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Computers

Feb 29 2008

“Makthavarna låtsas åtminstone lyssna” by Christian Eager
Computers, Law, Software
One Swede's take on DRM: If consumer protection is the priority, a DRM'd product should be considered defective, as the very purpose of the technology is to REDUCE the consumer value and restrain them from using the product in ways they desire, including ways explicitly permitted by law. The product is defective by design. Rick Falkvinge: Makthavarna låtsas åtminstone lyssna ("The people in power at least pretend to listen.") via Waffle
Feb 06 2008

160MP Digital Camera by David Goligorsky
Computers, Software, photography
While on the subject of grotesquely rare, hyper-expensive goodies, check out this 160 megapixel digital camera! It costs $45,600 and creates photographs that take about 900MB of disk space. You'd need a supremely powerful computer to work with these images and certainly a movie theater screen to do any useful editing. To make things more interesting, this thing is 18 inches wide and weighs 10 pounds. (via Dustbowl)
Jan 08 2008

Eames “Wireframe” by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Computers, Design, Engineering, Product Design, Remix, Software
I have a project at work that requires a CAD model of an aircraft although our program doesn't have much to do with the aircraft itself. It would be a tremendous investment of time and money do draw up the aircraft, but it would be unprofessional to have a bad quickie model of an aircraft. Enter 3D CAD Browser. For a price, you can download CAD models of a suprisingly vast selection of objects. On further inspection, I even found the LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) on there. It gives a new meaning to the wireframe ...
Dec 26 2007

Interesting new method for text entry by David Goligorsky
Associative Thought, Code, Computers, Data Presentation, Design, Engineering, Experience Design, GUI, Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Language, Pragmatism, Remix, Science, Software, Typography, Visualization
Dasher changes the paradigm of text entry from pushing buttons to navigating through words. Here's a YouTube demonstration of the technology and here's the Dasher website, which offers a test drive of the program. (via GUUUI) I recently watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's a film based on the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was the editor-in-chief of Elle. He had suffered a massive stroke in 1995 that left his mind in tact, but his body was completely paralyzed except for one eye and eyelid. Needless to say, he could not speak. Speech ...
Dec 07 2007

Google Graphic API by David Goligorsky
Code, Computers, Data Presentation, Graphic Design, Visualization
Google has a graphing API (Application Programming Interface) that allows you to create handsome charts from your address bar. The coding parameters are part of the URL and you can generate fairly complex data plots if you are a developer making a graphing app or if you have the mental agility to keep all those parameters in your head while you add variables to one long line of code. I like it. (via Information Aesthetics) Careful! Google's usage policy states that you shouldn't query over 50,000 charts per day!
Oct 31 2007

GPhone images? by David Goligorsky
Computers, Design, Experience Design, GUI, Interaction Design, Product Design
The cat might be out of the bag for Google's GPhone. A ZDNet report shows computer-rendered images of a Google-based mobile device. Who knows if it's the real McCoy or just some internet hype flotsam. There are several other renderings out and about, including an image in this article which also discusses the likelihood of Google choosing Verizon as the service provider. I guess we'll find out pretty soon.
Oct 31 2007

Wi-Fi Memory Card by David Goligorsky
Computers, Interaction Design, Product Design
I am willing to bet that the only people interested in having cables on anything include the subset of suspension bridge designers. Eye-Fi makes a wireless SD card. That means you can snap a photo, put the camera near your computer, and have your images uploaded directly to Flickr or other photo sharing platform of choice. It won't be long before you can have your image instantly and wirelessly transmitted to your iPhone and onward to the web.
Oct 30 2007

A single Google query consumes as much energy as an 11-watt light bulb does in one hour by Eric Silva
Computers
Photo by Knut This article from tagesschau.de (German) claims that a single Google search query (taking less than a second) consumes as much energy as an 11-watt light bulb does in one hour. This number is based on the total number of servers Google is running, the total energy consumption of those servers, and the total number of search queries processed. Rolf Kersten estimates that running a single Google query releases 6.8 grams of CO2 and consumes a bit less--2 to 8 watt-hours of energy. (Thanks to Mareen for combing the German language publications.)
Oct 26 2007

Backwards Visual Metaphor by David Goligorsky
Computers, Graphic Design, Misplaced Thoughts, Product Design
A physical notepad that looks like an electronic document icon... (via BB-Blog) update: There's also this t-shirt with an image of a broken image icon.
Sep 14 2007

Programming Languages Timeline by Eric Silva
Code, Computers, Software
In 1995 BYTE magazine published a time line of programming languages from 1946 to 1996. This is over 10 years old, but is still interesting. The article mentions that the first BASIC program ran at 4 AM, I'm sure reminding many hackers of their favorite late night breakthroughs. Language designers seem to have a penchant for acronym contortion. Check out Bell Labs’ StriNg Oriented SymBOlic Language or SNOBOL. Jason Kottke pointed out Java, Perl, Ruby, etc. were omitted from the list. Java, JavaScript, and Ruby were cutting edge languages at the time of publication. The first public ...

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