Technofetishist (without imported items)

"This watch requires that I use my other hand to get it to reveal itself: I mu..."

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:35:10 GMT

This watch requires that I use my other hand to get it to reveal itself: I must press the button on the side to get the current time. Wholly inefficient, compared to most other watches. Surely no one would want a device that requires more effort to use? Surely this would be a commercial disaster? Of course not. Why? Because we're humans, full of "flaws" like emotions and taste. We're not machines that make decisions based simply on efficiency. –Analog IN, Digital OUT - Brendan Dawes on Interaction Design

"So was it a disaster? Not at all - as long as we acknowledge our failures, un..."

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:01:10 GMT

So was it a disaster? Not at all - as long as we acknowledge our failures, understand them and see ways around them. We did our postmortem and now we know what to fix. In this field, being humble is useful. But being honest is a condition of survival. ... To this extent, we are really modern, and our references are Marshall Berman's descriptions of the Crystal Palace, the Brooklyn Bridge, the making of St Petersburg, Rimbaud and Mallarmé in All that is Solid Melts into Air. We could define ourselfs as Modern because of our ambition, and as Postmodern because of our attitude that cannot escape irony. Thirty years from now, we want to build an airport that embodies Archigram's playful irony, not high-tech arrogance. –4dspace - Interactive architecture - Walter Aprile and Stefano Mirti

"I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much mo..."

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:54:06 GMT

I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much money. I will succeed because my efforts and my focus will defeat bigger and better-funded competitors. I am fearless. I keep my focus on growing the business—not on politics, career advancement, or other wasteful distractions. I will leverage my skills to become the key to every department of my company, yet realize that hiring experts can be the secret to my success. I will be a fervent and intelligent user of technology, to conserve my two most precious assets: time and money. My secret weapon is knowing how to cut through bureaucracy. My size makes me faster and more nimble than any company could ever be. I am a laser beam. Opportunities will try to cloud my focus, but I will not waver from my stated goal and plan—until I change it. And I know that plans were made to be changed. I’m in it for the long haul. Building a business that will last separates me from the opportunist, and is an investment in my brand and my future. Surviving is succeeding, and each day that goes by makes it easier still for me to reach my goals. I pledge to know more about my ﬁeld than anyone else. I will read and learn and teach. My greatest asset is the value I can add to my clients through my efforts. I realize that treating people well on the way up will make it nicer for me on the way back down. I will be scrupulously honest and overt in my dealings, and won’t use my position as a fearless bootstrapper to gain unfair advantage. My reputation will follow me wherever I go, and I will invest in it daily and protect it ﬁercely. I am the underdog. I realize that others are rooting for me to succeed, and I will gratefully accept their help when offered. I also understand the power of favors, and will offer them and grant them whenever I can. I have less to lose than most -- a fact I can turn into a signiﬁcant competitive advantage. I am a salesperson. Sooner or later, my income will depend on sales, and those sales can be made only by me, not by an emissary, not by a rep. I will sell by helping others get what they want, by identifying needs and ﬁlling them. I am a guerrilla. I will be persistent, consistent, and willing to invest in the marketing of myself and my business. I will measure what I do, and won’t lie about it to myself or my spouse. I will set strict ﬁnancial goals and honestly evaluate my performance. I’ll set limits on time and money and won’t exceed either. Most of all, I’ll remember that the journey is the reward. I will learn and grow and enjoy every single day. –The Bootstrapper's Bible - by Seth Godin

"Most journalists do not take things too seriously: After all, this business o..."

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:14:27 GMT

Most journalists do not take things too seriously: After all, this business of journalism is about pure entertainment, not a search for truth, particularly when it comes to radio and television. The trick is to stay away from those who do not seem to know that they are just entertainers and actually believe that they are thinkers. –Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

"By encouraging content to be customized, and art to be mediated, museums have..."

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:41:16 GMT

By encouraging content to be customized, and art to be mediated, museums have precipitated new paradigms of informal learning and reinforced the widespread value of their public spaces as places to freely explore the personal significance of cultural value. Exhibitions using interactive elements have moved on from being hermetic, to adopting physical, experiential tactics and strategies based on the testing of visitors in their use of interactive and audiovisual elements. –4dSocial - Interactive Design Environments

CamTrax’s core technology is a pure software solution that allows nearly any ...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:26:18 GMT

CamTrax’s core technology is a pure software solution that allows nearly any ordinary PC webcam to track up to four objects, even as small as 5mm, in real-time and with very high accuracy and reliability.
http://www.cam-trax.com Play any game with your web-cam :p

"If I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’..."

