Hyperlinks In The Meat World 100
Once&FutureRocketman writes "The New York Times has this article (no login required) about a technology that allows publishers of paper media to embed hyperlinks directly in the article in machine-readable format. The system is a little clumsy at this point, but the intent is clear: a seamless integration of the Internet and Real Life."
*You* are paying *them*... (Score:1)
Something as brazen as what you suggest should loose them customers.
'real life' (Score:1)
I love how the internet is not 'real life'
Re:Silly Kids! Trix is for Purple Dinosaurs! (Score:2)
It seems like this is:
(a) archaic (I remember barcode programs from the days of Commodore & Vegetable Games)
Huh? Sure barcodes have been around for a while. There`s a reason: they work. The latest barcode technology I've seen isn't really a barcode, but rather a 2D bitmap. (There`s one on my stick of deoderant.) That way you can increase the information density. (This bitmap is about
Just because a technology has been around for a long time, doesn't automatically make it archaic, I submit:
fire
wheel
writting
mathematics
(b) prone to errors (even barcodes on TV guides are little more than a cute gimic) and
This can be fixed by high-definition printing. It`s simply an engineering problem.
(c) entirely the wrong way round.
What would be better, then? What about thin plastic newspapers, using that fluid LCD technology that got posted a while back?
Yeah, I'll don my crash helmet and aluminium foil jumpsuit, jump in my atomic powered hovercar and go out and pick one up.
Yes having flexible color screens that can be folded (just imagine the paper airplanes!) and bound would be idea;; but this is 2000. They don't exist in any meaningful way yet (by "meaningful", I mean "commercial ready at a damn cheap price"). If you want to have offline links, you have to go with what's available today. Barcodes and webcams are it.
Personally I like the barcode idea better than the webcam idea. By holding up a page infront of a cammera, there's no way to have multiple links on a page. Sure you could look for the hand, and then the finger, or have the user point with a flourescent orange pencil, but these solutiions either take too long or are awkward. (I have a hard enough time keeping track of my palm stylus, I don't want to have to search my apartment for another stylus whenever I want to read a magazine.)
The problem with barcodes is you need extra hardware, but that`s pretty much inescapable. Now if this technology was implimented in say a PDA, then you'd have something.
Sony Cybercode did this last year (Score:1)
You can print your own codes, and assign them to special functions on your laptop. Quite useful (but I never use it.)
--
Paul Gillingwater
Sad Day In Slashdot's History (Score:1)
Shame on you, Hemos
Steganography, too. For the mass market. (Score:1)
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This post made from 100% post-consumer recycled magnetic
They tried this at Mac World about 10 Years ago (Score:2)
In the late 1980's, there was a device called the Cauzin Softstrip Reader. As told in MacWorld Macintosh Secrets:
A softstrip was a one-inch-wide strip of printed computer dots, looking like the tire tracks from a [toy truck]. You'd buy a $250 Soft-Strip reader - something that looked like a footlong flourescent light bulb in a plastic hot dog bun - and place it carefully over the page where the strip was printed. Slowly, the Reader would turn the strip into about a 3k file on the Mac's disk.
Needless to say, the device was slow and doomed, and perished not long after. Of course, we're not trying to distribute files this time around...
Dang . . . missed patent opportunity (Score:1)
He pictured a hand-held reader that would store the URLS for downloading into your PC. We both thought magazines would be the ones who put the codes in their ads. Neither of us thought of newspapers and article tie-ins.
He wanted to patent and implement it all himself; knowing how tough the industry is on new gadgets and daunted by the task of getting the media to adopt the system, I suggested just writing up and patenting the idea and letting someone more connected with the industry do the dirty work. He took that the wrong way, got discouraged, and didn't follow up.
Probably an obvious idea, but he could have gotten in a claim and made few thou . . .
Re:Similar idea on a grander scale (Score:1)
If you replaced their whole camera assembly with a pressure sensor for the nib to see when you're writing and an absolute position sensor in the pen you could just store pen movement and reproduce it as writing with software, rather than worrying about dots on paper and recognizing them in varying light conditions and such with a camera.. not to mention taking less power. You'd not have to write on their special paper either, which with 73 billion sheets would still run out fairly fast if it's meant for business use.
