Everish Mind of Kai

Twitter redesign with a focus on trends

2009-03-07T08:50:00.002Z

Twitter has been testing out a new design. Apparently they are running A/B trials, restricting the design rollout to only some users.

Here's an overview of the changes:

New navigation

In the global nav, they've added a dropdown list of top trends. Also, profile and settings links have moved next to the profile picture.

Trends dropdown

Top trends are listed as links leading to the search results page for that keyword.

Search results

The search results page has changed to include more information about users, which shows that Twitter is increasingly looking to enable discovery of new people to follow. Something that has been a labour of love in the past. They've added two new modules on the right hand side:

Matching users

Users real names or Twitter usernames are matched against the search query.

Featured user

It's unclear what algorithm is driving the featured user. Possibly the same mechanic behind the "suggested users" feature seen upon registration.

The Future of Information Architecture

2009-01-26T09:31:00.003Z

I wrote an essay for the online magazine AGIT8 – a journal of technology and social change.

Read it here: The Future of Information Architecture

Another example of Knobb's Law

2009-01-13T17:06:00.004Z

Knobb's Law
Anything digital that becomes popular will eventually be used to draw a cock.

Again, Twitter is no exception, as this Techcrunch article proves.

Twitter has an image problem

2009-01-13T10:36:00.001Z

image courtesy of vikavalter.com, (c) 2007 All Rights Reserved.

[reposted from a comment submitted to a Telegraph article, Twittering is for Twits]

Twitter has an image problem.

This is clear from this article, where Bryony [Gordon] voices many of the common misconceptions about the service.

People think it is about *broadcasting* your life's minutiae.

Not true. Twitter is about *listening* to what other people have to say, and, when appropriate, joining in the conversation.

For an online journalist to say she ignores Twitter, is a bit like a political journalist saying she has no time to listen to what the MPs are 'blathering on about' in Parliament.

It's conversation, plain and simple. You can participate, or you can plug your ears and let people talk around you instead of with you.

May day - Television off

2008-05-01T13:29:00.002+01:00

I'd been thinking about doing this, and after watching Clay Shirky's inspiring talk -- it cinched the idea.

No watching television (or downloaded shows) all month for me.

I'll try to download anything I don't want to miss -- to watch in June.

Let's see if I can make better use of my cognitive surplus!

Got a brand new bag

2008-04-29T15:59:00.002+01:00

Lately, I've been fairly vocal about how Information Architecture and User Experience Design practices need to evolve to keep pace with the changes in the industry. (Call it Web 2.0 if you must)

Well, after a meeting of like-minds at Agency.com, I've accepted a position as the Head of Information Architecture for the London office.

It's an exciting opportunity to breathe life into some of these ideas and see how they work in practice.

The iPhone Collection

2008-04-02T14:27:00.002+01:00

The iPhone Collection
Originally uploaded by kaioshin

I've started a collection of iPhone app screenshots.

www.flickr.com/photos/kaioshin/collections/72157604342363507/

Information Architecture is Broken

2008-03-28T10:05:00.003Z

Information Architecture is broken (on Slideshare)

Following on from my Wireframes are Dead post, I've put my thoughts together as a presentation.

I'd be interested in any feedback.

Wireframes are Dead

2008-03-05T10:03:00.003Z

They died in 2002 actually.

Anyone in UXD is aware that the page-based metaphor used in design documentation is ill equipped to deal with the sort of interaction design that is now considered a standard part of 'web 2.0' design.

So what's next?

Stay tuned.

The Data Privacy Singularity

2008-02-28T06:40:00.001Z

Having worked for almost a year on a social networking platform, I'm very familiar with issues of personal privacy and the sharing of data and information.

It's very important to us that people don't misuse the information posted online, to steal our identity, or to withdraw a job offer after seeing inappropriate pictures of us taken when we were out drinking with friends. Equally worrying is the thought that Big Business or Big Government (ie. Big Brother) might be piecing together a profile of our interests and aspirations so that they might market their products to us or otherwise lead us like sheep towards some unknown, but presumably sinister, end goal.

However, there is a trade-off between these fears and the immediate benefits of sharing information and media with our friends, colleagues and like-minded netizens.

We live in a society where short-term reward outweighs long-term thinking about the issues -- so I assume that the trend will be that more people will share increasingly more information not less.

With the information sharing trend increasing exponentially, I can imagine a singularity. A point at which so much of our personal information has become irretrievably part of public domain -- that we cannot fathom what it will be like to live in that world given our current understanding of society.

I would suggest though, that although it will be painful for our generation -- it may actually be a 'Good Thing'

As I've already mentioned our fears about shadowy figures having access to our personal information. Whether these fears are justified, or mostly Phildickian conspiracies -- the basis of the fear is that your information is in the hands of someone you don't know.

But imagine that your information is in the hands of everyone and anyone.
Isn't that a little bit liberating?

Provided that everyone has equal access to the information of everyone else, then no one gains an advantage. Steal my identity and I'll steal yours.

Also, if our society has to adapt to the *assumption* that your personal data is public domain, we'll have to develop more sophisticated tools for secure transactions. And those are probably tools we need anyhow.

So, I say -- bring on the Data Privacy Singularity.

To start this off, I'll post my national insurance and social security number here ... wait -- you go first.

Coversourcing is not Crowdsourcing

2008-02-17T21:01:00.003Z

I was reading about a competition where designers were invited to create a cover for the upcoming book, Crowdsourcing. This competition, cleverly named 'Coversourcing' -- was presented as being an example of crowdsourcing in action.

Except it's not. It's spec work.

I was compelled to comment on this on the Creative Review blog post about it.

Reprinted below:

I disagree with the definition of crowdsourcing presented by this competition.

This competition is spec work -- getting lots of designers to design something, with only a few getting compensated.

Crowdsourcing is when 'the many' can do a job better, faster, and more comprehensively than the 'the few'.

Wikipedia is an example of crowdsourcing. Facebook being translated by members into multiple languages is an example of crowdsourcing.

This competition is not.

Prediction: MySpace TV

2008-01-25T22:31:00.001Z

It's late for a New Year's prediction, but here one is anyhow.

MySpace TV to launch a network channel

Given the crisis facing the music and film industries (namely due to their inability to evolve and adapt to the needs of the consumer) -- it's only a matter of time before they collapse.

People are wise to the fact that these industries are a big, fat, unnecessary layer between artist and audience -- and absorbing an unfair share of the earnings.

However, it's not a simple as:

1. Unknown band posts their music on a website
2. Band becomes incredibly popular via word-of-mouth
3. Band is now famous and able to sell their music and go on tour

One (perhaps the only) useful and necessary function of the music industry is marketing. If something goes into heavy rotation on MTV -- it will become popular -- and MTV isn't scouring YouTube for the next hit.

The only solution is to combine the source of online user submitted content, the ranking system to determine what is popular, and the vehicle to market the upcoming hits to the mainstream, offline, audience.

One company has both the online and offline reach to do something like this: MySpace and News International (Murdoch).

Imagine a channel, in the mold of MTV, but highlighting only artists who have debuted on MySpace. XFactor/American Idol reality shows that originate online, and culminate on television. Videos (produced by MySpace TV) that can't be found on the other channels, but are equally good.

MySpace TV ... it's gonna happen.

Quick thought for Yahoo!

2008-01-08T15:37:00.000Z

Must blog more this year ... but here's a quick thought that wouldn't fit neatly into a Facebook status update.

Yahoo! should spend less time fighting Google, and realise that Google isn't killing them -- letting ideas like BigThink slip by them is what will kill them.

Yahoo! and Google aren't in the same game anymore ... I don't know why Yahoo!'s executive management don't get that.

iPhone Diary - part 1

2007-11-18T12:17:00.000Z

So it's been about a week that I've had my iPhone, and I have absolutely no regrets about getting it. Compared to my 5-year old Sony, on pay-as-you-go, there wasn't much debate to be had.

That aside, its flaws are noticeable only because it feels nearly perfect.

I thought it interesting that most "web guys", including myself, have to take a second to understand how to go back to the main menu. It's the only button on the phone, but we're all looking for navigation affordances on the screen. This isn't a flaw -- there are a few things like these that feel like a conscious decision to keep the interface simple.

But here are my proper gripes:

- I'm very slow on the keyboard. My big fingers are always slipping on to the wrong letter. I'm starting to learn the press-and-pause behaviour that lets me quickly switch to the correct letter -- but that's less intuitive than tap-tap-tap. I might have to get a stylus even though it's "so PalmPilot" -- not multitouch sexy

- Speaking of multitouch -- I don't like that I can't zoom with one hand. Standing on the bus is how I do most of my web browsing in the morning, and there is no way to zoom pages with one hand. (Although I've just seen a TV ad that seems to suggest you can by tapping)

- Apple is usually very careful about the start up experience, they've put a few iPhone tutorials on the website -- why aren't those preloaded as videos in the device itself?

- iPod features -- or lack thereof. They really needed to put a small pause/play/fwd/rev device on the cord for the headphones. (Also, not really an issue, but I've gotten some strange looks when I answer a phone call, because it looks like I'm talking to myself while listening to an iPod)

- I won't mention Edge being slow compared to 3G, etc. etc. I've watched YouTube over Edge, so it's not so horrible. And I don't care that it has a low-end camera.

