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“The real trick… is to get rid of the “secret sauce” that’s currently deployed by various post houses in the name of accurate handling of image and color data.”

Originally by del.icio.us/yatta::yatta from unmediated on March 5, 2006, 10:16pm

Found via Technorati: smartspace by Scott Smith of Social Technologies (an international futures research and consulting firm based in Washington, DC):

Welcome to Smartspace, a new blog about annotated environments, intelligent infrastructure and digital landscapes–the merging of technology with the environment around us, and the overlay of digital environments on the physical ones we inhabit.

ludes discussions, observations and insights on ubiquitous and embedded computing, mapping, location-based services, surveillance and tracking, geotagging, smart homes, intelligent environments, the annotated reality, and virtual worlds, where the increasingly intersect with the physical.

An increasing amount of interest, research, development, investment and regulation is being directed at the world of smart spaces. The purpose of Smartspace is to provide context and explore implications of the convergence of the above mentioned factors as they relate to these activities. Hopefully we will feature interviews, guest authors, and other interesting features and contents that make Smartspace a compelling read.

I found it because he expanded the discussion about my post about the giving of one’s location while calling with a cell-phone, Scott adds this intriguing walkaround:

Meanwhile, I find it interesting that, while we are waiting for applications that alert the person on the other end of a mobile discussion automatically as to our location as the call comes in, it would be easier at the moment to take a picture of myself on the train and MMS it to my wife using something like ZoneTag, allowing her to see where I am before I call. Talk about a workaround.

Indeed, image can bring the context that the user wants to show, with the level of accuracy (in terms of contextual cues) the user may want to show and convey in his/her message.

Why do I blog this? another interesting contributor in the field of social usage of space/place/locative tech, very relevant ideas so far.

Originally by pasta and vinegar::Nicolas from unmediated on March 7, 2006, 8:06am

Thank you God. Thank you.

The no-framework PHP MVC framework

An intelligent way to build a scalable PHP app. All this stuff I’ve had to figure out for myself, and some of it I got wrong.

I do prefer 1 thing different though. I use a simple template engine. I have NO PHP in my HTML, ONLY html. I edit my HTML pages in Dreamweaver, and often move stuff around and redesign, so this works for me.

Originally by Peter Van Dijck’s Guide to Ease::Peter from unmediated on March 7, 2006, 8:05am

“…a categorized list of all of the AJAX image solutions I’ve been able to find that were of some use.”

Originally by del.icio.us/tag/unmediated::exiledsurfer from unmediated on March 7, 2006, 7:45am

Do we really need 24 bits per pixel, or can we get by with less? Now this may not matter so much for large systems, but it can be important for embedded systems in which using fewer pixels equates to less silicon real estate, a reduction in computational

Originally by del.icio.us/tag/unmediated::exiledsurfer from unmediated on March 7, 2006, 7:43am

Mobile video: Get started with the QuickTime for Java API
From the article:
In this article, I’ll first suggest some practical (and potentially very popular) uses for mobile video, and then present two programs to get you started using the QuickTime for Java API to create video content for the iPod. These programs let you easily add captions to existing video files and convert legacy video files into an iPod-compatible format. At the end of the article, I’ll leave you with some example code that you can use to learn more about manipulating videos using the QuickTime for Java API.

Originally by sLop::vanevery from unmediated on March 5, 2006, 10:16pm

It seems the Google Video Getter Greasemonkey script I wrote a while back has become very popular. It was on Digg.com, and since then I’ve gotten tons of inquiries and comments about it. The Google Video service is still in beta and changes regularly. As such I’ve had to update the script a few times to keep it functional with their changes.

Here’s the latest…

Google Video now uses javascript to load the Flash Player. This kind of breaks the method used previously by my Greasemonkey script because it essentially tries to hide the HTML that the script was searching for. Not to worry though, it was a pretty easy fix. I also tightened up the code to a mere 3 lines!

Click here to install the new Google Video Getter 2

So why do you need this script? Doesn’t Google offer downloads for their free videos?
… yes and no.

If you go to any free video offering on Google Video and click the Download button for “Mac and Windows” it forces you to download a Google Video Player application to playback Google’s own .gvp video format. These videos do not play in other applications. I checked out the .gvp file, and its really just a text file with a pointer to a video file on the web… I copied the code and manually downloaded the video referenced and discovered it was a .avi (presumably DivX), but it would not play in Windows Media Player because it uses a DRM scheme for file protection.

There are alternative download options for the free videos though. These include videos formatted for the Video iPod and Sony PSP. I haven’t really tried these, but I assume they don’t have the same DRM protection since they need to be able to play on those devices.

So really, you don’t need this script at all. You can download the videos formatted for iPod and PSP from Google Video. But for some reason, people often write me and leave comments asking for this script and how to make it work again.

Originally by sandbox films::jkinberg from unmediated on March 5, 2006, 10:16pm

A hack to use one cell phone shared by hundreds of people, without operator intervention

Originally from unmediated on March 15, 2006, 8:42am

hot. gotta imbed these in my site

Originally from unmediated on March 15, 2006, 8:40am

Discussion of how to formally represent the significance of news events to specific entities, for facilitating the machine processing of news.

