A new package altogether

Then there is the new iPod Nano. This has gone a step beyond being just a small iPod with a screen. It’s now a touch screen device with full functional multitouch and some Apps to go as well. Sweet!

More touch in less space

And last comes the all new glossy Apple TV. It’s smaller, has only the essential ports and is much much easier to hide away than the earlier version which made us contemplate buying a Mac Mini instead and having all the fun.

All the essential bits come straight out of the box including the HDMI port

The small form factor will be fun as well. The earlier one did not really fit in with any home entertainment gadgets, well neither does this one but at least it’s not big and silver. Small and Black is easier to hide. I hope Apple has given a provision to hang it on the wall as such small things don’t really stick to a table once all the cables are connected. I see that being one of the first flaws unless this weight in at a few kilos.

It's definitely small

6 minutes + 2 years + 2 people + 1.2 TB of data + 800,000 files = Worth it.
Absolutely priceless animation.

Old Keyboard

Over the years we have used many types of keyboards. Early years they were the bulky ones with klunky keys that still made a “klapaty-klap” noise. In fact I still use a later version of that for my daily work, never needed a reason to upgrade.

Keyboard - Early 2000

Over the years they got quieter and sleeker. The keys got smaller and their aesthetic appeal increased. With that, the problem of dirt and grime getting stuck in them got minimized as well. (Here’s a step-by-step guide to clean the old one)

Keyboard - Current

Next to come were the backlit ones where each key was illuminated even in absolute darkness. Apple’s Power Book was one of the first ones to have them and we all drooled over it for years.

Logitech diNovo Edge

Of the recent fore runners have been the Optimus Maximus and Tactus . Featuring full and functional backlit displays under each key and a complete touch screen with customizable layout. They are made in a way to customize your keyboard for every need imaginable starting from an Video Editing Layout to a Photo Editing Layout.

Optimus Tactus Concept

It is possible that in future, the ultimate keyboard will eventually be a touch screen that is infinitely customizable for almost everything under the sun, much like an ipad, used dedicatedly as a keyboard.

i-Pad Keyboard Layout

If made the correct size and shape, this would probably be the ultimate keyboard. And yes, carry it off wherever you go with just the files you need for the day.

Reminders | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

A Post-it note is a piece of stationery with a re-adherable strip of adhesive on the back, designed for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. While now available in a wide range of colors, shapes, and sizes, Post-it Brand notes are most commonly a 3-inch (76 mm) square, canary yellow in color. The notes use a unique low-tack adhesive that enables Post-it Brand notes to be easily attached and removed without leaving marks or residue, unless used on white boards. - Wikipedia

3M introduced this in the market in 1977, it took time and heavy marketing to catch on. By 1980 it was selling in US and soon worldwide. 3M Patent expired in the 1990’s and others started producing this incredible piece of office supply with the Post-It name and the Canary yellow color remained a 3M trademark. 20 years on since then, and we still can’t do without these, even with a bunch of technology/ software to do this for us.

The Animation Industry loves it to make Storyboards on.

Control | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

There is something about heavy machinery that’s unmatched. They have character.

A bookshelf and a coffee table at the same time. Well actually it's like a book hanger.

Sit on the chair and browse that magazine. One of the most interesting ideas I have seen. Would like to have one but with a softer seat.

(Via funniez.net)

(via Gizmodo)

Philips 56" Super Wide LCD TV

Secret Stash from yiting cheng on Vimeo.

Well the video is self explanatory. And no one can deny that we have all at some point of time or other have wanted to have something like this.

Here’s what it fails to do though. While displaying odd sized images, it sort of leaves a lot of white space around them and you sort of don’t know exactly what’s the clickable area. An area demarkation to make the display more uniform with very light shade of “Google grey” might work wonders.

Also, they need to decide on the redundancy between the top navigation and the one on the left.

Toshiba Libretto W100

Sometime back when the ipad popped out from Apple’s stable, I kind of wished something like this was offered by Apple instead of the current ipad. I think the ipad is beautiful but it’s just not really a useful device.

The Liberto “looks like” it has its basics correct. There are two touch screens, you can use either as an input device and you can use the whole thing as a conventional laptop with a virtual keyboard on one of the touch screens. Smart and ideal. Except that the device looks a little too bulky for it’s size and definitely uglier than the ipad. Personally we would prefer something thats got a 15″ display on each side to work and play with.

http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/concept-grid-with-tablets/

A concept I had with the dual screen tablets, probably some fodder for those who are actually developing these things.

Tablets in Grid mode. One gets 10 screen space (assuming that the screen borders are minimal) and 5 processors.

The website deals with Shapeshifter Skins for Mac OSX, the advertisement deals in actual Skin products. Probably time internet advertising started differentiating both.

http://interfacelift.com/themes-mac/index.php?sort=date&id=&page=2

(Actual Page)

Taking into account the fact that this type of advertising has been around for a while, and companies promoting them are well funded, in this case – Google, they should find a way to scan more of the keywords and then decide on the type of advertisement that get featured on these pages.

