snowdeal.org > ex machina

12.14.2001

Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design :

"An interface to any experience, whether technological, physical, or conceptual, must have a message and a reason for communicating it and begin with the creation of meaning and the development of appropriate types of interactivity. These decisions drive the use of sensorial media to present the experience to the audience in an appropriate and supportive way. Addressing one factor without the others can contribute to an experience that is incomplete or unbalanced."

[ via blackbeltjones ]

posted by e3 10:52:31 PM

dang. now, i know that we aren't fighting with .38 specials and i'm not normally awestruck by weaponry, but the ac-130 aircraft is devastatingly impressive.

"The Vietnam era had the "Puff the Magic Dragon" Gun ships. The latest version of the weapon is the AC-130 with its 105 mm cannons and Gattling guns. Computer controls allow for concentrated targeting while the aircraft lumbers in circles. This time lapse photo shows the accuracy, as every fifth round is a tracer! Guaranteed to scare the shit out of anyone within 10 miles."

[ via rc3 ]

posted by e3 8:12:27 PM

12.13.2001

XML and Modern CGI Applications :

"Borrowing heavily from the Model-View-Controller pattern, CGI::XMLApplication provides a modular, XML-based alternative to traditional CGI scripting. The typical CGI::XMLApplication project consists of three parts: a small executable script that provides access to the application, a logic module that implements various handler methods that are called in response to the current state of the application, and one or more XSLT stylesheets that are used, based on application-state, to transform the data returned by the module into something a browser can display to its user."

[ via aaron ]

posted by e3 7:27:21 PM

12.12.2001

perception and self perception. yesterday i went to the eye doctor and found out that, while i'm not going blind, my eyesite has taken a turn for the worse. and not just a little turn for the worse. the optometrist was kind enough to point out that, in the year-and-a-half since my last eye examine, my eyesite has degraded to the point that i would no longer be able to pass the illinois driver's exam. with my contacts in place. and if that weren't enough positive news, he also pointed out, in an oddly cheerful tone that my right eye, "...seems to have a little trouble focusing." jeez louis.

in not-so-related new - via nick denton i discovered the online polical test political compass and discovered that, while i might perceive myself to be a centrist with mild liberal leanings, that i'm actually a rather strong liberal-libertarian [ -5.63 liberal/ -6.26 libertarian]. and that's after self-moderating a few of my answers. i'm honestly surprised by the results. i guess it might go a long ways towards explaining why i'm the odd man out during family holiday dinner discussions.

posted by e3 10:26:13 PM

12.11.2001

so, everybody knows that knowledge management is over used and under understood, but that doesn't stop the latest ibm systems journal from having a worthwhile mix of articles. they lose points for the vacuous intro blurb:

"The business environment is rapidly changing, and intellectual capital is a key asset of the enterprise. By managing its knowledge assets, an enterprise can improve its adaptability and increase its chances for survival. The papers in this issue of the IBM Systems Journal deal with various aspects of knowledge management: supporting technologies, products, and social aspects."

posted by e3 8:53:39 PM

despite the goofy title, the xml revolution is a pretty beefy tutorial:

"This slide collection provides an introduction and overview of XML, Namespaces, XInclude, XML Base, XLink, XPointer, XPath, DTD, XML Schema, DSD, XSLT, XQuery, DOM, SAX, and JDOM including selected links to more information about each topic."

posted by e3 8:40:23 PM

12.9.2001

don't mind me, just testing the cron job.

posted by e3 10:06:14 PM

regular visitors will now notice that i started an ex machina rss feed [ it's also available for all the "sections" ]. undoubtably, there will be some goofyness that will occur, so any feedback is appreciated. because of my general disregard for any rules of punctuation and grammar, i had to go with the somewhat-unelegant approach of just chomping the descriptions at a defined number of characters. and i'm none-too-pleased with the current placement of the xml icon, but i spent far too long debating about it. hi. ho.

so, if you're aggregation then start aggregatin'.

posted by e3 9:12:13 PM

thanks brig's linking to the social security administration's name distribution data, i now have an answer to one of the questions that tends to keep me awake at night - just exactly how popular is my first name?

i mean, i've known an "eric" or two over my life and many people i know claim that they've also happened upon other "eric's", but how close has the name come to capturing the most popular name award? inquiring minds now know.

i messaged the ranking data to output a "popularity index" which shows how close the name has come to capturing the top spot over the past century. sadly, the name appears to have reached it's popularity zenith in the 70's and has been steadily losing ground over the decades.

it may be a statistical fluke, but the data appear to show a decrease in popularity from the 1900's to the 1910's - perhaps the the name was actually coming off a huge wave of popularity in the late 1800's? yeah, i'll bet that's it.

but alas, it looks like there's no hope from recovering anytime soom from the hegemony of jacob, michael, josua and matthew. and who says we're a nation of infidels - by the looks of the popular names, we're a nice lot of old-school, god-fearin' folks.

posted by e3 11:50:19 AM