11 ms·

Calm tech certification "rewards" less distracting tech

378 points by headalgorithm 2y ago

Minor49er 2y ago
I was trying to read the article about less-distracting tech, but I was distracted by a "create an account" popup that covered the screen while doing so
- cesarvarela 2y ago
  And the cookies banner and the related stories column...
- deleted 2y ago
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- deleted 2y ago
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abeppu 2y ago
> requires an instruction booklet with a list of replacements and compatible parts I appreciate this but it doesn't seem like it belongs in a certification about calmness per se. Even annoying tech should be clear about the extent to which parts are replaceable.
- gjsman-1000 2y ago
  This is the danger with certifications: Making the certification too broad, causes very few things to be certified. Very few things being certified, means nobody knows why the certification matters. In my mind, repairability, "calmness," accessibility - it's all separate.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  Think of calm as the opposite of surprised. As in, wow I'm surprised this computer has a proprietary soldered on SSD I can't replace! I am no longer calm!
remoquete 2y ago
Amber Case's book on Calm Technology and design was a great read. Perhaps as a consequence of having studied Cognitive Science, I find this one to be the best book I’ve read on feature design — and not just for software. It's full of easily digestible insights on attention and context, with excellent examples and clear explanations. It’s almost philosophical in its apparent simplicity.
- eikenberry 2y ago
  What were some of these insights?
  - remoquete 2y ago
    The most important is that tech must stay at the periphery of the user's attention. Of course one cannot apply this to Candy Crush...
jf 2y ago
I wasn't able to find a full list of all Calm Tech certified devices, but it looks like the union of these two URLs lists most of what they have certified: https://www.calmtech.institute/calm-tech-certification https://www.calmtech.institute/calm-tech-certification https://www.calmtech.institute/blog/tags/calm-tech-certified https://www.calmtech.institute/blog/tags/calm-tech-certified
- jbm 2y ago
  I own that timer, or an Aliexpress knockoff there-of. It is great and helps my kids with their homework. The daylight computer looked interesting too; but its website undermines the message it seems to give. I wanted a price and to order and could do neither, but there were long paragraphs about how revolutionary it was, with left to right and up-to-down transitions.
- Animats 2y ago
  Looking at the full list of certified devices: - AirThing View Plus: "This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content." Supposedly this has seven sensors, but only displays two values. How does that work? The values are displayed as numbers, too. A bar chart with green, yellow, and red sections would "calmer" - Daylight Computer - Placeholder text again. No specs. What does it actually do? Writing only? Web browsing? Dark grey on off-white text, which looks like low-end E-Ink. - Time Timer - looks fine, although everybody else's timers count down counterclockwise. How much does it cost? If it's $10, great If it's $100, come on. - Unplug - if you need that, you have other problems. This is disappointing. It's like the junk that used to be advertised in the magazines that were provided in airline seat backs. These are all non-problems or easy hits. They need something more useful, such as a more usable TV remote or home control unit or car infotainment system. Those all run from bad to worse. I've run into "simple interface" people a few times. One was a guy who was plugging his book about how clever their design for a seat-back entertainment system was. He had a model of four typical users and how they'd use it to pick from a rather short list of alternatives. I'd already read the book. I said, why not just have a channel selector knob? Then it comes out that the thing had a payment interface for pay per view. That wasn't mentioned when they were explaining how simple it was. A few years ago, there was someone who wanted to build a GUI for some common Linux tool to promote their design shop. I suggested tackling Git, which really needs a GUI. That was too hard. This goes way back. In the 1930s, there was a thing for radios with One Knob. Here's a 1950s TV ad for that.[1] There was a long period during which radios and TVs had a large number of knobs to be adjusted to get decent results. That was finally overcome. My favorite simple interface is General Railway Signal's NX system.[1] This is the first "intelligent user interface", from 1936. What makes it "intelligent" is that, when a train is entering the interlocking, the dispatcher selects the incoming track, and then all the possible exit points light up. They pick the desired exit and push its button. The system then sets up the route, setting the signals and switches. Conflicts with other routes are detected, so this is safe. If there are alternate routes, NX can route around other trains. The previous technology was that the dispatcher had to figure out which switches and signals to set themselves. There was interlocking to prevent hazardous setups, but the lever machines couldn't plan a route. This kind of UX design is really important and usually botched. [1] https://anyflip.com/lbes/vczg https://anyflip.com/lbes/vczg
agumonkey 2y ago
I can't stop thinking that we're circling back to how "tech" was before when it was limited because it fits our needs better. Slower, some complexity, less possibilities at every time.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  Yes I think the smartphone is an instance of "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.", when tech had higher constraints there was more thought put into determining what was essential. When I want to put on headphones to do chores around the house I pick up my 2006-era iPod. No wireless pairing to screw with, no distracting notifications, just a library of music I've already listened to a hundred times so I can just think, which of these albums am I in the mood for, and choose. The interface is simple to navigate because there's just not much to navigate, and IMO that goes a long way to have a predictable experience that never introduces frustration.
  - agumonkey 2y ago
    The irony is that, the iphone era was somehow everything I wanted to see. But indeed this unified (incredible) device, ends up being a sink in itself that sucks so much of your thoughts to provide very few on average (there's some fun stuff given by having a pocket computer to be fair).
    - jazzyjackson 2y ago
      For me the tipping point was when I could no longer FTP files to my android phone. Not much of a computer IMO !
  - mhh__ 2y ago
    In the west I guess there's some truth to that but I think phones have been emancipatory in the poorer parts of the world.
  - constantcrying 2y ago
    But the universality of phones also made them great tools. Maps, calls, messages all can be enormously beneficial. The problem comes when they are both a tool and an entertainment device, as they are inseparably linked together.
localghost3000 2y ago
> Companies designing new products were unclear on what was right, or wrong, and uncertain about how they might put calm technology ideals into practice. Nope. That’s not at all what the problem is. The problem is that when you implement features that respect the users attention an engagement metric dips slightly. And a shot caller notices. They roll the feature back. Because at the end of the day your calm means fuck all to the pursuit of endless growth.
umutisik 2y ago
Tablets and phones could be calm tech too if they adjusted their brightness and white-point correctly based on ambient lighting.
- yapyap 2y ago
  I doubt those are the uncalming aspects of tablets and phones, sure they’re what keep you up at night on a physical level but not mentally.
  - hammock 2y ago
    + Greyscale + some kind of refresh rate limiter to 1-2Hz instead of 60-120hz :)
    - 9021007 2y ago
      Sounds like you’re describing an e-ink phone, which is actually a real product!
      - hammock 2y ago
        Yes. Or a smartphone with these settings (doesn't require you to spend $$)
        pushcart 2y ago
        Are you somehow able to lower refresh rate below 60Hz on phones? Would love to do this if possible (have an Android) e: There's adb command to change the refresh rate: `adb shell settings put system min_refresh_rate 10.0`. Unfortunately my phone seems to have locked possible refresh rates to 60/90/120, any other values don't do anything. If someone wants to try this, there should be "Show refresh rate" setting under developer options which helps to detect if the adb command was successful or not.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  I thought an interesting move for the next Light Phone is to dedicate an entire knob to screen brightness [0], although they indicate it will be user programmable too. https://www.thelightphone.com/blog/light-iii-design-manifesto https://www.thelightphone.com/blog/light-iii-design-manifest...
