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Submission + - From Palm OS to Foldable Phones (linkedin.com)

ardiri writes: Long-time Slashdot reader Aaron Ardiri, whose Palm OS work has appeared here a few times over the years, has revisited a mobile architecture he developed more than 20 years ago after this week's renewed attention on fold-able phones.

MedHand International began developing medical reference software for Palm OS in 2000, eventually supporting Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Windows and Mac OS X. Because medical publishers supplied content in wildly different formats, MedHand developed its own canonical XML representation—“MedHand XML”—and separated structured content from its presentation.

That work resulted in a patent filed in 2005 describing components, containers, a layout manager, hierarchical information and display-dependent presentation. Its diagrams explicitly show the same information hierarchy being presented differently on a mobile phone, PDA and desktop display.

The interesting comparison isn't that MedHand somehow “invented the foldable phone”—it didn't—but that modern foldables create essentially the architectural problem the software was designed to handle: the underlying information remains unchanged while the available display environment changes substantially, requiring the presentation and visible information hierarchy to adapt.

Ardiri has written a retrospective comparing the 2005 architecture with modern adaptive mobile interfaces. There's also an amusing historical circle: MedHand International built its own XML publishing pipeline before EPUB became an industry standard, while Ardiri has just released his autobiography and Inside the Machine as EPUBs—including on Apple Books.

So how many supposedly “new” computing problems are really old architectural problems waiting for the hardware to catch up?

Comment Re: woops - better update my profile :) (Score 2) 22

check my blog...

www.ardiri.com/blog/

I plan to do a new release soon, after palmos - I build a cross platform development library, just like you mentioned called SHARK - a precursor to other dev kits like unity, marmalade and heck, even SDL!? I ported it to over 14 platforms.. even the Sony PSP ;)

I currently focus on IoT - specifically security.

www.riotsecure.se

Comment Re:woops - better update my profile :) (Score 1) 22

You seem to have binaries in your repo. Is that correct? Do you know of any emulator that can run these?

binaries are there for people who still have devices that work! (notice - i even posted full registered (unlocked) binaries so no registration system).
as for emulators? we always had POSE and the PalmSim that was part of the SDK's.. there is also this:

https://cloudpilot-emu.github....

Comment Re: I'd like to see more of this (Score 2) 22

You'd need to find the source code of their libraries as well. Looking through the code, it heavily relies on device/os specific libraries like VgaGetScreenMode which I can only find pointing to other PalmOS software made by Handera (which still exists somehow). Converting this to anything useful for other embedded devices would be easier to rewrite from scratch. Some of the frequency conversion stuff for the audio might be useful, but otherwise this might be best suited for emulating the PalmOS and hardware more than trying to convert it to Arduino/ARM/RISC platforms.

most of the PalmOS libraries are pretty well abstracted.. heck; most of the graphics routined i actually rewrote for the VTech Helio - which is the vtos-gfx/ repository which pretty much uses a pointer to the display which is effectively a framebuffer graphics approach. it would be super easy to port. soon i will release SHARK; our cross platform engine that we built just after the palm os stuff - and that has been ported to iOS, android and a slew of other platforms.

Comment woops - better update my profile :) (Score 4, Informative) 22

i'm now bouncing back and forth between Stockholm (Sweden) and Margaret River (Australia) and my main focus these days is security within the internet of things space :P i plan to release more source code; this is only the tip of the ice berg - yes, there are dependencies on operating system level libraries (Palm, Sony, Handera); but - these are all part of their SDK's, which i do not have permission to release. you'll find our code is pretty well documented (rare).. haha.. i just didn't want this stuff to be lost over time, felt it was better archived for the world somewhere.

Submission + - Palm OS developer releases source to classic games, 20+ years after release (github.com) 1

ardiri writes: Before the iOS and Android entered the scene; heck, even before the smartphone concept was the handheld personal digital assistant, with the likes of Newton, Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Palm OS had a thriving gaming scene; with the likes of emulators and implementations/clones of classics such as LodeRunner, Lemmings, and the classic Game and Watch. written mainlyin C and optimizations in assembler — maybe these games will make their way to the various Arduino like micro-controllers out there; designed for low memory, low processing power environments they would port perfectly.

