General

[Blog] Time for blogging

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Loic LeMeur has an interesting statement:

Many people who don't get it yet tell me "I don't have the time to read blogs and write one". Do you ask yourself if you have the time to write email, read newspapers and talk to your colleagues in the office ?

Remember when email started, remember how it was painful not to be able to send email to everybody. Many people were saying "I don't have the time" too.

I strongly believe that blogs will just find their way in our daily schedule, there is no reason why getting news of your network and friends would not be considered as part of our daily schedules we all want to spend time on.

I fully agree with this statement. Lots of people asks me how I get enough time to blog... But guys! I don't watch tv nor read newspaper, I read stuff on the web and it is easier to take notes...

Of course, it is related to technology adoption (this nice curve with early adopter at the beginning) and there is always this "I don't have time for this" misunderstanding you mention.

What strikes me is sometimes the way people figure out that blogging or reading blogs is childish. This is a shame since they don't get that is an incredible information channel...

[VideoGame] Unencumbered Full Body Interaction in Video Games

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Unencumbered Full Body: Interaction in Video Games by Jonah Warren:

This thesis offers an alternative to the stationary, hand-centric experience that most existing video games provide. It proposes a scenario in which the player can affect action in the game by using his or her entire body, free of wires and controllers. Through the use of computer vision technology, this thesis attempts to develop an interactive vocabulary to aid in the creation of full body based video games. It then proposes a series of functional game scenarios, or “gamelets,” that demonstrate how these interactions can be incorporated into game contexts.

[Tech] Parsing FOAF/RDF with PHP

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Thanks JJ fir this reference: how to parse foaf/rdf file with php.

This article set out to show you how PHP can be used to explore FOAF social networks. Two simple idioms were explored: pattern matching and iteration. Together, these two techniques are at the heart of any application that involves parsing RDF. Hopefully you're now in a position to start exploring the world of FOAF and, by extension, RDF.

[Misc] The title is important!

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Two days ago, I mentionned the importance of blogposts titles. I now read on Pierer Carion's blog (in french) somehting related: book titles should be carefully chosen. The author takes nice example of books about Jacques Chirac (for those who don't know he is the french president, the one who screams 'zis is provocachionne'): when you type 'chirac' in amazon.com, you get some anti-chirac novel (those are very interesting). Carion's point is that policians in France are so old season that they think the back of the book is more important. No guy! It's the title... Still another metadata related thing ! The TITLE EMBEDS METADATA! It is the simplest metadata thing. But I do believe it is the most important. I name all my notes with location and dates or participants. For instance, a meeting with my phd supervisor would be pierre06242004.txt (yes I like .txt files). Applied for books, this would be strange of course, lots of poetrical meaning could vanish, but I am sure something could be done!

Of course, this blogpost is messy, I feel sorry for that.

[Prospective] Hidden dangers of Grey Matter

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Interesting paper in the last issue of MacKinsley Quaterly about informal economy. The paper criticizes both thesis: the fact that gray market could create jobs and relieve social tensions AND the idea (claimed by academics) that will disappear of its own accord.

Many companies around the world operate in the "informal economy," in which they underreport employment, avoid certain taxes, ignore product quality and worker safety regulations, violate copyright and intellectual-property laws, or even fail to register as legal entities. The problem is particularly acute in developing countries, where companies that operate informally produce as much as 80 percent of the output in some industries. Few policy makers are concerned, but they should be. By avoiding taxes and regulatory obligations, informal companies gain a substantial cost advantage that allows them to stay in business despite their small scale and low productivity and prevents more productive, formal companies from gaining market share. The result is slower economic growth and job creation.

[MyResearch] Cognition and orienting

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Eccles, D. W., Walsh, S. E., & Ingledew, D. K. (2002). A grounded theory of expert cognition in orienteering. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 24, 68-88.

The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of expert cognition in orienteering. The British orienteering squad was interviewed (N = 17) and grounded theory was used to develop a theory of expert cognition in orienteering. A task constraint identified as central to orienteering is the requirement to manage attention to three sources of information: the map, the environment, and travel. Optimal management is constrained by limited processing resources. However, consistent with the research literature, the results reveal considerable adaptations by experts to task constraints, characterized primarily by various cognitive skills including anticipation and simplification. By anticipating the environment from the map, and by simplifying the information required to navigate, expert orienteers can circumvent processing limitations. Implications of this theory for other domains involving navigation, and for the coaching process within the sport, are discussed.

