Calypso Dancer is here! a Linux Extreme Desktop!

[woodsmoke]

Hi folks
I wandered in a few weeks ago and mentioned a new "extreme desktop" that I've been working on...

well....it's finished....

If anyone wants to try hooking it into a distro..... that's what it's for...

http://linuxextremedesktop.org/

comments appreciated and requested!

woodsmoke

[Lord Illidan]

My apologies but I couldn't really get around your website. Any direct links please? And, I quote :



There is a tide in the affairs of men.

Which taken at the flood.....

leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and miseries.....

Wm. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, (1599)

Rather than taking the attitude of compromise....

It is the thought, feeling and WILL of the people of Project Calypso that the Linux Community should be on the offensive instead of the defensive.

Thus, do we present, for those with ears to hear, eyes to see
, hands to do... and the WILL TO ACT....


Less faffing around here and a direct overview of the technology you created would be more appreciated. Perhaps leave that in an About link.

[Lucifiel]

Hmmm... I really suggest not using Java applets 'cos not everyone got them to work on their computers. Instead, use Flash or if your host doesn't allow that, put up a Youtube video instead.

Also, if I were you: remove the background image and find a good site color scheme. There're tons of online color generators you can use.

[Bloch]

How old are you man? Your presentation is a bit naive and I'm afraid some people might think it's a joke or something. The red on yellow is very "loud" and is off-putting. It sounds a bit arrogant.

"just a line to represent a mathematical expression and a "circle" to represent the intersection of two or more matrices"
I'm a mathematican (just a couple of papers published) and I've no idea what this means.

Your java program is a nice experiment and works smoothly but the hype you put in about it looks zany - almost 19th century snakeoil and soapbox style.

One suggestion: when you move e.g. from James --> documents it might be useful to have the folder you came from (James) indicated in a different colour. That way you know where you are now (in red) and where you came from.

Do you have this working as a real file browser or just as a demo?

[Lord Illidan]

I agree with the above. Pretty neat, yes, but way too much crap describing it.






Calypso Dancer, right now, is pretty "plain"....just a line to represent a mathematical expression and a "circle" to represent the intersection of two or more matrices.

Calypso Dancer is based on a VERY STRONG mathematical algorithm.

What you will see are lines and circles, that DANCE...when you touch them....

TO REPEAT...The lines represent the links to different "items", of a Linux distro.... and the "nodes" or "circles" represent

the "home", the "system", the "applications" the "documents" and within the documents the "pictures"..

But.....the algorithm is sufficiently strong

that the number of lines and intersections would probably be extensible beyond the capabilities of a screen to handle them.

HOWEVER....TO REDUCE CLUTTER....
you will notice that when the "next" circle(node) is clicked the previous circles(nodes) "collect" themselves...

the number of nodes is easily changeable depending upon the user's needs.

When the user is in an application Calypso Dancer could be "DOCKED" into, possibly, a small floating "star"

TRUE 3-D GOGGLES AND GLOVES..remember that....

Calypso Dancer will produce a TRUE, 3-D IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT menu system....

THINK OF TYPING ON A VIRTUAL KEYBOARD, OR HUNTING AND PECKING, with one finger ....

or just tapping Calypso Dancer and talking to the computer!

no repetitive motion problems with the hands!!!!

Think of a dentist cleaning your teeth, and he or she has a small camera on a set of opaque glasses and a set of "fingertip" gloves, and that he, or she, sees your tooth fifteen feet tall, and the germs the size of a baseball....so that your teeth can be cleaned PERFECTLY...

the PRESENT MENU system breaks down in this type of system...

Calypso Dancer is destined for it...

We leave it to you..., gentle reader, to customize the appearance of Calypso Dancer...we imagine that Calypso Dancer "might" look something like the screensaver by Really Slick Screensavers:

NEXT PAGE LINK IS BELOW THE PIC


See what I mean? Otherwise, a sound idea..even though I'd like to see it in operation on a real Linux system first.

