The other weekend I was at home for a “four-in-one” birthday celebration (sister, brother, sister-in-law, brother-in-law) when we got onto the topic of touch screen. The discussion started with the usual banter between my brother and I – he being a Windows guy, me being a Mac/Linux guy – but at some point my Dad chimed in, asking what I thought Apple would be doing with touch screen (pointing out HP’s new computer). A quote I read today changed my answer to the question – and here’s why.

Obviously, we’ve already seen touch screen on a few Apple products – the iPhone and iPod Touch. And OS X already supports multi-touch, as evident in the most recent updates to the Macbook and Macbook Pro lines. However, the question was more directed at whether or not Apple would release a desktop system with a multi-touch screen. At the time, I made a somewhat off-the-cuff remark that Apple tends not to pick up on technologies it sees as a “fad”. Obviously, I didn’t think the question through, dismissing multi-touch screens as a “fad”.

I bring this up because today, while reading an article comparing Windows 7 features to OS X Snow Leopard, I read the following quote from Steve Jobs: “Multi-touch makes a lot of sense on the iPhone, but not so much sense on an iMac. Consider it a research project.” This caused the gears to begin to grind in my head, reconsidering my answer to the question posed by my Dad.

Will Apple eventually release a desktop system with a multi-touch screen? In short, yes, but it may not be the typical “desktop system”. Stevieboy makes a good point in stating that multi-touch screens don’t make a lot of sense on the iMac. Try sitting in front of an iMac, at the proper distance from the screen, and interacting with it like you would a touch screen (without actually touching the screen – you don’t want to make it all oily). It feels extremely unnatural, and keeping your arm in that position for an extended period would cause significant discomfort.

So, let us assume for the sake of argument that Apple is, in fact, researching some sort of multi-touch screen implementation on a desktop system. This would require a redesign of the monitors, and possibly even the whole system. Apple won’t want to sell a multi-touch solution that isn’t aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing, and their current product line doesn’t lend itself to such a goal.

The correct answer to my Dad’s question (IMHO) is “yes” – Apple will eventually release a multi-touch screen desktop system. However, it will probably look significantly different from their current product line. And while it may take them longer than other computer makers to release, I’m willing to bet the implementation will be the best available on release day.

I finally got back to working on the geektyme.org site design. Amazingly I’ve only had to add one thing for Internet Explorer so far, but I only fixed IE7 – there’s still a little oddness in IE6 that I need to take care of. IE5 can suck my you know what, if you’re still using IE, and still on IE5, I don’t care about you. You are not a computer savvy person. Either that or you have some weird web-masochist thing going on. In either case, go away.

Conclusion…you should check out where I’m heading with it here. I’m still miles away from the programming stage – I still have some design left to do. Next on my list is Element Games, which I’ll probably get done much faster as it’s a simpler site and initially I can skip any programming and just do straight XHTML and CSS (it doesn’t need to be dynamic yet). So that’s what I’m up to, how ‘bout you?

I turned a cheesy joke I made over at DistroStop into a very crude apple parody-type thing. What can I say, I was bored:

And yes, I meant it to say “boreds”, please don’t correct my grammar/spelling. It’s purposely incorrect.

This is getting moved here from over there (also, from Wordpress to Textpattern). It’s taking some time to get the design set up as I want, along with moving over the posts and comments and cleaning up spam comments. I wish Textpattern’s import utility would recognize spam and mark it properly. I guess I should have deleted the spam comments before backing up and importing the database. Oh well!

For those of you who haven’t heard, Saul Williams has released a new album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, with the help of Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame – you knew that, right?). Trent Reznor’s influence is very noticeable, especially on tracks like WTF! – which, fittingly, starts off with background vocals from our good friend. Throughout the song you can feel Trent’s influence in the beat and the hard industrial sound, and Saul’s vocals flow so well over top of the myriad of sound Trent and CX KiDTRONiK have created. On the very next track the album switches gears, being fully composed by Saul. Overall the album is a diverse and interesting mix of styles, exactly what you would expect out of a collaboration between Trent and Saul. And it’s just as awesome as you think it would be. So far my favorite tracks are: WTF!, Tr(n)igger, Scared Money, Banged and Blown Through, and I believe Raised to be Lowered – though I must admit it’s hard to pick just a few. Most interesting is the cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday, which I actually found quite enjoyable (I’m not a huge U2 fan, but I suppose this is a “classic”). Skin of a Drum is also an exceptional song, with great percussion driving it’s pounding lyrics, making you feel the frustration in the words.

And now for the good part: You can get it for $5, or free. Yes, Radiohead did this with “In Rainbows” recently, but I think Trent and Saul have been planning this for some time – although people will claim they’re just trying to copy – I doubt it, considering Trent’s recent comments about the recording industry, and NIN’s break from their label. Not to mention, what you get for your $5 is quite amazing. The biggest difference is in the audio: with the $5 paid download, you can choose between 192Kbps MP3’s, 320Kbps, or FLAC Lossless – with the free version, you’re only option is 192Kbps. Both versions come with a nice PDF booklet that includes lyrics and some enjoyable art work. I personally suggest going with the FLAC version – it is the best quality, and if you need it in any other format, it’s somewhat trivial to convert from FLAC to WAV and then encode in your favorite format. I personally used xACT in OS X to convert to WAV, and then simply set up iTunes importing to convert it to my preferred format (Learn).

But enough of my talk, check it yourself – at least grab the free version, and if you like it, chip in the $5 and get one of the better formats. Believe me, it’s worth it.