The first is Windows 8’s separation of Global and local controls. If you swipe down from the top of the screen in a Windows 8 metro app global controls are revealed and if you swipe up from the bottom of the screen the local controls having to do with the current app are exposed (this appears to not be perfectly consistant across all apps). This separation of global system controls from local controls gives a good mental model to the user of what their OS does and what an app does. It’s a small thing, but if it can be standardized across the entire OS it will make an outsized difference.

The other exciting thing is coming from Ubuntu. The HUD coming in Ubuntu 12 is basically a launchbar that replaces software menus. For users who are comfortable with the keyboard this will make heavily nested power apps more flat and accessible. I use Alfred to launch my apps and love it. It is faster than any other method and I would love to see it replacing as many commands as possible in all the apps I use. There’s a little bit of this in Mac OSX already. You can find where commands are located in a menu by searching for them in the Spotlight box of an application’s help menu. This is great, but not nearly as accessible and useful as the Ubuntu HUD. If a similar HUD were implemented on other platforms and menu items were named more symantically and understood a variety of queries that they have been programmed to recognize it would make jumping into complex powerful software (Adobe software specifically) much less daunting.

Imagine resizing an image in Photoshop. You could open the photo, call the HUD, begin typing resize. The HUD would understand that you probably mean Image Size or Canvas Size and present those two options. Arrow up or down to pick and press enter. The appropriate tool’s options window opens and you continue from there. A fairly daunting task for a newcomer has been made much simpler. It is not a leap to see that controlling this with voice would be a much simpler affair than the voice control schemes we’ve dreamed up in the past.

Desktop computers may be the trucks of the future, but many of us will still be using those trucks frequently despite spending an increasing percentage of time in our sleek little touch screen sports cars. I hope that we will continue to see innovations in productivity like this as time rolls on. I have stuff to tow and want next year’s F150 to be better than this year’s.

Estimating that loss requires counterfactual assumptions about what the world would have been like if the piracy had never happened — and, no surprise, those most affected tend to assume the worst.

Could it be that money spent lobbying these bills would be better spent improving your product and streamlining its delivery to your customers? I think so. What the actions of the entertainment industry in pushing these laws tells me is pretty frightening. It is easier to buy politicians than please your customers.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a book by Brian Selznick. It has received critical acclaim and a movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, is now in theaters. I actually received the book as a Christmas gift in 2008 and have only made my way to it recently. The stack of books next to my bed is a daunting adversary. Here are some of my thoughts on this unique book.

The first thing I noticed about this book is how beautiful it is. The dust jacket is intricate and colorful. The paper stock is heavy and it feels like a real artifact, something to display. The book is huge, much bigger than expected for a book aimed at young adults. As daunting as the size can seem I was able to finish it in about a week of intermittent reading.

The story moves at a brisk pace, aided by many pages of illustration. This is where the book really shines. Selznick has taken an effective approach to storytelling. Usually illustrations and occasional historical photographs move the story along. When exposition is necessary he returns to prose in well-set spare pages. This method gives the reader the best of both worlds and eases comprehension of the story. The narrative seems to fly by, a mark of success in my opinion.

The story itself winds and intrigues on many levels. It’s a story about family and finding a place of utility in the world. It is full of mystery as well. Selznick does a great job of building the story as one thing and then, halfway through, shifting the plot in a new and fascinating direction. Its magical themes manage to feed into an equally intriguing historical conclusion.

My timing reading the book could not have been better. Martin Scorsese has directed a film based on the book called Hugo, and I saw it last weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a fairly faithful rendition. The only additions and changes were understandable and helped flesh out the movie. The subject matter is a natural for Scorsese and he delights in the film history that the story celebrates. The staging of Georges Méliès’s films are reflected throughout the layered staging of the entire film.

I can heartily recommend both the book and film. The story is very intriguing and has good lessons to teach. I hope you enjoy them as well.

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret Amazon Affiliate Link

The MPAA studios hate us. They hate us with region locks and unskippable screens and encryption and criminalization of fair use. They see us as stupid eyeballs with wallets, and they are entitled to a constant stream of our money. They despise us, and they certainly don’t respect us.

Yet when we watch their movies, we support them.

SOPA will return because Hollywood has money they’re willing to throw at, or withhold from, our elected officials. Just think about it next time you spend money on SOPA backers, that money may end up paying for SOPA 2.0 tomorrow. Withholding funds is one way to let them know how we feel, being picky about the avenues through which we consume their content is another. Supporting relatively user-friendly content channels over insulting ones is one way to show Hollywood the type of service we expect if they want our money. For me iTunes & Netflix are two content channels that are on the right track, despite some problems. If money is free speech, we can use it too.

