1. Amontillado

    Amontillado Senior Member

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    The PineNote (hardware as much as software)

    Discussion in 'Writing Software and Hardware' started by Amontillado, Aug 17, 2021.

    This looks interesting - e-ink with a 60 hertz refresh in a tablet running Linux - https://www.pine64.org/2021/08/15/introducing-the-pinenote/

    I would try not to buy one when they deliver, except I know I'm not that strong.
     
  2. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    I may have encountered a worse video somewhere, at some time -- but I can't think of where or when. Noticeably absent was any depiction of the PineNote ("the product I'm sure you are all watching this video for") actually functioning.

    The narrator also needs speech therapy. His enunciation is absolutely horrible, and that's aside from his talking too fast.

    What is the PineNote supposed to be -- an e-book reader, a tablet, or a notebook (or netbook) computer?
     
  3. Amontillado

    Amontillado Senior Member

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    Further down on the page with the video, under the heading "The PineNote in the flesh," there's a photo of a prototype and more detail.

    It's a quad core ARM processor with 4 gig of RAM and 128 gig of storage and will ship with Linux installed.

    On the first release, it will be a device for developers, not users. It's likely to become a very cool device.

    One thing I particularly like is the e-ink refresh rate they are getting. They've rescinded their claim of 60 hertz refresh because that assumed some ideal conditions, but I believe they are seeking snappy display performance.

    E-ink has probably been held back by market perception. Everyone knows e-ink in a Kindle is slow, therefore who would want an e-ink device? Like who would want a Corvette? I had a tricycle once - I know how slow those things with wheels are. :)
     
  4. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    Okay, but I still have no idea what this device (if it ever becomes a device) is or what it's supposed to do.
     
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  5. Amontillado

    Amontillado Senior Member

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    Sorry, I live in a world of jargon.

    It's an iPad with an e-ink display.

    They are going to ship the device before the software is ready because they kind of have to. Much of the software will be developed by a community of fellow travelers who need the device in hand so they can develop for it.
     
  6. Mullanphy

    Mullanphy Banned

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    How times have changed. Back in "the day", businesses paid people to develop software and other applications for devices. Now, it seems, businesses want developers to pay for the dubious privilege of developing things to make the device work. That's one hell of a business plan - collect money from contractors and have zero responsibility for results (or lack thereof).

    Other than a Linux OS and e-ink display (neither of which are important to me), looks and sounds like my Galaxy Tablet with loads of apps already installed.
     
    Earp likes this.
  7. Amontillado

    Amontillado Senior Member

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    Kind of. Richard Stallman always said think of free software in terms of freedom, not free beer.

    IBM bought Red Hat for $34 billion for a reason, even though everything Red Hat offers is based on freely available code.
     
  8. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    IBM also bought Lotus, and then killed off whatever the Lotus office suite was called.
     
  9. Amontillado

    Amontillado Senior Member

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    You speak wisely.

    IBM killed Centos. Long term, IBM is probably bad news for Red Hat. Short term, Red Hat was probably worth $34 billion to IBM.
     
  10. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    Fortunately, there are many flavors of Unix and Linux.

    Which brings to mind: What is the plural of Linux? Linuces?
     
  11. Amontillado

    Amontillado Senior Member

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    Good question. A geek term for multiple computers is "boxen," as in an odd pluralization of box.

    Speaking of geekology, tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Voyager 1 slipped the surly bonds of the heliosphere. By one definition, at approaching one light-day away from Earth, it's outside the solar system. Give it another 20,000 years or so and it will coast past the outer boundaries of the Oort Cloud.

    The Voyager's CCS, Computer Command System, is an 18 bit system with about 70K of memory, a grand upgrade since the Apollo program just a few years earlier.

    Uptime as of August 25, tomorrow as I write this, will be 16,060 days.

    I don't know if it has much in the way of a separate OS. The original coding was done in FORTRAN. In recent years, updates have been written in C.

    Fun fact: C is the language the gods forged so they could say, "Let there be Unix."

    Fun fact #2: The prime factors of 16,060 are 2, 5, 11, and 73. You can think of that as a date, 2/5/1173.

    And if you look up that date in history sites - there's nothing. Sorry. Thought there might be some interesting coincidence hidden in the archives, but I've got nuttin'.
     
    Homer Potvin likes this.

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