Got my Cybook - initial thoughts

[pthwaite]

Tend to agree with Harry. Just ask anyone on the telephone when they say I'll ring back in a minute.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Believe me, if an English speaker says to you "I'll phone you back in a minute", they will not mean "precisely 60 seconds"; they could mean 5 or 10 minutes.

& pthwaite

Absolutely true. Believe me, I believe you

However, there is a subtle difference between your example and discussing features of a gadget, where every second counts.

[Ned]

Is this the same thing as when a plumber says he'll come Tuesday?

[HarryT]

Exactly, Ned - you've got it!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Ned

Is this the same thing as when a plumber says he'll come Tuesday?

Hey... I never said "which" tuesday.

BOb

[tompe]

Originally Posted by astra

& pthwaite
However, there is a subtle difference between your example and discussing features of a gadget, where every second counts.

Exactly.

I am kind of shocked that in a discussion were persons are using the information to decide to buy something people think it is OK to be imprecise in this way. People will expect a warning if the time is 1 minute to do something that is much faster to do with a PDA or a paper book. For dictionary lookup nobody expects a few seconds to mean that it is slower than looking it up in a paper dictionary or in an external electronic dictionary.

Didn't the iLiad tak one minute to boot? I wonder why HarryT have not described the boot time as just a few seconds and not a problem when you want to read.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by tompe

Exactly.

I am kind of shocked that in a discussion were persons are using the information to decide to buy something people think it is OK to be imprecise in this way. People will expect a warning if the time is 1 minute to do something that is much faster to do with a PDA or a paper book. For dictionary lookup nobody expects a few seconds to mean that it is slower than looking it up in a paper dictionary or in an external electronic dictionary.

Didn't the iLiad tak one minute to boot? I wonder why HarryT have not described the boot time as just a few seconds and not a problem when you want to read.

Get of it Tommy I really think you have to give Harry some credit here. I know how slow the dictionary-function is (I use it all the time ) but even I would say it takes just a few seconds to lookup a word, where I know it can take up to a minute when you have to move your cursor halfway over the screen. Booting-time on the other hand can actually be shorter but always looks longer because you are just waiting while the machine is booting.
So time isn't static....Just remember: Time flies when you're having fun

[tompe]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

but even I would say it takes just a few seconds to lookup a word, where I know it can take up to a minute when you have to move your cursor halfway over the screen.

Have you measured the time? For me it takes 20 seconds to look up a word in the second line of the text which is nearly as long as the boot time of the Cybook. The time also seems to depends on how many dictionaries you have installed. Which nobody have seen fit to mention.

People used to dictionary lookup in MobiPocket on a Palm for example will be extremely fooled by claims of it taking only a few seconds.

[gwynevans]

Time flies like an arrow...
Fruit flies like a banana!

:-)

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by tompe

Have you measured the time? For me it takes 20 seconds to look up a word in the second line of the text which is nearly as long as the boot time of the Cybook. The time also seems to depends on how many dictionaries you have installed. Which nobody have seen fit to mention.

People used to dictionary lookup in MobiPocket on a Palm for example will be extremely fooled by claims of it taking only a few seconds.

Exactly my point, it takes about 20 seconds to look up a word, but because you are constantly bussy (opening the menu, moving the cursor around, choosing the right word) it looks only a few seconds. While booting takes the same time but looks much longer because all you can do while booting is wait........
On the other hand I fore sure can't look up a word in a paper dictionary within 20 seconds. Certainly not when you count the time putting away the book you read and taking the dictionary in your hands into account..

[tompe]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

Exactly my point, it takes about 20 seconds to look up a word, but because you are constantly bussy (opening the menu, moving the cursor around, choosing the right word) it looks only a few seconds. While booting takes the same time but looks much longer because all you can do while booting is wait........

And what you feel is extremely individual. For me it is an irritating long time. And most of the 20 seconds is waiting for the lookup and then you do not do anything else. And since it is individual it is much better measure the time and to tell people how long time it takes so they have better information to make their decisions.

I think I measured how long time it took me to look up a word in the Cybook text in the N810 dictionary and it was less than 20 seconds if I remember correctly.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by tompe

And most of the 20 seconds is waiting for the lookup.

Strange, the lookup itself takes always less than 5 seconds on my Cybook, and I have three dictionaries installed...

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

Strange, the lookup itself takes always less than 5 seconds on my Cybook, and I have three dictionaries installed...

Yeah, it's nowhere near 20 seconds for me either (only one dictionary installed).

Booting up, on the other hand, takes me more than 20 seconds with the number of books I have on my SD card.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

Strange, the lookup itself takes always less than 5 seconds on my Cybook, and I have three dictionaries installed...

I have only two dictonaries but one of them is the free dictionary posted here so maybe that is not optimized in the same way. I have the old Cybook. I just tested and it took 15 seconds from I pressed "enter" and I get the box with the alternative when I looked up the word "Produced".

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by tompe

I have only two dictonaries but one of them is the free dictionary posted here so maybe that is not optimized in the same way. I have the old Cybook. I just tested and it took 15 seconds from I pressed "enter" and I get the box with the alternative when I looked up the word "Produced".

I also have the old Webster dictionary from this site (and am thinking to remove it because it seldom finds a word ), but I've got the new cybook maybe there is a difference ??? I tried three different words and all three were under 5 seconds, one even with 5 references.