saka keys as a plugin for browsing with the keyboard. tmux (within alacritty) for terminals. Now I only have one terminal window open. Emacs for programming and authoring. And fvwm for keyboard jumping between windows. All without the mouse.

Instead of trying to create a unique set of symbols "one size fits all", why either not include the entire 50x50 pixmap (or vector graphics) for every symbol? Or alternately each IM service create their own repo for all users into which they can update symbols and then use them by a short UID reference? Is the band width saving by using a "fixed dictionary" of predefined symbols really worth it? In any case API compression and aggressive caching could reduce to a minimum the additional bandwidth for sending the entire pixmap. I'd like to use an inline image of our cat when chatting with my family. None of the current IM services that I know of support that.

The work of finding fast input methods was done more than a century ago and it resulted in a wealth of different Shorthand systems, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... systems. I'm still waiting for someone to write an input method using one of these systems. This should be much faster than even an optimal swype based system. The downside is the learning curve, which is probably very long.

Didn't know about Instafont. Still, at first glance gives the impression that it a mere shadow in functionality compared to an application like FontForge does. Regarding gestures, you are welcome to give me an example. Currently I have only found a few input methods using gestures, and they are not very extendable.

There is no fonteditor app, at least not on Android. Nore is there any app for creating your own gesture input method. I haven't seen any app for fully remote controlling android and seeing a scaled down(?) version on my desktop. There is no svg editor for android that is as powerful as inkscape. I haven't seen any application for counting objects, in which you teach the application "here is an object, now count all like these". There is no "talking head" chat, in which you design your own 3D model of the kind of monster head you would like to have, and then through the camera the app maps motion vectors which makes your monstors' head move and talk. The claim is like saying that it is time to close down the patent office, because all inventions have already been done.

No, graffiti works with the finger as well. Grafitti is currently my prefered text input method on my phone. See: https://play.google.com/store/...

That was exactly my thought as well. By describing the lives of children on the streets of London and in evil bording schools (let's see how little we can feed the children while having the parents continue paying for the "tuition") Charles Dickens certainly would classify.

Instead of using a single image they should use a video recorded while sweeping the phone in a semicircle in front of your face, possibly while making a prerecorded funny face at the same time. Try beating that with a photograph! If someone patent this idea, I want to have my share. Slashdot counts as prior art, doesn't it?

I hate going to weddings and getting lost trying to find the exact address. I would love for people to write down the lat/long of the occasion. You can even make it more high tech by entering the lat/long in qrcode to google earth.

This was how I made money during my under graduate studies. Writing the addresses by calligraphy on all the envelopes for weddings.

My father currently has Alzheimer and moved to a service home a month ago in Sweden. He is having a good time at the home, and keeps saying that he doesn't understand what he is doing there, as he doesn't feel sick. It is the family that is suffering from the change in him, not my father. Quite the opposite, if you sit with him showing him pictures he is very excited. He likes taking walks, drinking coffee, talking, playing the piano. And it is not totally ungratifying being around him, as you can tell the same joke twice and he will not remember it the second time. :-)

Thus, Alzheimer is in my opinion not a candidate for assisted suicide, as the patient does not suffer from the disease. True, it is not the same personality as he had in his "sane" days, and he needs constant assistance. But saying that a life is less worth because you are only satisfying basic instincts, is egoistic on the side of the family, who wants dear loved one stay the same as they remember him.

Terry Prachett who is today saying that he doesn't want to become the demented Terry Prachett does not represent the wishes of the demented Terry Prachett.

You are absolutely right. I made the mistake of mixing up metric centric cultural conventions and SI. Obviously they are not the same thing. ms^-1 would make more sense everywhere.

I thought we just had a discussion a couple of days ago describing the insanity of using anything but SI units!

Or python, perl, lua, tcl, with Qt, Gtk or Tk on the N900. I'm always amazed how companies like Microsoft and Apple manages to first push the paradigm that "less is more" (no scripting, no inventive GUI concepts, no access to phone applications, but "magic") and then they throw you breadcrumbs of what they took away and people get all excited and the news even makes it into slashdot...

Check out the podcast The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. Make a search for "Ghost Hunting" and you'll find a couple of episodes from the past where they are talking about this. I'm sure you'll get some ideas from those guys.