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Time:
12:32 EST/17:32 GMT | News Source:
Washington Post |
Posted By: Robert Stein |
For more than a year, Wang Jian and his team at Microsoft Corp.'s research lab here fed a computer a diet of handwritten documents -- scribbled lecture notes, back-of-the-envelope diagrams, shopping lists. The computer grew smarter, until it was finally able to perform a mundane yet crucial task: It could distinguish words from most everything else on the page, then turn the letters into neatly typed text.
With that success, it was time for Wang to fly to Seattle to show his creation to a man who had a decade-long fascination with computers that can be used like writing pads. It was time to give a demonstration to Bill Gates.
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#1 By
7754 (216.160.8.41)
at
12/4/2002 2:54:53 PM
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nomdlev, you probably said that Windows 2000/XP was inferior to Mac OS 9 as well... you really expect anyone to believe your subjective statement about OS X vs. Windows? While your pet OS just received true multitasking, protected memory, and very recently a JFS, NT has had these for years.
FireWire and SCSI notwithstanding, what has been the innovative hardware from Apple in the past several years? iPod--no, there were many mp3 players before it (not that it's a slick piece of hardware, though); SuperDrive--no, that's a Pioneer product. Please enumerate.
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#2 By
7754 (216.160.8.41)
at
12/4/2002 4:03:49 PM
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LOL.... Why, because it has a transparent surface and a cool red light?
The optical technology was not invented by Apple, nor does Apple have the best optical technology. The one-button idea certainly isn't new, nor is it innovative.
You can't pick a better example? Picking the mouse is laughable, especially considering Apple's mixed history with it--anyone remember the round mouse? Even without an example, the idea of it--in fact, simply the term "round mouse"--is hilarious. Form follows function, eh? More like design concedes to fashion.
Perhaps you don't want to list more, because the list is much shorter than most Apple-philes want to admit.
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#3 By
7754 (216.160.8.41)
at
12/4/2002 4:47:12 PM
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Ruthless? Maybe we're just clearing up a few things... such as, no, Apple was NOT the first to offer a flat-panel display commercially. As far as a computer looking like a lamp... if that's been what you've always wanted, then more power to you. Coolest laptop is the Titanium PowerBook? Well, it is a very nice piece of hardware, but coolest is obviously subjective. I personally would prefer one of the Dell laptops with the 1600x1200 native resolution LCDs. Sure beats the first-gen iBooks with their 800x600 max resolution. The new iBooks are nicer, but don't you realize that when you're saying things like "coolest" and "wasn't dull" and "lamp," these are all simply a fancy cover on standard technology??? AirPort--more standard hardware with a stylish cover. Except it requires a Mac to configure. Nifty.
What is Apple so good at innovating, nomdlev? Is it technology... or is it fashion???
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#4 By
7754 (216.160.8.41)
at
12/4/2002 5:11:55 PM
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Philosophical debate between technology and fashion. That's priceless. Call a spade a spade. It's not difficult to distinquish between technology innovations and differently shaped and colored plastic.
I know that Apple has some nice products--I really do like the Titanium PowerBooks and the tower design going back to the B&W G3. They are great designs, although it's debatable how innovative they are--the Dell Optiplex line already offered many of the ease-of-maintenance functions the Mac tower designs have, for example. SCSI and FireWire--those were great innovations as well. But let's not rally 'round the Apple flag counting the lamp-envy iMac, the G4 Cube, and the Apple optical mouse as great technological innovations. And let's be realistic about just how much innovating Apple has done--they've stolen, co-opted, and/or claimed as their own a lot of technology just as Microsoft--and everyone else in the industry--has.
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#5 By
7754 (216.160.8.41)
at
12/4/2002 6:00:43 PM
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This is getting comical. Plastic was patented in 1907. What else would you like to falsely attribute as Apple's creation? The question mark? The number zero? Bubble gum?
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#6 By
7754 (216.160.8.41)
at
12/4/2002 6:24:55 PM
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What is your definition of plastic, nomdlev???
Bakelite--patented in 1907
1920s - cellulose acetate, ureaformaldehyde, PVC, and Nylon
1930s - acrylic resins, melamine resins, polystyrene
WWII - polyethylene
1950s - polypropylene, acetal, polycarbonate
1960s and 1970s - thermoplastic polyesters, polyamides, polyamide-imides, aromatic polyesters, polyphenylene sulfide, polyether sulfone
I've seen no reference anywhere that says Apple developed any kind of plastic.
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