Um pintor

Next Apple Tablet display: not only for ebook

In my previous post I was speculating about the forthcoming Apple Tablet display.

After some time it’s clear that the new Apple jewel will not spot only ebook reading capabilities (one of the best-selling app type in App Store) but leverage the full iTunes stack to a new level of user experience.

As we know, present displays for ebook readers are still not suitable for general purpose application. To match Apple requirements in image quality and power consumption the innovative Pixel QI need to work hard. Maybe with Apple direct support.

Next Apple Tablet display?

I was looking at new display-related technologies and got Pixel Qi.

The company stated:

We are starting mass production of this screen in December 2009

and

Our first screens will be 10″ diagonal screens

and

These screens rival the best epaper displays on the market today but in addition have video refresh and fully saturated color.

and last into the hiring page

Provide senior executive level support on large customer negotiations

So I was thinking, mmh:

• in mass production now and not whenever into the future
• ebooks, cool
• 10″, fine
• fullcolor, perfect!

Isn’t?

Of course, I’m not first about that.

Time and Mrs. Lou will teach us.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: the Ars Technica review

For several milliseconds, Carbon programmers attending this session at WWDC 2006 saw their coding lives flash before their eyes. I say only “several milliseconds” because, after that oh-so-agonizing pregnant pause, the last sentence actually finished like this.

More than 60km/litre

Electricity storage | Ne plus ultra | Economist.com

a three-way hybrid, employing a petrol engine and conventional lithium-ion batteries as well as its special capacitors. An overnight charge gives it an all-electric range of 40 miles (60km), after which the petrol engine needs to come into play. AFS Trinity says the vehicle is capable of more than 80mph and returns the equivalent of 150 miles per gallon (more than 60km/litre) in normal use. Edward Furia, the firm’s chief executive, reckons the extra kit would add around $8,700 to the price of a petrol-only vehicle were it put into mass production.

My ecological footprint

Earth Day Footprint Quiz

CATEGORY	GLOBAL HECTARES
	FOOD	1.6
	MOBILITY	2.9
	SHELTER	0.6
	GOODS/SERVICES	5.3
	TOTAL FOOTPRINT	10.4

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 3.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 5.8 PLANETS.

Why reduce consumption

What’s your consumption factor? – International Herald Tribune

If India as well as China were to catch up, world consumption rates would triple. If the whole developing world were suddenly to catch up, world rates would increase eleven-fold. It would be as if the world population ballooned to 72 billion people (retaining present consumption rates).

Some optimists claim that we could support a world with nine billion people. But I haven’t met anyone crazy enough to claim that we could support 72 billion.

Windows Vista – Ars Thecnica

Windows Vista: more than just a pretty face: Page 2

Graphics Device Interface

Win16 had two components of particular significance, one named "GDI" and the other called "User." Graphics Device Interface was the API used for drawing shapes and text onto the screen or a printer. The API is entirely bitmap-based […]

Dots were about the same size on any screen you used—about 1/96".

The User API

User also interacts with GDI; one of the messages that gets sent is a message to, say, "repaint your window." The application then makes the necessary calls to GDI to do that. The reason that this has to happen is because User and the window manager have no memory. The window manager knows which windows are onscreen, and it knows what the current screen looks like, but that’s all. […]

As with GDI, this assumption no longer holds true. […]
Nowadays it’s not only practical to store information about the covered-up parts of windows (so that they can be revealed instantly)—it seems foolish not to.

Windows Vista: more than just a pretty face: Page 3

Out with the old…

Our low-level graphics API needs to be resolution-independent[…]

The window manager needs to be composited; that is, each window needs to be drawn in full and “memorized” by the OS so that we don’t see redraw flicker when windows are moved about or animated.

And this is exactly what Windows Vista will do. There is a new graphics API, based on Direct3D. It has support for 2D and 3D shapes, which will be vector-based and hardware-accelerated. This new graphics API is combined with a new windowing API, which will, it’s hoped, make creating attractive, easy-to-use user interfaces a doddle.

Biosphere III

Dutch firm pays Ivory Coast $197 million to settle toxic waste case – International Herald Tribune

Trafigura then looked to Africa, where it found a local company in Ivory Coast called Tommy that agreed to dispose of the waste for roughly the original price [$15,500]. Trafigura said Tommy had proper government papers for the disposal. What it did not have, however, were the facilities.

Ivorian officials and witnesses say more than a dozen trucks contracted by Tommy simply poured 528 tons of the waste at 17 public sites around Abidjan after midnight Aug. 19.

Trafigura says the waste it offloaded was routine material derived from washing its oil tanks, including caustic soda, used as a cleaning agent, and petrochemical residues.

Action

Global warming called ‘unequivocal’ – International Herald Tribune

Two subsequent reports by the panel will be released this spring, focusing on how the world should respond to the new evidence.

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis – Summary for Policymakers link