Another interesting product and more importantly a very urgently needed one. Tiring and boring are various other RSS readers which simply allow you to read, this probably allows you to do the same in style and with colors.

The product does have a hint of Sweeetcron in it though and the UXCron Interface, but I like it. I am a fan of that as well.

Pulse Interface

The gadget that looks like a coffee cup

Images from Amazon.com

Amazon.com: Power Line 0900-66 200-Watt Coffee Cup Inverter with USB Charging Port and Two Outlets

via Elevating Communication (Long Version, Original) on Vimeo.

Its a long, almost black and white, painting in motion. And there are others as well in the creator’s playlist on Vimeo

Microsoft’s got a phone out there now and it does look good. Comes in two versions of Kin One and Kin two, and both look rounded and fresh, much like a Samsung Corby, young and happy. It’s a welcome break from the numerous iPhone lookalike crowding the market.

KIN One and Two (The bigger one is Two) - Screen Grab from website. They should give some links to download photos.

From what can be seen in their videos and website, the phone has a very intuitive touch interface complemented by a hidden keyboard which many of us do like to have.

Time will tell weather they have cracked it with this one or not.

KIN ONE Specs

1. Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
2. Solid camera
3. Compact size

KIN TWO Specs

1. Wider screen
2. Bolder camera
3. More memory

KIN ONE Tech Specs:

1. Form Factor: Vertical slide, QWERTY size: 57cc
2. Display: 2.6″ TFT, QVGA (320 x 240), capacitive touch screen
3. Camera: 5.0MP CMOS anti-shake, autofocus, dual LED flash
4. Speakers: Mono
5. Memory: 256MB DDR RAM, 4GB storage
6. Battery: 1240 mAh
7. Connectivity: EV-DO Rev A, Bluetooth 2.1 w/A2DP, Hi-speed USB, 802.11b/g
8. Other: Assisted GPS, FM radio, accelerometer

KIN TWO Tech Specs:

1. Form Factor: Vertical slide, QWERTY size: 65cc
2. Display: 3.4″ TFT, QVGA (480 x 320), capacitive touch screen
3. Camera: 8.0MP HDR CMOS from Omnivision with anti-shake, autofocus, Lumi LED flash
4. Speakers: Mono
5. Memory: 256MB DDR RAM, 8GB storage
6. Battery: 1390 mAh
7. Connectivity: EV-DO Rev A, Bluetooth 2.1 w/A2DP, Hi-speed USB, 802.11b/g
8. Other:Assisted GPS, FM radio, accelerometer

Part # F5C412au140W from Belkin - Another thing for those long drives.

Belkin : AC Anywhere DC – AC Inverter.

Running out of power is a thing of the past with the AC Anywhere. Simply plug the unit into any 12-volt DC vehicle cigarette lighter socket and the AC Anywhere converts your vehicle’s battery power to 230 volts AC (common household current.) The AC Anywhere is perfect for charging batteries for your mobile phone, portable computer, electric shaver, TV/VCR, or virtually any device while travelling. The AC Anywhere inverter features a convenient On/Off switch and fuse protection along with an audible alarm that sounds if the vehicle battery voltage drops to 10.6 volts DC.

Features

• Low battery alarm at 10.4V DC
• Low battery shut-off at 9.8V DC
• Automatic overheat shut-off at 66° Celsius
• DC cord and cigarette lighter plug
• Replaceable fuse
• Overload protection
• 2 Year Warranty
• Recharges portable devices
• Power your mobile and laptop battery chargers
• Power up laptop computers, TVs, VCRs, cameras, and other AC equipment
• Convenient On/Off switch and overload fuse protection
• Low battery alarm and automatic shut-off

This sure would be a great product to have on long roadtrips where your camera keeps running out of battery. Also excellent to charge that old laptop with annoying battery performance. This also opens up a lot of possibilities such as running electronic mosquito repellants among other things.

You have a server room in your multi-million dollar corporation that is generating so much heat that you have to use 5 tonnes of air-conditioning to just keep it stable, and probably another 1 tonne more to make it perform well. You do have the other option to put it up in Alaska but that might not be such a great idea for the admin guy.

And then you have a few hundred employees drinking coffee, tea and other hot beverages in another room and heating that up using microwave, heating coil, cooking gas and various other things.

It’s probably time that the heat from these machines can be tapped and sent to heat up the food that’s being eaten by people who drive these machines.

The Server Equation

Just a thought.

Today, in the fast developing craze over ipad and earlier over iPhone, we have somehow forgotten Apple’s first try at building a hand held computing device that did not do so well in the market. It did have a host of features including a fully functional hand writing recognition which was fairly good by existing standards in 1998 when it’s development officially was shelved.

The Newton Handheld platform was only followed by the modified OS X platform for the iPhone 10 years later.

Newton (platform) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Just a tribute to a pioneer. Not to forget what came first and where the “Pad” of ipad actually comes from. Probably just sentimental for Apple.

