This week I started testing Windows 8 Developer release. It is a bold step for Microsoft. They have really bet that the tablet is the future of computing. While I am a huge fan of new user interfaces for computers, Windows8 will be a challenge for computer users that are using a desktop or traditional laptop. Yes Microsoft does include the normal desktop to run applications like Word, Outlook, and other non-touch oriented applications, but the Start menu has been replaced with the Start Page. This might throw people, and may be a steep learning curve. For a tablet user however, Win8 begs you to touch it. It's big colorful blocks of "live" information make it so easy to use your hands and stylist to interact with it, you can't help but want to use it. What I'm looking forward to is seeing how Windows 8 can be used in non-traditional computer situations like, kiosks, way finding, touch aware surfaces etc. I want to see Windows go further than just "cool" interfaces.
Speaking of going past cool interfaces. I think we the people have given up on computers that actually assist us in favor of fashion and flashy graphics. I love UI; but I began to question it when I started teaching my kids programming. Because of TRON they were interested in "programs" so I basically went back to the early days of coding to start teaching. Free Basic was the time machine I used. As an exercise I wrote an recipe program. Now it was nothing fancy just a list of recipes written in the code. But what was fun was the "Print" commands I created. I used very human sentences asking the user questions about what the user wanted to cook. So you see something like:
"Good (evening or morning depending on the clock). What would you like to cook?"
BREAD
"What kind of bread?"
WHITE
"Old Fashion or French?"
OLD FASHION
"Enjoy!"
(Followed by the recipe)
Remember these were just exercises. However these exercises reminded me of what I wanted from computers; a sense of assistance and interaction. I fear that we have given up that dream in favor of fast, flashy UI. If I had to give an example of what I would like to see more of it would be IBM's Watson. I think the Watson project at IBM, and the New User Interface work being done at Microsoft Research which gave us things like Kinect, and Surface is so much more in the right direction. However I think that developers need to be aware of what IBM and Microsoft Research is discovering; we in the technology field need to be more aware of how humans interact with world around them. We use more than one finger and we use more words than "OK" "yes" "next" and "search".
My Music
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Link between technology and culture...
I wanted to share a great site on a subject I found my self interested in when I started designing applications for Microsoft Surface a few years ago.
In 2007 I was asked to find an interactive multimedia solution for the Special Collections Library's Delcaring Independance Exhibit. I found what was then called "Vienna" at Microsoft Research. Vienna became "Surface". I convinced the Library to spend the money to purchase the unit. They agreed but on one condition; due to lack of funds or desire for in house programmers to learn C# and .NET, I had to program it! I agreed and started down a path into unknown territory. I NEVER programmed anything in my life! Besides learning to write applications I also learned how to design and application that would be used in a 360 degree interface, multiple touch point, multiple "click events" and take into consideration how people interact with digital version of real world objects. At some point it all became very philosophical.
Now I find myself facinated by human computer interaction. The website included here is one of the latest stop in my research. I hope you enjoy. http://www.designingculture.org/release-0711/AcademicAbout.html
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Being asked to dream...
It's been a while since I've written anything, so I'm forcing myself this morning to post something...anything.
I have been very busy at work. Since my Database Manager joined the team, we've been busy writing scripts and updating databases, and overall doing catch up on projects that have been put on the back burners since before I became the Director of Technology. I won't go into the details because it's pretty standard stuff for tech. departments and I don't want to sound like a whiner.
So....
I want to talk about a few other things I've been working on.
1. Finding time and mental energy to compose music has been very difficult lately. This summer has been very draining mentally for me. So I've been trying different things to jump start or create a spark for my creativity. One tool I played around with recently has been what's called a tracker. see this wiki entry for trackers.
Music Tracker
My experiments were primarily based on creating space ambient tracks. But I found having to build a sample library to use in the tracker was too time consuming and not the way I like to compose. I'm more of an improv, quick capture kind of composer. So Since I'm running Linux these days, I decided to give Freewheeling a try. Think Ableton live for Linux. We'll see how this goes. I'll keep you posted.
