The problem with trying to use another service is that pretty much everyone does the same thing to different degrees. What if I where a hypothetical social network bloke who was willing to pay actual money to avoid that ads and info selling. I know Slashdot has such an offer. But what about Google, or Facebook. If I, as Joe Facebook, was to put my money where my mouth is, where would I even go to pay. How much would it cost per month, $5, $10, $50? How many people like that would it take to make it worthwhile?

Yes I know it's all fiction and all that, but I always seem to imagine the whole "Robocop/Terminator" vision thing as taking place inside their brain rather than on the surface of their eyes. Something like video gen-lock that takes the video feed and overlays text on top, bypassing the whole focusing issue. I remember trying to visualize what how that would work in a pair of glasses, so I put my cellphone right up to my eye while trying to keep the screen in focus. I could, sort of painfully. Then I also realized that I would need to focus on the everything else. I would have to focus on something very close and far away, at the same time. I would like to know how they accomplished this.

They did it several times before. There were a whole series of Macs with built-in TV and the early PowerPC era.

I admit the speedpad is a bit janky, especially the thumbwheel, which I have mapped to zooming in and out. But for how I use it its not too bad. I can imagine if you are using it for an FPS or an RPG you would want it to deal with rapid and precise key presses. For me, as long I press a key and it works I'm good. With that said, I would don't mind a smother thumbwheel and a trackpad for panning images.

I considered getting something like this for my digital art setup. Right now i have an old tabletpc with a nostromo speedpad 51n. In my right hand holds a stylus and my left is on the speedpad. The idea is that I never have to touch the toolbar or the menu with the hand that i draw with. It's very liberating to switch from paintbrush to eraser and to zoom in and out without doing all kinds of keyboard combos. The only problem is that you can't modify color in Photoshop, but you can with GIMP.

A few years ago I bought myself a Wiimote just to play around with after watching Johnny Chaung Lee's demos. The Wiimote packed a lot of tech in a small space and I found it finding new and interesting uses for it. This new controller got me wondering about all of the cool ways this could be used on a PC. I mean forget an iPad (yes I know it's not the same), but if I could play PC games, or emulators, or what ever else with this I want it. Sure I might be more expensive than a Wiimote, but I;m guessing it'll be much cheaper than most tablets.

I must say I find it interesting, but if it were possible to put that new interface on a second smaller touch screen that would be even better.

The thing that I find cool about modern video gtame peripherals is that they seem more standardized than in the past (with the exception of the Sega Genesis/Atari 2600 controllers.) They either use USB or Bluetooth, and to the 360's credit you can still use its proprietary wireless pad on a PC.

Is that a facta?