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:05:48 GMT

If I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul-crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education. –Paul Lockhart [pdf]

Reposted from c3o

Try, eventually fail, but refuse to give up ! ;)

Fri, 30 May 2008 17:42:18 GMT

Try, eventually fail, but refuse to give up ! ;)

First LIVE images and videos of FULLSCREEN Android

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:36:13 GMT

First LIVE images and videos of FULLSCREEN Android

"Donald Norman highlighted how an attractive device improves interaction in te..."

Fri, 23 May 2008 11:36:11 GMT

Donald Norman highlighted how an attractive device improves interaction in terms of usability: since the person is charmed by the object, he will be much more creative in finding out how to interact with it, and will better accept the problems that could arise. –Emotional Design, Basic Books, 2003

First look: OLPC XO-2

Wed, 21 May 2008 12:40:52 GMT

First look: OLPC XO-2
News, more news and even more news..
Video

@ ActiveVision

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:45:21 GMT

@ ActiveVision

Perceptive Pixel + Autodesk at TED2008

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:35:21 GMT

Perceptive Pixel + Autodesk at TED2008

"The BIGVIZ is an exploration in visualizing the Big Ideas presented on the TED mainstage. Two visual cartographers, David Sibbet and Kevin Richards, created over 700 spontaneous sketches of the presenters' ideas using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro software running on Wacom Cintiq tablets and rendered on a Perceptive Pixel multi-touch display. These tools illustrate the power of interactive visualization to present the big picture to foster insight and communicate ideas visually, central principles of design innovation."

Offf Lisbon 08 was a blast ! :)

Mon, 12 May 2008 10:56:28 GMT

Offf Lisbon 08 was a blast ! :)

The conference on visualization of information: videos

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:39:32 GMT

"Our world is growing increasingly complex, dynamic and multi-dimensional. And so is our communication. The see conference is dedicated to new approaches that are being developed in the fields of design, art, architecture, multimedia and economy to confront this complexity and to transform the immense flood of information into useable knowledge. The most recent views and thoughts on this topic will be presented by speakers like Ben Fry, the performance artist Zachary Lieberman, science fiction author Bruce Sterling and Frank van Ham from the IBM Visual Communication Lab."
The see conference #3 took place on April 19th 2008 at the traditional Caligari theater in Wiesbaden.

"[...] Not that there will be much difference left between biology and enginee..."

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:10:17 GMT

[...] Not that there will be much difference left between biology and engineering at this point. Beyond the fascinating (and contentious) history of the philosophical and religious debate over the definition of life, viewed purely phenomenologically a computing machine that can duplicate, program, and recycle itself has the essencial attributes of a living system. Von Neumann studied self-reproducing automata in order to understand life; progress in that understanding is now leading up to the creation of something very much like life. Once a machine becomes capable of reproducing itself, there's not much difference left between personal fabrication and the fabrication of a person. –FAB - Neil Gershenfeld

Awesome new features: New navigation, More and faster 3D buildings, Sun movem...

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:54:26 GMT

Awesome new features: New navigation, More and faster 3D buildings, Sun movement, Street view, Imagery acquisition date and 12 New languages! Thank you Google :)

"Sagmeister seems to possesses an indefatigable willingness to act upon his p..."

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:29:00 GMT

Sagmeister seems to possesses an indefatigable willingness to act upon his playful ideas, to go to whatever lengths necessary to turn them into reality. Contrast that alacrity with the resignation of those of us who, if we can’t conjure up a solution in software or within ten feet of our desks, rule out anything more ambitious entirely. ... His definition of graphic design is far huger than most of us dare to dream, he’s willing to get his ass out of his chair to act upon it, and he seems to enjoy every minute of it. –Khoi Vinh

Reposted from c3o

"In their own ways, an architect in Barcelona, a herder in the north of Norway..."

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:02:26 GMT

In their own ways, an architect in Barcelona, a herder in the north of Norway, and a cable operator in rural India are all connected by their roles in creating communication infrastructure. The needs of each were not being met by incumbent operators in their respective worlds, leading each to take on a hands-on role in developing as well as using systems to solve their problems. And each example illustrates an ingredient in not just personal but community-scale fabrication of those systems: grassroots electronics production and distribution, mesh networks assembled from commodity components, and the merging of computation and communications into functional materials. At that intersection can be found the technological tools that are appropriate for the grace of Gaudi, the drama of Bollywood, and the splendor of the Lyngen Alps. –FAB - Neil Gershenfeld

"Packet Garden captures information about how you use the internet and uses this stored information to grow a private world you can later explore.

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:28:42 GMT

"Packet Garden captures information about how you use the internet and uses this stored information to grow a private world you can later explore. To do this, Packet Garden takes note of all the servers you visit, their geographical location and the kinds of data you access. Uploads make hills and downloads valleys, their location determined by numbers taken from internet address itself. The size of each hill or valley is based on how much data is sent or received. Plants are also grown for each protocol detected by the software; if you visit a website, an 'HTTP plant' is grown. If you share some files via eMule, a 'Peer to Peer plant' is grown, and so on. " - PacketGarden

"Scientific discoveries, Juan Enriquez notes, demand a shift in code. The shi...

