ITP Spring 2006 (mb2811) http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/ en Copyright 2006 Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:42:54 +0000 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.17 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Nokia 6682 With Flash! Here's something from a review:

The camera has an LED flash which you can turn on, off or set to automatic. Even when the flash is turned off, it will light just a bit (perhaps to prevent you from taking surreptitious shots of people). 6x digital zoom helps you get in close; handy given Nokia phones' rather short 4.5mm focal length. To take a photo, just slide open the rear lens cover and the phone will launch the camera application.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/nokia_6682.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/nokia_6682.html Ubiquitous Computing Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:42:54 +0000 Waymarker Ideas From Jesse:

that's incredible. i feel like i could follow your life all day. what's the time interval?
can we guess which photo shows digital mike at the happiest point in his day? i want emotional association so that i can engage with your life - maybe you can just recommend a viewing soundtrack.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/waymarker_ideas.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/waymarker_ideas.html Ubiquitous Computing Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:20:35 +0000 BoohBah Stephen and I finally got the RF circuit working. We ended up using the old PIC18F452 instead of the 12675 (8 pin, internal clock). I wanted to share an anecdote about why this thing ended up working. We had an LED on the receive pin of the RF receiver so we could see if we were getting data. It would blink when data was coming in. When I program, there's never any partial data loss. If x=5, x will stay five unless I make it 4. It will never turn into 4.99.

This isn't the case with electricity. The RF receiver was receiving information (data) in the form of electricity, and the light was taking some of that electricity to run the debugging 'routine'. Thus the data was corrupted when it made it to the pic chip. Information was being used to light a light instead of to make a branching decision.

The lesson here is to separate your debugging from function and not take shortcuts.

It works!

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/boohbah.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/boohbah.html Assistive Technology Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:10:43 +0000 My Neglected Blog Which needs to be moved to WordPress so I will pay attention to it. I'm churning along with the WayMarker project. It went over well in class and now I am concentrating on visualization tools (if I end up getting in). Here are some questions that my data visualization tool can answer:

What was I looking at from 2-3pm last Friday?
Show me all the photos I ever took in Central Park.
Show me photos as a stream, one after another. Play back my life.
Play those same photos backwards, the "Momento" effect.
Show me all the photos from last Wednesday as one large collage.

Dennis had the great idea of making them hot links straight to photos, but that means I need to collect more data.

I got a great reaction, from the class and from the guest panel. Very encouraging.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/my_neglected_bl.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/my_neglected_bl.html Ubiquitous Computing Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:11:42 +0000 10 Ideas for Helping New York Citizens Recycle Powerpoint stack can be found here

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/10_ideas_for_he.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/04/10_ideas_for_he.html User Centered Design Tue, 04 Apr 2006 01:06:31 +0000 Python! After Jurgen's presentation last week on python and the series 60, I borrowed a phone from clay and dove right in. I still don't follow python that well. It's supposed to have a very readable syntax but since i'm used to the unreadable kind reading python doesn't come easily. Either way, i've figured out enough to be dangerous. I've written an app that takes a photo every couple of seconds and uploads it to my pc @ home via FTP. This bypasses any MMS charges. It also posts cellID and tower info to a mySQL database, not sure if that's at all useful and if I can look that up anywhere. Dennis is going to lend me a gps dongle which will give me much more accurate readings.

Next step is to try to attach this to my body, well my clothes anyway. Anna is going to help me out and i'll meet with Despina next week. Good stuff. I think i'm going to apply for Conflux too if I get my idea down.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/python.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/python.html Ubiquitous Computing Wed, 29 Mar 2006 21:40:39 +0000 Insights Presenstation Link

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/insights_presen.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/insights_presen.html User Centered Design Mon, 27 Mar 2006 19:08:07 +0000 Virtools Midterm Ever since break has been over, i've been catching up with my 3D assignments and working on my midterm. I've attached it, though not all of the components, especially the proper camera perspective, were exported.

