martijnvandijk
Registered
it has tools that resemble Sherlock 3 to me. Check it out at following location http://www.chip.de/produkte_tests/unterseite_produkte_tests_8784531.html
next version of Win XP
- Thread starter martijnvandijk
- Start date
Annihilatus
Banned
Originally posted by ricky
Who cares? It's butt-ugly
Gotta love Mac users:
<PC user> A new tool has been released. It's free and allows you to do everything you can dream of. Anything that goes through your head will appear on your screen via PsycheWire.
<Mac user> It's not pretty enough.
Andre
Well, I can read some German. It's not about a new version of XP. It's about an app "under development" by Microsoft called Sideshow. Actually, I've seen a version of Sideshow. It is like Watson and Sherlock 3 (and many other apps that we'll be seeing in the future) in that it "scrapes" web sites and displays information from them without your having to open the website in a browser.
Opening a browser is not particularly a big deal on a Mac either. The benefit of apps like Watson or Sideshow is that just the info you want is presented to you in an unobtrusive and concise form. You don't have to browse through a web site, and you don't have to put up with annoying Flash ads or pop-up ads. (In fact, there has been opposition to web scraping apps for just this reason.) It's a small luxury, but one that grows on you. Think of it like a TV remote control. I'm old enough to remember when there was no such a thing, and it really was no big deal to get up and go change the channel. But I'd rather live in a world that has remote controls.
When your only source of information is user feedback on a rumors site, you know you're in trouble, but that didn't stop an otherwise respectable tech publication (which shall remain nameless) from publishing a story this week erroneously tying some current Microsoft beta products to Longhorn, the next Windows version.
These products include "Sideshow," a Microsoft internal test product that places Internet links in a locked toolbar on the side of your screen; and MSN 8, which uses a new Dashboard component (incorrectly called a "task shelf" for some reason in the report) to provide MSN services-based links either in the MSN browser, or directly on the desktop.
So what's the connection to Longhorn, you ask? Well, Longhorn will reportedly include a Start Menu replacement that will, yes, change the menu into more of a shelf or docked toolbar that's always on-screen, providing links to local services and .NET-based Web services. The report cites "tester sources"--who are apparently people that downloaded these leaked products--who say that these products are all "based on the same technology."
Well, that's quite a leap of faith, isn't it? Sure, they all basically perform the same function, but then that function is a solution to the fairly obvious problem of Active Desktop: Back in 1997, when IE 4.0 shipped, Active Desktop was supposed to be the product's big new feature, but all of the live Internet content it exposes is hidden by on-screen windows.
So moving this content to a pane, shelf, dock, or whatever you want to call it--some interface element that's always on-screen--solves that problem nicely, in a very obvious way. This is the same reason Web services are exposed through Windows Messenger today in XP, and not via Active Desktop, incidentally.
And it's the reason all these disparate solutions are in the works now. But they're not related in any concrete way or based on the same underlying code at all. You know, "tester sources" notwithstanding. Oh the shame.
For the WHOLE article, go here...
http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=26142
NeYo
These products include "Sideshow," a Microsoft internal test product that places Internet links in a locked toolbar on the side of your screen; and MSN 8, which uses a new Dashboard component (incorrectly called a "task shelf" for some reason in the report) to provide MSN services-based links either in the MSN browser, or directly on the desktop.
So what's the connection to Longhorn, you ask? Well, Longhorn will reportedly include a Start Menu replacement that will, yes, change the menu into more of a shelf or docked toolbar that's always on-screen, providing links to local services and .NET-based Web services. The report cites "tester sources"--who are apparently people that downloaded these leaked products--who say that these products are all "based on the same technology."
Well, that's quite a leap of faith, isn't it? Sure, they all basically perform the same function, but then that function is a solution to the fairly obvious problem of Active Desktop: Back in 1997, when IE 4.0 shipped, Active Desktop was supposed to be the product's big new feature, but all of the live Internet content it exposes is hidden by on-screen windows.
So moving this content to a pane, shelf, dock, or whatever you want to call it--some interface element that's always on-screen--solves that problem nicely, in a very obvious way. This is the same reason Web services are exposed through Windows Messenger today in XP, and not via Active Desktop, incidentally.
And it's the reason all these disparate solutions are in the works now. But they're not related in any concrete way or based on the same underlying code at all. You know, "tester sources" notwithstanding. Oh the shame.
For the WHOLE article, go here...
http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=26142
NeYo
This may be a little off-topic, because it's neither bashing Sherlock 3 nor Longhorn, but this is a trend, anyway: Webservices. Instead of only looking for information in a webbrowser, you have tiny things in your 'everyday life'. For example, you might use WeatherPop in your menu bar, so you know whether it's raining outside (assuming your working in the basement or in a room with no windows, *cough*). Another example would be epoc and Opera, working on webservices being integrated into the datebook application (actually, Opera would deliver the browser functionality, making its services available to the whole system). And I think I like this trend, as all of my computers & handhelds & watches and mobile phones tend to be online at all time now...
natecook1000
Registered
which makes it all the more weird that Watson is out on the Mac and there's nothing like it one the other side.
Aren't web services the whole big thing behind .NET? Am I the only one who thinks they launched the marketing campaign about two years early?
Aren't web services the whole big thing behind .NET? Am I the only one who thinks they launched the marketing campaign about two years early?
The marketing splash just has been much too massive - without any content delivered. They overestimated stuff they deliver themselves, like MSN, Messenger and Hotmail, while those things basically don't deliver anything new into the online world (ICQ was available in early 1997 for example).
I personally hope that Apple will lead this field with Sherlock 3 and their .mac initiative, although I won't ever pay for services like that. I'm okay with ad-driven services, I'm also okay with shareware fees like 8 USD for WeatherPop...
The beauty of WeatherPop against things like Sherlock 3 is that WeatherPop is global. I can enter 'Winterthur, Switzerland' and I get relevant weather data for my location! You could say it's not the developer's fault/kudos, but as a end-consumer I couldn't care less: WeatherPop delivers what it intends to - to the whole world, while Sherlock won't give me relevant cinematic information. But these things will get better and better, I'm sure.
While .net will, hopefully, vanish.
I personally hope that Apple will lead this field with Sherlock 3 and their .mac initiative, although I won't ever pay for services like that. I'm okay with ad-driven services, I'm also okay with shareware fees like 8 USD for WeatherPop...
The beauty of WeatherPop against things like Sherlock 3 is that WeatherPop is global. I can enter 'Winterthur, Switzerland' and I get relevant weather data for my location! You could say it's not the developer's fault/kudos, but as a end-consumer I couldn't care less: WeatherPop delivers what it intends to - to the whole world, while Sherlock won't give me relevant cinematic information. But these things will get better and better, I'm sure.
While .net will, hopefully, vanish.