Issue #161 for klawrence
com
Microsoft launches Windows Phone Series 7
(Technology news, comment
and analysis | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:02:43 AM
• Phones with the new software will
appear at the end of the year
• Nokia joins forces with Intel to
create a free software platform
Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer is
hoping that 7 will turn out to be a
lucky number again. With Windows 7
helping to bury the ghosts of the
poorly received Windows Vista in its
core PC market, the software group is
hoping to repeat the trick with a new
version of its software for mobile
phones, a device that has refused to
yield to the firm's attentions despite
almost a decade of trying.
Windows Phone Series 7 is the result
of a complete overhaul of Microsoft's
vision of the mobile phone. It has
abandoned its attempts to turn mobile
phones into mini-PCs, focusing
instead on giving users easy access to
social networking, music, video and
mobile phone applications.
Coincidentally Ballmer's
presentation, at the mobile industry's
annual trade show in Barcelona came
hours after the world's largest mobile
phone manufacturer Nokia revealed a
tie-up with chipmaker Intel that is
headed in the opposite direction.
The two companies have pooled their
software development resources to
create MeeGo, a free software
platform which they reckon will pave
the way for the next generation of
wireless communications devices.
Both companies have Apple,
Blackberry and Google, with its
Android mobile phone platform,
firmly in their sights. Fierce
competition has eroded Nokia's share
of the market over the past year, and
Microsoft fears that if it cannot get
back in the game now, it may never
manage it.
Asymmetric Disclosure in Social Networks
(OUseful.Info, the blog...)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 8:22:06 AM
A thought in process…
In a social network, under what
conditions should relationships
between individuals be publicly
discoverable?
So for example, if I am a member of
a social network that supports private
groups and I put You in one of My
private groups, and You put Me in
one of
Your public groups, should Our
relationship be publicly disclosd on
Your profile?
A ‘real world’ version of this
(?maybe): suppose You have a
problem. You ask Me for a chat about
it over coffee in a public coffee shop.
Under what circumstances should I
2/13/2010 - 2/16/2010
Ballmer admitted that Microsoft,
which has failed to gain any
significant share of the mobile phone
market, had been forced to "retool
and reform" its mobile phone
software two years ago. "There is no
doubt that the phone market is highly
competitive, highly dynamic, super-
exciting," he said. "There was no
question in our minds… that we
needed and wanted to do something
that was out of the box, clearly
differentiated from our past and
clearly differentiated from other
things that are going on in the
market." "We're taking a big step," he
added. "I hope seven's our lucky
number."
The first phones using the new
software will not appear until the end
of the year and Microsoft is being
very prescriptive about what they
should look like, which has raised
questions about whether handset
manufacturers will be willing to make
Windows Phone devices that they
will be unable to differentiate
themselves from the rest of the pack.
Manufacturers including HTC, LG
and Samsung have, however, signed
up, while Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile
and Orange are all likely to sell the
devices in the UK. The proliferation
of so-called open source software
platforms – such as Android – has
raised the question of whether
Microsoft, which still charges
hardware manufacturers a licence fee
to use its Windows Phone software,
should adopt the same model.
Refusing, as ever, to actually name
Apple, Ballmer spoke about "vertical
competitors" – companies that make
devices as well as the software that
sits on them, such as Apple – saying
"their model is really clear, it's sell
devices. We sell software to
companies that make devices" and
that is not going to change. "My
be able to disclose in public that You
and I had that coffee together?
I haven’t got a proper definition of
what I think I mean by asymmetric
disclosure yet, but what I (think I)
want is to find a way of representing
(or at least, talking about) public and
private relationships between
individuals that allow us to reason
about whether friend of a friend
connections that are private might
end up being disclosed in public just
because it’s too complicated to work
out whether something is, should, or
might ‘reasonably’ expected to be,
public or private…
So here’s where I’m at: an
asymmetry can be thought of arising
if one party in a relationship can
reveal information about the other
that the other believed they had
mother used to say to me, if
something is free, you should take a
look and find out what the real cost
is."
Nokia, however, has become a
convert to the idea of open source
platforms. Having bought out its
partners in smartphone software
developer Symbian and made that
available free to all developers and
hardware manufacturers, it
announced a tie-up with Intel under
which it plans to do the same for the
next generation of mobile devices.
Nokia was already working on an
open source platform for so-called
internet tablets, called Maemo, which
it used in its recently launched N900
phone. Now it is merging it with a
similar programme which Intel ran
for laptops, called Moblin, into a new
platform called MeeGo.
"It is the future of how we think
people are going to use computing,"
said -Renee James, Intel's head of
software and services. "From Intel's
perspective, we see expansive growth
which brings new users to computing
and at the heart of that has always
been software innovation and that
happens when there is a stable
platform that developers can bet on
being there long-term. So I consider
this critical to the long term growth
initiatives of Intel." The first MeeGo
devices will start appearing in the
second half of the year, but Intel
already has hardware manufacturers
such as Dell, Asus and Samsung
making laptops for its existing open
source platform and they will all be
moved over to MeeGo.
"They have understood the only way
to beat Microsoft, Google and Apple
is to do it through scale – get the
platform to more devices," according
to John Strand, owner and head of
Strand Consult after the
announcements at the Mobile World
disclosed to the one in a “private”
way, or at least, not in a public way.
This all becomes relevant when we
start thinking about ‘friend of a
friend’ based friend recommendations
or social search and potentially
unwelcome disclosures that might
result. It might also provide a way of
helping us reason about situations
where information flow can route
around “privacy blocks” via network
connections we might not be aware
of?
PS here’s another example of
possible asymmetric disclosure, this
time taken from Twitter. Suppose
@A, who has 50 or so followers,
tweets “It’s my birthday”. If B, who
feedjournal.
Congress fair.
Immediately dubbed MeeToo by
some analysts, MeeGo will create an
open source software platform which
Nokia reckons will be used in a new
generation of wireless devices. Both
companies want to attract a wide
range of operators, handset
manufacturers and software
developers.
"This is not a closed club," said Kai
Öistämö, Nokia's head of devices.
"We are inviting everyone into this.
"MeeGo will create a new strong
single platform that will drive the
future of mobile computing."
The announcement of MeeGo,
however, immediately raised
questions about the future of
Symbian, but Öistämö stressed: "This
is very consistent with Nokia's
software strategy. Symbian is the
perfect environment for
democratising the smartphone, what
MeeGo allows is the future of mobile
computing … well beyond what can
be done with smartphones today."
The deal may raise some eyebrows at
Google, however, as Intel's chief
executive Paul Otellini has sat on the
Google board since 2004.
• Mobile World Congress
• Microsoft
• Nokia
• Apple
• Steve Ballmer
• Mobile phones
• Vodafone
• T-Mobile
• Orange
• Intel
• Google
Richard Wray
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2010 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
is one of A’s followers, responds with
“@A Happy Birthday”, that response
will only appear in the feed of people
who follow both A and B, although it
can also be seen on B’s public page.
If C, who has 1,000 ‘unmoderated’
followers (that is, C never blocks
anyone) tweets “Hey, Happy
Birthday @A”, all of C’s followers
(which let’s assume are mainly
spambots and social phishbots(?)) see
the message. C has amplified A’s
birthdate details. (Admittedly, A had
already made that information public,
but their intention may only have
been to declare that fact to their 30 or
so followers. So what we have here is
potentially a case of unintended
amplification…?)
See also: Brand Association and
Your Twitter Followers
2

Emergent Urbanism, or ‘bottom-up planning’

(cityofsound)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 2:47:01 AM
I was asked to write an article around
‘bottom-up planning’ by
Architectural Review Australia a
while ago. It was published in the last
issue, and I’m re-posting here.
‘Bottom-up’ is hardly the most
elegant phrase, but I suspect you
know what I mean. Either way, I re-
cast it in the article as ‘emergent
urbanism’ which captured a little
more of the non-plan ning approaches
I was interested in (note also the blog
of same name, which I didn’t know
about beforehand).
It partly concerns increased
transparency over the urban planning
process but also, and perhaps more
interestingly, how citizens might be
able to proactively engage in the
creation of their cities. While it
applies to Australian cities most
closely, I hope the ideas here might
be more generally interesting.
And for those of you outside
Australia, there are a few subtitles
required to read this. The ‘iSnack 2.0
debacle’ refers to Kraft’s
unbelievably wrong-headed approach
to ‘crowd-sourcing’ (sort of) a new
name for a new cheesy derivative on
the legendary Vegemite spread -
more here.
And regarding this broad idea of
emergent urbanism, a particularly
inspirational recent project over this
way has been‘Renew
Newcastle’(Newcastle, New South
Wales that is) initiated by Marcus
Westbury. I mention it briefly in the
AR piece, but it’s worth spending a
little more time on it.
I’ve been working with Marcus on
The Edge project in Brisbane over the
last year, and it’s been hugely
heartening to watch the project’s
development from relatively low-key
beginnings to its now-evident
success.
In short, the city of Newcastle, NSW
is the largest coal port in the world.
Yet as the harbour
has essentially become a giant open
mouth belching coal to China, and
people and other business have
drifted to the suburbs (an over-
simplification, but ...), the historic
core of the city has hollowed out,
leaving numerous vacant buildings.
Heading into the heart of all this,
the Renew Newcastle project enabled
small businesses, artists,
entrepreneurs and various creatives to
find a temporary home in these
largely unoccupied city centre spaces.
By liaising with the building owners,
the project found a way of offering
super-short-term leases at peppercorn
rents in all kinds of pretty vacant
spaces. They overlaid a free wi-fi
network, enabling basic connectivity,
and offered a few other basic
amenities. The smart trick of the
rolling 30-day lease gave start-ups a
contract they could afford to get into,
and landlords a secure way of getting
them out of it should a better offer
arise. Simple.
The project has been achieved
without any meaningful funding at
all. As a result, the almost derelict
city centre is being used again, and
the spaces are rapidly being
reconfigured, becoming increasingly
active, safe, productive.
I can think of few more positive
examples of how to quickly make a
genuine difference in cities I.e. not
just at the surface layers of urban
design, as important as that is, or
festivals, or marketing, but at the very
core of economic, cultural and social
sustainability, with all the ensuring
knock-on effects for repairing urban
fabric and civic confidence. This is
why cities exist, after all, and for
Marucs and his colleagues to have
addressed this aspect directly, with
literally no funding, is thoroughly
inspirational.
Do read Marcus’s account, written a
few months ago now, and this update,
which outlines the story. It’s chock-
full of potential insight for urban
projects elsewhere.
It’ll be interesting to observe how it
develops from this point on. When
we worked on the Northern Quarter
Network about 15 years ago, the
development of Network from start-
up to ‘matured’ agency was tricky.
It’s similar to the growing pains
encountered by most start-ups, if they
choose to take the ‘growth’ model of
development. Renew Newcastle may
fade into the woodwork, maintain its
resourceful focus, grow to bigger and
better things, franchise across
different cities, or simply self-
destruct (intentionally or not). In
some respects this will be dictated by
the development of Newcastle itself,
but that’s now a symbiotic
relationship. Whatever happens, these
kind of stages are catalysts - akin to
Jaime Lerner’s famous‘urban
acupunctures’- and in that respect, it’s
already done its job.
Since I wrote the piece, I've also
discovered the YIMBY movement in
Stockholm, which is one of the best
things I’ve heard of recently in any
field.
Yimby = Yes In My Backyard
This is evidence of what I was trying
to get at with the piece below; that we
need systems, structures,
vocabularies, applications for
enabling positive, progressive
responses to our urban fabric that are
derived from a love for the city.
With that, have a read. (And thanks
to Mat Ward at AR for asking me to
write it. And then secretly expecting,
accounting for - and of course getting
- double the word-count he asked
for.)
Emergent Urbanism
First published in Architecture
Review Australia, November 2009
Given the iSnack 2.0 debacle, it’s not
been the best of times for the idea of
‘crowd-sourcing’ things of national
value. Yet the potential for direct
citizen engagement in the
development of our cities continues
to inspire discussion and activity
nonetheless, with the ‘bottom-up’
processes enabled by the internet’s
platforms increasingly seen as the
vehicle for such engagement.
Yet when asked to write this article
about ‘bottom-up planning’, I was
directed towards the recent
intervention by the City of Sydney
into the planning of various parts of
St. Vincent’s Hospital’s extension in
Paddington, apparently enabled by
the simple transmission of a few
renders.
In an article on the matter, Chris
Johnson asks whether “the free access
to web-based information on planning
projects [is] leading to a new
democracy in planning?” The answer
is of course ‘a qualified yes’, but
perhaps more importantly the
question should be, “What kind of
democracy, and what kind of
planning?”
In terms of the first question, much
of the debate here focuses on the
promise of transparency in such
processes, on tools that enable free
access to information that was
previously hard to come by. Yet, I’d
argue that this aspect of access is the
least interesting of all the possibilities
in internet-enabled bottom-up
planning, just as the professional
planners of the City of Sydney cannot
really be portrayed as the aggregate
coalescence of distributed
communities of interest that the name
implies.
It’s not that citizens don’t need
access to information about urban
development. We certainly do need
more transparency in government,
although even that comes with a
caveat as to its assumed value.
Largely addressing the various
government 2.0 programmes around,
Lawrence Lessig wrote that, “We are
not thinking critically enough about
where and when transparency
works… The 'naked transparency
movement,' as I will call it here, is not
going to inspire change. It will simply
push any faith in our political system
over the cliff.”
We would do well to consider what
this means for urban development,
which is often teetering on its own
cliffs of public opinion. While the St.
Vincent’s incident does not appear to
be representative of the more
shadowy aspects of Australia's urban
development, which have often
numbed the populace into despairing
disinterest, it is already clear that
holding back or obfuscating details
about urban development,
deliberately or otherwise, is not going
to work. Trying to get away with it is
no longer a plausible strategy. We
can look to the winner of the recent
GovHack competition in Canberra for
an example of the new kinds of
application that will deal with this. As
one of the event's organisers, John
Allsopp, describes: “ LobbyClue is an
in-depth visualisation of lobbying
groups’ relations to government
agencies, including tenders awarded,
links between the various agencies,
and physical office locations.”
You can imagine the shiver down
certain spines when that application
emerged, and that’s only the start. But
EMERGENT page 4

