Re: Broadcom to (finally!) make their wireless drivers FOSS?
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 8:49 PM, Michael ODonnell wrote: > > Just got wind of this via osnews.com: > > http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/55418 No question about it, the code is already merged in the linux-next staging tree by Greg Kroah-Hartman. They're even trying to get the firmware image for it into Dave Woodhouse's linux-firmware tree (though have hit some snags due to a very quirkily worded license agreement on it, so back to the drawing board for a moment on that). -- Jarod Wilson ja...@wilsonet.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Broadcom to (finally!) make their wireless drivers FOSS?
Just got wind of this via osnews.com: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/55418 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Widget to manipulate parallel port signals ?
On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 17:28 -0400, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 14:50 -0400, Michael ODonnell wrote: > > > >http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/pyparallel.html > > > > Sounded very appealing to me (partly because it'd serve as > > another excuse to learn more Python) > > I'm not sure what went wrong for you. > http://pyserial.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/pyserial/trunk/pyparallel/parallel/?view=tar > > I attached the download (I grabbed it out of curiosity). It looks like > it is still getting updated: touched Aug 30, 2010. Sorry about cluttering your in boxes with an extraneous attachment. I thought I was sending the email to Michael and not the whole list. Another few years and I won't even be trusted to drive an iPad ;) -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp DLSLUG/GNHLUG library http://dlslug.org/library.html http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rsshtml/recent/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rss/recent/dlslug ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Widget to manipulate parallel port signals ?
On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 14:50 -0400, Michael ODonnell wrote: > >http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/pyparallel.html > > Sounded very appealing to me (partly because it'd serve as > another excuse to learn more Python) I'm not sure what went wrong for you. http://pyserial.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/pyserial/trunk/pyparallel/parallel/?view=tar I attached the download (I grabbed it out of curiosity). It looks like it is still getting updated: touched Aug 30, 2010. I have used pyserial in the past and found it to be very helpful. I did a lot of serial (RS485, RS422) programming in C 20 years ago. pyserial provided a nice interface when I needed to dust off serial skills 6 or 7 years ago. I don't have a real parallel interface to test against, but simply looked at the code out of a sense of nostalgia. If the other code proves problematic, you can fall back on pyparallel. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp DLSLUG/GNHLUG library http://dlslug.org/library.html http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rsshtml/recent/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rss/recent/dlslug pyserial-parallel.tar.gz Description: application/compressed-tar ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 2:07 PM, Ryan Lee Stanyan wrote: > On Thursday, September 09, 2010 12:59:40 pm Tom Buskey wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > > > On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 09:00 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > > > > I'm not sure I'll ever buy a $400 tablet. > > > > > > I agree with that sentiment for myself. We have an iPad here on loan > to > > > make sure the web sites we support display nicely. The iPad is a great > > > device for those folks who have trouble with "regular" mouse/keyboard > > > interfaces. > > > > > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > > > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > > > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. > > > > My Dr.'s office has been using TabletPCs since 2000. It's fantastic > when > > he can look up all my records to see a graph of my cholesterol. > > > > He has a custom "Family Practice" suite behind it all, I'm sure. It > works > > very well for him. > > This seems to be a very good application for slate computers. Instead of > bringing in a huge folder of charts which I can only assume are originals, > you > could bring in a slate. Although I can only imagine issues arising from > sanitation and HIPPA compliance. > Well, it's a Family Practice office, not a Surgery room. Sanitation is the same as for the clipboard & folders he used to use 10 years ago. It's probably cleaner then the folders were. For HIPPA, it's the same as any other computer on the network in his office. He doesn't have access to records in the parent hospital. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Widget to manipulate parallel port signals ?
On Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:07:04 -0400 "Michael ODonnell" wrote: > > One possibility might be pyparallel. > > Thanks. Forgive me for appearing stoopid; the Installation instructions > on that page say, "Extract files from the archive, open a shell/console > in that directory and let Distutils do the rest", which sounds very nice > but I'm not sure what archive they're referring to. It's not you. "Let Distutils do the rest" is NOT user-friendly, and it's their fault for falling into what's essentially an "RTFM" attitude. They assume you know all about setup.py, etc. I apologize. I don't like that part of the Python culture very much myself. I pulled down the source tree, built it, and saw that "import pyparallel" works. (The import statement! I didn't try actually toggling register bits -- there's a working printer attached to that parallel port. :) I imagine for the moment that Dave Johnson's lcdraw.c is going to be what you want. But I'll be happy to help (I'd be curious about it myself) if you want to pursue pyserial/pyparallel further. -Bill ___ Log follows. I thought first to put it in a private response to OP because of the length, but if someone wants to find it later this is a better place. Summary: $ svn co https://pyserial.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pyserial pyserial $ cd pyserial/trunk/pyparallel $ sudo python setup.py install $ python Python 2.7 (r27:82500, Jul 18 2010, 13:03:24) [GCC 4.1.3 20070929 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-16ubuntu2)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import parallel >>> dir(parallel) ['IEEE1284_ADDR', 'IEEE1284_DATA', 'IEEE1284_DEVICEID', 'IEEE1284_EXT_LINK', 'IE EE1284_MODE_BECP', 'IEEE1284_MODE_BYTE', 'IEEE1284_MODE_COMPAT', 'IEEE1284_MODE_ ECP', 'IEEE1284_MODE_ECPRLE', 'IEEE1284_MODE_ECPSWE', 'IEEE1284_MODE_EPP', 'IEEE 1284_MODE_EPPSL', 'IEEE1284_MODE_EPPSWE', 'IEEE1284_MODE_NIBBLE', 'IOCSIZE_MASK' , 'IOCSIZE_SHIFT', 'IOC_IN', 'IOC_INOUT', 'IOC_OUT', 'PARPORT_CONTROL_AUTOFD', ' PARPORT_CONTROL_INIT', 'PARPORT_CONTROL_SELECT', 'PARPORT_CONTROL_STROBE', 'PARP ORT_EPP_FAST', 'PARPORT_STATUS_ACK', 'PARPORT_STATUS_BUSY', 'PARPORT_STATUS_ERRO R', 'PARPORT_STATUS_PAPEROUT', 'PARPORT_STATUS_SELECT', 'PARPORT_W91284PIC', 'PP CLAIM', 'PPCLRIRQ', 'PPDATADIR', 'PPEXCL', 'PPFCONTROL', 'PPGETFLAGS', 'PPGETMOD E', 'PPGETMODES', 'PPGETPHASE', 'PPGETTIME', 'PPNEGOT', 'PPRCONTROL', 'PPRDATA', 'PPRELEASE', 'PPRSTATUS', 'PPSETFLAGS', 'PPSETMODE', 'PPSETPHASE', 'PPSETTIME', 'PPWCONTROL', 'PPWCTLONIRQ', 'PPWDATA', 'PPYIELD', 'PP_FASTREAD', 'PP_FASTWRITE ', 'PP_FLAGMASK', 'PP_IOCTL', 'PP_MAJOR', 'PP_W91284PIC', 'Parallel', 'VERSION', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', '__package__', '__path__', ' fcntl', 'i386', 'linux', 'os', 'parallelppdev', 'sizeof', 'string', 'struct', 's ys', 'unix'] >>> ___ Unedited: 100909 Z 14:22:49EDT (-0400) Thursday 2010 Sep 09100909 EDT 10:22:49 laura$ new /tmp/pyserial/ laura$ mkdir -p /tmp/pyserial/; cd /tmp/pyserial/ laura$ svn co https://pyserial.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pyserial pyserial Error validating server certificate for 'https://pyserial.svn.sourceforge.net:44 3': - The certificate is not issued by a trusted authority. Use the fingerprint to validate the certificate manually! Certificate information: - Hostname: *.svn.sourceforge.net - Valid: from Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:21:55 GMT until Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:03:23 GMT - Issuer: Equifax Secure Certificate Authority, Equifax, US - Fingerprint: ea:d1:3e:01:cc:16:e9:9b:c2:ab:4b:0c:cc:26:5f:25:78:ea:89:b4 (R)eject, accept (t)emporarily or accept (p)ermanently? t Apyserial/trunk Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/LICENSE.txt Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/CHANGES.txt Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/MANIFEST Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/setup.py Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32 Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/giveio Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/giveio/GIVEIO.C Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/giveio/SOURCES Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/giveio/README.TXT Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/giveio/MAKEFILE Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/simpleio.c Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/remove_giveio.bat Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/_pyparallel.c Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/README.txt Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/simpleio.dll Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/install_giveio.bat Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/loaddrv_console Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/loaddrv_console/loaddrv.h Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/loaddrv_console/loaddrv.c Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/loaddrv_console/makefile Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/src/win32/makefile Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/README.txt Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/parallel Apyserial/trunk/pyparallel/parallel/parallelutil.py A
Re: Widget to manipulate parallel port signals ?
