDA that just happens to use linux, that might have a pretty good shot.
Christian--someone who follows the teaching of christ. They preach that we should love everyone and be tolerant of those different from ourselves. They might believe in creation as opposed to evolution, but they are tolerant of other viewpoints of "how we got here". These people are generally decent and honorable folk who believe in the improvement of humanity.
Christian fundamentalist Idiot--someone who actively tries to enforce their religious dogma on society. For these people, following the teachings of christ is optional. Not believing in the process of Evolution doesn't not make you one of these people. You have to go above and beyond the call of duty and actively try to ban teaching of evolution in schools. Even worse, in america, these people have virtually banned school sex education education in many rural parts of the united states. In the rural parts of my state, a teacher cannot explain to students how to properly use contraception. Whole pages of textbooks are ripped out. The only kind of birth control method that can be taught is abstinance (also known as the "Just lie back and think of Jesus" method. Not too terribly effective). I find it especially disgusting that many of the rural areas in question are poor have far less social services for teenage mothers than urban areas. These christian fundamentalist idiots are responsible for giving america the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the western world. Would christ want this?
Internet2 has arrived. Time to invest in those hot teledildonics stocks.
house, with a boarded front door. There is a small car here. A grue is chasing your ass and you have 5 seconds to start the car and drive away before he eats you. Would you rather have the ignition placed next to the steering wheel just like you expect on all other cars, or would you rather have a little variety and have to go searching around for it?
Remember, you only have 5 seconds. Choose well, grasshopper.
All the openoffice comments are in German, don'tcha know.
"Try perrier, drawn from pristine dying solar systems"
Just hope the keyboard doesn't piss out after a few months.
as sung by 0sXor 7h3 6r0uCH:
"Who are the hackers in your neighborhood?"
"In your neighborhood..."
"In your neighborhooooooooddd"
"Who are the hackers in your neighborhood"
"They're the people coding apps all day"
Banning all products that allow people to do naughty stuff computers isn't cool. Many people like Outlook Express.
Finally there will be no jar that man cannot open
Microsoft may have a few technically saavy people, but when it comes to making stuff easy to use, microsoft is profoundly incompetant. Where the hell do you think clippy and adaptive menus came from? Remember, you don't have to make anything easy or usable if you're got marketshare and the ears of pointy-haired bosses. Unfortunately, GNOME (and KDE) has decided to adopt many of their standards, which is kind of like trying to pass a test by cheating off the stupidest kid in class. But at least the GNOME code is open and free so I have the option to fork and fix the crappy UI design (which I'm currently doing). .NET is scary because it is basically marketed as a solution to microsoft incompetance that will only breed more. And they will not be forthcoming with the code I need to correct their idiocies. I don't really see any other option but to destroy them. And anyone who copies them.
Barney caused the black plague
Barney started world war I when he shot Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Barney did not speak out against against the Nazi's during the Holocaust
Barney was on the grass knoll
Barney invented AIDS
Barney sold arms to the contras
Barney is depleting the ozone layer
Barney is responsible for the trouble in the tech sector
Barney and the purple teletubby were seen going to an "exclusive" resort in Palm Springs with Bert and Earnie, and were later joined by C3PO and R2D2
Barney is the anti-christ.
Did I leave anything out?