They jes don't get it
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| notbob Jan 28, 2013 9:40 AM EDT |
Apparently, none of these titans/visonaries/morons of the computing industry have ever actually used a real computer for any length of time. I DON'T want a touch screen anything. Perhaps it's handy on a 3" smart phone or an ATM, but on a real computer it's slow, inefficient, and eventually, painfull. I sit 2-1/2 ft from my 23" flat screen. No way can I reach it to touch, even if I wanted to. But, why would I want to? There's absolutely no way I can touch a buncha spots on a large screen faster than I can negotiate a keyboard. And if I could, I'd be exhausted in no time. That nonsense of see-through touch screens as depicted in the Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, is ludicrous on the face of it. Ask any CAD droid. I used to be one, and in order to avoid further RMIs, I had my input devices down to fractions of an inch finger movements, not broad sweeping arm gestures. Heck, I don't even like reaching for my mouse, mere inches away! All these smart phones and tablets may be all the rage for young ppl, but that's cuz they still have good eyes. Wait till the hit 45-50 and hafta start reaching for their reading glasses. Eight inch screen, my @ss!! ;) |
| caitlyn Jan 28, 2013 11:36 AM EDT |
The other thing Microsoft doesn't get is that they can't strong-arm manufacturers the way they used to. Since ASUS proved that Linux netbooks would sell like hotcakes in 2008 or so manufacturers have made sure they aren't entirely subject to the will of Microsoft. Google has helped them do this with Android and CloudOS recently. I suspect that the more dictatorial Microsoft tries to be and the more they directly compete with hadware vendors the more difficulty they will have in imposing their will on the market. |
| dinotrac Jan 28, 2013 12:00 PM EDT |
@notbob -- Check this out: https://www.leapmotion.com/ Touchless touch. |
| gus3 Jan 28, 2013 12:50 PM EDT |
@caitlyn, don't forget "the longer Ballmer is in the captain's chair". |
| notbob Jan 28, 2013 1:57 PM EDT |
Sorry dino. No cigar. Jes how long do you think you can hold yer arm extended at full length? 8 hrs? 10? Ferget it! I had both arms and wrists fully supported, yet relaxed and unmoving at lap level. My left hand operated a one-handed keyboard moving only my fingers. My right hand moved a mouse from my supported wrist. The ratio and acceleration were set so high, full side-to-side cursor movement was about 3/8" at the mouse. This mouse had the lightest pressure micro switches and the highest resolution ball of any in mouse on the mkt. I rarely accessed my full keyboard. I did full engineering drawings never moving any phalange more than half an inch, max. I still use the same mouse, despite it being an ancient PS2. My keyboard now rests on my lap. Even though I'm somewhat prone to RMIs, I've avoided them for years using this relaxed posture. A split ergo keyboard helps immeasurably in avoiding having to cock my wrist to addess a straight keyboard around my beer belly. Using that leapy thingie, I'd be in traction within a week. Sure looks cool, though. ;) |
| dinotrac Jan 28, 2013 3:57 PM EDT |
@notbob what makes you think you have to hold your arms and hands in an awkward position? We're not talking about kinect games here. I've seen one of these little puppies, and they are truly amazing. |
| tracyanne Jan 28, 2013 4:53 PM EDT |
@dinotrac That would make a great controller for immersive games, especially if it has a resolution sufficient to detect finger movement. |
| dinotrac Jan 28, 2013 7:25 PM EDT |
@ta -- Hell yes, it has a resolution sufficient to detect finger movement. Not only that, but it can detect all ten fingers independently. Very slick little item. |
| tracyanne Jan 28, 2013 8:50 PM EDT |
And so as the witch of Angmar i can hold my hands out with my fingers pointed just so, while I make he incantation, and if my fingers are not pointed quite right, the incantation won't work. Sweet, the possibilities for games becomes quite exciting, and something much more than the current click the mouse button or game pad faster than your opponent. |
| dinotrac Jan 29, 2013 12:09 AM EDT |
@ta -- The one place where this device loses to the kinect is it's limited range. I don't think it can work it's impressive magic from across a room. |
| BernardSwiss Jan 29, 2013 12:50 AM EDT |
Someone posted this in a comment to the original article: Windows 8: The Animated Evaluation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo (It probably wouldn't hurt to make the Gnome Shell and Unity devs watch this as well.) |
| dinotrac Jan 29, 2013 10:59 AM EDT |
@bs: Heh. Like it. |
| notbob Jan 29, 2013 12:00 PM EDT |
bs > Windows 8: The Animated Evaluation Cute, but not even remotely surprising. That's what continually infuriated me during my Windows yrs. Having to relearn something I already knew. I remember when Word jumped from 2 to 6 and it took two of us Word savvy users 2 hrs to find where M$ had relocated the print preview command. M$ has done this for yrs, all through 3.1, w95, w98, NT, etc. We'd typically waste about 2 wks relearning everything we already knew cuz M$ would rename and relocate everything. Sure, I occasionally get bogged down with a new twist in Slackware, but it's usually only one or two minor niggles and it's a problem of finding the solution cuz it's new and as yet undocumented. Linux doesn't usually go out of its way to entirely remake the entire on-screen experience jes cuz they can. At least not until recently. I haven't used gnome since it was in beta, but I quit using kde in favor of fluxbox when they pulled that kinda nonsense with 4. I wonder what Boyko used to make that silly u2b vid. Is he an ex-carnival barker or auctioneer? ;) |
