Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 11 Feb 2013 08:25

knuth? go ahead and say it!

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 11 Feb 2013 09:10

Raja Bose wrote:On Mickey side of the ring we haaaavve anmol!!!!!! Aaaannnnd on the Android side of the ring we have Mort!!!!! FIGHT!!!!

No fight at all. We all use what works best for each of us. On any given day I use 5 different machines with different OSes. At the end of the day we all have assholes that we shit from, just like opinions.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 11 Feb 2013 09:16

Raja Bose wrote: Q.2: What computer is this? Who built the hardware? Who built the wooden case? [I discovered this tucked in a remote shelf in the warehouse and sent the curator running to check its pedigree. Everybody went mucho when she looked up the info on their DB and came back with the result ]

Looks like an Apple I. Electronics hardware built by Woz, case by a guy named Paul Terrell who used to run the Itty-Bitty Byte shop where they sold the first Apple machines. I believe he used Koa wood.

Raja Bose wrote:Q.3: Why is this bike in the museum's collection? [At least 2 abduls here should know the answer otherwise 1000 stribes to them]

Is that one of the Google Street View bikes?? My guess is because it has the same colors as the Google Chrome browser logo.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 11 Feb 2013 09:31

The bike is too small for StreetView use - guess again.

It is an Apple I with electronics built by Woz (that was the easy part) but this particular case wasn't built by Terell. Think carpentry, cabinetry, attention to detail....there is a reason the others went

...

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 11 Feb 2013 09:48

Definitely not Knuth. Gordon Moore or Burton Smith?

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 11 Feb 2013 09:54

Raja Bose wrote:
Q.2: What computer is this? Who built the hardware? Who built the wooden case? [I discovered this tucked in a remote shelf in the warehouse and sent the curator running to check its pedigree. Everybody went mucho when she looked up the info on their DB and came back with the result ]

Q.3: Why is this bike in the museum's collection? [At least 2 abduls here should know the answer otherwise 1000 stribes to them]

Q.4: Who is the person under the Red Arrow? Why is he famous?

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2. Apple 1, Steve Jobs. He did do a lot of carpentry before he founded Apple. Note his fondness for calligraphy as well.

3. Bike is Sergey and Larrys common bike that they used to use to go to their Labs for their PhDs.

4. Vint Cerf? Dennis Ritchie? Dunno. Seems familiar enough though. But bad bad bad picture. Profile. Faaar away. Post another one!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 11 Feb 2013 10:11

No Steve Jobs didn't make the wooden case - anyways he didn't have any hands-on skills regardless. But close...

No that guy under the Red Arrow is not Gordon Moore or Knuth or Vint Cerf or B.Smith - think video games.

BTW Dennis Ritchie is dead, I doubt his atma graced me with a presence!

If you know who he is (without doing image search) you will know from the pic (his head distinctly bulges out).

No that is not Larry or Sergey's bike but again close...

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 11 Feb 2013 10:17

Al Alcorn?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 11 Feb 2013 10:18

Mort Walker wrote:Al Alcorn?

And Mortullah gets the prize! Yes that is Al Alcorn, the inventor of Pong.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 11 Feb 2013 10:19

C guru Kernighan ?
Unix guru Pike?

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duh i was late.. and wrong.. dang it! anyway, want to live the answers.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 11 Feb 2013 10:22

Well, he looked too "healthy" to be Ralph Baer!

I remember playing Pong in the arcades in 1972 when 25 cents was a fortune. I remember it was also a popular stand alone table game in hotel lobbies around that time as well.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 11 Feb 2013 10:47

played a pong like game in desh ( should be it).. it was on zilog-88 based PC-Junior marketed by a bluru company called eiko computers. it was one of the first one to land in desh.. kaalij kids were chosen to play games, and write games as well on GW-BASIC.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 11 Feb 2013 11:03

^^Interesting you should mention that. The 1st computer I ever used was an Eiko Spectrum which came with a BASIC interpreter.

Al Alcorn is a super nice guy - a true engineer unlike the book-learned species churned out nowadays. He was also one of the few who had 'normal' cars in that gathering filled with bejeweled Teslas and Porsches. My ol' Bess felt very shy in that company and had to be parked in a lonely corner away from the wealthy classes.

Alcorn's wife is very grandmotherly and invited me to dinner few weeks later.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 11 Feb 2013 11:04

Planned features of iWatchwa

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/jo ... /1803.html

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 11 Feb 2013 11:08

OK let me spill the other answers. The bike is one of the free bikes Chacha gave its employees to commute between buildings when it moved into the ex-SG campus.

The wooden case of that specific Apple I was hand-made by Paul Jobs, father of Steve. He is the one the Mahdi credited with teaching him the importance of a top quality finish in a product, both inside and outside.

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If you want a Susan Kare designed watch face, just buy one from MetaWatch....no need to wait for iWatchwa

rohitvats · Post by **rohitvats** » 11 Feb 2013 11:16

Saw the Samsung Grand yesterday in their store....One Word - AWESOME.

That is a bloody 5 Inch screen phone with specs which pull the carpet from below many feet...And the price - INR 21,500!!! At this price point and the given specs, it will pull sales to it self in the entire 15K-25K price band. Damn, Sammy does know how to play spoil sport.

And with dark rumors of S4, S3 will come down in sub-30K category and between Grand+S2+S3, Sammy will finish everyone in between.Apple 4 soldiers on at INR 26.5K and Lumia 820 at INR 27.5.

Given the economies of scale, I think Sammy is best placed to push higher tech (Dual-Core with large RAM) to lower price range while retaining competitive price positioning in Quad-Core/High RAM/Excellent Resolution category.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 11 Feb 2013 12:03

^S3 is already ~27k saar, with B+W.

rohitvats · Post by **rohitvats** » 11 Feb 2013 13:19

BhairavP wrote:^S3 is already ~27k saar, with B+W.

What is B+W?

manish · Post by **manish** » 11 Feb 2013 13:46

Bill + warranty.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 11 Feb 2013 23:21

Surface Pro - Great Ad that communicates the positioning very well - serious work while having fun and mobility, young and savvy audience, SMB kind of environment where it is facing inroads by competitors (large corporations and public sector are dealt differently

)

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 01:06

^^People actually buy stuff by looking at such weird ads?

Sometimes I wonder what the ad people think of target consumers when they make such monstrosities. They have that stupid Google Now ad where the bimbo mistakes a sea urchin for a vegetable and then that cheesy Zoosk ad where a chubby chick casually books a date (Modern TFPEs might be distressed to know that the ad is encouraging horrifying SDRE style arranged marriage

).

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 12 Feb 2013 01:46

^^they don't necessarily make one *buy* but help "influence" by the perceived "coolness" of the device which may be an important criteria for some orgs besides the usability.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 01:50

^^Thats what I am asking. Are there people who see that weird break dancing and think its cool?

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 12 Feb 2013 02:09

saar ji, There is more to the ad than just break dancing as I said. that tells us more about what M$ is thinking more than what I am thinking

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 02:27

Responsive Typography using HTML5 (requires a webcam to try)

Cool concept though clearly a WIP.

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Billu Dada did an AMA on Reddit today. Some hilarious comments from that:

[–]juturn4 1119 points 2 hours ago
Windows 7 or Windows 8?
Be honest Bill.

[–]thisisbillgates[S] 2034 points 1 hour ago
Higher is better.

[–]Khromasoul 3089 points 1 hour ago
Windows 2000 ftw!

[–]AcousticNike 150 points 1 hour ago
Windows Server 2008!

[–]f0000 60 points 40 minutes ago
Windows Server 2012!

[–]dylanstalker 881 points 3 hours ago
What do you do for fun? I find it hard to fathom how someone like you can just disconnect. Disconnect from the emails, calls ,the media. All of it. What would be your definition of a chill and fun day?

[–]thisisbillgates[S] 1717 points 1 hour ago
I love playing tennis. I am an avid bridge player (a card game if you have not heard of it - it was more popular in the past!). I like to tour interesting things with my kids like power plants, garbage dumps, the Large Hadron Collider, Antarctica, missile Silos (Arizona),... I read a lot and watch courses (online or the Learning Company)..

[–]Plaguarist 1065 points 1 hour ago
Casually tours the LHC. The jealousy is strong.

