Jun 03

John Underkoffler points to the future of UI

By admin UI, communication-standards, design concepts, insights, uncategorized No Comments »

In February 2010, the man who built the technology of Minority Report twice — once for the movie, and once in real life — spoke at TED about the future of user interface design.

Yesterday, TED posted John Underkoffler’s entire fifteen-minute video presentation — a copy of which you’ll find right after the break.

Get a curated glimpse into his company’s tech in the following demo, and hear from the man himself when the gloves might come off. And if that doesn’t satisfy your appetite, read an in-depth interview with Underkoffler at our more coverage link.

May 18

The Laser Celebrates Its 50th Frickin Birthday

By admin insights, it-projects, uncategorized No Comments »

The Laser Celebrates Its 50th Frickin Birthday

BY WARREN RIDDLE — MAY 14TH 2010 AT 5:40PM

Albert Einstein first postulated the possibility of amplifying protons to create “masers” in 1917, but the theory wouldnt produce effective technology until the post-World War II period. The science of masers continued to evolve over the following decade, and, in 1958, Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow of Bell Labs published a seminal report that would spark a scientific revolution. The paper proposed that, by incorporating maser properties with the light spectrum, researchers could emit an intense optical beam.

Theodore Maiman of Hughes Labs would finally bring that research to fruition when he constructed the first functional laser and fired the first blast on May 16th of 1960. For those keeping score, that means the laser is officially turning 50 this very day. According to CNETs Daniel Terdiman, Hughes Labs which would later become Raytheon initially developed lasers that were primarily used by the military for guidance and targeting operations, a system which would prove significant and highly effective during the Vietnam War. The beams have since diverged into a multitude of directions, as the technology has been applied to a seemingly infinite array of endeavors — even if its just a cheap method for kids to annoy their pets, teachers and classmates.

While 50 is still relatively young, this year is currently hosting an incredible laser renaissance as scientists seem to be realizing the full potential of the technology. What better way to celebrate a monumental milestone than with the completion of the worlds largest laser, spaceships engaging in distant orbital exchanges, and — finally — a mosquito-zapping Photon Fence? Huzzah! [From: CNET]

via The Laser Celebrates Its 50th Frickin Birthday.

Apr 23

BBC The Beauty of Maps: Seeing the Art in Cartography

By admin infosthetics, insights, other, uncategorized No Comments »

BBC The Beauty of Maps: Seeing the Art in Cartograpy [bbc.co.uk] is yet another example of a BBC television series which focuses on matters concerning data visualization. It is another proof how visualization is becoming an interesting feature in popular press.

While the online video clips are restricted to people living in the UK (snif), foreigners are still able to explore a couple of compelling example projects, such as a NASA Map of the dark side of the Moon, Phillippe Bourcier's map of the movement of data on the Internet, the most complete map of the universe, a map of social conversations on blogs, next to a whole section dedicated to historical maps. The last episode even delves inside the world of political and satirical maps.

People living in the UK are welcome to make the rest of us jealous, and describe the quality of the series in the comments section below.

In the meantime, others have the chance to marvel at YouTube's surprising top search results of the query “beauty of maps”.

via BBC The Beauty of Maps: Seeing the Art in Cartography – information aesthetics.

Apr 15

BCS Service Management Specialist Group

By admin communication-standards, industry best practise, it-projects, proffesional bodies, uncategorized No Comments »

BCS Logo

BCS Service Management Specialist Group

Subject: Multi-sourcing – How Ready Are You?

Date: Monday 10 May 2010

Time: Registration & refreshments at 18:00 with talks commencing at 18:30. Finishing around 20:00 followed by wine, finger food and informal networking.

Venue: BCS, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA.

See http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf

for directions.

Speaker: Daniel Jones, Partner at TPI

Synopsis:

Many organisations today are working with multi-sourced IT services; some have arrived at this state through disjointed sourcing activities whilst others have set out with the strategic objective of working with best of breed providers, spreading their risks by avoiding lock-in to a single supplier and at the same time realising IT cost reductions. The rise of Business Process Outsourcing, cloud based services and globalisation are all contributing to pressure for adoption of multi-sourced IT services.

A new approach is required for end to end governance and performance management that enables organisations to realise their objectives in a multi-sourced model. This talk sets out risks and challenges that accompany Multi-sourcing, and proposes the approaches necessary to achieve the intended level of service performance and the planned financial outcome. Examples from both Public and Private Sectors will be explored.

About Daniel: A graduate of the London Business School, Daniel has spent over 20 years in consultancy, application development and IT services in senior roles for a number of major service providers and working with clients in the Media, Pharmaceuticals, Retail, Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals and Public Sectors. Prior to joining TPI he was the Managing Director, Civil Government and Healthcare at EDS, responsible for the delivery of BPO and IT services to a portfolio of clients, many of them operating with multiple suppliers. He is currently responsible for TPI’s Public Sector business.

Registration: This event is free to current BCS members and £15.00 (+VAT) for non members.

please use www.bcs.org/events/registration to register for this event.

