Quote Of The Day

Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design.

- Don Norman

Microsoft Engineer Patents Easier To Misplace Cell Phone

If you are like me and most of my friends, family members and associates, you frequently misplace your mobile phone. 

But, Microsoft's lead engineer apparently thinks that a mobile phone with four magnetically connected pieces, any one of which you could misplace rendering the whole a brick, could amplify this problem. This would lead to the happy result that people would need to buy more mobile phones resulting in massive new revenue streams in an industry whose products, if they are not called "iPhones", have slim profit margins. 

Microsoft's lead mechanical engineer has patented a foldable phone – 2x1 or 3x1 pieces. Here's an improvement: a 2x2 with four foldable pieces. A fuzzy picture worth millions of dollars and TRF readers can have it for free. The quarters of the foldable phablet look like 4-inch phones of thickness 5 mm, but this beast of total thickness 2 cm may be expanded to an 8-inch thin tablet-phone. The upper half of the vertical separating axis is cut, and those parts may be stuck together with magnets. The lower part of the vertical separator is connected by hinges near the display. The beast may also be folded around the horizontal axis near the middle, with hinges on the back side. When you pack your phone into the 4-inch thick friend, the two upper quarters of the display appear on the external sides of the thick phone and may be used as displays of the 4-inch phone on both sides.

From here.

Worth Reading

Rogue One: an "Engineering Ethics" story (many spoilers) provides a very thoughtful analysis of engineering ethics. One spoiler free blurb:

Engineering and technology can critically define how people live and who has power. Philosopher of technology Langdon Winner’s article “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” argues that technology changes the world around them, creating policies and politics that result from the inherent (at times destructive) characteristics of the technology. Yet, it is not only the technology of advanced weapons that can shape our world. Social media and increased computer devices are affecting how humans think and how we act in a democratic society. An engineer must consider not only the function of a new system, but how it will be used and the possible unintended consequences. . . .

A complementary point to Winner is to think through how we have to labor to maintain existing systems. Historians Andy Russell and Lee Vinsel have started a social movement called The Maintainers, which tries to call attention to the neglected role of maintenance in society. While the Star Wars universe has a lot of ships and cities that look like they’re in a state of dystopic disrepair, there are also many who scavenge . . . and make the most out of existing systems.. A robust discussion of engineering ethics should consider how we treat the people and technological systems that maintain the broader society.

Another important issue that engineers are particularly prone to is what linguists called nerdview, which basically means designing user interfaces from the perspective of a design in a manner that is counterproductive or futile to an actual user in need of information. Another good example is here.

Columbus, Ohio Builds Perv Friendly Courthouse

Somebody forgot that in engineering, function should always trump form, particularly functional aspects that matter to your key constituents. The snafu in a $105 million court house in Columbus, Ohio was clear when it opened on Monday.

The central stairs of the new Franklin County Common Pleas Courthouse seem almost to float up from the ground floor, suspended in a foyer of light and glass.

However, the aesthetic appeal of the stairway has an unfortunate side-effect in a building where judges sentence sex offenders: People can see up a woman's skirt from the busy walkway under the stairs.

"If you wear dresses, you're on notice that you might want to take the elevator, as I will be doing," said Judge Julie M. Lynch, who wears dresses exclusively to work.

Although it's probably best not to advertise the issue for fear of abuse, people partial to skirts, dresses and kilts have a right to know about the risk, Lynch said.

From here (the Court of Common Pleas in Franklin County is the court of general jurisdiction handling felonies and large claim civil cases in Columbus, Ohio).

The problem is particularly unimpressive because the issue is a familiar one in new public building projects. I'd be willing to guess that there weren't any women or acrophobics on this engineering design team.

The county is aware of the issue and has discussed whether anything needs to be done, said Jim Goodenow, director of public facilities management.

For now, security guards have been told to keep an eye out for people craning their necks. If the design becomes a problem, the county can adjust the glass to make it less transparent, but officials are hoping not to disrupt the artistic integrity of the building. . . .

When glass stairs and walkways first came out, [one of the engineering executives who builds them for Apple computer properties] Zorn said, he remembers looking up at an elevated walkway at an airport and wondering how the designers had missed the fact that skirts were going to be a problem. Most engineers know enough to use some well-placed opaque glass and careful design to avoid the problem, he said.

A similar design for a recent renovation at nearby Ohio State University's main library was nixed at the design stage for this reason and because of "the fear some people have of standing on clear glass."