Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Apr 2013 12:29

(1) "the beatings will continue until morale improves"
(2) "management will not rest until the house is burned from the rafters to the basement"

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 05 Apr 2013 12:37

I can really use a FB setting that will detect EDGE network (or roaming) and does not load bandwidth heavy pics etc.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Apr 2013 16:31

when that apple donut is complete, appl will truly have crested the high tide. things like visitor centers and museum of appl innovation will be started there, with school trips and paid tourists gawking at the huge place.

I am reminded of another huge awe inspiring building had the fortune to visit on my 2nd day in massa - the Lucent holmdel facility in new jersey. you stood at one corner and humans looked like a speck at the far end of corridors. I nearly pissed in my turd world pants looking at the scale of the thing and legions of "high powered Phds in EE / CSE" moving around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs_Holmdel_Complex

now it stands like a forlorn shrine to forgotten gods...http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact ... e_bell.JPG
would make a good stage for a slasher movie or some scifi zombie yarn

Sriman · Post by **Sriman** » 05 Apr 2013 17:00

Meanwhile in the world of PR

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 05 Apr 2013 17:09

That PR guy is doing a GREAT job, people may think that this is HUGE PR disaster... but it really is great free publicity for next-xbox.

Marten wrote:Lane moved out of HP! Now that's some of the best news we've heard in 5 years.

Whitman or not, things are gonna get far more worse for HP before they can get better. They have no sunrise industry or strength in any developing markets. The price advantage from India has dwindled already, as have the research budgets. Perhaps Storage and Cloud offerings will be the last bastions to fall (expecting PSG to hive off printer and devices into separate units by the end of this year).

Friend says the losses from acquisitions are close to USD 20bn, and they're nearing closure of entire units. And to think, they would have been the business end of Windowsmobile 8 and gained the billions that flowed instead to the gumBoot(s)!

PS: wtf? Only stockholders are baying, not employees? Givem!

Aren't they working on Memristor ? That one thing can save them.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Apr 2013 18:58

how many large cos with many diffuse ITvity product lines are doing well?
I can think of only Alcalu, huawei, csco, samsung, maybe ericsson, microsoft , IBM, oracle. who else?

Dell & HP are going to be in trouble unless they refocus and find some good defensible products to work on.

oracle has launched a MIRV attack on IBM recently with servers that are said to be 20% the price but 5-10x more powerful in benchmarks.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 05 Apr 2013 19:04

Memristor is not all that it is made out to be. I am intimately familiar with memristor ayatollah Stan Williams' work.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Apr 2013 19:06

IBM seems to routinely announce breakthroughs in the physics of areas like asics and storage. they have a well established chain of labs around the world incl zurich which specializes in the arcane field of theoritical comp sc. they seem to be like a crocodile - ancient creature but somehow has survived millions of years of changing ecosystem. low profile but deadly when in their domains.

what is HP labs doing?

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 05 Apr 2013 20:05

Marten wrote:Lane moved out of HP! Now that's some of the best news we've heard in 5 years.

Whitman or not, things are gonna get far more worse for HP before they can get better. They have no sunrise industry or strength in any developing markets. The price advantage from India has dwindled already, as have the research budgets. Perhaps Storage and Cloud offerings will be the last bastions to fall (expecting PSG to hive off printer and devices into separate units by the end of this year).

Friend says the losses from acquisitions are close to USD 20bn, and they're nearing closure of entire units. And to think, they would have been the business end of Windowsmobile 8 and gained the billions that flowed instead to the gumBoot(s)!

PS: wtf? Only stockholders are baying, not employees? Givem!

Whitman will more likely become Chairwoman and CEO. Kind of like Hurd doing it to Patricia Dunn but method may be different (afterall Whitman is a politician).
If she becomes chairwoman and CEO, she will not shelve PC unit even if it makes eminent sense.

I had a thought that if Dhell went private, there may be a joint bid with Oracle wherein Oracle will keep the enterprise unit and Dhell will buy PC.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Apr 2013 20:36

Singha wrote:
what is HP labs doing?

Nothing as per tradition.

