marks.dk
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
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.
Foldable MP3 player
This is both stupid and very clever:
The interaction is somewhat awkward, but exploring how we can control devices in new ways is definitely needed. I still love Apple’s Shuffle (the small rectangular ones, not the 1st gen. gum stick or the newest ones completely without controls) because it’s nothing more than a box with a circle on the front and a clip on the back. Beautifully simple and easy to operate while it’s in your pocket.
I’m not sure the same can be said about the “origami MP3 player”.
/via Fast Company
Fluid displays
Besides the fact that this is very well made, it’s mostly useless; not sure I’d like my tv to dissolve and float around the room like this. However, getting more information on the elements of my room (“here’s your lost keys”, “water your dying plant”) are definitely something I’d like to see at some point soon.
And no, making a Twitterbot with an Arduino-board doesn’t count as being easy enough for me to have at go at.
Curious Displays from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.
/via Timo Arnall
Is it possible to make a standard interface guideline for the web?
So, the impeccable Dustin Curtis (whose blog posts are individual masterpieces) has set up a project that will come up with an “SDK” for web interfaces.
The mission is to make something like the iPhone/iPad Human Interface Guidelines, but for the web. I like the idea, but I think it’s more of a fun thought experiment than a useful checklist for any web designer. Just have a look at Dustin’s own blog posts (or Jason Santa Maria’s for that matter). They’re both examples of (blog) web designs that push the limits of what design could also be, and it would be sad to see it constrained by a strictly formed guideline.
On the other hand, big scale websites like eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter etc. all seem to battle some of the same problems; showing vast amounts of information in logic ways. Obviously there are many books on the subject of information architecture and information management (*ahem* even a study at CBS), but they seem to offer advices on how to go about the structuring, not give constraints for the designers to work within.
So, is it even necessary to have a standard interface guideline for web design? And if so, what should it be like?
Hi, a real Human Interface
This video made the tour around the blogs some months ago, but it’s still funny.
Premise is: “What would a real human interface look like?”
I like the spam mail in particular.
Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.
Have you made a new city today?
This could come in handy if you ever wanted to create a city.
Not that I can come up with a time where that would be relevant.
But still. You could.
Apple’s approval process is not just annoying, it’s really really weird
Why is this rated 12+? Because my friends sends me pictures of violent, nude, smoking, whisky-poundin’ fantasy babes?, originally uploaded by marksdk.
This app is an alternative to Mail.app on the iPhone.
It’s rated 12+ because the following things can happen when using the app:
- You might hear an offensive joke
- You might see a breast (I wish)
- You might find a reference to mild alcohol use.
- etc.
I don’t get it.
Or do I just have the wrong friends?
The best product introduction video ever. Srsly.
Jack Dorsey’s new company, Square, has just revealed their new video starring Adam Lisagor (@lonelysandwich). It’s absolutely amazing with its deadly unserious and hilarious take on showing off a fantastically simple service. Watch it and learn; every company should strive to do videos that are just as simple and effective as this:
(via Jason Fried)
On the iPad
I’ve been trying for a few days to write the blog post that sums up both the praise and criticism of Apple’s iPad. It’s really hard, seeing that so many talented people have already written extensively about it, and continue to do so. Don’t forget to follow my collection of articles and Twitter-favorites as well.
So far, my only comment on the iPad is this:
The platform is closed – and it doesn’t matter. There’s no Flash – and it doesn’t matter. It may lack this or that feature – and it doesn’t fucking matter.
It’s not made for me, and it’s not made for you. It’s made for the kids, the grannies and the people who are scared by the way computers work today.
Today, people compute, and the fact that we haven’t moved beyond that yet is absolutely beyond me. However, I think the iPad might be the first step towards a world, where the ones who want to tinker and hack away, are free to do so.
Then everybody else can start actually working with computers, not on them.