Yesterday, I explained my frustration towards th awful design of Lausanne public transport map, this morning I took time to check how they dealt with it in Geneva. It's way better since they divided the city in zones and they kept the map on the vending machine:
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(via) Read in SFGate, the journalist tries to sketch why all the cool stuff come out in Asia first...
Why is it that Japanese manufacturers have such a death grip on consumer-electronics cool? And why are Americans deprived of the choicest fruits of this technological bounty? The answers to these questions offer an intriguing look at how culture shapes technology -- and vice versa.Japan's gizmo utopia exists in part because of a happy harmonic convergence between its domestic market and its industrial sector (...) America has its share of early adopters, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule (...) Consumer behavior is learned young, and America's relatively low-tech outlook is in part due to a fundamental difference in youth culture in the United States and Japan. "Consumer behavior in Japan is totally driven by the teenagers," (...) Unlike in the United States, where consumer electronics is an overwhelmingly male-driven industry, the critical vector in the propagation of keitai culture was its embrace by adolescent girls. (...) Because the price of shelter is so expensive, Japanese apartments tend to be remarkably cramped. (...) Japanese manufacturers became experts at miniaturizing and creating multiple-function devices (like, say, refrigerators that let you browse the Web) simply because the average consumer really needs the room. "Space is everything, (...) Japanese companies (aided by government subsidies and cheap financial-sector loans) have spent billions of dollars in building out key infrastructure -- for example, widespread ultra-high-speed cell-phone networks and readily available broadband Internet access. (...) the vast majority of American consumers prefers to window shop -- experiencing new technology by proxy rather than shelling out the cash necessary to really own it.
Bruce Sterling gave a speech yesterday in Munich: Shaping Things to Come. The lecture could be downloaded here (.mp3).
The computer revolution is invading the physical world of material objects. A number of trends are converging which will re-define the relationship between people and our tools and possessions. [...] Add these trends together and they form the picture of a new and different kind of physicality. What does it mean? And how will that feel? And what can we do about it?
Bruce Sterling gave a speech yesterday in Munich: Shaping Things to Come. The lecture could be downloaded here (.mp3).
The computer revolution is invading the physical world of material objects. A number of trends are converging which will re-define the relationship between people and our tools and possessions. [...] Add these trends together and they form the picture of a new and different kind of physicality. What does it mean? And how will that feel? And what can we do about it?
Güttler, C. and Johansson, T.D. (2003) Spatial principles of level-design in multi-player first-person shooters, Proceedings of the 2nd workshop on Network and system support for game, Redwood City, California. ACM Press: New York, pp:158 - 170 .
Basing itself on a theoretical discussion and experiments, this paper outlines the basic spatial principles of level design in multi-player first-person shooters with special reference to Counter-Strike (Sierra). In this manner, the paper seeks to outline a heuristics of level design in firstperson shooters. The thesis of the paper is that a consistent examination of a game’s gameplay, its agents, and spatial components is necessary for the development of a design method that will lead to ultimate level design. Setting off from a theoretical discussion of the terms gameplay and emergence, the paper starts by establishing some basic characteristics of multiplayer shooters. The concept of emergence leads to a distinction of the unique features of multi-play and teamplay, and notions of gameplay help us to map out the basic spatial properties of the game environment and its staging of player strategies and tactical choice. The key concept in the principles of spatiality in level design advanced here is the socalled collision point; the location that marks the clash of players and hence by the set of relevant tactical choices to be made by the teams. To demonstrate the empirical basis and possible application in practical level design, the paper provides an analysis of a demonstrate the pros and cons of various design solutions and point at the basic spatial principles referred to above. The paper affirms that it does make sense to regard level design as tool for controlling the gameplay and the game’s progression. Also it affirms that it is possible by means of a critical and systematical approach to distinguish between good and bad level-design. Thus a set of heuristics is suggested as a set of guidelines that could lead to better leveldesign for practitioners.
Güttler, C. and Johansson, T.D. (2003) Spatial principles of level-design in multi-player first-person shooters, Proceedings of the 2nd workshop on Network and system support for game, Redwood City, California. ACM Press: New York, pp:158 - 170 .
Basing itself on a theoretical discussion and experiments, this paper outlines the basic spatial principles of level design in multi-player first-person shooters with special reference to Counter-Strike (Sierra). In this manner, the paper seeks to outline a heuristics of level design in firstperson shooters. The thesis of the paper is that a consistent examination of a game’s gameplay, its agents, and spatial components is necessary for the development of a design method that will lead to ultimate level design. Setting off from a theoretical discussion of the terms gameplay and emergence, the paper starts by establishing some basic characteristics of multiplayer shooters. The concept of emergence leads to a distinction of the unique features of multi-play and teamplay, and notions of gameplay help us to map out the basic spatial properties of the game environment and its staging of player strategies and tactical choice. The key concept in the principles of spatiality in level design advanced here is the socalled collision point; the location that marks the clash of players and hence by the set of relevant tactical choices to be made by the teams. To demonstrate the empirical basis and possible application in practical level design, the paper provides an analysis of a demonstrate the pros and cons of various design solutions and point at the basic spatial principles referred to above. The paper affirms that it does make sense to regard level design as tool for controlling the gameplay and the game’s progression. Also it affirms that it is possible by means of a critical and systematical approach to distinguish between good and bad level-design. Thus a set of heuristics is suggested as a set of guidelines that could lead to better leveldesign for practitioners.
