vanderwal.net

Mobile use of Amazon Wish List and other adventures with mobile gadgets

Tonight was a mobile/portable device adventure. Joy and I had a wonderful dinner at Thyme Station in Bethesda. A Japanese couple sat down next to us and we could see that they were having trouble with the menu. The guy has a tiny Sony device, about the size of an Altoids tin, but a third of the height and finished like an Apple TiBook. He was using the translator and not finding what he was looking for and Joy nudged me and asked if I thought if we should help. Joy asked the couple if they needed a little help the couple giggled and then nodded. The seemed to be having the most problem with the sirloin kabob and did not know what it was. We explained it was beef cooked on a stick. They returned to tapping in word and getting translations on their device and passing it back and forth. They also seemed to have some entertainment on the device. I really am kicking myself for not getting a picture and talking with them a little more.

Joy and I tried to figure if we could catch a movie and checked the movies and listings from the Hiptop. The couple next to us seemed equally interested. We were had just missed the start times for the movies and were going to have to wait for the next round at 10 or so.

We settled on going to Barnes and Noble instead. I found a book I had read about in some RSS feed this past week and really liked it. I was not ready to spring for the book at full price, so I pulled up Amazon and checked the price on the book (Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out how Type Works). I found the book and a 30 percent discount. But the best part is I dropped it in my Amazon Wish List, which is where I keep track of such things. I then check other items in my Wish List to see if they were in stock at Barnes and Noble. I could not find the two books I really have been wanting and could be willing to pay full price, which means I may buy off of Amazon with a couple other items that will bring me enjoyment.

My Amazon Wish List is one information store that I like having at my side. This really highlights the element of the Model of Attraction that focusses on the user being able to have information be attracted to themselves and have this rough cloud of information follow the user for use when needed. The user works to find information they are attracted to, by searching or reading articles or blogs that the user has an affinity for. Once the information is found most metaphors and models stop working (navigation, information foraging, etc.) but the MoA keeps on working. If the user has a strong enough attraction she may want a method to store the information for further access. How and where become the next questions. The next step is accessing from storage (or your personal information cloud that follows the user). Mobile devices are tools that allow for this attraction to continue, but how do we ease this use? Personalization adds another layer to the user setting attraction (like Amazon's wish list).

Tivo for the ears in Audio Hack

I finally found an application that does what I have been wanting one to do for some time. Audio Hijack for Mac OS X allows one to grab audio audio files and save them to AIFF. The audio can be coming from a DVD player, Flash files, or streaming audio. I have been seeking this to pull streaming audio of some of my favorite radio shows (Studio 360 and Marketplace) and timeshift them or more importantly play them with out an Internet connection or radio when travelling or commuting. Audio Hack has a timer to record at any time, so it is much like a Tivo for digital audio.

Animatrix first episode available online

You have bandwidth? You like Matrix? The Animatrix is out (animated Matrix) and the graphics are fantastic in spots.

Peel exposes layered storytelling

Design Interact examines the Seattle design firm Peel and their layered storytelling approach to information structures. Layered storytelling is explained:

Layered storytelling means that a site opens much like a film, with a splash of music, photography and animation, but not a lot of information. If you stay on the top level of the site, your experience is similar to watching a documentary on television. But if you click on any topic, you dive down into a more book-like experience, with long texts and additional background information. The idea is that a visitor skims along the surface until he or she finds something interesting and then digs in to read more.

This appoach provides the ability to have a one way interaction with the site as it entertains and informs, but when the user is attracted to a topic, idea, or visual cue they can interact and find out more. I have enjoyed the layered storytelling approach when I have encountered it. It does seem like it would have the same repeat user problems that other multi-media interfaces encounter, in that having to wait for load times before interacting or navigating is usually problematic. Providing an option to use the layered storytelling or providing it the first time by default (but if a user is like me and works with three or four browsers open or working from many computers, setting a cookie to track repeat use will not solve the issue).

This too is worth coming back to as it provides intamacy with the user and a topic. This can help break down some of the dry appearance of some dull topics that are difficult to unwrap, like sciences, urban planning, the history of duct tape, etc.

Logical digital media law

I really liked Matt's discussion of a logical digital media law, but it really does not have a chance as there is a lot more money pushing the other side. Maybe "We the People" will get our chance one day.

