The 3D cube navigator lets you view a set of six images
and manipulate the cube's rotation so that you can get at any of
the images.
The manipulation is done solely with the mouse,
without mouse button clicks, and only when you hold the
mouse within the applet's frame (the green background).
For example, hold the mouse in any corner of that frame
and notice that the cube begins rotating in that direction.
The rotation follows you around as you indicate with the mouse,
and is faster or slower depending on how far you are away
from the cube center. The rotation stops whenever you move the mouse
outside of the applet's screen space.
If you click on an image face,
the applet does a "zoom out"; the viewing frame
fills to show you the full still form of the Icon.
A subsequent single click
continues the cube's rotation.
A double-click on a face takes you to the URL
that is defined to be the target of the transition
(for that face).
In my case,
the six sides represent six chapters in my so-called Life Journey;
double-click on an Icon to go read that "chapter".
When you are finished,
use your browser's "Back" button to return here to
the cube navigator.
It's not so much that the cube navigator is necessarily "the best"
way to read this story, nor that it's even such a great story... but
rather that writing the story was an excuse to try out the navigator
since it just seemed like a promising mechanism that I wanted to
get some eperience with.
If you have any questions
or comments about the story or regarding this mechanism, please feel free to
contact me
via email
directly.
What do you think would be an appropriate situation to use
this navigator for?
All the credit for this Java applet -
the Intel 3D cube -
goes to
my GeoCities colleague
who developed it
and
published the details
about how to
adapt it for your own purpose.
But wait... there's more...
As my life proceeds I'm unsure of how to evolve this story.
Since there are only 6 sides to
the cube navigator
(not to mention that it's fraught with browser compatibility problems, etc!)
it occurs to me that it may not be "worth" holding on to as I write
about some other chapters of my life, and/or as I
want to look at in different ways.
For example, it occurs to me that Life in Canada — whatever the location — is
something I'd like to write about...
a thought that was motivated by this “ Canada Animation ”
that I happened upon on May Day, 2002, and I'm placing here
just for the time being...
Some of these images I have not experienced directly (the Rockies, Vancouver)...
but I'll always have fond (if not warm!) memories of Montréal,
the marvelous images of our nation's capital (Ottawa) where they use Maple leaf
images for/on everything you could possibly imagine;
and of course, the infamous Toronto with its CN Tower
(commuications tower that looks like a giant needle),
Nathan Phillips Square (the city hall with its
promènade, and
skating rink
in the winter), the SkyDome where the Blue Jays play,
and its thriving / multi-ethnic metropolis.
It saddens me, sometimes, that I have not lived in Canada since 1977;
it's such a marvelous country with so much to offer.
Maybe writing more about it — developing this into a real treatise
on Life in Canada — would help me with that.
a thought that was motivated by this “ Canada Animation ”
that I happened upon on May Day, 2002, and I'm placing here
just for the time being...
Some of these images I have not experienced directly (the Rockies, Vancouver)...
but I'll always have fond (if not warm!) memories of Montréal,
the marvelous images of our nation's capital (Ottawa) where they use Maple leaf
images for/on everything you could possibly imagine;
and of course, the infamous Toronto with its CN Tower
(commuications tower that looks like a giant needle),
Nathan Phillips Square (the city hall with its
promènade, and
skating rink
in the winter), the SkyDome where the Blue Jays play,
and its thriving / multi-ethnic metropolis.
It saddens me, sometimes, that I have not lived in Canada since 1977;
it's such a marvelous country with so much to offer.
Maybe writing more about it — developing this into a real treatise
on Life in Canada — would help me with that.
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