I don’t have a Kindle, but I do have the Kindle app on my smartphone, and I am surprised at how readable it is on the 3.7" screen. Web browsing, though, doesn’t quite cut it; it is just that little bit too small. The 6" Kindle is a better size, but as it has a monochrome screen, it’s not satisfactory for web browsing. If it wasn’t for the reflection problems, a pad might be OK for ebook reading, and definitely OK for browsing, but as a man with no bag, it’d be a pain to carry around.
You see my dilemma? None of them can satisfy all my needs when out and about.
I would say anything that has a chip that collects data, performs calculations and then acts in some manner that changes based on that data is a computer. So maybe your phone isn’t a computer, but most cameras are because most digital cameras have automated functions to improve image quality, and I would imagine pretty much every GPS unit is because it calculates your location based on satellite signals.
In a certain more technical sense, of course that is correct. Motor vehicles have “computers” in them. Some kitchen appliances have “computers.” The camera, GPS and phone all are as well.
I guess it’s a little fuzzy, but certainly it would have to be a multi-purpose device, with a generalized I/O, probably running an “operating system,” with some capacity for adding subprograms for specialized tasks. I don’t know; I’m not really a techie, despite having taught myself enough to build my system. A smart phone is a computer, a plain cell phone isn’t. But then I guess a dedicated e-reader or mp3 player wouldn’t be either, and the OP mentioned those.
A good question would be how many PC type computers you need.
I’d want my main computer for gaming.
A media server type thing to watch movies and listen to music from.
A laptop for when I’m on the move.
An older computer for helping friends and family with virusy type stuff.
/threadshit.
But really, whatever you want, go get. If you don’t see the value in one of these devices, find someone that has one, see if they’re worth it, mess with it, and act accordingly.
You forgot a robotic monkey butler, though.
The wiki definition is essentially what I referred to in the first part of #26. What I (still) don’t know is a rigorous way of stating the more common understanding
A computer doesn’t have to be a multi-purpose device, though it often is.
I have no what “generalized I/O” is. If you mean “keyboard”, that is wrong. But perhaps you’d liike to explain what this means.
There is no requirement for a computer to be able to add sub-programs for specialized tasks. Most cannot. They are built to operate a specific device and there are no options to reprogram them.
A digital camera, a cell phone, a GPS device and an mp3 player all have computers in them.
The OP asks about “computer devices”. Every one of these, including any others you said are “dumb”, are not. They are computer devices.
But for the sake of other readers who might be wondering what I’m getting at (I always assume there are many more people reading a thread than posting to it), I’ll try to work through this.
I apologize to those others for whom this is a pedantic hijack or whatever.
Yes. But a single-purpose device is not commonly understood as a “computer.” (You quoted wiki saying so.)
I know that’s probably not the ideal technical term. As I said, I’m not a techie. But, look, a specialized I/O would be one that only allows certain narrow types of inputs and outputs. A calculator or an mp3 player or a digital thermostat can only understand a tiny set of commands, and can only put out a tiny range of types of results (all audio signal out of the mp3 being one type).
My desktop computer, by contrast, can accept input from keyboard, mouse (or analogous controllers), both analog and digital audio lines, digital camera or video line, scanner, various standards of optical discs and solid-state media, and of course all the different things that come down the DSL. The combination of all these means there’s a huge range of information categories and tasks the machine can be applied to. There’s a similarly wide range of possible output types.
Something like a tablet isn’t quite as versatile as my desktop, but it’s a lot more like the desktop than the thermostat, isn’t it?
Yes. I’m trying to get at a term* and rigorous definition for computers which are required to have this flexibility… because, again, that’s what a “computer” is, in most common parlance.
Yes. In the broader, more technical sense of the term. Like I said in #26.
The wiki seems to use “general-purpose computer.” I guess that works, but it’s pretty boring and would seem redundant to most people most of the time.