Originally from unmediated on March 15, 2006, 8:47am

You can insert your own “news article” into Google News, for thousands or millions to discover and read.

Originally from unmediated on March 15, 2006, 8:47am

Technology and market research company BigChampagne is introducing a measurement tool called BCDash to let media companies quickly track how people — legally or illegally — use their products online.

Originally from unmediated on March 15, 2006, 8:37am

Web-based operating system with rich text editor, chat, email, RSS, file management, stickies, Flickr RSS, and more

Originally from unmediated on March 16, 2006, 10:19am

it tracks where it goes, and it remembers where it’s been. That’s pretty much it. The Track Stick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals.

Originally from unmediated on March 16, 2006, 10:19am

Yale University is throwing a conference on “Access to Knowledge” — an umbrella term that encompasses the humanitarian, creative, entrepreneurial and scholarly elements of the copyfight.

Originally from unmediated on March 16, 2006, 10:18am

A new technique is said to make the Sun’s hidden face fully visible for the first time.

Originally from WORLD SCIENCE on March 15, 2006, 11:14am

Here are a few projects from Boutique Vizique (Hendrik Leper and Stijn Schiffeleers)

Drawplay

‘Drawplay‘ is an audiovisual installation that generates audio and reveals video according to your drawing on a touchscreen imbedded in a soft bench. The drawing gets continously scanned and translated into sound that travels around you on different speakers. The higher the dot or line the higher the notes. Continous lines give continuos sounds, dots give fragmented sounds. The installation makes it possible to draw with several people at the same time and both young and old can play with this physical sequencer.

Dustbunnies

‘Dustbunnies‘ is a small colony of digital dust balls that scan the space in search of crumbs of lost thoughts, emotions and dreams. They are a group of LoFi amoeba addicted to a past caught in flakes of skin and hair, in dust and in dirt. ‘Dustbunnies’ is an interactive installation, originally developed in cooperation with art centre Z33, for FEEL THE YOUNG, an exhibition on the theme of tactile media art.

thanks to Carl for suggestion

Originally by Ruairi from Interactive Architecture dot Org on March 13, 2006, 7:36pm

I don’t speak french very well so I won’t attempt to translate what Easyweb say on their site. Instead I recommend you just look at this magical video.

Update - 14th March

Regine from the awesome we make money not art has kindly translated the website text. See Below

“For several years, we are able to create gigantic video projections on any kind of building, mixing real perspectives with projected perspectives, creating thus an animated and very realistic “trompe-l’oeil”. We are able to do much more:

Imagine a shop window in which the mannequin isn’t dressed “statically” anymore (which implies many constraints such as changing the clothes according to the season), but is wearing a tee-shirt and jeans that change colour or patterns, the logos could move and the background of the shop window changes day after day. That’s the new way to look at video projections.

We are also able to create “animated” maquettes for architects showing characters walking, materials that can be modified with a simple “click”…. We give life to objects by applying a “life material” on them.”

Originally by Ruairi from Interactive Architecture dot Org on March 12, 2006, 5:51pm

Swipe could be seen as anything but art. It seems simple: the bar has a special ID card reader, just like in a grocery store, or rather - a police car (in the U.S., that is). It allows the bar owners to see a lot of things about the customer. If it sounds to you like a sci-fi film, it’s probably because you don’t live in the U.S. So far, it is nothing more than an ID-checking system turned marketing device. We’ve heard about it, we might have had the chance to see some of them, but that’s about it.

But this time, there is more.

Many people are unaware that personal data is even encoded on their license, and, if they do realize this, they probably do not know exactly what information is there. SWIPE brings attention to these practices and enables people to see exactly what is stored on their mysterious strip.

SWIPE also illustrates how this information is used and why businesses and government crave it. Our hope is to encourage thinking beyond the individual self (”I do not care if a bar database has my name and address and time of visit…”) toward understanding databases as a discursive, organizational practice and an essential technique of power in today’s social field.

You can also invite SWIPE to your private reception. Here is the “performance” that will take place:

People who approach the bar in search of a refreshing drink will be asked by a bartender (SWIPE member) to show their driver’s license for age verification. The bartender will look at the license and place it in an automated, scanning device. While the customer waits for his/her drink order, the SWIPE cash register performs a technique called computer matching based on the driver’s license information. Several minutes later, the person’s name is called and he/she receives their drink with “receipt.” The receipt is a SWIPE compiled data image consisting of the data encoded on a driver’s license augmented by online searches of data-warehouses and/or demographic analysis generated by SWIPE custom-designed software.

Basically, you get a fairly detailed picture of yourself. And if you think it matters that it has a few mistakes - it really doesn’t. The data will soon be tested on you anyway. You can also access the internet toolkit, hosted by Turbulence. I found out through it that the data I regularly give away for various reasons (studies etc.) are worth $54.18.
This is a very strong initiative, and one of its creators, Beatriz da Costa, seems to be gaining momentum (she will appear in the San Jose Interactive City festival). The worst part is, this is no conspiracy theory. It is describing a simple fact, something that has been taking place for some time now. Privacy is actually at stake. And if you don’t care, you might just not be getting it. Quite yet.

Originally from New Art on March 13, 2006, 2:56pm

Originally from New Art on March 6, 2006, 4:33pm