
Very cool UI for a desktop - Keios
http://www.bumptop.com/
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iamwil
This type of thing only works if you discern from a quick preview, of what the
document is. Photos work well for something like this, but documents without
titles...I'm guessing not so much.

Besides "feeling compulsively clean", The only reason why we sort or organize
anything is so that we can find it later. I think this has better potential if
a search box was tacked on to it. That way, if you search for something, all
the relevant documents rank themselves in front of you.

I can't imagine using something like this to organize code. But animating
compilation there would be a neat visual (and waste CPU cycles)

However, if it's coupled with augmented reality, it would probably make an
interesting way to browse.

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tx
People tried this approach many times: mimicking the real world, even in 3D,
while trying to organize information better on the computer.

The problem is that in real world things get messy. That is why we started
using computers to begin with! :-)

~~~
corentin
I have 23 years of experience with the world surrounding us (and by "world" I
mean: everything minus computers). In fact, I have hundred thousands years of
experience wired in my brain.

Now, I only have a dozen years of experience with operating systems,
programming languages, etc. I'm quite a technical user; I think I fit the
definition of a computer geek, or power user. I have a talent to debug very
nasty bugs in embedded, real-time software written in (unintentionally)
obfuscated C. I can install and use OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc. I can write small
Scheme programs. And still, I feel Im trapped in a jungle I cant escape when
Im using Mac OS X or Windows for everyday tasks. Our computing world is a
live nightmare. Its a terrible, ugly mess. There really is a huge impedance
mismatch between our brains and our computers.

Technology is designed (mostly) by people who think they live in a perfect,
mathematically pure world. I cant really blame them; because by "them" I mean
"us". But the real world is not binary; its fuzzy. As you said, it's messy.
Its imperfect. It changes as our mood changes. Computers should reflect this.
They dont.

I think that user interfaces that tried to mimic the real world failed because
the people behind them still kept thinking as computer scientists, university
professors or ubergeeks (they were lying to themselves). Some user interfaces
were designed to treat the user like a five-year-old kid (hello Microsoft
Clippy). Others were replicating real-world stuff that was badly designed in
the first place (VCR control panels are a good example). And most of them
focus on being cool demos with great eye candy (look at where desktop
environments are heading; who fucking cares about translucent stuff,
rotozooming windows animations, 3D?) Hollywood film-makers should take the
blame here :)

At first, when I saw this project, I thought: "yet another boring, eye-candy
environment with cool tricks but no real innovation." But I should try it;
maybe the user experience really is improved. Its worth trying.

[Sorry about the whole rant tone of this post; itÂs not really a reply to your
post either; consider it a draft of a work-in-progress essay Ill try to
complete and improve over time.]

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omouse
Very disorganized. I'll stick to `ls` thanks :P