Dreamweaver
Re:Another thing that bothers me.... (Score:1)
Re:Dang . . . missed patent opportunity (Score:1)
K, this is a stupid comment (Score:1)
Married to the media, but chained to my desktop? (Score:2)
The peer and editor-reviewed printed word doesn't have enough clarity and depth, so here's a list of links! That TV show doesn't have enough action, so here's a link to a Flash animation! And all you have to do is drag your magazine/newspaper/big-screen TV over to that Dell on your desk!
Thanks, guys -- I really didn't have anything better to do with my serial or USB port. This kind of computing is invasive, not pervasive.
Re:Virus alert! - don't blame the users (Score:1)
When will M$ think about security before they release products ?
Re:Virus alert! - don't blame the users (Score:3)
"When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood."
Another article about this: (Score:3)
I rarely go to web sites I read about in print or see on TV because most of the time they don't point you directly to the content you want. I always pictured a cheap pen reader hooked to a USB port a good method of getting the URL from paper to the computer. If a web cam can do it that's great, but it will have to be fairly reliable. This technology will be great for business cards too. Especially if you can encode all the printed data on a business card into the barcode.
numb
Paper URLs Unfair To Search Engines! (Score:1)
Silly Kids! Trix is for Purple Dinosaurs! (Score:3)
(a) archaic (I remember barcode programs from the days of Commodore & Vegetable Games)
(b) prone to errors (even barcodes on TV guides are little more than a cute gimic) and
(c) entirely the wrong way round.
What would be better, then? What about thin plastic newspapers, using that fluid LCD technology that got posted a while back?
Instead of scanning in the URL, you simply press the newspaper in at that point, and it changes to show the contents of that site.
I don't see the problem with that - it'd be cheaper than printing a whole load of newspapers, whilst still giving the "authentic" newspaper L&F. It would also allow newspapers to include breaking stories WITHOUT having to stop the presses.
Re:What is the point? (Score:1)
barcode readers are more interesting on handhelds (Score:1)
Similar idea on a grander scale (Score:1)
This company has come up with a wacky pen/printed-code scheme that allows for all sorts of paper-to-net interaction. From the latter page:
If it works, it would be interesting to play with, to say the least, since (from that same page) "Total pattern size: 73 000 000 000 000 A4 pages"
Users optional (Score:1)
Kinda left out the part where you decide whether or not you *want* to do this, didn't they? Or is this just a way to simultaneously generate page hits and track your TV viewing?
a HyperLink on Spam, Spagettioes and Joe (Score:1)
I can see other uses for this tech. You could embed these barcodes on canned food so if you needed to get the ingredients you could *beep* on the can... if you buy a car, beep on it for recall notices... while working on the car you could beep on parts to get repair instructions... if you need to buy a part, beep on it somewhere else and order it online... Need a light bulb? beep on the burnt out one...
We could even tattoo the beep codes onto people for their personal websites so when you meet a new person you could just beep them. That alone would save a lot of trouble.
--// Hartsock
Re:Newspapers Obsolete? (Score:1)
Besides, printed info is a Good Thing. Like when you just want to sprawl out on the floor and read the paper, or go to a coffeeshop and get caffienated, or when yer on the bus...
It'd be pretty funny, tho, if someone managed to crack into the newspaper's printer's control machine and make all the links point to something... unexpected. [goatse.cx]
DCV's devices are free. *any* barcode can be used. (Score:2)
They're planning on giving away all of their barcode readers to millions of people. Software for the machine is small and free as well.
Not only will DigitalConvergence's reader read 'special' bar codes, it will read *any* bar code. Imagine linking your bag of chips to see if you instantly won something. This means that the *billions* of products allready on the market with barcode technology are instantly linked to the web. All you need is the database and the method to transfer it to your webbrowser (which, btw, is how the software works. It does some quick two-way comm for the url, and then shoots a location to the browser. Not any worse of a piece of software than WinAmp, RealAudio, etc).
Same thing with the audio technology. All is free with wireless products planned as well (TV in one room, Computer in another).
The possibilities are endless. I don't mean to sound preachy, but I've actually seen it work.
