This was invented by Robert A. Heinlein in the book Starship Troopers!
Looks like Mr. Heinlein has done it again. He predicted more then a half century ago that the interface for a an exoskelton (which is what the powered armour in ST is) would be through a force feedback system, shere the suit reads human movement and then reacts to it. Thus very little special training is required to use the powered suit, or exoskelton.
Robert A. Heinlein was also the guy that invented the water bed.
Yes, I got it wrong, but Gates is still a part owner. My room mate claims that the G in SKG was ment to be Gates, but he pulled out. I'm really not sure if that is true, and after my previous post, I should not be considered a good source untill i have had some more sleep.
Or it could be the fact that I am watching "I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here!" live.
I have been in an elevator where Weezer's Dope Nose was playing, and my elevtion-noughts (sorry, Mr. Bush has me all excited about space) were two members of the RCMP.
"Oh, and the encoding methods weren't exactly common knowledge. I was the only TNG cast member who read 2600 and TAP, if you get my drift."
Oh this is fantastic, I knew I was right! Back in Middle school, a teacher discovered my friends and I hacking around the school network (Full root, and Admin accounts at 12 years old, w00t!).
My teacher tried to use Star Trek as a moral argument, and said that starfleet officers would never hack into someones computer. I said that Ensign Crusher would, and he gave me a detention!
But only now, after learning that Mr. Crusher was reading the same issues of 2600 I was, do I know the full injustice done to me:)
For Dyslexics and people who have never used a computer before, a command line only interface is a MASSIVE hurdle. A GUI speeds up the time it takes a dyslexic to learn about computers by a factor of 10. A tactile user interface would IMHO speed up the learning (and normal human/computer interactions) by a factor of 1000.
For example I cannot spell, yet I'm asked to write the User Docs for my firms computer systems all the time. If I were in the land of Typewriters, I would probably not even have a job, let alone be asked to write for other people. So the GUI did for my computer interest, the same thing computers with spell check did to my Employability.
As a dyslexic, a TUI (Tactile User Interface) matched with a good 2D or 3D GUI is the Holy Grail.
In fact, a TUI would turn a 3D user interface into use full human/computer interaction method.
The Human brain is designed to work in a 3D space with tactile feedback. Anything else requires the brain to waste resources on "translator system" in order to use things like command line only interfaces. And for Dyslexics, everything is mucked up in "translation".
If computers had been command line only when I was in school, I would not have been interested in them and would not be doing what I am doing right now: Sitting in the office on Saturday night (I'm in London) Posting on Slashdot instead of ironing out the kinks these new computers that my firm just bought.
Wait...maybe GUI's are bad J:)
Re:I know how to win, with no changes to the mouse
on
The Oldest Mouse Contest
·
· Score: 1, Funny
" mouse A would actually be younger than you would naively expect."
I was expecting to have Mouse A circle the Sun for at least 5000 years.
My Back-up plan involves Mouse D, Klingon Ship E and Star Trek crew F...
Ok, I'll stop now.
(No Whales were harmed in the typing of this post)
I know how to win, with no changes to the mouse!
on
The Oldest Mouse Contest
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Bits List:
1x Mouse 1X Space Ship
Insturctions:
Insert mouse A into Space Ship B. Launch Space Ship B into orbit around the sun. Speed up space ship B to near the speed of light. Allow relitivity to do it's work. Bring space ship back to earth at desired point, and remove very old mouse A.
If the Major Lables start reacting to what the public is actualy listening to, instead of trying to convince people to buy a product thaey have produced.
The major problem with most music lables is that they have become manufacturers of music instead of distributers of music.
The RIAA at al. knows that P2P could become the next radio, and they know that p2p is not the real reason for bad music sales. But the RIAA is not really sueing people beceause of loss of sales, it's sueing beceause of loss of control over what people listen to. The RIAA loves radio for the very reason that they can control it (and actualy own it in some cases).
The RIAA/Lables can't "own" p2p or force it play what they want, so they choose to shut it down. I have always thought that the RIAA/lables have been more worried about loss of promotional/playlist control then profits.