gagik_co 2y ago
I mean right now just seems to be one of those business that one pays to put a logo of a nice green checkmark or a tree to make your product seem more legit and ethical Sure it’s nice to push bunch of nice UI patterns but I imagine most of the “certified” products weren’t going to be attention hogs anyways. A positive outcome from something like this would be if governments started requiring these kind of certifications like they do for accessibility.
motohagiography 2y ago
working on some product ideas now, finding that any code or set of interactions you can abstract up into an analog control loop is both calm and powerful. if you have a system where you can dynamically dial resources up and down to find an optimal output, that's a high value system. I think understanding this balance is how aesthetic properties translate into value.
endofreach 2y ago
Need to try it here, dorry for OT: Does anyone know investors in europe looking to fund something a little moonshotty? What i've been working on is fundamentally "calm" at it's core, yet more advanced tech. Happy for any input (don't think VC is the route to go).
pedalpete 2y ago
We're building a neuromodulation sleep headband, and we've always had the aim of getting to the point where the user puts it on, it does it's thing (slow-wave enhancement) the person takes it off in the morning and goes about their day. I don't even want to put IO into the device at all. Not only because it increases cost and size, but because I don't what the user having to interact. We have to find better ways to fit the device in your life, so you don't even think about it.
- polishdude20 2y ago
  Woah can you tell us more about this? Seems like really cool tech
  - pedalpete 2y ago
    I've answered a bunch of questions in this thread about the tech. I'll be doing a bunch of blog posts about our unique take on the sleep space, and where our tech fits in as we lead up to pre-sales. There are a bunch of research papers on our website, as well as some very basic descriptions of how it works. https://affectablesleep.com https://affectablesleep.com
- 0_____0 2y ago
  I love tech like this. You put it on and it just does its thing. My HR monitor is like that, although if the receiving device doesn't immediately pair, it can be frustrating figuring out what's gone wrong.
  - pedalpete 2y ago
    This was one of my biggest concerns as all over the wearable space you see comments about "I couldn't get my device to connect". We haven't had too many issues with BLE, but I think the UI of the mobile app needs to clearly communicate the connection state, and not just "connected/disconnected" but more of "last connection, the device will ping in x seconds" so the person knows the device will be looking for the phone. We have a few tricks up our sleeve, as we're like Santa (we know when you are sleeping, we know when you're awake), and seeing as the headband is only used for sleeping, we can have an open connection when you are awake, and then go into low power mode when we detect you've closed your eyes, and then we can ping on a more reasonable schedule.
everyone 2y ago
I mean that mui Board thing is pretty cool and novel, that would definitely distract me for a while.
constantcrying 2y ago
Very interesting initiative. I think examining products on that level is very important. What I think is also important though are tools which can embrace this and work with existing technology. The modern smartphone is simultaneously a great tool and an enormous distraction. There exist no device which offers the tools I genuinely need without all of the distractions.
- TulliusCicero 2y ago
  Agreed, had a bunch of talks about this issue with the wife. On one hand, we're both distractible people, and it'd probably be better if we could leave our phones behind on certain family outings and trips. But on the other hand, there's definitely times where you really need your phone on said outings: for directions, for business info, to call people, to book things, etc. It's just hard to get the necessities without bringing along everything else.
dang 2y ago
Related. Others? Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29115653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29115653 - Nov 2021 (68 comments) Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21799736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21799736 - Dec 2019 (155 comments) Principles of Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389344 - Aug 2016 (66 comments) Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9107526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9107526 - Feb 2015 (1 comment) Calm Tech, Then and Now - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8475764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8475764 - Oct 2014 (1 comment) Designing Calm Technology (1995) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7976258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7976258 - July 2014 (2 comments)
brianmaurer 2y ago
Coincidentally there's an app on the front page that is an open-source and free for the Unpluq product mentioned in the Calm certification: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42782295 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42782295
- internet_points 2y ago
  I guess spelling velar plosives with q is the new -er -> -r
choilive 2y ago
You know whats calm and not distracting? A notebook and pen. You can buy a LOT of decent notebooks for the price of one of the reMarkables mentioned in the article. (~30 or so?), and it will last a lot longer as well. Im starting to sound like a luddite.
- kibwen 2y ago
  > Im starting to sound like a luddite. Obligatory mention that the Luddites weren't against technology in general, they were against technology that was causing them to lose their livelihoods (while the country was already in the midst of an employment crisis and economic downturn due to a trade war (and real war) with Napoleon's Europe).
- golly_ned 2y ago
  With the usual trade-offs between pen and notebook: namely durability and storage, for me. Some can account for all their notebooks going back years. I cannot, which makes me sad to have lost a lot of writing.
  - CapeTheory 2y ago
    I have observed a strange/alarming behaviour when I carry a notebook - because friends and family don't typically have one, they find it intriguing and so will sometimes absentmindedly snoop through what I've written if I leave it unattended. The same thing just doesn't happen with a ReMarkable (and even if it did, you can set a PIN code).
    - girvo 2y ago
      > and so will sometimes absentmindedly snoop through what I've written if I leave it unattended I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced that! Such a fascinating experience, though really quite upsetting at the time. Doesn't happen now with my PIN-locked e-ink device.
- ryanianian 2y ago
  I get you're being snarky, but I'll politely push back. I remained skeptical for a long time. Then I got one. I absolutely love it. In particular, the ability to have multiple notebooks with me and cross-linking via tags. And "infinite pages" lets you insert space in the middle of a page or continue moving down without having to worry about physical page sizes. I can also screen-share the tablet with the desktop app to draw diagrams on zoom calls. Admittedly, it is only incremental over a spiral notebook and a bic pen. But they do that incremental thing pretty well, particularly because of their focus on the "calm tech" aspects and lack of mainstream ecosystem to track upstream.
nixpulvis 2y ago
The irony of trying to read this article and being assaulted by cookie warnings and ad popups that appear while scrolling is not lost on me.
- ramon156 2y ago
  Sadly they have no control over the cookie warnings
  - globular-toast 2y ago
    Of course they do. They aren't forced to use cookies that require user consent.
  - lm28469 2y ago
    Out of the four categories they show only one needs consent: targeted ads, the others can be fully anonymous. The "essential cookies" can't be disabled, the "analytics" can be fully anonymous, the "personalisation" can be fully anonymous.
  - GJim 2y ago
    Ummmmm If they didn't have ads that track me, then they would have no need to ask my permission to use cookies that track me. There is no requirement so seek permission for other cookies needed to run the website. Quite why some readers of a technical news site (!) are still confused about this is bizzare. In short, blame the scummy adtech industry. Not the legislation that gives us our privacy.
  - AdamN 2y ago
