Ohhh goody, PDA software price wars!

"Andy Blackburn" wrote in message
...
Actually, my (mis)infomation on non-commercial software
comes from extensive research in Open Source community
motivations and behaviors, including survey research
of several thousand Open Source developers. I think
facts normally trump opinions/anecdotes.


Not on the internet they don't.

Hi,

I agree that a large screen would be very nice. In my day job I sell
industrial automation equipment. Computer Dynamics has large 7 inch or 10
inch industrial computers that run Windows CE. They are cool, but the
current draw is much too high for use in a glider. I think we'll have to
wait a while yet. Also, they generally run on 24V so a power converter would
be required. That is not a huge obstacle though.

Paul Remde

"Kilo Charlie" wrote in message
news:id4_b.24001$o52.18383@fed1read02...
In my ideal world I'd like to see a single large flat panel screen smack
in
the middle of my panel with the various companies vying for who can write
the best program to use for displaying the various things you guys have
brought up. It holds all sorts of possibilites and with multiple windows
open would even mean that you could run programs from different
manufacturers on that same screen.

This nonsense of having to buy a latest and greatest hardware gizmo to go
with the software is crazy. One big screen would be much easier to
read....maybe I'm just getting too old to see the damn little things!
Maybe
they could even agree on a single box (hard drive?) to drive the thing as
well bringing it down to just the software competition.

Anyone know if the technology is currently good enough to make this work
i.e. flat screens wrt current drain, ease of use in high sun environments,
etc? I have no expertise in this whatsoever. Just dreamin'.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
...
Bill Daniels wrote:
Is anyone working on Linux flight software?

I've been looking at some really neat PIII "Car Computers" with 7 inch
screens that run on a very modest amount of 12V DC current - a 7.5 AH
battery should run one 6 hours or more. They cost about the same as a
PDA
but have bigger screens, more performance and are infinitely
customizable.

Could you point me to a web site or two for these? Sounds interesting.

--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Here you go, Eric.

http://www.mini-box.com/
http://store.karpc.com/cgi-bin/cp-ap...affl=stroletti
http://www.antelopetech.com/en/Index.aspx

I'm sure there are more. I found these in a couple of minutes with Google.

Bill Daniels

Well I would hope that sometime soon these screens would be available. The
real question is whether or not the manufacturers that currently sell the
units (CAI, Ilec, etc) would support this type of system. There would have
to be some agreement upon the hardware part of it wouldn't there? I guess
that it did happen with VHS and DVD's but not without a few outliers such as
Sony's beta. With so little money in this industry we should just be
thankful that we have nice toys to choose from currently but the small
displays have become a limiting factor. Also I'm tainted after having seen
one of the new Garmin (1000?) setups in a Gulfstream I went through a few
weeks ago.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

My guess is that most of the current crop of programs
written for Pocket PC OS could be ported to a Tablet
PC pretty easily -- that would be a start.

As a general case you'd just need a computer with a
bright color display and a serial port to communicate
with the GPS/logger. If it's a vanilla Wintel system
then current software might do. If you want to do something
like run on Linux, then you need a major rewrite or
new software altogether. Possible, but a bigger challenge.

Getting a big display bright enough to see in direct
sunlight without running the battery down might be
the biggest challenge - just try taking you laptop
outside on a sunny day as an experiment.


At 23:54 22 February 2004, Kilo Charlie wrote:
Well I would hope that sometime soon these screens
would be available. The
real question is whether or not the manufacturers that
currently sell the
units (CAI, Ilec, etc) would support this type of system.
There would have
to be some agreement upon the hardware part of it wouldn't
there? I guess
that it did happen with VHS and DVD's but not without
a few outliers such as
Sony's beta. With so little money in this industry
we should just be
thankful that we have nice toys to choose from currently
but the small
displays have become a limiting factor. Also I'm tainted
after having seen
one of the new Garmin (1000?) setups in a Gulfstream
I went through a few
weeks ago.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

"Andy Blackburn" wrote in message
...
My guess is that most of the current crop of programs
written for Pocket PC OS could be ported to a Tablet
PC pretty easily -- that would be a start.

