Posts by Pinky
23 posts • joined Friday 31st October 2008 13:43 GMT
Posted in RIP Psion PLC: You're with Motorola now
Re: an excuse to post my PDA collection pictures again
So you bought the other Amstrad PenPad! Did you ever actually use it for anything? Still have mine in a drawer after replacing it with a 5mx (which is not used as much it should be, but in use every now and then).
Re: US protection racket
In which case the company that is being sued to the point of bankruptcy can take MS to court for filing a malicious suit. All they need to do is pay the lawyers... Ah, I'll get back to you on that.
Re: jet toys
Sounds familiar - in Nov 2001 we flew out to the States, and had a load of stuff removed from hand luggage (including a CAT5 cable that I'd forgotten was in my laptop bag!). After fighting the on board meal with the flimsiest plastic cutlery I've ever come across, I was almost unable to contain my laughter when they handed out the drinks - plastic cups, but glass miniatures of the various alcoholic beverages! Considering this was a flight out of Glasgow....
Posted in Linus Torvalds drops F-bomb on NVIDIA
Re: Great now we have a child
Yeah, we really all must remember that using expletives does nothing but destroy the message you're putting out. After all, the whole Live Aid thing was wiped out when Bob Geldof asked us to give him our f*$%ing money IIRC!
Interface destruction won't destroy the data
Unless pressing the red button does the same as the green, then blows to chips, there's no way this will enter any military systems. just going down the physical destruction of the chips won't suffice - I have recovered data from damaged flash chips in the past. Not easy, but well within the budget for a government body.
@Shades: "cheap" is relative
Comparing the specs of the Epic-M with the Sony F-950 (the last camera I worked with), I'd say the Red gear is definitely cheap. In a previous life (seems like aeons ago now), I was building accessories for Sony, Thomson GV, etc that cost more than the Red chassis.
The cost of the lenses, mounts, storage etc are the same no matter what kit you buy, so "good enough" is right.
For the sake of full disclosure, my boss at that time is now with Red, and the accessories have been integrated into the Red product line.
Re: "throttling non-WinPhone devices"
<- You do understand the subject, don't you?
There is of course no way that the in-store phones are all fixed-IP, and on a separate subnet with full QoS, while every other phone has to use DHCP to gain access to a shaped-traffic subnet, with all HTTP/HTTPS traffic bandwidth limited. That would be unfair!
Posted in Polaroid develops Android camera combo
Didn't Samsung do that
My brother in law used to have a Samsung phone that was built around a compact camera, which I always thought was a great idea. Unfortunately, I don't think there was any marketing around it, so the "camera with a simple phone in it" disappeared, leaving us with the "phone with a simple camera in it"!
Posted in Sony HMZ-T1 3D head mounted display
HMD Sensor datasheet?!?!
"If you understand Japanese, you can check out the HMD's 0.7in sensor "
First time I've seen a HMD system with image sensors!
On a serious note, this does look like a nice piece of kit, so long as the displays have the right capabilities - no indication of what the colour gamut is, and the fill factor of the pixels becomes relevant at these apparent scales.
OK, so we can bend the screen ...
... but what about the rest of the hardware? Although flexible PCBs have been around for many years, I have yet to see a flexible IC, and certainly not a BGA (which is pretty much essential if you want to keep the size down).
Posted in Apple wins for now: no Galaxy 10.1 in Oz
Legal requirement on enforcing patents?!?!
".. heaven forfend that Samsung try releasing products that are actually original. Let's just blame Apple for trying to defend their IP as the law *requires*."
Not sure where you got your legal training, but I would guess you're confusing trademarks with every other form of "Intellectual Property". Of course, this does mean that the constant vague "IP infringement" claims can be declared a success (I have always held that the marketing guys are driving this to cause this confusion, and not to actually win any cases.)
For future reference, trademarks must be enforced, but all other IP (copyright, patents etc) can be enforced selectively, simply by giving the infringer of copyright or patent exclusivity a free license (which can be retrospective).
Posted in HTC 7 Pro WinPho 7 smartphone
@Jim Coleman
The fact that this story has been front-page for 3 days now would indicate something is a little on the odourous side!
Posted in Dutch get wound up over invisible SMS
GSM triangulation in real-time...
