Andy Kaiser gives two thumbs up to new Motorola Droid | Digital Bits 10/31/2009
Posted by thaadsma in broadband, design, mobile web, multimedia, social web, user interfaces, web, web services.add a comment
Andy Kaiser and I and a few more of us at i3 Business Solutions have been patiently waiting for the first smartphone based on the Google “Android” platform to hit the streets, and compete head-on with Apple’s excellent iPhone.
Andy likes the iPhone. Andy really likes the new Droid from Motorola.
Read his excellent review written at his Digital Bits technology column. Here’s an excerpt:
“The Droid is an excellent phone. Google, Motorola and Verizon really knocked this one out of the park. I don’t even like baseball, and I’m using a baseball euphemism. That’s how impressed I am.
As of this writing, you can visit “DroidDoes”, Verizon’s promotional site for the Droid. The site starts you off with a few blurbs about all the things the Droid does that the iPhone can’t do or doesn’t have like having a removable battery, physical keyboard, multitasking, and open app store, etc. To my knowledge, this is the first cellphone that has had the guts to directly criticize the mighty Apple iPhone.
It can criticize Apple all it wants. The Droid holds its own. Easily.”
Find out why Andy likes this phone so much, as he fully describes its features and capabilities at his website AndyBrain.com.
Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records | The Healthcare IT Guy 09/10/2009
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We work with an increasing number of physician practices in Michigan, and a few have EMR systems. But most don’t– yet.
This article by a physician challenges EMR vendors to make their software products better before EMR goes mainstream. From Dr. Bill Cast:
“Physicians know that better exists. They have experienced Google, Amazon and e-Bay. Game lovers know that Electronic Arts’ “Tiberium,” now 15 years old, exceeds the capabilities of their professional health care software. They know from Yahoo and MSN the value of configuring a home page suited to delivering niche-information of their own preference. They know from using Word and Word Perfect that they can create precision documents merely by tweaking a template. They know they can use voice commands to make a phone call on their Blackberry. They know that they can find drug information more easily on Google than proprietary software. They suspect that if their EHRs and EMRs had physician-specific home page functionality, that they could drop and drag orders, answer FAQs, dictate letters, and save time with templates with many fewer clicks. Ordering medications should be as safe and uncomplicated as using E*Trade.
Today most EHRs and EMRs are invasive both to workflow and finances. While high cost is a significant barrier to physician adoption, workflow disruption remains the killer deterrent.”
via Guest Article: Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records | The Healthcare IT Guy.
Microsoft 2019 scenario: everything I want except the flying car | The Industry Standard 03/04/2009
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Now this is more like it!
The five punchy two-minute video excerpt says a lot about where we are going:
“The super-slim and easy-to-use handheld gadgets and wall-sized transparent displays handled by the video’s shoppers, students and office workers make Tom Cruise’s setup in Minority Report seem obsolete. More important than whizzy interfaces, the videos promise much more extensive collaboration, instant information retrieval, and multimedia communication.”
via Microsoft’s 2019 scenario has everything but Windows | The Industry Standard.
NOTE: The original five-minute version (much higher quality) can be viewed at Microsoft Office Labs.
Take Back Control of Your Critical Business Data | Ventana Research 02/17/2009
Posted by msansoterra in development, microsoft, user interfaces, web.Tags: applications, Business, errors, Excel, harm, problems, Productivity, spreadsheets, warning
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For years industry experts have been warning the business community about the harm of overusing spreadsheets. The sentiments recently expressed by Ventana research echo our own experience: too many users are using spreadsheets as an all purpose database/logic/reporting tool instead of simply a reporting or analysis tool:
“…our benchmark research shows spreadsheets are now being seriously misused in ways that severely hamper the productivity and performance of corporations. It’s time you seriously rethink how your organization uses spreadsheets.
