Rogue

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.

While surfing about some design blogs, I came across Guy Kawasaki's and read an article he'd written about great organisations doing stupid things. Specifically what I enjoyed was his direction regarding avoiding these stupid things.

When you read this don't just think about it in an employee/employer corporate environment, think about working with clients and interacting with other people in general;

1. Say, believe, and act in a way that convinces employees that differences of opinion and diversity of thoughts are good things. Frankly, a couple of curmudgeons is a good thing for a company.
2. Don’t be in a rush to meet consensus. In particular CEOs should not rush into a decision even though the image of decisiveness is so too seductive.
3. Spell things out. It’s not enough to say, "Plug this leak in our company" and assume that it will be done legally. You should say, "Plug this leak in our company by using only legal, ethical, and reasonable methods." That’s when you’re done.
4. Move the crowns. When employees go around saying, "We need to do it this way because Bill/Steve/Carly/Larry wants it this way,” you’re in trouble. It means that employees are making decisions based on what they think will make kings and queens happy—as opposed to what’s right for the customer, employees, or shareholders. Good CEOs put the crown on the heads of customers, not themselves.
5. Restrict the use of experts to narrow areas. Never use experts to create your product roadmap or marketing plans unless you want MBAs who have never run anything larger than a school snack bar to decide your fate.
6. Ask for bad news. Don’t assume it will find you — you have to find it. You should allocate a time that’s specifically for communicating bad news.
7. Don’t shoot the messenger who brings the bad news unless he caused it.
8. Don’t reward the messenger who brings good news unless he caused it.
9. Approach budgets as working guidelines, not policies set in stone. If your budget doesn’t change for the whole year, you’re either clairvoyant (there are probably easier ways to make money if you are) or clueless.
10. Squash arrogance and greed. I’ll be honest: I don’t know how to do this. If I figure it out, it will be the topic of an upcoming blog.

While on one of the many bizzare tangeants my mind often wanders off into to, I ended up doing a tiny shop touchup to an image.

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Just a short snap for today. The lads over at 37signals have blogged some thoughts I think we all share.

Heck I know I'm guilty of propagating that nonsense too. Such is a hallmark of the corporate culture which has been absorbed. It's the death of alone time.

Also I really wanted to point out some absolutely delicious design (as gay as it sounds, that's the best adjective in this case) by Tundra with cork'd. It just works on so many levels. Simplistic, efficient, intelligent, user centric, and it looks great.

It's stuff like that which inspires me.