Re: [NTLK] newtontalk Digest V8 #219

I'm sure I'll be criticized about this.. But... "the actual UI can suck,
hell it could be purely textual..."

Ugh. I could not disagree more. The UI IS the experience interface,
regardless of what it lets you do. Granted, the REST of what you say is
golden, but to ignore the UI is to ignore ONE of the GREAT things about OSX
and the Newton- REGULAR peeps will NOT care how efficient and smart the
system is, if the damn UI is buggy, boring, overly complex, or.. Heaven help
us.. Textual.

I mean that with all due respect- I have not a clue as to the underpinnings
of my osx.. And I really don't care to... Im in the geek minority, but in
the consumer majority.

Ok, let the ripping begin ;)

On 5/21/08 2:21 PM, "Simon Stapleton" <simon.stapleton@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 21 May 2008, at 18:07, newtontalk@newtontalk.net wrote:
>
>>> And the interface would still be GUI of a sort, but it would be a GUI
>>> mindmap of my hard-drive (i.e., of my data), allowing me always to
>>> see my
>>> data in terms of itself and my purposes for it (optionally in 3D),
>>> rather
>>> than having to have an eye on which apps I need to use my data.
>>> Application
>>> selection and use would be seamless, a function of the OS
>>> identifying what I
>>> want to do with my data and handing me the tools to do it -- like a
>>> good
>>> surgical nurse who always has the right implements ready for the
>>> surgeon.
>
> I think this is probably the most important thing. The actual UI can
> suck, hell it could be purely textual, but the ability to pull your
> data according to *what* it is, in terms *you* can understand, as
> opposed to *where* it is in (more or less) physical terms is where the
> next change should be.
>
> The Newton has this, in that it's pretty much a "dump" of data, and
> modulo the omnipresent need to know if something is filed on a
> particular piece of removable media, you simply don't need to know
> where it is. No "~/Documents/Projects/foo/bar", none of that.
>
> Look at iTunes. Okay, it's not a wonderfl piece of software overall,
> but it allows you to search media according to almost arbitrary tags,
> in real time, to have smart playlists, to alter where media sits in
> those lists. It's a bloody sight easier to find "that track by Janis"
> through the iTunes interface than to trawl through 3 hard drives
> looking for an obscurely named file. This is where something like
> spotlight, combined with ubiquitous metadata, both "file format
> internal" like id3 tags on mp3s and "generic" like HFS metadata, and a
> good ui for finding stuff (certainly better than the current abortion)
> could make the finder a real - well - "finder", and not a "browser",
> and that's only on some hypothetical desktop OS. For a tablet, you
> could (and should) go way beyond that, fast forward all the way to 10
> years ago and NOS 2.1
>
> Something like Newton's soups, BeOS's file system, or even the file
> system that was slated for Longhorn, might be a technologically
> "better" underpinning for this, but computer performance is now such
> that the actual implementation arguably doesn't *really* matter,
> what's important is the way it's presented to the user.
>
> ====================================================================
> The NewtonTalk Mailing List - http://www.newtontalk.net/
> The Official Newton FAQ - http://www.splorp.com/newton/faq/
> The Newton Glossary - http://www.splorp.com/newton/glossary/
> WikiWikiNewt - http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
> ====================================================================
>
>

-- 
bryan cantley
    form:uLA dimension laboratory
    spatial orchestrator  + owner
+
    Professor of Design Theory
    CSUF
714.278.2075
bcantley@fullerton.edu
bryancantley@gmail.com
http://www.fotolog.net/formula
http://web.mac.com/form.u.la/iWeb/FIEDAD2007/00.html
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The NewtonTalk Mailing List - http://www.newtontalk.net/
The Official Newton FAQ     - http://www.splorp.com/newton/faq/
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