The saddest part is that the SciFiction portion of the SciFi channel web site has consistently good stories week after week (though many are admittedly more fantasy than science), and some of them would make excellent TV movie adaptations--or at least provide a more intruging baseline for the plot than Mansquito.
The editor there has commented that someone from the TV side of the network used to review the stories for possible adaptation, but that they stopped a while ago (probably right around the time that SciFi started actually making TV movies by the truckload).
Anyone confused as to what this has to do with hardware? I realize that the web sites in question are run on hardware, but that seems like a bit of a stretch...
At the Athlon 64 launch, AMD brought in a bunch of enthusiasts through a web site contest and gave them all a nice motherboard, processor, and some RAM. Of course, to fly it back, they gave us a nice aluminum laptop case. Airport security seemed to be over it by the time I got there, but I figured they were probably a bit disturbed at first as wave after wave of aluminum cases with loose computer hardware came through.
According to the an article in the subscriber section of the Wall Street Journal web site:
In his written testimony, Mr. Gates said Embedded was "not a general-purpose operating system," and that it was designed merely to "run a single-purpose device like an ATM or cash register." But when Mr. Kuney asked him whether someone could build an operating system with Embedded that could run on a PC, supporting the Office functions, Mr. Gates responded, "Technically you could." Embedded, he said, could be used to build "essentially all of Windows XP except for the installer." The installer is the function to which Mr. Gates was referring when he said that other applications couldn't be installed later.
So as long as people are willing to accept whatever their OEM have installed for the lifetime of their machine, this is a perfectly acceptable solution.
However, it does seem that they could develop an installer for XP Embedded--the fact that it currently isn't up to the task is hardly an excuse.
There has been a program out since one of the betas of Win2K called Transperizer--it no longer seems to have an official homepage (as in development has apparently stopped), but there's a review here. It allows you to set certain windows as transparent based on their window titles.
In other words, this seems kind of like old news--though I'll probably try it out, since I haven't tested WinXP's transparent window code.
Yes, it's great that that Ep. 1 is coming out on DVD, and that the DVD is not one of those throw-in-the-PR-crap-and-some-random-cast-member's -commentary items. However, the tone of voice that the reviewer uses seems to imply that DVD features that have been standard for high-quality DVD's have never appeared until now.
And while around 90% of the movie remains identical to the theatrical version, it appears that George can't leave the film alone.
Yes, it's called the director's cut. I'm personally all for them, but they even appeared back in the days of *gasp* VHS. And some people might be a tad bit annoyed that they can't get the version that they saw in theaters on DVD.
Make a special point to know that the DVD is divided into 50 chapters for those that want to pinpoint the moment they are looking for in a flash. It goes against traditional thinking, but mass chapter listing is quite possibly a new trend for franchise films to start following.
50 does seem higher than many DVDs, I'll give that. But there is a point that's it's too much--you spend more time flipping through the channel selection (there's no way they show all 50 chapters on one screen) than actually watching the scene you want to see.
...instead of having just Dolby 2.0, like the VHS version, DVDs with a moderate home theater will enjoy the vibrancy of Dolby 5.1 Surround EX.
Yes, I'm fairly sure I've heard of the rare DVD have 5.1 surround sound.
The fully animated menus are terrific and randomly reflect (or when chosen) the unique planets of the movies.
I can't make a judgement here, since the reviewer doesn't mention the only aspect I truly care about with menus: do I have to spend 8 hours watching flashy menu transitions just to watch the movie? On the other hand, if the DVD bucks this trend, it's approximately the only DVD in existence that does, and I salute the makers.
As for the huge wait, I would like to point out that this DVD seems ~about the same level in terms of effort as the Gladiator DVD, which was a 2-disc set released simultaneously with the VHS version. If Lucas was _so_ intent on spending hours upon hours to make this DVD, I don't quite understand why they didn't release a standard DVD (with the usual "extra" of 5.1 surround sound and widescreen) at the same time as the VHS, and then market this as the Director's Cut/Collector's Edition, which it obviously is.
One note--there isn't a lot of point to zipping the file, as a set of random bits _better_ not have any patterns that will allow the file size to be reduced.
