Aug 25

Icons of the Web

By admin cloud computing, communication-standards, design concepts, information aesthetics, infosthetics, insights No Comments »

A large-scale scan of the top million web sites (per Alexa traffic data) was performed in early 2010 using the Nmap Security Scanner and its scripting engine.

We retrieved each site’s icon by first parsing the HTML for a link tag and then falling back to /favicon.ico if that failed. 328,427 unique icons were collected, of which 288,945 were proper images. The remaining 39,482 were error strings and other non-image files. Our original goal was just to improve our http-favicon.nse script, but we had enough fun browsing so many icons that we used them to create the visualization below.

The area of each icon is proportional to the sum of the reach of all sites using that icon. When both a bare domain name and its “www.” counterpart used the same icon, only one of them was counted. The smallest icons–those corresponding to sites with approximately 0.0001% reach–are scaled to 16×16 pixels. The largest icon (Google) is 11,936 x 11,936 pixels, and the whole diagram is 37,440 x 37,440. Since your web browser would choke on that, we have created the interactive viewer below (click and drag to pan, double-click to zoom, or type in a site name to go right to it).

via Icons of the Web.

Aug 20

BCS Data Centre Specialist Group

By admin 24x7 Management And Support, cloud computing, design concepts, disaster-recovery, it-management, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

The Data Centre environment provides the foundation for the reliability, availability and security of systems and networks that power the world’s economy. The consumer’s drive for 24/7 availability of goods and services places increasing pressure on the availability of the facilities, systems and networks that provide these services. Underpinning the service reliability is the provision of a suitable, stable and reliable operating environment. The Data Centre is this environment.

As applications, data and infrastructure grow they have an increasing impact on the Data Centre and in turn an increasing impact on the environment. Business and consumer demands for richer functionality and interfaces are driving more complex applications which create demands on processing and data storage that can outstrip performance growth. This brings increased power and cooling requirements for the Date Centre. The economic and environmental impacts of this growth now require serious consideration.

The IT industry as a whole has charged forward without much attention paid to its impact on the environment. Among today’s hot topics are the inefficiencies found within Data Centres, including the facilities themselves and the IT equipment they house. One of the key areas the DCSG is focused on is working with the UK, EU and North American legislative bodies to ensure our industry is properly focused on driving the changes required to become more efficient with our use of energy.

Whilst there are many individuals in our industry with useful knowledge and experience in Data Centre engineering, their information is not easily accessible. The DCSG has been formed to create a forum for open and honest discussion, information sharing and evaluation of Data Centre-related issues and technologies.

What does the future of the Data Centre look like and just how critical a role will it play in business, the environment and the economy?
The DCSG aims to hold around twelve meetings/events per year that will focus on the hot topics of the moment and provide a forum for communication while further fostering professionalism through the industry.

Zahl Limbuwala FBCS CEng CITP MIET

DCSG Founder & Chairman

Data Centre Specialist Group.

Aug 02

70-gigapixel panorama of Budapest becomes world’s largest digital photograph

By admin design concepts, infosthetics No Comments »

It’s just been a few months since a 45-gigapixel panorama of Dubai claimed the title of world’s largest digital photograph, but it’s now already been well and truly ousted — the new king in town is this 70-gigapixel, 360-degree panorama of Budapest.

As with other multi-gigapixel images, this one was no easy feat, and involved two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras fitted with 400mm Minolta lenses and 1.4X teleconverters, a robotic camera mount from 360world that got the shooting done over the course of two days, and two solid days of post-processing that resulted in a single 200GB file — not to mention a 15-meter-long printed copy of the photograph for good measure. Of course, what’s most impressive is the photo itself.

Hit up the source link below and start zooming in.

source70 Billion Pixels Budapest via 70-gigapixel panorama of Budapest becomes world’s largest digital photograph — Engadget.

