David Gelernter : What is this universal information structure?
A few points : 1) How the hell did this guy get the editorial staff at the Times to okay running what is little more than a promotional brochure masked as an article? 2) For a guy claiming to make my life so much easier, it might behoove his network weenies to configure their web servers to return something more intellient than No web site is configured at this address. on a www-less URL. 3) Is the fact that the website for wunder-product opens a new window for seemingly every single internal link a design decision? Is that some clever information architect's way of reflecting The Patented Stream? 4) "Let me tell you a story?" Someone needs to work with this guy on his analogies. Because so far the only thing this makes me expect is either one of those people you know who just never shuts up or one of those very smart people who seem to have bartered away all their social capital in exchange for brain-power and who, even if they are right and (eventually) helpful, can't open their mouths with making you want to hit them. 5) Scopeware? Who the fuck comes up with this stuff?!A narrative stream, which says, "Let me tell you a story. " The system shows you a 3-D stream of electronic documents flowing through time. The future (where you store your calendar, reminders, plans) flows into the present (where you keep material you're working on right now) and on into the past (where every e-mail message and draft, digital photo, application, virtual Rolodex card, video and audio clip and Web bookmark is stored, in addition to all those calendar notes and reminders that used to be part of the future and have since flowed into the past to be archived forever).