Heh. I helped create this stuff. (Score:2)
The interesting thing about all this including the system that we developed to change "sound tones" into urls is the slashdot effect produced on DCV's servers and on the end clients servers as well.
Imagine watching a large sporting event and all of a sudden a "blip-blip" sounds on the tv, your computer is connected and listening and all of a sudden you and 1,000,000 other people are all instantly trying to connect to the same batch of servers (or many batches of servers!) all over the world. That's a mess and was one of the things I was dealing with before I left.
Even with the transactions down to 150bytes both ways that's a LOT of traffic, not to mention the traffic on the end-client's site.
It's an interesting idea and I hope they pull it off. I'm glad I'm a stockholder.
Ted Nelson and Transclusion (Score:2)
this technology allows traditional media (okay, forget about the imperfectness of the system for a moment) to become part of the docuverse. this allows for Nelson's concept of "transclusion" to happen. Basically, transclusion is a way for the integrity of original materials to be maintained. for instance, quotes can often be taken out of context in a journalistic article. transclusion would allow the quote to be linked to the full text. okay, that may not sound so amazing, but for an information junkie like me, it's useful.
there's another important aspect of transclusion Nelson talks about that some other posters touched on - automated royalty payments. if you follow a link, a centralized system can track you and automatically charge you (or the author of the article) for use of their original material.
transclusion [sgi.com]
ted nelson [keio.ac.jp]
Re:Problems with the technology's uses (Score:1)
Connah
I stand corrected.. $99 isn't THAT bad! [NT] (Score:1)
.- CitizenC (User Info [slashdot.org])
Subliminal |fnord| messages (Score:1)
I wonder |fnord| how long it will |fnord| take before subliminal messages |fnord| are encoded into these barcode |fnord| smudges...
Wireless PalmPilots! (Score:3)
Re:Other uses of this technology? (Score:2)
I suppose one advantage of non-human-readable links is that it might reduce the value of domain-name squatting. . .
- Michael Cohn
How insulting (Score:2)
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CAIMLAS
Re:A little clunky???? (Score:1)
Wave your phone over the 800 number in the paper and you dial them.
Wave your phone over my business card to call me.
Wave your business card at my Palm Pilot and you are in my database...
Re:A little clunky???? (Score:1)
What you're describing sounds like the Cauzin Softstrip reader, except that the Softstrip was for the Apple II, Mac, and x86 DOS boxen. It was a gadget about the size of a three-hole punch; you'd line it up over a 2-D barcode (printed in a magazine or printed (at lower resolution) on your dot-matrix printer) and it'd save the contents into a file. I think I might have some examples buried in my Nibble collection...they didn't run with it for very long. (I never had a reader; they were kinda spendy at the time, and Nibble had pretty good tools available for checking your keyed-in programs for errors.)
Re:Virus alert! - don't blame the users (Score:1)
The mail message is just text. The virus is the attached
There are two things I haven't been able to figure out about this virus:
1. What does WIN-BUGSFIX.exe do (it tries to download it from an URL by defining it as the IE start page). Has anyone had the chance to disassemble/analyze it yet? The server was dead already when I tried to wget it.
2. Obviously, by double-clicking on the attachement, you execute the code locally with full access to the computer trough WHS. I wonder if it were possible to embed a similar code directly into (MS)HTML, aren't there access restrictions?. That would be one badass motherfucker of a virus/worm.
Sorry for being Offtopic.
Re:Silly Kids! Trix is for Purple Dinosaurs! (Score:2)
If you had an 8.5"x11" computer that weighed only a few ounces, would survive a 4-foot drop 100% of the time, last 16 hours on a charge, and was all screen, you wouldn't care about paper, and this would all be moot.
Just push the "download New York Times" control every morning, and pay your credit card bill every month.
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Re:Consequences of this technology? (Score:1)
The best description of Ponce has got to be in some mag i read about 10 years ago where his entry in an encyclopaedia of `musicians` was just :
"possibly a reincarnation of one of Jimi Hendrix`s pubic hairs"
a.
Re:Why? (Score:1)
Connah
Re:How insulting (Score:1)
Who needs real life when you've got "Half Life"
Meat? What the hell? (Score:2)
What the hell does this have to do with meat?
