Tech.js

I'm secretly Barney

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:08:11 -0400

And I mean Barney The Dinosaur.
Hugs make everything better and now I hug everyone all the time and I used to freak out when people touch me.

You make my heart ache

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:45:26 -0400

And my body quiver.

My apologies

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:30:00 -0400

Due to issues with the Tumblr Android app, a lot of personal posts ended up here. I am sorry and i will try to regularly update with tech related news.

RSS is dead. Long live Prismatic.

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:20:00 -0400

With the impending demise of Google Reader, i urge everyone to start using something like Prismatic, and not another RSS reader.

British scientists use man-made DNA speck to store 739kB of digital data

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:17:36 -0500

British scientists use man-made DNA speck to store 739kB of digital data:

Agence France-Presse:

The study reported that the institute’s team had stored all 154 Shakespeare sonnets, a photo, a PDF of a scientific paper, and a 26-second sound clip from US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr’s “I Have a Dream” speech in a barely visible bit of DNA in a test tube.

Canonical unveils Ubuntu Phone OS

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:06:26 -0500

Canonical unveils Ubuntu Phone OS

"Organizing principles work as calls to action, as frames of reference, of sources of inspiration...."

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:48:39 -0500

“Organizing principles work as calls to action, as frames of reference, of sources of inspiration. The organizing principle of “mobile first, web second” has inspired a wave of mobile applications; but “context first” is the type of organizing principle that will lead to truly disruptive web services. People first. User first. Context first.”

- “Context First” by Taylor Davidson

(cc Fred, Vibhu, Andrew)

Google Now and the predictive future of search by TheVerge The...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:23:23 -0500

Google Now and the predictive future of search by TheVerge

The Verge interviews the engineering team behind Google Now on Android to find out what’s next for the innovative search feature. Google executives Hugo Barra, Scott Huffman, Jeff Dean, and Vincent Vanhoucke tell the story behind how Google Now came into being and why it represents the best of Google.

Dear Google, please force developers to follow Android Design Guidelines

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:28:16 -0500

Dear Google, please force developers to follow Android Design Guidelines:

finitepost:

There have been lots of blog posts, articles in the news and discussions on why apps look so much better on iOS than they do on Android. The problem with these articles is that they go straight to the software and blame it, they simply say “because iOS is better”, I believe this is not the case. Android is not the problem, Android developers are the cause, they think just because it is easy to publish on the Play Store and make money they don’t have to care about how their apps look. They simply throw on some shitty design they do in about an hour or two and say that’s fine, let’s make my self rich.

Read the whole article at the link.

thisistheverge: Offline: How do you look at porn? Going offline...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:23:05 -0500

thisistheverge:

Offline: How do you look at porn?

Going offline helped me kick the habit. But my body wasn’t quite ready to let go

Porn in an online/tech savvy society.

Making responsive websites is one thing, making boring websites is another.

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:20:14 -0500

Making responsive websites is one thing, making boring websites is another.

My 2-year old daughter and the iPad mini! by Vincent Nguyen from...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 23:51:26 -0400

My 2-year old daughter and the iPad mini!

by Vincent Nguyen from SlashGear

The Windows metaphor still applies.

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:16:39 -0400

There is a lot of commentary on whether Windows 8 should not be called Windows anymore, because there are no more “windows”, as in app that open in windows. But just as in architecture, the windows look different nowadays, so do the new windows in the operating system. They can still be windows if you think of them as modern styled, like some Apple Stores.

thisistheverge: What is a nerd? Adi Robertson considers the...

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:38:26 -0400

thisistheverge:

What is a nerd?

Adi Robertson considers the “nerd.”

The last few weeks have been awash in nerds and geeks. ChipChick published a guide to dating a geek girl, while CNN decried “wannabe models” pretending to be nerds. Before that came the shootings in Aurora, where media described killer James Holmes as a science-loving geek or a “dark Trekkie-like person.” While these pieces have generated thoughtful responses across the web, eventually they run into the same problem: defining what “nerd” and “geek” are actually supposed to mean.

If you want to cut to the bare minimum, there’s a Venn diagram, with “nerd” being the combination of intelligence, obsession, and social ineptitude — in case you were wondering, “geek” involves only the first two attributes. But despite the existence of niche interests like those showcased on the 56 Geeks chart, you’re most likely to see the term used around a certain nexus of activities: comics, video games, science fiction, and programming or hacking. If you’re interested in one of those things, you’ll likely be introduced to the rest; I started out as a kid reading Poul Anderson, and by midway through college, I’d been sucked into a vortex of manga, shooters, and IT support.

