dichotic noise

Cyberpunk, now!

2010-03-03T16:08:02Z

I’m running the next P2PU ‘Introduction in Cyberpunk’ course. One of the aspects I’ll be focusing on is the blending between near-future and present, and between fiction and reality. I found this endorsement on twitter by Lt. Worf to be in this spirit.

26 years later

2010-01-29T09:21:53Z

2010 is the new 1984“So, in the end, what it comes down to is that iPad offers new metaphors that will let users engage with their computers with dramatically less friction. That gives me, as a developer, a sense of power and potency and creativity like no other. It makes the software market feel wide [...]

Ten Years

2009-11-13T12:02:28Z

Today Grapefruit turned 10.Ten years ago, me, Marius Ursache and Stefan Călin Liuțe joined forces and created Grapefruit (back then called ‘Grapefruit Design’). We were the first in Romania to tell and do many things about corporate and brand identity, naming, brand manuals and web sites.We were terrible stubborn in everything, particularly I was terrible [...]

Haute Couture

2009-11-03T16:53:26Z

The alarm clock projected its cardioid waking field over the bed. The substance of his dream started to fade away and crisp reality was pouring in… “Damn it, not again, not when I’m dreaming of her” he shouted, kicking away the clock’s antenna towards the wall. He closed his eyes, she was still there: soft and [...]

Ubiquity History

2010-02-01T05:30:13Z

I updated the code of the previous experiment (Sharing Ubiquity Commands) such that when you open an URL that contains a shared Ubiquity action, it won’t open Ubiquity in preview mode, but display a small icon. This also allows to display multiple commands on one page, and by using Ubiquity annotation database I could create this [...]

“I, Robot.”

2009-11-01T16:25:22Z

I’ve just read Cory Doctorow’s “I, Robot.” I’m stunned. There is no way I can analyse it objectively; as it renders back to life vivid bits of memories from my childhood. Let me explain. I was born behind the so-called “Iron Curtain,” been raised in a communist society where we were taught that we were [...]

Cyberpunk is dead.

2009-11-01T16:15:55Z

“Ubik helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Your friends will say, Christ, I used to think that you weren’t fun. But now, wow!—Safe when your privacy settings match your level of comfort, do not forget to review them often. Avoid prolonged use.” The above paraphrase is a crossbreed between Philip K. [...]

Sharing Ubiquity Commands

2010-02-01T05:29:37Z

I recently spoke with Aza Raskin at FOWA on Ubiquity commands/annotations sharing. I promised I’ll prototype something, here it is…(If the video is clipped, try it here) When someone applies an Ubiquity command to a piece of content that tells us what’s the type of that content. The user is making an annotation which is not [...]

Here be dragons

2009-11-01T15:57:43Z

“Here be dragons” is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps. (Wikipedia, Here be dragons) As a reaction to the Utopian science fiction (frequently set into a distant glorious future), cyberpunk projected all our fears [...]

Anti-heroes in Cyberpunk

2009-11-01T15:50:25Z

Technically an anti-hero lacks the attributes of the hero, of the “knight in the shining armour” type. I believe that one particular aspect of not being a (classical) hero is the use deception, living double lives, etc. In The Matrix, Neo lives a double life: he works a dull cubicle job by day, helps his landlady [...]