TED Hype continues: a recent speech has gotten some people hoping that we’ll be seeing Minority Report style interfaces in the near future. Anyone remember Tom Cruise processing information by “gesturing wildly” in front of a huge curved display?

Full 3D controls—which allow the user to directly interface with information—definitely has useful applications. Witness Tony Stark trying out his advanced body armor in Iron Man, before spending money on fabrication. But unless the anatomy of human beings changes significantly, or until we start looking at information in a new way, 3D interfaces won’t be the best way to get things done, for the majority of office and productivity applications.

Anyone who’s had problems with basic calisthenics will agree with me. Constantly moving your limbs around—while trying to manipulate with any precision—is very tiring. When you’re meeting deadlines, the last thing you want to worry about is fitness or getting tired. As Jakob Nielsen wrote back in 2006: “despite being a staple of computer conference demos for decades, 3D almost never makes it into shipping products. The reason? 2D works better than 3D for the vast majority of practical things that users want to do.”

I’ll be sticking with my keyboard and mouse, thank you very much. There’s nothing wrong with 3D gesture controls; they’re cool, and definitely have their uses. But for practical uses, these interfaces will limit efficiency. What do you think is more responsive anyway, dragging a slider with a mouse, or gripping a virtual dial before turning it?

You, Too, Can Soon Be Like Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report’, Usability in the Movies — Top 10 Bloopers, 2D is Better Than 3D (Image from Minority Report, fair use)

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Remember when my maturing self ranted about sexting? Well, a 14-year-old was recently arrested for allegedly spreading a nude picture of his ex (of the same age) to other students in his school. According to police, the picture has now spread among “dozens of students in at least three different schools.”

Again, when did young people start thinking that sending naked photos of yourself to someone else was cool? Then again, we have the explanation of the victim’s mother, who said her daughter “did something out of trust. I suppose wanting to be accepted, loved. It was a mistake.”

All I know is that, I’ll make sure my kid never puts compromising photos of themselves on record—or at least try to impart that on them as the rule numero uno, and that exceptions are only possible when you’re 40 or something. Maybe I should try reverse psychology, since children tend to do what their parents tell them not to do.

In any case, parents need to do a better job of teaching their children (and understanding) the concept that, once something gets passed around, it’s virtually impossible to eliminate. That’s especially true when we’re talking about the internet, a community that goes gaga over pictures of a fully-clothed yet hot pole vaulter.

Source (Photo from textually.org)

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Practically everyone knows that the Nintendo Wii easily outsells competitors from Microsoft (Xbox) and Sony (Playstation 3), making it a clear winner of the “7th-generation” console wars. A source of minor amazement on its own, analyzing the little Wii’s market performance shows that you can’t rely on specs alone to sell well.

Spectograph, a website that lets people view and compare the specs of gadgets (and a personal side-project of mine), has the specs of the Nintendo Wii, the nine variants of the PlayStation 3, and the seven Xbox 360 versions.

As you can see, the Wii succeeds even if there’s practically only one version (that we know of). The Wii remains unchanged since its launch back in November 19, 2006—around the same time the first two PlayStation 3 models debuted. Fast-forward over 3 years later, and we see that the same Wii competing with Sony’s newest offering, the PlayStation 3 Slim.

So why does Nintendo’s offering sell more, despite the weaker hardware? That’s clear too: The Wii’s motion-based control was something genuinely new, and had mass market appeal. It’s pretty easy to figure out how to play Wii Tennis, and you don’t have to remember which button does what. The graphics may not be as awesome as Halo’s, but Nintendo understands that it’s ultimately about gameplay that attracts attention and drives sales.

Great specs still matter, because the Wii’s motion-control system is only possible due technological advances. Ultimately however, you also need a good game and something genuinely different to take advantage of those specs. Seeing Microsoft market Project Natal is confirmation that Nintendo was right all along.

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Those who’ve tried sharing OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass online experienced some problems. Originally available only from YouTube, the video wouldn’t play in certain countries. Never mind that you couldn’t even embed the MTV on other websites, people not being able to access OK Go’s video was a clear departure from what made the rock band famous: A Million Ways and Here It Goes Again. Both became viral because anyone could watch it, anywhere, anytime.

Apparently the clamor was so great that OK Go released what’s most likely the best letter ever written to fans. In it, OK Go’s Damian Kulash explains the limitations:

So, for now, here’s the bottom line: EMI won’t let us let you embed our YouTube videos. It’s a decision that bums us out. We’ve argued with them a lot about it, but we also understand why they’re doing it. They’re aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans, theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they’re doing the right thing.

The beauty of the letter is how it explains the situation and presents all sides of the issue, without making any accusations. Yes, a paragraph or two calls out the music industry for relying on a dead-end business model, but there is not hint of anger or even irritation. While expressing loyalty to its fans, providing a way to bypass YouTube’s limitations, OK Go also makes it clear that it understands EMI’s position. In the “us vs. you” environment characterizing media and intellectual property discussions, such an calm and reasonable approach is very refreshing.

The video by the way, is available below:

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Like any other sub-30 geek, I’ve had my fun with the Duke Nukem series. From its humble side-scrolling platformer beginnings, up until Duke Nukem 3D, the franchise made sure I never considered Bruce Campbell the originator of “come get some” until much later.

