Sorry no pay rise again this year. Here is a better smiley face thingy though to keep you happy. Now get back to work bitch...
Microsoft tests HALF-INCH second screen to spur workplace play
Microsoft Research has detailed a tiny device called “Picco” that pipes sketches to users to make the workplace more feel more intimate. Detailed here in a research paper titled “A Small Space for Playful Messaging in the Workplace: Designing and Deploying Picco”, Microsoft Research explains that Picco is “a tiny situated …
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 08:26 GMT Steven Raith
Re: Ahh, bless 'em
It's worse than that. It's the physical manifestation of Microsoft Bob.
This is just the first step. Version 0.1. An alpha. Just like how Skynet started out as a chess program*
I'll get the cyanide if you arrange the safe house.
Steven "OH GOD IT'S STARTING" Raith.
*depending on whether you class TSCC as canon and how you interpret where the story was going, etc. It's certainly better canon than T3, put it that way.
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 23:32 GMT Steven Raith
Re: Ahh, bless 'em
DestroyAllMonsters - in TSCC, a character builds a chess computer which is a bit different because it's designed to adapt in a manner similar to that of a neural system; one of the lines is that if you feed it a problem one day, it'll fix it one way. If you feed it the same problem the next day, it'll fix it a different way. And that sometimes it can't fix it at all - as if it has good days, bad days, and has moods.
That was the important MacGuffin they added in to make it a bit different to the normal 'chess = intelligence' thing - it was the manner it went about the fixing that made it different/dangerous.
I thought it was a nice touch anyway.
God I'm such a nerd :-D
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 11:19 GMT Tom 38
And yet another thing to distract from work*. 5 years ago, I could quite easily say "this is a no email/phone day", put the phone on do not disturb and only check my emails at 5pm.
Nowadays, if people don't get an immediate reply to their email, they IM, and my browser beeps and pops up the message, regardless of what workspace I am on. Worst of all is flowdock, which I'm now mandated to be on several flows, most of which are irrelevant but still cause browser notifications to pop up - "@everyone ready for the call?" - not a call I'm on, but thanks for disrupting my thought processes to remind people about a meeting in their calendars.
Then, 3 minutes later, the same message arrives in your inbox and then your phone. Gaaaaaaaa!
* He says, posting on the register....
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 08:35 GMT Piro
Re: And in the mean time
I feel the same way about the actual raw resources that go into crap like this, and countless other swathes of useless plastic junk that never needed to exist. All to be tossed in landfill a year or two down the road.
It's not all going to last forever, we may as well make things that aren't totally awful.
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 09:06 GMT Teiwaz
Re: Ah, this brings me back
"A useless gimmick being deployed in a pointless, wasteful attempt at sidestepping relevant issues? For some reason it reminds me of my previous job. I wonder why?"
The above statement made me think of any Government 'initiative' I've heard about in the last twenty years. i.e. Alcohol, Social Services, etc. etc.
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 04:46 GMT RAMChYLD
Workplace play?
Didn't they try this before?
First time it's called Microsoft Bob, and second time it's called Office Assistants.
The ladies may like it, but the men...
Also, I agree with Hero Protagonist. How long before it's being abused to send bangers and balls to people you don't like in the office?
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 08:32 GMT Anonymous Custard
Re: Workplace play?
They can also probably expect a call from some Japanese lawyers from Bandai - it's a net-enabled modern reincarnation of a Tamagotchi.
And we all remember how bloody irritating they were...
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 04:54 GMT dan1980
Sorry - a HALF inch screen?
I would have though 1" would be about the minimum for a useful display given that current 'smart watches' seem to be at least 1.25" (e.g the Pebble).
I will actually be interested what becomes of this. It's not the kind of thing I'd use but I'm curious as to what it will actually do and how well such a small screen will work. Could you even make out a half-inch screen from normal monitor-viewing distances.
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 05:20 GMT MacroRodent
About the most pointless idea I have heard of for a long time
A separate little standalone display (no matter how cute) is precisely what my cluttered desk does not need! Besides, everyone these days has a smartphone (or two) that can do what Picco is supposed to do, if someone writes an applet for exchanging the doodles. It probably could be done even with a HTML5 web page.
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 05:21 GMT RISC OS
Instead of drawing a stupid face
someone could just call that person instead.
My wife sendinng me a photo of her tits would make me feel an intimate connection with this thing. Bob smith from accounts sketching a smiley wouldn't.
Seems like some NSA-ready tool to help them correlate your mood with with your actions... and it's a bit big for what it is, especially with smart watches on the horizon...
...also how long will it be before people start sending dick images to people when they see their boss over at their cowokers desk?
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 09:36 GMT Pascal Monett
Problem thingy in the making
Admitting for an instant that this thing has a snowball's chance in Hell to get purchased and deployed inside a Fortune 500 company, I wonder how long it will take for the suits to take it over and declare it be used for corporate-only internal something-or-another, and transformed into a corporate bulletin board of some kind.
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Wednesday 25th June 2014 12:50 GMT The elephant in the room
Underpants gnome diversified business plan
Step 1: make millions of little screens
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit!
Sounds like a slightly less fun version of http://littleprinter.com/
Is this actually the result of a brainstorming session to think of a way of using excess stock of obsolete tiny screens?
But if it takes off and after years of development I suppose in some sci-fi-inspired future it may be commonplace for people to carry about wireless full-colour touch-sensetive screen gadgets for communication & time-wasting purposes.