From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 9 09:35:21 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2415337B401 for ; Fri, 9 May 2003 09:35:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from vhost109.his.com (vhost109.his.com [216.194.225.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2344E43F75 for ; Fri, 9 May 2003 09:35:20 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Received: from [10.0.1.2] (localhost.his.com [127.0.0.1]) by vhost109.his.com (8.12.6p2/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h49GZ3tS091074; Fri, 9 May 2003 12:35:13 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20030509121450.GC52888@iconoplex.co.uk> References: <20030509121450.GC52888@iconoplex.co.uk> Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 18:18:28 +0200 To: Paul Robinson From: Brad Knowles Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: handwriting and tablets X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 16:35:21 -0000 At 1:14 PM +0100 2003/05/09, Paul Robinson wrote: > Microsoft are less than two months from winning this one. Their concept of > liquid ink and their handwriting recognition has now got so good, it's got > to the point where it's almost better than paper for some tasks... I think > this is one for a whole new development effort in itself, and unfortunately > I suepct X will suck at it. This might be the door through which MS enters > the top level corporate sector and slams it shut in everybody else's face. Speaking as someone that has used a Newton 130 and a Newton 2100, and seen my wife struggling with Windows XP on her new tablet PC, I can safely say that I don't think Microsoft will ever get to the point where handwriting recognition is useable on these machines. They stripped out so much from the hardware and replaced them with things like winmodems, software NICs, etc... and now they've way underpowered the machine to make it sufficiently portable that it no longer has the ability to do much of anything useful, even when you're just trying to use the keyboard. The handwriting recognition stuff is way worse than the Newton ever was (which was laughed at throughout the industry, at least until Apple finally fixed the recognition algorithms), and it had a much lower powered processor. -- Brad Knowles, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+ !w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++) tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)