Whats wrong with a Touch Screen interface?
Maybe its just me, but I feel a LOT more productive with a touch screen interface. I just came across this post, which highlighted numerous problems with touchscreen interfaces (a la iPhone) namely:
"Some of his problems with touchscreens include: sun glare (MacBook users are already intimate with this one), grease, lack of one-handed operation and the potential for trapped dirt."
I agree with most of the highlighted problems, they indeed do cause a nuisance, however one claim which I just can't agree is that touchscreen interfaces are 'slower' at writing text than regular keyboard interfaces. I dont believe that's true at all. Touchscreen interfaces are just so much more productive. I use a Motorola e680i, which features a touchscreen interface and has no keyboard. I can write on it a lot quicker than on a regular cellphone, additionally its word prediction technology is a great time saver, theoretically in a touch screen interface you can type as fast as you can move your finger. I think there will be many problems with the iPhone's touchscreen interface, but typing is not going to be it!
Slashdot learns from Digg!
It seems that Slashdot.org, has introduced a Digg/reddit type moderation system where the users vote up or down some story, which may eventually aid the moderators in approving them to the system.
Officially dubbed as "Firehose", it says:
"The Slashdot Firehose is a collaborative system designed to allow users to assist our editors in the story selection process. Try tagging and voting on the entries below, and by using the 'feedback' menu by each entry. The hose can contain submissions, RSS Feeds, bookmarks, journal entries and Slashdot stories. "
Slashdot, once the feared for its 'slashdot effect', has been tamed since the introduction of Digg, compare the alexa rankings of the three sites, digg, slashdot and reddit. Firehose may be an attempt to take its once coveted position back by opening up its moderation system.
Pruning categories
I realized today that there are many categories some of my posts have covered, however all these categories listed there blur the purpose of the blog: Which is to provide commentary on some of the technological changes coming to Software and IT in general, with a focus on Open Source and Web Technologies. Hence I will eliminate extraneous categories and put them under the category "misc".
Google Reader Hacks
Google Reader is one of my favorite feed aggregators. Its the first thing I check after checking my mail every morning, and every evening.Over time I've come to love its keyboard shortcuts which really make browsing feeds so much easier and less time consuming, so in this post I will share my top Google Reader hacks:
- Feed Item browsing shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts J and K, can be used to browse feed items, while viewing a feed, you can tag it by pressing T, and by pressing V you can view the original item in a popup, S is for staring and shift-S for sharing. Another highly useful keyboard shortcut is U, with which you can view feed items in full screen mode.
2. Browsing Feed Subscriptions
This is my favorite part, you can use old school keyboard shortcuts like shift-p/n to move to the next or previous subscription, however, I have some favorite feeds which I always read first, hence manually traversing is a time-consuming operation. However Google Reader has something to offer here aswell: By pressing 'g followed by u' you can see all your subscriptions in a popup panel, this popup panel implements a incremental search feature, which is extremely time saving when looking for a specific feed.
The full list
After pressing W we get this:
I haven't covered all of Google Reader's shortcuts exhaustively, you can view them by pressing '?'.
What Makes Robot Cars tick?
Coming against the backdrop of the news that Stanford university's robot car had passed a driving test for the upcoming DARPA Urban Challenge, many people would be wondering what's making these robot cars tick? Here is a Google Tech Talk from last year which explains the basic technologies in an entertaining manner. Surely they must have upgraded a little this year, however I do not think that most of the mentioned technologies have been superceded.[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8594517128412883394&pr=goog-sl]
Has Leopard been a dissapointment?
[digg=http://digg.com/apple/Has_Leopard_been_a_dissappointment]
I tried MacOSX 10.4 out recently, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience: a strong GUI with a strong shell! I was anxiously awaiting what MacOSX 10.5 will have to offer. Apple then finally unveiled MacOSX 10.5 in the WWDC. And by all accounts what I've been reading its release had been a disappointment.
There are 2 things to the build up of the unveiling that made me excited about Leopard:
1, First was the inclusion of ZFS, if you have ever come across ZFS you would know what a powerful filesystem it is. ZFS creates partitions and formats drives in a snap, it is ultra scalable and ensure file system and data integrity. Clones of ZFS filesystems can be created with the blink of an eye. However Leopard did not come with ZFS at all, although people claimed it to be the OS's 'secret weapon'!
2, Built in virtualization was a highly desired feature! This certainly would have been a killer feature! If MacOSX 10.5 ever would take on the Windows World, without built in virtualization it would have no chance. Sure there is Parrallels, and VMware Fusion etc, but having native virtualization within the platform would have compelled many people to switch
Other eye candy features do not interest me, many people are comparing Leopard with Vista, and have determined that it is offering nothing new. I'll end this post with a few excerpts from different places from the internet:
From Web Worker Daily:
"Mail and iCal are still the biggest web worker disappointments from Apple. So much potential not fully realized. We live and die by our email, and Apple somehow thinks we spend our day designing postcards of our last vacation to send to Grandma? Serious web workers are probably going to stick to Thunderbird or Gmail. The improvements to these productivity apps are so superficial in Leopard, they weren’t even worth mentioning in today’s presentation."
From Softpedia:
"What does Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard have that Windows Vista doesn't? The answer is nothing... On the Apple official website, the Cupertino-based company makes an irresistible invitation: "Leopard. Conquer Time and Space." Right... Conquer time and space so that in October you will be able to return all the way to Windows Vista, released by Microsoft in January 2007 for the general public. In its quest to advance the world's most advanced operating system and to master both the dimensions of time and space, Apple has built a replica of Windows Vista"
Google Gears the first offline web application toolkit?
One thing I hate that the IT Industry is that when someone releases a piece of technology that is completely revolutionary, and no one takes stock, however when some company with a lot of clout in the industry such as Google or Apple release, everyone think that they rock!
From my RSS feeds I stumbled across this article in ZDnet "Can Microsoft change "gears" for the sea-change ahead?". The title was attractive so I started reading it, however early on in the article I came across this:
"During that time, I have drawn attention to the work being done with JavaDB and Derby as examples of how the offline problem might get solved. But, ultimately, I have routinely said that when the problem gets solved, it will get solved by Google. Last week, with Google's announcement of Google Gears, that day came."
Once I read this I stopped reading why? Because Google Gears is NOT the first offline web application toolkit. The first on to my knowledge is Dojo Offline. Dojo is a popular AJAX framework, and Dojo Offline extends basic Dojo's capabilities by allowing Dojo applications to be used while you're offline.
Another related news, is the launch of the Apple iPhone. I've seen Blogs dubbing it as revolutionary because it has a pure touchscreen interface etc. But is it the first smart phone with a pure touch screen interface? Certainly not! I've been using the Motorola e680i since 1 year, and it was released in 2005, and it too has full touchscreen interface with minimal buttons and no keyboard. Surely it would be an improvement over those Palm Treo and Motorola Q type devices with mini keyboards, but the iPhone is not as revolutionary as people think.
So why is it that the IT industry does not recognize achievement and give credit where it's due?
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