Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Success
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on January 22nd, 2010
Success is not a point, but a process
Music man
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on January 14th, 2010
Music/Rythm is the 4th dimension in life. Without out it your are JUST moving in A direction in space and time. I love music, I need music! Fill your space and time with music!
AppMakr Hits the Ground Running
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on January 4th, 2010
AppMakr.com has gotten some good press today :)
TechCrunch/CrunchGear
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/06/appmakr-make-your-own-iphone-apps-for-just-two-bills/
“What AppMakr lacks in vowels they make up for in coolness. ”
MobileCrunch
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/01/03/appmakr-transforms-app-store-landscape-enables-anyone-to-make-their-own-iphone-app/
“Surprisingly, AppMakr was extremely well done and easy to use.”
Livingston
http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2010/01/04/appmakr-makes-iphone-apps-accessible/
“AppMakr service is a no brainer for most small companies and nonprofits”
Scobleizer
http://scobleizer.com/2010/01/04/part-i-hot-startups-to-watch-in-2010-2/
“Top 25 Startups of 2010″
Guy Kawasaki
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2010/01/how-to-make-an-iphone-app.html#axzz0benPLHYD
“I can now offer custom iPhone apps for each of the 800 Alltop topics. How cool is that?”
Re-Hashing your reading experience. (Tablet Concepts/MacBook Touch)
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on December 25th, 2009
Now that tablet PC are not just “coulds” but are “soons” designers must start to really re-invent the way the rest of us will digest content. Non lap top touch interactive computers are coming soon, probably the first jaw dropper in late January so what will this new world be like?
Berg, a design company in london, tasked themselves with creating a video that describes this new reading enviromnet. How will you read content, scroll through content, orientation, spacing, interaction etc must all be well thought out to keep the reader emersed in the content while allowing the great new tools a tablet can offer to become exposed and, well, at your fingertips — ready to go.
Below is a video of Sports Illustreted demo’ing their newest SI release on the Apple MacBook Touch
And then another tablet video for the Courier from MicroSoft
iPhone Secret Feature
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on December 23rd, 2009
iPhone Undo
Lately I have noticed that I get prompted to “undo typing” or cancel my text. I would hurriedly press cancel and after getting the message a few times I started to think something was becoming buggy with my phone or my fat fingers were accidentally pressing some wrong button. The I realized — wait there is no “undo” button/feature on the phone where the hell is it coming from. After some quick research I found out there is an unpublished “undo” feature on the iPhone after SDK 3.0.
Ready for it…..and….
Activate Undo Text Feature:
After typing on the iPhone, shake the phone to undo what you have typed.
3D modeling based on edited sketches using augmented reality
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on October 29th, 2009
The implications are great, imagine architecture being 3d in seconds based on a back of the napkin sketch……Cool implementation of augmented reality.
Aphorisisms & the Hesitant, Timid Writer
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on September 12th, 2009
I have always loved Nietzsche’s writings, but not until I started this Blog did I truly recognize the complexity of his works; to convey philosophy through aphorisms. It is for some reason so easy to talk about an idea out loud with passion and to do it while another person is right there sitting with you provoking you to push the story forward. Maybe it is easier because you are able wiggle through the holes in the statements you make or because you are less critical of yourself when you know your mistakes will be lost in time and not in black and white to later be scrutinized by a passer by — the cost is that any of your good substance will be lost in the shuffle.
I am struggling with becoming any level of what can be called a writer and my greatest hurdle is talking through a written medium. Not burdening myself with the need to explain every point that comes up that has some relevent story behind it or to be too verbose, to somehow incorporate my passions and stream of conscious into written form, to have an open dialog within the writing (maybe add a character to debate with) and to not be so critical of posting anything no matter how dumb it may feel.
This I suppose is the next chapter to my first Blog post “My First Blog & the Dreaded Blank Page” and hopefully this broadcasted admittance to my fears, hurdles, and lack of skill will once again be an evolution in writing for me.
The neo-geek is neo-chic
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on September 7th, 2009
Calculator Watch
LG has come out with new and improved calculator watch, the LG GD910. It kind of an iPhone for the wrist. Check out this phone and other cool phones on youtube below.
And then man created life
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 23rd, 2009
Synthetic Life
Scientest have combined the building blocks of life and have been able to over come some major hurdles in the effort to create life from scratch. By creating a container for the life to reside in, a way to reproduce, and a way to convert raw materials to energy man can indeed create life if only for a few hours at a time. Scientist have made a confident claim this week that they expect someone to create artificial life from scratch, albeit microscopic at best, within 3-10 years.