Kevin Hale of Wufoo talks UX, Funding,
Startups and API integration
(Carsonified » Blog)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:08:25 AM
Editors note: In this edition of “ 5
Questions for” Kevin Hale, co-
founder of Wufoo, talks about how
Wufoo came into being, their
approach to new features, why they
moved away from the Valley and
how to bring personality into your
web app. Kevin will be presenting a
intimate workshop, “ How to Change
Free Users Into Paying Customers“,
at Future of Web Apps Miami. Buy
your tickets now.
Wufoo originally started out with
funding from YCombinator. For
those who might be considering the
seed funding route could you share
some of your experience and offer
some insights into the process?
I have nothing but good things to say
about YCombinator. It is no
exaggeration for me to say that it
transformed the lives of the founders
pretty completely. They gave us
introductions and opportunities that
we would have been hard pressed to
recreate solely on our own and it’s
also been a gift that just keeps on
giving.
The growing network of knowledge
from the founders we interact with
and have access to just by association
is staggeringly resourceful and
amazing. I actually try to do whatever
I can to help give back to the program
including giving free workshops or
providing design reviews whenever
we go out there and visit the newly
funded batch of YCombinator
startups.
The blessing of that program was
that we were able to hole up in an
apartment together and do nothing
but craft Wufoo into existence. I
think a lot of people forget the
importance of just getting a chance at
getting away from distractions. No
girlfriends, no regular friends, no
anything else.
Because it’s YCombinator and
because it’s Silicon Valley, we met
some pretty amazing people out there
(CEOs, Investment Bankers, other
entrepreneurs, Google/Yahoo
employees, other young founders,
plenty of reporters, etc.) and it lead to
a round of Angel Investment in the
end, which is what got us to launch
and eventually profitability.
Ironically, one of the reasons we
moved back to the east coast in April,
was because we ended up making too
many friends and were spending way
too much time in meetings. We went
back to Tampa to basically hole up
again (for much cheaper living costs)
and get our baby launched.
For anyone on the fence, it’s totally
worth it and I hope you at least apply,
because the application process alone
is insightful (if not a wake up call) in
terms of helping teams rehearse and
focus their company’s message,
product and direction.
Introducing new UI (user interface)
elements to an app always involved
an element of risk. How do you, as
the person responsible for the Wufoo
UX (user experience), go about
introducing new features and
responding to feedback from users?
Like most software teams, we do
love making new features and
releasing them to our users. Our goal,
however, is not to create code that
just checks off items on a feature list.
Just to be clear, while I am the first
person to jump start how an interface
will look and feel, and for the most
part, the last person to polish the
details before they’re released,
everyone on our team participates in
the direction of our application, the
testing of those new features, and
maintaining them from a support
point of view.
Because we’re a small team that
desires to stay a small team, everyone
has to wear multiple hats in our
company and that includes manning
the inbox and doing customer support
every single week. One of the
interesting side effects of having a
company where everyone has to
answer support emails, is that
everyone has a stake in making sure
application is as easy to use as
possible. We actually call this
approach to designing software
Support Driven Development and it’s
been really great for us.
The priorities and desire for
simplicity and clarity are actually the
result of people wanting to make their
weekly support interactions as few
and positive as possible. Getting a
feature into Wufoo that adds
unnecessary complexity is a big no-
no in our company. In fact, we make
adding any element to the interface
the hardest thing possible in our
design process. Every button, every
word, every link, every switch is
scrutinized to make sure it’s
absolutely necessary and won’t
generate a future support request.
Additionally, users are also really
bad at both explaining what they need
and what other people need. It’s just
part of human nature to justify biases
rather than consider needs objectively
from the vantage point of what’s
good for the community and the
future of the app itself. This is not to
say you shouldn’t bother with your
users (or your designer’s intuition)
when you’re building your product or
considering new features.
I sincerely believe that users are the
key (and intuition does help), but you
have to realize that user interface
studies have shown time and again
that what you have to trust is what the
users DO and not what they SAY,
which is why getting an interface out
there quickly and used in an
observable way is crucial. After that,
it’s all just successful iterations based
on feedback from those on the
ground.
Wufoo now integrates with many of
the big name web apps out there. For
those creating web apps today how
important is opening up your data via
APIs and offering quick and easy
integration to popular apps?
First off, providing an API to users
shouldn’t be put on the back burner
because it’s difficult. Any good
development team is going to be
designing their app around some sort
of structured framework or API
system internally and so the logistics
of providing public access, from what
we’ve seen, usually revolves around
jumping over the hurdles of
semantics and documentation.
To me, what makes creating web
applications really exciting and much
more interesting than creating
traditional desktop software is that
it’s built on a foundation (The
Internet!) that is inherently primed
and geared towards generating
vibrant ecosystems regardless of
distance. I believe it would be a
terrible mistake (not to mention a
rather ironic tragedy) to spend time
creating software that is literally built
on top of networks and then isolating
yourself from everyone around you.
With Wufoo, we’ve been doing our
best to leverage that potential as
much as possible and it’s worked out
really great for us. So many of the
services we integrate with like
PayPal, Campaign Monitor,
FreshBooks, Highrise, MailChimp
and Twitter are valued brands to our
users. Because they are run by really
incredible companies, one of the nice
side effects of that is when those
products improve our products are
essentially improving by association.
One of the methods, we’re most
excited about is our new WebHook
implementation that will allow any
3
developer or application to make a
Wufoo form forward a HTTP POST
of all the variables collected to any
web page they specify. The idea
behind WebHooks has been around
since 2006, but they’re really starting
to take off now because of how easy
the spec is to make the magic happen
between two services.
The Wufoo interface is very fun and
playful (in terms of the typefaces,
logo, design, language etc). Was this
a very conscious decision or just a
reflection of it’s creators?
Definitely, a bit of both.
We knew that we were not the only
form builders in this space, so it was
really important to us that the
difference come out in the personality
of the product in addition to its ease
of use. In the beginning, we tried to
look at other interfaces for
inspiration, but we realized quickly
that we weren’t going to learn much
about how to make something easy
from Microsoft Access or Infopath. I
actually still don’t know how to use
either software to create a form.
The inspiration for our color palette,
though, did come from our
competitors. Everyone else out there
at the time was using either some
variation of cubicle blue or corporate
gray to brand their product or service.
It was really depressing to see so
much software out there designed to
remind people they’re making
databases in a windowless office and
so we immediately knew we wanted
to go in the opposite direction and use
a lot of vibrant colors.
My goal was to design Wufoo to feel
like something Fisher Price would
make. We were determined from the
get go to make sure Wufoo wasn’t
just going to be excellent at what it
does, it was going to be fun, too.
As far as reflection goes, my
background is fine arts-based, so my
perspective on the Web is a bit
different from most designers in the
industry. I studied Digital Arts and
Modern American English Literature
at a very small private liberal arts
college on the east coast of Florida.
KEVIN page 13
4
EMERGENT
continued from page 2
while we have to get on the front foot
about using such technology to help
drive a change in culture, on their
own they’re not enough – technology
will not directly drive genuine change
in attitude, nor should it.
The attitude required for healthy
urban development is angled towards
positive contributions to the city, not
mere exposés of existing bad practice,
and here we come to the second
question of “What kind of planning?”
Bottom-up implies a more
sophisticated engagement with
citizens, and from citizens. Genuine
engagement in urban development is
beyond manipulating dynamic
viewsheds, browsing local census
data, and poring over a developer’s
financial projections. It means
opening up the question of what the
city is for to its citizens. It means
putting many of the tools for design
into the hands of citizens, to construct
their own everyday city.
One might even argue for the
removal of all planning guidelines
and structures. After all, most of the
world’s great cities are not the
product of planning, no matter how
enlightened. Certainly some have
been well-formed by benevolent
dictators or patrons, yet their
personality has come from the slow
accretion of individual citizens
adopting and adapting those spaces,
like ficus thriving on béton brut
monuments.
While the history of urbanism is
essentially one of creative tension
between the grands projets of master-
planning and the everyday adaptation
of citizens, the behaviour of the latter
has parallels in other areas,
particularly when seen as a system. In
his book Emergence, Steven Johnson
describes the processes of the
adaptive self-organising systems of
ants, brains and cities in similar
fashion, and although his metaphors
are sometimes stretched beyond
breaking point, it still might be more
productive to describe these ‘bottom-
up processes’ as a form of ‘emergent
urbanism’. And in this phrase we
would seem to have the promise of
open-source operating systems such
as Linux, or the distributed
knowledge production of Wikipedia.
How might this apply to an
Australian city?
Sydney in particular is full of holes –
tiny pockets of possibility that usually
lie fallow. A cursory paw around with
Google Earth will reveal gaps in
terraces like missing teeth, or small
underused car parks, or a disused
warehouse, or a well-located but
overgrown rail siding, and so on.
Every suburb has hundreds of them.
Moreover, there are those potential
subtractions and adaptations that
could reveal yet more space – defunct
electricity substations (some of them
very beautiful), for instance. The
Renew Newcastle programme is a
supreme example of creative re-use
of such places.
Planning – a fairly cumbersome
bureaucratic process – cannot scale
down to this level, yet perhaps these
are the very places that make a
difference to everyday people. The
likes of Darling Harbour do not make
that difference, for all the millions
spent on them. They’re something for
the weekend, but not for the week.
Even the world-class re-
developments of Carriageworks,
Paddington Reservoir and Ballast
Point Park fall into this category. No,
emergent urbanism is more about
knitting together the everyday loose
ends in urban fabric, the parts where
individuals can coalesce into small
groups and make a difference right
away, outside of traditional planning
processes that are choked by what
coders call ‘cruft’ – the extraneous
code that creates friction around
otherwise elegant structures.
This is where emergent urbanism
could be best realised. There are
numerous examples of websites and
services popping up now that
approach this possibility. Some focus
on everyday maintenance of the city –
such as FixMyStreet or CitySourced.
Yet there is potential here for a
service which is not simply an
advanced way of complaining or
reporting to the city, but instead
facilitates positive interventions; that
would enable people to highlight
these small spaces as possibilities for
reinvention, suggest some new use
cases, even sketch out possible
structures using Google’s new
Building Maker tool, say. The
process might be initiated and
enhanced by enabling access to
‘everyday data’ – the kind of
pervasive layer of real-time sensor-
driven public data that promises to
reveal the truly emergent behaviour
of many aspects of the city. Citizens
will inevitably end up with more data
available to them than planners have
ever dreamt of, just as they will tend
to have a more in-depth
understanding of their
neighbourhoods, if often
unarticulated.
The no-doubt rudimentary nature of
the resulting sketches is not the point,
at least not yet. When enough people
have coalesced around an idea and
made investments in emotion, finance
and time – in a similar model to the
crowd-sourced venture capital service
Kickstarter, perhaps – then
professionals of various hues can be
engaged to more subtly aid the
development process.
This is a highly simplistic overview,
and crowd-sourcing ideas isn’t a
straightforward process, as any Kraft
branding executive will tell you
(assuming you can still find one to
talk to). Equally, urban fabric is not
the same as Linux code, just as the
difference between a real city and
SimCity is almost infinitely vast.
Although operating systems can
usefully be thought of as immersive
environments, compared to the multi-
sensory, multi-layered richness of our
cities, they are vastly more simplistic.
Yet note the broad potential in tools
like Kickstarter or the emerging
augmented reality-enabled iPhone
apps, and think how they could be
applied to those everyday urban
spaces where, again, only
opportunistic and emergent urbanism
can scale down to deliver results.
This even has something of the pre-
internet flavours of the kind of
Angeleno-led innovative ‘ magical
urbanism’ that Mike Davis has
written about, or the typically
mischievous'Non-Plan' thesis of
Banham, Barker, Hall and Price, or
the engaged denizens of Jane
Jacobs’s Greenwich Village.
But there are a few issues with a
fully emergent urbanism, perhaps
most vividly conveyed by observing
its illogical conclusion. Hong Kong’s
now-destroyed Kowloon Walled City
is described in Thomas J
Campanella’s book The Concrete
Dragon as “the closest thing to a truly
self-regulating, self-sufficient, self-
determining modern city that has ever
been built”. While the more romantic
urbanists amongst us might love the
idea of the Walled City, most of us
wouldn’t have lasted more than a day
in such an environment.
Another issue is that urban
infrastructure has become an ever
more important component of a
sustainable future, and no such
aggregation of individuals is likely to
produce energy-efficient transit
networks, energy production or land-
use with the necessary scale and
urgency. Here we will need the
guiding hand of the professional and
the elected representative, with a
reach beyond Facebook, Ning and
Twitter.
There is also something worrying in
the rhetoric of bottom-up that
eternally casts it in opposition to ‘top-
down’. While the work of Jacobs was
of course profoundly important, it can
be argued that much of her legacy
now resides not in the open systems
of street life she so vividly wrote
about, but in a kind of privileged
NIMBYism that systematically resists
structural change within gentrified
neighbourhoods.
In a recent ABC Radio National
interview, Michael Sorkin followed a
question about Jacobs by describing
this “oppositional culture [in which]
one of the only ways that citizens can
engage planning and other public
processes is by their power to say
no.”
Sorkin continued, “There must be
ways to activate a more positive
relationship to planning the
environment – rather than simply
awaiting decisions by private owners
or developers and simply responding
to them with our powers to block
projects, how much more beautiful it
would be if the city were to more
rigourously plan its own destiny?”
Indeed there must be ways. In
emergent urbanism, we have the
seeds of such a beautiful city, yet it
can only be realised in constructive
tension with its more directed
equivalent. Despite the name, bottom-
up cannot be seen as an alternative –
in opposition – but as something
more symbiotic and interdependent.
Ironically, we might need
professional planning and urban
governance to be at the top of its
game in order to enable the best in
emergent urbanism. This is because
both forms of urban behaviour need
to be infused with a positive sense of
the city. If either side becomes
perceived as negative – as now, with
the public perception of many official
planning and development processes
– the other side simply slips into an
oppositional stance.
This might well describe our current
position, and our cities are left with a
million (not in my) backyards locked
together in collective stasis, a stand-
off of ‘progress versus heritage’,
while the nation gets less and less
agile in terms of social and economic
mobility, and our cities cannot be
prepared for the 21st century.
Recent trips to Beijing and Seoul
confirmed the necessity for the
existence of top-down planning.
China and much of South-East Asia is
able to move impressively on urban
infrastructure in ways that we simply
cannot. Yet amidst calmer waters
than those of the special economic
zones of Shenzhen, Shanghai and
New Songdo City, other nations have
developed well-considered planning
processes, often predicated on well-
run open competitions (working as
part of the successful team on a
recent urban development project in
Helsinki, organised and run by the
Finnish innovation fund SITRA with
real verve, intelligence, and ambition,
I was struck by the differences to
similar scale projects back home).
While this is partly to do with the
mechanics of such processes, more
importantly it is to do with the nature
of the conversation about cities.
In his book Risk, Dan Gardner
discusses how narrative is far more
influential than data within a culture.
Despite our highly urbanised nation,
what is clear is that there are only a
few positive narratives around
urbanism in Australian cities. For any
kind of urbanism to work, emergent
or otherwise, Australia needs to
discover an affection for cities, and
rapidly, such that it can then embrace
everything that comes with that:
social mobility, cultural progress,
sustainable activity, economic
resilience, diversity, open-
mindedness; civilisation, in short.
Developing an active narrative
around urbanism – meaning that the
currently polarised camps of
densification and suburbanisation can
come to the table for a grown-up
conversation, for instance – is
imperative. Without that, the toxic
atmosphere around both top-down
and bottom-up planning will continue
to bloom and billow like a Sydney
dust storm, coating the city in a fine
layer of inhibition. Our cities, and our
civilisation, cannot afford to slow
down at this point. This doesn’t mean
they should necessarily continue to
grow in raw numbers – although they
no doubt will – but they must
certainly continue to grow in terms of
maturity.
Cities are constantly in tension, and
inherently unbalanced systems. That
is how they enable change. For
successful cities to emerge unscathed
from the wheels of creative
destruction, an informed, engaged
and enabled urbanism needs to
inhabit both professional circles and
everyday people. While we might be
drawn to emergent systems as the
other ones are filed in the too-hard
basket, it’s in the interlocking totality
of this top-down/bottom-up system,
suffuse with a positive sense of what
a city is, that the answer lies. We
have to do nothing less than redesign
our culture in order to successfully
redesign our cities.

Google Buzz flies high, but won’t kill Twitter or
Facebook
(VentureBeat)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 2:41:25 PM
With Google Buzz, Google has
launched yet another product to
compete in the social networking
arena. It’s just one week new, and
already Buzz has a significant user
base and poses a viable threat to
several existing players.
Google, like Microsoft, keeps trying.
In the social networking space, it has
made several attempts to become
more relevant: Orkut, though fairly
popular in Brazil and India, never
really took off in the US and became
more irrelevant with rise of
Facebook. Even it’s OpenSocial
initiative (which aimed at making
social networking more open by
allowing various networks to
collaborate by using OpenSocial
platform) and Friend Connect (the
ability to log into websites without
creating a new user login) didn’t help
much.
How is Google Buzz tackling the
problem differently? What does it
mean for other players including
Facebook, Twitter — and even
location based services such as
Foursquare and Loopt? Will it
succeed where Google’s other
initiatives did not? These are the
questions I’ll attempt to answer.
Network effects. OpenSocial allowed
developers to write applications for
several social networks at once. For
example an OpenSocial application
could run on Orkut, hi5, and
Friendster. On the other hand an
application written for Facebook
could only run on Facebook.
Facebook, not surprisingly, never
joined OpenSocial. This is typical of
a leading player in a market, since it
has more to lose when joining an
open platform.
OpenSocial seemed like a good bet.
After all, why would developers not
want to write an application that
would run on several platforms rather
than just one (Facebook)? Network
effects are strong in social networks
— that is, the value of a social
network to a user grows as more
users join that network. So if I have
more friends on Facebook, I am more
likely to join it than I am to join
Orkut. OpenSocial, though great for
developers on the surface, missed this
critical ingredient. It encourages
social networks to exist in silos,
therefore doesn’t encourage users to
switch to another network. Moreover,
it ignores the fact that developers are
more incentivized to write for a
platform where there are more users.
So even if Facebook is a closed
platform, developers are happy to
write for it, since that’s where they
get most audience (the same is true
for iPhone, by the way). This in turn
encourages even more users to join
Facebook, because there are more
applications available for Facebook
than any other social networks.
Google Buzz has found a clever way
to avoid the fate of Orkut and
OpenSocial: With the Gmail
subscriber base of more than 150m,
Buzz escaped the problem of having
to gather a critical mass. Arguably,
many Gmail contacts are not
necessarily “friends”, but even if a
decent percentage of them are, users
are more likely to use Buzz than
Orkut. Besides, it’s built right into
Gmail, which means you don’t have
to log in to a different portal to access
the social network.
Time spent. Several people who use
Gmail already have a browser tab
open with Gmail, so they’re already
spending a decent amount of time on
Gmail. So they’re to spend time on
Buzz as well. In addition, any Buzz
updates appear as new messages
under the Buzz label right there in
your Gmail screen, so they’re
tempting to read. This is really a big
deal. I’ve already interacted with
several of my contacts on Buzz that
I’ve never interacted with on
Facebook or Twitter even though
they’re present on those social
networks as well. And it’s simply
because I don’t have to login to a new
site (such as Google Wave or Orkut).
Threads. Unlike Twitter, which
introduced notions of “replies” and
“retweets”, Buzz is using an already
familiar way of replying. You simply
respond to a buzz or an update the
way you reply to an email. It then
becomes part of a thread of
conversation, again a concept that
Gmail made popular a few years ago.
So, while several people still don’t
understand Twitter “replies”, they’ll
have no problem understanding how
to reply to someone in Google Buzz.
This lowers the barrier to adoption for
many non-tech-savvy users, who
have yet to understand the utility of
Twitter.
Bigger portfolio of applications.
Google is nowhere close to Facebook
when it comes to providing a
community of applications for its
social network, but it’s far ahead in
terms of stand alone web apps that
can complement Google Buzz.
Google Profiles, for example,
provides a public page for a Google
Buzz user. So, instead of having to
log in to Gmail, you can see updates
from a user from his or her Google
profile page. Facebook, on the other
hand, has been trying, without much
success, to make its user updates
public without exposing more
information. But since, in case of
Facebook, user updates are so tightly
integrated with the social network, it
hasn’t met much success yet.
Picasa, a photo management
software, is another app that
complements Buzz. Buzz has tapped
into it for sharing pictures. Picasa
provides much better quality and
higher speed than Facebook photos,
although it provides limited free
storage. That limit is quickly going to
increase, as storage becomes more of
a commodity and Google pushes
Buzz even further.
Google Latitude is another such app.
On both the iPhone and recent
versions of Android, Google Buzz is
already integrated with Latitude, and
instantly makes Buzz a competitor to
popular location-based social
networks. As I discussed in an earlier
article, one of the biggest challenges
of these networks is their lack of a
substantial user base. Google Buzz
can circumvent that problem by
tapping into its existing user base.
Similarly, there’s no reason Google
couldn’t extend the interoperability to
Google Calendar and Google Groups
as well, for example. In my view,
Google’s portfolio of applications and
Buzz’s ability to interact with them is
the single most powerful weapon
Google Buzz has.
Ecosystem. One of the big reasons
behind Twitter’s success is the ability
for third-party developers to write
applications for it. Google Buzz is
taking the same approach by
launching Buzz API. It’s using
several open standards as Atom,
MediaRSS, OAuth, to make Buzz
more interoperable. You’ll see a
bunch of third-party sites and
applications that take advantage of
this opportunity.
Enterprise. Google Buzz’s ambitions
are not limited to social networks and
location-based services. It also hopes
to take on Microsoft’s Sharepoint by
launching Google Buzz for the
enterprise. (Keep in mind, this isn’t
going to happen anytime soon, just
the way Google Docs still have a long
way to go before they catch up with
Microsoft Office. Moreover, Google
will be wise to focus on the end user
game before it launches into
corporate arena.)
So Buzz has a lot going for it, but
there are several reasons why Google
Buzz is unlikely to kill Twitter or
Facebook.
Limited to Gmail. People will
continue to think of Buzz as an email
portal rather than a social network
one. This puts Buzz in an odd spot.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Google
Buzz is limited to Gmail users. What
if I want to use Buzz to interact with
non Gmail users? And although Buzz
will overcome this limitation with its
open API, anyone who doesn’t have a
Gmail account wouldn’t be too
tempted to use Buzz, thus limiting its
addressable user base.
Positioning. It isn’t clear what
Google is positioning Buzz as. Is it a
social network like Facebook? Is it a
microblogging platform like Twitter?
In contrast with Buzz, Facebook’s
and Twitter’s value propositions are
very clear and distinct. Buzz, on the
other hand, seems to be a hybrid of
the two. The vague positioning can
play against it.
Twitter for example, however
annoying it may be to some, has
vehemently restricted updates to 140
characters. Furthermore, it has strictly
been a text platform. This philosophy
has kept Twitter simple and helped
5
build a strong ecosystem of apps
around Twitter. For example, TwitPic
allows users to post pictures on
Twitter by posting links to TwitPic.
Google Buzz on the other hand has
no such limitation, which makes it
more heavyweight than Twitter. At
the same time, it can be promising to
some users who find Facebook
cluttered with applications and
settings.
Jack of all trades, master of none.
Google Buzz wants to be your
Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and
Foursquare at the same time! This
might sound impressive, but the
problem with this approach is that
many users prefer best-of-the-breed
applications — that is, they typically
use an application that is leader in its
space. Unseating one player such as
Twitter can be easier than trying to
unseat five players at once. Twitter’s
devoted following is unlikely to
switch to a yet untested and a vaguely
positioned platform. Similarly, people
who are fans of Foursquare are
unlikely to find the same kind for fun
with Google Buzz for mobile.
However, users who have yet to
experience Twitter or Foursquare, are
more likely to use Buzz simply
because it’s part of Gmail. This is a
huge advantage for Buzz. Moreover,
Buzz can succeed exactly because it
is not Twitter or Facebook: It is yet
another category of social media
platform that will become as
important as some of the most heavily
used platforms today.
User interface. Google’s products are
known for their simple but not so
sexy interface. This plays out well for
some people, but not so well for those
who prefer more user friendly and
visually pleasing apps. Facebook,
despite its problems, is pleasing to
look at, and serves as central
destination for my social networking
applications and updates.
Privacy. There is a lot of chatter
about Buzz’s confusing privacy
policies. Google has taken quick
notice of this, as it should. In my
view, the privacy issues are
temporary, and as long as Google
listens to users and takes prompt
action to fix it in the next few days
and weeks, privacy will turn out to be
a minor issue compared to others I’ve
discussed (although be sure to check
out our earlier story by
Subrahmanyam KVJ about how Buzz
signals an oncoming era of redefined
privacy).
Social gaming and apps. Facebook
has created an incredible ecosystem
of third-party developers with
companies like Zynga raking in 100s
of millions of dollars in revenue each
year. These players are unlikely to
switch their loyalties overnight. This
means that many who use Facebook
as a destination for its abundance of
fun apps, are unlikely to switch to
Google Buzz.
Google Buzz is immediately more
popular than its earlier attempts. Its
active user base is increasing by the
hour. I have no doubt it will go far
beyond Orkut and pose a credible
threat to Facebook, Twitter,
Foursquare, and others. However, it’s
GOOGLE page 17
6

