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Technology

Yeah, really?!

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TechCrunch asks “Why Doesn’t Facebook Look Like This?”

For reference, “this” looks like this:

Designed by a firm called iA, the concept is brilliant in my humble opinion.  All aspects of the interface finally have a point and a coherent design theme (the mail/communications idea.)  Additionally, look at how much more touch friendly something like this promises to be!

So, for all of you who find Facebook to be more and more confounding with each passing revision, you aren’t losing your minds.  And we can take heart in knowing that the same cavalier attitude towards user experience presents a chance to do something radically better.  To quote TechCrunch:

But Facebook, perhaps more than any other web company, is good at knowing when to [..] ignore user complaints and push forward, to improve the product.

Enchantress of Numbers casting is awesome

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By now, if you follow my blog, you have probably realized my small crush on Zooey Deschanel. To quote a post on summer movies of 2009:

500 Days of Summer – Okay, I’m not as excited about this one, but still. Zooey Deschanel is in it. Really, she could just stand on screen for two hours and stare and I’d probably still go to the theatre, plunk down $8 and come out loving it.

And, though not mentioned here – but discussed over at a work blog – I am also a really big fan of Ada Lovelace, the “mother of computer programming” following my exposure to her in The Difference Engine.

I just found out via Gizmodo today that not only is there a movie in the works about Ada Lovelace entitled Enchantress of Numbers but Zooey is possibly on board to play Ada.  Holy hell!

Australian mum writes again

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I’ve never heard a peep from my Australian counterpart, but I did receive yet another email from his mum, again asking for computer assistance:

Darling Nick,

The computer situation makes me feel quite ill, since in our era we were brought up to do what we said we would do or else be besieged with guilt.

Could you PLEASE find time today (half an hour at the most), to get it out of Chrissie’s (9810-3066, ring first) & back here for you to work on. I have left 2 flash drives in the dining room so that you may possibly get the photos & music out of it. I have left a laundry basket in Dad’s office so you can consolidate the bits & pieces. Unfortunately I can no longer lift it otherwise I would do it myself.

We shall be back after the 9th, & perhaps you can help me sort a new-old one then. No doubt you will have work on or be looking for a car & will still be impossible to pin down!!

lol,

MUM

As I’ve told “MUM,” there is absolutely nothing I can do for her other than recommending that she removes my email address from her address book so that it won’t accidentally complete when she means to reach her actual son.

This has to be the most unique form of spam to date.

Update: We have contact – and a ceasefire.

Sincere apologies, I shall remove your address at once.
Regards,
Judy

Perhaps my last message was too harsh, but I do truly feel bad that her son is not getting this important-seeming messages.  Of course, the other day I received a message from “ugamom” sharing a photo of her and Aunt Ann, so I’m sure I’m only about to embark on yet another journey.

Courier makes progress, marches on right brain

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It seems that Microsoft and Apple are set to have another Mac vs. Windows style showdown over tablets in the near future. I just hope we get arguments as classic as those based on “Look & Feel” out of the deal. Maybe even a made for TV movie?

Anyway, according to Engadget, the Courier concept seems to be edging closer to reality, with Microsoft posting job descriptions for the project team.  So it’s no longer an “if” with this product; the real question is who might the dual screen gadget be marketed towards? If writer Ross Rubin is thinking correctly, we could see a computing pole shift, with creative pros living and dying by their Couriers and iPads being used by the casual crowd.

Here’s hoping instead that Microsoft rolls the Courier experience into the iPad iteration of Office that the Mac Business Unit is cooking up AND releases an actual piece of hardware. A little competition never hurt, but let’s not start a fight that only causes customers to lose out on important innovations. This isn’t the 90s and we already have Apple v. Adobe on our plates!

(From Case for the iPad)

The world according to iPad

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Well, e-readers of mine, we are but a week away from the iPad’s introduction into society. That’s a business week, even – although the two I’ve ordered for work are probably more likely to be in my hands on April 5th. That being said, the internet is buzzing with iPad coverage. I thought I’d perhaps provide my favorite stories from today:

Read more at my new blog, Case for the iPad.