Now, about Apps. I realise that Apple will probably release a lot of Apps very soon. But there are a few no-brainers they could have included that would really come in handy. (Of course I could Jailbreak my iPhone to get them, but I shouldn't have to):

- Native RSS Feed reader - The iPhone was built for catching up on RSS feeds. I rely on Bloglines, but I'd rather have a native iPhone version.

- WPS - Skyhook wireless positioning (as with Loki) -- this gives very accurate positioning (in London at least) and would be a nice feature to be included with Maps.

- Document storage, or at least a PDF sync folder in iTunes. I would like to keep PDF maps and eBooks on my iPhone. Again, I'm sure this is coming, but it already has PDF support in the web browser, so why not allow document storage in iTunes?

- Instant Messenger - again, I'm sure Apple has a version of iChat coming, but I'd really like to keep messenger open on my iPhone. Meebo doesn't seem to work over Edge, and it since it's browser-based, it won't work when the iPhone goes to sleep. But Meebo is a very nice Web app (if you set it up beforehand).

- iTunes support of other file formats. (AVI, XVid, MOV for video, MP3,WAV for ringtones) -- iTunes should convert these on-the-fly. Instead I have to use iSquint for Video and Max for audio / ringtones. Ringtones require an extra trick of copying the m4a file and renaming it m4r.

...

What else could I ask? Well, maybe the next version could be used as a WiiMote too -- now that would be cool.

A truly portable iPod

2007-11-14T07:47:00.000Z

I read something about Parallels software that gave me an idea.

Parallels will allow you to associate your iPod with iTunes on a virtual PC. This means that if you put that Virtual PC on a portable drive, you can take that iPod and drive anywhere and access your iTunes.

Still not very convenient -- but I bet there is a way (via parallels or bootcamp) to keep a version of Windows on the iPod itself.

But here's where it would be worth offering a bounty to hackers -- what about hacking the iTunes app that runs on the iPhone so that it will recognise the hard drive of whatever machine it's attached to and transfer files to and from that machine?

From an IM chat...

2007-10-13T18:23:00.000+01:00

ME: "There's a problem with Claire's [from Heroes] powers. If she had a wound that goes through her, both parts of the wound should try to repair the opposite side in which case she'd have out of control flesh growth. It's as if her body repairs to a fixed template of her complete, healthy self -- but if her body repairs to a template, tell me this -- how does she age and grow?"

RESPONSE: "I don't know. I'm not a geek."

xFruits - Facebook status update - 20 new items

2007-09-13T16:54:00.000+01:00

Kai Turner's Facebook Status Updates

1. Kai is pleased with the Kandinsky book bought on impulse from the rare books shop nearby.
2. Kai is / has hit the 100 friends mark ... i didn't realise i knew 100 people, let alone had them as friends.
3. Kai is waiting for the Norming to happen.
4. Kai is greater than the sum of my HITs.
5. Kai is stalking Lisa McMillan.
6. Kai is jealous of Bernie.
7. Kai is / doesn't except the syntactic limitations of your puny facebook.
8. Kai is at peace with his inner geek.
9. Kai is again fantasizing about a Nintendo and Apple collaboration.
10. Kai is giving even odds on the first artificial life being either a fuel-generating microorganism or a corrosive bacteria that will reduce everything on Earth to goo.
11. Kai is still occasionally waking on Russian time for some reason.
12. Kai is happily downloading the latest Polypunk.
13. Kai is wondering if Facebook has stopped 'playing nice' with NetVibes.
14. Kai is disappointed that the 'Pure California' fresh fruit smoothie shop sold me an old, stale muffin.
15. Kai is wondering why every time the team comes back from Russia, we all feel ill.
16. Kai is thinking Miss Teen South Carolina just set the industry back by 10 years by announcing she wants to be a graphic designer.
17. Kai is back in london.
18. Kai is ready to come back to london.
19. Kai is approaching burnout velocity faster than the fellow cosmonauts.
20. Kai is over caffinated.

Watch this space

2007-09-10T22:04:00.001+01:00

Time for a quick update...

I've given up the freewheeling life of consulting to launch the next generation of Passado -- a pan-European social networking website.

Needless to say, this blog is going to be pretty quiet for a while.

Two handy web tricks

2007-06-29T15:14:00.000+01:00

I've been doing a couple of things that I thought others might want to try. Low-tech Mashups if you like. (I don't like).

First, I'm a big fan of finding new music on Critical Metrics. You can stream all of the music directly from that site, but if you like a song, you can go a step further and look it up in SkreemR. Even better, add SkreemR to your Firefox search bar.

Second, I'm using Facebook these a lot these days, and I'm not alone.

But I also maintain a list of contacts on LinkedIn. One day the penny dropped that I could export my LinkedIn contacts as a .vcf file and import them into Facebook to see who else has joined Facebook.

And many wasted hours ensued for us all!

My Uniqlock

2007-06-17T12:28:00.000+01:00

You Watching is Big Brother

2007-06-04T12:28:00.000+01:00

I'm sure Orwell never imagined something worse than being watched by a totalitarian society. In fact, it's being forced to participate in a ritual where we celebrate mediocrity.

I haven't been actively watching Big Brother this year -- not because I'm being snobbish, but because it feels like Celebrity Big Brother just ended and I'd like a break from it.

And yet, somehow, I know that the house has been all girls until they recently introduced a man. I also know that the black girl is the least popular, with only 3 bets being placed on her to win at Ladbrokes the first night, and that the two twins listed 'Pink' as one of their interests.

Why do I know this? Because every news outlet has made a point of my knowing about Big Brother.

Since when does television play such a central role in news? And if it is going to -- I'd much rather hear opinions about the previous episode of Doctor Who, or who won the Great British Menu tv competiton.

These things I've missed because of work. You remember work don't you -- it's the thing that journalists aren't doing these days apparently.

The Snowball metaphor

2007-05-18T14:47:00.001+01:00

Snowball
Originally uploaded by kamshots.

When thinking about user generated content, I've been using a snowball metaphor.

Ideally, when making a site that depends on submitted content, all of the members would be active, prolific authors. Unfortunately the 1-10-100 rule is the reality.

A small minority is going to contribute original content. So what you want to design for is a low effort way for the majority of content consumers to refine and build upon an initial bit of seeded content.

So if someone only has time to write a quick entry about something, someone else can add more detail to it, and yet another person can add/clean up the tagging and categorisation.

This is the Wikipedia model -- but wouldn't it be great if del.icio.us did this too? I would love to be able to quickly add a bookmark, and later return to it and see that my tag 'stuff' had been replaced with the tags 'user experience design, blog, opinion'. and that my description, "this looks cool," had been supplemented by a full, collaborative review of the website I'd bookmarked.

Twittering

2007-04-27T12:16:00.000+01:00

I've given in and decided to try Twitter see what all the fuss is about.

So -- it's done.

follow kaigani at http://twitter.com

Maybe it would get more interesting with friends on -- but I have to say I'm underwhelmed. What is this doing that my IM buddylist doesn't do?

Test - blogroll

2007-04-25T15:44:00.000+01:00

mp3s need meta tagging for podcasts

2007-01-12T09:59:00.000Z

As I listen to increasingly more podcasts, one frustration I keep encountering occurs when I am listening to a podcast/radio show that runs for over 40 minutes, and I need to stop it in the middle. Then, if I've quit the player, I have to manually try and find the place where I stopped.

One simple solution would be to add timecodes and labels to the comments field, for instance:

0:00,"chapter 1",2:45,"chapter 2", etc.

And then players could support this information by allowing you to skip ahead by timecode within a single mp3.

It would also be nice if mp3 tags could be given temporary bookmarks -- so I could stop and bookmark it in my iPod and then resume it on my PC.

C'mon lazyweb ... make it happen!

Who are the Apple designers?

2007-01-11T09:32:00.000Z

It's well known how vigorously Apple defends its trade secrets and new products like the iPhone. However this seems to include stopping their team from blogging. (As Robert Scoble notes and former Apple employee, Chiqui explains further).

Whether or not Apple condones or condemns blogging is irrelevant -- from my point of view, there are lots of amazingly talented UI and user experience designers who work there, and I'd like to know who they are.

While Steve Jobs will occasionally let the praise for Apple's well designed products trickle down to people like Jonathan Ive -- for the most part he seems happy to take all the credit for himself.

This is unfair to those of us in the industry. The IA/UXD profession is largely open about sharing practices and processes that have been helpful in our work, and this improves the industry as a whole -- it makes us all better designers.

The design community has always been supportive of Apple -- they should be aware that they can make a useful contribution to the UXD dialogue and, in turn, support the design community.

Longer term prediction - ambient power sources

2007-01-10T16:31:00.001Z

Well, I didn't do my 2007 predictions, in part because I wasn't sure I could top my 2006 predictions.

But I will post a futurist idea I had over the holiday when my mom asked "when will everything be completely wireless?"

At first, my response was -- "power can never be wireless. probably everything will have a rechargeable battery, but eventually it will have to charge."

But then I thought -- what about an ambient, surface-based-transmission power source?

