We are in the process building a system – using both established and novel open source intelligence methods – to gauge, assess and display changes in the online discussion of science [...]]]> Will Grant and I have written an article on the Diffusion blog titled “An Atlas of Now” describing the project I’m working on at CPAS.

We are in the process building a system – using both established and novel open source intelligence methods – to gauge, assess and display changes in the online discussion of science and technology issues, controversies and dangerous alternate conceptions. Our goal is to develop a science communication ‘atlas of now’: revealing geographical and temporal changes in attitudes to science and technology issues throughout society.  
(An Atlas of Now)

We will be presenting a paper on this project at the Australian Science Communicators National Conference February 2010.

Last night we had home made sushi for dinner. It was good

PROGRAM:

Processing is fun because the sketching approach [...]]]> I’ve been trying out the  MSAFluid library by Memo Akten for Processing.  Starting from the example program that comes with the library, I’m making a wind tunnel.  I’ve seperated adding force to the fluid, adding particles and adding dye so that I can add each where I want to.

Processing is fun because the sketching approach means that you see the results at each step, and this often provides weird / interesting visual results.  These images show my wind tunnel with a ‘fan’ emitting dye and then a set of dye emitters half way down the tunnel.  The particles are distributed through the fluid to show the flow.

WindTunnel Frame 60

WindTunnel Frame 177

WindTunnel frame 456

WindTunnel frame 1069

I am cross at Wagamama’s implementation of their “Frequent Noodler” program.  It is a bit silly really because the points I’ve lost only work out to about 1 main meal or $20.  But the Wagamama moto is “positive eating + [...]]]> Please see the response below from Mark Rowland from Wagamama, he has sorted out my problem!

I am cross at Wagamama’s implementation of their “Frequent Noodler” program.  It is a bit silly really because the points I’ve lost only work out to about 1 main meal or $20.  But the Wagamama moto is “positive eating + positive living” which I don’t think is matched by their behaviour in this case.

After the last uxbookclub meeting in Canberra, a few of us went to Wagamama in Civic for dinner.  Some of the other people were members of the Frequent Noodlers club and suggested that I join.

So I grabbed a Frequent Noodler Card and I  paid for the meals.   The Frequent Noodler Card needs to be registered online – so I asked one of the others to do that using their iPhone.  The person at the cash register said that the registration takes a while, so instead I should just pay and then register at home and send in the details of my receipt. That’s what I did.

The next day (12 May) I registered and sent details of the receipt through their feedback form.  On the 19th May I got a response back from Wagamama listing the rules from their website, in particular “you cannot have points added to your account for receipts dated before your frequent noodler registration date”.   And asking me to provide details of the server from the receipt so “they can be notified immediately”.

I wrote this back:

Dear Tina,

Your loyalty cards need online activation and the person at the register said they take a while to activate (when I asked my friends to do it over their iPhones) so I should just pay and then write to marketing.  I was there with a group from the UXBookclub and one of the other people could have used their card, but suggested I do it so I can start having some points and go more regularly.   So their attempt to get you another regular customer seems to have meant losing those points.

So are your rules saying that when I got home late that night if I had activated it I would have got the points?? Instead of doing it the next morning?

Some rewards program – I guess I won’t be going back.

regards,

Brenda

On the 25th May I got another response from Tina, saying that it would not have mattered if I registered the same day or the next day, you have to be registered before you dine to be able to claim points.  She again asked me for the name of the server from the receipt so they can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I’m fairly sure there was nothing in the restaurant where I picked up the card about having to be registered first because if their had been, one of the other people with me would have used their card.

I can’t see why they have it set up this way – it would not be hard to let the points be added to that card immediately – even thought there were no customer details recorded – computers are good at keeping track of things like that.  If the person never registered, then the points would not get used.

I find it ironic that they expect their customers to register in advance, but take 7 days to respond to the first feedback message and 13 days to reply to the second.

I haven’t provided them with the name of the server as I don’t feel comfortable with doing that.

I guess that I won’t be going back to Wagamama any time soon.