It's the story of a squid looking for a date. The treasure chests map to realtime craigslist personals. I haven't decided on how this will end.

a link to the lonely squid

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/virtools_midter.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/virtools_midter.html 3D + Visual Spaces Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:46:36 +0000 Chee Yap I went one block over today to the CS department on Mercer street to meet with Chee Yap about the work he has been doing with mapping and GIS. I found him because I was searching around for information on how to import tiger/line data and a lecture from his course showed up in my search results.

This was Jean-Marc's suggestion, try to meet with an interesting person at least once a month. And then write it down.

I'm going to start going to Chee Yap's lecture series and see if there is room for us to work together. I want to use his apis to expose interfaces for end users.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/_chee_yap.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/_chee_yap.html Off Fri, 03 Mar 2006 17:35:49 +0000 Boohbahs Our assistive tech project:

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/boohbahs.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/boohbahs.html Assistive Technology Thu, 02 Mar 2006 02:21:55 +0000 Recycling Notes Two things i've recently learned:

----
one thing: apparently they ship the cardboard box recycling to china for processing. if, once it arrives, it has any food on it, the company actually ships it back to nyc b/c it's actually cheaper than having them dispose of it!

----
One of the really interesting things that we’ve discovered in our research is that the trash collection companies guard their routes as trade secrets, so no ridealongs for us. The mayor’s office is currently trying to help us to get a ridealong for just a few blocks, so that we can see how the carters operate. Will keep you posted.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/recycling_notes.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/03/recycling_notes.html User Centered Design Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:07:36 +0000 UCD Diaries http://homepages.nyu.edu/~mb2811/UCD_Diaries2.ppt

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/ucd_diaries.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/ucd_diaries.html User Centered Design Mon, 27 Feb 2006 23:04:44 +0000 The New TxtSt FlowChart Link for Class

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/the_new_txtst_f.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/the_new_txtst_f.html Ubiquitous Computing Sun, 26 Feb 2006 07:26:46 +0000 Still Working on Tiger/Line Data I posted this to the school list:

Subject: Test My Mobile App! (Sample: 721 broadway m : 11 west 53 st m)

I'm still working out my mobile application but one of the component
gives individuals walking and subway directions in manhattan and the
boroughs. If you need directions in the city, test my app out at the
same time!

The system will give you walking + subway directions in new york. Right
now it does _not_ ignore one ways so it may send you half a block out of
your way. It does takes into account weekend and rush hour subway
schedules. It will not know if the L train is on fire :)

Here's how it works:

1) send a text to subway@txtst.com (txtst is 8-9-87-8, easy to type)

2) format your message like this:
[origin] [first letter of borough] : [destination] [first letter of borough]
(every borough is the first letter of the borough name except the bronx
which is bx)

For example, to get from school to the moma you would do:
721 broadway m : 11 west 53 st m

To get from my old apartment in brooklyn to school:
260 12th st b : 721 broadway m

Easy. You will get anywhere between one and three text messages back
depending on the length of the directions. I try to keep everything
down to one text but if I exceed the 140 character limit I split up the
messages.

Send me an email if you get the wrong directions and i'll fix whatever
is wrong.

Thanks!

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/still_working_o.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/still_working_o.html Ubiquitous Computing Sun, 26 Feb 2006 05:40:03 +0000


Watch out pixar. Or it's slightly inferior competitor, pixaro. Yeah pixaro won't know what hit them.

I haven't posted in a week or so, head down with all my projects and forgetting to document. I got engaged to Miss Wallack, that was last weekend. Should be good.

In 3D I haven't been putting in enough time but when I do get around to it it's pretty fun and gets easier the more you do it. The green guy up there moves around with keyboard commands.

My UbiComp project has sent me down the path of Tiger/Line files, .RT* extensions and Dijkstra's Algorithm. Let's not forget ogr2ogr and postGIS, all things I need to remember how to do later. I have ordered two mapping books and gotten in touch with a comp sci professor here at NYU who may be able to help me. Also feeling out what GIS related things I can do this summer. We shall see.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/post.html http://itp.nyu.edu/~mb2811/archives/2006/02/post.html Wed, 22 Feb 2006 22:42:42 +0000