Actually, the architecture is exactly the issue. Fujitsu has been making tablets since the mid 1990's, running various versions of Windows. They never seemed to get much traction, I think due to the wintel platform.
Now that Microsoft has finally figured out that start menus don't work on touchscreens, we just might see something new.
Of course, Intel does have an Android port on the Atom, so who knows what they're up to?
Mr. Upton's goal of a cheap easy to program PC is missed on this device. I realize it's hard to get the kids excited about assembly language, but that's really what made those 8-bit PCs great for training kids. The 8 bit computers were anything but cheap (several hundred dollars, if not over a grand for an Apple ][ is not cheap in the 1980s), but they were mostly easy to program. Sure, you can bash BASIC all you want for teaching sloppy habits, but the commands were fairly easy to remember and most anyone could get lines on the screen. Later on you could start to read/write directly to memory on some machines and have lots of interesting things happen.
While I'm not a programmer today (other than Excel, Access and the occasional batch file), I do have a much better understanding than most of how computers work because of the 8 bits. If I were introduced to computers and programming using a full-blown Linux distro, no matter how inexpensive, I'd not know much more than any MCSE who got certified at the community college. To me the Arduino platform is much better suited to teaching programming skills to people who are new to the process.
To me this sounds more like "we want to get rid of the expensive geologists and engineers" than a break-up of the vertically integrated players. And besides, there aren't that many places that are unexplored. As long as they can get oil from the middle east and third world (using third world labor prices) it makes sense.
Android's biggest failure is the committee-style update process. Google is running on a ship early, ship often approach and running head long into the ultra-conservative, test, test and test some more attitude of the handset makers (who dump their crapware on) and the phone service providers (who dump their crapware on). So Google's buggy code ends up on handsets and never goes away, even though they updated and fixed the bugs months ago.
I realize the last thing the handset manufacturers want is to end up selling a commodity product, but there's still plenty of variation in hardware to keep the marketing dept happy without having to muck up the OS. The first handset manufacturer who announces stock Android and allows updates direct from Google will get my dollar. And my next phone if that doesn't happen will be a Nexus-3, as long as the hardware is better than the Nexus-S (need to have an SD slot).
Android has a very, very long way to go before it can be seriously considered for content creation. Not talking about applications, but just simple things like knowing when I have an external keyboard connected, don't pop up the on-screen keyboard. Cursor navigation is also just terrible, although I'll know more tomorrow when I pick up a Bluetooth mouse to see if that helps.
And just simple things like having a "home" button on a browser... Does someone have a patent on it or something?
So we throw Ubuntu or whatever on a tablet and find out that we have to recompile everything since it was written for X86 processors. Then we find out that there's a bunch of libraries that also need to be built and compiled for ARM. No way anyone but the most dedicated will even attempt it, and you'll never get those IT guys with MS Certs to even make the effort.
Seems we take a step forward on hardware and 3 back on software (but at least we got a micropayment system for software that actually works!).
I never used to, opting for sleep mode instead of shutdown. Now that I have SSDs I am able to use hibernate and get it to power back about as fast as sleep mode. Hibernate is basically shutdown with a ram image stored on the drive.
Their 2 largest customers, the casino transaction company and the US government both have a huge presence in the area.
Wynn resorts, for example, generates about $23 million/day on table games (slots are another $20 or so). That's 4 casinos out of the dozens that are on the strip.
Nellis Air Force Base is close to Las Vegas, as is Edwards AFB. I'm sure there is a lot of fiber between LV and the military bases, and it is a nice central location, with access to power, cheap labor (who wouldn't want to live in LV?/sarcasm), and data lines.
I had a MD player back when I was impersonating a gym rat. Kind of a pain to use, but more convenient than a cassette or CD Walkman. I liked that it ran on a single AA battery for a few hours and had a digital optical input. I think it was less than $100, but the discs were expensive and hard to find.
A few years later I got into operating portable satellite ham radio. Most people record their QSOs because things happen too quickly to log contacts. The MD was easy to interface with my radio, had a way to mark important spots on the recording with one button, and fit in a pocket.
So it WAS a useful format for some things, but basically had no purpose once mp3 players and digital recorders came on the market. Now a cell phone held next to the speaker of my radio works good enough for logging, and if I want better quality a cheap Olympus digital recorder will perform as well as the MD recorder.
I upgraded to a multi-room DVR last year and not only did I eliminate 1 DVR, but the new box runs much cooler. I haven't done any tests, but it seems to be saving some electricity. The second box is a regular single tuner set top and it stays cold until it is turned on.