“Our research confirms desktop spreadsheets pose serious productivity issues. Half find dealing with spreadsheet problems consumes a noticeable amount of time. Errors are a problem: just under half find major errors in data and formulas in their most important spreadsheets. These errors pose financial and reputational risk because most people only check selected cells. Dealing with errors is time consuming and just over half find the spreadsheets they receive are not as timely as they should be. More than half find resolving spreadsheet errors delays business processes and 42% find out-of-date information in their spreadsheets frequently or all the time. Just over half find rolling up spreadsheets is usually or always time consuming. Yet, users are in denial, since only a handful think spreadsheets pose a productivity issue.”
via Fix Your Spreadsheet Problem – Priority #10 for 2009.
Who in I.T. hasn’t run into the unwieldy Microsoft Excel workbook that has too many worksheets and too many external links? The problem for many is that these overblown spreadsheets become gospel in their respective departments which in turn causes users to rely on them instead of the central business systems. I cringe when I question a user about a piece of information and they open an ugly spreadsheet for their answer (instead of going to the business application software where the information belongs.)
Users who are overusing spreadsheet tools are probably living dangerously. In these cases, it’s time to move away from the spreadsheet in favor of an application that can do the job right without the associated risks mentioned by Ventana. The application should validate the data (to prevent garbage in, garbage out), prevent duplicate data, apply business rules to the data and report current information. Once the data is stored properly within an application spreadsheet users can still feel free to export the base data to do their analysis and reporting. Further, it should be understood by the user community that the data in these spreadsheets are not the final authority — the business applications are.
Google mapping spec now an industry standard | CNET News.com 04/14/2008
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Google mapping spec now an industry standard | Tech news blog – CNET News.com
“”What OGC brings to the table is…everyone has confidence we won’t take advantage of the format or change it in a way that will harm anyone,” said Michael Weiss-Malik, Google’s KML product manager. “The goal is to prevent market fragmentation,” in which different technology uses different standards. “
Real-Time Events in Three Dimensions… at last? | MC Press Online 02/25/2008
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Software That Depicts Real-Time Events in Three Dimensions May Offer Distinct Advantages |
MC Press Online
After years–decades!– of fits and starts, the latest 3D technologies coming to market offer real promise for real-world applications. Look for more information at this blog in the coming months as we focus on 3D technologies for market leaders.
One lively post to read right now at MC Press Online (HT to Mike Sansoterra):
“For some reason, which may date back to the Spanish Inquisition and threats of expressing our deeper beliefs, we have told ourselves that two-dimensional images are just fine and, if we could just see them in color, or just see them a little sharper, then we would feel quite happy-perhaps even blessed. Well, as the has-been news anchor Howard Beale says in the 1976 movie Network (directed by Sidney Lumet), “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Two-dimensional imagery simply isn’t good enough! I want my 3-D! “
New Scientist | ‘Minority Report’ interface 04/16/2005
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New Scientist Breaking News – ‘Minority Report’ interface created for US military: “A computer interface inspired by the futuristic system portrayed in the movie Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, could soon help real military personnel deal with information overload.
The film sees characters call up and manipulate video footage and other data in mid-air after donning a special pair of gloves. Now defence company Raytheon, based in Massachusetts, US, is working on a real version and has even employed John Underkoffler, the researcher who proposed the interface to the makers of the film.”
total immersion (drawing digital 3d images in realtime) 03/06/2005
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3D displays help researchers dig into earth scienc… 03/05/2005
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3D displays help researchers dig into earth science | CNET News.com: “‘I was working with a cave at the University of Michigan,’ Morin said, referring to an elaborate and expensive room-sized three-dimensional display system. ‘And it was cheaper to fly me to the cave from Minneapolis than it was to build one ourselves.’”
Watch the video and believe… even if they are French 02/06/2005
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Watch the video and believe… even if they are French:
ACM: Ubiquity | Czerwinski on Vizualization 02/02/2005
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ACM: Ubiquity | Czerwinski on Vizualization: ” I’ve always been interested in lots of different problems. The one thing I will say has remained a consistent and solid research interest has been research on attention, multitasking and task switching. I’ve studied that since my earliest days on my dissertation. But when I met George Robertson, a 3-D and information visualization expert, he took me into a world where spatial cognition was really important, as were many perceptual cues. And I really had to learn the literature in depth in that area and come up to speed and become an expert myself to help him as he created these fabulous designs “
news@nature.com | Celebrity shots probe face recogognition 12/14/2004
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news@nature.com | Celebrity shots probe face recognition:
“Neuroscientists already know that certain spots in the brain play a vital role for recognizing a familiar face, even as it changes with age or a new hairstyle. But they have not been clear precisely what each area does.”