| tracyanne Jan 29, 2013 5:21 PM EDT |
Actually notbob, KDE 4 hasn't changed that much from KDE 3, in terms of usability. Yes 4.0 and many subsequent releases didn't have the basic functionality working properly, or at all, and yes I was one of those who screamed loudly. But to say that it is a huge change from KDE 3 is simply wrong. From 4.6 on (the point at which I went back to KDE) I have had a desktop experience that is the same or better than what I had with 3.5.10. The points of difference are either an improvement or non issues. |
| notbob Jan 29, 2013 6:23 PM EDT |
tracyanne wrote:Actually notbob, KDE 4 hasn't changed that much from KDE 3, in terms of usability. Perhaps it was the previous one. The one where they dropped quanta+. Anyway, I tossed it ....as a DE/WM! I still load and use most of the kde apps, I jes didn't like their DE/WM. They definitely started screwing with the "start" interface, despite it still being in the lower left corner. But all those background apps like strigi and cowabunga or whatever-the-hell that fired up even though I didn't initiate 'em, dragged the speed of my box into the dirt. FB gives me what "I" want, not what kde wants. That's what I meant to say. Another reason I love Slackware. Let's ME do it MY way. This is not a smear on other linux distros, but let's face it, Ubuntu really does want you to do it their way. I can still do it my way, jes gotta work even harder to do so. |
| caitlyn Jan 29, 2013 6:35 PM EDT |
Everything and anything in KDE can be disabled and you can run just whatever you want. Akonadi and nepomuk are disabled by lots of folks. Strigi isn't even part of KDE: it's DE agnostic. |
| tracyanne Jan 29, 2013 7:48 PM EDT |
@notbob strigi and cowabunga whatever in the hell are those I've never seen those in my list of running processe. I can't see where you got those from. As Caitlyn says everything in KDE is configurable. Don't like it,turn it off. As far as the new Panel is concerned, it's one of thise non issues different is all. It's 6 to one half a dozen the other. |
| notbob Jan 30, 2013 11:12 AM EDT |
tracyanne wrote:@notbob strigi and cowabunga whatever in the hell are those I've never seen those in my list of running processe. Well they certainly do. Maybe not stringie, but creepomuck and Icantaddy (thnx, caitlyn) certainly do start up and run, and at huge cost on an older system. I'm a geezer on fixed income and can't afford to keep upgrading to bleeding edge multi-core mega-ram hardware that laughs at all these useless-to-me processes. I compensate for my slower h/w by turning off processes for which I have no need. It wasn't jes these two things, either. KDE is going down that development for development's sake road. Auto-scrolling menus, enhanced graphics, and other eye-candy nonsense. More load, more drain. So, I simply switched to fluxbox. None of those processes even init in FB. And, zero graphics bloat. Yet I still load all of the kde pkg and use its great apps like konsole, gwenview, and ocular, as needed. I even discovered krita, but documentation is so lacking, still learning how to fly it. I'm not sure if it's the creators of FB or Pat V, but all Slack's FB options already include kde's apps in its menus. Way cool! But, I usually create quicker keyboard shortcuts to call up my faves. I'm weird. I have no need of multi-windows with see-through screens, brilliant wallpapers, and spinning cubes, etc. I look at one maxed window at a time and that's all I see. I could have the most gorgeous wallpaper on the planet and I'd never see it. I haven't had a icon on my desktop since w2k put some there. When my screen saver kicks in, it goes black. No pipes or flying penguins. I'm a minimalist on a computer. If I need to see another screen, my alt-tab phalanges are positively Schwarzeneggerish. Reaching for my mouse is an annoyance rather than an option. As you say, "It's 6 to one half a dozen the other." I'm that weird "other". ;) |
| caitlyn Jan 30, 2013 2:41 PM EDT |
Well... with akonadi and nepomuk disabled KDE runs very nicely indeed on my netbook with 2GB of RAM and an Intel Atom N270 processor. That isn't exactly a powerhouse. I wouldn't dismiss the concept of a social semantic desktop out of hand, nor would I dismiss the idea of taking PIM information and putting it into a database. Nepomuk and akonadi are conceptually good pieces of software. Having a locally resident search daemon like strigi may actually speed things up depending on your use case. Whether or not you need or use these tools is entirely a matter of how you use your computer. I think the fact that they are offered is a good thing. I think the fact that you can turn them all off for older equipment is also a very good thing. I freely admit that I like KDE nowadays. I like what the KDE developers are doing and you don't and that's all good. The nice thing about Linux is that we have lots of choices. Nobody is going to think any the less of you for running Fluxbox or even a more minimal desktop. I still really like Xfce, FWIW. |
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