POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Move with the times Server Time
12 Oct 2026 07:29:48 EDT (-0400)
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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 00:21:37
Message: <504824d1$1@news.povray.org>
On 9/5/2012 14:11, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:53:37 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>> On 05/09/2012 05:43 PM, nemesis wrote:
>>> hello, caveman.  Our minimum smartphone screen sizes are now 4"
>>
>> Wouldn't that make the phone too small to fit in your pocket?
>
> Is there /any/ physical circumstances where something could be /too
> small/ to fit in a container?

Only when you start talking quantum levels.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 00:45:58
Message: <50482a86@news.povray.org>
On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:21:35 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> On 9/5/2012 14:11, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:53:37 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>
>>> On 05/09/2012 05:43 PM, nemesis wrote:
>>>> hello, caveman.  Our minimum smartphone screen sizes are now 4"
>>>
>>> Wouldn't that make the phone too small to fit in your pocket?
>>
>> Is there /any/ physical circumstances where something could be /too
>> small/ to fit in a container?
> 
> Only when you start talking quantum levels.

Sounds interesting - but that would be a very tiny mobile phone indeed. ;)

Jim


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 01:27:44
Message: <50483450$1@news.povray.org>
On 9/4/2012 11:43, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> "Lamarr's and Antheil's frequency-hopping idea serves as a basis for modern
> spread-spectrum communication technology, such as Bluetooth, COFDM used in
> Wi-Fi network connections, and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless
> telephones."

Or, more specifically,

http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/04/Howspreadingactuallyworks.shtml

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 03:12:55
Message: <50484cf7$1@news.povray.org>
>> Damn. And here I was thinking that's what people watch the news and read
>> newspapers for...
>
> Not WHILE they are being shot at!
>
> Did you miss the part where I said that "There were lots of people _in
> that theater_ who wanted to know what the heck was going on."

And I thought the only people who use electronic communications rather 
than running for their lives are the people who write those IRC quotes 
on bash.org :-P


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 03:15:28
Message: <50484d90@news.povray.org>
>> And you use an on screen keyboard.
>
> http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/30/mechanical-typewriter-keyboard-for-ipad/

1. That looks like it would probably shatter the screen.

2. Isn't this the /opposite/ of portability?


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 03:21:16
Message: <50484eec@news.povray.org>
On 05/09/2012 10:08 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:
> Le 2012-09-05 11:40, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
>> On 05/09/2012 02:57 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:
>>> "Apps" are the software that you run on iThings.
>>>
>>> For example, the Wolfram Alpha app that you mentioned earlier.
>>
>> ...the Wolfram Alpha app I mentioned as an example of utter
>> pointlessness?
>
> Having a front-end client that sanitizes the user's input before sending
> transactions back to the back-end server is NOT pointless when you are
> dealing with devices that have limited (and/or expensive) bandwidth
> capabilities, or small screen resolutions.

In the case of Wolfram Alpha, it's /supposed/ to accept free-form 
natural language input, which it then does extensive sophisticated [and 
frequently changing] processing on at the server side. Attempting to 
work out whether a given query string will return any results on the 
client side would require a severe amount of processing, not to mention 
access to Alpha's multi-terebyte database... It's just not feasible.

> for example, on my phone, I could fire up the browser and access the
> phone book web site, wait while it downloads the logos, ads, etc... and
> then have to either zoom in and scroll all over the place to put the
> person's name and city and then scroll some more until I get to the
> "search" button, or I can use the app that acts as a front-end client
> for the web site and is more suited to the 640x480 resolution of the
> phone's screen. I suspect the Wolfram app is similar. (Disclaimer: I may
> be wrong, as I haven't tried it.)

Wait - they perfected web page zooming?? o_O

> Privacy concerns aside, I don't know of anyone who would want to have
> their phone vibrate whenever they get in the vicinity of a particular
> chain of clothing store. Then again, I'm not a teenage girl!

My lolrus!

>>> There are
>>> also word processors, spreadsheets, presentation packages, etc...
>>
>> How can you operate a word processor or a spreadsheet without a keyboard?
>
> Magic!
>
>
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWfurnBt-2DPkqVngr0dQE37Vj8xclsMZDmmuGo9_BR38Ne2-t

That must be the slowest, most awkward thing EVER! o_O

>>> Who said the only thing you could do on a tablet was surf the net?
>>
>> I didn't say tablet, I said iPad.
>
> And the iPad is what, in your opinion, if not a tablet?

An iPad is one specific model of tablet. From what I've seen, "tablet" 
covers a wide and vaguely-defined range of devices. (E.g., I once 
purchased a "tablet" that was merely a normal PC laptop with a touch 
screen. But it was the size and weight of a laptop, with a physical 
keyboard, running Microsoft Windows on a normal x86 CPU. None of which 
are things that describe an iPad...)