Those two anamorphosis maps shows the rail travel times in Europe: 1993 for the first one and 2020 for the other. Taken from Spiekermann, K. and M. Wegener. 1996. Trans-European Networks and Unequal Accessibility in Europe. European Journal of Regional Development 4:35-42.
Those toilets had been wrapped, but it seems not to be art even though:1. same objects as Duchamp's urinoir
2. wrapped small objets as Christo does in his early years.
A.Smailagic, D.P.Siewiorek, J.Anhalt, F.Gemperle, D.Salber, S.Weber, J.Beck, J.Jennings. (2001) Towards Context Aware Computing: Experiences and Lessons Learned, IEEE Journal on Intelligent Systems. These authors have proposed a distraction matrix in which they classify the time needed for a distraction (from a snap (extremely small amount of time) to an extended time) and look at the categories of information, communication, and creation with respect to these distractions.
This morning, I was amazed by the new design of the Lausanne Public Transport vending machines. Instead of putting a map with names of the different places (the most common way to give a global representation of space), they put a list of names (bus/metro stops) in alphabetical order. This limits travel hack (like you know the area where you're heading but not the place's name). Besides, our university has 3 or 4 stops but they did not put the name of the university, they just put the names of the stops!
This morning, I was amazed by the new design of the Lausanne Public Transport vending machines. Instead of putting a map with names of the different places (the most common way to give a global representation of space), they put a list of names (bus/metro stops) in alphabetical order. This limits travel hack (like you know the area where you're heading but not the place's name). Besides, our university has 3 or 4 stops but they did not put the name of the university, they just put the names of the stops!
I really like this french artist: cedric bernadotte, especially two projects: the one in which he removes all the writings in the streets and the other in which he duct tapes stuff in cities!
Yes, space matters...Mapping the Global Network Economy on the Basis of Air Passenger Transport Flows by F. Witlox*, L. Vereecken and B. Derudder
In this paper global air traffic data are used to attain an insight in the spatial structure of the network economy. The main emphasis is on identifying and mapping this network through the use of passenger transport flows. Our approach is unique in that for the first time a worldwide (i.e., truly global) perspective is taken because use is made of so-called MIDT data. This exceptional dataset contains information on global airline bookings and connections relating to more than half a billion passengers. The data reveal and confirm interesting global economic and political patterns, typifying the current globalized network economy.
Just read this: M.Flintham, R.Anastasi, S.Benford, T.Hummings, A.Crabtree, C.Greenhalgh, T.Rodden, N.Tandavanith, M.Adams, and J.Row-Farr (2003). Where on-line meets on the streets: experiences with mobile mixed reality games. In Proceedings of the conference on Human factors in computing systems, pages 569–576, Florida, USA.
We describe two games in which online participants collaborated with mobile participants on the city streets. In the first, the players were online and professional performers were on the streets. The second reversed this relationship. Analysis of these experiences yields new insights into the nature of context. We show how context is more socially than technically constructed. We show how players exploited (and resolved conflicts between) multiple indications of context including GPS, GPS error, audio talk, ambient audio, timing, local knowledge and trust. We recommend not overly relying on GPS, extensively using audio, and extending interfaces to represent GPS error.
It's interesting because it deals with how they evaluated their location-based games relying on three sources of data:
Main points covered in the discussions at Bloggercon III about academic blogging:
1. Why should academics blog ? 2. What changes for academics when they blog ? 3. What’s the potential effect of blogging in the academic world ? 4. Why do academics make good bloggers ? 5. Blogs vs. Blackboard 6. Publish or perish ? 7. How do blogs affect the value of attending university ? 8. How can we make blogs more attractive to academics ? 9. Who should be the audience ? 10. Blogs as a student learning tools 11. University policy towards blogs?
Very interesting issues!
Few pictures taken this week end at the Light Festival in Lyon, France. The pieces work showed here had been taken from the superflux exhibition in the 7th arrondissement. I am trying to put the names of the artists but it's hard to find from here. The third one is by Sanaz Azari (''poubelles lumineuses"). The fourth is by Severine Bonmartin, Amelie Cordier and Marie Faugnon.
Last firday, walking in the streets of Lyon, I found this interesting picture, I think Larry Hyman (researcher at University of California, Berkeley) made it when he worked in France...
(ego-trip) My side-project with roby: the french RSS aggregator rss4you has been quoted in Liberation. They also quote our friend jerome :)
RSS
Ce fichier texte résume le contenu d'un site ou d'un blog et permet à un utilisateur de consulter les flux provenant de multiples sources d'information différentes sans avoir à visiter chacun des sites. De nombreux blogs compilent automatiquement les actualités publiées par d'autres.
www.ifeedyou.com/ou www.rss4you.com/
(Via rodcorp) trade tricks is a kind-of "catalog of secrets only its employees are aware of—such as how waiters with heavy platters know to look straight ahead, and never down". My favorite:
Proofreader: If you’re reading too fast, your brain can “correct” typos, preventing you from catching them. That’s why it’s sometimes a good idea to read a page upside-down. It forces you to pay closer attention to individual words out of context, and you can’t race through pages too fast.
High School Teacher: When the students are acting up (or your performance is being evaluated) , turn on the air conditioning as high as it goes. The students are far better behaved when they are frozen. Note: the opposite effect does not work: excessive heat only exacerbates the issues of problem children.