    People say that but it's not really true. If they just have 1P cookies for basic functionality (login), then I believe there can be a discreet notice at the bottom informing the user of that fact. Groups like IEEE should be the ones pioneering those patterns.
    - lowercased 2y ago
      Not even sure you need any discreet notice about anything for strictly necessary first party cookies. That's my understanding of GDPR, at any rate.
lifeisstillgood 2y ago
My son just had an X-ray and there were checks and balances and careful professionals. It’s taken a hundred years plus to go from early tech to available in local hospitals. We have barely begun to address the sharp edges of social media, mobiles and more. We will get there, a calm UI and backgrounded tech (hint AI won’t do it magically we need to intentionally give up selling ads every second) but democracy helps.
- xeonmc 2y ago
  Related: see Therac-25
GuB-42 2y ago
I don't really understand what it is about. The general idea is be less distracting, but that's pretty vague, a lot of things are not distracting, in fact most things aren't, we just don't notice and that's the point. The criteria seem to be "attention, periphery, durability, light, sound, and materials". Very broad. It looks like it even addresses openness and repairability with "an instruction booklet with a list of replacements and compatible parts", something I really care about, but how does it relate to calm? Maybe it will be clearer when the certification document is out.
- zooniezoobir 2y ago
  Probably because your brain is mush from being born into a world where everything is a high tech attention grabbing nightmare. Those of us born 40-50 years ago see the consequences of this mess and are glad to have someone quantifying it, and hopefully creating a competitive market for devices that don’t intentionally make life harder.
  - GuB-42 2y ago
    About the age, I am actually one of you. But as an experiment, list the devices at home that are "high tech attention grabbing nightmares", and those that aren't. You are going to find the attention grabbers really fast of course, that's the idea, but if you are like me, the list is relatively short. Smartphone, PC, and that's about it, you may have a TV and a couple of device with annoyingly bright blue LEDs, but now the things that aren't: toaster, coffee machine, kettle, washing machine, dryer, fridge, various tools, hairdryer, etc... These things are not so different from how they were 40 years ago in terms of attention grabbing. In fact, many have improved by being less noisy. Oh, and I don't have that bright red alarm clock radio anymore.
metalman 2y ago
less distracting, less distracting, less distracting than what?, oh ! oh! I know this one its called lowering the bar, all the way, from where a device or a technology does something that saves you time and effort, to where it costs you time and attention from the things you need to do, but thats ok. where is a ludite with a big wrench
CatWChainsaw 2y ago
If it doesn't make as money as addition tech it will lose.
philip-b 2y ago
My list of calm (+), somewhat calm (o), and non-calm (-) pieces of technology that I have owned: + kindle from 2010 - laptop - phone - Ipad (but it's still much calmer than my computer or my phone) + Harmonica (musical instrument) o Amplifier (I use it with my harmonica through a mic) - Linnstrument (musical instrument that requires computer or ipad connection) + Pencil and paper + Paper books o Handwritten notes on Ipad - Notes in obsidian o Nintendo Switch + Paper dictionary (for language learning) - Dictionary + Claude AI on my phone
TylerE 2y ago
The only thing I’d want: Has no Blue LEDs: Pass Has a Blue LED: Fail Edit: Honorable mention for text boxes that silently eat newlines.
- Kuraj 2y ago
  How about any LEDs? Having to use duct tape to prevent an appliance from lighting up my entire room at night is egregious.
  - bmicraft 2y ago
    I could settle for a switch at the bottom to disable all lights, and in return the manufacturer is allowed to add as many as they like
  - TylerE 2y ago
    I could be convinced but the old school dull green's I don't find objectionable at all. Nor the similarly dim warm orangey reds of the same era. The blue ones are just so much brighter, and many of them seem to have a flicker, too.
  - nottorp 2y ago
    > Having to use duct tape Black nail polish is more elegant! I've said it before and I'll spread the word for as long as I live!
  - TylerE 2y ago
    PS: Electrical tape is better than duct tape because it's A: Black, B: It's rated for up to (typically, verify) about 200F and 600V. When I've resorted to this it's been on some things like stereo components that both get quite warm and have the tape pretty close to things like speaker terminals so being reasonably insulating is a nice safety blanket.
username135 2y ago
I wish wearable tech was dumb. I dont want to connect it to my phone, to an app, to the internet.... _nothing_ Its hard to find these kinds of devices but i have to believe there's a market. I can't be the only one.
sakesun 2y ago
Emacs is my calm tech IDE.
- DonHopkins 2y ago
  With a built-in psychoanalyzer! RMS -vs- Doctor, on the evils of Natalism: http://www.art.net/studios/hackers/hopkins/Don/text/rms-vs-doctor.html http://www.art.net/studios/hackers/hopkins/Don/text/rms-vs-d...
- globular-toast 2y ago
  Been using Emacs for over 15 years and, now you mention it, I guess that is why. At the time it was normal for people to use a different IDE per language and these would be littered with buttons, menus, tabs etc. I thought this was ridiculous so looked into vim and Emacs. Emacs is obviously better so I made my config completely distraction-free (which is trivial to do). Now 99% of my window is the text I'm editing (two lines reserved for modeline and minibuffer). Nothing pops up or makes its presence known until the moment I need it. Tabs are a good example. I often have close to a hundred files "open" in Emacs but I don't need to know about them until the moment I'm ready to switch to one. I was 10 years ahead of VS Code taking off but when I look at that I still see a bunch of useless distractions taking up valuable screen space.
- MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
  I use vscode in neovim mode, but it does have a habit of "notifying" me about everything. Whose idea was it for there to be a marginal popup repeating everything I do? I do a thing, and there's the popup "hey, you did a thing!" Stop it...
DonHopkins 2y ago
I worked with Mark Weiser at the University of Maryland Heterogeneous Systems Lab, where we researched and published a paper about pie menus at CHI'88, before he went to run Xerox PARC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weiser https://donhopkins.medium.com/an-empirical-comparison-of-pie-vs-linear-menus-466c6fdbba4b https://donhopkins.medium.com/an-empirical-comparison-of-pie... The Computer for the 21st Century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkHALBOqn7s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkHALBOqn7s https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28351064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28351064 DonHopkins on Aug 29, 2021 | parent | context | favorite | on: Computers should expose their internal workings as... Natalie Jeremijenko: LiveWire, Dangling String; Mark Weiser: Calm Technology, Ubiquitous Computing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology >Calm Technology >History >The phrase "calm technology" was first published in the article "Designing Calm Technology", written by Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown in 1995.[1] The concept had developed amongst researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in addition to the concept of ubiquitous computing.[3] >Weiser introduced the concept of calm technology by using the example of LiveWire or "Dangling String". It is an eight-foot (2.4 m) string connected to the mounted small electric motor in the ceiling. The motor is connected to a nearby Ethernet cable. When a bit of information flows through that Ethernet cable, it causes a twitch of the motor. The more the information flows, the motor runs faster, thus creating the string to dangle or whirl depending on how much network traffic is. It has aesthetic appeal; it provides a visualization of network traffic but without being obtrusive.