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Okay, since I'm not at my home computer too much any more, I've been running most of my stuff off a suite of Firefox, Thunderbird, etc on a thumb drive. I have GAIM, but I can't get it to copy my settings from my home version, and I'd like to be able to be on IM and see the people there. Anybody know how to do that?
Sense-hacking
Apr. 5th, 2007 10:57 amThis Wired article is about very cool stuff. Methods of augmenting human senses through things like feedback belts and tongue sensors and so on. I think that sort of stuff's awesome. They talk about how the brain re-maps once it has a chance to get used to the new sense, and how it can make things noticeable humans usually can't notice. It's cybernetics without all the brain implantation and stuff. Direction senses, orientation, even "sight" through the tongue sensor. That's so awesome. And I've noticed the same thing with well-designed games and stuff, once you get used to the controls and the interface, you're not pushing buttons or moving the controller, you're making things happen in the game world. That could lead to a whole discussion about identity, since you don't say "Aww, my character almost died!" you say "Man! That dragon almost got me!" But I'm not going into that one right now.
Maybe I'm just a tremendous nerd, but the idea of using technology to add on to our senses and expand the way we can see the world is tremendously awesome to me. I'd love to have smartgoggles or something that would let me identify things and then find more information about them instantly. Imagine something that let you look at products on the shelves and see how healthy they are, or color them by worker treatment, environmental costs, whatever that went into them. Or be able to "smell" various chemicals, or...pretty much anything. Not all of it's possible, or easy, but the potential there, that's so awesome. Or on a more mundane side, look at cell phones, and the growing ability to talk to a pretty good chunk of anybody, a pretty good chunk of anywhere.
I love living in the future. Wish it'd hurry up and get here.
Maybe I'm just a tremendous nerd, but the idea of using technology to add on to our senses and expand the way we can see the world is tremendously awesome to me. I'd love to have smartgoggles or something that would let me identify things and then find more information about them instantly. Imagine something that let you look at products on the shelves and see how healthy they are, or color them by worker treatment, environmental costs, whatever that went into them. Or be able to "smell" various chemicals, or...pretty much anything. Not all of it's possible, or easy, but the potential there, that's so awesome. Or on a more mundane side, look at cell phones, and the growing ability to talk to a pretty good chunk of anybody, a pretty good chunk of anywhere.
I love living in the future. Wish it'd hurry up and get here.
X-Prize: Autos
Apr. 5th, 2007 01:31 amThe X-Prize folks are running a prize for a car that can do 100 miles per gallon and be viable in the car market, including business plan and all. Official site here.
Nifty!
Nifty!
Judge Doom Lived!
Dec. 16th, 2006 11:53 pmRemember in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, how Judge Doom wanted to buy the trolleys and shut them down to build freeways and make people buy cars?
That's actually somewhat true, except with GM doing the buying, not a toon judge. Well, here, let me quote about National City Lines: "Between 1936 and 1950, National City Lines (NCL), a holding company sponsored and funded by General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum, bought out more than 100 electric surface-traction (streetcar) systems in 45 cities (including New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, and Los Angeles). Those systems were ultimately dismantled and replaced with GM buses."
Hardly the only force that brought about the end of the streetcar system, but definitely one of the major ones, I'd suspect.
The Disappearance of Trams
GM Streetcar conspiracy
The Straight Dope
Oh, and did you know that "General Smedley Butler testified before a Congressional committee that a group of men had attempted to recruit him to serve as the leader of a plot and to assume and wield power once the coup was successful." The "group of men" was a bunch of wealthy industrialists. But somehow, the story never became a big deal (wealthy interests, most newspapers were owned by a small group then, etc) and many of the references were deleted from the report, a full version has yet to come out. The Sentate report confirmed that "In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist government in this country." But nothing ever came of that, either. The Straight Dope has some more.
That's actually somewhat true, except with GM doing the buying, not a toon judge. Well, here, let me quote about National City Lines: "Between 1936 and 1950, National City Lines (NCL), a holding company sponsored and funded by General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum, bought out more than 100 electric surface-traction (streetcar) systems in 45 cities (including New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, and Los Angeles). Those systems were ultimately dismantled and replaced with GM buses."
Hardly the only force that brought about the end of the streetcar system, but definitely one of the major ones, I'd suspect.
