The Maniacal Musings of M.W. Chase

Antique PC Case!

Posted: 13 Feb 2010

nMediaPc, the self-proclaimed leading Home Theater PC component manufacturer, has released a retro-looking PC case which should have every steampunk enthusiast oohing and awing… not only over the appearance of the case, but also its affordable price. Although the retail price is $120, it is currently selling for around $89 on NewEgg! Remember, though, it’s just an empty PC case, so you would have to buy all the other parts as well.

You can see more details on the manufacturer’s page, or read a complete review with a comparison to another home theater PC case on Tom’s Hardware.

Complete Idiot’s Guide Indeed!

Posted: 9 Feb 2010

I just stumbled across this book on Amazon.com and haven’t been able to stop laughing for the past two hours (I may need to call my doctor… although he might die of laughter too). I love irony.

Yes, it is a real book. Excuse me. I must get back to laughing now.

Steampunk Weapons

Posted: 3 Feb 2010

Here’s my obligatory steampunk post of the month, since I’ve not posted anything steampunkish since December. It’s a large collection of 24 steampunk guns, blades, and other wonky weapon things.

Check it out at walyou.com!

Space… the Enterprising Frontier

Posted: 30 Jan 2010

It is now the year 2010. Looking back at my childhood, I recall how excited I was about this year. In the 1980s, the year 2010 was envision as the beginning of brilliant era of manned space exploration and scientific discovery. We would have numerous orbiting space stations, a permanent manned base on the Moon, and would be in the process of launching manned expeditions to Mars. Humanity, at long last, would take the first intrepid steps on that magnificent journey that would one day carry us to the stars.

Yet, here we are in the year 2010 and these once ambitious dreams now seem hopelessly lost. I blame politics. I do not write about politics or my own political views, mainly because I just don’t like politics, but I am going to say a few things on the matter. It was my hope that our current president, Obama, would be a progressive, pro-science president. And in many respects, he is. However, it has become increasingly apparent that he has no intention of furthering the development of NASA’s manned space program. NASA’s return to the moon initiative (the Constellation program) has been, or at least soon will be, completely scuttled (see the article on Space.com). Former NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, says that Obama’s policy will cause our nation to “take a backward step in space” (see the full article at Discovery.com).

To make matters even worse, the Space Shuttle will be retired as of September or October of 2010 and there is no alternative manned space vehicle to take its place. The Orion program, which was supposed to replace the Space Shuttle, is no where near ready to go, and won’t be until 2016 or so. However, it is now beginning to look like Orion may get axed as well, leaving NASA with no manned space vehicle, no plan to return to the Moon, no plan to go to Mars, and a manned space flight program which is all but dead. And none of this is NASA’s fault — it’s politics. Ugly, stupid politics.

For the past 40 years, the United States of America has stood as the leader in space development, exploration, and science. As things are now, Russia, China, and India will probably surpass the US by 2020. China already has an initiative to put a man on the Moon by 2020 (or the early 2020s), and both Russia and India also seem to be targeting the 2020s for a manned moon mission as well. With NASA’s Constellation program scuttled, America will no long be a leader in space, and not even a follower in space, but will simply have nothing to do with manned space exploration whatsoever. Dumb. Really, really dumb.

What then is the future of manned space flight? In theory, China, Russia, India, or the ESA could take the lead, and one of them might well be able to land a man on the Moon in the 2020s… a staggering 60+ years after the NASA landed two men on the Moon. That’s 60 years. Think about where aviation was 60 years after the Wright brother’s first flight — that should put a few things into perspective. Had we never left the moon we would by now have a fully operational manned base on the lunar surface, would have launched manned missions to Mars and the asteroid belt, and might even be close to building a biosphere habitat on Mars. Some days I wish I could switch to one of those parallel universes where these events did transpire.

But there is hope, and I firmly believe that hope lines not in government space initiatives, but in the private sector. After all, the biggest motivation for human beings has always been greed. Without a doubt, space is the place to go if you’re looking for an abundance of exotic resources, infinite growth potential, and, well, limitless available space. The Obama administration will be looking to private space launch companies to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station beginning in 2011 (see this New York Times article for details).

But that is not all. The ambitiously named Virgin Galactic (I wonder if they’ll add the word “Empire” to that a couple hundred years…) has begun construction of Spaceport America in White Sands New Mexico, with plans to begin ferrying space tourists to short excursions into Low Earth Orbit by 2012. At the present time, space tourism is a luxury that can only be enjoyed by the wealthy, but even so, by 2020 space tourism will likely be raking in billions of dollars a year. As time goes on, it will become evermore apparent that space tourism is a massive money making opportunity, and those who get their first (such as Virgin Galactic and perhaps SpaceX) stand to make incredible fortunes.

