Uhhh... the site doesn't work :)

Yes! this is a cool idea. I hope yall can make it work.

I think even better idea is to collect general political or sport news too.

KIRAMDANET

This sounds like it might work out if someone developed a wireless modem for the calc. HTML and Java would be nice too...

yeah, accept it also seems like a complete waste of time for everyone, what I mean is, Kurt's obviously not going to have a life because he's going to be converting text to ASM then uploading EVERY hour, and we are going to go through all the trouble to download it and slap it on our calculators even though we could easily just come over to ticalc.org and read it much quicker and well, you know what I mean. It can be good for people who want to remember a "Certain" news article but everyone and stuff just sounds stupid.

>Kurt's obviously not going to have a life because he's going to be converting text...

There is no way I would convert text and upload it every hour!

In unix there is a thing called cron that will automatically run programs. I told cron to automatically run the script every hour. I don't have to touch a thing.

I think this is a pretty cool idea...I am always trying to think of different ways to use the eBook generator and well this is a cool way...good job...

Kudos to you on this ebook news generator, it's a really good idea if you ask me. Will the program be able to take articles off of any webpage and make them into ebooks? and what about emails? Sometimes I get these long stupid emails I have to read. Would I be able to convert them to ebooks in the morning and read them during class or would it even be worth the time? Also I have a question about Queue. You are the author right? Well if you are, when I get playing sometimes the screen starts blinking and the controls get sluggish. It just gets real dark then light and starts flashing like that. I didn't know if maybe you've heard of this before? Again, good job on the program, keep up the good work.

Fatbastard83

yeah I like the idea of putting your emails into this type of format...i mean you can use the eBook generator to make your emails readable as eBooks on your calc but it kinda takes a little longer than I would like when i am in a hurry to leave to go to work in the morning....what we need is a quick and dirty way of doing it...I used to use Pictionary to do this...i liked Pictionarys way of putting text into the editor and pushing a button and then viola there you had a finished product ready to go into your calculator...but i found that my calculator crashed when i used pictionary during crucial times like in the middle of exams so i no longer took a chance on using that anymore....but a very nice and easy way of doing this sort of thing with the eBook generator would be very nice...

Yes, I made Queue. The screen flickers on my TI-89 HW1 when the batteries get low, but this happens with all grayscale games when the battery gets low. I don't know about a change in the controls, though they always feel sluggish to me in the old versions. They will be faster in the next version.

I agree that it is a good idea except that the news will be old by the time you read it on the calc. It would be useful if you were going to visit some amish people, you wouldn't have to memorize what the news was in the "outside world", but hey, good idea, I just don't think it'll too useful. Now if we had DSL's on our calcs.......

I think that my Palm and AvantGo are much better than this script thing. Sure, it is a good idea, but it is much more limited. The Palm, Handspring, PocketPC all have much larger screens than the 89, or in some cases the 92 (the palm only has about 1000 more pixels than the 92) It is hard to read text on my 89, espically because eBook reader displays it at the smallest font. In order to make this work, I think the TI-Chess Team should allow eBook reader to view formatted text, and let the user have their choice to view it in small, medium, or large fonts. I also think that more than just Slashdot or Ticalc should be used. ZDnet and Yahoo news are also good.

BTW, it is also harder to load this news onto the calc. The Palm gets AvantGo news with a single press of a button, while the calc gets the eBook news by downloading, unzipping, opening the linkcable, and transfering, which takes much longer.

Hey! I was almost sure I had the first comment! Missed it by only 3 minutes. Anyway, this isn't such a bad idea. Who says it could only be used for ticalc.org? It could be used for getting *real* news articles or updates on other sites.

BTW: Speaking of porting HTML to the calc, is there any way somebody could get small MP3 files to go on the calc and play through a speaker? I'm sure this would take some work, but it must be possible.

MP3 requires too much calculating, so computers without mathematic coprocessor can not play it even if they are 66 MHz (far from TI-calc's 6-10MHz).

However, there are other possible formats to store sound. Assuming we use 4000 Hz sample (really minimal) and in our format 1 bit represents high/low volume of the speaker, we have 500 bytes per second. Assuming some additional compression of 50%, in one 64 K variable (TI89 maximum) we can put 4 minutes song of ugly quality.

There is a way to play small clips on your 89, there is also a way for your 86. There is a software called WAV2ASM, I forgot where I got it, but it converts small wave clips of reasonable quality to the 89 and 92+. It plays a bit slow on the calc, so I comphensated for this by speeding up the origonal a bit. I can manage to fit a 40 second clip of reasonable quality in many variables connected by a BASIC progam onto my 89. the meathod for the 86 loses a lot of quality, but you can actually make longer clips. It involves a software called WAV2DB by Andreas Ess(I think that is how you spell his name), and you can get it right here on Ticalc. There are already some clips that were made in this way on Ticalc. Goto the 86 asm sound section. A good one is The way I am by Eminem (This is just an example, I HATE that guy).

Hopefully in the future, we can devise a compression meathod that can put quality music into our calcs.

WAV2ASM? I couldn't find any results on any search engine for that one. If you still have it, perhaps you can upload it to ticalc.org....

Right in the link.

The GP32 sounds like a good candidate for this type of client.

-Corey

I think its downright chauvanist that you only see fit to mention Palm devices. As a dedicated Handspring Visor user, I feel slighted. I mean, Handspring IS the superior Palm OS device, after all. (www.handspring.com)

Eric

Fine. Happy now? :p

Yes. Thanks. :-)

Eric

Especially the prism. The games on an 89 (I do have one) don't even come close to the games on a prism.

Drooling over the thought of a Prism....

Save your money, get a IIIc instead, it also has a color screen and 8 megs of memory. It lacks a springboard slot, but it costs almost $120 less!

I know that my Palm isn't as good as a visor prism, but it's better than a visor standard. Everywhere in my school they call the handspring the "cheap palm ripoff", and in some cases it is true. The only reason it is better than origonal palm devices is because it's got that springboard slot, and just because it has that, they can charge a LOT more. The IIIe costs only $129 and the visor standard costs $179. They both have 2 megs of memory, they both have a 16 MHz Motorola 68ez328 processor (very close relative to the 89 and 92's processor).


Speaking of which, I blame TI for way overpricing their calcs. The 89 only has 2 megs of Flash ROM and 256k of RAM, and the processor isn't so modern either(although it is VERY powerful if used correctly, which TI isn't doing). It has a relatively small screen compared with PDA's and they charge a retail price of $149! After comparing it to the PDA's, the calc is only worth about $100 because it's hardware is relatively cheap.

Yes, but you forgot software component. For as powerful mathematic PC software as included in TI89 you have to pay 100-500 USD. (MuPAD is an exception, but it is free only for students and faculty members)