The shape of computers to come

Chris Norton, June 22nd 2006, 2:18PM

An article on Slashdot about some graphics-pen based desktop software called 'BumpTop' started me thinking again about interface design (see 'Welcome to Userville'). But then my thinking started to run 'well I wrote that post about software design, better think of something else'. I had to think outside the box - literally.

Because outside the software-displaying boundaries of the computer screen is the computer itself. What does it consist of? Typically a screen, a keyboard, a mouse and a box of tricks with a medusa-head of wires popping out the back. Tech types will tend to view the box of tricks under the desk as the computer itself, and its attendant attachments merely tools plugged into the computer. Non-technical types will often refer to the screen as being the computer - after all, that's where everything happens.

Well I think the whole caboodle needs to be present before you call it a personal computer, and it strikes me that this bitty existence is a bit strange, a bit... underdeveloped. OK, so you have immense power through the ability to get a fancy mouse or a massive screen, but as personal computers continue to move into being consumer items, for heaven's sake the last thing consumers need is complexity. A bit of choice is good, yeah, but if people are going to buy a PC and not change anything, why have a separate monitor and keyboard and mouse and all that?

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of those Apple style combo-computers, where the monitor and main box become as one - and not just because Apple set fashion and are thus copied left right and center. Once those linking wires are got rid of, perhaps we could have some kind of holographic keyboards, and control the pointer by just wiggling our fingers on the desk? Look, we're already partway there.

Tags: control, design, desktop, interface, pcs
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Control lies where on the Internet?

Jonathan Bowers, June 12th 2006, 10:56AM

In a radio interview last week, Lawrence Jones was asked to explain what an Internet Service Provider does. Following Lawrence's answer, Phil Wood, the host said - "so you basically run the Internet" and Lawrence's response was "I guess so, personally we just have a small chunk of it."

And in one sense this is true - any ISP can pull out a few cables and disconnect people from the Internet, or do a few lines of code and block a network of people from seeing a range of websites.

Today questions abound about who controls the Internet. Google has only just been reinstated in China after a couple of weeks of conflict with the Government and the Net Neutrality bill has taken a step backwards in the U.S.

What will happen if companies are allowed to create tiers of performance on the Net? Why is the U.S. debating this issue without involving the whole Net community? Should Google and other Internet giants retreat from China or submit to sensorship issues?

I think the global industry is beginning to face its widest challenges to date. Where does the real power lie - is it with the Internet corporates, the ISP's, the governments or somewhere else entirely? And how do we bring all these sectors together to bring an outcome that is most beneficial to the user in front of their computer/mobile/blackberry/satelite TV?

Tags: control, global_community, net_neutrality
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Four good things

Chris Norton, June 2nd 2006, 2:27PM

It's Friday, it's sunny, and in between bouts of selectitis I'm writing the UKFast blog. What could be better? Now I realise that most of the time here, I'm either attacking or generally moaning about all sorts of technical things. Not today! Today I shall speak of some of the wonderfulness of modern computers.

Good thing one: Loading speed. Back in the old days, I had to wait for about ten years to load up Paradroid on my Commodore 64. Now everything loads up super quick, and there's no time to make a cup of tea whilst your PC boots up and loads everything you need. Which is good, because I hate tea. On the other hand, I'm not really allowed to play Paradroid at work. So it goes: for every reaction, an equal and opposite reaction.

Good thing two: Optical mouses. Yes, the plural of computer mouse is computer mouses. At least I think it is... to be honest I don't want to check that, because then I'll know what an idiot I sounded like every time I referred to mouses. Optical mouses are great because you never have to pop out the ball and clean off all the dirt from the rollers, and because they make a cool-looking red glow and at a push can be used to temporarily blind unexpected assailants.

Good thing three: Flat screens. When oh when will Daz learn that cathode ray tubes belong back in the fifties with all the black and white people? Flat screens are great because they provide extra space on your desk, which you can utilise to store your Fruit Corners, plastic meerkats and Etch-a-Sketch pens.

Good thing four: Internetification. This has got to be the best thing. Now that broadband means that we no longer need to endure 'loading Paradroid on your Commodore 64' style delays in accessing the web, we can look up anything just like that. In fact, asking non-work-related questions of your colleagues is almost obsolete. Soon we won't have to talk to each other at all, we'll just glare and shine the light from our mouses in each other's eyes. Progress!

Tags: control, flatscreens, internet, mouses
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Welcome to Userville

Chris Norton, May 16th 2006, 5:45PM

Working in IT is only marginally less stressful than working at CTU, a recent poll suggests. Well colour me surprised - bet if you did a similar poll of carribean beach-bar barmen they'd be moaning about the hazards of falling coconuts, and you'd probably find toy testers losing sleep over the incorrect rendering of Barbie's eyebrows.

A good deal of this terrible stress is brought upon us IT types by the dreaded Users. As someone said in the poll - 'I spend most of my day fielding calls from people who don't even have a basic knowledge of computers and printers. It is amazing the amount of time I spend teaching people where the on-off button is.' Well whenever I hear this kind of thing, I'm on the user's side, because computers are the most ridiculously designed things in the world (aside from that new rendering of Barbie's eyebrows, of course).

I used to work in a public library and had to help people who'd never used PCs get on the internet. Why do you have to double click those icons to start 'the internet', then only single click everything else? What recycled products does the recycle bin churn out? Why can't I turn it on and off as I please, instead of waiting for all sorts of odd stuff to happen? Who is that paperclip and what does he want from me?

Us lot have been using these interfaces that are completely unrelated to real life for years, but most normal people haven't, and are not interested in tinkering and learning about them like we are. We shouldn't moan about them, we should moan about the design of these systems in the first place. I should be able to talk to this thing as if I was Captain Picard by now, instead of tapping away like someone in a typing pool in the thirties.

Computer, end blog!

Tags: browsing, control, pcs, users
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The national world wide web

Jonathan Bowers, March 22nd 2006, 11:54AM

A quick glance at the news this week in the online world throws up questions about the Net's world wide status. France is voting on the threat of an iTunes monopoly, China is reconsidering its online gaming quotients and the EU is still pressurising Microsoft to open up to its rivals.

What happens when a international tools collide with national beliefs? How important is the ‘open’ nature of the Net?

From a viewpoint in the UK, the Internet is also evolving at different rates geographically. Perceptions of the web’s potential in the US led to an embracing of blogging, podcasting, VoIP in the business sector. Europe and the rest of the world are still dipping their toes in. What price will we pay for being hesitant?

Tags: control, webleaders, worldwideweb
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