 |
||||
|
The personal web log of Mike Lee, a web information architect, and teacher working in New York City "I surf as much as I eat." curiouslee in...   Hiptop Nation Mirror Project Google Images The City Paper UMBC TechPort email me past monthly... 2000:10.11.12 2001:01.02.03.04.05.06 07.08. 09.10.11.12 2002:01.02.03.04.05.06 07.08.09.10.11.12
 [?] |
Saturday, August 31, 2002
Beaching  After finishing some icon artwork for my friend's Pocket PC drawing program, I'm headed out to Bethany Beach for the long weekend to visit with Amy's family. For reading, I'm taking along a copy of Lawrence Lessig's The Future of Ideas. For viewing, I've got the season finale of Witchblade in MPEG, and the anime film Metropolis. And the camera is all powered up. Friday, August 30, 2002
Newton's daddy In 1987, years before Apple created the Newton Personal Digital Assistant (which launched a new product category), John Sculley commissioned a concept video to demonstrate the use of intelligent agents for information retrieval with a fantastical device called The Knowledge Navigator. I haven't seen the full clip in years, and it hasn't been easy to find on the web. Memepool recently linked to several copies of the 15 megabyte QuickTime clip. If you've never seen this, do so now. I think the video is just as tantalizing today, and depicts a quite civilized way to interact with a computer. You've got to love a search algorithm that wears a bow tie. Here are some related links: John Sculley's 1989 ACM Paper: The Relationship Between Business and Higher Education: A Perspective on the 21st Century (large 200k scans of each page) Information Architecture and Agents (1994, 41 pages) And not so related but still cool: A good survey of wrist phones. Thursday, August 29, 2002
IA Summit 2003 and hugging polar bears OK. Base camp is established, and we've started the climb to Information Architecture Summit 2003 by putting out the call for participation and posters. Not an IA? Take a look anyway. We're reaching out to related disciplines and would be happy to hear from you. The event takes place in Portland, Oregon on March 21-23, and everyone is excited to have the legendary Stewart Brand as the keynote speaker. I am chair of the posters program this year, so feel free to drop me a line if you want to submit or have questions. We also hear this week that the second editon of Lou and Peter's seminal Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is finally hitting the stores. This is a bear you'll want to curl up with for bedtime reading. Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Prime birthday Today I turned a happy 41 years old. I'm not into numerology, but given this is a prime number, I decided to take a look at the list of the first 1,000 examples. In the first few entries, I had the spooky realization that I've changed jobs during the last several primes. Does the chain of fate get broken? We'll see. I close this post with hiccups from a big fat dinner at Claddagh Pub. Tuesday, August 27, 2002
The Adaptive Path Tour arrives in Dubya-town Adaptive Path, a user experience design firm in San Francisco, arrived this week to deliver the Washington, D.C. installment of their multi-city training seminar. Tonight, there was an informal get together at the International Visions Art Gallery, one of Thom Haller's (seminar guest speaker) favorite galleries. I trekked down from Baltimore to have a beer, talk shop, and take pictures:  Peter Merholtz, AP partner and pervasive pundit, with Dan Brown, master of the art of deliverables.  Thom Haller, who will speak at the seminar tomorrow, gives some of the evening's guests a taste of what Peter calls the Thom Haller Experience™.  My CoolPix camera hovered at an altitude of six feet six inches to capture this photo of AP partner Jeffrey Veen. There's Pervasive Peter again ...  A designer from IAPPS snaps her fingers to get the attention of Thom's dog Scoops, while Bryan Mason, AP Event Director, takes a photo.  Fashion designer Courtney Skott with her fiancé Lane Becker (AP partner too), and Thomas Vander Wal, a smart and friendly Internet Technologist. I'm sending a full take to Adaptive Path, so there might be more shots on their site soon. Thanks to all for a fun evening. Sunday, August 25, 2002
Blogging and HR Most of us have heard stories about people being fired for inappropriate statements on their personal websites and blogs. With the goal of balancing free speech and corporate objectives, Ray Ozzie of Groove Networks has just posted a levelheaded blog policy from their employee manual. He asks his readers to submit stories and links, so this blog is one you should watch this week. Just to be oh-so-current, I've added his suggested disclaimer to the bottom of this page. In related news: Wired describes the difficulties in estimating the size of the blogging population. 802.11 Networking News says that Raines Cohen is already connected via WiFi from Burning Man. The debate continues at Blogroots on the question of blogs as way new journalism. Saturday, August 24, 2002