Eye See: Astronomical Architecture Of The

Jantar Mantar
(WebUrbanist)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 10:00:46 AM
[ By Steve in Architecture & Design,
History & Factoids, Travel & Places.
]
The Jantar Mantar – 5 sprawling
astronomical observatories – was
built by Maharaja Jai Singh II in the
early years of the 18th century. Not
one of these elaborate ancient
observatories boasted a telescope.
What they had, and have still, are
grandeur, beauty, and exceptional
accuracy as calculating instruments.
The surviving Jantar Mantar
observatories, preserved and restored,
are a testament to the skill and
ingenuity of India’s royal
astronomers.
Jaipur and Jai Singh II
(images via: Rivaaj Magazine,
IN.com and Rajasthan Info Tour
Guide)
Maharaja Jai Singh II founded the
city of Jaipur, located in modern-day
Rajasthan, in 1727. The city owes its
wide streets and gridlike layout to an
architectural master plan – in fact,
Jaipur was the first planned city in
India. Jaipur is known today as The
Pink City, referring to the 1853 visit
of Great Britain’s Prince of Wales in
which the entire city was painted
pink.
(image via: Arturii)
Jaipur’s major buildings were
ordered by the “warrior-astrononer”
Jai Singh II on the advice of India’s
leading architects and
mathematicians. Notable architectural
masterpieces include the Palace of
Winds or Hawa Mahal(above) and
the Jalal Mahal, a pleasure palace that
rises from the center of a lake. The
Jantar Mantar in Jaipur was part of
this first flurry of construction and
over the next decade other versions
were built in Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura structures is the giant sundial known centuries, only one (at Mathura) was (images via: LiveIndia and Atlas
and Varanasi. as the Samrat Yantra(The Supreme completely deconstructed and their Obscura)
Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar Instrument). A staircase rises 27 building blocks reused. At various The Delhi Jantar Mantar, located
(images via: Asia Explorers and meters (88.5 ft) to a small cupola points in the 19th and 20th centuries, near Connaught Place in Delhi,
Go2Holiday) where notable readings were restoration work on both the differs from its twin at Jaipur in that it
The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is the announced. With instruments of this structures and their landscaped is constructed of the local red
largest and best preserved of Jai type, size does matter: the Samrat grounds was undertaken with the sandstone. This aspect is uniquely
Singh II’s five pre-telescopic Yantra is the world’s largest sundial pleasing results we can see today. beautiful when combined with
observatories, featuring fourteen and can tell the time with an accuracy Heavy Metal Music of the Spheres gleaming white marble.
major geometric devices. One might of 2 seconds. (images via: Imageo and Galen Fry Misra Yantra
ask why, over a century after Galileo (images via: Swimming in India and Singer) (image via: Redes)
had invented the telescope, India’s Galen Fry Singer) As mentioned, the calculating The Misra Yantra was designed as a
rulers were still unfamiliar with it. In The measuring surfaces of the instruments of the Jantar Mantar were tool to determine the shortest and
all probability they knew of the Samrat Yantra and other calculating constructed of local stone faced with longest days of the year. It could also
telescope, but the Jantar Mantars instruments are faced with white white marble. One other material was be used to indicate the exact moment
were not that type of observatory. marble and have incised notches used used: bronze. Various thin rings and of noon in various cities and locations
The traditional instruments employed to note the path of the sun’s shadow. facings were crafted from the ductile regardless of their distance from
were designed instead to calculate the Observers can actually view the alloy of copper and tin – though it Delhi – quite remarkable!
precise positions of celestial objects, progress of the shadow, which moves may tarnish, it will not rust and thus (images via: Henley Graphics)
crucial knowledge of which was at a rate of 1 mm 1/25 of an inch) per not stain and crack the stonework. The technical requirements of the
required to determine horoscopes and second, or 6 cm (2.4 inches) per (image via: Galen Fry Singer) Misra Yantra pushed India’s
to pinpoint auspicious days. minute. One would think that bronze fittings astronomers, craftsmen and
(images via: Norman Koren and Restoration & Preservation of the would be the first to be looted in stonemasons to their limit. Each
Galen Fry Singer) Jantar Mantar troubled times, but those at the marble facing stone had to be
One of the highlights of the Jaipur (images via: Wikimedia and various Jantar Mantar appear as precisely curved and set in exact
Jantar Mantar are the dozen precisely Wikimedia) though they have been in place for alignment with its neighbors. Here’s a
angled structures that each target a Jai Singh II was a singular leader centuries. short video that gives one an “in
specific constellation. Most of these among the statesmen of his era and Delhi’s Jantar Mantar person” look at the amazing Misra
were restored in 1901 and have been few of his descendants approached (image via: Getty Images) Yantra:
well-maintained up to the present the standards he set in the arts of war, Completed in 1724, the Delhi Jantar The Misra Yantra observatory in
day. science and governance. The Jantar Mantar had decayed considerably by New Delhi, via India Video
Samrat Yantra, The Supreme Mantar built in the 1720s and 1730s 1867 when the above photograph was Ram Yantra
Instrument were neither added to nor upgraded in taken. Much like the Great Sphinx of (images via: Redes, Ibibo and Bob
(images via: Obvious, Fabric and any way. Egypt, however, it was not to late to Culley)
Lines and Eyefetch) (images via: WMF and Travelpod) return the calculating instruments of The twin circular sundials of the
The most imposing of the Jaipur Though all 5 of the Jantar Mantar Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to their former EYE page 15
Jantar Mantar’s astronomical drifted into disuse and decay over the glory.
 7

Dazzling Digital Illustration: 15 Artists to Watch

(WebUrbanist)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 10:00:55 AM
[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geek Art,
Graffiti & Drawing, Technology &
Futurism. ]
Watching an artist turn a piece of
paper and some graphite into a
realistic, imaginative work of art is
amazing enough – but somehow,
seeing such illustrations come to life
from pixels on a computer screen can
seem even more magical. Whether
producing imagery for video games
or for their own pleasure, these 15
digital illustrators combine modern
technology with raw talent to create
jaw-dropping works of art.
Mark Verhaagen
The lush candy-colored landscapes
and strange but adorable creatures in
Mark Verhaagen’s imagination spring
to vivid life through his colorful
vector-based illustrations, which have
been featured in publications like
Computer Arts Magazine. Verhaagen,
a freelance illustrator, counts MTV,
Nickelodeon and Vodafone UK
among his clients. Paul Davey
Packed with color, symbolism and an
eye-catching depth of detail, Paul
Davey’s illustrations still have one
quality that stands out above the
others: a luminosity that gives each
scene the sense of taking place in a
dream world. The Jamaican artist
currently resides in Miami and is in
the process of creating a graphic
novel.
He says of his drawings, “They
usually revolve around me and people
in my life. What they’re feeling and results are worth it. Lately, I’ve been stunning 3-D digital illustrations he uses a combination of programs
how they make me feel are things I experimenting with adding texture to produces today. An environmental including Photoshop, Painter and
consider when I’m planning and I’m my paintings digitally.” Yuko graphic designer in Tokyo by day, occasionally 3-D software to produce
not satisfied with my work unless it Shimizu Nakamura spends most of his free works that look like they were
gives me some kind of visceral Freelance illustrator Yuko time on his passion. painted centuries ago by a master
reaction when I look at it.” Tiago Shimizu(not to be confused with He said in an interview with artist. Denis Tolkishevsky
Hoisel another artist of the same name who Templates.com, “Now a lot of 3D Digital illustrator Denis
You may not know Tiago Hoisel’s designed Hello Kitty) creates artists pursue photorealism in 3D Tolkishevsky uses 3D modeling
name, but chances are, you’ve seen illustrations that are utterly modern, modeling. Of course this trend is programs to create stunningly
his work. Hoisel has an incredible yet undeniably colored by her pretty interesting to me too. However, realistic works of art like
ability to find the inner cartoon experiences growing up in an old- I like that special creativity and “DragONtFLY”, above. Tolkishevsky
character in just about anyone – and fashioned Japanese family. Somehow subjective expressions that the painter has won an incredible array of awards
even bring out the real person in simultaneously delicate and bold, the puts into the real object. I put my own for his work, and it’s easy to see why
cartoon characters. But these are far New York-based artist’s work has vision of the image into the object after viewing his online portfolio.
from sidewalk caricatures… the appeared in magazines like Mother and I think this is what makes my Tolkishevsky told Templates.com, “I
attention to detail is incredible. The Jones and ad campaigns for works so special. I search for my remember I saw 3D Max for the first
Brazilian artist works primarily in Microsoft, Pepsi and The Gap. image tenaciously trying to create the time in the university. A friend of
Photoshop CS3. Michael Oswald Mathieu Leyssenne best combination of the shapes, mine showed it to me. It seemed to be
Photomanipulation artist Michael French artist Mathieu Leyssenne got textures and lighting.” Mark Behm really complicated thing at that time,
Oswald transforms ordinary a much earlier start than most artists Mark Behm is primarily an animator, so many buttons, menus, and
photographs into fantastical at digital illustration: he began having worked for Dreamworks and commands and I haven’t risked to
illustrations that are infinitely more working in Deluxe Paint 2 on his Blue Sky Studios in the past – but his start studying it back then. About four
interesting than reality. He says on Amiga 500 at the age of 14, long digital illustration stands alone as a years ago 3D max drew my attention
his website, “My style is best before the advent of Photoshop and testament to his incredible talent. again. Surfing through Internet I’d
described as ‘photo-manipulation on 3D modeling programs. Of his work, Behm released a portfolio book called run across one of 3D galleries, and I
steroids’ combining unique Leyssenne told It’s Art Mag, “Each “Nightwork”, packed with many of was shocked with what I saw, so I
Photoshop techniques and digital of my characters has a story that I his best pieces. decided to try creating something
painting. With the exception of the imagine while I draw them. I like to Of his influences, Behm told Strut similar. I’ve bought a book with a
original digital photograph, my work give life to my drawings, to give them Your Reel, “I grew up surrounded by trial version of 3D max and started
is created entirely on a computer a “look”, an identity, a personality of art from giants like Frazetta and studying.” Shane Prigmore
utilizing my knowledge of digital their own. I also imagine them in a Berkey and Vallejo. That whole Anyone who has seen Henry Selick’s
techniques and the traditional art situation, which I think makes them scifi/fantasy scene was huge in the recent animated feature Coraline,
skills I learned in my younger days.” much more interesting and yes, 70s and my Dad, who was an artist based on the book by Neil Gaiman,
Alberto Cerriteno funny.” David Newton himself, freely fed my appetite for it has seen Shane Prigmore’s art. The
Lighthearted and fun, Mexican Acclaimed digital artist David with art books and posters and digital artist was a Principal
illustrator Alberto Cerriteno’s work is Newton creates modern illustrations comics. Later I was heavily Character Designer on the film along
created using a unique combination for clients like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, influenced by a handful of golden age with Shannon Tindle and Dan Krall,
of both traditional and digital media. The BBC and The Wall Street illustrators and orientalist painters.” also working on some of the
In an interview with Computer Arts Journal. According to Newton’s Craig Mullins animation. Emil Degrey
Magazine, Cerriteno says, “Painting agents, “He prefers to work with A painterly quality not often found in Lead artist at a Disney game studio
and fine art provide richness and a clients looking for strong creative digital art sets Craig Mullins’ called Avalanche, Emil Degrey uses
feeling that I like – and results that inputs from him. He tries to avoid the illustrations well apart from most. digital software to turn his sketches
are impossible to create from scratch clichéd in all he does.” Kazuhiko The digital painter started out in into dark yet colorful, nuanced
on the computer. But working with Nakamura product design, working for Ford, illustrations – as seen in the images
Photoshop and Illustrator daily gives Kazuhiko Nakamura was a big fan of before realizing that his design sense above and on his blog, Mad Genius
me tools and resources to explore. I surrealist and cyberpunk art when he was“a little too weird to be of value
think you should use any media if the DAZZLING page 17
was young, and it shows in the to the car design industry”. Mullins
8

Why can’t Nokia sell phones to Americans?

(VentureBeat)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 5:01:44 PM
Nokia is the world’s biggest mobile
gadget maker, period. More people
around the world pack a Nokia phone
than the company’s next three
competitors combined. Nokia’s brand
is rated as one of the top names in the
world, not far behind Google and
Coke.
But here in the States, I had trouble
finding a Nokia phone I could buy
this past week. None of the
company’s best models are available
in phone stores in the rich-geek
neighborhoods of downtown San
Francisco. Why is that?
I took a walking tour of the four
largest U.S. carriers’ flagship San
Francisco stores. AT&T had the best
availabile Nokia, an E71 with
QWERTY keyboard for $50 with a
two-year plan. T-Mobile at
Embarcadeo Center had a $10 2720, a
$20 5130 and one remaining 5610
Xpress Music phone.
Verizon, by far America’s biggest
wireless operator, had no Nokias
onsite. The company carries two
lower-end models online, but not at
its Market Street store. Sprint has no
Nokias at all, not even online.
Radio Shack’s showroom had
several low-end Nokias with either
prepaid plans, or no plans, priced at
$20 to $40. “Gangster phones,” a
friend dubbed them, because he
couldn’t imagine a grownup with a
regular-paying job buying a Noke
after seeing the Shack’s free high-end
BlackBerry phones from Sprint,
AT&T and T-Mobile on display a
few feet away.
Nokia’s new N900“mobile
computer,” as the company calls it, is
Nokia’s first smartphone worthy of
the name. In the USA, I challenge
you to spot one in public.
How could Nokia be so huge
everywhere else, and so far behind in
America? I contacted more than a
dozen analysts and journalists, as well
as several PR people at Nokia, to get
past the accepted wisdom on blogs. wireless carriers — much more Reeves’ phone available to trendy, built into the iPhone’s touchscreen by
What really happened to Nokia, the powerful and tyrannical than most of spendy Americans. Apple. It’s not something a third
company that made Keanu Reeves’ their global counterparts — refused to Today, I can’t find a single analyst or party could add. Same for the Nexus
sexy snap-open phone in The Matrix? accomodate. Specifically, Nokia reporter who thinks Nokia’s phones One’s clever noise-canceling
Respondents who cited sources, allegedly wanted to allow customers are on par with Apple’s iPhone, hardware.
rather than just passing along gossip, to switch carriers, and to brand the Google’s Nexus One, Motorola’s What does Nokia need to win back
claimed three separate reasons for phones as Nokia’s rather than the Droid, or Palm’s Pre. Even if that’s America?
Nokia’s failure in the USA. carrier’s. unfair, it’s the public perception: CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has
Nokia was too cocky in negotiations Good luck with that. My BlackBerry Nokias are gangster phones. acknowledged the company’s failings
with U.S. operators has a Verizon logo on its chin the Nokia no longer leads on features in dealings with U.S. operators. He’s
“Carriers want their services, games, exact same size as the BlackBerry This morning in Barcelona, at the vowed that Nokia will come back and
app stores, etc,” respected analyst moniker on its forehead. It signs my giant Mobile World Congress do what it takes to get its best phones
Michael Gartenberg told me during emails with, “Sent from my Verizon conference, Nokia and Intel in front of American buyers.
an email back-and-forth. Nokia, Wireless BlackBerry.” In America, announced MeeGo, a Linux-based, Most encouragingly, he’s stuck to
instead, wants to push its own Ovi the carrier’s brand name goes first. open-source operating system for the the Nokia party line that instead of
store and its own entertainment Nokia’s phones are no longer the phone with support for developing one-size-fits-all iPhones for everyone,
services, a huge initiative led by sexiest third-party apps. MeeGo is the different markets need different
senior vice president and resident In December 1999, I vividly company’s answer to Google’s phones.
visionary Tero Ojanperä. remember spending over my budget Android. But see? Even here, Nokia That means Nokia is probably
“We will quickly become the world’s to buy my wife and myself shiny is following rather than leading. working on a phone specifically
biggest entertainment media chrome-plated Nokia 8810 phones, Android phones have already staked designed to take back the U.S.
network,” Ojanperä told an audience with slide-open covers that turned out turf among the Linux crowd, and market. Here, we expect our
in New York City last year. Tero’s heads at swanky cocktail bars. Years also among phone buyers who don’t smartphones to be cheap (thanks to
pitch is captivating and convincing. later, I use it as a retro paperweight know what Linux is, but who carrier subsidies as high as $350 for
Yet it’s easy to imagine American on my desk. Visitors are compelled to nonetheless consider the Droid and an iPhone) and our monthly bills to
operators balking at the idea of pick it up and play with it. Nexus One better than an iPhone. be high. That’s the opposite of most
becoming what they themselves call And everyone remembers wanting Will Nokia hit upon a killer feature of the rest of the world, where the
“dumb pipes” for Nokia’s content. Keanu Reeves’ Nokia 8110, with its that lures those buyers away? If so, it $32 unsubsidized Nokia 1616 rules.
“Of course only Nokia and the spring-loaded keypad cover, from the probably needs to come from within We tote expensive laptops and cheap
carriers know the real issues,” genre-defining movie The Matrix. the company, not the app store. Think netbooks and work at powerful big-
Gartenberg warned. “The rest of us (You can relive Keanu’s snap-open of the iPhone’s gesture-based UI, screen desktops, rather than owning
are speculating.” But Gartenberg surprise on YouTube.) poorly copied by competitors with only a cellphone as do Nokia’s
thinks there’s truth to the talk that It may have been a glimpse of touchscreens you can only tap on.
Nokia stuck to demands which U.S. Nokia’s future that they didn’t make That capability was designed and WHY page 17

