Archive for November, 2005

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Apple’s New Laptop

Nov 05
26

In the next few months most people expect that Apple will unveil a new laptop built on an Intel x86 platform. But what many analysts may not be expecting is the enormous response that this new laptop will get from the development community.

Within a week of the release of the new Intel based Apple notebook someone will figure out how to install Windows and Linux onto this device. It will be for the first time a true cross platform development machine. Graphic designers, application developers and consumers will swarm to get one.

Why? This will be the first no compromise laptop that will have the styling that has made apple famous and with support for Windows applications. Today many people hedge from making the jump to Apple because they may loose some application or game that’s not available. But now you can have it all and the slightly higher price of an Apple may now feel justified as you’re getting more then you would with any other laptop.

I expect the success of this laptop to rival the iPod.

Posted in Apple, Prediction | No Comments »

Permission Denied – Dead end UI

Nov 05
25

Anyone who has ever tried to share a computer file between two computers has probably seem the ‘permission denied’ dialog. This is what I call a ‘dead-end-dialog.’ The dialog informs you of a problem but doesn’t help you solve it.

“xyz is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.”

OK so as a user who exactly am I supposed to contact? I may not know who the system administrator is, and even if I do… The system administrator claims that I do have access permissions. So where is the disconnect? The dialog is a dead-end because the user doesn’t know where to go and neither does the administrator. Even if ‘everybody’ is given permissions that doesn’t mean it will work.

In security UI design there is a common mistake that is made. The belief is that keeping ‘bad’ people out is more important then anything. In fact many designs take this so far that they don’t design for the opposite case. You need to make sure that the ‘good’ people can actually get in. The dialog is a dead-end because it doesn’t provide a mechanism to request permissions.

Web 1.0 security- Setup groups, permissions, security and settings so that the right people have access. If they get denied they are out of luck or they have to contact the admin to fix the problem.

Web 2.0 security – People request permissions for the resources that they need right from the UI. As people make requests administrators approve/deny requests and the groups and settings are built automatically. The admin doesn’t have to hunt for the right place or the right setting, they don’t have to worry about allow/deny groups and ultimately they can setup auto-rules for certain resources.

Posted in User Interface, Windows | No Comments »

Linux Distributions

Nov 05
20

After being warmly received by the Slashdot community on my Linux article ;) I did some legwork to install some additional distributions.

  • Why does my choice of distribution determine my hardware compatibility?
  • Why do I have to download 5 CD’s if the install only uses 2?
  • Why are there so many distributions that are seemingly identical except for the logo?
  • Why do I have to burn a CD at all? It is possible to install an OS without a CD. Physical media is so 1990.
  • If you type “Install Linux” into Google. The first 20 or so pages are unhelpful and likely to scare users away. Compare this to the results when you type “Install Firefox” into Google.
  • Why do I have to choose between so many platform choices? AXP, SPARC, PPC, etc. The server can tell I’m running IE 6 on Windows XP. Just give me the obvious choice.
  • Most sites assume I know what a Torrent is. Several clicks estimate 2 days to download the 3gb download using Torrent. Very few tell me where I can get torrent software.
  • I have yet to see a distribution that packages up my email settings, IM settings, browser settings and hardware configuration to ensure that my transition to Linux is smooth from Windows.
  • Several installations kick me into a login screen with no user name and password. I’m supposed to know that the password is ‘root’. I guess I didn’t get the memo.
  • Most distributions don’t separate the idea of software and platform. This is really surprising since many people in the Linux community came down hard on Microsoft for bundling IE and Media Player. Many distributions bundle everything. I haven’t decided if this is a good or a bad thing.
  • The Linux software world seems to be ‘free.’ While this is great for the end user who likes free things it’s hard to convince developers to write software for a platform where the users have an expectation of everything being free. I haven’t found any obvious Linux shareware sites or resources for Linux sharware authors.
  • Why isn’t WINE part of most distributions? This seems like an obviously useful tool that would ease migration and provide specialized applications that aren’t found on Linux.
  • Overall many applications feel rough and un-polished. This may be partly because I’m not used to them but OpenOffice, Gimp, Gaim and others don’t feel like refined polished applications. In the words of Tyler Dyrden … Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. The applications just look dull, muted and faded. There is no ‘new car smell.’
  • Multiple desktops – A nice concept but should probably be turned off by default. It’s too easy to loose your stuff and not know where to find it again.
  • Accessibility is really bad. I can’t believe that the windows keyboard button doesn’t open the primary application menu in either KDE or Gnome by default. This was really surprising. I assume that most advanced computers users are far more productive with a keyboard then with a mouse. In windows I have keyboard shortcuts, tab, ctrl+tab, shift+tab for every single feature. In Linux I can’t even launch an application. This button is printed on every keyboard so even though it has a picture of a windows flag there is no reason not to use it. (Draw a little penguine in white-out if it makes you feel better.)
  • Both KDE and Gnome seem similar enough on the surface to warrant a unification effort. Each has it’s pros and cons but since both offer a fair amount of customization the idea of having both and encouraging users to choose seems misguided.
  • I couldn’t figure out the namespace. It seems that in some builds my CD rom is in one location and in others it’s in a totally different place. There’s no global ‘network browser’ but in some areas I can get to a network folder list. Weird. What’s even stranger is that the guts of the OS are there to see in all their glory. /bin /etc /mnt. This is about as bad as C:\ System32 documents and settings. I understand these files need to be somewhere but most users shouldn’t ever see them. That pesky ‘soft barricade’ screen in windows that says you shouldn’t mess with certain folders actually helps keep beginers out of trouble. On Linux it’s the wild west and if you screw something up, good luck.

