Entering The Wonderful World of Geo Location – Smashing Magazine

why is it important to consider physical location on this planet (at this moment) when we develop Web products? There are a few answers to this.<br />
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The first answer is mobility. The days of people sitting in front of desktop machines at home are over. Sales of mobile devices, laptops and netbooks have overtaken those of bulky stationary computers in the last few years. The power of processors now allows us to use smaller, more mobile hardware to perform the same tasks. So, if people use their hardware on the go, we should bring our systems to them. Which brings us to the second—very important—point: relevance.

Tagged with: geolocation • javascript • webdev • code • tutorial • locational • functionality •

The Blood-Red Pencil: Building Character

Fiction tips on building well-rounded characters.

Tagged with: writing • fiction • character • development • narrative • plot •

How Conceptual Metaphors are Stunting Web Innovation

"Central to all these programs of metaphor re-engineering is a recognition that the hyperlink is the basic building block of the web. Our conceptualization of the web still does not truly reflect its non-sequential, branching texture, created by hyperlinks.<br />
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We still haven’t truly understood that click and link are as fundamental today as read and write.<br />
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All in all, throwing off that burden is an immensely difficult task. It is much easier to create technology that conforms to dominant metaphors. What we need to do as we enter the third decade of the web, however, is consider what we want the web to be rather than awkwardly fitting that vision into older descriptive paradigms."

Tagged with: cyberspace • metaphor • conceptual • design • interface • language • technology •

Creating a Layar layer: a step by step tutorial

Alarmingly simple. As Chairman Bruce pointed out, this demystifies AR as a technology, as a method; that demystification emphasises the potentially massive social impact of this stuff becoming as ubiquitous and entry-level as running a CMS-based website.

Tagged with: AR • augmented-reality • Layar • tutorial • Android •

Free will is an illusion, biologist says

"Today, as researchers gain a better understanding of the molecular details underlying consciousness, some people think that we may discover a molecular mechanism responsible for free will – but Cashmore doesn’t think so. Such a discovery, he says, would require a new physical law that breaks the causal laws of nature. As it is, the only “wild card” that allows any room for maneuvering outside of genetics and one’s environment is the inherent uncertainty of the physical properties of matter, and even this stochastic element is beyond our conscious control. (However, it can help explain why identical twins growing up in the same environment are unique individuals.)"

Tagged with: biology • cognition • consciousness • ethics • free-will • philosophy • science • neuroscience •

Writing a Great Ending

"These thoughts are about the pursuit of more than a workable or adequate ending. Most professionally published fiction has at least a workable or adequate ending, but I'm interested in endings that seem to transcend the adequate. I'm interested in those endings that set me ashiver and make me want to go right back to the beginning and reread the story. I think those are the kind of endings that a writer aspires to write, even if just the adequate are beyond reach." Jim Van Pelt.

Tagged with: fiction • writing • short-story • endings •

The Post-Punk Pendulum, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Labels

"Clearly none of this really matters, especially if you’re like me and you prefer to take bands on a case-by-case basis. I can’t say definitively I like post-punk music, because there are bands I love who might meet the specifications, and there are also bands I don’t.<br />
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Where labeling music comes in handy is in drawing comparisons, especially in the digital age when it’s far simpler to discover whether you’re really going to enjoy something before actually spending your money on it. Artists frequently stream entire albums in advance of their official drop date, and even after it’s out, one can always sample bits and pieces on file-sharing services like iTunes. And, let’s face it, there’s a whole lot of grey area stuff happening out there, too. Music leaks like the bathroom sink in two consecutive Manhattan apartments a friend of mine has lived in."

Tagged with: music • genres • labels • definitions • criticism • utility • subculture • science-fiction •