Plucker (plkr.org) does a good job converting pdfs to it's own format - as long as the pdfs aren't all images. So it's a good solution if you don't mind a translation step.
I do most of my reading on a PDA too (Sony nx80, because the jogdial is a must-have for ebook readers, IMHO) and while it's immensely useful for tech docs, it's not something I can read for hours. Maybe you have younger eyebones than me, but after 30 mins or so, I have to give my eyes a break for a while.
I do agree that I'd like to see something smaller, but I guess I'd have to actually see how it looks and feels in person. If the device is decently durable and I can throw it onto a table like I would with a (paper)notebook, I don't mind a larger format. It'll make for less scrolling around.
you're not taking into account the IMPOSSIBLY WASTEFUL distribution model for books. The distributor sells the bookstore X copies, and the deal is that after some time the bookstore can rip the covers off the ones it haasn't sold and sell them back for some large fraction of the original sale price. These books are then, I presume, dumped into the recycling vats. So that $4 book also has to cover the manufacturing costs for the other 9 copies that didn't sell.
ps: I'd welcome any corrections on this, I just have this info secondhand.
I have a serious hankering for this device. I can fit a giant shitton of PDFs on a 1GB memory stick. As long as I'm not forced to run some shitsack software to get stuff onto it, I may actually get one of these. I guess it's a choice between this and a Wii.:(
Well, I'm not sure either is particularly easy to learn, but I think the reason people don't use GIMP is because it just doesn't work right. My commercial artiste friends simply can't use GIMP for several technical reasons I don't really understand, mostly relating to color handling and layer behavior.
If you can remove something - the appendix for example - and not notice it's gone, I'd say that's a pretty good indication that it didn't do anything. Same deal for eyes on blind cave fish, wings on ostriches, a whale's hind legs, etcetera. No amount of 'out-of-the-box' thinking is going to arrive at a use for hind legs on a whale.
> Well, personally, I don't want to spend 8 hours every day holding my hands up in front of me tapping a screen...
Nobody said anything about waving your arms in front of you 8 hours a day - I'd imagine you'd hold it in your lap like a big book. Go check out a tablet pc, then imagine not having to use a stylus, but being able to use all your fingers to manipulate objects onscreen.
Re:The problem with guis is they don't work
on
GUIs Get a Makeover
·
· Score: 1
> You shouldn't have to be trained in a good command line app -- you should only have to be trained in how to use a shell.
I don't see any functional difference for end users. For most, the shell IS an app, in the same
>Training a few grandparents how to use computers, a GUI requires more training then i would ever imagine. I would have taught them command line as a comparison, but i didn't have the time, and they couldn't type very well.
I always hear "I would have but..."
I think that perhaps training gramps to use bash is a little more complex than teaching him how to use explorer.
Re:The problem with guis is they don't work
on
GUIs Get a Makeover
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
> There's nothing you can't do in a shell that a gui provides extra ability for, when you've been well trained or decided to -learn- how to use a text mode interface well.
I've gone ahead and highlighted the critical flaw in your well-thought out argument.
People aren't well-trained in anything. The entire point of having a computer for most people is to make the computer SOLVE problems for them, not CAUSE problems that require training to fix. Most people don't want to take the nontrivial amount of time required to learn how to use a command prompt well, and it's for those people who GUIs are for.
Total agreement. Your input devices are going to define they interface far more than anything else. We're stuck in a rut with GUIs because people are used to them, and a control people are used to is worth two in the bush, so to speak. Witness everyone here kvetching about the ribbons in Vista. There's nothing particularly wrong with them, in situ, it's just that they're new. Which is awful.
IMHO, the next big innovation in UI design will be touchscreens, hopefully of the multitouch variety. I just don't see people talking to their computers effectively. I had a voice-control setup on my computer a few years ago, and it worked fine, but I couldn't use it because I felt like such a tremendous dork... "Computer! Play Song!" Ugh!
Well, I don't really know enough to say one way or the other. But they did actually address the concerns in the article - whether they addressed it to your satisfaction or whether it's a lot of handwaving hogwash, I really can't say.
Dunn replied: "Kevin, I think this is very clever. As a matter of course anything that is going to potentially be seen outside HP should have Mark's approval as well."
On Feb. 23, Hunsaker sent an e-mail to Dunn. "FYI, I spoke to Mark a few minutes ago and he is fine with both the concept and the content."
> We should be moving towards societies with more freedom, not less.
Which is exactly what China has been doing over the last 20 years or so. Fundamental change in a country of 1.3 billion people takes time, unless you want them to just give up and let organized crime run the country, like the Soviets did.
Slashdot Mirror
Beats the current federal strategy of "cut taxes and spend."
Of course, that's like saying "having an eye gouged out beats getting disemboweled," but I'm just sayin'.
no no no, nanotech. So probably some super-miniaturized version of those scrubbing bubbles things.
Honestly, how do you get a gig like that? Seems pretty cushy.
> Good PDF support would be great.
