Archive for October, 2010
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Losing Touch With User Expectations
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 11, 2010 by admin in Technology
Monday, October 11th, 2010Do you ever find yourself touching touchscreens that aren’t touch sensitive?
The other day, a friend handed me their Blackberry and asked me to call up Google Maps. After fussing with the device for a moment, I mentally cursed its lousy touch-sensitive interface, until I realized it wasn’t touch sensitive. I would’ve felt pretty stupid, but I see this kind of thing all the time, whether it’s someone trying to touch an LCD monitor to do something, or spastically backspacing on Google trying to get the right Instant Google/Google Autocomplete result instead of just typing what they’re looking for. I’ve already shared my thoughts on Google Instant, and the more I’m exposed to it, the more strongly I feel that Google shouldn’t impose this kind of “improvement” on me until they develop it to the point that they actually know what I’m thinking, which would eliminate the need for me altogether. In any case, I fear that because of smart phones, self-serve kiosks, and the iPad, we may briefly have to suffer these occasional human malfunctions. Personally, I’m prepared to wait; I’ve been quietly rolling my fingertips on my lifeless and uncaring work surfaces for years as I wait for the kind of tactile holographics that were featured in Iron Man 2 (video also below). This kind of interface may not be far away, but the best I’ve seen so far is a bit primitive; check out this clip from last year about touchable holographics being developed at Tokyo University. So what do we have available? Well, back in the world of two dimensions, there are really amazing tools for designers like Wacom’s Cintiq, and for education, there are tools like Hitachi’s StarBoard, and for business, the somewhat more limited Smart Podium, but these are all still pretty pricey. I think that as consumers, we may have to wait a bit for all of our devices to be more pervasively touch sensitive. One of the last products to be touted as consumer-oriented was Microsoft Surface, but the platform was made public way back in 2006, and I still don’t have any friends with touch-sensitive coffee tables. Perhaps because – as this hilarious video about Surface points out – why use a compact device like an iPhone to get maps and directions, when you can use a device the size of a small car? More video below. Read the rest of this entry »
Juggalos For Jesus
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 10, 2010 by admin in Music
Sunday, October 10th, 2010The Revelation that Insane Clown Posse are secret messengers of God may be the Genesis of a new era of Jack Chick Juggalos.
 The evangelizing was plain as day in Volume 1 of The Pendulum  |
If you think hatchet-wielding clowns are scary, you’ve obviously never met a Christian hatchet-wielding clown. That raps. And likes wrestling. Well, that’s what you’re likely to find in whatever remains of Insane Clown Posse’s fan base after they recently revealed that yes, they’re on a mission to bring the Lord’s message to today’s troubled youth . Or, as they like to refer to them, Juggalos. If you’re not familiar with Juggalos, they’re sort of like the recent generation’s answer to Kiss fans, but with hatchets. And Faygo
Adobe & Microsoft – A Marriage Made In Heaven?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 9, 2010 by admin in Technology
Saturday, October 9th, 2010If Microsoft acquired Adobe, you could finally watch your PDF’s and Word documents freeze in the same window! And… is Slate the new Coal?
Wouldn’t it be great if Microsoft, a company notorious for terminally insecure, crash prone, memory hogging software with mind-numbingly illogical menus, and constant new overpriced versions that are backwards-incompatible, were to partner with Adobe, a company known for terminally insecure, crash prone, memory hogging… oh wait. So why is it that so many tech industry and finance blogs are excited about the rumour of a possible merger or acquisition involving the two? It’s ironic that Apple – once the prideful domain of snobbish, intellectual arty types – is now part of the Evil Empire (along with Google) that everyone thinks needs to be taken down. In my opinion, anyone who sees anything positive in a possible Adobe/Microsoft merger is beholden to a business model that we can only hope is in its death throes. Apple and Google have gotten where they are right now with a really crazy idea: give the user what they want or need, and do it exceptionally well. Adobe and Microsoft, on the other hand, have for nearly a decade stuck to a strategy of buying their competitors , rolling exceptional products into their existing lines of outdated and over-developed re-releases of lumbering software suites, usually to the detriment if not total destruction of really great products. In any case, the rumour is already being called “nonsense” by credible sources, so the whole idea may be as vaporous as Microsoft’s “slate”, an attempt to compete with the iPad, which is supposed to be available in time for Christmas. What a great stocking stuffer for the people on your list who’ve been naughty, not nice! Maybe slate is the new coal. Read the rest of this entry »
Who Discovered America?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 8, 2010 by admin in Holidays
Friday, October 8th, 2010We’ve asked all the right questions and answered them for you just in time for Columbus Day. Including Eddie Izzard’s “Do you have a flag?”
 This painting always makes me think of Eddie Izzard’s Do You Have A Flag routine. |
Thanks to the three-day weekend many people will enjoy because of the fact that Monday is Columbus Day, this topic is bound to come up in conversation, so we thought we’d help you out. First, don’t bother Googling it. You’ll get several pages of rambling articles and opinions. This is one of those times that WolframAlpha came in handy. See for yourself (image below). Yup. Asians walked across Beringia way before any Europeans made the trip by boat. How simple was that? So, now that we know that the first humans arrived in North America around 14,000 years ago, we can move on to other interesting questions, like “well, who was second then?” and “why the heck do they call it America, anyway?” and “so why do we keep celebrating Columbus Day, now that the facts are in?” In order, the answers are the Vikings, no-one is sure but we assume it’s because of Amerigo Vespucci, and that last question? Probably because it would take congress years to pass the legislation to abolish Columbus Day even if public sentiment were strong enough. Which it doesn’t appear to be, at least according to this 2009 Rasmussen poll. Personally, I think a poll like that may be skewed by people not wanting to lose a three day weekend, and that we should at least celebrate something different, like “Jesus Christ When Did They Start Advertising Christmas BEFORE Halloween?” day. And although I lightheartedly shared some of my thoughts on this topic last year, I really do believe we should do away with the tradition, partly for simple historical accuracy, but more importantly because 1/8 of me is descended from the people that ended up being called “Indians” and were then nearly annihilated by those who followed in Columbus’ brutal footsteps. If you’re also of a mind that we could do away with Columbus Day, I don’t know what to tell you. The most organized group addressing the topic – Reconsider Columbus Day – didn’t update their site this year. Let us know if you know of anything besides this petition. Last year’s video below. Read the rest of this entry »
Increasingly Impossible Objects Becoming Increasingly Possible
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 7, 2010 by admin in Technology
Thursday, October 7th, 2010These 3D renderings of fractals suggest that just around the corner, there’s something just around the corner.
There’s a place I know, just around the corner of the corner of the corner. It’s inside a house designed by Karl Menger , and the walls, floors, and ceilings are covered with carpets designed by Waclaw Sierpinski. I’ve been going there since I was about five, when a Japanese fellow who rented a room from my family showed me how to make a Möbius strip. You’ve probably seen examples of impossible objects before; people are probably most familiar with MC Escher’s work, but there are many other artists who’ve dabbled in this arena. You can even make your own impossible triangle, or if you’re feeling really ambitious, you can engage in a little fractal origami. I love illusions like this, but I’ve always been even more fascinated with objects that can be partially represented in two or three dimensions, but require a little imagination or mental investment to grasp. We’ve touched on hypercubes and extra-dimensional ideas before, but today I ran across something I’ve longed to see for ages, which is detailed, 3D animations of fractals, and objects like the “Menger Sponge” referenced at the top. I became a little obsessed with these forms when the book Chaos: Making a New Science