Jul 01

MeeGo for handsets makes its first appearance

By admin UI, design concepts, hardware No Comments »

As promised, Nokia and Intel have revealed the pre-alpha version of MeeGo for handsets today, supporting the Intel-powered Aava reference phone and the Nokia N900.

Whats most interesting at this early stage is the UI, which appears to have taken a big Nokia-influenced step away from the Intel-designed MeeGo netbook and tablet UI — and were definitely detecting some hints of Android and webOS here and there. Seriously, just check out that task switching interface. Of course, MeeGo is open-source, so were sure Nokia has some deeper UI customizations in store — like homescreen widgets, which are notably missing here.On a deeper level, this build of MeeGo includes the base MeeGo APIs, including Qt and the MeeGo touch frameworks, the Firefox-based browser, a photo viewer, and some basic UI elements like the status bar, app launcher, and virtual keyboard.

There are pre-built images for the Atom-based Aava handsets available now, but N900 owners will have to do a little building until someone makes an image available. Be warned, though: theres a long enough list of known bugs, and while thats totally fine for pre-alpha code, it might not be too fine for your device. Thats not going to stop us from installing this thing, but you be careful, alright? And let us know how it goes. Video of the UI after the break.P.S. Given that the N8 is destined to be the last Symbian N Series device, we cant help but feel its being overshadowed by MeeGo before its even out. Can we pre-pour one out? Is that a thing? It is now.

via MeeGo for handsets makes its first appearance — Engadget.

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.

Jun 01

Social Visualization Software Review: Tableau Public – information aesthetics

By jeromewagner design concepts, document-management, information aesthetics, infosthetics No Comments »

You have no doubt seen a Tableau chart before. They tend to be sleek, interactive, and intuitive. And they have already appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, and CBS Sports among other places.

The software is loved by many and quickly becoming the industry standard for those who DON’T necessarily consider themselves to be analysts.And it just became much easier for the non-analyst set to create excellent interactive charts with the recent release of Tableau Public, a new tool that puts the power of Tableau into the hands of everyone. This free version of Tableau was released earlier this year to much fanfare. We have sliced and diced all its details below, so please have a read.As you might already know, this is our final review of the big three of free, online social visualization software approaches: Swivel, IBM Many Eyes, and now Tableau Public.

We will wrap up with final thoughts next week with a benchmark that would make Tufte proud. Be sure to check back for an interesting look at all three tools, pitted side by side, embedded in this blog, so you can interact with each and make your own judgments.

CRITERIA

Cost :Free

Free Version available:  Yes

Ease of Use: Easy

Embeddable into a web page: Yes

Shareable: Yes

Comments / Discussion: No

Private workgroup: No

Plugin Required: JavaScript/AJAX

Software Required: Tableau

Public Software: free or Tableau Desktop

Export Formats: CSV, PNG, PDF

Data Storage: 50 Mb

Maturity age of software: < 1 year although Tableau software is 5 years old

Customer Service: None provided, but Tableau employees are very active on Twitter, LinkedIn, FB, and their forums.

Data Import Formats: Oracle NoSQL Server NoSybase NoDB2 NoPostgreSQL NomySQL NoExcel YesText Yes

other If you purchase their Desktop or Desktop Pro software, you will be able to use many more data sources such as mySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, DB2, Teradata, Oracle, etc.

Reviewers Kim ReesDate reviewed 4/28/2010Other

Features: Ability to make rich dashboards for sharing. Interactive features are very robust. Community can filter the data you present, highlight it, and sort the data in various ways. Community can also download data and export any view they create.

Pros- Extremely robust software that is rock solid. It’s now on version 5.1.- Very easy to use. Simple drag and drop interface.- Ability to add subtotals, totals, and other calculations.-

Can have multiple worksheets in a file.- Dashboards with a flexible worksheet layout.- Easy to customize.

