Back in 1960's, I glued myself to the television and watched Star Trek while other kids were probably watching cartoons or some other kiddie show. I marveled more at the technology than the stories and this was where my fascination with technology started.
One of the things that I liked about the newer Star Trek series is the control screens. It's called LCARS, an acronym for Library Computer Access/Retrieval System. The name is a misnomer, in my opinion, since this interface is not only used to access the library but also for monitoring and controlling the ship's systems.
I had been thinking of how I could implement a similar screen on my computer's desktop and came up with the one above. It's not exactly like an LCARS because it's not supposed to use icons. It's just an image that I created using PowerPoint and sized to fill the screen. It took several tries because I couldn't understand why the icons didn't land in the proper places. Then I figured out that the background was a little too large and I had to resize it several times before everything fit into place.
If I could figure out a way to create a screen that doesn't use icons, it would be closer to the real thing. I haven't figured out how to do it but I'll keep thinking.