New keyboard
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 21st, 2009
Very cool, I love simple changes in technology that make way for completly new ways of doing common tasks. Like this subtle change in keyboard interaction. This keyboard uses pressure to interpret keystorokes. This allows users to add more demension to your typing or game playing. For instance, if you are shouting in your text simply press each key harder…..Anywho, it’s pretty neat check out the video.
More on the program:
UIST (ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology) is the premier forum for innovations in the software and technology of human-computer interfaces. Sponsored by ACM’s special interest groups on computer-human interaction (SIGCHI) and computer graphics (SIGGRAPH), UIST brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse areas that include traditional graphical & web user interfaces, tangible & ubiquitous computing, virtual & augmented reality, multimedia, new input & output devices, and CSCW. The intimate size, the single track, and comfortable surroundings make this symposium an ideal opportunity to exchange research results and implementation experiences.
http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2009/
Todays Tech: Editorial
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 19th, 2009
Being part of the industrial revolution must have been amazing. I use to wish I was around during a revolution of that size as I would have wanted to take risks and catch the business wave as early as I could. Like being around when Bill Gates started MicroSoft. How could people have thought it was a fad, or rejected such an practical, obvious, beneficial product? Computers and software changed the way life happens and a majority of the population were/are late adopters. These last few years have been the beginning of yet another great revolution in my eyes and I wasn’t going to pas it up. I cant believe how many thought/think the technologies of today are a fad, many of those nah sayers who argued in my and coworkers face and mocked the industries goals are forgotten (lucky for them) and from only 1 year ago! More and more are getting on the ride. Im glad I started giving it my all early on, no regrets.
We still have a long way to go. Those who said Facebook was a fad are now on FaceBook with the rest of their family and friends and use it fairly often. What’s more disturbing is how often I over hear people on FaceBook or in passing that scream how much Twitter is a useless fad……I guess we just need to give them a few years in which I suspect that they will be bashing yet another new technology, but will do it using Twitter.
Even the most basic and useful forums of social media get bashed to this day, often purely for cultural reasons in which technology in many peoples eyes equal sub par information and practicality. I don’t know how many times I’ve over heard intelligent people bashing any information found on Wikipedia. Although not perfect it’s easy to for get that Webster and Britannica were all originally missions of one man traveling the globe. One man one perspective asking strangers and alike what they knew to be knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants. Accuracy is subjective and in this case a multitude of subjective persons might be more powerful and “true” then a single man is the final say.
Let’s try harder to find use in things that catch on or connect us all, that increase our perspective across greater bounds whether it be 100% accurate or not. If we are brought together and information is shared more readily then we are only following a path set thousands of years before us first with smoke signals, then to written stone, bibles, printed news, telegraphs and phones, radio and TV, internet and social media. Let us allow ourselves to find the good, as we have so reluctant at each point of our past, in connecting with one another and decipher the positive gains in mediums that do just that.
iPhone, Safari, and HTML5, Oh My!
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 14th, 2009
iPhone Video
iPhone Safari is purpoted to be trying to release HTML5’s newest spec that allows video tags. This means that we will soon be able to watch video inline easily not only on the web in general but on our pretty little phones.
Some of you may be saying, “I already can playvideo on my phone”. Which although true isnt really the whole picture. Have you noticed that when there is video you must play in in a seperate quicktime panel that pops out. Witht the inclusion of this new spec you will be ale to just press play from within the web page.
For developers this also menas that including images in a pahge will be as easy as using a simple <video> tag as appose to needing to use a plugin like quicktime or flash. As Isaac put it, we are one step closer to getting rid of flash.
Example:
<video src=”http://www.ananova.com/about/vap_windows_check.wmv”>
your browser does not support the video tag
</video>
New RadioHead single
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 10th, 2009
Radiohead
Harry Patch (In Memory of)
Thom Yorke, one of my favorite creators of melodically interesting sounds has put out a new song called Harry Patch and debuted it a few days ago.
As usual the Radiohead guys are bypassing labels and selling the song through their website and all proceeds go towards a good cause.
As for background on the song, Harry Patch was the last living UK World War 1 Veteran, he was 111 years old. Radiohead released this single in order to make sure he is not forgotten. The song is a tribute to Harry, as well as a fundraiser for the Royal British Legion.
