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Business Week ran an interestimg article about Microsoft’s newest idea for a GUI.

Gates Digs Surface Computing

Microsoft’s chairman talks about the company’s new tabletop computer technology that relies on touch and hand gestures

The last time computer scientists truly changed the way people communicate with PCs, they created the mouse. Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III thinks his company might have the next breakthrough.

On May 30, Gates is unveiling a new technology called Surface Computing that lets people interact with computers using touch, hand gestures, and physical objects equipped with optical tags. The technology turns tabletops into dynamic canvases so users can, for example, browse their music libraries by dragging a finger across the horizontal display or maybe comparison-shop at an electronics store by simply plunking devices onto the screen.

This is more than just touch-screen computing. The screen, which has a set of cameras underneath it, can read 52 touches at a time, meaning small groups can work around it together. The computer can also recognize optical tags on an object, such as a digital camera with Wi-Fi. Then, by just placing the device on the tabletop, folks can automatically zip their pictures onto the computer, then edit them by hand on the screen.
Developing an Ecosystem

Microsoft (MSFT), which will make the hardware as well as the software, plans to limit the initial market to showcase establishments where consumers can learn about the device. The first 30-inch tabletop units, priced between $5,000 and $10,000, will debut in November, primarily through hotels and retailers. (Read more)

While Harry Shearer is best known as one of the more prolific voices on The Simpsons and as a member of Spinal Tap, he has also been an insightful commentator on many things over the years on his radio show and in print. Here’s a short item that’s right on the mark, unfortunately.

Harry Shearer: A Challenge to Political Journalists: Tell Us What We Need To Know

In the 2000 Presidential election, George W. Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative”, and political journalists, mining his history as Texas governor for relevant examples, tended to take him at his word. When, after the debacle of the election, Bush took office as a minority-popular vote President, it was possible to believe — I was one of those believers — that the conditions of his elevation to the Presidency would dictate a consensus-seeking, middle-of-the-road Republican presidency. To quote weapons inspector David Kay, we were all wrong. What’s clear now is that Bush and his self-chosen running mate entered office with a strong and clear agenda — most prominently, to vastly increase the power of the executive branch — and took every opportunity to advance that agenda. The millions of words reported before the election prepared us in no way for that reality.

Now we’re at the (highly premature) beginning of a new presidential campaign. In the light of recent events, it would seem incumbent on political journalists to bend every effort to tell us not only what we don’t know but what we need to know, about the agendas and goals that lie beneath and behind the speeches and ads and polls. We should now be in no doubt about the consequences of our journalists’ failure to do so. It’s not too strong a statement to say that this job, not reporting on the doings of the Lohans and Hiltons, is why they enjoy the protection of the First Amendment.

Any bets on how well they’ll do this time?

This is a great story I heard this morning on PBS’s Studio 360. The article is from the Home of All Things Mingering.

Between 1968 and 1977 Mingering Mike recorded over fifty albums, managed thirty-five of his own record labels, and produced, directed and starred in nine of his own motion pictures. In 1972 alone he released fifteen LPs and over twenty singles, and his traveling revue played for sold out crowds the world over.

How is it that such a prolific musician has gone under the radar for the more than thirty years? The answer is that all took place in Mike’s imagination, and in the vast collection of fake cardboard records and acapella home recordings that he made for himself as a teenager in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s.

In 2003 two record diggers (Dori Hadar and Frank Beylotte) stumbled into the world of Mingering Mike at a flea market. There they discovered a collection of albums that were made solely of cardboard, each intricately crafted with gatefold interiors, extensive liner notes, and grooves drawn onto the “vinyl.” The crates contained albums not only by Mingering Mike, but also other unheard of artists such as Joseph War, the Big “D,” and Rambling Ralph, on labels such as Fake Records, Inc., Decision, Sex, and Mother Goose. There were even soundtracks to imaginary kung fu films and a benefit album for sickle cell anemia.

Hadar posted pictures of the albums on Soulstrut and Mike instantly became a cult hero. He tracked Mike down and eventually Mike revealed his story of how as a lonesome teenager he dreamt of being a soul singer, songwriter and producer. And how he lived out his dream by creating an amazing imaginary career for himself.

Mike’s discography is enormous. We’ll be adding more albums, 45s and songs in the coming days.

In the meantime, check out the galleries and the new MINGERING MIKE BOOK, out now on Princeton Architectural Press!

So, you thought you were clever and could continue to get away from all those pesky TV commercial messages by fast forwarding through them with your TiVo. Not so fast, Bunky.

The TV network suits are looking for other ways to plop a product ad in front of you. Some of the ideas include five second long commercials. Blap! You have just been exposed to a message before your sweaty thumb can hit the FF button. Cute.

Another ploy is to include sponsors’ actual products into shows that will contain no normal commercials at all. Funny, how all motor vehicles seen on the shows will be from the same manufacturer. This is not a new scheme. The motion picture industry has used it for decades. Ever notice how booze bottle labels always seem to be plainly visible in movie scenes?

According to Dawn Ostroff, president for entertainment at CW, the need for the networks to “engage with viewers to stay with the commercials,” is intensifying for a couple of reasons. One is that Nielsen Media Research (yes, that Nielson) is planning to change the way it reports the ratings data long used by advertisers to decide where to place their commercials. On May 31, Nielsen will start measuring the number of people watching the commercials as well as the programs.

Just for fun, let me share some information about Winamp that has been hard won through my research and lots of trial and error screwing around. First, here is a brief Winamp history lesson.

WinAMP was released as freeware by Justin Frankel in 1996. All future freeware and shareware versions had their name changed to the lower case Winamp.

Even after Nullsoft, its parent company, became a subsidiary of Time Warner, the software is still the most powerful, if not the easiest to use, free player. As a mater of fact, it is better in its basic free (Lite) version than some other player’s paid versions. The free Winamp is just slower in burning and ripping CDs than is the US$19.95 paid version.

As you can see from the screenshot above, I have loaded Winamp with plug-ins. The following is a list of my favorites:

• MuchFX: This little do-dad lets you use more than one plug-in at a time. Very handy.


• Dynamic Library: An addition to the Media Library module. Gives a tree-view access to your local files.


• BigClock: Just what it says. Time to the tenth of a secomd.


• Enhancer: Revives the sound of those compressed MP3 files and streams. Others do the same thing, but this is free.


• StreamRipper: Rips audio streams to MP3 files. Uses ID3 data to name an individual file for each song.


• Audio Level Meter: This is not a Winamp plug-in, but it is just so cool I had to include it.


• Sound Solution: A multi-band processor. Combines equalization, compression, limiting, stereo image enhancement, etc. for each frequency band.

This is my first post in a long time. The drought in verbosity was caused by my decision to take a break from what had become a not very pleasant routine. As a result, I now have a fresh outlook on life and am pointed in a new direction.

In the interim, my mother passed away at the age of one hundred after a lingering illness, I resigned my board position with GCARES, Inc. after ten years of service, and I am now looking for new and interesting ventures. There are some intriguing possibilities.

Podcasting seems to be a natural extension of my skills and experience. Let me know if you have suggestions.

I will also be bidding on some web design work. This all started when I resigned from the maintenance of the GCARES website. My involvement with it ended in November, 2006.

It is good to be back at the keyboard. Oh yes. It is new, also. Let us see what happens next. Thanks for your patience.