Show your support for deviantART’s application to manage...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:36:10 -0400

Show your support for deviantART’s application to manage the .ART Top Level Domain!

Unboxing the Nexus 7 is fun by Jean-Louis Nguyen For many, the...

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:18:51 -0400

Unboxing the Nexus 7 is fun by Jean-Louis Nguyen

For many, the most satisfying part of trying a brand new gadget is unboxing it. The Nexus 7 is no exception: the sturdy box and high-grade tape definitely make it playful - perhaps too challenging! Watching these videos on YouTube made me smile, so I decided to put them together; shake-n-bake included. Hope it makes you smile too. :-) This is all in good humor.

Live demo of Project Glass at Google I/O

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 01:26:41 -0400

Live demo of Project Glass at Google I/O

Google should have Matias Duarte in charge of designing all their products' UI

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 23:44:46 -0400

Matias Duarte is a fairly known name in Silicon Valley and most of the tech industry. He is responsible for the user experience and interface design of the Sidekick, Helio, webOS, and now Android (since version 4.0). All of the above previous engagements have been either successful for a short period of time or not at all, but when he came to work for Google he changed everything for Android. After all, he is the inventor of the “cards” interface vastly used today for multitasking.

I am somewhat familiar with his work, since i use a Palm Pixi Plus and i have fiddled with his other projects. And truthfully, I am very excited to see him work for Google, and his work with Android is incredible.This man took Android at complete changed it. He turned around the mess of that interface and cleaned up everything. He made new icons, he standardized animations and transitions and gestures, he unified the experience, he made it coherent, and most importantly, user friendly. It doesn’t rely on anyone else to prettify it for the public; it is better than any other Android skin out there. Some people could even say it saved it.

But Android hasn’t been the only Google product to receive a redesign in the past year. Nearly all of it’s products received a new identity and a new look. but it wasn’t led by Matias Duarte. And it only makes me wonder why. I just had the opportunity to use a Galaxy Nexus (albeit for a short period of time) and it was beautiful. It was amazing. And it made me realize: “What if Matias Duarte redesigned the entire Google experience?”

Giving a man like Matias Duarte the task of designing Google would completely redefine the company, with a unified experience across all platforms including the web. it is likely to attract far more users and invite people to “go Google” (i know i will). He may be a mobile interface designer by large, but this may open up his range and will likely be an incredible project for both him and Google. It is an option worth exploring and i really hope he or anyone else at Google reads this and agrees

Fingers crosses.

Boarding the Metro

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:17:05 -0400

“Metro is our design language. We call it Metro because it’s modern and clean. It’s fast and in motion. It’s about content and typography. And it’s entirely authentic.”

These are Microsoft’s words to describe their new user interfaces across their products. We had seen glimpses of it in Zune software, but it made it’s formal debut with Windows Phone 7, and now they plan to take it across all their current and future products to create a unified experience. And I love it.

Metro truly encompasses the future. I love that it is fresh and different; it’s unique vision of technology and interactivity with the user is phenomenal. I even sometimes find it breathtaking. Many companies have made their tries in creating engaging user experiences and interfaces, and even though they are well executed, like the iPhone and the iPad, I find that they are going in the wrong direction.

Take iOS for example. The entire UI, while revolutionary, bases itself in an undying nostalgia in the user, their longing for a natural way to interact with computers. Their Address Book app, or the Calendar, they try to imitate the look of a notebook, and a wall calendar. And they are wrong. They are not. It is a screen the user is talking to. And by trying to cover that, they are missing on some truly unique opportunities for some truly unbelievable opporunities only possible with technology today. Microsoft on the contrary has truly embraced this.

Another thing to note about Metro is how it makes a company feel like it really is in control. Like they know what they are doing. That reassures the user and makes them feel confident about purchasing and using their product. If a company like Google pushes out a product, most likely it has a rather different UI than the product that was announced a week before it. Prior to a few weeks ago with the launch of Google+, no more than two Google services looked alike. And icons look different for the same application if you access it somewhere else. You will not see the same Maps icon twice.

Now that Microsoft has fully embraced Metro in all its products, i can honestly sa Metro is the future. And it excites me.

The New IFTTT

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:41:00 -0400

The New IFTTT:

IFTTThas been hard at work over the past few months. Today a new update has been announced with a new logo, new look, new language, new Channels, and faster Triggers. Check the link for details of all the new features.