Microsoft Surface brings computing to the table

Microsoft Surface brings computing to the table

Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by setting real-world items tagged with special barcode labels on top of it.

Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. During a demonstration with a reporter, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group's marketing director, "dipped" his finger in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face. Then he used all 10 fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair.

In addition to recognizing finger movements, Microsoft Surface can also identify physical objects. Microsoft says that when a diner sets down a wine glass, for example, the table can automatically offer additional wine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten. | Via Wikipedia

>> Btw, why not hitting surface parody link at youtube ? Take that apple ! ;)
>> What lurks below Microsoft's Surface?

e.g./i.e

e.g./i.e

When you mean “for example,” use e.g. It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase exempli gratia. When you mean “that is,” use “i.e.” It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase id est. Either can be used to clarify a preceding statement, the first by example, the second by restating the idea more clearly or expanding upon it. Because these uses are so similar, the two abbreviations are easily confused. If you just stick with good old English “for example” and “that is” you won’t give anyone a chance to sneer at you. If you insist on using the abbreviation, perhaps “example given” will remind you to use “e.g.,” while “in effect” suggests “I.E.”

Since e.g. indicates a partial list, it is redundant to add “etc.” at the end of a list introduced by this abbreviation.

Get your basics right ! :)

Links of interest to beat common errors in English usage:
> Errors
> Abbreviations

Almighty Spider !

Almighty Spider !

For quite some time the buzz word is almost about SEO* in web scenario. In anything which is part of web & semantic coding search engine optimization is the beaming word. Anything which is tangible in specific web & hosting environment has a SEO touch to it. May it be pure CSS Menus, JavaScript functions, scripting hide & show pages, Flash SEO injection, xhtml coding- it's all about SEO. The best advantage of SEO friendly coding in a way the whole process is attaining w3c compliant or standard based semantic coding. Directly or indirectly it's a good sign & it's adding the best advantage to achieve-web standard programming. Certainly the conventional 'meta tags' based search engine emulation tactics have taken a back seat, since Google has introduced search spiders & crawlers with altogether a different meaning.

It's not only about tweaking web based modules to search engine support coding, but there are lot of best practices to be tapped while designing an application for the web if it has to be indexed by various search engines.

• The hard work is almost over. You have launched your brand new website. Now what? How are your potential customers going to find you? Over the years, search engines have become smarter at finding the relevant content through all of the other noise. Here are some tips to start optimizing your website for maximum visibility.

Nate Klaiber has written an interesting article about How Search Engines Know Your Web Site Exists ?

Which color ?

Which color ?

One thing on which anybody can pass a comment so easily is on color preference. It's purely grasped on individuals perception & taste. The beauty of this lovely element is, choices regarding color often seem rather mystical, as many seem to base decisions just on "it looks right." Color is such an universal thingy immaterial of color blindness, Ofcourse includes black & white.

• This link color thingie has come up again and again for me too. The first time was while I worked at IBM on a project called PartnerInfo which later morphed into the engine which powers the ibm.com e-commerce web site. "We can't have red links", came the cry from marketing. "Red is the Digital (Equipment Corporation) colors! We're blue! They're red!" Do I hear anyone say, "fighting the last war"? The second time was when I was at Sprint and it was deja vu all over again. "We can't have blue links!", came the cry from Marketing Communications. "We're red, silver and black. We're Sprint!" This old saw ground back and forth between the usability engineers in the user experience team and the mar comm people for months. "Blue is ATT" they would say. Wait a minute, don't you mean Cingular? But they're orange, right? No, Orange is a UK carrier, owned by France Telecom. No, they call it Orange France now! No, France isn't orange, that's Holland. France is red, white and blue - touché, the correct colors to use on a web site. Ah the French were correct all this time.

: Was reading this interesting color experience from David Anderson today.

Pun followed read, but in actual design context I've faced this situation many times. Hard negotiations with corporate marketing, business analysts & architecture team is the order of the day - unless a strong design or a branding design guidelines document is in place.