Also I have a question.
First, what if there are 30,40 directories/files? Easily possible, and more could exist. I think it would be a large hassle on screen, not to mention lots of wobbling about.

[phrostbyte]

GET READY FOR EXTREME LINUX!

:guitar::guitar::guitar::guitar::guitar::guitar:

[southernman]

NRFPT (Not ready for prime time)

... closed browser immediately

[original_jamingrit]

Direct Link: http://linuxextremedesktop.org/Calypsoprototype_2a/desktop-map.html

It looks pretty cool so far. In the applet, the motion seemed a little jerky sometimes (mostly when the nodes were crowded together). I'm looking forward to watching this project unfold.

[Kingsley]

Lol nice website. I feel like I just went back in time to 1999.

What exactly is Calypso Dancer?

[Tabenx]

Lol nice website. I feel like I just went back in time to 1999.
That was my impression too :lolflag:. It looks like an interesting project but no one will take it seriously if the website doesn't improve a little. There are a lot of good (and free)pre-made templates online. A little bit of google should do the trick :).

[woodsmoke]

HI guys!

Hey, thanks for the great comments...

yeppers, it's kinda gaudy..... and I wanted it that way...I'm all about passion.... and wanted to get it across to somebody that just MIGHT... actually try to incorporate this thing into a distro... I know, it's a long shot...but... when I saw the basic math algorithm, I couldn't resist...

and....yeppers on it being way too much info...but....I figure that probably the people who are NOT directly involved in "making a distro"...probably will look at it and figure...hey...petty kewl or pretty dumb....lotsa ROTFL emoticonthingys...and never be back...

so the info had to catch their attention quickly...

. but.... they might mention it to someone who might mention it to someone...and...

the blue paper was done by a friend of mine...and I wanted something that was truely DIFFERENT... and he's the guy who can do it... I know...it breaks all the rules...but...hey...what can I say..I'm not very dignified...just passionate... :)

some little kid in who knows where or an old man or a medium aged woman in another who knows where....MIGHT...just ....do something with it...

AND.... so far...of the hundreds of hits...13 people have downloaded it....

I don't know who they are and at this stage don't much care.... but...just maybe...somebody in a garage....or a hut, using a crank laptop....will say....I can DO this thing...

And.... that's what it's all about.... coming from a distro which has got into bed with Microsith .....and I was actually going to GIVE them the dingus.... well..... it's all about "being on the offensive" to me...there's a lot of "jitterieness"...and "making a little tweak here or there" ...so I just thought I'd run it up the flagpole and maybe somebody will be Jack the Giant Killer...

as to Java....it could have been done in C++ but the thing would have taken even LONGER than the JAVA...and that was long enough....

In many ways...for the "normal desktop"... and the "normal user"...it probably isn't worth much...but for the sight or motion disabled person, I think it could be of great benefit...

but where it "should" be really useful is in a 3D application....or on a touch screen....like the Linux cell phones that are heading for the U.S....

and making it 3D is actually just a matter of finding the right equation... which can actually...be rather...hard to do...

But, importantly to me..., it is now copyrighted GNU GPL .... so Microsith can't get their hands on it ..."if"...it really does turn out to be useful....:confused:

so....again..... thanks for all the comments....and yeah... what century am I from....I'm oldern' dirt! I worked on the old ENIAC! :)

thanks again, any more comments will be GREATLY appreciated!

AND...if there is anybody that can come up with the appropriate equation to make it 3D before us.... well GO FOR IT! :)

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Two more comments from above:

the colors ...yes.... there are a variety of colors and they are merely scripts....

as to the "clutter" yes....

We've run this through, so far, 16 "layers of nodes"... just to see if it crashes.... and not so far...

that is a BIG question.... "how many layers of nodes".... is...an "appropriate number"...

if there are a LOT of "layers of nodes" then it turns into a combination of colors and shapes... but, it might be we could get a "recursiveness" into it so that the same colors are used again, it might be, that after use, the user kind of "knows" what "layer" he or she is in...

As to the clutter, yes, that is why it is designed to "collect" itself after going through, at this stage, one "layer"...it might be that an end version would have say three "layers" as default.

