

YC RFS5: An Accidental Case Study - aristus
http://carlos.bueno.org/2009/11/ycombinators-rfs-5-accidental-case.html

======
gvb
I have a Nokia n800 (previous model was the n770, follow on is n810, now n900)
with an iGo bluetooth keyboard (folding - great for portability, not great for
typing). The display is 800x480 so it is vertically challenged, but usable
(with good bifocals ;-).

I've used it with ssh into a remote machine and also at meetings to take notes
on. If I were doing extensive typing, I would get a compact non-folding BT
keyboard - I hear the Apple one is pretty good for size and touch-typing.

The n800/n810/n900 has enough horsepower to do light weight lifting, including
a SD/microSD slot that give "unlimited" storage space. The n810 and n900 have
built in keyboards (not a replacement for a BT keyboard) and the n900 does "TV
out".

\- <http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/>

\- [http://usa.nokia.com/find-
products/phones/nokia-n810/specifi...](http://usa.nokia.com/find-
products/phones/nokia-n810/specifications)

The problems are obvious...

\- The screen is tiny

\- Keyboards that you can touch-type on are big

By the time you bundle in a keyboard, the recharger, various wires, etc., you
might as well lug around a netbook. On the other hand, I carry my n800
everywhere in my pocket - it may be difficult to do something on the n800, but
it still beats a netbook that was left at home.

I also have an Acer Aspire One that is touch-typeable and has a larger display
at 1024x600 (still cramped) and an OLPC - display is interesting but the
keyboard is not touch typeable, the CPU is pretty slow, and the battery life
isn't very good :-(.

~~~
ephermata
Pocket-carry is qualitatively different. I have ideas all the time but don't
want to carry around a backpack with my laptop. Once I need a backpack or bag,
there isn't that much difference for me between a netbook and a "real" laptop.

From your description, the n900, a decent BT keyboard, and video display
glasses work well. All those pieces can be carried in coat pockets. Might be a
little hard with a rigid BT keyboard. I regularly carry the cables etc. for
display glasses, a folding keyboard, and an iphone or touch pro 2 in my coat
pocket without problems. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for the development
I'm doing now -- I use it mainly for displaying and responding to e-mail &
twitter.

------
diN0bot
1\. _do_ hackers all have smartphones now? i'm just curious to see the mobile
device statistics. sometimes i feel like people are emotionally responding in
the same way that folks confuse twitter's recent growth and hotness with
facebook's sheer size.

2\. hackers have always had access to terminals and remote servers. i would
never want to code anything serious on a random machine. hackers take
customized l33t setups seriously. even if i had access to my code (a quick
repo checkout would solve that...no need to carry usb around) most random
machines don't even have the necessary hacking tools (ff with sqlite manager?
preffered .bash_profile and .emacs?)

are you instead suggestion that the entire dev environment is on the smart
phone, and i simply dock into the keyboard, screen and mouse to start coding?
that would be hot. it's exactly like connect to a remote server except that
the server is not remote and is portable.

3\. i've already forgotten why hackers is a reasonable market to care
about.....aren't most people not hackers? i'm not even sure i consider myself
a hacker [and all i want to do is make things. i'm just not the conventional
hacker in that i don't want to waste time on IT and i don't have a non-
collaborative ego problem].

~~~
kiba
In order to make a living, Hackers must write software that people want. So
where ever hackers goes, their customers follow?

If hackers find the environment to be hostile and a pain, they probably will
consider a different market that isn't so hostile to their entrepeneural
effort. Given time, the inertia of the previous hostile platform will flip
toward what hackers want.

------
stevejohnson
I've been thinking about different kinds of coding interfaces for a while. I
do think that code is represented better as a graph/tree of connected text
blocks rather than a series of large files. I want to be able to drag things
around more easily.

Unfortunately, I don't have any concrete designs to go along with these vague
notions. I'll come back when I do.

------
DaniFong
Perhaps it's worth considering chorded keyboards? They're smaller than regular
keyboards, and the rate of input is much faster. For a certain segment of the
population the tradeoff could be worth it, but you can't find them in the
right form factor -- for now.

~~~
falsestprophet
_They're smaller than regular keyboards, and the rate of input is much
faster._

That is demonstrably false [1].

[1] <http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Thad.Starner/030_research.htm>

~~~
DaniFong
I'm referring to two handed chorded keyboards, for example of the type used by
stenographers: stenotype machines.

"A stenotype, stenotype machine or shorthand machine is a specialized chorded
keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use. In order to
pass the Registered Professional Reporter test, a trained court reporter or
closed captioner must write speeds of approximately 180, 200, and 225 words
per minute at very high accuracy in the categories of literary, jury charge,
and testimony, respectively,.[1] Many users of this machine can even reach 300
words per minute and per the website of the California Official Court
Reporters Association the official record for American English is 375 wpm."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype>

~~~
falsestprophet
Those keyboards are only suitable for typing shorthand.

------
hrmwhatnow
they already have those mobile keyboards which are projected onto a flat
surface and then use sensors to detect what keys your fingers are pressing
right? So why not just have that as the input, the actual device size could be
arbitrarily small and still allow you to have a full size keyboard whenever
needed...

real development is a long process that requires concentration and endurance,
not some quick 1 hour hack, i highly doubt programmers are going to
fundamentally change the way they code just so they can do it on their iphone
while theyre on the train or at a bar.

as for the screen, im sure eventually we'll have either something similar to
the keyboard ( a high quality projected screen ), or some e-paper type screen
which when unfolded is full size but folds up into the device.

------
kiba
You could probably cobble up an arduino with an input system and attach it to
your smart phone. That's probably the fastest way to get a prototype.

The hard part is designing the method of translation that's efficent enough to
rival QWERTY in speed.

------
Tichy
Has anyone tried Yahoo Pipes on a phone? Though I personally found pipes a bit
hard to use.

