[Thomas An.]

I do like the physics (gravity, collisions, etc) in that demo

[tom]

...once there was no mouse, too.

[mverta]

I'm sorry, you can't tell that the idea of returning your computer desktop to the insanely disorganized state of your actual desktop, via an insanely complex interface is a joke? Perhaps the lead programmer "Snehal Garg" might've tipped you off? Did you SEE the desktops filmed at the top of the video, which looked like a hurricane blew through as the narrator talks about them "subtly conveying information?"

It's a great piece of satire, which successfully demonstrates the level of inherent complexity we've come to integrate into our lives, such that this ridiculous exaggeration actually passes as plausible to some people.

By the way, you should check out his (Anand Agarawala) "Context-Aware Pill Bottle and Medication Monitor." Equally funny stuff.

_Mike

[Eric Lagman]

This did not make me laugh though. I liked the one where the guy is going to put lord of the rings figures into maya that someone else posted. I was laughing pretty hard at that. This was almost too well executed to be funny. It was more scary than funny because of that. Just my opinion. I like my satire a little more dumbed down like that movie idiocracy. Have you guys seen that movie yet. Hilarious!

Edit:

Ok I did a little research using google, and I am 90% sure this is real. Here is the hompage for it. Notice there is a parody of it on youtube at the bottom. http://bumptop.com/ There was a link there also that took me to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUVpSY4eBCc Read the comments on youtube. Judging from some of the comments they think that the bumptop thing is real, but the rapping thing is obviously a college kid just being goofy.

I also did a search on the names at the beginning of the video Ravin Balakrishnan took me here http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ravin/

Dynamics graphic project took me here http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/

Also I watched the context aware pill thing here http://honeybrown.ca/Research.htm



This appears to me to be actual research from all the links I traced it back to. Either someone went to a hell of a lot of trouble to stage something that is not funny at all, or this is an actual legit project that is being considered. The thing is there are so many bad ideas out there sometimes its hard to tell if people are serious or joking. Im just not seeing anything here that says this is a joke. The only thing that was partially funny if it was was the rings on his hands with the huge dollar signs. I think that was supposed to be funny. People actually consider stuff like this. Especially students. No offense to any students. I was one also at one point with ideas that were way overcomplicated than they needed to be.

Also Mike Snehal Garg is an Indian name not a joke.

[mverta]

You didn't do enough research. Follow the guy. And you didn't think the pill box was funny?! We live in a post-Borat world, this guy is a filmmaker, or didn't you watch his movie A-Unit and the Wonders of Innovation?

Here's the guy:

BonsaiKitten.com didn't have any THIS IS A JOKE banner on it, either, was plenty detailed, with photos and instructions, and actually got shut down by activists seeking to stop abuses that didn't happen to kittens that didn't exist.

It's possible that Mr. Wacky hip-hop video/Toronto Film Festival here is truly the godfather of laughably stupid next-gen desktop interfaces, but... actually, that WOULD be funnier.

_Mike

[Eric Lagman]

Mike I am hearing you. I did see that photo you posted and thought that was weird, but once I realized he was a student I did not. This guy fell for it also then if it is fake. http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/ ... op_to.html
Read the second paragraph of that by the way.

He also has a 100 something page thesis posted on one of those pages that I couldn't make it through the first 10 pages without being bored to tears. There is also some silly stuff in there at the intro though as far as peoples nicknames. I think he is just a goofy student with an overly complex idea for a desktop gui. Now Borat is some funny stuff. This must be hyper nerd humor if this is supposed to be funny. My mind is open though. I will not rule it out that this is a joke. Show me some more besides a photo of a student being goofy. My website I did right out of school had some pictures on it of me goofing off with my friends. Its got that whole Real Genius thing going on. Remember that movie with Val Kilmer back in the 80's.

Edit:
http://honeybrown.ca/Videos.htm Read the top. Those videos were shot while doing his undergrad at calgary. Judging by those films that seemed to be just for fun. From the past evidence I showed I think his undergrad was in computers not films. Im 98.495% sure now that the bumptop thing is real. Convince me otherwise.

