My last chopsticks prototype was a "ultra-lightweight" tone-arm for an old turntable back in college, haha. I think it yielded significantly less useful results than this. Good ingenuity!
Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#12Interesting thing here: Google Glass could end up proving to be a really influential product, one that changes a lot of social patterns and app design.
This article seems to suggest that the core UX work could be replicated in a day, just by having normal engineers playing with clay and having a rough idea of what they want.
So, it seems to me, we must ask ourselves: how could you possibly justify patents for such a thing, given how simple it is to come up with?
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#13GMail and Google Now were also prototyped in one day, as was Linux. The hard part is the years of refinement that come after that. I guess the lesson to take is that big working systems are built on small working systems . You don't get a big system by envisioning the final result, finding someone to fund you, and getting lots of people to build it for you. You take the smallest possible first step, see if it works,…
What does 'prototyped in one day' mean in the context of Gmail? Was it just the UI (arguably the most important part in this case) or was it a minimal but functional POP3/SMTP/IMAP client?
I'm not doubting you claim, just wondering about the scope of it.
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#14GMail and Google Now were also prototyped in one day, as was Linux. The hard part is the years of refinement that come after that. I guess the lesson to take is that big working systems are built on small working systems . You don't get a big system by envisioning the final result, finding someone to fund you, and getting lots of people to build it for you. You take the smallest possible first step, see if it works,…
What does 'prototyped in one day' mean in the context of Gmail? Was it just the UI (arguably the most important part in this case) or was it a minimal but functional POP3/SMTP/IMAP client? I'm not doubting you claim, just wondering about the scope of it.
Paul Buchheit has more details in his Founders at Work interview, but basically the first version of GMail was a Perl script that grabbed his e-mail inbox and stuffed it into the Groups indexing engine, so that other people could search his e-mail. Version 2 was to let it search over their inbox instead of his, and Version 3 added the ability to send e-mail.
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does 'prototyped in one day' mean in the context of Gmail? Was it just the UI (arguably the most important part in this case) or was it a minimal but functional POP3/SMTP/IMAP client? I'm not doubting you claim, just wondering about the scope of it.
Paul Buchheit has more details in his Founders at Work interview, but basically the first version of GMail was a Perl script that grabbed his e-mail inbox and stuffed it into the Groups indexing engine, so that other people could search his e-mail. Version 2 was to let it search over their inbox instead of his, and Version 3 added the ability to send e-mail.
So it wasn't a "prototype of Gmail" so much as a hack that got people starting to think about storing mail on google technology stack.
It's really funny, that this is the story of the the beginning of Gmail, when the part of Gmail that caught the whole world's attention was the AJAX web UI. I had always assumed Bucheit was a DHTML whiz. Storing and indexing mail already was rather old hat.
Wait, is this a part of Gmail? "other people could search his e-mail." o_O
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#16If you can prototype something in one day, that version is so brain dead as to not be any benefit as far as lessons leaned. That said, the "prototype" will still have promotional value.
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#17Interesting thing here: Google Glass could end up proving to be a really influential product, one that changes a lot of social patterns and app design. This article seems to suggest that the core UX work could be replicated in a day, just by having normal engineers playing with clay and having a rough idea of what they want. So, it seems to me, we must ask ourselves: how could you possibly justify patents for such a…
>how could you possibly justify patents for such a thing, given how simple it is to come up with //
Patents are awarded on novel inventions. An argument goes that if a particular invention were so simple then why hasn't anyone done it already? Motivation, ability, recompense?
One response is the right-place, right-time, etc.. That's basically the answer that everything would be invented at some point.
However the patent system has an answer to that too - the disclosure of the invention is key to gaining the limited monopoly. Earlier disclosure, as the premise goes, is beneficial to the people of the state granting the monopoly. Thus even if the invention is simple - provided it's not "obvious" [in the domain specific meaning of the term] - then the reward is still being provided for a benefit.
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#18>Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
And it shows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI
Come to think of it, still, I'd rather put chopsticks in my eyes than Google Glass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paul Buchheit has more details in his Founders at Work interview, but basically the first version of GMail was a Perl script that grabbed his e-mail inbox and stuffed it into the Groups indexing engine, so that other people could search his e-mail. Version 2 was to let it search over their inbox instead of his, and Version 3 added the ability to send e-mail.
So it wasn't a "prototype of Gmail" so much as a hack that got people starting to think about storing mail on google technology stack. It's really funny, that this is the story of the the beginning of Gmail, when the part of Gmail that caught the whole world's attention was the AJAX web UI. I had always assumed Bucheit was a DHTML whiz. Storing and indexing mail already was rather old hat. Wait, is this a part of Gma…
>So it wasn't a "prototype of Gmail" so much as a hack that got people starting to think about storing mail on google technology stack.
That's the very definition of a prototype. Prototype != early version of a product. For one, it's often written in another stack, to make it easier to iterate. Second, it's more often than not, thrown away on the road to the actual product code.
>Wait, is this a part of Gmail? "other people could search his e-mail." o_O
Well, maybe not people, but their Ad serving service can surely search your email.
Re: Google Glass was prototyped in one day - with chopsticks
#20Interesting thing here: Google Glass could end up proving to be a really influential product, one that changes a lot of social patterns and app design. This article seems to suggest that the core UX work could be replicated in a day, just by having normal engineers playing with clay and having a rough idea of what they want. So, it seems to me, we must ask ourselves: how could you possibly justify patents for such a…
> how could you possibly justify patents for such a thing, given how simple it is to come up with // Patents are awarded on novel inventions. An argument goes that if a particular invention were so simple then why hasn't anyone done it already? Motivation, ability, recompense? One response is the right-place, right-time, etc.. That's basically the answer that everything would be invented at some point. However the pa…
But we then look at the fact that, for something that can take a single day to come up with, do we really think a limited monopoly of five or ten years is worth granting?
I think not. In fact, I think that the culture of hacking which has done so much good for this world pretty much demands immediate and unfettered access to the opportunity to play with these ideas.