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 03:21:51
Message: <50484f0f$1@news.povray.org>
On 05/09/2012 10:11 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:53:37 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>> On 05/09/2012 05:43 PM, nemesis wrote:
>>> hello, caveman.  Our minimum smartphone screen sizes are now 4"
>>
>> Wouldn't that make the phone too small to fit in your pocket?
>
> Is there /any/ physical circumstances where something could be /too
> small/ to fit in a container?

*facepalm*

Obviously I meant to type "too big"...


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 03:22:36
Message: <50484f3c@news.povray.org>
On 06/09/2012 05:15 AM, Darren New wrote:
> "Is it supposed to smoke when I turn it on?"
>
> "What? No, of course not!"
>
> "Should I turn it off, then?"

This thing is brilliant! I mean, it's ACTUALLY ILLUMINATING THE ROOM!


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 05:47:40
Message: <5048713c@news.povray.org>
> OK, but... like what?

Well nowadays you can implement pretty much anything as a web page, so 
you could argue that any phone app could instead be implemented as a web 
page. The point of an app is that it can take on the same UI as the rest 
of your device (menu options, saved data, sync options etc) rather than 
being more limited as a web page.

Maybe there are some things web pages can't do though, like take control 
of your microphone, camera, acceleration sensors etc, so you'd need an 
app for them. For example I have a guitar tuner app, not sure if that 
would be possible as a web page. Or the one that allows me to control 
the camera remotely, again not sure a web page could manage that.

> Full HD, on a screen only an inch across. How pointless...
>
> (You realise that the human eye can only focus on objects a certain
> distance away from your face, right? Never mind if you want to see it
> with both eyes simultaneously.)

Most arguments against higher dpi displays forget/ignore the fact that 
images typically displayed are not perfectly anti-aliased. Even images 
from the camera are scaled by some non-optimal algorithm before being 
sent to the display (unsurprisingly Apple's algorithm seemed to be the 
best at this). Image that are computer generated, especially in 
real-time, are likely to have far more aliasing artefacts even with so 
called "AA" features enabled. You've seen how slow POV goes when you use 
"+am2 +r4" - you can't afford to do that (or similar) on a mobile device.

When you have images like this you can *easily* spot the difference 
between a 300 and 600 dpi display at a normal 30 cm viewing distance. At 
my previous job we did lots of testing on this, and the worst image we 
had was something like this, supposedly from a game (not this exact 
image, but it had a lot of aliasing around certain parts of the cars):

http://cdn.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gran-turismo-5-sema-2009-screenshots-9.jpg

A lot of people could even tell the difference between the 600 and 1200 
dpi version of that one.  600 dpi = full HD on a ~4" phone.

> Oh, I know Facebook is /constantly/ trying to shove stuff like that in
> my face...

Surprising, I thought it detected the device that was requesting the 
webpage and only popped up the message if you were on a phone or tablet 
etc - never seen it on the desktop site.


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From: Francois Labreque
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 09:25:30
Message: <5048a44a$1@news.povray.org>
Le 2012-09-06 03:12, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
>>> Damn. And here I was thinking that's what people watch the news and read
>>> newspapers for...
>>
>> Not WHILE they are being shot at!
>>
>> Did you miss the part where I said that "There were lots of people _in
>> that theater_ who wanted to know what the heck was going on."
>
> And I thought the only people who use electronic communications rather
> than running for their lives are the people who write those IRC quotes
> on bash.org :-P

Ok, maybe being shot at was a little exageration.  The shooting happened 
outside the back entrance.

Premier is on stage giving her speech.  Slight commotion is heard 
backstage.  Plain clothes police officers rush her off stage.  Uniformed 
cops appear everywhere...  Everyone - including the 5 tv channels 
covering the event - goes "Whuh?" *Tweet* *Tweet* *Tweet*


-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 11:51:58
Message: <5048c69e$1@news.povray.org>
On Thu, 06 Sep 2012 08:21:54 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> On 05/09/2012 10:11 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:53:37 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>
>>> On 05/09/2012 05:43 PM, nemesis wrote:
>>>> hello, caveman.  Our minimum smartphone screen sizes are now 4"
>>>
>>> Wouldn't that make the phone too small to fit in your pocket?
>>
>> Is there /any/ physical circumstances where something could be /too
>> small/ to fit in a container?
> 
> *facepalm*
> 
> Obviously I meant to type "too big"...

It was funnier the other way. ;)

Jim


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 14:08:51
Message: <5048e6b3$1@news.povray.org>
On 06/09/2012 5:20 AM, Darren New wrote:
>>
>> And you use an on screen keyboard.
>
>
> http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/30/mechanical-typewriter-keyboard-for-ipad/
>

What no CR/LF lever?

