Glimpses of the websurfing habits of a computer science professor, obsessive crafter, occasional gamer, and all around geek
In one of the cutest hacks I’ve seen in a while, someone uses the Powerbook motion sensor to power a software marionette [via MAKE: Blog]. The applet code is included – it draws on a library for accessing the Sudden Motion Sensor, but there are links provided to a couple of such libraries, if you are interested in trying this hack out for yourself. At the least, go check out the great videos of the marionette in action.
I know that good weblogger style would suggest that I shouldn’t link to another of ze’s videoblogs so soon, but I’ve been catching up after not web surfing much the past couple of weeks and couldn’t resist pointing people towards his tips for hiring a web developer, starting with what their personal appearance says about their development aesthetic. Very funny, in a “I wish it weren’t kind of true” way.
There are some in-jokes that a casual viewer will miss, but I still recommend episode two of zefrank explaining videoblogging. If you’re interested in web 2.0 publishing, you’ll like his rundown of videoblogging style guidelines, and if you follow videoblogs (or web popularity in general) you’ll like his snark about rankings and traffic measurements.
While taken from real life conversation in an ad agency, I suspect these “overheard” snippets of conversation at advertising agencies will ring true to anyone working with clients on design [via India, Ink]. Sure, much like “stupid user” humor, the humor is a catharsis but the professional has to realize that part of their job is to facilitate conversation with non-experts without demeaning them. On the other hand, how can you not love: “I like the design but I think it ‘ll look better stripping all graphical elements, it ‘ll look more web 2.0-ish” (Agency, Creative Director to Designer) or: … Continue reading Communicating at Cross-Purposes
In an interesting detour in the question of what “Web 2.0” really means, Nicholas Carr (of “Does IT Matter” fame) takes on Lessig in his weblog post Web 2.0lier than thou and challenges Lessig’s claim that Web 2.0 is synonymous with unrestricted sharing of information (and consequently that services with built in restrictions such as YouTube are not Web 2.0). Carr asserts that this is not an accurate portrayal of the current web, and that Lessig’s moralistic take on Web 2.0 is idealistic utopianism. All of the sharing just furthers industry and in fact exploits th creative individual by asking … Continue reading Web 2.0 doesn’t share its toys
Computing changes our world – not a new idea – but this registration-required NYTimes essay (you’re using BugMeNot, right?) summarizes what some computer scientists think is, and isn’t, coming. Predictions? More interdisciplinary impact and more policy issues requiring knowledgable leadership. Data mining in social networks as a promenent theme (I’m guessing the whiteboard scribbles in the photo at the top of the page are illustrating clusters…) It all suggests to me that getting more people educated about the fundamental capabilities of techology and the implications of its use is going to get more important to us over the next decade … Continue reading Wait – that’s what *we’re* doing, right?
The newly popular Warning Signs for Tomorrow are half hilarious and half thought provoking. On the one hand, there are signs I’m tempted to hang on my office door, and on the other hand there are warning signs that, ethically speaking, we ought to have right now. I think, given the point in the semester we’re at right now, that Cognitive Hazard is resonating with me the most closely.
After the rash of articles about how “young people” don’t use e-mail anymore (and, by the way, how in the world does that work??? IM is a nice tool and I use it too, but it can’t seriously be an e-mail replacement, can it?) it is now being reporrted that the majority of MySpace visitors and a significant portion of visitors to other social networking sites are over 35 [via Clicked]. First, I spent some time poking around the comScore website trying to figure out exactly how they determine the demograpics they claim to be measuring with their Mdia Metrix … Continue reading Your father’s social networking site?
David Brin laments the lack of simple built-in programming environments on personal comptuters [via Slashdot]. I too remember learning to program on my Apple IIe – if you turned on the computer without a programmed disk in the drive, you fell into BASIC, and I copied many listigs out of magaziines or books and played around with their functionality. Brin is entirely right – this type of built-in, no-fuss programming environment got a lot of us started. Now, there are still command-line options. My programming students download Java off the Sun website and compile and run from the DOS prompt, … Continue reading Not BASIC Enough
The latest Craigslist kerfluffle described here at Slashdot reminds me of the case from about a year and a half ago of someone posting their chat sessions with a plagiarist soliciting them for an essay. In both cases, you have people assuming that their one-on-one conversations will be kept private and sharing information with a complete stranger that they would not want made public. Clearly, this is not a nice thing to do. I think it is also unethical – unlike the plagiarism case where the recipient of the advances was able to check that such behavior was prohibited at … Continue reading On the internet,, everybody knows you’re a dog.