Put the $%*!# Start menu back - former director of Mac Platform Market

[gazz9496]

Gazz9496 - I hear you on production. You probably know about it more than I ever will. I don't own a company with lets say...1,000 employees as an example. But if I did and had the capital to do so, I would take 1,000 non-touch monitors and 1,000 mice and sell them, donate them to charity & write it off, or throw them in the trash, because to me their non-productive. Then I would buy 1,000 touch monitors and forget the mice to use touch monitors. Then as the #1 Metro tile on all my employees' Metro start page I would have it linked to a doc file with all the shortcut keys listed in it. Then tell them to open it and learn it. I don't think it would take but a few days. If they're too stupid to learn them, then I would fire them to replace them with someone who can. The next tile would be the Help. It opens to basically what's new in 8. Just as it did in all previous OSs. I would instruct them to learn it, including the touch screen. If they're too stupid to learn it, then I would fire them to replace them with someone who can. I would do this to any tradesman I hire that's too stupid to learn, for we are all learning something new every day. If I don't keep up with new building products, tools, building methods, and management, I am doomed!

ok lets look at the actual facts of touch screen here, the cost for a reliable stable and high quality touch monitor are far to high for most company's to even consider, then there is the position of the monitor comparative to the user it will need to be closer increasing eye strain in the work place....wouldn't pass a risk assessment survey, then there is the continued strain on the arms to keep them extended and upright which again no company in their right mind would consider a viable risk to take. The liability of such cases that would come to light would just scare the hell out of buisness owners across the world.

so now how are you going to deploy touch screen? not being funny here but until we have the work stations on the starship enterprise and the space to fully realise and the money within company's willing to invest in such ventures touch is dead on desktops.

home users will find the same problems, awkward sitting position, pain in the arms from extended elevation and out of pocket due to the high cost of a touch screen at a desent quality levels where touching the monitor doesn't cause it to wobble or move around.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Like I said, you will know more about production behind a PC more than I ever will. Generally one topic that some people throughout the forum are saying is that M$ is forcing everyone, especially the business community, to eat a radical change that will be unproductive, just as Michael (more or less) had stated in his article. I hear that loud and clear and I have given thought to that.

M$ has been in the software business for quite some time. They are amongst some of the leaders, are they not? Usually I will give more thought to a leader than a follower, although I believe one should consider both. I had I foreman (a leader) in my younger days that hated to hear us say "Well, this is the way we always did it". His standard comeback was "That necessarily isn't the most productive. Sometimes there's a better way". Let's lQQk at the radical change.

As I've agreed with others that have stated in a few threads that there should be a choice on boot which UI, or both one wants to deploy. That would certainly satisfy a lot of users. I didn't use earlier versions of releases, but I've read that was a choice in one that M$ omitted. At least in RP.

So far as touch is concerned, Let's take a lQQk at it here. A wonderful, fairly new way to interact with a device. Phone, tablets, etc., great....The tabletop, not so great. Can it be more productive on the desktop though? Has anyone ever experimented at it? Has M$? Anyone? I, myself, have tried it, although I don't have a touch monitor. As you may know, I hate the mouse. OK for it's day, but I think I'd rather reach for the screen.

I was married to a woman that was a medical transcriptionist at a hospital. She acquired carpal tunnel syndrome from the mouse and/or the keyboard. How much expense to Corps is that? Latest carpal tunnel syndrome statistics / National Statistics for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Repetitive Strain Injuries. Just to name a few I researched. Perhaps touch is a better way.

"starship enterprise" LOL! (Not to be facetious. I just think that was funny) Perhaps the investment in touch monitors will lead to more production. So far as reaching for the screen, give my employees barbells to exercise with? I don't know....Perhaps some kind of new device? I just think touch is a better way. Let's try and work with this.

I don't know about the "awkward sitting position". We're reaching for the keyboard and mouse, aren't we? I don't know about everyone else, but my monitor is arm's length away. So far as the "wobble or move around" aspect, suction cups?...Nail it to the desk top? I don't know.....but, let's try and work with this.

Any suggestions, fellow foruminians?

 

[gazz9496]

yeah the reference to star trek was about the sheer size of the workstations they use on the show, notice the sitting position and the angle of the workstation with display's above that they use for information display rather than interaction as well.

it's not that i don't think touch has a place, but until their is a radical change in how it is deployed at home it won't work, that means people aren't just forking out for an over priced touch monitor they are forking out for a new desk or a mounting system and last i checked versions that work like that aren't cheap either. all in you'd be forking out 2-300 for a stand possibly a lot more and 5-1400 for a half decent touch monitor. I gotta be honest i think that is far above the budget that most if not all home users are willing to pay.

then their are multi monitor stands and so forth, i think you get the idea.

What i'm trying to get at isn't that touch is terrible, but to deploy it effectivly is beyond the budget of company's and home users, anything is possible with the right amount of money something that is in short supply for a great many people right now..as well as jobs.

my issue with touch is how badly developed it actually is, the interface it'self needs a great deal of improvment, as does the price need collossal improvment, desks and stands need to be produced that suit most peoples needs from buisness to home use for touch to be taken up.

but here's the problem, why invest hundreds of pounds in that when you can just wait for something that doesn't use touch at all, but some other method, neural interface...has been done before without implants, or the new device that is the size of a couple of match box's and tracks your fingers....can't remember what it's called but that will be selling for $70 or there abouts and you don't need to change your monitor or desk or sitting position.

touch i say again, dead before it even had the chance to take off.

 

[legacy7955]

It's interesting that Star Trek was brought up a number of times on the forums here with regard to ergonomics and how using touch related to reality and fantasy...well some say that fiction like ST eventually becomes reality.

It's been said that ST creator Gene Roddenberry was made privy to ultra top secret technology developments made within the little known DoD military space program.

That aside, I agree that when you look at the bridge of the USS Enterprise star ship the work stations use a touch screen mounted at keyboard level and then again a secondary monitor at eye level this depends on whether the officer is sitting or standing at their work station. Nowhere do I remember seeing anyone actually reaching for the eye level monitor and using it as a touch screen. to work at. Although I do believe that in instances where you see the folks moving around the ship a touch screen is used to input security codes and the like to gain access to various rooms on the ship or using the lift.