The article by Derrick Story seems to suggest so...
I own a Wacom which I use with my laptop, but that hardly gives me any mobility, which is what a Tablet PC is all about. Isn't it?
An in depth tutorial to building your own Segway-style self balancing scooter (Prior experience in building walking robots or rocket ships helpful.)
Rajesh writes about Weblogs, Inc. a B2B Web site dedicated to creating niche Weblogs (a.k.a. blogs) across niche industries in which user participation is an essential component of the resulting product...
Personally it looked like just another aggregator to me. Not sure if it is anything more...
Vishi has an article on Sitepoint. Good pointers and makes a nice read...
Dan Gillmor's eJournal: Remembering the People Who Give Back to the Net, and All of Us
The Internet has become a grossly commercialized Wild West in so many ways. But the community spirit on which it was founded is alive and well. The Net depends on the same spirit that motivates volunteers in the physical world: a commitment to solve problems and make life better for those who might otherwise not have the resources or expertise.
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Greg Wygonik has a tutorial for this here.
You can see it in action here. Will work for IE/PC and Firebird/Mozilla 1.3.
CNET News.com - Enterprise Hardware: India's next frontier--electronics?
Although India is more famous for its software and IT services, the country's electronics industry is poised to take off, a research firm says.
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O'Reilly Network Articles: From NEXTSTEP to Now: An Interview with LaunchBar's Norbert Heger
When LaunchBar was announced as a winner in the second Mac OS X Innovator's Contest, we received lots of positive comments from readers who were fans of this software. Like so many good ideas, the concept for this software has been around for a while. Its roots go back to 1995 and NEXTSTEP. Norbert Heger describes those early days and the evolution of this terrific Mac OS X application.
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http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/developer/2003/09/25/innovators.html
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Just received an email saying that the Macromedia Royale initiative will soon go Beta. You can sign up here for more info on it or check out the FAQs here.
There is also talk about a visual layouting IDE (codenamed Brady) that will work with Royale. I thought Royale was for coders. Why would they add such an element into Royale. Isn't Flash good enough for that? Maybe this is built using JSFL, if so it makes a lot of sense...
O'Reilly Network Articles: Top Ten Tips for Developing ColdFusion Components
ColdFusion Components, or CFCs, are a new construct in ColdFusion MX that allow you to move from totally procedural development to a more object-oriented approach. Because this represents a new paradigm for many ColdFusion developers, Robert Brooks-Bilson, author of Programming ColdFusion, 2nd Edition, has assembled a list of tips to keep in mind when developing with CFCs.
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Joel Spolsky shows off his swanky new office...
So when a geek designs an office, amongst other things, you get 20 power outlets per programmer, snake trays and cubicules designed for pair programming!!!
AIfIA has launched its IA Tools initiative. The Tools are a collection of model templates and deliverables that can be used by information architects and UI designers to help sell IA services to clients.
The current list includes the following:
Doug Bowman at stopdesign.com has a very good artcle that looks at how one object positioned with CSS affects other positioned objects inside it...
O'Reilly Network Articles: BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1: An Overview
A look at the significant enhancements to the basic capabilities of the Workshop IDE.
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Nokia here presents results of a game usability study it had commissioned.
The study concentrated on solving usability and playability issues in games developed by three companies for Series 40 devices. The most visible result is a detailed collection of usability guidelines that are available on the Nokia website.
[via Usability News]
CRN Magazine's list of top 25 innovators...
Macromedia's Kevin Lynch figures at number 9...
Quote:
Quoting Lynch:
Robert Scoble has been spending the past few weeks trying to answer stuff about Microsoft's blogging intentions. Today, he's just come out with a nice article that looks at Microsoft's philosophy behind developing Software for the masses and not for the influencers (connectors as Scoble calls them) and consequentially, why they may not be competing with Six Apart in the blogging market...
The article makes an interesting read...
E M E R G I C . o r g: Entrepreneurs as System Thinkers
EntreWorld has an article by Michael Gerber:
All successful entrepreneurs possess one fundamental ability, one fundamental quality, one fundamental skill, one fundamental interest, without which they would never be successful entrepreneurs possess the ability to perceive the world as a system.What is a Systems Thinker?