[4] [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20190508225438/https://www.karlstechnology.com/blog/designing-calm-technology/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190508225438/https://www.karls... [3] https://web.archive.org/web/20131214054651/http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=5387055 https://web.archive.org/web/20131214054651/http://ieeexplore... PDF: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./jasonh/courses/ubicomp-sp2007/papers/03-weiser-origins.pdf http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./jasonh/courses/ubicomp-sp2007/paper... [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20110706212255/https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/4065 https://web.archive.org/web/20110706212255/https://uwspace.u... PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20170810073340/https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/4065/paper.pdf?sequence=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20170810073340/https://uwspace.u... >According to Weiser, LiveWire is primarily an aesthetic object, a work of art, which secondarily allows the user to know network traffic, while expending minimal effort. It assists the user by augmenting an office with information about network traffic. Essentially, it moves traffic information from a computer screen to the ‘real world’, where the user can acquire information from it without looking directly at it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Jeremijenko#Live_Wire_(Dangling_String),_1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Jeremijenko#Live_Wire_... >Natalie Jeremijenko >Live Wire (Dangling String), 1995 >In 1995,[9] as an artist-in-residence at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California under the guidance of Mark Weiser, she created an art installation made up of LED cables that lit up relative to the amount of internet traffic. The work is now seen as one of the first examples of ambient or "calm" technology.[10][11] [9] https://web.archive.org/web/20110526023949/http://mediaartists.org/content.php?sec=artist&sub=detail&artist_id=216 https://web.archive.org/web/20110526023949/http://mediaartis... [10] https://web.archive.org/web/20100701035651/http://iu.berkeley.edu/IU/stories/storyReader$397 https://web.archive.org/web/20100701035651/http://iu.berkele... >Weiser comments on Dangling String: "Created by artist Natalie Jeremijenko, the "Dangling String" is an 8 foot piece of plastic spaghetti that hangs from a small electric motor mounted in the ceiling. The motor is electrically connected to a nearby Ethernet cable, so that each bit of information that goes past causes a tiny twitch of the motor. A very busy network causes a madly whirling string with a characteristic noise; a quiet network causes only a small twitch every few seconds. Placed in an unused corner of a hallway, the long string is visible and audible from many offices without being obtrusive." [11] https://web.archive.org/web/20120313074738/http://ipv6.com/articles/sensors/Ubiquitous-Computing.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20120313074738/http://ipv6.com/a... >Mark Weiser suggested the idea of enormous number of ubiquitous computers embedding into everything in our everyday life so that we use them anytime, anywhere without the knowledge of them. Today, ubiquitous computing is still at an early phase as it requires revolutionary software and hardware technologies. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17353666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17353666 DonHopkins on June 20, 2018 | parent | context | favorite | on: Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (... Mark Weiser once told me that Ubik was one of his inspirations for Ubiquitous Computing. https://web.archive.org/web/20060220211305/http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060220211305/http://www.ubiq.c... >Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives. Alan Kay of Apple calls this "Third Paradigm" computing. https://blog.canary.is/from-tesla-to-touchscreens-the-journey-of-the-internet-of-things/ https://blog.canary.is/from-tesla-to-touchscreens-the-journe... >One year earlier, in 1998, Mark Weiser described it a little differently, stating that, “Ubiquitous computing is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world,” Weiser asserted,“ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people.” This wasn’t the first time someone broached the idea of IoT. In the early 1980s, students at Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science department created the first IoT Coke machine. Author Philip K. Dick wrote about the smart home in the 1969 sci-fi novel Ubik, and four decades before, inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla addressed the concept in Colliers Magazine. In an amazingly prescient 1926 interview, Tesla said, >"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain…We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance…and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik “Five cents, please,” his front door said when he tried to open it. One thing, anyhow, hadn’t changed. The toll door had an innate stubbornness to it; probably it would hold out after everything else. After everything except it had long since reverted, perhaps in the whole city … if not the whole world. He paid the door a nickel, hurried down the hall to the moving ramp which he had used only minutes ago. […] “I don’t have any more nickels,” G. G. said. “I can’t get out.” Glancing at Joe, then at G. G., Pat said, “Have one of mine.” She tossed G. G. a coin, which he caught, an expression of bewilderment on his face. The bewilderment then, by degrees, changed to aggrieved sullenness. “You sure shot me down,” he said as he deposited the nickel in the door’s slot. “Both of you,” he muttered as the door closed after him. “I discovered her. This is really a cutthroat business, when —“ His voice faded out as the door clamped shut. There was, then, silence. […] “I’ll go get my test equipment from the car,” Joe said, starting towards the door. “Five cents, please,” “Pay the door,” Hoe said to G. G. Ashwood. [...] “Can I borrow a couple of poscreds from you?” Joe said. “So I can eat breakfast?” “Mr. Hammond warned me that you would try to borrow money from me. He informed me that he already provided you with sufficient funds to pay for your hotel room, plus a round of drinks, as well as —“ “Al based his estimate on the assumption that I would rent a more modest room than this."
internet_points 2y ago
That mui board looks quite nice – how hard would it be to make something wood-like that just displays the weather when you touch it? I'm thinking something more or less A5 or moleskine-shaped that I can hang on the wall in the hallway, and you touch it (or press a button or something) and it loads and display a web page, does nothing else
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kashyapc 2y ago
They mention "reMarkable Paper Pro", but I'm not willing to pay a subscription for such a physical device that already is quite expensive. I see reMarkable says[1] you can use it without a subscription, but I'm not confident they won't pull the rug under my feet. [1] https://support.remarkable.com/s/article/Using-reMarkable-without-a-subscription https://support.remarkable.com/s/article/Using-reMarkable-wi...
- laserbeam 2y ago
  The remarkable team is good at marketing their product, and of course they’ll get it “calm certified” if they can. Keep in mind there are plenty of alternatives to it (boox, supernote, kindle scribe, many more). I bet you 90% of them are just as “calm” as the remakrable.
  - EnnEmmEss 2y ago
    I've only used the Boox Tab Ultra C Pro and Remarkable Paper Pro but the latter is definitely a lot more "calm" than the former. I primarily use it only as a note-taking device. YMMV but for me, while the former had a full-fledged Android and the associated bells and whistles like the corresponding apps, local AI features, handwriting search and so on, the RMPP nailed the few things it did. Its sync was pretty slow and it needed wifi for any of the handwriting conversion but its latency felt a lot better (albeit the redraw was a bit annoying) and more importantly, it really felt like they nailed the colors better. When I use red and blue in the RMPP, I can easily recognize the diff without straining my eyes which was not the case for me with the BTUCP (is this the correct short form?). The keyboard folio was also better for the RMPP since I often experienced loose contact with the one on the BTUCP when I used it on my lap (flat surfaces were good once I set it up). Otoh, the material used in the BTUCP was much better since the RMPP one uses a polyster weave which often leaves me with slight goosebumps. Additionally, the keyboard folio isn't a feature I use often. I really can't talk about the others so for all I know, Scribe or supernote might be a lot better. RMPP does have a 90 days no questions asked return policy if you want to try it out (though I'm not sure how much that's worth).
  - kashyapc 2y ago
AbstractH24 2y ago
I thought this was related to the app Calm before clicking on it. Would have been a very interesting new direction for them to expand in.
alganet 2y ago
Less misdirecting tech? Sounds great. It is too late though.
nullderef 2y ago
Amber Case is awesome. I'm personally building a silly app that makes it annoying to use social media. It will sometimes display cookie banners, cats, and more in the middle of your screen :) https://nullderef.com/blog/phone-jan25/ https://nullderef.com/blog/phone-jan25/