Actually that video left me gobsmacked.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen


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From: Patrick Elliott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 6 Sep 2012 23:25:17
Message: <5049691d@news.povray.org>
On 9/5/2012 10:27 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 9/4/2012 11:43, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> "Lamarr's and Antheil's frequency-hopping idea serves as a basis for
>> modern
>> spread-spectrum communication technology, such as Bluetooth, COFDM
>> used in
>> Wi-Fi network connections, and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless
>> telephones."
>
> Or, more specifically,
>
> http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/04/Howspreadingactuallyworks.shtml
>
Well, complain to wikipedia, and the TV show they had one a few weeks 
back, that made the same claim about her invention being used in moderns 
networks. ;)


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 9 Sep 2012 00:36:33
Message: <504c1cd1$1@news.povray.org>
On 9/6/2012 20:25, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> Well, complain to wikipedia, and the TV show they had one a few weeks back,
> that made the same claim about her invention being used in moderns networks. ;)

The basic idea is used. But "not exactly" as I said.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 2 Oct 2012 12:18:56
Message: <506b13f0$1@news.povray.org>
>> Hold your phone closer to your eyes then, Nokia have a full-HD
>> (1920x1080) phone in the pipeline/announced, so quality should be fine
>> for making out actors faces :-)
>
> Full HD, on a screen only an inch across. How pointless...

5" phone display with Full HD - production starting, presumably they 
have a customer...

http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/121001.html


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 2 Oct 2012 12:37:54
Message: <506b1862@news.povray.org>
Francois Labreque <fla### [at] videotronca> wrote:
> Le 2012-09-05 15:52, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
> > On 05/09/2012 05:05 PM, scott wrote:
> >>
> >> Hold your phone closer to your eyes then, Nokia have a full-HD
> >> (1920x1080) phone in the pipeline/announced, so quality should be fine
> >> for making out actors faces :-)
> >
> > Full HD, on a screen only an inch across. How pointless...

> Where do you get this 1" figure that you keep repeating?

I get the impression that he opposes most of the new technology that
happens to be popular, just out of principle, and uses exaggeration to
denigrate the achievements of technology and progress that he doesn't
like. It's popular, therefore it must suck.

That kind of attitude doesn't make much sense, IMO. Rather than marvel
about the giant leaps in progress that technology has had during the
past couple of decades, he's more driven by prejudice, denying himself
the joy of the things that, ironically, he loves: Namely technology,
science and progress. And only because of this twisted logic that if it's
popular with the masses, it's unlikeable.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 07:32:13
Message: <506c223d$1@news.povray.org>
>>>> Hold your phone closer to your eyes then, Nokia have a full-HD
>>>> (1920x1080) phone in the pipeline/announced, so quality should be fine
>>>> for making out actors faces :-)
>>>
>>> Full HD, on a screen only an inch across. How pointless...
>
>> Where do you get this 1" figure that you keep repeating?
>
> I get the impression that he opposes most of the new technology that
> happens to be popular, just out of principle, and uses exaggeration to
> denigrate the achievements of technology and progress that he doesn't
> like. It's popular, therefore it must suck.

You know, it's odd. I never set out to do that. I've always been 
interested in technology and the interesting directions it can take us 
in. And yet, just lately, I find myself feeling like a stereotypical old 
guy who doesn't understand new stuff. I don't set out to dislike things 
because they're new or trendy - and yet, all the things I have a problem 
with seem to turn out to be new or trendy things.



In the case of the phone thing above, it's simple: If the screen was any 
bigger, the device wouldn't fit in your pocket. It's that simple. Just 
some basic physics.

When you think about it for more than six consecutive seconds, the 
purpose of watching a movie is total immersion. Even today, with the 
rise of "home cinema systems" and so forth, people will still willingly 
pay really quite large sums of money to go and watch movies in an 
/actual/ cinema. Because no matter how big your plasma TV at home is, it 
just doesn't compare to a cinema screen that's bigger than your entire 
house. Plus, your neighbours wouldn't let you turn the sound up to the 
point where the building physically shakes. But cinemas can do that.

Of course, that's not to say that watching movies at home is an empty 
experience. It's still quite enjoyable, it's just not as awesome.

Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have 
to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/ 
it. I just have to ask: What the hell is the point? I mean, other than 
the bragging rights for saying "I have an expensive piece of equipment". 
It just seems pointless to me...

(Then again, that's fine. I don't have to pay for one.)


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From: Tim Cook
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 07:54:43
Message: <506c2783@news.povray.org>
Aerghareblkn, what is this "reply" button, I expected it to have the 
function of "followup".

Laaaaame.  Oh well.

(Speaking of not liking newfangled technology...)