A Systems Thinker is one who intuits and sees the whole of a thing, the entirety of it, the one-ness of it, the integrated unity of it, as opposed to merely the sum of its parts.
A Systems Thinker transcends the world in order to transform it.
A Systems Thinker is an inventor as opposed to an engineer.
A Systems Thinker sees purpose in everything, and sees the system as the realization of the purpose.
A Systems Thinker sees meaning in everything, and if not, pursues everything until the meaning becomes clear, until the System reveals itself in all its glory.
A Systems Thinker is possessed by the meaning of things.
I agree with Gerber - entrepreneurs definitely need to see the bigger picture, see things as a whole rather than a collection of parts.
Peter at Tabula PC blogs about his experience at a Guess Jeans store where he was ejected for using a strange looking device we all know as a Tablet PC.
Reckon these are just teething blues for a new technology, or are people getting more paranoid than ever?
…writes Alan Cooper in this wonderful article. The article talks about the economics of the new economy. While in the industrial age, reducing cost was difficult and was a selling point, in the new economy it is a given. After all, how much does it cost to duplicate software? Thus the emphasis in the new economy has to be on quality and user experience.
Further:
[via Viswanath Gondi]
Adam Gaffin looks at the top ten tech-bloggers...
Found this via Scoble who was sore that he was not featured in the list. I'm not sure if I'd classify Scoble's bolg as a tech-blog. There is just a lot more happening there. If you know what I mean ;)
They also have a list of 53 tech blogs from which the choices were made...
Scoble's blog was not in that list. Neitehr were any MM blogs...
Manu has a very nice study of the new CNET 'Save Article' widget on the ICHI blog...
Oscar Trelles points to the latest Macromedia Central screen shot.
Meanwhile Mike Chambers has an article up on DevNet that gives you the latest update.
Looks like all the blogging about the lack of updates about Central got the MM PR machinery running after all ;)
A list of papers presented at Hypertext 2003…
Includes the following:
And a lot more…
[via EMERGIC]
JD on MX: .Net? Java? Flash!?
.NET? Java? Flash!? An article at InternetWeek discusses how one project decided on the technology to complete a project. It has a catchy title (".Net? Java? No Thanks, We'll Take Macromedia Instead"), and I know lots of people are happy...
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O'Reilly Network Articles: Web and Enterprise Architecture Design Patterns for J2EE, Part 2
From their experience as Web-era application designers, Ganesh Prasad, Rajat Taneja, and Vikrant Todankar saw a need for a set of named ways of doing things at the application or subsystem level, in the same manner that the original design patterns fulfilled a need for standardization of lower-level functionality. In this second part of a two-part series, the authors discuss their Web and Enterprise Architecture Design Patterns in the Security, Navigation, and Data Volume Control categories.
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Excerpt from the article:
“The IT industry is maturing. Hopefully, this maturity will result in a slower introduction of new features, which in turn will let companies focus their attention and resources on making existing technology work better for users.”
Interesting article but also goes on to add the following:
“…companies are more likely to commoditize software development and move it to cheaper locations, causing some concern due to the poor state of usability practices in the main offshore countries.”
Personally I wish Nielsen did come down to the ‘Offshore Countries’ to check out the state of usability here. It may not be rosy, but it ain’t bad either here in India…
theOTHERblog: uzilla: Heuristic Review
This tool looks interesting for anyone doing a Heuristic Review (I hate that term). This and the Card Sorting tool didn't use to work on MacOSX. I downloaded 1.5 and both tools worked fine, although the instructions on the web site itself could be made a little clearer. ...
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How do these two presentation software compare? Ian F. Darwin takes a look at the two...
Flash Remoting has not changed much for the release of Flash MX 2004, which is good news for programmers building complex Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Flash Remoting still offers the most flexible, intuitive way to add an application server to your RIA. Tom Muck, author of O'Reilly's upcoming Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide, offers ten tips for building a Flash Remoting application that will help programmers deliver the most efficient RIA possible.
Here are some cool laptops to consider if you're planning to buy one in a years time...
