Busy with Podcast Hotel
It’s actually pretty embarrassing for me to admit this, but I really haven’t been writing anything on my blog.
Obviously it’s all links from my delicious. I wish I have time to write about each and every one of them because they are really inspiring sites. Let me do a point form here about some random thoughts:
- headshift seems like a really cool company based in London. They talk about social web but yet if you search for web 2.0 there are only 2 results. What does that mean to you?
I like the fact the company does some interesting research projects. The way headshift approaches social web/social software just seems like they actually do care. Browse through their projects and maybe you’ll understand what I am talking about.I know about headshift because of bru, who I met briefly when I was in London.
I sent him/headshift some Podcast Hotel goodies to spread some pink >
Happy upcoming birthday by the way bru :) - I stumbled across neurofuzzy. There are some interesting concept regarding the whole movement of social web and information architecture. It’s nothing new, but treemap has always intrigued me as a different way of delivering information
- It’s actually pretty easy to tell what I’ve been working on just by the bookmarks I make. They are mostly for research purpose. Yes I work on CMS and yes I do information architecture and yes I am a dork. I found alahup, which claims to be the next generation CMS. From the video teaser I cannot actually know the ease of use, but I am pretty sure it’s ajax packed. The Semantic Editing looks interesting though. Could be an alternative for rich text editor.
I have been watching mooflex very closely in the last couple months. It’s another ajax packed CMS. I personally just like to check out CMS and see how people are innovating the ways of organizing information as well as the whole interactivity that goes on with the users. The company, mad for milk has a really nice ajax fx library. I’ve seen it being used in some wordpress plugins. It’s light and useful. I like companies who develop things and give them out for free. In the end, everything feeds back to the people, for the people. - I was like “WOW” and almost spilled my red bull when I saw meebo. There were some dicussion about having web desktop instead of just web app before. Meebo would fit into the same line. It allows you to sign onto all your IM clients online. I like it. It’s an interesting concept. It’s developed by bunch of well educated people it seems. (dropping the yale and stanford bombs). Of course, Windows Live has its own live messenger Ya and do you know that the live messenger’s url is http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=0eccd94b-eb48-497c-8e60-c6313f7ebb73. good job on that…. Fill the page up with ajax and try to connect the online identity into one, but still can’t give users a friendly url? That bugs me a little. I think mint would be a really good example of using the technology in a smart way in terms of delivering information. It’s about the value and the application of the technology, not so much about the execution.
- With all the ajax eating up the web, I wonder how many people are actually using it to improve usability and to deliver information to users faster. Maybe it’s still at a phase where people are testing out the technology, and trying new things. I wonder how easy it is for people to use a fully ajaxed up site without getting confused. Let’s attack Windows Live again. It’s all cool when you mouseover and find out cool feature. But really, in my humble opinion, there are too much happening and it’s distracting. If my mom were to use this I bet she can’t find half of the stuff she’s looking for. (and I shall run a test with my mom and see what the result is.) I am still a big supporter for all the developments google has been doing. They are utilizing the technology, not just “using” it. It’s almost standard now for EVERYTHING to be ajax eh? (sorry for my Canadian “eh”.) There’s ajaxWhois. Usability is a little awkward. I really wish that companies are using technology to make people’s life better and easier. Being able to connect people with technology, being able to connect people to technology would be my ideology.
- I am getting busy with Podcast on the Floor, which is just like Podcast Hotel but this time we are doing it on the trade show floor of Innotech. I expect it to be an interesting event, and of course, we’ll have lots of fun there. (and yes, don’t even try looking at podcast on the floor in your window IE. It’s broken in IE and I am too busy right now to fix it. It will be fixed though. I promise.)
- It’s interesting that I spend so much time making/maintaining other sites but my own. I remember distinctly telling myself that I should slow down a little and give more time to myself. However, it just seems that my personal time is becoming less and less everyday. Stressful at times but most of the times I enjoy it. I am at a decently happy place in my life right now. It’s exciting to anticipate the future. I am going to get my hands dirty with Ruby on Rails, most likely. Going to play with Sparklines. I just think it’d be fun.
Hey I talk a lot about ajax. Well, I think it’s more like I talk a lot about technology changes. It’s the theory behind things that intrigues me, habit of interaction design background.
What if one day everything is so intertwined and mashed up, information will no longer mean anything because all the layers of technology over it, that would be ironic. What we try to achieve, in the end, turns out to be the total opposite. The sadness of meaningless technology development, oh how it breaks my heart.