Prior to P2P a label could promote the shit out of an artist/group with out them having to be any good, and still be SURE it was going to make a profit. Now the Major labels have to wait and see if the public actualy LIKES the music before it can make a profit.
As a foreigner (Canadian Living in the UK) I am very interested in your views on setting California's foreign policy. With the worlds 5th largest economy at your disposal, once you get elected, I would be very interested in seeing California's economic strength put to good use in steering US foreign policy.
It turns out that it's the Record Companies themselves. It's not loss of profit that the RIAA is worried about anyway, it's always been about loss of controll. If the RIAA can't force the public to think the artists it hand picks are cool, then they can't be sure of profits from manufactured bands.
It was ment to be part of the joke however, I've had people from the US attack my posts simply 'cus they thought I did not know which order dates "Always go in".
Hell, forget the internet, I've had Amercain tourists who thought I was kidding when when I told them that we used a diffrent date system in Canada. I have a hard time switching between the two myslef, and I'm greatfull if someone makes it clear which system they are using.
Case in point: School kids in Japan show up as dyslexic far less often, not because they have less dyslexia, but because their language is made up of pictures, not fractured bits of words we call letters.
Of course they have far more of a problem when it comes to designing keyboards:)
point 2: "How many times have you been looking at an app with a long toolbar full of icons (what UI designers call an "angry fruit salad") with absolutely no idea what 90% of them do?"
Shit loads of times! But how many times have you looked at the menus of a new Application and had no idea what they did?
In both cases I bet you and I do the same thing, we try 'em all, or we RTMF:) Both the text and the icons are just lables, they don't tell us everything, and they are not ment to. I perfer my lables in pictures, you like yours as text, fair enough.
Thank you for that link, it is a very good lecture! But, the article did not really challange what I said at all.
"a GUI-only interfaces is to a text-interface as film is to literature."
This implies that film is an inherently infearior medium, which I think is incorect.
And this is were you missed my point: "it cripples the linguistic abilities which most people love to practise."
I was aruging that it was my lack of written linguistic abilities which was the very reason I was pro GUI! Hence I don't love to practice them while trying to use my computer, I just want to use the computer.
And this just ticked me off: "It may feel easier to use at first, but the limitations are significant"
Are you stateing that Film is a far simpler medium, thus more easy to understand, or were you implying that a GUI is by defantion "easy and Simple"?
1. A picture is worth a 1000 words, and motion pictures run at 24fps:)
2. I never said a GUI should be more simple to use, I'm saying that a UI should not be ham-strung by being based on written language.
(And no, I did not spell check this one, now you see why I'm not a fan of the command line;)
"This whole mentality of using a "desktop environment" is one of the worst crutches the computing industry has been hobbled with."
I agreed with most of your post, but I'm, going to have to complain about this bit.
I think OS's should have even more time spent on making better GUI's, with as much written language removed from it as possible. Humans have fantastic abilities to process pure images (i.e. pure graphical UI's); it's when humans have to deal with written language (i.e. Text only UI) that you get hobbled.
I for one, would not be in the Job I am in, if it had not been for desktop GUI's. I'm Dyslexic, and as a result I had horrible troubles learning and using command line only interfaces. You see, my reading was not very good back then, I had to learn how to speed-read because my brain processes language in a completely different way to the average person. As for spelling, ha, try using a command line if you can't spell. Not only that, I can't even see most of my mistakes, even after going over a statement several times.
I was not really into computers till I got my hands on Apples and later Macs in school. Once I learned the concepts of basic computing from using desktop GUI's (which relied on my image processing skills, instead of my non-existent language skills) I was able to carry those skills over to command line interfaces. I'd prolly be Anti-Computer still if I had not been able to learn on a Desktop GUI.
It's not just people with "learning disabilities". I can sit down at a PC running Windows, or a Mac running OS X in a Spanish/French/Greek/Japanese Internet café, without being able to speak or read a word of any of those languages, and I can still surf the net.
