Been meaning to blog about this for a while, mainly because it is such a welcome departure from the "anime girl" ads of the past. It is a tad "stiff" for my taste, but it is a straightforward professional piece that works for its apparent target. I am particularly impressed by their choice of screenshot which really shows off some of the particular benefits of pen input. One puzzle: the ad states that the battery is 85 wh but it is 75 online. Also, the 3100 battery is now listed as being warm-swappable, but I'm pretty sure it, like the 3000, was listed as being hot-swappable. Wonder what's up with that.
Finally, after 8 weeks of working, in some capacity, every day, packing in 60 hours each week, plus commuting, my two month marathon is winding down. And by "winding down", I mean I have Sunday free and not quite 50 hours a week, plus commutes. Don't know what I'm going to do with all my free time.
And I don't mean the fruit. Noticed the two local Costco stores were offering G5 iMacs a couple weeks ago. Then they got a stack of iPod Nanos. But what really caught my eye were the G4 Mac Minis. Not because they were cool little computers, but because they were packaged in clear plastic shells stacked front to back in a bin. I wanted to pick one up just to grab it and throw it on the checkout.
With all the current talk about illegal immigrants, I think it's worth noting that legal immigration used to consist of stepping off a boat and having your name misspelled, if you were lucky. Many legal immigrants were dragged off boats in chains. Others came willingly to work in dangerous conditions for next to nothing in wages. Those forms of legal immigration are now illegal. But the need for cheap labor still exists. So until we stop demanding "Everyday Low Prices" and "$1 menus'', I believe everyone should shut the hell up and let these people work without benefits for substandard pay. Unless, of course, you're willing to do that sort of work.
Received an email from a visitor who, in addition to asking about my sling pack, mentioned how cool it would be if my posts had links in the ink. Well, don't expect it all the time, but here's one link in ink to even more links in ink.
It's still called Laptop Magazine, but the way its loaded with tablets, it might be due for a name change. Flip open the April 2006 issue and the inner cover 2-page ad is from Toshiba, featuring the Tecra M4. Turn the page and there's an ad for the Motion LS800. A few more pages brings you to an ad for Tatung's tablets. Flip, flip, flip, and there's the OQO. Interestingly, both the OQO and the LS800 have the tag "world's smallest tablet PC". Motion might have to change its ad.
Halfway into the mag, the OQO shows up in a reseller ad, but a few pages after that is my favorite ad: a professional-looking page for the Electrovaya SC 3100, opposite a write-up on Steven Hanley, CEO of DualCor, with a big shot of the little cPC.
As if all that's not enough, their "Best of the Best" has a category for tablets. this month's is the Lenovo X41. And, in their "15 Notebooks in 15 Weeks" contest, there are four tablets: Gateway CX200X (already won), Fujitsu Lifebook P1510, the LS800, and the Scribbler SC3100. That's a good percentage of tablets given their market share.
It occurs to me, after my little exchange with Kevin Tofel about gestures in Firefox, that not everyone realizes how friendly the browser can be with the pen and tablet interface. Sure, there aren't any inking options, but for web surfing with a pen, Firefox can be tricked out pretty well with a few extensions.
[screen grab]
GeckoTIP: If you want to use the floating TIP, you need this extension, refined and maintained magnificently by Malorkus.
All-in-One Gestures: Trick out the gestures however you want. Easily open and close tabs, switch from standard window to full screen, and navigate with intuitive movements.
Grab and Drag: Scroll in any direction without reaching for the scrollbar. Great for long reading or trying to read overly wide pages.
Just found this blog post about my blog. It's from a fellow who goes by Vivek, who I believe I recognize from the Buzz. Anyway, he brings up some good points about the drawbacks of ink blogging, such as lack of searchable text and hyperlinks (no Googlejuice). Thing is, they don't apply to my blog; I addressed those issues when I designed the blog's format (patent pending). Guess I need to add that to the description.
I don't know if I can agree with Dubya on this. Maybe I'm just prejudiced against paper but I can't imagine every war plan looks good on it. For example...
[President Bush said Tuesday the decision about when to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq will fall to future presidents and Iraqi leaders, suggesting that U.S. involvement will continue at least through 2008.]
What about financing the war on credit?
["If I didn't believe we could succeed, I wouldn't be there. I wouldn't put those kids there," Bush declared.]
Bush also believes every bill passed by Congress should be law. If you can't trust two rooms of politicians, who can you trust?
[He also stood by embattled Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"I don't believe he should resign. He's done a fine job. Every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy," he said.]
you'd think they would have considered multiple plans. Did they all look good?
