Jun 26
May 19
E-books drive older women to digital piracy - MobileRead Forums
E-books drive older women to digital piracy
According to a new Digital Entertainment Survey, one in eight women over thirty five who own an ereading device have downloaded pirated ebooks."The picture across the entire e-reader and tablet markets is even more troubling for the publishing industry. Some 29 per cent of e-reader owners of both genders and all ages admit piracy. For tablets the figure rises to 36 per cent."
via mobileread.com
Older women. WOMEN OVER 35.
BRB, I have to get my walker.
May 16
Purple Cloud Desktop
Purple Cloud Desktop
Adam Dachis —Earlier this week we shared a bunch of great duotone wallpapers and today's featured desktop demonstrates how effectively such simple wallpapers can be. DeviantART user apandhi took a cloudy purple wallpaper and added a bunch of nicely organized and themed Rainmeter widgets. Apandhi also used the Windows theme Elune, one of our favorites, to continue with the silvery white aesthetic.
Want to replicate this look? Here's what you'll need:
- Background: Clouds
- Windows Theme: Elune
- Rainmeter customizations:
- Facebook Feed Menu: Omnimo 3
- Icon Menu: Rossella Launcher (with a few edits)
- Weather: ToxxWeather
- Statistic Monitors: Implosion 2
- Clock: CornerClock
- Recycle Bin: Simple Recycle Bin
NewDesktop | apandhi on deviantART
Do you have a great beautifully productive desktop of your own that you'd like to share? Go ahead and post it to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Group with a description of how you made it and it may be the next featured desktop.
via lifehacker.com
Feb 8
Design for Disability « Catherine's Blog
One of my favorite new online discoveries is Design Observer. A print journal recently turned online only, Design Observer features great articles and essays on a wide range of design topics. The best part it is how well-written it is. These days when all you get are short snippets and top 10 lists and 140 character limits, Design Observer has lengthy essays with substance that actually make you think.
Last week, they published an essay by Chappell Ellison, a winner of an Education Award in the 2009 AIGA Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing and Criticism. This essay, entitled Compulsion: Where Object Meets Anxiety is probably one of the more insightful and touching things I’ve read online in a long time. In it, Ellison talks about her older brother who has a severe form of OCD, and his difficult interactions with everyday objects that are supposedly designed to make our lives easier. At the end, she briefly mentions ideas of Universal Design and the possibilities of designing for someone with OCD. Although I really enjoyed reading her stories about her brother’s experiences, I wish that she would have spent more time on the issue of designing for disabilities. Ellison mentioned the iPhone as an inadvertent example of an object that may be helpful to people with OCD – with a smooth screen, you don’t need to worry about dirt that gets stuck in button crevices.
What I find most interesting about this is it makes me think about the issue of design vs. technology. It’s a fuzzy line between the two these days, ie like with most Apple products. But after reading this essay, I wanted to see what kinds of objects or things have been made specifically for people with disabilities. After awhile, I realized that many of the most interesting products I found were still conceptual and had yet to be invented. And most of the time, it seemed to be an issue of technology. Here are some of my favorite finds, all conceptual devices:
self explanatory – ballet shoes that vibrate for deaf dancers
a mug for blind people that rings when it’s full
the Voice Stick – it scans documents and read them to you
not really for people with a disability – a pill organizer and container for old people that reminds you when to take your medicine, but also self locks so you don’t overdose
(via Tuvie)
Some of these just seem so obvious – like the ringing cup – that you wonder why they haven’t been invented yet.
This reminded me of another blog that I love – Roger Ebert’s Journal. Hands down, this is my favorite blog. One day I will write another entry solely dedicated to how much I love it. Anyway, I only recently discovered this, but after battling thyroid cancer, Mr. Ebert is unable to speak anymore. I was actually shocked when I read this on wikipedia, because his writing has SO much voice that I guess it just seemed so tragically ironic he couldn’t talk anymore. In one of his many great blog posts, Finding my Own Voice, he writes about his experiences using the voices on his Mac to communicate with people. He mentions how, with all the hundreds of videos, recordings, lectures, and DVD commentaries he’s done, you think someone would be able to create a computerized version of his voice. But alas, though it sounds so simple an idea, the technology to do it is still lacking.
After all this, my point is that although yes, some things just still need to be invented, technology is not the end-all. Design by itself can still play a huge role in helping people. (The same can be said for sustainable buildings – people have been making ‘green’ buildings long before solar panels were invented ie the cliff dwellers in Mesa Verde.) What better place to find examples of this than in architecture?
This is the Hazelwood School for the Sensory Impaired in Glasgow, designed by gm + ad architects in 2004. Not only does the serpentine layout follow the natural contours of the site, but it provides a clear route through the school in a linear progression and allows for easy access to the outside from the classrooms.