Plucker (plkr.org) does a good job converting pdfs to it's own format - as long as the pdfs aren't all images. So it's a good solution if you don't mind a translation step.
I do most of my reading on a PDA too (Sony nx80, because the jogdial is a must-have for ebook readers, IMHO) and while it's immensely useful for tech docs, it's not something I can read for hours. Maybe you have younger eyebones than me, but after 30 mins or so, I have to give my eyes a break for a while.
I do agree that I'd like to see something smaller, but I guess I'd have to actually see how it looks and feels in person. If the device is decently durable and I can throw it onto a table like I would with a (paper)notebook, I don't mind a larger format. It'll make for less scrolling around.
you're not taking into account the IMPOSSIBLY WASTEFUL distribution model for books. The distributor sells the bookstore X copies, and the deal is that after some time the bookstore can rip the covers off the ones it haasn't sold and sell them back for some large fraction of the original sale price. These books are then, I presume, dumped into the recycling vats. So that $4 book also has to cover the manufacturing costs for the other 9 copies that didn't sell.
ps: I'd welcome any corrections on this, I just have this info secondhand.
I've seen an image of images (!) on the devices. From what I can tell it looks fine. Or as fine as any image will in 2-bit grayscale, anyway.
datasheets are always PDFs.
:(
I have a serious hankering for this device. I can fit a giant shitton of PDFs on a 1GB memory stick. As long as I'm not forced to run some shitsack software to get stuff onto it, I may actually get one of these. I guess it's a choice between this and a Wii.
Judge a country not by its words but by its actions.
So, no.
I don't know about you guys, but I always draw my sketches in vi with SVG.
Well, I'm not sure either is particularly easy to learn, but I think the reason people don't use GIMP is because it just doesn't work right. My commercial artiste friends simply can't use GIMP for several technical reasons I don't really understand, mostly relating to color handling and layer behavior.
Yes, the Simpsons is your go-to source for tech review.
The newton handwriting recognition was actually quite good after some training, Kearny's ire notwithstanding.
If you can remove something - the appendix for example - and not notice it's gone, I'd say that's a pretty good indication that it didn't do anything. Same deal for eyes on blind cave fish, wings on ostriches, a whale's hind legs, etcetera. No amount of 'out-of-the-box' thinking is going to arrive at a use for hind legs on a whale.
> Well, personally, I don't want to spend 8 hours every day holding my hands up in front of me tapping a screen...
Nobody said anything about waving your arms in front of you 8 hours a day - I'd imagine you'd hold it in your lap like a big book. Go check out a tablet pc, then imagine not having to use a stylus, but being able to use all your fingers to manipulate objects onscreen.
> You shouldn't have to be trained in a good command line app -- you should only have to be trained in how to use a shell.
..."
I don't see any functional difference for end users. For most, the shell IS an app, in the same
>Training a few grandparents how to use computers, a GUI requires more training then i would ever imagine. I would have taught them command line as a comparison, but i didn't have the time, and they couldn't type very well.
I always hear "I would have but
I think that perhaps training gramps to use bash is a little more complex than teaching him how to use explorer.
so awesome.
> There's nothing you can't do in a shell that a gui provides extra ability for, when you've been well trained or decided to -learn- how to use a text mode interface well.
I've gone ahead and highlighted the critical flaw in your well-thought out argument.
People aren't well-trained in anything. The entire point of having a computer for most people is to make the computer SOLVE problems for them, not CAUSE problems that require training to fix. Most people don't want to take the nontrivial amount of time required to learn how to use a command prompt well, and it's for those people who GUIs are for.
Total agreement. Your input devices are going to define they interface far more than anything else. We're stuck in a rut with GUIs because people are used to them, and a control people are used to is worth two in the bush, so to speak. Witness everyone here kvetching about the ribbons in Vista. There's nothing particularly wrong with them, in situ, it's just that they're new. Which is awful.
... "Computer! Play Song!" Ugh!
IMHO, the next big innovation in UI design will be touchscreens, hopefully of the multitouch variety. I just don't see people talking to their computers effectively. I had a voice-control setup on my computer a few years ago, and it worked fine, but I couldn't use it because I felt like such a tremendous dork
> first off, why anyone would enter their social into google
To see if anyone out there is publishing it, so that I might send them a nasty letter?
right up there with "Giants trade Bonds, Snow for Carrot-Top" and "Heat-seeking flying lizards swarm city"
> It's really not addressed.
Well, I don't really know enough to say one way or the other. But they did actually address the concerns in the article - whether they addressed it to your satisfaction or whether it's a lot of handwaving hogwash, I really can't say.
it's addressed in TFA, if you'd care to read it.
From TFA:
> We should be moving towards societies with more freedom, not less.
Which is exactly what China has been doing over the last 20 years or so. Fundamental change in a country of 1.3 billion people takes time, unless you want them to just give up and let organized crime run the country, like the Soviets did.
> I was just saying that not every bad thing you hear about China is propaganda.
:-)
That's certainly true.
And we can definitely agree on the 3 points.
Hooray!