My main issue with netbooks was the horrible resolution and the sluggishness.
If, by the end of 2013, they can slim down a Bay Trail-based netbook to 3/4", banish the absolutely awful 1024x600 resolution for 1366x768 or even 1600x900, rev to Windows 8.5, and keep it at $350, I will buy 3 for the price of a Macbook Air.
A while ago, I had bought an Acer W500 as I was developing a specialized touch screen type of app for Windows 7. That project kind of died, so I ended up with a useless piece of hardware for almost a year. After Windows 8 was released, I upgraded for $40 and put that on there.
Recently, my MBP and Acer netbook both died, leaving me with nothing but this W500. My first reaction was to whip out the CC and go to apple.com. However, I gave the W500 a chance. Here's what I found:
- It works quite well as a desktop. I plug in my USB kb/mouse and 24" 1080p monitor. The traditional Windows desktop is perfectly responsive
- As a Putty client, it's great. I can easily have 4 big terminals open on the 24", and a browser open on the tablet.
- Demanding desktop apps can run a bit slow (it's only an AMD C-50), but it depends on what you're doing. - With only 32GB, it's pretty space limited. Fortunately, I have a 64GB SD card which mitigates it a bit. Also, I can plug in my external 500GB. - I'm also able to plug in my printer, scanner, camera, and external DVD, and they work for the most part. - As a tablet, it's OK. It's no iPad, but there's already been endless discussion on that.
Overall, it's actually impressed me in that there's no way I could do this efficiently with an iPad. I give it a B for desktop productivity, and a B- for tablet functions. For reference, I'd give an iPad an A+ for tablet functions, and an F for desktop productivity (not intended as a knock). My guess is that an Acer W700 (core i5) would be an A for desktop tasks (since it's way faster and more capacious) and a solid B for tablet (since it's faster and has higher resolution).
In short, at the risk of getting attacked as an MS shill, I'd actually recommend one of the newer hybrid tablet-top Windows 8 thingies if you're looking for a single device. If you can, I'd wait until after CES and the market to settle down a bit before buying anything.
They worked their assed off, but made some really bad decisions. Now, sales are looking like a disaster - in their core revenue generator. Microsoft is beginning to feel like a cornered animal. It does still have claws, and hopefully the board will understand just how badly steveb has executed, once it sees the bottom starting to fall out. 2013 will be an entertaining year seeing how Microsoft scrambles. I'd start with a tutorial that wasn't a 2 hour hack job.
It's not good enough, yet. It being distracting is evidence of that. Make it better, and it'll join color, high definition, surround sound, and other technological advances in their it-doesnt-make-movies-better-but-it-doesnt-hurt status. As always, story telling and character development will and always matter most.
Actually, at that age they have absolutely no idea what they are looking at. If something unsavory happens to appear, I wouldn't panic. That said, there really isn't a difference between fun, colorful shapes in a browser and fun colorful shapes dangling above their crib. Yes, I would limit it, if only to play it safe. But people overly freaking out about a little screen time.
My twins absolutely loved watching electric sheep screen savers. Today, they are wonderful little kids. It didn't make them crzy,smarter, weirder, or creative. It was just fun.
The real world sucks, the code is just inside it
on
Real World Code Sucks
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· Score: 1
It's not that real world code in particular sucks. The world sucks. The code is in it. If nature provided practically unlimited general computing power really easily, code would be frickin beautiful. Computing power is woefully constrained, so code, the tools the process it, and the systems that execute it are woefully constrained. So, bad code becomes easy to write.
One day, if you work hard enough and get your stuff done, if you impress people with dedication and skill all the while letting the unimportant things flow as water under the bridge, you will get to make the rules. And when you do, I hope to see you asking Slashdot in a new context.
I agree, though "Funny" isn't quite the right mod.
I find that usually when one whines about this kind of thing, the important things the developer should be concentrating on (e.g. how to make things more efficient, how to solve problems, how to maintain better overall code organization, etc) escapes them entirely.
It's the same thing as that annoying C++ dude going around asking other C++ why their code isn't employing functional paradigms more - all the while the product has serious burning issues.
It's big on platitudes, but fails to actually deliver on substantive problems. Like the "goblins farting in your face" thing. I'm sorry, but the weather application does *not* suddenly pop up over things when you are typing. That must have been some kind of stuck key or something. Otherwise, can someone please provide the actual repro steps, because that sounds like a plain old bug. Again, I've *never* seen a metro nor desktop app decide to just suddenly pop up. It feels more like this author made that sh*t up completely.