Stuffing jaguar into my iLamp Between a trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art to view the Cone Collection with some out-of-town friends, and an evening tiki party at Jeanne's, I started installing the OS X 10.2 update (Jaguar) on my iMac (the iLamp). Everything seems to have gone well. The system is noticeably faster, and some nagging problems such as slowness in text boxes in Blogger Pro and IE have gone away. So far, the only problem I've found is Apple's basic Mail program (not what I use for mail) crashes on launch. In the next couple days, I'm going to bring my Wacom Tablet home from work to try out the new Inkwell technology. I'll also make another attempt at networking with my wife's Windows XP machine. There's at least one major hidden cost if you own QuickTime Pro. On top of the $129 fee for Jaguar, users like me who registered for Quicktime Pro prior to version 6 will have to cough up $29 again as the upgrade turns off the extended features by overwriting the previous version. Depending on how vigilant you've been at updating your other applications, you're in for a few hours of trolling for updates, some of which may not be free. Update: Derrick Story at O'Reilly reports on his first impressions of Jaguar. Friday, August 23, 2002
Newspapers in 2020 I've been reading a copy of The American Press Institute's seminar report Design 2020: Visions of the newspaper of the future. The report's a couple years old, but still quite relevant since the newspaper industry doesn't change that fast. The full color book shows some interesting concepts for newspaper layouts as they might be in 2020, along with a detailed transcript of the seminar talks. The introduction summarizes the features of the design concepts:
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
NYC street pulse Last night, on the way to the hotel from the train station, our cab driver tossed out an unusual observation: By counting his brake and gas pedal usage over many minute-long observation cycles, he was able to calculate that he makes approximately 25,000 foot movements in a typical 10 hour shift. Matt suggested the factoid was blogworthy, so here it shall stay. I'm back in town tonight after a ho-hum day of meetings. Monday, August 19, 2002
Summer plays, then school days  An empty cicada shell (not the 17-year variety) on a tree above Richard's ice cream party yesterday. I think the former occupant jumped out of its skin to escape the heat! Wow, the summer blew by fast. Some people at work are still on vacations, but I have the feeling things will pick up in a couple weeks. I'm going to New York City tomorrow night for a Wednesday morning sales pitch. Today, I started my third wave in six months of IA evangelizing within our company. I showed off the most recent sets of IA deliverables and a new user testing plan to the sales team at lunch. Later this week, I will spew to the project managers. This fall, I'm signed up to teach Dreamweaver Web Page II and Web Production again at MICA**, and for undergraduate graphic design, I'm doing the third annual four-week studio on designing user interfaces for mobile devices. I'll also be doing a couple cameo appearances at The University of Baltimore's Graduate Program in Interaction Design and Information Architecture. And just today, I got a tentative request to do a short presentation for an upcoming program at AIGA Washington. So, nothing really new in this post. It's just the rhythm of the seasons changing. ** Speaking of change, MICA has finally (sheesh!) posted their new site after a redesign project was awarded to a firm (not ours) over a year ago. The old design hung around for over six years of seasons. Saturday, August 17, 2002
Goodbye Galen I couldn't sleep for a while last night thinking about the news I just found on John's Cold Marble blog that nature photographer Galen Rowell and his wife Barbara died in a plane crash last Sunday morning. I pulled out my copy of Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape and leafed through it solemnly for a while. There are messages of mourning at National Geographic, Save Tibet, The World Wildlife Foundation, and The Sierra Club web sites. Photographer Gordon Wiltsie offers a rememberance. Shortly after interning at National Geographic in 1985 (in the Promotions Division), I saw Galen at The Masters of Photography lecture series at NGS Headquarters. I'll never forget seeing his work projected on a large screen from first generation transparencies. Prints and books I've seen since haven't come close to the vivid color and detail in the images I saw that night. Since then, his images have infused and propelled my own personal vision. From now on, when I look up into the sky as I did last night, I'll think often of Galen. It looks like his stock photography business and newly opened gallery in the eastern Sierra will continue on as they should, so a visit there is now on my list of things to do next year. For some background on his work, visit NikonNet where there is a nice Flash gallery with a some audio commentary by Galen. Also on Apple's web site, you can read about how he embraced digital production techniques. Friday, August 16, 2002
