I have meant to post about AideRSS for months now, but I have been so busy at Suited Media gearing up for the launch of Pokerspace that I have completely disregarded this blog and its readers. Rest assured I will be able to put more time back to this blog in the coming months.

For those that are still listening, there is a something you should check out. Simply put, I am very impressed with some software, a web application, created by a small team of local professionals including a fellow UW graduate, Ilya Grigorik, the Chief Architect of AideRSS, Inc.

AideRSS may be the first tool I have found in a long while that has the potential to significantly improve on my Bloglines experiences. Bloglines has been my tool of choice for blog reading for years, but as past posts have detailed I have found some difficulties navigating and enveloping hundreds of feeds a day, many of which post a lot, some of which post rarely. I used to subscribe to almost 500 feeds, but I am now cut down to about 335.

After meeting Ilya I knew he was creating innovative and potentially important software. I met Ilya at my UW graduation ceremony a few months ago. We exchanged some of our experiences and entrepreneurial interests. Conversing with him before the ceremony confirmed my initial impressions that Ilya was a very interesting individual. We exchanged contacts and I actually added him to my LinkedIn, which is something I have never done with someone I have known for such a short time. Now, a quick glance at his LinkedIn profile shows he is linked to more than 100 very interesting people - I not surprised in the slightest.

I played with his site for a few hours one night after work and found it to be a very well designed web application. I explored the site throughly and found it be an exemplary example of modern web design. I imported my entire OPML feed of into the site and it performed flawlessly. The interface was clear and easy to follow. I especially liked the quality feedback it gives the user at the apprioriate times and places. Looking at the CSS confirmed my guess that it was a cleanly coded site. Without any hesitation I subscribed to the AideRSS blog.

I am also impressed with their technology, PostRank. In fact, I use a lot of the same ranking techniques myself and have
experience with most of the sites (Bloglines, del.icio.us, Technorati, etc.) that enable the AideRSS application. I still use a lot of these services to run what I call “tracking feeds” for myself, my company, and other key words I care about so that I can hear immediately whenever these terms are mentioned online. I used to love PubSub (if you remember of it… if not, research it). I wish it was still around. Wow, apparently it is coming back…

PubSub is undergoing redevelopment at the moment. We’ll be relaunching as PubSub 2.0 this winter with a host of exciting new features and services.

Anyways, I suggest you check out AideRSS.

Ning is a free online service for building and using social applications. I have not got the chance to play with it yet (but I will), but from what I see they have created a framework for users to build their own social applications. Very cool indeed. And, it is getting a lot of coverage on some of the blogs I read.

via TechCrunch, Om Malik’s Broadband Blog, SiliconBeat, IFTF’s Future Now

Why I blog this? This is Web2.0 all the way. Small team, innovative idea, excellent execution so far. Stay tuned to their blog for more details.

LightSpace Technologies has created a cool (albeit retro looking) 3D display using a number of liquid crystal shutters. The result is a screen which is actually 3D, with 20 different z-positions!

The DepthCube z1024 3D Display is a rear-projection volumetric display in which a high-speed DLP(TM)
video projector sends a series of 3D image slices into a 3D projection volume. The projection volume is
composed of a physically deep stack of 20 electrically-switchable liquid crystal scattering shutters. At any
instant in time 19 of scattering shutters are transparent and only one is in a white scattering state. We
switch a single shutter into the scattering state and project onto it the appropriate image slice
corresponding to its physical depth. Since each image slice is stopped in the projection volume at the
correct depth, the DepthCube produces a 3D image that is truly deep.

A patented 3D anti-aliasing hardware algorithm virtually eliminates the visual discontinuities between
layers so that the 3D image appears to be completely smooth and continuous.

Why I blog this? It would be damn fun to play with for the graphics course I am currently taking.

via Video Thing via Future Feeder

Reactive Colours is an innovative project that is developing software to promote enjoyment and social interaction in severely autistic children.

It is using an non-commercial open source development model, and is aiming to include the autistic and Asperger’s community as developers and contributors to the project.

Sounds great. I’ve highlighted some of Mind Hacks interview with project leader Wendy Keay-Bright.

Wendy undertook a feasibility study which strongly indicated that this therapeutic way of working with computers could have particular resonance for children on the autistic spectrum.

The design of the software prioritises the computer as a medium. The computer becomes an environment where exploration and play, which are vital in the learning process, can occur spontaneously. This contrasts with the generally accepted notion that the mouse, keyboard, screen and even programming code, are purely functional components in a system.

Many computer programmes for autistic children focus on task or making progress, and this in some cases, can lead to the feeling of failure or children can become ‘locked in’ to a task and resist communication with others.

A highly significant goal in autism education is the achievement of joint attention tunnels. With this in mind it has been encouraging to witness children share their Reactive Colours activity session (which we are calling ‘Reactivities’) with their peers in monitored classroom environments.