He confuses his own terms "Control" and "Conveyance". He complains he can't navigate away from Weather as an issue of Control. Bullshit. Upper left corner. Lower left corner. Windows key. Alt tab. Drag from top to bottom. There are tons of ways to navigate. Issue with "Conveyance"? Maybe. Not one of Control. Now that I know how to navigate Win8, I've never had any issues.
I *have* had issues with discoverability. Win8 is definitely bad in this regard. They botched the tutorial : "swipe in from the left" -> nothing happens because the tutorial is shown during OS bootup - ????? yes, that's idiotic. But once I learned the ropes, actual navigation is *easy* (not easier, but definitely not hard).
I really couldn't get through this video. Despite what he says, if he couldn't figure the OS out, yet I could, then he *is* dumb. The OS isn't unusable. It's poorly understood, Microsoft's user education is a total fail, and Microsoft missed so many opportunities to make the UI way, way better. Once you actually get it, it's not bad. I wouldn't pay $99 for it, but it's not preventing me from getting work done.
zacharye says "shipped" while quoting the article, which says "sold". Which is it, because there's a huge difference.
Also, Microsoft doesn't sell through Best Buy or Amazon. I think that means the numbers are actual sales to customers. Many companies claim X million shipped - meaning Best Buy and Amazon get stuck with a huge inventory.
No idea what his hate is you're talking about. Most touchscreen laptops I've seen have been oriented at an angle. Never all-in-ones can angle further down. Newer laptops can swivel open 180 or even 360 degrees (e.g. Yoga). In other words, the hardware is evolving towards making the touchscreen work well. Maybe it's not there, yet, but it will be. My mouse in 1990 was pretty crappy compared to what I use today. So was my monitor. Sadly, however, my keyboard back then was to die for.
Don't BS us, either. Metro mode doesn't require you to touch the upper right or left of the screen. Swipe in from left - lower left works just as well. Swipe in from right - lower right works as well, and all the "charms" are centered vertically. The only top-gesture that is required is used to close apps, which is not a common use case since background apps are suspended.
If you're talking about apps with UI elements on the upper left or right, then that's pretty much any app on any platform, touch or non-touch.
Microsoft has a serious issue with really shitty program management. The worst thing about program managers is that their ability to talk out their ass is the skill that Microsoft values, and they usually mistake it for insightfulness. It was their incredible skill at program management that let them ship the Kin *after* their focus group told them it was a disaster of a phone. It was the same kind of personality that butchered all the decent decision making in designing metro.
I use Win8, and I honestly think it is ok. But there is immense missed opportunities here, and a sense that this thing is not quite mature. The ire Microsoft draws and its missed sales targets is well deserved. They need to look in the mirror and understand that their fitness function for good program managers is woefully broken.
Annoying bugs with their web UI. For example, when you click and drag, it often things you've flicked when releasing the mouse, causing further map panning. It's nowhere near as solid as Google or Bing. Also, their tile loading latency is a bit high. Sounds like they need to throw more hardware at it. Otherwise, it looks like a really solid entrant, complete with street level views, 3D, and really nifty features. I particularly like the shopping / restaurant heat maps in major cities.
I find what actually happens is this: grizzled, old programmer enters a new environment. Said environment has fundamental issues like: - How to parallelize problems across cores / nodes / etc - How to reduce data size - How to perform optimal queries or other operations - etc etc etc
Yet, old grizzled programmers have these problems presented to him/her using a lot of new jargon and buzzwords. Grizzled programmer scratches his head, having no idea where the problem solving begins. Younger programmers, meanwhile, are whipping out Jongythonoop scripts left and right.
All the while, the actual fundamentals didn't change one bit. All we did in the past 2 decades was change the language.
Gee, where did they get that idea from? There must have been some kind of super hit phone that didn't have replaceable batteries or expandable storage....
It was a hedge against Intel, nothing more, nothing less. It looks like Clover Trail will allow powerful and long lasting 9mm tablets, and valley view even better yet. So, I don't see RT actually going anywhere, but it was a smart play overall.
Nokia may have jumped aboard the Windows Phone wagon at a suboptimal time, but I still think the general move was a good one. If HTC can't make a good profit from Android, what makes anyone think Nokia would have fared better producing Android sets? At least it has a bit more differentiation.