Earth sky  Tonight's sunset was the kind I call Earth Sky . Because if you imagine it flipped upside down, it looks like a view from space. To enhance the fantasy, I composed my reflection in the rear view mirror to suggest a spacecraft portal. Your brain on IA Over at Boxes and Arrows, Erin editorializes that she's tired of all the bickering on the SIGIA list about the right tools for information architecture. She says the best tool is your brain. I have to agree, but I'd like a pack of color pencils and sketch paper too. Signs: less close encounters, more storytelling I just got back from a late show of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. This movie is what Spielberg's Close Encounters would have been without the expansive special effects and more character development. The director uses the effects-free time to deliver more storytelling and extract some excellent performances from the cast. I'm going to see it one more time, but during the matinee when it's not $8. Thursday, August 15, 2002
Astounding stories on the clearing of the skies on 9/11 Catching up on some post-vacation online reading Monday night, I found myself riveted by USA Today's in-depth report on how the FAA cleared the skies on the morning of 9/11. You'll get a vivid account of some of the key individuals that participated in the successful chain of decisions that accomplished the historic landing of 4,500 planes (containing a total of 350,000 people and landing at an average of 48 planes per minute!). Of even greater significance to me is that fact that the FAA concluded that the system works fine as is with humans as the ultimate drivers of critical decisions. From the sidebar article: Officials decided not to write a new set of procedures for clearing the skies. They started to but scrapped the idea. They concluded that the FAA was better off relying on the judgment of its controllers and managers. Yahoo Photos has the FAA radar images showing planes in the air before the attack, and after most of the landings. And on a related note, MSNBC reports on the upcoming barrage of 9/11 anniversary coverage. Blogger crumbs I had a bunch of random bits recent and old stashed in my draft folder on Blogger. Moving them out: AOL IM-enabled talking toys are coming in September. Greeenpeace's Frankenfish Flash game lets you build your own weird fish. New Scientist reports on research findings that finally explain why lobsters change from blue to red when cooked. From Brandon "The Human Blog" Dunlap: Information on Bloom's Taxonomy of Thinking And a study on Lepidopteral Symbology (The Butterfly and Moth as Symbols in Western Art). Wednesday, August 14, 2002
A deal on a cinematic view I'm suffering from involuntary drooling again as Apple announces a $1000 price cut on their 22" Cinema Flat Panel Display. The new price is $1499! The news was buried in with the arrival of new dual processor machines, and lower-priced iMacs. Update: I got this information wrong. I can't for the life of me find the citation on this price cut, but DealMac reports that refurbished units have dipped below $2000, so we probably won't see $1499 until next year. This gives me time to save up! Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Logging out I'm working late at the office tonight filing some old project papers, and moving some IA detritous between cublicles. I came back to my desk and this instant message from my wife: RazrGrl: I'm hot and sticky and have cracker crumbs in my bra. I'm going to take a shower. After almost 15 years of marriage, she still cracks me up. Seriouslee Ben from work e-mailed me about his friend's site Seriouslee. I was half hoping that my blog was famous enough to warrant a parody site, but alas not. Seriouslee is however a pretty good local band. You can have a listen at The Washington Post's MP3 web site. Monday, August 12, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... color pencils  Dianne, Jackie, and I were working one weekend on the information architecture blueprints for Marcopolo.org, and I decided to crack open a fresh pack of color pencils to sketch some page layouts. There's nothing like the smell of wood and wax to offset the sterile experience of working on a computer. back really... We actually got back last night, but I figured correctly that I'd step back into the office today to a bunch of meetings and project kickoffs. So the extra photo. And here's a digital postcard I sent to a few people from the cottage last week. It's a collage of some vacation sights.  Click the image to view a larger 155k jpeg. Sunday, August 11, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... imac mirror  My first post to The Mirror Project. Saturday, August 10, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... grandma  Back in February, my hundred-year-old grandmother fell and dislocated her shoulder. When you are feeling miserable and don't feel like eating, water is one of your few comforts. Friday, August 09, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... ladybug  At a cottage in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, we spied this rain-soaked ladybug. She is part of an ongoing infestation of them in the area. Thursday, August 08, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... wifi on deck  I bought a Pocket PC and wireless card back in March so that I could start some user interface and web work for a friend's software product. As usual, I immediately tried out as many of the new capabilities as possible. Here I'm watching the Men in Black II trailer streamed wirelessly from the Internet to the palm of my hand. Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... dot-com monolith  I've often wondered what remained in the crash of a dot-com besides broken dreams and unemployed people. This lonely stack of web servers are the tangible remains of one. Tuesday, August 06, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... beauty in the beast  I made this image back in May during a period of freaky tornado touchdowns. This scary squall line passed without incident and flashed a double rainbow in its wake. Monday, August 05, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... i beam  This rusty stub of an I-beam is embedded in concrete left over from the defunct Proctor & Gamble Soap Factory that has now become our offices. Sunday, August 04, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... promenade shadow  I cranked all night one night last February on my Dimensional Deliverables project, and when I walked out on to the promenade at sunrise, I felt 50 feet tall from the productive night I had. Saturday, August 03, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm vacation... amy  Meet my wife Amy. This is her all-time favorite picture of the many I've taken of her. Here, my friend Bill is shaking a blossom-filled cherry tree when they were in bloom back in April in his front yard. Friday, August 02, 2002
Posting to the future: one picture a day while I'm on vacation... I thought I'd test out Blogger's ability to preload a bunch of posts to display at preset times in the future. A new post will appear at 9am each day I'm out on vacation. I hope you enjoy the images, and do send e-mail comments if you feel like it. I'm checking e-mail sporadically from Maine. Update: I realized Blogger doesn't automatically push the future posts out, so since I'm going to log on once a day via AOL, I'll still manually push the post out, but not exactly at 9am Still, enjoy! BTW, it's beautiful here. Notes on virtual museums... More looking and less clicking: Research is beginning to show that online patrons are looking for the deeper and richer experiences that such innovations [in virtual museums] could provide. Recent studies analyzing visitors of Web museums have discovered that a majority are seeking exhibits that go beyond a database of disparate objects. Visitors to virtual museums are looking for guided tours and exhibits that present information created by knowledgeable professionals that help them to understand and appreciate artifacts in their artistic and historical context. These initial studies are discovering that when users go to a Web site of arts and culture they want to do more looking and less clicking. Many online patrons have the necessary technology to view video and multimedia presentations and are looking for exhibits that take advantage of these features to present more vivid narratives and deeper contextual information. — from First Monday The concept of threshold objects: One real opportunity for us is to understand the power of what [Janet] Murray describes as "threshold objects," physical objects which serve as our entryway to a story, which provide a necessary visceral connection to an otherwise virtual experience. As an example she uses the heft of the controller "gun" in a video arcade "High Noon" shoot-em-up game. The same game played on a home computer with a joy stick is not nearly as compelling. In a maritime museum, a simple rolling pie crimper created by a sailor out of whale bone acts as the threshold object and provides an entry way to all kinds of stories: the whale hunt, sailor's leisure time, home life and family relationships, maritime communities, or perhaps the economy of whaling and its impact on 19th century industrialism. The power of a pie crimper, of a single physical object, to bring a story to life. to vitalize a virtual experience, is perhaps our most important short-term opportunity. — from Museums and the Web 1999 On timelines and maps: They've [Second Story Interactive] experimented with several ways of resolving such difficulties [in technology limitations and moderating user control]. The most successful involves timelines and maps, which give you distinct beginning and end points, while allowing large amounts of information to be accessed through a single interface. One of their more developed sites is for Ken Burns's film "Not for Ourselves Alone." It uses both a timeline and a layered structure. Each point on the timeline tells a general story, but also contains links that allow you to dig deeper into the topic. — from an Adobe Studio profile And take a look at Second Story's latest tour de force released yesterday: The Theban Mapping Project Thursday, August 01, 2002
When toys start to hack Hackers are apparently converting Sony Dreamcast game consoles into robotic network probing stations that can be surreptitiously planted in offices under a desk or in the drop ceiling. Smart security directors will certainly be vigilant about physical security, but computers continue to get smaller and more difficult to notice. See DNKB I rarely look at the server stats and referer logs for curiouslee and need to get into the habit of doing that. Because it's in the logs where I'll find gems like the DNKB blog. More than just a great blog with a local Baltimore spin, the author is a stone's throw away from my house. It's good to know there are neighbor friends I have yet to meet. My gold box Rael offers these words of poetry on Amazon's Gold Box: Rael's Gold Box
|
|||
