>provides an abstraction layer to enable the concept ofr a ubiquitous network
>or ubiquitous data. That is, a transport agent provides the functionality to
>(for example) design a desktop that is able to access data objects from
>anywhere, whether it is on the Internet, a local are network, some other
>wide area network, local persistant storage or volatile memory [...] this
*is* the direction
>things are headed [...] client (abrowser being a specific example of a client
>component) shouldn't care at
>all where it is getting something from. It just needs to fufill its request.
>It only says "give me this" or "take this away"
>[...] If anything, sharing objects will increase the amount of
>information a person can chew by organically encouraging information authors
>to use common visual metaphores (like under-construction) in the same way
>that an operating system becomes more usable when applications are
>encouraged to use common interfaces
coorectomundo... neither server not client should really "care" where the
"real" object is stored
the availability of a rich and easily generalizable set of common visual
metaphors will help make vrml scenes "make sense" to users by reducing the
learning curve. the "under construction" sign is a commonly used and readily
understood symbol for some very good social-psychological reasons, not the
least of which are that it allows the author to convey a rich set of ideas
to the reader in a very dense space, and to feel pretty sure that almost
anyone from almost any culture thinking in almost any language will look at
that symbol and get basically the idea I wanted them to get... a picture of
a gopher is a pun in american english, and must be explained to most folks,
while a file cabinet makes automatic sense cross-culturally.
enough of the ranting social scientist! eat, drink, and be merry this
Memorial Day weekend.
My stepkid turns 13 in a little over month... I cannot avoid thinking about
the 13 year-olds trapped in Sarajevo this weekend.
------------------------------------
Jeff Sonstein, M.A.
Networks Administrator
New College of California
50 Fell Street
San Francisco CA 94102
(415) 241 - 1302 ext 490