The Lumia 900 hardware was outdated even before it hit the shelves anyways. This was both Microsoft and Nokia's fault. Microsoft imposed that (really stupid) 800x480 resolution lock and other restrictions. Nokia simply provided the spec'd hardware. It's remarkable the 900 did as well as it did. It did succeed in establishing a real brand, and so now the 920 hits the market with extremely competitive specs.
So, the performance has been a mixed bag. They needed to jump on, but perhaps did so a bit early. The important thing is that, with the 920, they now have a lot more mind share around a phone that is truly competitive. That's about as good a shot as any company in Nokia's position could ask for. The alternative is that they'd have a second-rate Galaxy S3 clone which would be ignored even more than the One X.
How has Microsoft declared the platform dead, when Windows Phone 7 will continue to run apps developed for it? Windows Phone 8 apps are those that take advantage of things specific to that platform, just as iOS 6 apps cannot run on iOS 5. No developer is going to target iOS 6 only if it doesn't require it, and same applies for WinPhone7/8 developers. Windows Phone 7 is hardly any more dead than iOS 5, and I'm still waiting for you to provide a link where Microsoft has officially declared it dead.
I know we have not spoken in the longest time, and I guess that means I don't deserve to ask for much before I ask for your forgiveness. But can you PLEASE up the damn refresh rate to at least 1000hz? This flicker is giving me a damn headache!
Not sure what the value of saying "Windows Phone 7 is dead." How about we fair that statement up a bit with a couple similar statements:
"iOS 5 is dead." "Android 3.x is dead."
If course they're dead. A newer version came out and no one's going to ship phones with the older version. Well, in the case of Android, maybe.
And if you look at the general reaction to WP8, it actually has been very positive, both in terms of reception from its growing fan base and the defensive reaction from iOS and Android fans. In other words, judging by the number of 1000+ post discussions on Engadget and The Verge, it seems WP8 is generating more discussion now than ever. Compare the discussion with that of, say, BB10, or WebOS. This isn't the same.
The worst thing Apple or Google could do is write off a credible threat, and they aren't. Which makes it curious why most/.ers here would.
Slashdot Mirror
an open and vendor neutral application development strategy
That sounds like the near future of HTML5 and more advanced browsers. But when you add...
... well, hmm, ok, the first part sounded great. What's with the second part?
My main issue with netbooks was the horrible resolution and the sluggishness.
If, by the end of 2013, they can slim down a Bay Trail-based netbook to 3/4", banish the absolutely awful 1024x600 resolution for 1366x768 or even 1600x900, rev to Windows 8.5, and keep it at $350, I will buy 3 for the price of a Macbook Air.
A while ago, I had bought an Acer W500 as I was developing a specialized touch screen type of app for Windows 7. That project kind of died, so I ended up with a useless piece of hardware for almost a year. After Windows 8 was released, I upgraded for $40 and put that on there.
Recently, my MBP and Acer netbook both died, leaving me with nothing but this W500. My first reaction was to whip out the CC and go to apple.com. However, I gave the W500 a chance. Here's what I found:
- It works quite well as a desktop. I plug in my USB kb/mouse and 24" 1080p monitor. The traditional Windows desktop is perfectly responsive
- As a Putty client, it's great. I can easily have 4 big terminals open on the 24", and a browser open on the tablet.
- Demanding desktop apps can run a bit slow (it's only an AMD C-50), but it depends on what you're doing.
- With only 32GB, it's pretty space limited. Fortunately, I have a 64GB SD card which mitigates it a bit. Also, I can plug in my external 500GB.
- I'm also able to plug in my printer, scanner, camera, and external DVD, and they work for the most part.
- As a tablet, it's OK. It's no iPad, but there's already been endless discussion on that.
Overall, it's actually impressed me in that there's no way I could do this efficiently with an iPad. I give it a B for desktop productivity, and a B- for tablet functions. For reference, I'd give an iPad an A+ for tablet functions, and an F for desktop productivity (not intended as a knock). My guess is that an Acer W700 (core i5) would be an A for desktop tasks (since it's way faster and more capacious) and a solid B for tablet (since it's faster and has higher resolution).
In short, at the risk of getting attacked as an MS shill, I'd actually recommend one of the newer hybrid tablet-top Windows 8 thingies if you're looking for a single device. If you can, I'd wait until after CES and the market to settle down a bit before buying anything.
They worked their assed off, but made some really bad decisions. Now, sales are looking like a disaster - in their core revenue generator. Microsoft is beginning to feel like a cornered animal. It does still have claws, and hopefully the board will understand just how badly steveb has executed, once it sees the bottom starting to fall out. 2013 will be an entertaining year seeing how Microsoft scrambles. I'd start with a tutorial that wasn't a 2 hour hack job.
