2006-02-13

I've always wanted a ST:TNG console

I've dreamed of an interface where I can move windows with my fingers, draw, type directly on the screen, have some amazing ways to edit, develop, and explore using a very large drafting table-type touch screen. I even went so far as to imagine the types of fingering would be involved to do some of those things. A lot of those dreams and practical ideas suddenly felt really mundane when I saw this excellent demo of just what I was imagining, only with way cooler effects. What they did to create a virtual desktop, map and image manipulation, and some very nifty application interfaces was very inspired. And I hadn't considered the addition of force measurements as yet another input control as they did. Very very cool.

I had wondered why there wasn't something like this out there in consumer land by now. It's such a much more natural interface than having to slide around a pointer on the screen via a mouse. Even the touch screens out there were very simple when I consider that they required only one touch point at a time. I hope that this thing gets commoditized because I want one.

Another video I saw that was kind of nifty was a real transformer robot. I wonder how long before a Veritech fighter can be made.

2006-02-09

And the next letter will be...?

I've witnessed the trends where a slew of companies, names, and products would nearly simultaneously begin with "x", "e", "@", and now "i". I can't say which is the worst offender though "i" is currently taking the cake because unlike "e" (email, ebusiness, ebay) it not only keeps its lowercase lettering but the letter after it is always capitalized (iPod, iTunes, iMac, iFinder, iHome, iBoom, iMotion... check out the name of this product). A close second would be "@" which isn't even a letter but at least it was short lived.

So what will be the next letter/symbol du jour?

While I'm at it, I think that "www" should be eliminated from any and all web addresses. It is a truly unfortunate those words that it stands for begin with the only English letter that is 3 syllables and therefore cumbersome to say, much less 3 times in a row. I think only the German speakers don't mind this since their pronunciation of "w" is "vay" (though they did compensate with "upsilon" for "y"). All basic atomic letters should be one syllable. I'd say numbers should be too but I there are good arguments for having them all be two syllables, but definitely not mixed (e.g. se ven, ze ro). But we can't do anything about the letters and numbers pronunciations that we've inherited. This "www" thing is though. And with the ubiquity of the web, it means nothing anymore.

2006-02-08

Context ads

I remember reading an article of how Amazon's context recommendations were proposing things like "Planet of the Apes" as "you might also be interested in" stuff for people looking up things related to Martin Luther King or Black History Month or something like that; creating a bit of a furor.

It occurs to me that stuff like this has to be happening all the time and I would be there's a site out there somewhere collecting it. I was just reading a Google groups post where a guy was suggesting using suspenders in place of belts for people with big bellies. The Google context ads on the side all concerned pregnancy. I'd post a link but the ads of course rotate in and out. On second read one had to do with pregnancy, one about babies, and one other regarding beanbags.

I wonder how many of these misapropos that can be deemed as offensive will pop up, how many will create a stir large enough for action to be taken, and how to handle it in freeform.

Fortunately, Google ads are (when used properly) unobtrusive and easily ignored, especially since they're all text and take up fairly little real estate. Boggles my mind how some people think it's not enough. I've seen pages where no less than 4 areas of the screen devoted to these ads, including between posts. Does this really help earn revenue that much?