ggalaxy

• FORA.tv - Neal Stephenson: Science Fiction as a Literary Gen
• Wiremap
• iPhone first impressions
  "using the iPhone features feels more like playing a casual game, than flying the Microsoft Flight Simulator."
• Random Roles: Teri Garr | The A.V. Club
  "I used to say that in Close Encounters, God was revealed to be a chandelier. And then that same year, I was in a movie where God was revealed to be George Burns."

straup posted a photo:

straup posted a photo:

straup posted a photo:

Monday afternoon taking a teleconference call from home - sharing the line with an early riser in Espoo, and a LA based Design Studio colleague driving home from a Sunday night gig at the 'Bowl – the three of us united by the need to consolidate knowledge before the summer break. The meeting generates a short to-do list, one that can wait at least a few hours, and the carbon fibre of the bike creaks a little with an out-of-saddle acceleration. Every city has its urban sunset – sights and sounds so everyday they are as natural as the solar cycle: a shinkansen glides over the Tamagawa River as the five o’clock song is broadcast from a nearby factory. The road stretches ahead, a little energy reserved for first real hill climb of the day.

Tuesday afternoon, in the office-office and every item on the to-do list has been crossed off. Take the elevator down the reception and feel an involuntary smile light up from within, the mental packing has begun. On the ride home the open air pool beckons, breathing regulated 50 by 30.

This morning nursing a decent Colombian for breakfast, building one last email from a flurry of comments in the inbox. The most enjoyable aspect of team work is seeing unique skills applied to a whole, that will one day be shared.

There is no such thing as 'the office', only spaces that are or are not able to accommodate what that needs done. Switching off is easy – 5 weeks of nothing planned.

Tokyo this morning, Bangkok by nightfall and then, well, lets see.

Seen yesterday in France, an Orange shop with an “identity studio”. The sort of place where you can get a picture of you and translate it into a digital identity with the consentment of the french government (as attested by the little sticker on the upper left-hand corner).

a detailed infographic map that displays the United States Patent & Trademark Office patent classification, which organizes 3 million patents into about 160,000 distinct patent classes. exemplarily shown are 2 patents, together with, respectively, their prior art & impact.

the taxonomy visualization shows the organization schema as a hierarchy in which sublevels are indented according to their depth in the hierarchy. item properties are represented by bar graphs on the left-hand side of the schema. item & class interrelations are denoted by line overlays.

[link: gigapan.org & scimaps.org]

a visualization that allows users to quickly identify the most significant differences in content between 2 lists of Web pages, meant to help comparing the effects of censorship policies on search engines. one interface simply compares the image thumbnails of 2 identical search queries by putting them next to each other. the textual visualization shows the individual tag clouds of the 50 terms that are most particular to each query's results.

while the goal seems quite intriguing, the visualizations seem to require extensive visual comparisons. any ideas how the authors could make the interface more efficient?

[link: uic.edu|thnkx Su]

A recent study conducted by Deloitte on more than 100 businesses with online communities reported by Josh Catone deals why these platforms often fail or don’t meet the expectations:

• “Businesses are being enticed by fancy technology. Mesmerized by bells and whistles, many business are foolishly blowing their entire budgets on technology
• Lack of proper management. The Deloitte study found that 30% of online communities have just part-time employees in charge, and most have just a single PR person running the show. (…) Managed communities are a lot less likely to grow organically the way general mainstream social networks do, so you need someone who knows how to build one in charge.
• The wrong measurement metrics. Moran noticed that most businesses are measuring the success of their communities in the wrong way. Though their stated goals are usually to create viral, word-of-mouth marketing and increase brand loyalty, the metric they use to gauge success is unique visitors. If all you’re after is growing visits to the site, then you’re missing the point. You’re not trying to compete with mainstream social networks, so you don’t need to chase eyeballs. Rather you need to build interaction and create a level of comfort”

Why do I blog this? not really a surprise IMO but since I am documenting failures for a project, I add this to my list of common problems. There would also be a lot to draw about the over-expectations that concerns 3D.

• For teens, the future is mobile
  "The device is inconsequential compared to the content" Via Alex.