I wrote: > Anybody know of a (commandline or GUI) utility that I could use to > wiggle/sense the individual data/control lines of a parallel port? ...and got these responses: http://pyserial.sourceforge.net/pyparallel.html Sounded very appealing to me (partly because it'd serve as another excuse to learn more Python) but the blurb on that WWW page makes reference to some "archive" that apparently doesn't exist. http://centerclick.org/temp/lcd.tgz Some home-grown tools written by Dave Johnson. The entire collection compiled easily and the lcdraw tool worked well enough for my purposes - I didn't try any of the others. http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/portcontrol/portcontrol.c I did not try this as the source codes indicate that it invokes ioperm() and then engages in direct manipulation of some hardcoded I/O ports from user space, something I was avoiding as not flexible enough for my purposes. http://parashell.sourceforge.net/ I did not get around to trying this. My thanks to all. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 12:59 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > It works very well for him. The tablets we tried could be mastered with a little practice, but they were frustrating when simply handed out to "Grandpa". An interviewer was required to drive the tablet. The iPad seems to just work for anyone. We'll see what happens when they actually start using iPads for real. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp. 1 Court Street, Suite 378 Lebanon, NH 03766-1358 voice: 603-653-8139 fax:320-210-3409 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thursday, September 09, 2010 12:59:40 pm Tom Buskey wrote: > On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > > On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 09:00 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > > > I'm not sure I'll ever buy a $400 tablet. > > > > I agree with that sentiment for myself. We have an iPad here on loan to > > make sure the web sites we support display nicely. The iPad is a great > > device for those folks who have trouble with "regular" mouse/keyboard > > interfaces. > > > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. > > My Dr.'s office has been using TabletPCs since 2000. It's fantastic when > he can look up all my records to see a graph of my cholesterol. > > He has a custom "Family Practice" suite behind it all, I'm sure. It works > very well for him. This seems to be a very good application for slate computers. Instead of bringing in a huge folder of charts which I can only assume are originals, you could bring in a slate. Although I can only imagine issues arising from sanitation and HIPPA compliance. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 10:34 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 10:08 -0400, Benjamin Scott wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > > > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > > > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. > > > > I'm curious; what makes the iPad better for that than the 'doze > > tablet? I would think a form is a form, regardless of platform. > > Essentially the touch features were "bolted on". The issues were dumb > things such as the touch area of a radio button being too small - still > sized for a mouse pointer. It was easy for your finger to miss it. > There was poor alignment between the touch sensitive spot and the screen > image. Screen size handling still depended on the menus or touching the > drag boundaries exactly right. I've heard that Win7 has improved the > touch support, but I have not checked myself. The folks at the medical > school are Apple fans anyway so once the iPad proved to be a nice > device, I don't think they saw any point in checking back on the Windows > tablets. (I have no Droid experience.) > Microsoft really missed out on the tablet market. OneNote is a fantastic pen enabled, note taking app. But everything else seems like they bolted it on. MS Office had a chance to really integrate Pen, but the director didn't like tablets. You think having your CEO as a big proponent of Pen would've been incentive. Also, Windows TabletPCs seem way too expensive. > > > (I've only used an iPad once briefly, in a store. I thought it > > seemed like a neat toy, but couldn't see myself spending $400 just to > > play an electronic marble maze game.) > > True. > > Still people buy digital picture frames, book readers, and such. The > iPad is great at *all* of those kinds of uses. > > FWIW - I have a SmartQ 7 MID (no keyboard). It runs a customized Ubuntu. I can apt-get debian and Ubuntu for ARM packages. Some dialog boxes run off the screen (800x480). An Xterm goes under the virtual keyboard (matchbox). For the most part, it works decently w/ the pen. Nothing like an iPhone/IPad or Palm. I've heard updates to the OS (firmware) or to Android work better on the SmartQ. I'd imagine stock Ubuntu/Fedora would have issues with dialogs on a screen that isn't 1024x768 (netbooks) too. I mainly wanted a color ebook reader (comics) with some web browsing. The SmartQ was ~$220 and it fits. There will be a number of Android Tablets RSN that will be better and hopefully as cheap. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 09:00 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > > I'm not sure I'll ever buy a $400 tablet. > > I agree with that sentiment for myself. We have an iPad here on loan to > make sure the web sites we support display nicely. The iPad is a great > device for those folks who have trouble with "regular" mouse/keyboard > interfaces. > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. > > My Dr.'s office has been using TabletPCs since 2000. It's fantastic when he can look up all my records to see a graph of my cholesterol. He has a custom "Family Practice" suite behind it all, I'm sure. It works very well for him. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Using Python to encode cassette recordings (David Beazely)