Coffee Scolls:

Cheese Scolls

The AlloSphere uses two 5 metre radius half spheres made from optically opaque and acoustically transparent perforated aluminium. They are housed in a three story anechoic chamber. The viewers stand on a bridge that positions their heads [...]]]> TED Talk – JoAnn Kuchera-Morin: Tour the AlloSphere, a stunning new way to see scientific data

The AlloSphere uses two 5 metre radius half spheres made from optically opaque and acoustically transparent perforated aluminium. They are housed in a three story anechoic chamber. The viewers stand on a bridge that positions their heads near the centre of the sphere. The images are projected onto the inside of the hemispheres from a projector positioned in the seam between them.

The examples in the video seem to be fairly low resolution, at this stage there are only two projectors in operation (one for each hemisphere). They are installing multiple high resolution projectors around the seam between the two spheres to be able to do ‘eye limited’ resolution in 3D. The audio uses multiple speakers to achieve 3D audio.

More information is available on their website: The AlloSphere at the California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara

Eric Rodenbeck (Stamen): Information Visualization is a Medium This post contains 2 recorded talks from Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design, the visualization design lab known for projects like Trulia Hindsight, Digg Labs, SFMOMA ArtScope [...]]]> There is an interesting article on the Information Aesthetics blog about two talks given by Eric Rodenbeck last year:

Eric Rodenbeck (Stamen): Information Visualization is a Medium
This post contains 2 recorded talks from Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design, the visualization design lab known for projects like Trulia Hindsight, Digg Labs, SFMOMA ArtScope and Flickr Clock. – Information Aesthetics

The first talk argues that Information Visualization is more than a technology, it is becoming a medium with its own culture. As well as showing examples of visualisations made by Stamen, Eric uses a series of Venn diagrams to describe visualisation as working in the overlap between various elements, in particular between Analysis vs Spectacle.

“It is not enough to simply analyse and it is not enough to simply entertain, but as this thing moves out into the medium we can start to approach this way of looking at the world and thinking about the world that is beautiful as well as useful.” – Eric Rodenbeck.

Both talks are excellent!

Kiva’s mission is to connect [...]]]> Dick was an enthusiastic supporter of Kiva and his loan project details can be viewed here.  A new Kiva team has been created – the Dick Adamson Memorial Fund.  Contributions to the Dick Adamson Memorial Fund team can be made by joining Kiva and then selecting the team when you make donations.

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

Kiva is a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25USD to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

His daughter Juddie has described what we all loved about him:

Dick Adamson

I’ve never met anyone who lived in the moment quite the way my dad did. Even in his 60s he was still a [...]]]> On the 13th February my cousin, Dick Adamson, died. He was my friend and I miss him.

His daughter Juddie has described what we all loved about him:

Dick Adamson

That cheeky grin …

I’ve never met anyone who lived in the moment quite the way my dad did. Even in his 60s he was still a big kid at heart, delighting in the little things, always excited by the possibilities…

Dad was the one who would cheer a convoy of wedding cars passing on the street, stop and talk to anyone and everyone about their bicycle, motorbike, car, boat, clothing, artwork, house, work, haircut, you name it. He was cheeky and irreverent, comical and lighthearted, quiet and thoughtful. From him I learned important lessons about being alive in the world, about seeing and learning and constant discovery. I learnt about generosity, not just in a material sense, but generosity of spirit. Dad rarely, if ever, criticised others, and he had an uncanny knack for finding the positives in any situation. …

 

Although I didn’t see Dick in person as often as I would have liked, we kept in contact and I loved hearing about his latest projects and getting his insights into mine. His support after my father died was invaluable.

My thoughts are with his wife Tai, his daughters Justine and Kirsten, his mother Joan, his brother and sister John and Barbara and all of the other people who loved him and will miss him now he is gone.

I realised in looking for photographs of Dick, that I was usually too busy doing things with him to take any photographs! I did find this one of a wonderful evening we spent when we visited him and Tai in Cook Islands in 2001.

Cook Islands 2001