::scr Dressing up the computer

[celia romaniuk]

On Fri, 8 Mar 2002, Alex Robinson wrote:

> Simon et al:
> 
> > However every new interface that people have tried has always been some
> > variation on WIMP - Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointer.

Actually, it's 'WIndows Icons Menus Pulldowns'. Oh, hold on, it might well
be both:

<http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/definition.html?lookup=5787>

> I said it before and I'll say it again. BeOS style non-hierarchical 
> filing and transparent auto-versioning of documents are what computers 
> need,

Yay! 

I've been doing a lot of reading into taxonomies and controlleed
vocabularies for web site/intranet content. Basically it's a way of
organising content so that terms are associated, which leads to better
search results, better navigation (both within page and menu based) and
the ability to put richer metadata back into the system.

If anyone's interested, I've been reading this sample chapter and it's
very good.
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/sampchap/5516.asp#SampleChapter

Anyway, the type of manipulation that's possible in BeOS is almost like a
desktop OS implementation of similar ideas. In my brane anyway - which
says that in both cases you're give attributes to pieces of content and
then build the interface around that.

> (voice recognition)

When anyone mentions voice recognition, I remember sitting at the desk
next to Snorre one weekend just after MacOS9 (?) was released. He kept
saying, "My voice is ze passwoorrrrd" louder and louder in his outrageous
Norwegian accent :) No offence, Snorre, it's a genuinely fond memory.

Also on voice recognition: I've been using Wildfire over the last few
weeks (http://www.orange.co.uk/wildfire/) and I've decided I'm going to
turn it off. Basically, it takes longer to listen to my voice messages,
and I hate talking to it when there are other people around. 

"What's it say... next item... throw it away... goodbye Wildfire. No,
really goodbye Wilfire. Rack off."

Celia