378 points by headalgorithm 2y ago

I was trying to read the article about less-distracting tech, but I was distracted by a "create an account" popup that covered the screen while doing so

cesarvarela 2y ago
And the cookies banner and the related stories column...
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abeppu 2y ago

> requires an instruction booklet with a list of replacements and compatible parts I appreciate this but it doesn't seem like it belongs in a certification about calmness per se. Even annoying tech should be clear about the extent to which parts are replaceable.

gjsman-1000 2y ago
This is the danger with certifications: Making the certification too broad, causes very few things to be certified. Very few things being certified, means nobody knows why the certification matters. In my mind, repairability, "calmness," accessibility - it's all separate.
jazzyjackson 2y ago
Think of calm as the opposite of surprised. As in, wow I'm surprised this computer has a proprietary soldered on SSD I can't replace! I am no longer calm!

remoquete 2y ago

Amber Case's book on Calm Technology and design was a great read. Perhaps as a consequence of having studied Cognitive Science, I find this one to be the best book I’ve read on feature design — and not just for software. It's full of easily digestible insights on attention and context, with excellent examples and clear explanations. It’s almost philosophical in its apparent simplicity.

eikenberry 2y ago
What were some of these insights?
- remoquete 2y ago
  The most important is that tech must stay at the periphery of the user's attention. Of course one cannot apply this to Candy Crush...

jf 2y ago

I wasn't able to find a full list of all Calm Tech certified devices, but it looks like the union of these two URLs lists most of what they have certified: https://www.calmtech.institute/calm-tech-certification https://www.calmtech.institute/calm-tech-certification https://www.calmtech.institute/blog/tags/calm-tech-certified https://www.calmtech.institute/blog/tags/calm-tech-certified

jbm 2y ago
I own that timer, or an Aliexpress knockoff there-of. It is great and helps my kids with their homework. The daylight computer looked interesting too; but its website undermines the message it seems to give. I wanted a price and to order and could do neither, but there were long paragraphs about how revolutionary it was, with left to right and up-to-down transitions.
Animats 2y ago
Looking at the full list of certified devices: - AirThing View Plus: "This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content." Supposedly this has seven sensors, but only displays two values. How does that work? The values are displayed as numbers, too. A bar chart with green, yellow, and red sections would "calmer" - Daylight Computer - Placeholder text again. No specs. What does it actually do? Writing only? Web browsing? Dark grey on off-white text, which looks like low-end E-Ink. - Time Timer - looks fine, although everybody else's timers count down counterclockwise. How much does it cost? If it's $10, great If it's $100, come on. - Unplug - if you need that, you have other problems. This is disappointing. It's like the junk that used to be advertised in the magazines that were provided in airline seat backs. These are all non-problems or easy hits. They need something more useful, such as a more usable TV remote or home control unit or car infotainment system. Those all run from bad to worse. I've run into "simple interface" people a few times. One was a guy who was plugging his book about how clever their design for a seat-back entertainment system was. He had a model of four typical users and how they'd use it to pick from a rather short list of alternatives. I'd already read the book. I said, why not just have a channel selector knob? Then it comes out that the thing had a payment interface for pay per view. That wasn't mentioned when they were explaining how simple it was. A few years ago, there was someone who wanted to build a GUI for some common Linux tool to promote their design shop. I suggested tackling Git, which really needs a GUI. That was too hard. This goes way back. In the 1930s, there was a thing for radios with One Knob. Here's a 1950s TV ad for that.[1] There was a long period during which radios and TVs had a large number of knobs to be adjusted to get decent results. That was finally overcome. My favorite simple interface is General Railway Signal's NX system.[1] This is the first "intelligent user interface", from 1936. What makes it "intelligent" is that, when a train is entering the interlocking, the dispatcher selects the incoming track, and then all the possible exit points light up. They pick the desired exit and push its button. The system then sets up the route, setting the signals and switches. Conflicts with other routes are detected, so this is safe. If there are alternate routes, NX can route around other trains. The previous technology was that the dispatcher had to figure out which switches and signals to set themselves. There was interlocking to prevent hazardous setups, but the lever machines couldn't plan a route. This kind of UX design is really important and usually botched. [1] https://anyflip.com/lbes/vczg https://anyflip.com/lbes/vczg

agumonkey 2y ago

I can't stop thinking that we're circling back to how "tech" was before when it was limited because it fits our needs better. Slower, some complexity, less possibilities at every time.

jazzyjackson 2y ago
Yes I think the smartphone is an instance of "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.", when tech had higher constraints there was more thought put into determining what was essential. When I want to put on headphones to do chores around the house I pick up my 2006-era iPod. No wireless pairing to screw with, no distracting notifications, just a library of music I've already listened to a hundred times so I can just think, which of these albums am I in the mood for, and choose. The interface is simple to navigate because there's just not much to navigate, and IMO that goes a long way to have a predictable experience that never introduces frustration.
- agumonkey 2y ago
  The irony is that, the iphone era was somehow everything I wanted to see. But indeed this unified (incredible) device, ends up being a sink in itself that sucks so much of your thoughts to provide very few on average (there's some fun stuff given by having a pocket computer to be fair).
  - jazzyjackson 2y ago
    For me the tipping point was when I could no longer FTP files to my android phone. Not much of a computer IMO !
- mhh__ 2y ago
  In the west I guess there's some truth to that but I think phones have been emancipatory in the poorer parts of the world.
- constantcrying 2y ago
  But the universality of phones also made them great tools. Maps, calls, messages all can be enormously beneficial. The problem comes when they are both a tool and an entertainment device, as they are inseparably linked together.

localghost3000 2y ago

> Companies designing new products were unclear on what was right, or wrong, and uncertain about how they might put calm technology ideals into practice. Nope. That’s not at all what the problem is. The problem is that when you implement features that respect the users attention an engagement metric dips slightly. And a shot caller notices. They roll the feature back. Because at the end of the day your calm means fuck all to the pursuit of endless growth.

umutisik 2y ago

Tablets and phones could be calm tech too if they adjusted their brightness and white-point correctly based on ambient lighting.

yapyap 2y ago
I doubt those are the uncalming aspects of tablets and phones, sure they’re what keep you up at night on a physical level but not mentally.
- hammock 2y ago
  + Greyscale + some kind of refresh rate limiter to 1-2Hz instead of 60-120hz :)
  - 9021007 2y ago
    Sounds like you’re describing an e-ink phone, which is actually a real product!
    - hammock 2y ago
      Yes. Or a smartphone with these settings (doesn't require you to spend $$)
      - pushcart 2y ago
        Are you somehow able to lower refresh rate below 60Hz on phones? Would love to do this if possible (have an Android) e: There's adb command to change the refresh rate: `adb shell settings put system min_refresh_rate 10.0`. Unfortunately my phone seems to have locked possible refresh rates to 60/90/120, any other values don't do anything. If someone wants to try this, there should be "Show refresh rate" setting under developer options which helps to detect if the adb command was successful or not.
jazzyjackson 2y ago
I thought an interesting move for the next Light Phone is to dedicate an entire knob to screen brightness [0], although they indicate it will be user programmable too. https://www.thelightphone.com/blog/light-iii-design-manifesto https://www.thelightphone.com/blog/light-iii-design-manifest...

