A magical water elf is a mythical creature often depicted in folklore and fantasy fiction. These enchanting beings are said to reside in rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. They have long captured the imaginations of people for centuries due to their ethereal beauty and mysterious nature. Like traditional elves, magical water elves are often described as slender and graceful with pointed ears. However, their unique characteristic is their affinity for water. They are believed to have the ability to breathe underwater and navigate effortlessly through aquatic environments.
They are believed to have the ability to breathe underwater and navigate effortlessly through aquatic environments. The water is their natural habitat, and they are said to swim with grace and agility unmatched by any other creature. Magical water elves are known for their mesmerizing presence.
Magoc link sony
The Sony Magic Link (model PIC-1000) was released in Sep 1994 for $999.95. It is a small handheld computer designed for personal communications. Its intended applications were paging, voice calls, faxing, light e-mail, simple financial work, and on-line browsing and shopping.
The "PIC" stands for "Personal Intelligent Communicator". These small devices were eventually referred to as PDAs, or "Personal Digital Assistants", but that term was originally coined by Apple's then-CEO John Sculley, in referrence to their own Newton MessagePad.
The Magic Link feels good in the hand, with a nice form factor, and a rubber-coated body. You interact with Magic Link by writing on its touch-sensitive screen using the included plastic "dumb" stylus, or just your finger, but handwriting recognition is not supported.
"There's General Electric, there's General Motors, now there's General Magic. We'll become a household name" they said. After all, Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once stated that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Actually, at the time, General Magic was a big deal, there was even a documentary made about it. If you watch it closely, you'll see "Bowser" the rabbit mascot, who apparently roamed freely about the offices and left "presents" for the employees everywhere he went.
Some of the world's largest electronics corporations, including Sony, Motorola, Matsushita, Philips and AT&T Corporation were partners and investors in General Magic. Eventually, a so-called "General Magic Alliance" included 16 big-name global telecommunications and consumer electronics companies, including Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, NTT, Northern Telecom, Toshiba, Oki, Sanyo, Mitsubishi, and Fujitsu. Each of the so-called "Founding Partners" invested $6 million in the company and named a senior executive to the company's "Founding Partner's Council."
General Magic had two main products - the Magic Cap operating system, and the Telescript programming language.
The Magic Cap user interface (UI) is the king of skeuomorphic design - a familiar "desktop" metaphor, using icons such as card files, datebooks, telephones, notepads, fIle cabinets and in/out boxes. "Hallways" with different rooms and "downtown" areas provide access to a variety of additional functions, features and services.
For example, to log into AOL:
1. From the Desk, Tap Hallway.
2. In the Hallway, Tap Downtown.
3. Tap the right arrow to move down the street to the America Online building.
4. Tap the AOL building to enter.
Easter Egg: To start a parade, Go downtown, make a coupon with the text "parade" (option-kbd) and drop it on downtown.
Gerenal Magic's other main product, Telescript, was a very ambitious programming language which would allow mobile devices to interact with services on a network. Telescript programs, or "agents", are small bits of code that travel across a network and execute themselves on remote computers, automatically performing tasks such as making a purchase, or filtering news feeds on behalf of the user - they will pick and choose information and negotiate on the users behalf.
Your device wouldn't just send data, but would send an entire program up to a server that could then run it and perform different tasks. Companies would run groups of servers that could do this, and they referred to it as "the cloud". This all started before the internet existed, of course.
For connectivity, the Magic Link only supported the AT&T PersonaLink and America Online (AOL) e-mail, both of which are telephone land-line dial-up, subscription-based services. The idea was to connected your Magic Link to the telephone line, dial-up the to AT&T PersonaLink service to automatically upload and download your email messages, weather alerts, stock quotes, etc. AT&T PersonaLink was designed around intelligent mobile agents, especially for the Magic Link. It cost $10/month for unlimited use, with faxes 50 cents per page. Remember, there was no internet or Wifi at this point in time.
Utilizing the built-in PCMCIA slot, an additional 1MB of data storage can be added using the Sony SRAM memory card.
Unfortunately the tech just wasn't there in the 1990s to realize the full vision of General Magic. Complaints about the Magic Link included that it is somewhat under-powered, making the multitasking operating system sluggish, the 2400-bps modem is too slow, and the non-backlit LCD screen can be hard to read. Out of the box, it connects only to PersonaLink and America Online.
General Magic's Andy Hertzfeld said "We were hoping to sell a hundred thousand of the first Sony devices, but they only sold like fifteen thousand."
=========== Magic Link PIC-2000 ===========
Sony released an improved version of the Magic Link, the model PIC-2000, in January 1996, for $899. The original PIC-1000 was now just $399.
The new PIC-2000 improvements include a back-lit screen, allowing Magic Link use in poor lighting, an additional PCMCIA slot, twice as much internal RAM memory, and a faster internal telephone modem. The PIC-2000 is a little thicker, and gone is the rubber-coating - the body is now hard plastic.
Even better, Sony advertised on their website the $350 "Wireless Modem Link Bundle" software, modem card, and cable to connect the Magic Link PIC-2000 to your personal cellphone for truly remote, wireless two-way data communications.
That same year, AT&T shutdown the PersonaLink network in August 1996, transitioning their (only 10,000) subscribers to the internet instead. This was also the end of the Telescript "intelligent agents", as PersonaLink was the only service that supported them, and then just barely at that.
