Slashdot Mirror
Canonical Designer Demos Ubuntu Context-Aware UI
Blacklaw writes "Canonical's Christian Giordano has posted details of what he believes could be the future of user interface design in Ubuntu — a system that detects physical context. Designed to be paired with a webcam or other sensor system, the concept is that the computer is able to detect where a user is in proximity to the display along with an idea of roughly what he or she might be doing. Using this information, the operating system — in this case, Ubuntu Linux — can automatically make changes to the screen layout. For example, when the system detects that the user has leaned back in his or her chair, the system automatically makes the currently playing video full-screen. Lean forward again, and the video returns to its previous windowed mode."
So if the computer sees me with a box of tissues and some lube it will start up youporn?
Why does the summary not link the actual blog post at canonical.com instead of some ad-encumbered summary?
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Another guess and pray system. Please don't. or at least make it optional (not that I use ubuntu, but)... Guess and pray system are often more of an irritation that usable.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
... that yells "Pay attention!" every time it detects my eyes focusing on my television rather than its monitor!
So if I dangle my Special Purpose in front of my webcam, will it boot me into Damn Small Linux?
As long as the options aren't hidden in obscure menus, or disabled because the users are considered idiots, then I think I like it.
In short: I like it if I can tweak it (and if I can disable it if necessary).
-- The options menu of my webcam extends to my drawer where I keep my duct tape to block the lens. Be warned, evil empire, I am armed with duct tape!
Lots of naysayers already.. this will suck as much as the first round of "tablet" laptops, like the thinkpad x60, et cetera. But you have to let the pioneers forge ahead. Let them do that, they will enjoy being at the forefront of development without you.
There's all sorts of sensors. And with something like a SerIO, you can just plug analog sensors into your perl/python/ruby/php/bash scripts. For instance, I believe I could take a capacitance sensor, hide it under the wood in my desk, run that into the SerIO (or I mean, if I was an engineer I could do it myself, but I am not, so the SerIO is my crutch), and then I could have my computer know when my hands are laying on the desk.
I could put a thermal sensor in my chair, so my butt triggers it. I could put motion sensors in the walls. I could put humidity sensors in my beer-hat, and it could tell me when to stop drinking so much booze.
There's so many neat ideas out there that haven't really been done yet. Well, I'm sure they've been done by shy introverts, brilliant kids that don't feel like sharing with the dummies. Heck I bet a ton are reading this very story and going "PSSSSSSSsh so?" Not as many as the armchair engineers going "PSshh stoopid idea", but they are still here too.
This isn't about getting it right. This is about playing. Don't critique the child playing with blocks.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
... like playing sounds from Youtube/Flash on Firefox and Rythmbox at the same time, without having to wait 5 Minutes after FF closes, for PulseAudio to reinitialize or whatever, to be able to hear Rythmbox or VLC sound.
It's this kind of crap that's getting us no where and still has Apple being a viable alternative for productive workers despite their cheapest 13" Laptop currently being twice as expensive than a 17" Dell Vostro running Ubuntu. And despite Apple moving into MS-Borg territory very fast with content distribution lock-in and all that.
I thought I was going to switch to Linux entirely this year, now that I don't play Windows Games anymore and currently don't develop Flash for a living and the newest Mac Mini suddenly costs upwards of 800 Euros. But it's crap like this that still has me fiddling with fstab IN FUCKING 2010(!!) when I want to mount my daughters Cellphones MicroSD Card and then still being unable to mount the damn thing rw, as any other sane OS would do.
John-Jesus H.B Christ, could we please try to get shit done, like, for instance, building a vialbe AD clone or something before tracking faces with some obscure library that only 10 people know how to compile and has absolutely no practical application what-so-ever? No matter how much money Shuttleworth has, he doesn't have enough to burn it on something like this I'd suppose. No?
It's not that I wouldn't like to help, but, honestly, there is so much work to be done, I don't know where to start and sh*t like the stuff mentioned in TFA isn't very encouraging to have me join in.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
They'll announce it a few years from now, codename "Terrifying Tantalus"
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."