Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
The theme for the July Quantified Self Manchester is What to do with all that QS data?
Talks are welcomed around this including.
• What do you do with the data?
• How do you import/export your data?
• What are data dashboards?
• Which data dashboard are worth using?
• What other uses of your data are there?
Be a great time to come along, meet other self trackers and discover whats possible with quantified data.
From the BBC
With a Japanese mother and African American father, Ariana Miyamoto has become the first bi-racial woman to be crowned Miss Japan.
One gunshot, one death, one moment out of time that irrevocably links eight minds in disparate parts of the world, putting them in each other’s lives, each other’s secrets, and in terrible danger. Ordinary people suddenly reborn as “Sensates.”
Cloud Atlas was great but few people got it and watched it. The Wachowskis undetermined have put together a fascinating TV series for Netflix called Sense8.
Its almost like 6 connected peoples stories over 3hours wasn’t enough… So they went for 8 hyper-connected stories told over 12 hours.
By all counts the reviews are reasonable good and I’m enjoying it so far (on ep2).
RT: @nickycast @cubicgarden That is the best "hello world" msg I've seen in a long time… http://bit.ly/bvSnUA <– o/
— Rainycat (@rainycat) June 6, 2010
While on the mend, I finally wrote my first blog to the world via dictation to my family. I remember saying the words with tears in my eyes. Of course it had to be Hello World, as there was nothing more fitting. The joke about hospital food was my injection of humour, although I have to say the hospital kitchen/restaurant really looked after me while I was there. I was given quite plain food but they kept checking about my allergies all the time. Actually far more than the doctors (as you will see in the next week)
It was great being able to talk again although I still have the trach scar, which will never go away now. I couldn’t explain how much the cards and comments meant to me and my family. I was kind of overwhelmed to know I had touched so many peoples lives and they in turned felt it was worth reaching back.
I was looking forward to moving out of ICU because this about the time when I started really getting better really fast. It was like my body was just repairing its self at a rate the hospital had never seen before. Amazing when you consider the life expectancy of people who have bleed on the brain
If subarachnoid hemorrhage from aneurysm, about 50% die within the first few days in hospital. If intracranial bleed, with/without stroke, the death rate within year one approaches 60%. Figures have remained constant for years.
I am one of the very few lucky ones and believe me don’t I know it, and there is no way I will forget it
😀 @cubicgarden speaks: "hello world": http://ur1.ca/05mha
— Tim Dobson (@tdobson) June 6, 2010
[Message below was dictated by Ian this evening, no internet connection in hospital]
Ian says:
‘Hello world! Thank you very much for taking the time to find out how I am doing. I am doing okay. I am still in hospital, but making a positive recovery. Thank you to everybody who has written to me and my family and thanks for writing such amazing things.
The trach tube is out and I can speak again. The feeding tube is also out. I had solid food for the first time yesterday–it was horrible! Of course it was hospital food.
Thank you for all the messages to my family. I’m on the way to recovery.’
[Ian is due to be moved out of ICU and on to the ward as soon as a bed becomes available.]
Ian is continuing to do well and they are hoping to move him out of ICU and on to the ward soon (possibly this weekend). He was a bit tired today and slept more, but he did spend most of yesterday out of bed and sitting up.
Ian’s flatmate Tim brought his laptop in for him, but there is not a wireless connection to use so Ian will not be online yet.
Unfortunately Ian missed some visitors today because he was sleeping. For anyone else who is visiting, please be aware you might not get to see him if he is tired, but we do appreciate you coming to visit!
They hope to put some sort of valve into the trach tube that will make it possible for Ian to speak, but I am not sure when they’ll do this.
At the moment Ian is still in the ICU. They had thought they were going to move him to the H.D. unit, but there wasn’t a bed available, so for now the plan is for him to stay in ICU until he is ready to move to the ward.
Ian is ready to have visitors now, but in ICU this is limited to two people at a time. If you want to come visit, please leave a message in the guestbook letting us know what day and time you plan to come (and please leave a contact number in case we need to reach you). Visiting hours are from 1pm-9pm daily. They are quite strict about what can be brought into the ICU due to infection control.
Ian still cannot talk due to the trach tube so it can be difficult to communicate with him. He is finding it frustrating, but appreciates visitors coming as he is getting bored.
There is something special about the experience of Google now and now something extremely magical about Google now on tap.
I’ve just gotten a chance to play around with an early build of Now on Tap, Google’s wild new feature that, in essence, does Google searches inside apps automatically. It works like this: when you’re in an app — any app — you hold down the home button. Android then figures out what is on the screen and does a Google Now search against it. A Now search is slightly different from your usual Google search, because it brings back cards that are full of structured data and actions, not just a list of links.
