billso.com

This New York Times article describes a software project called Viewfinder. The goal is to help Internet users post pictures of buildings and landmarks directly into an application like Google Maps, or into a web mashup application. I discussed mashups in two billso.com articles in 2007:

• 12 February 2008: More web mashups
• 8 February 2008: Web mashups

The usability issues in mashup design can be tricky, as programmers are taking data and applications that might be related but aren’t directly compatible. An app like Viewfinder has to deal with location data, the map images, the user’s image, and a variety of visual issues including perspective and orientation.

See the official web site at the University of Southern California for more details. Here’s a video demo from the site.

I just opened up my June 2007 copy of the University of Georgia alumni magazine and, on page 34, I received a pleasant surprise: Danger Mouse, otherwise known as Brian Burton or one half of Gnarls Barkley, earned his undergraduate degree in music at UGA in 2000. Wikipedia confirms this.

The Grey Album was one of my favorite downloads of 2005, and I do enjoy Gnarls Barkley’s music a lot.

On Sunday, Boing Boing posted a link to Bad Copy, Good Copy, a Danish documentary about copyright law and the media. It features an interview with Danger Mouse, along with snippets of his music. The video can be viewed for free at the web site, or downloaded for free in XviD format via BitTorrent. It’s a fun hour of viewing pleasure.

One of the nice things about this summer is that I’ve had more time to read. Here’s a sample:

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow. In this short story, a sysad faces the ultimate outage. Available for free as PDF, HTML and a podcast at his web site, or buy the the Locus award winning compilation from Amazon.

Companies should learn how to play “tag”

Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. A mind-bending book about the modern Web, with serious implications for competitive strategy. This may become an optional reading for IS 7010 in the fall. I was pleased to learn that my tagging strategies can work better than traditional knowledge management techniques! Weinberger’s discussion of Wikipedia is balanced and interesting. Can companies satisfy new key success factors by letting users sort data as they see fit? See these interviews at Boing Boing, read chapter 1 for free at the book’s website, or buy the book at Amazon.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. A 1991 steampunk classic by two excellent writers. In 1855 England, a new ruling class has taken power with the help of mechanical computers. But watch out for those pesky Luddites! Buy the book at Amazon.

Tourists who flock to Hawaii’s beaches may not realize that our state has a high rate of drowning deaths. In the last 6 calendar years, an average of 64 people have died each year. The casualty rate is almost evenly split between tourists and residents.

On December 13 in my old Bloglines blog, I mentioned that the University of Hawaii had developed an ocean safety web site, featuring real-time information from Hawaii’s beaches.

According to an article in today’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Governor Linda Lingle launched a new and improved version of the UH site at hawaiibeachsafety.org

The RSS feed still posts the conditions for every beach listed on the site, and that is an awkward solution. Individual RSS feeds for each of the beaches would be much more usable, as most users only want information for one or two specific beaches. I’ve tried using the comprehensive RSS on my mobile phone, and it’s a dismal experience.

The RSS feed is located at http://oceansafety.soest.hawaii.edu/features/recommend_beaches.xml

That domain name redirects to the UH site, with pages that indicate conditions on these islands’ beaches:

• Oahu (North, West, East, South)
• Hawaii
• Kauai
• Maui

The’re not really the RIAA, but the sound is out of this world.

According to BoingBoing, one of my favorite mashup sets from 2005, Sounds for the Sun-Set, has spawned a sequel: Sounds for the Space-Set. The 22-song set is available in this ZIP file.

I mentioned musical mashups in my February 8 post.