Looking beyond space tourism, I believe the future of space development lies in tapping the abundant natural resources that can be found in our solar system. The value of natural resources that exist on the Moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, to say nothing of chemically exotic moons such as Io and Titan, are unimaginable. We now know the Moon is rich in the isotope helium-3, which is extremely rare on Earth and may be the key to sustainable nuclear fusion. The potential economic value of helium-3 mining: well, I have no idea, but how much is the value of Earth’s entire energy economy worth? Asteroids also hold enormous value. If captured and mined, a single 5 kilometer diameter iron-core asteroid could, by itself, yield more iron that has ever been mined on Earth in all of human history: that’s trillions of dollars with just one asteroid. And iron is not the only element found in asteroids. Many asteroids contain such valuable metals as iridium, platinum, palladium, ytterbium, neodymium, praseodymium, and other impossible to pronounce, sci-fi sounding elements. According to the asteroid composition table, a 1 million metric ton C-type asteroid (a smallish low-iron asteroid) can yield over $1 billion worth in raw material. Keep in mind that a 1 kilometer diameter C-type asteroid has a mass of about 2 billion tons. Thus, a single such asteroid could potentially contain $2 trillion in metal resources. Even if it took 50 years to mine the asteroid, that’s still over $40 billion a year in asteroid mining revenue.

Some might be tempted to say that getting a manned spacecraft to an asteroid and setting up a viable mining operation is impossible. To them I say “humbug!”. Of course it is possible. I am not necessarily saying how long it might be before there is a viable asteroid mining operating, or one on the Moon or Mars for that matter, but barring some global catastrophe it is an inevitability. In fact, with ever diminishing resources on Earth, I think it is a necessity. For example, everyone is worried about the impending energy crisis and how we are all going to run out of fuel in the next 100 years. My answer to that is “mine Titan!”. Titan probably has hundreds of quadrillions of barrels of viable hydrocarbons just sitting there on the surface in vast lakes and oceans, all for the taking! But what companies might be able to afford such a daunting endeavor as mining on Titan? Exxon made $440 billion in revenue 2009, and $45 billion in profit. If they just put 5% of that revenue (50% of all profits, granted…) every year to a space program with the intended purpose of mining Titan for fuel, they would effectively have a $22 billion commercial space program, which is $4 billion more than NASA’s 2010 budget ($18 billion). Come on Exxon — stop poking holes in the ground and go where the real money is. Go to Titan.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that strip mining other planets and exploiting their resources is necessarily a good thing. However, I do believe it is less bad to exploit planets that do not have a living ecosphere than it is to exploit planets (such as Earth) that do have a living ecosphere . Harnessing (perhaps a better world than exploiting) the abundant resources of our solar system will be necessarily to further the advancement of human civilization, and it is preferable to obtain those resources from lifeless moons, asteroids, and planets than it is from Earth. If we do find some form of life, even if just microbes, on Mars or Europa, those planets (and moons) should be left alone in terms of large scale mining. Lifeless planets should be thoroughly surveyed for scientific study, and mined for resources in a controlled and regulated manner that preserves “scientifically interesting” features and any substantially unique geology.

But all of this, of course, is a moot point if no one dares to take that first step. I believe a commercial space venture, perhaps a joint venture between several large mining, oil and gas, and technology companies (for example, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BHP Billiton, and General Electric, the world’s single largest company), is viable by the late 2030s or 2040s. I for one hope it will happen. Right now, the commercialization of space looks to be the only way of sustaining a manned presence anywhere beyond the confines of Earth’s gravity well.

Publishers Lose Trillions to Offline Book Lending

Posted: 19 Jan 2010

Last week, Publisher’s Weekly reported that book publishers may be loosing $3 billion a year due to online book piracy. Piffle. The same absurd arguments have, of course, been used by the MPAA and RIAA about online movie and music piracy.

$3 billion is nothing, NOTHING, compared to the trillions of dollars that have been lost to the even more pervasive schemes of offline book “lending” by so-called “libraries”. There is clear evidence that these “libraries” have been “lending” books and other copyrighted material, including CDs and DVDs, to non-paying persons for decades, at an estimate loss to publishers of $100 billion annually, or $1 trillion since the year 2000.

Read here for the full story, and prepare to be astounded! Someone must put a stop to this madness before it gets out of hand! And, of course, the madness I speak has actually nothing to do with lending books or libraries…

A Look Beyond the Window

Posted: 5 Jan 2010

Windowed user interfaces have remained the dominate, all-pervasive interface since the mid to late 1980s for all but the most specialized computer systems. Irreverently donated “WIMP” type interfaces (window, icon, menu, pointer), they are indeed versatile, flexible, and more-or-less intuitive, to say nothing of their 25+ year establishment as the prevailing graphical interface to virtually all general purpose computers. WIMP type interfaces are of course not limited to Microsoft’s line of Windows operating system. In fact, the very first WIMP interfaces were created at the Stanford Research Institute and Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The 1984 release of Apple’s Macintosh personal computer brought WIMP type interface into the mainstream, on the heels of which came Tandy’s DeskMate, Amiga’s Workbench, Microsoft’s Windows 1.0, and the X Windows system for Unix and later Linux based operating systems. As computer technology continued to improve through the 1990’s, adding more memory, faster 32-bit CPUs, and significantly higher graphics capability, WIMP interface likewise advanced with improved resolution, higher color depth, and the ability to multitask between applications. Such advances were seen with Windows 95, Windows NT, Mac System 7, OS/2 Warp, and X Windows for Unix and Linux. Yet, the WIMP paradigm remained essentially the same. Even today, Windows 7, Mac OS X, and the latest 3D advances to X Windows system (such as the Compiz desktop cube), WIMPs remain the undisputed champion of the graphical user interface. The obvious exception, of course, is the multi-touch interface used on the iPhone and similar small device interface, as well as the forth coming Apple iPad.

