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#21
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One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all
over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. On the other hand, exploring a live volcano core with a robot HAS benefits: you don't risk human lives. But there's not much reason to send a DESK with it, unless you expect to see some Star Trekian 'lava creature' spring forth and you want a convenient spot for him to send email from. The "desk" feature of this Robotic PC design is only dominant when you use this robot as an ordinary PC. When using this robotic PC as a probe in a remote location, the desk collapsed to make the whole thing more compact, nimble and ready to mingle. Why not give deskoid robotic PC a thought, it might not be so "gibberish" I didn't say a thing about 'robots'. It was your claim that desks are "a must" for 'PeeCees' that I disputed, with examples provided. And then that your follow-up argument, to presumably support the claim, was gibberish. Sorry for the confusion, but what is "PeeCees"? It's the (slang) 'phonetic' of PC: PeeCee(s, for plural) and distinguishes it from Politically Correct. Than again that sounds like a minor detail. Why don't we just let it slide? Frankly, it sounds like gibberish. The fact is, while many people use them on desks, it is not 'a must' for a 'PeeCee', with laptops/notebooks being just one obvious example. And, no, they don't need a 'motorized wheel-desk' to be mobile, nor to use them. In addition to notebooks, I already have a VCR sized HTPC, run with a 'TV' style remote, similar to that mentioned in the article and I don't want a 'desk' built into that one either. Nor, btw, do I want a 'desk built in' my desk lamp, Mont Blanc pen, note pad, telephone, or anything else that I 'traditionally use' on my desk because there's no benefit in doing so but plenty of drawbacks. David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: Traditionally, PC is design to be use with a desk. This is more a must than an option. So, why not built PC with a desk built-in. You just wiped out the entire notebook/laptop industry, plus who knows what others. This is sort like the coffee table book about coffee table that is also in itself a coffee table. (baracooda) wrote in message . com... I heard that Microsoft is looking for ideas to transform Xbox into a more PC like machine. Perhaps it would be ideal for Xbox to evolve further into a photo robotic PC in the living room. http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05...s_6099472.html (baracooda) wrote in message om... Technological advances in PC-based/Windows-based robotics goes with their own drum beats. But, I hope things are indeed brewing underneath the quiet surface. PC do have the potential to become more robotic, just add X and Y components... Non-robotic PC in the living room just aren't that exciting, don't you think? (baracooda) wrote in message om... Microsoft's "ultimate" PC will be a robotic PC that look like.... http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com Ablang wrote in message . .. [Ed. The PC could well be on it's way out.] Will Windows Power the Living Room? Microsoft's Home Concept PC combines video recorder, CD player, phone, and more. Joris Evers, IDG News Service Tuesday, May 04, 2004 SEATTLE -- Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are showing off at a developers conference here some Windows XP concept devices intended to replace a consumer's video recorder, CD player, answering machine, and telephone. The Windows Home Concept is expected to make its debut in the opening talk by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week. The hub of the Windows Home Concept is the Home Center PC, which looks more like a fancy video recorder than a PC. Unlike today's Windows systems, the device can turn on and off instantly and operate silently. Also, it does not need a mouse or keyboard; all access is through an intelligent remote control that features a color screen, fingerprint reader, microphone, and speaker, according to Microsoft and HP. The Windows Home Concept is an evolution of Windows XP Media Center Edition, says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows. "The improvements in Windows combined with new hardware will enable devices that we will be happy to put in our living room," Sullivan says. Media Center PCs allow users to use a remote control to provide access via TV to photos, video, and music stored on their PC, as well as selected Internet services such as movie downloads. Multitasking Device Microsoft has a grand vision for the Windows Home Concept. Through the fingerprint reader on the remote, the Home Center PC will automatically show an individual user's favorite TV shows and computer games. The screen on the remote will let users to select shows to record, even while the PC is doing something else. When connected to a phone line, the Home Center PC can display caller information on the TV when a call comes in. The user can then decide whether to take the call, with the remote acting as a speaker phone, or have the PC answer the call. TV can be paused while a call is answered, using the system's digital video recording features. The HP concept Home Center PC boasts a DVD burner, high-capacity hard disk drive, and other features, says Ameer Karim, HP's director of worldwide product marketing. It also has a display on the front, much like traditional consumer electronics devices. "Think of this as replacing your DVD recorder, VCR, CD player, TiVo, and potentially your AV receiver in the future," he says. "This is the PC turned into an entertainment device." For a separate den room as well as the office, HP will continue to make and sell regular PCs, he says. The Home Center PC will also function as a wireless access point for other PCs in the home to access data and to share its broadband Internet connection. Aside from the Home Center PC, the Windows Home Concept also includes a Home Tablet PC that will come with a docking station and can synchronize with the Home Center PC. The vision for the Home Tablet PC is similar to that of the Smart Display, the wireless PC displays that Microsoft dropped in December, only a year after the first Smart Displays shipped. "The Home Tablet PC is a more compelling scenario," Sullivan says. "There is a notion that the ability to take my content with me and it still be usable when I am away from my home network is an important feature." The comments echo the broad criticism of Smart Displays, which were found to be overpriced, dumb mobile terminals. Just a Peek Just as with concept cars at auto shows, the Windows Home Concept devices won't be found at retailers soon, Sullivan says. "This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept," he says. "Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario." A step closer to the vision will be reality later this year. Several hardware makers, including HP, plan release Windows Media Center Extenders before the December holiday shopping season. The Windows Media Center Extender removes the need to physically connect the TV to a Media Center PC or even have it in the same room. At WinHEC, Microsoft tells hardware makers where it is headed with Windows and related software products so they can allocate resources accordingly. In addition to the Windows Home Concept, Microsoft plans to provide details about Web services for devices such as printers and digital cameras as well as its plans for products including Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...050404X,00.asp == "Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time... they're gone." -- Lenny Bruce |
#22
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So this isn't actually a robotic PC, but rather the stereotypical
