Albert Tanutama

Few months back, Apple launched “Tiger” OSX with their cool Dashboard feature. Dashboard allows fast access various mini-applications (called Widgets) providing various functions and information at a glance. Then, the privilege was for Mac users and for those who would buy Konfabulator, a JavaScript runtime engine to run those Widgets (It was argued that Dashboard ripped the concept from Konfabulator – although the article suggested that the underlying mechanisms were different). Fortunately, last Monday Yahoo! bought Konfabulator, releasing the renamed software as Yahoo! Widgets for free and thus, I had the opportunity to try the “Dashboard on PC”

I was immediately captivated – the Widgets are beautifully made and blend fluidly into the desktop without the constraints of traditional window borders (Thanks to the anti-aliasing, transparency, glassy effect, sliding and fading animation techniques). Each Widgets typically has a straight forward functionality: as a real-time weather information, stock tickers, to-do list, alarm clock, and so on. The fun part is to run all of them together to provide various information at a glance. However, I have limited desktop space and attention span to deal with those information. Frankly, it won’t be fun to manage (run, minimize, restore and close) each of those widgets every now and then (That’s why I stopped using Serence KlipFolio long ago). Fortunately, it has a useful feature called Konspose which shows or hides all widgets using a single key press. It addresses limited space and attention span by providing information on-demand, without which will render the whole concept unusable.

Personally, I applaud Apple for coming out with the term “Dashboard” to convey this on-demand mini-application concept. It is interesting to see how technologies are moving out from the browser back to the desktop application again. I think, this is where the next generation of applications will appear (Some have called the era of Rich Internet Application – popularized by Macromedia who launched Flash Platform concept recently). It combines the best of Internet technologies (information resources) and desktop technologies (natural interactivity) – supporting highly mobile users (anytime, anywhere on any devices and any condition) connect, communicate and collaborate.

OhGizmo! is another blog that focuses on gadgets and innovations (other popular gadget-related blogs are engadget, gizmodo, and popgadget) – with a keen sense of aesthetic. Some of the gadgets posted are cute (Mr. Propaganda and Mr. Suicide), smart (Bachelor paper pad, Freddo H2O, Tea Mug), beautiful (Max Blank’s rotating fireplace), interesting (Bottle Spy, ergonomic ballpoint pen) and even controversial (Lugosi’s bracelet ). Hmm – might add some to my wishlist

‘If you know where it’s going, it’s not worth doing.” – Frank Gehry

Tan Kin Lian, CEO of NTUC Income – an insurance company in Singapore, has a blog (which is updated regularly). Apart from posting editorial responses in his capacity as CEO, Tan Kin Lian also posts a number of his personal views. I was pleasantly surprised to know corporate blogging has finally reached Singapore, and has even been adopted by a top executive. As a (potential) customer, I’d look at NTUC Income more favorably, knowing someone credible and with authority, is just a click away. Find out more about his blog in this post by the Rambling Librarian.

Noted from Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends blog: IBM introduced SHARK – ShortHand-Aided Rapid Keyboarding – to improve writing in mobile devices. This method utilizes visual grid to assist shorthand writing using stylus pen. User will only have to draw simple lines to connect letters in specially designed visual keyboard (called ATOMIK – alphabetically tuned and optimized mobile interface keyboard). As a result, it is more efficient, user could write text at a sufficiently fast speed without making many errors (SHARK reduces various handwriting styles and forms into more uniform connected lines). It can be easily learned (connect the “dots”) without imposing high cognitive, perceptual, and motor demand on the user (like requiring accurate tapping or memorizing new gliphs). Hey, they almost get to what I have in mind (Hint: it combines both SHARK and RSVP).

Tomorrow.sg (portal for Singapore bloggers) organized the first blogger conference in Singapore – Blogger.Sg 2005 this afternoon at DXO, Esplanade (formerly known as Embassy). Out of curiosity (along with special edition of Blogger.Sg T-Shirt to purchase), I attended the conference and managed to catch the first few minutes of the first session.

At 1.30, people started to form a queue to get the T-Shirt and to enter the venue, supervised by two huge DXO bouncers who could easily control any misbehaving crowds. The atmosphere was interesting – a bit retro, casual, and relaxing. True to other blogger’s conference, the organizer set up IRC backchannel for people to communicate during the conference, and displayed it live, behind the panelist. I think it’s a pretty good idea to prevent the conference from becoming totally dull (at least, you’ll have something interesting to look at). The conference started around 2.15, with Mr Brown as the leading panelist in the “Bloggers and their communities” session, which introduced some of the blogger communities in Singapore before I left soon after.

I think the idea of having a blogger’s conference in Singapore was neat – creating opportunity to see fellow bloggers offline. The session I attended however, was a bit dry where the audience prefer to sit and listen, while the panelist were struggling to raise the momentum. (Not sure, if the situation improved afterwards). It might be because of the conference culture around here and the dispersed blogging community around. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward for the next blogger conference, hopefully, I could attend it fully and learn something new. Some of my suggestion: include fresher topics (moblog, audioblog/podcasting), highlight non A-List Singaporean bloggers and interesting non-personal blogger topics/projects.

Nokia Sensor is a mobile social network applications that allow people to “see and be seen” (specially recommended for spontaneous, sociable spontaneous, sociable people). It uses Bluetooth wireless technology, allowing people within a ‘circle’ of up to 10 meters to “sense” each other presense. Nokia Sensor has a personal folio feature, where user can create a personalized welcome page which will be displayed to other sensor users – good for small talks. In addition, it has “buddy alert” – which notify user if a friend is found nearby. It might be a good complement for IntroNetworks application to increase possibility to meet with new people with (more) matching interest.

Can you resist to click? people from “Institute for Interactive Research” posed this question and developed an interactive application that requires no click (in fact, it will “punish” you for any clicks). Try the “explore” section for the mousecamp and the button lab to find out some possible alternatives of the click.