Microsoft user experience designer Mike LaManna remembers feeling like a mad scientist as he tried to design a computer mouse that would let children with cognitive and physical disabilities keep their fingers properly positioned to point and click. He brought home old mice, took them apart, and tried everything from clay to Velcro straps. He even baked some of the mice to reshape the plastic.

"I don’t think my family cared for that very much, the fumes and everything," LaManna admits with a chuckle.

In the end, he found the answer in a party ring.

more 
and Amazon Video goes high-def  Amazon.com said today it will make 500 streaming TV shows and movies available in high-definition. The long-anticipated move puts Amazon’s Video on Demand business on a more even footing with Apple’s iTunes, which started offering HD movies for rent or purchase in March. But some critics weren’t impressed with Amazon’s offering.

Amazon said the 500 HD titles include new movie releases "Frost/Nixon" and "Twilight," and the TV hit "Gossip Girl." The HD videos can be downloaded and viewed on a computer or on a television with compatible devices including the Roku set-top box, TiVo Series3, and Panasonic HDTVs. People can rent the Amazon HD streaming movies for $3.99 to $4.99, and purchase HD TV shows for $2.99.

Rumors of Amazon’s HD offerings started leaking out in March, shortly after iTunes’ announcement. Now that it’s official, one early review said Amazon failed to "make a splash." TechCrunch writes that Amazon’s HD streaming video pricing and content is similar to iTunes, and notes that, "Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any real differentiating factor from the other services."

READ MORE and COMMENT, more 

and Microsoft tests online ID system in its hometown school district  

Microsoft and the nearby Lake Washington School District are testing a new system that takes cues from the offline world to confirm the identity of people using computers and online services. The idea is to use "in-person proofing" — such as a visit to a school office — to confirm users’ identity before issuing digital credentials that determine their level of access.

It’s the latest step in the Redmond company’s long struggle to expand beyond its Passport/Windows Live ID log-on mechanism to encourage a more comprehensive "metasystem" for online identity. 

At the RSA security conference in San Francisco this morning, Microsoft cited the Lake Washington test as an example of where it wants digital identity systems to go. The company calls the concept "end to end trust." Microsoft hopes to see traditional identification providers — such as government agencies — issue corresponding digital identities that people could use securely and privately online.

The hope is "to recreate that offline experience in the online world," said Jules Cohen, Microsoft’s director of online privacy and safety.

The school district test is currently a proof of concept, but it’s expected to be rolled out more broadly across the district over the next year. It’s part of the company’s effort to put into practice a digital identity strategy it has been pursuing now for several years. The company introduced one of the key elements of the strategy, a Windows program now called "Card Space," three years ago.

In the case of the Lake Washington schools, parents will visit a school office with their children to verify their identity. Lake Washington is running the test in conjunction with a program that distributes small, Web-oriented "netbook" computers to students. Those netbooks will come preinstalled with virtual "information cards." Students will also get logon and password information.

Using a standard system of exchanging digital credentials lets people access school-related Internet applications even if they’re not on the school network or using a school computer, said Dr. Chip Kimball, district superintendent. The approach also lets people use the same credentials to access online applications that are associated with the school but provided by third-party vendors.

The idea "is to begin removing some of those limitations that exist and provide a more ubiquitous computing environment for kids, faculty and parents," Kimball said.

A prime example is an online calendar used by the school to coordinate activities and invidual schedules. Once people log in, they see events and activities specific to them. The system, based on Microsoft’s Geneva identity technology, also gives the outside application provider a standard way of verifying the identities of users and knowing what levels of access to grant them.

Based in Redmond, the Lake Washington district also serves Kirkland and Sammamish, with about 24,000 students in all.

The Microsoft identity system is currently being tested in a couple of classrooms in one of the district’s elementary schools. If everything goes well, a larger pilot involving several hundred devices will take place in the fall, Kimball said. The district is aiming for a larger deployment of individual devices, for all the students in the district, about a year from now.

READ MORE and COMMENT, more 

How Bill Gates learned to argue  

We’ve been having fun listening to Bill Gates Sr. talk about his son, first that classic Rotary introduction and then the initial excerpt from the elder Gates’ forthcoming book, "Showing Up For Life." Now the Microsoft chairman and siblings turn the tables — explaining, in a promotional video for the book, what they learned from their dad.

One of the software icon’s statements on that subject will give his former Microsoft colleagues someone to blame — and credit — for one of his most legendary traits.

"You know, my dad was a lawyer," Gates says in the video. "Some people who’ve met me believe that may have influenced my willingness to take a devil’s advocate position or argue pretty vigorously. Certainly my dad is great at those things."

See the video below. And here’s Bill Gates Sr.’s Facebook page.

READ MORE and COMMENT, more