Month: September 2005

How Did We Get By Without It?

German researchers, after many long periods of intense research and user testing I’m sure, have produced a Smart Beer Mat.

It’s able to detect when the suds are running low in the glass. It also can detect movement, making those creative TV executives salivate at the thought of interactive TV in pubs. Who votes for Miss America with their beer mat? The pub-goer of the future, that’s who!

And who can forget those beloved pub games?

One important direction which needs further investigation is the large body of drinking games which has developed in certain cultures and how they can be supported using our beer mat.

It’s all very academic and formal. Money well spent. I suppose advertisers would love the thing though.

Robots In The House

Mitsubishi has announced the availability of their new robot for general public purchase – wakamaru. It is designed to, well, here’s what they say:

“wakamaru” lives in accordance with his own daily schedules as well as those of its owners, and it can update these schedules based on contact with the owner.

Not only does “wakamaru” respond to actions from people like other conventional robots, but it also takes the initiative in speaking to the family based on the information he obtains from contact with the family.

“wakamaru” connects itself to the network to provide necessary information for daily life. It looks after the house while the family is absent, watches out for unusual conditions, and is convenient for the life of family members.

Marketing-speak aside, I think there’s some interesting things being said here.

  1. The robot is a he
  2. The robot “lives”

Continue reading Robots In The House

What Do I Do?

I’m moving into a new job tomorrow, and I’m being asked (understandably) what exactly I’ll be doing. Since I haven’t actually started the job yet, it’s tough for me to give concrete examples of what I’ll be doing, but let’s see if I can’t shed a little light on my super-secret mystery.

My official title will be “Systems Analyst / User Interface Designer”. Now that’s a mouthful. However it is also nice and descriptive. As you may or may not know, when it comes to computers, I’m deeply interested in usability and the user experience. I’m able to do programming when I want or need to, but in the end I’m not terribly passionate about the inner workings of programs. I’m more interested in how people interact with them.

So what does a Systems Analyst do? In a nutshell I’ll be looking at customer requests for improvements and new features in our software and I’ll be trying to figure out the best way to fix our software up. The best way may or may not be what the customer asks for exactly, but requirements elicitation should be part of the process so their initial needs may end up changing as our discussions continue.

It’s still a little abstract, I know. However I came across this great example of systems analysis (in the guise of the term “Information Architecture”) to a batch of today’s emerging music players. For anyone interested in IA or SA, it’s a neat, simple read. Anyone not familiar with the things we do, it’s a simple introduction because we all understand digital music players to some extent.

As for the title “User Interface Designer”, that’s where my heart lies. Designing the interface and workflow that users are confronted with when using software is my real area of interest. I enjoy the designing phase of things so much because I find it to be so creative – implementing mock-ups of the interfaces and running user trials to see how they work in real situations is just plain fun for me.

So this position is my first step away from supporting technology and users (Systems Administrator, that kind of thing) towards my real area of interest – usability. I’ve been dipping my toes into whatever Usability waters I can find, such as recently joining a project at Open Usability and participating in several discussions on the Gnome Usability Mailing List. And now I am finally moving into this fascinating area professionally.

Huzzah! Wish me luck!

DRM and You – A Consumer’s Introduction

DRM – What the heck is it? Digitial Rights Management is becoming much more prevalent today as consumers are beginning to purchase digital media online rather than analogue or consumable versions from brick and mortar stores.

In plain English? People are really starting to buy online music. iTunes is the most well-known name in online music right now, but there are a myriad of other companies out to try to lure you out of your expendable income.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation have published an introductory guide to the various DRM that today’s most popular online music stores are using. In effect, they outline what restrictions the files have on them once you purchase your mp3’s from the stores. What kind of restrictions? How often can you burn playlists, how many different computers can you play the file on, etc.

Note that the guide also lists a few online resellers that do not use any DRM in the sold files. This means you have total control over what you can do with those files. They list the following:

emusic
Audio Lunchbox
Bleep
Live Downloads

Of those, I have only ever used emusic, and I was impressed with their services at the time (several years ago).

In addition, you should check out your favorite artist’s website, as they may be selling their albums themselves. Some record labels are also doing the right thing, and offering their new releases online as well. I recently purchased a song from Nettwerk and it came without any DRM that I am aware of.

I’ve also found a few sites that offer Live recordings of shows as well as uncompressed songs for purchase or free download. Check out my Music page for more details.

So don’t limit yourself to just using what everyone else is using. This industry is in a state of flux – don’t accept anything less than you are willing to, and try to find products that give you the most for your dollar.