[–]skiingbeing 704 points 1 hour ago
"I love bridge and garbage dumps". You, my good man, are the wealthiest old hobo I've ever seen.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 12 Feb 2013 02:28

Raja Bose wrote:^^Thats what I am asking. Are there people who see that weird break dancing and think its cool?

Most effective ad is one that grabs peoples attention. In fact the target audience of this product suffers from worse form of ADD, so grabbing attention is even more important.

So IMVHO ad is successful.. just like the Apple's 1984 or Godaddy's recent ad

.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 12 Feb 2013 02:32

Raja Bose wrote:Responsive Typography using HTML5 (requires a webcam to try)

Cool concept though clearly a WIP.

---

Billu Dada did an AMA on Reddit today. Some hilarious comments from that:

[–]juturn4 1119 points 2 hours ago
Windows 7 or Windows 8?
Be honest Bill.

[–]thisisbillgates[S] 2034 points 1 hour ago
Higher is better.

[–]Khromasoul 3089 points 1 hour ago
Windows 2000 ftw!

[–]AcousticNike 150 points 1 hour ago
Windows Server 2008!

[–]f0000 60 points 40 minutes ago
Windows Server 2012!

[–]dylanstalker 881 points 3 hours ago
What do you do for fun? I find it hard to fathom how someone like you can just disconnect. Disconnect from the emails, calls ,the media. All of it. What would be your definition of a chill and fun day?

[–]thisisbillgates[S] 1717 points 1 hour ago
I love playing tennis. I am an avid bridge player (a card game if you have not heard of it - it was more popular in the past!). I like to tour interesting things with my kids like power plants, garbage dumps, the Large Hadron Collider, Antarctica, missile Silos (Arizona),... I read a lot and watch courses (online or the Learning Company)..

[–]Plaguarist 1065 points 1 hour ago
Casually tours the LHC. The jealousy is strong.

[–]skiingbeing 704 points 1 hour ago
"I love bridge and garbage dumps". You, my good man, are the wealthiest old hobo I've ever seen.

XP Vista 7 and 8 are not version number.

Code: Select all

Name   | Version
XP         : 5.1
Vista     :  6.0
7           :  6.1
8           :  6.2

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 12 Feb 2013 02:39

I do not have a webcam, but went to RB posted link and got a bunch of gobbledegook in Latin (I think it is Latin). What exactly is supposed to happen?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 02:48

matrimc wrote:I do not have a webcam, but went to RB posted link and got a bunch of gobbledegook in Latin (I think it is Latin). What exactly is supposed to happen?

That Latin crap is a standard text to test text-based stuff including latin based fonts

Without a webcam you wont be able to tell anything. The page adapts text size based on viewing distance (uses coarse level facial recognition and orientation detection).

anmol mian, its a joke saar. Anyway billg didn't say higher version number the better.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 12 Feb 2013 02:52

XP Vista 7 and 8 are not version number.

^^Its supposed to be a joke. And Billu dada did not say "verison number" anywhere. Just "higher is better".

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 12 Feb 2013 02:54

nachiket wrote:
XP Vista 7 and 8 are not version number.
^^Its supposed to be a joke. And Billu dada did not say "verison number" anywhere. Just "higher is better".

Doh

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 12 Feb 2013 03:34

Raja Bose wrote:^^Thats what I am asking. Are there people who see that weird break dancing and think its cool?

Its an interesting ad that hints at IT managers at large companies that it would be OK if their employees got one since it is a serious business machine and can be fun.
Most people on the consumer side still wouldn't buy a Surface Pro 128GB for $1128. On top of that you have to pay sales tax. I would look at something like the Sony VAIO Duo 11 Ultrabook at $1199.

What they fail to tell you is its too expensive to be a toy and too diminutive to be a production machine. I can't think of anything serious that I'd want to do on a 10" M$ tablet. If it's something quick like browsing/email or BRF, then a cheap tablet would be better. If it something serious like photo/video or programming then I want a bigger screen.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 12 Feb 2013 04:58

Sony VAIO Duo 11 Ultrabook at $1199.

