Apple Wireless Keyboard - Small Traversal

There a lot of people out there who don’t see the point to the Dvorak keyboard, especially when they have already learnt the Qwerty. I’ve looked into the Dvorak keyboard, and tried it out, and I have to admit you can feel straight away how much less work the keyboard layout provides. However, I struggle to see the point on going against the grain.

I can type pretty quickly, 90+ word per minute and 125+ with average words, such as the, but, something. Yet, I used to be a two finger search and destroy when I was about 15, until I decide to purchase a typing program to remove the frustration. Once I had learnt how to type properly I never looked back. I chose expensive keyboards, such as the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, which I thought was a dream to type on. However I used to get tired and stressed forearms from the movement in my rists, even though the split design on the 4000 was suppose to suppress such a thing. read on…

Do my friends influence my purchasing online?

Some one asked me this question the other week, and I answered their question by asking a question back: Do they influence you offline? The answer was yes. I then asked, what’s the difference from being online or off? Which resulted in a strange answer. They said, well online I feel it’s a little bit laissez-faire, so I’m not as trusting. This response made me think, why would someone feel less trusting online with their friends then off?

If someone in your offline social network likes something, they believe read on…

I love the cloud and the ability to have Software as a Service (SaS). Sometimes though I’m hesitant to sign up for a service in the cloud if I don’t trust the hosting company. To be

Evernote - are you using it?

honest I felt that way with Evernote. Only recently when I joined as a premium member did I actually turn the page and see the read on…

If you know me I’m incredibly tall, 7 foot (213cm) to be exact. So I’m pretty fussy when it comes to task chairs or computer chairs. I’ve had the Herman Miller Aeron, the Steelcase Leap and now the Herman Miller Embody. I can say that I can give a pretty accurate review of these chairs, as I have placed my bum in them close too or more then 10,000 hours each.

I have to admit a lot of people cannot justify why I spend so much on office chairs, but I always counter them with this argument: A builder spends thousands of dollars for their tools so they can complete their job, as good tools provide a means to a good job. Therefore, why wouldn’t a researcher, programmer, office dweller, squared eye individual spend the same amount on his or her tools? My office chairs are just tools. You spend around 6-7 hours a night in your bed, and yet, you could spend up to 10-12 hours in front of your computer (That is if you’re keen and get lost in your work). People spend thousands of dollars on a good bed mattress because it gives them a comfortable nights sleep. I spend thousands of dollars on office chairs because it gives me a comfortable working environment, which I feel makes me more read on…

I believe us average folk take searching the web for granted. The amount of processing which is done in the back ground to deliver you the best possible information is mind bending. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others all use different signals to determine which page will suit you the best. If there is a person sitting next to you, and you ask them to search the same term on a different computer, I bet there is a good chance their search results will be different to yours.

A lot of people believe you have to be logged in to a search engine for it to deliver personalised results, but this is simply not true. In fact, almost all search engines store a cookie about your search behaviour. Google is open about it, after all they are a advertising company.

Have you ever wondered what they have identified about you? Check out Googles ad preferences for you are they correct? I have to say they were pretty spot on for me, except for my age. Really, they have to be spot on, as their income depends on their ability to target ads to you. If you want your preferences changed all you have to do is tell them through their ad preferences page. With Google you have 27 categories, and the categories then have sub-categories. I would have to say, Google makes it easier to change your preferences compared to the others, as the others doesn’t seem as transparent, but in saying that, I haven’t tried to change my preferences for the others as Google is my default search engine.

Each search engines uses different signals, I’ve read in some literature that Google has up to 300 relevancy signals to determine your results. Signals like, location, network speed, browser, recent page views, result depth, advert against organic click through to name a few. These signals are just the starting point, search engines also gather information on the services you use, for example with Google they use: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, iGoogle… really all their services unless you are a premium app user. With yahoo it is the same, Yahoo mail and so on.

Once a search engine has built a large enough user model for you they can really accurately deliver ads which are relevant to you, ohhh and…. the search results as well. I would come close to saying, every search engine is my search engine. As I know my results will be different to yours.

Over the years they have done some amazing work with their user modelling and web personalisation and I take my hat off to them!

Why it is fresh in my mind I thought I would just quickly write about it. Social ties, signals, identifiers of connectedness, or whatever you would like to call it, are the explicit or implicit connections between user profiles or social media. These ties are the foundation on which a social network will thrive or dive. The reason for this is because the social ties give semantic meaning to relationships. Some ties are for interests while others are based on off line connections (friends). There have been various studies, where they showed how the ties influenced the direction of the social network and the level of communication and interaction increased based on the social ties used. One such study, showed how bodybuilders generated content, interaction (online offline) based on the social ties around body building. Another focused on the the elements of a Facebook profile and how they actually influenced read on…

I wrote the other day how to install the mod_wsgi module with apache and setup a Amazon AMI as a server for python web apps. In this article I’ll show you how to install the Python MySQL module so you can use python with MySQL. It is pretty easy to setup up, but I thought I would write about it just so others don’t have to think about it. read on…

I was going through the motions of setting up a EC2 instance, as I wanted to create an instance which could run mod_wsgi. The problem was there is limited information on how to set it up for the Amazon AMI. Once I did it, I thought I would post how to do it so others out there don’t have to search high and low. It is a basic step by step, which I hope you don’t mind, as there are a lot of tutorials out there which leave you wondering when you get stuck. Also, I’m using the web2py framework, but this is really irrelevant, mod_wsgi works with any framework which supports a wsgi handler. Just point your config to your frameworks handler.

Here we go!

First of course login to AWS read on…

I was reading this article a few moments ago and thought I would put my two bob in.

Web design or UI design? I like to think there is two types of designers out there. There are the traditional designers who know how to make a site visually stunning and then there is application or user interface designers to create functionally stunning sites. The problem comes when a web designer thinks they are both. Outlaying a document so it is pleasing on multiple mediums is great, but developing a tool which has the same functionality across mediums is incredibly challenging. For example, say you have a tool which allows you to gather friends to collaborate on content. On a PC screen you could design an amazing interface where you could see the other collaborators, but on a mobile device, SNAP! Information overload.

Being able to design tools which are morphic are incredibly hard. Especially when you start throwing in different mediums, such as mobiles, tablets, and different size monitors. Some people say you can get away with stylesheets, but this is just ridiculous. Instead you would have to push an entire new interface adaptable to the device, which isn’t just a style sheet. You have to start pushing logic, markup and styles. A delivery of a entire new interface. An interface which performs the same actions as its parents or children.

Web design is great for content, and people say content is king, but with social media I believe actions are king as these actions are the content creations. Therefore we have two different fields here, and we have to remember that when it comes to designing social media we can’t use a web designer to build the interface. We need web designers for marketing and presenting the message in a stunning way. When developing a social media product/project we need User Experience Designers or Application Interface Designers. These guys focus on action and then content. They ask questions like, how do I get the person to create ‘x’ in the quickest way. Then they pass the ‘x’ over to the web designer.

Facebook has announced a new feature which will be released in the coming months. It’s called Facebook Timeline. It is a page which holds all the information about you as an individual in a longitudinal way. They’re suggesting you put everything from your birth to present. It’s a great idea, but the question rises, who owns your identity? Facebook? read on…