Looking forward to running a presentation solely off your PDA?

NOTHER tiny toy is yet to hit athe market: a matchbox-sized data projector that can be mounted onto a cellular phone or a PDA. Its projected resolution can be as high as 2048×1280 pixels and power consumption is not a major issue.

Light Blue Optics Ltd (LBO) has developed a revolutionary technology for miniature laser projectors dubbed PVPro. Today they announced their latest demonstrator unit, which is only 3.78 cubic inches in volume, and is similar in size and shape to a typical matchbox.

The gadget is of particular interest to me, perhaps owing to a personal vision. For quite while I have been wishing to have my PDA connect to external displays (analogous to projectors) at greater ease — something which is possible already, using third-party hard/software for Palm. Rather soon, one would hope, with miniature data projector readily-available and peripherals likewise, full-scale computers can unfold off our small pockets.

Related item: Spherical Display

When one projects builds directly upon another

PEN-SOURCE software development models are said to be poor. Some would argue that they suffer from sudden discontinuation of projects which people truly rely on. There is a fallacy which suggests that non-profit project ‘die’ more often. The GPL , however, makes the contrary a truth.

Take WordPress for example. It is a predecessor of b2, which became dormant in the past. Netscape and its evolution towards Mozilla and Firefox resulted in what is arguably the best Web browser, among many browsers in existence. AbiWord, KOffice, OpenOffice and StarOffice share some common fundamental codebase and they all (if not most) are here to stay. This comes to show the power of looking upon the shoulders of others, constantly extending in this code-driven community.

My favourite Open Source initiative is probably KDE. K in KDE stands for “Kernel hackers” (arguably so) and I believe it holds much promise. One day, it might even serve as the front-end in most workstations worldwide, possibly under a different name (a successor project). On the contrary, commerical
software out of use is disposable POS on the shelf. It is plenty of work that is simply wasted.

As tribute to KDE, I recently posted a KDE translucency illustration (local copy of screenshot) to the KDE Web site.

Amateur attempt at Linux on the Palm

ALMSOURCE, former software makers of Palm (after fragmentation and before re-joining), have finally announced the inevitable transition to Linux. To be more specific, they intend to release a Linux-based mobile phone to the market. This exciting move will mark the death of Palm OS. It also explains the delayed Cobalt, as well as the relatively dormant state of Palm O/S.

Access subsidiary PalmSource revealed details of its Linux-based mobile phone operating system, Tuesday at 3GSM in Barcelona.

With the millions of existing Palm users, think of the exposure Linux is yet to get. This also puts behind some worries that Palm have sidled with Pocket PC.

Recent rumours spoke of a possible Palm takeover. Even Apple were at some point mentioned as a possible candidate/runner-up.

Old items on Palm and Linux:

• Palm Headed for Linux
• Tablets, Palms, Linux and Cobalt
• Linux on the Tungsten E

VER the past few years I have come to loathe telephones. At first, it was just plain disdain for cellular communication. That kind of disdain dates back to the day when it was first introduced to in the public sector (as opposed to prestigious businesses). More recently, I decided to disconnect my phone or refuse to answer, having already avoided giving out my numbers. Snail mail likewise, but it’s an entirely different topic, which I will attempt to steer away from.

Why have I chosen to abstain from verbal communication that is job-related? For starters, electronic form saves space. I tend to scan every important paper anyway, but it is not searchable and it is time-consuming to acquire a copy. It is also difficult to file sensibly.

Moving on to a major pitfall of telephone-based comminication, negotiating tasks over the telephone is not efficient in terms of time. Moreover, nothing is logged in textual form, despite the rapid and rich communication, which is vocal. On top of that, vocal output from streams of consciousness is unorganised. It is the flawed way of talking, which results in serialisation of improperly-correlated ideas. In practice, this means that TODO lists that are agreed upon over the phone will be unpolished and badly written.

One more important issue is uncertainty and inaccuracies. I am inclined to prefer E-mail as it can be re-polished before the point of despatch. It can also looked at as a reference later. It can be duplicated, even forwarded to other people without any effort. Think about an E-mail containing “I spoke to Fred Bloggs yesterday and he said that…” versus just a forwarding of some mail within seconds.

Finally, to balance this discussion and give an opposite viewpoint, research suggests that textual communication can be damaging to relationships between peers. It conceals sensible tone and manner and adds tremendously to ambiguity.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I’ve only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

Few desktop environments can brag being as
user-friendly and simple-to-use as GNOME

widespread fallacy is that Linux remained command-line-based and customised to be used by geeks only. Those who have actually tried Linux throughout this century consider this presumption to be utter rubbish. Certain Linux distributions are as easy to use as Mac OS, let alone Windows, which requires security-related ‘skills’ and offers poor utilities at its base.

A larger-scale, market-driven survey concludes that Linux is not tougher to manage than Windows.

The proof is in a survey of 200 managers by Enterprise Management
Associates, a market research firm. It was sponsored by Levanta, which
makes a Linux-based change management product.

Here’s the bottom line. According to EMA, “Sophisticated management tools now allow Linux management to be fast, effective, and inexpensive. With far lower acquisition costs, Linux is now a cost-effective alternative to Windows.”

Another timely article points out the value of Open Source in the corporate world.

A few years ago, releasing once-secret source code to the public would have been a highly unusual first move for a company with a newly acquired software product line.

Related item: Free Software – What Does it Truly Mean?

ERELY everyone has come across corrective discrimination wherein gender/race quotas are specified, and in turn promote diversity. We should be taking similar principles to diversify computing. This would be an intersting experiment, from which all would benefit. The move has an increasingly-justified place in the avoidance of software monoculture, which must no longer be accepted or even accommodated.

The results of an operating system monocolture leads to a discriminative cycle. Non-Windows users often get punished in terms of service. This must be reversed using litigious powers, much like the observation that people with special dietary requirement (e.g. vegetarians) get served first. How does one change the law? By staging a positive showcase for his/her arcane platform.

CCASIONALLY I feel like as though we are witness to an ethical corruption. There is a thriving industry out there that takes advantage of people being drunk or stranded. In other circumstances, social weaknesses are to be blamed, in what can only be described as ‘cattle effect. I’ll present a couple of examples.

Airports charge a lot for food from hungry people whose access to outside shops is fictional at best. These foods can have their price elevated beyond the standard rates. This includes large chains of junk food, whose price should be moderated and remain relatively consistent. Yet, their price can sometimes match that of a fine restaurant in an airport and the same rules apply to other ‘exotic’ locations like pricy resorts. Such obscene prices are tolerated owing to the lack of alternatives; the lack of choice.

Cash machines are another example. Some of them charge extra fees for withdrawals (commission) and that often exploits nights out and ‘alcohol sprees’. This extra fee is reminiscent of the existence of gambling machines that benefit from the state of one’s mind, which is possibly under the influence of alcohol.

Lastly, and on to a point which is equally important, there are example which could become generic examples in their own rights. Fashion continously changes to encourage people to buy new clothes and replace the old ones. Showing and boasting the ‘hip effect’ culture (okay, I’ll use the word “cool”) in reference to cars, lifestyle et cetera is another factor. It urges people to expend money on a variety of unneeded luxuries. Christmas is finally said to be more of a necessity to motion in industry than it is a religious holiday. But on we live, and on we spend. Industry is led to a state of contentment.