...is indeed available. I used to work in an office a few yards from what was Trisent Communication, and the demos were pretty impressive. The service was able to pinpoint my mobile to within 5' indoors, while the GPS in the car was accurate to 5m, and was sod-all use without a clear view of the sky! If it wasn't for the fact that the service was so expensive, and the only way to find the results of the triangulation was from the website, I'd have replaced my GPS.
Using innovations ...
... is prevented by the slow patent process?!? Since when? As soon as the patent application is filed, the patented "innovation" is protected, and the originator can start using/licensing it. The only thing I can see happening as a result of this the a slow migration towards the US system (approve the application as soon as possible, and let the courts decide if the patent is valid when the holder enforces it).
FAIL, as that is what the EPO will hopefully do!
Not sure this is safe..
I'm pretty sure that firing tight-beam lasers at a perfectly non-lambertian screen has been done before, but we'd usually regard that as disco lighting, and tend to avoid looking down the beam. There's also the minor question of creating a coloured image - the blue source could be a bit a pain (literally)!
This looks like it was dreamt up on a Friday evening, and some idiot took the beer mats to the patent office.
Not worth considering IMHO
Having seen the LG attempts at no-specs 3D imaging, I wouldn't even think about buying this kind of thing. The lenticular (why does FF offer testicular as a spelling?!?) lenses result in a multitude of sweet-spots, but if you're off by just a couple of inches, the effect is rather nauseating.
Saying that, all these "3D" TVs are crap as far as I am concerned - I want some actual depth to the images, rather than the "magic eye" images that don't require you to cross your eyes.
Not patents - they're selectively defended..
You're thinking of trademarks. Trademark dilution results in the effective loss of said mark (e.g Hoover). Patents can be licensed and enforced very selectively, which is why companies like Microsoft love to game the system like this.
Personally, I would like to see the text of this agreement - I'd be willing to bet that there is no specific patent mentioned in the agreement, making this a no-sue covenant, not a patent licensing agreement (which should state the patents and covered products).
And theDMCA gets a mention because..?
Considering that the iPlayer is only supposed to work in the UK, there is no reason to worry about the DMCA being invoked (at least by the BBC). I have been in discussions like this before (on RDCP license requirements when looking at HDMI connections), and every time the fact that something MAY lead to a POSSIBLE legal question in the US prevents UK businesses doing things (entirely within the UK).
Can anyone tell me which door takes me out of the 51st State?
If discussing bypassing DRM is illegal...
... how can effective DRM ever exist?
Engineer1: This new scheme should work!
Engineer2: No, because if this bit check is bypassed...
[Enter police force]
Police Officer: Sorry, you just discussed circumventing DRM, you'll have to accompany me to the local torture cells.
Engineer1: We can ship it - no one found a flaw!
On second thoughts, maybe this is a good thing! ;-)
@Ian
Take a little look at what your fingers are poised over - that layout is technology that was designed about 13 decades ago (I am assuming that you have QWERTY - if not make that 7 decades ;). It is known to be broken - it was designed to slow typists down.
Not all that is broken REQUIRES fixing, particularly when it comes to user interfaces. Hell, even the UI for cars is far from optimum, but personally I doubt any manufacturer has the cojones to fix that.
Was deletion the only option?
Never mind deleting the comment - every blogging system I've seen supports hiding comments. No deletion, no destruction of evidence, and no "tacit approval" defense available. Of course, this does require the user to actually RTFM.
Posted in LG X110 netbook
Serial port but no VGA?!?!
According to page 3 of the review, this comes with a serial port, and no VGA out!
Yeah, I know, it'll be someone mis-reading the images - a sub-D connector is always a serial port to some. But a real RS232 port could be a boon to some of us!
The one with the FPGA dev boards in the pocket, ta.
Posted in Sharp shows image-retaining LCD
@Peter: FLC wasn't a CRL invention, but...
... to enlighten the likes of Stu as well, FLCDs are used in certain niche markets, and draw no current with a static image. The smectic FLC is used in most of the microdisplays, and can switch state faster than the usual nematic LCs used in TFTs. I haven't had a chance to check the tech being shown off by Sharp, but it could be they have overcome the thin-film requirements for smectic FLCs (which is why they aren't used in TFTs).
