asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) (06/06/91)
I once had a dream, It consisted mainly of taking a manufacturer, Encyclopaedea Brittanica, TimeLife books and Douglas Adams; then rolling them all together to work on a project. The project was a small hand held computer with a colour screen, the whole of the en. Brittanica, all of the TimeLife books, detailed maps of the world, spell checker/dictionary/thesorus and a powerfull calculator all built in. Inscribe 'Don't Panic' in large friendly letters on top, then market it as the first earth version of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy... Now I know more about what goes on, I know that this is not (yet) technically possible, we're talking 116Gbytes with real time image decompression and a 640 x 400 pixel 3" colour screen. However if HP were to take the 95LX case, install the 48S as a calculator, then using current 4mbit EPROM/ROM technology put a compressed version of the Brittanica in with a dict/spell chk/theus (about 32Mbyte), they could produce something that would be very useful to many people. They may even be able to get Douglas Adams consent to inscribe 'Don't Panic' in large friendly letters on top... Any one think this would catch on?????
bdahlen@zephyr.cair.du.edu (Robert L. Dahlen - U. of Denver USA=) (06/07/91)
In article <7444@acorn.co.uk> asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) writes: >I once had a dream, It consisted mainly of taking a manufacturer, >Encyclopaedea Brittanica, TimeLife books and Douglas Adams; then rolling >them all together to work on a project. The project was a small hand held >computer with a colour screen, the whole of the en. Brittanica, all of the >TimeLife books, detailed maps of the world, spell >checker/dictionary/thesorus and a powerfull calculator all built in. >Inscribe 'Don't Panic' in large friendly letters on top, then market it as >the first earth version of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy... > >Now I know more about what goes on, I know that this is not (yet) >technically possible, we're talking 116Gbytes with real time image >decompression and a 640 x 400 pixel 3" colour screen. However if HP were to >take the 95LX case, install the 48S as a calculator, then using current >4mbit EPROM/ROM technology put a compressed version of the Brittanica in >with a dict/spell chk/theus (about 32Mbyte), they could produce something >that would be very useful to many people. They may even be able to get >Douglas Adams consent to inscribe 'Don't Panic' in large friendly letters on >top... > >Any one think this would catch on????? SONY thinks so. See the Wall Street Journal 5-31-91 & 6-3-91 for articles relating to the new DATA DISCMAN supposedly coming to a store near you around Christmas. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert L. Dahlen - Director, Information Systems & Technology University of Denver - Denver, Colorado 80208 (303) 871-4385 INTERNET:bdahlen@du.edu BITNET:bdahlen@ducair
grover@big-joe.cs.unlv.edu (Kevin Grover) (06/07/91)
In article <7444@acorn.co.uk>, asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) writes: ) I once had a dream, It consisted mainly of taking a manufacturer, ) Encyclopaedea Brittanica, TimeLife books and Douglas Adams; then rolling ) them all together to work on a project. The project was a small hand held ) computer with a colour screen, the whole of the en. Brittanica, all of the ) TimeLife books, detailed maps of the world, spell ) checker/dictionary/thesorus and a powerfull calculator all built in. ) Inscribe 'Don't Panic' in large friendly letters on top, then market it as ) the first earth version of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy... ) ) Now I know more about what goes on, I know that this is not (yet) ) technically possible, we're talking 116Gbytes with real time image ) decompression and a 640 x 400 pixel 3" colour screen. However if HP were to ) take the 95LX case, install the 48S as a calculator, then using current ) 4mbit EPROM/ROM technology put a compressed version of the Brittanica in ) with a dict/spell chk/theus (about 32Mbyte), they could produce something ) that would be very useful to many people. They may even be able to get ) Douglas Adams consent to inscribe 'Don't Panic' in large friendly letters on ) top... ) ) Any one think this would catch on????? It would give me a kick! (Might be a little on the expensive side though) -- +-------------------------------------------------+----------------------+ | Kevin Grover UNLV Computer Science | Home of the | | grover@cs.unlv.edu Las Vegas, Nevada | Running REBELS | +-------------------------------------------------+----------------------+
<U46837@uicvm.uic.edu> (06/07/91)