Two Possibilities for Stagnation
There are two possibilities why WIMPs have been the predominate human-to-computer interface for the past 25 years. Either WIMPs provide such a simple, flexible, and intuitive means of interaction that anything else imaginable is just a second-rate hack, or the entire computer industry is suffering from a chronic lack of innovative imagination. Apple challenges us to “Think Different” (or at least they did in previous marketing campaigns), and Apple does shine when it comes to imagining new methods of human-to-machine interactivity. And yet, the most innovative interface they have managed to come up with in the past 20 years is the iPhone/iPad multi-touch technique. But Mac OS itself is still a WIMP.

While it is true that WIMP type interfaces are relatively simply, flexible, and intuitive (in the sense that most people are by now familiar with them), I do not believe they are perfect. Nor do I believe we will still be using WIMP type interfaces in the 2020s. Something else will have taken their place. Computers will become so advanced in the next 10 to 15 years that a WIMP interface will be akin to trying to pilot an F-22 fighter with a biplane’s control stick — it would be far too restrictive, to say nothing of being bland and unimaginative. The technologies and innovations necessary for this “new interface” of the mid-to-late 2010s are already here. In fact, we’ve seen bits and pieces of it in one form or another, scattered here and there in such devices as touch screens, netbooks, rich web GUIs, voice recognition, the iPhone, the Wii-mote, and even the complex-yet-intuitive interactive menus seen in the latest multi-player online games. All of these interfaces, while presently diverse, inconstant, and highly divergent, will soon come together to usher in the “Next Big Thing” in the evolution of the personal computer.

False Starts a-Plenty
Of course, every company in the computer industry is looking for the “Next Big Thing”. Since the invention of the mouse, there have been countless attempts to contrive new and better ways for humans to interact with computers. Most have failed. Devices such as the trackball sought to replace the mouse, and although some people still use them they have seen only marginal adoption. Stylus tablets are only used by graphics artists or in computer-aided design applications. Touch screens have significant potential, but until very recently, have only seen widespread utilization in specialized niches such as ATMs and kiosks. Voice recognition still still lousy and is not really practical in an office environment. Can you image what it would be like in a cube-farm of office workers dictating emails and spreadsheets to their computers all at once? The concept of 3-D mice and interactive glove devices, while nifty and interesting, proved to be dismal commercial failures. And then there is still the problem of the window, icon, menu, pointer paradigm itself — a paradigm that has proven extraordinarily difficult to surmount.

To be sure, there have been many valiant efforts (and quite some horrible ones) to escape the flat 2-D, rectangular box world of the WIMP. Visionaries of the late 90s foresaw advanced 3-D virtual realms where users might interact with their computer environment through electronic sensor gloves to rotate objects, push and pull applications into view, and type, quite literally, “in the air” on virtual keyboards floating in a cyberspace around them. More down to earth, Microsoft tried it’s hand at BOB — perhaps the most embarrassing product ever released by the Redmond Giant. Apple tried to improve the WIMP interface with OS X, but the only real change was its impressive array of eye-candy. For Linux and other X Window system there is Compiz, and despite it’s eye-popping “wow!” factor, Compiz really does nothing to escape the WIMP type interface — it only adds a rotating cube and OS X-style eye-candy. Windows Visita introduced Flip 3D, but that only proved to be a sad, sad shadow of what Exposé and Compiz are able to do. Sun’s Project Looking Glass had the potential to become a true 3D desktop environment, but the project seems to have been abandoned since January 2007. One interesting new innovation for modern WIMPs that has caught on are “desktop widgets”. Widgets are single purpose blocks that performs a useful function, such as displaying the weather, providing a note pad, or displaying information on the computer’s system resources. However, today’s widgets are simply jammed on top of existing WIMP interfaces. In fact, none of these innovation go far enough to dethrone the haggard WIMP.

Prelude to the Next Big Thing
To begin with, we need a name to call this hypothetical class of user interfaces beyond the WIMP. Most of the time, such user interfaces as simply referred to as post-WIMP interfaces, but such a designation only describes what the interface is not and tells us nothing about what it is. From this point forward, I will call this post-WIMP interface NICE, which is short for Naturalistic Interactive Contextual Engagement. Cheesy, maybe, but who cares. NICE is nice.

There are four key technologies that underpin the coming advancement of NICE interfaces, and these are where the true innovators must focus. 1) the death of mice and keyboards, 2) multi-touch combined with heptic interaction, 3) naturalistic display of applications and information, and 4) seamless Web/OS/Application environments. Of all of these, point number 1 is most likely to raise some eyebrows. Obviously, people still need input devices of some kind, so it would be more accurate to say “the death of mice and keyboard as we know them”, but I will get to that shortly.

