__/ [Tim Smith] on Sunday 12 February 2006 20:40 \__
> In article <dsncj1$114c$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> and metisse [1] would have the same impact). For example, when I wants to
>> move to Desktop 8 (KNode), for example, why would I choose to see an ani-
>> mation rather than have the region of interest appear within milliseconds?
>
> If the animation were consistent (e.g., imagine 6 desktops, numbered 1
> through 6, arranged on a cube in the same pattern as the numbers in dice
> (a d6 for those of you who find "dice" ambiguous :-)), then it might be
> easier to keep track of desktops.
Consistency is the key point. I am consistent when it comes to what goes on
where, or else it's chaos. I adopted some conventions that I attempt not to
break. To quote something I once wrote:
* Desktop 1: Web browsing (occasionally feeds)
* Desktop 2: Right-hand-side: E-mail, left-hand-side: music
* Desktop 3: Reading (usually GhostView and file managers)
* Desktop 4: Programming
* Desktop 5: Writing/authoring
* Desktop 6: Remote connections (permanent link to two other
workstations)
* Desktop 7: Photography, usually vacant or neglected
* Desktop 8: Communication, e.g. newsgroups
> There have been research interfaces where desktops or groups of related
> applications have been arranged like paintings in an art gallery, that
> you can move around in with a 3D first person view. That lets you use
> your spatial abilities to keep track of things, which people are fairly
> good at. Remembering that you, say, left the windows in which you are
> working on your tax filing on the left wall on the third corridor to the
> right can be easier than remembering it is on desktop 8, especially if
> the corridors and walls are decorated in some way to distinguish them.
This makes you wonder if the user should be put /inside/ the virtual cube (or
box) rather than be /outside/ it.
> In general, it is often easier to remember a given thing by mentally
> linking it to something else that is easier to remember. For example, a
> trick that is sometimes taught to remember a grocery list is to imagine
> the items you need being scattered around the house. Suppose you need
> bread, milk, and toothpaste. You go into the living room, and visualize
> a loaf of bread sitting on top of the TV, and milk spilled on your
> computer, and toothpaste smeared all over your chair.
>
> When you are at the store, if you can't remember the list, just imagine
> looking around you living room, and there's a good chance you'll
> remember your visualizations. You'll think of your computer covered in
> milk and remember the milk, and the bread sitting on the TV and remember
> the bread, and so on.
>
> An amusing example of using associations to remember things comes from
> Pompeii. For a long time, scholars were puzzled at some rather racy
> artwork that was on the walls in the baths. We think of the Romans as
> being rather wild sexually, but there were things that were unacceptable
> to even them, and the Pompeii baths had pictures of those things.
>
> They've figured out that these are in the place where you'd leave your
> things while you were in the baths. E.g., the Roman baths equivalent of
> a locker room at the gym. The current thought is that the art was to
> aid memory. Instead of trying to remember you left your clothes in spot
> XXIV, you remember you left them under the picture of the soldier being
> fucked in the ass by a pig. That's a lot more memorable. The more
> shocking the image, the more memorable.
I heard about this method of memorising ideas, but I think the context was
telephone numbers. I did a full E-mail archive search, but couldn't come up
with anything useful to follow up with. I couldn't think of a good search
phrase. I only remember that the more violent or absurd the image, the more
memorable. I was sent this by a retired friend last year. He read a book on
the topic and he happily uses the method.
Best wishes,
Roy
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