Actually, while the Telescript "agents" sound intriguing, a Sony engineer from GoodOldBits who was familiar with the project stated "The situation where the network itself is dynamically programmable and you don't know what scripts will come was unacceptable for AT&T, and Telescipt wasn't installed on the actual Smart Messaging Service "AT&T PersonaLink" server. When I implemented the Telescript interpreter on the server experimentally, it was said that the server resources were exhausted just by starting 500 Telescript agent scripts that did nothing."
Similar to the Sony Magic Link models PIC-1000 and PIC-2000, there is also the Motorola Envoy models 100 and 150, similar products which also ran the Magic Cap UI, but with a built-in 4800 bps wireless send/receive two-way packet modem, to communicate using the existing ARDIS nationwide wireless data communications network.
=========== Data Rover 840 ===========
Sony never released an improved version past the PIC-2000, but General Magic, who developed the Magic Cap operating system, wasn't finished, so in December 1997, they released their own hardware system - the Data Rover 840. The new "840" costs $1,095, and is specifically directed at vertical markets such as healthcare, utilities, and transportation.
Although it has a slightly smaller screen, the new DataRover 840 hardware improvements are noteworthy, including a smaller form factor, a faster central processor (MIPS R3000), twice as much memory, and a faster 19.2kbs data modem with 9600 baud FAX send and receive capability (earler models could send a FAX, but not receive).
The 840 also now includes the lastest version 3.1 of their Magic Cap operating system, which is much faster and more refined than the original, now including a "web browser" to access the newly available internet. It has more options to send and receive e-mail and faxes, as well as access the Internet and intranets, via Cellular Digital Packet Data, Ricochet, Ardis, analog cellular, and wireless ethernet connections.
| Magic Link PIC-1000 | Magic Link PIC-2000 | DataRover 840 | |
| Operating System | Magic Cap 1.0 | Magic Cap 1.5 | Magic Cap 3.1 |
| Internal memory | 4MB ROM, 1 MB RAM | 4MB ROM, 2 MB RAM | 8MB ROM, 4MB RAM |
| Internal modem | 2400 kbps data, 9600 fax | 14.4 kbps data, 14.4 kbps fax | 19.2 kbps data, 9600 kbps fax |
| PCMCIA slots | One type II slot | Two type II slots | |
In October 29, 1998, General Magic decided to refocus on network services, and spins off its handheld computer division as an independent company called DataRover Mobile Systems.
Like its predecessor the Sony Magic Link, the DataRover 840 was not a success. A handheld computer in this format was just not something that people thought that they wanted. These early PDAs were always too limited, with poor displays, no matter what the price.
General Magic themselves went under in 2002.
In 1995, "Home Office Computing" magazine wrote "No computer product category has been more ridiculed than the PDA".
Easter Egg: To start a parade, Go downtown, make a coupon with the text "parade" (option-kbd) and drop it on downtown.
They possess an otherworldly allure that attracts and captivates those who encounter them. Their luminous, iridescent skin and flowing hair are said to shimmer with the colors of the water, adding to their enchanting appearance. Legends tell of the magical powers these water creatures possess. It is believed that they possess the ability to control the elements of water, manipulating its flow and shape with a mere wave of their hand. They are said to have the power to create rain, control tides, and calm storms. Additionally, they are believed to possess healing abilities, using the power of water to restore health and vitality. Magical water elves are also said to possess a deep connection with the natural world. They are known to be protectors of water sources, ensuring their purity and vitality. In some folklore, they are seen as guardians of the environment, defending the balance of nature and punishing those who harm it. Despite their captivating beauty and mystical abilities, magical water elves are usually portrayed as elusive and shy beings. They prefer to remain hidden from human sight, only revealing themselves to those they trust. It is said that they are most active during the night, when the moon's glow reflects off the water's surface. Overall, the concept of a magical water elf represents a fusion of nature, fantasy, and beauty. These mythical creatures continue to fascinate and inspire creative works as they spark the imagination and remind us of the wonder and magic that can be found in the natural world..
Reviews for "The Oceans Beckon: A Journey into the Realm of Water Elves"
1. Sarah - 2 stars - I found "Magical Water Elf" to be extremely predictable and cliché. The plot was unoriginal, with a typical love triangle and a protagonist who discovers magical powers she didn't know she had. The characters were flat and lacked depth, making it difficult for me to connect with them or care about their struggles. Additionally, the writing style was mediocre at best, with awkward dialogue and a lack of descriptive language to bring the world to life. Overall, I was disappointed by the lack of originality and depth in this book.
2. James - 1 star - "Magical Water Elf" was a complete waste of my time. The storyline was convoluted and confusing, with too many subplots that didn't add anything significant to the overall narrative. The pacing was also all over the place, with moments of intense action followed by long stretches of dull and uneventful chapters. The world-building was vague and poorly developed, leaving me with more questions than answers. The dialogue was cringe-worthy, filled with cheesy romantic lines and unrealistic conversations. I couldn't wait for this book to end and would not recommend it to anyone.
3. Emma - 2 stars - I had high hopes for "Magical Water Elf," but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The characters felt one-dimensional and lacked any real development throughout the story. The romance was forced and lacked chemistry, making it difficult to root for the main couple. The writing style was also repetitive, with constant rehashing of the same information and unnecessary filler. The plot twists were predictable, and I wasn't surprised by any of the revelations. Overall, I found "Magical Water Elf" to be a forgettable and disappointing read.