eightzero

entropys said:

Hopefully CES will see wireless CarPlay get a lot more loving.
and an iMac update can’t come soon enough.

WIreless CarPlay is in the hands of the car manufacturers. IOW: we're SOL.

I decided I wanted to see how these devices work, and was willing to invest a small amount. I got na echo dot for $15. Since I already had one wemo wall switch (it works quite well as a programmable switch for the porch light) I went with a sale on some of the new smart plugs for lamps and a fan. After some fiddling i got the newer devices to also work with Siri. Total investment was about $75.

I have not yet had Alexa go off unintended, and the system works for my needs. Siri is on my wrist, and interestingly far less reliable. I occasionally look down at my watch and for no reason there is a Siri response unasked. In most other times, I need to repeat myself over and over to get Siri to respond. She know how to turn on the lights about 75% of the time. Siri is much more reliable on my iPhone.

It was an interesting experiment, and marginally worth the $75 mostly for the novelty. I think I got a coupon for $10 off an Alexa order on Amazon, so that part is nearly free to me. Which is actually about the right price.

The costs of a HomePod and associated Apple Music (or adding Amazon Music to the dot) are not worth it to me. YMMV. 

strangenoises said:

eightzero said:

This is an informative article, and an entertaining thread. Lotta business and computer experts here. 

When I heard about the new mac mini yesterday, I lit off my long dormant one to brainstorm a new use. I've pondered making a headless server out of it, not because I need a headless server, but because I have an old mac mini that works as well as the day it came out of the box. It light right off. And I see it frozen in time on OSX 10.4. With a bit of fiddling, I see why It can't go headless without some help: 10.4 doesn't permit screen sharing, something that requires Apple Remote Desktop, a $80 purchase from Apple, apparently. 10.5 put in the screen sharing as we know it. 

But the little machine sits ready to roll. I even have a little USB wifi adapter plugged into it. It sites right next to my original iPod that yes, works fine. I just...don't have a use for either. 

Oh, old Mac Minis are just made for Linux. I only *just* sold my original 2005 G4 model (for about as much as people are getting on trade-in for their 2015 models). That little thing ran Linux for a much longer portion of its life than it ever ran OSX.

Hum. By golly by gum. You're on to something. I've never run a linux box. Maybe give this some thought. 

OK, can anyone recommend a 5k, 27" thunderbolt 3 monitor to hook this (and maybe a new MBA) to? 

randominternetperson said:

aknabi said:

randominternetperson said:

djsherly said:

maestro64 said:

I read he claimed to creating a two button mouse, I think Steve stole the idea Xerox and they had a two button mouse, but Steve knew it could be done with one button. What an accomplishment.

It *could* be done with one button. And a modifier key. That modifier key was *already on the mouse*. So instead, you have to locate the modifier key on the keyboard. Two devices required to perform a single action.

Why get rid of it?

dont get me wrong. He got a lot of things right. In my view the single button mouse was not one of them. 

Didn't the original STAR mouse have three buttons?  Less is more.  As things got more advanced and complicated, the second button became useful.  Once people were familiar with the mouse as a tool, the second button wasn't confusing.  One was the right number in 1984.

Yup... use them and Smalltalk in the 70's and 80's... left button (the "red" button, though they weren't colored) was for object/text selection and movement, the middle ("yellow") button for a context menu on the object or view area (pane) you're in and the right ("blue") button for the window menu (move/close/resize... they didn't have a window bar yet... I remember copying that from the Mac/X Windows to Smalltalk window tab being one of my contributions to the environment).

To bring the mouse to the masses one button was the right choice... from a IxD perspective I think it's agreed by most that 2-buttons is the "right" number.

And to the topic... RIP Paul Allen... I guess one could consider him the "Woz" of Microsoft. Hope with all the fortune and success he achieved he was able to have a happy life (I can imagine it can be tough with the hassles that much wealth can bring into one's personal relationships)

Woz was an inventor and tech wunderkind.  Wasn't Paul Allen "just" a businessman?  Does he have any patents to his name?  Maybe he does; I'm asking.

I've done a bit of reading to try to understand this better. It looks like both Allen and Gates were rich kids that had access to early computers because they chose their parents well. There are some apocryphal stories about them "breaking into" university computer labs to "work on their programming skills." Allen appears to have gotten some early operating systems under his and Gates' control, and Gates even disputed his contribution to establishing MS, claiming he (Gates) did all the work on the code. Allen's stake in MS was reduced.