Many other technologies will likely go into NICE interfaces. Such technologies will include voice recognition, facial recognition, gesture recognition, eye-tracking, and further advances in 3D manipulation, better virtual environments, greater CPU power, and higher network speeds.

Toss that Mouse, Trash that Keyboard
Let’s make one thing clear, the keyboard has to go. After all, keyboards are just glorified typewriters based on technology dating back 150 years with an alphanumeric placement scheme identical to that which was popularized in the 1880s. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Victorian-era aesthetics, and once you learn to touch type on a QWERTY keyboard it is an amazingly fast method for inputting text and information. But, in all honesty, the device we call the keyboard has to go. For one thing, the keyboard is an extremely limiting device. Most have between 101 to 104 primary buttons, and a few “advanced” keyboards add some multi-media buttons and various hotkeys. Apart from entering text and hitting those few pre-defined buttons, what good is a keyboard? Another minor quibble is the fact they are really hard to clean, and after a few short months of use can become quite nasty. I dare you to inspect your keyboard closely. Go on — take good a look!

As for the mouse… well, it was certainly an innovative invention for its time, but that time has come and gone. The same holds true for simple mouse alternatives like trackballs, laptop trackpads, and stylus pads. Just as we should throw out the keyboard, so too should we toss the mouse. Yes, a mouse is a very simple and useful tool, but it is still a rather limiting pointing device with just a few buttons (usually just two or three, and maybe a scrolly thing). Plus, you can only use one mouse at a time. Most modern computers allow you to plug in more than one mouse at a time, but they do not provide a second pointer. Even if they did, using a second mouse with your off-hand is oddly difficult (give it a try!). Consider the fact that you can use both of your hands and all your fingers rather intuitively to point at things and manipulate physical objects in the real world. Why not on computer interfaces as well? The technology for this is already prevalent, and is currently in use on devices such as the iPhone and the new iPad.

You Can Touch This
So the mouse and keyboard are both mercifully gone — and good riddance. But what now? You are sitting in front of a computer screen with no keyboard and no mouse. What do you do? The most natural course of action is to simply touch something you see displayed on the screen. But this is nothing new. Touch screen technology has existed for decades, most prevalently on ATMs and kiosks. Touch screens are also found on in car navigation system, PDAs, cell phones, and of course the iPhone and iPad from Apple. In fact, touch screens for tablet PCs have existed for some time, long before the “marvelous” iPad, and can also be found for desktop PCs and even some laptops as well.

Touch screens have one key advantage over an indirect pointer — immediacy of interaction. We are born knowing how to manipulate objects with our hands and fingers. An object on a screen such as a box or button, or even 3D objects such as a sphere or cube, can be quickly and intuitively manipulated by hand. The only real downside of touch screens is added cost (which will certainly go down as demand rises) and getting fingerprints on the screen. As for that last point, touch screens are at least trivial to clean — just give it a quick wipe with a cloth.

Whereas a mouse and older touch screen technology is restricted to a single pointer, Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as well as Microsoft’s Surface, are the preeminent examples of multi-touch technology. Multi-touch allows a user to employ one, two, or more than two points of contact to control and manipulate objects. For instance, a user could press his finger on a photo, hold and drag it around, or he could touch two corners at the same time and “pull” the photo wider. He could place his fingers on two separate photos and drag them around independently, or pull them together to “merge” them into a single photo. This is but one small example — the possible number of multi-touch combination are literally endless.

But what about the keyboard? Surely, no one is going to type on a little virtual keyboard on their touch screen. The first concession we must make is that many people may prefer to use keyboards even in a post-WIMP world of NICE interfaces. But there are alternatives for those who wish to use them. The best alternatives are the so-called “virtual keyboards”. A virtual keyboard could simply be a touch screen of roughly keyboard sized dimensions (about 16 inches by 6 inches), which lays on the desk in the traditional keyboard position. This virtual keyboard, or control board more accurately, can project anything imaginable — including a traditional QWERTY keyboard layout. The real advantage, of course, is that this control screen is not limited to a QWERTY keyboard layout. It could display the keys in alphabetic order, or display keys for the Greek alphabet, or even Chinese characters. It could display additional function keys for an active application such as save, print, and open buttons, or buttons to control font and formatting. A graphics artist could draw directly on the control board with a stylus. When playing a movie or music, the control board could show multimedia controls. When playing a game, the game could display a customized control board complete with buttons, dials, gauges, spinner controls, action macros, and anything else the game designers want. And it would all work with full multi-touch capabilities.

Of course, the major draw back of a touch screen control board is the fact that you cannot feel the keys or buttons. This is a legitimate concern which needs to be addressed. One possibility comes from the field of haptic technology (“haptic” meaning “sense of touch, or force”). With haptic technology, it may be possible to create a touch screen with thousands of small actuators that can generate subtle but focused vibrations at the point of contact. These vibrations would stimulate the nerves in fingers upon contact, thus providing tactile feedback upon pushing the virtual button. If the control board was pressure sensitive such that lightly touching a button only activates the vibration, but does not actually trigger the button, then the user could “feel” the buttons without having to look down. Then the user could activate the button by applying more pressure from his finger — and more pressure would cause the virtual button to “push back” with greater vibration. The control board could also produce a “click” sound as well. This would simulate, at least roughly, the tactile feedback of a physical keyboard.

