shrughes

There are some pictures out showing Thinkpads that have the chiclet-style keyboard previously seen on the X120e and X1. Now the X230, T430, T530, and W530 will have these chiclet-style keyboards instead of the previous generation of scissor-switch.

For example, see this thread: X230 picture – Lenovo Community

I am making this post to inform you that these people are completely retarded, of course.

What they’re really lamenting is their newfound inability too feel superior to other laptop users. Most people who have actually used the chiclet keyboard know that it’s just as good as, if not better than, the scissor-switch keyboard — for example, it’s more difficult for hair and dust to get lost between the keys. Also the mechanism is certainly less fragile, considering how fragile the scissor-switches are.

If you’re butthurt over the change of keyboard to something more affordable and reliable that doesn’t sacrifice key-press feel and maybe even improves on it, maybe you should look for other ways to feel superior to other computer users. You still have the smugness of the trackpoint (even though I’m using a Sony Vaio that has a superior pointing stuck), and also your laptop puts out a really nice and clean VGA signal, not one of those disgusting impure VGA signals produced by the otherbranded trash.

Another option is to get a Panasonic Let’s Note SX. It has a 1600×900 12.1″ screen or 1280×800 in some configs, so you can’t complain about resolution. It has this circular trackpad which people regard as stupid until they stop regarding it and start using it, at which point they know it’s better than any other mouse device. It has a built-in DVD drive IN THE PALMREST and it is lighter and allegedly has much better battery life than an X220. The keyboard is not some craptacular chiclet keyboard, in fact it has less row height than the Thinkpad keyboard, which is nice for your fingers, unless you’re too fat-fingered to hit the shorter keys. It’s even more durable than the Thinkpad, that’s right, your “magnesium roll cage” machine is not actually more durable than everything else, you whiny little shit. I don’t have one, because the base model costs $2600 and I’m not an idiot and I already have too many laptops. But you could have one, and then your laptop would be better than other people’s, and you’d be better than other people for knowing it’s better. Are you going to put a price on your own superiority?

I’ve started working on a non-toy interpreted programming language.

http://antilisp.com/

Progress updates will be made over there, occasionally I might mirror worthy entries here.  (Most updates are gonna be like, “Oh, I got this and this done today,” which gets old.)

Whenever I come up with a programming project, it always converges to the same damn idea.

Suppose I want to make a text editor. Well then, it better be programmable. And it better be distributed. You should be able to open buffers on your iPhone! And other people should be able to open your buffers, if you let them. Okay then, we just need a programming language, a distributed computing platform, and a text editor.  Check.

Suppose I want to make a video game.  Well, it better have multiplayer.  And players should be able to write mods in a convenient language.  We might as well have a development environment suited to that.  And why not let them work collaboratively online?  Okay then, we just need a programming language, a distributed computing platform, and a text editor.  Check.

Suppose I want to make a peer-to-peer social network.  Of course, users and developers should be able to program apps for this network.  So we just need a distributed computing platform, a programming language, and… why not a text editor?  Check.

Every single damn idea expands until it contains a peer-to-peer platform with its own programming language, that uses a full-blown theorem-proving type system to let people prove their code will safely run on others’ systems without all the runtime checks that would have been necessary.

Here’s a prediction for you.  The iPad will eventually be able to run multiple applications at the same time.  Also, it will run them in a tiling window manager.

Does anything else need to be said?  Is this not obvious?  A tiling window manager would be the ideal way for apps on the iPad to be run concurrently.  Turn the iPad sideways, open two apps, have the iPad tell them they’re oriented vertically, and you’re done!  This would be the conservative way to do things, that doesn’t let users muck things up by having overlapping windows.  So that’s the way I’d expect Apple to go with this.

Here’s a less hopeful prediction: The iPad will eventually let you run two apps side by side, but not in any other configuration.

But some day, the iPad or some other kind of tablet will have a tiling window manager.  You just watch.