November 2004
Even the spam is cuter in Japan:
Dude, I know Kung-fu: an Israeli company “has created a video-game-like tool, based on training techniques used by the Israeli Air Force, that helps players learn when to shoot or pass the ball and how to work with teammates.” (via)
Went to see Chip Kidd last night at CCA. He’s an extremely entertaining speaker; go see him if you have a chance. Highlights (quotes not exact):
“A photograph can be interesting or not. But if you turn it on its side it’s more interesting (sometimes a lot, sometimes a little)…. and if all else fails, turn it upside down.”
and
“Asparagus… toothbrush! Pear… lightbulb! Meat…. sock!”
A collection of User Experience Venn diagrams from Veen (that’d be a “Veen” diagram) to Negroponte (via)
10x10 / 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time is a snapshot of the moment in words and pictures culled from major news sources. A step away from Jonathan Lethem’s beautiful idea of “musical news” from Gun, with Occasional Music:
The feeling was there before I tuned in the musical interpretation of the news on my bedside radio, but it was the musical news that confirmed it: I was about to work again. I would get a case. Violins were stabbing their way through the choral arrangements in a series of ascending runs that never resolved, never peaked, just faded away and were replaced by more of the same. It was the sound of trouble, something private and tragic; suicide, or murder, rather than a political event.(via)
Sadly, Use of Narrative in Interactive Design doesn’t really divulge much (or at least I don’t see much narrative, so much as scenario), but I was quite struck by how the standard model of narrative development (in the authors’ diagram) quite accurately describes the typical project’s design process! 
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moockblog: nextgen flash player demo in tokyo… impressive stuff, including realtime bitmap (and video) effects (think Photoshop filters applied programmatically during Flash playback).
So… browsing flickr categories, I’m wanting some way of untagging other peoples’ photos. For example, I don’t want this or this to show up when I browse “abstract” photos.
Adam has penned (keyed?) a well-written, thoughtful discussion of the importance of ethical, user-centered design for ubiquitous computing.