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.-- mecotterill, Feb 29 2008 Touch Pad http://www.ergodire...p?products_id=14627This may accept a symbol overlay. [Amos Kito, Feb 29 2008] Touch Screen Monitor http://www.mp3playe...pecial/IN-740VT.htmUse as a separate control pad monitor. I asked my engineer, who insisted "We canna do it, cap’n! 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] <shpling-ploing> <plarrp!>-- zen_tom, Feb 29 2008 and attach the Red Alert button to Ctrl-Alt-Del.
Big, giant dilithium croissant to you. Live long and prosper.-- globaltourniquet, Feb 29 2008 Good work, ensign. Let's transport to the alien planet and split up, so you can start on it.-- Amos Kito, Feb 29 2008 (optionally) Uhuru's voice repeats/validates each command.-- phoenix, Feb 29 2008 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.-- phundug, Feb 29 2008 <suspended disbelief> The operator had to specify what part of the display to magnify! </suspended disbelief>-- phoenix, Feb 29 2008 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"?-- globaltourniquet, Feb 29 2008 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.
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.-- WcW, Mar 01 2008 "Never trust software in a mission critical application"-- 8th of 7, Mar 01 2008 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.
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.-- mecotterill, Mar 01 2008 I'm going to stencil in a little croissant and set one of my 18 multimedia hotkeys to this site.-- Cuit_au_Four, Mar 01 2008 Phazers on bun.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 01 2008 random, halfbakery