Here's how it would work. The outer layer of your phone, or monitor, or whatever electronic device would receive power when in contact with a power transmitting surface -- such as a desk. The surfaces would need to conduct electricity only when in contact with each other, otherwise they would be inert and safe to touch.

In other words, you put something down and it starts charging until you pick it up. No more power cables.

The new blogger - I knew there'd be consequences

2007-01-09T03:28:00.000Z

I was having trouble posting to this blog, so I thought it was Google's way of strong-arming me to switch to the new version of Blogger -- however the real problem is that I let one of my domains expire accidentally (I manage about 12).

Well, the move to the new Blogger has gone relatively smoothly, and I'm looking forward to trying out the new features -- but unfortunately it's killed my ability to post from Performancing.

When I get a chance, I'll have to bite the bullet and migrate to Wordpress, but that will call for a redesign.

... ok, now I'm rambling and I probably shouldn't be writing anything at 3.30 am ... ah the joys of jetlag.

How to get me to unsubscribe

2007-01-08T12:15:00.000Z

This is a capture from my Bloglines feeds page. That bit in the middle is a feed that 'cleverly' decided to insert an image promotion and another image 'post your story here' (why??)

This is not how RSS feeds were meant to be used. Repeating images are annoying, and ads even moreso. Surefire way to get unsubscribed from my feeds.

That having been said -- I can understand the frustration with not being able to convert the portion of your feed reading audience into trackable website traffic.

My celebrity look-a-likes?

2007-01-08T03:13:00.000Z

I was impressed by the choices made for Mike's look-a-likes, so I thought I'd try it out too.

Apparently I'm a combination of Judy Garland, Harry Potter, Salman Rushdie and Superman.

Try it yourself at MyHeritage.com. Incidentally, since you have to register, you're helping them build a facial database for who-knows-what purpose -- but hey! it's fun.

What would it take to save a TV series?

2007-01-07T15:51:00.000Z

Over the holiday, while in the US, I discovered a series called Day Break. I watched the first six episodes and was ready to write a blog post about how this would be the next sleeper hit to reach the UK.

However, when I looked it up I found that ABC has already cancelled the show, and may not even air the remaining episodes which have been filmed.

Instead of launching into a rant about how short-sighted TV executives nearly cancelled hits like Seinfeld and Cheers -- I thought I'd be more positive and ponder about what it would take for a fan-based movement to gain enough ground to revive a series.

We've seen fan-based movements before with Firefly, Arrested Development and Enterprise -- which actually raised enough money to run a full page ad, but all failed nonetheless.

So far, series like Family Guy have only been brought back from the dead when they've lived long enough to be put on DVD, and then DVD sales renew interest in the series.

Fans of Day Break have launched a petition to save it, but given the trend -- Hollywood is more likely to listen to dollars than voices, and I'd guess they wouldn't notice a petition no matter how many people sign.

So -- what I'm wondering is how much money would have to be raised to save a series? The premise could be simple -- funds could be donated against the purchase of future DVD sales. If the series doesn't come back, then the funds are returned. But how much would it take for TV executives to sit up and take notice?

Here's another question. Given that fans will readily go out and do grassroots / guerrilla marketing on behalf of the television programme they would like to save -- why don't networks announce which shows are in danger of being cancelled or the production companies for that matter?

There is certainly a missed opportunity here. Eventually one online-savvy media company is going to launch their series direct to internet, and then follow up with DVD sales and the other companies will be left playing catch-up as usual.

Big media ... wake up and smell the Long Tail.

2006 Predictions - Redux

2007-01-01T01:55:00.000Z

It's time to look at the predictions I made at the end of 2005 and see which I got right and which I got wrong:

1. Location-based mobile services will gain a foothold
Wrong. At least in terms of what I had in mind -- people regularly using their mobiles to find nearby services.

2. Yet another I-Should-Have-Thought-Of-That service will be bought by Yahoo or Google
Right. One word - YouTube.

3. EBay does something big.
Wrong. They haven't done anything groundbreaking.

4. PS3 puts XBox360 to shame
Wrong. On two counts. First, Sony bungled the launch and marketing. Second, I completely ignored the Wii -- and that was the real story this year.

5. TV production companies start to finally understand the value of putting episodes online
Right. For example, you can watch the full episodes of Heroes online. Maybe they've finally realised that an online buzz improves overall sales, and opens up overseas markets for syndication.

6. VidCasts will not become successful
Yes and no. You could argue that the webcam vlogs found on YouTube are VidCasts. And there are a few cult-hits like Ask-A-Ninja -- but I'd still argue that VidCasts have not gone mainstream yet.

7. Encyclopedia Britannica and/or Encarta to adopt Wikipedia model
Wrong. I over-estimated the negative publicity around Wikipedia at the time. However, I was right about the gap in the market -- which the wikipedia co-founder, Larry Sanger, is hoping to fill by launching a competitor, the poorly named: Citizendium

8. Episodic games finally released by a major publisher
Right. SIN Episodes launched in May 2006.

9. Affordable terabyte hard drive hits the market
Right! The LACIE 300797U retails for $530, but is on sale for just over $440. I predicted $400 -- I'd say that's pretty much spot on.

10. Space time capsule launched with a digital snapshot of the internet
Right ... surprisingly, because this was sort of a joke. It wasn't a physical time capsule, but the Yahoo! Time Capsule ran from October to November and the data was beamed into space. I'd still like to see my idea of a physical internet archive stored on the moon come to fruition though.

OVERALL: 6/10 correct predictions

I'll post predictions for 2007 soon.

Where's the blog been?

2006-12-28T12:05:00.000Z

I haven't had time to write proper entries lately, but as is the trend with most busy bloggers, i'm still actively posting to Flickr and del.icio.us, so if you don't already have these links -- here they are:

Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaioshin/

Delicious - http://del.icio.us/kaioshin/

If, for some reason, you prefer the delicious links in a daily blog posting, check out Kaigani's Arbor Vitae

Of course, I have plans to combine all this into a shiny new homepage in 2007 ... but so does everyone.

Microsoft Hates Old People

2006-12-28T11:55:00.000Z

That's the only conclusion I can come to after trying to clean up my mother and grandparents' PCs over the holiday.

Working alongside my shiny new MacBook, the juxtaposition of desktops and user experiences made me realise how unfriendly Windows is for the non tech-savvy.

First of all, is vendor problem. I advised my mother to get an HP and she did the same for her father. However, while I was familiar with HP in the workplace -- I wasn't aware of all the crap they package into their home version.

You get a 'control centre', photo apps, scanner and printer apps, and of course the obligatory check for the latest online updates that launch at start up.

Second is the damned-if-you-do, damn-if-you-don't antivirus problem. My grandfather was installing all sorts of malicious software without realising it, so my mother (as instructed by the IT dept at work), installed Symantec's Norton Antivirus.

I don't know why the IT depts and general public have not gotten the message that you should stop using Symantec products! (Why? Check here.) It's a bloated piece of junk.

Finally, the lack of any reasonable tools for novice users to do things like clean up their desktop, registry, start-up applications. I can barely do all this.

Maybe Vista can fix all this -- but probably not, because the core philosophy is different between Microsoft and Apple. When you start up a Mac, it feels completely personalise -- it's all about what you can do with your pictures, media, etc. When you start up a PC it feels like you've been given a machine on loan from HP or some other vendor. They've set up all the shortcuts they know you'll want (such as Britainnica Online) -- most of which are 30-day trial versions.

The PC start up experience feels like you're battling with the machine to undo all the weird stuff someone else has put on it -- it's not your machine, really.

My advice - get a MacMini for your loved ones.

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

2006-12-11T12:29:00.000Z

On his blog, Malcolm Gladwell tackled one of the three subjects that shouldn't be written about by the faint of heart: race. (The other two being religion and politics).

One of the assumptions in his post prompted me to make a comment.

In a follow-up post Gladwell, took into account comments like mine and reflected on them.

This is what's so great about the blogosphere. I've had countless people recommend Blink and Tipping Point to me, and in the past this would be a 1-way transmission of information from Gladwell to me.

Now, it's a conversation. It's a great feeling to think that I made a small ripple in his mental ecosystem that may collide with other bits of information and emerge in some form through one of his future books.

Wow -- it's a Wii

2006-12-09T23:26:00.000Z

I've really wanted a Nintendo Wii since I saw the Tokyo Game Show previews on YouTube. However, with all the fanatics camping outside of stores overnight and pre-ordering the system, I thought it would be well into 2007 when I would finally be able to get one myself.

In the meantime, I'd picked up a DS, and today I thought I'd get another game for the plane trip back to the States.

At Game, I get in the queue with a copy of Cooking Mama DS (yes, really), when the manager comes out and says:

"If you're in the queue at the moment, we have enough Wii's in stock for everyone, but there is a limit of one per customer"

It took a moment to sink in -- every where I'd been today, including this store, had 'sold out' signs posted over their Wii display.

The only catch was that I had to buy 2 games and an extra controller -- but I was planning to do that eventually anyhow. And to top it off, the manager came out from the back with a box of Zelda games -- which is what I wanted but hadn't seen.

So that's Christmas sorted for me then.

view the photo set

Gliffy - Collaborative diagrams

2006-12-07T11:41:00.000Z

Gliffy is like a collaborative online version of Visio.
You can create and share masterpieces like this:

Did I mention that I hate Visio?