Maybe I'm just tired and confused, and I can't figure it out. I just can't see the connection between this story and butchered animals. Systematically butchered and processed animals, for that matter. If somebody could please help me out here, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Nice, but where is Smart Paper? (Score:1)
Re:Nice, but where is Smart Paper? (Score:2)
just wait... (Score:2)
"uh, yeah... i'd like to... integreate myself..."
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Virus alert! (Score:5)
Details at eleven...
Barcodes (Score:2)
The PIII in newspaper form? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Great... (Score:3)
One Microsoft Way
Newspapers Obsolete? (Score:1)
Sounds kind of like (Score:2)
Read about it here [theatlantic.com]
Something Similar.... (Score:1)
A little clunky???? (Score:2)
Okay, so I have to have my webcam (windows only I am sure) hooked up then I have to hold the page up to the camera and hope that I have it focused properly and in the camera's view. Egads!
I remember back in the early 80s this one outfit had this barcode reader and "magazine" for the Atari 800 series of computers. You got your magazine, then swiped the barcode reader across everything, then you got to use the wonderful (ha!) software they wrote. But there was no way to save the software you just spent 20 minutes barcoding, so if you ever wanted to use the program again, you had to go through the same process. The thing sold for like $150 back then. I think the whole thing folded after a few months.
This thing sounds just as useful to me....
What is the point? (Score:1)
Re:What is the point? (Score:1)
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This post made from 100% post-consumer recycled magnetic
Why? (Score:1)
Sure it is a little more trouble, but not too much more trouble than firing up my pc just to check on some link in the paper. Besides it would save me the money for one of them barcode scanners.
Re:Another thing that bothers me.... (Score:1)
I'd be more concerned with the software itself reporting on you. Say, you get the software that decodes the barcode and you have to register it using your name and/or other personal info. Then usage reporting would be pretty easy... But a workaround for that would be pretty quickly coming. Reverse engineering and a piece of free (speech) software would probably be available shortly thereafter. :)
This may sound vulgar, but... (Score:1)
It might not be such a bad idea for these companies to start putting barcodes in some other sorts of publications. Just as long as the scanners are capable of reading barcodes printed on flesh-toned backgrounds
You don't have to worry for a while, maybe never (Score:1)
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This post made from 100% post-consumer recycled magnetic
Re:Barcodes (Score:1)
And now for the on-topic part...
I hope that they put a lot of thought into the standard. I'm sure that in the future, they would be read from a distance, or read with microscopic sensors (in our finger tips). It would be VERY cool to wave your fingers over a topic on a page and have your HUD instantly show you more information about that topic!
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Special NYTimes Hack: (Score:3)
Like so. [nytimes.com]
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Re:Other uses of this technology? (Score:1)
Sure. Who wants to be typing URLs while you're walking around doing other things?
>I don't understand how they're enhanced by the use of a code that allows the computer to read the location itself.
This will become useful when a Palm Pilot sized wireless web browser becomes widely available. Once this happens, every surface suddenly becomes it's own web page: just swipe the Palm XXV over the label & you can have access to as much information as the owner of the label feels the need to give you. You could access operation manuals of equipment, warning information for medicine, product info for consumer goods while shopping, detailed background on exhibits when in museums or whatever - anywhere in the physical world where you need to access information. Who wants to remember URLs all the time? Are you going to print them on the side of everything?
Of course, until this little miracle-browser comes along, it's just a dumb gimmick.
Newspaper + Barcode + Net vs. TV (Score:1)
Whomever said that it really makes more sense for PDAs and PCS may be right, given that those are the sort of devices that one might have at hand while reading the paper.
The ability to handle breaking news in this fashion would let the papers answer broadcast medias' quick responses.
Hmmm ... buyinh online from a printed ad works, too, don't even have to tear the coupon out of the paper.
then there's polls. Print something on the editor pages, and include links to a set of responses - similar to the dial-a-number polls done now.
As for the privacy invasion : while papers can print individualized versions, it's tough enough that I don't see them so treating every or even many links in a paper. Remember the fact the each copy of the paper is a (hopefully) identical copy is what makes printing them fairly low cost. Offset presses are about as cheap material reproduction as you can get.