Computing changes now

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From the introductory post on my new blog about tablet computing, Case for the iPad:

The desktop computing paradigm is stale – yesterday’s bread. If you are a computer geek, you know this to be true and I can pinpoint a great example of why: I haven’t been excited about a new OS in years. New operating systems are the holiest of holies in PC terms and the last time I actually, truly cared that one was about to be released was April 29, 2005. I preordered Tiger from Apple and was beside myself with glee at the promise of much geeking out to come. And you know what? It was essentially the same thing as Panther in 2003. By the time I guardedly, I installed Leopard in 2007, hoping to be amazed, I discovered…meh.

The same can be said for all software. Adobe Creative Suite 5 is trundling down the pike and, I hate to say it, it stopped being compelling back around Creative Suite 2. Or maybe when it became a suite. Even hardware is less intoxicating, especially since Apple has said they have more or less perfected the shape of products and are committed to a long future of aluminum and glass. There’s a cynical commodification mentality that has set in and, in so doing, destroyed the sense of amazement that once surrounded computing.

(This is going somewhere, I promise.)

The most telling symptom of a stagnating paradigm, though, is my ever-growing fascination with mobile technology. An early 2003 love affair with Nokia’s European products morphed into a complete infatuation with the iPhone at its announcement in 2007. This was computing’s future, I just knew it. The power of information truly and easily being wherever we are – whether it takes the form of maps, music, the latest prices for tomatoes, a message from your mother telling you her flight is taking off late, what have you – is immense. It makes all knowledge and connectivity accessible in ways that it just can’t be with the computer. Biggest hurdle? The tiny (though, mercifully, improved on by iPhone and its touchy ilk) screen.

Enter the tablet. Most notably, the iPad. All the power of mobile, laid back, pervasive information with a screen worthy of the two-way, media-rich flow of the modern web. This is something important. I can feel it. And I want to make sure I document the birth of this truly new way of interfacing with the digital world that is going to reshape everything in…oh…three to five years. At least as far as it touches my immediate environment in higher education, that is.

(See, I told you we’d get there.)

To quote Fake Steve Jobs’ contribution to the Wired article, “How the Tablet Will Change the World,” that got me to finally put all of this into a single blog (an article that made me think “yes, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking” more than once):

An ebook reader that also plays movies and music? And browses the Web? No way. Can’t be done. Well, we did it. And you can fly three times around the globe and watch movies the whole time on a single battery charge. It’s amazing. Phenomenal. Exciting. Magical. Amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous.

I was put on earth to restore a sense of childlike wonder to people’s empty, pathetic lives, and I must say that so far I’m doing a pretty outstanding job.

And that’s really the crux of what I’m on about here. The iPad – the tablet – makes me feel giddy and uneasy and like a million things are possible and like there aren’t enough hours in a day to explore each to the level it deserves. In short, how computing made me feel when I was a tremendously nerdy teenager tinkering into the early morning with a PowerBook 5300ce that I had bought with my lawn-mowing money, just for the fun of doing it. Just because it was new and uncharted and exciting.

To get the conversation started, I’ve collected the blog posts that I’ve been posting on my work blog and my personal blog since November 2009. I’ll be back with much, much more in the days to come.

Onward into the future,

Nick

Sochi 2014 crystal explosion video

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Was anyone else so hooked on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics that they actually watched the closing ceremonies “starring” Avril Lavigne? We were.

(Are you also getting a surprise Olympic Quatchi mascot in the mail soon? Maybe that’s just me.)

Well, if you found yourself tuned into NBC’s coverage last night, you may have noticed the incredible spangly awesomeness that was the “Welcome to Sochi” animation. This thing was a bitch to find on the interweb today, but since I was off sick, I had plenty of time to dig around without mercy.

Success:

And, if you are absolutely smitten with it and would like to see it in much higher resolution, go here and jump to the 4:56 mark (apologies for SilverLight.)  To quote one blogger:

Just to make Canada’s sloppiness look bad, we got treated to Glorious Mother Russia coming out to annihilate all of our brains with a precise, choreographed, sensory-overloading preview of Sochi 2014.

Yes.  Yes, we did.  And I want to be treated again and again.  Bring on Sochi!

(Thank you to Mahalo & NBC Olympics)

If you’re curious, the winning search string was “ice cosmonaut ballerina snowboard.” Always a good sign.

Wired‘s iPad demo online

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To quote editor Chris Anderson’s post:

The point here is that we are entering a new era of media, where we finally have a digital platform that allows us to retain all the rich visual features of high-gloss print, from lavish design to glorious photography, while augmenting it with video, animations, additional content and full interactivity.

Amen to that.  When can I get my subscription converted over?