I think a pure GUI, void of any written language is the Holy Grail of computing as far as I'm concerned. It would not matter what your native language was, you would be able sot sit down, and use the computer.
(For the record, I'm not "stuck with GUI's, I was able to become very proficient with command line interfaces in the end. I used BBS before the Internet was even available, and the first time I logged into the Internet was on a Commodore 64. And yes, I had to spell check this post)
"This contributes nothing to the world, it's a retarded waste of time"
All that timne Albert Einstein spent working on random, stupid math work while he worked at the swiss patent office contributed nothing to the world either.
This guy could create free, cheap energy systems that change the face of human society, but first he would need to put his brain into the thought Gym that is Lego.
I think this was a great exercise; at least he was not driving around shooting at people!
I mean, he took a common exercise (Building and designing Lego things is pretty common in western culture) and he added a set of restrictions (the Roman Alphabet, The Star Wars Universe). By denying himself total creative freedom, he forced his mind to solve actual problems, but in a very creative way.
This is what they should be teaching in schools! Creative problem soling is the key to intelligent thought. Hell, I'd seriously consider hiring someone for a job if I knew they were good at building and designing Lego.
I think Lego should be a Required Learning Tool in all classrooms, at all grade levels. Tons of University engineering programs use Lego as a teaching aid.
Slashdot Mirror
This was invented by Robert A. Heinlein in the book Starship Troopers!
Looks like Mr. Heinlein has done it again. He predicted more then a half century ago that the interface for a an exoskelton (which is what the powered armour in ST is) would be through a force feedback system, shere the suit reads human movement and then reacts to it. Thus very little special training is required to use the powered suit, or exoskelton.
Robert A. Heinlein was also the guy that invented the water bed.
You mean Win-screen of death, don't you?
Or it could be the fact that I am watching "I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here!" live.
Do you mean SKG Dreamworks? Or is it Dreamworks SKG?
Either way, the G in SKG stands for Gates, as in Bill Gates.
Do you really think that Steve Jobs is going to place the fate of Pixar's movies into the hands of Dark Helmet himself?
i have anal mights
How long do you think it will take the Dept. of Home Land Insecurity to declare HOPE a gathering of terrorists?
1) 2-4 Hours
2) 24-48 Hours
3) 1 Week
4) Sometime before the USA lands on Mars
5) As soon as Dubya has his mourning coffee
6) Time is a man made concept you insensitive clod!
I have been in an elevator where Weezer's Dope Nose was playing, and my elevtion-noughts (sorry, Mr. Bush has me all excited about space) were two members of the RCMP.
SHOOT US UP THE DEBIAN!!
Sorry, I had to say it....
*Sound od Karma burning*
"Oh, and the encoding methods weren't exactly common knowledge. I was the only TNG cast member who read 2600 and TAP, if you get my drift."
:)
Oh this is fantastic, I knew I was right! Back in Middle school, a teacher discovered my friends and I hacking around the school network (Full root, and Admin accounts at 12 years old, w00t!).
My teacher tried to use Star Trek as a moral argument, and said that starfleet officers would never hack into someones computer. I said that Ensign Crusher would, and he gave me a detention!
But only now, after learning that Mr. Crusher was reading the same issues of 2600 I was, do I know the full injustice done to me
This is perfect for Dyslexics!
And I should know, I am one.
For Dyslexics and people who have never used a computer before, a command line only interface is a MASSIVE hurdle. A GUI speeds up the time it takes a dyslexic to learn about computers by a factor of 10. A tactile user interface would IMHO speed up the learning (and normal human/computer interactions) by a factor of 1000.
For example I cannot spell, yet I'm asked to write the User Docs for my firms computer systems all the time. If I were in the land of Typewriters, I would probably not even have a job, let alone be asked to write for other people. So the GUI did for my computer interest, the same thing computers with spell check did to my Employability.
As a dyslexic, a TUI (Tactile User Interface) matched with a good 2D or 3D GUI is the Holy Grail.
In fact, a TUI would turn a 3D user interface into use full human/computer interaction method.
