Month: March 2006

I originally intended just to point out this interesting post about the success of “ugly” design, arguing that unattractive sites such as del.icio.us are successful because the lack of design communicates to the user a lack of marketing or corporate influence. But then I found a response to the conversation that I liked even more: disambiguity’s separating of information/interaction design from visual design. And, having just talked to one of my classes about the distinction between logical versus physical tags and why one might use one over the other, I liked seeing the point made that a site with good … Continue reading Two Faces of Design

The ACM technology policy weblog has a nice summary of and response to H.R. 4127 regarding stronger data security requirements for businesses. The highlights include requiring data security plans and notification if security is breached. But be sure to scan down for their discussion of the exemption from notification if the compromised data is encrypted, and why this is a dangerous loophole. It reminds me of a recent experience talking about security principles to a general audience – one of the hardest concepts to get them to accept was the idea that redundant or layered security is necessary, and single … Continue reading Data Security Legislation

A recent article discusses the goal of building AI that anticipates user desires, opening with the following teaser: MANY viewers were probably impressed when a character on Star Trek asked a computer for a cup of tea and it was produced immediately. Not Kristian Hammond. “I wondered why he had to ask,” says Hammond, co-director of America’s Northwestern University intelligent information computer lab. “A truly intelligent machine would anticipate that its operator wanted tea.” If you read the rest of the article, you see that their actual project is a bit more sensible in scope, looking at how AI can … Continue reading But what kind of tea…..

Like Google Earth, but with fewer roads so far (though, you can check up on the locations of Spirit and Opportunity): Google Mars! Check out both an elevation-shaded and an actual image at an impressive range of zooms. At this point only covers a limited chunk of the western hemisphere. They hope to tie it into the Google Earth client in the future to allow fly-throughs and such.