OK, I want one of these:

see more Monday Through Friday

Yes, I work mostly from home, but innovation doesn’t mix well with excuses. I’ll commence camouflaging our Fisher Paykel as soon as everyone else (foolishly) leaves the house for a few hours.

I finally got  chance to see Microsoft’s Surface technology up close this week as part of the Metro Toronto .NET User Group‘s Tuesday session.  Here’s 3 things I didn’t know about it:

It uses projection technology.  This makes it a very deep box (maybe a little higher than a coffee table) but probably results in a more durable offering, since most deployments will be in fairly public areas for now based on the price.

It uses infrared sensors to measure touch, not the usual touch screen stuff.  Again, more durable, and fancy DSP software can recognize something like 52 independent contact points silmultaneously (and even what direction your finger is pointing).  This also means that there’s no pressure sensitivity.

It uses WPF for the main programming interface with a few new controls that give you a solid interaction experience out of the box (including some physics modelling).  You can actually code anything that supports HWND, including XNA, but then you’ll have to make your own controls.

I got the chance to play with the demos a bit.  4 way pong was a little tedious but a great example of the social potential of the apps – the thing’s designed for multiple simultaneous users, and it shows.  I also got a kick out of the mapping application.  We were able to tilt the world and get a good look at the bar we were heading to afterwards.

Talking with some of the other attendees, here are 3 killer apps I’d like to see on Surface:

The next generation of DJ interfaces.  Someone has to be working on this one already.  Throw two discs on the screen, let them control the spin, and then get some top DJs in to make their dream wish list of features.  I’ve never tried working turntables, so I don’t have a lot to offer here, but it seems like a great tactile experience.

Air hockey.  This will get better when we get larger devices (they’ll come, but at the moment it’s 1024×768 on a 30 inch screen I think), but the ability to use real paddles (you can put stickers on the bottom with special tags that Surface can recognize) combined with a virtual table that you can do anything with (land mines?) would be awesome.

Galcon.  Shane (?) showed it to me on the iPhone after the talk and I realized I’d almost supressed the memory of how many hours that thing cost me. I think it’d be an awesome example of a multiplayer experience (networked and on the same table) – it could take on the Wii for physical exertion!

Above all, it was nice to see “out there” Microsoft technology that actually has potential for long term adoption.  I don’t know what form Surface technology will take in the home, but there’s something brewing there – the cost is prohibitive at the moment, but remember how much flat screen TVs cost a few years back.

A huge thanks to the Metro Toronto .NET User’s Group and Infusion for putting on the demo.  I went to three events this week (also hitting AJAX pub night and Rails Project Night) and this was the winner for overall technical content and interesting conversations afterward.

I think this is the reason I’m not getting an iPhone, at least not this week: I type quick notes on my Nokia E61.

Here’s the raw unedited dump of my note file from DemoCamp18.It’s mostly for my own backup purposes, but maybe you’ll find something useful in there. The message for this post is that I can’t picture myself typing quickly on a glass screen, especially while holding a beer in one hand.

(Oh, and if anyone knows how to get the notes off of an E61 via Bluetooth, please let me know – I ended up emailing it to myself)

Update: Dave notes that it’s spreednews.com, not .net.  Ha, just noted that I caught that in the stream.  Still, it’s a neat product, click the link and check it out.

Askitonline.com is in beta

refresh brands are interested in influencers - how do we get those people talking
rp has analytics for influencers
niches are pulling up to 15 cpm
has been running in house for 9 months

blueprintcan attach screens to process
simulation view turns process requirements into choose your own adventure
eclipse thing
can generate docs
3 years old, major banks, some us presence
ten grand
allows collab, commenting

democamp18 is the barely legal edition says joey

well.ca jabber chat
live chat with xfer
agents can use any jabber client?
Labs.well.ca

drproject couldn't hear

jesse brown bitstrips
cartoon cannon
75k strips since sxsw
copyright is interesting, they made the art so if the users own it they can say no. Joint ownership, users and bitstrips can do what they want


ignite

spreed news
few phrases at a time instead of words, iphone app, hooks into news feeds
spreednews.com
oh wait the website is .net
>hey that was a demo.
ignite now.

jevon vc in canada
used an alex ross superman on slide 1 now ange will come to democamp19
"startups aren't getting started and whe they do its like bedroomups it's like bathroomups"

You know, the upcoming launch of the TiVo in Canada would be a whole lot more interesting if it wasn’t happening right at the point where the writers’ strike had exhausted inventory of every show.

Since everyone else is talking about Kindle, allow me to submit my (somewhat predictable) response to the new toy:

Not available in Canada.  Meh.

Kindle’s going in the same pile as the iPhone and TV show downloads for now.  Thinking about it though, the timing is kind of right, with the iPhone merging iPod and phone, leaving room in one’s gadget bag for one more device.

The USA is like a lab when it comes to technology.  They need to find a way to put “beta” after the name somehow.

That said, I’m thankful that I can still  receive as many tweets as I want on my phone, unlike our friends in the UK…