--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.sjcook.com


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From: Tim Cook
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 07:56:09
Message: <506c27d9$1@news.povray.org>
Let's try this...again.

On 2012-10-03 06:32, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>>> Full HD, on a screen only an inch across. How pointless...
>>> Where do you get this 1" figure that you keep repeating?
> In the case of the phone thing above, it's simple: If the screen was any
> bigger, the device wouldn't fit in your pocket. It's that simple. Just
> some basic physics.

I dunno, my Droid 2's screen is 2"x3.25", and it tends to be more useful 
to play videos rotated so it comes out to 3.25"x2".  It's a /little/ 
bigger than one inch.

...but not by terribly much, honestly.

And yet they've squoze 800x480 pixels into that space.  Why, I remember 
when it was normal to do 640x480 on a 9"x12" CRT!  (And 320x200 for games.)

--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.sjcook.com


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 08:21:07
Message: <506c2db3$1@news.povray.org>
> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
> it. I just have to ask: What the hell is the point? I mean, other than
> the bragging rights for saying "I have an expensive piece of equipment".
> It just seems pointless to me...

Agreed, never watched a movie on my phone before, it would be horrible. 
A FullHD screen is not just for movies though, obviously everything else 
running on the phone can take advantage of it (photos, the GUI, YouTube 
videos, maps, ebooks, websites, etc.).


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 08:44:17
Message: <506c3321$1@news.povray.org>
On 03/10/2012 01:21 PM, scott wrote:
>> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
>> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
>> it. I just have to ask: What the hell is the point? I mean, other than
>> the bragging rights for saying "I have an expensive piece of equipment".
>> It just seems pointless to me...
>
> Agreed, never watched a movie on my phone before, it would be horrible.
> A FullHD screen is not just for movies though, obviously everything else
> running on the phone can take advantage of it (photos, the GUI, YouTube
> videos, maps, ebooks, websites, etc.).

Being able to actually see photos slightly more clearly, or have more 
legible text, might actually be worth it. Being able to watch movies in 
FullHD? Not so much...


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 08:55:01
Message: <web.506c355ed9ae175df2eb76540@news.povray.org>
Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>
> In the case of the phone thing above, it's simple: If the screen was any
> bigger, the device wouldn't fit in your pocket. It's that simple. Just
> some basic physics.
>

My Galaxy S2 is 4.9 X 2.6 X 0.33 inches it easily fits in any of my pockets
including shirt pockets. But as for watching a movie on it, there I agree with
you. I would need to be desperate to do that. Watching clips is okay but nothing
longer than 10 minutes IMO

Stephen


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 08:59:07
Message: <506c369b@news.povray.org>
Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> When you think about it for more than six consecutive seconds, the 
> purpose of watching a movie is total immersion. Even today, with the 
> rise of "home cinema systems" and so forth, people will still willingly 
> pay really quite large sums of money to go and watch movies in an 
> /actual/ cinema. Because no matter how big your plasma TV at home is, it 
> just doesn't compare to a cinema screen that's bigger than your entire 
> house. Plus, your neighbours wouldn't let you turn the sound up to the 
> point where the building physically shakes. But cinemas can do that.

There's more multimedia out there than just Lord of the Rings movies.
Things like TV series, documentaries, comedy routines and so on do not
require a movie theater sized screen. They can very well be enjoyed from
a 4-inch screen while sitting on a train.

> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have 
> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/ 
> it.

And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Francois Labreque
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 09:39:57
Message: <506c402d$1@news.povray.org>
Le 2012-10-03 08:44, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
> On 03/10/2012 01:21 PM, scott wrote:
>>> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
>>> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
>>> it. I just have to ask: What the hell is the point? I mean, other than
>>> the bragging rights for saying "I have an expensive piece of equipment".
>>> It just seems pointless to me...
>>
>> Agreed, never watched a movie on my phone before, it would be horrible.
>> A FullHD screen is not just for movies though, obviously everything else
>> running on the phone can take advantage of it (photos, the GUI, YouTube
>> videos, maps, ebooks, websites, etc.).
>
> Being able to actually see photos slightly more clearly, or have more
> legible text, might actually be worth it. Being able to watch movies in
> FullHD? Not so much...

Agreed.  The problem with cell phones is that everyone has one, so the 
phone makers need to come up with new reasons for people to upgrade them 
or risk going out of business.  This week, it's fullHD screen and 
voice-activated cloud-based buzzword-compliant search functions (such as 
Siri on iThings).

I think the full HD screen is not necessarily to watch Avatar on your 
phone, but to be able to quickly review the movie you just filmed before 
uploading it to Youtube.