The Human brain is designed to work in a 3D space with tactile feedback. Anything else requires the brain to waste resources on "translator system" in order to use things like command line only interfaces. And for Dyslexics, everything is mucked up in "translation".
If computers had been command line only when I was in school, I would not have been interested in them and would not be doing what I am doing right now: Sitting in the office on Saturday night (I'm in London) Posting on Slashdot instead of ironing out the kinks these new computers that my firm just bought.
Wait...maybe GUI's are bad J:)
" mouse A would actually be younger than you would naively expect."
I was expecting to have Mouse A circle the Sun for at least 5000 years.
My Back-up plan involves Mouse D, Klingon Ship E and Star Trek crew F...
Ok, I'll stop now.
(No Whales were harmed in the typing of this post)
Bits List:
1x Mouse
1X Space Ship
Insturctions:
Insert mouse A into Space Ship B. Launch Space Ship B into orbit around the sun. Speed up space ship B to near the speed of light. Allow relitivity to do it's work. Bring space ship back to earth at desired point, and remove very old mouse A.
If the Major Lables start reacting to what the public is actualy listening to, instead of trying to convince people to buy a product thaey have produced.
The major problem with most music lables is that they have become manufacturers of music instead of distributers of music.
The RIAA at al. knows that P2P could become the next radio, and they know that p2p is not the real reason for bad music sales. But the RIAA is not really sueing people beceause of loss of sales, it's sueing beceause of loss of control over what people listen to. The RIAA loves radio for the very reason that they can control it (and actualy own it in some cases).
The RIAA/Lables can't "own" p2p or force it play what they want, so they choose to shut it down. I have always thought that the RIAA/lables have been more worried about loss of promotional/playlist control then profits.
Prior to P2P a label could promote the shit out of an artist/group with out them having to be any good, and still be SURE it was going to make a profit. Now the Major labels have to wait and see if the public actualy LIKES the music before it can make a profit.
As a foreigner (Canadian Living in the UK) I am very interested in your views on setting California's foreign policy. With the worlds 5th largest economy at your disposal, once you get elected, I would be very interested in seeing California's economic strength put to good use in steering US foreign policy.
Sounds more like The Department of Homeland in-security :)
Joking aside I find the US media's "fear hyping" to be outrageous.
"It could happen to you" Is a major catch phrase for the US media, and they are not talking about winning the lottery.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=3654 4&rel
.5 pence ;)
It turns out that it's the Record Companies themselves. It's not loss of profit that the RIAA is worried about anyway, it's always been about loss of controll. If the RIAA can't force the public to think the artists it hand picks are cool, then they can't be sure of profits from manufactured bands.
My
Soon we will see the RIAA lobbying for the use of Millitery space-based lasers in order to do the same thing.
Just think, you are just crossing the boarder with a few CDs and ZAP! A huge laser blast from orbit evaporates your CD collection!
It was ment to be part of the joke however, I've had people from the US attack my posts simply 'cus they thought I did not know which order dates "Always go in".
Hell, forget the internet, I've had Amercain tourists who thought I was kidding when when I told them that we used a diffrent date system in Canada. I have a hard time switching between the two myslef, and I'm greatfull if someone makes it clear which system they are using.
Whats your Pr0n IP address you ask, and how do you find it?
Much like your Pr0n name of course!
Instead of your street name and your mothers maiden name mixed together, you take your street address and your mothers date of birth!
for me:
Street address number: 221
Mothers DOB (fake, duh): 31/10/54 (Canadian/British date system)
So my Pr0n IP address would be:
221.31.10.54
Try it, it's fun for the whole family!
I agree with you, sort of, but two things:
:)
:) Both the text and the icons are just lables, they don't tell us everything, and they are not ment to. I perfer my lables in pictures, you like yours as text, fair enough.
Words don't have to be represented by letters.
Case in point: School kids in Japan show up as dyslexic far less often, not because they have less dyslexia, but because their language is made up of pictures, not fractured bits of words we call letters.
