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What is Microsoft's Origami Project? 243

An anonymous reader writes "Rumors are running around the web about a new Microsoft gadget codenamed Origami that will be unveiled on March 2nd. Speculation can be found on Designtastesgood, Scobleizer, and Thatedeguy, and WindowsForDevices has a description and photos of a prototype Origami device built by National Semiconductor 2001. Anybody out there know more about this new device?"
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What is Microsoft's Origami Project?

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  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @02:57PM (#14795255)
    It's a flash animation made by marketdroids.
  • by EntropyXP ( 956792 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @02:57PM (#14795257)
    Is it going to be like those future telling devices the girls used in 3rd grade? Pick 1, then 2, then 3, oops, looks like you're going be hit by a bus, try again.
  • Not sure... (Score:4, Funny)

    by sammy baby ( 14909 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @02:58PM (#14795264) Journal
    I'm not sure, but the animation on the linked "Origami Project" site is scaring the shit out of me.

    This is like "I Love Bees," only minus the whimsicial veneer.
  • No But... (Score:4, Funny)

    by MajorDick ( 735308 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @02:58PM (#14795268)
    You'd be better off to make paper swans with the greenbacks you would otherwise spend on it.
    The real question is can you wipe you ass with it ?
  • Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheBogie ( 941620 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:00PM (#14795287) Journal
    A slashdot haiku:

    Ode to the Origami

    It does many things

    but it is from Microsoft

    it must not be good

  • by drewzhrodague ( 606182 ) <.drew. .at. .zhrodague.net.> on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:01PM (#14795299) Homepage Journal
    Linux ported to this device in 5... 4... 3... 2...
  • Duh! It is (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:02PM (#14795307)
    A special grill that will let the fat run off and the flavor stay in! It will have a special patented slanted cooking surface that won't stick, and it will all be run by windows tablet edition (hey, at least they found some use for it)!
  • by gaveawaymyname ( 934554 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:03PM (#14795316)
    "Pick a number"

    "4"

    "1... 2... 3... 4..."

    "Pick a color"

    "Blue"

    "A fatal exception 0E has occured at 0137:BFFA21C9. The current application will be terminated."
  • by sammy baby ( 14909 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:06PM (#14795355) Journal
    All of the above.

    Plus, the "Do you know where I can go" bit. Now I'm going to worry that a thing from Microsoft that wants me to touch it can go under my bed and wait for me to fall asleep.
  • by FrontalLobe ( 897758 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:06PM (#14795356)
    With a name like that... The project is destined to fold...
  • No idea (Score:4, Funny)

    by daeley ( 126313 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:08PM (#14795369) Homepage
    But I bet there's a paper clip involved.
  • Re:But... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:08PM (#14795373)
    Actually, it has a small talking paper clippy holding the paper folded.

  • by GReaToaK_2000 ( 217386 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:10PM (#14795387)
    I noticed that windowsfordevices.com (216.218.185.157) looks (as far as the website goes) almost identical to linuxdevices.com (216.218.185.154). The IP's make it look like they might be with the same server farm.

    Just weird... The first thought I had looking at the site was that it looked almost exactly like the one for linuxdevices.com... Second, read the article there.. YAWN!!! More gadgetry that people will get excited about till the next latest and greatest thing arrives in a few months.

    Look at this! (pulls out new phone) Yes!
    Combination hookah and coffee maker
    also makes Julienne fries.
    Will not break (opens the phone gently),
    will not--(it falls apart)
    it broke.

    Wait, don't go!
    I can see that you're only interested in the exceptionally rare.
    I think then, you would be most rewarded to consider...this.
    (PEDDLER pulls the Cellon Int'l C8000/Philips CT9688 out from his sleeve.)
    Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance.
    Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside
    that counts.

    (modifications by me, the rest is part of the intro sequence from Walt Disney's Aladdin)
  • Re:But... (Score:2, Funny)

    by besenslon ( 918690 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:23PM (#14795483)
    Can you use it to make small paper swans?

    The best part is that after you make them, they'll change their color to blue, and will never fly away.
  • by andrewbillits ( 882798 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:30PM (#14795546)

    Why is Bill Gates telling me to "Touch me" His heavy heartbeat amid the ambient backdrop is quite erotic.

    Hmm, "Bill Gates" and "erotic" in the same sentence. Didn't see that coming!

    OUCH! alright, who threw the damn apple?!? OUCH, fine i'm lea OUCH...

  • by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:30PM (#14795548) Homepage
    Am I the only one that thought it would make a good intro for the next Resident Evil movie?
  • by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:43PM (#14795692)
    A fatal exception 0E has occured at 0137:BFFA21C9

            One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered origami community when slashdot confirmed that origami market share has dropped yet again, even before it was released to the genral public.

          You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict origami's future. The hand writing is on the wall: origami faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for origami because origami is dying. Things are looking very bad for origami. As many of us are already aware, origami continues to lose market share. Blue screens flow like a river of blue flash animations.

