Being a graphic designer, I’ve had a huge appreciation for the Adobe Acrobat PDF format ever since I first had the opportunity to version a design with it. My fondness has only grown over time. First off, I thought it was a great thing to be able to send someone a file that looked the […]
Feeling light and fluffy here in the human cloud
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying the Internet has changed the way we work. It’s altered the business landscape, and it’s changed the way we shop, advertise, and do business. Where we work has also changed because of the Internet. Many of us — including myself — work from home. I […]
Visualizing Data with PivotViewer
I had to watch the TEDTalk a few times before I got the gist of what Gary Flake was getting at with his Pivot demo. It wasn’t until I tried a few demos available on the Web that it started to sink in how interesting a tack on data this tool takes. Some of the […]
Sneak peek at Joomla!
I’ve been wondering a lot about the Joomla! back-end interface since starting the MSIT program that I’m in. I especially wonder about it in terms of how I’m used to building a static Web site using Dreamweaver. So, a few days ago, I took the step of signing up for a 30-day trial using Joomla! […]
Lean back or lean forward
Communal fun and civic value After listening to his TED Talk on Cognitive Surplus, I’m now a fan of Clay Shirky. And despite still not completely understanding how the open-source model of creating technology hasn’t been choked out by the pay-me-for-it model, I’m more hopeful for open source. Not to mention, I’m more hopeful for […]
Enjoying the nonstop diversions
I’ve been enjoying Twitter as a diversion. For this blog post, I thought I would compile a favorites list. It took a lot of effort (in small 140-character chunks) to do this, and a fair bit of wasted time skimming over the noise. I’m not sure I would have ever done it without being required […]
Embarking on Interaction Design
Yesterday I took the final steps in a process I had been avoiding with dread. I filled out a multi-part form on a website. Before you say “what’s the big deal?” Let me just say, I’ve had bad experiences with forms, and this one involved important stuff for me, and my information didn’t match the […]
High Tech History
I met Christopher Hartman a couple of years ago at a networking event for Bookbuilders of Boston. He works for Pearson Custom Publishing and he co-maintains a blog called High Tech History, which I discovered after meeting Christopher Hartman and Leigh Montgomery (who works for The Christian Science Monitor and who advises for the blog). […]
Work in the cloud, work under the cloud
I have 13 browser tabs open from last night’s research. It’s 2:30 in the afternoon, and I’ve gotten a cumulative 15 minutes of work — for either freelance (billable) or school (deliverable), or neither — done since 6:00 this morning. I’m kind of stressed. I’ve been busy with, among other things, playing with my 19-month-old […]
A technology to connect us to our physical world? Just how does that work?
“To stay human” and “to be more connected to our physical world,” is the hope that Pranav Mistry articulates as he ends his TED lecture, “The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology.” The technology he developed and shows in the lecture is very impressive, but how it helps us to be any more “connected to our […]