robot, which of course is a computer(s). There are robots already, of course, just not evolved enough to be your personal servant yet. You do still keep ignoring the obvious, that having this "thing" bring you comm devices or other features is a waste, since you must already be in contact with it, and as such, you already have potential comm with the rest of the world. The key being that the goal is not computers that move themselves but small enough, light enough, and energy conservative enough that it's already with you or integral to the environment you're in. Robotic PC is a product with multiple personality. But, I don't expect it to be a helpful personal servant any time soon. Perhaps Honda think otherwise. Unless it is marketed successfully as a toy, even then I doubt there is a high demand for a personal delivery robot, maybe the nursing homes. |
#24
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baracooda wrote:
One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. So does a camera and a TV set. PBS has been doing it for decades, and without a roving robo-desk I might add. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. Watch the Travel Channel if you don't want to 'go there'. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it's convenient, cheap, and does precisely the job I want. And you've not provided any benefit to doing it another way; just that it 'could be done' another way. And I don't need a robot to wipe my butt either just to be your version of 'modern' vs the 'decades old way'. Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. You seem to miss the point: Just doing things a 'new way' isn't a goal, in and of itself, nor necessarily desirable. There must be some BENEFIT to doing it the 'new way', and it must be practical (which includes cost), or else it ends up in a TV show about "crazy ideas that never made it." (all of which were 'new ways', 'modern', and 'did things'.) To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. A 10 grand robot, plus airfare for it, to replace a free travel brochure? And don't bother with descriptions of how much 'better' than a travel brochure it is because I can hear the average person's reply right now "hell, for THAT price I could GO there mySELF!" No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. Not yet? WHY in god's name would ANYone EVER want it to 'replace' their vacation? A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. 'Interact' with? Bloody well GO THERE if you want to 'see', 'interact', and have your vacation. Given the current state of the art, the kinds of 'features' you're talking about are pretty much useful only for places humans CAN'T (at least easily) go to, like Mars or the core of a live volcano. On the other hand, exploring a live volcano core with a robot HAS benefits: you don't risk human lives. But there's not much reason to send a DESK with it, unless you expect to see some Star Trekian 'lava creature' spring forth and you want a convenient spot for him to send email from. The "desk" feature of this Robotic PC design is only dominant when you use this robot as an ordinary PC. When using this robotic PC as a probe in a remote location, the desk collapsed to make the whole thing more compact, nimble and ready to mingle. Why not give deskoid robotic PC a thought, it might not be so "gibberish" I didn't say a thing about 'robots'. It was your claim that desks are "a must" for 'PeeCees' that I disputed, with examples provided. And then that your follow-up argument, to presumably support the claim, was gibberish. Sorry for the confusion, but what is "PeeCees"? It's the (slang) 'phonetic' of PC: PeeCee(s, for plural) and distinguishes it from Politically Correct. Than again that sounds like a minor detail. Why don't we just let it slide? Frankly, it sounds like gibberish. The fact is, while many people use them on desks, it is not 'a must' for a 'PeeCee', with laptops/notebooks being just one obvious example. And, no, they don't need a 'motorized wheel-desk' to be mobile, nor to use them. In addition to notebooks, I already have a VCR sized HTPC, run with a 'TV' style remote, similar to that mentioned in the article and I don't want a 'desk' built into that one either. Nor, btw, do I want a 'desk built in' my desk lamp, Mont Blanc pen, note pad, telephone, or anything else that I 'traditionally use' on my desk because there's no benefit in doing so but plenty of drawbacks. David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: Traditionally, PC is design to be use with a desk. This is more a must than an option. So, why not built PC with a desk built-in. You just wiped out the entire notebook/laptop industry, plus who knows what others. This is sort like the coffee table book about coffee table that is also in itself a coffee table. (baracooda) wrote in message . com... I heard that Microsoft is looking for ideas to transform Xbox into a more PC like machine. Perhaps it would be ideal for Xbox to evolve further into a photo robotic PC in the living room. http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05...s_6099472.html (baracooda) wrote in message om... Technological advances in PC-based/Windows-based robotics goes with their own drum beats. But, I hope things are indeed brewing underneath the quiet surface. PC do have the potential to become more robotic, just add X and Y components... Non-robotic PC in the living room just aren't that exciting, don't you think? (baracooda) wrote in message om... Microsoft's "ultimate" PC will be a robotic PC that look like.... http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com Ablang wrote in message . .. [Ed. The PC could well be on it's way out.] Will Windows Power the Living Room? Microsoft's Home Concept PC combines video recorder, CD player, phone, and more. Joris Evers, IDG News Service Tuesday, May 04, 2004 SEATTLE -- Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are showing off at a developers conference here some Windows XP concept devices intended to replace a consumer's video recorder, CD player, answering machine, and telephone. The Windows Home Concept is expected to make its debut in the opening talk by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week. The hub of the Windows Home Concept is the Home Center PC, which looks more like a fancy video recorder than a PC. Unlike today's Windows systems, the device can turn on and off instantly and operate silently. Also, it does not need a mouse or keyboard; all access is through an intelligent remote control that features a color screen, fingerprint reader, microphone, and speaker, according to Microsoft and HP. The Windows Home Concept is an evolution of Windows XP Media Center Edition, says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows. "The improvements in Windows combined with new hardware will enable devices that we will be happy to put in our living room," Sullivan says. Media Center PCs allow users to use a remote control to provide access via TV to photos, video, and music stored on their PC, as well as selected Internet services such as movie downloads. Multitasking Device Microsoft has a grand vision for the Windows Home Concept. Through the fingerprint reader on the remote, the Home Center PC will automatically show an individual user's favorite TV shows and computer games. The screen on the remote will let users to select shows to record, even while the PC is doing something else. When connected to a phone line, the Home Center PC can display caller information on the TV when a call comes in. The user can then decide whether to take the call, with the remote acting as a speaker phone, or have the PC answer the call. TV can be paused while a call is answered, using the system's digital video recording features. The HP concept Home Center PC boasts a DVD burner, high-capacity hard disk drive, and other features, says Ameer Karim, HP's director of worldwide product marketing. It also has a display on the