Way too expensive (Score:1)
the first meatworld hyperlinks... (Score:1)
Re:Another thing that bothers me.... (Score:2)
After reading everyone's comments to my post, I do agree with the fellow who suggested that it would most likely just be easier to make the user enter their identifying stuff themselves.
The problem as I really see it is that this contributes to a loss of privacy a lot better and faster than even Doubleclick.net could hope for. What a field day this is going to become for Madison Avenue.
Re:Virus alert! (Score:2)
So THIS virus on page 27 works the opposite way - it is the most dangerous to us hackers. If anyone shoves a bitmap in your face, LOOK AWAY, lest you be reduced to a babbling idiot speaking in tongues in the hospital ward, and subsequently persuaded to join a bizarre religious cult run by a king of the communications industry. It could happen to you! Beware! Read this newspaper at your own peril, and watch the snakes come slithering out of Hell on a mission to coil their oily, scaley bodies around your midsection and drag you into the 10th circle of hell [theonion.com]. BEWARE!!!!!!!
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grappler
Xerox Dataglyphs? (Score:1)
Re:This may sound vulgar, but... (Score:1)
Sorry, I had to.
Dusty Hodges
Re:Another thing that bothers me.... (Score:2)
The idea here is that it is functionally impossible to customize or personalize the barcodes. Each plate produces many thousands of copies per hour, and they are all for the most part exactly the same - they all come from the same generic stamp. It would be impossible to alter the plates in some way from issue to issue, especially when you are on a tight print schedule and must literally crank out several million issues in the span of a day or two. First, the plates cost a ton of money to make, and the average issue of Wired already has (number of pages x 4) of them - ~800? Second, it's totally impractical. It would cost tons of money and would take the magazine weeks to come out. Neither is acceptable.
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Re:Nice, but where is Smart Paper? (Score:1)
Doesn't this actually smell a lot like VCR Plus? A lot of trouble with few benefits. I'd like to see a user who can't type in a URL, but can install a barcode reader and use it. "I really want to go to www.cisco.com to read more about this new switch, but I'm too fucking stupid to type a URL into Netscape."
I think that we will see this sort of technology, but it won't be used in the ways described in the article. Hopefully, someone somewhere is working on a useful application.
How about encrypted snail mail? Or business cards with public keys? Or as security devices for cheques or cash?
Anyway, it won't be accepted by business until Microsoft embraces and extends it.
Mike van Lammeren
Limited usefulness. (Score:1)
Byte magazine used to print these special
barcode-like patches on their pages. The idea
was you could buy a special scanner that would
let you scan them and out would pop the source
code from the article or whatever. They only
lasted a little while before quietly disappearing
forever.
I think it would make much more sense to print
the url itself and give away those pen-like
scanners - that way people could still scan
it while scanning normal text too. They
could print it in an OCR font and it would
benefit people who only had eyes to read it.
Look at the market for this: I think the people
who would READ a newspaper wouldn't be geeky
enough to think of using a scanner, while the
people who would know those little smudges were
scannable would probably be reading their news
online anyway.
Re:Silly Kids! Trix is for Purple Dinosaurs! (Score:1)
You must be a mathematician.
Re:You don't have to worry for a while, maybe neve (Score:1)
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This post made from 100% post-consumer recycled magnetic
Re:Newspapers Obsolete? (Score:1)
For example, I'm on the bus on my way to work reading the paper. I read something interesting and I'd like to follow the link. Ok, now I pull out my PDA w/ web access and browse away.
WHAT'S THE POINT??? I could have just as easily save $1 on the paper and used my PDA to get news on the web to begin with!
Next point: How many ppl out there have PDA, Cell Fone, etc. w/ wireless web access? Enough to legitimize printing annoying little barcodes that the rest of the world has to read around?
More useless technology from people who want to be 'dot com'd'.
more implications... (Score:2)
Same for hyperlinks embedded in TV signals as sounds; your cable set-top box can add a unique code to the signals. You can be directly presented with a "Click here to buy this product and bill it directly to your cable bill/credit card" page...
Scary.
what happens when the "Smudges" get smeared? (Score:2)
Just another thing to get abused (Score:1)
I wonder... (Score:1)
Integration. (Score:1)
It's a poor idea. People who want to see hyperlinks with their articles will use the electronic version; the paper version has no need for hyperlinks since it's intended to be used without a computer.
