Ever wanted to know just how Google, one of the world most visited search engines, handles the load of hundred of thousands of requests without affecting processing performance of their servers?
The IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Computer Society, has revealed how Google manages it’s architecture in an insightful PDF document by Luiz Andre Barroso, Jeffrey Dean and Urs Holzle.
For a few days now, my mind has been totally devoted to HCI and Interaction Design, both for a project and a post graduate subject.
Here’s a view of my desk (temporarily another round table) where I’m scoping out a project and doing some early research, this involves fishing out objectives, requirements (both user, functional & technical) and possible personas & scenarios that could be used later.
All this is later put to the first team meeting where early requirements and then conceptual models are discussed.
The only thing missing from the photograph is the sketchbook and pens, also the iBook is connected to the internet via a Wireless (802.11b) connection.
Australian based company, Step Two post a useful paper on Content Management System (CMS) Usability. The paper looks at some of the usability challenges of a CMS, some of the authoring tools, the benefits of simplicity and usability principles and also how to ensure a CMS is usable.
The Register reports that the University of Calgary, Canada is offering a course titled, Computer Viruses and Malware, to teach students to write, learn, know and stop Computer viruses.
Although they may be the first uni in canada to do this, the question has to be asked whether this will lead to a greater understanding of how to stop viruses or create a genre of computer hackers developing even more deadly viruses?
The new Google News for Australia’s version of Google.com has gone Beta, with the latest summary of news headlines from Australia, although at first glance it still shows a lot of articles linking to overseas websites.
The ABC is pulling the plug on its digital Fly TV and ABC Kids programs after failing to secure funds for their continuation said ABC managing director Russell Balding.
This coming December 17th will be the 100 year anniversary since Orville Wright (one of the famous Wright brothers) flew 120 feet (36.5m) in 12 seconds to record the first manned flight Experience. It is by far one the most important events in aviation.
As preparations for the historic event takes place, no one can exactly recreate the same flight . This feels a little odd to me somehow – even 100 years later?
It is incredible though, when we think just how much has happened and been invented in the last 100 years, the paperclip, the typewriter, aspirin, the vacuum cleaner, tear gas.
Here’s a little walkthrough of the technologies invented at the same time first flight took place.
Glendyn Ivin wins the Palme D’Or award for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival. Here is a transcript from the ABC AM Radio earlier today.
Eurovision is over for another year and congrats goes to, Sertab Erener from Turkey for winning this year. Personally I thought the winner should of been Slovenia’s Karmen with NaNaNa, but what do I know, :).
I came across today an interesting essay by Cosmologist and Astrophysicist, Sir Martin Reese, Royal Society Professor at Cambridge University. His essay titled, In The Matrix, looks at his present and future views on the synthesis between cosmology and physics at a time when our interest in this area is appetized by film and other mediums.
His essay covers a multitude of interesting areas, including the ideas posed by the study of the galaxy by computer simulation, some of the dangers of 21st century science and the possible questions which these areas pose on modern physics.
I am concerned about the threats and opportunities posed by 21st century science, and how to react to them. There are some intractable risks stemming from science, which we have to accept as the downside for our intellectual exhilaration and?even more?for its immense and ever more pervasive societal benefits. I believe there is an expectation of a 50% chance of a really severe setback to civilization by the end of the century.
Reference: Reese M., Brockman J (Ed.) (2003) Edge Foundation, Inc [Online] Available: http://www.edge.org
Here is a copy of the interesting 1968 paper by J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor titled, The Computer as a Communication Device.
This landmark 1968 essay foresaw many future computer applications and advances in communication technology, such as distributed information resources and online interactive communities that are commonplace today as Internet chat rooms and peer-to-peer applications.
Andrew Francois, a lecturer from one of my Masters classes forwarded a link to these series of beautiful creative works by John and Mark Lycette (Lycette Bros), titled Not My Type.
An interesting look and comparison of the Help features of 2 Operating Systems, Apple’s OS X and Windows XP.
An interesting interview in O’Reilly Net of Lou Rosenfeld, an information architecture consultant and coauthor of O’Reilly’s Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition and Steve Krug a web usability expert and the author of Don’t Make Me Think.
ABC Science News reports that 4 new Kingdoms of Life have been discovered by researchers in the high alpine environment of Colorado, USA rewritting History & Textbooks of Science and Microbes.
Until relatively recently, a “kingdom” was the highest level of classification in the scientific taxonomic system that places all forms of life into hierarchical categories, they are made up of divisions which themselves break down again into classes, then orders, families, genus and finally, species.