front, much like traditional consumer electronics devices. "Think of this as replacing your DVD recorder, VCR, CD player, TiVo, and potentially your AV receiver in the future," he says. "This is the PC turned into an entertainment device." For a separate den room as well as the office, HP will continue to make and sell regular PCs, he says. The Home Center PC will also function as a wireless access point for other PCs in the home to access data and to share its broadband Internet connection. Aside from the Home Center PC, the Windows Home Concept also includes a Home Tablet PC that will come with a docking station and can synchronize with the Home Center PC. The vision for the Home Tablet PC is similar to that of the Smart Display, the wireless PC displays that Microsoft dropped in December, only a year after the first Smart Displays shipped. "The Home Tablet PC is a more compelling scenario," Sullivan says. "There is a notion that the ability to take my content with me and it still be usable when I am away from my home network is an important feature." The comments echo the broad criticism of Smart Displays, which were found to be overpriced, dumb mobile terminals. Just a Peek Just as with concept cars at auto shows, the Windows Home Concept devices won't be found at retailers soon, Sullivan says. "This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept," he says. "Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario." A step closer to the vision will be reality later this year. Several hardware makers, including HP, plan release Windows Media Center Extenders before the December holiday shopping season. The Windows Media Center Extender removes the need to physically connect the TV to a Media Center PC or even have it in the same room. At WinHEC, Microsoft tells hardware makers where it is headed with Windows and related software products so they can allocate resources accordingly. In addition to the Windows Home Concept, Microsoft plans to provide details about Web services for devices such as printers and digital cameras as well as its plans for products including Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...050404X,00.asp == "Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time... they're gone." -- Lenny Bruce |
#25
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baracooda wrote:
So this isn't actually a robotic PC, but rather the stereotypical robot, which of course is a computer(s). There are robots already, of course, just not evolved enough to be your personal servant yet. You do still keep ignoring the obvious, that having this "thing" bring you comm devices or other features is a waste, since you must already be in contact with it, and as such, you already have potential comm with the rest of the world. The key being that the goal is not computers that move themselves but small enough, light enough, and energy conservative enough that it's already with you or integral to the environment you're in. Robotic PC is a product with multiple personality. But, I don't expect it to be a helpful personal servant any time soon. Perhaps Honda think otherwise. Unless it is marketed successfully as a toy, even then I doubt there is a high demand for a personal delivery robot, maybe the nursing homes. Ironically enough, wheeled 'delivery' robots is one of the few applications where they actually work because it is a controlled, known (hence easily programmed, relatively speaking), environment and 'helper' devices, such as in-laid floor guides, can be utilized. Even then it isn't entirely trivial because you have the problem of people getting in the way. |
#26
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Moderately Confused wrote:
"David Maynard" wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. So does a camera and a TV set. PBS has been doing it for decades, and without a roving robo-desk I might add. Most colleges already have that, called distance learning... You sit in front of your computer, be it on the toilet or in bed, and you can take all of your college courses. Yeah. Actually, I rather sympathize with his desire to make a (general purpose) 'robot' as I've been itching to make one for decades. But then that irritating question "of what use is it?" always crops up. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. Watch the Travel Channel if you don't want to 'go there'. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it's convenient, cheap, and does precisely the job I want. And you've not provided any benefit to doing it another way; just that it 'could be done' another way. And I don't need a robot to wipe my butt either just to be your version of 'modern' vs the 'decades old way'. Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. You seem to miss the point: Just doing things a 'new way' isn't a goal, in and of itself, nor necessarily desirable. There must be some BENEFIT to doing it the 'new way', and it must be practical (which includes cost), or else it ends up in a TV show about "crazy ideas that never made it." (all of which were 'new ways', 'modern', and 'did things'.) To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. A 10 grand robot, plus airfare for it, to replace a free travel brochure? And don't bother with descriptions of how much 'better' than a travel brochure it is because I can hear the average person's reply right now "hell, for THAT price I could GO there mySELF!" No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. Not yet? WHY in god's name would ANYone EVER want it to 'replace' their vacation? A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. 'Interact' with? Bloody well GO THERE if you want to 'see', 'interact', and have your vacation. Given the current state of the art, the kinds of 'features' you're talking about are pretty much useful only for places humans CAN'T (at least easily) go to, like Mars or the core of a live volcano. On the other hand, exploring a live volcano core with a robot HAS benefits: you don't risk human lives. But there's not much reason to send a DESK with it, unless you expect to see some Star Trekian 'lava creature' spring forth and you want a convenient spot for him to send email from. The "desk" feature of this Robotic PC design is only dominant when you use this robot as an ordinary PC. When using this robotic PC as a probe in a remote location, the desk collapsed to make the whole thing more compact, nimble and ready to mingle. Why not give deskoid robotic PC a thought, it might not be so "gibberish" I didn't say a thing about 'robots'. It was your claim that desks are "a must" for 'PeeCees' that I disputed, with examples provided. And then that your follow-up argument, to presumably support the claim, was gibberish. Sorry for the confusion, but what is "PeeCees"? It's the (slang) 'phonetic' of PC: PeeCee(s, for plural) and distinguishes it from Politically Correct. Than again that sounds like a minor detail. Why don't we just let it slide? Frankly, it sounds like gibberish. The fact is, while many people use them on desks, it is not 'a must' for a 'PeeCee', with laptops/notebooks being just one obvious example. And, no, they don't need a 'motorized wheel-desk' to be mobile, nor to use them. In addition to notebooks, I already have a VCR sized HTPC, run with a 'TV' style remote, similar to that mentioned in the article and I don't want a 'desk' built into that one either. Nor, btw, do I want a 'desk built in' my desk lamp, Mont Blanc pen, note pad, telephone, or anything else that I 'traditionally use' on my desk because there's no benefit in doing so but plenty of drawbacks. David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: Traditionally, PC is design to be use with a desk. This is more a must than an option. So, why not built PC with a desk built-in. You just wiped out the entire notebook/laptop industry, plus who knows what others. This is sort like the coffee table