Know your ABG's

2006-12-06T14:27:00.000Z

Adding a greek letter to your name is a prerequisite in the web 2.0 world.

It's so common that it has lost all meaning. 'Beta' used to mean you were testing something for a period of time before it went out to the public.

For a time, Flickr was correctly using 'Beta', when it was invite-only and actually being tested.

Somehow, since then, 'Beta' has come to mean that the site is still being developed. Or, more likely, it means that it has no source of funding or sustainable business model -- so they can go to the VCs and say "we need funding to get out of beta"

'Beta' should not be a badge of honor. It's confusing to anyone outside of the industry (and who knows what 'alpha' and 'gamma' mean).

If I were Riffs, I'd be worried that I did become successful, and everyone was calling me 'AlphaRiffs'

So -- stop it. The web is constantly under development by its very nature, either you're bug testing and shouldn't be open to the public, or you're live. Enough of the greek alphabet.

When Memes Go Bad

2006-11-30T16:47:00.000Z

The Rainbow Versatile Disc hoax has taken the net by storm. In short, an article was published on a questionable news site claiming that a researcher in India had created a technology to store 256GB of data on a piece of A4 paper.

The claim alone should raise eyebrows, but thinking the concept through a bit -- it is clearly nonsense. Here is a good summary as to why it's impossible.

But what is worrying is how widespread this story has become in the blogosphere. A google search for 'rainbow versatile disc' yields over 200,000 results.

It's obviously a cool concept. It obviously hit a nerve -- people want it to be true. But why aren't people checking the facts, or investigating the sources a bit more?

Given the trend of popular blogging stories appearing in traditional media, I wouldn't be surprised if a legitimate news source, such as the BBC picked up on this story and reported it, and the signal would only get stronger.

"Social Network" is the new "Portal"

2006-10-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

Lately, a number of projects I've come across have made the obligatory reference to being "a social network".

The term has become nearly as meaningless as 'portal' was 6-8 years ago. Everyone wants one, no one knows exactly why.

A funny comment from a TechCrunch article helps put it all in perspective:

I’m starting a new social networking entity called Life. The way you participate is you first turn off your computer, then get the **** out of you house and do things like a normal person would.

Google's $1.65bn branding exercise

2006-10-10T12:06:00.000+01:00

So Google acquired YouTube even though it had the capability to build a YouTube clone and already had a Google Video service.

Many people are saying that Google Video was launched too late to win back the market share from YouTube, but they are missing what I think is an expensive ideological flaw in how Google and Yahoo go about doing things.

The scenario has been repeated again and again. Google/Yahoo launches a service, some independent company launches a similar service, the other service becomes more popular, Google/Yahoo acquires that company.

But on the internet, the only thing they are really buying is a brand and visitors loyal to that brand.

The fundamental ideological flaw is that Google and Yahoo! are brands associated with search primarily, and after a long hard struggle (and Microsoft's mis-managment of Hotmail)you could argue -- email.

So what does a teenager want to upload their webcam video to? A search-engine, or some cool new service that 'does what it says on the tin' ? Enter Flickr (instead of Yahoo! pictures) or YouTube (instead of Google Video).

The obvious thing, in my mind, for Google or Yahoo! to do in the future, is to launch new products under a different brand. Then use their big budgets for marketing these brands instead of acquiring new ones.

Found.

2006-10-06T10:28:00.000+01:00

There are some people in the UK who think Series 2 of Lost has just ended, and that they have to wait a few months until Series 3.

And then there are the fans.

Seriously -- when will the penny drop in Medialand that you can no longer stagger release dates for movies, television or music. If you want to stop piracy, at least meet the fanbase halfway.

Sledgeweb's Lost fansite - see what you've missed.

Meebo Me

2006-09-26T12:50:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd try out Meebo, which you'll now see on the right-hand side of my blog.

It would be interesting to see visitors as they come to my site in real time, if nothing else, but maybe someone will strike up a conversation with me too.

The only thing that irks me is that they won't use a common protocol so I could stay logged in via AOL or MSN. Instead I have to login to their website.

We'll see how it goes.

Flickr Killed the Blogebrity Star

2006-09-04T18:50:00.000+01:00

Well, not just Flickr -- between that, del.icio.us, Digg and YouTube -- it seems like no one is Blogging anymore.

It's just too easy not to. Now that these services have made it easier to post links, pictures and video, there's not much elso to write about.

This is a Good Thing. I've written before about how link repetition without meaningful editorial was adding to the overall noise of the web.

Now, it seems, people are blogging when they have something unique to say -- something that stems from their own immediate experience and point-of-view.

Buy this book!

2006-09-01T19:12:00.000+01:00

DVD Art features some work by little-old-me.

After 10 years in the digital world, I finally get published as a package designer -- go figure.

I'll post the scans when I get a chance.

What Would Sugar Say?

2006-09-01T19:08:00.000+01:00

In this line of work, it's important to be precise, detail-oriented, and -- let's face it -- downright anal. At other times, however, the opposite is true and simplicity is key.

It's not always easy to change gears. Yesterday afternoon, I started a document, and it felt like my language was getting increasingly overcomplicated.

This morning I scrapped what I'd written, except for the outline, and I tried a thought experiment. After writing a paragraph, I would read it back to myself, imagining it in the voice of Alan Sugar (UK's Donald Trump).

Sounds silly, but it worked. It prevents you from writing sentences like "this will enable users to utilize the system in an optimal manner," instead writing, "this makes it easier for people to use."

YouTube Killer?

2006-08-24T14:17:00.000+01:00

I've never been a big YouTube fan, but since there is the occasional gem on there, I've been coerced into watching their blurry, low-res videos.

However, more troubling than the quality of the videos is the type of content that is being posted. YouTube seem to be going after the lowest common denominator of user -- to become the MySpace of video content -- and that means the majority of videos seem to be teenagers in front of their webcams babbling on about things that interest other teenagers in front of their webcams.

Early on, I saw the need for moderated channels -- a trusted authority to pick and choose videos worth watching. Unfortunately, YouTube announced Paris Hilton as their first celebrity channel 'moderator'.

Enter DivX Stage6 -- a service that seems to champion quality over quantity. Quality in terms of video resolution - you can download high-quality, full-screen videos. And quality in terms of selection -- people have actually taken the time to produce and edit something here, before uploading it.

From the site:

Stage6 is the next evolution in digital media. What does that mean? It means we want to improve the experience for finding and viewing good media online. It means having access to high-quality video on the web that actually looks good in full screen, rather than the all-too-familiar choppy, pixilated, low resolution videos we are all accustomed to seeing online nowadays. It means being free to burn backups of our media and take it with us wherever we go. It means having the freedom to watch Internet videos anywhere and anytime we choose on any device we want, even on our TVs, without cumbersome digital rights management (DRM). It means having a voice in the content we consume. It means being able to easily share cool content with our friends, discover new content our friends think is cool and, perhaps most importantly, make new friends along the way.

Good luck guys!

via Scobeleizer

Personal Information Architectures

2006-08-02T17:43:00.000+01:00

I tend to use Bloglines (RSS reader) recreationally, to get my mind off of work. However, today, when I switched over to the site, I still had my professional hat on and I was surprised by what I saw --

The information architecture I've 'designed' into my personal folder defies every convention I'd use when designing a list of categories for client -- that is to say -- for the consumption of the general public.

I have labels that 'do what they say on the tin'-- such as 'Comix' or 'News'. I have other labels that describe a service like 'del.icio.us' and 'technorati' Finally I have labels, the precise meaning of which can only be known to me. 'Daily Read' -- describes feeds that I like to read daily. 'Noisy blogs' are feeds that quickly fill up with posts, and yet I'm only interesting in 2% of them. And the incredibly opaque 'In the Queue' is the label for feeds which I'm not sure I want to keep -- they are 'in the queue' to be either moved to a permanent folder, or deleted.

And this system works perfectly for me. It fits my ideosyncracies like a well-worn pair of jeans.

This reinforces an idea I had ages ago -- that people should be able to develop personal information architectures and layer them upon the taxonomy of the websites they visit.

But I developed this concept before RSS had caught on. Perhaps this will be the natural evolution of feeds.

When feeds and readers become more robust with additional layers of metadata -- we'll all have a custom view of the web -- pushed, fed and filtered into a personal information architecture as quirky and delightful as we are.

Seeking Interaction Design / Information Architect contact work

2006-07-31T19:24:00.000+01:00

I'm currently looking for some interesting IA/UXD projects, with a bit of meat to them.

Drop me an email if you know of anything.

Is Spam getting worse?

2006-07-31T19:11:00.000+01:00

It seems like it is.

Not only are spammers figuring out how to work their way around the advanced filters found in programs like Thunderbird, they are now sending emails devised specifically to weaken those filters. (You may have received a cryptic email containing excerpts from various books spliced together.)

I googled around for a bit in search of a better solution and found this trick to use Gmail as a spam filter.

It makes sense. In theory, Google should see enough spam to devise a way to effectively filter it.

I Heart Ray Fenwick

2006-07-29T00:05:00.000+01:00

As if it wasn't good enough to be incredibly talented at illustration and hand-lettering, Ray Fenwick now has a brilliant website as well.