----

Don't know how accurate the numbers are (haven't followed them closely for a while) but...

iPad mini cannibalizing iPad and destroying Nexus 7 sales

From such ground inspection of Fruit Co stores, the iPad Mini is definitely pretty darn popular despite non-Retina screen.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 05 Apr 2013 20:57

Singha wrote:seems to be surrounded by residential areas though. should make a good night time panoramic photo...in forefround , warmly lit guy and girl having a drink on balcony.....similar houses in midground and in the back this giant white HALO style ring glowing with a mysterious white light...periodically the red flickering lights of space ships that take people to orbiting mahdi battlestations and scientific ships at various bases in the galaxy.
and in the nearby expway the soundless passage of cars with huge amt of glass and very little metal....smooth, driven by anti gravity engines or atleast new fuel sipping honda eco-diesels driving electric motors of 300 kms/liter

I like that vision.

Very evocative

The kabab me haddi is the soundlessness on the 101 is because the traffic has come to complete stand still

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Apr 2013 23:17

An unexpected UX study incident that might warm the cockles of anmol's mian's heart.

When parents arrived for this year's US visit, I had told matashri to either use the Nexus7 or Surface RT lying around in my home, whenever she wanted to browse the web/watch those saas bahu crap online (at least the ones not on my TV) etc. - basically whatever it took to prevent her asking pitashree to mess with my laptops. Prior to this visit, matashri had used the Nexus7 after I had shown her how to navigate around it, so she naturally gravitated towards that. I had given it to her mainly becoz she never used a PC and her exposure to using a computer has been pretty low (she needs pitashree to run Skype for her when she is in India) so tablet seemed like a good device to use for her. This despite the fact her father designed and built India's 1st computer in '51.

Since she seemed content with the Nexus7, I didn't show her how to use the Surface thinking it might be an overkill for her. Anyhow, at some point after they arrived a few moons ago, apparently she decided to use the Surface becoz I got a call from her in apphice asking me for the passwd. It surprised me a bit since I asked her how did she get to the login screen (her answer: I opened the flap and it came on; flap == touch cover). OK so far so good. Also told her that you need to swipe down to close an application (she has typical SDRE fear of running out of battery in any device she uses - pitashree to blame for that). Today morning, I find her doing research in finding a good wet/dry grinder for me to buy. Apparently during the week she figured out by herself how to use the Google App, the Amazon app, YouTube app, switch between them, connect to my WiFi when it got disconnected once and going on Skype to chat with some of her US relatives, all without me or pitashree telling her anything. Upon asking her and analyzing the feedback I learnt the following:

1) Basically the metro layout with large tiles which hook up directly into apps is pretty helpful - the same reason why iOS grid of app icons became so popular plus its easier to read for her (she wears reading glasses, no myopia). They are essentially a 1-click access into what you want to do. You want to search click on Google tile (ok or Bing tile), you want to buy stuff from Amazon click on Amazon tile, wanna watch YouTube click on YouTube tile. So instead of trying to figure out how do I do this, she just looks for the tile which looks like what she wants to do and she is in - no need to go thru menus or intimidating list of apps. She found the Nexus7 UI layout intimidating and confusing with all the widgets/menus/UI buttons all visible on-screen at the same time.

2) The swipes mostly help such as closing an app or bringing up the side menu/charms bar/url bar is helpful.

3) The full screen aspect with 1 app on the screen at a time helps a lot. She claimed that seeing multiple overlapping windows open on screen was one of the most intimidating things for her when she sees a PC since she has no clue how to get anywhere. She didn't discover the side-by-side app feature and on being shown that, didn't seem impressed.

4) She started favouring the Surface over the Nexus7 primarily for the larger/brighter screen and the ability to type comfortably using the touch cover (complained that typing on the screen on both Nexus7/Surface was horrible with too many mistakes). She likes the Nexus7 for watching TV serials online/movies due to its light weight but finds navigating the UI too intimidating - she knows how to launch YouTube, that's it - never dared venture outside that. But now I found she sometimes switches to the Surface to watch the stuff - reason given was the display is bigger/brighter, so easier to see and it can be propped up on lap with the kickstand+cover folded back and doesn't need to be held in the hand.

5) Feels the Surface needs to be much lighter - perhaps half the weight.

6) Didn't need to be told that if you just close the flap, the Surface goes off (or to sleep rather) and still doesn't know how to actually power off the Surface (i.e. long press of the power button).

Just now I heard pitashree get a scolding from matashri when he insisted that she needs to launch Internet Explorer and then go to Amazon.com to look up the wet/dry mixer/grinder and she told him that he doesn't know anything becoz all she did was tap on the Amazon tile and she was in Amazon. Pitashree is thinking like IIT injineer and trying to figure out "how do I do X so that I get Y", while matashri is thinking like a user who expects the device to do her biding without having to baby it. That is why CE devices need to have user-centric design rather than engineering centric design - most of the world is like matashri.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 05 Apr 2013 23:33

hahahahahah

a thousand thanks for the above.

my mom...whos bday is incidently today...is exactly the same!

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 05 Apr 2013 23:36

Singha wrote:IBM seems to routinely announce breakthroughs in the physics of areas like asics and storage. they have a well established chain of labs around the world incl zurich which specializes in the arcane field of theoritical comp sc. they seem to be like a crocodile - ancient creature but somehow has survived millions of years of changing ecosystem. low profile but deadly when in their domains.

what is HP labs doing?

HP labs is ALSO a good place to be . they do lots of stuff. not as fundoo as IBM...but still pretty good.

but......they are far more hardware focused. inkjet printing etal.
sad part is that hardware is commoditized and people give less of a fig for hardware.....(and few vendors make money on hardware.)....and more about sw, experience UX etc. ....which HP has never been good at.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 05 Apr 2013 23:40

If only surface comes down in price somewhat ...

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 05 Apr 2013 23:43

Raja Bose wrote:Well no wonder its over budget and delayed. It will probably get canned pronto if Fruit Co fortunes dip.

I hope the new donut HQ gets built - it's causing the prices of homes in the area - *cough* mine *cough* - to go to way up. They can stop construction as soon as I'm done selling my home someday

Regarding HP, they stopped deserving that name years ago. Someone should rename Agilent back as HP - they're what HP really was. The current HP might as well be Hamara Printers.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 05 Apr 2013 23:54

Boseullah, your matashri experience is somehwat similar to my FIL with surface.
FIL has pretty poor knwaledge with electronics including tvs etc.
Just told him the password for surface rt. asked him to play around, he fiddled around for sometime.
Soon he was reading news about bangalore Kerala and assorted newspapers about India.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 06 Apr 2013 03:04

Alright, which one of you is responsible for this Abril 1 outrage to Sergeybhai Brinji's Teslavahan ?
bicchar

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Apr 2013 04:13

^^Thats what happens with too much money to burn. I have always wondered if Brin mian is closet queer? Back in early days of Chacha he had apparently appeared several times in drag.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Apr 2013 06:14

Back around 2001 i met a agilent rep after the spinoff from hp. He was jumping up and down and jubiliant at being freed from the boat anchor of the carnival cruiser mothership. Looking at their product portfolio they still have a very impressive lineup in test n measurement....definitely a huge power in that space.

vina · Post by **vina** » 06 Apr 2013 07:19

Any Moojahids have experience setting this thing Plug PBX at home? Sounds attractive rather than buying any proprietary crap. And how about this?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Apr 2013 11:06

^^^Looks like a variant of the SheevaPlug, which is a Marvell reference design.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Apr 2013 11:18

Folks . Lend me your ears.

Suppose I want to measure the size of an object using my camera phone. How easy or tough is it to do?

I know that eyes...stereo images are required which require two back facing cameras which is not present in any phone at the moment.

One could, just put a visiting card of known dimensions, and take a photo of the object next to it, and then using some image processing alogrithm on the smartphone app, to guesstimate the size of the object.

How tough is it to make an image processing algorithm? Can an App do that, or does it require much more processing power?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Apr 2013 11:22

^^^Trawl thru here and ye shall hopefully find: http://www.cs.illinois.edu/~dhoiem/cour ... /lectures/

Look at homography, epipolar geometry ityadi.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 06 Apr 2013 11:26

Use the camera phone to measure how many camera phones tall the object is. Let us call it X. Then measure the camera phone. Let is call it Y.

