randomosity

I feared the trackpad. I am not the biggest fan of the trackpad. I gather that my namesake, the CTO at Synaptics is responsible for some of the biggest breakthroughs as the trackpad gained laptop cred during the 1990’s and so I feel a little loyalty if only by association. However, my favourite means of input is the TrackPoint - the little red nubby (that becomes less red real fast) that the IBM ThinkPad is most closely associated with. This is a very personal area. I know many users that could just not get used to using a single finger on an ultra-sensitive tiny joystick. The cursor and they could not become friends with the TrackPoint in the equation. Random survey indicates most people still carry a mouse with them and connect it - this is the case for TrackPoint as well as trackpad users. I am glancing around the coffee shop right now and frankly I am the only one relying on the built in tracking device. There’s a lot of users with big mice and small mice, but mice nonetheless. There is even a user carefully balancing one on the arm of an easy chair - that can’t possibly be comfortable.
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I have been searching for ways to improve my genealogical research. I set two specific criteria for my search:

• A cross-platform browser/editor that uses GEDCOM files natively;
• A means to share genealogical data in a free and open manner

Two open source products have emerged that work together to meet my needs: PHPGEDViewer (PGV) and Genesis (an open source PGV research tool) part of the Distributed Family Tree Project.
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One of the more intriguing social networking applications that I have been enjoying over the last year has been Plazes.com. I blogged about my initial experiences with this spatial addition to the social sphere. Plazes uses your cyberspace IP to place you in physical space. If you are at a previously defined Plaze, then you are pinpointed. If you have discovered a new place, you supply some info about the place, refine the location and it is stored for future reference. You can discover if there are other plazers in your nearby space or plazes that have been recommended and you can also get a Traze (a spatial and temporal indication of where you have been over time). You can also use your mobile phone to plaze yourself or to find nearby plazes. The system works, is a hoot to use and you can even provide a little map to your blog readers showing where you are in real time –-> see my own sidebar.
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I observed my first SmackShopping live internet game show today. Building on the last minute bidding fun of eBay, and the social networking/buying power of a large group of committed purchasers, JellyFish offers an intriguing experience.

As a semi-standard demand consolidator, JellyFish has agreements with a wide range of normal retailers who contract to provide X amount of discount for bulk orders facilitated by JellyFish. Purchases earn the discount with is split 50/50 with the JellyFish buyer. So there is a buying incentive through JellyFish. But what makes this fun???

Well, for periods throughout the day, there is a real time games how. ‘Players’ (any JellyFish user) vote on particular products that they’d really like to buy. When the show starts, the product discount increases until the fixed number of units are sold. The game involves trying to be the last buyer in and therefore get the highest discount before the deal is done. The top players are then ranked and points are awarded based on the top ten finishers. In addition, observers can guess at what the final discout will be and get a chance to spin a virtual roulette wheel to win an additional prize.

In the game that I observed, buyers were after a PlayStation 2 game which in the end went at about a 45% discount. The closest guesser then spun the wheel and it landed on SmackShop’s choice. They gave him $50, but possible prizes ranged from a Wii, to various other electronic doodads in the $250-500 range.

Its pretty easy to see how this game can become addictive for those who crave a good deal. It also has a lot to say about the future of shopping. The idea of consolidating demand and getting retailers to bid for your business has been explored using the net by a variety of startups over the past few years. The interesting thing about Smack Shopping is that is that it puts the game right up front, and pinpoints that which makes the eBay experience exciting and fun. The other aggregators made their intention to deliver shopping value clear, but perhaps failed to note that the thrill of the deal is the sweet spot and if you can play it up, you can make a killing yourself.

Lucky for me, Canadians can only wtch Smack Show for now. They promise to open it up to Canucks soon, but right now as many merchants will not ship to Canada they have a made a blanket rule. Canadians can use normal Jelly Fish shopping, and determine whether individual merchants will ship to Canada.

Ok. This guy is into some cool, cool stuff. Jeff Han has a number of very impressive short movies of some of the fascinating prototypes. Not only Multi-Touch (which the iPhone has suddenly become most publicly associated with), but some very interesting work using LEDS as photodiodes, and his media mirror which pitched as artwork, but is a very interesting extension of the multi-touch reflective feedback.
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This constellation of researchers working in overlapping fields of knowledge, information, software and data visualization is a great jumping off spot. Visual-Literacy.org is a collective course spanning several institutions and involving a number of leaders in the field of visualisation. Sounds rather cool. As part of their prospectus they have constructed ‘maps’ of the visualisation constellation as geo-spatial map, periodic table, and a syllogism. This is a real practise/preach exercise and a wonderful overview of the wide range of activities in this field and their inter-relations. The periodic table is particularly impressive. Hover will popup a graphical representation of the technique noted. The syllogism makes a lot of sense. The periodic table must be complimented for the breadth of information conveyed and the attempt to systematize the volume. The table itself is a bit of a challenge to use and the metaphor of periodic table questionable, but a pointer in an interesting direction.

It is interesting to consider the vastly different (yet similarly targeted) Apple eMate of 1997 and the OLPC pof 2007. Floating about the internet currently is a really cool screen capture of the ‘Sugar’ interface used by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. OLPC seems to have stuck for the last little while. I know that for a time the project seems to have had a new name every week.
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Here’s a thought provoking piece of technology in action…but what is particularly intriguing is that it is replicating the human action of turning pages “so as to avoid having to damage the binding.” It of course begs the question over how user-defined the nature of the printed media is, but certainly represents a wonderful adaptation of machine to the task at hand. Click the photo to go to the manufacturer’s site - there a really cool animated gif of the machine actually reading a book. A task it accomplishes at the rate of 2,400 pages per hour.

Is this an up and coming phenom? Zopa and Prosper are two two startups offering to bring together borrowers and lenders and offer . The sense of ‘Simness’ (as in simcity/sim this sim that) is an interesting note. … As the author of this survey on these two services note, they even add fun to the act of borrowing and lending…quite an accomplishment.

Now this is very cool. Was over at the Airbus site after the news came out that they lost the FEDEx order for A380s. Apparently the folks at Airbus have been busy with their virtual cabin tour. If they could channel that productivity…

This is a very well executed virtual world. The transitions between your navigation choices are supremely well executed. The appropriate eye movement to simulate actually walking down the gangway. Well done. I really like this.