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:34:22 GMT

"Scientific discoveries, Juan Enriquez notes, demand a shift in code. The shift from cave paintings to hieroglyphics made possible the rise of Egyptian society, the pyramids, and the conquest of other peoples. The shift to binary code brought with it the era of computing and then the Internet, with vast implications for just about every area of human endeavor. Similarly, the rise of genomics has brought a shift in code toward the structure of life, with implications that are slowly revealing themselves. Enriquez argues that our ability to thrive in the culture created by this shift depends on our mastery of it, and companies whose futures lie with the intersecting fates of science, technology, and computing will do well to mind the knowledge gap -- and not get swallowed up by it."

The shape of things to come: Personal manufacturing

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:03:04 GMT

Ponoko is a New-Zealand startup that makes physical objects. It's a platform for designers and makers, a tool, a marketplace and a community. Awesome.

In this month's issue of Wired I found the most profound article about an aut...

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:12:08 GMT

In this month's issue of Wired I found the most profound article about an autistic 27-year-old that doesn't speak. She describes in vivid and articulate terms using a synthesized voice, what's going on inside her head while she carries out seemingly bizarre actions. Amazingly she shot this video herself too.

Amanda Baggs: "The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not."

"We adapted an open source molecular visualization package (PyMol) to integrate two forms of head tracking (wiimote IR based and webcam based).

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:44:45 GMT

"We adapted an open source molecular visualization package (PyMol) to integrate two forms of head tracking (wiimote IR based and webcam based). By rotating the molecule in a direction opposite to the motion of the user's head we provide a 3D experience; to the user, it appears as if they are 'peeking' around the side of the object. In the demonstration video, we first illustrate active tracking using the wiimote and IR-emitting eyewear and then show our passive tracking using only Apple's built-in webcam. The webcam enabled version uses generic head detection and tracking. We smooth the results of the webcam-based head tracking to provide a more fluid user experience."

"Getting Things Done and the Two Keys to Sustaining a Healthy Life and W...

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:43:47 GMT

"Getting Things Done and the Two Keys to Sustaining a Healthy Life and Workstyle by David Allen". Allen is the founder of the David Allen Company, which is focused on productivity and executive coaching. The GTD method is part of his coaching efforts. He was also one of the founders of Actioneer, Inc., a company specializing in productivity tools for the Palm Pilot. A very good speaker and a enjoyable talk he gave some months ago at the Googleplex.

"And, I found myself, once again, inspired by the ambition of Larry Page and S..."

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:09:18 GMT

And, I found myself, once again, inspired by the ambition of Larry Page and Sergey Brin to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, for these are not just words, but ideas linked to actions with profound social impact. –Peter Morville in Ambient Findability

Sterling's neologism Spime refers to material instantiations of an immaterial...

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:47:33 GMT

Sterling's neologism Spime refers to material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data. They are precisely located objects in space and time. They have histories. They are recorded, tracked, inventoried, and always associated with a story. So they are little metahistory generators. This tech start-up is from Torino and chose to name themselves "OpenSpime". They're into ubiquitous computation in the service of sustainability. Cool.

RealXtend goal is to create an open source platform for interconnected virtua...

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:19:56 GMT

RealXtend goal is to create an open source platform for interconnected virtual worlds. They collaborate with OpenSim, OpenViewer (a project for creating an entirely new client designed to work with the OpenSim servers and realXtend architecture) and realXtend viewer (a heavily modified version of the Linden Labs' Second Life client) projects.

What an impressive feature list.

"Markets are conversations. Or at least they were until the holy trinity of ma..."

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:09:52 GMT

Markets are conversations. Or at least they were until the holy trinity of mass production, mass marketing, and mass media derailed the discussion. And in the swirl of cultural, economic, and technological change that surrounds the Internet, the conversations have begun once more. But many have forgotten how to listen. Herein lies both problem and opportunity. Markets are changing faster than marketing professionals. This results in terrible channel noise as old messages are pushed through new media with increasing intensity and desperation. But for those who are willing to listen and learn, today's marketplace offers opportunities for interaction, insight, and innovation unseen since the bazaars of spices, silks, and magical stones. –Peter Morville in Ambient Findability

"Want You To Want Me chronicles the world’s long-term relationship with roman...

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:17:06 GMT

"Want You To Want Me chronicles the world’s long-term relationship with romance, across all ages, genders, and sexualities, gathering new data from a variety of online dating sites every few hours. The system searches these sites for certain phrases, which it then collects and stores in a database. These phrases, taken out of context, provide partial glimpses into people’s private lives. Simultaneously, the system forms an evolving zeitgeist of dating, tracking the most popular first dates, turn-ons, desires, self-descriptions and interests."
More info here.
Currently on display for the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at MoMa.

