Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Computers and Internet

  • Be Careful Out There

    Job seekers using the Monster.com online service have been targeted by a particularly vicious trojan. I expect that variations will shortly follow. Be careful about that odd email inviting you to download a toolbar extension for your web browser…  

  • The Evil of Flash

    Very rarely, I come across a web site that uses Flash technology where I think: yes, that is good.
     
    Most of the time Flash is pure evil, and Flash developers should be lined up against a wall and shot. Tim Spalding gives chapter and verse on a case in point.  

  • WHS Is RTM

    That means Windows Home Server is Released To Manufacturing for those of you who are not acronymphiles.

    I, along with thousands of other folks, have been testing this software at home. I’ve found a few bugs, but most have been cured along the way. I’m still getting the “database inconsistency” bug, despite trying the steps to fix it. I see that Microsoft say that this bug will “more than likely be fixed by RTM”, so we’ll see.

    But one thing that is not yet clear is whether WHS will open up the ability to access all flavours of Windows operating systems via the internet. At the moment it does not, even though you might be forgiven for thinking that it does if you just listen to Microsoft’s marketing.

    Still, kudos to the development team for a product that has much to commend it.

  • Data Swarm

    There’s an interesting presentation that has just been posted up at the TED web site. It’s from the conference held last March, and is of Jonathan Harris presenting his work of visualising data found on the web. I feel that his work is closer to pieces of art than anything else.
     
     
    I like his We Feel Fine piece in particular. The feelings that you find out there on the web through this interface run the whole gamut from trite to profound to downright scary. His Universe piece doesn’t seem to work at the moment, so I can’t comment on that.
     

  • Google Maps

    Google has just added some improvements to its Google Maps application. And I have to say that I’m impressed. This web application is now very slick indeed, and far better than the Microsoft Streets and Trips application that I used to rely on for planning my trips. Don’t believe me? Then take a look at what Jeff Atwood found when he compared the two – and that was before the latest round of improvements to Google Maps.

  • Microsoft Surface Redux

    Someone’s redone the voiceover to the video about Microsoft Surface. I think this version is much more accurate…
     
     

  • Ideas Generator

    Lyndsay Williams has had a lot of bright ideas in her time. The trouble is, it now appears that she is too practical for Microsoft Research, her former employer. She would rather invent useful devices; they appear to believe that writing academic papers is what they are about. Strange.

  • Good User Interface Design

    Despite the billions that Windows Vista has probably cost to develop, the user interface still has places where the meaning is confusing, rather than clear. Take this example. As Jan Mikovsky points out, the important and salient facts are simply not obvious to the user. The likelihood that he or she will make a wrong decision is higher – and not even be realised after the fact.

  • Project Xanadu

    Project Xanadu was the first attempt to create Hypertext software. It was begun back in 1960 by Ted Nelson – nearly 50 years ago!
    Now, on the occasion of Nelson’s 70th birthday, version 1.0 of XanaduSpace is released.
    Somehow, despite the fact that the rival Hypertext system (the World Wide Web of Tim Berners Lee) has been sarcastically described as “the joy buzzer and the whoopee cushion of the Internet”, I don’t think that the more elegantly designed Xanadu has a hope of displacing its rival. Sometimes, technical elegance is not enough. Just being good enough at the right time and place is what wins the day. I fear Xanadu is doomed to being a footnote in the history of computing.

  • Touchscreens

    There’s been a rash of touchscreen technologies being demonstrated recently. Here’s another one, this time from the Cambridge branch of Microsoft Research.

  • Downtime

    The LibraryThing web site is having a spot of bother at the moment – the system is down. The silver lining is that the LibraryThing folks have challenged its members to create a bookpile that illustrates the downtime. Here’s my submission.
     
    20070613-1658-54 

  • Fry on the Internet

    Stephen Fry, national treasure, talks about the Internet.

