Dirgahayu RI ke 65
(Sorry, the author didn’t write this post in English. Try translation service instead.)
Dirgahayu Republik Indonesia yang ke 65. Semoga terus berjaya, maju, dan aman. Amin..
Published articles related to My Days:
Aviary
There were plenty of web-based graphic editor/manipulation sprouting a couple of years ago. The choice was pretty much limited to a few web applications offering free account with adequate image editing. Things developed rapidly and what seemed cool on a particular moment could be quickly transformed to the thing of yesterday.
Enter Aviary, a web application suite offering integrated image manipulation, color scheme composer, vector editing, and more. Comparably capable–if not more–than most web-based applications for image editing, Aviary is growing rapidly and gaining popularity. It beats desktop application like Adobe and Corel in terms of portability and availability, allowing its user to save the files at Aviary’s server and work on them from any computer with modern web browser.
Check out this video for a quick intro to Aviary. Better yet, try Aviary yourself!
What’s in my bag?
I stumbled upon this interesting project of “what’s in my bag?” where random people around the world take a snapshot of their bag contents and collate it in a slideshow. Interesting!
From the creator of this project:
Its intriguing what people have in their bags. Use your discretion to veil sensitive info. Please join in, and you don’t have to just be creative individual that takes part. Anyone can do it and take part.
Interested to take part? Get your bag, camera, and head over to this page.
The iPad paradox
A recent (hmm.. not so recent actually) seminar I attended discussed what it means to formulate and sculpt an experience. The answers encompassed broad spectrum of perspective ranging from those closer to psychology, to ethnology, to art, and everything else in between. It is certainly not a concept which comprised of identifiable discrete factors, nor an easily formulated recipe that works for everyone. If it’s that complicated, then what it means to design the experience that people wants nowadays?
Observing design-scape in the recent years, since I delved into visual design that is, one branch of the trends is going deeper into minimalism where plain, basic, simple design is treasured as much as a heavily adorned piece of artwork. Minimalism sprouted in interior design, architecture, product design, visual design, and everywhere else in design-scape. Do people appreciating these plain and bare designs try to escape from hurdles and complexities in their life? Perhaps. Well, at least that’s what works for me.
I ditched the operating system that bog me down with weekly and monthly maintenance.
I pass on a feature-packed organizer which gave me an overly complicated synchronization problems.
I tossed away that overly confusing scientific calculator, packed with arrays of buttons, opting for a less scientific version.
All those overly complicated but feature-packed devices were replaced with something simpler. Less features, less bells and whistles, but works like a charm. Hey that works better for me! Relating this back to the minimalism, designing something with less feature can possibly be a must-have feature!
Recently, I stumbled upon this iPad paradox which echoed my thoughts! Have a look at it if you have five minutes to spare; it’s a nice article.
Customizable friendster profile page, low-level customization of WindowsMobile-based smartphones, and feature-packed MP3 players are some of the things of yesteryear.
Now I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people out there who are hungry for products with less feature, locked-down services, and minimalism in general. Yes, one size doesn’t fit all. Minimalism isn’t the only way to go. But the popularity of twitter, facebook, and Apple’s “i” products certainly show a sound trend towards simplicity.
Tips: Writing a paper
Ha! I found this brilliant tips in writing a paper from phdcomics.com. Certainly useful for my due-soon paper! (click to enlarge the comic)
While waiting for the experiment…
A comic strip from phdcomics.com about several things to do while waiting for the experiment to finish:
And we know there are plenty of choices to get a quick bite when the tummy growls.. but somehow we’re ended up at the same place. This graph brilliantly explains why it is so.
Hilariously true!
Darius Rucker
Candy Cane Christmas
Genre: Holiday
Released 30 November 2009
© 2009
Rating: 5/5 Soothing jazzy Christmas tune!
This jazzy Christmas tune is available as a time-limited free download from iTunes. I love how this song brings up the holiday mood and brightens up my day…
Spice up your music library with jazzy Christmas song like this! Happy holiday~
Google Wave
I’ve been busy crunching numbers and digesting journals in the recent weeks, so much that I didn’t have much time to open Google Wave invitation that has been sitting idle in my inbox for long. Well, today I did, after the majority of my loads are off of the list.
Google Wave’s fun factor depends on the number of friends (or family and colleagues) you have in your contact list. Only those with Google Wave account can hop on your communication wagon.
The interface design is pretty good, but it is still not intuitive enough for beginners to discover what they can do with it and how to do it. Perhaps mimicking typical email interface to something that is revolved around the complexity of Google Wave isn’t a good idea afterall.
Judging by the performance, Google Wave isn’t that great when it’s running on my Safari; It ran slower as soon as I opened Google Wave. Aside from that, there’s really nothing much to comment at this moment…
Still, Google Wave is an interesting communication concept that works pretty decent at its preview stage; It worth trying and exploring. I feel excited imagining a streamlined communication and collaboration for work and leisure. Not to mention the amount of reducible paperwork if this streamlined communication works well.
Why don’t you take Google Wave a spin yourself and see how you like it? I do still have some Google Wave preview invitations left. Drop me a line if you wanna get one.
If you know fun ways to use Google Wave, drop me a line, leave a comment below, or wave me directly.
Projects
Overview of projects that have been keeping me busy lately:
1. Human-Computer Interaction CS3240
The first project up on the list is ShuttleNet, an interactive kiosk displaying shuttle bus arrival information, route, schedule, and map. This interactive application is built using Flash from scratch with user-centered approach—gathering input from the users during design phase and continue involving them in usability tests in implementation phase.
The result? An attractive interactive system that works the way users expect it to be, effectively delivering information in a visually pleasing manner.
Sleepy
I need Garfield to stop me from writing essay when I’m about to enter sleep deprivation condition. Otherwise…
Click to enlarge the comic strip