The production version would have to be defineable by the user... me...since I'm kinda simple...might have only three "layers" of nodes, but say a power picture user might have ten...or twenty...dunno...

At the "end" we envision that a "thumbnail" would appear that would show a "view" of what is in the file... or it might just open a "file box" like is presently produced...and the thing "collects itself and docks"...maybe like a little star or something until it is closed or the user "backs out"... kind of like a back arrow, but instead jumping through nodes....

One advantage of the "nodes" is that one can, instead of "back arrowing" or...clicking "ok or submit" or whatever through screens.... one can just go to the appropriate node...say from pictures to applications, just with one click...

hey...thanks again for the great comments...

any more are greatly welcomed!
woodsmoke

[Lucifiel]

About your site: I truly don't buy it that you wanted it to look that way. (or were you talking about your distro?)

Good heavens, most people are known to shy away from a site which has poor navigation and poor layout. That could be why you aren't getting as many downloads as you might be aiming for. And finally, dear, most people use Noscript or some other type of adblocker which BLOCKS Java(flash included too). They won't bother to let it load unless your site convinced them to.

And finally, define and summarise. Ah well, maybe you'll learn the hard way after a bunch of scathing emails from some enraged passerby. We'll see. ;)

[Swarms]

This reminds me of the Indian kid who said he was going to make the fastest and best and most secure webbrowser in the world, alone.
Haven't heard of him lately, reality might caught up with him.

[Spr0k3t]

Wow! For a second there, I thought someone had redirected my browser to MySpace.

Tips from a professional web developer:
1. Remove everything and start over
2. Include only information pertaining to the project
3. Detailed description of the project complete with pictures, mockups, and demos are good.

Tips from a professional designer:
1. Use an existing template with CSS to lock you down to a single color scheme.
2. Splash pages are a thing of the past... get to the content first.
3. Navigation is needed in a human readable format.

[PartisanEntity]

1. You really need a more mature layout and design for your site. Something elegant and simple that is easy for human beings to understand. Currently I tried navigating your site, could not find anything useful and just closed the browser. It's page two of your thread and I still have no idea what this is all about.

2. You need someone to help you write up a decent description, your writing style is quite hard to follow.

Sorry, but I am being brutally honest.

[Tux Aubrey]

As I was one told by a supervisor giving me feedback on a labor of love: "revise for style and content and it will be fine":)

[DeusEx]

The idea is good!

The presentation though is scaring away people. Maybe a speed-course for presentative and scientific writing would do you good.

Stay with the facts! Throw away the whole presentation, start over again and keep things organised and structural. ONLY present things your viewers absolutely have to know.

good luck!

[proalan]

Wow its been a while since I've seen a java applet. Its quite a original concept, would be interesting how the functionality of manipulating files etc would work.

OK the website isn't the best, but then your a programmer so you should focus on programming prototype of the GUI. Let someone else do the website or leave it until you have a product your happy with. You could just as easily use a CMS, portal or a blog to document your project.

Some criticisms posted seems valid like how it would handle large numbers of subdirectories.

Don't be too dis-hearted by the negatives, good ideas need to be worked on. Theres just a lot of work that needs to be done.

[Paul820]

If a site looks ugly, i go back out, if it takes too long to load i go back out. A users first impressions of an internet site are usually within the first ten seconds, if it does not look good they are not going to stay. I have not actually seen what he has done because i refuse to install java just to see it. It might look fantstic, but i won't see it. Is there no way to put it in another format or record it or something?

[Bungo Pony]

Nifty! It's kinda like a bouncing flowchart of files & directories. My only concern would be the appearance of lots of files, say 1000 or so in one directory. How well would that appear on the screen?

I agree that your website could use a complete reworking though. A bit of organization will go a long way.

[Tomosaur]

Any chance of having the nodes 'attracted' to the mouse? The way they bounce around is very off-putting. I think it would be a lot more usable if the nodes had a 'proximity detector' function - when the mouse was near to the node, that node would stop bouncing around, and start slowly moving towards the mouse (not too quickly at all, people have a tendency to over-compensate for mouse jerkiness, which leads to the cursor passing over one point of interest before being 'reigned in' and brought back at a slower pace).