>From the Sometimes-We-Didn't-Even-Have-1s" Dept., a tour de force on David Beazely's blog about encoding Kansas City Standard audio using Python and Matplotlib. To drive a Superbooard II...you remember them, don't you? "On many old machines, cassette output is encoded using something called the Kansas City Standard. It's a pretty simple encoding. A 0 is encoded as 4 cycles of a 1200 Hz sine wave and a 1 is encoded as 8 cycles of a 2400 Hz sine wave. [...] "Python has a built-in module for reading WAV files. Combined with Matplotlib you can easily view the waveform. >>> import wave >>> [6 more lines of Python] Waveform plot (!) [...much more...no kidding...pix..."LOAD" on the Superboard II...] http://dabeaz.blogspot.com/2010/08/using-python-to-encode-cassette.html _ P.S. He ends with: "The power of Python never ceases to amaze me--once again a problem that seems like it might be hard is solved with a short script using nothing more than a single built-in library module and some basic data manipulation. Next on the agenda: A Python script to decode WAV files back into text files." ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs
Benjamin Scott writes: > On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > > > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. > > I'm curious; what makes the iPad better for that than the 'doze > tablet? I would think a form is a form, regardless of platform. Dunno about iPads, but I tried to use one of the Windows touchscreen computers when I was at Best Buy, a couple weeks back--I think it was an HP `TouchSmart'..., and all I can remember about the experience is that it was something that I didn't want to remember. > (I've only used an iPad once briefly, in a store. I thought it > seemed like a neat toy, but couldn't see myself spending $400 just to > play an electronic marble maze game.) Oh, is *that* where Tom's "$400" figure came from? I have to admit that I haven't been paying much attention to the iPad-- there are too many things that are actually new or interesting (or both!) on the market, competing for attention ;) -- "Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr." ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 10:08 -0400, Benjamin Scott wrote: > On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. > > I'm curious; what makes the iPad better for that than the 'doze > tablet? I would think a form is a form, regardless of platform. Essentially the touch features were "bolted on". The issues were dumb things such as the touch area of a radio button being too small - still sized for a mouse pointer. It was easy for your finger to miss it. There was poor alignment between the touch sensitive spot and the screen image. Screen size handling still depended on the menus or touching the drag boundaries exactly right. I've heard that Win7 has improved the touch support, but I have not checked myself. The folks at the medical school are Apple fans anyway so once the iPad proved to be a nice device, I don't think they saw any point in checking back on the Windows tablets. (I have no Droid experience.) > (I've only used an iPad once briefly, in a store. I thought it > seemed like a neat toy, but couldn't see myself spending $400 just to > play an electronic marble maze game.) True. Still people buy digital picture frames, book readers, and such. The iPad is great at *all* of those kinds of uses. > -- Ben > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp. 1 Court Street, Suite 378 Lebanon, NH 03766-1358 voice: 603-653-8139 fax:320-210-3409 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs
David Rysdam writes: > > An agent or agents purporting to be Tom Buskey said: > > > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > (Oh, and: is there a better shorthand than "PMP"? I keep reading > > > > "android pimps", and it just... doesn't sit right...) [...] > > MID - Mobile Internet Device. See SmartQ, CrunchTablet, even the Archos > > devices. > > > > PMP is a Portable Music Player. Most MIDs can do music. > > > > If the Palm PDAs had WiFi, they'd qualify as MIDs. > > Which kind of proves that's not the right name for the category. Yes. > I just call them "tiny computers" or "portable computers". And one > day, that will sound as strange as "electronic computers" does > today. Looking back..., I think they were actually called "palmtops" (or "palmtop computers", if you like longhand) when they were first introduced in the late 1980s. Maybe we can try that, again. -- "Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr." ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs
Tom Buskey writes: > > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 11:05 PM, Benjamin Scott wrote: > > > > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen > > wrote: > > > (Oh, and: is there a better shorthand than "PMP"? I keep reading > > > "android pimps", and it just... doesn't sit right...) > > > > PIMEED.[1] > > > > -- Ben > > > > [1] Portable Individual Media Experience Enablement Device. Now > > available with Genuine People Personalities! Only from Sirius > > Cybernetics Corporation! > > MID - Mobile Internet Device. See SmartQ, CrunchTablet, even the Archos > devices. > > PMP is a Portable Music Player. Most MIDs can do music. Seems like the market is big on synecdoche, right now--pick one random capability, and name the device by it. It's like people just can't handle the notion of `portable computer' yet. I remember someone being dumbfounded by the sight of a Nokia tablet, last year, apparently having difficulty with it not being a smartphone. The guy trying to explain it to him seemed just as dumbfounded, struggling to find any kind of straightforward terminology for it-- eventually settling on: "It's a computer. It's basically a very tiny laptop". When I went into Radio Shack to buy an Archos 5", last night, the salesguy there said: Nobody *ever* buys that GPS--it's got way too many extra features. D'oh. > If the Palm PDAs had WiFi, they'd qualify as MIDs. Turnabout: what does my *netbook* qualify as, if it *doesn't* have Wi-Fi? > They may not have had the functionality of today's Android devices, > but they got the price point. I'm not sure I'll ever buy a $400 > tablet. The smaller ones are more like $100. http://www.archos.com/ says that even the 10.1" one is `less than $300'; but maybe that's what you mean-- `I'm not sure I'll ever even *see* an Android tablet as expensive as $400'? (I don't remember how Palm Pilots were priced, back in the day...) -- "Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr." ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam wrote: > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. I'm curious; what makes the iPad better for that than the 'doze tablet? I would think a form is a form, regardless of platform. (I've only used an iPad once briefly, in a store. I thought it seemed like a neat toy, but couldn't see myself spending $400 just to play an electronic marble maze game.) -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:10 AM, David Rysdam wrote: > I just call them "tiny computers" or "portable computers". If I'm being serious, I call them "handhelds". (I kind of liked "palmtop" (by analogy with desktop and laptop) but it never took off and so sounds funny.) I would usually make a distinction between something like my Palm Centro (which is a general-purpose computer which can play music) and an early-generation iPod (which can only play music). The former is a handheld computer, the later is a music player. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 09:00 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > I'm not sure I'll ever buy a $400 tablet. I agree with that sentiment for myself. We have an iPad here on loan to make sure the web sites we support display nicely. The iPad is a great device for those folks who have trouble with "regular" mouse/keyboard interfaces. We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp DLSLUG/GNHLUG library http://dlslug.org/library.html http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rsshtml/recent/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rss/recent/dlslug ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
An agent or agents purporting to be Tom Buskey said: > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 11:05 PM, Benjamin Scott wrote: > > > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen > > wrote: > > > (Oh, and: is there a better shorthand than "PMP"? I keep reading > > > "android pimps", and it just... doesn't sit right...) > > > > PIMEED.[1] > > > > -- Ben > > > > [1] Portable Individual Media Experience Enablement Device. Now > > available with Genuine People Personalities! Only from Sirius > > Cybernetics Corporation! > > > > > MID - Mobile Internet Device. See SmartQ, CrunchTablet, even the Archos > devices. > > PMP is a Portable Music Player. Most MIDs can do music. > > If the Palm PDAs had WiFi, they'd qualify as MIDs. Which kind of proves that's not the right name for the category. I just call them "tiny computers" or "portable computers". And one day, that will sound as strange as "electronic computers" does today. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 11:05 PM, Benjamin Scott wrote: > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen > wrote: > > (Oh, and: is there a better shorthand than "PMP"? I keep reading > > "android pimps", and it just... doesn't sit right...) > > PIMEED.[1] > > -- Ben > > [1] Portable Individual Media Experience Enablement Device. Now > available with Genuine People Personalities! Only from Sirius > Cybernetics Corporation! > > MID - Mobile Internet Device. See SmartQ, CrunchTablet, even the Archos devices. PMP is a Portable Music Player. Most MIDs can do music. If the Palm PDAs had WiFi, they'd qualify as MIDs. They may not have had the functionality of today's Android devices, but they got the price point. I'm not sure I'll ever buy a $400 tablet. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/