2. The second thing was started by a phone call I got at the office that was out of the blue. A local designer is working with a client in Boston to design a new kind of podium. The designer wanted to meet with me to discuss the present and future of presentation technology. We talked about Crestron integration, multimedia, mobile technology, New User Interface, presentation software, the impact that the iPad and Google docs has on presentation creation and presentation; a real Bill Buxton kind of conversation. Luckily I recently took the virtual tour of the exhibit of Bill Buxton's electronic gadget collection. I also watched the video where he personally gives a tour and talks about items in the collection.
The conversation was very cool! To have a designer as you to dream about presentation technology and what you would like to see in a product. No limits! Just dream!
I can't share any designs with you because it's all secret prototype stuff.
I have been very busy at work. Since my Database Manager joined the team, we've been busy writing scripts and updating databases, and overall doing catch up on projects that have been put on the back burners since before I became the Director of Technology. I won't go into the details because it's pretty standard stuff for tech. departments and I don't want to sound like a whiner.
So....
I want to talk about a few other things I've been working on.
1. Finding time and mental energy to compose music has been very difficult lately. This summer has been very draining mentally for me. So I've been trying different things to jump start or create a spark for my creativity. One tool I played around with recently has been what's called a tracker. see this wiki entry for trackers.
Music Tracker
My experiments were primarily based on creating space ambient tracks. But I found having to build a sample library to use in the tracker was too time consuming and not the way I like to compose. I'm more of an improv, quick capture kind of composer. So Since I'm running Linux these days, I decided to give Freewheeling a try. Think Ableton live for Linux. We'll see how this goes. I'll keep you posted.
2. The second thing was started by a phone call I got at the office that was out of the blue. A local designer is working with a client in Boston to design a new kind of podium. The designer wanted to meet with me to discuss the present and future of presentation technology. We talked about Crestron integration, multimedia, mobile technology, New User Interface, presentation software, the impact that the iPad and Google docs has on presentation creation and presentation; a real Bill Buxton kind of conversation. Luckily I recently took the virtual tour of the exhibit of Bill Buxton's electronic gadget collection. I also watched the video where he personally gives a tour and talks about items in the collection.
The conversation was very cool! To have a designer as you to dream about presentation technology and what you would like to see in a product. No limits! Just dream!
I can't share any designs with you because it's all secret prototype stuff.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Return of the *nix based systems
If you have been following my posts lately, you'll remember that my main computer system in the studio/office at home died. Motherboard failure. I was left scrambling for a replacement out of the stock of old computers in storage at the house. I really only had 3 to choose from. I grabbed an older Sony VAO and slapped Linux on it. Which of great! I love any *nix operating system. BUT, we don't have cable at the house so we rely on internet services for entertainment. I was using Playon to feed the XBox 360 as a media extender. Payon won't run under Wine because you can't get Media Player 11 to run separately from a Windows installation. Before you say, "Just get Netflix through the XBox directly." We watch more than just Netflix from the internet. with Youtube, Crackle, Hulu, and other independent streaming services, being limited by using just the XBox or an Apple TV just sounded too limiting. Now I do have a copy of Vista Ultimate. That's how things were for about a month.
However even after tweaking Vista to make it faster and more reliable, there were two problems. 1. The computer it was on (the Sony) just wasn't powerful enough to act as a video streaming server. The XBox would often lose connection when streaming. 2. When recording audio, Vista would create dropouts. Keep in mind this problem did NOT exist when the same machine was running Linux. It recorded audio just fine. Plus with Vista there were sound card driver issues. This just wouldn't work!
Chapter 2: Return of the *nix based systems.
Meanwhile at work we've been having serious problems with Windows machines being exploited through backdoors and then scanning other machines on the network. The result has been other machines having Windows Explorer crashes and the inability to connect to mapped network drives. My IT Staff has been losing sleep fighting this breach. Most of my teams days have been spent re-imaging machines that have been compromised. Productivity in departments impacted by these compromises have suffered in there productivity. Windows has produced a bad taste in my mouth lately. Meanwhile I switched back to a Mac at work. I've been an Apple user since OS8 and have always felt better organized and more productive on an Apple computer. When I bought my iMac it came with both OS9 and Mac OSX 10.1 and immediately fell in love with the BSD based OSX. UNIX to the rescue. I've been a Microsoft Research supporter for years now. I have built applications for Microsoft Surface and think that the XBox 360 and Kinect are the best! But when it comes to operating systems Unix based systems like Free BSD, OSX, and their cousin Linux are my top choices.
