Wired reports on this intriguing modified Nintendo DS called "Disney Magic Connection" that offers location-based services (navigation, where to find what...). But it seems that it was not so much of a success. Interestingly, Jim Hill describes what went wrong: "The problem wasn't with the technol...
Design process at Experientia
Read the english translation of an interesting article about Experientia from “The Marker. The description of their design work process, by Jan-Christoph Zoels is interesting: "“We spend a lot of time thinking about future trends, about the enjoyment of the user, about his current AND future needs,...
Using Nokia model # as terrorist messages
Some of the curious codes used by terrorists are described in the Washington Post (in an article by Craig Whitlock): "In September 2005, a British court convicted Andrew Rowe, a Jamaican convert to Islam, on terrorism charges after authorities found a secret code book in which he gave double meanin...
Extreme case of location-based services: parole offenders
In Accountabilities of Presence: Reframing Location-Based Systems, Troshynski, Lee and Dourish address the extreme case of paroled offenders tracked by GPS and describe lessons that can be drawn from this unconventional realm of location-based systems.Here is how the system works: "Location informa...
Kid book about why owning a server
Via, I payed close attention to the screenshot capture of thisincredible book by Microsoft called "Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House? helping understand the Stay-At-Home Server". The book basically describes how a server "is a funny looking-box" who "makes friend with computers" which are g...
Surrounded by objects whose workings are a total mystery
In "Why Toys Shouldn't Work "Like Magic": Children's Technology and the Values of Construction and Control ", Mark Gross and Michael Eisenberg describes the tension between "ease of use" and user empowerment" that is at stake in kids artifact design. Starting from an interesting quote from physicis...
Expressions of privacy
Privacy concerns spotted in Geneva over time: And the answer as proposed by this huge sticker hat encourage people to pay attention to digital cameras: ...
On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets
Enrico pointed me to this curious empirical study of the effectiveness of aluminium foil helmets conducted by MIT people (Ali Rahimi, Ben Recht, Jason Taylor, Noah Vawter). Their point was to examine the efficacy of different aluminum helmets often employed by paranoids who want to protect themselv...
Notes on "Hertzian Tales by Anthony Dunne
Reading "Hertzian Tales by Anthony Dunne was quite interesting as it echoed with some other readings/feelings/discussions. Although the book is maybe more suited to a designer audience (format/references), it's a must read for people involved in HCI or innovation/foresight. Some excerpts I found re...
Weather stations, weathervanes, cuckoo-clocks and ubiquitous computing
In a tiny street of Bern, Switzerland, I stumbled across that machine yesterday: Why do I blog this? As it says in german, it's a "weather station" with time, temperature, pression, etc. Beyond the interface that I find amazingly retro-like, I find intriguing to have this sort of device on the str...