Turning the Pages is a digital project by the The British Library that allows museums and libraries to give members of the public access to precious books. Initially developed by and for the British Library, the project allows user’s to view & zoom into digitised images and read or listen to related notes. It is a great interactive project and has been nominated for several awards.
Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought
A Nature article comments on how a Paralysed man is able to send e-mail by thought The device allows the patient to control a computer or television using his mind, even while doing other things at the same time. The report comments that the patient is able to control a television while talking and movement of the head.
Bacteria is genetically modified by lightning
New Scientist comments on how Bacteria can be genetically modified with lightning. The article interestingly suggests that bacteria frequently pick up foreign Genes.
Calculating the weight of a city
Mikel Maron has written about calculating the weight of a city.
The top 20 equations ever found
Robert P Crease, from the Department of Philosophy at State University of New York, has written about some of the Top 20 equations ever found.
Surprisingly, based on reader feedback, Einstein’s e=mc2 didn’t win. Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism and the Euler equation were on top.
The new Beta Yahoo search, MySearch
Yahoo have launched their beta version of their new search engine, MySearch. A personalised search engine that recalls and categorises results.
Douglas Bowman’s presentations from WE04
Douglas Bowman from Stop Design has shared his presentations from the Sydney Accessibility conference, Web Essentials 04 (WE04).
37 Signals paper on Using Patterns in web design
Ryan Singer has written an interesting article, that is an introduction to using patterns in web design.
The paper covers ways to group, prioritize, and organize similar items during mockups and early conceptual models and wireframes. The paper is quite useful and makes references to other pattern resources, including Martijn van Welie’s Patterns in Interaction Design website.
Evan Williams the founder of Blogger quits Google
It was odd today reading that Evan Williams, the founder of Pyra Labs the creators of Blogger (now owned by Google), decided to call it quits and leave his baby behind with the team managing the project at Google.
Examples of CSS3 hacks
Although hacks within CSS is a non-endorsed method by many accessibility advocates, here are some examples of filters and hacks that take advantage of CSS3. And a list of other resources on CSS filters and hacks.
Markme Flash Accessibility examples
With the recent WE04 Conference focusing on accessibility via standards compliance, such as using CSS2, and future CSS3. I thought I’d look into the other uses of accessible techniques and approaches that other “not so standards” tools provide.
Here is a collection by Macromedia’s Bob Regan, of good accessibility use within Flash sites. These sites show techniques such as narration, presentation, visual cues such as metaphors, accessibility keys and captioning to improve the accessibility of Flash based content.
VoiceOver for OS X adds speech to the interface
Apple have released VoiceOver for Mac OS X. The next version of OS X will include the new accessible spoken interface that provides a new way, through speech, audible cues, and keyboard navigation, to access the Macintosh.
Dave Shea’s presentation from WE04
I was unfortunately away from Sydney, to attend the recent WE04 Accessibility conference, at UTS last week. I soooooooo wanted to be there, especially that I was arriving from the UK only a few days earlier. The word is that the conference was excellent & worthwhile.
Here is a copy of Dave Shea’s presentation from WE04.
More information about the sessions and talks can be found at the conference Blog
Zatoichi a film by Takeshi Kitano
I watched the Japanese film by Takeshi Kitano, Zatoichi the other day. An intense film with plenty of sword action set in 19th century japan.
Master of Interactive Multimedia
I graduated from my Master of Interactive Multimedia (MIMM) the other day alongside some postgrad and undergrad friends and peers from IML, the Faculty of IT and Science Faculty at UTS.
The ceremony was the 365th congregation for degrees and diplomas at UTS and was addressed by the Pro-Chancellor and included IBM Australia’s CEO Philip Bullock as guest speaker, addressing us with very timely and inspiring comments on our awards.