Did anyone actually read the article? It was full of "what if" scenarios: If we don't get the funding... this COULD be an incredible loss. No one at NOAA would ever find a worthless waste of money like WEFAX over short wave that could be eliminated and no one would miss it, instead they go for the most popular, useful tool they have and threaten to kill that off if they don't get fully funded.
Doesn't anyone realize that the first line of defense for a bureaucracy is to find the most important program and threaten to kill it if it doesn't get what it wants?
Like every time someone mentions selling public land, the first thing some policy wonk at the Dept of Interior mentions is selling off Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. The government could make millions from selling off land around ski resorts that no one would miss, but it will never happen because the bureaucrats will always threaten the worst case scenario. NPR is all too happy to play along, since they have the same problem. I'm sure NPR could find 10% of their operating budget to cut and still provide 95% or more of their current offerings, but instead they go for the jugular and threaten to kill Garrison Keillor.
I wonder if the body panels could be engineered to take advantage of that little bit of static electricity that happens if your tires don't ground your vehicle?
Adding capabilities to Motoblur is one way that Motorola can try to set itself apart in an increasingly crowded Android market.
I would like to see manufacturers release pure Android phones and compete on hardware. It seems to me that a manufacturer could easily set themselves apart by advertising the pure Google experience, much like the Nexus phones do.
Why don't they compete to see who can release the latest update first? I know I'd be more inclined to go with the company that doesn't drag out updates (or keep you guessing) for months.
About the only hardware differences I see are screen design. Oh, and radios that won't work on anyone else's 3G network. I suppose can forgive the second one, since there are so many differences in network design, but still, it would be nice to see a Pentaband chip in something other than the Nokia N8.
Instead we get crippled, buggy phones that never get fixed because they think software development is cheap and easy to do.
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Actually, the architecture is exactly the issue. Fujitsu has been making tablets since the mid 1990's, running various versions of Windows. They never seemed to get much traction, I think due to the wintel platform.
Now that Microsoft has finally figured out that start menus don't work on touchscreens, we just might see something new.
Of course, Intel does have an Android port on the Atom, so who knows what they're up to?
Yes, you can edit movies on a tablet, but how easy is it?
Hell, typing on a tablet, even with a dock or BT keyboard is still a frustrating experience. I know because I'm doing it now.
I hate Illinois Nazis
-Joliet Jake
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Blues_Brothers#.27Joliet.27_Jake_Blues
Name recognition and seniority are why most (over 90%) are elected in Congress.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_stagnation_in_the_United_States
Actually, it was designed for an impact of a 707, although they likely had to guess on a lot of the math.
Mr. Upton's goal of a cheap easy to program PC is missed on this device. I realize it's hard to get the kids excited about assembly language, but that's really what made those 8-bit PCs great for training kids. The 8 bit computers were anything but cheap (several hundred dollars, if not over a grand for an Apple ][ is not cheap in the 1980s), but they were mostly easy to program. Sure, you can bash BASIC all you want for teaching sloppy habits, but the commands were fairly easy to remember and most anyone could get lines on the screen. Later on you could start to read/write directly to memory on some machines and have lots of interesting things happen.
While I'm not a programmer today (other than Excel, Access and the occasional batch file), I do have a much better understanding than most of how computers work because of the 8 bits. If I were introduced to computers and programming using a full-blown Linux distro, no matter how inexpensive, I'd not know much more than any MCSE who got certified at the community college. To me the Arduino platform is much better suited to teaching programming skills to people who are new to the process.
It'll be harder to program.
Maybe it was just a shitty design.
To me this sounds more like "we want to get rid of the expensive geologists and engineers" than a break-up of the vertically integrated players. And besides, there aren't that many places that are unexplored. As long as they can get oil from the middle east and third world (using third world labor prices) it makes sense.
What if, like me, early men of northern latitudes were just attracted to doe-eyed girls with big brains?
Well-oiled... Funny guy.
Yep, I'm amazed at how many times a day the Internet crashes because of buggy devices. You'd think someone would do something about it.
That's their excuse, not their reason.
Android's biggest failure is the committee-style update process. Google is running on a ship early, ship often approach and running head long into the ultra-conservative, test, test and test some more attitude of the handset makers (who dump their crapware on) and the phone service providers (who dump their crapware on). So Google's buggy code ends up on handsets and never goes away, even though they updated and fixed the bugs months ago.
I realize the last thing the handset manufacturers want is to end up selling a commodity product, but there's still plenty of variation in hardware to keep the marketing dept happy without having to muck up the OS. The first handset manufacturer who announces stock Android and allows updates direct from Google will get my dollar. And my next phone if that doesn't happen will be a Nexus-3, as long as the hardware is better than the Nexus-S (need to have an SD slot).