gagik_co 2y ago

I mean right now just seems to be one of those business that one pays to put a logo of a nice green checkmark or a tree to make your product seem more legit and ethical Sure it’s nice to push bunch of nice UI patterns but I imagine most of the “certified” products weren’t going to be attention hogs anyways. A positive outcome from something like this would be if governments started requiring these kind of certifications like they do for accessibility.

motohagiography 2y ago

working on some product ideas now, finding that any code or set of interactions you can abstract up into an analog control loop is both calm and powerful. if you have a system where you can dynamically dial resources up and down to find an optimal output, that's a high value system. I think understanding this balance is how aesthetic properties translate into value.

endofreach 2y ago

Need to try it here, dorry for OT: Does anyone know investors in europe looking to fund something a little moonshotty? What i've been working on is fundamentally "calm" at it's core, yet more advanced tech. Happy for any input (don't think VC is the route to go).

pedalpete 2y ago

We're building a neuromodulation sleep headband, and we've always had the aim of getting to the point where the user puts it on, it does it's thing (slow-wave enhancement) the person takes it off in the morning and goes about their day. I don't even want to put IO into the device at all. Not only because it increases cost and size, but because I don't what the user having to interact. We have to find better ways to fit the device in your life, so you don't even think about it.

polishdude20 2y ago
Woah can you tell us more about this? Seems like really cool tech
- pedalpete 2y ago
  I've answered a bunch of questions in this thread about the tech. I'll be doing a bunch of blog posts about our unique take on the sleep space, and where our tech fits in as we lead up to pre-sales. There are a bunch of research papers on our website, as well as some very basic descriptions of how it works. https://affectablesleep.com https://affectablesleep.com
0_____0 2y ago
I love tech like this. You put it on and it just does its thing. My HR monitor is like that, although if the receiving device doesn't immediately pair, it can be frustrating figuring out what's gone wrong.
- pedalpete 2y ago
  This was one of my biggest concerns as all over the wearable space you see comments about "I couldn't get my device to connect". We haven't had too many issues with BLE, but I think the UI of the mobile app needs to clearly communicate the connection state, and not just "connected/disconnected" but more of "last connection, the device will ping in x seconds" so the person knows the device will be looking for the phone. We have a few tricks up our sleeve, as we're like Santa (we know when you are sleeping, we know when you're awake), and seeing as the headband is only used for sleeping, we can have an open connection when you are awake, and then go into low power mode when we detect you've closed your eyes, and then we can ping on a more reasonable schedule.

everyone 2y ago

I mean that mui Board thing is pretty cool and novel, that would definitely distract me for a while.

constantcrying 2y ago

Very interesting initiative. I think examining products on that level is very important. What I think is also important though are tools which can embrace this and work with existing technology. The modern smartphone is simultaneously a great tool and an enormous distraction. There exist no device which offers the tools I genuinely need without all of the distractions.

TulliusCicero 2y ago
Agreed, had a bunch of talks about this issue with the wife. On one hand, we're both distractible people, and it'd probably be better if we could leave our phones behind on certain family outings and trips. But on the other hand, there's definitely times where you really need your phone on said outings: for directions, for business info, to call people, to book things, etc. It's just hard to get the necessities without bringing along everything else.

dang 2y ago

Related. Others? Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29115653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29115653 - Nov 2021 (68 comments) Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21799736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21799736 - Dec 2019 (155 comments) Principles of Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12389344 - Aug 2016 (66 comments) Calm Technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9107526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9107526 - Feb 2015 (1 comment) Calm Tech, Then and Now - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8475764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8475764 - Oct 2014 (1 comment) Designing Calm Technology (1995) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7976258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7976258 - July 2014 (2 comments)

brianmaurer 2y ago

Coincidentally there's an app on the front page that is an open-source and free for the Unpluq product mentioned in the Calm certification: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42782295 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42782295

internet_points 2y ago
I guess spelling velar plosives with q is the new -er -> -r

choilive 2y ago

You know whats calm and not distracting? A notebook and pen. You can buy a LOT of decent notebooks for the price of one of the reMarkables mentioned in the article. (~30 or so?), and it will last a lot longer as well. Im starting to sound like a luddite.

kibwen 2y ago
> Im starting to sound like a luddite. Obligatory mention that the Luddites weren't against technology in general, they were against technology that was causing them to lose their livelihoods (while the country was already in the midst of an employment crisis and economic downturn due to a trade war (and real war) with Napoleon's Europe).
golly_ned 2y ago
With the usual trade-offs between pen and notebook: namely durability and storage, for me. Some can account for all their notebooks going back years. I cannot, which makes me sad to have lost a lot of writing.
- CapeTheory 2y ago
  I have observed a strange/alarming behaviour when I carry a notebook - because friends and family don't typically have one, they find it intriguing and so will sometimes absentmindedly snoop through what I've written if I leave it unattended. The same thing just doesn't happen with a ReMarkable (and even if it did, you can set a PIN code).
  - girvo 2y ago
    > and so will sometimes absentmindedly snoop through what I've written if I leave it unattended I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced that! Such a fascinating experience, though really quite upsetting at the time. Doesn't happen now with my PIN-locked e-ink device.
ryanianian 2y ago
I get you're being snarky, but I'll politely push back. I remained skeptical for a long time. Then I got one. I absolutely love it. In particular, the ability to have multiple notebooks with me and cross-linking via tags. And "infinite pages" lets you insert space in the middle of a page or continue moving down without having to worry about physical page sizes. I can also screen-share the tablet with the desktop app to draw diagrams on zoom calls. Admittedly, it is only incremental over a spiral notebook and a bic pen. But they do that incremental thing pretty well, particularly because of their focus on the "calm tech" aspects and lack of mainstream ecosystem to track upstream.

nixpulvis 2y ago

The irony of trying to read this article and being assaulted by cookie warnings and ad popups that appear while scrolling is not lost on me.

ramon156 2y ago
Sadly they have no control over the cookie warnings
- globular-toast 2y ago
  Of course they do. They aren't forced to use cookies that require user consent.
- lm28469 2y ago
  Out of the four categories they show only one needs consent: targeted ads, the others can be fully anonymous. The "essential cookies" can't be disabled, the "analytics" can be fully anonymous, the "personalisation" can be fully anonymous.
- GJim 2y ago
  Ummmmm If they didn't have ads that track me, then they would have no need to ask my permission to use cookies that track me. There is no requirement so seek permission for other cookies needed to run the website. Quite why some readers of a technical news site (!) are still confused about this is bizzare. In short, blame the scummy adtech industry. Not the legislation that gives us our privacy.
- AdamN 2y ago
  People say that but it's not really true. If they just have 1P cookies for basic functionality (login), then I believe there can be a discreet notice at the bottom informing the user of that fact. Groups like IEEE should be the ones pioneering those patterns.
  - lowercased 2y ago
    Not even sure you need any discreet notice about anything for strictly necessary first party cookies. That's my understanding of GDPR, at any rate.