This has been most dramatic in a multi-sensory environment using the interactive whiteboard where children use their hands and bodies to choreograph stunning visual effects.

Multi sensory stimuli can be alarming for some children, however the Reactivities reward touch and sound with simple forms - colour, shape and words and deliberately avoids sensory overload.

–

High levels of anxiety are very commonly found in children on the autistic spectrum. The experience of playing with Reactivities on the computer is entirely intuitive; the reactive graphics focus on spontaneous mark-making and cause and effect.

Expressive mark-making can relieve tension and outwardly represent inner experiences. Rhythm, sound, space, velocity, colour, shape and movement are created and controlled by the individual as they experiment with the mouse, keyboard and microphone input devices. This expression of creativity is personal, unique and ultimately satisfying.

Children are content to choose and explore, take turns and co-operate with others, all of which are significant for individuals on the autistic spectrum. The capacity to have fun is an almost universal human coping mechanism for dealing with stress, however for many autistic children this vital tool for releasing energy is not realised.

From our early experience of developing Reactive Colours with young autistic children we have seen opportunities for structured and parallel play that may help to create a calm environment for participatory learning.

And a note:

Although the Reactive Colours website has not yet been officially launched, (we are aiming to do this Spring 2006 when the Reactivities have been completely iterated with users) we would encourage anyone interested in the project to post their details on the forum and visit the site regularly for updates.

Teachers, parents and advisors who would like to participate in evaluating the prototype software can email Wendy for more information.

But Reactive Colours does have a blog.

Why I blog this? I met a women on Friday night who works with two autistic children. I asked her a number of questions about how these children experience the world. I was trying to figure out how technology could help these children, or help her help these children even more than she already is. So when I stumbled across the Reactive Colours project today, I knew it made sense to make a post and pass this information on to her and all of my other readers.

I love reading about great ideas. In this case: Putting a mpg-meter, fuel economy gauge, fuel consumption feedback - call it what you want - in all cars.

One important reason why hybrid cars result in better mileage is that drivers suddenly have an indication of how various aspects of their driving habits shape mileage. Hybrid mailing lists are filled with people taking about "driver break-in periods" as new drivers, given immediate feedback from the car, learn how to drive in a mileage-optimal fashion. Most hybrid drivers see a steady improvement in mileage over the first year because of this.

via treehugger, HybridBlog, WorldChanging

iUpload Perspectives Applied (what’s this):

 Technorati Tags: fuel economy, hybrid cars, energy

I highly recommend playing around with del.icio.us direc.tor: A High-Performance AJAX Web Service Broker.

Johnvey Hwang has created a really cool AJAX web application which builds off of del.icio.us. Essentially, it is a completely new GUI for del.icio.us written by somebody outside of del.icio.us. This is the power of web services in action. Johnvey even explains how he built this cool web application. And he has released everything using GPL and CC licenses.

Why I blog this? Needless to say, I was impressed. The web is finally moving in the right direction. Get ready for much richer web interfaces than we are used to. The del.icio.us direc.tor gets a spot on my bookmarks toolbar.

via Ajaxian.com

My previous post was written the typical way, using the WordPress interface.

For this post, I have bypassed the WordPress interface completely. It only took me a few seconds to write up this post using our new Perspectives QuickPost tool. I had to find a copy of xmlrpc.php for old (1.2) WordPress install, but that proved quite easy.

I have also added a Technorati Perspective with a couple of relevant tags to this post. Cool.

Anyone can use this tool now, for free. Click here to sign up for Perspectives.

Why I blog this? This is a first for me - a blog posting on my own blog using a blog tool that I helped create. I am sure you can understand why there is a smile on my face today.

iUpload Perspectives Applied (what’s this):

 Technorati Tags: iUpload, Perspectives

Only months ago, iUpload made a with a big splash at the annual DEMO conference - a leading industry conference for launching innovative technology products. At DEMO, the world was introduced to iUpload Perspectives. So, what is Perspectives and what does it have to do with blogging?

iUpload Perspectives lets you live in and communicate from one blog rather than wasting time going to different communities to submit content. You probably read your content in a single application - why not write it in single application as well.

Using iUpload Perspectives you can publish content to multiple different communities (such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad, Yahoo Groups, or even your own MovableType or Wordpress blogs) with ease. Or, you can choose to limit who can view your content by applying Perspectives such as the Salesforce or Plaxo Perspectives. In addition, you can add valuable, content specific Perspectives, such as a Technorati tag or the office favorite, the Google Maps Perspective. Included below is an example of the Google Map Perspective, in this case showing the location of the iUpload corporate office.

Perspectives has been included in iUpload’s corporate blogging suite for the past few months. But now, Perspectives are available for everyone to use.

To start using iUpload Perspectives today, you have two options:

• If you do not have a blog at all, you can sign up for a free Personal Publisher account here.
• If you already have one of more blogs or communities that you would like to use with Perspectives, you do not need to use an iUpload Personal Publisher blog. You can simply use our new QuickPost tool with your existing blogs!