I'd like a coffee, not an aneurysm, please.

2006-07-26T15:42:00.000+01:00

It's hot. It's damn hot.

In this kind of weather I like to have a cold coffee drink. Unfortunately, by the time I've arrived at the local cafe, I'm drenched in sweat and my brain can never seem to work out the massively overcomplicated drinks on offer.

For instance, at Starbucks, I like to have a Grande Caramel Coffee Frappuccino. And there's no way to abbreviate that order, if I leave anything off I either get the wrong thing or I get a funny look and a follow-up question from the cashier. I can't just say "Grande Caramel Frappuchino" because there is a 'Creme' version as well as a coffee version. Yesterday, I left off the 'caramel' part and got a plain version.

These places consider themselves too chichi to go down the McDonalds route and just give us some easy numbers, as in "I'd like a #28, please -- Grande-size me!"

One time, I was so focussed on getting my order right that I cleared my heat-baked mind of anything else, and when I arrived at the counter, I blurted out "one grande caramel coffee frappuccino please!"

I breathed a sigh of relief, but to my surprise, I was still getting funny looks from the cashier. "Sir," she said, "this is Costa -- would you like a Medio Frescato?"

Miami Vice? No dice.

2006-07-24T17:34:00.001+01:00

Do we really need a Miami Vice movie set in modern times?

I've been trying to understand why the remake of Miami Vice has struck me as being so *wrong* for some reason -- and then it hit me -- you can't separate Miami Vice from the 80's.

Just as it's been said about Japan being the third character in 'Lost in Translation' -- the 80's is the third character in Miami Vice. The music, the style -- it was the highest expression of the 80's garish aesthetic -- and that's why we loved it at the time.

The second reason why the remake doesn't work is that it was character driven, primarily by Don Johnson. Suddenly guys were wearing pink shirt and 5-o'clock shadows in an attempt to be as cool as he was.

Without the 80's and without Don Johnson, Miami Vice becomes a generic police buddy flick. (Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx aren't exactly a 'must-see' pairing in my book.)

If the Hollywood execs had a brain-cell between them, they would have abandoned the '1. dust off beloved old tv flick, 2. add current movie stars 3. repeat' formula and realised that they could have made a brilliant revival of Miami Vice if they had only set it in the 80's.

You'd think the success of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City would have given them a clue that 80's retro is popular.

If they'd done that and had cast some fresh new actors -- then maybe that would be a Miami Vice worth going to the theatres to see.

As it is now -- it's not even worth downloading.

My PC - In Pieces

2006-07-04T18:59:00.000+01:00

My PC - RIP, originally uploaded by kaioshin.

Upon finding out that my PC would cost over 500.00 GBP to replace the motherboard -- I decided to take it apart and see what I can salvage or reuse.

Unfortunately, this is one extended lesson in why you shouldn't buy an all-in-one machine. The hard drive should plug into any machine, but I can't make heads or tails of anything else.

I've got a lovely 17" widescreen monitor with speakers and I can't use it. And all the special media features like TV-in and A/V-in are attached to the motherboard so I can't just pull out a card and plug it into a new machine.

I have an idea that I could plug the front part (shown here) into a new machine, and that would salvage my monitor, speakers and DVD reader/writer -- but it will mean I'll have to figure out how to attach all these little wires, and there's no instruction booklet.

PC Gone Bye-Bye

2006-06-29T19:22:00.000+01:00

Just a few days ago, I'd been chatting to Loz about backing up PC's. I hadn't bothered to back anything up recently, I casually mentioned.

Well, the foreshadowing couldn't have been more clear if there had been a little grim reaper dancing on top of my monitor.

Of course, my computer died two days later -- actually, it's not really dead, but it's deathly ill -- like a patient slipping in and out of a coma.

It starts up in the morning as good as new, but after an increasingly shorter amount of time, it restarts without warning. And then it gives me weird error messages.

I discussed the problem with the tech desk at PC World, and they said it must be a hardware problem -- since it seems to cut out no matter what I'm doing. What is more, since my Sony is all-in-one, it's as cumbersome as a desktop machine, but as serviceable as a laptop -- meaning it has to be serviced by Sony.

So, now I'm debating if I shouldn't just buy a laptop which I've been wanting/needing for some time now. And if I do get one, should I get a top of the line model, with all the bells and whistles? Or should I get the cheapest one possible just to hold me over until I can get my PC repaired.

Also -- if I do send my PC off to be services, what about the 160 GB of files on my harddrive? I'm not sure I trust Sony to not wipe my harddrive clean. Should I buy a new external drive and try to use the 10 minutes of daily up-time to backup my files?

Oh yeah ... and who's paying for all this?

Ugh.

Wii are idiots

2006-04-28T18:12:00.000+01:00

Why would Nintendo rebrand Revolution (the next-gen console codename) as 'Wii' ?

They've already built up brand recognition for Revolution. On top of that 'Wii' sounds silly. Yes, it sounds like 'We' -- but it also sounds like 'Wee'.

Consider the following scenario...

"What did you get for Christmas?"

"I gotta Wii"

Laughter ensues.

Silent Hill: The Movie

2006-04-24T11:16:00.000+01:00

Well, once again, Hollywood has managed to put another nail in the coffin of videogame-to-film adaptations.

This seems to be the rationale of the 'genius' producers. First, license a successful game. Next, hire a C-rate writer to create the screenplay (after all, you don't need a first rate writer -- he just needs to take what's in the game and put it on screen). Tell the writer to play the game a few times and write a film that pretty much captures what it's like to play the game. Finally, release this rubbish, and get all the gamers to run to the cinema and give you their money.

Maybe it's a good formula, in the short-term. Silent Hill was successful at the box office. But you're not likely to see a Silent Hill 2.

Here's why the movie sucks -- they pretty much captured what it's like to play the game. But as gamer knows -- nothing is more boring than watching someone else play a game.

You see the main character run around, look at maps, use a flashlight, read documents... all the things that are fun to do in a game because you're doing it not watching it.

If The Matrix had been a videogame prior to being a movie, the film would involve Neo running around aimlessly, opening doors, ending in a big battle with Agent Smith -- without much plot or backstory surrounding it.

If Hollywood wants to create a successful movie based on a video game, the first thing they should get out of their head is the 'novel idea' that people want to see exactly what you get in the game. Next, they should realise that video game plots are fragmented and incomplete at best. I think it would take even more effort than creating a book adaptation where the plot is fully realised, but not yet visualised. Finally, they should hire writers that have written good screenplays within the same genre AND enjoy videogames. The first quality would ensure they know how to weave a decent tale, the second would allow them to get past the 'novelty' of playing a game ('oh! so you have to check the maps often -- I have to put that in the movie!') and actually dig into the core of the plot.

Take, for example, the Resident Evil films, which are somewhat watchable. They ditched most of the plot, ignored the gameplay, and created an action zombie flick -- which is the essence of the video game, not a literal reproduction.

So long as Hollywood chases a quick buck, the successful adaptation is not likely to happen. More likely, they'll kill the genre and move on to the next easily exploitable franchise.

Online Games and Levels of Immersion

2006-04-12T07:25:00.000+01:00

I've was playing Heroes Mini, a browser-based multiplayer RPG. In the end, I found the gameplay lacking, but the experience sparked a few ideas.

The problem with massively multiplayer games, is that they cater to one type of player. They reward the players (usually obsessive teenagers) who can commit 10+ hours per day playing in the 3D online world.

However, for people like me, the idea of launching a 3D world that will consume all of my waking hours is not a selling point.

What I liked about Heroes Mini was that I could open a browser, and advance the game during a lunch break. I think other online games could borrow from this model.

Allow different levels of immersion. From an RSS feed of what is happening in the world (zero participation), to a web-based experience (low participation) to the full 3D environment (full participation).

The games industry needs to find models that will allow the older, busier gameplaying community to get involved at an appropriate level.

Firefox extension: CookiePie

2006-04-08T19:14:00.000+01:00

CookiePie is a neat little extension I had to search around for. Namely to cheat in Heroes Mini, but more on that later.

CookiePie allows you to assign different browser sessions to each tab, so you can login to one Gmail account under one tab and a different one under a different tab.

Pretty convenient.

Syco03.com

2006-04-08T16:12:00.000+01:00

Syco03.com
an excellent collection of 3D-style graffiti by self-taught artist, Fadzli Aris.

Unfortunately he doesn't make his digital work available for download as a desktop pattern, but with a little bit of creativity and detective work, you can make one ;)

[via Protos]

Doctor Who - Tardisodes

2006-04-08T15:48:00.000+01:00

If you're like me, then you're anxiously anticipating the next Doctor Who series.

BBC, remarkably innovative in its use of cross-media tie-ins, has launched Tardisodes. By texting TARDIS to 81010, you'll be alerted to the weekly video 45 second prequels to the TV episodes.

Or, you can use another fanciful innovation called 'memory' and remember to visit the site every Saturday.

Either way, the more Doctor Who the better.

Doctor Who starts next Saturday, 15-April at 7:15pm.

[link via PicturePhoning]

MUGEN: Mario vs. Chun Li

2006-04-06T07:33:00.000+01:00

MUGEN is the last 2D Fighting game you ever need to play.

