It's extremely disappointing that the majority of (or is it all?) Android tablets do not have screens with a 4:3 aspect ratio. 16:10 is awkward and silly; 16:9 is something I won't even bother trying.
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Touch Laptops
91–100 of 103 posts
Re: Touch Laptops
#92Jeff Atwood writes, The screen bounces when you touch it and for me this just brings up all the reasons I don't want a touchscreen except on a tablet. There is gorilla arms, screen bounces, and screen smudges. Jeez, I hate when people touch my screens. But I am wondering if a reasonable or even better solution is an appropriate touchpad or even Android or iPad touchpad app. Right now there are two (maybe three) touch…
Interesting take on it. One of the setups I use has a Mimo touch monitor [1] which is attached via USB. Putting the tool bar for my CAD program on that monitor sized up, gives me a screen with all of the tools available, and I can use the entire space on my 'main' screen for drawing. My version isn't multi-touch which would be useful for doing view projections. I realized that sort of the 'ideal' setup here is a keyb…
Yes, if I understand what you are saying and what mimo is selling, that would seem to be what I want.
The mimo site is a bit too timecube for me to quickly parse -- it is a very expensive touchpad at $329.99 but perhaps there is something similar for less. :)
But yes, I really don't want people touching my expensive, clean screens, I don't want my finger to obscure the detail of what I am drawing, and I don't want to swing my arms through six feet of three 24" monitors.
Re: Touch Laptops
#93I bought a new Asus laptop with Win8 specifically because it has a touchscreen. The touchscreen solves my long standing problem with using laptops - I find touchpads nearly unusable. It's soo much easier to scroll with the touchscreen, especially with the small laptop screens. All non-touchscreen laptops are, to my mind, instantly and sadly obsolete. Note that for a desktop, I see no advantage to a touchscreen, as th…
> The touchscreen solves my long standing problem with using laptops - I find touchpads nearly unusable. Have you used a macbook running OS X before? I find the touchpad handling much better in OS X than I do in Windows so would be interesting to know what sort of touchpad you're comparing to.
I've played with a mac laptop in the Apple store.
The problem with the touchpad is suppose I want to scroll. I have to carefully position the mouse over the scroll bar. Then click, or click and drag, whatever, which is just freaking awkward with a touchpad. (It's no issue with a mouse.) Yeah, I know that the right side of some touch pads acts as a scroll bar. But that depends on the right window being the "top" and I often get that behavior mixed up with the other regions of the touchpad. I also have problems with accidentally brushing my palm over the touch pad and "what the hell just happened".
With a touch screen, this all becomes natural and trivial.
I know, I see people using touchpads all the time like it was an extension of their hand, and they have no issues with it.
But I do. I like that touchscreen for my laptop. It is transformative. No other word for it.
As for a desktop with a big display, I don't need a touchscreen except for one case - where you are working with someone and are both hovering over the screen. The touchscreen is real handy for that rather than passing the mouse back and forth.
Re: Touch Laptops
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The touchscreen solves my long standing problem with using laptops - I find touchpads nearly unusable. Have you used a macbook running OS X before? I find the touchpad handling much better in OS X than I do in Windows so would be interesting to know what sort of touchpad you're comparing to.
I've played with a mac laptop in the Apple store. The problem with the touchpad is suppose I want to scroll. I have to carefully position the mouse over the scroll bar. Then click, or click and drag, whatever, which is just freaking awkward with a touchpad. (It's no issue with a mouse.) Yeah, I know that the right side of some touch pads acts as a scroll bar. But that depends on the right window being the "top" and I…
The problem with the touchpad is suppose I want to scroll. I have to carefully position the mouse over the scroll bar.
No, you drag two fingers up or down, with the cursor anywhere in the area you want to scroll. Recent versions of OS X don't even show scrollbars unless you put two fingers on the touchpad.
Re: Touch Laptops
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and look where that got you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
Yes and also 4 rovers on Mars, and 12 astronauts on the Moon. The problem with the MCO disaster wasn't mixing up units, it was a sub-contractor failing to follow a specification properly, which can happen for any number of reasons. Also, it's not the only way that such missions can fail. Let us remember that since the mid-90s there have been 2 failed US Mars missions as well as a failed European mission (the Beagle 2…
I agree it's not the only failure mode, but it certainly is the lamest so far.