MessagePad 2000

Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

That’s just an image, embed is disabled for this video

One of my favorite videos of all time by one of my favorite bands of all time. A perfect video which best describes the rhythm that we intend to connect to while traveling by a train, bus or car. Almost everything outside the window has a rhythm to it, and this probably is it’s best depiction.

That apart, the visual effects part of it is amazing as well. Layers and layers of elements in matched perspective with parallax created and put together to the beat of the music. Each 3D element representing an instrument. Simply beautiful.

This is what it looks like, simple and clear.

This little widget by Amit Agarwal captures what’s there on many minds with a simple tool to average out sleep cycles of Twitter users. And why just Twitter, I am sure it would make a very good Facebook tool as well to see what percentage or your friends are awake and asleep, even if it’s just a mathematical guess.

My Sleeping Schedule Generated by the widget.

Flash CS5

animation software, multimedia software | Adobe Flash Professional CS5.

Somehow Adobe has been putting one Axe after another on their foot.

1. The order form for Adobe CS5 is in Flash. Why?
2. To prove that things really aren’t that smooth in Flash, they have a share on Facebook button on the page which did not work. Please test before you put such links.
3. The link that I could copy to share it took me to some other domain. Not good so far. (wildfire.gigya.com/Facebook/preview….)

Ahem.. what’s wrong guys? And is HTML so outdated or beyond you that everything needs to be Flash. Keep it simple, make them work, effects can happen later.

BTW: Good old copy and paste URL in Facebook or using Facebook Share Bookmark worked just fine.

(Via @dhh on Twitter)

via Drivelapse on Vimeo.

Have to do this sometime. I like the way no one every jumps the light or changes to opposite lanes in the video, having this done in India would be completely chaotic and would definitely show the difference.

via PIXELS by Patrick Jean on Vimeo.

Saw it first posted on Twitter as a link.

Loved the idea of rogue Pixels that revolt and destroy or take over the city / world. More than that it reminded me of Pacman, so much so, that I downloaded a free version today and have been trying to get re-addicted ever since. Looking for a version or Tetris as well.

Excellent video, not in terms of just animation, which is fairly good but also the idea itself. I would have benefitted a lot in my school days if chemistry was this fun. Instead we had boring Ping Pong Ball models stuck with wooden matchsticks.

The Animator should probably take it up as a project with the millions of E-Learning companies that are spawning these days but are no good at EduTainment, instead putting the same old boring books in digital format.

via Berlin Block Tetris on Vimeo.

Although the Video describes housing complexes built in the Soviet Era of Berlin, it is still apt for housing complexes being built today in Bangalore, India. With the rapid growth and sky rocketing real estate prices, Tetris is probably the best way to describe this game.

1. You will need a good set of screwdrivers with the required sizes of Allen Keys. It’s probably the smallest available with any set. Check the back of the keyboard to confirm the size.
2. You will need a household glass and equipment cleaner.
3. A soft cotton cloth, preferably white. Colored cloth can leak color onto the keyboard and do more damage in the process.
4. A used towel to dry off the keys.
5. Some tissue paper to soak the excess liquid that fall off.

Note: The usability of the keyboard depends on how carefully one cleans it. The plastic is very fragile, more so if the keyboard has been used for last 5 years in a hot and dry climate. Things may be brittle and prone to breakage.

Warning:

1. Don’t try this if the product is under any kind of warranty.
2. Do not attempt if you don’t have a backup keyboard in place.
3. There is a possibility that the keyboard may permanently get ruined in the process.
4. Use your own judgement and evaluate your own risk.

Step 2: Do a complete cleaning of the surface of the keyboard with any available household cleaner.

Step 3: Start taking out the keys one by one using a regular key or a screw driver.

A close up of how to remove each key

Step 4: While taking out the keys, align and keep them in order so that you do not mess up the sequence. Note that all keys on this keyboard has the 'legend' on the bottom-left corner.

Step 4: Keep all keys organized

Step 5: Clean the keyboard with its keys removed with a used toothbrush or similar brush.

A closeup of the keyboard with the keys removed. Note: Do not use excess cleaner as they take time to dry and that could render the keyboard useless for a while even after putting back together.

Step 6: Remove the Allen Bolts at the back to access the insides of the keyboard.

Step 7: Use a soft brush to clean the dust from insides. Do not force anything as the wires are very fragile.

Step 8: Reverse the process and put back the keyboard in shape. Give the cleaning fluids a few minutes or hours to dry before firing it up.

via Bricks on Vimeo.

Not easy to find samples and help to work on Blender. And somehow I landed on this one. Probably the most unique concept I have come across in the last 10 years, a pursuit of sorts depicted solely by the coverage of area of two characters. The animator has actually managed to show spaces, alleys, trees, roads and even complete devastation left in their path.

