Google's House of Cards 115
theodp writes "In 'The Design That Conquered Google,' The New Yorker's Matt Buchanan reports that 'cards' — modeled after real cards — are set to become one of the dominant ways in which Google presents certain types of information to users. The power of a card as a visual-organization metaphor according to Matias Duarte (lead designer of Android), is that 'it makes very clear the atomic unity of things; it's still flexible while creating a kind of regularity.' Hey, maybe that Bill Atkinson was really on to something with that dadgum HyperCard software of his back in the '80s!"
Re:WebOS (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Everything? (Score:4, Interesting)
I love the old idea "Everything is a file", but I hate that today everything in Windows is something behind complex graphical userinterface and files are hided. Same can be said from iOS, Windows Phone and even from Android.
That is one reason why I like Unix systems like Linux systems with KDE, as I really get access to files most of the times.
I want that every email is a single file and that file is renamed by the subject and sender, file metadata includes the file timestamp when it was received and I can manipulate the email with any text editor and even write one with such.
I love the simplcity what Xerox did in Xerox Star, have a simple outbox and inbox directories on desktop where you can drop files to be sent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4vC80Pv6Q&feature=player_detailpage#t=315s [youtube.com]
It should really be so easy at office, between family and friends computers (in different buildings/countries) just to drag and drop files to other computer. It was impossible at baud modem time but now when many have started to have 1024/512KBits connections and even many has wider bandwith, it would not be problem to drop few text files, few pictures and even couple songs to be transferred to other computer.
Welcome back SSH and network transparency.
At some point people should get noticed that all these "cloud services" are just stupid, that saving time and money it is simpler just to go and buy a cheap Plug-PC and attach USB drive to it and let it connect to your home network and you get NAS what to be binded to computers and get access to it from Internet by those who you want to get access. 250-500GB storage would be enough for most students (expect those who are downloading warez etc).
Or if the space isn't so much required, a cheap 20 buck Android phone with 32-64GB MicroSD card makes wonderful NAS with correct software, it doesn't even require power so much and as you can have attached webcam, microphone and speaker + some other sensors, it can be home security system as well.
trello (Score:5, Interesting)
As a good example, you should take a look at trello [trello.com] , which is basically an organization/design/progress list tool, where each atomic activity is represented by a card. I've been using it extensively for about a year now, and the card+board metaphor really seems to make intuitive sense to everyone I've introduced to it.