Coincidentally, I had a friend who used to say "I don't want a phone 
that takes pictures, I want a DLSR camera that receives calls"... Well 
guess what?  the newer DLSRs from Canon an Nikon have Wifi and 3G 
capabilities to be able to upload pictures and movies to the web 
immediately...
-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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From: Francois Labreque
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 09:41:28
Message: <506c4088$1@news.povray.org>
Le 2012-10-03 08:53, Stephen a écrit :
> Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>
>>
>> In the case of the phone thing above, it's simple: If the screen was any
>> bigger, the device wouldn't fit in your pocket. It's that simple. Just
>> some basic physics.
>>
>
> My Galaxy S2 is 4.9 X 2.6 X 0.33 inches it easily fits in any of my pockets
> including shirt pockets. But as for watching a movie on it, there I agree with
> you. I would need to be desperate to do that. Watching clips is okay but nothing
> longer than 10 minutes IMO
>

The rule of thumb for Internet browsing is:
3 minutes on a phone.
30 minutes on a tablet.
3 hrs on a computer.

I suspect it would be the same for watching movies.


-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 10:42:47
Message: <506c4ee7$1@news.povray.org>
>> Being able to actually see photos slightly more clearly, or have more
>> legible text, might actually be worth it. Being able to watch movies in
>> FullHD? Not so much...
>
> Agreed. The problem with cell phones is that everyone has one, so the
> phone makers need to come up with new reasons for people to upgrade them
> or risk going out of business. This week, it's fullHD screen and
> voice-activated cloud-based buzzword-compliant search functions (such as
> Siri on iThings).

Yeah, that sounds about right.

At least with cars, there are few enough of them that applying different 
body styling might actually make your new product stand out. That's 
really not going to work with a phone; there's millions of them!


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 10:54:34
Message: <506c51aa$1@news.povray.org>
On 03/10/2012 01:59 PM, Warp wrote:
> There's more multimedia out there than just Lord of the Rings movies.
> Things like TV series, documentaries, comedy routines and so on do not
> require a movie theater sized screen. They can very well be enjoyed from
> a 4-inch screen while sitting on a train.

I was about to make some comment about how excruciatingly loud trains 
are - and then I remembered, that's only UK trains. Other parts of the 
world have a train system with actual /investment/...

>> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
>> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
>> it.
>
> And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.

What makes you think this is an exaggeration?

Just to make sure I'm not under-estimating or over-estimating how big an 
"inch" actually is, I just took a ruler to my phone. The screen is 1.5 
inches across by 2 inches tall. Now, I can see the menus on this thing 
without holding it to right up to my face. But that's because it only 
displays up to 4 options at once. If you were to take an image designed 
to be viewed on a TV-sized screen and shrink it down to this size... 
well, you wouldn't be able to see a hell of a lot, no matter how amazing 
the spatial resolution is.

I actually have memories of trying to operate a Sinclair ZX Spectrum on 
one of those old portable CRT things. Because it's CRT, the unit is 
huge, but only has a piffling 6-inch display at the end of it. It made 
the text nearly illegible. Now, admittedly a cheap CRT displaying an 
RT-modulated signal is not exactly the height of visual precision. But 
it would seem to me that you aren't going to see much with /any/ display 
technology at that size. (We've all seen inch-sized photographs on real 
photographic paper, right?)

I take your point; if you're only watching IQ, then mainly you're 
listening to the witty banter. Not being able to properly see the 
expressions on people's faces probably isn't /that/ critical. It just 
puzzles me that anybody would think that "full HD" on such a tiny 
surface would be worth the effort.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 11:13:43
Message: <506c5626@news.povray.org>
Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
> >> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
> >> it.
> >
> > And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.

> What makes you think this is an exaggeration?

"A few inches" is something like 3 to 5 inches. That's like 10 cm.
Holding anything that close would make it hard to see anything. Nobody
does that, if for nothing else, then for that reason alone.

If you are watching something like a TV series or a music video, it's
perfectly comfortable wathing it like you would read a book. There's
nothing to it. You don't keep a book 10 cm from your face when you read,
do you?

So yes, "you have to hold it a few inches in front of your face" is a
huge exaggeration.

It seems to me that you have never actually *tried* using an iPhone,
you are just talking from your behind.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 11:25:33
Message: <506c58ed$1@news.povray.org>
> At least with cars, there are few enough of them that applying different
> body styling might actually make your new product stand out. That's
> really not going to work with a phone; there's millions of them!

The iPhone managed to somehow work very well out of nowhere when 
millions of other phones were available.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 11:42:03
Message: <506c5ccb@news.povray.org>
scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> The iPhone managed to somehow work very well out of nowhere when 
> millions of other phones were available.

It's curious how innovative Apple was with the iPhone, and how
successful those ideas were.

The iPhone might not have been the first portable device with a
touch-screen (usable with fingers rather than a stylus) in history,
but it was very certainly the first one produced for the masses.
When Apple announced this, many people doubted its usability, and many
even laughed at it (a common criticism being "it doesn't even have a
keyboard".)

