News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by lt on Friday December 04, 2009 @06:11AM (#976152)
There's something that always amuses me in movies and series: something happened/is about to happen, a taskforce is created and they're running software very specific to that thing right away, with graphics, simulations, etc.

Who writes all that? No one ever mentions the programmers that save the day.

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by jrnkntl on Friday December 04, 2009 @04:33AM (#976056)
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by sten_ben on Friday December 04, 2009 @05:32AM (#976112)
And a post was up on rockpapershotgun this monday: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/11/30/tapitty-tapitty-t...

Who started all this one may wonder.

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by andreyf on Friday December 04, 2009 @12:08PM (#976694)
I think he did an AMA on reddit two months ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9lsp2/i_create_those_f...
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by rbanffy on Friday December 04, 2009 @06:17AM (#976157)
I have to disagree on the ridiculous part. They are all busy and dense, but they are not ridiculous per se when detached from the movie they came from.

Sometimes, you have to convey a very large amount of information in a very confined space. The glass-cockpits in planes are a good example - very dense displays that require some training to use.

And, once it works, there is little reason not to make it look cool.

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by gaius on Friday December 04, 2009 @07:13AM (#976211)
Some of the best interfaces I have written have been in good old-fashioned curses. If you need a "dashboard" for a complex system for a skilled operator, you can convey an awful lot of information in a maximized xterm on a 1280x1024 screen, it's dense but it's not "cluttered" if you lay it out and use colour intelligently.
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by rbanffy on Friday December 04, 2009 @11:46AM (#976635)
Sure, bit it's useful to convey some information in graphical form. Many of the constructs he employs (progress circles, use of color gradients to indicate data age) are really good.

The main point being, complex data doesn't have to look ugly.

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by sdh on Friday December 04, 2009 @12:33PM (#976769)
ridiculous as in technically absurd. I don't think he meant the design was ridiculous. at least that's my interpretation.
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by ckuehne on Friday December 04, 2009 @04:36AM (#976062)
Funny. The German in the Bourne Identity UIs is full of errors and fake words. Then again, it is still a lot better than the "German" spoken by Nazis in Hollywood movies.
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by rbanffy on Friday December 04, 2009 @06:11AM (#976150)
ACHTUNG!

ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS! DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN. IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS. ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by Luyt on Friday December 04, 2009 @11:48AM (#976640)
However, the user interface of the Sentry Gun the marines used in Aliens II was very realistic: http://www.inetres.com/gp/sf/aliens/sentry02.jpg
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by aarongough on Friday December 04, 2009 @04:28PM (#977249)
Dead link...
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by Luyt on Friday December 04, 2009 @08:58PM (#977601)
Really? For me it still works.

Anyway, I've made a mirror copy:

ftp://motoom.net/pictures/alien-sentry02.jpg

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by warfangle on Friday December 04, 2009 @03:45AM (#976024)
If you want an overly complicated and busy (with no regard to usability) UI, just go for Enlightenment ;)

In other regards, I like the choice of Ulrich Schnauss on his film reel. Big fan. Good coding 'tunes.

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by zurcociremer on Friday December 04, 2009 @05:28AM (#976108)
I love Enlightenment. Used to show it off to friends during presentations just for kicks. ;)

Other than that it's pretty usable, though takes a while getting used to.

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by Nosferax on Friday December 04, 2009 @12:20PM (#976718)
A much more interesting user interface used in a movie was developed by Oblong (see John Underkoffler). I am talking about Minority Report ;) They are making it into a real UI.

Check it out : www.oblong.com

Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by genieyclo on Friday December 04, 2009 @09:19AM (#976364)
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by systemtrigger on Friday December 04, 2009 @12:28PM (#976748)
I'm looking forward to Iron Man 2. Teaser: http://mahoski.s3.amazonaws.com/ironman-big.jpg
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by youngian on Friday December 04, 2009 @05:09PM (#977318)
I really enjoyed the UI stuff in Ironman. It was futuristic to be sure, but a lot of it struck me as interfaces that, given the technology, a brilliant inventor might actually use. And I'm pretty sure there was an implementation of tabs, pads, and boards (http://design.cca.edu/graduate/uploads/pdf/IA_PARC_Ubicomp.p...) going on there.
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by sp332 on Friday December 04, 2009 @10:35AM (#976488)
The guy who made the interface for Minority Report is actually commercializing it. http://vimeo.com/user922585
Re:Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Desig... by wlievens on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @05:03PM (#984722)
I often think that UI's for some real software should be closer to film depictions, not the other way around.