Random thought: What about using a pen instead of a mouse?September 10, 2008
It occurred to me today: What device have people historically used to provide them with a high degree of pointing accuracy? A pencil, or a pen. And that's what a mouse does: It gives a person a high degree of pointing accuracy.
Given that a pen is something people learn to use in school (even previous generations are great at it), I'm surprised that this hasn't been used more.
Now, pen interfaces already exist... artists use them for drawing on the computer, etc. But if I'm not mistaken, you have to also hold the pen up to a special surface. I wonder what this technology might be like if you didn't have to hold the pen up to a special surface, and it still worked if then pen came a little off whatever surface you held it against.
Does it afford more or less accuracy than a mouse? What would it be like using a computer with this device for clicking on icons, dragging windows, etc.
UI IntuitionSeptember 6, 2008
My mind loves to ponder UI, and ways to expose functionality without cluttering it up.
Today when I was using Google Chrome, I asked myself, how can I get a list of sites I've been to since there isn't a drop-down button beside the back button? I thought, wouldn't it be clever if the user held down the mouse button while clicking the back button, the list would appear?
I tried it and it happened. Then I smiled :)
Speeding up JavaScriptAugust 23, 2008
A fascinating development in the Internet world this week: The promise of
speeding up JavaScript, bumping it up into a whole new tier.
Interesting stuff. But in my mind, it's DOM manipulation that is more of the bottleneck.
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