So, I popped into CeBIT this morning. Afterall, I love a gadget as much as the next girl. I don’t think I’m exactly their target audience, but there were still somethings that I found interesting. Here they are:
- Wacom Tablets: now, this isn’t new, but when I had a play with one this morning I was thinking to myself, how much more fun would it be to do wireframes using a device like this and software more like Illustrator. Does anyone out there do this? I can see a few problems with it, particularly if you needed to have multiple people working on the files…. but I bet for some projects it would be amazingly fun. (And much less with the old wireframe RSI)
- Maxtor OneTouch Mini Edition External Hard Drive: I’ve been putting off buying some kind of hardware to backup my lap top and have been using boring DVDs instead. And now I know why. I’ve been waiting for this little darling to arrive. It’s the iPod Nano of external storage. I *must* have one. Immediately.
- The Open Source Guys were out in full strength. I’ve been thinking about doing something with an opensource project – as in, contributing some time to a project to help it be a little more user friendly. Had a chat. They’re very friendly. I’m going to look into this more. Anyone out there do any work with any open source developers? They gave me a CD so that I can play around with their open source version of Photoshop and Illustrator… I shall report back :)
- VOIP was everywhere. I was looking for something I could use at home. Didn’t find anything.
- PTG Global and Hiser were there. They didn’t have any fun showbags though.
OK. That’s my quick, on the fly report of CeBIT from a non-hardcore-techy perspective.
Have you been? What did you think?
Please, please, please work on open source stuff, most of it sorely needs it. (I say this as an open source developer.)
Working on open source would be great, you should give it a shot once you buy your nice little wacom tablet… I was having similar RSI-related thoughts today designing system process maps in Visio. Not quite as painful as wireframes, but there’s definitely a large place in the market for more sensible devices!
You should have given me a call. James, Ben and myself were down there this morning :)
In regards to personal VOIP, did you check out Engin? They claim that they’ll save your phone bill by up ot 55% but I admit that I’m worried about how well the system holds up under heavy data usage. The guys there said that there is some degradation.
There were also skype phones. The dual mode phones that can either use your land line or Skype although I admit I was put off when the guy told me that I definitely needed the internet.
And in general? I find CEBIT is more and more disappointing every year.
Check out:
http://openusability.org/
That’s a listing of open source projects in search of usability professionals for all of these very reasons.
I use a tiny A6 Wacom Tablet along with Visio / Powerpoint. I can highly recommend the tablets, especially if you are getting the odd RSI related pang as I used to.
If you want to borrow my Wacom tablet for a month or two to find out, I’m not using it very much at the moment. Let me know.
I was pondering the self-same thing the other day. Could I power through a load of wireframes using a tablet and a different type of software? Then when I read your post I remembered a piece of software that someone had showed me ages ago…
http://dub.washington.edu/denim/
I’ve not had a chance to play with it, or look into it in any detail, but thought it might be worth sharing…
alrighty then. notes to self:
– look into the opensource thing some more
– say ‘yes please!’ to Rachel re: loan of Wacom in order to confirm that I definitely need one (although, have to say, i’m practically sold already)
– recover from excitement of seeing what looks like an exceptionally cool piece of software (thanks Ian – if that app. is anywhere as good as the screenshots make it look i’ll be eternally in your debt).
– download Denim and have a play (with Rachel’s Wacom).
could it be? Freedom from the boring tedium of Visio?
it’s too exciting to imagine!
:)
you guys rock.
young teenies
There was this guy see.
He wasn’t very bright and he reached his adult life without ever having learned “the facts”.
Somehow, it gets to be his wedding day.
While he is walking down the isle, his father tugs his sleeve and says,
“Son, when you get to the hotel room…Call me”
Hours later he gets to the hotel room with his beautiful blushing bride and he calls his father,
“Dad, we are the hotel, what do I do?”
“O.K. Son, listen up, take off your clothes and get in the bed, then she should take off her clothes and get in the bed, if not help her. Then either way, ah, call me”
A few moments later…
“Dad we took off our clothes and we are in the bed, what do I do?”
O.K. Son, listen up. Move real close to her and she should move real close to you, and then… Ah, call me.”
A few moments later…
“DAD! WE TOOK OFF OUR CLOTHES, GOT IN THE BED AND MOVED REAL CLOSE, WHAT DO I DO???”
“O.K. Son, Listen up, this is the most important part. Stick the long part of your body into the place where she goes to the bathroom.”
A few moments later…
“Dad, I’ve got my foot in the toilet, what do I do?”