All I can think is: we gave you the Internet. We gave you the Web. We gave you MP3 and MP4. We gave you e-commerce, micropayments, PayPal, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, the iPad, the iPhone, the laptop, 3G, wifi—hell, you can even get online while you’re on an AIRPLANE. What the hell more do you want from us?

Take the truck, the boat, the helicopter, that we’ve sent you. Don’t wait for the time machine, because we’re never going to invent something that returns you to 1965 when copying was hard and you could treat the customer’s convenience with contempt.

This sums up the disconnect between DRM in all forms and the forward march of technology. Embrace tech or die, people will pay you if you make it easy for them to do so.

Design

The MacBook Air is very handsome. The wedge shape looks great, especially when it is closed and charging. The all aluminum body makes its diminutive size seem sturdy. The obssessive in me wants the screen bezel’s width to match the width from the edge of the shallow keyboard indent and edge of the computer. This is a minor quibble for a very nice looking machine. It is hardly surprising, given Apple’s track record.

Size

The major reason I purchased the Air was its size. I am doing lots of work during my commute these days so a smaller laptop in my bag makes a difference. I ordered the 11″ model and the size is perfect. It fits in my messenger bag with an iPad and book. The backlit keyboard is full-sized, unlike the Wintel netbooks I have had the misfortune of using. In the Air so much has been stripped away that it feels like the computer is just a keyboard, trackpad and screen.

There are many reasons why using the name ‘Air’ is appropriate for this computer, but the most obvious to me so far is the weight. It does not feel like a heavy work tool. I have owned towers and iMacs that had understandable girth, but now my MacBook Pro feels overweight and will now be serving as my stationary machine, chained to my desk.

Speed

This computer is quick. Do not let the lower than average clock speeds fool you. These days speed is in the hard drive. I installed a solid-state drive on my MacBook Pro months ago and found huge speed improvements. This computer came with powered by solid-state memory and feels just as fast. Things have changed in the computer speed game. If a computer has solid state for its disk, sufficient memory, and an average clock speed, it will feel fast and responsive for 95% of tasks. I suspect this computer will slow if I were to do video editing, or intensive graphic production (photomerging RAW files in Photoshop, for example), but my home machine is reserved for that so I have not tested it.

I have written, browsed extensively, and coded with the Air without waiting at all. I am confident that it is fast enough for almost anyone (except gamers, which I am not). Just a warning regarding the solid-state hard drive. It is expensive. Apple offers a paltry 64GB as a starter for the Air and getting more installed will cost extra. Solid-state memory is expensive. The price is falling, but I would not be surprised if the bulk of the cost for manufacturing is still in buying the stuff.

Battery

Another reason I purchased the MacBook Air was the battery life. It seems like it keeps going and going. It does not last as long as an iPad but much longer than any laptop I have used before. The default power settings are aggressively conservative so I find myself having to log back in frequently when the display goes to sleep. If this bothered me I could tweak the energy savings. I would not be surprised to see Apple shift to the ARM architecture for its laptops at some point. They have worked very well for the iPhone and iPad and once they are a little faster they will offer even greater battery life to laptops.

Screen

One thing that I noticed right away is the display’s greater pixel density. The screen resolution is 1344px × 768px. That might not seem very big, but for an 11.6″ screen it’s actually quite a bit. The 15″ screen on my MacBook Pro only has a 18% more at 1400px × 900px and my 24″ monitor is more than twice the size and only has 55% more pixels at 1920px × 1200px. In order to get all these pixels on the screen they are smaller and closer together. What all this math means is that the screen is sharper. Text is sharper, pictures are sharper, and, despite the smaller screen, more can fit on the screen than other 11″ laptops. There is a catch, text is smaller so I do catch myself squinting from time to time. Luckily OS X and most applications allow the user to increase the size of the font if needed.

This makes me excited for the day when high resolution displays will be standard, allowing sharpness that rivals the sharpest man-made media, paper. After using the iPhone 4S’ Retina display I anticipate having that sharpness and clarity on every screen I use.

Lap Use

Due largely to its lack of spinning drives the MacBook Air stays cool, even after extended use. It’s the first laptop I have used that is not bad for the lap.

Conclusion

Microsoft is known as a software company that usually leaves the hardware to somebody else. The MacBook Air is evidence that Apple is primarily a software company as well. The hardware simply delivers software, and then the Air disappears. It becomes invisible, only displaying the task at hand. What a relief.