["So failure in Iraq, which isn't going to happen, would send all kinds of terrible signals to an enemy that wants to hurt us and people who are desperate to change the condition in the broader Middle East," Bush said. ]
Yes, it would send a terrible signal. Perhaps if you knew that NOT "every war plan looks good on paper", we could have executed a plan geared for long-term victory, not just "shock and awe".
["The terrorists haven't given up. They're tough-minded. They like to kill," he said Tuesday. "There will be more tough fighting ahead."]
So says the tough-minded President who refuses to give up and chuckles when he talks about his execution record in Texas.
The wife and I went on a little date last night and saw V for Vendetta, based on the comic story by the writer who does not wish to be associated with the movie which is unfortunate because the film was quite good. Anyone expecting blockbuster action will be disappointed; it is more of a psychological drama. My wife was surprised to learn that the original story is more than twenty years old, despite the seeming parallels to more recent history. Perhaps it is simply an observation on how some things never change.
Assuming money is no object (if it were this would be a short post), if I had to buy a tablet today, it would be the Electrovaya SC3100 with an extra battery and charger.
Despite my affinity for things that transform, the slate format has worked out well for me.
Also, even though I don't go on many all-day mobile computing missions, I don't want to worry about battery life. One 75 whr battery is great, but power management is still a concern. However, with a second, hot-swappable, 75 whr battery on hand, I'd never be afraid of running dry.
So basically, I'm looking for a no-worry machine and I think this setup would fit that bill.
One of my students reminded me that today is National (pi) Day, a day to celebrate that irrational value that makes the world go 'round. Here, thanks to the drawing tools of Journal is a demonstration of the powers of (pi).
When I said Vista would support EFI, the next-gen replacement for Bios, I meant it as a slam. After all, Vista is still half a year away, while Mac OS x supports EFI now. However, that half a year looks pretty good now that EFI support is being put on the shelf as Microsoft looks ahead to 64-bit processing, which Mac OS X also already supports. Good job keeping up with last year! Maybe later you can add RSS support to Outlook. Via Life on the Wicked Stage -> apcmag.com
...for more than five years. That's how long it took for President Bush's approval rating to reach an all-time low. Granted, the drop is due largely to prejudice against Arabs, but y'know, it's not like he hasn't used that prejudice to his advantage in the past. So the reason for the drop in the rating is unfortunate. The guy has yet to do anything useful, but his popularity doesn't tank until he offends our anti-Arab mindset. Good job America! Way to show our racism and ignorance!
So basically Apple is offering a month's worth of The Daily Show with John Stewart, 16 episodes, for $9.99, instead of $1.99 a pop. It's a prepayment option, not a subscription service as offered by others, following Apple's philosophy that people want to own their music, not rent it, which makes sense... for music. But why would anyone want to own episodes of a news show. Granted, it's fake news, but it's still topical and loses its spark quickly. I don't want to own episodes and re-watch them; I want to move on to the next one.
Okay, so Origami has been revealed and it's everything we knew it would be, which is not much. Yes, I am glad to see the built-in game controller, on-screen thumb keyboard, and other elements I've wanted, but the prototypes show no advancements and no direction. There's nothing in the hardware we don't already have and the software improvement consists primarily of a new layout for the keyboard. And what is it supposed to do? We've got specs and interface methods. but what do they do? Obviously, I know what a tablet can do, but Joe Average needs a demo, especially if there's any hope of turning the hype into actual interest.
By contrast, the DualCor cPC promises instant access to your PIM data and extended battery life through unprecedented integration between Windows Mobile and Windows XP. There's something to be excited about, and it will be able to run all the same software as a UMPC. Sorry Bill, but I'm saving my excitement for the cPC.
The audit I've been working toward for the past four months has come and gone and we passed. One would think I'd feel pretty good about this, what with me being team leader and all. But really, I could not care less. I'm more excited about not working on that typewriter than I am about getting this job deal. Maybe if I weren't still dealing with clean-up, I'd care a little more.
But sometimes we watch it. As fate would have it, my wife was offered tickets to see the New York City Ballet perform at the Kennedy Center this past Saturday. The offer came that morning from her boss, who received them from her sister in-law but could not scramble together in time to go. Despite my afternoon teaching schedule, we sprang into action and got to the Kennedy Center fifteen minutes before curtain. I found it enjoyable, although the two twenty minute intermissions were welcomed breaks. I am quite pleased to have basked in that bit of culture.
Well, looks like all that "no one could have foreseen" BS is starting to smell. It appears the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina, from the broken levees to the shattered Superdome, were indeed "foreseen", according to the videoconferences between Bush and his staff. Can't wait to hear his excuse now: "Uh, it was foreseen, but, you know, there were other possibilities too."
I especially like how he didn't ask any questions in his final briefing. "Do you not ask any questions?" Guess I got the answer to my question.
