Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Activity 2 - Screen Rotation
iPhones, iPods, smartphones, tablets and the like are able to change their screen orientation from portrait to landscape when the user turns the device. They are able to do this because they contain an accelerometer.
An accelerometer mearures forces of acceleration applied to a device. The sensors in an accelerometer are able to discern the direction from which the force is being applied. Accelerometers are also able to detect the pulling force of gravity. Thus they can detect whether or not the device is being held in a portrait, or landscape position and adjust the screen accordingly.
It seems to me that this has many useful applications. Sometimes the user is able to decide for themselves which way they prefer the device to display the information they want. For example on smartphones, when entering a text message, the keyboard is much larger when the device is being held in a landscape position, but less information is able to be displayed. The user is given the option of either, so that they can choose the view that best suits their needs for each situation.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer
for information on accelerometers and how they work.
An accelerometer mearures forces of acceleration applied to a device. The sensors in an accelerometer are able to discern the direction from which the force is being applied. Accelerometers are also able to detect the pulling force of gravity. Thus they can detect whether or not the device is being held in a portrait, or landscape position and adjust the screen accordingly.
It seems to me that this has many useful applications. Sometimes the user is able to decide for themselves which way they prefer the device to display the information they want. For example on smartphones, when entering a text message, the keyboard is much larger when the device is being held in a landscape position, but less information is able to be displayed. The user is given the option of either, so that they can choose the view that best suits their needs for each situation.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer
for information on accelerometers and how they work.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Adding a feed to your blog
AMENDMENT:
You could followthe 16 ultra easy steps below to create an RSS for your blog, or you cold just follow Lindsay's laborious 2 step approach, which works much better and is in the comments section. It's your choice I suppose...
I have noticed that some of us had had some trouble adding a feed to our blogs. I myself thought it would be very easy and did what I thought was adding a feed, but it wasn't. Adding the right kind of feed was somewhat more complicated (although not beyond anyone doing this course).
As far as I can tell there are basically 2 types of feeds you can add to your site. The first is the easy way, and it is just a widget on the side of your blog that lists some posts from another blog. This is, I don't think, is especially useful to our course and it is not what Sarah was asking for when she asked us to consider putting a feed on our site so that it would make it easier for her to follow our blogs.
The second type of feed is a link that looks like this
This kind of feed allows a reader to subscribe to your site through their own RSS reader. This means that, potentially, anyone who is able to access all of our blogs can view all our posts in one place without having to go from blog to blog.
This is how I created a feed for my site.
1. go to your dashboard at blogger.com/home
2. Click on the settings link for your blog.
3. Click on the blue link near the top of the page that says 'Site Feed'.
4. Click on the blue link that says 'FeedBurner'. This will take you to the Google FeedBurner site.
5. Login using your Google ID.
6. Once you have logged in there should be a label that says 'Burn a feed right this instant'. Underneath that is a text box. Copy and paste the URL from your blog into the text box. So for me I went to my blog, copied and pasted in http://edge903graham.blogspot.com/
7. You probably want to leave the 'I am a podcaster' check box unticked. Click next.
8.On the next screen you have 2 options. Choose the second option, that is an RSS feed. Click next.
9. The next page should automatically populate the two text boxes for you. Change them if you like, otherwise just click next.
10. Ignore the next 2 pages, just click next in both of them.
11. You should now be on a page that has the name of your blog along the top. You've now created your feed. The next step is to add it to your blog so that others can use it.
12. Click the tab near the top of the page that says 'Publicize'
13. On the left hand side are some blue links. Click the one that says 'Chicklet Chooser'.
14. Make sure that one of the two radio buttons next to an orange RSS symbol is selected. I left it on the big one.
15. Go right to the bottom of the page and there should be a drop down menu. It says 'Use as widget in' and the option that is chosen is 'TypePad'. Click on the arrow next to the word 'TypePad' and choose 'Blogger'. Click Go.
16. A new tab will open up on your browser and you are taken back to the settings for your blog. Just click on the blue button 'Add Widget'.
And voila! In 16 easy steps you have a feed for your blog that anyone who has access to your blog can follow.
I think. If this doesn't work just start clicking buttons that you think might possibly work. That's how I figured it out.
You could followthe 16 ultra easy steps below to create an RSS for your blog, or you cold just follow Lindsay's laborious 2 step approach, which works much better and is in the comments section. It's your choice I suppose...
I have noticed that some of us had had some trouble adding a feed to our blogs. I myself thought it would be very easy and did what I thought was adding a feed, but it wasn't. Adding the right kind of feed was somewhat more complicated (although not beyond anyone doing this course).
As far as I can tell there are basically 2 types of feeds you can add to your site. The first is the easy way, and it is just a widget on the side of your blog that lists some posts from another blog. This is, I don't think, is especially useful to our course and it is not what Sarah was asking for when she asked us to consider putting a feed on our site so that it would make it easier for her to follow our blogs.
The second type of feed is a link that looks like this
This kind of feed allows a reader to subscribe to your site through their own RSS reader. This means that, potentially, anyone who is able to access all of our blogs can view all our posts in one place without having to go from blog to blog.
This is how I created a feed for my site.
