1. 15 August 2005

    1149 days ago

    Low Tech Talk Design

    I tried a different approach this time – I went to the local shops and bought about 6 packs of 5×3 inch index cards. I then wrote down every single idea onto a different index card, and then spread them out over the kitchen table. I then found it remarkably easy to see all the material in a convenient-to-manipulate format. It was very easy to group the slides that went together, string them into a coherent story and figure out ways to link the pieces together.

    This is how my fifth grade teacher taught me to cull data to write a report, and I still use it whenever I really need to organize information.

    via Kjell Olsen1149 days ago

  2. 20 July 2005

    1175 days ago

    Seagate Internal Hard Drive at circuitcity.com

    300GB for $99, after rebate. Hard drives are getting so marvelously cheap these days.

    via Kjell Olsen1175 days ago

  3. 16 July 2005

    1179 days ago

    Push Button Paradise

    I’m worried that the madeline engine which instiki runs on is far too complex, and really would love to have instiki store info in plain text, or at least have a .txt export.

    Take a careful look at all the important data on your hard drive. If any of it is in a complex or proprietary format, but could work just as well in a simpler format, downconvert it. If you use a Personal Information Manager or small database to store any data, consider how it would work without the requirement of special software, or at least seek out software to synchronize between it and a simpler format like plain text. Constantly remain on the watch for opportunities to simplify your digital life.

    via Kjell Olsen1179 days ago

  4. 16 May 2005

    1240 days ago

    O'Reilly Network: The Geospatial Web: A Call to Action

    Just today I was out in the woods walking, and thinking how sweet it would be to have a cellphone that could track my location with gps, a camera that flagged all the pictures I took with longitude and latitude values, and a collar on my dog to see how far away from me she is (so as to keep her from getting into a porcupine). And all this is coming.

    Nat Torkington, organizer of the upcoming Where 2.0 conference, said it this way: “Everything is somewhere. Whether you’re talking about assets, people, phone calls, pets, earthquakes, fire sales, bank robberies, or famous gravestones, they all have a location attached. And everything we touch in our lives, from groceries to digital photos, could have a location. From these locations we could learn a lot more about ourselves and build new economies.”

    A nice call to arms cum where do we stand post: what needs to come of age before the geoweb can really manifest itself.

    via Kjell Olsen1240 days ago

  5. 09 May 2005

    1247 days ago

    Nag yourself in a new way

    Neat looking new mobile app by a ph.d candidate at the U of M (Pam Ludford), looking to be tested by “super busy” twenty somethings who try do way too many things and keep track of it all. Kind of like backpacks neat new sms reminders, but reminding you when your two blocks from the library or grocery store, instead of at a certain point in the future. Sweet.

    via Kjell Olsen1247 days ago

  6. 18 April 2005

    1268 days ago

    furialog

    iTunes power user skillz:

    My music collection is far larger than my Powerbook or iPod can accommodate, so my encoded selection rotates as new and revived interests push other things out of the active 20GB. Much of the time I use iTunes in Browse mode, listening to individual whole albums in the same way I would have pre-shuffle-era. But increasingly, and especially during periods when my listening isn’t so dominated by new releases, I also use iTunes’ Party Shuffle mode, fed by a Smart Playlist that filters out non-music genres, cuts out tracks that are too short (<1:30) or too long (>5:22) for my shuffle attention-span, and via another playlist reference excludes anything that has been played recently (i.e., in the last two weeks, or the last 10 hours of music, whichever list is shorter). If I’m in an especially random mood, I have an Applescript that goes through the upcoming Party Shuffle selections and eliminates repetition of artists.  

    Although on very rare occassions I do rate tracks manually, for the most part I find that it is more effective to treat the rating as a temporary variable representing my actual behavior towards the track, instead of an attempt to measure my subjective assessment directly. In my case, the rules are approximately these (I’ve left out some of the more logistical obscurities):  

    I love how concrete this is. I should do it like this, and maybe rate the song in the comments subjectively.

    Automated payment of artists who’s work was downloaded, but not paid for. Sweet script to do it all without lifting a finger.

    via Kjell Olsen1268 days ago

  7. 14 April 2005

    Technology Nightmare

    1272 days ago

    I had a nightmare last night that I deleted everything in my Documents folder. But happily, I didn’t – and I even managed to convince myself that it was just a dream before running downstairs out of fear at 3am.

  8. 13 March 2005

    1304 days ago

    cityofsound: Shortsighted Shuffle?

    As products get smarter in terms of being aware of their behaviour – in some senses, becoming reflexive – and as their raison d’être gets increasingly close to personal, social functionality – in some senses, becoming involved in presentation of self and the behaviour of the users – there is huge potential to build devices which become increasingly, personally meaningful, which can adapt to personal context and preference like never before.

    I know I love having everything I play on my iPod put into audioscrobbler – apparently you can’t do this with a shuffle. But this sort of technology is fascinating – with sites like audioscrobbler and del.icio.us and flickr being able to show you where you fit amidst a group of people with similar interests.

    It strikes me that the basic condition for these products is to be essentially self-aware – in this specific case, that the iPod Shuffle should be able to keep a track of what tracks the user has played on it, and communicate that information such that that metadata can then be transferred and combined with the overall iTunes Music Library. This ecosystem of music experience software and hardware can therefore keep a track of what tracks have been played (track, album, artist etc), when, on what device, and by whom. Upon this basic usage data, we can build a panoply of useful, interesting services. Look no further than Audioscrobbler for some inspiration.

    I really like how community sites are tying people together in their interests – a site like 43things showing you people who have similar goals to you, who live in your city, and eventually both together. When the application fades away and the data that is collected by the application is brought together and made sense of, I think that applications will be able to become entirely more useful.

    via Kjell Olsen1304 days ago

  9. Also somewhat recently

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