Jim, I too enjoy this list. What diversitity of ideas are contained here.
>>I am a professional product designer, concentrating on things visual and >>aesthetic most of the time, but I am also a perpetual student as well. >>Design is a game of analogies, and the more you know and are exposed to, >>the better the end result will be. The sundial provides many oppourtunities for visual and design aesthetics. They are full of tradeoffs, functional looks, construction, and surviviability outdoors. I am a systems programmer and when I talk of aesthetics and elegance in software design, many of my co-worker have no idea what I mean or why I care. Are there any analogies that dials present to you? How does a designer take advantage of the language of sundials that was once a common part of everyday experience? That is, other than use it as a button on Internet Explorer to represent history. Have you read Donald A. Norman's "The Psychology of Everyday Things"? ++ron