[mverta]

Sorry, there, Eric, but I'm going to have to stay with the 2+2=4 take on this one. I certainly don't take people's gullibility (even my own?) as any kind of indication about this sort of thing. Like I said, they actually shut BonsaiKitten down.

The purest satirists would absolutely demand that no indication of humor be betrayed, lest it cheapen the entire piece. And in the end, like BonsaiKitten, I think you don't have to look farther than the piece itself. In that case, the animal would die long before you were able to mould it into the desired "rectilinear form."

In this case, with 80% of the world populated by mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers who have to be told not to put their fingers in their pants, who can barely handle Point-and-Click with their fat fingers and Cheetos-stained mice, I hardly think you're going to see the rapid adoption of this partial list of simple, intuitive techniques suggested in the interface:

The Toss
The Lasso Select
The Tidy Pile - Lasso'n'Cross
The Lasso Menu
The "Pigtail Gesture"
The Grid Widget
The Fisheye Widget
The Compression Browse Widget
The Fan-Out Widget
The Leafing Widget
The Messy/Tidy Widget
The Pressure Lock
The Drag'n'Cross
The Dwell and Scrub -my favorite
Hierarchical Piles
Paper-Like Icon Affordances
Crumple Documents (An "intermediary step before deletion")
Exploding Piles Technique
Axis Alignment
and more...

I'm staying in the "Parody" camp. Make that the, "This Sure as Shit Better Be a Parody" camp.

_Mike

[Eric Lagman]

Mike I don't understand your first comment. Could you clarify in plainspeak what you mean. Do you mean if it looks stupid it is satire? There is a whole lot of unintentional satire out there in that case.

I realize I am not going to change your mind on this, but I will say this though. Coming from a 4 year degree program in a field that involves creative problem solving 50% of the ideas generated by the students were like this and included overly complicated solutions to problems that in the end may not have even existed. That is what being a student is about. Exploring ideas and concepts that may or may not work. If you were an Industrial Design professor all the students would go home crying because you accused them all of trying to be satirist instead of designers.

I guess we will have to see if it gets released into the next version of windows god help us!

[mverta]

No, I never suggested that stupid=satire. I'm not sure how to be more "plain," but I'll try: It isn't satire only if people get it. It's satire if the creator intended it that way. A lot of people can't tell when they're looking at satire, because it often doesn't reveal itself with a freakin' smiley, and their ambiguity is exactly the way the satirists want it. As I said, the purest satirists think that absolute dead-pan seriousness is essential.

Far from insulting this guy, I'm actually giving him props for pulling off a beautifully subtle piece. Either way, it says whole boatloads about society. If he's actually serious, I'd recommend he say it was satire anyway, and make a career out of being unintentionally funny; he's got a brighter future there.

_Mike

[Leonardo]

so useless


btw, did you guys notice that the guy was playing with 20 PDFs... yet they didn't even had names... how can you tell what pdf is what

[tom]

...how can you tell what pdf is what

I would like to ask that guy what if he has only large icons on everything on his table. So, this is not yet physically correct..hehe

[aitraaz]

The Toss
The Lasso Select
The Tidy Pile - Lasso'n'Cross
The Lasso Menu
The "Pigtail Gesture"
The Grid Widget
The Fisheye Widget
The Compression Browse Widget
The Fan-Out Widget
The Leafing Widget
The Messy/Tidy Widget
The Pressure Lock
The Drag'n'Cross
The Dwell and Scrub -my favorite
Hierarchical Piles
Paper-Like Icon Affordances
Crumple Documents (An "intermediary step before deletion")
Exploding Piles Technique
Axis Alignment

LMAO, satire or not the guy's a semiotic genius

[Fernando Tella]

I don't think this goes further than a programming exercise and a visual entertainment. I don't see satire neither stupidity, just programming fun. In fact that's we humans do to learn: play.