Creative Commons comes to life

The Creative Commons is up for our perusal. This seems to be a much better approach to digital rights management than the Hollywood and music industry approach, and light years better than DCMA.

New edesign mag

Last night I stumbled across edesign magazine at the local Barnes and Noble. I have been bemoaning the loss of Web Techniques and other electronic medium magazines. The preview copy that I picked up was a rather solid issue that covered a broad swath topics. The magazine did not hit the cutting edge, but it was the first time I have seen some topics covered in hard print. The magazine pointed to MeFi (including some specific threads in MeFi) and talked with Zeldman and other developers who are in the digital medium for more than just fast cash. This issue touched on the folks that have been and are still passionate about the digital medium and electronic design. It was nice to see Carl Steadman's name in hard print again. I hope these folks can stick around. Now I am waiting for a May/June issue.

Rebecca shows a great understanding of where the line on digital content should be drawn. We pay for content and we want to be able to use the content in a manner that fits our desired method of information use. Thinking we live in the 1950s still does not work in a digital age. Applying the wrong concepts to problems never did work properly and it never allowed for innovation or brilliance.

Like the previous post, The Digital Consumer gets it. Not only does the Digital Consumer get it they will help Congress get a grip too. Consumers have more votes than corporations, even though corporations have the dollars. While you are at it, go back to the EFF too.

An Artful Barrage from Josh Davis

The mind is functioning and also completely blown from watching and listening to Josh Davis. The world of visual, digital, mathematical, and relational information has broken more synapses than I new were functioning today and seemed to have spawned new channels for information to flow and be processed. In other words, my mind and concept of the world has just been altered again. Not only do I know have an understanding of what somebody means when they say the words that comprise the name Josh Davis, but I have a whole new way to look at information and human responses.

One of the items presented was a visual and audio presentation of network activity. Not only could one visually watch the activity and interaction of those on the network and watching what activities the users on the network were performing and showing their IP address. This visual presentation was augmented with audio that dynamically corresponded to the actions. A sys admin could sit and monitor a network aurally and not watch a monitor. Like a mother and a child, a sys admin could emotively interact with the sounds of the network. A user on the network has saturated the bandwidth the downloads, and the sounds emitted could trigger and emotive response from the sys admin to nurse the network back to a healthy state for all users. As many of us hear our cars and listen to the pitch the subway train makes pulling into the station, which indicates how full the train is so we know where to position our selves on the platform (usually lower tone>es indicate fuller trains and the lowest rumble on a seemingly empty train is the money car on the money train).

I found Zoomify to be an insanely cool application. The clarity of the zoomed image was stellar. It reminds me of some of the LuraTech graphic compression applications I tried a couple years ago, when I was looking to build a document repository for Web based use that allowed quick loading snapshots of the documents prior to downloading. Zoomify would be a great application to inspect photos and painting details while keeping the image weight relatively low. Genius.

In the attempt to get photos out of my Olympus D-490 I have been having fits. The camera is fantastic and takes great pictures. Getting photos out has been a pain of late. The serial port is horribly slow to say the least. I bought a Microtech Zio USB card reader about six months ago, which has been a great asset. I switched to Windows XP on my main PC and Apple for my laptop.

The XP would not read the Zio and locks up if the reader is in the USB when starting up the PC. Worse is if you plug the reader in while the machine is running, it kills the machine dead by shutting it down instantly. I upgraded the drivers, but no luck after the recent security upgrades from Microsoft.

The Apple would acknowledge the card in OS 9, but required an initialization. OS X would not ackknoledge the card. Today, I started the laptop in OS 9 and found that I could read the cards and pull the images on to the hard drive. This was a great day. I can get access to that drive point from OS X and view them. I am now happy again. And once again Apple has provided an option that works where Microsoft fell short, Apple 5 and MS 0.

Movie industry hit by courts in DeCSS decision, which states that the DVD cracking code printed on t-shirts and such is free speech. As background, DeCSS decrypts DVDs so that they may be played back. DeCSS was coded to build a DVD player for Linux. The movie industry used a very poor encryption scheme, which made for easy cracking. The DeCSS allowed people who owned DVDs the ability to play them, and nothing more. There are other copyright infringement possibilities that one can apply when using the code, but lawn fertilizer has not been banned and it has been commonly used by terrorist to make bombs. Banning code that allows a person to watch a movie they bought legally, is greedy and inane.