Those of you in Design related education, this is a must for Space Form and Structure

1. First and foremost they needed to be legal, and were easy to acquire.
2. They were rugged unlike the CD that followed them with great quality but their reliability depended on their usage.
3. An album on a tape was a sequence of songs intended to follow each other in a predefined sequence, a function that lost it’s meaning with the fast paced Skip and Shuffle world of MP3.

And they had their share of disadvantages as well:

1. They often got chewed up until better motors and technology came in. Direct Drive from Sony was one such technology that sort of achieved this almost flawlessly.
2. The quality deteriorated with time and age of the tape and the player. The player also needed regular maintenance to run smoothly.
3. The battery life was appalling, with so many motors and moving parts the most advanced Direct Drives would just about manage a few hours of playback.

Remembering the walkman, a few images gathered from the web, surprisingly there are very few of them around.

The complete set as available in the 90's

Click on the small thumbnails above to check out other images.

Pity they are no longer there. Somehow they were mode dedicated to music than an iPod or Zune. The clunky physicality of using one is missing from the polished convenience of today.

Note: Images used are not taken by me, neither do they belong to me. They have been copied and uploaded back on the server simply because only few of them are available to view and enjoy these days.

There was a time back during 2001 – 2004 we were all bitten by the short film bug, tried many and eventually landed up making not so short complicated ideas which did not hold ground. This is exactly Opposite of that.

via A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION on Vimeo.

Once in a while I come across some animation work which makes me pick up the drawing board. This was it. Today I am going to start actual production of two such projects that have been gyrating in my brain for the last few months.

Will post it right here when they are done, making will be online as well.

The guy in the video is a what Youtube probably needed. Viewed more than 30 million times Numa Numa was a hit. I must have watched it a million times and it never fails to cheer me up on a good, bad or worse day.

Ah, there’s something about Gary Brolsma’s break-out web cam performance lip syncing and dancing to Moldovan pop music that one just can’t turn away from. Numa Numa was an instant viral hit when it was released and it has been viewed over 30 million times on YouTube alone (not counting duplicates).

Many would want to know what the song is, you can either go to the Youtube page and scroll through the comments or get this - Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone available on Now That’s what I call Music – 58 – Disc – 2

via History of the Internet on Vimeo.

Probably the most simplest and best way this boring history has been illustrated, and that too in a manner which makes it actually interesting to a lay man.

via parkour motion reel on Vimeo.

Another sunday morning discovery. The style is extremely nice, Flipbook style with a little bit of “Pen Story” happening in it as well.

via Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny on Vimeo.

This is definitely a very fresh and modern look at “Little Red Riding Hood”. Not to mention, thought blurbs like the “nutrition facts” what the Wolf gets is funny. Must Watch.

Sketch

Very true.

via The Sandpit on Vimeo.

Probably one of the best miniature style real like shooting I have seen. For all those around me who are trying to do the same.

I get these regular email from Youmint.com and I have no clue for why or what is their purpose. But today it was different, for once their mail looked a tad more inviting that the rest of them that piled up before this one.

I opened it and landed on a page. As expected it was some page with some advertisement about some holiday which I am never going to take. So I click on the Horoscope part on top left and get this. (I am reducing the amount of Junk that was written, just note the last line)

Libra (26 Feb, 2010)

“Good fences make good neighbours”, said Frost. It’s a good thing that you rubbish …   … brighter than usual for you, foresees Ganesha.

This Week

Heightened activity is on the cards, this week. All sorts of activities …   …move forward from your home and hearth mentality as you start focusing on the glow and glamor of both money and honey.

This Month

This will be a busy yet good month for you. …   … you will head for a foreign country. Your work will progress without any obstacles and you will find contentment in your line of action. And, this comfort may easily reverberate in your financial front too.

This Year

Sorry Due to Some internal error could not load the Data

Old mailer - Little boring and does not stand out

New mailer - Little bit more interesting than the old one, enough to make me click and check.

So Ahem.. What does that mean.. like there was so much data that could not be loaded. I like to be optimistic and think that all of it was good.

Anyway, for some sever error, my future is definitely unknown at the moment (also a 1/12th of human population)

Enjoy!

A few years back I got a couple of old photographs from home with the intention to restore them and get them printed. Somehow I never managed the time to get all of them done, but this was the first one. (More info is on the photograph itself and will try and upload a larger resolution version as well)

Parts of the photo were moth eaten. Out of the 14 legs of the brothers, about 9 were left when I started out. After touching and fixing most parts, the colors were done, mostly out of imagination and generalization.

A long long time ago

iPod dock built right into a table

Now that makes perfect sense. I have one that dangles around everywhere all the time. Not to mention the battalion of wires that march out from it and into the PC / Stereo etc.

Here’s what the manufacturers say.

What’s special about this iPod® Dock?

1. Provides a safe docking station for your iPod® while you charge or sync it
2. Eliminates the need for additional USB cord for your iPod
3. Saves valuable desk space
4. Mounting grommet ring allows space for your cables under your desk to pass through
5. Works with USB 1.1 and 2.0 for high and full speed data transfers

Fliqlo screenshot. From 9031.com

9031: Free Downloads: Screensavers.