But Apple did everything just right: Rather than going with a cheap,
low-resolution touch-screen on a device that can be used for 2 hours,
they really invested in it and put a really, really high-quality, accurate
and responsive touch screen with a very decent pixel resolution (at least
at that time) that keeps working properly no matter how dirty the screen
gets, and they put a lot of effort on the software side to make it as
usable as possible. And you can actually use the device for quite a long
time without recharging.

Before the iPhone many people laughed at the concept. After the iPhone
and its huge success, every single cellphone manufacturer has created
their own clone of it. Many of them of abysmal quality (really inaccurate
finger tracking, extremely prone to misbehave when the screen gets even
slightly dirty, and so on.)

Touchscreens are the new black.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 12:35:21
Message: <506c6949$1@news.povray.org>
On Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:54:41 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> The screen is 1.5 inches across by 2 inches tall.

That's small by modern smartphone standards.

Jim


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From: Francois Labreque
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 13:26:28
Message: <506c7544$1@news.povray.org>
Le 2012-10-03 10:54, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
> On 03/10/2012 01:59 PM, Warp wrote:
>> There's more multimedia out there than just Lord of the Rings movies.
>> Things like TV series, documentaries, comedy routines and so on do not
>> require a movie theater sized screen. They can very well be enjoyed from
>> a 4-inch screen while sitting on a train.
>
> I was about to make some comment about how excruciatingly loud trains
> are - and then I remembered, that's only UK trains. Other parts of the
> world have a train system with actual /investment/...
>
>>> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
>>> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
>>> it.
>>
>> And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.
>
> What makes you think this is an exaggeration?
>

Because no one is seriously talking about watching movies on the screen 
of a 5 year old flip-phone.

As mentioned multiple times already, the screen size and resolution on 
newer smart phones is at least 4 times as big as your dinosaur's, which 
makes it more than easily viewable at a comfortable distance.

Exhibit A:
http://clicktechnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mw1.jpg

Exhibit B:
http://sp.life123.com/bm.pix/how-to-put-movies-on-iphone.s600x600.jpg

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }


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From: Tim Cook
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 13:36:56
Message: <506c77b8$1@news.povray.org>
On 2012-10-03 10:13, Warp wrote:
> "A few inches" is something like 3 to 5 inches. That's like 10 cm.
> Holding anything that close would make it hard to see anything. Nobody
> does that, if for nothing else, then for that reason alone.
>
> If you are watching something like a TV series or a music video, it's
> perfectly comfortable wathing it like you would read a book. There's
> nothing to it. You don't keep a book 10 cm from your face when you read,
> do you?
>
> So yes, "you have to hold it a few inches in front of your face" is a
> huge exaggeration.

I hold my phone that close when I'm trying to watch a video on it or 
read some text...

...but I'm way nearsighted.

That's my excuse, anyways.

--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.sjcook.com


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 14:55:22
Message: <506c8a1a$1@news.povray.org>
Exhibit C:

http://tinyurl.com/9emeeee


-- 
Regards
     Stephen


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 16:26:02
Message: <506c9f5a$1@news.povray.org>
On 03/10/2012 2:40 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:
> The rule of thumb for Internet browsing is:
> 3 minutes on a phone.
> 30 minutes on a tablet.
> 3 hrs on a computer.
>

Only 3 hours? o_O

> I suspect it would be the same for watching movies.

Mind you, I have seen people watch the small screens on the back of an 
airliner's seat for hours and hours.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 16:37:17
Message: <506ca1fd$1@news.povray.org>
On 03/10/2012 04:25 PM, scott wrote:
>> At least with cars, there are few enough of them that applying different
>> body styling might actually make your new product stand out. That's
>> really not going to work with a phone; there's millions of them!
>
> The iPhone managed to somehow work very well out of nowhere when
> millions of other phones were available.

Sure. But /not/ just by putting some slightly different styling on a 
basically identical unit.


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 16:40:57
Message: <506ca2d9@news.povray.org>
>>> And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.
>>
>> What makes you think this is an exaggeration?
>
> Because no one is seriously talking about watching movies on the screen
> of a 5 year old flip-phone.
>
> As mentioned multiple times already, the screen size and resolution on
> newer smart phones is at least 4 times as big as your dinosaur's, which
> makes it more than easily viewable at a comfortable distance.

And as *I* pointed out, the screen /cannot/ be of a reasonable size, 
because then it wouldn't fit in your pocket.

I'm sure you could quite happily watch TV on an iPad. But you can't put 
that in your pocket.