Android has a very, very long way to go before it can be seriously considered for content creation. Not talking about applications, but just simple things like knowing when I have an external keyboard connected, don't pop up the on-screen keyboard. Cursor navigation is also just terrible, although I'll know more tomorrow when I pick up a Bluetooth mouse to see if that helps.
And just simple things like having a "home" button on a browser... Does someone have a patent on it or something?
So we throw Ubuntu or whatever on a tablet and find out that we have to recompile everything since it was written for X86 processors. Then we find out that there's a bunch of libraries that also need to be built and compiled for ARM. No way anyone but the most dedicated will even attempt it, and you'll never get those IT guys with MS Certs to even make the effort.
Seems we take a step forward on hardware and 3 back on software (but at least we got a micropayment system for software that actually works!).
I never used to, opting for sleep mode instead of shutdown. Now that I have SSDs I am able to use hibernate and get it to power back about as fast as sleep mode. Hibernate is basically shutdown with a ram image stored on the drive.
Their 2 largest customers, the casino transaction company and the US government both have a huge presence in the area.
Wynn resorts, for example, generates about $23 million/day on table games (slots are another $20 or so). That's 4 casinos out of the dozens that are on the strip.
Nellis Air Force Base is close to Las Vegas, as is Edwards AFB. I'm sure there is a lot of fiber between LV and the military bases, and it is a nice central location, with access to power, cheap labor (who wouldn't want to live in LV? /sarcasm), and data lines.
Assuming there is NO DOUBT at all, like the accused actually performed the act in the courtroom.
I'm against the death penalty, only because I see how the rest of government performs and can't believe the judicial system is any better.
Or it could be the author of the article has his head up his ass and just calls all wireless security WEP.
http://www.random.org/passwords/ has a fairly good pw generator. Make a bunch and pick 2 strung together.
I had a MD player back when I was impersonating a gym rat. Kind of a pain to use, but more convenient than a cassette or CD Walkman. I liked that it ran on a single AA battery for a few hours and had a digital optical input. I think it was less than $100, but the discs were expensive and hard to find.
A few years later I got into operating portable satellite ham radio. Most people record their QSOs because things happen too quickly to log contacts. The MD was easy to interface with my radio, had a way to mark important spots on the recording with one button, and fit in a pocket.
So it WAS a useful format for some things, but basically had no purpose once mp3 players and digital recorders came on the market. Now a cell phone held next to the speaker of my radio works good enough for logging, and if I want better quality a cheap Olympus digital recorder will perform as well as the MD recorder.
I would imagine most of your customers were Realtors®, a group not known for their technical prowess.
I upgraded to a multi-room DVR last year and not only did I eliminate 1 DVR, but the new box runs much cooler. I haven't done any tests, but it seems to be saving some electricity. The second box is a regular single tuner set top and it stays cold until it is turned on.
Did anyone actually read the article? It was full of "what if" scenarios: If we don't get the funding... this COULD be an incredible loss. No one at NOAA would ever find a worthless waste of money like WEFAX over short wave that could be eliminated and no one would miss it, instead they go for the most popular, useful tool they have and threaten to kill that off if they don't get fully funded.
Doesn't anyone realize that the first line of defense for a bureaucracy is to find the most important program and threaten to kill it if it doesn't get what it wants?
Like every time someone mentions selling public land, the first thing some policy wonk at the Dept of Interior mentions is selling off Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. The government could make millions from selling off land around ski resorts that no one would miss, but it will never happen because the bureaucrats will always threaten the worst case scenario. NPR is all too happy to play along, since they have the same problem. I'm sure NPR could find 10% of their operating budget to cut and still provide 95% or more of their current offerings, but instead they go for the jugular and threaten to kill Garrison Keillor.
I wonder if the body panels could be engineered to take advantage of that little bit of static electricity that happens if your tires don't ground your vehicle?
Adding capabilities to Motoblur is one way that Motorola can try to set itself apart in an increasingly crowded Android market.
I would like to see manufacturers release pure Android phones and compete on hardware. It seems to me that a manufacturer could easily set themselves apart by advertising the pure Google experience, much like the Nexus phones do.
Why don't they compete to see who can release the latest update first? I know I'd be more inclined to go with the company that doesn't drag out updates (or keep you guessing) for months.
About the only hardware differences I see are screen design. Oh, and radios that won't work on anyone else's 3G network. I suppose can forgive the second one, since there are so many differences in network design, but still, it would be nice to see a Pentaband chip in something other than the Nokia N8.
Instead we get crippled, buggy phones that never get fixed because they think software development is cheap and easy to do.