Warren M. Myers in the ACM magazine Ubiquity wonders about the effect the rectangularity of monitors has had on UI design. He suggests that if they were circular, instead of thinking about UI design in terms of a Cartesian grid, we be thinking in terms of polar coordinates and wedges. A snippet:

An entire system can be developed wherein the main interface, the buttons that allow you into different segments and levels of the system are based on concentric rings. The middle circle will bring you to the top level of the system. Festooned about the center circle can be wedges that describe the different segments of the system.

As he says, he’s definitely thinking outside the box. (Thanks to Kurt Starsinic for the link.) [Technorati tags: gui]

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I am not a geek lets you paste in your HijackThis log, creating a version with links from most entries to a database of explanations… [Technorati tags: spyware hijackthis]

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In what sounds like one of those April Fools articles media outlets enjoy — ones with implausible premises like, oh, Karl Rove turning out to be the source for the outing of a CIA agent or George HW Bush’s ne’er-do-well son becoming president instead of Jeb — The Times of London is reporting that NTT in Japan has discovered that the human body’s electrical field is a superb conductor, suitable for downloading data:

NTT, the Japanese telecoms group, and the team of scientists that invented the Red Tacton system, envisage a future in which the human body acts as a non-stop conduit for information. Wireless networks — often hampered by intermittent service — will eventually be replaced, NTT says, by “human area networks”.

…

With Red Tacton sensors miniaturised and built into every type of device and product, the list of potential uses is endless, Hideki Sakamoto, of NTT, said during an exclusive demonstration for The Times. By simply touching an advertising poster, for example, product information and an order form could be sent to your laptop. Shake hands with a new contact, and every detail that would normally appear on a business card will leap across your arms and download itself to your mobile phone.

Oh, great, the very first example they can think of is spam. [Thanks to John Maloney for the link.] [Technorati tags: RedTacton Tacton]

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Sascha has done a spreadsheet estimating the cost of covering some square miles with a wireless network. Conclusion:

…clearly, the costs are far cheaper for an open source, open architecture system than are currently being estimated for proprietary networks.

[Technorati tags: muniwifi wifi]

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Andrew Rasiej, running for the obscure post of NYC Public Advocate, has put forward a plan that would connect wireless routers on city lamp posts using the city’s dark fiber. The total cost would be less than $10/person (= $80M) and would provide free wifi access in public places; businesses and residents would pay about $20/month for basic high-speed service.

Of course, the incumbents, always zealous in their protection of the free market (hah!) are lobbying hard to prevent municipalities from providing this service. [Technorati tags: rasiej wifi]

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If you’re a PC owner and have looked under the hood at the BIOS, you may be a teensy bit confused about whether you should “Allocate IRQ to PCD VGA” or enable “Palette Snooping.” The Rojak BIOS Optimization Guide will explain it all to you. Then it’s up to you to decide if you want to risk varying from the defaults. Most of the entries come from 2003, and the information is not specific to particular motherboards, but I’ve found it to be a good place to start. [Technorati tag: bios]

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You know what works? Skype Out. You plug a microphone and headset into your laptop (or use the built-in ones), plug your laptop into a broadband connection, pay Skype 10 euros for about 10 hours of talk time, and you can call anywhere in the world. Plain old Skype lets you call any other Skype user for free, computer to computer, but Skype Out lets you call from your computer to other people’s phones. The connections have been a bit echo-y, and calls to mobile phones are way more expensive — 4.14 minutes to the US from London cost me .085 euros while 2:06 minutes to a London cellphone cost .615 euros — but it works.

Or, you could bring your VOIP modem with you and plug a telephone into it, but not if your family needs the modem at home.

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I have this morning failed to install a new motherboard (an Asus P4P800-E) on my machine. The little internal LED is on indicating that power is getting to it somewhere somehow, but nothing else comes on. Yes, I’ve checked that the internal power connectors are connected.

Tomorrow I will bring it to the friendly local computer store where they they have the decency not to laugh at me until I’ve left.

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A friend of mine wants to move from Blogger and set up blogging software on her server. She’s not very technical, but knows which end of an FTP to hold and has at some point in her past changed permissions on files on her server. Between Movable Type and WordPress, which do you think she’s more likely to succeed at installing on her own?

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I seem to go through periods when attempts to access a computer on my home network gives this error msg from XP:

“… is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The network path was not found.”

Google tells me I am not alone. After trying many many different fixes, this time changing node types worked. No, I don’t know what a node type is, but neither do I much care. The solution may work for you if you meet the following condition:

Go to one of the computers that’s not accessible. In a command box type “ipconfig /all”. (If the results scroll off the screen, instead type “ipconfig /all | more” and use the space bar to scroll.) Look for “NodeType.” If it’s not “Hybrid,” you may have found your trouble. (I’m not spelling this out step by step because if you don’t know to do this stuff, you shouldn’t attempt the fix.)

Here’s a discussion thread that explains how you can change the node type by editing the registry. Note that editing the registry is a scary, scary thing that can kill your PC dead, so don’t do it unless you know what you’re doing.

Also please note that there are lots of reasons that you may be getting that message. Google it and you’ll find many other less drastic solutions, including remembering to share some folders, turning on the file and print sharing client, and making sure the squirrel has left your computer for the summer (it’s a long story). Only edit your registry if all else fails. (Final disclaimer: This seems to have worked for me, but in an hour I may find out that I’ve hosed my entire system.)

Or – allow me – Get a Mac. [Technorati tags: xp networking nodetype]

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