Amazon says $1799.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 12 Feb 2013 05:19

In the BYOD context, perceptions of employees are as much important as those of IT/IT mgrs.
Surface as well as OEM offerings such as EchPee Envy X2 , ElitePad 900, or Lenovo IdeaPad address and defend their space.
Matter of time when it will be, one can BYOD as long as it works best with the company infra.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 12 Feb 2013 08:25

matrimc wrote:
Sony VAIO Duo 11 Ultrabook at $1199.
Amazon says $1799.

J&R and others have the i3 for $1199.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 08:49

Mort Walker wrote: What they fail to tell you is its too expensive to be a toy and too diminutive to be a production machine. I can't think of anything serious that I'd want to do on a 10" M$ tablet. If it's something quick like browsing/email or BRF, then a cheap tablet would be better. If it something serious like photo/video or programming then I want a bigger screen.

Every device is a compromise. After iPhunwa launched, Mahdi told people who needs tactile feedback - make a compromise and use the touchscreen instead. And guess what happened to keyboard based phones even though typing on a touchscreen is a PITA compared to a hardware keyboard

I think the Surface Pro will appeal to people who want to carry one device instead of two while traveling and something which is more portable and lighter - that is why I personally use the Surface while traveling instead of a MBA (its a laptop style computer which can be used as a tablet if required). If one thinks about it the price of the Surface Pro is similar to the price of owning a tablet+ultrabook. What Mickey needs is a sales pitch like the Mahdi. If anybody else had launched the iPad as a consumer device, people would have torn them down for lack of keyboard, why it is not widescreen for watching movies, cannot get productive work done on it, why do I need it when I have a laptop/ultrabook/iPhunwa etc etc. Instead all the Mahdi did was tell people, its perfect for curling up in the couch (even Takla didn't think of that when he launched Kindle!) and compromises be damned! Now you have people claiming they will not buy XYZ device becoz they can't curl up in the couch with it (suddenly there seems to have been an explosion in the number of people who have started curling up in their couches with devices in their hand

).

And till the Mahdi told them about the Retina display with 326ppi, nobody cared or even knew about ppi. After that we have people squinting at their displays trying to figure out whether its Retina resolution or not. And the funny thing is in most cases, they can't tell a thing as blind studies have shown.

And going too high-res on a mobile display can lead to compromises in other places which are more noticeable (vs resolution) such as colour saturation, for example as seen in the Nexus 10.

The Mahdi was truly one of his kind - they need to preserve his sales pitches for future generations.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 12 Feb 2013 09:41

kids were playing with iphone-wa-4, and took a lot of shots and videos. i checked the device today, and wanted to share something i saw on the way to shq, was searching for the camera icon. missing! dunno where it went. got firm with the kids and threatened them, that i am going to delete all games. they tried in vain to get it back on the device.

~~anyone know how i may get the camera activated again?~~

added later: never mind... i got it.. kids have set a pass-code without my knawlidge! huh! I had to switch it on on the settings.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 12 Feb 2013 10:03

Raja Bose wrote:Every device is a compromise.

Absolutely. However for $1128+tax is a rather large compromise.

habal · Post by **habal** » 12 Feb 2013 10:06

Raja Bose wrote: The Mahdi was truly one of his kind - they need to preserve his sales pitches for future generations.

the only difference between him and the rest was that he was in love with his products.

When one develops so much experience in product management & process management, usually people move on and start thinking numbers, figures etc. But he stopped developing somewhere and retained a child-like fascination towards the product, the specs, the user interface, adorability, packaging and made it his prime importance.

As societies became more nuclear and more individualistic, his products were even more appreciated. The I, Me, Myself gang will always love apple. Some will move on though, post Jobs. So there is space now for another original thinker.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 11:10

Mort Walker wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:Every device is a compromise.
Absolutely. However for $1128+tax is a rather large compromise.

Depends on what you are compromising on, as a user. Even $500.- is a big compromise if I need another $700.- laptop to go with it, not to forget the additional baggage

I have a feeling Surface-style devices should work for a good chunk of people - in a lot of ways it is feels like a more gentler evolution of the PC unlike the tablet which is a much more polarized device in terms of UX.

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Linux Foundation finally gets Microsoft signature on secure UEFI bootloader