So back home I have recently resurrected an Apple G4 Tower that a friend have me. It had no RAM, or Hard drive. I found RAM and a hard drive and proceeded to get it up and running. First let me say that finances are such that I can't just run out and buy a new computer. The only other machine in the house needs to be a Windows machine for learning software that my kids use, that doesn't play nice on Linux under Wine. I set the Apple G4 up in the office at home. Ran updates and BAM! I'm working. Plugged my external sound card I use for recording and it instantly shows up in the sound card choices. Plug in my USB M-Audio keyboard and it immediately is available for use in my software. A brief Google search gets me the latest Flash update for Safari. Now I'm streaming vids. Bottom line? An Apple computer that is HALF the CPU power of the Sony VAO is running circles around the Sony running Vista. I'm very happy right now. Plus being a PPC system, I can dig into cool audio tools that I haven't used in a while from back in the day.
Where's the Sony running Vista? Well it's in the living room as a media PC. Again when I can get Netflix streaming on a Linux operating system it will quickly get re-imaged.
Is this a Windows vs Apple thing? Not really. It's more of a *nix based system vs an NT based system. It about how drivers and software connect with the kernel. You can see how much an operating system can impact hardware performance as illustrated by the example above. As much as I like OSX, I'm already planning my next adventure; compiling the Linux kernel for my Apple G4.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
May Wrap Up.
May flew quickly this year. Work has kept me busy. A good kind of busy. At least I'm not watching the clock. Because May was quick I didn't blog much. I was only able to dash off some quick Twitter posts as things happened. So here's the latest Tweet wrap up:
Still having problems getting mail on my Newton. Tried several approaches found on the web. #newtontalk
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
More from the Windows 8 reveal:http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/microsoft-unveils-windows-8-tablet-prototypes/
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Windows 8 desktop? I ran this look with Rainmeter on a tablet.http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/06/01/windows.8/index.html?hpt=te_bn1
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Black Hole exploit is now free. As if we didn't have enough to worry.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/24/blackhole_exploit_kit_freebie/
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
#uvaotc Finished a great lunch. Sat with Microsoft Live Apps rep. Michael. Covering topics from mobile apps, Win7 Phone & XBox Live.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
#uvaotc Being able to aggregate the demand seems to be the key in cloud computing solutions.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Supercollider at CERN created more data in one year of operation than was recorded in the history of physics.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
On my way to the Office Technology Conference at the John Paul Johns arena in Charlottesville Virginia.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Getting ready to carry our 35 mm film projector out of Newcomb theater at UVA. Then probably a doctor appointment for a hernia! ;-)
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
The Secret World of Alternative Operating Systemstechnologizer.com/2011/05/15/alt… via @technologizer My fav was BeOS, so I'm a big fan of Haiku.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Back into the world of NUI and MS #Surface. This time 'round with University of Virginia Dean of Students. Bringing NUI to Student Affairs!
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Happy with JAMin for Linux audio. Did exactly what I was looking for. Good mastering tool. http://jamin.sourceforge.net/en/about.html
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
I'm not saying U could code the next great app with it but TouchStudio - Hello World | Peli at RiSE | Channel 9channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Peli/Tou… via @ch9
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Chromebooks safe from virus's or not?http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/05/12/is-googles-chromebook-the-death-knell-for-antivirus/
MSFTResearch Microsoft Research
VIDEO: Microsoft Research’s Bill Buxton shows us his favorite tech gadgets: http://bit.ly/jUKyhq
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
After reading the stats; I'm trying out the standing desk at the office. I also continue to be disappointed by Hollywoods use of surround.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
...more mixing tonight. I'm hopeful that I can get the results I want. There is a bit of a learning curve with Linux audio.
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Do you think that Android @ Home will find it's way into the enterprise as low cost in house development of presentation tech control?
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
I can see building apps for Android @ home. Google getting into the home automation game.
»
rmreifenstein Rick Reifenstein
Due to studio computer death. Recording with backup computer running Linux with Jack and Ardour. This weekends recording went very well.
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