Came across this today. It was a short search from Apartment Therapy and then over to finding a screenshot of the desired screensaver and then to 9031’s downloads page. Fliqlo is a lovely screensaver, simple and shows the time in a classic style flip clock.

And the downloads page is even better. Using an old style floppy casing to denote each downloadable item is brilliant, and does  justify the small apps that they give away free.

Fliqlo is available for Mac and Windows.

9031's downloads page

Somebody had to do this. And the fact that it’s this sporty and has a bright interface (and not a geeky droidy thing) is a plus. There are website talking about how viable is the solar option and when do I leave it out to dry.. errr.. charge. Well, the fact that this comes with a sports kit suggests that you get charged while your phone gets charged. Spend time.. outside.

Definitely not for the regular office fellow who basks in fluorescent glow.

Check that drool worthy UI

Also check out the review on Gizmodo and more images on their website.

]]> http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/puma-the-puma-phone/feed/ 3 http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/innovative-imagery-still-rules/ http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/innovative-imagery-still-rules/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:11:30 +0000 shubho http://timeline-studios.com/blogs/?p=503

Interesting comparison

Warning, Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous To Your Health: Gear + Gadgets: GQ.

The original post talks about the effects of cell phone radiation and how much research has been done and how harmful etc. What I was interested in was the image (attached) and originally posted on the GQ website. Follow either the image link or the Link on top to get to the article.

Innovative Imagery still Rules

Midday website has spanning ads that do not go away!!

Off late I am coming across pages of different news websites and others that have more advertising per page than actual content. Now we all know that everyone has to make a buck or two but at what cost? Attached is a screenshot from http://www.mid-day.com/. I understand the fact that ads need to be there to support their infrastructure, but things that span over actual content blocking it is a bog no no. Could not get a screenshot without the spanning advertisement in the center, as it wont go away.

But thats not all. Then there are ads that are purely unworked on. Specially through Google’s adsense. These are ads that look like no one has spent anytime on them. C’mon guys, you would not do that to television, then why the web? Probably because Google has little or no quality check in place to control that, after all they are making money and care very little.

This screen grab is from NDTV.com, a popular news portal. See the horizontal banner ad running in a box on the right side column.

It’s been a decade to full fledged internet advertising and banners, and I think it’s time that people actually spent time and money on them rather than copying and pasting a poor quality image and adding text from powerpoint.

Now some may argue that if you do put ads, things are bound to get cluttered. Not necessarily, just see Exhibit A: Wired.com

Wired.com homepage, smart balance and placement of ads work towards building the look of the page. Quality of ads matter as well.

But what if you want to play football and your Gym bag was big and already carried a Basketball, a Hockey Stick, a Baseball Bat, a Cricket Bat, a Tennis Racquet etc. Would you still carry all of them to the Football field? My guess is not, you would locate a smaller bag.

At this point, some may argue that softwares are like tools and not balls, but even then, I rarely see someone putting the Soldering Iron with their Wrench in the same box.

And that’s exactly the problem with too many internet based services getting clubbed and combined together. When I want to mail, I just want to mail. When I want to edit my documents, I just want to do that. When I want to speak to someone, I just would like to do that. These are options that should be separate, not because it’s easier to have them like that, but it’s human to have them like that.

However, there are many internet based services that are trying to combine all this on to a single webpage and calling it a dashboard. It’s good, but as long as that shows only the highlights and details are well segregated. What they need to list down are the services that Need to be separate and The services that are auxiliary like chat, tweet, global positioning etc. If it’s not done that way, your user may soon find his Football and Wall Street buddies on the same dining table. Sure there can be overlaps, but not a complete one, and it can be a disaster.

What would work?

1. Segregate the Work and Play software (Linkedin and Facebook)
2. Segregate Productive and Communication software (Google Docs and Gmail)
3. Segregate services like Photos and Videos (Like Youtube and Flickr)
4. Bind all these with Social and Professional Networking software (Google chat riding within Gmail)

It was supposed to get me updates from Picassa, Blogger, Flickr, and some more things. But initial experience soon became a pain of repeated comments and updates. Simple things are not sorted out. Things like sending me an update on my own comment. These kind of things just highlight the fact that the product or service has been thrown out in a hurry.

Then there are status messages. Which are pretty much like tweets and they appear in your inbox. Personally, I would like to keep status updates separate from emails, they are really not the same things. But it does not end here.

When you comment on a status message, the complete chain of messages as a single email update is mailed to you. It’s cute when there are 5 comments, and plain irritating if there are more than 30.

Have a few questions for Google

1. What’s the need of getting into social networking when there are quite a few of them that already work well. Why not collaborate and improve upon it.

2. Why not innovate and improve upon instead of barging in suddenly. Gmail is simply popular for its efficiency. Gmail is yet not perfect and still has a lot of scope for improvement.

