microsoft patent with idea's from this list

Helge Hafting helge.hafting at hist.no
Tue Feb 3 18:04:38 CET 2009


Gothnet wrote:
> 
> 
> Peter Nijs wrote:
>> I'm almost sure someone suggested
>> hooking up an external screen to it. That's technically not possible
>>
> 
> Isn't it?
> 
> You can get external USB gfx cards these days.
> 
> Whether FR has the power to drive one, or if there are FOSS drivers, I have
> no idea.

No problem.
The dock may contain a powered usb hub - so no power problem.
An "external screen" can be a serial terminal, and usb-to-serial 
converters certainly exists. Linux always had drivers for serial 
terminals, these days also the usb-to-serial converters.

For something more modern, use X over the network. (usb network or wifi)


The usb cable to the pc seems to do everything:
It connects the phone to:
* the pc keyboard (use ssh software)
* the pc screen (ssh tunneling X)
* the pc mouse (ssh tunneling X)
* network connection, whatever network(s) the pc is accessing
* I have no camera, but it can be done using SANE.

Seems the cradle is the only missing component here, but phone cradles 
aren't exactly new either.


I guess it is possible to overturn that patent, if anyone has a hobby of 
  suing microsoft...


Helge Hafting





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