Instead of hand railings, there is a cork-lined sensory folded wall that leads people through the school. The architects carefully chose various materials for inside and outside the building that would be warm to the touch. Clerestory windows provide diffuse natural light and prevent glare that would hurt students’ eyes. (images via Arch. Record)
Another example from somewhere closer to home is the Anchor Center for Blind Children in Denver, by Davis Partnership. I love these images – it’s like a mini Ronchamp with color.
(via Sources+Design)
I think these are both great examples of how design that isn’t technology-dependent can positively influence people’s lives. Ahhh, and isn’t that what good architecture is all about? Of course I still hope that one day some smart person can create a computer voice for Roger Ebert.
As an ending note, one area I find extremely lacking in good case studies is (affordable) senior living centers (and assisted living, and hospices). These are becoming more and more important, but so many of the affordable ones look like institutions and hospitals. Perkins Eastman has done a lot of good work in this field, but most of the projects look like they’re for rich people. If anyone has found any examples of well-designed senior/assisted living centers, please let me know! One day when I become a starchitect and have my own firm, I would love to design these types of buildings.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Feb 5
WordPress for BlackBerry Now Available Free in App World | BlackBerry Cool
The WordPress app for BlackBerry is at version 1.0 and is now available for download in App World. This app was in public beta for some time, and is now available free in App World.
Features include:
- Reworked UI layout for the main view, blog view, and media view.
- Ability to upload videos from your media library.
- New option to set media file properties (filename, caption, title, and position).
- Created a new file browser that resembles the native BlackBerry file browser.
- Big improvements in the speed at which you can view and manage comments.
- Lots of optimizations for uploading photos and videos using base64 encoding.
- Indonesian language support.
- Improved French language support.
Considering the Wicked WordPress app by Screaming Toaster is $10 per year, it would be great if this free version ends up packing as many features.
Download WordPress for BlackBerry in App World.
Related Posts:
Feb 4
Nearly 95 Percent of e-Reader Owners Are Happy With Their Devices
Port Washington, New York, February 3, 2010 - E-Reader satisfaction is high among owners, according to a new report e-Reader Owners: Attitudes and Usage from leading market research company The NPD Group. Almost all owners (93 percent) said they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their device. Only 2 percent of owners expressed any level of dissatisfaction.
Features are important to e-Reader owners. According to the report, 60 percent of owners said wireless access was their favorite feature on their e-Reader; touch was mentioned by 23 percent of owners.
“Both the display technology and available content on e-Readers are optimized for those interested in books, said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD. “Pairing these optimizations with wireless technology for transparent access and touch screens for easy navigation has resonated with the avid readers that have been early e-Reader adopters."
Even with great features, e-Reader owners are still looking for more in these relatively new and still evolving devices. Some recommended improvements from owners include more book title availability, longer battery life, and color screens at 42 percent, 39 percent, and 34 percent respectively. Content is important, and while almost half (46 percent) of owners said they were mostly satisfied with the selection of titles for their e-Reader devices, only 39 percent said they could find every title they were looking for.
But it seems that e-Reader owners aren’t married to their e-Readers to do their reading. About three-in-ten owners say they use at least one another device for reading e-books, such as a PC or a smartphone
"As we have seen with music, photos and video, books and other printed matter are slated to appear on a wide array of devices that offer tradeoffs in such factors as screen size and battery life,” said Rubin. “As the recent introduction of Apple's iPad demonstrates, applications now on smartphones benefit from larger screens, and industry leaders are recognizing the importance of supporting multiple platforms by supporting multiple clients and open standards."
Methodology
More than 1000 e-Reader owners identified from NPD’s online panel participated in this survey, which was conducted online in late November 2009.
Via npd.com
Feb 4
HBO renews 'Big Love'
HBO renews 'Big Love'
Playtone-produced Mormon drama picked up for fifth season
By Nellie Andreeva
Feb 3, 2010, 08:00 PM ET
HBO still has lots of love for the Mormon drama "Big Love."
Four episodes into the series' fourth season, the cable network has renewed the Playtone-produced show for a fifth season.
"Love," which centers on Utah native Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) as he balances the needs of his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin) and their broods, drew 1.7 million viewers for its season premiere last month. That was up 49% from Season 3's opener.
Despite facing the NFC Championship and the Grammys the past two Sundays, the modestly rated series is tracking 13% higher than last season.
"Love," whose current story line centers on Henrickson running for office, will be getting "deeper and darker" in the second half of the season, according to creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer.
With four eventful seasons, the fifth cycle will take a breather, "settling into the stortytelling," Olsen said.
Added Scheffer, "We want to take the temperature of the marriages."
With the exception of the departing Amanda Seyfried, the series' core cast will come back for Season 5, with Olsen and Scheffer also mulling a possible return for new additions Zeljko Ivanek and Sissy Spacek.
"Love," which earned its first best series Emmy nomination last year, is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, David Knoller, Bernadette Caulfield, Olsen and Scheffer.