And yes, one-time keys are absolutely unbreakable when used correctly. That means never using the same bits more than once, and ensuring that no one else can access the keys.
However, as Neal Stephenson pointed out at the CFP 2000 conference, encryption is like a fence thats a mile high and a foot wide--it's powerful, sure, but it's still pretty easy to just sneak a key logger onto most computers.
A great book, and a (somewhat humorous) look at what might happen if the Singularity cannot be reached is A Deepness in the Sky. The common counter-argument to the future of incredibly intelligent AI is that we can't even write a word processor without bugs right now--well, Deepness takes that idea and runs with it. In that future, AI, FTL travel, and all those fun science fiction ideas were never realized. Instead, people have to deal with spending years going between stars, isolated civilazations rising and collapsing over and over again, and 10,000 years of legacy code. The hero of the book gets much of his power from the fact that he actually understands a decent amount of the legacy code.
Vinge has made it fairly clear that he doesn't think that Deepness is where society is going--he seems fairly confident that we'll reach the Singularity.
The task fell to a group of proto-geeks enthused by the
possibilities of the shocking amounts of computer
power suddenly available - about that of a modern day
palmtop computer.
...
Giddy with the power of the TX-0 and another MIT
computer, a DEC PDP-1, the group decided to
recreate the galactic vista of Doc Smith's work using
the 30 line display and mighty nine kilobytes of
memory available on the PDP.
Wow... I guess palmtops in the UK must be behind the times a bit.
Um... the point of the article is that Microsoft's browser _won't_ include a JVM--if people want to eXPerience Java, they'll need to download one.
There's always the chance that this will all backfire on MS and everyone to switch to Netscape to get their JVM. It seems more likely, though, that OEMs will install a JVM with their distributions of XP, and those that don't buy through OEMs will be willing/able to spend a little time downloading.
I've always been a fan of the rocket in Niven/Pournelle's Footfall. They just build a big shield and then throw nuclear bombs beneath it for propulsion. Of course, they're a little more desperate than the US (should) be, as it was the only way to quickly get a whole lot of guns into space quickly at the time.
The smart tags that are included with Office XP, from what I've heard, are entirely different ones than the ones that everyone was up in arms about for IE 6.0. From what I've read, the smart tags in Office are basically Microsoft finally realizing that users don't want their word processor assuming that they need help writing a letter. When a user does something that would trigger an automatic response in prior versions of the software, a smart tag pops up so that people can choose to have help with what they're doing, instead of having to hit undo a bunch of times and scream at their computer that they don't want the poor formatting from the text they just copied and pasted off the web.
The smart tags for IE 6.0, on the other hand, were considerably more insidious. Walt Mossberg's WSJ column today makes the argument that Microsoft has a responsibility as the creator of the most used browser to faithfully reproduce the original web page author's intent when their browser displays a page. Of course, he doesn't mention the fact that ignoring published standards has the same effect--not that Microsoft would ever do that.
According to the interview, and just about every other bit I've read about this game, this is primarily Gray Matter's game (formerly known as Xatrix), with some development input from id. Let's not forget the little guy!
I didn't really make this clear, but I feel that both the m505 and the EM500 are aimed at a different marke than the typical "PDA" market. I still think that, as a "glorified notepad", Palm probably has the advantage--I have yet to see a Pocket PC device for around $100. However, by offering the m505 at the same price range as many PocketPCs, it has to put up with direct comparison.
Editing documents/spreadsheets on a PDA is really fairly easy--I'd never write a 10 page report on one, but for proofreading/editing pre-existing documents it's great. I've also used it for some quick spreadsheet calculations in about 5 minutes that my graphing calculator would take a good 15-20 minutes to program. These were generally done at times where I wouldn't be hauling around a laptop.
About the "saving memory" part: since the PocketPC OS has software such as a word processor/spreadsheet built into the ROM, it takes up no additional storage space. The money aspect was another issue for me, though. By the time I had bought the software to get a lower priced Palm up to the level I wanted, I would have paid just as much as I did for my Cassiopeia.
Finally, for the faster processor, it helps:
Programming: I have Pocket Scheme installed, and have occasionally written programs for certain tasks that I can then quickly access away from my desktop.