[BDNiner]

You almost lost me at Calypso, but after reading the reply posts, i will try it out when i get back from work. I still don't know what i am trying out. The website was not well put together, I lost interest after reading the first couple lines, and the link to the demo didn't work.

[Lucifiel]

Btw, I tried to get the java applet to load but it crashed Opera, wouldn't load in Firefox or even Swiftfox. >>;;

[Pinnocchio]

NRFPT (Not ready for prime time)

... closed browser immediately

+1

[treis]

Terrible idea.

[woodsmoke]

Guys

THANK YOU.....THANK YOU...... THANK YOU...

It is all being "taken to heart"....

Two comments.....

a) as to the "unnavigability".... In my "earnestness" to get the thing out "in front" of people...

I thought the best way was to NOT have the normal "navigation" buttons...I actually REMOVED navigation buttons...I'm learning as I go here folks....:(

I wanted to "force" them through the three pages to the download, so that they wouldn't just "skip" to the download....

I was wrong...

b) as to the JAVA not loading, that is concomittent with the "java" that is enabled on the browser...and.....since I'm just an old doof with a "vision" it was all I could do....

so.... present agenda....

a) REDO THE WEBSITE!!!!
b) try to get someone who maybe can do it in C++ or knows even a "little" more about JAVA than I do... to do it RIGHT! woah! right...woah!

Folks I'm doing this for Linux..... that is all....

If you folks have any more advice, or someone with skills that I don't have that has time to waste on what may be a nothing project.... welll holler... :)

The UBUNTU forii have a whole world's worth of skills upon which to call...

maybe a kid in a country that uses a "picture" alphabet might better know how to use this thing....dunno....

Maybe some old geezer or "geezewoman" who speaks a "romance language" could better attune themselves with it... dunnno...

It is for Linux...that is all I can say...:(

and...I did notice the comment about 'interesting concept"... :)

woodsmoke

[Paul133]

Wood, you're a great writer. You really know how to evoke drama with your words, and you seem like a very creative person. But there's a reason most product websites aren't considered modern art or brilliant works of drama. A product website is supposed to give information about your product and guide users. You said above that you took away navigation buttons so you could force your users to read through irrelevant verse? That's crazy! Your website should be:

"Calypso dancer is an open-source (GPL) flowchart-like visualization of a Linux filesystem that uses "nodes" to represent files and directories. The size and spacing of the nodes is adjustable. A Javascript demo of this is below:"

That would get people's attention, educate them about the product, and give them a quick demonstration. And that's what you need.

[woodsmoke]

Paul....



"Calypso dancer is an open-source (GPL) flowchart-like visualization of a Linux filesystem that uses "nodes" to represent files and directories. The size and spacing of the nodes is adjustable. A Javascript demo of this is below:"




If you don't mind I will use that precise sentence on the "redo"! ok?

Hey guys, this has been one wild week I want to thank all for the comments, the rework of the site will begin tomorrow....

and that really is a GREAT sentence....sometimes you get too close to the forest to see the trees!

[woodsmoke]

HI folks,

We took all your suggestions to heart and tried to fulfill at least some of them.

The website has had a major overhaul in terms of appearance and the amount of text.

The quote from above was included on several pages....

SOMETIMES....one just gets waaaayyyyy too far into the forest to be able to see the trees and that sentence kind of crystalized things for us from "other folks" perspective...

We have received quite a bit of e-mail, thankfully NO SPAM...woah! and we quoted extensively from one e-mail in terms of an other USE of the thing of which we had not thought....

Aside from the rework, we have tried to stay AWAY from all of this for the last week....we were just getting to.... hard to say.... "involved"....of course any of you that have been involved in this kind of think know very well whereof I speak! :)

So....any and all suggestions are appreciated....

Is there any "buzz" around as to whether all those downloads are actually being worked on seriously?

