- LOAM (Locative Oral/Audio Media) | Larkfall
Under-development (Android, but here's hoping for an IOS version) platform for embedding sound data in locations, to be played back based on user's physical location, orientation and so on. Utter fascinating idea that opens up all manner hauntological/psychogeographic fun.
- Coding, Fast and Slow: Developers and the Psychology of Overconfidence
This is a superb breakdown of why estimating software projects is a nightmare. It's even worse at agencies, where no client likes the prospect of "Agile". Which is a pain…
Tag: psychology
Bookmarks for March 31, 2011
- Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience
Absolutely superb analysis of all the little details that have gone into the hit game. Lessons to be learned for anyone designing any kind of interaction.
Bookmarks for December 15, 2010
- Dan Ariely » Blog Archive Locksmiths «
Here's an interesting thing to think about, particularly in light of the fact, that at my company, for example, I often get certain tasks because I know the code better, and can therefore accomplish the same task faster. Yet, we charge by the hour (well, actually by the ten-minute block). This essentially means that exactly because I've got more experience than some of my colleagues, clients pay less for my services. Yet the company has far more cash and training time invested in me. The obvious solution would be to charge more for my time than for some of my less experienced colleagues, but obviously, that's a hard sell to clients, not least because they lack the skills and knowledge to correctly evaluate whether it's better to get me, or someone else, on a given project. Especially when for some projects, I will work faster, and for others, I will be slower, because it's code I don't know so well, but one of my colleagues might know better.
- AWS SDK for iOS (Beta)
Hmm. This sounds like the good business to me. At some point in the not *too* distant, I need to get to grips with iOS development, and I like that there's now a simple Cloud-based DB that I can use for storage/sync.
- Naomi Wolf: J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide
Naomi Wolf produces a far clearer, far more on the nose, summation of the point she was articulating when she got leapt on but the left wing blogosphere last week. It is not a defence of Assange, it is a condemnation of the current rate of international prosecution for crimes far worse than what Assange is accused of. It wasn't a defence of Assange when she wrote it last week, but plenty of people out there got distracted by about seven words in amongst a much wider point, and her real point got lost. So she's restated it, and you should read what she has to say.
- flip flopping joy » Blog Archive » re: wikileaks
This is interesting. I've been trying to find numbers/commentary on wikileaks from a feminist perspective that isn't focused on Assange and the allegations against him, and failing. I'd like to produce an article on the real-world effects of wikileaks as regards women and/or social justice, but it's proving very hard to find even vague commentary in that vein, never mind hard numbers. This is the closest to useful commentary (that isn't about the allegations) I've found thus far.
Bookmarks for September 22, 2010
- Dan Ariely » Blog Archive Humans and the slime mould «
Even slime mould can make decisions, it turns out. Sounds like it may be smarter than some humans.
- jorno – folding bluetooth keyboard
Is there anyone in the US who I can paypal cash to, who would be willing to order to have them order one of these and post it on to me?
- Printable version: How French Laundry's chefs reach for the stars
Of interest to a few folk around here, I'd imagine – a day at The French Laundry, a look at how they work, and how their ever changing menus are put together.
Bookmarks for September 20, 2010
- Make Games – Finishing a Game
Applicable to just about any creative endeavour, and there are a number of things in here I could do with remembering more often.
- Looxcie Wearable Camcorder: Capture Unexpected Moments
Mildly tempted by this, if they produce an iphone version. It's a bit deep geek, but that's never stopped me from doing anything before. (Not so much interested in it from a sharing-with-the-world POV, more as a personal outboard memory tool – the ability to clip the last 30 secs of my life is potentially useful in a number of contexts.)
- How to get search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN) referal keywords using PHP, php, Steven York.com
Reasonably trivial task, but once I'm going to have to do at work soon, I imagine. No sense re-inventing the wheel, and this looks like some decent code snippets to build into what we'll need.
- DarkPatterns.org
A listing of intentionally bad design patterns – tricks websites use to get you to do things that they want, or that cost you money. I'm happy to say that most of our clients don't ask us to do these, and those that do are usually dissuaded by us. But still, this is a good list of tricks to learn, so you can be aware when various sites might be trying to use them on you.