It's not good enough, yet. It being distracting is evidence of that. Make it better, and it'll join color, high definition, surround sound, and other technological advances in their it-doesnt-make-movies-better-but-it-doesnt-hurt status. As always, story telling and character development will and always matter most.
Apps with fun colors, shapes, animals, funny sounds. All good things.
2 girls and a cup videos, snuff films, Al-Queda training videos, Halloween scare apps, not so good.
Actually, at that age they have absolutely no idea what they are looking at. If something unsavory happens to appear, I wouldn't panic. That said, there really isn't a difference between fun, colorful shapes in a browser and fun colorful shapes dangling above their crib. Yes, I would limit it, if only to play it safe. But people overly freaking out about a little screen time.
My twins absolutely loved watching electric sheep screen savers. Today, they are wonderful little kids. It didn't make them crzy,smarter, weirder, or creative. It was just fun.
It's not that real world code in particular sucks. The world sucks. The code is in it. If nature provided practically unlimited general computing power really easily, code would be frickin beautiful. Computing power is woefully constrained, so code, the tools the process it, and the systems that execute it are woefully constrained. So, bad code becomes easy to write.
One day, if you work hard enough and get your stuff done, if you impress people with dedication and skill all the while letting the unimportant things flow as water under the bridge, you will get to make the rules. And when you do, I hope to see you asking Slashdot in a new context.
I agree, though "Funny" isn't quite the right mod.
I find that usually when one whines about this kind of thing, the important things the developer should be concentrating on (e.g. how to make things more efficient, how to solve problems, how to maintain better overall code organization, etc) escapes them entirely.
It's the same thing as that annoying C++ dude going around asking other C++ why their code isn't employing functional paradigms more - all the while the product has serious burning issues.
It's big on platitudes, but fails to actually deliver on substantive problems. Like the "goblins farting in your face" thing. I'm sorry, but the weather application does *not* suddenly pop up over things when you are typing. That must have been some kind of stuck key or something. Otherwise, can someone please provide the actual repro steps, because that sounds like a plain old bug. Again, I've *never* seen a metro nor desktop app decide to just suddenly pop up. It feels more like this author made that sh*t up completely.
He confuses his own terms "Control" and "Conveyance". He complains he can't navigate away from Weather as an issue of Control. Bullshit. Upper left corner. Lower left corner. Windows key. Alt tab. Drag from top to bottom. There are tons of ways to navigate. Issue with "Conveyance"? Maybe. Not one of Control. Now that I know how to navigate Win8, I've never had any issues.
I *have* had issues with discoverability. Win8 is definitely bad in this regard. They botched the tutorial : "swipe in from the left" -> nothing happens because the tutorial is shown during OS bootup - ????? yes, that's idiotic. But once I learned the ropes, actual navigation is *easy* (not easier, but definitely not hard).
I really couldn't get through this video. Despite what he says, if he couldn't figure the OS out, yet I could, then he *is* dumb. The OS isn't unusable. It's poorly understood, Microsoft's user education is a total fail, and Microsoft missed so many opportunities to make the UI way, way better. Once you actually get it, it's not bad. I wouldn't pay $99 for it, but it's not preventing me from getting work done.
zacharye says "shipped" while quoting the article, which says "sold". Which is it, because there's a huge difference.
Also, Microsoft doesn't sell through Best Buy or Amazon. I think that means the numbers are actual sales to customers. Many companies claim X million shipped - meaning Best Buy and Amazon get stuck with a huge inventory.
No idea what his hate is you're talking about. Most touchscreen laptops I've seen have been oriented at an angle. Never all-in-ones can angle further down. Newer laptops can swivel open 180 or even 360 degrees (e.g. Yoga). In other words, the hardware is evolving towards making the touchscreen work well. Maybe it's not there, yet, but it will be. My mouse in 1990 was pretty crappy compared to what I use today. So was my monitor. Sadly, however, my keyboard back then was to die for.
I invoke the "rewind to 1985, replace 'touchscreen' with 'mouse', and reread this response argument.
Don't BS us, either. Metro mode doesn't require you to touch the upper right or left of the screen. Swipe in from left - lower left works just as well. Swipe in from right - lower right works as well, and all the "charms" are centered vertically. The only top-gesture that is required is used to close apps, which is not a common use case since background apps are suspended.