Slashdot | 3D User Interfaces 12/13/2004
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Slashdot | 3D User Interfaces:
“This book contains a lot of information and is probably the most comprehensive book on 3D user interfaces I have seen to date. Pretty much every aspect of 3D UIs is covered in the book somewhere, with some topics being covered in more detail than others. If you’re not familiar with 3D UIs at all, this book gives you an excellent introduction to this active field of research. “
XEngine – The Platform- and API-Independent 3D Eng… 12/13/2004
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XEngine – The Platform- and API-Independent 3D Engine:
“XEngine is a platform- and rendering-API-independent 3D engine for real-time visualization with support for programmable graphics pipeline architectures and is implemented in C . The engine aims at flexible support for many of the shading languages available today, so that existing shaders can easily be re-used. This includes current assembler-like languages as well as high-level languages, such as NVIDIA’s Cg. In addition, integration of new shading languages should be easily possible with the engine’s design.”
The PVRBlog Interview: Ten Questions with TiVo’s D… 12/12/2004
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“Margret was kind enough to answer ten questions about how TiVo’s UI was originally developed, how new features are added, and how the sound UI came to be, among others. I’m grateful for TiVo and Margret taking the time to do this, so without further adieu, here’s the interview:”
BBC NEWS | Magazine | How your face could open doo… 11/28/2004
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BBC NEWS | Magazine | How your face could open doors:
“As companies become more security conscious, the process of having our faces scanned is set to become more commonplace. And new technology which can produce this in a more accurate 3D form could accelerate this trend.”
TheFeature :: The Eyes Have It 10/28/2004
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TheFeature :: The Eyes Have It:
“On first glance, the virtual retinal display (VRD) developed at the University of Washington’s Human Interface Technology Laboratory resembles a traditional heads-up display, a tiny monitor mounted just inches from your eyeball. In fact, earlier this month Mitsubishi announced an inexpensive heads-up display called SCOPO. What makes the VRD so unique is that there is no screen. The device literally paints a video image onto your eyeball with a laser beam. The picture is crisper and brighter than any competing heads-up display and doesn’t guzzle power like postage-stamp LCD or LED screens.”
PhysOrg: SCOPO | Wearable LCD Display 10/16/2004
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PhysOrg: SCOPO } Wearable LCD Display: “Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, one of the world leaders in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment, is going to introduce next year a headset with a small liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen. Called the SCOPO, this prototype compact wearable display is designed for users who need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.”
John Battelle’s Searchblog | Google’s Web 2 Demo and the UI Plunge 10/13/2004
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John Battelle’s Searchblog | Google’s Web 2 Demo and the UI Plunge:
“This has potentially interesting implications in next-generation ranking methodologies, for one, but combined with clustering, it signals that Google is serious about taking what one might call the UI plunge.
What do I mean by that? Well, of all the major engines, only Google has strictly maintained what might be called the C prompt interface to search: put in yer command, get out yer list of results (Google Local is a departure, but it’s still in beta). Yahoo, Ask, A9 and others have begun to twiddle in pretty significant ways with evolved interfaces which – by employing your search history, your personal data, clustering, and other tricks – deliver more filtered and intentional results (though it is still arguable if they are more relevant). I sense it’s only a matter of time before Google takes this approach as well, and Norvig’s demo certainly points that way. After all, it’s not that often Google decides to give us a glimpse behind the curtain, and coupled with Google Board member John Doerr’s semi-announcement the day before (he told the audience that Google would become ‘the Google that knows you’) I think the UI plunge might come sooner than we all expect”
