Author:
Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser.
Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io
Nokia Observation Camera
Infosync have a small compact review of the Nokia observation camera.I also forgot to add a link to the register news article from a while back, which talks about the uk data protection act in regards to the nokia camera.
Ink Markup Language
So the W3c have a working draft of InkML and looking at the authors there is no sign of Microsoft at all. Interesting enough HP, Corel, Apple and IBM as well as others are there.
I can see why Apple and Corel would be very interested.
But whats this xml spec do?
This document describes the syntax and semantics for the Ink Markup Language for use in the W3C Multimodal Interaction Framework as proposed by the W3C Multimodal Interaction Activity. The Ink Markup Language serves as the data format for representing ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. The markup allows for the input and processing of handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages in Web-based applications. It provides a common format for the exchange of ink data between components such as handwriting and gesture recognizers, signature verifiers, and other ink-aware modules.
Which you must agree with me, is highly amazing and I cant wait to see how this blends with other standards such as rdf, svg, etc. Theres already talk of SMIL.
A photo taken with a digital camera can be annotated with a pen; the digital ink can be coordinated with a spoken commentary. The ink annotation could be used for indexing the photo (for example, one could assign different handwritten glyphs to different categories of pictures).
Once again a dual category post = Tabletpc and XML
Battle of the blog
The Rss issue spelt out, with some interesting views from some of the most inflentual people on the net, well worth a read.Dispute exposes bitter power struggle behind Web logs
I wont comment too much, because I havent yet made my mind up. I like RSS2 because its really simple. But prefer RSS 1.0 because its using a standard (rdf) which makes alot of sense. How Pie, Echo and others come into this, I dont know but this is going to go on and on and on. Thank god we can just write xsl which will convert between whatever format is prefered.
The end of email marketing?
I spied this. It basicly goes on about the use of html emails and how outlook 2003 doesnt display them in html. But the interesting part comes later about other revenue models such as rss?
Its a interesting one, because yes outlook 2003 actually does a pretty good job at showing html emails as text, and its default now. Plus simple rules like if your not in my address book your email goes in my junk box. Which works super well by the way. Doesnt mean email marketing is totally dead yet.
I can see a change back to the text based email marketing where the only rich feature was the mail client replacing http://blah.com with a real link. And honestly, I can wait to go back to that, as I will then beable to read such emails on my ipaq once again.
Also wanted to add, this post is typical example of a post which should exist in more than one category. David's example of multiple category plugin coming in the next blojsom, hoooray!
Making good use of a TabletPC
Free mindmap software
Got this link from Semantic Blogger demostrator, FreeMind is free mind mapping software, written in java.
Going from the screen shots alone, it looks as good if not better than my pocketmind map software on my ipaq. It is also ment to support export to xml? Which schema it uses i dont know, but I'm sure I can knock out a what ever to topic map xsl, if someone hasnt already done so.
Nokia Image viewer
So at last Nokia have realeased there little secret image viewer. The SU-2. I remember seeing it on the Nokia stand a while back but they wouldnt show me it working. Previous blog about it
I found a review of it on infosync just a moment ago.Review: Nokia Image Viewer SU-2
The review praises the SU-2, whoever came up with the idea of the Nokia Image Viewer SU-2 must have had a stroke of genius.
I think the conclusion was fair. For triggerhappy camera phone users, the Nokia Image Viewer offers an excellent solution to the problem of how to share and enjoy pictures in a more relaxed environment than on a PC or even the phone itself. It does only what it needs to do, is small and portable and runs on battery power for when a charger is not available or inconvenient to carry – such as when visiting friends or at the cottage. And although it's not cheap, it's not too expensive either.
Things which stike me.
Why is the pictures only limited to 640×480? why not 352×288 as well? Is 3 meg really enough? Why not have more? It supports the Bluetooth OBEX object push profile which opens it up to palmtops and laptops too. And I have to agree this is a brilliant concept but needs lot more work. I mean if it plugged into a tv why not take advantage and support mpeg4 video too?
Oh well we shall see, maybe in SU-3 or 4?
At long last 3g comes good
I was at the redbull flugtag
in London's hyde park today and I believe everyone was having troubles with there mobile phones. Well what do you expect with 70,000 people in a 3 mile radius? Anyhow i never had any such problem with phoning or texting with my 3g phone. Could be just because few people are on 3, or because it operates on a different frequency and/or its all data not voice. What ever it is, its good stuff at long last.
Blog Experiment
So this guy from the school of infomatics is doing some research on writing styles using blogging. My Blog Experiement, do I get involved? Hummm, I'm not sure… Maybe I will.
Hey theres little to loose from doing it, just a little bit of my time, I have to submit all my blogs made during May 2003 and fill in a questionnaire. All for this guys PhD?
Oh what the heck lets do it.
Data mining
Mainly blogging this one for myself, Data mining.
Just a great source of links for me to read at somepoint soon.
Ignorance of technology
I dont know it kills me everytime. Its a struggle and I'm just lucky to be young enough to see it as a challenge, I guess…
How long do these people in a creative sector such as design expect to exist in this field if there ignorance of technology is what it is? I cant answer that one at all. I wont go into detail, protect the innocencent and all that.
But ravensbourne prides its self on its technology influence, I mean its core to the colleges mission statement. And we want to bring this the fore front with the move to greenwich by 2006.
So why oh why do these people see _technology_ as a extra bit? It drives me nuts, then it only gets worst. Miles said it best today when he pointed out a example. The example is difficult to explain in the abstract, but consists of people pretending to embrace the technology (would be more than there jobs worth not to) but then fighting the rapid change of technology in there usual hours of work.
Its nasty to believe the percentage of such people! Anyway, I hope its all making sense.
I just wish these people would do there research, you know try and understand, try and learn even a little. Not just dismiss everything as thats too technical or thats coding.
Anyway, yes it will be very interesting to now see how things go now the educational boards are asking for information online and the like. I even got passed a document on the 'freedom of information act'.
See if these people did there research they would natrually understand how things are moving forward. Open source movement and open exchangable format. Is there anything else to get?
HP’s Category Chooser
Another semblogging component, Category Chooser.
Fantastic idea, could be great for those times when your not sure what catergory to put the post in. Sometimes you can spend a good few minutes changing your mind back and forth between two catergories. Would be great to have some systematic advice.
Matrix 3 – The Revolutions spoilers
Dave droped me a email last night about matrix 3.
What a cruel thing to do to me…!
Dont read it, you'll be upset ;p
—
Regards,
dave
So as you'll expect, I am now reading it, but only scanning at a slow pace so I'm not digesting any names or scenes.
All I can say so far after reading for one minute, is the plot is packed! And I mean really packed, well beyond reloaded. But more later…
Ok just finished reading the whole thing, yet to get throught the comments though. But there are massive holes in the plot it would seem. I think its more about the way the guy told it than anything.
Seems interesting still and I'm still going to watch it somewhere different than London when it comes out on Novemeber 5th.
SVG Textorizer Tool
Saw this while searching into topic maps. Found this small but useful site, semantic planet tonight, and off that I found the svg textorizer tool. It looks really good. Would love to try it out, shame its all in C.
Oh well, who cares…Check out the demo files.
SVG Textorizer Tool