Regarding: Microsoft SPOT
allanlane5
Posts: 3,815
Dear Parallax:
· It looks like Microsoft is now trying to steal your thunder with their 'SPOT' module.·
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4666205829.html
Any comments?
It looks like a typical Microsoft power grab, throw hardware at the software problem, and overwhelm any possible problem with resources.· Problem is, you get high cost to solve any problem.
· It looks like Microsoft is now trying to steal your thunder with their 'SPOT' module.·
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4666205829.html
Any comments?
It looks like a typical Microsoft power grab, throw hardware at the software problem, and overwhelm any possible problem with resources.· Problem is, you get high cost to solve any problem.
Comments
I have downloaded the article and I delivered it to proper personnel.· They will be interested in reading it.
Thanks,
Dave
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Dave Andreae
Tech Support
dandreae@parallax.com
www.parallax.com
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Chris Savage
Knight Designs
324 West Main Street
P.O. Box 97
Montour Falls, NY 14865
(607) 535-6777
Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
Designs Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/designs
·
They are just developing another microcontroller with their own language, there are already PLENTY of microcontrollers out there some better some worse than Basic Stamp.
That's all I was saying. The cost of all of this does not come cheap -- and I'm not sure this module will solve any problem the Javelin could not already solve.
Did you read the full article on this marvelous intelligent watch ?? If not you should read it, it's big fun. The author describes the fabulous (im)possibilities of this thing and finally concludes that it is more easy to read the time from his cell phone than from this watch. He could not wait for the end of his three week tryal and to wear his own watch again
Microsoft is putting a lot of processing power together with software tools that eat 99.9% of this wonderfull power. They provide the basics of hardware and software tools and the user is supposed to find out everything else. If the user develops a nice and profitable application Microsoft will copy it like allways
That is one side of the story. The other side is that Microsoft has the habbit of shoting many of these premature application ideas, but how many do succeed? Are these ideas their core bussiness? Do we still see much about voice control from Microsoft?
It also has a bright side, if Microsoft teases the market for 'embedded intelligence' the market for Basic Stamps will probably grow because more people will want to know more about these little pieces of intelligence. A Stamp is ideal for that situation.
Regards,
Klaus
I followd the
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4666205829.html
link. There, I found the following text:
"The kit will be available starting Dec. 15th, and is priced at just under $500, the company says."
Seems as if I could buy just a "couple" of BS modules for that price plus the "no charge" development tools...
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Greetings from Germany,
G
A whole lot of fun stuff from Parallax...
(But saving some of it for the next Stamp model.)
BTW: Certain people from Parallax have been dropping hints of the next model for almost a year now...
I'm getting impatient...
Holy cow they also smashed the $200 module price.
Bean.
Anyone seen a tablet lately?· They've gone the way of the Segway!· All hype!!· Although neat devices on their own!
Intel is trying to shoe in as well with their MOTES.
Saw them on the Discovery channel a couple weeks back.· I don't think they're on the market yet.
But they're all wirelessly linked to each other.· Like a giant array LAN.· Each one passes it's data to the next one, which sends it's data plus the other ones on and on and on to the main machine that does whatever with the data.
The ones they showed were all set up for measuring office environments (humidty/temp/etc.).
They could then map out where the 'cold' spots were.·
http://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/motes.htm
they've probably been around a while...just takes me THAT long to catch on!· Courderoys are still in aren't they?
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·
Steve
http://members.rogers.com/steve.brady
http://www.geocities.com/paulsopenstage
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
In todays world, another watch is an absurdity. I have my Seiko wristwatch, my Nokia cell phone with clock, my Palm Tungsten E with clock, my Besta Chinese/English dictionary with clock. These all go with me where ever I am. I just wish someone would find a way to synchronize the darn things for me. At home, I have an alarm clock, a wall clock, and my PC's clock.
Secondly,
This really looks like more customers for Parallax. I believe there are two measures of sucess. People try to steal from you and people try to copy from you. Recently, I have been worrying that DIP packaging may be disappearing and I really wonder how I might adapt to a hobby that requires a microscope and micro-mechanical devices. What Microsoft is tacitly implying is that people will always want to have something on a breadboard with a DIY flavor to it. And not least of all, students really require this kind of playful exploration of a subject that becomes highly abstracted.
Thirdly,
It would be wonderful to see a variety of 'interfacing chips' that allow the BasicStamp to provide programing features to otherwise closed architectures. The world needs more electronic gadgetry for tinkerers.
So, I would not fear Parallax might become some kind of road kill on Microsoft's information highway.
Microsoft has always needed someone else's creativity to deliver to the marketplace. Afterall, they didn't even write MS-DOS, they bought it, relabled it, and sold it to IBM.
What Microsoft is really doing in this instance is spending some of its cash glut on Research and Development. Otherwise, they have to give about 50% to Uncle Sam in taxes. They prefer to toss some of their cash at long shot investments.
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G. Herzog in Taiwan
Post Edited (Kramer) : 12/16/2004 4:31:15 PM GMT
I'm just at this moment working on a solution to synchronize the clocks of my Stamps and PICs whith that of my PC. All PC's in my network are synchronised to one 'master' that is synchronized to an atomic timekeeper in Germany by radio signals.
The trouble I have implementing the sychronisation is definately NOT in the Stamps. The big problem is Microsoft Windows, I can either do what Microsoft has cooked for us, I don't like that, it does not do what I want and it has an overwhelming amount of overhead, or I can write some simple routine myself. That will work for me but it is not standard and not the same as most users are used to. Advantage of cooking my own systems is that it is not so easy for Microsoft to change them and to force my to buy updates. So, I will develop my own PPC-Stamp-Clock sychronising system
And just because there are so many clocks everywhere it don't wear my Seiko wristwatch anymore
Regards,
Klaus
My computer has more clock problems than any other device in my home [noparse][[/noparse]it runs on Windows XP].
For some reason, I keep finding it a day ahead.
I think it is a bug based on my using an English version in a Chinese language area.
I have often said, "If Bill Gates built airplanes, we would all be in trouble."
The Atomic Clock is very attractive and problably the only way to go, but I wonder if it is supported here in Asia?
Is it supported by a satellite system or a land based radio system? And, is the coverage completely global?
Sadly, electric watches do not do well in tropical humidity - so I use a Seiko. Otherwise, I would buy an Atomic Clock supported watch.
Digital readouts make me nervous, analog dials are soothing.
I went back to Microsoft's sales site to try to understand what they are doing. I think there is a claim that they are implementing a microcontroller that has NO operating system on board and then a block diagram of an architecture. It really seems to be too much jargon and I suspect you end up with a monthly fee to download. I suspect you end up dependent on downloading programs (like the PDAs) rather than learn to handle software at multiple levels.
NOT MY CUP OF TEA!
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G. Herzog in Taiwan
You might setup a Stamp or PIC to corectly set your computers time
My system to set the time of a microcontroller works fine now. Maybe this idea can be extended to other electronic equipment. PDA's, cell phones, alarm clocks, video players etc.
Regards,
Klaus