          In a final tribute to an idea overhyped before release, potential users could be seen taking their blue origami foldings and tossing them in a pile. And then lovingly burning them, as an idea that could have been useful. Except that it came from Microsoft, and knowing the past, they already knew the future.

     
  • Re:But... (Score:3, Funny)

    by deadlinegrunt ( 520160 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:47PM (#14795735) Homepage Journal
    A little re-arrangement of words:

    Many things does it

    but from Microsoft it is

    be good must it not

    Now instead of haiku (on topic within the context of Origami) you get mod points for sounding like an insightful 400 year old Jedi Knight here on /.
  • by forkazoo ( 138186 ) <wrosecrans@@@gmail...com> on Friday February 24, 2006 @03:55PM (#14795799) Homepage
    This smells of a MS astroturfing troll. Since whatever it is hasn't been released we can only waste time speculating. Maybe it's a desert topping or a floor wax. Maybe it's both. In any case, it's vapourware until it shows up. How about we all wait a week to see what is announced and then have a discussion about it?


    Well, we can always try to whip ourselves into a frenzy so that we expect something fantastic, and then are horribly disappointed in what comes out.

    BTW, my brother's uncle's cousin's friend's wife's brother's guy he once met said that it's going to be a portable supercomputer capable of 128 exaflops on each of 128 cores. It gets 3 years of battery life, comes with free wireless broadband anywhere in the world. It's motion sensitive, and have VR glasses that make you look cool. It has an AI OS that you can have conversations with.

    Unfortunately, the wireless isn't standard, and it has less space than a nomad.
  • by JonTurner ( 178845 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @04:17PM (#14795992) Journal
    You're right... it is a little disturbing.
    So far, it's said "Touch me. Hello. Do you know me? Do you know what I can do? and where i can go? or how I can change your life?"

    Sheesh.. Next it'll ask "What are you wearing?" and "What's your credit card #, baby"?
  • Re:A guess (Score:4, Funny)

    by ConceptJunkie ( 24823 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @04:20PM (#14796017) Homepage Journal
    But knowing how that M$ almost always uses totally unimaginative descriptors as product names

    Yeah, but Origami must be a code name since the real name will probably be something like "Microsoft Thing". What past names have they used? "Windows", "Office", "Media Player", "Explorer", mostly very generic.

    It will probably be something like new version of Windows Media Player but with 2 important changes:

    1. 3 more butt-ugly usability-challenged "skins"
    2. Even less screen real estate available for content.

    Or wait... "origami" means folding something up in a complicated way...

    Yeah, that's it! It's a new kind of DRM that folds up your content into a confusing shape that you can't unfold (unencrypt) without tearing.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2006 @04:34PM (#14796138)
    "Learn more 3.2.2006" the animation says.
    It's already 24.2.2006, and that's what it says.
    That WOULD be typical of Microsoft to be late.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2006 @04:46PM (#14796247)
    It's a novelty Rubik's cube with LCD's on each tile face.
    There's a mini USB connector behind one of the centre tiles,
    and you can upload 6 jpg/bmp images, one for each face.

    It takes 15 seconds to boot up, during which time you
    see the Microsoft embedded XP logo on one face, while
    the other faces pulsate in pastel shades.

    Two of the LCD's are touch sensitive, and pressing both
    simultaneously toggles 'Help mode' which overlays arrows
    on the tiles showing you which way to turn them.

    Give it a while and the whole thing turns blue with white
    writing and you have to take the battery out to get it to
    work again. :-)
  • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @04:48PM (#14796262)
    because "Microsoft Blackberry" didn't make it past legal.

          And also MicroBerry and Berry Microsoft didn't make it past marketing...
  • by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc.famine@NOSPAM.gmail.com> on Friday February 24, 2006 @05:24PM (#14796553) Journal
    Naw...it's a revised front-end to the Folding@Home project.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2006 @05:34PM (#14796621)
    "Maybe it's a desert topping"

    Mmm, sand.
  • Re:But... (Score:3, Funny)

    by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @05:46PM (#14796721) Journal
    That Haiku must be from Yoda's younger works.

    Before he died, Master Yoda wrote a poem shorter in length, but similar in meaning:

    Hmmm?
  • by Cruxus ( 657818 ) on Friday February 24, 2006 @06:33PM (#14797064) Journal

    Okay, I went to that Origami Project website, and it loaded a Flash animation that floated the words 'Touch me' on a mod blue background. I immediately clicked back.

    Does this technology need to gain fame through sexual undertones?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2006 @07:12PM (#14797328)
    Do you know how I can change your life?

    Do you realise who you're dealing with?

    Do you even know who the fuck I am?!

    I'm going to FUCKING BURY YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!

    I've done it before, and I'll do it again! I'm going to FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!!
  • by ThinkingInBinary ( 899485 ) <<thinkinginbinary> <at> <gmail.com>> on Friday February 24, 2006 @07:54PM (#14797582) Homepage

    Personally, I would rather picture Clippy being mangled as I use him to hotwire a car's ignition.

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