marks.dk
FUCK YEAH SXSW
Tomorrow, at 3:40pm I’m leaving Copenhagen for Austin, TX. I’ll be there at 10:46pm. Not CET, but CST – a seven hour difference. Which means that I’ll be traveling for 14 hours and 34 minutes. Make that an even 17 hours and it’s from door to door.
Why am I still happy then? I’ll be attending the magnificent South By South West conference. A few years ago one of my dreams were to visit the music part of SXSW since it’s about 10 times bigger than the Danish Spot festival in Århus. Now, however, I’ll be attending the Interactive part of the conference, and that is even better.
I’ve been in the US a couple of times – even studied there for four months – and it’s always been good fun. It’s been focused on the northeast part of the country, though (Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Boston), so I can’t wait to see what it’s like down south. Mostly because it’s +20° C and not 0° C this time of year.
Seeing that I’m a first-time SXSW attendee, I have no idea what to expect. Sure, I’ve read a lot about the panels and keynotes, but you never really understand something like Reboot before you’ve been there. I imagine it’s the same for SXSW. Why else would people argue that it’s good for them not to go as they won’t be hungover for two weeks then?
If you’re interested, you can have a look at my schedule here: My SXSW schedule. It’s overbooked, overflowing and overly exciting.
I’ll bring a video cam along with me, and hopefully I’ll be able to upload a few videos during the conference to give you a feel for what it’s like. Otherwise, it’ll be when I get home and maybe even with a bit of editing.
If you’re going as well, get in touch and I’ll tell you lots and lots and lots about online video and why 23 Video is the right choice for you and your organization: mark@marks.dk.
You should follow me on Twitter if you want to follow along during the escapades over the next week or so: @marks.
“The definition of a book itself, as you can see, is up for grabs.”
This video by Penguin really shows the potential in rethinking how a book could be presented on a tablet. It’s interactive, non-linear (great for the anatomy book) and takes full advantage of the hardware. Perfect.
Why Laterstars is changing the way I read tweets
I use Twitter’s “Favorite”-feature a lot.
Actually, I’ve faved almost 4000 tweets within the last 8 months or so. Almost all of them are faved while reading tweets on the iPhone, because I wanted to check out a link once I’d be back at my laptop.
In the beginning, I read the faved tweets online, but found out that it was a great idea to put a feed of favorites in Google Reader. That’s the way I have been reading faved tweets for months.
Recently, however, people have started tweeting about a service called “Laterstars“. It’s built for people like me who don’t fave because it’s just a great tweet (like this), but because the link in the tweet seems interesting and I want to read it later (like this).
The main advantage in Laterstars is that it strips away the content and present you with easy access to the link in the tweet. You can use the keyboard shortcuts you know from Gmail on the website. It works with Fluid as well, so you get badges, nice favicon etc.
If you subscribe to the atom-feed connected to your profile (here’s mine), you can add it to Google Reader and the title of the item will link to the url found in the faved tweet. Clever!
And it gets even better. Yesterday, the developer, Toby Sterrett, agreed to hear me out about a feature I’d love to see; a bookmarklet that lets you cycle through the links from your faved tweets. And lo and behold; it took him five minutes to make it.
Adding “http://laterstars.com/faved_links/oldest” to your bookmark bar will give you easy access to the links you saved for later, without even visiting laterstars.com. Once you’ve visited a site, it’ll automatically archive the link as well so you don’t visit the same link twice.
If you want to try out Laterstars, here’s a code for the fastest 25 people: MARKS
Use Facebook Lite per default
If you go to http://lite.facebook.com/settings/defaultsite/ you get the option of forcing your browser to choose Facebook Lite instead of the regular Facebook.
The Lite version reminds me of an upscaled mobile version, and I actually like it. It’s less cluttered and faster to load; what’s not to like?
(The fact that they even have to make a light version is messed up, though. Their reasons are stupid (it’s for people with slow connections), because they could just make their normal version better.)
How to enable data on 3 (Hi3G) in Denmark on a Nexus One
This is just for future reference to myself, but figured others might be interested too:
- Settings
- Wireless & Networks
- Mobile networks
- Access Point Names
- New APN (press the “List”-button in the bottom of the phone)
- Name can be anything
- APN = data.tre.dk
- Save
OK, here we Go again
OK Go have made a new music video that is perhaps then most creative I’ve ever seen. It’s bound to be just as famous as the other one, so be one of the cool kids and watch it while it’s not mainstream yet (uuuhh):
/via Oliver Reichenstein
New York City, tilt-shifted
Didde Elnif posted a link to this video of New York, tilt-shifted, which is the best example of how to do video with a tilt-shift lens I’ve ever seen (though the beach videos by Kevin Loutit are nice as well):
/by Sam O’Hare.
“Who says you need to buy a guitar?”
Jack White is so fucking cool I don’t even know how to describe it.
Good thing a video of him making a guitar in 90 seconds sums it up pretty well then:
The clip is from “It Might Get Loud”, one of the best music documentaries I’ve ever seen. Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page tell their stories on how they started playing the guitar, and how their distinct styles evolved.
Jimmy Page is all about the solos, The Edge is all about the effects and pedals while Jack White likes it rough and dirty. Listen to him describe his favorite song, for instance:
If you think you’re half as badass as Jack White, you’re doing it wrong.
How to track bookmarks related to a specific domain on delicious.com
Tonight Lisa Risager tweeted that a post of mine had inspired both her and Jason Santa Maria, evident by a bookmark on delicious.com.
Obviously happy about inspiring such a fine web designer as Jason, I wondered if I could find out how to track bookmarks from a domain, rather than a specific url.
Luckily, that’s pretty easy if you know a bit of Google-terms:
Just write “site:marks.dk” or “site:jasonsantamaria.com” or whatever – it’s up to you.
I can’t seem to find an RSS-feed for it, so if you know how to hack the delicious to serve it up, please leave a comment and I’ll update accordingly.
Big data as key to unlocking patterns in human behavior
Moreover, there are now many more people who interact with information. Between 1990 and 2005 more than 1 billion people worldwide entered the middle class. As they get richer they become more literate, which fuels information growth, notes Mr Cortada. The results are showing up in politics, economics and the law as well. “Revolutions in science have often been preceded by revolutions in measurement,” says Sinan Aral, a business professor at New York University. Just as the microscope transformed biology by exposing germs, and the electron microscope changed physics, all these data are turning the social sciences upside down, he explains. Researchers are now able to understand human behaviour at the population level rather than the individual level.
This time next year, I’ll (hopefully) be in the process of writing my Master’s Thesis at CBS. I’ve already started looking into potential subjects of research but they all circle around the same basic premise; the amount of data collected about human behavior is exploding.
I received a bachelor’s degree in Information Management last year, but perhaps it should have focused more on data management? It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg discussion, because what is more interesting – the raw data or the story told after combining the elements of data into information?
The story will help us understand – and change – our behavior based on patterns that are undesirable (“turn off the light”, “avoid driving down a congested Main Road”, “water this plant” etc.), and this is what could be interesting to examine further: What can make us change behavior? We all know candy is bad, but we keep eating it. Alcohol is terrible, but we keep drinking it. Burning fossil fuel is bad, but we keep doing it.
Is it only insight that makes us think twice about how we act and consume, or when we are directly punished?
If you have anything to share, don’t hesitate to share the links in the comment section. I’m collecting a lot of this already, but always need more:
Links tagged with data, information, sensors, everyware, ubicomp, patterns and behavior to name a few.