On The Margins

Thursday January 04, 2007

[ Technology ] Novels on the Small Screen

Not only films and haiku but novels are made and consumed on the cell phone. In a recent competition sponsored by NTT DoCoMo and D2 Communications, "most of the 2,400 entries were romance novels written by women in their teens and early 20s, other popular genres included horror, sci-fi and fantasy." However, The Outstanding Achievement Award "went to a man pushing 40 who told an apocalyptic tale of the last 24 hours on Earth," writes Lisa Katayama for Wired.

2007-01-04 14:41:03.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Tuesday January 02, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] phoneME Project Moves On

Developing and maintaining software targeted to hundreds of millions if not billions of devices can become a daunting task, and learning to use the tools of trade can be equally challenging.

Fortunately, when tinkering and development is in the open, knowledge--or should I say "know-how"--flourishes.

Developers learn from each other's work, and users can suggest (and make) useful changes. There is something akin to case law here. Unless cases are written and analyzed in a hierarchy of courts by communities of lawyers and judges, other cases cannot be judged and analyzed on the foundation of existing case experience.

Example: Java ME went open source recently under the guise of phoneME Project. Subversion commit messages can be found here. Discussion forums for phoneME Feature and phoneME Advanced can provide useful information. Some good weblogs to check for phoneME and Java ME are those by Hinkmond Wong, Stuart Marks, Terrence Barr, Mark Lam and Darryl Mocek. 

2007-01-02 19:01:16.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Monday January 01, 2007

[ Technology ] The Film and the Cell Phone

New tools have potential to produce new art forms.

Try reviewing some of the short films from the Pocket Film Festival. (BBC had a preview of the festival, and a later commentary can be found here.) 

Daniel Terdiman of Wired had written about cell phone films much earlier, and more recently, Boston University students are making short films using mobile phones provided by Amp'd. (Amp'd, a mobile communications operator, focuses on serving young subscribers.)

We probably have to wait a bit more to discover the best genre and quality characteristics of these films. For example, will the films have the same dimensions as usual dramatic work: premise, character, conflict and resolution? (Some of the shorts form the Pocket Film Festival seem to give a positive answer to this question.) What stories will these films be best suited to tell? Who will be the primary audience? For what purpose and how will the viewers watch these films?

2007-01-01 15:22:40.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday November 10, 2006

[ Work ] Give Me Sun Ray

Good, timeless ideas keep reincarnating in better ways. 

We talk a lot about mobility and about devices. I have been mobile--moving around quite a lot recently among various Sun campuses and spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area, roaming through offices and conference rooms.

I now have a new office in Sun's Menlo Park campus and what I want more than the laptop that may be on its way (my laptop had a hardware failure some time ago), is a Sun Ray, even in my office. With a Sun Ray, my session is always there, and a card-key away, and because I do not have to carry anything but my cell phone and my corporate card-key, it makes me even more mobile--every pound counts. (The wear and tear on Sun Ray keyborads tell me I'm not alone.)

So, when do I use the laptop? When I go on trips where there is no Sunray, when I'm lying down on a bed or a sofa to work or when I'm trying to build,  test or demo a piece of software in the absense of a Sun Ray. Sun Ray is by far the best equipment for the corporate worker who is not doing any of these latter tasks in environments where Sun Rays are missing--and let's remember that few corporate workers are engaged in these sorts of tasks on a regular basis.

I can even leave this entry as it is, run to my next meeting and if my party is late, insert my card key in a Sun Ray and do a final edit at this very point, where I am. That typo is now gone .... next one for the next stop ....

2006-11-10 13:28:22.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday November 03, 2006

[ Technology ] Scaffolded Urban Intelligence

Technology, when weaved through the fabric of our daily lives, can produce the effect that some have called scaffolded intelligence--intelligence that naturally has merged into our environment.

Great examples of this involve the use of seamless technology (i.e. technology that does not get in our way) to allow us to navigate around. While I have some questions about the natural-life integration of GPS navigation tools within cars, a more interesting integration involves seamless information gathering and distribution for more effective use of transportation artries within a city.

This type of integration has been available in Europe for some time. Users can get accurate information regarding bus, metro and train arrivals at particular stations and they can plan whole trips using their mobile devices, while en route, in several European countries.

Now, a similar system has been implemented for one of the best transportation systems in the U.S.:  Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

For details, see this Washington Post article: Lena H. Sun, "Web Lets Riders See Train Times From Afar," WP, Nov. 3, 2006, page B03.

2006-11-03 15:53:47.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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