book about coffee table that is also in itself a coffee table. (baracooda) wrote in message . com... I heard that Microsoft is looking for ideas to transform Xbox into a more PC like machine. Perhaps it would be ideal for Xbox to evolve further into a photo robotic PC in the living room. http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05...s_6099472.html (baracooda) wrote in message om... Technological advances in PC-based/Windows-based robotics goes with their own drum beats. But, I hope things are indeed brewing underneath the quiet surface. PC do have the potential to become more robotic, just add X and Y components... Non-robotic PC in the living room just aren't that exciting, don't you think? (baracooda) wrote in message om... Microsoft's "ultimate" PC will be a robotic PC that look like.... http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com Ablang wrote in message . .. [Ed. The PC could well be on it's way out.] Will Windows Power the Living Room? Microsoft's Home Concept PC combines video recorder, CD player, phone, and more. Joris Evers, IDG News Service Tuesday, May 04, 2004 SEATTLE -- Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are showing off at a developers conference here some Windows XP concept devices intended to replace a consumer's video recorder, CD player, answering machine, and telephone. The Windows Home Concept is expected to make its debut in the opening talk by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week. The hub of the Windows Home Concept is the Home Center PC, which looks more like a fancy video recorder than a PC. Unlike today's Windows systems, the device can turn on and off instantly and operate silently. Also, it does not need a mouse or keyboard; all access is through an intelligent remote control that features a color screen, fingerprint reader, microphone, and speaker, according to Microsoft and HP. The Windows Home Concept is an evolution of Windows XP Media Center Edition, says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows. "The improvements in Windows combined with new hardware will enable devices that we will be happy to put in our living room," Sullivan says. Media Center PCs allow users to use a remote control to provide access via TV to photos, video, and music stored on their PC, as well as selected Internet services such as movie downloads. Multitasking Device Microsoft has a grand vision for the Windows Home Concept. Through the fingerprint reader on the remote, the Home Center PC will automatically show an individual user's favorite TV shows and computer games. The screen on the remote will let users to select shows to record, even while the PC is doing something else. When connected to a phone line, the Home Center PC can display caller information on the TV when a call comes in. The user can then decide whether to take the call, with the remote acting as a speaker phone, or have the PC answer the call. TV can be paused while a call is answered, using the system's digital video recording features. The HP concept Home Center PC boasts a DVD burner, high-capacity hard disk drive, and other features, says Ameer Karim, HP's director of worldwide product marketing. It also has a display on the front, much like traditional consumer electronics devices. "Think of this as replacing your DVD recorder, VCR, CD player, TiVo, and potentially your AV receiver in the future," he says. "This is the PC turned into an entertainment device." For a separate den room as well as the office, HP will continue to make and sell regular PCs, he says. The Home Center PC will also function as a wireless access point for other PCs in the home to access data and to share its broadband Internet connection. Aside from the Home Center PC, the Windows Home Concept also includes a Home Tablet PC that will come with a docking station and can synchronize with the Home Center PC. The vision for the Home Tablet PC is similar to that of the Smart Display, the wireless PC displays that Microsoft dropped in December, only a year after the first Smart Displays shipped. "The Home Tablet PC is a more compelling scenario," Sullivan says. "There is a notion that the ability to take my content with me and it still be usable when I am away from my home network is an important feature." The comments echo the broad criticism of Smart Displays, which were found to be overpriced, dumb mobile terminals. Just a Peek Just as with concept cars at auto shows, the Windows Home Concept devices won't be found at retailers soon, Sullivan says. "This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept," he says. "Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario." A step closer to the vision will be reality later this year. Several hardware makers, including HP, plan release Windows Media Center Extenders before the December holiday shopping season. The Windows Media Center Extender removes the need to physically connect the TV to a Media Center PC or even have it in the same room. At WinHEC, Microsoft tells hardware makers where it is headed with Windows and related software products so they can allocate resources accordingly. In addition to the Windows Home Concept, Microsoft plans to provide details about Web services for devices such as printers and digital cameras as well as its plans for products including Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...tk,dn050404X,0 0.asp == "Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time... they're gone." -- Lenny Bruce |
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When comes to deliverying college course or any courses, there are
more than one way to skin a cat. In certain aspect, some ways are better than the others. But to take college courses from the living room and still be able to interact not only with the teacher but with every students in that class in real time(when needed). That is in the realm of telepresence. Other mode of remote learning often require advance equipment preparations. In practice, one can convert an ordinary class into a remote learning class by having a robotic PC with in the room. Also, please note that providing remote learning isn't the sole task of this robotic PC. "Moderately Confused" wrote in message ... "David Maynard" wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. So does a camera and a TV set. PBS has been doing it for decades, and without a roving robo-desk I might add. Most colleges already have that, called distance learning... You sit in front of your computer, be it on the toilet or in bed, and you can take all of your college courses. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. Watch the Travel Channel if you don't want to 'go there'. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it's convenient, cheap, and does precisely the job I want. And you've not provided any benefit to doing it another way; just that it 'could be done' another way. And I don't need a robot to wipe my butt either just to be your version of 'modern' vs the 'decades old way'. Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. You seem to miss the point: Just doing things a 'new way' isn't a goal, in and of itself, nor necessarily desirable. There must be some BENEFIT to doing it the 'new way', and it must be practical (which includes cost), or else it ends up in a TV show about "crazy ideas that never made it." (all of which were 'new ways', 'modern', and 'did things'.) To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. A 10 grand robot, plus airfare for it, to replace a free travel brochure? And don't bother with descriptions of how much 'better' than a travel brochure it is because I can hear the average person's reply right now "hell, for THAT price I could GO there mySELF!" No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. Not yet? WHY in god's name would ANYone EVER want it to 'replace' their vacation? A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. 