Of course they have far more of a problem when it comes to designing keyboards
point 2:
"How many times have you been looking at an app with a long toolbar full of icons (what UI designers call an "angry fruit salad") with absolutely no idea what 90% of them do?"
Shit loads of times! But how many times have you looked at the menus of a new Application and had no idea what they did?
In both cases I bet you and I do the same thing, we try 'em all, or we RTMF
Thank you for that link, it is a very good lecture! But, the article did not really challange what I said at all.
:)
;)
"a GUI-only interfaces is to a text-interface as film is to literature."
This implies that film is an inherently infearior medium, which I think is incorect.
And this is were you missed my point:
"it cripples the linguistic abilities which most people love to practise."
I was aruging that it was my lack of written linguistic abilities which was the very reason I was pro GUI! Hence I don't love to practice them while trying to use my computer, I just want to use the computer.
And this just ticked me off:
"It may feel easier to use at first, but the limitations are significant"
Are you stateing that Film is a far simpler medium, thus more easy to understand, or were you implying that a GUI is by defantion "easy and Simple"?
1. A picture is worth a 1000 words, and motion pictures run at 24fps
2. I never said a GUI should be more simple to use, I'm saying that a UI should not be ham-strung by being based on written language.
(And no, I did not spell check this one, now you see why I'm not a fan of the command line
"This whole mentality of using a "desktop environment" is one of the worst crutches the computing industry has been hobbled with."
I agreed with most of your post, but I'm, going to have to complain about this bit.
I think OS's should have even more time spent on making better GUI's, with as much written language removed from it as possible. Humans have fantastic abilities to process pure images (i.e. pure graphical UI's); it's when humans have to deal with written language (i.e. Text only UI) that you get hobbled.
I for one, would not be in the Job I am in, if it had not been for desktop GUI's. I'm Dyslexic, and as a result I had horrible troubles learning and using command line only interfaces. You see, my reading was not very good back then, I had to learn how to speed-read because my brain processes language in a completely different way to the average person. As for spelling, ha, try using a command line if you can't spell. Not only that, I can't even see most of my mistakes, even after going over a statement several times.
I was not really into computers till I got my hands on Apples and later Macs in school. Once I learned the concepts of basic computing from using desktop GUI's (which relied on my image processing skills, instead of my non-existent language skills) I was able to carry those skills over to command line interfaces. I'd prolly be Anti-Computer still if I had not been able to learn on a Desktop GUI.
It's not just people with "learning disabilities". I can sit down at a PC running Windows, or a Mac running OS X in a Spanish/French/Greek/Japanese Internet café, without being able to speak or read a word of any of those languages, and I can still surf the net.
I think a pure GUI, void of any written language is the Holy Grail of computing as far as I'm concerned. It would not matter what your native language was, you would be able sot sit down, and use the computer.
(For the record, I'm not "stuck with GUI's, I was able to become very proficient with command line interfaces in the end. I used BBS before the Internet was even available, and the first time I logged into the Internet was on a Commodore 64. And yes, I had to spell check this post)
"This contributes nothing to the world, it's a retarded waste of time" All that timne Albert Einstein spent working on random, stupid math work while he worked at the swiss patent office contributed nothing to the world either. This guy could create free, cheap energy systems that change the face of human society, but first he would need to put his brain into the thought Gym that is Lego.
I think this was a great exercise; at least he was not driving around shooting at people!
I mean, he took a common exercise (Building and designing Lego things is pretty common in western culture) and he added a set of restrictions (the Roman Alphabet, The Star Wars Universe). By denying himself total creative freedom, he forced his mind to solve actual problems, but in a very creative way.
This is what they should be teaching in schools! Creative problem soling is the key to intelligent thought. Hell, I'd seriously consider hiring someone for a job if I knew they were good at building and designing Lego.
I think Lego should be a Required Learning Tool in all classrooms, at all grade levels. Tons of University engineering programs use Lego as a teaching aid.
I mean a Hairy Artist who works in clay sure don't sound like a childrens story to me.
At least he uses open source web browsers...