Re:Newspapers Obsolete? (Score:1)
Bar code reader (Score:1)
Re:what happens when the "Smudges" get smeared? (Score:3)
I can do better than that! (Score:2)
Hmm, it seems to be blinking red. That's not right! I have more time! No, not yet! Wait!!!!
We've been here before (Score:1)
That was the first time I saw someone try to integrate different media. It happened again with toys and TV shows (where are they now...) Remember Captain Power and his custom toys that interacted with the TV show? It was also tried with home bar-coders for your groceries (turns out folks don't really care to do their own clerking at home.)
Last year it was "WaveTop" - get your TV schedules and game-demos from PBS TV signals in Win98SE (or Win95v.7 if you prefer.)
Now we're hearing it again. I still don't buy it.
I don't believe there are legions of folks with webcams just itching to install some custom software (which you just *know* will mess up your system *somehow*) for the privilage of holding up magazine pages to the camera. Or newspapar pages. Or catalogs. Besides most folks who have these cams are more interested in holding up decidely more, er, organic things to the cam then trying to get the right focus and lighting on some part of a printed page.
Ain't gonna happen. Or at least - not enough will do so.
Same holds true for folks willing to run an audio-cable from their TV to their PC. Some will, but will enough? No.
Again true for some Palm-size and styled device I've got to dig around to find, scrub over some inconvenient part of the page, walk over and plug into some weird reader (oh great, another thing to plug into my PC and have a wire running across the desk...) in order to see a web page.
Until it's some small cheap device (under US$5.00 per dohickey in bulk) the size, shape and weight of a credit-card calculator, battery life of months, that can be run over an article of interest, tossed in a pocket 'till later, then waved in front of a PC to automagically make the link it ain't gonna happen.
Otherwise too many wires, too much software, too awkward, too embaressing, too little return to bother. URLs are a heck of a lot easier then these other gadgets.
-- Michael
Read the book, saw the movie, starred in the musical...
Consequences of this technology? (Score:4)
Said one recording industry spokesman, "We look applaud Mr. || || | || || | || || ||'s move to make it easier for consumers to purchase his CDs". Sources claim that such industry pressure is behind the recent name changes of such young stars as Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera to "|| | || || || || || | ||" and "|| || || | || | ||| | ||". Representatives for Ms. || | || || || || || | || denied the claims, while Ms. || || || | || | ||| | || was unavailable for comment.
Problems with the technology's uses (Score:1)
Not to mention, I read most of my news online anyway.. *shrug*
.- CitizenC (User Info [slashdot.org])
Re:what will happen to the /. effect? (Score:1)
The compiled help format is something different.
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Other uses of this technology? (Score:5)
* Allergy information on food -- I have allergies to several foods, many of which are life threatening. However, many of them are quantity based -- I can eat a small amount without getting sick, etc. I'd like to see a small handreader that could read a barcode similar to the above, and would instantly display exactly HOW MUCH of each ingrediant there is.
* Movies - Link me instantly to several online reviews, baby!
* Games - One swipe of the barcode, and my PDA will tell me what the latest version is, patches that are available, all retrieved online as I stand waiting in line at Future Shop, purchase in hand.
* Medical Information - RE: Allergies, (Above) I also wear a Medical Alert bracelet -- it lists all my allergies on it. What I would like to see is also have a little link that somebody could use to get emergency treatment information on the fly.
Does anybody else have any ideas?
.- CitizenC (User Info [slashdot.org])
Re:Virus alert! (Score:1)
Re:Silly Kids! Trix is for Purple Dinosaurs! (Score:2)
> It`s simply an engineering problem.
You must be a mathematician.
Nope. Software Engineer.
Re:Silly Kids! Trix is for Purple Dinosaurs! (Score:2)
Of course I assume ultra-cheapness would also have to be a consern, since:
1. It would be a Good Thing(tm) If they become ubiquitous like normal paper.
2. People like to have multiple documents openned and infront of them simultaneously. Simply looking at my desk here at work I have 4 documents opened (3 on my desk, one on my computer). I for one find it much easier to refer to a real world document when typing rather than having to constantly switch between windows. (You could aliviate this by having multiple monitors, but I digress.)