MySpace turmoil blamed on News Corp
(Technology news, comment
and analysis | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 1:49:46 AM
Departure of Owen Van Natta, the
social networking site's chief
executive, calls into question Rupert
Murdoch's digital strategy
Days after MySpace, the struggling
social network site, replaced its chief
executive, a leading media pundit has
said that interference from its owner,
Rupert Murdoch, has left the business
in a state of "total desperation".
Last week the site, which was bought
by Murdoch's News Corporation in
2005, made the shock announcement
that Owen Van Natta was stepping
down as chief executive after less
than a year in the job.
Since then, reports have suggested
that his departure was the result of
tension between Van Natta and
Jonathan Miller, the former chief
executive of AOL who now operates
as the head of News Corp's digital
businesses.
But Michael Wolff, author of The
Man Who Owns the News, a
biography of Murdoch, said that the
roots of MySpace's problems were
much deeper. "It certainly is not [Van
Natta's] fault – he inherited a business
in which you could only manage
decline," he said.
Instead, he suggested, the reshuffle is
indicative of a wider panic over the
way in which News Corp deals with
its online businesses.
"The thing that's going on at News
Corp right now is total, total
desperation over this digital stuff," he
added. "Rupert is saying, 'What's
going on with MySpace? What's
happening? Why isn't this working?'
It's impossible to explain to him that
it's not working because it's over,
Week Notes Week 81
(Blog What I Made)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 9:33:25 AM
I tend to ignore blogging trends, in
fact I wouldn’t really go as far as to
call myself a blogger, but this “ Week
Notes” trend could help me to work
better and more efficiently so I
thought I’d give it a go. The week
numbers run from the time at which
the company was incorporated and
MKE Computing Ltd, the limited
company I set up to handle my
freelancing work, was setup on the
30th July 2008, hence week 81.
This could actually be the worst time
for me to start something regular
considering I’m actually going on
holiday at the end of this week, but
what the heck, it’s some content for
my blog if nothing else!
So this week has been pretty busy,
largely as I’m trying to wind things
down for my holiday. Monday and
Thursday afternoon I was in the
offices of Moneyextra.com where I
regularly do a few days work. My
work there is generally PHP though
has ranged from Perl through VB.net
through to an iPhone app in the past.
At the moment I’m working on a
PHP-based back-office system that
they’re doing for Carphone
Warehouse. It’s actually based on
OSCommerce which I think was last
developed in 1973 (honestly, it feels
because this is the way the
technology business goes. Once it's
past, it's really past. There is almost
no way to get that back."
Five years ago, Murdoch surprised
the media industry by spending
$580m on MySpace, at that time an
up-and-coming force in the rapidly
expanding business of social
networking. With the acquisition,
News Corp believed it had acquired a
significant lead in online media
through a site that boasted a huge
following and good relations with the
music industry.
While the site has generated plenty
of cash for News Corp – at one point,
advertising on the home page alone
was valued at $1m a day – a series of
missteps has left it in turmoil,
struggling for success and flailing in
the wake of its rivals.
Competition has chiefly come from
Facebook, which first overtook
MySpace in popularity last summer
and has gone on to significantly
extend its lead since then.
Figures from comScore, the internet
traffic analysts, suggest that MySpace
has about 57 million users in the US,
down from a peak of more than 75
million. Facebook, meanwhile, has
experienced incredible expansion in
the past 18 months and now boasts
more than 400 million users
worldwide. Shift of power
While that shift of power has left the
site looking like second–best, it has
had other, material implications: last
year Google chopped the value of a
contract with MySpace to provide
search services by $100m after the
social network missed its traffic
targets.
Faced with this growing litany of
problems, Murdoch brought in Miller,
who left AOL in 2006, to oversee
that way) so is really outdated and
can be a pain to extend.
My main focus this week and next
was actually supposed to be to get
lots of work done on my “start up”
website mapme.at. I’m giving a talk
at the end of March at the Where 2.0
conference and I’m really hoping to
have some interesting things to talk
about. The main things I was
supposed to be doing is developing
two iPhone apps to work with the
site. One is focused around putting
data in, the other more focussed on
pulling it out in a unique and fun
way. I’ve been having issues decided
how to handle authentication though.
If I put an app on the app store it’s
quite likely that most people who
download it have never heard of the
site and won’t have an account. I’d
like to do something really simple to
handle creating an app, potentially
even doing it silently in the
background. I already use OAuth for
the API and it would be possible to
handle a signup step as part of that
but the OAuth process is quite jarring
to many users (the app has to quit,
Safari launches and then you have to
be sure to reload the app when the
signup/login and authorisation has
finished). One option would be to use
Facebook Connect and automatically
create a user linked to their Facebook
credentials, this could also be
MySpace and News Corp's other
digital businesses. Once installed,
Miller acted quickly, first removing
the website's co-founder Chris
DeWolfe as chief executive, then
bringing in Van Natta – a former
Facebook executive – to refocus the
business.
With a new executive team in place,
the company sold off a number of
smaller properties that it had acquired
and slashed more than 700 jobs
worldwide, nearly half its total
workforce.
One person familiar with Miller's
approach is Jason Calacanis, who
sold his online publishing company to
AOL in 2005. He says that, under the
circumstances, bringing in a new
chief executive with a reputation for
deal-making was a mistake, but that
the company could still rebound.
"Jon is a really great manager of
product people, and the people
MySpace needs right now are product
people," Calacanis said.
"It was probably, in hindsight, a
misstep to put a deal person into a
company that needs product
leadership. But they took quick action
to reverse that, which I give them
credit for."
However, history is not on the side
of MySpace. Social networking has
been a graveyard for the media
industry, with users happy to leave
behind sites that fail to continue
innovating, in favour of younger,
faster rivals. Friends Reunited,
bought by ITV in 2005 for £120m,
was sold off last year for a mere
£25m, while AOL is said to be
looking to offload Bebo, which it
bought for $850m in 2008.
Faced with struggles across News
Corp's digital businesses, Murdoch
and his lieutenants have begun taking
confusing to many users and would
require me to integrate facebook
connect into mapme.at in general. I
think I’ve decided to just stick to the
OAuth method for now and to look at
improving it once I’ve got an app that
I can demo.
As part of looking at authentication
though I decided to improve my
existing OpenID support. My initial
implementation was done in such a
way that you could attach the same
OpenID credentials to multiple
accounts. I guess I thought that might
be a useful feature but I think most
people found it annoying as it meant
that to log in, you had to enter your
OpenID and your username, as
mapme.at wasn’t using the OpenID as
a unique identifier. I’ve now fixed
this which should hopefully make
things simpler. I’m also intending to
reduce the number of fields you need
to enter to create an account, but
again I think I’ll wait until I’ve got
some iPhone apps I can demo.
Something else that I’ve been
considering for mapme.at and
decided to implement this week is
“place based check-ins”. Currently on
mapme.at you either map yourself at
9
an aggressive approach, calling for
news sites to charge readers for
content and labelling Google a
-"parasite". He aims to put his
newspapers, including the Times and
the Sun, behind a paywall, something
described by the co-founder of
Twitter, Biz Stone, as a vain attempt
to "put the genie back in the bottle".
Wolff said that this was a result of
Murdoch's fundamental
misunderstanding of the differences
between the technology and media
industries. While the 78-year-old
mogul craves leadership in the digital
world, Wolff suggested that a career
spent building traditional media
businesses has left Murdoch
struggling to understand the speed
and innovation required on the
internet.
"He absolutely has no idea," he said.
"If people really quite understood
how little feeling he has for this
business, they would fall down
laughing – or crying."
• MySpace
• News Corporation
• Rupert Murdoch
• Social networking
• Facebook
• AOL
• Google
• Twitter
• Paywalls
• Internet
• Digital media
Bobbie Johnson
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2010 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
an arbitrary latitude and longitude, or
you create a “favourite” location and
map yourself there. There was a few
“global” favourites which I had added
myself but generally you had to
create a favourite manually or use
some sort of logging app or API to
log your location arbitrarilly. The
new functionality means that
mapme.at will give users access to a
big database of existing shared
places. This database, and improved
UI on the site, will make it much
easier to say “I’m in the supermarket”
rather than “I’m at 53.415812,-
2.921977. I decided that having that
functionality in place would vastly
improve one of the iPhone apps so I
decided to start working on it. It’s
coming along really well, there’s still
work to do but I think I’ll have it out
in just a few more days.
On Friday I met up with some old
friends, and met some new ones, for
lunch. I had a good time and it was
good to catch up and find out what
others are up to in Liverpool but it did
cut into my dev time on the new
functionality.
Next week I’m hoping to spend at
least another two days working on
mapme.at. I’ve got some functionality
to finish off for another client on
Monday but apart from that it should
be mapme.at until I got on holiday to
Australia at the end of the week!
10
Online voyeurs flock to Chatroulette
(Technology news, comment
and analysis | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 4:07:04 PM
An addictive new website that links
strangers' webcams is gaining
popularity – and notoriety
A new website that has been
described as "surreal", "addictive"
and "frightening" is proving a
sensation around the world – and
attracting a reputation as a haven for
no-holds-barred, explicit material.
Chatroulette, which was launched in
November, has rocketed in popularity
thanks to its simple premise: internet
video chats with -random strangers.
When users visit the site and switch
on their webcams, they are suddenly
connected to another, randomly
chosen person who is doing precisely
the same thing somewhere else in the
world.
Once they are logged in together,
chatters can do anything they like:
talk to each other, type messages,
entertain each other – or just say
goodbye, hit the "next" button and
move on in an attempt to find
somebody more interesting.
Chatroulette describes itself as a
"brand new service for one-on-one
text, webcam and microphone-based
chat with people around the world",
but no one is sure who started the
site. The owners did not respond to an
attempt to contact them by email, and
they have gone to great pains to
protect their identities. This may be
because -Chatroulette appears to
operate largely as an -unregulated
service and, as a result, has rapidly
Education, Training and Lifelong
Learning
(OUseful.Info, the blog...)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 8:12:32 AM
Over the week, I tweeted a link to a
post by James Gardner, CTO at the
Department for Work and Pensions,
who was sighing about That higher
degree and questioning the value of
taking one for career advancement
purposes:
When people look at CVs, they don’t
usually care all that much about the
education, so long as there are signs
there is some. They only care about
what you’ve already done in your
career to that point. Anyone can get a
degree, after all, even a higher one.
Finding alternatives to traditional
formal educational qualifications is
something I’ve been mulling over on
and off for a couple of years, (e.g.
Time to Build Trust With an “Open
Achievements API”?), though it has
to be said not in very much detail.
As a waypoint in the (lack of?!)
evolution of my thinking around the
hinterland of this issue, here’s
something I posted a couple of weeks
or so ago to a departmental First
Class conference. The original reason
for posting was to have a little rant
about the “training vs. education”
debate:
I drank the lifelong learning Kool
Aid a long time ago; no way could I
do a formal education course now,
and I’m not sure that a formal
training course would cut it for me
either. But pretty much every day I
become a haven for exhibitionists and
voyeurs.
A large contingent of people seem
intent on using the service's string of
random connections as the basis for
some sort of sex game.
Users regularly describe unwanted
encounters with all sorts of unsavoury
characters, and it has become the
defining aspect of the site for some.
Veteran blogger Jason Kottke, who
has spent years documenting some of
the web's most weird and wonderful
corners, tried the site and then wrote
about witnessing nudity, sexual
activity and strange behaviour.
"I observed several people drinking
malt liquor, two girls making out,
many, many guys who disconnected
as soon as they saw I wasn't female,
[and] several girls who disconnected
after seeing my face," he said, adding
that he also witnessed "three couples
having sex and 11 erect penises".
Yet despite the highly offensive
nature of much of the site's content,
Kottke – like thousands of others –
has been hypnotised by the glimpses
the site offers into other people's
lives. "Chatroulette is pretty much the
best site going on the internet right
now," he wrote.
Although the site says that it "does
not tolerate broadcasting obscene,
offending, pornographic material"
and offers users the option to report
unsuitable content, the restrictions do
not seem to prevent users from
broadcasting explicit videos of
themselves online.
However, like the chatroom
explosion in the late 1990s or the
pick up either a new practical skill or
an abstract concept or something that
I could imagine someone packaging
in either a training course or an OU
course.
Most universities focus on a 2-4 year
relationship with their students,
discounting the Development and
Alumni Offices who maintain an
occasional interaction (until their
actuarial models suggest you’re going
to die, when I suspect they up the
number of interactions and requests
to be remembered in any legacies that
are in the offing.)
In the OU we kid ourselves that the
relationship we have with students is
typically a 4-8 year one (denying the
numbers who take singleton courses
and have no intention of doing a
degree, who simply chose a course
out for interest, for professional
development *or* for training, and
with whom we only have a 3-9 month
relationship).
Now go back to trad universities,
where banks traditionally hit on
freshers looking for a lifelong
commitment (though admittedly that
often resulted from inertia, once
committed, on the part of the student,
and the relative difficulty of changing
bank accounts (which is not as hard
now as it used to be…)) We’ve just
announced we’ll be rolling out
Google Apps for Education to OU
students. Why do you think Google
wants this sort of deal? Same reason
as the banks, though in this case
early days of YouTube, spending
time inside Chatroulette is becoming
a peculiarly modern form of
entertainment, particularly popular
with students in campuses around the
world. In just a couple of months the
site has expanded significantly as it
tears through universities by word of
mouth, spreading virally in a similar
manner to sites such as Facebook.
This has catapulted the site up the
charts and brought it increasing
amounts of attention from bloggers.
The site had just a handful of visitors
at launch, but now boasts more than
10,000 concurrent users at any one
time – often rising to 16,000 and
beyond.
One chatter, who identified himself
as Dan from Philadelphia, said that he
had been using the site since very
early on and that it was largely
populated by people looking for any
kind of instant amusement.
"Everybody wants to be entertained,"
he said.
He said he regularly goes on the site
with a group of friends to hold
"Chatroulette dance parties" – playing
records and dancing in front of the
camera in an attempt to bring a smile
to the face of any passing visitor.
Although Chatroulette takes the idea
of random connections between
people to extremes, its raison d'être is
not entirely new. Internet chatrooms
have been around for a generation,
while an explosion of webcam sites
emerged in the late 1990s.
Meanwhile, millions of people use
video chat services such as Skype
every day to talk to their friends and
Google are out to secure a
personalised, long term advertising
delivery channel straight to your
inbox.
How many institutions offer a
lifelong learning relationship with
their students? Folk need to learn
stuff and learn how to do stuff. They
may need educating or they may need
training. I suspect for most punters
those two things (training and
education) are synonymous. I have
always thought that part of th OU’s
proposition was our ability to support
open learning; we are uniquely placed
to offer a lifelong learning
relationship to our students. Not 9
months or 6 years. Life long. This
might be through a one off purchase
model (cf. buying courses), bulk
purchase model (degree/sum of
courses model), a subscription model
to a particular topic or thematic area,
or a club/membership model where
you can graze.
Strategically, the OU has been
looking in part at freemium models.
But why limit ourselves to upselling
from free and open content? Why not
do the “training” bit that everyone
seems to hold in such low esteem,
and then upsell to our “proper”
“education” products?
Or not…
PS I feel a little bit twitchy about
posting this, and I’m not sure why…?
Should I have left it behind the
firewall…?
families, and YouTube – which was
bought by Google in 2006 for
$1.65bn – is among the biggest sites
on the web.
There are also a number of self-
broadcasting services online,
including blogTV, Justin.tv and
qik.com – though most provide only
one-way connections.
With constant campaigns against
cyberbullying and abuse on the
internet, there are still questions about
potential abuses of Chatroulette and
its dangers, but the site's rise is
creating interest in many quarters.
Among those wanting to chart its
development is Fred Wilson, a New
York-based venture capitalist with
Union Square Ventures who has
invested in dozens of dotcom
companies, including Twitter.
While Wilson says the level of
"perversion and sexual innuendo" is
sky-high– and does not suggest that
anybody puts money into the service
– he admits that it taps into something
primal about the web.
"The internet is this huge network
with over a billion people worldwide
on it. Chatroulette feels like a pretty
cool way to take a quick trip around
that network, meeting people and
talking to them."
• Internet
• Social networking
Bobbie Johnson
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2010 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
Timelapse on the
iPhone: A look at the
free Gorillacam App
by Smithee (Digital Urban)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 11:40:00 PM
Joby, the people behind the
Gorillapods, have released a free
camera app for the
iPhone entitled 'Gorillacam'. Of note
the application features a timelapse
mode allowing multiple photos
spaced at various intervals, ranging
from 1 second apart, up to 2 minutes.
We have run a few tests and with a
first generation iPhone 10 seconds is
the most reliable time frame to chose
due to the time taken to save an
image, second and third generation
seem to cope with faster times. That
said, 10 seconds is nigh-on-perfect
for timelapses and the application
does a stirling job.
We set the application running on an
overcast winters day and the output of
1600x1200 jpgs is more than enough
to output a 720p (HD) movie to
YouTube with room for some post
processing pan movement:
Music is courtesy of the rather good
unsigned band - Lemonade Joe.
The movie was made simply by
opening QuickTime Pro 7 and
selecting 'image sequence' with the
pan added via After Effects. The
iPhone camera is never going to win
awards but for a quick timelapse then
Gorillacam is a must have for any
iphone user, especially at the price, ie
free.
Get Gorillacam Free through iTunes

