Post by thread:[PIC] simple computing tools

Nate Duehr wrote: > For those that travel or don't have a PDA but *do* have a laptop and > still use Outlook (i.e. your corporate PC), I saw a C|Net article about > "pre-boot" software this week. One example of this "pre-boot" sofware > is an application that if you hold down a key during your normal machine > boot, it loads ONLY this application and not Windows. The application > reads your Outlook data. So you can quickly open up a laptop and get > your addresses/phone numbers, whatever -- without having to wait for a > full Windows boot cycle. Sounds nice, but I wouldn't have a need for that... standby and hibernation work just fine for me, for years. > The article mentions other "features" of some newer laptops like the > ability to play a DVD without booting the OS, etc. > > Is it a trend? Smaller is better? It seems to be a trend, but not "smaller is better". It seems that the PC, and especially the notebook, is incorporating functions that used to be executed by separate appliances. This makes some of the functions of the PC predictable (like DVD or CD player), and therefore provides the possibility for a simple hardware user interface that mimicks these appliances. Gerhard ____________________________________________

My friends Toshiba laptop can act as a CD player, it has buttons on the front to control this without having the OS booted up. Peter L. Peres wrote: {Quote hidden}> > >> The article mentions other "features" of some newer laptops like the >> ability to play a DVD without booting the OS, etc. >> >> Is it a trend? Smaller is better? > > >> From the side of the os makers, i see it as a trend to move away from >> the > > m$ lock. F.ex. displaying an operating computer required loading m$ on > it and that requires a license now. Also even with os loaded, certain > bugs can brevent peripherals (like dvd) from working. The ability to > play cds and dvds from boot option is a way around this. It also makes > the investment in multimedia components closer to the user's hands > (literally - there is a multimedia keyboard that can wake the pc - w/o > installed os - directly as cd player and I think also dvd. The board > that I saw doing this was by asus. There must be more). > > thanks, > Peter > ______________________________________________

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Justin Fielding wrote: > My friends Toshiba laptop can act as a CD player, it has buttons on the front > to control this without having the OS booted up. Yes but I was talking about full size systems. Peter ____________________________________________