Audio decoding: During my current half hour commute every morning, I listen to Audible's audio version of the Wall Street Journal, which (presumably, as Audible has yet to release software for it) I couldn't do with a Palm.
Playing games: definitely not a factor for many people, but I love being able to emulate some of the older gaming systems, while also playing some fairly impressive games.
For people that actually want the power of a real PC without carrying around a laptop, Pocket PCs are great. For people that just want a PDA at a more reasonable price, Palm is the way to go.
~=Keelor
Re:Not carrying in your pocket?
on
Palm In Trouble?
·
· Score: 1
I always take my PDA with me in the car if I go someplace. Whenever I'm going to be out of the car for an extended period of time, I stick it in my backpack that is inevitably also with me. If I am going to be someplace for a while without my backpack, I just stick it in my pocket--it tkaes a good 30 seconds every day to move my PDA around, but it's worth the additional features for me.
If I needed my PDA more easily accessible, I'd probably just buy a belt clip case anyway--it's a bit geeky, but keeping a PDA in my pocket for an extended period of time (as in all day) would probably end up with me breaking it in about a week.
As the owner of a Cassiopeia EM500 and a follower of both the Palm and Pocket PC (WinCE) worlds, I thought I'd just make this quick comparison as an expample of why I think Palm is in trouble (note: the m505 is Palm's recently released high-end PDA)
m505 vs. EM500
Both:
MMC/SD Card slot for expansion
Color screen
Probably about the same price right now, give or take $50 (I got my EM500 for $300 after a rebate that no longer is available)
m505 advantages:
Smaller form factor
Large software base (considerably more compatible with Linux)
Better stability
Better outdoor viewability, probably
Likely more battery life (not positive, but see below)
EM500 advantages:
150 MHz MIPS processor, instead of 33 MHz
Motorla Dragonball VZ processor
16 MB RAM instead of 8 MB
240x320 screen instead of 160x160
Better screen indoors (according to most reviewers)
Adjustable brightness
More functionality out-of-the-box (spreadsheet, ect.) saving memory for many people
As far as battery life goes, I've never had the battery run out on me during a day of heavy use (such as an 8 hour car trip). So it's hardly a problem for me. Then again, I don't listen to MP3s and read a book at the same time, which would decrease the life.
Generally, I would say that the smaller form factor is the only reason I would go with the m505 over the EM500. Personally, since I wouldn't carry either around in my pocket all day, the large size isn't a big issue.
As has been commented on, Palm should be making a killing on Microsoft by offering stuff like the m505 at a much lower price. When I can get a processor that's 5 times as fast, with twice the memory at the same price (even better for me, since I got a EM500 with a 28 MB memory card for $300), I don't see a good reason to go with an m505.
Of course, places like Brighthand show why Palm could continue to proceed--much of the market and resellers are effectively ignoring the PocketPC, and so many reviews of the m505 have only focused on how much better they are than previous Palms--not the fact that they've now managed to catch up with Pocket PCs released a half year ago (in my opinion).
It depends if you consider the following data "personally identifying information."
Anonymous Coward turns on his TV around 5:15 every weekday evening. He then watches the cooking channel for about 45 minutes, then turns his TV off.
On Tuesday, he watches ABC religiously from 6 to 9 PM.
Also, he watches the Cartoon Network every Sunday morning from 3 AM to 4 AM.
(add a few more tidbits, possibly some demographic information such as age and gender to clinch it).
Now, I realize that this information is still not linked to your name, but when you consider that various companies (*cough* DoubleClick *cough*) probably have enough information on you to know many of your habits already, it wouldn't be terribly hard to say that down the road, that information could be linked to "real" personal information, such as your name.
Overall, this article is kind of disappointing. Bricklin has a great description of how the software industry works, their history, and why their piracy prevention has worked well. He then goes on to show how people want to listen to music. Then, in the last paragraph, he says that the music industry is doing it all wrong--not a single example, nor any real ideas on how the music industry should apply what the software industry learned to music.
I don't disagree with Bricklin's ideas, I just think that his article should have balanced his details a bit more. It seems like he devoted so much time to explaining where he came from that he ran out space to explain his ideas.