Again, thanks for all the wonderful comments, good, bad, and indifferent, they are all helpful....

maybe this thing will fly ooooorrrr not...but we're gonna give it a shot...

woodsmoke

[southernman]

Honestly, I don't see that much of an improvement on the landing page. At first look, I clicked away instantly for nothing to grab my attention. This time wasn't much different.

Respectfully, I highly suggest you get some structure to the page. You know, like a normal website. Header, navigation, content, sidebar, footer... just the basics. Nothing fancy or outlandish. You need the "content" to capture your visitior and make them click through... not off. All the coolest of graphics and best quotes will do nothing if your site isn't sticky enough (read: well structured page layout and quality content).


Maybe I just missed a link to the redesign! *shrugs*

[woodsmoke]

Hi guys,
The suggestions have been taken to heart.
Most of it has been redisgned, but I/we've been working on the "next step" which is a 3D interactive education project, we've been trying to do it using "just HTML", thanks again for the comments.
woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Thought I'd update this also.

a) 120,000 some odd hits
b) 90 some odd downloads if my doof way of getting people to tell me they were downloading was to be trusted.
c) three people actually contacted me,
i) a cell phone company
ii) a company that runs a certain company that collects mapping images! woah!
iii) some men in black suits.

What did I learn from this experience.

a) southernman, don't take this personally because you were only one of many people that:

DISMISSED the application without looking at it because they didn't like the site...

Anybody remember all those hippie freaks that kept shouting "don't look at the cloths, beard and hair MANNNN....look at the inner me!"?

Ummmmmm the application dismissed because of the....SITE....that makes a LOT of sense...I mean those developers must work buggeringly horrid schedules to not be able to click a couple of buttons....

anyway...moving on....

b) I loved the book, the Cathedral and the Bazaar, and actually donated several copies of it to individuals and libraries....

however, lets not kid ourselves....

If you don't ALREADY have massive amounts of cred in the Linux community....you ain't gonna get anyone to work on your doofus project

and moving on....

c) The Calypso interface really is truely different, if there was one app of the last few years that would truely STAND OUT... as DIFFERENT....Calypso was it...

SUPPOSEDLY the Linux community wants to have apps that are DIFFERENT so as to ATTRACT at least, dunno, one or two Windblows converts.... but apparently not, the Linux purists(who came here from Windblows, don't want to contaminate their work by actually exposing it to those....yeeech.... untoucables that use Windblows....and the people that actually DO want to convert people from Windblows....don't want anything different so that the converts will maybe THINK that they are using....um....Windblows...

Did I state that correctly? yes? no? dunno.. I'm not going to go back and edit it!!

Apparently ...........too far out of the box.... is just a no go...

d) And you may notice that I haven't used any emoticons because, apparently, it is not good form for SERIOUS people to use emoticons.... and I need to spruce up my image...

welll......

naaaahhhhh!!! :D

So, it was a learning experience and I appreciate the comments.

woodsmoke

[hansdown]

Hi woodsmoke.

I was kind of interested, but, is there a link, that doesn't lead to my screenshot?

[CJ Master]

This thread is surreal.

[Psumi]

Domain Name:LINUXEXTREMEDESKTOP.ORG
Created On:14-Jul-2007 21:47:16 UTC
Last Updated On:13-Sep-2007 03:54:13 UTC
Expiration Date:14-Jul-2010 21:47:16 UTC
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED

:-k

[woodsmoke]

Hi guys
woah! I didn't know that i hadn't logged out.
As to the thread being surreal.....ummmm people have said that about me personally! lol, so yes, i can see that...

the links are down because the links are down, one can only lead a application to water for so long and one then cuts one fishing line.

I asked if it would be possible to host the app at sourceforge and was not basically ignored; I was just utterly ignored, so after the men in black appeared on the front porch and nobody else showed up I decided to take the site down.

hey, thanks for the comments guys, at least you guys took the time to comment and means a lot, really.

Being sincere there, even the comment about this being surreal! :D

woodsmoke