When you sign up for iUpload Perspectives, a link will be generated allowing you to use our new QuickPost tool as a toolbar button. The QuickPost tool allows you easy access to many of the features in Perspectives, without any hassle.

Why I blog this? I have been working at iUpload for about a month and a half now, and much of that time has been spent working on Perspectives. It feels great to be working on the cutting edge of blog software, especially since I get to work with such a solid team of people. Expect even more innovation from iUpload in the coming weeks and months.

And, I look forward to hearing any comments, suggestions, criticisms, enhancement ideas, possible Perspectives, and so on, from my wonderful readers.

Indy is an extremely simple yet very cool app created by peer-to-peer software pioneer Ian Clarke. Ian is the creator of the Freenet open source peer-to-peer platform, as well as Dijjer, a free peer-to-peer app designed to reduce the bandwidth needs of sharing large files.

Indy uses a collaborative filtering system to learn about your musical preferences in relation to other Indy users.

If you are an artist and want to get heard, consider submitting your music to Indy.

Why I blog this? The software is small, easy, and simple. And, it appears to work fairly well. I have had it running for a few minutes and have already heard some interesting new tracks. It is only at build 5, so I am looking forward to future releases.

via Slashdot via Buzzsonic via p2pnet

Wordcount is an online interactive visualization of the frequency of word usage in the English language. I created the above image after searching for echo and generation. The graph below shows how most of the time people stick to a small subset of available words.

Why I blog this? It offers a different perspective on how we use language. It is also an example of a simple, clean, and stylish flash interface which presents a massive set of data in an easy to interpret way.

via Genius Now

Here is an example of another java graph visualization, Tree by Texon. Quite pretty. Looks like they are using Processing for the smooth visuals.

tree accesses the source code of a webdomain through it’s url and transforms the syntactic structure of the website into a tree structure represented by an image. this image illustrates a tree with trunk, branches and ramifications. first each tree is initialized, than all html links are detected, chronologically saved and finally displayed.

the first tree corresponds to the domain; according to the syntax of the website each further tree that builds up represents a subpage including all existing elements. the color of these trees reflects the color values of the domain and its subpages.

The image below is the tree for this blog.

And this is the forest that appears after leaving it on long enough. (I am one of the trees on the right side)

The forest is built in real-time without any noticable refresh. Looks like an interesting art project, but there is no interactivity from what I can tell.

Why I blog this? Mark added a comment to my previous post about his visualization tool, MyDensity. I think he will enjoy the link - it seems to be fairly good example of a similar Java visualization. And to answer your question: I want it to be real-time, interactive, and visually pleasing. Basically, let me hunt with ease through the mass of data. And find subtle ways to give me more information on that data, such as using different colours, sizes, etc. But keep it simple :)

via Josh Robin via Protein

Mitch Ratcliffe is the founder of a small company named Persuadio. Persuadio was recently featured in Esther Dyson’s PC Forum - one of hottest annual events in the technology and venture capital worlds. Why? Because Mitch is an entrepreneur with an innovative piece of software. His company has created a free blog social relationship exploration tool called MyDensity. MyDensity maps the first two degrees of the social network around any URL. People can use it to figure out where they are and how people find them. The basic idea is to increase understanding of how people’s sites are rising and falling in popularity and where those changes start in the market.

What we hope to let you do with our tool is let you see where [on the Web] you are compared to all of these other kinds of interests and then measure how much value is somewhere and who you need to influence in order to get people to start paying attention to you.

I found out about MyDensity thru stories Mitch is posting about his ongoing entrepreneurial experiences. See his Red Herring posts entitled We’re talking real money now (Mar. 9/05), Crunch Time (Mar. 17/05), and The extraordinary lightness of entrepreneuring (Mar. 23/05).

Also check out RatcliffeBlog, his personal blog, where he announces Persuadio LLC.

Why I blog this? Because I think he is on to something.

We need more ways to visualize the heaps of metadata the Blogosphere produces. The picture below (created about 24 hours ago) shows the results of a search for this blog. This is a young blog so I did not expect any results, but I had a few.

Searching with MyDensity returns a graph that you can dig into. Needless to say I am impressed with the application. The visual interface and navigation need work but can be upgraded later - innovative functionality comes first. When the resources are available a better visual interface can be built and MyDensity could be set to kick ass. But hey… maybe I am biased?

Why I really blog this? As you may have guessed, the primary reason for this post is to attract Mitch’s attention. I would hazard a small bet that he notices. Maybe this post will help increase Echo Generations popularity. I guess I will just have to check in from time to time using MyDensity to see if it does.

If he notices this post I wager mucho dinero that the next time I use his search engine the results for this blog will be worth posting about… again. :)

via ZDNet - Startup Persuadio visualizes opportunity in the Internet’s long tail. ZDNet also hosts an audio interview with Ratcliffe (mp3).