Interactive multi-touch display screens in combination with touch screen control boards will go a long way toward eliminating the need for mice and keyboards, as well as jumping light-years beyond their capabilities. But the post-WIMP world of NICE interfaces certainly does not end there. Voice recognition has come a long way in the past 20 years, but it also has a long way to go. As voice recognition continues to improve, we will be able to interact with computers with voice commands, or at least dictate text with a reliable degree accuracy. However, interacting with a computer by voice is not always practical or preferable, especially in office settings. Rather than typing or dictating, some people may prefer to write by hand (for those of you who do not know, I am referring to that ancient and lost art of handwriting). In a world of NICE interfaces, we may not even need a control board at all. The keyboard itself, or any other controls, could be entirely virtual: visible only with specially glasses or projected into a surface with laser beams (such a laser projection keyboard is already available from I-Tech). Perhaps a special glove or a device similar to a Nintendo Wii-mote could be used to interact with objects displayed in a full 3-D space and enabling gesture-type commands. Indeed, a special glove or device may not even be needed if the technology to “watch” a user’s hands becomes feasible.

Such 3-D gesture interactions combined with touch screens brings multi-touch capabilities into a whole new realm of possibilities. A user could tap the corner of a photo on his screen, pinch his finger and thumb together, and pull back — thus, “pealing back” the edge of the photo. He could rotate his hand to flip the picture over. He could nudge his hand forward, pushing the photo away, or pull his hand toward himself bringing the photo closer into view. The same could be done with any kind of object presented on the screen, with countless possible interactions enabled by an endless variety of multi-touch and 3-D multi-gesture combination.

Think Outside the Window
Perhaps the most important goal of NICE interfaces will be the elimination of the the prevailing WIMP paradigm itself — that is, the paradigm of windows, icons, menus, and pointers. The pointer issue has been addressed, but what about windows, icons and menus? Surely these cannot be entirely eliminated!

In truth, it may not be possible to entirely eliminate windows, icons and menus. They are, after all, pretty good ways of presenting things for a user to interact with. People simply expect to be able to select an application from either a menu or an icon and have it pop open in a window. But nothing says that computers have to behave that way. Applications and operating systems only work that way because people programmed them to work that way. They can be programmed to work differently — and, hopefully, in more natural and intuitive way.

To begin with, we have to consider for what purpose people use computers. In short, people use computers to run applications that do specific things like word processing or viewing a movie. Sometimes people run more than one application at once, but rarely will they be using more than one at a time (except perhaps listening to music or watching a video while browsing the internet or checking email). When a user wishes to “do something”, how does he go about telling the computer what he wants to do or what application to open? With WIMP computing, the user must open a main menu, scroll through a list of high-level menus, drill down to a sub-menu, and click on an application name. If he might even have to drill down through several sub-menus to find the application. The location in the menu true may not always make sense to the user either, or may be organized by the name of the company that made the software itself. Yuck.

A hypothetical NICE interface would do away with the desktop altogether and simply show a visually attractive representation of the computer system’s available services and applications (similar to the iTouch/iPad, but going well beyond). What this representation looks like could vary widely, and the user may be allowed to choose his preferred interface style, or customize it has he sees fit. One possibility is a sphere of bubbles floating a 3-D space, each bubble being an application, service, or utility. The bubbles could be big or small, near or far, depending on how often they are used or how important they are to the user. Selecting a bubble (touching it or using a gesture) would unravel the bubble into view. Another possible representation might take the form of a large rotating dial, or dials within dials, divided into functional areas such as “Work”, “Entertain”, “Communicate”, and so forth. Rotating the dial to one of these areas would cause a larger selection of applications to rotate into view. This expanded area could then be rotated to select the desired application. If 3-D environments are undesirable, or deemed excessive or impractical, simpler representations are of course possible as well.

In fact, why should a user need to select “word processor” or “email client” in the first place? Perhaps there is a more naturalistic and intuitive approach. What the user really wants to do is “get back to writing my thesis” or “send a note to my friend, Bob.” NICE interfaces will be based on this kind of natural interaction, rather than the traditional menu driven interactions we are currently used to performing. For example, using a dial-type interface, the user would have a set of initial options such as “Work”, “Entertain”, “Communicate”, “Shop”, “Read”, and perhaps “Manage” (for managing the system itself). Turn the dial to “Work”, and the dial expands to show “Use Calendar”, “Do Some Writing”, “Financial Records”, and “Garden Plans”. Selecting “Use Calendar” will then load the calendar into view. If instead he turns to “Entertain” he might see such options as “Watch a movie”, “Watch digital TV”, “Listen to music”, “Play a game”, or “Open photo albums”. Selecting “Watch digital TV” would open a listing of TV channels which he can view. Selecting “Watch a movie” or “Listen to music” will bring up a list, or additional search options, to find a particular movie or music (whether it is on his computer or access through a remote service over the Internet). Back on the main dial, he turns to “Communicate” he would get options for his contacts, a public directory, voice call, video call, text message (email), text chat (instant message), and perhaps even for writing and sending a physical letter or card through an online service. The “Shop” option would entail all forms of shopping (various online stores organized by specialty or preference), as well as finding physical shops to go to in town, or perhaps even ordering pizza to be delivered. Turning to “Read” would bring up options for reading books, magazines, and newspapers from online services, or for visiting web sites and searching the internet for information. The option for “Manage” exists because he has to have a way to manage various preferences about the way he interacts with the computer, or to browse for new software. Adding a new option to the dial or reorganize where things are on the dial, may be as simply as moving the items around and snapping them into place.

