Friday 12 November 2004

Sleep-surfing

Just informed by Messenger:
"Stu { sleeping } has just signed in."

...

Right. This is one reason I'd like Messenger to allow name changes before sign-in. I'm also still waiting for the ability to make notes next to contacts.

I'm starting to demand a little more from my machines, because I know we're capable of taking computers to a whole new level of usefulness. It's time they stopped pretending to be advanced typewriter-calculators.

I find the interaction with my computer to be extremely limited. With the mouse and screen I am essentially poking icons with a stick. By remote control. I think we're ready to outgrow this mode of operation, but I'm certainly not the person to design a new one. For the moment, though, picture this: a screen approximately 1.5 metres wide and 70 cm high, laid almost flat on your desk. You can move icons around and interact with them by touching them directly, and maybe this giant touch screen even provides some tactile feedback. Now there's no translation to make between the motion of the mouse and the cursor, and you can move multiple items at once, because you have two hands with five fingers each. It needs some work, of course, but I'd like to give it a go.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - "Remember the Gorilla Arm."
PPS - As the old saying goes.

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