lifeisstillgood 2y ago

My son just had an X-ray and there were checks and balances and careful professionals. It’s taken a hundred years plus to go from early tech to available in local hospitals. We have barely begun to address the sharp edges of social media, mobiles and more. We will get there, a calm UI and backgrounded tech (hint AI won’t do it magically we need to intentionally give up selling ads every second) but democracy helps.

xeonmc 2y ago
Related: see Therac-25

GuB-42 2y ago

I don't really understand what it is about. The general idea is be less distracting, but that's pretty vague, a lot of things are not distracting, in fact most things aren't, we just don't notice and that's the point. The criteria seem to be "attention, periphery, durability, light, sound, and materials". Very broad. It looks like it even addresses openness and repairability with "an instruction booklet with a list of replacements and compatible parts", something I really care about, but how does it relate to calm? Maybe it will be clearer when the certification document is out.

zooniezoobir 2y ago
Probably because your brain is mush from being born into a world where everything is a high tech attention grabbing nightmare. Those of us born 40-50 years ago see the consequences of this mess and are glad to have someone quantifying it, and hopefully creating a competitive market for devices that don’t intentionally make life harder.
- GuB-42 2y ago
  About the age, I am actually one of you. But as an experiment, list the devices at home that are "high tech attention grabbing nightmares", and those that aren't. You are going to find the attention grabbers really fast of course, that's the idea, but if you are like me, the list is relatively short. Smartphone, PC, and that's about it, you may have a TV and a couple of device with annoyingly bright blue LEDs, but now the things that aren't: toaster, coffee machine, kettle, washing machine, dryer, fridge, various tools, hairdryer, etc... These things are not so different from how they were 40 years ago in terms of attention grabbing. In fact, many have improved by being less noisy. Oh, and I don't have that bright red alarm clock radio anymore.

metalman 2y ago

less distracting, less distracting, less distracting than what?, oh ! oh! I know this one its called lowering the bar, all the way, from where a device or a technology does something that saves you time and effort, to where it costs you time and attention from the things you need to do, but thats ok. where is a ludite with a big wrench

CatWChainsaw 2y ago

If it doesn't make as money as addition tech it will lose.

philip-b 2y ago

My list of calm (+), somewhat calm (o), and non-calm (-) pieces of technology that I have owned: + kindle from 2010 - laptop - phone - Ipad (but it's still much calmer than my computer or my phone) + Harmonica (musical instrument) o Amplifier (I use it with my harmonica through a mic) - Linnstrument (musical instrument that requires computer or ipad connection) + Pencil and paper + Paper books o Handwritten notes on Ipad - Notes in obsidian o Nintendo Switch + Paper dictionary (for language learning) - Dictionary + Claude AI on my phone

TylerE 2y ago

The only thing I’d want: Has no Blue LEDs: Pass Has a Blue LED: Fail Edit: Honorable mention for text boxes that silently eat newlines.

Kuraj 2y ago
How about any LEDs? Having to use duct tape to prevent an appliance from lighting up my entire room at night is egregious.
- bmicraft 2y ago
  I could settle for a switch at the bottom to disable all lights, and in return the manufacturer is allowed to add as many as they like
- TylerE 2y ago
  I could be convinced but the old school dull green's I don't find objectionable at all. Nor the similarly dim warm orangey reds of the same era. The blue ones are just so much brighter, and many of them seem to have a flicker, too.
- nottorp 2y ago
  > Having to use duct tape Black nail polish is more elegant! I've said it before and I'll spread the word for as long as I live!
- TylerE 2y ago
  PS: Electrical tape is better than duct tape because it's A: Black, B: It's rated for up to (typically, verify) about 200F and 600V. When I've resorted to this it's been on some things like stereo components that both get quite warm and have the tape pretty close to things like speaker terminals so being reasonably insulating is a nice safety blanket.

username135 2y ago

I wish wearable tech was dumb. I dont want to connect it to my phone, to an app, to the internet.... _nothing_ Its hard to find these kinds of devices but i have to believe there's a market. I can't be the only one.

sakesun 2y ago

Emacs is my calm tech IDE.

DonHopkins 2y ago
With a built-in psychoanalyzer! RMS -vs- Doctor, on the evils of Natalism: http://www.art.net/studios/hackers/hopkins/Don/text/rms-vs-doctor.html http://www.art.net/studios/hackers/hopkins/Don/text/rms-vs-d...
globular-toast 2y ago
Been using Emacs for over 15 years and, now you mention it, I guess that is why. At the time it was normal for people to use a different IDE per language and these would be littered with buttons, menus, tabs etc. I thought this was ridiculous so looked into vim and Emacs. Emacs is obviously better so I made my config completely distraction-free (which is trivial to do). Now 99% of my window is the text I'm editing (two lines reserved for modeline and minibuffer). Nothing pops up or makes its presence known until the moment I need it. Tabs are a good example. I often have close to a hundred files "open" in Emacs but I don't need to know about them until the moment I'm ready to switch to one. I was 10 years ahead of VS Code taking off but when I look at that I still see a bunch of useless distractions taking up valuable screen space.
MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
I use vscode in neovim mode, but it does have a habit of "notifying" me about everything. Whose idea was it for there to be a marginal popup repeating everything I do? I do a thing, and there's the popup "hey, you did a thing!" Stop it...

