h a l f b a k e r yAlas, poor spelling!
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You know all those keyboard shortcuts in
Adobe In Design and Photoshop or MS
Word, well how about for each shortcut
you had a big coloured switch or button
set into a large Star Trek style control
panel.
I'm talking about the 60s series mind you,
even though the Next Generation
computer
panels were very cool too.
The panel has no writing on it of any kind,
but you will quickly remember which
button does what as you will program
them in yourself and they will be various
colours and in different positions. The
switches will be fairly big and clunky and
the buttons will be 'gem' style in lovely
bright colours that glow and flash softly.
Also, they will have the sound effects from
the show built in.
Touch Pad
http://www.ergodire...p?products_id=14627 This may accept a symbol overlay. [Amos Kito, Feb 29 2008]
Touch Screen Monitor
http://www.mp3playe...pecial/IN-740VT.htm Use as a separate control pad monitor. I asked my engineer, who insisted "We canna do it, capn! We doan have enough power-r-r-r-r-r-r!" But I think he'll rig something up, in about 55 minutes. [Amos Kito, Feb 29 2008]
Keyboard that has a little LED screen on each key.
http://www.coolest-...50818/led-keyboard/ Of the three [Links], this one's my fav. [Amos Kito, Feb 29 2008]
[link]
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<shpling-ploing> <plarrp!> |
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and attach the Red Alert button to Ctrl-Alt-Del. |
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Big, giant dilithium croissant to you. Live long and prosper. |
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Good work, ensign. Let's transport to the alien planet and split up, so you can start on it. |
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(optionally) Uhuru's voice repeats/validates each command. |
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It always amazed me (in TNG) that to "magnify 10 times" -- a command Picard constantly gave -- required so many keystrokes. You'd think they'd have a macro for that. |
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<suspended disbelief> The operator had to specify what part of the display to magnify! </suspended disbelief> |
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Um... it amazes me that they had to push any buttons at all. The computer understood them when they spoke things like "Computer, analyze the unknown alien spacecraft's defenses" but it couldn't interpret the voice command "magnify ten times"? |
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The answer to that is obvious. The computer is a great system but very unreliable. All crucial ships functions can be manually operated because the supercomputer is only reliable enough to provide trivia. For mission critical controls there is at least triple redundancy. Notice how many times panels on the bridge experience flame outs and must be repaired manually? In the engine room there even appear to be a set of manual circuit beakers for cutting power by hand if needed. |
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I think a panel for manually operating mission critical functions on my PC would be great. I want a button to- remove a CD without booting up -Force start in safe mode- Force sleep mode- A big red one for immediate forced reboot- Cut out sound- everything where glitchy software makes that function not immediately available. |
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"Never trust software in a mission critical application" |
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That LED keyboard looks just the job,
but I wonder why they don't just make a
whole LED touchscreen with discreet
keys that you can move around,
configure etc. That's more like the Next
Gen idea where the touchscreen
changes depending on the software
you're running and how you've
configured it.
Personally I am all for going 'back' to
the 60s idea of the future then going
'forward' to the idea of the future we
have now. |
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Once you separate the functionality
from the design interface you can have
the latest technology with any 'style'
you want. Like having a totally 60's car
with all the components and safety of a
modern one or a computer which looks
like a victorian type-writer. |
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I'm going to stencil in a little croissant and set one of my 18 multimedia hotkeys to this site. |
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