Well, it's about time. That old IR standard has been around forever, and although it has worked pretty well, we are due for something better. I don't know about any of you, but I'm sick of waving my remote around aimlessly, flailing like some helpless camper shoing away a swarm of mosquitos, hoping against all hope that my wimpy little IR remote can command my stereo, TV, DVD player, what have you, to do my bidding just so I don't have to get my lazy butt off the couch.
Never mind that I probably could use the exercise. Never mind that it probably would take less time for me to get up and walk the five feet to my box and hit the power button. It's the principle of the matter. I want to be in control. I'm a man. And that's what we do.
Now, finally....FINALLY, we have hope. We the advent of TI's new low-power bluetooth, we should start to see a raft of new, radio-frequency [RF] based remote control systems which perform great, and don't cost an arm and a leg.
Now don't get too excited. There is still a lot of stuff that has to happen. TI will release the parts early next year. That means the earliest you'll see real, viable products will be Xmas 2010. And even then, they will be 1.0 products, which I never trust. Still further, remote controls need to be linked to a compatible receiver. That means, at least for your existing equipment, you'll need to buy a compatible box that links up to all your existing gear with IR repeaters. That's fine with me, since I do that already in order to hide by equipment in a cabinet. But you may not. In any event, I don't see a lot of folks scrambling to throw out all their old stuff just to get a cool new remote.
So this will take time, just like any new standard. But it will happen.
And when it does...no more arm flapping. Cool!
20091015
Dramatic view of Earth and Jupiter
Just had to show this completely unique perspective view taken by the Mars Global Surveyor in 2003. It shows the Earth at the top with Jupiter waaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom. This is NOT a composite. It is one picture, with both planets in the same frame at the same time. Taken from Mars. Thanks to DVICE for bringing this humbling viewpoint of our little planet to my attention. Here you are:
W. O. W.
One cool thing is that, although much bigger in the shot, Jupiter is actually much farther away from the camera than Earth. Earth was 86 Million miles from the camera, and Jupiter was a whopping 600 Million miles away. Just try to imagine how freakin big Jupiter must be!!
But to me, the most amazing thing is that we are here, amongst all this nothingness, clinging to this ball of dirt and water, all going about our everyday lives. All while this thing we call the universe keeps spinning round and round.
Just kind of makes you think...doesn't it?
If you want the hi-res directly from NASA, click here.
Cool.
W. O. W.
One cool thing is that, although much bigger in the shot, Jupiter is actually much farther away from the camera than Earth. Earth was 86 Million miles from the camera, and Jupiter was a whopping 600 Million miles away. Just try to imagine how freakin big Jupiter must be!!
But to me, the most amazing thing is that we are here, amongst all this nothingness, clinging to this ball of dirt and water, all going about our everyday lives. All while this thing we call the universe keeps spinning round and round.
Just kind of makes you think...doesn't it?
If you want the hi-res directly from NASA, click here.
Cool.
20091014
10GUI - The next evolution in multi-touch?
The advantages of a multi-touch interface between a computing device and a human is pretty obvious nowadays, at least to anybody who owns an iPhone. But even before that, just watch an episode of Star Trek - The Next Generation and you'll figure out the only way that Data was able to use the bridge computers so quickly was that he was using a multi-touch interface. So the concept has been around for quite some time. It has merely taken some time for the engineering to catch up with science fiction. Now that we have affordable technology to make this happen, it's time to take it to the next level. That's exactly what is behind the concept outlined by Robert Clayton Miller at 10GUI.
Take a stroll over to his website and watch the little video demo he has put together. He has come up with a very compelling concept. Of course, it will take a ton more than some slick graphics and animation to turn this into reality. But this idea, presented in a very compelling way, may be a concept whose time has come. Now all we need is a company to build the thing [details, details!].
What do you think? Are we at the dawn of a renaissance of human-computer interaction based upon touch? Let me know!
tom
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