3. Why so many products? We all thought Docs was a great idea. But it seems thats not getting any better any soon.

“We did not enter the search business, They entered the phone business. Make no mistake: they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.”

- Steve Jobs, ipad Launch

And many of us completely agree with Jobs here. It’s almost like there are people in Google sitting and waiting for new products to come out which then they can “Improve” upon.

Make a product that’s needed, if it makes people go “Wow!” on day one, that’s a plus. Probably Buzz is a good product, but the premature launch of a buggy product just killed it.

Livestats

LiveStats by GoSquared – Real-Time Traffic Monitoring for your Site.

The software gets you live information on who is visiting your website at any given time. But what’s stunning is the User Interface that does the job. Even though I have no utility for this kind of a software, I am tempted.

The product gives detailed information about the visitors, their IPs, the country they are from including a small flag, what operating system and which browser they are using also in visual form, how much time they are spending on which page and much more. All this in a delicious visual format making the boring thing of Site Stats so much more interesting.

Credits Balance on Face/book

Was just going through the new new new Facebook User Interface and I noticed this. Seems like Facebook wants to get serious this time around in making money.

Clear monetization of existing services. Let's see how that goes.

And inside it has these options. (Shown in second image)

This post is for those who are not into CSS and HTML and normally get stuck trying to style their buttons

Every day on almost every website we come across these lovely buttons and on some we get the plain old boring default ones. We are not concerned with the boring ones, but here’s a small tip (which most web guys would know already) to style your ‘Buttons’ on your web page easily.

Lets say we want to create this.

This type of a Button is made of Two Components. The Text part, “Unsubscribe” and the image part.

But that’s not all you need as a background image. What you need is a background image that has the image for all the button states, namely, hover, active, regular, and disabled (if needed). So you need to start with an image which looks like this.

Now we get to the CSS part. Select a “classname” for your button that you want to style. Lets say it’s “funkybutton”. For that our base CSS for the button would go like this.

<style>input.funkybutton {
background-image: url(css/submit.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 115px;
height: 25px;
background-color: white;
border: none;
color: white;
padding-top: 1px; /* this is specifically for text alignment. adjust for your font-size and font*/ }
</style>


And an HTML part for this

<input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit-<?php the_ID(); ?>" tabindex="5" value="Submit Comment"/>

And this together should give you this button:

But we are not done yet. Now we need the rest of the states for the same button to be covered, and that’s done line this in the stylesheet.

<style>
input.funkybutton {
background-image: url(css/submit.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 115px;
height: 25px;
background-color: white;
border: none;
color: white;
padding-top: 1px; /* this is specifically for text alignment. adjust for your font-size and font*/ }

input.submit:hover {
background-position: 0 -25px;
}

input.submit:active {
background-position: 0 -50px;
}

</style>

Giving you a fully functional button like this:

Give it a try. (This same button is user everywhere in this theme as well)

Here’s another Tablet in the market, hitting it a wee bit before the ipad, sometime in December 2008.

Since it’s a prototype the Adam’s casing here is not what the final design will be; in fact this was hand-made especially for showing the tablet at CES. The eventual hardware will be 14mm thick (Rohan said they could even get it down to around 12mm) with a reasonably minimal bezel, packed with the 10.1-inch Pixel Qi transflective display, a capacitive touchscreen eventually capable of recognizing six simultaneous points of contact, integrated WiFi and 3G. Thanks to Tegra 2 the Adam is 1080p capable, with an HDMI port to output to an HDTV or projector, and while the OS they’re showing today is bare Android they’ve a new UI in the works complete with a replacement on-screen keyboard more ergonomically designed for large-touchscreen use.

- Slashgear

Read the rest here. Notion Ink Adam hands-on via Notion Ink Adam hands-on – SlashGear. Notion Ink is based out of Hyderabad and the product design is carried our by Ether Design very much in Bangalore.

Notion Ink, Adam. Image courtesy - Slashgear

Here’s how.

Step 1. Open you index.php file in the theme and locate the loop. That should look like this. It should start with the following:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

And end with the following:

<?php endwhile; ?>
....
<?php endif; ?>

Between these two parts is where your posts pop up and the whole thing is repeated over and over again depending on the amount of posts you would want to load up on the homepage, which can be set right there in the settings. We don’t want to touch that.

Step 2: Now open your single.php file and find this small piece of code.

<?php comments_template(); ?>

Change that to:

<?php $withcomments = "1"; comments_template();?>

Copy that and paste it right above the end of the loop, just before this:

<?php endwhile; ?>
....
<?php endif; ?>

This should result in the comments form and the comments to pop up right under each post. But that would also pop up a bunch of errors as each form field ID would get repeated over and over again, and that can’t be cool.