>> Read more on 'Color Deja Vu' from David J. Anderson

"I shoot therefore Sony Alpha 100"

"I shoot therefore Sony Alpha 100"

The caption kick : ittium = i think therefore i am :)

Finally my new Sony alpha 100 arrived traveling extensively via San Diego-Chicago-Chennai to Bangalore just a few days back. It's my first DSLR Camera & I'm thrilled & submerged completely playing with it. Instead of directly jumping into high-end professional level I wanted to taste the digital photography tryst with growing line of Sony Alpha series.

Many people asked me why Sony DSLR, why not Nikon or Canon?
Initially I've shortlisted Nikon D80, Canon 400D but finally what brought me to Sony is rich legacy backed Minolta ! Yes, Sony bought Minolta last year & DLSR line of Minolta are now under the belt of Sony. Sony Alpha 100 is the product of Sony & Minolta marriage. Minolta is known for wide known quality cams & attachable quality lenses. Sony also plans to pull out few lenses from Carl Zeiss, which is a good news for anybody who knows the optics of Carl Zeiss.

How'z Sony Alpha ?
I'm still shooting with ISO 400 & initial shots came out awesome. Amount of detail recorded with a bigger sensor is clearly noticeable. This DSLR is faster in all aspects. It focuses quite fast under good light conditions. I've heard chronic noise falling details about 800-1600 in Sony Alpha even before buying. Since my requirement hardly crosses ISO 400 I'm less bothered. With Transcend 4GB 120x memory card the image writing & transfer is just breeze. I bought two 18-70mm & 75-300mm lenses with the body. Initially to start with I'm trying hands on 18-70mm kit lense. It looks sturdy & stylish with a good finish.

I hope to post more pics in flickr in coming days. Shutterbugs stay tuned ! ;)

Alpha on the web:
> Club alpha.net
> Forum in DP Review.com
> Dyxum.com

Iterative 'Designing' for good experience

Iterative 'Designing' for good experience

Was reading this interesting blog today. Pretty interesting read to catch up in the mid of the week.

Generally an application design starts with a low fidelity wireframe design & moves onto high fidelity version (or a more clear & navigable version). Designing wireframes with innumerable iterations & change updates for clients sometimes can't be a useful task. In design, for sure reasons client with high expectations & enthusiasm would love to see bit interactive & tangible result than a black & white criss-crossed lines running for weeks together. Low fidelity wireframes might impress the client as a evidence to start-off with the task but a neat iterative design process is much more beneficial & time saving task.Here's a great example of an iterative design & development process: that clearly discounts the time & effort put on wireframing task. author Andrew Berkowitz has a different approach to take on iterative 'Designing' for good experience. I agree that iterative designing is good but in the case of multiple pages his suggestion seems to be daunting.

> Link to his article as it blossoms from “ugly and unusable” to “just feels right”.

You are truly missing something..

You are truly missing something..

Sometimes I wonder about the capabilities & extent of thinking out of the box brains. What we believe as end of something is not truly a end, but it's the new beginning.

When desktop approach was introduced way back in Windows 95, it almost inevitably got into everything we touch & feel in communication media We're so used to desktops & dashboard thinking in any screen based application like never before: PC desktops, mobile phones, pda's, ATM screens, tablets, touch panels etc. It's quite difficult to accept which comes in the form of sub menu based navigation system now a days. So market leaders moving towards touch screen accessing apps. iPhone-is the hot touch screen sensation.

Here's a creative masterpiece BumpTop, it's a fresh and engaging new way to interact with your computer desktop. It' been here for a while. Criticisms apart, it's truly awesome experience. A brain product of indi-genious guy Anand Agarwala & team.

With BumpTop, you can pile and toss documents like on a real desk. Break free from the rigid and mechanical style of standard point-and-click desktops. Interact by pushing, pulling and piling documents with elegant, self revealing gestures. BumpTop's stunning interface makes clever use of 3D presentation and smooth physics-based animations for an engaging, vivid user experience.

You are truly missing something if you don't view this demo:
>> Link to BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype

These simpler yet effective desktop redefining instances are truly thinking outside the perspective of the world we live in. Very often I hear this phrase: 'thinking out of the box' in office board rooms, meetings, conference calls, brainstorm sessions etc. Was googling more about what exactly is 'Thinking Outside the Box'? & found this nicety link which talks more on Inside The Box v/s Outside the Box thinking.