Scott K. Johnson wrote this excellent article at Ars Technica about some impressive work being done in mapping and modeling environmental data at Lake George. What’s fascinating to me, is seeing people working together so well, on a huge multi-year project that has a potential for great impact. Some things I see as contributing to this project’s success: Cross Functional Teams The […]
Category: Technology
HTML5 vs Native Development
Are you starting a mobile app development project? Maybe you’re worried about the expense of native deployment. Could HTML5 deliver what you need? I’d say the programming language is not the first thing you should think about. There’s something else that needs your attention first. Start with your customers. Take technology out of the equation. Understand the […]
Scrum Timeboxing Is Like Doing 15 Pushups Every Day
To keep on track physically, I do a “minimum daily requirement” routine of exercises. No matter what, I do at least 10-15 minutes every single day. I allow myself to vary the exercises, but I never vary from doing this minimum. This daily goal is in addition to my weekly exercise goals. It keeps my momentum going, and inevitably, when I need to take […]
HTTP/2 For Faster Web Page Loads
HTTP/2 is in the news lately because it’s just been approved as a standard! This is good news because HTTP/2 offers more efficient and potentially more secure ways for your browser and server to send information back and forth. An ultra-simplified explanation of one part of it, multiplexing, is that it allows multiple browser requests to be processed together. So, a slow-loading image […]
Internet of Things In My Garden
Talking to your plants might make them grow better. I haven’t come across the evidence that confirms it. I’m more interested in the day my plants talk to me. Tell me, sweet blueberries, is the pH too high for you in here? Is the sunlight enough or is it too much? Roses, are you thirsty? How are your roots doing? My dear tree, are you […]
Automagically Created Photo Albums
Here’s some very clever research from Disney into making photo albums automatically from all the thousands of photos we shoot. I can imagine this technology being used along with geolocation APIs to create beautiful keepsakes of vacation trips!
Drones Herding Cows!
This is such a cute video. I’m originally from dairy farm country in upstate New York, so I have an affinity for this sort of thing. From the research above, drones seem to be at least as effective as dogs for herding cattle … but clearly out of their league if you’re going for prize […]
Touchable Virtual 3D Objects
This is really far out: a team of researchers at University of Bristol’s Department of Computer Science has demonstrated a way to use ultrasound to create floating shapes that feel real to the touch! They speculate that “The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using […]
Pretty Visualizations From R, Explained
If you’re interested in learning what people go through to create beautiful graphics from basic statistical output, then spatial.ly is a site worth bookmarking. This post, Improving R Data Visualisations Through Design, is especially worth reading. It has a handful of well-explained examples from geographer Dr. James Cheshire’s new book, London: The Information Capital. I haven’t worked with R, but data visualisation is dear to my heart. In a former […]
Art That Humanizes Data
This is just the coolest thing that I’ve seen in a long time: COSMOS is a spherical wooden sculpture that was created from data collected in the forest where it’s installed. Check it out.