B-1 comments.

Zephaniah E. Hull warp at aehallh.com
Sat Dec 2 19:37:06 EST 2006


This is all in the first few hours of having the machine, and I know
that some of this is known.

Some of this is also partly my area, and some of this is of limited
scope, however, that all said....


The wireless:
    We need an easy way to lock the wireless function of the laptop
    _off_, this is largely due to FAA restrictions on operating wireless
    devices in the air.  This means that just being able to turn it off
    once the machine is booted is not really enough, and having to
    remember to turn it off before you leave for the airport is, ah,
    fairly sucky.

    In the short term, a software fix is the best we can do.

    In the long term, I think a physical switch would be a lot better.
    How to work this into the ID of the laptop is an interesting
    question, but not one that I'm qualified to make many suggestions
    on.

Power indicators:
    We need a way, from ebook mode too, to very easily check to see not
    only that we have some power left, but to get an idea of _how_ much
    power beyond 'we must shut down now'.  Ideally, an extra button or
    two on the unit that, in sugar, brings up a partial frame with a
    power percentage, probably in a nice little bar, would be very nice.

'Game' buttons:
    The current implementation sucks, we know it sucks, but after trying
    to read an ebook in ebook mode, I can identify _how_ they suck a lot
    better.

    Specificly, the buttons are all too hard to press.  And they don't
    do enough things in ebook reader mode, but a lot of it is simply
    that they are too hard to press.

    Recessed is nice, but someone better at button design then me should
    take a look to see how we can make it easier to press the bloody
    things.

    In ebook mode, we need a way to tell it that we wish to enter/exit
    'navigating links' mode, and a way to say 'follow this link', along
    with 'follow this link', keys for forward and back would be nice.

    Also page up/down, in addition to small up/down, would be handy, as
    would repeat on the small up/down.

    That's some software changes, but quite possibly an extra few
    buttons as well.

Brightness:
    This is a lot less critical, but hey.  It would be nice if we could
    fiddle the brightness in ebook mode, but that's fairly minor.
    (And would mean either more buttons, or a 'toggle through a list of
    the meaning of these buttons' button, which, might not be a bad
    idea for ebook mode either, and the swapping could be entirely
    software.)

I'll probably have more later, but.

Zephaniah E. Hull.

-- 
	  1024D/E65A7801 Zephaniah E. Hull <warp at aehallh.com>
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I don't killfile people.  I can never get it right.
Somehow I tend to leave out the "file" part.
  - Brian, in the Monastery
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