DonHopkins 2y ago

I worked with Mark Weiser at the University of Maryland Heterogeneous Systems Lab, where we researched and published a paper about pie menus at CHI'88, before he went to run Xerox PARC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weiser https://donhopkins.medium.com/an-empirical-comparison-of-pie-vs-linear-menus-466c6fdbba4b https://donhopkins.medium.com/an-empirical-comparison-of-pie... The Computer for the 21st Century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkHALBOqn7s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkHALBOqn7s https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28351064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28351064 DonHopkins on Aug 29, 2021 | parent | context | favorite | on: Computers should expose their internal workings as... Natalie Jeremijenko: LiveWire, Dangling String; Mark Weiser: Calm Technology, Ubiquitous Computing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology >Calm Technology >History >The phrase "calm technology" was first published in the article "Designing Calm Technology", written by Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown in 1995.[1] The concept had developed amongst researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in addition to the concept of ubiquitous computing.[3] >Weiser introduced the concept of calm technology by using the example of LiveWire or "Dangling String". It is an eight-foot (2.4 m) string connected to the mounted small electric motor in the ceiling. The motor is connected to a nearby Ethernet cable. When a bit of information flows through that Ethernet cable, it causes a twitch of the motor. The more the information flows, the motor runs faster, thus creating the string to dangle or whirl depending on how much network traffic is. It has aesthetic appeal; it provides a visualization of network traffic but without being obtrusive.[4] [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20190508225438/https://www.karlstechnology.com/blog/designing-calm-technology/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190508225438/https://www.karls... [3] https://web.archive.org/web/20131214054651/http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=5387055 https://web.archive.org/web/20131214054651/http://ieeexplore... PDF: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./jasonh/courses/ubicomp-sp2007/papers/03-weiser-origins.pdf http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./jasonh/courses/ubicomp-sp2007/paper... [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20110706212255/https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/4065 https://web.archive.org/web/20110706212255/https://uwspace.u... PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20170810073340/https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/4065/paper.pdf?sequence=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20170810073340/https://uwspace.u... >According to Weiser, LiveWire is primarily an aesthetic object, a work of art, which secondarily allows the user to know network traffic, while expending minimal effort. It assists the user by augmenting an office with information about network traffic. Essentially, it moves traffic information from a computer screen to the ‘real world’, where the user can acquire information from it without looking directly at it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Jeremijenko#Live_Wire_(Dangling_String),_1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Jeremijenko#Live_Wire_... >Natalie Jeremijenko >Live Wire (Dangling String), 1995 >In 1995,[9] as an artist-in-residence at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California under the guidance of Mark Weiser, she created an art installation made up of LED cables that lit up relative to the amount of internet traffic. The work is now seen as one of the first examples of ambient or "calm" technology.[10][11] [9] https://web.archive.org/web/20110526023949/http://mediaartists.org/content.php?sec=artist&sub=detail&artist_id=216 https://web.archive.org/web/20110526023949/http://mediaartis... [10] https://web.archive.org/web/20100701035651/http://iu.berkeley.edu/IU/stories/storyReader$397 https://web.archive.org/web/20100701035651/http://iu.berkele... >Weiser comments on Dangling String: "Created by artist Natalie Jeremijenko, the "Dangling String" is an 8 foot piece of plastic spaghetti that hangs from a small electric motor mounted in the ceiling. The motor is electrically connected to a nearby Ethernet cable, so that each bit of information that goes past causes a tiny twitch of the motor. A very busy network causes a madly whirling string with a characteristic noise; a quiet network causes only a small twitch every few seconds. Placed in an unused corner of a hallway, the long string is visible and audible from many offices without being obtrusive." [11] https://web.archive.org/web/20120313074738/http://ipv6.com/articles/sensors/Ubiquitous-Computing.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20120313074738/http://ipv6.com/a... >Mark Weiser suggested the idea of enormous number of ubiquitous computers embedding into everything in our everyday life so that we use them anytime, anywhere without the knowledge of them. Today, ubiquitous computing is still at an early phase as it requires revolutionary software and hardware technologies. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17353666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17353666 DonHopkins on June 20, 2018 | parent | context | favorite | on: Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (... Mark Weiser once told me that Ubik was one of his inspirations for Ubiquitous Computing. https://web.archive.org/web/20060220211305/http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060220211305/http://www.ubiq.c... >Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives. Alan Kay of Apple calls this "Third Paradigm" computing. https://blog.canary.is/from-tesla-to-touchscreens-the-journey-of-the-internet-of-things/ https://blog.canary.is/from-tesla-to-touchscreens-the-journe... >One year earlier, in 1998, Mark Weiser described it a little differently, stating that, “Ubiquitous computing is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world,” Weiser asserted,“ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people.” This wasn’t the first time someone broached the idea of IoT. In the early 1980s, students at Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science department created the first IoT Coke machine. Author Philip K. Dick wrote about the smart home in the 1969 sci-fi novel Ubik, and four decades before, inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla addressed the concept in Colliers Magazine. In an amazingly prescient 1926 interview, Tesla said, >"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain…We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance…and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik “Five cents, please,” his front door said when he tried to open it. One thing, anyhow, hadn’t changed. The toll door had an innate stubbornness to it; probably it would hold out after everything else. After everything except it had long since reverted, perhaps in the whole city … if not the whole world. He paid the door a nickel, hurried down the hall to the moving ramp which he had used only minutes ago. […] “I don’t have any more nickels,” G. G. said. “I can’t get out.” Glancing at Joe, then at G. G., Pat said, “Have one of mine.” She tossed G. G. a coin, which he caught, an expression of bewilderment on his face. The bewilderment then, by degrees, changed to aggrieved sullenness. “You sure shot me down,” he said as he deposited the nickel in the door’s slot. “Both of you,” he muttered as the door closed after him. “I discovered her. This is really a cutthroat business, when —“ His voice faded out as the door clamped shut. There was, then, silence. […] “I’ll go get my test equipment from the car,” Joe said, starting towards the door. “Five cents, please,” “Pay the door,” Hoe said to G. G. Ashwood. [...] “Can I borrow a couple of poscreds from you?” Joe said. “So I can eat breakfast?” “Mr. Hammond warned me that you would try to borrow money from me. He informed me that he already provided you with sufficient funds to pay for your hotel room, plus a round of drinks, as well as —“ “Al based his estimate on the assumption that I would rent a more modest room than this."

internet_points 2y ago

That mui board looks quite nice – how hard would it be to make something wood-like that just displays the weather when you touch it? I'm thinking something more or less A5 or moleskine-shaped that I can hang on the wall in the hallway, and you touch it (or press a button or something) and it loads and display a web page, does nothing else

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kashyapc 2y ago

They mention "reMarkable Paper Pro", but I'm not willing to pay a subscription for such a physical device that already is quite expensive. I see reMarkable says[1] you can use it without a subscription, but I'm not confident they won't pull the rug under my feet. [1] https://support.remarkable.com/s/article/Using-reMarkable-without-a-subscription https://support.remarkable.com/s/article/Using-reMarkable-wi...

laserbeam 2y ago
The remarkable team is good at marketing their product, and of course they’ll get it “calm certified” if they can. Keep in mind there are plenty of alternatives to it (boox, supernote, kindle scribe, many more). I bet you 90% of them are just as “calm” as the remakrable.
- EnnEmmEss 2y ago
  I've only used the Boox Tab Ultra C Pro and Remarkable Paper Pro but the latter is definitely a lot more "calm" than the former. I primarily use it only as a note-taking device. YMMV but for me, while the former had a full-fledged Android and the associated bells and whistles like the corresponding apps, local AI features, handwriting search and so on, the RMPP nailed the few things it did. Its sync was pretty slow and it needed wifi for any of the handwriting conversion but its latency felt a lot better (albeit the redraw was a bit annoying) and more importantly, it really felt like they nailed the colors better. When I use red and blue in the RMPP, I can easily recognize the diff without straining my eyes which was not the case for me with the BTUCP (is this the correct short form?). The keyboard folio was also better for the RMPP since I often experienced loose contact with the one on the BTUCP when I used it on my lap (flat surfaces were good once I set it up). Otoh, the material used in the BTUCP was much better since the RMPP one uses a polyster weave which often leaves me with slight goosebumps. Additionally, the keyboard folio isn't a feature I use often. I really can't talk about the others so for all I know, Scribe or supernote might be a lot better. RMPP does have a 90 days no questions asked return policy if you want to try it out (though I'm not sure how much that's worth).
- kashyapc 2y ago

AbstractH24 2y ago

I thought this was related to the app Calm before clicking on it. Would have been a very interesting new direction for them to expand in.

alganet 2y ago

Less misdirecting tech? Sounds great. It is too late though.

nullderef 2y ago

Amber Case is awesome. I'm personally building a silly app that makes it annoying to use social media. It will sometimes display cookie banners, cats, and more in the middle of your screen :) https://nullderef.com/blog/phone-jan25/ https://nullderef.com/blog/phone-jan25/