If you're talking about apps with UI elements on the upper left or right, then that's pretty much any app on any platform, touch or non-touch.
Microsoft has a serious issue with really shitty program management. The worst thing about program managers is that their ability to talk out their ass is the skill that Microsoft values, and they usually mistake it for insightfulness. It was their incredible skill at program management that let them ship the Kin *after* their focus group told them it was a disaster of a phone. It was the same kind of personality that butchered all the decent decision making in designing metro.
I use Win8, and I honestly think it is ok. But there is immense missed opportunities here, and a sense that this thing is not quite mature. The ire Microsoft draws and its missed sales targets is well deserved. They need to look in the mirror and understand that their fitness function for good program managers is woefully broken.
Annoying bugs with their web UI. For example, when you click and drag, it often things you've flicked when releasing the mouse, causing further map panning. It's nowhere near as solid as Google or Bing. Also, their tile loading latency is a bit high. Sounds like they need to throw more hardware at it. Otherwise, it looks like a really solid entrant, complete with street level views, 3D, and really nifty features. I particularly like the shopping / restaurant heat maps in major cities.
I find what actually happens is this: grizzled, old programmer enters a new environment. Said environment has fundamental issues like:
- How to parallelize problems across cores / nodes / etc
- How to reduce data size
- How to perform optimal queries or other operations
- etc etc etc
Yet, old grizzled programmers have these problems presented to him/her using a lot of new jargon and buzzwords. Grizzled programmer scratches his head, having no idea where the problem solving begins. Younger programmers, meanwhile, are whipping out Jongythonoop scripts left and right.
All the while, the actual fundamentals didn't change one bit. All we did in the past 2 decades was change the language.
Gee, where did they get that idea from? There must have been some kind of super hit phone that didn't have replaceable batteries or expandable storage....
It was a hedge against Intel, nothing more, nothing less. It looks like Clover Trail will allow powerful and long lasting 9mm tablets, and valley view even better yet. So, I don't see RT actually going anywhere, but it was a smart play overall.
Nokia may have jumped aboard the Windows Phone wagon at a suboptimal time, but I still think the general move was a good one. If HTC can't make a good profit from Android, what makes anyone think Nokia would have fared better producing Android sets? At least it has a bit more differentiation.
The Lumia 900 hardware was outdated even before it hit the shelves anyways. This was both Microsoft and Nokia's fault. Microsoft imposed that (really stupid) 800x480 resolution lock and other restrictions. Nokia simply provided the spec'd hardware. It's remarkable the 900 did as well as it did. It did succeed in establishing a real brand, and so now the 920 hits the market with extremely competitive specs.
So, the performance has been a mixed bag. They needed to jump on, but perhaps did so a bit early. The important thing is that, with the 920, they now have a lot more mind share around a phone that is truly competitive. That's about as good a shot as any company in Nokia's position could ask for. The alternative is that they'd have a second-rate Galaxy S3 clone which would be ignored even more than the One X.
How has Microsoft declared the platform dead, when Windows Phone 7 will continue to run apps developed for it? Windows Phone 8 apps are those that take advantage of things specific to that platform, just as iOS 6 apps cannot run on iOS 5. No developer is going to target iOS 6 only if it doesn't require it, and same applies for WinPhone7/8 developers. Windows Phone 7 is hardly any more dead than iOS 5, and I'm still waiting for you to provide a link where Microsoft has officially declared it dead.
Dear Lord,
I know we have not spoken in the longest time, and I guess that means I don't deserve to ask for much before I ask for your forgiveness. But can you PLEASE up the damn refresh rate to at least 1000hz? This flicker is giving me a damn headache!
Amen
I always strangely fascinating that the only thing that can't be simulated is how you feel. That seems to be the base case of everything.
Not sure what the value of saying "Windows Phone 7 is dead." How about we fair that statement up a bit with a couple similar statements:
"iOS 5 is dead."
"Android 3.x is dead."
If course they're dead. A newer version came out and no one's going to ship phones with the older version. Well, in the case of Android, maybe.
And if you look at the general reaction to WP8, it actually has been very positive, both in terms of reception from its growing fan base and the defensive reaction from iOS and Android fans. In other words, judging by the number of 1000+ post discussions on Engadget and The Verge, it seems WP8 is generating more discussion now than ever. Compare the discussion with that of, say, BB10, or WebOS. This isn't the same.
The worst thing Apple or Google could do is write off a credible threat, and they aren't. Which makes it curious why most /.ers here would.