It was designed with an open structure allowing the easy creation of fighters, which of course opened the door for a community of remixers to import the characters from any game ever made.

Unfortunately, since the video game industry (like every other media industry) doesn't 'get it' -- finding the characters is difficult due to their copyright infringement, and the original developer Elecbyte seems to have been shut down.

When will industries support and nurture the remix culture (or mashups as it's trendy to say now)? Don't they realise that an enthusiastic community will do the work of 1,000 developers working on a product?

It would be smart if Nintendo had bought Elecbyte, and transferred all their licenses to the development of MUGEN for the Gameboy. Game companies should license their sprites and sounds and see what the community will make with them.

*Sigh* ... I hope copyright law will reconcile itself with the information age in my lifetime.

In the meantime, we'll have to leave it to the French who are happy to thumb their nose at the rest of the world's legislature. To get started with MUGEN -- French site Mugen Fury has a link to download the original software and other resources.

[Found via Destructoid]

Numerology

2006-04-03T20:24:00.000+01:00

As BoingBoing notes, in the US, April 5th at 3 seconds past 1:02am you could write the time and date as:

01:02:03 04/05/06

Of course, over here in the UK and Europe, we'll have to wait until May 4th.

Last but not least, June 6th this year is:

6/6/6

!

Robot Wrestling

2006-04-02T19:32:00.000+01:00

This Google Video shows a robot wrestling tournament.

I remember when robots were these hideous spider-like contraptions with exposed wires everywhere. Then it was a huge breakthrough when they had a pair of robot legs walking down stairs -- because apparently a bipedal robot is a difficult thing.

Now, this robot can flip up from its back into a standing position.

Very cool.

Original link here.

Lost in Obsession

2006-03-31T11:15:00.000+01:00

Lending further credence to the idea that the TV series Lost is like a video game the fansite SledgeWeb's Lost... Stuff has enhanced the diagram from Episode 17

I've never seen a show that plays like a videogame more than Lost. Season 1 was the outdoors level, Season 2 is the underground level.

Of course, the non-filesharing Brits out there will have to wait at least another 6-8 months to understand what I'm talking about.

Really... given the kind of rabid-geek fanbase shows like Lost create, by not synching their schedules with the US series, UK's Channel 4 might as well run advertisements for BitTorrent.

Autism

2006-03-29T11:03:00.000+01:00

I just took this Wired AQ Test for Autism/Asperger's Syndrome -- and was only marginally above average (18).

That's a relief -- I guess my obsessive, detail-oriented nature is 'normal'.

However, after seeing the sheer obsessive genius of Urville -- a city designed by an Autistic French guy over the course of 16 years, I'm thinking the world could use a few more of this type of person.

Project Rooftop

2006-03-28T09:38:00.000+01:00

Project Rooftop is inviting illustrators and designers to revamp the classic Marvel and DC superheroes with some delightful results.

(link via Warren Ellis)

Gameboy

2006-03-27T16:43:00.000+01:00

Over at Vintage Computing there's an interview with a guy who has managed to fill his basement with his video game collection.

Surprisingly, this guy is not big on conversation, so the interview isn't very enlightening.

I feel bad for the kid. When he finally emerges from the basement and realises there's a world outside where people aren't made of pixels.

(link via Kotaku)

Web 2.0 is eating itself

2006-03-27T13:17:00.000+01:00

There was a time when someone would come up with a novel idea for a website.
You'd find out about it, sign up, tell some of your friends about it and the watch its community grow more robust.
Maybe, after using it for a while, you'd find a deficiency, so you'd recommend a feature to the website's creators, and feel like you've helped them make something better.
Someone else would come along, find a richer service, and the story continues.

Then came 'Web 2.0'
Now, someone comes up with a good idea, but it's 'beta' and there's quite a bit of room for improving it.
Instead of suggesting improvements to the team, you decide 'I can do that better' and build your own site to compete with it.
So you launch your own 'beta', concentrating on how to be the next Google acquisition instead of how to build your community.
Maybe someone else comes along, and decides they can do even better than both fledgling services and launches a third 'beta'.
Now a new user, who perhaps barely understands the big idea, has three services to choose from. So instead of trying to figure out if X is better than Y or Z, they just decide to wait until someone establishes themselves as the leader and they'll sign up for that.
Or maybe all three services will never get a chance to develop the idea to maturity and will shut after a couple of years.

That's the danger with all this hype. Most of the sites that position themselves as the 'next best thing' -- would be more appropriate as a feature added to an existing site.

3D Projector

2006-03-24T13:15:00.000Z

This guy has put his game,SiN Episodes, through a 3D projector by IO2Technology, called Heliodisplay -- with brilliant results. Download the video here.

More pictures of this cool technology at IO2Technology.

This is certainly a technology to watch. It's a bit wispy at the moment, but I'm sure the future will bring a stable 3D projection technology.

Just think -- Resident Evil right in your living room.

TV.com shows the way forward in ads

2006-03-22T10:43:00.000Z

While I generally dislike TV.com for taking over TV Tome and making it a lot less user-friendly, and a lot more profit-driven -- I think they've hit the nail on the head when it comes to the future of web advertising.

I've mentioned before, and Nielsen-Norman confirms, that people are learning to ignore Google text ads.

My conclusion was that a sponsorship model, where advertisers create a more comprehensive co-branding campaign was a better way to get the message across.

TV.com is doing just that, with an adbanner that is related to the background image.

I only wish I was in the position to implement this idea on a larger scale. It would be easy enough to create a snippet of code to insert into the CSS of the majority of blogs with empty space around their content to create a sponsored background image.

Coca-Cola Blãk

2006-03-22T08:30:00.000Z

Sounds BãD

Overprotective Information Design

2006-03-21T08:42:00.000Z

While I generally appreciate the care that stores like Marks & Spencer have put into the package design to highlight the various ingredients and nutritional guidance -- when it comes to nut allergies it's a bit overkill.

This 'warning' comes from a cereal which I enjoy (as a nut allergy sufferer), but since it was produced in a 'factory which uses nut ingredients' -- they've decided to call it unsuitable.

While this is legally safer for them, practically it's teaching me to ignore their warning -- because the odds are against my eating a errant piece of nut landing in my cereal.

Superdickery

2006-03-19T11:05:00.000Z

I've been reading Superdickery a funny collection of Superman (and other) comic book covers highlighting the nonsensical plots used in the Golden and Silver age comic books.

But it's also made me think about Smallville, which is setting itself up for the most annoying plot device ever.

Too impatient to not have Superman encounter primary characters such as Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, if the TV series hopes to end with Clark Kent becoming Superman, they will somehow have to explain how all these people who have known him acting normally (as in, not the bumbling, inept Clark Kent who wears glasses to disguise his identity) will forget all that and stop recognising him as he flies around wearing a cape.

Or maybe they'll put an end to all this foolishness and have him wear a mask, like he really should.

What gets you fined in one country will gain you citizenship in another

2006-03-17T17:02:00.000Z

I read about a new Dutch citizenship test in which people must watch a topless woman on the beach (to gauge how tolerant they are) -- shortly after I reading about the FCC fines imposed on US television stations. Most notably, the Janet Jackson nip-slip that will cost CBS $500,000.

I find it incredible how conservative America is becoming. When I was living there it seemed like the most liberal place in the world. But now I'm in the UK where they occasionally use the f-word on TV and show the odd bit of nudity, and yet there is no anarchy in the streets, nor are children sticking forks in their eyes to 'get the bad out'.

Why I don't like server-side services

2006-03-16T08:24:00.000Z

This story about how Gmail cancelled some guy's account without warning is a poignant example of why I am increasingly uneasy about server-side services.

There has been a lot of hype about Google creating a suite of online services to rival Microsoft Office. And in the Web 2.0 world, this is seen as generally a 'Good Thing'.

But if you've ever experienced Blogger, or del.icio.us or web email service going down -- then you realise how powerless you are.

I've said this since Flickr launched. Why can't services like Flickr exist as a client-side application with a network component? I would love to have a local Flickr to organise and tag my media files.

I already know the answer. It's easier to develop a web application because you can hide shoddy implementation behind a flashy front-end and fix it as it breaks. Whereas you can't hack together a standalone application overnight an expect to release it to the public.

Switched to GAIM

2006-03-13T08:44:00.000Z

I'm trying to get control of the AIM situation I blogged about before. The final straw was when I discovered that the new AIM installed two memory hogging processes on my machine and didn't seem to close them when I signed off.

So now I'm using GAIM. Not only can I keep my AOL, Yahoo and MSN instant messengers in one app, but it's a lot less of a memory hog.

The only downside is I don't get to use some of the nice, graphical features offered by each.

Still, it's worth it.

Simpsons - Live Action

2006-03-12T08:43:00.000Z

The Simpsons opening intro has been made as a live action clip for the new series. Read about it here, Watch it here

Sketch Planet

2006-03-10T15:53:00.000Z

Similar to Sketch Swap, which I mentioned before, Sketch Planet has brought in a touch of Flickr community-building.

The drawing interface is much more limited, but that makes it all the more viral in nature. You can even put a little box on your blog for visitors to sketch in.