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 16:46:51
Message: <506ca43b$1@news.povray.org>
On 03/10/2012 04:13 PM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>>>> Now, imagine watching a movie on a screen that's so tiny that you have
>>>> to hold it a few inches in front of your face to even be able to /see/
>>>> it.
>>>
>>> And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.
>
>> What makes you think this is an exaggeration?
>
> "A few inches" is something like 3 to 5 inches. That's like 10 cm.
> Holding anything that close would make it hard to see anything. Nobody
> does that, if for nothing else, then for that reason alone.

Oh, I see. So we're arguing over the semantics of how close that is?

All I meant was that you can't hold it at arm's length and be able to 
see much. I didn't actually measure, with a ruler, exactly how close it 
would need to be to your face in order to make out anything useful. If 
that's an exaggeration then yeah, OK.

> It seems to me that you have never actually *tried* using an iPhone,
> you are just talking from your behind.

Who said iPhone? I just said I don't see the point of having "full HD" 
on an utterly tiny screen...


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 17:06:50
Message: <506ca8e9@news.povray.org>
Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Who said iPhone? I just said I don't see the point of having "full HD" 
> on an utterly tiny screen...

You seem to be the kind of person who criticizes web browsing with a
cellphone because of the ridiculously low resolution, and when they make
one with a really huge resolution you criticize it for being useless.

I wonder if you understand that the clarity of eg. text is significantly
better with a high resolution screen than a low-resolution one, and that
it significantly improves eg. web browsing.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 17:18:47
Message: <506cabb7$1@news.povray.org>
On 03/10/2012 10:06 PM, Warp wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> Who said iPhone? I just said I don't see the point of having "full HD"
>> on an utterly tiny screen...
>
> You seem to be the kind of person who criticizes web browsing with a
> cellphone because of the ridiculously low resolution, and when they make
> one with a really huge resolution you criticize it for being useless.

To be clear: Using something with a tiny screen to watch movies seems 
silly to me. Making the display clearer is a fine and good thing to want 
to do. But using the words "full HD" just screams "this is a movie 
player", which seems daft for something with such a tiny display.

But sure, if you're saying a higher resolution makes it easier to read 
text and so forth, you'll get no argument from me...


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 3 Oct 2012 18:28:22
Message: <506cbc06$1@news.povray.org>
On Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:41:04 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>>> And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.
>>>
>>> What makes you think this is an exaggeration?
>>
>> Because no one is seriously talking about watching movies on the screen
>> of a 5 year old flip-phone.
>>
>> As mentioned multiple times already, the screen size and resolution on
>> newer smart phones is at least 4 times as big as your dinosaur's, which
>> makes it more than easily viewable at a comfortable distance.
> 
> And as *I* pointed out, the screen /cannot/ be of a reasonable size,
> because then it wouldn't fit in your pocket.

You have abnormally small pockets, then.

I have used my phone to watch the occasional video.  It's not ideal, but 
if I'm away from my projector or my laptop, it's a reasonable 
substitute.  But it's not a 1.5" screen, either, like your dinosaur.

And it does *gasp* fit in my pocket.

Jim


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 03:33:34
Message: <506d3bce$1@news.povray.org>
>> And as *I* pointed out, the screen /cannot/ be of a reasonable size,
>> because then it wouldn't fit in your pocket.
>
> You have abnormally small pockets, then.

Well, let's look at this, shall we?

A CD does not fit in either my trouser pockets or my coat pockets. A CD 
is of course 120mm across, which Google informs me is slightly less than 
5 inches. So yes, you /can/ fit something larger than 1.5 inch. And 
/no/, you cannot fit 12 inches or something.

> I have used my phone to watch the occasional video.  It's not ideal, but
> if I'm away from my projector or my laptop, it's a reasonable
> substitute.

OK, sure. "Reasonable substitute" I can go with. "Full HD experience"? 
Not so much...

> But it's not a 1.5" screen, either, like your dinosaur.

I'm loving how a phone less than 1 year old is a "dinosaur"...


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 03:35:59
Message: <506d3c5f$1@news.povray.org>
> It's curious how innovative Apple was with the iPhone, and how
> successful those ideas were.

In reality the touch screen and LCD suppliers were heavily pushing the 
idea of a phone with a huge high resolution screen and no keyboard for a 
long time before the iPhone (for obvious reasons), but nobody was 
interested. Apple was the first company to realise that actually they 
could make a really successful product with this technology.

> The iPhone might not have been the first portable device with a
> touch-screen (usable with fingers rather than a stylus) in history,
> but it was very certainly the first one produced for the masses.
> When Apple announced this, many people doubted its usability, and many
> even laughed at it (a common criticism being "it doesn't even have a
> keyboard".)

This is exactly the reasoning Nokia refused to go with such a design. 
They almost managed it a few times but continued to demand a slide-out 
hidden keyboard somewhere which just made the phone really chunky.