  • Good Design

    I’ve mentioned Geni – the web-based genealogy application before. Even though it’s still in beta, it is very good. Part of that comes from its intuitive design, which makes the user experience feel easy and natural. Jan Miksovsky, over at flow|state (a blog devoted to good application design), points out how impressively the initial sign-up to Geni has been thought through and designed.

  • Jaw-Dropping

    I don’t know whether to treat this seriously or not; all I know is that my jaw hit the table upon reading about the Aphrodite Project Platforms.
     
    Although, I have to say that I don’t think that the designers have thought this through. I remember living through the 1970s when platforms were ubiquitous (I even had a pair myself, but we won’t go there). I also remember being in a hospital out-patients department sitting alongside my lover at the time who had just had a concussion via a skating accident. Suddenly, the doors burst open, and in tottered a gaggle of fashionable young ladies surrounding one of their number who was having even more difficulty walking than the rest of them. As they explained to the doctor, she fell off her platforms…

  • Beyond Windows

    So, Microsoft Surface has finally arrived. It may well punt the Windows model into the sidelines, but I’m betting that you’ll have to wait until version 3.0 before it will live up to the hype.

  • Er, Hello?

    So there is an article in yesterday’s FT which is about the ambitions of the folks in Google; where they want to take it. And I read this:
    Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.
     
    “The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”
    I’m sorry, but if the day ever dawns when I shall ask a fucking computer service "what shall I do tomorrow?" and "what job shall I take", then that is the time for me to depart this life. I swear, I sometimes think that the pod people are already amongst us. Doubtless, because it’s someone from Google saying this tripe, then others will think it is marvellous. Equally doubtless, had it been someone from Microsoft saying it, then the very same people would be first in line to denounce it for the crap that it is.  

  • Dell Tablet PC

    I see that Dell have announced that they will be introducing a Tablet PC later this year. At the link you can watch a video of a Dell Senior VP, Jeff Clarke, talking about it. I’ve often thought that the next machine I invest in should be a Tablet PC. The idea of the ultra-portable form factor with the ability to use it as a notepad and pen has a certain appeal. Much more convenient than a laptop, I’ve always thought. To date, though, PC manufacturers have not positioned their Tablet offerings at the consumer market, but at the corporate market instead. With Dell finally throwing their hat into the Tablet PC ring, I thought there was a chance for a new dawn. Alas, I noted that Clarke said:
    "it is designed for the education, health care, and corporate marketplace".
    In other words, it ain’t going to be a consumer device, just another higher-priced corporate offering. And that, I think, is a shame. I would really like to see a major manufacturer position a Tablet PC fairly and squarely at the consumer market. I think it would open up a new niche and bring some competition in. Dell would have been my bet to do this. But it looks as though they’re not ready to step up to the plate.

  • The Mouse Wheel

    I think it’s only right that we should pay tribute to Eric Michelman and his invention of the mouse wheel. It’s one of those "why didn’t I think of that" slaps to the forehead.

  • What Is Life?

    I become increasingly uncertain as to where borders and interfaces lie when I read articles such as this.

  • Family Tree Applications

    I’ve mentioned before that my brother has an interest in genealogy, and is doing his best to trace our family tree. I’ve recently come across a couple of software applications that aid in visualising genealogical data.
     
    First up is Family.Show – a rather jazzy application written for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) software that is present in Windows Vista. Actually, it’s more of a concept than a full-blown application. It was expressly created to show off the capabilities of WPF, which is does to quite a striking effect. The source code of the application is freely available, if you want to have a go at extending it.
     
    Next is a web-based application, available at www.geni.com. The interesting thing about this is that is it a collaborative application. Both my brother and myself (or indeed anyone else we explicitly invite to join us) can work on the same family tree. This collaboration feature is a terrific plus point. It’s meant that we can each work on building up different branches of the family, as well as correcting errors or adding details to each others’ work. Geni is still in beta, but is definitely usable at the moment. The development team have a blog, and there are discussion forums devoted to the application. Worth checking out if you have an interest in drawing up your family tree.