- A working hypothesis – Charlie's Diary
I had been blaming the decade long rise of extremism and authoritarian clampdowns on some kind of post-millennial fallout – the calendar ticks over, and nothing changes, and all that pent up stress has to go somewhere – but the idea that a significant chunk of the population of the planet might actually be suffering from future shock hadn't occurred to me, but it's an idea worth acknowledging, I think. (And playing connect the dots with – qv. Clay Shirky's Gin and Sitcoms ideas about cognitive surplus as an exacerbating factor.)
Bookmarks for August 16, 2010
- The Pac-Man Dossier
This has been doing the rounds, so you may well already have seen it. But in the event that you haven't, here's a fascinatingly in-depth look at Pac-Man – you may think it's a very simply game, and it is, but its very simplicity masks an awful lot of very subtle design decisions that are key to understanding the tactics required to win.
- The Photojojo Store! – the Most Awesome Photo Gifts and Gear for Photographers
I haven't looked in the photojojo store in ages. There is a truly staggering amount of stuff in here that I really want. Just sayin'
- BBC News – Superheroes 'poor role models for boys'
Something that's been at the back of my mind recently: good fictional role models for boys.
- Voogle Wireless
Someone has dug up the add in support of net neutrality that Google produced 4 years ago. Now, I'm the first to admit that that what was true 4 years ago isn't automatically true today, and that people who can't change their minds about things in response to changing circumstance and new arguments are stupid people. But: I don't see that the circumstances and arguments in this particular case have shifted in that period.
Bookmarks for July 23, 2010
- Janet Fitch's 10 rules for writers | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times
Actually, these aren't half bad, and if I could make more of an effort to remember them, it'd probably lift my writing quite a lot.
- Wayward Alzheimer's patients foiled by fake bus stop – Telegraph
Architectures of control, right here. Nice.
- The ever-arrogant Apple « Observatory
I admit to coming off like a bit of an Apple fanboy, but still, this piece really nailed something for me: if Apple are sometimes arrogant (and I don't think there's a dispute about whether or not they are) then it's because they've earned the right to be by leading the way in personal computing on a technology level for decades now. They may not have been the most successful financially, but they've been the game changing-innovators since before the iPod, never mind the iPhone and iPad. And if someone comes along that can humble them, then I will sincerely welcome them but it hasn't happened yet. The reason I buy Apple products is that they're the best on sale at the moment, and as soon as someone comes along that offers me a better experience, I'll switch.
- Stuart Roebuck: Mobile Proxy Cache content modification by O2
I'm a little fucked off about this, but not quite willing to throw my toys from the pram over it – not least because I can't, having just signed up for another 18 months. But it's one to keep an eye on, and one to be professionally aware of, at least, as more clients start asking up for iPhone/iPad tailored content.
Bookmarks for January 12, 2010
- Conversations About The Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee – The Rumpus.net
Yeah. And *this* is exactly why I stopped giving them any more data. Creepy as fuck.
- Derailing for Dummies
Ever done any of these things in an internet argument? Yeah, well, me too. Let's just put it behind us, and try and be better people from now on, eh?
- Sex objects: Pictures shift men's view of women | Science | guardian.co.uk
Apparently looking at lots of porn really *isn't* healthy for human relationships. Who knew?
Bookmarks for October 15, 2009
- Be lucky – it's an easy skill to learn – Telegraph
I shall work on this. I'm pretty relaxed, but I'm not as observant as I could perhaps be. Still, it's nice to know that "Be Lucky!" can be taken as an instruction, rather than just generic good wishes…
Bookmarks for October 6, 2009
- 30 Free Comic Fonts
There's a few absolute gems in here…
- BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: One nagging thing you still don't understand about yourself
A bunch of leading psychologists give their answers to the above question. It's interesting what's revealed – these are the people who best understand how our brains work, and the cognitive quirks that they throw up, and yet they're still at the mercy of these same quirks themselves.