Today’s blog blitz came as a surprise to me as I have not even completed the Harlequin Project yet, but it’s all over the news already. I do see the appeal of working with dual screens, and the potential UIs that can be productive and futuristic, though I didn’t realize the urge is this great.  As a UX designer, I’m still trying to sort this out.

Microsoft nailed the idea with Courier, and I hope they do come out with something soon, or people like me or other companies will start ‘borrowing’ it for their own.

As a record for myself, here’s a list of blogs that mentioned the project:

• Engadget: Modder creates dual-screen Courier from Dell Mini 9, calls it Harlequin, Joker unavailable for comment – I will definitely look for Joker in my next update. Again, thanks Mr. Tim Robbins for the post!
• Gizmodo: DIY Courier Is Both Sad and Ingenious (10000 views, great! And thanks to commenters defending for Giz’s unnecessary harshness. Also on Reddit.) – Giz, I’m very happy and Ima let you finish, but Engadget is
• Liliputing: DIY Courier tablet consists of Dell Mini 9 + 2 touchscreens
• Thanks to Netbooked for unearthing the news, and Slashgear for spreading it!
• Also on: New Netbook Reviews, Slashgear, GottabeMobile, EEEPC – Blog, Ubergizmo, Mobile Computer Magazine (UK), Netbook Choice, Gadget Venue and Génération Tactile (France).

I had been working hard on the House of Yes Christmas Spectacular for the past few weeks, so I haven’t worked much on the tablet, except I took apart everything even more. It’s time to go back to the lab more!

Thanks a lot again, Internet!

On another note, I just won a Woot! Bag of Crap.

My current (temporary) table is composed of two sawhorses and an Ikea PRONOMEN countertop, 8 feet long and 3 feet deep.

In response to the question on Unplgged:

Survey: Is Bigger Always Better?

It has to do with how often you want to return things back to their original place.

There is a sweet spot where it is neither too redundant to clean all the time, nor too much a burden to clean a lot of things at once, and that largely depends on your work. A writer who only uses a computer may still need a whole table of reference materials to map the brain, while an apparel designer will need a large table to lay all the fabric as well.

While I’m in a flow, returning tools, books or paper back to their drawers and shelves interrupts the workflow, thus counterproductive.

When I’m done with a project, I’ll return (and sometimes clean) the materials back to their position and state. Everything starts with a clean slate again.

But if I forget to do this step, that is where clutter begins: objects lost their original position and were placed arbitrarily on the desk. The key is to always find where these objects should belong… which unfortunately always ended up in the Miscellaneous box.

I find that there is nothing wrong to be embarrassed about a table with many many open files. It shows that I’m working, and not a neat freak that spends half my work time cleaning. I find people with clean tables all the time are a little OCD!

Well, this is a little too many simple tutorials here. But I figured this is itching me, so this may be itching you.

1. Click the arrow next to “Create Playlist” on the toolbar of Windows Media Player.
    
2. Select “Create Auto Playlist”.
   
3. Fill in the details as follows.
   
4. Done! You may want to sort the list by “Album” to make things easier to browse.

It’s very simple. Perhaps because how simple it is Microsoft decided to remove this from the standard feature set of WMP12 in W7.

Long time coming, Google finally developed a Tasks / To-Do List manager for Web 2.0. And long time coming, Google finally allowed access to Tasks not just through Gmail… but through Android phone browser, iPhone browser, or the iGoogle page.

What about desktop?!

I tried a couple things to make it work. Google has not made a gadget for the desktop, so no go (I don’t want to install yet-another desktop widget engine anyway). Amnesty Generator doesn’t work either, as GTasks required logging in.

Therefore, I used brute force. Follow these steps to put quick access to GTasks from your desktop:

1. Create an HTML file, “gtasks.html”, and put it somewhere hidden, like C:\Program Files.
2. Put the following HTML inside the file:
   
<html>
<head>
    <title>Gmail Tasks</title>
</head>
<body style="overflow: hidden;">
    <div style="position: absolute; top: -9; left: -4;">
    <script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/tasks.xml&amp;up_ShowTips=false&amp;up_CurrentListId=&amp;synd=open&amp;w=280&amp;h=360&amp;title=&amp;lang=en&amp;country=ALL&amp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&amp;output=js"></script>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

   Basically, it is the iGoogle gadget for embedding to web pages. To change the size of the tasks list, modify the “w=280” and “h=360” values.

3. Open the file in Google Chrome, and select “Create application shortcut…” from the Page menu.
4. Resize the window and move it to your desired position. Chrome will remember it.
5. Viola! Now just drag the shortcut to somewhere handy, like Quick Launch.

The result is pleasing, as Google Chrome loads even faster than other tasks apps like Jott Express. Of course, the same trick will work for other browsers, but Chrome is the fastest. I am happy, and I can finally ditch all other tasks apps now!

After having installed Windows Vista for a year, I got a little bored by the blue and green Aurora logon screen. Since I’m not particularly interesting in having outer space, sexy women, XP-inspired landscapes or some arbitrary corporate graphics as the background of the screen, I decided to make my own:

A blank screen.

It turns out that this is the best background in my opinion. Though very likely to be opposed by the marketing department for its lack of product identity, or to be criticized by the head of the graphic design department for being lazy, the black background seems to be the best transition between the computer turning on till the wallpaper shows up after logging on.

The black blends with the edge of the monitor screen, very much so the way the Vista design team decided that a maximized window should have a black edge.