When I first watched the keynote, I thought of the Tim Burners-Lee Semantic Web vision (paid pdf only now).
The real power of the Semantic Web will be realized when people create many programs that collect Web content from diverse sources, process the information and exchange the results with other programs. The effectiveness of such software agents will increase exponentially as more machine-readable Web content and automated services (including other agents) become available.
Its not the semantic web thats for sure, the problem is that its amazing and the user experience is magical but its all within Googles own stack. This rather bothers (even) me for many of the ethics of data reasons. I’m sure app developers may be a little miffed too?
Following my thought, Wired had a intriguing headline Google’s Ingenious Plan to Make Apps Obsolete.
What makes Google Now’s pull away from apps even more compelling is that it was joined at I/O by a series of gentle pushes in the same direction. Google’s doing everything it can to get us all back to the web.
Now if I think the Wired piece is interesting but they are shouting down from the wrong tree. Google are climbing another tree somewhere else. Ok enough with the analogies what do I mean?
If I saw Google on tap working in the browser instead of on top of apps I would be extremely impressed and be really making solid ties between Tim Berners-Lee’s agents in the semantic web. But instead we are left with something slightly disappointing, like a parlour trick of sorts.
Don’t get me wrong its impressive but its not the big deal which I first thought it was. I’m sure the Chrome team are already working on ways to surface semi structured data to Google now, and when they do… wow!
Its the June 2nd and its about the time I could barely talk (due to a trach) but my memory was less hazy and I can remember much more. My sister tried to create a communication board, so I could communicate without saying the word. It was pretty frustrating and too be fair i did tell her. I did feel bad about it, as she really trying to help. I remember writing, this is stupid and there has to be a better way… Luckily I didn’t need to wait long before I could talk again.
Ross and Carly came and saw me a few times and certainly helped with the healing process, by making me laugh and cough a lot. I think I remember Adrian seeing me at one point too, he gave me the printed information on Google IO 2010 and the much talked about Google TV.
This about the time when I started going a little stir crazy, as it was ICU, you were not allowed to plug anything into the wall. My saving grace was my old kindle full with ebooks which I meant to read at some point. I also had enough of the woman next to me with her kicking action to get attention. I must have read about 10 or so books while I was in ICU, unfortunately lights out was 8pm and I didn’t have the paperwhite kindle at the time.
My parents did offer to bring my laptop but I originally said no (believe it or not!). They did bring my pacemaker which I had a hard time re-learning in the first hour but gave rise to a number of mixes later.
Not being able to get out of bed was a real pain, even when I could actually stand. The nurses wouldn’t let me go to the toilet alone and it wasn’t till I pretty much pleaded with a male night nurse to please let me use the normal toilet so I could have some privacy. I finally was happy again. Privacy is something while going to the loo is something I certainly like and the doctors did wonder if my body was operating correctly.
Hospital food is pretty bad but try having complan as your main supply of food, by this point I only had to survive a day or two on it before than it was via the drip in my nose. Food via a drip was weird and interesting especially when you are fully aware of whats actually happening.
The last thing I certainly do remember is the injections of Anticoagulants better known as Warfarin. It was either have it in the arm or in the stomach. Don’t ask me why remember I hadn’t had hypontherapy yet, but I decided the stomach was best because I couldn’t move it and have it scratch and theres quite a bit of fatty tissue… It was painful but honestly it wasn’t as bad as in the arm. Having every day got me slightly use to it but any chance I could avoid it, I did. Unfortunately it would only work for a short while before they would hunt me down for another fix!
Mum and Dad kept writing blog posts on carringbridge thanks to Sarah and Sharon.
Ian’s ventilator was removed again this morning. To avoid having the ventilator back in, he has had a tracheotomy to help him breathe. This is just a temporary measure until his breathing is stabilised. The drain has been removed from his head, so now it is just the feeding tube in his nose.He indicated he was in pain due to having the tracheotomy, so he has had some medication to help with that.I have travelled to Bristol this evening, but will drive back to Manchester with Ian’s dad on Saturday morning. Ian’s sister will also be back up to see him on Saturday.More cards arrived for Ian today and they are all being stuck up to the wall near his bed. Thanks to everyone for all the get well messages.
Important: SMS notifications not available after June 27th
Starting on June 27th, 2015, SMS notifications from Google Calendar will no longer be sent. SMS notifications launched before smartphones were available. Now, in a world with smartphones and notifications, you can get richer, more reliable experiences on your mobile device, even offline.
Shame because I got use to text messages 30mins ahead of a event as a sign I should go. However they are right, notifications especially since I have the Pebble smartwatch are good enough now.