"An information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more ..."

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:49:54 GMT

An information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a customer to have information than for him not to have it. –Calvin Mooers - 1959

"Earthmine

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:06:57 GMT

"Earthmine is creating a new kind of map, a pre-collected, geospatially accurate data set of the world that is accessed through an intuitive panoramic interface. This new map is accessed from the human perspective, making it instantly understandable by anyone that has ever walked around in our world. But earthmine is much more than pretty pictures. Behind every pixel in each high quality image you'll find highly accurate latitude, longitude and elevation, immediately adding three-dimensional context to existing spatial data, and providing a whole new model for data collection."

Edusim is a free opensource 3D virtual world specifically for your classroom ...

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:53:40 GMT

Edusim is a free opensource 3D virtual world specifically for your classroom interactive whiteboard. It's built using Croquet (http://www.opencroquet.org) SDK synchronously collaborative wiki, called the KidsFirst Application Toolkit (KAT). It's a powerful way to engage your students by bringing a 3D virtual environment that allows direct haptic manipulation of the 3D virtual learning objects directly from the interactive whiteboard surface. It's also extendable allowing multiple classrooms to connect their interactive whiteboards for a collaborative learning session.

"The photographs are presented in a framework that tells the

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:47:38 GMT

"The photographs are presented in a framework that tells the moment-to-moment story of the whale hunt. The full sequence of images is represented as a medical heartbeat graph along the bottom edge of the screen, its magnitude at each point indicating the photographic frequency (and thus the level of excitement) at that moment in time. A series of filters can be used to restrict this heartbeat timeline, isolating the many sub stories occurring within the larger narrative (the story of blood, the story of the captain, the story of the arctic ocean, etc.). Each viewer will experience the whale hunt narrative differently, and not necessarily in a linear fashion, constructing his or her own understanding of the experience." TheWhaleHunt

"One of the original motivations for conducting research into post-PC interfac..."

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:16:06 GMT

One of the original motivations for conducting research into post-PC interfaces, in fact, was that they might ameliorate the sense of overload that so often attends the use of information technology. An early culmination of this thinking was Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown's seminal "The Coming Age of Calm Technology", which argued that ubiquity of next-generation computing would compel its designers to ensure that it "encalmed" its users. [...] The strategy they devised to promote calm had to do with letting the user shift back and forth between the focus of attention and what they called the "periphery" - that which "we are attuned to without attending to explicitly." Just as, in your peripheral vision you may see objects but not need to attend to them (or even necessarily be conciously aware of their presence), here the periphery was a place where information could reside until actively required. –Thesis 31 - Everyware - The dawning age of ubiquitous computing

Sarah Robbins, doctoral candidate at the University of Indiana,

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:51:00 GMT

Sarah Robbins, doctoral candidate at the University of Indiana, aka Intelligirl, talks about her experiences using Second Life in her classrooms.

"The notion of pliability is an attempt to articulate a certain quality in usi..."

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:36:22 GMT

The notion of pliability is an attempt to articulate a certain quality in using digital, interactive products and services. The use of a digital artifact is characterized as pliable if it feels like a tightly connected loop between eye and hand, between action and response. A pliable interaction is one where the user is drawn into a sense of shaping the digital information with her ﬁngertips, even though the actual artifact might employ standard, non-tactile interaction techniques such as mouse, keyboard and a display monitor. Pliability is a sensuous quality, having to do with how it feels to use the artifact in the here-and-now of the use situation, and as such it plays a role in understanding the aesthetics of interaction. –Pliability as an experiential quality: Exploring the aesthetics of interaction design

This takes reviews from welovelocal.com and places them on the map based on t...

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:16:59 GMT

This takes reviews from welovelocal.com and places them on the map based on time. Red points are 1 star reviews whereas green are 5 star.

"Flow, as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is "being completely involved ..."

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:19:19 GMT

Flow, as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost." Flow, and ideally, adaptation, involve finding the correct balance between the challenge of the task and the skills of the user. Too much challenge produces anxiety; too little produces boredom. Adaptive devices and applications, if well designed, help users achieve this balance, this flow. –Designing for interaction - creating smart applications and clever devices

"The large arc visual shows the 41 most frequent characters from different Holy Scriptures and their communalities.

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:00:17 GMT

"The large arc visual shows the 41 most frequent characters from different Holy Scriptures and their communalities.
The characters are aligned alphabetically on the x-axis. Their names' and the arcs' size is calculated from their total wordcount in all scriptures. According to that, characters which play a big role in several scriptures are displayed larger.
The colored segments of the arcs are showing the frequency of the word resp. the character in the particular Holy Books." a project by Philipp Steinweber and Andreas Koller. link