X times Y is the height you want. I don't think any advanced algorithm is needed? Were you looking for something more sophisticated?

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Apr 2013 11:37

^^^ Anujan ji

I need to make an app please. Basically...allow a rural health worker, to take a photo of a baby using an App which calls the android camera.

The app will then calculate the height of the baby and return the value. Thats it.

Abbb...I was thinking of doing the card technique. Put a card next to the baby. Take a photo from whatever height. App can measure the cards length. App can measure the number of pixels from top part of the baby to bottom toes of baby placed on a white sheet.

Then give value of baby height = n times card length.

For this...the app has to detect the black card on the white sheet. Then measure the number of pixels along its length, whatever orientation it is. For eg. it may be 5 - 10degrees askew. This leads to an error. But the app has to detect the parallel edges of the card. Then measure length. Then detect head and feet of baby.

Then measure pixels between head and foot of baby.

Then scale up.

Quite a task ! Help me gawd.

vina · Post by **vina** » 06 Apr 2013 11:41

Raja Bose wrote:^^^Looks like a variant of the SheevaPlug, which is a Marvell reference design.

Yes. It is infact a free phone EPBX system loaded on a SheevaPlug. I am looking for a EPBX for my home, I am sick of the innumerable no of phone calls that I have to handle (for my kids,my wife, the maid , you name it) and I end up being a glorified receptionist at my own home, very frustrating when I am working. So was thinking of an el' cheap EPBX for home.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 06 Apr 2013 11:43

^^^

Instead of a card, get something three dimensional as a reference so the camera can be aligned top down vertically too...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Apr 2013 11:45

why cant a simple measuring tape be used.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Apr 2013 11:55

Depending on how critical is measurement accuracy, you may need to account for camera angle, pose ityadi, effect of any post processing by camera HW/SW before it pops out the image. If all you want is a rough measurement, then the suggested methods are fine. Or as Singha saar said, why not use a measuring tape? Using a smartphone to measure length of baby seems like the equivalent of NASA's multi-million dollar pen which could work in space/zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Apr 2013 12:43

^^^

Rural health workers fudge data, thats why. This way we have a clean and clear record.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Apr 2013 13:27

Anujan wrote: I am intimately familiar with ......ayatollah Stan Williams' ....

How intimate ?

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 06 Apr 2013 14:16

mahadevbhu wrote:^^^

Rural health workers fudge data, thats why. This way we have a clean and clear record.

Take a picture of the baby next to a measuring tape perhaps?

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Apr 2013 14:40

^^

Not. scalability.

Everyone has smartphones and can get apps for free.

Not everyone has a ruler in his pocket.

Unless of course its Prince Charles. About whom, it is said, that Princess Diana, after she married him, realized, that every ruler does not have 12 inches.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Apr 2013 18:40

Are you sure everyone has smartphones....most likely rural india has feature phones and basic phones only. With no wifi at home and no 3g there is hardly any advantage of smartphones there.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 06 Apr 2013 18:50

928 is not going to use Aluminum

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Apr 2013 21:17

^^Till you touch it, how can one tell?

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 06 Apr 2013 21:25

ordered sony xperia tl from best buy.
waiting for it.

did some calculations buying unlocked and locked ones( for 2 ), locked on contract is cheaper by nearly 100 dollars.
surprised at it.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 06 Apr 2013 22:27

mahadevbhu wrote:Folks . Lend me your ears.

Suppose I want to measure the size of an object using my camera phone. How easy or tough is it to do?

I know that eyes...stereo images are required which require two back facing cameras which is not present in any phone at the moment.

One could, just put a visiting card of known dimensions, and take a photo of the object next to it, and then using some image processing alogrithm on the smartphone app, to guesstimate the size of the object.

How tough is it to make an image processing algorithm? Can an App do that, or does it require much more processing power?

If you have Android you can use Smart Measure Pro, but it requires you to calibrate.
Smart Measure Pro