Let’s Save Metadata
(James Fee GIS Blog)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 7:00:52 AM
Metadata
When you see the word metadata I’m
sure you begin to sweat. You get that
lump in your throat and suppressed
memories bubble to the surface (none
of which are good).
Now it isn’t hard to think about why,
metadata as we’ve been exposed to is
just not human readable and thus
barely human usable. Working in the
government sector as a consultant
exposed me to the worst two words
that any DoD consultant can be
exposed to;“metadata required”.
We deal with four letter acronyms all
the time right? FGDC Even the
website is built on Plone which of
course feels more like Ivy League
research project than the traditional
SharePoint website we’d all expect
from a government website. One
should be scared navigating it and
trying to find information. Anyway
what about metadata as we’ve been
utilizing it (FGDC or ISO) is just so
painful? Machine Readable vs.
Human Readable
So FGDC or ISO metadata is
complex, but there could be good
reasons for this. They both try and
address every conceivable possibility
that might need describing in geo-
data. If both were primarily designed
for allowing servers to talk with each
other, I’m not sure any of us would
have any problem with it (nor would
we really be looking for it). But
servers rarely read and write metadata
on their own without human
interaction. Thus the reality of the
situation is we poor humans have to
ingest and parse metadata regularly.
Yikes
Well this brings me to what I see as
the biggest problem with metadata. It
is almost always in XML format.
Now don’t get me wrong, XML does
have its purpose. In fact I could list
probably thousands of times that
XML is the right answer. Sometimes
it works and works well, other times
you end up with a whole bunch of
brackets and text that blends together.
With a good eye you can parse out
what you need, but there is so much
noise there that it almost feels like a
“Where’s Waldo” exercise. But
XML does do a good job of
organizing data for machines, but it
doesn’t do it in ways that are easily
readable. What Human Readable
Metadata Should Focus on
So some person sends you a dataset
Links for 2010-02-14 [del.icio.us]
(cityofsound)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 12:00:00 AM
• supercritical #1 [Millennium
People]"So ends Supercritical, a little
volume that documents the rare
meeting of two architect
friends/enemies/rivals/(whatever) –
Rem Koolhaas & Peter Eisenman. It
accurately transcribes the two’s
complete inability to say anything
meaningful to each other, and their
ultimate decline into dressed-up name
-calling."
for a project you are working on.
There are some questions you want
answered before you commit to using
the dataset:
• Who is responsible for the dataset?
• What is the dataset representing?
• When was it created?
• Where are its extents (projection,
datum, etc)?
• How was it created?
• Why was it created?
The problem with metadata today is
those questions are hard to parse out
of metadata. If you know what to
search for you might be able to find it
relatively quickly, but the simple fact
is that if I want to see the those
answers above for a dataset, they
should be exposed to me first.
Metadata Style Sheets
One way people have tried to make
FGDC metadata (and ISO to some
extent) more readable is through the
use of style sheets. Many ESRI users
are exposed to this inside their
ArcCatalog. That drop-down list that
lets you choose different ways of
viewing the metadata is a style sheet
selector. This means that you can
take that ugly XML metadata and
parse it out in ways that are easier to
read. I’ve not seen much in the way
of usability improvements on this
• Millennial escapades [Millennium
People]"I went to the Apple store
with a wireless broadband dongle and
changed the network of the
computers from Apple to myself, then
set the network homepage to be my
blog. The Apple red-shirts tried to
work out what was going on... it took
them some time, during which all
Apple store customers were obliged,
upon opening the safari browser, to
read my blog. I was discovered and
ejected."
• Hello! This is Click Opera."This is
the last entry in the blog called Click
front. At WeoGeo we offer human
readable metadata on our dataset
information pages. Others are doing
it as well, but there is really no
standard as to how this should be
organized. So Who Cares About
FGDC/ISO?
Honestly you really shouldn’t care.
You should care though about getting
information describing the data you
are working with. I think most of the
issue with both metadata standards is
that they are just too hard to input
data into and too hard to get out the
relevant information. Committee
designed standards such as these
always end up being way too much
for real world use. We need to make
sure we get the who, what, when,
where, how and why of the dataset
and to do this we need to look at the
geo-data creation tools and how they
help us input metadata. Data creators
should have an easy time filling out
those 6 things about their data. The
issues are in the weeds of the
metadata standards. But out on the
fringes of the metadata requires,
creation tools (such ArcCatalog) can
help us manage things. Databases
should be tracking who created the
data (their name/address/etc), when it
was last modified, any look up tables,
aliases for field names, links to
Opera, which means that, in the funny
through-the-looking-glass world of
blogs, it's the first page future
internauts and web adventurers will
come to. So think of this not so much
as an ending as an entrance. " RIP.
• Apple iPad Shortcomings Spark
Questions About Updates
[TIME]"Fanboy that I am, I am
genuinely interested to hear Apple's
arguments on these issues. Maybe
they truly believe multitasking has
been a 15-year wrong turn, and that
user interfaces need to revert back to
one app at a time now that the apps
11
additional information and anything
else that is being used for that dataset.
Not having to track all that down
gives the creator of the data enough
focus to make the who, what, when,
where, how and why so much better
than they would if they had to enter
everything.
And on the display end of things, I’d
like to see UI experts work at creating
better human readable metadata style
sheets that hide the details that you
don’t need to see at first glance and
expose what we as uses of data need
at first glance. It is easy enough to
expand the details “below the fold” of
a metadata page. What Now?
It is up to all of us. We are stuck
with the metadata standards so
changing them at this point isn’t
feasible. At WeoGeo we’re
committed to working on bringing
complex/detailed FGDC/ISO
metadata to users in easy to digest
methods. What I’d like to hear
though is from others trying to crack
this same nut and see if we can
collaborate on this more and in this
age of NSDIs still have usable
metadata for people to make
decisions.
load instantaneously. Maybe they
think closed distribution
environments generate more
innovation in the long run than open
ones. (They have two years of data on
their side on that one, thanks to the
incredible run the App Store has been
on.) I'm not sure I agree with those
arguments, but I'd be fascinated to
hear more about them." Good piece.
12
RGM Alliance quietly becomes a huge premium
ad network on the web
(VentureBeat)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:05:13 AM
Chances are you haven’t heard of
RGM Group or its RGM Alliance
division. But the company runs the
Internet’s largest premium
advertising network that reaches 67
million users each month. That’s
more users than the combined
audience of the web sites of the Wall
Street Journal, the New York Times,
Forbes.com, and Conde Naste
Digital.
The Venice, Calif.-based company is
announcing today that its RGM
Alliance ad network has built a huge
audience by serving premium ads
from well-known brands into 158
vertically-focused web publications.
Although it relies on ads for its
business, the company has been
profitable through the recession and
its whole history. RGM thrives by
getting advertisers such as Acura to
create the ad on the right that runs on
premium sites, such as Fashionista,
throughout its network.
RGM competes with rivals such as
Glam Media, which claims 52 million
unique users in the U.S. and 88
million globally. Other rivals include
Travel Ad Network and Conde Naste
Digital.
Previously known as InterLuxe, the
RGM Alliance has managed to grow
during the recession, said 30-year-old
chief executive and founder, Kamran
Razavi. It did so by expanding
beyond luxury advertisers (who
Interfaces of Performance
(Networked_Performance)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 8:39:58 AM
Interfaces of Performance, edited by
Janis Jefferies, Goldsmiths,
University of London, Maria
Chatzichristodoulou, University of
Hull and Rachel Zerihan, Queen
Mary, University of London, UK;
Ashgate, November 2009.
This collection of essays and
interviews investigates current
practices that expand our
understanding and experience of
performance through the use of state-
of-the-art technologies. It brings
together leading practitioners, writers
and curators who explore the
intersections between theatre,
performance and digital technologies,
challenging expectations and
furthering discourse across the
disciplines. As technologies become
increasingly integrated into theatre
and performance, Interfaces of
Performance revisits key elements of
performance practice in order to
investigate emergent paradigms. To
do this five concepts integral to the
core of all performance are
foregrounded, namely environments,
bodies, audiences, politics of practice
and affect.
The thematic structure of the volume
has been designed to extend current
In Praise of Online Obscurity
by Wired.com (Wired Top
Stories)
advertised on RGM’s own JustLuxe
site) to premium brands, which are
well-known companies that reach a
wider number of consumers than pure
luxury brands. The company also
vastly increased its number of partner
publications which take the ads from
RGM’s ad network.
“We have shifted our focus from
working around luxury brands to
those focused on building premium
brands,” Razavi said.
Razavi, (pictured, right), who had an
ad and marketing background,
founded the company in October,
2004, at the age of 24. He poured the
profits that came in almost
immediately into expanding the
company’s network. The velocity of
expansion has accelerated
dramatically during the past year.
In May, 2009, the company had just
21 million unique users per month
among 66 publications that
participated in its ad network. Now,
the audience among the 158
publications has grown to 46 million
users in the U.S. and 67 million users
worldwide, according to market
researcher comScore. The audience
size is up 237 percent since
September, growing mostly through
the addition of new publications.
During that time, ad rates have not
discourse in the field that is often led
by formalist analysis focusing on
technology per se. The proposed
approach intends to unpack
conceptual elements of performance
practice, investigating the strategic
use of a diverse spectrum of
technologies as a means to artistic
ends. The focus is on the ideas,
objectives and concerns of the artists
who integrate technologies into their
work. In so doing, these inquisitive
practitioners research new
dramaturgies and methodologies in
order to create innovative experiences
for, and encounters with, their
audiences.
Contents:
• Introduction, Maria
Chatzichristodoulou and Rachel
Zerihan
• Creative media: performance,
invention, critique, Sarah Kember and
Joanna Zylinska
• Part 1 Environments:
Environments, interactions and
beings: the ecology of performativity
and technics, Chris Salter
• Blurring the boundaries:
performance, technology and the
artificial sublime – an interview with
Ruth Gibson and Bruno Martelli,
igloo, Janis Jefferies.
• Part 2 Bodies: Orlan-vertigo/self-
touching-you, Simon Donger
Wired's Clive Thompson reflects on
how easily social media can stop
being social. With a few hundred or
fallen, in part because RGM targets
its campaigns to get a good reaction.
The publications are sites that focus
on high-value audiences. Among the
well-known publishers are Elle,
Frommers, the Los Angeles Times,
New York Observer, and Car &
Driver. The niche sites with growing
audiences include Zimbio,
Fashionista, and NileGuide. Its
advertisers include luxury brands
such as Jaguar, Cadillac, Waldorf
Astoria, Bombardier, SkyJet, Debeers
and others. But the advertisers also
include premium brands such as
Acura, HSBC, Bose, Qantas,
Horchow, Arizona Tourism, and
Bosch. In 2010, Razavi said more
advertisers will come on board;
today, for instance, Porsche is joining
the network.
After RGM selects a publisher to
include in the alliance, it categorizes
the site’s content into groups such as
travel, lifestyle, food and wine,
fashion, home design & décor,
business, automotive, real estate, and
art & music. [Disclosure:
VentureBeat is one of those 158
sites]. That’s a broader list of
categories and it has been key to
providing stable revenues for the
company, Razavi said.
Razavi said the company stringently
• The path to silence, Allucquére
Rosanne Stone.
• Part 3 Audiences: Reactivation:
performance, mediatization, and the
present moment, Philip Auslander
• Moving audiences: strategies of
exposure in the work of Gob Squad,
Patrick Primavesi
• How to kidnap your audiences: an
interview with Matt Adams from
Blast Theory, Maria
Chatzichristodoulou.
even thousand people involved, it
works, he says, but any bigger and it's
no longer a bantering process of
pre-screens web site publishers so
that it works only with those that
meet the standards required by
premium advertisers in areas of brand
integrity, site content, ad placements
and audience. More than 2,500
campaigns have been executed to
date.
Razavi says the alliance is
transparent to both advertisers and
publishers, with no hidden sites or
traffic sources. Advertisers select a
channel and can target their
campaigns based on geography or
desired behavioral categories. RGM’s
beauty/fashion/style channel has
more than 15 million monthly unique
visitors, according to comScore.
The result is that ads placed in the
network have higher CPMs (cost per
mil, a measure of the ad rate charged
per 1,000 visitors). The RGM
Alliance is one of five divisions in
RGM Group. Others include
JustLuxe, a luxury web site; Razavi
Global Media, which provides site-
specific media representation and
develops custom ad offerings for
affluent-focused sites; Luxe
Research, which provides research
data for brands; and LuxeCreative,
the creative arm of RGM which
partners with ad agencies and
corporate clients to create campaigns.
The company is self-funded and it
has 25 employees.
• Part 4 Politics: The tendency to
‘trans-’: the political aesthetics of the
biogrammatic zone, Sher Doruff
• Guillermo Gómez-Peña: ethno-
techno politics, Guillermo Gómez
Peña and Lorena Rivero de Beer
• Performative science in an age of
specialization: the case of critical art
ensemble, Nicola Triscott.
• Part 5 Affect: Affective connection,
Bojana Kunst
• Love at first byte, Melinda
Rackham
• Conclusion, Janis Jefferies
• Bibliography
• Index.
About the Editors: Janis Jefferies is
Professor of Visual Arts, Artistic
Director of Goldsmiths Digital
Studios and Director of the Constance
Howard Resource and Research
Centre in Textiles, Goldsmiths,
University of London. Maria
Chatzichristodoulou[aka Maria X] is
Lecturer in Theatre and Performance
at the School of Arts and New Media,
University of Hull (Scarborough
campus) and PhD candidate
(completion) at Goldsmiths Digital
Studios, University of London. Dr.
Rachel Zerihan is Visiting Lecturer at
Queen Mary, University of London.
thinking and living out loud.

Live Stage: Ballettikka Internettikka Links for
[London] 2010-02-13
(Networked_Performance)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 8:27:45 AM
[del.icio.us]
Thursday Club: Igor Štromajer &
Ballettikka Internettikka[Internet
Ballet] :: February 18, 2010; 6:30 -
8:30 pm :: Seminar Rooms, Ben
Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths,
University of London, New Cross,
South East London.
Ballettikka Internettikka(Igor
Štromajer and Brane Zorman) is the
umbrella name for a series of tactical
art projects which began in 2001 with
the exploration of Internet ballet. It
explores wireless Internet ballet
performances combined with
guerrilla tactics and mobile live
Internet broadcasting strategies. Igor
will discuss some of these projects as
outlined below.
“We shall fight them on the beaches.
We shall fight them on the landing
grounds. We shall fight in the fields
and in the streets, we shall fight in the
hills. We shall never surrender.” (W.
Churchill)
From 2001 to 2009 twenty different
Ballettikka Internettikka actions have
been performed:
• Net Ballet – Internet, 2001
• Ballet Net – The Bolshoi Theatre,
Moscow, Russia, 2002
• M-III Robot Ballet – Bergen
International Theatre, Bergen,
Norway, 2003
• BRVI – Ballettikka RealVideo
Internettikka – Television Slovenia -
Cultural Program, U3, 2003
• Autto Mobillikka – Ljubljana
Motorway Ring, Slovenia, 2003
• Illegallikka Robottikka – Teatro alla
Scala, Milan, Italy, 2004
• BEO Guerrillikka – National
Theatre, Belgrade, Serbia, 2005
• VolksNetBallet – Volksbühne,
Berlin, Germany, 2006
• Commerciallikka – Internet /
Heineken Draughtkeg, 2007/2008
• Portraits – Internet, 2007
• Aeronauttikka – Internet, 2007
• RenminNetBallet – Hong Kong City
Hall, 2007
• Stattikka – CYNETart, Trans-Media
-Akademie Hellerau, Dresden,
Germany, 2007
• Olymppikka – Internet, Fire
KEVIN
continued from page 3
The digital arts program was an
interdisciplinary fine arts amalgam of
computer science, art and music. Out
of college I was into creative writing
and electronic art. Graphic design,
software interfaces, digital
photography, video installations,
sensor research, online storytelling,
conceptual weirdness ‚ all of it
excited me.
I initially was only interested in the
Web as a medium for my art work, as
an expression of myself. CSS was
just a tool to help me express my
ideas better. Yes, it separated my
design information from my
structural information‚ but I was
mostly interested in the fact that it
was easier for me to layer 57 pictures
of robots on top of each other (I was
very weird in college). To me, Wufoo
was an opportunity to extend my
experiments in that space–eliciting
real emotions and the feeling of
Polygon, 2008
• Religgikka – Internet, 2008
• SubAquattikka – Internet, 2008
• Hydraullikka – Plaza del Rey,
Madrid, Spain, 2008
• Intermenttikka – Total Museum of
Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea,
2008
• Norddikka – Svalbard, Norway,
Arctic Ocean, 2008/2009
• Nipponnikka – Minami Torishima,
Japan, Pacific Ocean, 2009
Ballettikka Internettikka uses
impossible connections to develop the
possible strategies of resistance and
disobedience. The project participates
in the already existing protocols of
communication, yet without being
servile to these protocols, it opens up
links between emotionality and
technology, production and ethics,
desire and organization, imagination
and institution. The distribution of
politics and intimacy without any
reason and purpose, with the use of
limited, defined, and controlled
protocols is a dystopia and an
unsubmissive revolt to the world of
capital, which can be disarmed only
by the use of its own tactics.
friendship through software.
As a subscriber to Treehouse(a
downloadable web magazine) back in
the day, I have always wondered why
it stopped and if you have any plans
to bring it back?
Well, you can thank Y Combinator
and Wufoo for its discontinuation.
Our goal with Treehouse was always
to be a means to an end. When it was
just the three of us and before there
was even any hint of funding in the
air, Chris, Ryan and I knew we
wanted to make a company and make
software around the ideas we had
experimented with on our web
development blog, Particletree. The
problem was time and money.
Because I had a background in
publishing and served as Editor-in-
Chief of my college newspaper, I
pitched to the guys that we could
probably create a monthly PDF
magazine about web development
Ballettikka Internettikka is a co-
production of Intima Virtual Base and
Cona 2001–2009 and Aksioma 2003.
Theoretical Adviser: Bojana Kunst
Spatial Adviser: Irena Pivka
In the years 2001–2009 the project
was financially supported by the
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of
Slovenia, the Ministry of Culture of
the Kingdom of Spain, the Ministry
of Culture of the Republic of Serbia,
Norsk Kulturfond, Arts Council
Korea, Hong Kong Arts Development
Council, Hong Kong Cultural Service
Department, the Municipality of
Madrid, the Municipality of Dresden,
the Municipality of Belgrade, the
Municipality of Ljubljana, Epson.
The work of Ballettikka Internettikka
is also featured in and essay by
Bojana Kunst published in the
volume Interfaces of Performance
now available from Ashgate
Publishing (edited by Maria
Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X]
(University of Hull), Janis Jefferies
(Goldsmiths, University of London)
and Rachel Zerihan (Queen Mary,
University of London)).
and use the revenues and time (I
figured it should only take up 2
weeks a month to produce the thing if
we developed the process correctly)
to then make the software we always
wanted to make.
We didn’t have a lot of money saved
up at that time and so only Ryan and I
quit our jobs to work on it full time
while Chris kept his job in the
government and split his paycheck
with us. I worked out our editorial
direction and design and Ryan built
the digital download system.
All three of us had to solicit writers
and write reviews and articles to fill
up the 60 pages of content that we
planned for each issue. I was
responsible for the design content,
Ryan was responsible for the
programming content and Chris was
responsible for the business content.
It was actually a really scary and
exciting time for us because it was a
13
(cityofsound)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 12:00:00 AM
• Google Buzz: The Mainstream's
Geo-Social Network?"By default,
location sharing is turned on in Buzz,
which raises concerns about privacy.
Just today, as the European Union
celebrates "Internet Safety Day," the
E.U. warned users to turn off
geolocation services whenever
possible. Clearly, we do feel a lot
more comfortable with sharing what
we had for lunch than where we are
right now. It would be nice, though, if
Google allowed users to easily
control the precision of this location
data. A lot of people would be very
comfortable with sharing what city
they are in, for example, but don't
necessarily want to disclose the exact
coffee shop they are sitting in right
now. On the other hand, that would
also dilute the value of the
information and it looks like Google
opted to go for precise locations that
are couple to Place Pages for this
exact reason."
• Iceland aims to become an offshore
haven for journalists and leakers
[Nieman Journalism Lab]"On
Tuesday, the Icelandic parliament is
expected to introduce a measure
aimed at making the country an
international center for investigative
journalism publishing, by passing the
strongest combination of source
protection, freedom of speech, and
libel-tourism prevention laws in the
world. Supporters of the proposal say
the move would make Iceland an
“offshore publishing center” for free
speech, analogous to the offshore
financial havens that allow
corporations to hide capital from
authorities. Could global news
organizations with a home office in
Reykjavík soon be as common as
Delaware corporations or Cayman
Islands assets?"
total gamble.
However, half way through our
second issue, we found out that we
were accepted by Y Combinator and
that changed everything. What most
people don’t realize during that
period is that while we were working
16 hours a day building Wufoo out in
California and trying to solicit
funding, we also had to
simultaneously create 4 more issues
of Treehouse to fullfill the 6 month
subscription obligations we promised
to our readers. We were so exhausted
by the end of it all that something had
to give and it was, unfortunately,
Treehouse.
We do, however, still have high
hopes for the format and content we
formulated with Treehouse and
maybe, one day, it’ll be resurrected.
You never know.
14
Creating a Winter Olympics 2010
Medal Map In Google Spreadsheets
(OUseful.Info, the blog...)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 3:48:53 AM
Another Olympics, so another
chance to look at how to construct a
real time medal map using the tricks
and techniques that are available to us
today, cf. the approach I took in 2008.
In this post, I’ll show how to create a
medal map using Wikipedia data and
Google spreadsheet query functions
in Google Apps Standard Edition(this
will also work in Google Apps for
Edu, Business and so on, but
not(currently) in the ‘everyday’
edition of Google spreadsheets that
you get with a personal Google
account. Why not? Because I make
use of Google Apps Script, that’s
why…)
To start with, let’s get some data.
Wikipedia is surprisingly good as a
near realtime data source for large
sporting events, so let’s see what’s on
the Winter Olympics 2010 medals
page:
We can pull this data into a Google
spreadsheet using the=importHTML()
formula:
In order to plot medals in a “heat
map” using the Google heatmap
widget:
we need to provide two columns of
data: an ISO country code and the
number value we want to associate
with that country code.
Looking at the medals table we have
imported, we see that we have
country name and a non-ISO country
code.
Let’s start by extracting the country
name using a Google Apps Script (
tutorials). These scripts are user
defined formulae that you can create
and then use in the same way that you
would use any of the normally
provided spreadsheet formulae. Open
the script editor from the spreadsheet
Tools menu:
Write your function(s):
then call them in the spreadsheet:
The next step is to get the ISO
country code for each country. I’m
going to do this using a QUERY
formula that interrogates a list of ISO
country codes in another sheet (see
Using Google Spreadsheets Like a
Database – The QUERY Formula for
more on the Google Spreadsheets
QUERY function):
At its heart, a particular QUERY will
look something like this:
=QUERY('ISO Country
Codes'!A2:B268,"select A,B where A
contains 'FRANCE' limit 1")))
The limit 1 ensures we only return a
single result.
To construct the QUERY from a
country name specisifed in a cell, we
embed a CONCATENATE formula
to construct the select string:
=QUERY('ISO Country
Codes'!A2:B268,concatenate("select
A,B where A contains '",upper(H2),"'
limit 1")))
The contains operator is case
sensitive, so as we have country
names in all upper case in our ISO
sheet, we convert the country name
pulled in from the medal table to
upper case as well. (I couldn’t get the
more appropriate matches expression
to work?)
So now we can get a column of
country names (again) along with the
corresponding ISO country code:
(The IF statement is there to keep
things tidy.)
If we now copy across medal data
into a column alongside the coutnry
code column, we can create a heat
map widget:
This widget is also available as a
Google gadget:
Although there is some latency in the
system, as changes are made to the
original WIkipedia page, the Google
spreadsheet should occasionally
check it as and when the spreadsheet
– or the heat map – is viewed.
So there you have it, a real time
Medal Map, with data pulled into a
Google spreadsheet from a Wikipedia
page using an importHTML function,
tidied using a Google Apps script
function, used to key a QUERY in an
ISO codes spreadsheet/database, and
then rendered via a third party Google
gadget.
Overall hack time – about half an
hour, first time round. Time to write
this post – over an hour…
PS see also Data Scraping Wikipedia
with Google Spreadsheets
5 New APIs: iPhone
Payments, Photo and
Video Sharing, Hosted
SQL, and Silverlight
Apps
(ProgrammableWeb)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 2:30:15 PM
As we noted in our last API roundup,
we continue to see an increase in the
rate at which new APIs are being
added to our API directory. Five of
these new APIs include an API for a
service for point-of-sale (POS) entry
from mobile and online, a photo and
video uploading API, a mobile video
sharing service API, a hosted SQL
database web service, and a hosted
service for Microsoft Silverlight apps.
Below are more details on each of
these new APIs.
orderTopia API: orderTopia is a
system for mobile and online
ordering where “customers can order
and pay for food or buy merchandise
using their iPhone, smartphone, or
computer”. The orderTopia API
interface will deploy REST as input
and JSON for output and provides a
range of methods for users to build
applications on top of the orderTopia
platform. Accessible items include
passing data on public profiles,
merchants, menus, favorites and
social networking services.
Pikchur API: Pikchur is a service
that updates social networks/micro-
blogging platforms with pictures &
videos. Users can upload content
using a computer, cell phone, or any
other mobile device and Pikchur will
distribute them over the social web.
The Pikchur API is a RESTful service
that allows users to interact with the
service in order to perform tasks such
as authentication, posting and
creating data feeds.
Qik API: The Qik Platform
Application Programming Interface
enables anyone to integrate or build
web, desktop, phone applications to
take advantage of Qik's mobile video
sharing platform.
RdbHost API: RdbHost creates a
database using the PostgreSQL
engine exclusively for your use. First
you need to create an account, then
you will get a database that can be
accessed via HTTP requests and
regular SQL.
RedCritter API: RedCritter Apps are
created using Microsoft Silverlight
and are hosted on the RedCritter
cloud platform. Includes API for
creating Outlook add-ins with
Silverlight. Including SDK for
Salesforce.com and Twitter
integration. The RedCritter Outlook
Interface lets you hook into Outlook
and received events when a user
selects an email, contact or
appointment. You can also search the
user's contacts by email address.