Some gems

  • Tagging files with emblems in Gnome is a cool concept and reminds me of some of the tagging concepts in Flickr and del.icio.us. This could be taken a lot further and made easier.
  • I like that some distributions are collecting information about my hardware to better the development of further hardware compatibility. Very web 2.0.
  • My original statement about sometimes having to tar/gz/make to install an application still holds true but overall package managers have come a long way and the ability to auto-update all your installed applications is really something special.
  • I like the task centric start menu. Instead of ordering things by program group or distributor as in Windows many distributions are using a ‘task centric’ categorization for start menu items. Games, Developer Tools, Photo and Graphic Editing , etc. I’m not certain this will scale well to thousands of nitch categories but the high level idea is a good one.
  • Draggable maximized window – This is a nice feature I discovered that you could drag a maximized window and it would ‘restore’ itself and allow you to continue dragging. It’s subtle trick but a nice touch.
  • LiveCD distributions that actually boot everything and let you ‘kick the tires’ are an interesting concept. Too bad that once loaded the OS couldn’t detect a hard drive to actually install the software.

More thoughts to come as I continue to explore.

Posted in Linux | No Comments »

Web Mashups – data hyperlinking

Nov 05
18

The buzz-word of the week is “mash-ups.” The first time I heard this term was in reference to music mash-ups where someone takes two or more popular songs and spins them together to create a Frankenstein mix.
“Love in an elevator” + “Yellow Submarine” = “Love in a yellow submarine”
…Or something like it. The actual music is much better and there are some real gems.

The second type of mash-up has been the Web 2.0 type of mash up where someone takes two websites that provide API’s and brings them together to provide a website mix of both worlds. The most common example of this is HousingMaps.com that combines CraigsList and Google Maps.

Why is this exciting? It’s now possible for anyone to stand on the shoulders of giants. If you have a great idea you can build it and you don’t have to reinvent the common infrastructure of eBay, amazon, Google or others. You can use their infrastructure and in turn make their product better as well.

Why data hyperlinking? So far a hyperlink has been just a pointer to a different place where the information exists. The new hyperlinking is actually pulling down the information and integrating it with your own concepts. Mash-ups also represent a fairly non-restricted use of the the new style of hyperlinking. Similar to normal links you currently don’t have to ask permission, sign an agreement, consult a lawyer to use these new links. You design and create your own vision and use data hyperlinks as you need them.

It’s possible even perhaps likely that some mash ups (music) will be attacked by certain lawyers but for now it’s the wild west. From the website standpoint it looks like web-mashups and data hyperlinks are here to stay

Posted in HTML/CSS | No Comments »

Electronics should be silent

Nov 05
17

I’m sick of the buzzing, whining, humming and clicking of electronics.

Computers have for years differentiated themselves by performance metrics. More memory, larger hard drive, faster processor. Computers are now reaching the point where memory and processor speed are no longer a differentiating factor.

The top things people do with their computers… Surf the web, check email, write a document, and play a game. Unless you’re playing a very new 3D game the computers made last year are about as good as the ones that will be made next year. The next frontier is the sound barrier.

Or perhaps the lack of sound barrier. Hard drives whiz as they start up and they click as they access data. Fans whirr and whine as they blow air over hot computer parts. Computers that are quite will begin to set themselves apart.

Instead of looking for higher MHz we will soon be looking for computers with lower dB levels.

Posted in Misc. | No Comments »

Google Money

Nov 05
15

OK my post about Google Base was only three days before they officially launched so here’s a prediction that’s a little farther out…

Google Wallet or perhaps Google Money. Lookout paypal because I believe that Google may be looking at changing not only how we find things on the web but how we pay for them as well. Google Base or “First Base” as it’s being called allows people to post arbitrary data on the Google base website. This can be collections, photos, text, descriptions, products, etc.

Second base is likely the ability to pay for these things and advertise for them. Remember that even though Google is a search engine it’s business is driven through ads. What’s the best way to increase those sales? Flip the ebay/paypal/amazon model around. Allow individuals to post and sell items at little cost then charge a small fee to advertise the item.

I expect something similar to paypal but far more open in it’s design. I’m guessing something in 6-8 months. We’ll see how this prediction holds up.

Posted in Google, Prediction | No Comments »

Web Keyboard Accessibility

Nov 05
12

Accessibility for applications has been used for over 10 years to help users quickly navigate. When you hit the ALT key the menus light up and you can tell the access keys by the underlines on the letters:

File Edit View Bookmarks Tools Help

Seeing an underline isn’t easy but it’s possible. But in a web application discoverability of access keys is almost impossible.

