Palm GPS :yes:
J'en ai rêvé, Garmin l'a fait! :D
iQue 3600: un Palm state-of-the-art... ou presque (seuleument 200 MHz), avec recepteur GPS peu encombrant et logiciel de cartagoraphie intégrée. Et pas n'importe lequel puisqu'il s'agit du logiciel haut de gamme de chez Garmin, dont l'expérience en matière de navigation GPS n'est plus à prouver!
Là où ça devient vraiment intéressant (pour moi en tout cas) c'est qu'il peut également lire les mp3 et en stéréo (chez Palm, tous les PDA n'ont pas la stéréo...)
Cet iQue me semble donc le complément indispensable au téléphone mobile dans la mesure où il lui apporte ce qui lui manque: GPS, mp3 avec suffisament de mémoire, grand écran...
Il n'y a qu'une chose qui me chagrine: pas de bluetooth intégré! Comment je fais pour dialoguer avec mon téléphone alors? Garmin n'aurait pas intégré Bluetooth pour cause d'interférences avec le module GPS. Je me demande ce qui se passe si je rajoute un module Bluetooth dans le slot SD Card théoriquement prévu pour...
The hard disk storage access problem
Quoting Jim Gray again:
"We have an embarrassment of riches in that we're able to store more than we can access. Capacities continue to double each year, while access times are improving at 10 percent per year. So, we have a vastly larger storage pool, with a relatively narrow pipeline into it.
We're not really geared for this. Having lots of RAM helps. We can cache a lot in main memory and reduce secondary storage access. But the fundamental problem is that we are building a larger reservoir with more or less the same diameter pipe coming out of the reservoir. We have a much harder time accessing things inside the reservoir."
You really ought to read the whole interview. It's very interesting. :yes:
Of course, I don't really have a clue on that subject but as the discussion moves to access times (currently at 5 ms which is still very long!), I always wonder why those HD manufacturers don't put multiple heads on the arm... For example, if you'd put 4 heads on each arm, you'd have to move the arms 4 times less to access any cylinder on the disks. Considering disk rotation to the right block marginal (remember at 15 000 rpms an a half rotation only takes 33 µs!), that would almost divide access times by 4 instantly! :!:
I cannot even imagine this being a cost issue... so what :?: (ahem I mean, what am I missing... ;) )
Netscape: the end :`(
It has been learned through public and private sources that AOL has cut or will cut the remaining team working on Mozilla in a mass firing and are dismantling what was left of Netscape (they've even pulled the logos off the buildings). Some will remain working on Mozilla during the transition, and will move to other jobs within AOL.
Je suppose qu'il fallait s'y attendre... après l'annonce des accords de partenariat à la limite de l'indécence entre AOL et Microsoft il y a quelques semaines...
Bien sûr Mozilla continue en tant que projet open source. AOL finance même la toute nouvelle Mozilla Foundation à hauteur de 2 millions de dollars... sans doute pour se donner bonne conscience.
La bonne nouvelle c'est que cette fondation est dirigée par Mitch Kapor (qui rajoute 300 000 dollars de se poche, tout de même...) et avec le soutien de Red Hat ainsi que de Sun Microsystems.
Voilà qui devrait donc assurer l'avenir de Mozilla... en revanche, on peut craindre le pire dans l'esprit du grand public: si le rival historique Netscape n'est plus, on aura vite fait de considérer que ~` IE a définitivement gagné la bataille des browsers webs et qu'il est vain de se préocupper d'une "hypothétique" concurrence... ou encore de "soit-disant" standards... '~ Hum... pas bon du tout ça... :no: :no: :no:
Je commence à me sentir obligé de passer à Firebird par simple solidarité... :-/
Firebird, bleh |-| [en]
[Version française]
Almost everyday, I read someone saying "why would someone still use [a suposedly abandoned] IE when he could indeed use a [supposedly better] Firebird ?".
Hold on guys... you know brainwashing may not be the best way to evangelize, right? ... and could we at least try to sound a little less naïve? :crazy:
I'll tell you why: because, as of today, Firebird is just a prototype, far from offering the usage comfort IE does! :(
Firebird may be good at respecting web standards... nevertheless pretty poor at respecting windows standards. And the sad thing is, the average user reacts to that! Even unconsciously!
For example: while Windows menus look "outset" by default, Firebirds menus look "inset"; toolbars cannot be moved (I'd like to have those links in that wide empty space right to the menu); the windows resizing handle is invisible; etc... globally Firebird really doesn't fit into the OS it tries to conquer...
Add all those annoying details like the ALT texts not being displayed (even when no TITLE is specified) or the insertion point not being blinking whenever there happens to be an animated GIF on the page... and you'll probably understand why Firebird just doesn't feel natural to plain Windows users. (Not mentionning incompatible javascripts...)
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that IE is the best browser. As a developer, I favor Mozilla... but as an end user, I definitely favor IE! By the way, as an end-user, I really don't need to open 30 pages simultaneously that often... thus, not even needing tabbed browsing that much... ;D
(Once again, don't get me wrong: I think Firebird has a great future and can't wait to see if the next versions get better on these flaws... but it just isn't ready to seduce the Windows world yet!)
