Rogue

Would be a really attention grabbing headline I imagine.

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Since around 2004 I've been living and working in Port Pirie, SA doing Systems Analysis, Development and Integration work for the lead smelter there.

Well today that ends. Kind of.

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Back in February I blogged about an amazing piece of tech the guys over at NYU had been working on. A brilliant new multiple point touch interface, capable of interpretting the pressure and width of contact applied to it's surface.

When they coupled that with some sharp little apps which made full use of the new interface mechanism, it really was just an amazing leap forward for UI.

Now, Microsoft has announced their own version yesterday which has apparently been in the works since 2001. It looks strangely identical. Yet it has a much smaller screen. Didn't see that coming did we?

Not that I really mind to be honest. Whether they did or did not pursue a completely closed off internal development process and just happened to reach the same end-game is immaterial. The fact remains that they're able to bring this tech to those with the cash, unlike the NYU gear which was never able to be put into product due to costing.

Admittedly the scope and penetration of the Microsoft product (Surface) is only going to be places like hotels and rich people's shopping precincts initially - but if it's a good implementation more people will get it, driving down the price eventually and making it easier for those with smaller cash cows to get it.

I'm thinking eight of them networked and embedded in a conference table, with a massive presentation size one arrayed on one wall. Enabling people to shift content back and forth from the mobile devices (laptop, pda, etc) onto the nearest Surface and then hand them (almost literally) off to whoever is driving a presentation or meeting.

Good-bye tablets! Now instead of using hand/eye coordination and a stylus on a detached piece of kit, now you could instead literally just 'paint' with your hands directly onto the screen. Fantastic.

Give me a toggleable on screen keyboard and I'll be in heaven.

Games wise this isn't going to work for your traditional shooters, but things like strategy games for example are perfect for it. Puzzle and arcade games too.

Mmmm... juicy.

Link: http://www.drivl.com/posts/view/700

We all know the myriad of techniques for that age old quible of getting sexy rounded corners. But how do you get square corners eh?

Drivl know the ultimate answer. Link is in the title people.

As many out there might know, on the way back from the last MonsterLAN once again I lost some hardware. It was my XFi and the motherboards' PCI capabilites which were sacrificed to the gaming gods. Quite the expensive experience really.

For future reference, dislocated HDDs plus a rapid race through melbourne followed by a bumpy ride across the country for the better part of 12 hours doesn't provide a forgiving environment for precision electronic equipment.

So Rylaere was quite badly damaged. Thus it was necessary to acquire a replacement. Enter; Thea.

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