January 2007 - Posts
Ever need to do this? Here's a useful site that keeps them for you.
There are different kinds of humans, or users, and so there are different kinds of ways to interact with computers. The graphical user-interface was one of the greatest leaps in this field, and ever since, even though gradually advancing, we have made slow progress. This field is coming more to the fore today than ever, and recent technologies like WPF is one sign that interaction with computers are becoming more important for people. The look-and-feel of telling your PC what to do.
I have different 'modes' of interaction. When writing code and testing systems, I like to keep my hands on the keyboard at all times and hardly ever touch my mouse (it's lots faster!). When I leisurely browse the web however, I like to use my mouse almost exclusively.
The keyboard I use has the QWERTY layout, which was devised in the 1860's with the sole purpose of making me type SLOWER!! The way we interact with our computers are not only facilitated, but completely limted by the devices we use to interact.
To overcome limitations of the way we have structured information around us, some smart guys ("Humane") have come up with ENSO, which claims to allow you to do what you want to do, regardless of which program you wish to do this in. It's a very interesting concept - have a look at the video on their homepage to get an idea of what they do.
Today we have the hardware to run such complex software that we really shouldn't limit ourselves to the kinds of hardware that we have available today for interacting with PC's.
Imagine being able to physically interact with visuals on your PC. Have you seen the movie "Minority Report"? Let's have a look at where we're heading.
Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Here, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32)
Have a look at the TED talk he delivered a year or so ago, or download it here. It's when I look at exciting developments like these, that I remember why I am in this industry...
ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 shipped yesterday. Microsoft also released the source for this, including the client-side JavaScript Library and the server-side ASP.NET implementation.
The next version of Visual Studio, Orcas, will have ASP.NET Ajax functionality built-in.
It's not really my style to use this blog to complain, but I just had to share this one.
I booked a flight to visit my parents in Bloemfontein over the christmas period last year, and the only airline that flies there (quite a small town!) from Cape Town is South African Airways (SAA). I always book my flights over the internet - it's more convenient and you generally get a better price.
In November 2006 I decided to cancel this flight, and drive up with a friend, so I cancelled my flight via the SAA website. Early December, after getting no confirmation of this, I phoned them to confirm, and I was surprised to hear how surprised they were that I cancelled via their website - apparently that is not possible! No one could believe that they provided this functionality on their website. That's okay, I thought, I don't really care right now. Can I just cancel my flight over the phone, right now? Nope... they would have to wait to see where this website cancellation is in their system before they could do that. I'm not even going to describe the rest of my interaction with them, but I ended up flying this cancelled flight.
On the 5th of January 2007, I received this email from SAA:
Good day,
We are unable to refund, your ticket has been flown.
Thank you
Online refunds
sa
TKT-0832104748860 RCI- 1A LOC-ZKPMI4
What?! How can these guys still be in business?! I forwarded this to their customer care, and this is the only response I have received to date (an Auto-Reply):
Kindly note that this message serves as an acknowledgement even though it reflects as an "out of office"
Thank you for your e-mail addressed to Customer Care Department and for taking the time to write to us.
We will investigate and revert to you shortly. This will take longer than normal due to the high volume of incoming correspondence.
Kindly note that our operating hours are Monday - Friday 08h00 - 16h30. We are closed on weekends and public holidays.
Kind regards,
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS CUSTOMER CARE TEAM.
I am not surprised at all that there is a "high volume of incoming correspondence".
I've had other bad experiences with SAA which I won't bore you with right now, but this will be the last, as far as I can help it.
Oracle has a new beta program underway for their next database, and if you want to know more, or want to participate in the beta, go here.
Check out haika (beta):
"hakia is building the Web's new "meaning-based" search engine with the sole purpose of improving search relevancy and interactivity, pushing the current boundaries of Web search. The benefits to the end user are search efficiency, richness of information, and time savings.
The basic promise is to bring search results by meaning match - similar to the human brain's cognitive skills - rather than by the mere occurrence (or popularity) of search terms. hakia's new technology is a radical departure from the conventional indexing approach, because indexing has severe limitations to handle full-scale semantic search."
Ethereal, a popular (for good reason) network protocol analyzer, has recently been renamed to WireShark.
I just found this out when I tried downloading Ethereal and found their site was down.
There's been a need for this for some time, and the guys have finally included this new BCL type in the latest Orcas CTP. (Most people don't know that a similar type has always been present in the J# runtime library (vjslib.dll) as java.math.BigInteger!)
Go here to read more on this type, or to leave your comments.