Step 3: Now open the comments.php file in your theme directory. In that you will have to locate each ID identifying each field in the comments form. Either prefix or suffix them with the following code to make them unique. The code pulls out the post ID and adds a suffix to the already existing ID after a hyphen. Here’s how:

<input type="text" name="author" id="author" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author); ?>" size="40" tabindex="1" <?php if ($req) echo "aria-required='true'"; ?> />

Becomes:

<input type="text" name="author" id="author-<?php the_ID(); ?>" value="<?php echo esc_attr($comment_author); ?>" size="40" tabindex="1" <?php if ($req) echo "aria-required='true'"; ?> />

Note the:

-<?php the_ID(); ?>

added right after the “author” in the ID of the Input Field. Do this for all the fields and submit buttons. Once you are done, you are error free for most of the part. But there still remains one problem, now when the page loads, you will see all the comments form and that cant be good, it would look cluttered and bad.

Step 4: Add or Change the “Reply” button under the post, in most themes this button is linked to the post page.

Instead put this Hyperlink to the “Reply” button:

<a href="javascript:toggleLayer('respond-<?php the_ID(); ?>');">Reply</a>

By any luck, you would have already added the “Post ID” identifier to the “respond” ID in the comments.php. That leaves us with the Javascript. Copy the following code and place it within the <head> section of your header.php file.

<script type="text/javascript">function toggleLayer( whichLayer ) { var elem, vis; if( document.getElementById ) // this is the way the standards work elem = document.getElementById( whichLayer ); else if( document.all ) // this is the way old msie versions work elem = document.all[whichLayer]; else if( document.layers ) // this is the way nn4 works elem = document.layers[whichLayer]; vis = elem.style; // if the style.display value is blank we try to figure it out here if(vis.display=='' && elem.offsetWidth!=undefined&&elem.offsetHeight!=undefined) vis.display = (elem.offsetWidth!=0&&elem.offsetHeight!=0)?'block':'none'; vis.display = (vis.display==''||vis.display=='block')?'none':'block'; }</script>

Thats it. you are done. This Javascript will simply “Show/hide” your comments form identified by “respond-(postID)”. Now I am no PHP guru, but this seems to work just fine returning zero errors.

[Edit] If you are copying the codes from above in green. Make sure you copy them into Notepad / Textedit and remove all formatting (convert to plain text) before pasting them in.

Just came across this post while browsing for 3D Topic Browsers in Jquery. It’s a simple Jquery funcltion to flip a container within a web page. I think, it’s a great idea to have spot reply forms created with these. They will give a blog very ‘Dashboard – Widget – Settings’ kind of feel. Will give it a test drive soon.

Jquery Flip Content

This is a video of an anamorphic, time traveling DeLorean (Mr. Fusion and all) I made in my basement. The image was made using only painter’s tape and elbow grease.
And, it makes me happy every time I look at it.

- Wablamo (on youtube)

I think it’s pure fun. Even more fun if you are a DeLorean fan.

But can’t the manufacturer rig the doors correctly?

Metro in Calcutta started 2 decades back and the doors would open if something or someone got caught in them and they did not shut properly. Its alarming that such stuff is not in place on buses even today.

The tech part should be fairly simple.

1. Detect an open door
2. Disengage the already electronic / hydraulic clutch (yep, they are no longer wires pulling each other)
3. Bus does not move.

Technology is there, it’s a matter of using it.

Auto Closing double jackknife bus door

This is just a broad overview.

Social networking sites as we see today consider the later to be their primary user. Sites like Google, amazon etc consider the former to be their primary user.

The idea has to slowly shift to combine the both, to invite the “accessing” user to “provide” more often, and this can be done only when the “process of providing” becomes a lot easier.

Apart from that, now we have to keep in mind the 3rd kind of user. “The Bots”, or crawlers from various search engines. Yes, a site has to be easier to crawl for information as well, and easier it is to do that, the better chances of it’s visibility on various search rankings.

What’s next?

The move should be to design for the 2 types of users and try and merge them. This would lead to a steady flow of updated information (not just about status messages and tweets but relevant information). The move has already started, and personal computing devices and slowly changing sizes and shape to aid in the process. And designs have to mirror the same sentiments.

We all know that iPod is probably one of the most used devices in the car in conjunction with other devices that already exist. But why doesn’t Apple get into the market directly and give us front row right from the driver’s seat either as a Software (with 3rd part hardware) or Hardware + Software combo. Many die hard fans have already put their Mac Minis in the their cars.

Car audio running front row!

“I don’t know if i totally agree with that. But nevertheless, you make a good point. What if I can come up with a response in opposition to your arguments”

Yep. That’s a spam caught in Akismet. On a regular blog that may sound like a legit comment, but when its posted on a tweet that criticizes .aspx pages and from a Light Bulb company. It’s a Spam. Good try.

The character is Architecture Professor Ted Mosby’s student. Popular for all the jokes that can be played on the name. Character is played by Hong Chau.

Believe it or not, but Cook Pu is a more searched for keyword than Apple’s ipad. Wow!

[posted: Most Searched Keyword Analysis]

Example: http://bit.ly/b2NoCF becomes http://bit.ly/b2NoCF (with tooltip, hover to view) or http://timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/i-would-have-loved-if-my-mobile-and-tv-did-this/ (complete URL)

Wordpress Plugin Anyone?