> But Apple did everything just right: Rather than going with a cheap,
> low-resolution touch-screen on a device that can be used for 2 hours,
> they really invested in it and put a really, really high-quality, accurate
> and responsive touch screen with a very decent pixel resolution (at least
> at that time) that keeps working properly no matter how dirty the screen
> gets, and they put a lot of effort on the software side to make it as
> usable as possible. And you can actually use the device for quite a long
> time without recharging.

The surprising thing is the physical resolution of the touch screen is 
extremely low, something like 13x7 (sometimes if you catch the screen at 
exactly the correct angle in the light you can see the pattern).  All 
the accuracy is in the touch controller circuits that can send clever 
signals to each row/column, measure the response and use interpolation 
to create a much higher accuracy value.


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 03:50:14
Message: <506d3fb6$1@news.povray.org>
> All I meant was that you can't hold it at arm's length and be able to
> see much. I didn't actually measure, with a ruler, exactly how close it
> would need to be to your face in order to make out anything useful. If
> that's an exaggeration then yeah, OK.

We used to use 30cm for typical viewing distance for phones - we had a 
rig that looked like some weird medical head restraint for tests to 
ensure everyone was the same distance.


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 03:53:57
Message: <506d4095$1@news.povray.org>
> A CD does not fit in either my trouser pockets or my coat pockets. A CD
> is of course 120mm across, which Google informs me is slightly less than
> 5 inches. So yes, you /can/ fit something larger than 1.5 inch. And
> /no/, you cannot fit 12 inches or something.

Ok this is just getting strange now...


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 04:30:37
Message: <506d492d$1@news.povray.org>
On 04/10/2012 08:50 AM, scott wrote:
> We used to use 30cm for typical viewing distance for phones - we had a
> rig that looked like some weird medical head restraint for tests to
> ensure everyone was the same distance.

My lolrus... I can just picture that, actually.


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From: Orchid Win7 v1
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 04:31:50
Message: <506d4976@news.povray.org>
On 04/10/2012 08:53 AM, scott wrote:
> Ok this is just getting strange now...

Hi! Welcome to the Internet. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWEjvCRPrCo


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From: nemesis
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 15:00:01
Message: <web.506ddc45d9ae175debb90cbd0@news.povray.org>
Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >>> And again with the exaggerations. Just stop it, please.
> >>
> >> What makes you think this is an exaggeration?
> >
> > Because no one is seriously talking about watching movies on the screen
> > of a 5 year old flip-phone.
> >
> > As mentioned multiple times already, the screen size and resolution on
> > newer smart phones is at least 4 times as big as your dinosaur's, which
> > makes it more than easily viewable at a comfortable distance.
>
> And as *I* pointed out, the screen /cannot/ be of a reasonable size,
> because then it wouldn't fit in your pocket.
>
> I'm sure you could quite happily watch TV on an iPad. But you can't put
> that in your pocket.

I watch TV series streaming from Netflix to my 3.7" smartphone screen.  While on
the bus.

sorry to hear you got to wear large binoculars for glasses


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 4 Oct 2012 17:02:28
Message: <506df964@news.povray.org>
On Thu, 04 Oct 2012 08:33:42 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>> And as *I* pointed out, the screen /cannot/ be of a reasonable size,
>>> because then it wouldn't fit in your pocket.
>>
>> You have abnormally small pockets, then.
> 
> Well, let's look at this, shall we?
> 
> A CD does not fit in either my trouser pockets or my coat pockets. A CD
> is of course 120mm across, which Google informs me is slightly less than
> 5 inches. So yes, you /can/ fit something larger than 1.5 inch. And
> /no/, you cannot fit 12 inches or something.

Show me a mobile phone that's 12 inches in size.

>> I have used my phone to watch the occasional video.  It's not ideal,
>> but if I'm away from my projector or my laptop, it's a reasonable
>> substitute.
> 
> OK, sure. "Reasonable substitute" I can go with. "Full HD experience"?
> Not so much...

If it gives 720xwhatever resolution, it qualifies as full HD.  No, it's 
not a 10' screen, but *that* certainly *wouldn't* fit in your pockets 
*or* mine. ;)

>> But it's not a 1.5" screen, either, like your dinosaur.
> 
> I'm loving how a phone less than 1 year old is a "dinosaur"...

I can't help it that you've opted for an undersized phone and have small 
pockets. ;)

Jim


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Move with the times
Date: 20 Oct 2012 13:04:31
Message: <5082d99f@news.povray.org>
On 10/4/2012 0:33, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> A CD does not fit in either my trouser pockets or my coat pockets. And /no/, you
> cannot fit 12 inches or something.

Not in my trouser *pocket*, no... Hyuck hyuck hyuck.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "They're the 1-800-#-GORILA of the telecom business."


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