Nokia chief: we want to be all
things to all consumers again
(Technology news, comment
and analysis | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:03:07 AM
The Nokia chief tells guardian.co.uk
that the company's fightback is not
just about developing an 'iPhone
killer'
Nokia has yet to produce a viable
competitor to the iPhone, the boss of
the Finnish mobile phone maker
admitted in an interview with the
Guardian, but its tie-up with Intel
should give the company a leading
role in the next generation of wireless
internet devices.
"It is very true that we do not have
the high-end 'mind share' product, as
we speak, but of course we are
working to get there," said Olli-Pekka
Kallasvuo, Nokia president and chief
executive.
At its investor day late last year,
Nokia hinted it would produce major
new devices this year. Analysts
reckon it is hard at work on a so-
called 'iPhone killer'.
But Kallasvuo said it is not just about
one expensive handset. "We are
going for the consumer market, we
are going to the business market, we
are going to the low end, we are
going to the developing markets."
Nokia has seen its commanding lead
eroded by the likes of Apple,
Blackberry maker RIM and devices
sporting Google's new Android
software. To retaliate, it took the
surprise decision last month to give
EYE
continued from page 6
Ram Yantra remind viewers of
dueling Roman Coliseums. Used to
measure the altitude and azimuth of
celestial objects such as the sun and
stars, these monumental instruments
are in fact perfect complements of
one another – the solid portions of
one Ram Yantra’s floor correspond to
open spaces in that of its partner.
(image via: India Mike)
The cut-outs allow observers to note
the precise positions of shadows cast
by a central gnomon without
inadvertently blocking the light.
Should the shadow fall into a space
inside one Ram Yantra, the observer
simply moves to the other instrument.
This pattern is repeated with several
other calculating instruments of the
Jantar Mantar.
Jai Prakash Yantra
(image via: Aryabhatt)
The Jai Prakash Yantra are a pair of
hemispherical bowls faced with
marble. Like the Ram Yantra, one
complements the other – open spaces
in one are replaced by surfaces in the
other. Inside the spaces are steps for
the observers to stand and each bowl
was mounted on lead sheeting to
ensure it would remain perfectly
stable over the years.
(images via: TrekEarth and Imageo)
links for 2010-02-13
(Ogle Earth)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 10:05:45 AM
• Bing To Use Flickr Photos, Live
all users of its smartphones free
access to its satellite navigation
service.
Kallasvuo said Nokia sees the
services on its phones as no different
from the hardware, such as a camera
or Bluetooth. They are all reasons for
a consumer to pick up a device.
"The way it is going is this," he said.
"Here in my hand I have a device, it
used to be a mobile phone, now it is a
multipurpose device. Not only a
communications device but it has
other functionality and it has a
camera.
"The mobile telephone industry has
been very good at capturing value
from other adjacent industries, such
as the camera industry. Now it is
about how it will come with different
types of content and services and
software, like turn-by-turn navigation
… from a business point of view that
is like adding a camera. One is a
hardware component, the other one is
content or services but the business
logic is the same.
"You add stuff and sell it to the
consumer and the consumer sees
value in that."
At Nokia's press conference at
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
today, new handsets were
conspicuous by their absence. The
main event was details of the firm's
tie-up with Intel to create an open
source software platform for internet
tablets, laptops and internet-enabled
TVs.
The purpose of the Jai Prakash
Yantra was to act as a reflection of
the sky above. Crosswires stretched
over the center of the bowl hold a
metal ring, and every point in the sky
can be reflected onto a corresponding
point on the bowl through the ring. It
is said that the Jai Prakash Yantra
were so accurate, they were used to
calibrate the other instruments in the
Jantar Mantar.
Art By Numbers
(image via: Artnet – Lynn Davis)
The unique impression of the Jantar
Mantar results from the combination
of modern mathematical precision
with the rich patina of time. As such,
the captivating angles and curves of
the instruments appeal greatly to
painters and photographers. The
above photo by Lynn Davis taken in
2007 adds a dash of life in the form
of a verdant palm grove to add
softness and contrast to the deep
oxblood hue of the Delhi Jantar
Mantar at sunset.
The Jantar Mantar is relatively
unknown as ancient monumental
works go, as are the significant
accomplishments of India’s medieval
astronomers. It is hoped that the
preceding exploration will help
change that… though only time will
Video, But Google’s Got Goods, Too
| Gizmodo Australia Remarkable
what a difference a week makes:
Before, uploading photos to my
favorite photo site Flickr meant
The fact that Nokia is an important
customer for British chip maker
ARM Holdings immediately raised
concerns about the possibility of
Nokia and Intel creating their own
chip architecture and pushing out the
FTSE 100-listed firm.
But Kallasvuo said that as MeeGo,
their new platform, is open to all
comers and designed to work on
different chip designs it is not a
threat.
"It can be Intel architecture, it can be
ARM architecture," he said.
"Decoupling the software from the
hardware will give a lot of
opportunity for people to work with
MeeGo. The credibility of Nokia and
Intel supporting this with a wide
variety of devices, I think this is a
compelling offer."
• Mobile World Congress
• Mobile phones
• Nokia
• Nokia
• Technology sector
• Intel
• iPhone
• BlackBerry
• ARM
Richard Wray
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2010 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
tell. Want More? Click for Great
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foregoing their publication on Google
Maps and Bing Maps. Now,
suddenly, they are popping up on
both. Upload once, and see them
published on multiple platforms,
15
Metropolis: City
Animation made
entirely from Images
Printed on Paper
by Smithee (Digital Urban)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 8:29:00 AM
We are late to the table on this one
but its so good that we thought it
would be madness not to post about
it. Metropolis by Rob Carter is a
quirky and very abridged narrative
history of the city of Charlotte, North
Carolina. It uses stop motion video
animation to physically manipulate
aerial still images of the city (both
real and fictional), creating a
landscape in constant motion.
Starting around 1755 on a Native
American trading path, the viewer is
presented with the building of the
first house in Charlotte. From there
we see the town develop through the
historic dismissal of the English, to
the prosperity made by the discovery
of gold and the subsequent roots of
the building of the multitude of
churches that the city is famous for.
Now the landscape turns white with
cotton, and the modern city is ‘born’,
with a more detailed re-creation of
the economic boom and surprising
architectural transformation that has
occurred in the past 20 years:
Metropolis by Rob Carter - Last 3
minutes from Rob Carter on Vimeo.
Charlotte is one of the fastest
growing cities in the country,
primarily due to the continuing influx
of the banking community, resulting
in an unusually fast architectural and
population expansion that shows no
sign of faltering despite the current
economic climate. However, this new
downtown Metropolis is therefore
subject to the whim of the market and
the interest of the giant corporations
that choose to do business there.
Made entirely from images printed
on paper, the animation literally
represents this sped up urban planners
dream, but suggests the frailty of that
dream, however concrete it may feel
on the ground today. Ultimately the
video continues the city development
into an imagined hubristic future, of
more and more skyscrapers and
sports arenas and into a bleak
environmental future. It is an extreme
representation of the already serious
water shortages that face many
expanding American cities today; but
this is less a warning, as much as a
statement of our paper thin
significance no matter how many
monuments of steel, glass and
concrete we build.
In short its fantastic... see
http://www.robcarter.net/ for more of
his work.
Agents to blame for
'junk fees'?
(Inman News Headlines)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 10:31:38 AM
Wheel Estate Cam: Episode 13
read more
That's how it should be, of course.
Comments (0)
16
Android tablets resurface at the
Mobile World Congress
(VentureBeat)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 6:52:04 PM
Apple is getting all the attention right
now for its shiny new tablet device
the iPad, but Google and its partners
may be about to steal the spotlight. At
the Mobile World Congress in
Barcelona today, VentureBeat’s
Matthaus Krzykowski had the chance
to play with a tablet device using
Google’s Android operating system,
and he’s super-impressed.
What Matthaus saw was an
application built on Adobe’s AIR
technology running on top of
Android. It was an app for Wired
magazine built by the CondeNast
Wired developer team. The presenter
moved the tablet around, touched the
device to focus on the magazine’s
details, and so on. It was all quite
cool.
The device in question is the ICD
Ultra running on the next generation
of Nvidia Tegra processors. More
specifics about the device and the
platform are coming on Wednesday,
but for now we can tell you that it
offers an incredible experience: This
is a device that you will want to touch
constantly, that you will want to hug.
It includes a sleek touchscreen and an
YouTube Updates API and Introduces New
JSON-C Format
(ProgrammableWeb)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 1:12:10 PM
YouTube have announced in their
API blog that they are making a
notable change to their YouTube API.
The API, which returns results in
both XML and JSON, is getting an
upgrade on the JSON side, and the
change is different enough that they
are giving the format a new name
JSON-C:
We’ve rethought out current JSON
implementation, and moved away
from a literal representation of the
Atom data to a format that we hope
accelerometer.
Beyond this device, we may be at the
beginning of an Android tablet
invasion. But, of course, an operating
system like Android needs more than
cool devices — one of Apple’s big
talking points for the iPhone and now
the iPad is the variety of applications
in its App Store. That’s why the
announcement yesterday that Adobe
is releasing a version of its AIR
technology for mobile devices,
starting with Android, should be
significant — someone who builds
apps using Adobe’s tools can now
export them to the iPhone, the iPad,
Android devices, and more. That
applies to the tablet too, especially
since Nvidia and Adobe worked
together to optimize AIR apps for this
device.
On a 20,000-foot level, this is a
debate about native applications
versus web applications on tablets.
Adobe seems to think that Apple
developers will not be able to build
100 million applications for the 100
million websites out there. AIR is
more open and beneficial to
developers in the sense that you don’t
have to build a web application, then
build a separate phone application.
Instead, you build the web app in
will be more pleasing to those who
are fluent in JSON. The vestigial
XML namespace prefixes are no
more, and we’ve removed many
pieces of metadata specific to Atom
documents that come across as noise
in JSON. Repeating data elements are
always structured as true JSON lists,
and useful video metadata that exist
as XML attributes in Atom have been
rearranged to make more sense in the
JSON document. You’ll also find that
the new JSON results are more
compact than Atom XML, which is
of special importance to code running
from limited-bandwith mobile
Flash, then offer it in the app stores
for tablets and phones using AIR. Of
course, Adobe has its own self-
interested reasons for doing this,
since all this web and app
development would be taking place
using its proprietary platforms.
It may seem puzzling that this efforts
come from Nokia and Adobe, not
Google. The search giant doesn’t
appear to be focusing on becoming a
high-quality platform for digital
publications. That’s an effort that
Adobe is better-suited for. Media and
content providers are used to working
with Adobe products like Photoshop
or Illustrator anyway, so it’s easy for
them to adopt Adobe products. With
Android, Google may be happy to
provide the platform, then let other
companies like Adobe improve it.
Another argument that supports this
thinking, which we’re hearing from
device makers at MWC, is that the
Android team is pretty bad at
servicing all the hundreds of
companies out there that want help
from Google. The Android team
simply does not have time and
resources to deal with the requests.
This creates space for third parties
like Adobe to operate.
applications.
We call this new format JSON-C,
and you can read about all the
technical details in our documentation
and see it in action in our live demo.
JSON is a popular format not only
for JavaScript developers, but also for
those using platforms like
ActionScript and Silverlight which
have native or officially supported
libraries implementing JSON.
This change now makes the old
JSON format depreciated. According
to the Terms of Service, YouTube
will continue to support the old JSON
format for 3 years, but there will be
Symposium on Voronoi
Diagrams - ISVD2010,
June 28-30th 2010,
Quebec City, Canada
by satri@slashgeo.org
(Slashgeo)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 10:04:00 AM
Mir Abolfazl Mostafavi writes"The
7th international symposium on
Voronoi diagrams and their
applications in sciences and
engineering which was previously
hold in Japan, South Korea, Ukraine,
England and Denmark will take place
in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada on
June 28-30th, 2010. The symposium,
which will be hosted by the
Department of Geometrics Sciences
at Laval University, is intended to
provide an international and
interdisciplinary forum for the
leading researchers and students to
present the latest and innovative
developments and applications of the
Voronoi diagrams, to discuss cutting-
edge techniques, to exchange
research ideas and to promote
international networking and
collaboration in this field. The
symposium is sponsored by the
GEOIDE network of centers of
excellence, Center for Research in
Geomatics (CRG), Department of
Geomatics Sciences, Laval University
and the International Society for
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
(ISPRS). Authors are invited to
submit papers describing original
research works related to one or
several topics mentioned in the call
for papers on the symposium website.
Full papers will be refereed by the
programme comity and accepted
papers will be published online by the
IEEE and in t event proceedings. For
more information, please visit the
ISVD2010 website or contact prof.
Mir Abolfazl Mostafavi at: mir-
abolfazl.mostafavi@scg.ulaval.ca"
See also previous Voronoi stories
below.
Read more of this story at Slashgeo.
4 hot Web tools for
agents
(Inman News Headlines)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:07:29 AM
Part 2: Trends and gems from
Connect NYC
read more
no additional features features added.
YouTube are encouraging developers
to upgrade any existing code that is
affected by the change.
If you want to get a sense of just how
important JSON has become in the
world of open APIs, keep in mind
that over 450 APIs support JSON,
some of whom support JSON
exclusively. Related
ProgrammableWeb Resources
YouTube API Profile, 445 mashups

