Subject: The Future
From: Kyle Wheeler (memoryhole@mac.com)
Date: Fri Feb 18 2000 - 12:14:51 MST
Hello all,
I'm writing this email because I've been considering how MOL could be
better. On my machine, it works quite well, installed simply, and
painlessly, and has run like a champ. So I was thinking: how could it
be better? Here's what I came up with - does anyone have something to
add?
1. Sound - an obvious discrepancy, and I'm sure it's been mentioned before.
2. Serial ports - another obvious one (I'd love to sync my PalmPilot
with the Mac software).
3. Multiple-button Mouse Support - they say it's implemented right
now, but wouldn't it be nice if someone would write down how to do
it? (I can't get button3 mapped to control-click for the life of me!)
4. The Time - The date works and works well. However, the time is
never right. Sometimes it's behind, sometimes it's ahead, sometimes
it thinks it's in Switzerland (really).
These are more interesting, and probably harder to do -
4. Live device mounting
It'd be nice if I could start MOL without a Zip drive in it, and
later put one in and be able to use it? Or if I forget to unmount the
HFS shared partition when I start MOL, could I flip back to Linux to
unmount it, and THEN get read/write access in MOL without restarting?
For example, I could then play Riven (over all 5 CD's) without having
to restart MOL every time I need to go to a different island.
5. Audio CDs (and Enhanced CDs)
It may not be necessary, but it would be nifty if I could control my
audio CD playback from within MOL. Along with this, I'd be able to
use services like MP3.com's Beam-It software without restarting.
6. Video Acceleration
Fairly self-explanatory, but I don't know how this would be done -
going through accelerated X? Using the Linux Kernel? Allowing MOL
direct access to the PCI bus (would it "play nice" with the rest of
Linux)? or perhaps special MacOS extensions to pipe accellerated
video directly to MOL?
7. My other devices
I have both an ixMicro TV Tuner card and a Yamaha CD-RW drive. Toast
is ever so much nicer than any of the Linux CD-Burning software I've
ever seen - could I use it in MOL? The TV card doesn't work very well
in Linux - video quality is blocky and blurry. Under MacOS, with the
ixMicro drivers, the video quality is much better - could I use it in
MOL?
I don't know what things are just plain impossible to do with MOL,
but these are just some thoughts. (or, can I already do these
things???) Anyone have any other ideas?
And to the MOL guys: THANKS!!!
~Kyle Wheeler
memoryhole@mac.com
--- Mac for productivity. Linux for development. Palm for mobility. Windows for laughs.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Wed Mar 01 2000 - 00:06:20 MST