Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Mark Kent on Saturday 14 June 2008 09:49 : \____
>
>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
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>>> ____/ The Ghost In The Machine on Thursday 12 June 2008 19:02 : \____
>>>
>>>> As for retinal projection...I'd have to research the issue.
>>>> At best, it's an issue of comfort, and one has to be
>>>> careful regarding using same during driving, without some
>>>> careful programming (and a head position/accelerometer
>>>> attachment to give one a HUD-like display -- and even then,
>>>> lag enters into the picture).
>>>>
>>>> At worst, it's an expensive gewgaw until mass production
>>>> can drive down its price.
>>>
>>> One option that you have is a tiny portable monitor that's worn close my
>>> one's eye, maybe on some eyeglasses. I saw this type of technology on the
>>> Discovery Channel when I was about 10. For input, a glove with sensors might
>>> work also, so you can work on the go rather than sit down (for projected
>>> keyboard). Asus is currently working on miniature and portable projectors.
>>> They could be attached even to cellphones.
>>>
>>
>> I agree that such technology is very interesting, but there are some
>> wider changes going on at the moment which just cannot be ignored.
>> For example, the number of mobile devices in use around the planet
>> massively outweighs the number of "desktop PCs". The only computing
>> area which is seeing growth at the moment is the ultra-portable market,
>> like Elonex, Asus eee and so on. In fact, destkop sales had already
>> been more or less caught up by portable machines anyway.
>>
>> Look at the interest in LiMo, OpenMoko, iPhone and Android, in the Nokia
>> 800, 810 and so on.
>>
>> But in terms of the actual likely replacement for desktop for most people,
>> then the household appliance is going to be the remaining spot, which will
>> be served from something combining the functions of mythtv and Sony PS3
>> (although Sony PS3 can run mythtv, of course), with storage being taken
>> up by something like Bubba's Excito (get one, it's the consummate device,
>> just plug it in and it works).
>>
>> Whilst there will be some people who retain a desktop PC (probably
>> including myself), we'll be the same people who still have a vinyl
>> record player (like me), or an old leak valve amplifier, (like me),
>> or analogue radios of various kinds (like me), and so on.
>>
>> For 99.999% of the population, the internet starts and stops on the
>> web, so anything with a browser will do the trick. Once sms and im
>> is properly integrated (look at where gizmo is going, for a very good
>> example indeed), then you should ask yourself that for most people,
>> what use will a desktop be?
>>
>> We now have a situation where, eg., in the fair city of Manchester
>> (the 3rd largest city in England, once a global industrial powerhouse
>> and still a significant economic player), 28% of people do not have a
>> land-line at all. Consider - no land line implies no ADSL, and no ADSL
>> implies no desktop PC. They do have, instead, a mobile phone.
>>
>> These numbers are from Ofcom this year, indeed, I used them in a
>> presentation in Barcelona last week. I'm afraid that the desktop is
>> very much a 1980s technology which has gone through its full adoption
>> cycle, and is on its way out, at least for most people.
>
> Some decades ago you'd laugh at the idea of a computer on a desk, let alone on
> every desk. But we don't have 'computer chambers' anymore, do we?
Indeed not, or at least, not in the main. There are still telecom
hosting sites, and of course, data centres, offering specialist
capability beyond that of an ethernet wire and 240Vac, but for most
uses, they are no longer required.
>
>> There will always be exceptions, but that's what they are, exceptions.
>
> Another example: Sony WalkMan versus iPod nano. Quite a difference in terms of
> scale and function.
>
The WalkMan is a very interesting technology, in particular, what's
mostly forgotten (or indeed, never recognised) by most people is what
enabled the walkman at all...
********
*Cobalt*
********
Had it not been for cobalt, we'd never have had those tiny headphones
which everyone now takes for granted. Up until that point, miniature
headphones had terrible performance, with virtually no bass response at
all, indeed, little response below several hundred c/s or Hz, and
equally, virtually no response above about 4khz or so. They were really
only good for speech, and even that, at much less than PSTN quality
(real PSTN quality, not CS-ACELP).
And, one other thing - contra-rotating flywheels. Sony, when faced with
the problem of trying to get a cassette player to maintain tape-path-speed
within tight enough constraints to play music at the same pitch, realised
that the solution lay in exactly the same place as the solution for
keeping time which the Royal Navy had required, scores of decades before,
in order to measure longitude whilst navigating at sea. Minimise the
weight of the flywheels to just enough stored energy, and use a balanced
pair in contra-rotation. Thus, any energy gained suddenly by one wheel
is immediately balanced by an equivalent loss in the other one, so a
constant speed can be maintained.
By combining both cobalt-based headphones and contra-rotating flywheels,
the first walkman was born. Suddenly, we were able to carry music
around at a fraction of the size of previously "portable" players, with
headphones of commensurate diminutive size.
Of course, there'd been portable players before, but they changed speed
when moved around, and there were excellent headhpones around, too, look
up Koss & Beyer Dynamic for my favourites of the era.
What was special about cobalt? Well, it produces a much more
concentrated magnetic field than iron, so that a sounder of much greater
capability can be created in smaller dimensions.
The walkman ruled the roost for years, until the portable CD players
started to appear. They were never so robust as cassette players in
terms of being banged about during use, but CDs were smaller, stored
more music, and lighter, so the overall larger form factor and reduced
robustness were massively outweighed by being able to carry so much more
music.
Of course, now, just look at a all-electronic music and video player.
Mrs Mark's Archos has an 80Gig drive in it... and she uses
noise-cancelling headphones. How things have moved on.
--
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