The Disappearance of Trams
GM Streetcar conspiracy
The Straight Dope
Oh, and did you know that "General Smedley Butler testified before a Congressional committee that a group of men had attempted to recruit him to serve as the leader of a plot and to assume and wield power once the coup was successful." The "group of men" was a bunch of wealthy industrialists. But somehow, the story never became a big deal (wealthy interests, most newspapers were owned by a small group then, etc) and many of the references were deleted from the report, a full version has yet to come out. The Sentate report confirmed that "In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist government in this country." But nothing ever came of that, either. The Straight Dope has some more.
It's the Interface, Stupid
Aug. 31st, 2006 12:41 amA lot of everyday frustrations with technology (among many other things) come from a simple root. The interface of the technology wasn't designed for the ease of use for the user, it was designed for the ease of building or or saving money or reusing an old design or to look "cool" or whatever the needs of the designer are. The best interfaces are those that are simple enough to become invisible with little practice. Yes, people can get used to almost any interface with sufficient practice, and then they're going to not want to change and start over again. Witness the survival of the QWERTY keyboard. Which is all the more reason to get things right the first time.
So what's a good interface have?
It should be as simple as possible. That's important. People only can remember so much stuff at once. By simple, I mean the number of options at any one time is limited, and each is distinct. And what they do should be fairly obvious.
Feedback. When the user does something, the interface should respond, and the response should be clearly tied to what the user did. That way people build associations to them quicker. And if they do something wrong, it should say so too, also clearly. And help lead them to what they want to do.
Those are the two biggest ones I can think of. I'm sure there's others, but I'm not an interface engineer. I'm just a guy who has to use crappy websites to put in reports. The main thing is this. The interface needs to be designed for other people, not for the people designing it. The best interfaces become invisible, the more the user has to notice it and think about how to work it, rather than thinking about what they're trying to do, the worse the interface is.
So what's a good interface have?
It should be as simple as possible. That's important. People only can remember so much stuff at once. By simple, I mean the number of options at any one time is limited, and each is distinct. And what they do should be fairly obvious.
Feedback. When the user does something, the interface should respond, and the response should be clearly tied to what the user did. That way people build associations to them quicker. And if they do something wrong, it should say so too, also clearly. And help lead them to what they want to do.
Those are the two biggest ones I can think of. I'm sure there's others, but I'm not an interface engineer. I'm just a guy who has to use crappy websites to put in reports. The main thing is this. The interface needs to be designed for other people, not for the people designing it. The best interfaces become invisible, the more the user has to notice it and think about how to work it, rather than thinking about what they're trying to do, the worse the interface is.
Dear Technology Companies
Jul. 27th, 2006 12:23 pmThere are other colors besides white, black, silver, and beige. It's possible to make things these colors. Please use some of these colors on things such as computers and other bits of technology once in a while. Thank you.
It's kinda creepy how much information cameras save to the pictures they take. I imagine it's not that hard to strip it out, but I just noticed it when I was uploading some pics to flickr so I can start posting things about my trip. Well, since I have to be at work StupidEarly tomorrow, the post will have to wait.
Digital Cameras
Apr. 11th, 2006 01:12 amThis summer, as I've said, I plan to go a-wandering a bit. And I would like to document this visually as well as with words. And the best way to do that in this modern age of marvelous magic is with a digital camera. However, I'm not full of money to splurge on such a thing. But buying something cheap and crappy rather than something good and durable is a recipe for bad things. So, I turn to you, the LJ-having public that I actually know, what's a good digital camera that's not uber-expensive? Good quality pictures and good storage are nice, though obviously I can buy a new flash card, and will probably have access to the Internet so I can store the pictures somewhere like Flickr. And where's a good place to buy one?
Sometimes...
Dec. 23rd, 2005 12:39 pmEvery so often, I am struck dumb with amazement at the amazingly incredible things we can do, that we take utterly for granted. In this case, speakers. Recorded sound. Right now, I'm listening to music recorded years before I was born, played mostly by dead men. It comes from two boxes up on the shelf above my computer. And it sounds near enough to exactly like the actual sounds of the instruments I can't tell the difference. Dude. That is so utterly outside the experience of anybody who lived before 1877, it's crazy. I can move my finger and command some of the greatest musicians alive to play for me in my room. Dude.
And this is why I'm easily amused. Dude. The world is fucking amazing. Wait until I go on about photosynthesis some time. (Also, I way overuse the word dude these days. I blame![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
demiurgent)
And this is why I'm easily amused. Dude. The world is fucking amazing. Wait until I go on about photosynthesis some time. (Also, I way overuse the word dude these days. I blame
demiurgent)