Of course, no round-up of doodling websites is complete without Cock-A-Doodle -- as Loz won't let me forget. Perhaps the best sketching app out there -- shame the subject matter is limited to ... well, take a guess.

Sketching Apps Found So-Far
SketchSwap
SketchPlanet
Cock-A-Doodle
Imagination Cubed (GE)

Unseen - Generative music video

2006-03-10T12:18:00.000Z

The Unseen Video is a music video that changes appearance according to your local weather information.

Like I needed to be reminded that it's rainy in London.

There is also a Flickr gallery of what different people have seen from their locality.

Archive.org should be a Wiki

2006-03-08T08:31:00.000Z

I'm currently building a directory of links, and many valuable resources (usually University homepages) are now dead.

The Wayback Machine on Archive.org is a good resource for digging up these old links, but often the pages are incomplete -- and hardly a robust snapshot of the website you're looking for.

It made me think that they should open this up to the public for editing. Site administrators could check the archive for their site and make sure that the images and links have been archived properly, ensuring that their digital legacy remains intact long after their site is gone.

The New AIM: My vendor lock-in love affair

2006-03-03T10:43:00.000Z

I've installed the new AOL instant messenger. I wanted to voicechat with my family, and since different versions don't seem to be completely compatible, I reluctantly upgraded.

I say, 'reluctantly' because I hate AOL to the core of my being. Having started my career developing content within their walled garden of a service, I watched them ignore and miss countless opportunities as the WWW caught up and surpassed their offering.

More specifically, I hate the fact that they try to get back to their good-old-days by attempting to lock you in to any of their offerings. I'm stuck with AIM because of that lock-in. Most of my friends and family are on AIM, so I have to use it.

With the install came a variety of stuff I didn't want. Like a Plaxo client that installed itself into my MS-Outlook, and a special AOL flavoured variant of Internet Explorer.

They made some improvements, like tabbed messages, but they also changed some things I was used to. Like...
wtf is this icon? I'm guessing they replaced the easily understood 'door-open' icon, signalling a returning buddy -- with the more abstract buddy 'dropping in'.

But -- back to my rant about vendor lock-in. With everyone and their mother making web browsers these days, why doesn't someone develop a truly open and independent instant messenger?

I would love it if someone could just enter my domain, kaigani.com into their IM client, and it would use a peer-to-peer reference to look me up and connect to me.

It would still need a server of some sort, but the idea is that I'd have something I could take with me, like an XML file of all my buddies which I could move to another server if they have a better offering.

Lazyweb?

[UPDATE: Jabber seems to do some of what I'm asking for, but still, someone needs to find a way to get the general population to make a switch. I'm not sure it's possible.]

MODx - Ruby on Rails for the PHP/MySQL crowd

2006-03-02T07:03:00.000Z

I've posted a few times about my quest to find the ideal CMS, but so far they all fall short of the type of flexibility I need in terms of both design and functionality.

Loz pointed me MODx and I've taken to it like a fish to water.

But don't think of it as a CMS. Think of it as a PHP/MySQL development environment. Which is perfect for me, because I'm always debating whether or not to code something by hand.

MODx neatly splits the programming logic, from the structure for the display (HTML) and the design (CSS).

I'm working on a site with it now, and I think it help me cut a 30-day job down to about 7-days including the learning-curve.

Local Live.com and Google Earth - missing a trick

2006-03-01T06:03:00.000Z

Microsoft previewed its keeping-up-with-the-Googles product, Local Live.com, which is promising, incomplete and doesn't seem to work on Mac browsers (no surprise there).

They've found the missing feature of Google Earth and Google Maps, namely a street-level view.

However, both companies are missing a trick. These products need to be Open Sourced.

What they are building is a virtual world based on the real world. If you look at successful virtual worlds, like Second Life, you see that there is an enthusiastic community of people that will develop a 3D environment if you give them the tools to do so.

Think of all the people that look for their current location on Google Earth. Now what if they saw there was no street level view, but if they walked outside, took a few snapshots, and uploaded it in a specific format, they could update the service.

Considering that Google has already added a number of community contribution features, I'm hoping they will wake up to this idea too, and send Microsoft's buggy beta into obscurity.

Microsoft is like an annoying kid in high school, who has no sense of style himself, but poorly tries to copy the fashion of all the 'cool kids'. Go back to the Dungeons & Dragons club, Microsoft, we don't want you hanging out with us.

The New Blog Order: Less noise, more signal

2006-02-28T06:57:00.000Z

Over the past month, I've been blogging like crazy to increase traffic. While I was able to get 400% more visitors than before, I've also learned quite a bit about the changing world of the blogosphere.

First off, the 'link blog' is dead. With services like Digg.com and del.icio.us -- it's very difficult to find a new link to post that hasn't already been found. Full-time blogger Kottke has realised this.

New bloggers will have to start acting like journalists and authors. Searching for a scoop, and spending time crafting a well thought out entries. For instance, how Guy Kawasaki writes his blog -- spending a couple of hours writing a single post, and getting that post proofread by a trusted colleague.

Also, bloggers need to be more diligent about citing references. In this age where nothing has been posted once, take the time to search Technorati, or the web and find the sources of your information as well as similar posts -- simply putting a single 'link' at the end is not enough. We must create value, not link spam.

Happy blogging!

References
Rebecca Blood - 10 tips for Bloggers
10 Journalism Tips for Bloggers - O'reilly
Scoble's Tips for Joining the A-List
The Four P's of Blog Marketing - Steve Rubel

Another CoComment tip

2006-02-25T09:58:00.000Z

I've mentioned before that coComment is a sweet tool, but it's still got some hiccups.

I've noticed that many websites will pop-up a comments window that doesn't allow you to access your browser menu, and hence -- no ability to click on the coComment bookmarklet.

So here's a tip that works in Firefox at least -- with the pop-up window selected, open the 'Bookmarks Manager'. Click your 'coComment' bookmarklet.

This should let you coComment your post.

Japanese web browsers

2006-02-25T09:12:00.000Z

Why there's a rush to create new web browsers, I'm not sure -- but it's interesting that the Japanese have a couple of new entries.

Shiira is an OSX browser, which takes its visual design cues from iTunes.

Sleipnir calls itself 'the most customizable browser' -- and that's the end of the English language on their site. From what I can tell, it looks like a highly-hackable interface built on the Mozilla-core, but I could be wrong. According to Greggman there are a lot of people using this.

It's always amazed me that the Japanese never entered the software market to compete with a home-brewed OS, but they seem to be playing catch-up with the browser market.

Personally, I love Japanese design aesthetics, they've always had a better sense of technology-fits-nature than the Western techie mentality of build-first, design-later. Hope to see more of this.

Search Engine Zen

2006-02-25T07:22:00.000Z

When rummaging through the referral links to find out how people come to this blog, I occasionally find a few oddball searches. Although since they linked to me, I don't know who that makes the oddball, me or the searcher. Here are a few:

Adopt-a-monkey day
Surely, if there isn't one already, there should be. Greeting card companies invent holidays all the time. They've missed out a niche in the British market with this — and possibly a day celebrating the Jedi Winter Solstice.

When did curling become an Olympic event?
It seems people agree with my post about Curling being a load of rubbish.

I Hate Google
Ah, the irony -- a Google search about hating Google. Just for the record, I never said I hate Google. I love Google.

I Ching 3D Sphere
Finally, this bizarre French language search. I have no idea what an I Ching 3D Sphere is, but if I did — I bet I'd be a lot wiser.

fEverish Mind defeats BlackBeltJones

2006-02-25T07:09:00.000Z

It's a running joke with Loz and I that Jones is the Darth Vader to his Luke Skywalker.

But according to Alexa, I can say -- "When I left you, I was but the learner -- now I am the Master!"

Seriously, though, I think we'd all like to see more regular blogging from BBJ.

Customising Wordpress - Day 1

2006-02-24T16:27:00.000Z

I'm finally getting a blog going with WordPress. Since I'm going to attempt to create a completely customised look & feel, I thought I'd keep some notes, in case anyone wants to do the same.

I downloaded the latest WordPress (2.01) -- again, it was dead-easy to install. Of course, my web host MediaTemple makes adding a MySQL database easy as well. After that, you just edit a file, upload it, and follow the two-step process in your browser.

Next, I can't stand the WordPress admin pages. I highly recommend re-skinning it with the WP Tiger theme. Again, easy to set up. Download. Unzip. Upload. And then activate the plug-in from the admin pages. WP Tiger is much slicker, and keeps the main commands on the left-hand side, which I find much more convenient.

The third step was a little tricky. I had to add a blank '.htaccess' file to my Wordpress folder, and then set the permissions so that WordPress could edit it. I didn't get it right at first, but once I did -- WordPress automatically sets up the file structure for the site. So instead of "blah.com/index.php?p=349" i can have links like "blah.com/category/tag/" ... nice and clean.

So, now I'm ready to start reading UrbanGiraffe's tutorial on how to strip down my template and create a new one.

To see the work in progress, visit my test blog.

More to come.

Microsoft - Project M

2006-02-23T18:27:00.000Z

For some reason I'm still subscribed to Stanford's mailing list for recruiting new graduates. Mostly these are requests for junior Java programmers, which go promptly into my 'Deleted Items' folder -- but occasionally I get something interesting like this announcement about Microsoft's Project M.