These IBM prototypes are cool. You can actually detach the Laptop keyboard. Now ain't that sweet.
If you can't wait though, there's the new Apple Powerbooks too. Just as sweet (maybe even more.)
Would you want to use Wi-Fi at your local UPS store (was Mailboxes Etc)? It seems UPS is testing it out at 66 outlets in Chicago.
I'm not sure there would be the same kind of need as Wi-Fi at Starbucks or McDonalds. And in any case, the UPS Store in Mountain View was right next to a Starbucks. I saw people using their laptops while sipping coffee, but did not notice anybody surfing while licking stamps at MBE...
Boxes and Arrows has an article about sitemaps, site indexes, what they are, and why you should use them...
There is a school of thought though, that believes that if a site needs a sitemap for navigating around it, there is something wrong with the navigation, and maybe the sitemap should be made the homepage...
Can the same logic be used for large sites?
Personally I do not provide a sitemap link anywhere on sites I design. But the 404 page (page not found error) itself can be a sitemap. So users see the sitemap only if they are not able to find what they are looking for, otherwise the navigation should take care of the rest...
You can check this implementation on the latest Digité site...
mizubitchy has a short descrition of the Flash JavaScript API language elements...
Ray Ozzie of the Lotus Notes and Groove fame has put up an example of what he believes is prior art to the Eolas patent. Meaning that, since Lotus Notes, a commercially available program was able to perform all of the functions mentioned in the patent well before the patent was awarded, the patent should be invalidated...
Can this save the browser yet?
[via Slashdot]
When Steve Jobs decided to name his company Apple, after the Beatles Record Label, little did he imagine that they would be at loggerheads with each other a few decades later...
Excerpt:
The complaint addressed the use of the word Apple and Apple logos in the computer company's downloading of music from the Internet, Apple Corps said.
Baddesigns has a collections of some of the world's 'worstly' designed objects, displays, controls and signs...
The good thing is that most bad designs mentioned also have design suggestions.
Which reminds me I need to re-read Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things...
I've mentioned this before [1 2 3], the US software patent laws are quite unjust and open for a lot of (mis)interpretations...
M$ is getting badly beaten up on the Eolas case and for once you actually feel sorry for them!
Andrew Anker at VentureBlog points to this Forbes article on TiVo that talks about why it is not gaining the popularity it deserves. Is it suffering from the First Mover's Disadvantage?
According to Andrew, TiVo is more a feature than a product, and as a product it is very difficult to use. But it is feature whose time has come. In fact, the technology has already scared the networks into action. NBC recently announced plans to air 30-second "minimovies" during commercial breaks in hopes of keeping viewers from using their remotes or devices like TiVo to avoid advertisements.
Given the situation, it might help TiVo to address the usability issues soon enough, lest they lose the early movers advantage (or disadvantage...)
E M E R G I C . o r g: IT and Productivity
The Economist has two articles [1 2] on how American productivity has grown rapidly, and the role of technology.
A puzzle [in the American economy] is why productivity accelerated over the past three years at the same time as IT investment fell. After all, a host of studies have concluded that most of the revival in productivity growth is linked to the production or the use of computers and software.One explanation is that the productivity gains from IT investment do not materialise on the day that a computer is bought. Work by Paul David, an economist at Oxford University, has shown that productivity growth did not accelerate until years after the introduction of electric power in the late 19th century. It took time for firms to figure out how to reorganise their factories around the use of electricity and to reap the full efficiency gains.
Something similar seems to be happening with IT. Investing in computers does not automatically boost productivity growth; firms need to reorganise their business practices as well. Just as the steam age gradually moved production from households to factories, and electricity eventually made possible the assembly line, so computers and the internet are triggering a sweeping reorganisation of business, from the online buying of inputs to the outsourcing of operations. Yet again, though, the benefits are arriving years after the money has been spent.