Agreed. Instead of silicon, which is slightly overabundant (though people might get annoyed when their beaches are ripped up to be turned into computers), let's move to one of the most controversial non-renewable resources we have! I don't understand why people keep researching to find more uses for petroleum--it's not like we need to get rid of some giant surplus!
> the people doing this review become unemployable if they piss the Feds off
Huh?
Last I checked, Dean Perrit is quite comfortable with his job as the Dean (hence the title) of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. I'm pretty sure that he isn't leaving that position just to do a review of Carnivore. Besides, in today's society, if he pisses of the Feds he could be more employable. Definitely not the other way around.
Slashdot Mirror
The editor there has commented that someone from the TV side of the network used to review the stories for possible adaptation, but that they stopped a while ago (probably right around the time that SciFi started actually making TV movies by the truckload).
Anyone confused as to what this has to do with hardware? I realize that the web sites in question are run on hardware, but that seems like a bit of a stretch...
At the Athlon 64 launch, AMD brought in a bunch of enthusiasts through a web site contest and gave them all a nice motherboard, processor, and some RAM. Of course, to fly it back, they gave us a nice aluminum laptop case. Airport security seemed to be over it by the time I got there, but I figured they were probably a bit disturbed at first as wave after wave of aluminum cases with loose computer hardware came through.
Or, you could just get it right and call him Joss Whedon. Either way.
So as long as people are willing to accept whatever their OEM have installed for the lifetime of their machine, this is a perfectly acceptable solution.
However, it does seem that they could develop an installer for XP Embedded--the fact that it currently isn't up to the task is hardly an excuse.
~=Keelor
There has been a program out since one of the betas of Win2K called Transperizer--it no longer seems to have an official homepage (as in development has apparently stopped), but there's a review here. It allows you to set certain windows as transparent based on their window titles.
In other words, this seems kind of like old news--though I'll probably try it out, since I haven't tested WinXP's transparent window code.
~=Keelor
CNN just said that it was an Airbus 300 that nosedived into Queens. At least 4 homes are on fire.
No word on cause.
~=Keelor
Yes, it's called the director's cut. I'm personally all for them, but they even appeared back in the days of *gasp* VHS. And some people might be a tad bit annoyed that they can't get the version that they saw in theaters on DVD.
50 does seem higher than many DVDs, I'll give that. But there is a point that's it's too much--you spend more time flipping through the channel selection (there's no way they show all 50 chapters on one screen) than actually watching the scene you want to see.
Yes, I'm fairly sure I've heard of the rare DVD have 5.1 surround sound.
I can't make a judgement here, since the reviewer doesn't mention the only aspect I truly care about with menus: do I have to spend 8 hours watching flashy menu transitions just to watch the movie? On the other hand, if the DVD bucks this trend, it's approximately the only DVD in existence that does, and I salute the makers.
As for the huge wait, I would like to point out that this DVD seems ~about the same level in terms of effort as the Gladiator DVD, which was a 2-disc set released simultaneously with the VHS version. If Lucas was _so_ intent on spending hours upon hours to make this DVD, I don't quite understand why they didn't release a standard DVD (with the usual "extra" of 5.1 surround sound and widescreen) at the same time as the VHS, and then market this as the Director's Cut/Collector's Edition, which it obviously is.
~=Keelor
And yes, one-time keys are absolutely unbreakable when used correctly. That means never using the same bits more than once, and ensuring that no one else can access the keys.
However, as Neal Stephenson pointed out at the CFP 2000 conference, encryption is like a fence thats a mile high and a foot wide--it's powerful, sure, but it's still pretty easy to just sneak a key logger onto most computers.
~=Keelor
Vinge has made it fairly clear that he doesn't think that Deepness is where society is going--he seems fairly confident that we'll reach the Singularity.
~=Keelor
That's my point--I was just pointing out a(nother) small problem with the article. I just forgot to add the *dripping sarcasm*.
~=Keelor
~=Keelor
Um... the point of the article is that Microsoft's browser _won't_ include a JVM--if people want to eXPerience Java, they'll need to download one.