Another requirement for these computers would have to be ease (and choice) of input. People like writting in the margins and underlining in books and newspapaers. You need to be able to do that, and then transmit that annotated version to someone.
You need choice of inputs because:
1. typing isn't always the best entry
2. my handwritting is really a scrawl and is slow compared to my typing.
3. voice recognition isn't a panacea. In fact I find it for most things the complely wrong interface. Additionally you have the "Are you talkin' to me?" problem.)
Just push the "download New York Times" control every morning, and pay your credit card bill every month.
In all honesty you shouldn't have to do that. The Times should be downloaded automagically and then combined with other news sources to create a composite document. When I read the news all I want is for it come from a trusted source (user definable.) I don't give a damn if it came from some schmuck at the NYT, or some nobody at the AP, or CNN. It's all the same news.
Of course "personalized newspapers" will never happen because the media conglomerates would loose control. "My God! You mean anyone can just pick and choose the stories they want? You mean they want hyperlinks directly to the sources rather than to internal stub pages? What are they some sort of communists?"
What I want to see from the media in the future is nonlinear storytelling. The web is diffrent medium than the paper world. I don't want to be led down a path. I don't want to have "turn pages" at websites (a sure sign of bad design). Give me as much information as possible and make each part not only related, but also capable of being read independently from the whole. That's what I want.
Re:Meat? What the hell? (Score:2)
Re:Virus alert! (Score:2)
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grappler
Re:Virus alert! (Score:2)
Question: How many times do you have to tell the lusers not to open
Answer: None. It's futile.
Finally, a use for the Cauzin Softstrip reader! (Score:3)
Ahhh, yes, the Softstrip. MacUser's 1986 Eddy Award winner for Most Innovative Concept. No, seriously [zdnet.com] (check near the bottom of the page)
Another thing that bothers me.... (Score:4)
Each hyperlink could very easily be traced back to a person. For example, the article mentions that Wired is thinking of using this system. Well, Wired wants (or wanted, I don't know for sure now because I dropped my subscription a long time ago) more money for a subscription for a business than from an individual because more people would be reading it.
So, along with the URL you imbed in this barcode, you also imbed a unique ID. Who's gonna know, right? Well, the software is gonna be closed source, I am sure, so who would know. Anyway, the software sees this and says "UID 4738925867 wants to go to slashdot.org from piece of software 583735". Well, I give my copy of Wired to my dad to read, he wants to go to the same url.
"UID 4738925867 wants to go to slashdot.org from piece of software 483902". A few days later I go to my mailbox and there is a bill in there from Wired magazine wanting me to now pay the business rate for a subscription.
Maybe I am just being a bit paranoid here, but after seeing the doubleclick thing, the stupid looking webpage cursor that tracks you thing, the TiVo thing, etc., I see no other reason for these "Great Convienences" that are being promised to us other than for marketers and ad execs to get their mits on yet more information about us.
what will happen to the /. effect? (Score:2)
Anyway, I submitted an "Ask slashdot" about the same concept being used as a replacement for PDF just yesterday. Markup language generally does a good job being rendered onscreen, and the print formatting is getting better. PDF is almost invariably unpleasant to read without being printed.
One thing markup lacks over PDF is the ability to embed content -- if there was a way to do such a thing, PDF would be a thing of the past.
Microsoft has already done this somewhat, in what they alternately call "Compiled HTML" when used in helpfiles, or a "Web Archive" when all the contents of a web page are saved in a single file. It appears to be nothing more than a gzip of all the files that compose the page, with some built in referential integrity.
My question was whether any attempt to fully reverse engineer this or a completely different format to accomplish this had been made, so I guess this is the answer...
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Re:What is the point? (Score:1)
I don't know about you, but I usually pick up one or two newspapers in the morning so that I can figure out what I want to look in to later in the day. Paper serves the point of letting me browse through the news without having to stare at the damn monitor. In this case a link might help, but it is not highly likely that it would help me as I usually don't visit the site of whatever newspaper I have been reading. I usually visit more specialized news / discussion sites, like IntellectualCapital.com [intellectualcapital.com].
Then again, being a Political Science / Economics major gives me a lot more reason to be doing this then the average Joe.
Hmmm.. (Score:1)