Pundits who reckon that 3-4% productivity growth is sustainable for another 5-10 years are, in effect, making the bold claim that IT will have a far bigger economic
impact than any previous technological revolution. During the prime years of the world's first industrial revolution the steam age in the 19th century labour productivity growth in Britain averaged barely 1% a year. At the peak of the electricity revolution, during the 1920s, America's productivity growth averaged 2.3%.Yet there are still good reasons to believe that IT will have at least as big an economic impact as electricity, with average annual productivity growth of perhaps 2.5% over the coming years. One is that the cost of computers and communications has plummeted far more steeply than that of any previous technology, allowing it to be used more widely throughout the economy. Over the past three decades, the real price of computer-processing power has fallen by 35% a year; during 1890-1920, electricity prices fell by only 6% a year in real terms.
IT is also more pervasive than previous technologies: it can boost efficiency in almost everything that a firm does from design to accounting and in every sector of the economy. The gains from electricity were mainly concentrated in the manufacture and distribution of goods. This is the first technology that could significantly boost productivity in services.
This is what SMEs need to do - adopt technology and revamp the way they think and do their business. This is the next frontier for tech companies.
I was looking at my referral logs and it seems that a search on Google for the term leads people straight to my site.
No crack here buddies, but while you're here looking for it, why don't you drop by the Macromedia Store and buy the real thing. It's worth it...
According to the newsletter:
Cool, now you browse all your external AS classes from the Flash MX2004 Project Panel using the Class Browser...
BTW Dave, welcome to blogging...
Zeepe 7 was released today and here's what they have to say:
A week ago Jerry Mead sent me an example of what he was able to achieve with Zeepe, and how quickly it helped him convert a web page into a desktop app...
I still need to download a copy to evaluate...
I wonder how it compares to Central.
O'Reilly Network Articles: Web and Enterprise Architecture Design Patterns for J2EE
From their experience as web-era application designers, Ganesh Prasad, Rajat Taneja, and Vikrant Todankar saw a need for a set of named ways of doing things at the application or subsystem level, in the same manner that the original design patterns fulfilled a need for standardization of lower-level functionality. In part one of a two-part series, the authors discuss their Web and Enterprise Architecture Design Patterns in the Partitioning and Scope categories.
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http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/09/10/patterns.html
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theOTHERblog: The future of the GUI
I'm currently writing a dissertation looking into the general concept of the current desktop metaphor, it's problems and what can be done about it.Having read up on my Don Norman, Alan Cooper, and some Jef Raskin et al, the basic premise for my dissertation is that the computer interface needs to fundamentally change for it to be the Universal Machine that Alan Turing was talking about and yet be usable by the average, non-technical user.For example, why should users have to deal with a file system at all? ...
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E M E R G I C . o r g: Blogs as Portals?
Arnold Kling makes a point that bloggers would do well to remember: "People who have longstanding weblogs who want to keep their following will find that they have to behave like portals. That is, they will have to become very rich in links, and reduce their self-expression (or express themselves by the way in which they select links)...If you want to express yourself heavily (as I do), and you want a large following, then I think you will have to progressively narrow your scope. People will come to you for your area of expertise, not for stuff that they can find just as easily elsewhere."
I think the popular blogs will have three key elements:
- personality: a reflection of the blogger's mind
- links and/or comments: the blogger works as a filter on the information out there, and embellishes the linked stories with a unique perspective
- focus: the blogger should concentrate on one/few topics, and eschew everything else
Scoble is playing the referrer game. He wants to send more referrers from his post to Paul Vick’s than Don Box did…
Maybe you’d want to donate to Scoble’s traffic. It’s an interesting enough post to read anyway…
JD on MX
Browserhawk Flash stats: This page came up on one of the lists today, with the implied question of "Why are these numbers different from the NPD version stats?" The only methodology I see offhand is on their reports page, which...
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Jef Raskin (The Humane Interface, Mac fame) has a Flash Demo of a ZUI (Zoomable User Interface.) It's an 8MB Flash file so it takes a while to load. There are also some performance issues with the demo, but it gives you a fair idea...
Jef, understandably, did not have all insights into the Flash development process and mentions that he could not get Flash to recognize the left mouse click. He should have come here first...
But nevertheless it's great to see Flash being used as a prototyping tool. I think it serves the purpose extremely well...
Of course, he's talking about internal bloggers...
Wonder how many Macromedia has, which are the other companies that have active bloggers?