'Interact' with? Bloody well GO THERE if you want to 'see', 'interact', and have your vacation. Given the current state of the art, the kinds of 'features' you're talking about are pretty much useful only for places humans CAN'T (at least easily) go to, like Mars or the core of a live volcano. On the other hand, exploring a live volcano core with a robot HAS benefits: you don't risk human lives. But there's not much reason to send a DESK with it, unless you expect to see some Star Trekian 'lava creature' spring forth and you want a convenient spot for him to send email from. The "desk" feature of this Robotic PC design is only dominant when you use this robot as an ordinary PC. When using this robotic PC as a probe in a remote location, the desk collapsed to make the whole thing more compact, nimble and ready to mingle. Why not give deskoid robotic PC a thought, it might not be so "gibberish" I didn't say a thing about 'robots'. It was your claim that desks are "a must" for 'PeeCees' that I disputed, with examples provided. And then that your follow-up argument, to presumably support the claim, was gibberish. Sorry for the confusion, but what is "PeeCees"? It's the (slang) 'phonetic' of PC: PeeCee(s, for plural) and distinguishes it from Politically Correct. Than again that sounds like a minor detail. Why don't we just let it slide? Frankly, it sounds like gibberish. The fact is, while many people use them on desks, it is not 'a must' for a 'PeeCee', with laptops/notebooks being just one obvious example. And, no, they don't need a 'motorized wheel-desk' to be mobile, nor to use them. In addition to notebooks, I already have a VCR sized HTPC, run with a 'TV' style remote, similar to that mentioned in the article and I don't want a 'desk' built into that one either. Nor, btw, do I want a 'desk built in' my desk lamp, Mont Blanc pen, note pad, telephone, or anything else that I 'traditionally use' on my desk because there's no benefit in doing so but plenty of drawbacks. David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: Traditionally, PC is design to be use with a desk. This is more a must than an option. So, why not built PC with a desk built-in. You just wiped out the entire notebook/laptop industry, plus who knows what others. This is sort like the coffee table book about coffee table that is also in itself a coffee table. (baracooda) wrote in message . com... I heard that Microsoft is looking for ideas to transform Xbox into a more PC like machine. Perhaps it would be ideal for Xbox to evolve further into a photo robotic PC in the living room. http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05...s_6099472.html (baracooda) wrote in message om... Technological advances in PC-based/Windows-based robotics goes with their own drum beats. But, I hope things are indeed brewing underneath the quiet surface. PC do have the potential to become more robotic, just add X and Y components... Non-robotic PC in the living room just aren't that exciting, don't you think? (baracooda) wrote in message om... Microsoft's "ultimate" PC will be a robotic PC that look like.... http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com Ablang wrote in message . .. [Ed. The PC could well be on it's way out.] Will Windows Power the Living Room? Microsoft's Home Concept PC combines video recorder, CD player, phone, and more. Joris Evers, IDG News Service Tuesday, May 04, 2004 SEATTLE -- Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are showing off at a developers conference here some Windows XP concept devices intended to replace a consumer's video recorder, CD player, answering machine, and telephone. The Windows Home Concept is expected to make its debut in the opening talk by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week. The hub of the Windows Home Concept is the Home Center PC, which looks more like a fancy video recorder than a PC. Unlike today's Windows systems, the device can turn on and off instantly and operate silently. Also, it does not need a mouse or keyboard; all access is through an intelligent remote control that features a color screen, fingerprint reader, microphone, and speaker, according to Microsoft and HP. The Windows Home Concept is an evolution of Windows XP Media Center Edition, says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows. "The improvements in Windows combined with new hardware will enable devices that we will be happy to put in our living room," Sullivan says. Media Center PCs allow users to use a remote control to provide access via TV to photos, video, and music stored on their PC, as well as selected Internet services such as movie downloads. Multitasking Device Microsoft has a grand vision for the Windows Home Concept. Through the fingerprint reader on the remote, the Home Center PC will automatically show an individual user's favorite TV shows and computer games. The screen on the remote will let users to select shows to record, even while the PC is doing something else. When connected to a phone line, the Home Center PC can display caller information on the TV when a call comes in. The user can then decide whether to take the call, with the remote acting as a speaker phone, or have the PC answer the call. TV can be paused while a call is answered, using the system's digital video recording features. The HP concept Home Center PC boasts a DVD burner, high-capacity hard disk drive, and other features, says Ameer Karim, HP's director of worldwide product marketing. It also has a display on the front, much like traditional consumer electronics devices. "Think of this as replacing your DVD recorder, VCR, CD player, TiVo, and potentially your AV receiver in the future," he says. "This is the PC turned into an entertainment device." For a separate den room as well as the office, HP will continue to make and sell regular PCs, he says. The Home Center PC will also function as a wireless access point for other PCs in the home to access data and to share its broadband Internet connection. Aside from the Home Center PC, the Windows Home Concept also includes a Home Tablet PC that will come with a docking station and can synchronize with the Home Center PC. The vision for the Home Tablet PC is similar to that of the Smart Display, the wireless PC displays that Microsoft dropped in December, only a year after the first Smart Displays shipped. "The Home Tablet PC is a more compelling scenario," Sullivan says. "There is a notion that the ability to take my content with me and it still be usable when I am away from my home network is an important feature." The comments echo the broad criticism of Smart Displays, which were found to be overpriced, dumb mobile terminals. Just a Peek Just as with concept cars at auto shows, the Windows Home Concept devices won't be found at retailers soon, Sullivan says. "This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept," he says. "Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario." A step closer to the vision will be reality later this year. Several hardware makers, including HP, plan release Windows Media Center Extenders before the December holiday shopping season. The Windows Media Center Extender removes the need to physically connect the TV to a Media Center PC or even have it in the same room. At WinHEC, Microsoft tells hardware makers where it is headed with Windows and related software products so they can allocate resources accordingly. In addition to the Windows Home Concept, Microsoft plans to provide details about Web services for devices such as printers and digital cameras as well as its plans for products including Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...tk,dn050404X,0 0.asp == "Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time... they're gone." -- Lenny Bruce |
#28
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David Maynard wrote in message ...
