The same division within Microsoft that makes its mice and keyboards plans to launch a new interface for interacting with computers. Dubbed “Microsoft Surface” it turns your desktop into your desktop.

The surface lays flat on your desk – you no longer have the keyboard, mouse or monitor, you simply interact by touching the surface of your desk. There are some videos if you want to see it in action. They are predicting a price point between $5K and $10K.

This is a classic example of a technology created first, seeking a market second – fairly risky. Where it would be nice is when you’re in a highly interactive, collaborative environment – say working with an architect. You could move design elements around interactively – rather than huddling around a screen and fighting over the mouse.

I’m going to wait for the 3-D Microsoft Holo-Surface. I think I saw that on Star Trek once, so you know it’s gonna happen….

I just finished a great book, “Better” by Atul Gawande, a surgeon, scientist, and writer. A primary message, applicable outside of the world of medicine, is that we should always be counting something, even if it’s just to see if there’s a reason to be counting. I have decided that I’m going to count the hours of sleep I get in a night versus the time of the 50th line of code I write the next day and the amount of truly productive time I spend at work. Why the 50th? It’s easy to get through 1. I could get through 1 just to allow myself to count it. To avoid externalities such as meetings, I will pause my clock whenever I could not for any reason be working on code.

I’m going to give this trial counting run a month and then I’ll examine my results for a direct correlation. I suspect that I’ll find one, and will thus be able to compute the minimum amount of sleep I need to be maximally productive.

Think that sounds hard to track? Guess again – I’m a software developer – the script is already written, and the results shall be tracked in a database.

“truly productive time” – I will gauge this myself to be total time spent “in the zone” doing maximally productive development work. Since I am also compelled to measure my billable time in our time tracking system, I think I will be able to derive some valuable measurements from this experiment whether there is a direct correlation between sleep.

One… one unproductive hour spent reading The Onion and harassing my coworkers! AH HA HA HA HA

Last Saturday night I attended the Artcrank Poster Show in downtown Minneapolis.

The show was at one on one bicycle studio, a place I had never been but wish I had, and will go back. And whatdya know, ran into Mr Tim Bramer! Pretty cool concept – Bike shop/Art Gallery/Coffee House/Local Hang Out for bicycling enthusiasts and activists. They also have a “bike graveyard” in the basement – hundreds and hundreds of old bikes and parts lined and stacked, interesting.

On display was a pretty impressive collection of bike inspired art and design, including this one by one of my design school classmates Adam Turman. He’s got a great style and does a lot of concert posters and album art for an impressive roster of clients. I picked up a couple of Minneapolis-ish prints for my office a couple of weeks ago – (this one and this one), just need to get them framed.

*update – Adam posted pics from the event on his blog

Interesting view of US home pricing data plotted to a 3D rolloercoaster ride. Prices are adjusted to inflation, and mapped from 1890 to the present.

Ride the Rollercoaster>