>I could not get people to use INFRARED ever. I thought that could have >been pretty cool, especially in an environment where people move around >to different rooms in the same building..
That's because Infrared technology wasn't that great. It really didn't do anything automatically, all it enabled you to do was not plug a cable between the two devices. Its also slow, and sucks up battery life like no tomorrow (although that is partly to blame on the battery/laptop technology of the day it was used in, by today's standards that issue would probably go away). With IR you still had all the detection problems of finding the hardware, installing drivers, configureing to use the hardware, and all the other messy crap. And it only works line of site, and not very well in really brightly lit rooms, and can be confused in dim rooms with other IR devices going (like remotes), and can have its connection broken with ease. No really, IR was a crappy technology for computers. It works great for remote controls, and for Palm Pilots or other small, very short range, very controlled settings, uses. And of course, at the time IR was a big thing, the software wasn't there to make good use of it. There was no Rendevous like system, and Windows never supported auto switching to IR (nor did the Mac for that matter, but at the time, the Mac didn't support auto switching of ANYTHING, at least Windows as of 95 could multihome your network and auto switch between dialup and LAN connections). So IR had tons of technical downsides, and no great software ability to take advantage of it. Its no wonder it died a rather peaceful death, and no wonder you couldn't get people to use it. It was FAR more trouble than it was worth. (I even gave up on it, and I use things that are hard to use just for the novelty factor... I used to make sandwiches with my Radio Shack Armatron... just because I could... I didn't care if it took me 15 minutes to make a bologna sandwich... it was COOL!) IR is best left for the market it works well in. Small devices communicating little bits of info over short controlled distances. PDA's, Remote Controls, things of that nature. And you are still missing the point of Rendevous. It won't be an issue of getting people to use Rendevous. It isn't going to be one of those "decide to or not to use it" systems. It will just be there, running happily by itself, waiting to find devices and connect you to them. You won't make a concious decision to reach out to a Rendevous item... the item will come to you, set itself up, and just be there waiting for you to go ahead and use it. You won't walk into a room, see a printer, and decide "Ok, I'll use Rendevous to connect to it so I can print". Instead, you will walk into a room, see a printer and go "Oh good, a local printer, let me print this document while I am here". Then you open your document, choose Print, and hit Ok, and the document comes out of the printer. And when you go home, and need another copy of the document, you open it, choose Print, hit Ok, and the document comes out of the printer sitting on your desk at home... because when you left the office, Rendevous disconnected and removed the office printer, and when you walked into your house, Rendevous found your home printer, connected it and set it up so you could use it instead. Rendevous is supposed to be the "No Thought Involved" access technology. IF it gets used properly, it will make tons of things better. Like the TiVo idea. Previously if you wanted to do something like that, you had to connect the device and configure it. Now, you will take the TiVo out of the box, plug it into the wall, turn it on, and your Mac will go "Oh Look... a TiVo, I can send iPhoto slide shows to it if you would like". And if you move, or get a new Mac, or give the TiVo to your friend, no reconfiguring... just plug it all back in, and it finds the new hardware and continues to work happily. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
