Technology

I had my first go at restoring a file using Time Machine today. Looking for a Keynote presentation, I realised that I had kept only the PDF of the presentation and not the original presentation file. Not really sure how that happened, but, anyway, the file was lost. I have had Time Machine running on my computer ever since I upgraded to X.5, and have been wondering whether it would be worth the extra CPU peaks that appear every hour or so when it activates and copies changed files....

Bug Labs has announced a new open source, Lego-like computer modules running Linux. The idea is to create hardware that can easily be assembled in various ways. Looks neat! {#p503 .imagelink}

I just learned about Eduroam: Eduroam which stands for Education Roaming, is a RADIUS-based infrastructure that uses 802.1X security technology to allow for inter-institutional roaming. Being part of eduroam allows users visiting another institution connected to eduroam to log on to the WLAN using the same credentialsusername and passwordthe user would use if he were at his home institution. Depending on local policies at the visited institutions, eduroam participants may also have additional resources at their disposal....

The new Doepfer USB64 Info looks very interesting with its 64 analog (or digital) inputs and €125 price tag. I am not so excited about the MIDI plug, and wonder whether they intend to communicate some higher resolution data through the USB plug. {width=“602” height=“162”}

I have been complaining about the poor support for eLearning solutions at the University of Oslo for some years. I have tried Fronter, but find it too closed and rigid for what I want to do. I like that course information is open and easily available for everyone, but so far the standard course pages have been very much focused on basic information only. I recently discovered that things have improved a lot under the surface, and that it is now possible to give students access to add information to folders under the course web sites....

{#image457}The MTG group at Pompeu Fabra reports that Björk will use the Reactable in her upcoming tour: With her first tour concert at the Coachella Festival in California, the Icelandic singer Björk introduced the reactable for the first time to a mainstream audience. Our instrument will form a key element of the artist’s current world tour “Volta” which will appear at numerous music festivals during the next 18 months....

There are very few items that make me happy every time I use them, but my Sandisk SD memory card is one of them. I have had it for around a year, and it seems to be some of the most ingenious industrial design during the last years. It makes cables unnecessary, as I simple flip it open and connect it to a USB port. Brilliant! In the beginning I was very afraid that it should break, but I have been using it a lot over the last year without any problems....

I have been thinking a lot about GUIs, namespaces and control parameters over the last couple of days. One of the big challenges we are facing is how to make technology more human-friendly. Often it seems that technology controls us more than we control the technology. Creating a user interface of any kind is very similar how we think about mapping in musical instruments. In essence, any type of control is one, or several, layers of mapping between one set of parameters to another....

The AudioPint project at MIT aims at creating a computer based system that is as portable and stable as hardware gear: Consider a system that is small, lightweight, tough, able to be powered up, plugged in, and it used immediately - but with sounds that can be controlled by any computer-compatible input device, opening wide the space of expressive possibilities. Devices supported include midi controllers, joysticks, mice, touchpads, or any other custom controller that can connect to a computer!...

Jon Olav Eikenes has posted information about his diploma project on control of sound spatialisation at the department of interaction design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. As a co-adviser I think it is great to see an interdisciplinary project working so well. I hope we can get more of this type of collaborative projects in the future.