baracooda wrote: One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. So does a camera and a TV set. PBS has been doing it for decades, and without a roving robo-desk I might add. Such broadcast version provides little or no real time interaction before during or after the class. Which is a very important part of the learning process. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. Watch the Travel Channel if you don't want to 'go there'. There are many ways to find out any particular location of interest. Unless you are the owner of that travel channel. The odds are against you finding exactly the information that you need. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it's convenient, cheap, and does precisely the job I want. And you've not provided any benefit to doing it another way; just that it 'could be done' another way. And I don't need a robot to wipe my butt either just to be your version of 'modern' vs the 'decades old way'. There are already toilet seats that spray water right where it is needed. Quiet common in Japan and rest of the Far East. Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. You seem to miss the point: Just doing things a 'new way' isn't a goal, in and of itself, nor necessarily desirable. There must be some BENEFIT to doing it the 'new way', and it must be practical (which includes cost), or else it ends up in a TV show about "crazy ideas that never made it." (all of which were 'new ways', 'modern', and 'did things'.) Agree, new way aren't necessary the better way. To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. A 10 grand robot, plus airfare for it, to replace a free travel brochure? And don't bother with descriptions of how much 'better' than a travel brochure it is because I can hear the average person's reply right now "hell, for THAT price I could GO there mySELF!" This is like comparing the price of an automobile with the price of a single bus ticket. No one buys a car for any particular trip. And nobody buys a general purpose robot for just one single purpose. In practice, if a robotic PC can indeed provide a real time active travel brochure, the resort of that particular travel destination will likely to provide such robot. No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. Not yet? WHY in god's name would ANYone EVER want it to 'replace' their vacation? A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. 'Interact' with? Bloody well GO THERE if you want to 'see', 'interact', and have your vacation. Given the current state of the art, the kinds of 'features' you're talking about are pretty much useful only for places humans CAN'T (at least easily) go to, like Mars or the core of a live volcano. Once proliferated, robotic PC will give human the power of virtual omnipresence. Not too sure about if there is a demand to see live volcano super up-close. On the other hand, exploring a live volcano core with a robot HAS benefits: you don't risk human lives. But there's not much reason to send a DESK with it, unless you expect to see some Star Trekian 'lava creature' spring forth and you want a convenient spot for him to send email from. The "desk" feature of this Robotic PC design is only dominant when you use this robot as an ordinary PC. When using this robotic PC as a probe in a remote location, the desk collapsed to make the whole thing more compact, nimble and ready to mingle. Why not give deskoid robotic PC a thought, it might not be so "gibberish" I didn't say a thing about 'robots'. It was your claim that desks are "a must" for 'PeeCees' that I disputed, with examples provided. And then that your follow-up argument, to presumably support the claim, was gibberish. Sorry for the confusion, but what is "PeeCees"? It's the (slang) 'phonetic' of PC: PeeCee(s, for plural) and distinguishes it from Politically Correct. Than again that sounds like a minor detail. Why don't we just let it slide? Frankly, it sounds like gibberish. The fact is, while many people use them on desks, it is not 'a must' for a 'PeeCee', with laptops/notebooks being just one obvious example. And, no, they don't need a 'motorized wheel-desk' to be mobile, nor to use them. In addition to notebooks, I already have a VCR sized HTPC, run with a 'TV' style remote, similar to that mentioned in the article and I don't want a 'desk' built into that one either. Nor, btw, do I want a 'desk built in' my desk lamp, Mont Blanc pen, note pad, telephone, or anything else that I 'traditionally use' on my desk because there's no benefit in doing so but plenty of drawbacks. David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: Traditionally, PC is design to be use with a desk. This is more a must than an option. So, why not built PC with a desk built-in. You just wiped out the entire notebook/laptop industry, plus who knows what others. This is sort like the coffee table book about coffee table that is also in itself a coffee table. (baracooda) wrote in message . com... I heard that Microsoft is looking for ideas to transform Xbox into a more PC like machine. Perhaps it would be ideal for Xbox to evolve further into a photo robotic PC in the living room. http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05...s_6099472.html (baracooda) wrote in message om... Technological advances in PC-based/Windows-based robotics goes with their own drum beats. But, I hope things are indeed brewing underneath the quiet surface. PC do have the potential to become more robotic, just add X and Y components... Non-robotic PC in the living room just aren't that exciting, don't you think? (baracooda) wrote in message om... Microsoft's "ultimate" PC will be a robotic PC that look like.... http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com Ablang wrote in message . .. [Ed. The PC could well be on it's way out.] Will Windows Power the Living Room? Microsoft's Home Concept PC combines video recorder, CD player, phone, and more. Joris Evers, IDG News Service Tuesday, May 04, 2004 SEATTLE -- Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are showing off at a developers conference here some Windows XP concept devices intended to replace a consumer's video recorder, CD player, answering machine, and telephone. The Windows Home Concept is expected to make its debut in the opening talk by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week. The hub of the Windows Home Concept is the Home Center PC, which looks more like a fancy video recorder than a PC. Unlike today's Windows systems, the device can turn on and off instantly and operate silently. Also, it does not need a mouse or keyboard; all access is through an intelligent remote control that features a color screen, fingerprint reader, microphone, and speaker, according to Microsoft and HP. The Windows Home Concept is an evolution of Windows XP Media Center Edition, says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows. "The improvements in Windows combined with new hardware will enable devices that we will be happy to put in our living room," Sullivan says. Media Center PCs allow users to use a remote control to provide access via TV to photos, video, and music stored on their PC, as well as selected Internet services such as movie downloads. Multitasking Device Microsoft has a grand vision for the Windows Home Concept. Through the fingerprint reader on the remote, the Home Center PC will automatically show an individual user's favorite TV shows and computer games. The screen on the remote will let users to select shows to record, even while the PC is doing something else. When connected to a phone line, the Home Center PC can display caller information on the TV when a call comes in. The user can then decide whether to take the call, with the remote acting as a speaker phone, or have the PC answer the call. TV can be paused while a call is answered, using the system's digital video recording features. The HP concept Home Center PC boasts a DVD burner, high-capacity hard disk drive, and other features, says Ameer Karim, HP's director of worldwide product marketing. It also has a display on the front, much like traditional consumer electronics devices. "Think of this as replacing your DVD recorder, VCR, CD player, TiVo, and potentially your AV receiver in the future," he says. "This is the PC turned into an entertainment device." For a separate den room as well as the office, HP will continue to make and sell regular PCs, he says. The Home Center PC will also function as a wireless access point for other PCs in the home to access data and to share its broadband Internet connection. Aside from the Home Center PC, the Windows Home Concept also includes a Home Tablet PC that will come with a docking station and can synchronize with the Home Center PC. The vision for the Home Tablet PC is similar to that of the Smart Display, the wireless PC displays that Microsoft dropped in December, only a year after the first Smart Displays shipped. "The Home Tablet PC is a more compelling scenario," Sullivan says. "There is a notion that the ability to take my content with me and it still be usable when I am away from my home network is an important feature." The comments echo the broad criticism of Smart Displays, which were found to be overpriced, dumb mobile terminals. Just a Peek Just as with concept cars at auto shows, the Windows Home Concept devices won't be found at retailers soon, Sullivan says. "This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept," he says. "Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario." A step closer to the vision will be reality later this year. Several hardware makers, including HP, plan release Windows Media Center Extenders before the December holiday shopping season. The Windows Media Center Extender removes the need to physically connect the TV to a Media Center PC or even have it in the same room. At WinHEC, Microsoft tells hardware makers where it is headed with Windows and related software products so they can allocate resources accordingly. In addition to the Windows Home Concept, Microsoft plans to provide details about Web services for devices such as printers and digital cameras as well as its plans for products including Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...050404X,00.asp == "Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time... they're gone." -- Lenny Bruce |
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baracooda wrote:
When comes to deliverying college course or any courses, there are more than one way to skin a cat. In certain aspect, some ways are better than the others. But to take college courses from the living room and still be able to interact not only with the teacher but with every students in that class in real time(when needed). That is in the realm of telepresence. Other mode of remote learning often require advance equipment preparations. In practice, one can convert an ordinary class into a remote learning class by having a robotic PC with in the room. Also, please note that providing remote learning isn't the sole task of this robotic PC. Good luck "Moderately Confused" wrote in message ... "David Maynard" wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. So does a camera and a TV set. PBS has been doing it for decades, and without a roving robo-desk I might add. Most colleges already have that, called distance learning... You sit in front of your computer, be it on the toilet or in bed, and you can take all of your college courses. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. Watch the Travel Channel if you don't want to 'go there'. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it's convenient, cheap, and does precisely the job I want. And you've not provided any benefit to doing it another way; just that it 'could be done' another way. And I don't need a robot to wipe my butt either just to be your version of 'modern' vs the 'decades old way'. Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. You seem to miss the point: Just doing things a 'new way' isn't a goal, in and of itself, nor necessarily desirable. There must be some BENEFIT to doing it the 'new way', and it must be practical (which includes cost), or else it ends up in a TV show about "crazy ideas that never made it." (all of which were 'new ways', 'modern', and 'did things'.) To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. A 10 grand robot, plus airfare for it, to replace a free travel brochure? And don't bother with descriptions of how much 'better' than a travel brochure it is because I can hear the average person's reply right now "hell, for THAT price I could GO there mySELF!" No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. Not yet? WHY in god's name would ANYone EVER want it to 'replace' their vacation? A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. 'Interact' with? Bloody well GO THERE if you want to 'see', 'interact', and have your vacation. Given the current state of the art, the kinds of 'features' you're talking about are pretty much useful only for places humans CAN'T (at least easily) go to, like Mars or the core of a live volcano. On the other hand, exploring a live volcano core with a robot HAS benefits: you don't risk human lives. But there's not much reason to send a DESK with it, unless you expect to see some Star Trekian 'lava creature' spring forth and you want a convenient spot for him to send email from. The "desk" feature of this Robotic PC design is only dominant when you use this robot as an ordinary PC. When using this robotic PC as a probe in a remote location, the desk collapsed to make the whole thing more compact, nimble and ready to mingle. Why not give deskoid robotic PC a thought, it might not be so "gibberish" I didn't say a thing about 'robots'. It was your claim that desks are "a must" for 'PeeCees' that I disputed, with examples provided. And then that your follow-up argument, to presumably support the claim, was gibberish. Sorry for the confusion, but what is "PeeCees"? It's the (slang) 'phonetic' of PC: PeeCee(s, for plural) and distinguishes it from Politically Correct. Than again that sounds like a minor detail. Why don't we just let it slide? Frankly, it sounds like gibberish. The fact is, while many people use them on desks, it is not 'a must' for a 'PeeCee', with laptops/notebooks being just one obvious example. And, no, they don't need a 'motorized wheel-desk' to be mobile, nor to use them. In addition to notebooks, I already have a VCR sized HTPC, run with a 'TV' style remote, similar to that mentioned in the article and I don't want a 'desk' built into that one either. Nor, btw, do I want a 'desk built in' my desk lamp, Mont Blanc pen, note pad, telephone, or anything else that I 'traditionally use' on my desk because there's no benefit in doing so but plenty of drawbacks. David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: Traditionally, PC is design to be use with a desk. This is more a must than an option. So, why not built PC with a desk built-in. You just wiped out the entire notebook/laptop industry, plus who knows what others. This is sort like the coffee table book about coffee table that is also in itself a coffee table. (baracooda) wrote in message . com... I heard that Microsoft is looking for ideas to transform Xbox into a more PC like machine. Perhaps it would be ideal for Xbox to evolve further into a photo robotic PC in the living room. http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05...s_6099472.html (baracooda) wrote in message om... Technological advances in PC-based/Windows-based robotics goes with their own drum beats. But, I hope things are indeed brewing underneath the quiet surface. PC do have the potential to become more robotic, just add X and Y components... Non-robotic PC in the living room just aren't that exciting, don't you think? (baracooda) wrote in message om... Microsoft's "ultimate" PC will be a robotic PC that look like.... http://funkycoldamoeba.blogspot.com Ablang wrote in message . .. [Ed. The PC could well be on it's way out.] Will Windows Power the Living Room? Microsoft's Home Concept PC combines video recorder, CD player, phone, and more. Joris Evers, IDG News Service Tuesday, May 04, 2004 SEATTLE -- Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are showing off at a developers conference here some Windows XP concept devices intended to replace a consumer's video recorder, CD player, answering machine, and telephone. The Windows Home Concept is expected to make its debut in the opening talk by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates at the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) this week. The hub of the Windows Home Concept is the Home Center PC, which looks more like a fancy video recorder than a PC. Unlike today's Windows systems, the device can turn on and off instantly and operate silently. Also, it does not need a mouse or keyboard; all access is through an intelligent remote control that features a color screen, fingerprint reader, microphone, and speaker, according to Microsoft and HP. The Windows Home Concept is an evolution of Windows XP Media Center Edition, says Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows. "The improvements in Windows combined with new hardware will enable devices that we will be happy to put in our living room," Sullivan says. Media Center PCs allow users to use a remote control to provide access via TV to photos, video, and music stored on their PC, as well as selected Internet services such as movie downloads. Multitasking Device Microsoft has