1. go to your dashboard at blogger.com/home
2. Click on the settings link for your blog.
3. Click on the blue link near the top of the page that says 'Site Feed'.
4. Click on the blue link that says 'FeedBurner'. This will take you to the Google FeedBurner site.
5. Login using your Google ID.
6. Once you have logged in there should be a label that says 'Burn a feed right this instant'. Underneath that is a text box. Copy and paste the URL from your blog into the text box. So for me I went to my blog, copied and pasted in http://edge903graham.blogspot.com/
7. You probably want to leave the 'I am a podcaster' check box unticked. Click next.
8.On the next screen you have 2 options. Choose the second option, that is an RSS feed. Click next.
9. The next page should automatically populate the two text boxes for you. Change them if you like, otherwise just click next.
10. Ignore the next 2 pages, just click next in both of them.
11. You should now be on a page that has the name of your blog along the top. You've now created your feed. The next step is to add it to your blog so that others can use it.
12. Click the tab near the top of the page that says 'Publicize'
13. On the left hand side are some blue links. Click the one that says 'Chicklet Chooser'.
14. Make sure that one of the two radio buttons next to an orange RSS symbol is selected. I left it on the big one.
15. Go right to the bottom of the page and there should be a drop down menu. It says 'Use as widget in' and the option that is chosen is 'TypePad'. Click on the arrow next to the word 'TypePad' and choose 'Blogger'. Click Go.
16. A new tab will open up on your browser and you are taken back to the settings for your blog. Just click on the blue button 'Add Widget'.
And voila! In 16 easy steps you have a feed for your blog that anyone who has access to your blog can follow.
I think. If this doesn't work just start clicking buttons that you think might possibly work. That's how I figured it out.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Activity 1 - Pattie Maes and the SixthSense
I just watched this TED talk:
Pattie Mays and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense
There is no doubt that the student creating this device is a genius. The difficulty of creating algorithms to read, recognise and make meaning of an image in front of it beyond that of a barcode or similar pictorial representation is incredible.
That said, I'm no too sure of the actual implementations of this product. At the moment you have a camera with a projector around your neck to make any flat surface nearby into a screen. This is interesting, but in my mind nt incredibly useful. Especially since you are forking out the cost of a phone for your phone to do all the computing anyway, without using all the tools that your phone already has.
Take the shopping uses, for example. You have to make sure the camera is pointing in the right direction, make the correct hand gestures and then you need a surface to display the information you're receiving from your projector, also around your neck. Or, you could get out your phone, take a picture with its inbuilt camera and do exactly the same thing in (I bet) the same time or less and get the same answer for $300 or whaever it was less.
When I'm out and taking photos, I want the photos to be deliberately aimed, zoomed and shot. I want to be able to see exactly what I'm taking before I take it, like with any existing camera. This doesn't allow that. A camera hanging around my neck is precarious, it moves and sways as I move. It turns around. It's not practical.
The software is cool, there's no doubt about that, but the hardware is, in my mind, unconvincing. Johnny Chung hs done some amazing things with similar technologies with what, I think, are much more usefl educational outcomes, although as wth this the implementation is, at the moment, a bit ugly and buggy.
It just seems to me that this is adding hardware to do what I can do already with the hardware in my pocket.
Also, at the end of the talk Pattie Maes, as she was leaving the stage, she said that 'Maybe in ten years we'll be here with thte ultimate SixthSense brain implant'. If this is what they're aiming for then I'm not at all interested.
As for the implications to the future for designers of interactive multimedia, I'm not sre that there are, at the moment, any differences. As I stated above, I don't see this technology achieving anything beyond what is already very achievable just with a phone. I'm more than happy to be shown that I am wrong about this.
These are my intial impressions.
What do you think?
Pattie Mays and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense
There is no doubt that the student creating this device is a genius. The difficulty of creating algorithms to read, recognise and make meaning of an image in front of it beyond that of a barcode or similar pictorial representation is incredible.
That said, I'm no too sure of the actual implementations of this product. At the moment you have a camera with a projector around your neck to make any flat surface nearby into a screen. This is interesting, but in my mind nt incredibly useful. Especially since you are forking out the cost of a phone for your phone to do all the computing anyway, without using all the tools that your phone already has.
Take the shopping uses, for example. You have to make sure the camera is pointing in the right direction, make the correct hand gestures and then you need a surface to display the information you're receiving from your projector, also around your neck. Or, you could get out your phone, take a picture with its inbuilt camera and do exactly the same thing in (I bet) the same time or less and get the same answer for $300 or whaever it was less.
When I'm out and taking photos, I want the photos to be deliberately aimed, zoomed and shot. I want to be able to see exactly what I'm taking before I take it, like with any existing camera. This doesn't allow that. A camera hanging around my neck is precarious, it moves and sways as I move. It turns around. It's not practical.
The software is cool, there's no doubt about that, but the hardware is, in my mind, unconvincing. Johnny Chung hs done some amazing things with similar technologies with what, I think, are much more usefl educational outcomes, although as wth this the implementation is, at the moment, a bit ugly and buggy.
It just seems to me that this is adding hardware to do what I can do already with the hardware in my pocket.
Also, at the end of the talk Pattie Maes, as she was leaving the stage, she said that 'Maybe in ten years we'll be here with thte ultimate SixthSense brain implant'. If this is what they're aiming for then I'm not at all interested.
As for the implications to the future for designers of interactive multimedia, I'm not sre that there are, at the moment, any differences. As I stated above, I don't see this technology achieving anything beyond what is already very achievable just with a phone. I'm more than happy to be shown that I am wrong about this.
These are my intial impressions.
What do you think?
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