Holy Fucking Shit.
The Panoram PV290 DSK is compatible with nearly all computing platforms including Apple Mac OS, HP, SGI, Sun and Windows/NT.
Wow. I can’t even imagine what Quake looks like on this thing. Jesus.
Win2k Install vs. OS X PB Install
Just a little bit of a rant here: I’ve installed OSX Public Beta on a couple of machines. The longest it’s ever taken? About 12 minutes (on a PowerBook G3 400). The shortest it’s ever taken? About 8 minutes (on a G4 450). I’m installing Windows 2000 Professional Edition (like there’s any other…) on VirtualPC on that same Powerbook, and it’s taken over an hour and a half. I understand that VPC is to blame for SOME of this, but jesus. Even Setup says that it will take between 45 minutes to an hour. Fuck that shit. Damn. I don’t care if OSX does flop. I’m never switching to Windows. I’ll use my G4 and OS9 forever if I have to.
'Audrey' To Bring The Web Home?
From CNN:
Palm announced a new web-gadget: the Audrey. It looks an awful lot like a toilet bowl with an 8″ screen. Will you buy one? Not me. I already have an iMac, I don’t need something LESS powerful, with a tiny monitor to do FEWER things, for only a couple hundred bucks cheaper (they’re $499-$599, depending on the color… I don’t understand, either).
I guess what I think about when I see another one of these things really isn’t whether they’ll sell (they won’t), but how much of a bitch it would be if these damn things became commonplace, at least from a development standpoint. We have enough problems with 4 major browsers (well, 2 MS browsers, if you believe some people) to code for, let alone potentially millions of these things. All of them happen to run their own bastardized versions of god-knows-what, adhering to HTML standards I don’t think, and they don’t even really have video cards, at least not good ones. I’ve viewed my personal design site on an iOpener, and it took FOREVER to load, and looked like shit.
At least they might reduce the amount of shitty Flash out there.
HA. Right.
Sun's Earnings Equal Apple's…And Yet…?
Sun announced today that its earnings were about 30 cents a share, exceeding the 26 cent forecast, so everybody’s happy about that. Apple’s earnings were exactly the same, and yet everybody is clamoring to explain that it’s the end of the world. So because analysts THOUGHT Apple was going to do better, and THEY were wrong, Apple’s stock gets devalued by everyone? WTF? Can someone explain that to me? I just don’t get it.
Then again, maybe it’s Tai’s fault. :>
I Choose Not To Choose er… Microsoft.
From MSNBC:
From the day the IBM PC was released in 1981, analysts have been predicting Apples death. When Microsoft released Windows, and again when they got it to work in version 3.1, analysts predicted Apples demise. When it was bleeding red ink in the mid-90s the obituaries were written.
Nice. Not only is there a light at the end of this relatively small tunnel, there might not even be a tunnel at all.
According to WebTrends…
According to WebTrends, Macintosh users account for approximately 2.79% of all web users. So, apparently, we don’t really count. Next time you’re designing a site, just ignore us. After all, we just design the web, we don’t really need to use it.
New Stupid Device Lets You 'Feel' The Web
From ABCNews.com:
‘A tiny motor built into the mouse vibrates and moves the mouse to simulate a number of sensations that correlate to what is on the screen. Its a little tricky to imagine, but think of a raised Braille sentence. That is how every letter or line feels on a Web page with this technology.’
And we need this damn thing? Of course not. You only need Braille if you’re blind. I can’t even conceive of any practical use for this. It’ll just be another stupid technology that clients will want just for the hell of it.
It's Like a CD, Only SUPER!
From ABCNews.com:
SACD [SuperAudioCD] boosts the sampling frequency to a whopping 2.82 Mhz. Translated, that means the machine takes measurements of the sound wave 2,822,400 times per second 64 times the rate of a standard CD.
There’s a new type of CD on the market, and as you read above, it’s better than a regular, un-super CD. I’m a little interested, however, in what the actual difference is, sound-wise. I mean, CDs sound fine to me; hell even MP3s sound fine on a decent pair of headphones. This new CD also requires (what is currently) a $1200 player. I dunno. You know that guy down the street with a recording studio in his house, or a $10,000 home entertainment system? He’ll have one. But he’ll still be using Napster, I bet, cause he probably has DSL, too.
Sun Opens StarOffice
Awesome. Sun has made StarOffice open source. Sweet. What a great move. In a few years, it’ll be: ‘Micro-who?’
Sony Can't Even Think for Itself
From CNN:
The newly designed VAIO QR sheds the magnesium-grey outer shell seen on its conventional line of laptops and adopts a blue-black translucent plastic surface that is so dark it is almost opaque.
And with a light grey aluminum pipe surrounding the outer edges connecting into a fold-out handle, it is reminiscent of Apple Computer’s iBook laptop….No plans are in place yet for a wider choice of colors, Sony said.
WTF? Sony might actually be the one to pull this off. Those VAIOs were selling pretty well, as I recall, without the translucent casing. So ‘industry’ analysts will be excited when someone else can sell a translucent computer besides Apple, except they were selling anyway. What a crock. Can NO ONE come up with an idea of their own that sells well? At least they’re not coming in multiple colors (did you ever notice of all the iMac ripoffs, none ever came in yellow, because Apple never released a yellow one?).The writer of this article also misses the translucent point to begin with. ‘The aim is the same — to make laptops a fashion statement as much as portable personal and business information tools. Uh, the iMac or iBook weren’t fashion statements (I won’t go into the well-worn discussion of why the translucency worked on the iMac and not on the HP Pavilion or those ugly-as-fuck pink TVs). Why can’t any of these people get it?
Also, try to find a picture of this damn thing on Sony’s site. It’s impossible. Their’s is possibly the worst navigation system I’ve ever seen. If you try to go to the VAIO section, you end up on a page telling you that the page has moved, and why don’t you try this hideous multiple-dropdown-with-graphics-and-a-go-button-on-the-wrong-side thing?
Maybe I’m wrong. Let me know.