>I ONCE HAD A DREAM, IT CONSISTED MAINLY OF TAKING A MANUFACTURER, >ENCYCLOPAEDEA BRITTANICA, TIMELIFE BOOKS AND DOUGLAS ADAMS; THEN ROLLING >THEM ALL TOGETHER TO WORK ON A PROJECT. THE PROJECT WAS A SMALL HAND HEL >COMPUTER WITH A COLOUR SCREEN, THE WHOLE OF THE EN. BRITTANICA, ALL OF THE >TIMELIFE BOOKS, DETAILED MAPS OF THE WORLD, SPELL >CHECKER/DICTIONARY/THESORUS AND A POWERFULL CALCULATOR ALL BUILT IN. >INSCRIBE 'DON'T PANIC' IN LARGE FRIENDLY LETTERS ON TOP, THEN MARKET IT AS >THE FIRST EARTH VERSION OF THE HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY... I recently heard Douglas Adams speak at a book signing for "Last Chance to See", a book he wrote with Mark Carwardine. This is a non- fiction book about their travels around the world to find animals on the verge of extinction. He spoke about his hope to make a CD-Interactive version of this book, since he took thousands of pictures and there were many more animals that he wanted to make mention of. He said he would make the CD once a standard was set for CD-I and CD-I units were around (I'm not familiar with CD-I, this is just an understanding of what he said). I don't believe that the unit that you propose is that far out, since SONY has some sort of CD "book terminal" thing-a-mi-jig that is a CD-rom reader with a LCD display. The purpose is to buy books on CD and view them with this electronic reader. This product is already available in Japan, was recently shown at the Consumer Electronics show in Chicago, and is supposed to be on sale in the U.S. this year. This unit is supposed to be able to have a 50000 page capacity; now does this mean 50000 LCD screens worth of info or 50000 paper-back bookish pages, I don't know and am interested in finding out. I believe that we'll see such units in our life time for sure, if not within ten years. It would be nice to have this as a CD-Interactive/PC unit that is set up with a GO operating system with a color touch-screen display. What would be even cooler is if this were a system that clipped onto your belt like a beeper, with another device that electronically stimulated your optical nerves to produce the display. That I believe is a little far off, but still within my lifetime. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| || GENE JABLONOWSKI || || <U46837@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU> || || CHICAGO, ILLINOIS || |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
brothers@apple.com (Dennis Brothers) (06/11/91)
References:<7444@acorn.co.uk> <1991Jun10.085757.1@vmsa.technion.ac.il> In article <1991Jun10.085757.1@vmsa.technion.ac.il> ben@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL writes: > Yes, this would sell, but I do not think that D. Adams has exclusive copyright > in the motto. I had a Physics professor in College (over 10 years ago now) that > used the same as the name of his first years Physics Text. Printed I think in > the end by texas A&M press. > -- The freshman physics text at MIT in 1964 was titled "Physics, a New Introductory Course" - universally referred to as PANIC - I wonder where your prof went to school. - Dennis
mvh@lysator.liu.se (Martin V. Howard) (06/12/91)
asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) writes: >I once had a dream [calculator dream deleted] >...and a 640 x 400 pixel 3" colour screen. With that kind of processing power and storage capacity, why limit yourself to a mere 640 X 400 screen. Yuck. Make it a 1280 X 1280, 16 billion colour 3 " colour screen. I mean, if your going to build The machine, do it properly... :) /mvH -- Programming isn't a science, | Foo: mvh@lysator.liu.se it's an art. | Bar: d89marho@odalix.ida.liu.se Why is it called common sense, | Fubar: Martin_Howard:d89:lith@xns.liu.se when so few possess it ? | Voice: Int +46 (0)13 261 283 (GMT + 1h)
gingell@aurs01.UUCP (Mike Gingell) (06/13/91)
In article <1991Jun10.085757.1@vmsa.technion.ac.il> ben@VMSA.TECHNION.AC.IL writes: >Yes, this would sell, but I do not think that D. Adams has exclusive copyright >in the motto. I had a Physics professor in College (over 10 years ago now) that >used the same as the name of his first years Physics Text. Printed I think in >the end by texas A&M press. The Hitchikers Guide was first broadcast by the BBC in the early-mid 1970s - well over 15 years ago - and the script must have been written and copyrighted before that. Sounds like a case for the "look and feel" copyright lawyers to me. Mike Gingell, Alcatel, Raleigh, NC USA (919) 850-6444 UUCP: ...!mcnc!aurgate!aurfs1!gingell Internet: gingell%aurfs1%aurgate@mcnc.org
kaufman@eecs.nwu.edu (Michael L. Kaufman) (06/14/91)
In article <59917@aurs01.UUCP> gingell@aurw90.UUCP (Mike Gingell) writes: >The Hitchikers Guide was first broadcast by the BBC in the early-mid >1970s Not that it is that important, but my CD of the HGTTG says that it part 1 was first broadcast on March 8, 1978. Michael -- Michael Kaufman | I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on kaufman | fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in @eecs.nwu.edu | the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be | lost in time - like tears in rain. Time to die. Roy Batty
Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) (06/16/91)
A couple of weeks ago, Andy Smith wrote: > I once had a dream, It consisted mainly of taking a manufacturer, > Encyclopaedea Brittanica, TimeLife books and Douglas Adams; then rolling > them all together to work on a project..... . . . > However if HP were to take the 95LX case, install the 48S as a calculator, > then using current 4mbit EPROM/ROM technology put a compressed version of > the Brittanica in with a dict/spell chk/theus (about 32Mbyte), they could > produce something that would be very useful to many people..... Personally, I think that putting a scientific calculator into the HP95LX case is a bad idea. As a plug-in card to the '95, that's okay, but making a calculator that is a horizontal clamshell just doesn't cut it for quick use. There seems to just be no way to use the '95 with one hand to hold it and the other to punch keys if you're standing up and/or moving around. Since the HP95 has a QWERTY keyboard which assumes that people will be typing on it, that seems to imply using at least one finger on each hand to punch the keys. If this is the case, then the machine must be sitting on a hori- zontal surface. Yes, some folks can type with one hand while holding the machine in the other, but I don't consider this the norm. However, the HP48 case (and the HP41 case, and that of all the other vertical-format machines) lend themselves really well to punching keys one-handed and on the go. For those of us who think handheld number-crunchers are tops, I'd like to see a vertical-format machine which has the Intel CPU compatiblility so a plug-in DOS card would work, but would still have one-key-per-function math capabilities built in (at least as a kernel). Jake Schwartz
asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) (06/17/91)
In article <43362@cup.portal.com> Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) writes: > There seems to just be no way to use the '95 with one hand to hold >it and the other to punch keys if you're standing up and/or moving around. >Since the HP95 has a QWERTY keyboard which assumes that people will be >typing One of the reasons that the 95 is called a palmtop is that you can hold it in the palms of your hands and type with your thumbs. This may sound rather conveluted, but with a little practice it allows for quite fast steady typing. If you try and use it like a calculator, you will find it difficult to type, I suggest you borrow a 95 and try your thumbs. Let me know how you find this method. >Jake Schwartz Andy
alan@km4ba.uucp (Alan Barrow) (06/19/91)
Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) writes: stuff deleted..... >For those of us who think handheld number-crunchers are tops, I'd like to >see a vertical-format machine which has the Intel CPU compatiblility so a >plug-in DOS card would work, but would still have one-key-per-function >math capabilities built in (at least as a kernel). Strange, I would really like a 48SX in a qwerty format, or even a 28S format. Add a decent PIM in rom, and vi/emacs/ur_editor_here. I have and use DOS & unix machines, but still like the 28/48 environment for this size machine. I guess I hate dos assembly. Alan Barrow km4ba | I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack jab@hpuerca.hp.com | ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched | C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. ..!gatech!kd4nc! | All those moments will be lost in time - km4ba!alan | like tears in rain. Time to die. Roy Batty
IMS103@psuvm.psu.edu (Ian Matthew Smith) (06/20/91)
asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) writes: >One of the reasons that the 95 is called a palmtop is that you can hold it >in the palms of your hands and type with your thumbs. This may sound rather >conveluted, but with a little practice it allows for quite fast steady >typing. If you try and use it like a calculator, you will find it difficult >to type, I suggest you borrow a 95 and try your thumbs. Let me know how you >find this method. WHen I had my HP28, I woudl use it in this manner, holding it open in my palms and using one thumb for each kayboard. After a few months of using it I could find the most used functions on tha alpha keyboard without looking at it. (Ie. folded for one-handed use) Now with teh 48, it is nice to be able to have all the functions on one keyboard. I have found that with a little practice, I can hold the 48 in one hand, and type with that thumb, leaving the other hand free. With a little more practice I can use either hand about the same. The 48 is really great for true one-handed use. Just my .034C (In base 13 :) cents. - Ian Smith <<ims103@psuvm.psu.edu>>