ptorrone writes "For years, students, journalists, makers and old-school engineers have asked why the Arduino open source microcontroller platform has taken off, with over 100k units 'in the wild' — it's the platform of choice for many. MAKE's new column discusses why the Arduino has become so popular and why it's here to stay. And for anyone wanting to build an 'Arduino killer' (there are many) — MAKE outlines what they'll need to do."
Ever wanted to see flowing water slowed down to the point of transforming into a series of airborne droplets? This video has that. And more. A chap by the name of Tom Guilmette got to work with a Vision Research Phantom Flex camera recently, and, being the true geek that he is, he put together a video composition of staggering slow-motion footage. When pushed to its limit, the Phantom is capable of filling every second of 1080p recording with 2,800 frames, though Tom mercifully ran it at a lower 2,564fps speed. That’s still sufficient temporal resolution to let you track the wave of an impact’s vibration as it travels up a BlackBerry’s body — oh yeah, it’s as awesome as it sounds.
A lot of people like to bitch and moan about how in the age of realtime information, the stream moves too quickly and as a result, there’s a decent chance of inaccurate news being spread. There’s no question it’s an issue, but with the situation in Egypt, we’re once again seeing the overwhelming upside of this realtime data spread that makes services like Twitter so powerful. And just look at the flip side.
The above image shows the frontpage of a newspaper that was delivered this morning. There are hundreds more like it around the country. Many, many people still get their news this way. They woke up this morning, opened the paper and got information that is so old that it’s now totally inaccurate. It’s ridiculous.
This has actually always been an issue — “In related news, DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN!,” quips Twitter’s Mark Trammell — but if radio hit the newspaper format over the head, the live, 24/7 television news channels drove a stake in its heart. And now the realtime web has pounded that stake deeper. With a sledgehammer. And then stuck a grenade in the mouth of the corpse.
I’m sorry, but there’s simply no role for the newspaper anymore. That’s not saying there’s no role for newspaper journalism, just the physical product itself. It’s a waste of paper, ink, and time. R.I.P.
Here’s an amazing graphic that appeared in today’s Washington Post depicting how digital information has grown exploded over the past two decades. It’s better viewed on a large monitor from this link on the Post website. And here’s the accompanying Postarticle. The underlying data come from a new study by Martin Hilbert and Priscila Lopez of the University of Southern California, which is entitled, “The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information.” It appears in the latest issue of Science but is not available without a subscription.
Ideas, even earth-shatteringly magnificent ones, that aren’t communicated effectively can suck the life right out of a project. For the next couple of weeks I am going to be discussing considerations for presenting your IA work to various audiences.
Here are four guidelines to keep in mind while you’re preparing to meet with or present IA directions to the developers involved in your next project:
Be respectful.
In every situation, always respect the developers. I’ve unfortunately been witness to and even participated in hasty critique of developers’ work. The truth is that we don’t know the constraints they were under when they created a system, what obstacles they had to overcome, and the problems that have already been solved. Make assumptions with benevolence, draw out current weak points as springboards for discussion, and use the project goals to guide constructive conversations.
Be brief.
Developers usually have several complicated problems rolling around in their heads that they’re in the middle of solving (occasionally this creates the illusion that they’re not listening, but don’t be fooled – they are). Acknowledge their cognitive load and don’t take up more time than is reasonable. They will respect you for your brevity and be glad to get back to working on those solutions.
Get to the good stuff.
These pragmatic problem solvers benefit from getting right to the meat of the matter, so make sure you cut verbal fluff where you can. Be careful here: that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in the project goals, site audience, or other “soft” topics. In fact, it’s these details that give their work context and purpose. It’s the delivery which matters, which should be sans pretense and filler words.
Engage with the details.
From the very beginning of a project, the developers should and will be thinking through implementation details. Stay a step ahead by preparing thoughts and questions related to the implications for both front and back end development. Every piece of a wireframe or prototype impacts their scope. Sometimes this can get frustrating if you’re excitedly sharing a big idea and they’re giving you five reasons the execution of this idea is not going to fly. Expect this back and forth and be thankful that the development team is putting all that thought into the project.
Of course, I am painting with broad strokes here and every developer is unique (I work with ten and am married to one, so I have some firsthand experience). These guides are just a good place to start as you get to learn about and relate to these individuals on your project team.