The Sun reported that the family was enamoured over the song, “Our family is very touched thatRadiohead has reached out to its followers and especially the younger generation through the single that echoes” and that Harry “.
Patch was buried on August 6th 2009 in Wells, Somerset, with a public service taking place in Wells Cathedral.
Politifact
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 9th, 2009
Politifact
I heard about this site while listening to an interview on NPR. In this interview the host asked thier guest some questions as to why “they are so angry” at thier local senator. The guest replied that he is a liar and signed bills to allow a rediculous measure in an unwanted bill. She was irate at the situation, what was interesting is how the host then turned to a guest from Pilitifact who seemed to have researched the case and found taht many of the angry protesters points were driven by rumors as the references to documents they made were unsubstantiated. Now I am perfectly aware that Politifact is yet another level of abstraction from the “real truth” just like any other news agency. What is interesting to me, after I browsed around thier site is the fact that they give you thier opinion and consolidate every reference and statement into linkable sources on the right hand gutter of the web page. It’s like having your own senate secratary gathering the facts for you so you can make your own informed descisions on a topic.
Pants on Fire
They give a summary of statment or claims made by our politicatns and then exmine their refernces and sources and rate how true the statememnt is on a “truth -o-meter”. Their meter varies from basic true or fals all the way down to “Pants on Fire” for those claims made that are not only exagerated but baseless.
Pulitzer
They also show you links to all the references and sources they reveiwed so you can digg into the claims yourself and form your own opinion. The site definitely fills a need and will ecome popular enough so that our politicians are more careful when trying to exagerate claims just to gain the viewers attention. ALso a nice reference for Politifact is thier wininnging of the 2008 pulitzer for national reporting after only being luanched in 2007.
Boxee
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 8th, 2009
Boxee
Isaac just demoed a great peice of software for the mac or PC called Boxee. Boxee is loaded on your computer and plays online video from hundreds of sources including videos from your local hard drive, hulu, youtube, and digg. Simply hook your computer up to your TV and watch these shows and click through options and menus with your remote. Best of all its an open source project so downloading is free and you are able to improve the product or add your own video modukes as you please.
Since Boxee allows you to login to your favorite social networks you can see what friends are watching while you watch and more. The bads: since it’s open source and downloaded software when a web site that boxee pulls from is changed those interfaces in Boxee fail as well until you download a newer build. Its a great tool and relly merges computer with tv experience, definitly a project that has been needed for a long time and meant for the open soure community.
See more about what Boxee can do below:
Screw Microsoft
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on August 4th, 2009
PC Frustration
Okay so only a year ago or so I was a PC MS guy. Since then I have adopted apple like many of you out there for various reasons that I soon shall post, but mostly for iPhone development needs originally. Since then I have set up 3 mac mini’s and 2 imacs. One of the mac mini’s i set up as a remote machine that i screen share to that works as a server for our company. I havent had a single problem and was able to screen share, transfer files, share music, and use any usb or network basd periphreal from printers to ipods to itunes. I was even able to transfer files onto my PC laptop instantly and it took much longer to do the exact same process from the laptop to the mac.
Broke as a joke
I havent really thought to much about it until tonight. Tonight I installed a new PC for my parents becuase 1) They wanted it cause they are use to it and 2) It was under $600. This one machine has taken me hours to set up, and I am so frustrated right now beucase printing was erroring out, not the pronter but the print option would hang. Installing and startng up the machine felt like an eternity and honestly $1500 does not sound so expensive when i think back to how easy all of my other mac based installs have been. I was ready to punch a baby in the face after this MS/PC set up process. Maybe I;’m spoiled by the MAC and I should be more patient with the PC/MS version of computers….or maybe having to be patient with your computer is f’en dumb. Oh, one more thing is it the PC’s fault or is it MS’s. I wonder what would happen if I installed the OS X on this hard ware, is it all in the software all in the hardware, or both?
Balsamiq, an interesting taste of things
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on July 27th, 2009
Balsamiq.com
Balsamiq.com is a web application (that also comes in a downloadable software version) that allows users to quickly create mockups for web sites and iphone products. I was skeptical at first, but 2 things made me pretty happy with thier approach to this common problem.
