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#11
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Tablet machines and W9X?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: (AFAIK even today's tablets all still use a backlight) I tried to think this through, and the best shot I have is that edge lighting might work best, allowing different lamps to be fitted to the edge of a machine's flat box. A clear strip to block gubbins, but allow light to get to the diffuser, distributor, wave pipe, whatever it's called. Big ones ought to be viable. To safely dissipate a LOT of light energy all they have to do is spread it efficiently, which is the aim anyway... That just leaves a need for creative invention of safe bright linear light sources. There are several ways, including possible a fast pulsed fibre laser (fast pulses broaden bandwidth, hence broadband visible laser emission). A thing like that might be extremely efficient, and compact. Sunlight seems like a good idea but it's very hot, and very directional. If it can efficiently be gathered and converted and sent into the light-input slot on the edge of a machine, so much the better... |
#12
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Tablet machines and W9X?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: All-in-one units with CRTs did exist - I think the Osborne 1 may even have run on batteries, it was certainly heavy enough! - the best example possibly being the original Amstrad word processor And the early Apple Mac's. Fugliest hardware anyone could call a computer, in their day. No wonder Apple go for arty aesthetics these days, they had a LOT to live down. What gets me though is what happened when LCD's came in, and hard disks got plentiful and easy to use. I'd have thought that a CPU, with attacked hard disk, and the VDU, all shared the same need to be sat firmly in place, while keyboards were shoved around as required, like books. So WHY separate the CPU from the VDU and attach it to the keyboard?! This is basically the logic behind the laptop. Apart from keeping the weight in the base, it made little sense, and that was founded on a false premise anyway. How many people really use a laptop, in their lap, hunched over ruining their spines for hours on end? Most people can find a table, even on a train. And on a plane or bus there isn't room for anythign that isn't all in one peice anyway. No room to even lift a lid if has a big screen in it. I susp[ect that as much as anything has made people realise that laptops are a bit stupid, and made them all want phones and tablets. But what a SLOW awakening! |
#13
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Tablet machines and W9X?
In message ,
Lostgallifreyan writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in : What I could never understand is why display manufacture (with the exception of whatever it is e-readers use) has persisted in fighting ambient light with brighter and brighter backlights: an LCD panel is basically transmissive, so I couldn't (still can't) understand why the option of using a diffuser (even a sheet of paper!), so that you could actually _use_ ambient light, has never been offered. Indeed. I tried to work out one, but never found a display cheap AND good enough to warrant the effort and risk. It may be easier than I thought though. Basically, take the back off, as for accessing backlight tubes to replace them. Leave it off, placing a bright diffusing panel behind there to reflect sunlight up through the panel, and shroud the top so it doesn't overheat, and to prevent bright distractions around the periphert from makign it useless. The arrangement would be messy though. Either that, or neat, small, and useless because it won't gather enough light to evenly backlight the screen. [] No, get away from any thought of edge lighting! I mean a flat diffuser, the same size and shape as the screen. As I said, a sheet of paper for example! Though a milky piece of plastic would be more transmissive and stronger. Perhaps with a fold-down matt white panel that could be placed on the desk behind the screen as a, though needing somewhere to store that would be a problem. The edge lighting bit was only for the Sony camera, where it had to be usable with the light behind you; for a computer display, I'd happily accept the necessity to turn (or move the light!) so that the light was at a glancing angle behind the screen, if it gave me 50-100% more battery time (from not running the backlight). -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges." - Jack Handey |
#14
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Tablet machines and W9X?
In message ,
Lostgallifreyan writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in : All-in-one units with CRTs did exist - I think the Osborne 1 may even have run on batteries, it was certainly heavy enough! - the best example possibly being the original Amstrad word processor And the early Apple Mac's. Fugliest hardware anyone could call a computer, How could I forget those! I liked them (aesthetically, not as computers) because you could see the innards, which was a change in consumer technology at that time. [] What gets me though is what happened when LCD's came in, and hard disks got plentiful and easy to use. I'd have thought that a CPU, with attacked hard disk, and the VDU, all shared the same need to be sat firmly in place, while keyboards were shoved around as required, like books. So WHY separate the CPU from the VDU and attach it to the keyboard?! This is basically the logic behind the laptop. Apart from keeping the weight in the base, it made little sense, and that was founded on a false premise anyway. How many people really use a laptop, in their lap, hunched over ruining their spines for hours on end? Most people can find a table, even on a train. And on a plane or bus (Hmm. I'm typing this on a [large] netbook while lying in bed, but on the whole I agree.) there isn't room for anythign that isn't all in one peice anyway. No room to even lift a lid if has a big screen in it. I susp[ect that as much as anything has made people realise that laptops are a bit stupid, and made them all want phones and tablets. But what a SLOW awakening! Indeed! -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges." - Jack Handey |
#15
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Tablet machines and W9X?
