Graphs from AIA, for actual words and stuff: archrecord.
13 April 2009
08 April 2009
BumpTop
I've been enticed by the prospects of 3d environments for every-day workflow efficiency. A while back I saw the preview for BumpTop, and today the program has left beta for the public's consumption. So, of course, I grabbed it and am giving it a go as we speak. I thought I'd leave a few of my comments (from a perspective of work efficiency).
First, it's fun to play with. Second, the fun wears off, real quick. So what's left:
1. Different sized icons. You can shrink and grow icons of files and piles as you like. This is probably the most beneficial aspect of the program I've found, as it gives me a quick and easy way to visually organize my files beyond the constraints of the desktop's two dimensions.
2. Piles. A quick and convenient way to pile up a bunch of files, so they don't take up so much visual space. Unfortunately, piles do nothing more than normal folders do - or at least, I haven't found such a function. When you view a pile of piles, you see all the files in all the piles. Not very helpful for organizing (why wouldn't I just make a big ol' pile in the first place?). Althought it would mess with the physical metaphors being used, keyword piles would be helpful, where a single file can be part of multiple piles sorted by keyword.
3. Gestures. Probably another best-of feature. Love the pie menus. Circle a bunch of files to make actions on them, such as pile by type. When viewing images, drag to the left or right to navigate between images, etc. BumpTop also uses drag-n-drop features, such as dragging files onto the email icon to automatically attach them to an email. You can also drag icons onto walls, but I find that every time you click them or double-click them, the slide down the wall. A bit annoying.
4. Photo frames. Who cares? If I want a cool way to view images, I'll use a real image-viewer. However, if you want a constant distraction, you can set up a photo frame to cycle thru pics from a folder or rss feed. Neat?
5. Facebook and Twitter icons. At first I thought these were just dumb links. They're actually "widgets" to which you can throw or drop files such as pictures to share them via each service. Slick.
9. Physics and 3d: I find the physics to be a bit clunky, but I think that's more a matter of me getting used to the gestures (such as a 'throwing' a file towards a pile to add it to that pile). I have noticed that larger objects are more difficult to move - I'm anxious to see if this helps organize tons of files or not. I think the 3d aspect is one of the stronger aspects of the program. This allows users to spatially attribute organizational control to many more files than a simple 2-D desktop.
Conclusions: I've always avoided using the desktop as ... well, a desktop because Windows offers such crap options for the way to view it and organize it. Therefore, I always stick my working files in a folder (aptly named, "Working") so I can view by list or details or what have you. BumpTop offers a fun way to keep all my working files in one location, so I'll be giving it a try. The extent of its usefullness will be determined in the future.
Wish list:
- Keyword piles
- Make one of the walls a browser
- Keep your metaphors consistent: piles of piles should be piles of piles.
- A way to view details of files as well as sort and search by them
First, it's fun to play with. Second, the fun wears off, real quick. So what's left:
1. Different sized icons. You can shrink and grow icons of files and piles as you like. This is probably the most beneficial aspect of the program I've found, as it gives me a quick and easy way to visually organize my files beyond the constraints of the desktop's two dimensions.
2. Piles. A quick and convenient way to pile up a bunch of files, so they don't take up so much visual space. Unfortunately, piles do nothing more than normal folders do - or at least, I haven't found such a function. When you view a pile of piles, you see all the files in all the piles. Not very helpful for organizing (why wouldn't I just make a big ol' pile in the first place?). Althought it would mess with the physical metaphors being used, keyword piles would be helpful, where a single file can be part of multiple piles sorted by keyword.
3. Gestures. Probably another best-of feature. Love the pie menus. Circle a bunch of files to make actions on them, such as pile by type. When viewing images, drag to the left or right to navigate between images, etc. BumpTop also uses drag-n-drop features, such as dragging files onto the email icon to automatically attach them to an email. You can also drag icons onto walls, but I find that every time you click them or double-click them, the slide down the wall. A bit annoying.
4. Photo frames. Who cares? If I want a cool way to view images, I'll use a real image-viewer. However, if you want a constant distraction, you can set up a photo frame to cycle thru pics from a folder or rss feed. Neat?
5. Facebook and Twitter icons. At first I thought these were just dumb links. They're actually "widgets" to which you can throw or drop files such as pictures to share them via each service. Slick.
9. Physics and 3d: I find the physics to be a bit clunky, but I think that's more a matter of me getting used to the gestures (such as a 'throwing' a file towards a pile to add it to that pile). I have noticed that larger objects are more difficult to move - I'm anxious to see if this helps organize tons of files or not. I think the 3d aspect is one of the stronger aspects of the program. This allows users to spatially attribute organizational control to many more files than a simple 2-D desktop.
Conclusions: I've always avoided using the desktop as ... well, a desktop because Windows offers such crap options for the way to view it and organize it. Therefore, I always stick my working files in a folder (aptly named, "Working") so I can view by list or details or what have you. BumpTop offers a fun way to keep all my working files in one location, so I'll be giving it a try. The extent of its usefullness will be determined in the future.
Wish list:
- Keyword piles
- Make one of the walls a browser
- Keep your metaphors consistent: piles of piles should be piles of piles.
- A way to view details of files as well as sort and search by them
01 April 2009
big spending
I read this economist's posts, and today's has some scary graphs about projected government spending.
http://www.thredgold.com/html/leaf090401.html
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