Comment supporting technology? (Score 0) 36

i surely hope they are not dependent on third party services like google maps as part of the landing process.. they would need to install an infrastructure of sensors, cameras and network communication channels to obtain enough information about the environment as if they were actually there.. otherwise; we'll see planes hit a tree or newly built building that may not be available yet on google maps.

Comment maybe all the smarter; older people quit? (Score 1) 349

and the young and dumb stayed around?

i've been offered positions at google over the years, wasted time with their bullshit interviews and even turned them down a few times - as we get older; we are more inclined to start our own businesses and be entrepreneurs.. it is not a shock that the younger generation of engineers want to work at a company like Google. what they need here is to also bring in relevant data around startups; how many people actually left Google to start their own thing?

Comment subtle easter egg in Caveman (Lemmings clone) (Score 1) 290

I put an easter egg in Caveman (http://mobile1up.com/caveman/) where every day there is a unique unlock code that actually lets you play the first seven levels of Lemmings - complete with music, artwork and sound effects.. it changes on a daily basis - i used to post the unlock codes occasionally on twitter ... if anyone ever reported it to SCEE; they would have a hard time reproducing it, the code wouldn't work by the time they tried it.

Comment will it really matter? (Score 2, Insightful) 509

sounds like a PR campaign over something that will be effective.. if you look at any footage of ISIS and these extremists; they are a tad behind when it comes to technology - the social networks should be the one shutting down any propoganda efforts from these guys.. smells like "anonymous" is just riding on the publicity behind these tragic events to get noticed.

Comment Re:"Cutting the cord" (Score 1) 392

That's true, but they're also still delivering that to you, at same cost for them, and less cost for you.

Look, they're assholes. They already tried getting a slice of the content provider's pie albeit without actually providing content. And they should get a whipping for that. But asking for money to continue maintaining and improving an infrastructure that you're still utilizing as much as you used to (jury's out on whether it's more or less) is the least offensive crime they could commit. Of course, they're not actually doing that, they're just still engaging in horseshit, so I understand why they're hated. My point is that if and when they go, the new guy is going to suck more.

Your comment about scarce resources is another "sell" they tried that makes me cringe. Usage-based pricing should never be about resource. It should be about putting the cost burden on your heaviest users so that the people that need the Internet more than others, pay more than others. And it only makes sense to have hard caps if you have throughput pinches on your network. I'm not convinced cable companies do.

Comment Re:"Cutting the cord" (Score 1) 392

Then the market and environment has to be able to support said competition. As it currently stands, I seriously question if it is. When cable companies stay out of each other's territory, it tells me they can't get a return on that investment.

Speaking from the perspective of being a WISP, I can barely keep my paltry amount of technicians paid based on what people are willing to pay for service. When your cost burden is the average American, the business can't succeed anymore. The average American can't afford shit. If I have a competitor in the area, I might as well pack it up. They'll spam the environment with noise, and then proceed to try and undersell me, while we both make nothing at all. I do not believe the big cable industry is that much different.

Whether it makes sense to people or not, this topic is completely tied to income disparity. If income disparity continues, you're looking at a public Internet service, because these companies are going to keel over if they're depending on my money. And if nobody does anything to help two companies have double the infrastructure in the same location, you won't have competitors, either. But nobody wants to hear that their government is responsible for some of this shit.

Comment Re:"Cutting the cord" (Score 2) 392

Well that's just it.

Look, I'm not a lover of cable companies, and I think they regularly and historically have engaged in some really shitty business and billing practices. But at some point, displacing all of their consumption from TV to Internet, whilst utilizing the same infrastructure (and clamoring for infrastructure upgrades), is going to create pressure to increase Internet prices.

There seems to be a lot of people here who would rather see them drop dead, and again, I can understand they're not your favorite people. But, okay, they've dropped dead. Now what? Back to the DSL service you hated enough to be using them in the first place? Or enjoy the new monopoly that buys them up and gives you even shittier service (strange idea, that!). I'd rather see some regulation regarding their shitty business and billing practices, and then enforcement of those regulations.
Dead companies = Bigger other companies

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