This week in search 2/14/10
by A Googler (The Official
Google Blog)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 3:20:00 PM
This is part of a regular series of
posts on search experience updates
that runs weekly. Look for the label
This week in search and subscribe to
the series. - Ed.
From enhancements in real-time
search to Vancouver happenings at
your fingertips, this week included a
number of exciting search launches:
Winter Games info in search results
As the 2010 Winter Games kick off,
we've made it easy for you to follow
all of the action in Vancouver. Now,
when you search for the latest results
for your favorite sport, you'll see the
information you're looking for just
above the search results. Looking for
the latest schedules? They're just a
search away. And if you're interested
in following how your home country
is doing, you can quickly view the
latest medal count. All that's left for
you to do is cheer for your favorite
team and enjoy the games!
Example searches: [ men's hockey], [
alpine skiing schedule] and [ medal
Flickr API Tips From an Expert
(ProgrammableWeb)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 10:33:40 PM
The Flickr Developer Blog has
posted an interview with Simon
Willison co-creator of the Django
Web framework and one of the
developers of the sophisticated Flickr
mashup WildlifeNearYou.com. The
project took around 14 months to
complete, and Simon shares some of
the tips and tricks he picked up
during that time working with the
Flickr API.
Flickr machine tags featured heavily
in the tips:
Here’s a fun example: finding all of
the Red Pandas that have been
spotted in Europe. WildlifeNearYou
doesn’t yet have a concept of Europe,
but Flickr’s API can search using
Yahoo! WhereOnEarth IDs. We can
find the WOEID for Europe using the
G e o P l a n e t A P I :
http://where.yahooapis.com/v1/places
.q(’europe’)?appid=[yourappidhere]
The WOEID for Europe is
24865675. Next we need the
WildlifeNearYou identifier for red
pandas, so we can figure out the
correct machine tag to search for. We
re-use the codes from our custom
URL shortener for our machine tags,
DAZZLING
continued from page 7
Art. Ryohei Hase
With a background in the video
game industry, Tokyo artist Ryohei
Hase has now turned to what he
describes as “realistic fantasy art”.
In a December 2009 interview Hase
told Swide, “Internet stimulates
people’s emotion. The environment
which people can easily see the art of
another country can be a trigger to
create new artists.This is the easiest
and closest place to showcase my
works. My work has the chances to
be seen by many people around the
world because of internet. I have no
count]
Google Buzz in real-time search
Tuesday, we announced Google
Buzz as part of our efforts to help
make the web more social. Buzz is a
new way to start conversations about
the things you find interesting,
allowing you to share updates, photos
and videos right in Gmail. When we
launched Buzz we made sure that we
had it integrated into real-time search.
Since real-time is all about searching
what's happening right now,
including changes to webpages, the
latest news articles, new blog posts
and fresh microblog content, it only
seemed natural to include Buzz.
Maps of more countries in search
results
Many of us use online maps so
frequently that it's easy to forget that
many countries lack detailed, street-
level digital maps. But thanks to
people adding their local knowledge
to Google Map Maker, the local
search results for places like
Romania, Iceland, and Peru now
include a map. In fact, as of this week
we're able to show a map everytime
we show local search results. As a
so we can find that ID by looking for
the “Short URL” link on
http://www.wildlifenearyou.com/ani
mals/red-panda/(at the bottom of the
right hand column). The short URL is
http://wlny.eu/s2f which means the
machine tag we need is
wlny:species=s2f
Armed with the WOEID and the
machine tag, we can compose a
Flickr search API call:
idea what I would become without
it…” Want More? Click for Great
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Separate Reality: Digital Art by Alex
Andreyev Ghostly alien landscapes,
floating structures and otherworldly
creatures characterize the "hermetic
art" of digital painter Alex Andreyev.
Click Here to Read More »»
Digital Painters: Old World Art
Meets Modern Tech Working as
concept artists and illustrators, these
15 incredible digital artists have
mastered modern computer-based
media to create stunning works of art.
result, the efforts of global citizen
cartographers are really serving the
needs of local users, schools, city
planners, and tourists.
Example search: [ catedral de lima]
Aardvark acquisition
This week, you might have seen our
announcement that we've acquired the
technology company Aardvark.
Aardvark allows you to easily tap into
the knowledge and experience
network of your friends and extended
network of contacts. The way it
works is quite simple — you just
send a question in plain English, like
you would when speaking with a
friend. Aardvark then acts as a hub,
figuring out who might be able to
answer your question, and then
responds with an answer. You can
read more about the announcement
here, and Aardvark is already
available in Google Labs, so you can
try it out today.
It was a busy week for us in search.
See you back here next week!
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google
Fellow
http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?me
thod=flickr.photos.search&machine_t
ags=wlny:species=s2f&woe_id=2486
5675&api_key=…
That gives us back a list of photos of
Red Pandas taken in places that are
within Europe.
The interview also asks what Flickr
could add or do better, to which
Simon replied he would like to see an
4 Comments - Click Here to Read
More »»
Mind-Bending Digital Photo
Manipulation by Erik Johansson
Roads unfurl like fabric and human
faces are frighteningly elastic in the
digitally manipulated photographs of
artist Erik Johansson. 3 Comments -
Click Here to Read More »»
[ WebUrbanist- By Steph in Gadgets
& Geek Art, Graffiti & Drawing,
Technology & Futurism. ]
17
WHY
continued from page 8
customers in many other lands. That
changes the phone’s role in our lives.
To win back American buyers,
Nokia needs to do more than show up
in the touchscreen-and-open-source
corner of a Gartner magic quadrant. It
needs to shake the gangster-phone
stigma. It needs to shock and rock
spoiled Americans.
What Nokia needs is a new phone —
sorry, N900 — that’s as startling and
lust-provoking as Keanu’s snap-open
model was eleven years ago. If
there’s a Star Trek sequel, it should
be plugged into the cigarette lighter in
young James Kirk’s vintage Corvette
Stingray.
Sure, we’ll yak about features and
compatibilities and licensing models
and app store rules all day on Twitter.
But Nokia could shut us all up with
the right piece of hardware and the
right high-exposure marketing for it. I
don’t care what operating system it
runs. I only care that when I see it in
someone else’s hands, I have to grab
it.
OAuth-style flow for selecting
photos:
I’d like to (for example) redirect my
users to somewhere like
http://www.flickr.com/pickr/?return_t
o=http://www.wildlifenearyou.com/se
lected/ and have Flickr present them
with a full UI for searching and
selecting from their photos. Once
they had selected some photos, Flickr
could redirect them back to
http://www.wildlifenearyou.com/sele
cted/?photo_ids=4303651932,428257
1384,4282571396 and my application
would know which photos they had
selected.
This would make integrating “pick a
photo / some photos from Flickr” in
to any application much, much easier.
WildLife Near You was previously
featured in the Flickr blog, which you
can find here.
The interview is an interesting read,
and those using the Flickr API are
likely to pick up something new. For
more examples of the Flickr API in
action visit our Flick API profile,
which lists over 500 Flickr mashups.
Related ProgrammableWeb
Resources
Flickr API Profile, 506 mashups
GOOGLE
continued from page 5
also unlikely to usurp any of these
players overnight, and will more
likely coexist for a long time. This
might not be good news for social
media marketers and bloggers who
already have a bunch of tools
(Twitter, Facebook, Digg,
StumbleUpon) to learn, but it’s good
news for the industry because it will
open up another ecosystem of
applications.
18
Digg’s Read-Write API
(ProgrammableWeb)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 11:45:00 PM
Do you remember a time when web
pages proudly displayed hit counters?
These have long since been replaced
by counters showing how many times
a site has been mentioned on a social
network site. Digg was one of the
pioneers in the field of social
bookmarks, and now they are looking
to make their service even easier to
integrate in external web pages by
releasing a new writable API. In an
under-reported blog post just before
the end of the year the Digg API team
announced this change:
Today we are releasing a revamped
API that allows developers to
write/contribute data using OAuth, a
feature that many developers have
been eagerly anticipating. In this
release, Digging and burying both
stories and comments are now
supported.
Forbes have interviewed Jeff
Hodsdon, Digg’s lead developer on
the project, where some benefits of
Wind power on the rise, thanks mostly to China
(VentureBeat)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 2:16:47 PM
Wind power generation increased by
31 percent around the world last
year, now totaling 157.9 gigawatts,
according to a new report from the
Global Wind Energy Council. The
country with the biggest individual
increase: China, which saw more
than 100 percent growth in wind
power capacity over the last year,
accounting for more than a third of
the new turbines installed.
The news is not only good for the
environment, but also the global
economy. Not only does wind power
now employ an international
workforce of 500,000, the market has
swelled to $63 billion. The increase
California home affordability up from '08
(Inman News Headlines)
the new API were identified:
The new writable API will likely
mean easier content sharing. Users
will be able to authorize an
application via a protocol called
OAuth and allow it to send actions to
Digg on their behalf. For example,
you could vote up, or “digg,” a story
on Forbes.com without ever having to
leave the site. That, says Hodsdon,
means a likely increase in the amount
of actions shared through the
platform.
Users will still have to go through
the Digg site to submit a story
though. Hodsdon estimates that
overcoming obstacles in CAPTCHA
verification and story duplication
detection, designed to keep Digg free
from spam, will take around 6
months.
To show off the new API a reference
application called Digg Lite has been
released. It demonstrates the OAuth
authorization, and allows users to
digg or bury stories without leaving
the site. Developers can download the
source code from GitHub. The
defied analyst predictions that the
economic downturn would slow wind
development.
China, which now derives 25.1
gigawatts from wind, wasn’t the only
country in Asia placing emphasis on
wind. India, South Korea, Japan and
Taiwan added a combined 14
gigawatts of generation. To put this in
context, the U.S. — which still leads
in wind generation — added 10
gigawatts, upping its wind capacity
by 39 percent. This is the year that
the Asian wind market took off, after
incremental increases over the last
seven years.
Europe also saw impressive growth
in its wind capacity, adding 10.5
gigawatts, but year-over-year
increases have been somewhat
Median entry-level home price down
48.8% from peak
documentation for the new API has
also been made available.
Developing a writable API is a big
move for Digg, as their existing API
only allowed developers to use Digg
as a data source. The move may have
been inevitable though, with sites like
Facebook and Twitter, both of whom
have writable APIs, making inroads
into the social bookmarking scene
with their “Tweet This” and
“Facebook Share” widgets (with
more than one site using these
widgets at the expense of Digg’s own
story submission widget).
This competition in the API space is
good news for developers, who are
gaining more freedom
and functionality when interacting
with Digg behind the scenes. It also
highlights how important APIs are to
the success of a site. You can more
examples of how the Digg API has
been used in our Digg API Profile.
Related ProgrammableWeb
Resources
Digg API Profile, 56 mashups
modest. Unsurprisingly, Spain and
Germany (also the leaders in solar)
added the most wind to their power
mixes last year. Latin America,
read more
Photosynth creator
walks us through Bing
Maps, gives us a taste
of augmented reality's
future (video)
(Engadget)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:58:00 PM
We were pretty stoked when we
heard all about the new toys that
Microsoft was adding to Bing
Maps(Street View-esque navigation,
Photosynth integration, crowd
sourcing content, so on and so forth),
and it looks like things are really
coming together nicely. If you hop on
past the break, we've thoughtfully
embedded Blaise Aguera y Arcas'
TED Talk where the Microsoft Live
Labs architect and co-creator of
Photosynth gives a pretty sweet
overview of the project as the
foundation for a pretty robust
augmented reality setup. The crowd
gasps, applauds, and speaks in
tongues repeatedly throughout the
eight minute talk -- which is really
what you'd expect from the Glenn
Beck crowd, not the head of the
technology, entertainment, and design
fraternity (at least those who attend
conferences). But don't take our word
for it! Check it out and tell us what
you think.
Continue reading Photosynth creator
walks us through Bing Maps, gives us
a taste of augmented reality's future
(video)
Photosynth creator walks us through
Bing Maps, gives us a taste of
augmented reality's future (video)
originally appeared on Engadget on
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:58:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| TED| Email this|
Comments
Africa and the Middle East remain
stagnant in this area, with much less
than even a gigawatt of installed
wind power.
The other big news in wind today is
that Mitsubishi may start
manufacturing turbines in the U.S.
The company has been battling
General Electric, the major turbine
maker in the states, to get its foot in
the door for a while. GE has gone as
far as filing suits over turbine patents,
but this strategy hasn’t been
successful in the past. The potential
Mitsubishi plant would cost more
than $100 million.

Darth Vader on the Toilet: Fantasy
Photo Series
(WebUrbanist)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 10:00:44 AM
[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geek Art,
Urban & Street Art. ]
For decades, comic book fans have
followed the adventures of their
favorite super heroes defending the
public, fighting villains, coming to
terms with their own powers, having
amorous relationships and just
generally saving the day. But what do
those same characters do when the
cameras aren’t rolling, so to speak?
With a combination of photoshop,
costumed models and action figures,
Toronto photographer Ian Pool
creates fantasy scenarios of popular
super heroes and villains – from
Wonder Woman to Doc Ock – in
situations ranging from the
embarrassing to the provocative.
Nothing’s quite so incongruous as
the sight of an infamous bad guy
sitting on the toilet in a frilly
bathroom, reading a parenting
magazine. Pool’s image of Darth
Vader doing just that gets an even
Automatic Image Rotator with CSS and jQuery
(WebAppers)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 11:01:23 PM
With the release of the iPad and its
lack of support for flash, it has stirred
up a lot of debates regarding the
future of flash. With this in mind,
SohTanaka believes it is wise to build
simple widgets like the image slider
using HTML / CSS / Javascript, and
more humorous touch with a chintzy
plaque reading “May the dark side of
the force be with you”.
With his intimidating muscles,
bulging veins and green skin, The
Incredible Hulk cuts an imposing
figure. But this tortured protagonist
loses some of his frightening
mystique when walking a dainty little
dog.
Perhaps Spiderman isn’t always so
virtuous. The agile web-slinger isn’t
afraid to break a few laws here and
there – like the ones that bar public
urination.
Anyone that has ever harbored a
crush on Wonder Woman might find
it renewed after getting a glimpse at
some of the things she likes to do
after dark.
Batman might be a badass, but even
he needs a little caffeine pick-me-up
every now and then. Luckily, he gets
rock star parking at the local diner.
Not all of Ian Pool’s photos focus on
superheroes – the photographer is
also known for thought-provoking
editorial work, often with a satirical
leave more interactive applications
for flash if needed.
Therefore, SohTanaka has built an
Automatic Image Slider with CSS
and jQuery. This html based image
slider will have its benefits with SEO
and will also degrade gracefully for
those without Javascript enabled.
Requirements: jQuery Framework
D e m o : • Create Fancy Thumbnail Hover
edge that hints at social commentary.
Want More? Click for Great Related
Content on WebUrbanist: Mind-
Bending Digital Photo Manipulation
by Erik Johansson Roads unfurl like
fabric and human faces are
frighteningly elastic in the digitally
manipulated photographs of artist
Erik Johansson. 3 Comments - Click
Here to Read More »»
18 (More) Crazy, Creepy and Kinky
Hotel Rooms: From Japanese Fantasy
to Time-Lapse Photography Here are
eighteen more unusually artistic,
sexy, crazy and kinky hotel rooms
from around the world. Who knew
that interior designers could be so
creatively strange? 32 Comments -
Click Here to Read More »»
Fractured Reality: Bizarre 3-D Photo
Sculptures Artist Gwon Osang forms
hundreds of photographs around
mannequins to create bizarre three-
dimensional photo sculptures. Click
Here to Read More »»
[ WebUrbanist- By Steph in Gadgets
& Geek Art, Urban & Street Art. ]
http://www.sohtanaka.com/web-
design/examples/image-slider/
License: License Free Related Posts
• How to Create an Image Rotator
with jQuery and CSS
• CU3ER – 3D Transitions Image
Slider in Flash
• How to Build a Dynamic Flash
Gallery with Slider Control
19
Augmented reality app
Layer graduates from
App Stores... creates its
own
(Download Squad)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 3:27:00 PM
Filed under: iPhone, Mobile,
Android
Layar makes augmented reality
applications for smartphone platforms
including Google Android and the
iPhone. What that means is, you can
hold up your phone and look through
the camera while seeing digital
information about the things you're
looking at. Click on the Architecture
layer, and you can see information
about significant buildings you pass.
The Allmenus layer, shows you
information about restaurants you
pass, complete with menus and
ratings when available.
Up until now the app was only
available from the iPhone App Store
and Android Market, and all of the
different augmented reality layers in
the application were available for
free. But both of those things could
soon change.
Today Layar announced that it's
partnered with "one of the top 3"
handset makers, which could mean
that the software will come
preinstalled on some phones in the
not-too-distant future. The company
is also sort of opening an app store of
its own. Third parties can already
create tools for Layar (like the
Allmenus layer). There are 375
already available, and hundreds of
additional layers in development. So
far, they're all free. But come March,
you'll start to see a mix of free and
paid content available for the Layar
application.
[via ReadWriteWeb]
Share
Augmented reality app Layer
graduates from App Stores... creates
its own originally appeared on
Download Squad on Mon, 15 Feb
2010 18:27:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Read|
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iPhone- App Store- Android-
AugmentedReality- Smartphone
Effect with jQuery
• Mootools Double Pinned Slider
with Range Indicator
Sponsors
Pixmac: Stock Photos, Royalty Free
Pictures and Images
20
Live Stage: Arrested Time [Adams,
MA]
(Networked_Performance)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 10:17:49 AM
Arrested Time by Nathaniel Stern
with Jessica Meuninck-Ganger— An
exhibition of works combining
contemporary technologies with
traditional drawing and printmaking
methods curated by Jo-Anne Green::
February 26 - April 3, 2010 ::
Opening Reception: February 26;
5:30 - 8:30 pm :: Greylock Arts, 93
Summer Street, Adams MA.
Nathaniel Stern’s Given Time
simultaneously activates and
performs two permanently logged-in
Second Life avatars, each forever and
only seen by and through the other.
They hover in mid-air, almost
completely still, gazing into one
another’s interface. Viewers
encounter this networked partnership
as a diptych of large-scale (8 feet tall)
and facing video projections in a real
world gallery, both exhibiting a live
view of one avatar, as perceived by
the other. To create a visceral
aesthetic, these custom-designed and
life-sized “bodies” are hand-drawn in
subtly animated graphite and
charcoal. The audience is invited to
physically walk between them;
they’re able to hear and see them
breathing, witness their hair blowing
in the wind, pick up faint sounds such
as rushing water or birds crying out
from the surrounding simulated
environment. Here, an intimate
exchange between dual, virtual
bodies is transformed into a public
meditation on human relationships,
bodily mortality, and time’s
inevitable flow.
In Distill Life, Stern and Meuninck-
Ganger approach both old and new
Urban Airship raises $1.1M to
provide infrastructure for mobile
apps
(VentureBeat)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:00:53 AM
Urban Airship, a company that helps
developers build mobile applications
by providing services like push
notifications and in-app purchases,
has raised $1.1 million in funding, led
by True Ventures with participation
from Founders Co-op.
The Portland, Ore. company isn’t the
only one offering these kinds of
services for app development —
Push.io is another— but it says it was
the first to actually deliver on those
promises. In fact, Urban Airship says
that Tapulous was the first game
publisher to feature push notifications
(notifications sent from an application
even when it’s closed) on the iPhone,
and that it did so using Urban Airship
services. Now the company has
1,500 customers, and has sent more
Steve Jobs' 6 Sneakiest Statements
by Wired.com (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:00:00 PM
media as form. They permanently
mount translucent prints and
drawings directly on top of video
screens, creating moving images on
paper. They incorporate technologies
and aesthetics from traditional
printmaking - including woodblock,
silk screen, etching, lithography,
photogravure etc - with the
technologies and aesthetics of
contemporary digital, video and
networked art, to explore images as
multidimensional. Their juxtaposition
of anachronistic and disparate
methods, materials and content - print
and video, paper and electronics, real
and virtual - enables novel
approaches to understanding each.
than 100 million messages to more
than 10 million mobile devices.
Looking ahead, chief executive and
co-founder Scott Kveton said Urban
Airship plans to expand its services,
especially by expanding to other
mobile devices like those running
Steve Jobs isn't just a talented public
speaker; he also has a knack for
throwing off journalists and analysts
with his masterful misdirections.
The artists work with subject matter
ranging from historical portraiture to
current events, from artificial
landscapes to socially awkward
moments.
With Arrested Time, Green curates
an exhibition of Stern’s solo and
collaborative work that explores the
juxtaposition of old and new media,
and illuminates the possibilities and
limitations of both. The works hover
between stasis and motion, texture
and light, line and pixel, past and
present, paper and screen, surface and
depth, one artist and another.
http://nathanielstern.com
http://jessicameuninck.com
Google’s Android operating system.
It’s not just mobile phones, either —
Kveton said there’s a lot of interest
from Urban Airship’s customers in
infrastructure for apps built for
Apple’s new iPad tablet.
“Our customers are knocking down
the door saying we need support for
the iPad,” Kveton said. “Skeptics are
saying the iPad may not be relevant.
But it’s a way, way better Kindle, and
the Kindle is a successful device.”
Urban Airship actually launched at
VentureBeat’s MobileBeat
conference last year, which is also
where Kveton met one of his
investors — Chris DeVore, who was
at the event to demonstrate his own
product, AppStoreHQ, but who is
also an investor at Founder’s Co-op.
Here are six famously misleading
quotes that Jobs pulled from his bag
of tricks.
AT&T takes a jab
at Apple with its own
cross-platform app store
(Download Squad)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 1:01:00 PM
Filed under: Business, Mobile AT&T
continues to live the good life as the
exclusive U.S. mobile carrier for
Apple's iPhone, riding the wave of
customers attracted by the App Store.
That could all change at any time,
though, with speculation that Apple
plans to drop its exclusive deal and
bring the iPhone to new carriers
sometime this year. AT&T isn't going
to take that lying down, though:
they're teaming up with other mobile
carriers, including Orange and
Telefonica, to launch their own app
store.
The announcement is scheduled for
tomorrow at the Mobile World
Congress, according to the Times
Online. AT&T's app store won't just
be iPhone apps, either. It's reportedly
a cross-platform app store that will
introduce a single standard for apps
across many devices that the partner
carriers support. With almost 2 billion
customers between them, that's a
pretty sizable audience.
Developers, don't start drooling just
yet: we don't know whether the actual
dev software for this new platform
will be announced tomorrow, or
whether we'll just see some kind of
statement of future plans. Is this the
ultimate kiss-off to Apple, or will the
new apps run on the famously-closed
iPhone too? Oh, the drama!
[via Mashable]
AT&T takes a jab at Apple with its
own cross-platform app store
originally appeared on Download
Squad on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:01:00
EST. Please see our terms for use of
feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
iPhone- Apple- appstore- Mobile
World Congress- Download Squad
Bing Maps At
TED
by satri@slashgeo.org
(Slashgeo)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 7:36:00 PM
The Fuzzy Tolerance blog points out
some of the augmented reality
portions of the Bing Maps TED
presentation thats been floating
around last week. I finally gave the
video a watch, and it was well worth
it. The live video overlays, photo
alignment capabilities and the
seamless transitions from aerial,
streetview and worldwide telescope
engines make this well worth the
watch. Go check out the video at
either of the links above.
Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