I missed out on Duke Nukem Forever’s announcement however, with the legendary game-that-never-was only entering my consciousness once it became fashionable to mock it’s eternally-delayed production. Do phrases like “Duke Nukem Never” ring a bill?

And now, months after DNF’s development was officially halted, a meticulously researched article on Wired chronicles the game’s lengthy development process—and the reasons behind it:

[Duke Nukem co-creator George] Broussard simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of Duke Nukem Forever coming out with anything other than the latest and greatest technology and awe-inspiring gameplay. He didn’t just want it to be good. It had to surpass every other game that had ever existed, the same way the original Duke Nukem 3D had.

As new games and technologies appeared, Broussard’s perfection kept forcing the development team back to the drawing board. He was flush with cash (thanks to the Duke Nukem series and other successful titles developed by his company, 3D realsm), and the financial freedom turned out to be his—and Forever’s—downfall. With no urgency to get an income-generating product on to the market, no discipline existed to make that happen.

It seems that somewhere along the way, Broussard forgot that games are successful when they are fun to play, not because they are perfect. Modern Warfare 2 is far from perfect. It isn’t a revolutionary game that changed the FPS genre forever, nor does it feature a memorable story. And don’t get me started about the borked multiplayer of the PC version.

Still, while MW2 may not be a classic that video game historians will write about years later, it was still fun. That’s something Broussard apparently missed in his quest to create the perfect game:

Ironically, the end was within reach, even if Broussard couldn’t see it. Raphael van Lierop, who was hired in 2007 as a creative director, was given several pieces of the game to play. It took him about five hours. Broussard was stunned; he’d thought those levels would take half that time to get through. “You could see the gears turning, with him thinking, ‘Oh wow — maybe we’ve got more game than we think,’” says van Lierop. Broussard had been staring at the game for so long, he’d lost perspective.

Even if another development team gets you off the ground, you will never be the same again, Duke Nukem Forever. Rest in peace. It just took 12 years to kill you.

Source (Image from Wikipedia)

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Out of the 6000 plus fans of the Tom’s Hardware Facebook page, 94% are probably males (this according to the page’s admin, who I know personally). That’s no surprise, but I’d still like to see more women getting into computer hardware. This isn’t another drool-induced rant pleading for hotties to turn into geeks and spice up our socially-challenged online lives, mind you.

Nothing makes a community livelier than diversity, and geek circles desperately need a woman’s touch. So how do we get more women drooling over specs and components? Here’s my five-step plan.

Release a Gaming PC With a Twilight Paint Job

Like or not, the Twilight saga is here to stay. And when you have women—including those of substance—involuntarily swooning over Stephanie Meyer’s shallow yet infatuation-inducing prose, you’ve got to use that to your advantage.

Enter the Twilight PC. With a painted Jacob and Ella emblazoned on the side of this powerful yet understated ATX tower, appeal to women is all but ensured. However they acquire one (out of their own funds or that of a loved one’s), you can bet they’ll eventually become curious about what makes it tick, introducing them to the components inside.

Make the Next Sims a Really Demanding Game

Already as a joke, enthusiasts like wondering if that new video card can handle Crysis. To attract the legions of female Sims gamers, the next installment of the Sims series should surpass Crysis’s system requirements. All for the sake of creating the most realistic soap opera simulator of course.

This will force women to become more aware of specs, and the components needed to achieve them. Heck, it will probably force them to determine, on their limited budgets, what’s the best overclocking setup possible. And guess where they’ll turn for advice?

Showcase the Attention Women Geeks Already Enjoy

Make it clear to women that there’s an appreciative audience waiting for them. Show them how the novelty of being female and into gadgets is very intriguing for your (typically) male geek. Just ask Sarah Townsend and, more recently, Adrienne Curry. The pioneer America’s Top Model winner recently posted a picture of herself, apparently playing World of Warcraft in her birthday suit:

Yes, if my five-step plan works, women geeks will become a dime a dozen, no longer able to rely on their gender to stand out. Yet this will allow female enthusiasts to distinguish themselves through real achievements, such as pushing the i7 920 past 4GHz merely on air.

Highlight the Success of Geeks

Face it: free from the superficial pecking order of high school, geeks rule more than jocks. They make more, are happier, and actually change the world. Let’s highlight those realities, and show women everywhere that geekdom is where true success happens. Women today are still attracted to successful men, not necessarily because they want good providers, but simply company who know what they’re talking about and how to get things done.

Yes, we’ve all heard stories about a homeless man wasting away his life playing World of Warcraft while living on welfare checks. So let’s make it clear that those cases are exceptions rather than the rule.

Treat the Losers Like Pariahs

Yes, every community has them, the trolls who like picking fights, to sexually-repressed infantile idiots virtually drooling even at the hint that their new online contact is a girl (even if it hasn’t been conclusively proven yet).

So what do we do with them? Treat them like the losers that they are. Show them that their antics will never get them ahead, and they’ll probably leave for dirtier pastures suitable for their immature outlook. What remains are discussions where approaching women will feel confident that they’re in discussions featuring substance, where their opinions and insights are respected.

What do you think? If you’ve got your own ways to get more women into computer hardware, feel free to share below.

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