wiimote posts

WIMP Environment [noun]: Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device (or Pull-down menu) - A graphical-user-interface environment such as X or the Macintosh interface, esp. as described by a hacker who prefers command-line interfaces.

- The Jargon File

These wonderful, powerful, magic boxes of ours can turn long strings of ones and zeroes into dazzling graphics with breathtaking speed, perform tremendous, complicated mathematical computations in the blink of an eye, and, in a pinch, do a fair impersonation of a space heater. They are ours to command, ready to do our (possibly nefarious) bidding. Whether we know what we want or not, if it's within the operational parameters and capabilities, a PC will do exactly what we tell it to do.

Of course, there's a catch or two. First, we need to know how to tell it to what we want. Heuristics be damned, other than on-the-fly spell-checking, no matter how sophisticated the modern PC is, it's not clairvoyant. Ask anyone who's done time in a call center how much disconnect can exist between what a user wants, and what they say they want. Unlike our not-so-hypothetical phone staffer, the computer can't ask questions or make inferences. They're fabulously literal.

The second catch is having some way to communicate our wants and needs to our willing digital minions. And that's where our input devices come into play.

Nintendo's Wii console has been a massive hit and part of the reason is it's wireless motion sensing Wiimote controller. Now PC maker Asus has announced plans to release what they are calling the Eee Stick, their own wireless PC game controller that physically looks an awful lot like the Wiimote.

The controller itself, which will be bundled with certain models of Asus's popular Eee PC and Eee Box products, consists of a navigation stick and a activation stick along with 2.4 Ghz wireless dongle. The press release claims that the Eee Stick will also come bundled with a selection of unnamed games designed specifically for use with the device. There's no word when the controller will be made available or if Asus plans to release the Eee Stick as a separate product at some point.