Asking if the development of Window Managers has slowed is like asking if the development of television remote controls has slowed down.
Window Managers have faded into the background as it is the tools and information inside the windows that (rightfully) recieves the focus. Since the advent of the Mac, the incredible uniqueness of windowing and the desktop metaphor in general has meant that we've spent an exorbinant amount of time focused on the UI itself instead of the tools contained by the UI.
To put it another way... imagine I was a caveman transported to today and placed inside of a room with a window. First, I would marvel at the incredible transparent substance that formed a barrier between me and the outside world, but after a while, I would take it for granted and simply use the window to see outside.
Input still a problem with Web Pads
on
Webpads, Anyone?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Touch screens still don't cut it for me. My stubby callused fingers are about as precise as a horse's hoof for a pointing device.
Also, the 'soft' keyboards that can be displayed on these touch screens are frustratingly inaccurate due to a lack of tactile feedback (no click-clack).
Combine a Web pad with a chording keyboard-mouse combination and we would have something great. 'Til then I'll stick with my Palm.
A few simple steps that could lessen the risk of skyjackings.
1. Cockpit door locked from the inside at all times. (Flight attendants must knock to deliver food and coffee).
2. Peephole in cockpit to verify who is knocking.
3. bullet-proof cockpit bulkhead.
4. As a last resort, all cockpits equiped with shotguns loaded with beanbag ammunition, (to avoid hull peircings).
These 4 simple safety measures would have prevented this tragedy. Cardboard cutters would not do much against a bulletproof bulkhead. Granted, some passengers may have been killed, but I would postulate that such a mission would not even have been hatched if these safefty measures were in place.
The heart of Actuality's display technology is a high-speed image projection system which
illuminates a swiftly rotating proprietary screen. As the screen sweeps out a cylindrical volume,
the projector sends out a sequence of 2-D "image slices." These slices, when computed properly
and projected in the correct sequence, serve to create a volume-filling 3-D image. Your
persistence of vision does the rest.
Here's how the system works in a deeper level of detail: your application (say, an MCAD system)
provides the Actuality display with data via the Actuality API. This geometry information is
rasterized and placed into a three-dimensional matrix of memory in the display unit. A high-speed
projection system rapidly flips through the 3-D memory in a series of 2-D steps, which we call
slices. These slices, when computed properly and selected at the proper times, perceptually
combine into a sharp, volume-filling, true 3-D image.
If the buzz word of the '90s was Y2K, I'm predicting Taikonaut will be just as bandied about, and much more important. Really, how cool is that word? "astronaut" and "Cosmonaut" are so '70s Gemini era, but "taikonaut" that's a word for the new millenium.
Slashdot Mirror
Asking if the development of Window Managers has slowed is like asking if the development of television remote controls has slowed down.
Window Managers have faded into the background as it is the tools and information inside the windows that (rightfully) recieves the focus. Since the advent of the Mac, the incredible uniqueness of windowing and the desktop metaphor in general has meant that we've spent an exorbinant amount of time focused on the UI itself instead of the tools contained by the UI.
To put it another way... imagine I was a caveman transported to today and placed inside of a room with a window. First, I would marvel at the incredible transparent substance that formed a barrier between me and the outside world, but after a while, I would take it for granted and simply use the window to see outside.
Touch screens still don't cut it for me. My stubby callused fingers are about as precise as a horse's hoof for a pointing device.
Also, the 'soft' keyboards that can be displayed on these touch screens are frustratingly inaccurate due to a lack of tactile feedback (no click-clack).
Combine a Web pad with a chording keyboard-mouse combination and we would have something great. 'Til then I'll stick with my Palm.
A few simple steps that could lessen the risk of skyjackings.
1. Cockpit door locked from the inside at all times. (Flight attendants must knock to deliver food and coffee).
2. Peephole in cockpit to verify who is knocking.
3. bullet-proof cockpit bulkhead.
4. As a last resort, all cockpits equiped with shotguns loaded with beanbag ammunition, (to avoid hull peircings).
These 4 simple safety measures would have prevented this tragedy. Cardboard cutters would not do much against a bulletproof bulkhead. Granted, some passengers may have been killed, but I would postulate that such a mission would not even have been hatched if these safefty measures were in place.
Dag Maggot
The heart of Actuality's display technology is a high-speed image projection system which illuminates a swiftly rotating proprietary screen. As the screen sweeps out a cylindrical volume, the projector sends out a sequence of 2-D "image slices." These slices, when computed properly and projected in the correct sequence, serve to create a volume-filling 3-D image. Your persistence of vision does the rest.
Here's how the system works in a deeper level of detail: your application (say, an MCAD system) provides the Actuality display with data via the Actuality API. This geometry information is rasterized and placed into a three-dimensional matrix of memory in the display unit. A high-speed projection system rapidly flips through the 3-D memory in a series of 2-D steps, which we call slices. These slices, when computed properly and selected at the proper times, perceptually combine into a sharp, volume-filling, true 3-D image.
If the buzz word of the '90s was Y2K, I'm predicting Taikonaut will be just as bandied about, and much more important. Really, how cool is that word? "astronaut" and "Cosmonaut" are so '70s Gemini era, but "taikonaut" that's a word for the new millenium.