On Jun 27, 2005, at 2:40 AM, Kurt Buff wrote:
Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Nikolas
Britton
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 8:10 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: freebsd as the basis for something better?
a project where real unix would meet real life, or where open
source would meet open minds -- would have to make unix more human-
oriented rather than machine-oriented. and in addition to bringing
order to the chaos that was laid as the foundation for all unix
variants decades ago, it should also deal with new ways of
interacting with unix visually. for instance, in ways more
convenient than x, and its conventional graphical user interfaces
(though these won't go away any time soon).
UNIX is user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are.
New gui tools are needed. lets bring the CLI tools to the GUI, like
pipes, redirects, etc. some of apples ideas are nice aka NeXTSTEP.
Why
are we trying to emulate windows when mircosoft just steals it's
idea's from apple? lets cut the middle man out. BeOS was cool too.
Ahhhh!!!!!
Why are you guys still beating the GUI interface? That is so 70's
computing technology. The real next generation OS will be
voice command. Until then it's just more Window dressing. It's
like the Emperor's new clothes - the little boy said "Computer
please get me a drink of water" and the crowd was amazed when
the $64,000 OS stacked to the ceiling with GUI just sat there
lifeless and dumb.
Ted
Must seriously disagree. Voice command is of very limited use - it's
not
private, and difficult to use in crowded surroundings.
Further, if you consider the space in the human brain for visual
processing vs. aural processing, I think you'll find that visual
processing wins. At least for feedback, the human visual system is much
better.
However, the best interface for human input to machines is, IMHO, still
to be determined. I don't claim that the keyboard/mouse interface is
best, but it is, again IMHO, superior to voice command. What would be
better than keyboard/mouse? I really don't know. One SWAG would be
reading brainwaves, or perhap eyeball gestures - but that's just sheer
speculation.
Bah...
The ultimate interface is one where you sit at a table and the whole
table surface is a tactile interface to a computer, three
dimensionally. File system navigation? The table acts like a 3D
version of FSV (ever run that program? It's kind of limited and
dated...could use a small overhaul...still a nice one for quickly
looking at what is hogging up space in my home directory though at a
glance). The table will dance with cubes and pyramids as I just "touch
and drag" a cube representing a file I'm copying to another location on
the table. Then tap it a couple times to open it...and a "monitor"
grows from the table to display the contents. A rubbery keyboard also
grows from the tabletop as well. Ow...wrists kind of sore from typing
too long...tap a "customize" panel and then draw your finger through
the middle of the tactile keyboard, and it splits as if cut by an
invisible blade on my finger. Then grasp each half of the keyboard,
pull it apart about six inches, and raise the interior pointing side of
the keyboard halves about an inch up, angling the keys...instant
"ergonomic" keyboard.
When I'm done, you just tell the computer to log you out...the table
then settles back into a flat matte surface and activates a "table
saver" of gradually pulsating multicolor ripples as if looking a velvet
pond while playing some light acoustic music, waiting for the next user
to log in.
That would be an interesting interface...
And would we really want eyeball gestures? I mean, it's hard enough to
deny what we're looking at on the ads and displays to our significant
others without the pointer giving us away. :-)
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