When an application itself loads it will still be a kind of window. Today, the term “window” is used in computer terms to mean a “window into the application through which users interact”. Really, then, a window is simply an interactive view. In a post-WIMP world, these views do not need be square or rectangular: they could be a circle, a cube, a collection of separate floating components, a set of interlocking frames, a multi-layered grid, or a interactive 3D world. Of course, because most things that we interact with on computers such as documents, emails, financial statements, books, and movies, are all inherently rectangular, most applications will likely also be rectangular. But the squares and rectangles need not necessary be a restriction, and so the idea of “windows” should naturally give way to the idea of “interactive views”.

It should also be pointed out that power users, system administrators, and programmers should have a views into the computer’s inner workings that is normally under the hood as far as general users are concerned. Users who are interested in browsing the file system, setting up a scheduled command script, optimizing the start-up sequence, or doing their own programming, should be able to do so through a system management area where more complex interfaces would exist.

Obviously, the example given here is purely hypothetical and is only meant to illustrate the point that we do not have to restrict ourselves to a window, icon, menu, pointer type interface.

Computer Power Without End
The final piece of the puzzle in developing a post-WIMP system is the computer itself — that big, noisy, power hungry, failure-prone box sitting next to you. There has been, in recent years, a great deal of talk about “software as a service” and “cloud computing”. If these ideas come to fruition, and wireless and Internet bandwidth speeds continue to improve, and if certificate-based encrypted communications (or something similar) can be made “really, really, really secure”, then the box on the desk may eventually become nothing more than a 3-D graphics and information rendering box. All your applications, data, movies, music, games, indeed everything, will be stored in either your personal online data vault (through a system that must be extremely secure and tamper proof), or available through subscription channels (i.e., music, books, movies, newspapers, and so forth). You may think “I don’t want everything online!” but consider the possibilities: where you go, so goes all your data and subscriptions. Sitting at a coffee shop, you could open up your cell phone or pocket computer and access any newspaper or movie service you are subscribed to. TVs will also be connected to your online subscriptions (indeed, TVs will just be big screen computers), and can access all your movies, music, shows, and games. In your car, you could dial up whatever music services you are subscribed too — or have books, newspapers, or magazines dictated to you. If you are at a friend’s house and want to show him that great novel you are working on, you can do so from his computer if you have shared a read-only version of it with him (which, if you forgot, you could access through your cell phone). Did you forget to bring those adorable baby pictures to work to show to your all colleges? Not a problem (except perhaps for them) — just call the picture up from any workstation that is linked to your personal data vault.

This idea is already here, in a very limited way, with such services as Flickr, Google Docs, and various social networking sites. You can also store files online through various secure data storage services. But none of these services have expanded to their logical conclusion, nor are they in any way consistent or transparently interconnected. Virtually all computers today still have hard drives where most users continue to store all their documents, photos, movies, and music. For people who do not backup frequently (of which their are many, simply because the average person does not know how), the risk of losing everything on their computer is very high. With full online storage, that issue goes away.

With the addition of cloud computing, much of the number crunching that goes on inside your computer could, in theory, be handled by massive, distributed computer systems dedicated to offloading CPU intensive tasks. Cloud computing also includes software-as-a-service, where complex facial recognition software, voice recognition software, or a “personal assistant AI”, are not actually running on your computer, but on a supercomputer which has the horsepower to handle it. The supercomputer will likely not be a single computer, but rather, a distributed system of thousands of servers. The distributed system may not even be owned by anyone, but could run on public nodes with every computer online acting as a “node” capable of processing information. Or may be not. Who knows what the future really holds?

Conclusion
The development of Apple’s iPhone multi-touch interface and the new iPad tablet mark the advent of the first generation of NICE interfaces in the coming post-WIMP world. They are not the end-all be-all of some revolutionary new idea, but rather, should be understood as prototypes of what is yet to come, much as Unix Motif and the Apple Lisa were prototypes of the WIMP interfaces of today. The next ten years will see this revolution move into full gear, and I predict that even Microsoft will deliver a partial post-WIMP interface with Windows 9 when it is released in 2016, although a true NICE interface may not be released until Windows 10 (or would that be… Windows X? Gasp!).

The early part of this decade is also a time for open source developers to take the lead and dive head first into the post-WIMP world. Linux, with X Windows (X11 and X.org) and its desktop environments such as KDE, GNOME, and Xfce, have an opportunity to leverage their position as open platforms to usher in a Renaissance of post-WIMP interface designs, prototypes, and free experimentation — the wilder the better. Linux developers should take pride in their efforts and seize the initiative to become the leaders in this new “think outside the window” movement. After all, Linux is better than Windows, right? Why not be better than Icons, Menus, and Pointers as well?