There's always the chance that this will all backfire on MS and everyone to switch to Netscape to get their JVM. It seems more likely, though, that OEMs will install a JVM with their distributions of XP, and those that don't buy through OEMs will be willing/able to spend a little time downloading.
~=Keelor
Redmond: the land of nmake-believe
~=Keelor
The smart tags for IE 6.0, on the other hand, were considerably more insidious. Walt Mossberg's WSJ column today makes the argument that Microsoft has a responsibility as the creator of the most used browser to faithfully reproduce the original web page author's intent when their browser displays a page. Of course, he doesn't mention the fact that ignoring published standards has the same effect--not that Microsoft would ever do that.
~=Keelor
~=Keelor
~Keelor
Editing documents/spreadsheets on a PDA is really fairly easy--I'd never write a 10 page report on one, but for proofreading/editing pre-existing documents it's great. I've also used it for some quick spreadsheet calculations in about 5 minutes that my graphing calculator would take a good 15-20 minutes to program. These were generally done at times where I wouldn't be hauling around a laptop.
About the "saving memory" part: since the PocketPC OS has software such as a word processor/spreadsheet built into the ROM, it takes up no additional storage space. The money aspect was another issue for me, though. By the time I had bought the software to get a lower priced Palm up to the level I wanted, I would have paid just as much as I did for my Cassiopeia.
Finally, for the faster processor, it helps:
For people that actually want the power of a real PC without carrying around a laptop, Pocket PCs are great. For people that just want a PDA at a more reasonable price, Palm is the way to go.
~=Keelor
If I needed my PDA more easily accessible, I'd probably just buy a belt clip case anyway--it's a bit geeky, but keeping a PDA in my pocket for an extended period of time (as in all day) would probably end up with me breaking it in about a week.
~=Keelor
m505 vs. EM500
Both:
m505 advantages:
EM500 advantages:
As far as battery life goes, I've never had the battery run out on me during a day of heavy use (such as an 8 hour car trip). So it's hardly a problem for me. Then again, I don't listen to MP3s and read a book at the same time, which would decrease the life.
Generally, I would say that the smaller form factor is the only reason I would go with the m505 over the EM500. Personally, since I wouldn't carry either around in my pocket all day, the large size isn't a big issue.
As has been commented on, Palm should be making a killing on Microsoft by offering stuff like the m505 at a much lower price. When I can get a processor that's 5 times as fast, with twice the memory at the same price (even better for me, since I got a EM500 with a 28 MB memory card for $300), I don't see a good reason to go with an m505.
Of course, places like Brighthand show why Palm could continue to proceed--much of the market and resellers are effectively ignoring the PocketPC, and so many reviews of the m505 have only focused on how much better they are than previous Palms--not the fact that they've now managed to catch up with Pocket PCs released a half year ago (in my opinion).
~=Keelor
Anonymous Coward turns on his TV around 5:15 every weekday evening. He then watches the cooking channel for about 45 minutes, then turns his TV off.
On Tuesday, he watches ABC religiously from 6 to 9 PM.
Also, he watches the Cartoon Network every Sunday morning from 3 AM to 4 AM.
(add a few more tidbits, possibly some demographic information such as age and gender to clinch it).
Now, I realize that this information is still not linked to your name, but when you consider that various companies (*cough* DoubleClick *cough*) probably have enough information on you to know many of your habits already, it wouldn't be terribly hard to say that down the road, that information could be linked to "real" personal information, such as your name.
~=Keelor
I don't disagree with Bricklin's ideas, I just think that his article should have balanced his details a bit more. It seems like he devoted so much time to explaining where he came from that he ran out space to explain his ideas.
~=Keelor
~=Keelor
Are you free to answer questions posted here, or does the FBI review your answers first?
The implication of the question was that if the answers to the questions aren't reviewed, then he is free to post whatever he wants.
~=Keelor
Huh?
Last I checked, Dean Perrit is quite comfortable with his job as the Dean (hence the title) of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. I'm pretty sure that he isn't leaving that position just to do a review of Carnivore. Besides, in today's society, if he pisses of the Feds he could be more employable. Definitely not the other way around.
~=Keelor