Link Sweep

Here are a few cool bits I thought you might like.

The Not-Keyboard and No-Mouse

Really cool story via PlanetB. This IS the next generation of user input. (Literally. Just go watch any episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation 😉 ). You have to watch the video to really get it. I can't wait until tablet computer makers catch up and we, the unwashed masses, can get our hands on them.

One issue I see: Ergonomics. I think we'll also need a separate display hooked up to the tablet so that you're not hunched over this thing looking down at it all the time - that would be uncomfortable, even at an incline.

Google Data Adopts JSON

The Google Data blog informs that data is now available via JSON. JSON is not restricted by the "same-origin" policy like XMLHttpRequest, meaning we should really start to see some cool mash-ups coming along any day now.

Sad State Of The Empire

Via slashdot and spolsky: A former Microsoft employee gives us a glimpse at what it was like working for Microsoft on the Vista team. What floored me was the quote:

it took between 1 and 3 months for my code to get to the root node, and some multiple of that for it to reach the other nodes

This is for a shutdown menu. I don't think it's possible that this is an infrastructure (i.e. hardware) or scaling problem. This has got to be simply a process issue.

There's been enough talk about this on the blogosphere now that my guess is Microsoft will ask him to take the post down. It should really be interesting to see how the general public reacts to Microsoft Vista when it ships (or will they know any better?).