[Nottingham] [Talk] Thurs 07/01/2010 A GUI Past & Future

[Rory Holland]

Or how about http://sites.google.com
It seems to be perfect!

2010/1/11 Jim Moore <jmthelostpacket at googlemail.com>

> idea for the website: put the content on a google account (7.5GB there
> so plenty space!) and link it via an iframe on an ICQ account (the
> iframe takes care of the ads n other assorted "goodies" that ice likes
> to foist on you) to take care of the ddns problem right there at the
> registrar end eg www.thiswebsite.com redirects to
> http://members.icq.com/12324567a/ which loads an iframe from your
> server (single page there which takes about 0.0001sec to load, how's
> that for efficiency?) and everything else from a googlemail virtual
> drive. That's what I used to do for my local content before I
> discovered Apache (and the associated bandwidth overhead that
> threatens to melt my modem every time someone hit one of my client
> sites) and WAAAAY before Google Mail offered a method to mount your
> account space as a network drive. OK, the Google/ICQ method is a bit
> cheesy and mixing relatively old tech with relatively new tech, but it
> works and it's /free/.
>
> </ramble>
>
> Cheers,
>
> J
>
> On 1/10/10, Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk> wrote:
> > Martin wrote:
> >> Folks,
> >>
> >> Happy New Year!
> >>
> >> And I hope all enjoyed whatever festivities or just a nice quiet break.
> >>
> >> For the first Thursday meet of the year, we have:
> >>
> >> A GUI Past & Future
> >> ===================
> >>
> >>
> >> Whilst doing the Christmas rounds, I was in discussion with various
> >> people about how we 'play' with all things players, computers, and
> >
> >
> > And a good if very select session was had despite the cold and snow. One
> > geek was showing off a very smart if overly small smartphone for
> > go-everywhere connectivity and ssh to back home. Still not sure I'd be
> > able to use it with my super fat fingers... And it looks like netbooks
> > still rule ok! Anyone seen anything of the new ARM-based machines soon
> > to come out?
> >
> > Nicely varied discussion with only very brief mention of Christmas.
> > Looks like true geeks already do have all their toys! There was a short
> > but deep little discussion on language and the use of language and of
> > how the same written text can be interpreted in many very different ways.
> >
> > That was a very good reminder as to how 'help files' and manuals can be
> > completely unhelpful to users. Also, it backs up many comments I've
> > heard that users just do not read what is on the computer screen in
> > front of them. I was reminded for over the Christmas period for the
> > plethora of trivial 'computer problems' that seemed to gravitate to me
> > for fixing 'computer things' for others. Largely, users do not
> > understand and have no interest in *any* of the jargon or architectural
> > details that we are naturally immersed in with computers...
> >
> > From that I've a good few ideas for a possible User Interface direction
> > beyond what the Moblin user interface is just now lightly touching upon.
> >
> > I think the biggest hangup for everyone with the mainstream GUIs is the
> > very flawed and inconsistent results produced when using mouse buttons:
> >
> > one click for select;
> > two clicks in quick succession for select-and-action;
> > click-and-hold to drag something;
> > many variations if keyboard keys are pressed also.
> >
> > That list is typical but those results are not consistent even on the
> > same one desktop! For example, one click on a desktop object might
> > select it whereas one click on a taskbar object on that same desktop
> > will act like a double-click!
> >
> > Note: A typical user reading this rant of mine will likely not
> > understand what is meant by the term "a desktop object". You're at an
> > advanced level if you do understand.
> >
> > Also consider that most people find the double-click to be almost
> > impossible to do physically without at least some practice... And there
> > is always confusion caused by why or how only one of a sigle-click,
> > double-click, or a right-click might be needed...
> >
> > There must be better ways... (That are intuitive or can be randomly
> > guessed and that do not require any deep menus or /any/ manuals...)
> >
> >
> > The Navvy is getting nicely revamped and is already looking an awful lot
> > brighter. The beer was good although you need to like Banks bitter. And
> > their ADSL + WiFi is finally getting hooked up.
> >
> >
> >> I'll also be putting together a few ideas to post a calendar of talks
> >> for the year. What would you like to hear? What interests?
> >
> > Next foodie social is at YO! Sushi on Tuesday 19/01/2010 pending a
> > certain person acquiring discount vouchers for us all. This time we'll
> > aim for an earlier start than usual to hopefully be able to get in there
> > before any queues.
> >
> > Next talk 'n' beers is about what happens from switch on of a PC through
> > to seeing a desktop displayed, and why it takes such a ridiculously long
> > time. Anyone with details of how to speed up that process will be very
> > welcome to add comment!! All at the new brighter Navvy on Thursday
> > 04/02/2010.
> >
> >
> > We've got a clean calendar at the Navvy for this year both for events
> > and for which days to meet. Anyone got any preference what talks, or for
> > alternate days?
> >
> >
> >> And are there any volunteers to revamp our long dormant website? (A lot
> >> of work was put into the old drupal site. Either resurrect that or at
> >> least retrieve the content?)
> >
> > No takers on that one :-( ... so far?
> >
> >
> > Cheers All,
> > Martin
> >
> > --
> > ----------------
> > Martin Lomas
> > martin at ml1.co.uk
> > ----------------
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Nottingham mailing list
> > Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
> >
>
>
> --
> Vi veri veniversum vivus vici
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
>



-- 
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr.
Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers
come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas
that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/nottingham/attachments/20100111/a05dd5d6/attachment-0001.htm