Mockup
The first was the choice they made to exagerate the concept of fuction over form. Their toolset, or stencils are purposly quasi-poorly hand drawn graphics that have a major lack of attention to detail. As the owners of Balsamiq.com put it, “it encourages critisism” … “so that people don’t get attached to ‘that pretty color gradient’”. The secod thing I liked after playing around with the app a bit was the way they decided to implement the editing process of these draft like stencils. Most implemetations of design toold have properties panels that allow you to change many aspects of a feature, but not only do those properties get complex but since you are given many properties you try to use them in various combinations and often times doing so has unwanted results i.e. certain border style doesnt work well with large boxes with italic text.
Edit Mode
At balsamiq.com the stencils are all pre fab and standard, not much is expected of them other then being better then just a place holder. Content is, for the most part, the only thing you can change and they use a simple text edit box when that content needs to be changed. When you double click a stensil the data is presented in a markdow laguage. i.e. buttons that are hard to align and choose width and colors are nothing more then a comma delimited list in edit mode — (button 1, two, and three). When you click of the text box the buttons are created for you.
They truly stuck to the motto of just use the bare essentials and KISS paradigms to set the expctations of the designers and reviews while making the process of creating dead simple. Which in the end created a great mockup tool, allowig you to focus on what you shoud be focusing on ayways — workflow and content placements.
Give it a try @ http://balsamiq.com/demos/mockups/Mockups.html
Tech Alert: FaceBook Ads
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on July 24th, 2009
“Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user’s friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules. You may opt out of appearing in your friends’ Facebook Ads below.
Appearance in Facebook Ads”
To find the settings and change what FaceBook and advertisers can do follow the instructions below:
Click on SETTINGS up at the top where you see the log out link. Select PRIVACY. Then select NEWS FEEDS AND WALL. Next select the tab that reads FACE BOOK ADS. There is a drop down box, select NO ONE. Then SAVE your changes. (REPOST and let your friends know).
Give a hoot track your tweets
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on July 22nd, 2009
bit.ly
There are many apis that offer shortening of urls tinyurl.com, tinyurl.cc, bit.ly and many others which have all been useful over the years as services that take a URL like this: http://www.seanshadmand.com/2009/07/18/give-a-hoot-track-your-tweets/ and convert it to a url like this: http://tinyurl.com/len47k. Once the tiny url is clicked a user is quickly redirected to the true url of the site.
HootSuite
Now, with the advent of the Facebook status and more recently Twitter tweets, fitting text based information into a very small space is ever more important and shortening URL’s has become big business and an interesting space to be in for startups these days. (check out some techcrunch articles here at http://bit.ly/jytKD and http://ow.ly/hWSV).
I have recently been turned on to yet another player in the field found at http://ow.ly. This url shortner is provided by a comapny called HootSuite and not only provides shortened urls but aggregates all of your twitter feeds in to one place and allows you to quickly convert all urls within a tweet into shortened ow.ly based urls. The cool thing is those shortened url’s also provide tracking analysis so you can see how many people clicked your link in a line graph inline with all of your posts. Pretty cool, if you twitter at all or can find it usefull to track a urls number of clicks beit through an email or web site give ow.ly or hootsuite a try.
HootSuite Stats
Knol: a Unit of Knowladge
Posted by sshadmand in Technology on July 20th, 2009
Knol
Knol (http://knol.google.com/) is a product from Google that allows users to post content about whatever they feel they have expertise in to th web. At first glance I wondered if this would cannabalise blogger or any other form of content publishing Google already has on the market. After diving deeper I realized that knol is between a blog and a wiki. In that it’s not just for posting information in a time line like a journal, although there are plugins to make blogging apps work less like a journal and more like a site, and it isn’t modertated bu some elite “truth finder” entity like a wiki.
About 6 months a go a friend asked mine asked me for some direction when trying to figure out a way to put up what he knew about his local citities night life, as he found many people came to him for suhc data, but he didn’t want it to neessacarily be a blog. A blog in his eyes was to date based and abstract. He wanted a different interaction model that allowed users to dive into specific ascpets of information about going out in his city. Not knowing of Knol at the time I told him the simplest thing to do would be to start writing a blog and if there is traction but some extra time into manipluate the front end to cater more to his needs through stylings and graphics or plugins. So based on that interaction with him then I can see exactly how Know could have an audience to cater to. I offered this tool to him recently and he seemed pretty excited about it. I awat his response on how much better it is then the blog and I’ll be sure to let y’all know what he finds as soon as I get the info myself :)
