"The mere knowledge of a fact is pale; but when you come to realize your fact, it takes on color. It is all the difference between hearing of a man being stabbed in the heart, and seeing it done."
Mark Twain
Johanna Lynn blogs to cope with being raised in obscurity by vindictive nannies. She escaped a third-world life for North America and inadvertently acquired an education and a career in technology. She now resides in Seattle surrounded by gentrification and goods imported from China.
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Why the PlayBook calculator has a great user interface
Little was known about The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) until they were acquired by RIM last December. It is easy to recognize a TAT application when you see it. There is a certain je ne sais quoi about their design that’s a hallmark of their creative prowess. Take the native calculator app on the PlayBook for example.
Displays Current Operation
Most calculators don’t show you what operator state you’re in, so you have to cognitively work harder to remember what operator you pressed, and where you are in the operation. The PlayBook calculator has a clear, visual operator state, so the UI does not force you to remember what operator state you’re in.
Ever try to calculate a long operation? For example, calculating ‘1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 55+ 5 + 5+ 8 + 1 + 55 + 5’ will be difficult to keep track where you are in the middle of the operation because so many of the same operands repeat themselves. Seeing ‘5’ on the screen doesn’t tell you exactly which nth iteration you’re at because ’5’ comes up multiple times. It could be the first instance of ‘5’, the middle, or the last. The PlayBook calculator shows you all previous operands so you’ll know exactly where you are when identical operands appear multiple times.
Order of Operations
Remember PEMDAS? TAT made it extremely easy to apply the correct order of precedence. For example, calculating the expression 7 + (6 × 52 + 3) becomes a no-brainer. Most calculators don’t even include parentheses, unless you switch to scientific mode. To arrive at the correct answer, you need keep track of the operands and operators to enter. On the Playbook calculator, you simply input each part from left to right, and voila!
Goodbye MR, MC, M+ and M-
Although these features still exist on the Playbook calculator, you don’t really need to use them or understand how they work. TAT makes it easy to perform multi-step equations without having to add them to memory using the “M” buttons. Previous calculations are conveniently listed to the left. You simply click on the result of any previous calculation to reuse it as an operand for subsequent calculations.
Clear Buttons
Ever wonder what the difference is between the ‘CE’ and ‘C’ buttons? ‘CE’ clears the current entry/operand. ‘C’ clears the entire operation. Some users hit these buttons multiple times to ensure that all previous operations are cleared.
TAT replaced the ‘CE’ button with a visual cue we are all familiar with—the left arrow—signifying backspace, placed next to the clear button.
Bonus Apps
In addition to the standard and scientific calculators, the PlayBook calculator includes a unit converter and a tip calculator. The fluid transition from one app to the next is a testament to the infusion of a bit of magic that’s truly a TAT trademark.
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The depths of winter longing are ice within my heart
The shards of broken covenants lie sharp against my soul
The wraiths of long-lost ecstasy still keep us two apart
The sullen winds of bitterness still keen from turn to pole.The scars and twisted tendons, the stumps of struck-off limbs,
The aching pit of hunger and throb of unset bone,
My sanded burning eyeballs, as light within them dims,
Add nothing to the torment of lying here alone.The shimmering flames of fever trace out your blessed face
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My broken eardrums echo yet your voice inside my head
I do not fear the darkness that comes to me apace
I only dread the loss of you that comes when I am dead.Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
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"Sadness is the matrix from which wit and irony spring; sadness is uncomfortable and creative, which is why consumer society cannot tolerate it."
Germaine Greer
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On a Mote of Dust, Suspended in a Sunbeam
Look again at that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
—Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
The Earth appears as a tiny dot, as imaged from the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of ~6 billion km. Image source: Wikimedia
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"In bed above, we’re deep asleep,
While greater love, lies further deep.
This dream must end,
This world must know,
We all depend on the beast below" -
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Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as “Remember your mortality”, “Remember you must die” or “Remember you will die” It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality. The phrase has a tradition in art that dates back to antiquity.
Painting: Philippe de Champaigne’s Vanitas (c. 1671) is reduced to three essentials: Life, Death, and Time
(via jjarichardson)
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Sciencespeed, Atlantis! For #sts135 (Taken with Instagram at Kennedy Space Center)
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Religious faith is, precisely because we are still-evolving creatures, ineradicable. It will never die out, at least not until we get over our fear of death, and of the dark, and of the unknown, and of each other. (Taken with instagram)
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Fair Warning
Remember:
The things within our power are naturally at our disposal, free from any restraint or hindrance; but those things outside our power are weak, dependent, or determined by the whims and actions of others. Remember, too, that if you think that you have free reign over things that are naturally beyond your control, or if you attempt to adopt the affairs of others as your own, your pursuits will be thwarted and you will become a frustrated, anxious, and fault-finding person.
~ Epictetus, The Art of Living
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"Is the flow of time something real, or might our sense of time passing be just an illusion that hides the fact that what is real is only a vast collection of moments?"
Lee Smolin
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Wisdom Machines
What is the Internet doing to our brains? How has it changed the way we think? Do you scour search engines or wait until you read blogs before you opine? When you’re disconnected do you go into withdrawal?
We live in an over-networked society where immediacy trumps connecting face-to-face, a landscape of distraction where every buzz is instantly tweeted. The signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal, so it is no surprise why, in the midst of such abundant information, we find it so difficult to act with wisdom, foresight, or compassion.
This post explores possible reasons why this is happening and how to fix it.
