Unified Navigation Tree, UI Paradigm

As you read this blog, or use any application, notice how much of the screen’s area is used for navigation (around 50%, I’d guess). From the top edge of the monitor, row after row of navigation elements occludes your view of useful data. On a Mac, there’s the Finder, the Window titlebar, the browser’s location bar, a row of tab headers, and that’s just the beginning. Every site you visit provides adds further navigation rows.

These navigation elements are not unified in look&feel, and make up a crazy quilt draped over the top half of your screen. The supposed convenience of being able to navigate to an earlier branch of navigation is more than outweighed by sacrificing half your screen.

A way around might be a Unified Navigation Tree which is displayed fullscreen. The actual content of the web page would be displayed in fullscreen mode as well. The Navigation Tree would be accessed with one keystroke or mouse gesture.

The Operating System provides the main trunk of this tree. The current application ( say, browser ) adds a sub-tree at a strategic location, determined by the OS. The current web page adds a subtree to the browser’s subtree, and so on.

The trade-off is this — give up the convenience of navigating to any layer of your work with one click, and gain 50% more useful screen space. In this paradigm, everything is two ( instead of one ) keystrokes/clicks away.

The benefits of this paradigm:

1. Significantly increased screen space for actual content.
2. Less distracting visual noise. Fewer options contend for your attention.
3. A unified, consistent navigation system.

The Navigation Tree View could be a Dashboard-like, self-scaling, translucent overlay.

India must legalize homosexuality

 

It is heartening to read the recent statement by India’s Union Health Minister, Mr. Anbumani Ramadoss which favors removing section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 377 criminalizes homosexual union. It is imperative to provide an enabling environment, to combat HIV. Repealing section 377 will help free India from the clutches of orthodoxy and allow it to breathe freely in an environment where all people are innately valued. As a queer person myself, I heartily welcome this statement, and look forward to the day when the country of my origin will let gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and other queer people breathe freely and make their own choices.

Urban Vertical Farms

 

 

 Urban Vertical Farms are happening! I strongly believe in this concept, because I have seen it in my own dreams. Why do these urban green producing buildings need to be so tall? The answer might be economies of scale; if you’ve built 6 stories of vertical farm, the cost per additional floor drops rapidly.

I imagine these vertical farms will eventually be industrialized to a very large degree. Each floor will have the technology to manage the entire life-cycle of the crop automatically. Conduits to provide water and nutrients, sensors to monitor health of the plants, robots running Linux, that do everything from sow to harvest the crop. All of the code needed to run the farm could be as modular as Ruby gems. A very small team ( maybe one or two people ) could run the whole farm.

The entire design for these urban-agro projects should be open sourced. The buildings could be assembled out of custom LEGO or Meccano kits. Good luck, Dr. Despommier!

Hello world!

Welcome to OwnLifeful! My intention is to continue using LiveNudeJournal more casually than this blog. I am very fascinated with all the things I find, exploring the mysterious labyrinth that is life. I love asking difficult questions, and being a provocateur. My reality is split-level; sometimes outward looking, usually doubleplus ownlifeful. I hope to leave behind a rubbing of what it was like, to be me, from the inside. Perhaps I will be thought a troll, since I like to stir things up, but stay above the fray. I love bawdy jokes, witty aphorisms, gallows humor, and random smart-assery. As a teacher once said, “You don’t have to be right or wrong, just be interesting.”

Please, write back!