Did you know you can use the key “Alt+T” to put focus on one of these buttons?

But even if you know one access key it’s unlikely to help you on another website because there is no standard. To aid in discoverability the web browser could display useful tips when the users hold down the ALT key.

Sample Access Key Image

As web based applications continue to advance the need for accessibility will continue to grow. With dynamic AJAX applications that incorporate drag and drop there is also a need for more advanced access keys that include descriptions of accessibility roles and access keys that go beyond a simple ALT key combination.

Posted in Browsers, HTML/CSS | No Comments »

All your Google data base are belong to us

Nov 05
12

The value of Google increases as more information is placed on the internet. The larger the internet space the more important it is to have a great search engine. But lately more and more data is trapped in databases.

This is where Google Base comes in. The little heard about project at Google is going to be a big deal. Google Base appears to be a global database project. It has the potential to organize and link vast amounts of data in a way that has never been done before.

A little background on databases… A database can be thought of as a simple table of data, it can have multiple rows and columns and in each cell of the table is some data. This is similar to excel and similar spreadsheet programs. The thing that makes databases more powerfully is that you can create relationships between different tables. For example one person may have a table of music and another person may have a table of top selling hits. A database can link those two tables together to tell you what music was also a top selling hit. In theory you can relate many types of data to each other to allow people to discover new things about the data that already exists.

So what is Google Base? It looks like it may be a general purpose database that could house any type of information at all. This is interesting from a technology standpoint but what’s also likely is that Google will provide an API to this technology. An API is a way for programs to talk to each other. In particular it could be a way for programs to access a world of knowledge. It would also likely allow programs to add to the database. So instead of storing your data in your own little database you could export it to Google Base and create connections to other data.

If this is really what’s about to happen it’s going to be a very exciting. The internet has been all about pages but this could easily change. Instead of pages you could create a web of data.

Instead of surfing from one web page to another you could surf from one data set to another. Look up yourself in the people table, then link over to see the average salary of people your age. From there see what jobs make up your generation. Every data set will contains links. These links bring you to other data sets that can also be linked, filtered and analyzed.

Initially the tool will likely be more technical but over time it will allow Google users to analyze data like a seasoned professional. It may even border on Artificial intelligence in its ability to properly link data together to produce data results.

Get ready to surf the data-net.

Posted in Google, Prediction | No Comments »

Productivity tip- check email less often

Nov 05
11

Email notification is a sweet seducer of your time. You’ve got mail! It’s exciting, someone cares enough to write something to you. The sound of the new message, the pop-up notification begs you to stop what you’re doing and read it!

I think that email is to some degree addictive. Each message is a bit of mental sugar, a little nicotine of digital satisfaction. I have found myself checking email all the time. This could even be made worse by programs that check automatically for you.  I’m guilty of writing one. Doh!

Want to really increase your productivity? It’s simple. Set your email checkers, outlook, blackberries, etc. To check for mail only once every 1/2 hour or even once every hour if you’re brave. Less checking means less distractions. Less distractions means longer stretches with more productivity.

  • Less checking cuts down on quick back and forth messages. Email isn’t a great tool for an “instant messenger” conversations. Use a phone or meet in person to discuss. Horror!
  • You may find that smaller issues get resolved on their own.
  • If several people have replied before you it gives you the opportunity to have the last word. This also means you are more likely to be in a role where you can break a tie in the direction you want.

Posted in Email | No Comments »

Speed Bumps for my Mouse

Nov 05
8

There is a general principal of software interaction called “Fitts Law” briefly stated this says that things that are far from the mouse are hard to click and things that are small are also hard to click. It also goes on to say that the corners and edges of the screen are easy to click because they are artificially large. This is because as you move your mouse against the borders of the screen you hit a virtual edge of the screen making the actual edge seem very large.

This got me thinking about other walls and edges:

In particular I started thinking about the walls of a kids toy maze. The marble inside is constrained in the directions that it can go depending on it’s position in the maze. Then I started thinking could a similar concept be applied to computer interfaces?

I call the concept a “Virtual Speed Bump.” The idea is to introduce constraints that bound the mouse to a specific area. Such speed bumps should make it possible for you to use the menus and other control significantly faster because them will reduce overshooting (Fitts Law to the rescue.)

I’ve illustrated the concept here on a menu control.

The mouse motion would be limited by these virtual speed bumps. In practice I wouldn’t expect the visual borders to be as obvious. I would expect the borders to be integrated into the look and feel of the control or even hidden. The same concept could be used on other controls as well combo-boxes, scrollbars, modal dialog boxes, etc.

The reason I titled this “speed bump” rather then virtual wall is that I’m not 100% convinced that you want to totally restrict motion. It is possible that you want to go past the control and click something completely different. The virtual speed bump would slow down the mouse as it approaches. In addition I would expect the speed bump to only work in one direction. If a user tried to re-enter the no-speeding zone it would not be slowed down on the way back in.

Posted in Ideas | No Comments »

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