-
“We used the Twitter API to monitor the public feed and capture data on 37,248 tweets over a 24 hour period.” The Web interface is by far the most popular with 56% of postings, then IM 8%, Twhirl 7%, Twitterific 7%, and Text 5%. No data on how this migh
-
“We are big fans of a collective licensing solution for the music file-sharing dilemma: music fans pay a few dollars each month in exchange for a blanket license to share and download whatever they like; collecting societies collect the money and divvy it
-
“A new study by Canadian research firm Pollara has surfaced data indicating that Malcolm Gladwell’s popular theory about key influencers moving markets may not be valid. Gladwell’s arguments in the 2000 book The Tipping Point had reached levels of cliche
links for 2008-04-03
-
“NTT DoCoMo, Japanese mobile operator, has announced the use of a new contact-less payment terminal for taxis…”
-
“Millions of children are using social networking websites intended for older users, according to a study by the media regulator, Ofcom.
“Research into internet use has found that, among children with internet access, more than a quarter of eight to 11
-
“Even the most outlandish science fiction could become fact, says professor Michio Kaku, of City University in New York” … “Einstein gave hope to scientists chasing the most outlandish theories when he famously declared: “If at first, the idea is not ab
-
“By 2020 the terms ‘interface’ and ‘user’ will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans. It is one of the predictions in a Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology an
-
‘Computer technologies are not neutral – they are laden with human, cultural and social values. We need to define a new agenda for human-computer interaction in the 21st century – one that anticipates and shapes the impact of technology rather than s
-
“Martin Heidegger’s work is pivotal in the history of modern European philosophy. The New Heidegger presents a comprehensive and stimulating overview of, and introduction to, the work of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers of our ti
-
UC Irvine’s Lab for Ubiquitous Computing
links for 2008-04-02
-
“Some people are nervous about trailing digital bread crumbs behind them. Sandy Pentland, however, revels in it. In fact, the MIT professor of media arts and sciences would like to see phones collect even more information about their users, recording ever
-
The announcement last November of an “invisibility shield,” created by David R. Smith of Duke “University and colleagues, inevitably set the media buzzing with talk of H. G. Wells’s invisible man and Star Trek’s Romulans… It was arguably the most dramat
The first day of April
Some news stories that have caught the eye today:
- Avril de Poisson of the Guardian explains how Gordon Brown has enlisted Mme Sarko to inject more style into British life
- Metro reveals BMW’s war on dog wee
- The Londonist highlights a new ‘piggy-back’ plan to beat the congested runways at Heathrow
- The Sun reveals that Sarko is going for a ‘revolutionary treatment’ to gain five inches in height
- The Daily Mirror reveals that Dog racing on ice gets green light – Wembley to host first meeting
Some other topical links:
- BBC Natural World – Flying penguins
- Google’s “Virgle” mission to Mars
- Wikipedia article on the Jovian-Plutonian gravitation effect
- How Stuff Works explains the ‘hybrid’ fueled Air Force One
- NASA explains Dextre the Magnificent
- ReadWriteWeb uncover Google’s new ‘DreamAds’ scheme
- ThinkGeek have an array of ‘new’ products today, I particularly like: Personal Soundtrack t-shirt, Spazztroids cereal, and the Betamax to HD-DVD converter.
I also enjoyed reading Anne Galloway’s interesting and topical blog post today.
links for 2008-03-31
-
A good discussion around the issues of designing an API/platform approach for encouraging participation in the development of your services – excerpts from interviews with key figures at Yahoo and Google, particularly with ref. to OpenSocial
-
“…this year’s Arse Elektronika stands under the motto “future” — and the ways in which the present sees itself reflected in it. Maintaining a broadened perspective on technical development and technology while also putting special emphasis on its socia
-
(tags: technology mod)
Finding a thesis title
Half-way through my three years of PhD research project I am still mentally searching for, and experimenting with, titles. Thus far I have had the following titles in chronological order:
- Practising Tomorrows’ Today – Examining the anticipatory logics and techniques of urban-ubiquitous computing development
- Practising the technics of disappearance: emergent spatialities and the experimental development of ubiquitous computing
- Mobilising the Socio-technical: The cultural politics of mobile communications technologies
- Socio-technical spatial formations: Living with the cyber-hybrid
- Cybrid Spaces
Anticipating futures, engineering expectations
International Science Grid This Week, an online news source for those interested in grid computing and grid-powered science, recently asked me to write an opinion piece about ubiquitous computing, which is featured in this week’s edition. I’d like to thank Cristy Burne at ISGTW for their interest in my research.
Neologisms and making-sense of ‘the new’
It is frustrating that the push to build a career can, in many cases, motivate the forming of neologisms for the same old concepts, to stake a claim to ‘new ground’ – hijacking history in the name of the ‘new’. Which leads me to ask – when discussing the various ways in which we relate to one another (technically mediated or otherwise) do we really need ideas such as the recently posited notions: ‘weaving‘ or ‘connectors‘? ‘Weavers’ and ‘connectors’ are apparently facilitators of networks or ‘principal nodes’ therein. After brief reflection my first question, for example, might be: ‘can nonhumans (animals or things) be connectors or weavers?’, if so, are we actually talking about intensities of relations? Particularly since ideas of agency (especially tied to ‘intentionality‘) and power subsequently demand consideration. Plenty of social theorists, from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, have articulated similar ideas in many ways, and so one doesn’t necessarily need to appeal to novelty.