Cons- All data becomes public.- There is no option for private groups.- Can only save to the web cannot save a working copy locally.- Must use stand alone software that is only PC compatible for creation, not for viewing.- No text analysis.- Mapping is limited compared to other tools.

via Social Visualization Software Review: Tableau Public – information aesthetics.

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Apr 15

Psion’s new take on internet business | Business | The Guardian

By admin MobileOS, cloud computing, design concepts, hardware, insights No Comments »

Psion is encouraging its customers to adapt its products and then share that knowledge with everyone online

Richard Wray

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 19.34 BST

A Psion Series 5 electronic personal organiser, 1999 vintage. The Organisers were a big hit with gadget fans in the 1980s and 1990s. Photograph: David Sillitoe

Next month one of the more venerable names in British technology will start field tests of its latest device: the product of a complete overhaul of the company and another test case for a new way of doing business spawned by the internet.

The newest handheld computer from Psion is based on individual modules which resellers and buyers can configure and even add to, to meet their specific needs. Rather than relying on the traditional one-size-fits-all model – or its expensive alternative, making bespoke products for each customer – Psion is actively encouraging its customers to adapt its products. It is also encouraging its customers to then share their experiences and get involved in research, development and after-sales care, by using the internet.

“We opened up an online community and customers and partners [resellers] are starting to talk to each other,” according to John Conoley, Psion’s chief executive. “At first, frankly, it was frightening. We are in there too and we are learning, we make mistakes and get flamed occasionally … but at other times you see a customer with a problem and one of our resellers – often from a completely different market – will chip in and deal with their issue.”

The idea of using the internet to interact with all users of a particular product or service is becoming increasingly popular in business, with executives talking about “mutualising” their operations. For many companies it makes financial, rather than purely philosophical, sense.

Mobile phone company GiffGaff – funded by O2 – gives money to users who help others with their technical problems, saving on customer support costs.

via Psion’s new take on internet business | Business | The Guardian.

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 24

Navigating 13.3 gigapixels on a 22 megapixel display wall

By admin cloud computing, design concepts, insights, it-projects, operating systems & collaborative tools No Comments »

Navigating 13.3 gigapixels on a 22 megapixel display wall.

Tor-Magne Stien Hagen, Daniel Stødle and Otto J. Anshus, University of Tromsø, Norway In collaboration with Eirik Helland Urke, gigapix.no

Gigapixel images are great. The level of detail, the scope of the images and the sheer amount of data they represent are all fascinating. Viewing them in an enjoyable and efficient manner is another issue entirely. As digital cameras get better and computers become faster, stitching ever larger images becomes possible. In late 2009, a 26 gigapixel image of Dresden in Germany was published online, and currently a gigapixel-image of Paris is the worlds largest gigapixel image.

However, looking at these or pretty much any other gigapixel image online, you are faced with a small viewer confined to your browser window. Can we do better?I work at the Display Wall laboratory at the Department of Computer Science, University of Tromsø located in Northern Norway. The Display Wall lab is home to a 22 megapixel display wall, constructed from 28 projectors and driven by a display cluster of about 30 nodes 28 to do the actual graphics, and another few to do other tasks. Each projector creates a 1024x768 resolution image, which when tiled together with the others form a 7168x3072 resolution display.

During the Fall and Winter of 2009, we contacted Eirik Helland Urke, who had recently published a gigapixel image of Tromsø on his website, www.gigapix.no. You can navigate that image for yourself here albeit with the previously stated “in a tiny browser window” caveat. A fellow graduate student of mine, Tor-Magne Stien Hagen, went to work on building a viewer for gigapixel-scale images on the display wall. We combined his WallScope system with my Interaction Spaces system for device- and touch-free interaction with the display wall, and the result was a very smooth and enjoyable experience for navigating very, very high-resolution images.

More technical details will follow as we have time to write them down. We also have a paper coming up -- stay tuned.

via Navigating 13.3 gigapixels on a 22 megapixel display wall.

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.

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