Re: Touch Laptops
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Draw a line that's a third of a meter.
Like, 100/3 = 33 cm? That's supposed to be difficult? Or do you mean that it's difficult to know how to draw a third of a meter? Why, is drawing a line that's one meter, or one yard, or one foot any easier? Without a measure I can't draw accurately any of them.
I guess they were referring to how a third of a yard would be a foot or 12 inches and that most people have an intuitive understanding of such common lengths. Also, because of the factors involved, “simple” fractions (e.g. ½, 1/3, ¼, ...) often end up at integral lengths.
But intuitive understanding of certain lengths is certainly not limited to the Imperial system. I frequently use A4 paper for measuring if I don't have a ruler at hand. I know the span between the tip of my thumb and pinky is pretty much 21 cm and so on. 8.2 inches probably wouldn't be much handier either.
Re: Touch Laptops
#97Jeff Atwood writes, The screen bounces when you touch it and for me this just brings up all the reasons I don't want a touchscreen except on a tablet. There is gorilla arms, screen bounces, and screen smudges. Jeez, I hate when people touch my screens. But I am wondering if a reasonable or even better solution is an appropriate touchpad or even Android or iPad touchpad app. Right now there are two (maybe three) touch…
There is gorilla arms, screen bounces, and screen smudges. These things keep being repeated as if they're showstoppers, and it seems usually by people without any experience in the matter. I have been using a laptop purely by touch screen for 1-8+ hours a day for two years, and here's my experience: - Gorilla arm simply doesn't exist. I use the laptop in a variety of setups and haven't had any problems. Yes, if your…
>- Gorilla arm simply doesn't exist.
That's a pretty strong statement for an anecdote of precisely one person.
Re: Touch Laptops
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and look where that got you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
Yes and also 4 rovers on Mars, and 12 astronauts on the Moon. The problem with the MCO disaster wasn't mixing up units, it was a sub-contractor failing to follow a specification properly, which can happen for any number of reasons. Also, it's not the only way that such missions can fail. Let us remember that since the mid-90s there have been 2 failed US Mars missions as well as a failed European mission (the Beagle 2…
Any success the US had has nothing to do with using the obsolete Imperial system. Glad you were given the opportunity to do a little bit of "USA, USA, USA" fist pumping though.
Re: Touch Laptops
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having growing up in a metric country and lived in Britain I must admit its very nice having 60miles per equalling 60 minutes of driving for long trips. Being able to say "I'm 45 miles away from X I'll be there in 45 minutes" without having to do recalculate each time you pass a road sign makes trips all the more pleasant.
The solution to that problem is simple -- drive at 60 KPH (37 MPH) instead of 60 MPH. :) This would save gas too.
Or do 120 KPH and just cut the numbers in half.
Re: Touch Laptops
#100> And Intel's long neglected Atom line, thanks to years of institutional crippling to avoid cannibalizing Pentium sales, is poorly positioned to compete with ARM today. Apple was ready to have new products that cannibalized the old ones. If Intel had the same courage, they'd be in a far better position today.
Bless you, Captain Hindsight! I assume you shorted or put INTC to profit from your insight. Seriously, this post-season quarterbacking helps nothing but your own karma. The people in charge of Intel are intelligent, incentivized, and they've given the problem a lot more thought than you have. I realize our economies are ludicrously inefficient, but a single comment on HN is not going to outsmart an Intel board member…
That's quite a brutal response to the pretty common sentiment. Also fairly nonsensical.
>I assume you shorted or put INTC to profit from your insight.
Just because you realize a company has made a big mistake doesn't mean you're in a position to short it. I realized MS had a vision problem after hearing Ballmer speak in person years ago, yet shorting MS at that point would have hurt me, not them. It's taken years for his lack of vision to begin to be a problem and even now no one sees it as critical as I do.
>The people in charge of Intel are intelligent, incentivized, and they've given the problem a lot more thought than you have.
You have no idea if any of that is true, you just assume it is. The people in charge of Intel could well be blinded by something they need to be true that isn't. If people at the head of companies are so infallible why does any company ever fail?
>I realize our economies are ludicrously inefficient, but a single comment on HN is not going to outsmart an Intel board member.
Now apply that logic to human nature and tell us what you intended with your hateful comment?