J . M A I L

The Last Blogger Standing

Hi friends, where are all your blog posts? What is up in your lives? I miss reading about everyone and facebook just doesn’t cut it. Share share share :)

About me: My recent trip to Toronto was amazing. Felt longer than 8 days which is just what I wanted. I did so many different things and got a lot of relaxing time in. I saw so many people I wanted to see, some people I didn’t expect I would get to see, and maybe even made a new friend or two. Thanks to everyone that make my trip awesome. A special shout out to Marlow and Joe who provided much needed crash space. Also thanks to Mrs. Varden for an awesome final Ontario meal and airplane food :)

Now that I am back in Calgary things should be getting hectic although I am not too worried. I am doing two courses this fall: Design Studio I and Information Visualization. I will also be TAing. In October I go to Salt Lake City for Visweek, but before then I have to finish my poster. At the end of Sept is the CHI deadline which might also be a bit nutty.

After all the comments I got about being fat back home I have decided to cut a bit of weight. I weighed in at 180 pounds a couple of days ago and am gonna try to get down to around 165 before bulking again through the winter.

I am super excited about a condo that I am seeing today in Kensington. I hope it all works out and that I soon have a new place to live. Then I can worry about what to fill the place with. I want to go minimal with a lot of empty space. If anyone has good suggestions for unique furniture let me know. I am thinking an interesting coffee table will be key. If the condo is a go I will make another post with the layout to hopefully get feedback about interior design.

As for other stuff… I am hoping to get back into yoga, maybe play some hack while the weather is still good, and hopefully get into a more normal schedule where  wake up early and don’t end up going to bed at 3-4 am everyday. As lame as it is I am also really excited about fall TV i.e., It’s Always Sunny, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Californication, 30 Rock, South Park, The Big Bang Theory.

The only new interest for me lately is architecture after watching a documentary about the ROM crystal and one about Frank Gehry. The advice given that if one meets an architect at a party one should punch them in the face is interesting. Does 99 % of architecture really suck?

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Art Interactivity

I have been thinking about an exhibit lately focusing on touch interactivity, audio prompts, and visual reveals.

The idea is pretty simple, a show case of different interaction metaphors which each reveal a visual piece of art or info-graphic. Leveraging iPads as the interaction canvases different interaction methods would reveal related work.

For example…

A pair of headphones is attached to one of the screen mounted on the gallery wall. When a person places the head phones on they hear the beating of a human heart. At first all that would be seen on the display would be the icon of a heart and a red circle. When a person taps inside the circle in time to the heard beat on the audio track the circle would slowly turn green indicating progress of the interaction (red - green traffic light progression). After a set number of correct taps in the right rhythm an info-graphic would be revealed above the interaction space of the canvas.

This sort of piece would invite the audience to play with the piece, discover the interaction naturally through visual feed back and transition an audio cue, to a touch interaction, and ultimately to visual reveal/reward. Such a piece would also invite other on lookers to observe the participant using the piece and study the interaction required to “unlock” the work.

Other such interactions could include having one hand of the participant move one touch point up and down and one touch point left to right using the other hand of the participant to reveal the work.

E.G.

I envision maybe 5 - 6 different interaction metaphors making up the exhibit, each interaction inviting trial and error, playfulness, observation, and discovery.

Let me know what you guys/girls think of this and if you might like to be involved. If you think this is just crazy let me know that to. :)

This was supposed to be the future …

I have been obsessed with laptops lately. Every time I think I have found the new best thing I soon discover some fault and find something better. This chain of compulsion and discovery has resulted in some ideas regarding almost every computer company out there.

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I have specifically been  obsessed with sub-notebooks and thin laptops. I compare everything I see to my current setup:

Gateway 11.6 ” / Intel SU3500 single core 1.4 cpu / 3 gigs ram / 80 gig intel ssd / 3 pounds / less than 1 inch thick / 5:30 battery life

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I think at this point I have explored many options leaving me with some constraints.

Constraint # 1 - Screen less than 13 ” in size. Past 13” I feel the the base size of the laptop is too large. 11 ” - 12.1” is preferred.

Constraint #2 - Good keyboard. Preferably 100 % of full size. Typically any laptop 11.6” or bigger will have a full sized screen.

Constraint #3 - Thinner than my current machine.

Constraint #4 - Equal or better battery life than my current machine.

Constraint #5 - The lighter the better. (current machine is 3 pounds)

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That said, here are the options from the various pc makers out there.

Asus

• Asus EEE laptop line (atom cpus)
• Asus U20A

3 pounds - The problem here is that none of the computers they make are really smaller than my current machine. Same size / same weight = Taking a pass

(side note: the 13” inch asus with a reported 12 hours of battery life is a very nice and interesting machine)

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Acer

• Aspire One
• Timeline X (1830T)

Again none of these units are smaller or lighter than my current unit which is not surprising as my current laptop is pretty much an 1810t. The new timeline x is really fast with a low voltage i3 cpu but for what I do (web/office) not worth the price of $650.

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Dell

• Adamo XPS

3 pounds - Too pricey! Funky design, that I think would be awkward to use while laying on a couch with the laptop actually on my lap. The extreme thinness (the worlds thinnest) is offset by the larger base size produced by making a longer and thinner laptop (they basically stretched out this machine). Battery life is also pretty poor. No vga out is a bummer.

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Apple

The mac book air is meh.

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Toshiba

Portégé A600

2.4 pounds ! Fast 9400 intel dual core low voltage cpu.

Sadly, with a price tag of $1600 its hard to justify over my current machine just to save 1 pound.

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Sony

• Vaio X

Then there is the vaio x. The world’s second thinnest machine. Just taller than the vga port as you can see above. The world’s lightest laptop at 1.5 pounds.

Sadly this comes at a price… $1300 and an Atom cpu. Now, this is the fastest atom cpu ever released at 2.0 ghz but it is still an atom.

The keyboard is also only 90 % of full size. The larger battery for it gives this unit 10 plus hours but then makes the laptop almost 2.5 pounds and makes it thicker. A smaller battery is available that makes this unit only 2 pounds but gives it 5/6 hours of battery time. This laptop also has the smallest screen at 11.1”

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I left out a bunch of cheaper atom machines from different companies but they are all pretty much the same.

I feel that my current machine has just enough cpu power for what I do and going lower seems risky (ala atom cpu). Also, most laptops also don’t provide much better battery life than I current have. It is proving really hard to justify replacing my year old $450 dollar gateway laptop.

As it stands now, I am watching ebay for a deal on the vaio x but a $1000 dollar netbook is still just a netbook even if it is the lighest and one of the thinnest laptops ever created. If anything the vaio x is more of a status symbol then anything.

Hopefully this info was interesting and useful to some other people out there. Thoughts and comments are welcome as always.

Acer 1830T First Benchmarks

Battery life via windows (everything at default)…

Internals of the 1830t.

My old computer benches at (Core2 Solo U35000 @ 1.40 ghz / 3 gigs of ram / mobile intel 4 series express):

But check out the 1830t:

Check out how the ssd in the old computer crushes the new one.

The cpu score with the i3 is over double that of an su3500.

Faster memory. Better graphics. Am I sold? I don’t know yet.