tureblogProgramming and technology snippetsSymbian Screenshots- (Found June 24, 2008 ) This article has a load of pretty pictures of the new Symbian OS. I'm not sure what to make of it. A bit garish, IMHO. Is it possible that this will become the next big mainstream OS It all depends on which side 'wins' the battle for the converged phonehandheld organiser market (if indeed anyone wins at all). While Palm and PocketPC look as though they have the advantage right now, the might of the likes of Sony Ericsson and Nokia could well push the Symbian OS into the phones of millions..http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=1681 Microsoft and Unix- (Found June 24, 2008 ) OsOpinion have another really good piece on systems administrationdevelopment and GUIs. The clincher is right at the bottom: remote administration. Right now, I could have a Unix machine co-hosted on the other side of the world, and I'd have just as much control over it as if it were in my own bedroom. I cannot say the same about NT2000. As I've indicated before, GUIs are an important way to make people (even experts!) more productive, but they should supplement, not replace the command...http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/17154.html Bloatware is Good- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Joel's latest reflects a discussion I was having with a colleague the other day. I was annoyed because a feature of a piece of software that we both use had disappeared from one version to the next. He argued that this was streamlining, and therefore good. I didn't agree... I don't think it matters if you build everything but the kitchen sink into a piece of software, but I do agree that there are wrong ways to go about doing this. Adding those extra features shouldn't affect the ease with.http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000020.html Is it over before it's really begun- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Slashdot links to Walter Mossberg's review of the new Sharp Zaurus. It's a shame that it doesn't seem to be living up to expectations. It seems like a very cool little device, and in the handheld computer (as opposed to handheld organiser) market, it would be nice to have some competition to PocketPC. Despite the bad review though, the geeks seem to be loving it, which might be a good sign. Is the geek market enough to sustain it though, or will Sharp end giving up I'm still vaguely...http://ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html Microsoft vs. 'The Experts'- (Found June 24, 2008 ) This OSOpinion piece begs a question that's started perplexing me recently: Is it possible to put a friendly face (read: a GUI) on system administration tasks, as MS are obviously attempting And if so, does this obviate the need for computer 'experts' of the kind that Microsoft is now claiming are too 'expensive'. Coming from a Unix background, the answer always used to seem obvious to me. "Putting a UI onto system administration is pointless," I thought, "A UI just gets in the way of expert.http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/17070.html OCaml Book Online- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Looks like I spoke too soon on the subject of documentation for OCaml. The French O'Reilly book on OCaml has been translated into English and made freely available.http://caml.inria.fr/oreilly-book/ Instant Outlining- (Found June 24, 2008 ) Another thing I must have missed over the weekend. Though I've really only just started playing with it, it does seem like a very nice thing.http://radio.outliners.com/beta |