As a general case you'd just need a computer with a
bright color display and a serial port to communicate
with the GPS/logger. If it's a vanilla Wintel system
then current software might do. If you want to do something
like run on Linux, then you need a major rewrite or
new software altogether. Possible, but a bigger challenge.

Getting a big display bright enough to see in direct
sunlight without running the battery down might be
the biggest challenge - just try taking you laptop
outside on a sunny day as an experiment.

I've thought about this, a little. There is a company that makes a woven
mat fiberoptic backlight.
The sharp bends in the fiberoptic material allow the light to escape, and it
provides a pretty even illumination.
Usually a bundle of fiberoptic goes to a source like an LED.
But if you had a large mat somewhere (on the top of the instrument panel,
perhaps) collecting sunlight, and a smaller mat (with perhaps two or three
layers) as the backlight, then the brighter ambient is, the brighter your
backlighting.

Tim Ward

"Andy Blackburn" wrote in message
...

Getting a big display bright enough to see in direct
sunlight without running the battery down might be
the biggest challenge - just try taking you laptop
outside on a sunny day as an experiment.


The laptop/tablet screen vendors are always trying for the widest viewing
angle and advertise the fact as a feature. This spreads the energy from the
backlight over a wide angle and mandates a much brighter backlight for
acceptable viewing. This, in turn, makes the LCD screen backlight one of
the major drains on a laptop battery.

In a glider cockpit it would be much better for the screen to concentrate
its light toward the small area occupied by the pilots eyes. This would
significantly increase the perceived brightness while reducing the power
drain. Fortunately, such screens are available and they tend to be cheaper.

On the other hand, all plastic, super bright, low power OLED screens are
said to be only a couple of years away.

Bill Daniels

Andy Blackburn wrote:

Actually, my (mis)infomation on non-commercial software
comes from extensive research in Open Source community
motivations and behaviors, including survey research
of several thousand Open Source developers. I think
facts normally trump opinions/anecdotes.


Well, that is actually rather pompous. What facts?

Henryk Birecki

Even Linux is moving to a licenced platform for its latest incarnations. I
have seen a lot of software move this way lately. An originally open source
or free project matures to such an extent that it demands more of the core
programmers than can be done on a free basis. The real contributors still
have access to the source but the 'hangers on' get a real product at a
reasonable cost and businesses grow out of the supply and support of the
products.

It's just an alternative business model. A programmer believes he can do it
better and to drive the development he offers his product for free. The
early adopters allow him to develop to a solid application and then he can
start charging.

Ian


"Henryk Birecki" wrote in message
...
Andy Blackburn wrote:

Actually, my (mis)infomation on non-commercial software
comes from extensive research in Open Source community
motivations and behaviors, including survey research
of several thousand Open Source developers. I think
facts normally trump opinions/anecdotes.


Well, that is actually rather pompous. What facts?

Henryk Birecki

Sure, both of these are normal and reasonable scenarios for software
project development and commercial product development. It does not
however have impact on either the quality of freeware, nor support,
nor the length of time a "product" remains on the market. There is
plenty of poor quality freeware out there, and there is plenty of poor
quality shareware, and "commercial" products. The same can be said by
substituting good for poor.

Interestingly the only "support problem reports" I ever hear about on
r.a.s. have to do with commercial products that people pay for.

Henryk Birecki

"tango4" wrote:

Even Linux is moving to a licenced platform for its latest
incarnations. I have seen a lot of software move this way lately. An
originally open source or free project matures to such an extent that
it demands more of the core programmers than can be done on a free
basis. The real contributors still have access to the source but the
'hangers on' get a real product at a reasonable cost and businesses
grow out of the supply and support of the products.

It's just an alternative business model. A programmer believes he can
do it better and to drive the development he offers his product for
free. The early adopters allow him to develop to a solid application
and then he can start charging.

Ian


"Henryk Birecki" wrote in message
.. .
Andy Blackburn wrote:

Actually, my (mis)infomation on non-commercial software
comes from extensive research in Open Source community
motivations and behaviors, including survey research
of several thousand Open Source developers. I think
facts normally trump opinions/anecdotes.


Well, that is actually rather pompous. What facts?

Henryk Birecki