How to prevent bot from playing online games

Yes that's a crux issue! Spam is already a tremendous problem for websites and bloggers but would video games be the next focus of spammer/bots? That's a topic tackled in "Preventing bots from playing online games." by Golle and Ducheneaut in the next issue of ACM Computers in Entertainment: Preven...

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Mobile product testing

This paper by Linda Gallant, (Bentley College) "Ethnography of Communication & Mobile Product Testing" is going to be published in the Personal and Ubiquitous Computing journal. Abstract: The ethnography of communication approach is employed to enhance the mobile user-centered design process. Mobi...

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Scotland Yard Mobile Game

Live Action Scotland Yard (L.A.S.Y.) is a game created by Canadian designer Joel Friesen. The scenario is pretty simple: a 'Mr X' dresses in a bright yellow t-shirt, and then takes to the public transport systems of Toronto, Canada, pursued by three more people, 'detectives', in red shirts. The 'cr...

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European Consitution in France: 2 unlinked competitive structures

(via), an interesting visualization of the impact of blogs and websites on the May poll about European Constitution in France. It's done by Franck Ghitalla and Guilhem Fouetillou from the "Université de Compiègne". Why do I blog this? it's interesting to see how the two 'sides' were structured as c...

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Star Wars "Pants" Lines

Funny stuff for summer: Star Wars "Pants" Lines: I recently received an e-mail containing several Star Wars quotes that sounded funny when a key word was replaced with "pants". I do not know who first came up with the idea or who originated the forward. When I got the e-mail, I spent a good hour th...

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Foot-based controller without external sensors

Thanks chris for pointing me on this Sensing Gamepad developed at the Interaction Laboratory (Sony CSL) by Jun Rekimoto:Electrostatic Potential Sensing for Enhancing Entertainment Oriented Interactions This project introduces a novel way to enhance input devices to sense a user's foot motion. By me...

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MIX-m: mixed space architecture project in Geneva

Christophe from fabric | ch-- sent me this link about their new exhibit: MIX-m.org MIX-m is a mixed space architecture that exists at the same time in variable and complementary spaces: physical space (Contemporary Art Centre Geneva), digital space (a multi-users and game like environment), networ...

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The bathroom effect: a trigger for social awareness

An interesting concept: the bathroom effect (via): (...) Pixar’s CEO, Steve Jobs. “He thought it was really important that there only be one bathroom in the building, for all 700 people who work here,” Greenberg says.(...) Here’s the “bathroom effect” theory, as Greenberg explains it: “If you have ...

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Mapping technologies evolution

Still in the IHT, an interesting account of how map web services emerged ans how they will evolve: In 1991, David Gelernter, a computer scientist at Yale University, proposed using software to create a computer simulation of the physical world, making it possible to map everything from traffic flow...

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IHT about WiFi rabbit Nabaztag

The IHT has an article about Nabaztag: This rabbit is not beautiful, it is not smart, and it is not that useful, but this first generation has already sold out,'' said Haladjian [CEO ov Violet, the company that does Nabaztag -nicolas] ''Wireless-linked devices will soon be everywhere, and we are no...

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