The News Review:
- Computing | Business | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
- Viva VBA – alas
- Motion-sensing technology advances
Computing | Business | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle – Jan 21, 2008
html It has been more than four years since Microsoft released a new version of its ffice productivity suite for Macintosh computers. A lot has happened in those four years. Apple has switched to using Intel processors in its new Macs dropping the PowerPC chip. The company also has gotten aggressive about its own productivity suite iWork. And Microsoft has released two versions of ffice for Windows in that time frame the latest completely revamping the familiar ffice interface… The design more closely matches the streamlined Leopard look which is a bit more Spartan but you won’t have to poke around for often-used features. But there is one very interesting interface tweak. Word Excel and PowerPoint each contain the Elements Gallery which is as close to ffice 2007′s Ribbon as the Mac version gets. It presents visual templates for a variety of tasks — creating tables picking out design themes generating a table creating a chart — that can be done with just a few clicks. The process of creating sophisticated-looking documents is made easier simply by the fact that you don’t have to go hunting for the commands to start working. I used this for a PowerPoint presentation and it halved the time it took to build it. I spend most of my time in Word and one of the most useful new features there is the Publishing Layout View which increases the program’s desktop publishing features.
Viva VBA – alas
Register – Jan 21, 2008
They are not even good VBA macros the most common degree for the quants who do this is physics not computer science and those building macros have never even heard of version control structured programming or been on any programming course since an introduction to Fortran years ago as an undergrad. VBA in Word knocks up many of the world’s form letters and there are many itinerant VBA hackers wandering from firm to firm keeping them going because they are often as critical to the business as something such as stock control. Flashy effects can be knocked up in PowerPoint and I personally would sink under the weight of email without utlook macros. There is Visual Tools for ffice (VST) as Microsoft will tell you. These are properly architected and support all the. NET languages with those on the madder end of user spectrum even trying it on with F# but have a user base trivial in size compared to VBA. Partly this is because VBA in Excel can actually be written by recording what you want to happen then meddling to make it do other things… VBA in Word knocks up many of the world’s form letters and there are many itinerant VBA hackers wandering from firm to firm keeping them going because they are often as critical to the business as something such as stock control. Flashy effects can be knocked up in PowerPoint and I personally would sink under the weight of email without utlook macros. There is Visual Tools for ffice (VST) as Microsoft will tell you. These are properly architected and support all the. NET languages with those on the madder end of user spectrum even trying it on with F# but have a user base trivial in size compared to VBA. Partly this is because VBA in Excel can actually be written by recording what you want to happen then meddling to make it do other things. Not great code but by far the easiest entry point for software development on the planet.
Motion-sensing technology advances
San Francisco Chronicle – Jan 21, 2008
GestureTek a Canadian company now based in Sunnyvale has been on the leading edge of this trend building cameras that recognize movement. GestureTek technology has gone into products like the Sony EyeToy accessory for the PlayStation which allows people to use rudimentary movements to control game play. The company’s latest product introduced this month is AirPoint a 12-inch remote bar with two cameras that allows users to direct PowerPoint presentations and onscreen actions by waving their hand over it. AirPoint which works with Microsoft Windows allows the user to remain well away from a screen and control a cursor or other onscreen actions. “The AirPoint is the perfect technology for doing ‘Minority Report’-type of interactions” said Vincent John Vincent president and co-founder of GestureTek. “You don’t have to hold anything in your hand but you can get that one-to-one movement relationship. Vincent said GestureTek has been at work on gesture-based interfaces for 20 years… GestureTek technology has gone into products like the Sony EyeToy accessory for the PlayStation which allows people to use rudimentary movements to control game play. The company’s latest product introduced this month is AirPoint a 12-inch remote bar with two cameras that allows users to direct PowerPoint presentations and onscreen actions by waving their hand over it. AirPoint which works with Microsoft Windows allows the user to remain well away from a screen and control a cursor or other onscreen actions. “The AirPoint is the perfect technology for doing ‘Minority Report’-type of interactions” said Vincent John Vincent president and co-founder of GestureTek. “You don’t have to hold anything in your hand but you can get that one-to-one movement relationship. Vincent said GestureTek has been at work on gesture-based interfaces for 20 years. But the quest is finally coming together now that processors are speeding up cameras are becoming more sophisticated and cheaper and algorithms are able to account for a wide range of human movements.