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From: Gene on 29 Aug 2006 07:50 Jean-Yves Avenard wrote: > It's entirely different to thinking NDA do not matter. If I have signed > such document, I will respect all terms of it > > Jean-Yves Gene: My fault. I'm referring to an email from a regular participant on this group that went to my gmail account. The email made it quite clear that NDAs meant nothing to this person. And, for the record, I do not and did not report any NDA "breakers". I do speak out when it appears someone is leaking things in advance, things that ought to be under an NDA, since that can make it much less likely for trust to be displayed by HP in the future.
From: Michael Kuyumcu on 29 Aug 2006 08:55 Hi Jean-Yves, if I had agreed to such an NDA (which, I suppose, stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement), I would be aware of it. I use my consciousness on a regular basis and know quite well whether or not I commit a breach of anything legal. The situation is the following: TI has made a deal with the Ministry of Education in one of the German Länder, namely Schleswig-Holstein, to provide 120 free units of the N'spire to every school elected to participate in a special CAS-based math education project. I am a teacher at one of these schools, and all participating teachers in the Land of Schleswig-Holstein were invited to get to know prototypes of the TI technology, while another group learned about the Casio Classpad, and a third group dealt with the MuPad software of the Sciface company. As TI had not been able to fully develop their N'spire technology to that presentation date, but still wanted to give a first impression of their products, a presentation with 30 calculator prototypes and alpha state PC software was given. And no-one had to sign any agreement as to not to divulge anything they experienced or discovered with these devices. In fact, no teacher would have signed such a ridiculuous gag agreement. Strangely, HP does not seem interested in aquainting new generations of students with their - conceptually superior - calculators. As TI, Casio, and Sciface give the schools these 120 free units, in return, the schools bind themselves to equip the following three years of students with the same devices - at the school's cost! So these companies gain a first firm standing in the schools, every student will know their products, and will probably continue to buy and use them also when school is over and they attend university. Why change a complex technology you have just gotten used to? So I think HP Germany has given away a tremendous opportunity here. Accidentally, what I wrote about the TI deadlines turned out wrong just today. We teachers have all received "pre-production" N'spires (with usual batteries), and many of the formerly observed problems seem to have been already fixed, especially concerning the dynamic graphics application. From my point of view, now TI clearly has the better product than HP, which is not surprising because the technology of the 49G+/50g has come of age by now. The HP features a great and comparably fast processor, the ARM, but has not yet taken any serious steps towards a native programming development suite for that processor, which, to my mind, is treating the customers in a rather patronizing way. I know of Cyrilles latest post to the hpgcc group about ARMCODE object embedment into the ROM - but she calls this step unofficial. HP simply and regrettably hasn't had the courage to invest sufficient funds into the tailoring of the OS for the ARM, and I think will now pay for that decision with either a) having to lag begind TI for quite a while or b) resort to satisfy nostalgic-minded customers and HP affectionados who use their calculator more as a toy than than as a real-world necessity. Of course, the "pre-production" N'spires we received today have come without any NDA. In fact, they have come without any written document, there is not even a user's manual. What what the heck, experimenting with new calculators and software is something I love! And I will continue to publish test results, and be it only to provide some sort of qualified user feedback for TI so that they can further improve their latest calculator flagship. I think the N'spire will provide quite a boost for motivation and math learning for students and teacher alike with problems approaching real-life complexity in the classroom and I am looking forward to this. Frankly, I would have preferred to work with HP calcs, but they don't match up anymore (and thinking they were leading once makes me somewhat sad). They more and more rapidly become outdated. Regards, Michael Kuyumcu Jean-Yves Avenard wrote: > Michael Kuyumcu wrote: > > Hi Jean-Yves, > > > > I have already worked with prototypes of the N'spire. The battery life > > time was about 3 to 4 hours when the calculator was running, rebooting > > took about a full minute to load a custom-written OS for the calc. The > > CAS was still very buggy (we found 5 serious problems within 15 > > minutes), while the dynamic graphics package is already working > > smoothly though not elegantly. There is an extensive test review on > > this N'spire prototype available at > > and you weren't under a NDA when you reviewed prototypes ? would be > extremely unusual. > In which case whatever you posted here is in breach of such agreement. > > Jean-Yves
From: Yao Konan on 29 Aug 2006 09:07 Hi i am very interested by any kind of review about the TI-Nspire. As you have the opportunity to work with prototype could you do a review of these prototypes or agree to answer some questions regarding them ? Thanks.
From: Michael Kuyumcu on 29 Aug 2006 10:40 Hi Yao Konan, thanks for your interest in the Nspire. I have not written any tests yet (it's very new), and if/when I should do so, it probably will be in German. I don't know whether or not I will publish that review online or only mail it to TI. Maybe I will publish a web URL on the HP group although it feels strange to annouce something about a competitor's product on the HP list. So there are a lot of maybe's here, and I don't know if I will find the time soon. As a teacher, there are many other things on my mind. I am sure you will understand. Regards, Michael Kuyumcu Yao Konan wrote: > Hi i am very interested by any kind of review about the TI-Nspire. > As you have the opportunity to work with prototype could you do a > review of these prototypes or agree to answer some questions regarding > them ? > Thanks.
From: Steen Schmidt on 29 Aug 2006 12:07
Michael Kuyumcu wrote: > [...] I know of Cyrilles latest post to the hpgcc > group about ARMCODE object embedment into the ROM - but she calls > this step unofficial.[...] "She"? Ouch, Cyrille, stop shaving ;-) Cheers, Steen |