A/pple Tablet TImeline

A very interesting way of representing that data. Apart from that, a very interesting data in itself.

]]> http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/infographic-of-the-day-eight-years-of-tablet-talk-updated-fast-company/feed/ 0 http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/an-eco-friendly-washing-machine/ http://www.timeline-studios.com/blogs/2010/02/an-eco-friendly-washing-machine/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:37:04 +0000 shubho http://timeline-studios.com/blogs/?p=220 For a long time I have had this thought in mind. Why can’t washing machines have 2 water inlets, separate for Hot and Cold since so many users now have Solar Heaters at home.

How it would help:

1. Reduction in energy costs when heated wash is used.
2. Most washing soaps are designed to work in room temperature, and this would allow the machine to manipulate and chose a water temperature.
3. Definitely green.

For the sake of redundancy, the heater part should remain. After all, we do not really get the sun shining all the time.

Dual input for a washing machine to save energy.

Top Sites is a feature in safari where it gives you a thumbnail display of all frequently visited websites. Although the function is very simple, the display however is fantastic like all things Apple.

Safari Top Sites

The P2 theme from Automattic is probably the best theme there till date for an active blog. It supports inline comments and posting right from the homepage itself. The inline comments on this blog is also inspired by the P2 theme, in future would probably style P2 to run on this blog.

That’s how this thought came up.

What if the Mobile and the TV could talk. Which means I use the mobile to type and navigate while the TV did the display part. I would not mind a 640×480 display on the HD screen, but it would be larger, take less time, and much more user friendly just by the sheer size of it.

Mobile 2 TV display transfer

Interconnectivity

This is needed in the very near future. Devices would be categorized as Handheld, Storage, Display, Input, Output, Network apart from all others that may be there in the Kitchen. Let’s just leave them for now for the sake of ease (that’s my ease). Diagram displays the possible interconnectivity and overlap.

Overlaps

The problem comes when there are innumerable redundancies. For instance: a cell phone can be used to control a television, home theater and others thus reducing a remote. Music can be streamed to portable devices for the larger part, thus reducing the need for large data drives on them. Movies can be viewed directly on the TV screen on demand, instead of crouching in front of a Laptop to get the latest from Youtube, and all this has to get simple.

Not right now, but very soon.

It seems there is a Campaign on supported by our cricketers and a popular mobile company to save the Tigers that are left in India. An alarming 1411. The Campaign in it’s true ad world way shows a tiger cub waiting for his / her mother followed by a gun shot echoing through the forest. Nice, very touching, works to get ones attention to the tigers. But is that where we want the attention to go to?

No

1. We need this bulk of attention to be diverted to those who poach tigers, those who buy their byproducts and those who flaunt tiger skins in their homes, including the fake ones. Logic says, if you buy the fake one, you definitely long for the original.
2. The bulk of the problem is their diminishing habitat. It’s a large territorial cat that needs lots of wild space. A stringent control of Human population within the country would surely help reverse effects in the long run. Maybe it’s already too late for the tiger, but the Rhinos and the Ghariyals are going to go soon.

Let’s put down some ideas wherein we can come up with some innovative and plausible solution that would actually help rather than exploiting a lone cub to market ourselves.

Do comment in your ideas. The original video from Youtube is included.

Tablets in Grid mode. One gets 10 screen space (assuming that the screen borders are minimal) and 5 processors.

The idea maybe a little over the top, but things should aim at heading this way.

Well this might be a little too early to say as I may give in to the looks and the design of the ipad sometime soon as soon as its stable and available in India, but I still have my doubts over the whole Tablet concept.

We all wrote on a paper with pen a little more than 2 decades back when Bill and Steve started selling us stuff so that we hit keys instead of flaunting a Pen. In came a PC and then a Laptop. All that was to replace and make stuff easier for us to handle. Little after this Apple got in the Newton and we all loved it, it could schedule and recognize handwritten stuff and let you even scribble aimlessly, and then faded into oblivion.

Then came the Tablet PCs/Laptops which had this screen that swiveled and frankly thats what was the weak point. Sooner or later, they would become lose, wobble etc.

And we are back to the ‘no physical keyboard’ era again with iPhones (and it’s million copies from LG, Sony, Samsung etc.) and now a larger one in the ipad.

But the basic is missing. The ease of having a separate Input and Output device makes like a lot easier. physical memory takes care of the rest, much like the stick shift in a car. QWERTY was perfect.

Hence This. A two screen solution is probably a way to go.

Dual Screen tablet

Although Gizmodo has revealed something similar by Microsoft, I would rather wait for the Apple one.

How fast do you need to run to avoid getting run over by a train?

The answer seems to be simple upfront that you cannot outrun the train and sort of come under it and perish permanently. But the actual answer depends on how fast the train is going actually? If its running a bit slower than you can run, chances are you will survive.

Just a thought!!