Interesting Links for 23-05-2012

[andrewducker]

• Could Angry Birds lead to mass murder? (and other tales of computer-game-inspired violence)
  (tags: computer_games violence society )
• Does alcohol cause 1 in 8 deaths before retirement? (No, no it does not)
  (tags: alcohol statistics uk )
• SpaceX ship has Scotty's ashes on board
  (tags: space spacex startrek )
• On road taxes, fat taxes and cigarette taxes
  (tags: happiness politics tax economics )
• Incredible realtime lighting demo in a browser. Pretty.
  (tags: graphics animation web javascript )
• What's going on with the UK's nuclear deterrent?
  (tags: libdem uk nuclearweapons )
• MIT's Freaky Non-Stick Coating Keeps Ketchup Flowing
  (tags: ketchup storage technology )
• Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes
  (tags: food children blog usa school )
• An interesting input method for computers. Still going to suffer from the Gorilla-arm problem, but nice to see new approaches.
  (tags: input computers technology )
• Which TV shows have the highest body count?
  (tags: tv death )
• HS2 rail alternatives no solution
  (tags: trains uk transport )
• TaxPayers’ Alliance: opponents of tax cuts suffer from “sexual jealousy”
  (tags: tax uk wtf )
• I Don't Respect Your Beliefs
  (tags: belief respect religion )
• Mozilla Collusion - see who's tracking your movements across different web sites.
  (tags: mozilla firefox privacy web )

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Which TV shows have the highest body count?

Hitchhikers. Entire human race (less two) destroyed in first episode. Entire universe destroyed in subsequent episode.

Still going to suffer from the Gorilla-arm problem.

I am glad someone else still remembers this. When I was an undergraduate it was the canonical example of bad UI design which looks cool on paper. Seemingly half the world doesn't remember this -- or at least the half that designs UI in film and games. (I wince every time I watch Joker use the console in Mass Effect -- his arm is half suspended in the air all day and he has those brittle bones. He's got to be in agony by the end of shift.)

[andrewducker]

Yeah - they look awesome, but ow,ow,ow.

I was playing Dance Central yesterday, and the menu selection method there is to wave your arm up and down to select an option and then swipe it across your body to select it. Fine for occasional use, but long menus start to ache pretty quickly.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Heh... when playing "Red Steel 2" I had a sort of "tennis elbow" from hours of wiimote sword fighting. Then, I think that was actually sort of meant to happen.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

After watching people with Ipads and smartphones awkwardly using them on public transport where they're clearly not able to hold them or use them at an optimum comfortable angle, my suggestion would be that comfort/ease of use isn't necessarily a priority for a lot of people as opposed to perceived faux low tech ie "you just have to touch it!" ease of use and the appearance of using/owning it.

If you had a leap thing like that but on a surface angled at 45 degrees-ish in front of you, slightly higher than a normal keyboard would be, that might be more comfortable and hopefully not too sore on your neck.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

The ideal is presumably to have something which is super intuitive at first, but over time yonaturally use smaller and smaller motions until youre just twitching fingers the minimum amount.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

> Hitchhikers. Entire human race (less two) destroyed in first episode.

You probably don't see all the bodies on screen.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I would rather change the tone wouldn't it?