OpsanBlog

Information Snacking on Your Mobile?

January 13, 2008 Leave a comment

I’ve been talking and posting about the concept of “Information Snacking” for some time now. I want to be at the center of my data consumption, instead of trapped in an application, site or a specific device. We want to call up our data whenever, wherever we want it.

I envision a site that lets you customize multiple views of your data:

The PC / Browser view
The Mobile view
The 10-foot view

.. and maybe more variants.

Seems simple, right? Pick your content; your stocks, your MySpace or Facebook summary, your team scores, your weather, your mail. Assemble these widgets onto the pages for each view and voila! Information Snacking.

The rub: making money. Will one site allow other sites’ ads on their pages? Or will they pay a fee for the content and try to charge for it? Or something else?

Seems Yahoo! is opening this Pandora’s box a bit with their Yahoo! Mobile product; a starting point on your mobile device that includes the stuff you want (maps, email, etc.), plus the ability to add third-party content via Mobile Widgets. The site is boasting eBay, MySpace and MTV News widgets, along with a ton of other widgets in their widget gallery.

Update: As I point out in “The next thing: Mobiles, Minis, Flakes, et. al”, a mobile device is, an Information Snacking device .. a composite application, with you, the data consumer at the center.

Filed under Leap Frogs, Reference Posts Tagged with Information Snacking

No Hunting!

December 29, 2007 Leave a comment

A quick snap from a walk in the woods. Note how the totally docile deer are practically crowding around the "No Hunting" sign:

Filed under Reference Posts

Aauugh! (The Wilhelm Scream)

November 25, 2007 Leave a comment

While reading Wired at the gym, I came across the article: "Cue the Scream: Meet Hollywood’s Go-To Shriek".

The scream was from a scene in a 1951 film, "Distant Drums", where a cowboy found himself too close to an alligator and lost an arm in the process.

The scream echoes through film history, finding it’s way into film after film, as a sort of inside joke amongst sound professionals in the business. The article even provides a spiffy timeline as to some easily recognizable uses of the clip.

That’s just a taste. For more history, check out the Wikipedia article: "Wilhelm Scream".

I’d isolate the scream, but cannot for copyright reasons. However, there’s a link in the Wired article (above) and chrisofduke posted a fun compilation on YouTube: "The Wilhelm Scream Compilation".

Filed under Fun and Games, Reference Posts

Next-Generation Space Telescopes

November 21, 2007 Leave a comment

Current-generation telescopes such as Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra offer amazing views of space.

Astronomers aren’t stopping there: they’re keen to put more powerful scopes into orbit. A new process, called "Wavefront Sensing and Control" software will compute the best position for the mirrors in the new telescopes to optimize the image. The software will be in use in the James Webb Space Telescope.

MSNBC: "What space telescopes of tomorrow will see".