Author Archives: Lou Franco

LUI LUI

I go by Lou, but my entire family calls me Louie, so I smiled when I found out that there is such a thing called a Language User Interface that uses natural language to drive an application and that it was called a LUI.

In a LUI, you use natural language. So this is not the same as a keyword search or a terminal style UI that uses simple commands like the SABRE airline booking system.

In this video, it output responses on a printer. But the display terminal version was not that different. I worked on software that interfaced with it in 1992, and this 1960’s version is very recognizable to me.

But, this is not a LUI. A LUI does not make you remember a list of accepted commands and their parameters. You give it requests in just the way you would a person, with regular language.

In SABRE, a command might look like this:

    113JUNORDLGA5P

But, in a SABRE LUI, you’d say “What flights are leaving Chicago O’Hare for Laguardia at 5pm today?” which may be more learnable, but a trained airline representative would be a lot faster with the arcane commands.

With a more advanced version that understood “Rebook Lou Franco from his flight from here to New Orleans to NYC instead” that uses many underlying queries and commands (and understands context), the LUI would also be a lot faster.

This would have seemed far-fetched, but with ChatGPT and other LLM systems, it feels very much within reach today.

On The Vision Pro’s Price

Apple has clearly decided that low-price or even affordability was not important at all for the Vision Pro.

They have a history of this, and it has been a disaster. The Lisa was almost $30k in current dollars (listed at $10k in 1983). They tried to do better with the Mac, but it launched at the equivalent of $7k the next year. The cost for making this tradeoff in 1984 was the loss of almost the entire PC market to Microsoft and Intel and was an existential problem for Apple until they brought Steve Jobs back.

Apple could never shake the perception that they were overpriced. In 2007, Steve Jobs tried to frame Apple prices as competitive with comparable products and said that they don’t ship junk to compete with the low-end.

Our goal is to make products we are proud to sell and would recommend to our families and friends. And we want to do that at the lowest prices we can. […] What you’ll find is our products are usually not premium priced. […] The difference is we don’t offer stripped down, lousy products.

2007 was the same year that the iPhone came out at prices many times that as most cell phones. Even now, the iPhone competes well in a market with a big low-end (of arguably junk). The effect on Apple was quite different from the Lisa and Mac. The iPhone built Apple into a $3T company.

So, is Vision Pro like the Lisa and way over what the market will bear for the category, or is it like an iPhone that redefines the category around a high end?

My gut is that it’s like the watch, iPad, or AirPods. A great, multi-billion dollar business that will lead the category, but not something that drives the entire business.

Write While True Episode 21: Dedicated Journals

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I’ve been using a paper journal for years. Even when I worked on big teams, I still kept a separate journal with my personal daily tasks and schedule. For years, I just used a single journal for everything. I’d just go through it and then start another one when I hit the last page. Any kind of paper capture that I needed to do was in that one journal.

A couple of years ago I started splitting out separate journals based on the purpose.

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My Typing Teacher was a Genius

When I was in middle school, typing was a required subject. I don’t really know why.

In the early eighties it was not common for people to type at work. There were still specialists for that. Even in the late eighties when I worked in an accounting office and there were secretaries that took dictation and typed up memos. Computer spreadsheets existed, but the accountants there still used pencil and paper and secretaries typed them up if they needed look more formal.

This was the world my typing teacher, Mrs. Cohen, grew up in and probably worked in before becoming a teacher. I think, that deep down, she knew that we wouldn’t find typing relevant, and honestly, the class didn’t take it that seriously.

But one day, she read us an article from the local paper that said that kids needed to learn how to type because computers were going to be a big thing and soon everyone would need to know how to type. It had a huge impact on me—I still remember it very clearly.

I had already been exposed to programming and even had a computer at home. But, coding was just for fun. I didn’t think it would be a job, or that I would be typing every day at work. Mrs. Cohen was the first person that made me think that computers would be more than a toy.

Vision Pro Accessory Ideas

Since the failure mode of the Vision Pro is blindness, which can happen if the magnetic battery cable detaches or if you run out of power, it would have been nice if the headset had some onboard battery for a grace period.

There will be 3rd party batteries with more power. It would be good if they can also support swapping charged batteries in and out without losing power.

Here’s an idea for an accessory: A thin, disk-shaped battery that attaches to the headset magnetically (perhaps also with a strap) that you attach the included battery to. It has enough power for a 1 to 2 minute grace period, and keeps itself charged from the main battery. This is meant to help you swap batteries or just in case the cable detaches.

It’s important that it be light because it will be on the headset all the time. It should also look good.

The strap alone might be a good accessory. If there’s a way to make the magnetic cable more secure, I think I would want that.

The Failure Mode of the Vision Pro is Blindness

If the Vision Pro crashes, runs out of battery, or its magnetic battery cable detaches, you will be immediately plunged into darkness.

This means that the Vision Pro is really unsuited to be worn while moving. Walking around your house or job will probably be ok, but walking around outside isn’t. Luckily the headset looks too goofy to attempt that.

I had really hoped that this could work as a fitness device, but even anything above a jog on a treadmill seems dangerous. A slow walk would be fine. My initial reaction was that I would like to wear it on a rower. That would be ok too, because if it turns off, you aren’t going to fall down.