The only real obstacle that I foresee is the implementation of a multi-touch control board to replace the traditional keyboard. Some effort is already underway (for example, the Optimus Tactus keyboard from Art.Lebedev Studio), however, all are in the early prototype stages. When such control boards are released, they will likely be prohibitively expensive: perhaps $800 or more in 2011 or 2012. By 2015, the price will hopefully be in the $100 range making them at least reasonable for the average consumer, considering the immense advantage they hold over clunky old keyboards.

Then, and perhaps only then, will we see the NICE interface revolution ascend to its ultimate potential.

Doctor Who and a New Year

Posted: 31 Dec 2009

“Doctor Who” ranks pretty high on my list of ultimate sci-fi series–in fact, it is probably the ultimate Steampunk sci-fi series of all time, hands down. And well it should be, as it has been running for over 45 years, albeit with a sizeable gap between the classic and the new. The new series is good, but the nostalgia in me still loves the classic Doctor Who, especially the 4th Doctor (you know, Tom Baker). At any rate, this year wraps up the last year with David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, and I have no idea if the 11th Doctor will be a good one or not, we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the mean time, here’s a little tribute to Doctor Who I ran across which is pretty neat.

And here’s a 2.5 minute video history of the 1-8th Doctors, which is well worth watching. Just remember, all you who are just now tuning in to the New Who, the Classic was just as good–perhaps even better.

Finally, just for fun, here’s what Doctor Who might be like if done as a Japanese Anime!

Enjoy, and have a happy New Year!

Steampunk in Times Magazine

Posted: 22 Dec 2009

Looks like there is a nice little article on Steampunk in Times magazine. Steampunk is still far from mainstream, and I dread to think about what would happen if it were to become mainstream, but it is still nice to see a little press every now and then!

And wow, that’s a nice stove-pipe hat!

The Physics of Space Combat

Posted: 18 Dec 2009

Check it out. Gizmodo has an excellent article on what the real physics of space combat would be like. As you might imagine, Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Gate, Star-whatever-sci-fi-show-you-like, have got it completely and utterly long.

A movie or TV show that tried to portray realistic space combat would be admirable, but probably very boring in terms of action, and would have to be primarily plot and character driven with a strong focus on other factors besides a massive special effects budge to be successful. Now that I think about, maybe a movie or TV show that tried to portray realistic space combat would be pretty neat! Of course, I wouldn’t mind reading a good book that portrayed realistic space combat, either. Any suggestions?

Oh, and don’t forget to check out Atomic Rockets as well, a site dedicated to helping sci-fi authors, or anyone else (maybe even Hollywood writers… yeah right), get the physics of space propulsion and combat correct.

War of the Worlds: Goliath

Posted: 14 Dec 2009

It seems like every day there’s just a bit more steampunk in the world. The latest addition to the steampunk genre is “War of the Worlds: Goliath”. It’s an animated movie, but it seems to be rated R for language, violence, and possibly sex and nudity. It’s, after all, produced by the “Heavy Metal” people, so anything goes I guess. Of course, that also means the film won’t pull any punches so it could be pretty cool. In fact, based on the trailer, it will be pretty cool.

The basic synopses from “Heavy Metal Magazine” is as follows (no real spoilers, so don’t worry):

In 1900, the Earth was attacked by ruthless invaders from the planet Mars. The Martian’s 80 ft tall, heat-ray spewing, Tripod battle machines laid waste to the planet, but the invaders ultimately fell prey to Earth’s tiny bacteria.

Fourteen years later, Man has rebuilt his shattered world, in large part by utilizing captured Martian technology. Equipped with giant, steam-powered Tripod battle machines, the international rapid reaction force, A.R.E.S., is Mankind’s first line of defense against the return of the rapacious Martian invaders. Based in a massive fortress complex at the south end of Manhattan Island, the young warriors of A.R.E.S. train under the leadership of Secretary of War, Theodore Roosevelt, and the grim General Kushnirov.

And return the Martians do. The rematch finds the multinational squad of the A.R.E.S. battle Tripod “Goliath” on the front-lines of a vicious interplanetary offensive when the Martian invaders launch their second invasion using even more advanced alien technology. In the crucible of combat, this young team helming the mighty Goliath will be tested to the limits of their endurance and courage as they fight for Mankind’s very survival under the onslaught of an implacable enemy.

This is the saga of “War of the Worlds: Goliath”, a 90-minute, animated, steampunk epic of war, comradeship and courage under fire.

Neo-Victorian Steampunk House

Posted: 8 Dec 2009

Now here’s something you could do if you had, oh I don’t know, maybe a million freaking dollars? You could renovate an old Victorian house into a shiny brass Neo-Victorian Steampunk House! This fantastic work was done by Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum of Modern Victorian Home Restoration. Way to go!

<drool>I wants…</drool>. Go here to see more.

Ubuntu Linux 9.10… Oh, who’s such a cute koala!

