Comments

Shark_M, what you're advocating isn't all that different from what Cooper is talking about. Cooper isn't advocating developers work in a vacuum. That kind approach breeds arrogance and crappy results. What he's arguing against is letting users micromanage the design. The problem is that users tend to communicate immediate desires rather than long terms needs--you could compare this with the old aphorism of giving a man a fish vs. teaching him how to fish. Moreoever, most users are "tainted" with what they've encountered before and that exposure obstructs their imagination. The trick of a good interaction designer, then, is to gleam deeper needs from wants.

Great video. Four quick questions:

(1) Are there any analogous WPF subsystems for other types of media (audio, video)?

(2) On a related note, what about vector images, such as SVG, WMF, or Visio diagrams? (SVG in particular)

(3) What's the installation policy with image codecs? The video mentioned than unknown image formats are passed to the application as a raw blob, but is there any service that will attempt to fetch codecs from the web, like in WMP today? Are there any special security issues when installing 3rd party codecs?

(4) Not for the imaging team, but will IE7 be upgraded to this new API? It would be great to future-proof against new codecs to avoid another wait between releases as with transparent PNGs.

Much thanks.

So ... when can we expect SkyServer to be integrated into Local Live / Virtual Earth?

BTW, I love the font (Franklin Gothic Book) used in the OP. It's looks real crisp and clean. Channel9 should take care to use these kinds of nice default fonts in the next UI refresh.

...While I'm on the subject, that'd be a nice priority for all Microsoft's online properties. It's a bit baffling how Microsoft spent so much money to create fonts that render well on screen, such as Georgia, yet most sites seem to default to Arial. Many BlogSpot themes, in contrast, use Trebuchet MS. Innovation is great and all, but don't forget to leverage existing investments!

This is cool. It would be great if, in the future, you could create "macros" of driving directions for a virtual driving/walking tour of an area. This would be great, for instance, for tourism agencies and realators. I could even see enthusists creating specialty tours -- "my favorite hang-outs" or something along those lines; when you start taking this technology across international boundaries, it would be a great way to get a taste of someplace far away.

Again, this is really cool. I can't wait to see how it evolves.

prog_dotnet wrote:

I quite disagree...

Allow me explain my perspective better.

We agree that it's unhealthy to have a single-minded view that obscures awareness of competing technologies. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Rather what I take issue with is the way the question is asked; it strikes me as smug. If Gates has any sort of business acumen, I'm sure he's taken the time to seriously evaluate alternatives. The fact that he's also a geek implies that he'd do so even if only for the sake of curiousity. I'd love to know his thoughts, but there are more constructive ways to ask. Gates is an interesting man with little slack time to grant these kinds of opportunities, and so I'd rather questions evoke something genuinely thoughtful than put him on the defensive.

Asking him whether he uses competitors' technology is a rather snarky and pointless thing to do. It seems little more than a passive-agressive way to imply his products are inferior. While I certainly hope he's able to take a critical eye to his company's products, I'd have to think he believes enough in Microsoft and its employees that Microsoft technology gets preferrential treament. A more interesting question would be to ask where he feels Microsoft still needs to catch up to competitors--that way you can get him to be self-critical without being rude about it.

Anyways, great interview. I agree with previous posters: it's great to see him less off guard and in less of a businessman mode. I'd love to hear more about his thoughts on education. The current system seems very much inadequate, yet it seems to be largely ignored in favor of more sexy issues like Bush hunting terrorists or Cheney hunting the most dangerous game.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

Except for free-form query, this already works for favorites.  You just don't realize it because your favorite most likely starts with the same letter as the URL and the URL goes up to the top of the list if it's accessed more than the favorite.

Actually, I already knew that. That's actually what gave me the initial idea.

Free form would make it a lot more accessible, and I'd like to see the functionality extended to feeds. Maybe it's picky, but it's a sort of finishing touch.

Also, as to point 3, I guess what I'm really asking is how does the permissions system compare to filesystem permissions. Is there a similar system?

I'm really pleased so far. Here's my list of questions/suggestions:

(1) Could you add an option to disable the alt behavior to bring back the menu bar when hidden? I'm trying to wean myself off the old behavior to see how I like the new UI. Also, I find the resizing of the interface to be distracting.

(2) Could address bar be extended to act as a word wheel for favorites and feeds? For instance, if I typed "Windows Live", the Windows Live.com favorite, as well as the live.com and OneCare Live feeds would be pushed to the top of the autocomplete list. Ideally, we'd be able to query in free-form; if I were to type "live favorites", the Windows Live Favorites link would be pushed to the top, even though I didn't type "Windows".

(3) As RSS becomes more prevalent, it's more likely to contain sensitive information. For instance, I know GMail allows one to subscribe to a feed of new messages. Future versions of Sharepoint, I understand, will also support feeds. Would you explain what, if any, privacy guards exist to prevent consumer applications of the RSS platform from harvesting sensitive personal or corporate information?

Thanks.

Channel 9: The Director's Cut

Great video. Thanks.

I'm in the minimalist camp. Don't replace my legs!