Apr 01

Mapping an Envelope’s Route

By admin design concepts, it-projects, online tools, uncategorized No Comments »

In the line of one of Google’s previous April Fool Day proposals, this design concept might actually become feasible. “Google Maps Envelopes” maps the course of snail mail on the envelop itself. The project further proposes people would be able to send these envelopes through the GMail interface.

via Mapping an Envelope’s Route – information aesthetics.

Mar 12

Visualizing the Issues behind Food Dependence: How to Feed the World?

By admin communication-standards, design concepts, it-projects, uncategorized No Comments »

If you appreciated the depth and level of detail of the now classic infographically animated The Credit of Crisis – Visualized, you will probably also like the following! “How to Feed the World?” [dvanw.com] explains in more than 8 minutes the intrinsic issues involved with international food dependence and the existing regional differences of food intake, in both quantity as quality.For instance, in Europe, people have access to a varied, large diet, while the available affordable? food in Africa does not cover the normal human needs, causing African people to die about 20 years younger on average.

What are the reasons for this injustice? You can watch the answer in the movie below.The movie even discusses the feasibility of some potential solutions, such as increasing the cultivated land area, increasing the yield of a given agricultural area, increasing the use of organic products, introducing innovative watering techniques, and so on, and finishes with a concrete recommendation of where you have the ability to make a difference.

via Visualizing the Issues behind Food Dependence: How to Feed the World? – information aesthetics.

Mar 11

The Beast File: Google (HUNGRY BEAST)

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, design concepts, disaster-recovery, document-management, uncategorized No Comments »

It seems the now classic infographic movie “Google Master Plan” from early 2007 is now finally outdated, as the main allegations have been recently updated by another infographically-style film, aptly titled The Beast File: Google [abc.net.au] (movie not viewable outside Australia, but watch a YouTube version below).

The new movie, which itself seems to be inspired by the visual zooming effects from the presentation software Prezi, defines Google as an advertising giant whose main goal is to track users and deliver targeted ads.

For the appropiate counter argumentation, you can read the following post at the official Google Operating System blog.

You can watch the movie below:

Mar 11

Mobile Apps for the Military

By admin MobileOS, cloud computing, communication-standards, design concepts, insights, network-security, uncategorized No Comments »

In todays military, handheld systems are characterized by a tight integration of specialized hardware with a narrowly focused software suite. Most of the handheld devices are heavily optimized for a particular task and are ill-suited for general-purpose use.

A soldiers radio, for example, has very limited data capability and essentially no multimedia capability. Current language translation devices support neither messaging nor collaboration of any form. This inflexibility in function is further exacerbated by the militarys own acquisition process, a process that can take years to complete and involves an unwieldy linear process of formal requirements definition, technology development, and system certification.

The current process adds considerable costs and introduces schedule delays to the deployment of new, cutting-edge technologies. Furthermore, there is a real risk that these very technologies will be obsolete by the time they are in the warfighters hands.A transformation in technical approaches and business processes is called for.

DARPA seeks to overcome current limitations and give our military ready access to the leading edge capabilities.As envisioned by DARPA, this transformation will:• Result in the rapid development of applications and system enhancements that keep up with the fluid demands of warfighter on the ever-changing battlefield; • Demonstrate both affordability and scalability that enable pervasive use, targeted especially among the end-users at lower levels in the military echelon;

• Encourage and support open competition among a broad set of suppliers in the military applications development process; and

• Support new business models and streamlined processes to incentivize a broad community of suppliers.The primary purpose of this RFI is to discover sources of commercial and non-commercial apps with potential relevance to the military specifically the national security community more generally.

These apps may be used in situations such as the tactical battlefield, for humanitarian assistance, and in disaster recovery efforts. DARPAs initial interest will focus on apps developed on the iPhone or Android platforms that can be used today with little or no additional research and development expenses. Application providers may already have offerings in the commercial marketplace that could be adapted to meet these needs.In order to meet this objective, DARPA extends an invitation to the developers of currently existing apps encouraging them to submit a whitepaper about their product offerings.

via Mobile Apps for the Military – Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities.

Mar 04

First Look: How Penguin Will Reinvent Books With iPad

By admin design concepts, hardware, insights, uncategorized No Comments »

As the race to be be ebook format of choice hots up, Penguin is making some bold, experimental bets. These first-look demos of forthcoming books from iPad’s iBook Store, presented by Penguin Books’ CEO John Makinson in London on Tuesday, give an idea how publishers might approach Apple’s tablet…

via paidcontent

Feb 14

Winter Olympics to host thought-controlled lighting

By jeromewagner operating systems & collaborative tools, uncategorized No Comments »

Along with the figure skating, ice hockey and snowboarding, another event will compete for attention at the Winter Olympics in Canada this month.

A Canadian company has created what it calls the world's “largest thought-controlled computing installation”. It's an experiment that lets visitors to the Olympics use their brainwaves to control the lights at three major landmarks in Canada, including Niagara Falls.

“When people put on the headsets and find themselves increasing the brightness of the lights by just thinking about it, you can almost see their brains explode,” says Trevor Coleman, chief operating officer for InteraXon, the company that has created this installation.

Continue reading “Winter Olympics to host thought-controlled lighting”

via Wired News – the latest reports on technology.

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