According to Plaxoed, it's going to be Microsoft's answer to Flickr. I guess we'll wait and see.

Advertising programs of the Technorati 100

2006-02-23T12:02:00.000Z

I've been reviewing the advertising, and sponsorship campaigns used by the top 100 blogs as listed by Technorati.

I'm going to test these different services out, but here are my preliminary findings:

Technorati Top 100 - Ad programs

36% - Network affiliates
Many of the larger blogs have formed a network to boost the potential traffic to their advertisers. The network is typically managed by one person who handles sales across the network. Alternately, there are a few companies that place ads, but they are a closed network, in that they are invite-only, and don't have an automated process for the public.

The main networks are:

BlogAds (17%)
BlogAds is a popular choice for placing graphic banner ads, usually in combination with Google or AdBrite text ads.

Federated Media (6%)
A bit more exclusive, they seem to offer a suite of services to publishers, with an eye for turning their content into a media franchise instead of just a blog.

Gawker (5%)
Gawker has branched out from its flagship blog, to create a mini-empire of 14 hot titles including Kotaku (one of my faves), LifeHacker and more recently, ValleyWag. They've tightened their chokehold on the Geek and Gossip audience by relentlessly promoting their own blogs on their network. And it seems to be working, considering 36% of their portfolio is in the Technorati 100.

Weblogs, Inc. (5%)
Where Gawker has gone for quality, Weblogs, Inc. has gone for quantity. This AOL acquisition has well over 200 blogs in its porfolio. With Engadget (#3), Joystiq (#28), The Unofficial Apple Weblog (#51), and Autoblog (#30 in Chinese, #88) making it into the top 100. Impressive for the network, but less so for writers, considering less than 2% of their blogs have made the top 100 -- it seems like a scattershot approach rather than the careful media promotion found on the other networks.

The Deck (2%)
The Deck has taken a minimalist approach to advertising. A network of high traffic blogs, A List Apart(#17), 37signals (#65), Daring Fireball, Waxy.org and Coudal Partners.

33% - Multiple providers
Most sites used more than one advertising provider, usually a text-link ad provider such as Google AdSense or AdBrite and a banner-ad provider from their network, in-house, DoubleClick or FastClick.

26% - None
Some people actually work for a living, and don't need to place ads on their website. Imagine!
AdFreeBlog.org even has a snooty icon you can use to show the world you look upon on all the bloggers who pimp themselves to the 'man'.

21% - Google AdSense
The king of text-ads, Google ads are almost a pre-requisite for any ad-driven blog.

9% - AdBrite
AdBrite is the next most popular text-ad provider. Owing much of its popularity to being the provider of choice for the Gawker network. It seems like they might provide more customisation of the ad links than Google.

9% - In-house
Some of these cowboys wouldn't trust their web advertisement to any profit-skimming third-party when they can code it themselves. A home-brewed ad-banner engine is the way to go for uber-techies.

7% - Paypal donations
Ain't too proud to beg? Neither are the Technorati 100. If you love their content enough, toss them a couple of bucks.

7% - Amazon.com product placement
A few people are making commissions by recommending books or music for you to buy on Amazon.com. A couple of people are flogging their own books as well.

5% - DoubleClick
DoubleClick used to be the dominant ad-banner provider, but they fell out of favour due to their habit of sending browser cookies and tracking people across sites.

3% - Fastclick
Fastclick is the friendlier version of DoubleClick, not bothering with all the cookie sending. Seems like a reasonable alternative, if you don't have an in-house ad agency.

I'm going to be trying out these services on a test blog. Watch this space!

DiggRing - Gaming the system

2006-02-23T08:23:00.000Z

I've noticed that new users to Digg.com often find their posts languish with only a few votes, even for quality content.

So -- I'm trying an experiment called DiggRing. It's a Google group where members post their Dugg stories and the other members go and Digg them.

Let's see if it works.

Blonde joke

2006-02-22T16:39:00.000Z

It's not really my style to do gags. But this blonde joke is classic.

Get it?

(found via FutureLines)

CoComment - a Web 2.0 service worth commenting on

2006-02-22T13:07:00.000Z

I've largely ignored the Web 2.0 hype. Personally I hate the term, since nothing about internet technology has actually changed. I'm equally irritated that this term has opened the floodgates for digital snake oil merchants looking for a quick VC dollar.

Still, one of these so-called Web 2.0 services has caught my eye: CoComment.

I've had a similar idea for ages, but he who codes, wins -- so they beat me to it. What they've done is to create a bookmarklet that allows you to capture your comments made on various blogs and websites and save them to a central list.

For example, view my conversations.

But ... is this a business? It seems more like a feature missing from my browser, or my RSS newsreader.

Still it's one to watch. A word of caution though -- it's still in beta and there are a few irritating flaws. First, I've not been able to unsubscribe from the test blog they provide, which means I get 'testing cocomment' messages every day. Second, for websites not using the platforms they support, it seems to disable my ability to submit a comment after I attempt to 'cocomment' the discussion, resulting in my having to copy my comment text, reload the page and paste it back in. Finally, it would be nice if there were an automatic detection tool -- I've made a few comments only to remember coComment right after I've hit 'submit'.

YouTube - Piracy "Doesn't Really Matter"

2006-02-22T12:33:00.000Z

I've been involved in a YouTube discussion on Om Malik's blog, where he likens YouTube to Napster.

While YouTube may indeed be facing legal dangers as people realise the amount of copyrighted material it contains -- you can't deny how convenient this type of service is. The public demands mini-snippets of video, tagged and categorized (and not linked to a single studio or broadcasting company) -- and the industry has yet to respond.

For instance, look how easy it was for me to settle an argument using YouTube. I was listening to JPop radio when a track called Papillon by Hitomi Shimatani started playing. (Let me just save Loz the trouble of making a cheeky comment by saying -- I'm happily in touch with my inner-child. It just so happens that my inner-child is a 13-year old Japanese girl.)

Anyhow, my friend said 'Is that Janet Jackson singing in Japanese?'. I replied that it probably just sounded like Janet Jackson, but it also sounded like every other JPop song ever made.

Well, a quick Google search proved me wrong. But since seeing is believing I was also able to compare both videos on YouTube:

Hitomi Shimatani - Papillion
Janet Jackson - Doesn't Really Matter

That's why I love the age we live in, information and media access only a few clicks away. And should I have to pay $1.99 for each video when I just want to settle a score? I don't think so.

The Zulu Principle - Blogging for Profit

2006-02-21T08:50:00.000Z

"I first named this approach 'The Zulu Principle' after my wife read a four page article on Zulus in the reader's digest. From then on she new more than me about Zulus. ...The key point is that the history of Zulus is a clearly defined and narrow area of knowledge" - Jim Slater

I read this quote some time ago, but as I am now developing a commercial blog, it seems more relevant than ever.

What I've learned over the past few months of research is that aside from the old-school bloggers, who were the early adopters and thereby secured their place on countless blogrolls, new bloggers must 'narrowcast' -- meaning they must specialise in a single content topic and write consistently and frequently on your specialist subject. Sites like del.icio.us, Digg and Reddit and countless other newcomers have made the 'cool links' blog obsolete.

So, I'm taking the Zulu Principle to heart, and attempting to become an expert and specialise in a specific category for my new blog (coming soon).

Very nice concept / semantic map

2006-02-20T10:45:00.000Z

Interaction designer Moritz Stefaner has created a very nice mapping tool he calls WINDS relation browser.

Here he has used the region and language information found in the CIA factbook to create a map of relationships between countries and spoken languages.

More please!

Gervais trying to cash in on PodCast success

2006-02-20T10:33:00.000Z

Having launched the world's most downloaded podCast, Ricky Gervais has apparently outgrown the Guardian.
His new show will be launched on Audible, as a pay-per-download service.

I'm very disappointed with this move. I'm convinced that the pay-for-play model cannot succeed, and I'm sure this theory will soon be validated by pirated downloads of his new show.

You can't lock content behind a toll-gate. Digital content will always find a way to be freely accessible. Those are the times we live in.

Gervais should have put his podCast pulling power behind a viable model, which would push the industry forward -- namely ad-based and sponsorship-based schemes.

Sad. Launching on audible will no doubt make Gervais a pretty penny, but I was hoping he would continue to promote models for free online content. Especially since he's always said that he's not in it for the money.

Blog treasure hunt concept

2006-02-19T01:19:00.000Z

Roll your mouse over **this piece of text**

Can you find the rest?
Follow the blog treasure hunt

Here's the code...

roll mouse over <span onmouseover="document.getElementById('foo').style['visibility']= 'visible';">this piece of text</span><br/>
<div id="foo" style="visibility:hidden;width: 216px;padding: 56px 0px 10px 20px;margin: 3px;background-image: url(http://www.kaigani.com/treasure_chest.png);background-repeat: no-repeat;color: #ff6633;font-family: verdana;font-size: 0.8em;">
<p style="width: 180px;">Can you find the rest?<br/>Follow the <a href="http://www.cre8d-design.com/blog/2006/02/09/blog-treasure-hunts/" style="color:#ff3300">blog treasure hunt</a></p> <br/> <br/> <br/>
</div>