Posted: 7 Dec 2009

As is apparent from my blog post a few weeks ago, I just built a new computer and it needed a new operating system installed on it. For this, I chose to install the latest, greatest, most powerful modern operating system on the planet. No, it’s not Windows 7, silly — that’s a piece of junk. I’m talking about Ubuntu Linux 9.10, Karmic Koala. And who doesn’t like koalas? Just remember folks, every time you boot-up Windows, Gandi kills a koala.

As a philosophy, “ubuntu” simply means “we are who we are through the collective community of humanity”. As an operating system, Ubuntu 9.10 is rock solid stable, is as slick and responsive as quicksilver, is virtually immune to virus and trojans, and makes it easy to manage and install new software using the new Ubuntu Software Center. It is, to put it bluntly, just plain cool.

The first thing you need to know about Ubuntu, which is true for all Linux distributions, is that it is free. That’s a huge plus. Windows 7 Home Premium current retails for $199, and Ultimate is $319. Ouch! You know what you can do with $319? You could buy a PS3, or a Blu-ray player and a few movies, or have 15 stake dinners at Outback, or… well, you get the point.

The second thing you need to know about Ubuntu is that it’s great. No, make that awesome. The only possible reason anyone could justify running Windows would be 1) it’s for business and required by the company 2) you must use MS Office for some dumb reason or 3) to play games. Because of point 3, I do keep a Windows partition on my computer to boot up Windows if I want to play a Windows only game. Other than that, there’s no reason for Windows anymore — and good riddance. If you disagree, please post and explain why — I will refute you most emphatically.

And while I’m on the subject of games, for all you nay-sayers who think Linux sucks because there are no good games, well I have news for you. There are actually quite a lot of good games for Linux these days. Just check out these links:

http://whdb.com/2008/top-25-linux-games-for-2008/
http://techgage.com/print/top_10_free_linux_games
http://www.anewmorning.com/2009/05/11/10-games-that-will-turn-your-linux-into-a-warmachine

I was going to write a full review of Ubuntu 9.10, but it turns out there are already a bunch of good reviews of Ubuntu 9.10. Thus, I’m not going to waste my time repeating exactly the same thing these reviewers say, so just take a look for yourself:

http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/10/26/ubuntu-linux-9-10-karmic-koala
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/29/ubuntu_9_10_review
http://gadgetmix.com/index/ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala-review

And just so no one accuses me of being bias, this is a very thorough review that includes both good and bad. Note that I had none of the multimedia problems this fellow had with PulseAudio, and I had no difficulty installing the proprietary codices from Medibuntu either.

Once you get Ubuntu installed, you will have at your fingertips a massive repository of other software you can download and install at the touch of a button. Just checkout the Ubuntu Software Center (which you will see at the bottom of the Application menu). This post talks all about it (although really it’s a piece of cake to install software–as it should be).

A list of some great Linux software, by category, can be found here.

Also, be sure to check out this guide for some “must-have” Ubuntu Linux software, as well as this guide for some productivity apps.

And of course, I should add that you can get Ubuntu 9.10 Linux operating system for free from Ubuntu.org. Enjoy!

Abney Park – Aether Shanties

Posted: 4 Dec 2009

Well, it seems the steampunk band Abney Park has released their new album, Aether Shanties! Just based on the titles alone, it looks to be a very steampunkish album, perhaps more-so than Lost Horizons, which was pretty steampunk by anyone’s definition.

I have not been able to find a good video of any of the songs from “Aether Shanties” yet, but when I do I’ll post them. Until then, there are two free sample songs from the album on the Abney Park web site. Enjoy!

Vernian Process – Behold the Machine

Posted: 30 Nov 2009

The Neo-Victorian, Jules Verne inspired, Steampunkish band, Vernian Process,has released (or are close to releasing) their new album, “Behold the Machine”. You can listen to their new album, or download it if you wish, on the band’s MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/vernianprocess. Seriously good stuff for the steampunk in us all!

What’s in a Name?

Posted: 29 Nov 2009

For the past few years, I’ve published my short stories on Mythania.com under the nom de plume M.C. Williams. But M.C. Williams is not my real name. In fact, my name is Mark William Chase. I chose, initially, to publish under the name M.C. Williams because I felt it had a certain “ring” to it, and it simply felt more “authory” to me (and yes, I know “authory” is not really a word–leave me alone). “Mark Chase” just seemed too short and simple, and it was not a very unique name. Then again, “Williams” is a pretty common last name too, and searching for M.C. Williams on Google just turned up a bunch of hits for “McWilliams”. Darn Google.

That got me to wondering: why not just use my real name, but spelled out in full? Searching for “Mark William Chase” turned up very few hits on Google, so perhaps it would work out for the best. Everyone I asked also advised that I should just go with my real name as it was not as bland and banal as I apparently felt it was. And besides, if I did get famous, I should probably aim for fame with my real name.

Anyway, the point is I have just spent the day changing my nom de plume back to my real name. Thus, all writing you see by me should now be credited to my real name, Mark William Chase, or Mark W. Chase.

There is a great article on AbsoluteWrite.com on nom de plumes, on why to use one and why not. Check it out – it is well worth reading if you have contemplated the idea.