I am really afraid that someone will attempt to drive with this on. I hope that Apple adds a way to detect this and warn against it (or disable itself with a warning). It should certainly not approve apps that are meant to be used while driving.

If the Vision Pro is just a really good monitor, then this is not really a problem. But it does feel like pass-through displays that block your vision without power aren’t the future of AR (unless they can become transparent).

Is Vision Pro Just a Really Good Monitor?

I just read Ben Thompson’s take on the Vision Pro, which is admittedly a gushing, glowing, overly optimistic take. But …. he’s actually tried one, so I am taking it seriously. One worry I had was whether the displays actually matched the demo, and it does seem that they do.

His conclusion is that the Vision Pro might be in the same product category as a Mac and if that’s true, the $3499 price isn’t that bad. I absolutely could see a world where you use this instead of a laptop, but probably not on day one because it won’t have the apps I need as a developer.

Even so, compared to a laptop, the biggest downside is travel—I value how thin and light my MacBook Air is, and this is certainly not thin. I can’t easily stick it in a backpack. I also can’t see using this in a café or shared work space.

But, that had me thinking that maybe it’s not a laptop replacement, but an external monitor replacement. I have been eyeing the Studio Display at $1599 and also the new Dell 6K displays at $3200. If a Vision Pro is a better display than those, I don’t need it do much more.

It does make me think I should definitely not just upgrade my monitor yet.

WWDC 2023 Reaction

I watched the WWDC 2023 keynote, and here’s what I think as compared to my wishlist.

The new 15″ MacBook Air looks great, but it’s not for me. My main requirement is weight, and this is a half pound heavier. If I wanted to go up in size and weight, I’d consider the Pros. I skipped the M2 Air, and so I’ll just wait for the M3 and see how I feel about my M1 when that comes out. Right now, it seems fine.

There didn’t seem to be any more anti-theft help in iOS. I do appreciate the improvements to auto-correct.

I never even installed macOS Ventura. There’s nothing in Sonoma I care about, but I will probably install Ventura soon and consider upgrading in the Winter. My macOS upgrades are dictated by Xcode requirements. Surprisingly it hasn’t forced me to upgrade this year.

They said that tvOS would be better at knowing which audio device you want to be connected to, which would be great. As I mentioned in the wishlist, this is shockingly bad right now considering that literally every piece of hardware I use with my TV comes from Apple. If this works, it will be the only thing I unequivocally got from my wishlist.

Both Apple and I seem to agree that watchOS doesn’t need any more work. Not sure how the new design language affects Sprint-o-Mat—I’ll have to see as I use it. My favorite new feature is putting a waypoint on a hiking map for the last place you had cell coverage—I have needed that.

Ok, the headset.

I was expecting goggles, but (even though I think it was heavily implied in the rumors), I really thought they would be see-through with a projection. Instead, they are displays that show how cameras see the outside world, and external displays that show your eyes. I had discounted this rumor because it sounded insane, but it actually looks pretty good.

The problem is that the failure mode for the Vision Pro is blindness. Even when it’s working, it looks like it would randomly obstruct vision. Apps are completely opaque rectangles from what I could see. I didn’t see any demo of an application annotating reality. 3D objects could be placed in your scene, and I assume that apps will be able to pass through the camera feed, but that’s for games, not as an always-on feature.

This makes it impossible to use as a fitness device. I would not feel safe running with these on (and just forget about biking). I had hopes that I could make Sprint-o-Mat into a racing simulator (with pace runners on the track with you), but that feels unsafe to me. Maybe for track use only.

Also, my ideas for AR Apps that make the world into a playable game are not going to work with this device, and I really think it will not be used to navigate the real world. This is a stay-at-home entertainment device. It’s a very good one, but I was hoping for something that would be ok to use in real life.

If it stays at home, it does help alleviate the problem of always on cameras being creepy. They did address some of the issue by not letting 3rd party apps get this always-on feed. They also don’t let 3rd party apps get the eye-tracking data, which is also great.

The price being higher than the rumor was a surprise. I would love to try one, but it’s hard to justify $3499 for basically an awesome 1-person TV. For me, the giant workspace, immersive video conferencing, and cinema experience are very compelling. I don’t play games, but I bet there are going to be fitness games that I would enjoy (like a rowing simulator). I would only buy one if I think I’d develop an app for it.

Don’t Let Content Dictate Size in Diagram Elements

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the visual variables in graphic design as applied to diagramming. I showed this UML diagram:

One thing to think about in diagrams is how the size of an element is determined. In many cases, a shape’s size is dictated by its content, which can mislead the viewer on the relative importance of boxes.

I created this diagram for a talk I gave on unit testing, which is why it includes the unit testing library classes. In the talk, the most important class was BowlingGameTest, so it’s ok that the class is the largest one.

But, that was not intentional. BowlingGameTest is the biggest box because it has the most methods.

In the real system, BowlingGame is a much more important class. If this diagram was meant to give an overview of the system, you would want to make sure that the BowlingGame box was the most prominent. If your tool didn’t let you set size independent of content, then it would be better to leave out test methods so that the test class box was smaller.

Write While True Episode 20: Extemporaneous Writing

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When I was 13, my mom got me an electric typewriter for Christmas. She was a secretary, and she taught me how to touch type, and she wanted me to have something to practice on. But unfortunately, when I opened it up, it didn’t work.

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