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dsrtaoSome people keep Playboy in their bathroom. I've never understood that, really -- are they teenagers? Got to hide it from the kids? Yeah, right.
I keep SF magazines and technical documentation there, of course. Nothing quite so relaxing, when I'm tense, than to read about the relative merits of pointers and references.
New subject. Metahacker and I were discussing features that really ought to be available in IM/text message/SMS systems, and that led to a quick extrapolation of what cellphones would have standard in three or four years... now a smart phone has a 300 or 400MHz CPU, so 2GHz is not out of line; now it has 128MB RAM, so a gigabyte is not unreasonable... those are current-day laptop specs, of course. Coupled with a decent increase in bandwidth, and Charlie Stross' _Halting State_ is going to be right on target. MH hasn't read it (time constraints) so I'm going to push my freshly autographed copy on him.
I've had four good conversations with MH in the last two days, which reminds me (a) why we're good friends and (b) that we don't do that enough. I should have a party focusing on good conversations. Wait, that's all of our parties... time for another one. Winter sucks, where's my spring?
I was complimented strangely several times during Boskone: that's a nice shirt (Eliz's tie-dye); you can say things on LJ that would sound like whining from anyone else (ok, if you say so); in an alternate world, I would have made a good intelligence analyst (but I keep asking the wrong questions, such as why the heck would the US invade Korea when I'm supposed to be focussing on how to assess the resistance).
Oh, and my gaydar was apparently totally wrong about someone; married to a person of the opposite gender. I think that people tend to overestimate their accuracy, so I'm confessing to a major error.
I keep SF magazines and technical documentation there, of course. Nothing quite so relaxing, when I'm tense, than to read about the relative merits of pointers and references.
New subject. Metahacker and I were discussing features that really ought to be available in IM/text message/SMS systems, and that led to a quick extrapolation of what cellphones would have standard in three or four years... now a smart phone has a 300 or 400MHz CPU, so 2GHz is not out of line; now it has 128MB RAM, so a gigabyte is not unreasonable... those are current-day laptop specs, of course. Coupled with a decent increase in bandwidth, and Charlie Stross' _Halting State_ is going to be right on target. MH hasn't read it (time constraints) so I'm going to push my freshly autographed copy on him.
I've had four good conversations with MH in the last two days, which reminds me (a) why we're good friends and (b) that we don't do that enough. I should have a party focusing on good conversations. Wait, that's all of our parties... time for another one. Winter sucks, where's my spring?
I was complimented strangely several times during Boskone: that's a nice shirt (Eliz's tie-dye); you can say things on LJ that would sound like whining from anyone else (ok, if you say so); in an alternate world, I would have made a good intelligence analyst (but I keep asking the wrong questions, such as why the heck would the US invade Korea when I'm supposed to be focussing on how to assess the resistance).
Oh, and my gaydar was apparently totally wrong about someone; married to a person of the opposite gender. I think that people tend to overestimate their accuracy, so I'm confessing to a major error.
Battery life
Date: 2008-02-18 12:55 pm (UTC)That will probably be possible in a few years, but I bet a lot of people will prefer to get a slower CPU with longer battery life. What made Halting State different from today wasn't the fact that the tech existed, but that it was ubiquitous.
Mmm. Wireless tech has been capable of better bandwidth for some time now, but it takes forever to get it deployed. Today, AT&T in Boston has HSDPA at 3.6Mbps, and they're working on rolling out HSUPA (faster uplink); but Maine and New Hampshire are still stuck with GPRS—EDGE, if you're lucky. In four years, I'd guess that they'll have upgraded Boston to the limits of HSUPA (14.4Mbps), but ME and NH will have no better than basic UMTS (384kbps). They may even still be on EDGE, thanks to the way the FCC allocates spectrum by region. Once again, what's lacking is ubiquity.
What could make the difference would be if Google actually buys in the current 700MHz auction. Google would turn the usual carrier model on its head: instead of using apps to sell wireless access, they'd be using wireless access to sell apps.
Re: Battery life
Date: 2008-02-19 02:23 am (UTC)Hahahahaha.
Well.
Anyway. Sorry. I just haven't seen the market going that way. I still want my 12 hour laptop battery, and 4 week cell phone. (At least the current phone will do ~1 week of standby...because it's a 2001 model, before 'they' decided that .2 GHz processors in cell phones were a necessity.) Dear Apple: The Air is very nice; now make one which has an extra 3 lbs all devoted to battery, in a nice form factor.
Re: Battery life
Date: 2008-02-19 12:41 pm (UTC)There are supposedly laptops with batteries good for up to 18 hours. Not Macs, though.
Re: Battery life
Date: 2008-02-19 07:43 pm (UTC)As it happens, earlier today, I ordered a spare battery for my Treo, so that I wouldn't have to worry so much about charging it during lengthy trips. Cost about ten bucks, with shipping. Will add a few ounces to my bag, but that's well worth it for the additional confidence of uptime.
I think the market will continue to favor speed over battery life, because the segment that wants longer life will generally suck it up and buy extra batteries (a profit for the manufacturer), whereas people can't buy extra CPU cycles nearly as trivially.
Re: Battery life
Date: 2008-02-19 07:50 pm (UTC)The MacBook Air battery is not removable by anyone except 4th-dimensional beings, so...not so much with the swapping. ;)
Re: Battery life
Date: 2008-02-19 08:21 pm (UTC)