Four short links: 9 November 2009

Moth Mind Readers, Shiny UI Futures, Usable Newspapers, Hardware Testing

1. A Battery-Free Implantable Neural Sensor (MIT Tech Review) -- Electrical engineers at the University of Washington have developed an implantable neural sensing chip that needs less power. Uses RFID's induction technology which means the power source can be up to a meter away. Proof of concept was implanted in a moth to sense central nervous system activity.
2. New Microsoft Interface Technology -- videos from Craig Mundie (Chief Research and Strategy Officer) on the MS Campus Tour talking about the future of UI using a sexy glass prototype that features tablet PC, gesture, speech recognition, and even eye tracking. Lustable.
3. Adding Usability to Print -- detailed description of a failed pitch to reinvent a newspaper, to bring web sensibility to print. Make the paper more usable, think cross media instead of separate media, while using the strength of the paper (pictures, info graphics, nice text) to the max… Make a product that people want to buy because it is more usable that the competitor, not because it wins graphic design prizes. (via Evolving Newsroom)
4. StressAppTest -- Google-created open source project to pound the living crap out of hardware by maximising random traffic to memory from processor and I/O, with the intent of creating a realistic high load situation in order to test the existing hardware devices in a computer.

Four short links: 2 September 2009

Happy Programmers, Usability Tool, Geo API, Zombie Math

1. The Programming Language With The Happiest Users (Dolores Labs) -- you'll be surprised. Age before beauty!
2. Judge It Now -- fast market opinions on design decisions. Compare to Optimal Sort. Usability tools hitting the mainstream web, so the time to learn what works shrinks and progress is faster.
3. BlockChalk API -- These new interfaces enable developers to do nearly everything that you can do at http://blockchalk.com. It’s now possible to build client applications, mash-ups, and other tools based on BlockChalk geolocation data and services. Also see the explanatory blog post. (via joshua on Delicious)
4. The Mathematics of Zombie Attacks (PDF) -- Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all. (via Doug McKenna)

Four short links: 13 July 2009

1. IDEO's Human Centered Design Toolkit -- methodology and toolkit for inspiring new solutions to difficult challenges within communities of need. Full PDF of manual and cards available for free download.
2. Bentham and the Privacy of the Grave -- [M]uch of what Bentham meant to address in the context of his Panoptic structures we now take for granted. In Bentham’s lifetime, Parliamentary deliberations were confidential. Bentham’s arguments forced them into the sunlight. Legal decisions and statute books were accessible only to lawyers and judges. Bentham’s arguments led to codification of the law, and increasingly accessible legal rules. Bentham was far ahead of his time — the first modern information theorist. The idea that all actions of government would be presumptively available for public review did not become part of U.S. law until the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1967. As we speak, it appears the English parliament is only now learning Bentham’s message about publicity. Bentham was an early transparency advocate, economist, and character. I first read of him in the excellent A Brief History of Economics: Artful Approaches to the Dismal Science. (via carlmalamud on Twitter)
3. Curated Twitter Feed for Projecting Over Speakers -- Guardian developed it for their "Activate Summit" and it's since been used in two other events. They've open sourced it.
4. Android Market Problems -- take heed, all ye who would build "the iPhone App Store of ...", it's not easy to deliver a great customer experience.

Four short links: 9 Apr 2009

Scifi, audiences, transparency, and the peril of public life. No links tomorrow, as I'll be preparing for our village fete:

1. The Fantastic That Denies It's Fantastic: Science Fiction Talk at the Royal Institution -- Matt Jones's fascinating notes from this talk by two academics make thought-provoking reading. “SF is a response to the cultural shock of discovering our marginal place in an alien universe” ... “an attempt put the stamp of humanity back on the universe”
2. Visualize Your Audience (Rowan Simpson) -- If you don’t think it’s a big deal for your site to be broken or off line while you make changes … think of all of the people who happen to be visiting at that point and imagine what it would feel like to have them all in the room with you while you flick the switch. No matter how small the number it would probably feel like a lot of people. And, you might be motivated to get the site back up more quickly if they were all standing behind you impatiently looking over your shoulder.
3. Attribution and Affiliation on All Things Digital (Waxy) -- this reminds me how rare it is to see someone about an Internet blowup where someone has actually talked to the parties involved.
4. We Live in Public (Caterina Fake) -- Caterina watched "We Live in Public" by Ondi Timoner and concurs with Jason Calacanis's musings about the Internet's ability to promote the worst behaviour: This kind of sociopathic behavior -- treating people like things -- is one of the most horrifying aspects of online interactions, and something that its very nature promotes.

Four short links: 27 Jan 2009

Fantasy, feedback, facts, and flies, all will be revealed in today's links of loops and life:

1. Blueful - a story told in text, but delivered through the medium of web sites. It's like an xkcd cartoon embodied in the web. Interesting, artistic, and makes you look at web sites in a new way. From Aaron A. Reed.
2. The Case Against Candy Land - Steven Johnson talks about how dull the children's games of our youth are. "What’s irritating about the games is that they are exercises in sheer randomness. It’s not that they fail to sharpen any useful skills; it’s that they make it literally impossible for a player to acquire any skills at all." Every process in life should have a feedback loop that lets you get better at it.
3. Journo Data - a Guardian journalist publishes data resources about the US economy as Google spreadsheets. This is the start of something interesting, where the raw data is available from journalists not just the (textual or programmatic) interpretation. As mentioned in the fantastic presentation Tim just linked to, access to the data behind our world view is essential if we are to critically assess that world view.
4. Userfly - a usability tool that records and then recreates your users' sessions on your web site, so you can see where and when they type, click on, backtrack, etc. (via

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