[Cuisine] Recette riz + sauce de mirweis

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More or less:Laisser reposer le riz la veille dans un saladier, l'essorer le laisser cuire 2 minute a couvercle presque ferme le lendemain, avec juste assez deau pour recouvrir le riz (vraiment pas plus que la masse de riz)

Dans la poele - emincer et faire revenir 1 oignon, bien doré - sel - mettre viande et la laisser brunir dans les oignons - mettre preparation d'epice pour viande sur la viande - rajouter coriande seché et curry madras - premier couche depice, laisser cuire, gouter et voir si il faut en rajouter - mettre un peu de puree de piment suzy wang (une cuillere a cafe voir moins) - une cuillere a soupe de puree de tomate

[VideoGame] In-Fusio survey about mobile gamers' attitude

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The french video-game company In Fusio released a survey about players' trends and habits. The study has been carried ou on a sample of 400 mobile gamers asked about their playing behaviour. Summary of key findings:

- 60% of those questioned would like to be a member of a mobile game community - Female gamers are loyal regular consumers of mobile games but aren’t sufficiently catered for - 36% of players are now older than 24 - 87% knew a mobile game was included when purchasing their phone up massively from 67% in 2002; 33% of those said it was a key criteria for choosing a phone - Overall ‘adventure’ games top ‘most wanted’ chart (47%) - Average game session stable at 20 minutes - 58% of mobile games are played at home

[Tech] Ultimate Social Navigation on Amazon

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Amazon.com improves his social navigation system. You can now see a new feature: " Customers who viewed this page ultimately bought: " with a list of things (with percentage ratings) related to what you are currently browsing.For instance, people who viewed the ipod 15gb page ultimately bought:

65% bought Apple 15 GB iPod M9460LL/A by Apple Computer (Rate it) (this product) Click for price • 16% bought Apple 4 GB iPod Mini Blue M9436LL/A by Apple Computer (Rate it) Click for price • 10% bought Apple 20 GB iPod M9244LL/A by Apple Computer (Rate it) Click for price • 7% bought Apple iPod Dock Connector-to-FireWire-and-USB 2.0 Cable (Windows PC Only) by Apple Computer (Rate it) $18.44 • 3% bought Apple 40 GB iPod M9245LL/A by Apple Computer (Rate it) $499.00

[Tech] Nokia funds Mozilla Fundation

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Via news.com:

Nokia has funded a cell phone browser project at the Mozilla Foundation, breathing new life into the open-source effort once written off as Microsoft roadkill. Sources familiar with the deal this week confirmed that Nokia paid Mozilla to produce a cell phone browser based on the foundation's open-source code base. The resulting project, called "Minimo," has produced a workable prototype, or "pre-alpha milestone."

[TheWorld] What about freeter?

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Via taiwan.com.au

"Freeter", a term coined by the Japanese by combining the English word "free" and the German word Arbeiter, is defined as "people with college diplomas who engage in menial employment". They seek a free lifestyle and consider leading a carefree life to be more important than their careers - yet they are not necessarily happy about their financial future. In Japan, the number of freeters aged between 15 and 34 accounts for about one-fifth of the population in this age group, or roughly 4 million. In Taiwan, more young men and women are likely to become freeters, but not through personal choice. There are simply fewer jobs for them upon graduation.

[Tech] Mobile Music Tech Workshop

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Mobile Music Technology workshop in Sweden (Göteborg, Sweden, June 10-11, 2004):

This event is an opportunity to learn more about the emerging forms of mobile music technology. The workshop will include speakers representing some of the world's most innovative approaches to mobile music, including new technologies for music listening, creation and sharing. There will be plenty of opportunities for attendees to meet and work creatively together on these issues. You are also invited to present your own work in a poster session.

[Ludism] Game Design Wiki

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This is a wiki intended to gather stuff about game design (board games, rpg...).

The question we have, then, is "Do you know the difference between a good game and a bad game, and can you explain it?"

If you answered no to the first question, play more games. Take a look around the material on this wiki and try to keep some if it in mind as you digest each experience.

If you can state with confidence that one game is more whole, more alive, than another, but cannot state with precision why one is weaker - and then state with precision how to make it better - study the site.

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Via ergoihm mailing list:

les diagrammes de Gantt. En fait, la littérature intéressée par l'aspect humain de l'ordonnancement amène à penser que les diagrammes de Gantt (en 2D) permettent des reconnaissances de configurations perceptives assez poussées (ex.: les diagonales permettent de visualiser immédiatement le respect de contraintes de succession). Il s'agit peut-être plutôt de savoir quelle nouvelle information peut apporter la 3D et de mettre en balance cet apport par rapport l'utilisation qui en est déjà faite (analyse de l'activité?).

Eventuellement ces deux articles peuvent t'intéresser : - L'informatisation de diagrammes de Gantt peut nuire aux activités collaboratrices dans l'ordonnancement de projets informatiques [Whittaker, S., & Schwarz, H. (1999). Meetings of the Board: The Impact of Scheduling Medium on Long Term Group Coordination in Software Development. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 8, 175-205.] - L'ordonnancement dans les aéroport peut être amélioré en ajoutant au diagramme une représentation 3D (de la situation pas du Gantt) [Beuthel, C., Dai, F., Kolb, E., & Kruse, E. (2002). 3D visualization for the monitoring and control of airport operations. Control Engineering Practice, 10, 1315-1320.]

[Tech] Cool projects in Ivrea

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I always havea glance of what is going on at the Ivrea Interaction Institute. They do have cool projects... with nice names...

22 POP La Mia 500 Not-So-White Walls Mass Distraction Ninja TV Smart Skins Soft Interface Sonic Texting Tableportation Uncle’s Phone Audiograffiti Light Brix Collabolla Creative Collision Goldenbook Invisible Force Wiring Processing Audiolandscape The Portable Museum Kit®