In message , "J. P. Gilliver
(John)" writes: [] No, get away from any thought of edge lighting! I mean a flat diffuser, the same size and shape as the screen. As I said, a sheet of paper for example! Though a milky piece of plastic would be more transmissive and stronger. Perhaps with a fold-down matt white panel that could be placed on the desk behind the screen as a, though needing somewhere to oops - "sort of reflector" got left out before that comma. store that would be a problem. The edge lighting bit was only for the Sony camera, where it had to be usable with the light behind you; for a computer display, I'd happily accept the necessity to turn (or move the light!) so that the light was at a glancing angle behind the screen, if it gave me 50-100% more battery time (from not running the backlight). -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges." - Jack Handey |
#16
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Tablet machines and W9X?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: http://vr-zone.com/articles/official...--specs/6285.h tml A quick look on Ebay and elsewhere suggests they are rare though )-: That could be bad. Rare costs... And is not easilt backed up or replaced. That link led to the EEEbox though, which I'll look into. The MSI thinger looks nice, but I'm not wild about MSI. In this context they might be good though. Old ELO 12" screens can be found very cheap, and while the touchscreen control might be worn out, the rest is usually very high quality, and ideally matched to a small box that can fit directly onto it. The main problem with the older VDU's is they're heavy and bulky compared to those little screens used on lottery ticket stands and such. I really want some of those tiny monitors! IBM make some, as do others, but whenever I look for the really compact ones on eBay I can't find many, not even on US listings. The few that do show up have silly prices. I guess it won't change till supply matches demand. |
#17
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Tablet machines and W9X?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: No, get away from any thought of edge lighting! I mean a flat diffuser, the same size and shape as the screen. As I said, a sheet of paper for example! Though a milky piece of plastic would be more transmissive and stronger. I know what you mean, but edge lighting is a better way. Getting an even light to the screen is tough. If you have to light it all, you have to get a large, evenly lit diffuse source arranged. That's not easy. Then you have to avoid all the gubbins that WILL end up stuck to the back, making the screen look dirty and old within a few days, even hours, of use. Now go the other way, a point source, spread out. That needs very efficient coupling, very high energy density. To get a good brightness, it will be unsafe. But if you have an edge light, you have hugely reduced energy density, high immunity to ingress of dust, because the diffuser is internally sealed, and even if you get a bit of gubbins on part of the edge it won't impair the light balance a lot. |
#18
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Tablet machines and W9X?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: (Hmm. I'm typing this on a [large] netbook while lying in bed, but on the whole I agree.) Ideally I'd like a machine to be on a small frame that couold span the bed entirely, and be floor standing. If I clonked it the worst that could happen is it would fall back and land on the bed with eht frame legs prenting it sliding to hit the floor.. The only weight I'd need to bear would be the keyboard. Some all-in-one tablet could be very easy to improvise a good stand for. A netbook isn't a bad choice though, so long as it competes in size and weight with a small hardback book. But it would have to be as damage resistant as that book, too. |
#20
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Tablet machines and W9X?
In message , MotoFox
confucius-say@enlightenment!to!him!lead!it!for!bangpath!foll ow!man!wise. UUCP writes: And it came to pass that J. P. Gilliver (John) delivered the following message unto the people, saying~ When the Ees and netbooks first started to appear, one or two appeared (may still be available) with the CPU box (including RAM and HD - most don't have an optical drive) in a little box, without display, but with standard - I think it's actually called VGA - fixings on the box, so that you could fix them to the back of a flat-screen monitor, using the holes on that monitor that were put there to allow wall-mounting. These would produce a fairly small and rigid unit. I guess they didn't really catch on because of the lack of small, battery-powered, monitors to attach them to. http://vr-zone.com/articles/official...pecs/6285.html So-called all-in-one PCs do exist, but seem to be very much a niche market: you don't hear much about them, and they seem to have settled around the 18-22" size, for home users who want a neat system, rather than portable sizes. If I understand correctly, this almost sounds like what App£e attempted some years back with their "IIC" machine. Googling for the phrase "all-in-one PC" will show what I mean. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf .... current law enforcement approaches to stem the flow of drugs only manage to seize about one per cent of the drug imports... - Professor David Nutt (31 July-6 August 2010) |
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