I had also flashed my BIOS for a blank boot-up screen as well to match the whole experience.

To create a black Vista logon screen is easy. Simply go here to download a free copy of Logon Studio Vista, courtesy of Stardock. All you need to do next is to create a black bitmap in any size. Here I made it in 640×480 and saved as a PNG. The UI of the software is fairly simple, and that’s what makes you think that it is a safe process to customize your logon screen.

I had used Windows Vista for a year.

Microsoft, in many ways, failed to market the product. It used the word “Wow” to describe how great the new operating system is. Yes, the OS is not bad, but “Wow” is too subjective a word to be used.

For geeks, Vista is not a “wow”, because Microsoft had disclosed way too much information for the 5 years of its development. No matter how good the product is, the excitement is already over for the geeks. New features, in the days of Instant Culture, are the most exciting only when it is unvealed, not when it is being used.

For normal people, Vista is not a “wow”, because it does not save them from their bosses, does not help them finish all the work of the day quicker, and does not attract lovers. And it crashes when the graphics driver is poorly written.

For frat boys, Vista is not a “wow” because it is not a status symbol.

For Apple fanboys, Vista is of course not a “wow”. (Is it just me or is Leopard way too grayish?)

It is a not-so-bad transition, nevertheless. Perhaps it proves that the operating system is slowly graduating to an infrastructure – like the power grid, water supplies or your sewage pipes – an upgrade is not about marketable excitement anymore. It is about “It just works”.

Anyway.

“Astrogirl” – Pentium 4 3 GHz, 1.5GB RAM

The first computer switched over was my home computer, a year ago. (Specs are listed not to show off, but to show you how poor I am.) It seems pretty slow and sluggish in the beginning (and it is sometimes pretty sluggish, like how the text does not appear immediately in Windows Live Writer as I am typing right now), but it seems to improve over time and updates. I plugged in my old hard disk to run Windows XP another day, and realized that the old system loaded up much slower.

In my first install, I had UAC turned off. However, I clicked a wrong link a month or two later in a hazy dreary night, and my computer was filled with spyware. I reinstalled Windows as a result. Soon I realized that most of the UAC dialog pops up when I arrange my Start Menu items. Once I got through that stage, UAC is not so bad. (Someone please make a software to make Start Menu arrangement less annoying?)

I am most satisfied with the ability to view photos nice and big in Explorer and Windows Photo Gallery. Other than that, it seems I could have done most of the tasks in Windows XP… Besides, Windows Live Photo Gallery is now available for XP as well. The new Network Center and diagnostics tool is a great addition though.

“Elian” – Xeon ‘Irwindale’ 3.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM

The second computer upgraded was my office computer, a couple months later. Work is important, so if the work computer is down it would be disastrous. The computer also seems slower after the upgrade, in spite of a better graphics card.

One biggest problem after the upgrade was the incompatibility of critical programs. Flash 8 would switch between scenes very slowly (It bugs Scott a lot, a hell lot), and Flash CS3 was not released half a year later. Paint Shop Pro XI is also painfully slow when saving files.

“Bluebird” – Pentium 4 2 GHz, 768MB RAM, Laptop

Before Christmas I upgraded the hard drive of my laptop (It seems very urgent at the time, but now I forgot why, hmm (ah, out of space to install CS3)) and a reinstallation of the OS as a result. It had always been running XP Chinese Edition, so I installed the Chinese version of Vista for it. To my surprise, the OS is very fast to load – probably because it doesn’t use Aero. However, Microsoft Windows Vista cannot find the drivers for the Microsoft Wireless Adaptor Card. Therefore, my laptop hardly ever has Internet access.

“Alfie” – Celeron 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM

The last computer I upgraded was my family’s computer. Although Aero is not running in this system, to my disappointment, Windows run very slow here. It also takes me a while to find all the drivers.

After one year, Windows Vista is not too bad, but is entangled with speed and hardware problems. I am currently building a new computer these days, and hopefully this will finally be a speedy computer. I still have very hazy memory of a very slow Windows XP Beta 2 on my Pentium II 300 MHz PC though.

Poor grammar of the title aside, after picking up a refurbished mocha-colored Microsoft-made media player (known as “Zune”) from Woot!, I am pretty satisfied with owning a fully functional yet unnecessary piece of commodity: Although my cell phone does pretty much all of what it does, having a dedicated player not draining your cell phone battery is nice.

Since it is colored in mocha, it is now lovingly named “Turdis”, a music dork reference to a line in one of Radiohead’s songs, and the apparent color of a certain type of organic matter. It plays most of my songs (My library is 60+ GB), it never crashes (hahaha), and it showcases album art proudly.

After the update today, it gained a very nice and graphic (i.e. flat) interface with big fonts, and a formidable section dedicated to podcasts, which means “Portable O-something Device Casts”.

I was fine with the mocha color for a while, and it was a delight once in a while to see a subtle green glow around the border, when the device is shone in the bright rays of dawn. That effect is known as “double-shot”.

However, that’s all the moments when the player actually look good.

Unlike the iPod, this Zune is deeply discounted. And unlike the iPod, it does not have a shiny surface – being flat and matt is a nice aesthetic, too. Since it costs less than a hundred, it does not hurt to experiment and modify. So last weekend I decided to spend a morning modifying it.

I posted the process on Instructables if anyone are interested.

I am pretty satisfied with the result. I now have a player of my own, and it is not even available in Zune Originals. It is nice that we have alternatives that do not look way too pristine to be modified or touched, so that I can ruin it any way I want.