a grand vision for the Windows Home Concept. Through the fingerprint reader on the remote, the Home Center PC will automatically show an individual user's favorite TV shows and computer games. The screen on the remote will let users to select shows to record, even while the PC is doing something else. When connected to a phone line, the Home Center PC can display caller information on the TV when a call comes in. The user can then decide whether to take the call, with the remote acting as a speaker phone, or have the PC answer the call. TV can be paused while a call is answered, using the system's digital video recording features. The HP concept Home Center PC boasts a DVD burner, high-capacity hard disk drive, and other features, says Ameer Karim, HP's director of worldwide product marketing. It also has a display on the front, much like traditional consumer electronics devices. "Think of this as replacing your DVD recorder, VCR, CD player, TiVo, and potentially your AV receiver in the future," he says. "This is the PC turned into an entertainment device." For a separate den room as well as the office, HP will continue to make and sell regular PCs, he says. The Home Center PC will also function as a wireless access point for other PCs in the home to access data and to share its broadband Internet connection. Aside from the Home Center PC, the Windows Home Concept also includes a Home Tablet PC that will come with a docking station and can synchronize with the Home Center PC. The vision for the Home Tablet PC is similar to that of the Smart Display, the wireless PC displays that Microsoft dropped in December, only a year after the first Smart Displays shipped. "The Home Tablet PC is a more compelling scenario," Sullivan says. "There is a notion that the ability to take my content with me and it still be usable when I am away from my home network is an important feature." The comments echo the broad criticism of Smart Displays, which were found to be overpriced, dumb mobile terminals. Just a Peek Just as with concept cars at auto shows, the Windows Home Concept devices won't be found at retailers soon, Sullivan says. "This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept," he says. "Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario." A step closer to the vision will be reality later this year. Several hardware makers, including HP, plan release Windows Media Center Extenders before the December holiday shopping season. The Windows Media Center Extender removes the need to physically connect the TV to a Media Center PC or even have it in the same room. At WinHEC, Microsoft tells hardware makers where it is headed with Windows and related software products so they can allocate resources accordingly. In addition to the Windows Home Concept, Microsoft plans to provide details about Web services for devices such as printers and digital cameras as well as its plans for products including Windows Media Digital Rights Management, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...tk,dn050404X,0 0.asp == "Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time... they're gone." -- Lenny Bruce |
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baracooda wrote:
David Maynard wrote in message ... baracooda wrote: One of the problems with your 'explanations' is you incoherently jump all over the place at random. LAST message you were talking about in the "living room" and now you're roving "college courses" for some unknown reason. Robotic PC will enable you to take college courses from the comfort of your living room, provided that you have a robotic PC on both end. It is another way of interacting with people and things in this world. In this case robotic PC=two way mobile videoconference machine. So does a camera and a TV set. PBS has been doing it for decades, and without a roving robo-desk I might add. Such broadcast version provides little or no real time interaction before during or after the class. Which is a very important part of the learning process. Then show UP for class. The fact of the matter is, for what most 'normal' people use a camera for it's just fine to hold it in your cute little fingers and take the pictures: no 'robot' needed. With robotic PC as a camera server, user can login to this server and take pictures from miles away with out any travel time. There are certain spots in this world where such service might be welcome. Watch the Travel Channel if you don't want to 'go there'. There are many ways to find out any particular location of interest. Unless you are the owner of that travel channel. The odds are against you finding exactly the information that you need. The fact of the matter is, no one is going to buy a robot and pay travel fare for it to go and 'check out' a vacation spot. After all these decades, one still have to use a finger to take a picture one by one? Because it's convenient, cheap, and does precisely the job I want. And you've not provided any benefit to doing it another way; just that it 'could be done' another way. And I don't need a robot to wipe my butt either just to be your version of 'modern' vs the 'decades old way'. There are already toilet seats that spray water right where it is needed. Quiet common in Japan and rest of the Far East. It ain't a robot, must less a roving desk. Because it is a 'solution' looking for a problem and in the finest Rube Goldberg tradition (especially your obsession with 'a desk'): "Look mom, I made a 10 grand 'roving desk' to carry my 200 buck camera." And I imagine the typical reply would be "what on earth FOR?" I have disclosed this idea to many others before. The responses ranges from one end of the spectrum to "I wish to remain an Amish". A few begins to explore the possibility even beyond my imagination. Basically, what I trying to say is that the whole is greater than sum of its parts. This machine has the potential to do many new things that can't be (easily) done before. You seem to miss the point: Just doing things a 'new way' isn't a goal, in and of itself, nor necessarily desirable. There must be some BENEFIT to doing it the 'new way', and it must be practical (which includes cost), or else it ends up in a TV show about "crazy ideas that never made it." (all of which were 'new ways', 'modern', and 'did things'.) Agree, new way aren't necessary the better way. To which you list off supposed 'features' (what it 'could do') but no benefits. E.g. Why would someone want "a prolific picture capturing machine" when what most people want are 'good pictures' of specific things (not to mention their own creative input in taking the picture), not simply a million of them? Why would someone want to sit in a room navigating the 'roving desk' to "tourist destinations" when the point of taking 'tourist pictures' is to show where THEY'VE been and what THEY saw? (otherwise, stay home and watch the Travel Channel.) Robotic PC will be a good way to help you choose your next travel destination. A 10 grand robot, plus airfare for it, to replace a free travel brochure? And don't bother with descriptions of how much 'better' than a travel brochure it is because I can hear the average person's reply right now "hell, for THAT price I could GO there mySELF!" This is like comparing the price of an automobile with the price of a single bus ticket. No one buys a car for any particular trip. And nobody buys a general purpose robot for just one single purpose. In practice, if a robotic PC can indeed provide a real time active travel brochure, the resort of that particular travel destination will likely to provide such robot. Why? When all they need provide is what they're already providing. No machine can replace an actual vacation, at least not yet. Not yet? WHY in god's name would ANYone EVER want it to 'replace' their vacation? A travel channel only shows what the producer wants you to see or what the camera man happens to point the camera in that particular direction. With the robotic PC, you are in control of the camera, and interact with whom ever in the picture in real time. Sort of like your own personal live broadcast system. 'Interact' with? Bloody well GO THERE if you want to 'see', 'interact', and have your vacation. Given the current state of the art, the kinds of 'features' you're talking about are pretty much useful only for places humans CAN'T (at least easily) go to, like Mars or the core of a live volcano. Once proliferated, robotic PC will give human the power of virtual omnipresence. Nice buzz word but with no practical meaning. Not too sure about if there is a demand to see live volcano super up-close. Since they've already made some for that specific purpose I'd say you've underestimated the need. snip of old stuff |
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