OT: THIS IS THE FUTURE (think "Minority Report"...

Watch the 3 movies. Amazing. Wonder if Apple has anything planned to counter THIS:

[www.microsoft.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

There's been stuff around about it since about May last year - including a little video parody that enthuses - "One day your computer will be a big ass table, with pictures of other people's kids all over it." and 'Instead of using one of the more popular compact devices to check out where you're going, why not use a device the size of a small car?"

I'm actually looking forward to touch tech, but I do love a bit of dry sarcasm.

Hee hee. It has a drool factor but basically it's a smart table to suck in your credit cards in hotel lobbies. "Surface" says it all.

Hm. AirBook doesn't fare much better... equally useless but at least it's portable.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Instantly find Next/Previous timeline Gaps with Shift/Option -G !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Looks nice. Best not spill a drink on it.

imagine the arguments over who left tea rings on it? or worse still used it as a pouffe?

Imagine the future...

It doesn't seem like they imagined much for the Surface. You put a camera on it and the photos appear on the table. Great if you're using a photo card that only carries 7 photos like in the example. By the time that gadget is in every house, digital cameras will hold thousands of photos, and the cameras themselves will be able to automatically download onto the house computer simply by being in the room (wi-fi).

And who wants directions mapped out at their home and then transferred to their phone or Zune? Why not just get in your car and have your car give you directions as you're driving like nav systems already do?

I also loved the part about how you can draw like a three year old, or send postcards in the mail that you write on because you no longer have a keyboard. It took that woman 5 times as long to write "hi mom" as it would have with keys.

I can't believe that such a cool technology would be pimped using the most boring examples in the world. Here's my Microsoft surface commercial:

Imagine a world where you put your hand on a table and get a comprehensive medical analysis of your well being. "Sorry Bob, you have lymphoma".

Imagine a world where your friends can no longer lie to you. "Ashley, put your hand on the table. Have you been sleeping with my brother?"

Imagine a world where your computer makes suggestions for everything you eat and drink. "Wouldn't much rather have a Heinekin? It would go better with that spaghetti you just put on the table."

Andy

about a year ago MS posted about 15 videos on TouTube --
The videos were on YT about 4 days then Poof they all were gone -

The videos had about a million views and thousands of comments-
some were not good--

I think maybe if they made it into a Touch Refrigerator it might be
more useful --

It could show you whats inside the the fridge with out opening the door -
- Jay-

They already have something like that Jay...it's called a glass door

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Nice suggestions Andy. I love the analysis stuff.

What about a surface where you have hyperlinks to any tech item placed on it, including troubleshooting and repair manuals. So you can plonk your Scarlett camera on it and get all the operating manuals, a couple of tutorials for different setups, maybe a list of compatible editing systems, an exploded view for the techs, and so on.

In other words, I guess, things that help, rather than just things you can buy. Right now I can see the Surface being all about sales. Just more space for advertising, which is obviously sorely lacking in our world right now.

It totally needs a keyboard, too. Unless Speech to Text gets a lot more savvy really quickly.

I want it to float in the air like it was in Minority report I hate sitting down.
I think Walter Murch would like it better as well.

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

Too much negativity...need to think outside the box. In a Post Production environment, I can see giant 2-inch thick scratch proof glass monitors on the wall of my edit suite...3 or 4 of them @ 50 inches each laid end to end on an adjustable rack system allowing me to either sit or stand... with all my apps launched at the same time and throwing elements from one app / screen to another with my fingers & a flick of the wrist. Fast forward / rewind by spinning your finger on the screen like a dial on a DigiDeck. Picking up clips from the timeline with your fingers and putting them off to the side...in case you change your mind. For typing, the keyboard can be summoned up like the iPhone touchpad qwerty keyboard...no peripheral input devices needed.

This would mean I now have giant touch screen interactive tablets for After Effects / Photoshop / Illustrator / Cinema 4D

* DROOL _ *

Using a silicone pen (included, of course), am doing fine touchup work - like painting on a canvas (wire removal, matte painting, rotoscoping, keyframing, etc...)

The possibilities are endless.

As my friend Ben would say...BRILLIANT.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

A while ago over coffee, I was wondering whether they would have editing suites with motion sensors. Hell, we editors don't do much but sit behind a desk (unless you're used to carrying tapes around) so it's likely we end up growing fat... so... imagine motion detectors to identify certain editing commands (eg. cut, we do a karate splice)...

Was that voice, "DAVE" for 2001? The narrator of those video's sounds strangely familiar.


speaking of editing styles - what did you all think of the hardware in the movie Final Cut?

What a piece of junk, destined to become the Atari of its generation. When you stop to consider it, you realize how much longer it takes to use than what we currently have. Then, you consider the fact the Internet is running out of bandwith and is destined to have disruptions in the years ahead, which only adds to the annoyance. It is interesting to see the difference between Apple and Microsoft's marketing styles, however. Everything this product does is impractical when compared to the host of wireless devices already in existence. On the flip side, Apple makes use of the trends already in place. Personally, I'd rather order my food from a person than scroll through a collection of photos and touch the screen. Someone mentioned 2001 and I agree in the sense of dehumanization. The people in the ads look like monkeys.