AT&T: Wholesale
Applications Community is
a platform, not an app store
(Download Squad)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 4:00:00 PM
Filed under: Business, Developer,
Mobile To follow up on some earlier
news about AT&T's possible
deployment of a new, cross-platform
app store, I received a clarification
from AT&T about what the
Wholesale Applications
Community(that's what they're calling
it) is and isn't. It's NOT an app store.
It IS an international coalition of
around 25 telecom companies that's
aiming to create a platform open to
all developers and selling to all
mobile phone users.
So, to be perfectly clear, I was wrong
about AT&T launching an app store
that competes directly with Apple's.
Here's what AT&T told me: "We
don't see this effort as competing
directly with any single existing apps
platform. As a matter of fact, the
coalition is open to any stakeholder
who is interested in joining."
I'm somewhat doubtful that Apple is
interested in joining, but that's hardly
AT&T's problem. It never hurts
consumers to have more apps to
choose from and more potential app
retailers in the pool, so it will be very
SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 now
available for Android,
Symbian, Windows Mobile RESTful uploading of
(Download Squad)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 2:00:00 PM
Filed under: Windows Mobile,
Symbian, Commercial, Mobile,
Android Mobile software maker SPB
is launching SPB Shell 5.0. Like
previous versions, SPB Shell
basically replaces your phone's
default user interface with a
customizable "shell." What's new in
version 5.0 is that SPB Shell ain't just
for Windows Mobile anymore. It's
also available for Symbian and
Google Android phones.
SPB Shell 5.0 also has a new 3D
engine, support for 3D widgets, and
3D applications for viewing photos,
playing media, and viewing weather
forecasts. It also features integration
with social networks including
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
The update also brings support for
multitouch displays and haptic
feedback which provides a tactile
response when you press the screen.
If you're looking for a way to dress
up your smartphone while waiting for
Windows Phone 7 Series to hit the
streets, SPB Shell 5.0 might tide you
over. Or if you just can't stand the
default UI for your Android or
Symbian device. The SPB web site
doesn't feature download or purchase
King of Cheez: The Internet's Meme Maestro Turns Junk Into Gold
by Wired.com (Wired Top
interesting to see what types of stores
the Wholesale Applications
Community's members end up
launching.
Share
AT&T: Wholesale Applications
Community is a platform, not an app
store originally appeared on
Download Squad on Mon, 15 Feb
2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Read|
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Apple- App Store- Mobile phone-
Wholesale Application Community-
Download Squad
pages for SPB Shell 5.0 yet. But
version 3.5 for Windows Mobile is
available for $29.95. No word on the
pricing for the new version.
SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 now available
for Android, Symbian, Windows
Mobile originally appeared on
Download Squad on Mon, 15 Feb
2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Windows Mobile- Android-
Facebook- Symbian- Smartphone
Lolcats. FAIL Blog. GraphJam. Ben
Huh built an empire out of irresistible
Windows Phone 7
Series Marketplace gets
pictured
(Engadget)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:25:00 AM
Microsoft's Joe Belfiore did a really
thorough job yesterday of walking us
through the key hubs on the shiny
new Windows Phone 7 OS, but one
area that was conspicuously missed
out in the overview was the
Marketplace. Well, let us fill in that
gap of knowledge right quick with the
above image of the interface. As you
can see, the first thing visible when
you enter the hub is a full-screen
feature for individual games or
applications -- this could either work
as with the music hub, wherein you
see the last bit of content you
accessed or, less awesomely, could
function as a promotional (read:
files using XML
(Floorplanner Tech Blog)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 3:34:31 AM
After searching for too long to find
any documentation on this topic, this
is just as a reminder for myself.
Hopefully, it’ll solve somebody else’s
problem as well.
To send a file to a Rails application,
using a RESTful XML API call, use
the following XML snippet:
type="file" name="filename.ext"
content-type="mime/type"> base64-
encoded file contents>
The file contents should be base64
encoded, and may be encapsulated in
a CDATA block: type="file"
iPhone Timelapse - A
Gorillacam Quick Post
by Smithee (Digital Urban)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 6:29:00 PM
A quick follow up post on our
previous first look at the free
Gorillacam app for the iPhone.
Despite the iPhone known camera
limitations it still does a good job at
time wasters.
21
advertising) spot before you get into
the market proper. The Marketplace
is then fragmented into its constituent
elements, with apps, games, music
and podcasts leading you into their
respective subsections. We've
grabbed an image of how the
Applications section will look as
well, which you can see for yourself
after the break.
Continue reading Windows Phone 7
Series Marketplace gets pictured
Windows Phone 7 Series
Marketplace gets pictured originally
appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb
2010 03:25:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Permalink
Pocketnow| Peter Wissinger| Email
this| Comments
name="greeting.txt" content-
type="text/plain">>
You can test this by opening a
console and feed the XML to
Hash.from_xml:>> greeting =
EOXML >> data =
Hash.from_xml(greeting) =>
{"greeting"=>#} >>
data['greeting'].content_type =>
" t e x t / p l a i n " > >
data['greeting'].original_filename =>
"greeting.txt" >> data['greeting'].read
=> "Hello world!"
Now you can handle files using your
XML API just like you would use file
uploads in your HTML forms.
timelapses with enough resolution to
add in various panning movements as
per our latest clip below:
Music is courtesy again of unsigned
band - Lemonade Joe.
Get Gorillacam Free through iTunes
22

Kingston whips out

speedy Class 10 16GB
microSDHC card
(Engadget)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 10:59:00 PM
While some camps are pumping out
larger microSDHC cards, Kingston's
done the world a favor by working on
speed instead. The result is this Class
10 16GB microSDHC card --
possibly the world's fastest of its kind
(at a minimum data transfer rate of Continue reading Kingston whips out
10MB/s). Who would need this, you speedy Class 10 16GB microSDHC
ask? Well, there's the speed freak in card
your own self that you're trying to Kingston whips out speedy Class 10
suppress, for starters, and don't forget 16GB microSDHC card originally
all those snazzy phones that can do appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb

“We Are Stardust” by 1080p video recording. As with most

nice things in life, this blistering card
will cost you a fair bit -- $138 for the
card sans adapters. Oh, go on, it's
2010 01:59:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Permalink| |
Email this| Comments

George LeGrady totally worth your liver.

(Networked_Performance)
Submitted at 2/14/2010 7:18:32 PM
We Are Stardust— by George
LeGrady— is a two-screen projection
installation that uses infrared sensors
to connect the real-time location of
the audience in the exhibition gallery
with the total vastness of space. It is
part of CODE Live at the Vancouver
2010 Cultural Olympiad Festival.
Based on data and observations of
the sky collected by the sun-orbiting
Spitzer Space Telescope from 2003 to
2008, over 36,000 observations are
represented and projected in a five-
hour cycle. Simultaneously, a FLIR
thermal sensing infrared surveillance
camera repositions its gaze on the
audience based on the positions of the
Spitzer’s observations. As one screen
represents this galaxy as it evolves,
the other screen, using a similar
sensing device, represents the
changing space within the installation
itself. The universe is projected and
visualized, and the exhibition space
records the spectator’s thermal
presence and actions, creating a work
of art that is truly universal and local
at the same time. We are Stardust
reminds us of how small we really
are, yet how interconnected we can
be beyond what we can normally see
with the human eye.
Scooby Doo Gets
the Magic Touch
(Animated Views)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 5:24:40 PM
The all new direct-to-video Scooby
Doo movie, Scooby-Doo!
Abracadabra Doo, will be released to
DVD tomorrow. The gang is back in
their groovy 1969 clothing, ready to
take on a mystery that deals with dark
magic. Matthew Lillard, who plays
the role of Shaggy from the first two
live action Scooby films, replaces
Casey Kasem as the voice of Shaggy.
New Dragon poster
(Animated Views)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 3:21:50 PM
A new one-sheet for How To Train
Your Dragon is now online, and can
be seen at Cinema Blend. The
upcoming DreamWorks film will hit
theaters on March 26th. Thanks to
‘CGIFanatic’ over at the Animated
Views Forum for the heads up.

Energy Sistem debuts Energy Book 2061 e-

reader
(Engadget)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:06:00 AM
Energy Sistem may be best known
for its PMPs(and curious spelling
choices), but it also recently dipped
its toes into the e-reader waters with
its Energy Book 1060, and it's now
already followed it up with its new
Energy Book 2061. Not exactly any
game-changing features here, but you
will get a 6-inch Vizplex display,
along with 64MB of internal memory
(plus an SDHC card slot for
expansion), an MP3 player, ePub and
PDF support (among other standard
formats), and a promised 6,000 page
turns on a battery charge. Still no
official word on a release over here,
but this one should be available in
Europe next month for €258, or about
$350.
Energy Sistem debuts Energy Book
2061 e-reader originally appeared on
Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010
03:06:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Permalink| Energy
Sistem| Email this| Comments

U.S. Feds Push For Handmade Amps Wired for the

Warrantless Cell Phone
Tracking
by satri@slashgeo.org
(Slashgeo)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 10:37:00 AM
I'm back, please allow a week to
catch up all geonews. Slashdot
discussed last week a story named
Feds Push For Warrantless Cell
Phone Tracking. Their summary: "
An article at CNET is reporting on
the Obama administration's push for
warrantless tracking of the location of
cell phones(Verizon Wireless stores
location data for one year, for
instance). The Justice Department
says no warrant is necessary:
'Because wireless carriers regularly
generate and retain the records at
issue, and because these records
provide only a very general indication
of a user's whereabouts at certain
times in the past, the requested cell-
site records do not implicate a Fourth
Amendment privacy interest.'" See
also previous related stories below.
Read more of this story at Slashgeo.
Rock Out With
Matchless Tone iPad to Launch
by Wired.com (Wired Top
Stories)
by Summer
by Wired.com (Wired: Tech
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:00:00 PM Biz)
Looking for unmatched sound from a
Submitted at 2/13/2010 10:01:00 AM
killer vintage amp that doesn't break
down like a killer vintage amp? LONG Beach, California — Wired
Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris
Matchless amps have you covered
with their sweet sounding, sweet Anderson announces at the
Technology, Entertainment and
looking boutique amplifiers that have
graced the stage with the likes of Bob Design conference that the
publication would be releasing its
Dylan and Buddy Guy. Take a photo
tour of the tech behind the machine content for the iPad by summer.
with Wired.com.

iTunes and iTunesU in
a Browser, via HTML
(OUseful.Info, the blog...)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 6:19:40 AM
Having to launch the iTunes client to
browse iTunes and iTunesU client is
often one step too far for me – as
soon as the request to launch iTunes
appears, I cancel the request – so I
put out a quick call to see if anyone
knew of any online, web based,
HTML front ends to iTunes and
iTunesU, and here’s what turned up.
From@liamgh, iTunesU in a
Timelapse: Making the
Map
by Smithee (Digital Urban)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 2:49:00 AM
Whether it is making a map of a city
or a map of a local tourist attraction,
as is the case below, there is a high
level of expertise involved and it is
mesmerising to see the process as a
timelapse.
John Potter was recently contracted
by the tourist attraction, Flamingo
Gardens, in Davie, Florida to
redesign their visitor's map. He
In Praise of Online
Obscurity
by Wired.com (Wired: Tech
Biz)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:00:00 PM
Wired's Clive Thompson reflects on
how easily social media can stop
23
browser:
(The UI of the higher levels of this
site isn’t quite so pretty, though…)
Clicking on the view link allows you
to watch the content in the browser:
Via a tweet from@sboneham, I also
got a link to an iTunes and appstore
app on Google apps (the iTunesU link
requires the iTunes client…maybe
these folks should talk?) App Store:
As far as machine access and APIs
go, here’s a Java API to iTunesU.
Illustration history
Class: Robert Foster
(Illustrationmundo.com) his “Clothed Figure” drawing class.
One of Tom’s instructors was an
Submitted at 2/15/2010 2:22:46 PM artist named Bob Foster who,
Usually Illustration History Class beginning in the late-1960s, went on
doesn’t actually venture into an to create countless beautiful
Illustration class… but this week is paperback covers.
really a unique opportunity to do so. All this week you’ll get a front-row
Over at my Today’s Inspiration blog, seat in Bob Foster’s “Editorial
guest author Tom Watson is sharing Illustration” class, circa 1958! More
recollections of his school days at the at Today’s Inspiration:
Academy of Art in San Francisco. Part 1
Here’s a photo Tom took in 1958 in
decided to record the project via an
on going screen capture:
Adobe Illustrator Time-Lapse Video
from John Potter on Vimeo.
The style reminds us in some ways
of 'Transport Tycoon' and that can
only be a good thing. Read more
about the project at
escapekeygraphics.com/entry/118/Ad
obe_Illustrator_Time-Lapse_V/ and
see more of John's work at
escapekeygraphics.com
Vienna goes 3D
(Google Earth Blog) but I'm pretty sure that Vienna is even
Submitted at 2/15/2010 6:38:14 AM
Late last week, Google pushed out
more widely covered.
I highly recommend that you check it
out for yourself. Here is a KML to fly
3D buildings for Vienna, Austria. I
played with it over the weekend, and
directly there, or enjoy this brief
video that Google has put together:
being social. With a few hundred or it's amazing! I don't know the exact Of all of the 3D cities that Google
even thousand people involved, it numbers, but I'd guess that it's among has added to Google Earth, which one
works, he says, but any bigger and it's the best 3D coverage of any city on is your favorite (and why)?
no longer a bantering process of the planet. I was floored by the level
thinking and living out loud. of detail in Milan a few months ago,
24
Disney’s Rapunzel
is now Tangled
(Animated Views)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 7:51:03 AM
Walt Disney Studios have announced
that their 2010 film will no longer be
called Rapunzel and will now be
known as Tangled, reports Collider.
Produced by Roy Conli, Tangled is
slated to hit theatres on November 24,
2010.
'Ik ben de
eerste met
deze functie'
(Emerce Nieuws)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 11:26:00 PM
[Mover & Shaker] Sander ten Dam
(36) ruilde zijn baan als uitgever bij
Kieskeurig in voor een baan bij
Sanoma Digital als Uitgever...
Layar opent
commercieel
platform
(Emerce Nieuws)
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:30:00 AM
Uitgevers en producenten kunnen
hun content betaald aanbieden in de
agente reality-browser Layar.
SPRXMobile, het bedrijf achter de...
Help-U-Sell goes
mobile
(Inman News Headlines)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 12:00:28 PM
Launches site with 'intelligent
search,' calculators
read more
Interview with illustrator PATRICK KYLE
(Illustrationmundo.com)
Same plane 3 times
shown approaching
Atlanta Airport
(Google Earth Hacks)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 11:19:22 AM
Same plane going to Atlanta
Nulaz wint
Navteq-prijs van
450.000 dollar
(Emerce Nieuws)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 8:00:00 AM
Het Nederlandse Nulaz heeft een
prijs van 450.000 dollar gewonnen in
de Navteq Global LBS Channel. De
interactieve locatiegebaseerde
dienst... Odd
MTV lanceert Runway Jonas Hemsida
mobiele provider (Google Earth Hacks) (Illustrationmundo.com)
MTV Mobile Submitted at 2/13/2010 11:21:35 AM
What was once a 4000 foot hole, has
Submitted at 2/15/2010 1:27:03 AM
Lots of interesting work by Jonas
(Emerce Nieuws) now become a warped runway. Went Hemsida
from a terrain error to a map error.
Submitted at 2/16/2010 12:38:00 AM
Naast een televisie en een digitaal
kanaal, zet MTV nu in op mobiel met
de lancering van de virtuele mobiele
provider MTV Mobile....
King of Cheez: The
Internet's Meme
Maestro Turns Junk
Into Gold
by Wired.com (Wired: Tech
Biz) whale
(Google Earth Hacks)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 9:00:00 PM
Lolcats. FAIL Blog. GraphJam. Ben Illustrator SEAN Submitted at 2/13/2010 11:20:19 AM
Huh built an empire out of irresistible
time wasters. METCALF this is a possibility whale
(Illustrationmundo.com)
Submitted at 2/15/2010 4:00:11 PM
More about SEAN METCALF at:
Profile/ Website
Final Approach
to Logan intl
airport
(Google Earth Hacks)
Submitted at 2/13/2010 11:16:14 AM
Arriving to Logan Airport Boston,
MA
More about PATRICK KYLE at:
Profile/ Website/ Flickr