Sunday May 06, 2007
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Sunday May 06, 2007 | Really Bad Ideas | Humor |
For some reason, not one, but two really bad ideas made the news today.
Bad Idea #1: Microsoft Invents Split Screen PC
This story from slashdot spawned a whole new tag: dumbestf*ckingidea. Each half of the screen has its own operating system, desktop, applications, cursor and keyboard. All this just so two people can share the same computer. Y'know, sharing is great, but there are just so many better solutions out there, not the least of which is switching to Solaris (or any flavor of Unix).
Bad Idea #2: A Real "Minority Report" User Interface
Some reporter thinks it's so cool that something from a movie could be real, and some misguided researcher thinks that The mouse has had a good run, but it's time to say good-bye. Sorry, you're both wrong. Like voice recognition interfaces, there could be some limited uses for gestural interfaces, but I don't think the mouse is going anywhere anytime soon. It actually doesn't matter if something better comes along, the mouse is too entrenched to go away. How do I know this? You don't need to look any further than the mouse's neighbor, the keyboard. The history of the QWERTY keyboard is that it was designed to be a bad interface. Over time, many improvements have been tried, from keyboard layout to split keyboards, but none have stuck. I know that people do not want to put on gloves to use a computer, and I don't think they'll want to look like a traffic cop while online.
As for the reporter who think Hollywood designs good user interfaces, she needs to get a clue. What's next? The friendly "Unix" system from Jurassic Park? Or how about that ridiculously stupid virtual reality interface from the movie Disclosure? Nothing like virtually walking down a hallway and flipping through virtual files instead of just typing some search string into a web page.
Tags: bad ideas | user interface | microsoft | split screen
Tags: bad ideas interface microsoft screen split user
May 06, 2007 07:05 PM PDT Permalink | Comments [3] |
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Kevin Chu, Some Rights Reserved.
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