[arachne] Re: Adobe swings and misses as PDF abuse worsens

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

hmmmmmmmmm....

Steve wrote:
<snip>
Granted, I also don't like flash, and certainly don't think it belongs in a "Document" format, which I believe should be capable of being printed.
Really? What if you could take that document with you, on something about the size of Kindle 2, with an optional fold-out "large screen" ... ? And what if you had software that allowed you to zoom in/out on specific portions of that document, while giving you a choice of 360degrees rotation on *any* plane?
Tech manuals made that way would be fantastic!! Imagine being able to look at a diagram and then link to something like an actual picture of that portion of said diagram? Architects would be salivating enough to cure the drought in California! Imagine a car wiring system in a Chilton Manual which linked schematics to active photos ... Imagine a medical reference which linked text to visuals of the human body, again in 3D rotate-able graphics.
Imagine being able to download, for $10 each, textbooks which cost $75-100 new in the college bookstore and can't possibly give you the detail you'd get on your reading pad.
I happen to like Flash and Shockwave and QuickTime and RealPlayer. They've allowed me to tour exhibits in Europe, with 360degree pan of each room, each collection, zooming in to look closely at something I'm particularly interested in. I also spend part of almost every day in Africa, watching the cycle of life/death around a watering hole. And a couple of times a week I visit a coral reef off Belize. A friend can send me architectural drawing of floor plans and elevations, but how much nicer it would be if I could have a 3D line drawing showing how all of it fits together, again zoom able and linkable to detailed schematics/drawings.
Think about the things you (do/would) like to do/see, and the things you have to do at work. Somewhere in there is likely something that would be far easier if you could just see it in 3D. Imagine program flow charts you could trace things through by merely tapping or click/dragging decision points, and being able to see the path to/from each and every linked decision point of every task ... woooo! Talk about being able to do a debug walk-thru, and easily find where error handling needs to be inserted and/or refined. No more page flipping or trying to tie things together in your mind or with notes ... it would all be there for you to see and trace. For the business persons who sell things, how about a 3D rendition of where they store and stock stuff, so when they walk by an empty shelf they can note where it is, go to that position on their readpad, tap it, and find out what was there, when it was ordered, how it sold, what's still in inventory ... and if they don't want it they can then trace through to see what else could be moved into that stock area ... all while standing or sitting ANYWHERE at all. (They could even find the "empty shelf" remotely, with inventory control and POS links integrated into the "business map."
How's that for giving away free what are multi-million dollar ideas? Please observe all copyright laws concerning this post. Please be aware that any ideas put forth within this post are solely my intellectual property and use of said ideas without prior written consent by the author is forbidden and limited by the strictures of the US Code. 

l.d.
Arachne at FreeLists -- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

Other related posts: