Category: Software

Clay writes about “Situated Software”

Shirky: Situated Software

From the article:
Part of the future I believe I’m seeing is a change in the software ecosystem which, for the moment, I’m calling situated software. This is software designed in and for a particular social situation or context. This way of making software is in contrast with what I’ll call the Web School (the paradigm I learned to program in), where scalability, generality, and completeness were the key virtues.

Google’s Calculator Functions

Google Web Search Features
From the site:
To use Google’s built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box and hit the Enter key or click on the Google Search button. The calculator can solve math problems involving basic arithmetic, more complicated math, units of measure and conversions, and physical constants. Try one of the sample expressions below, or refer to our complete instructions for help in building your own.

If only my command line had this ability built in.. You heard it hear first, Google on the command line is on it’s way.

Sony’s interaction research lab

Interaction Lab
From the site:
The Interaction Laboratory was established in 1999 to investigate the future of human computer interactions and digital lifestyles. Expanding the previous real-world user interface research within the Sony Computer Science Laboratories, we are currently working on fundamental technologies, including software architectures, hardware architectures, and sensor architectures, that will be needed to realize natural and intuitive interactions between the human, as a physical entity, and the information environment, as a digital entity. In addition to technology-oriented activities, we are also seeking a deeper understanding of human life itself, through cognitive research, and design and lifestyle studies. The Interaction Laboratorys fundamental goal is to establish symbiotic relationships between humans and technology.

Linux users, record that output…

Download Vsound
From the site:
This program allows you to record the output of any standard OSS program (one that uses /dev/dsp for sound) without having to modify or recompile the program. It uses the same idea as the esddsp wrapper from the Enlightened Sound Daemon (in fact, vsound is based on esddsp). That is, it preloads a library that intercepts calls to open /dev/dsp, and instead returns a handle to a normal file. It also intercepts ioctl’s on that file handle and logs them, to help convert the audio data from its raw form. Vsound then uses sox to convert the raw data to the desired file format.

TiVo to your friends favs

RSSTV: Syndication for your PVR
From the site:
We propose to share program information by building on existing syndication infrastructure. Specifically, we’ll add a number of namespaced elements as an extension to RSS. The value formats for these elements will be taken directly from XMLTV, a source of publically available program information.