insignificances » technology

Impressive free simulation

Jarle Petterson — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:46:24 +0000

The Kiwi software development company Dinther Product Design launched the first version of its free ship simulation, Ships, the other day, which leverages on the browser-based Google Earth plugin as the primary graphics engine, according to the Google Earth Blog.

First of all, let me point out that I was never much of a gamer, save for a brief Amiga period some 20 years ago, but this one actually had me impressed. Not so much by the game’s features and functionality perhaps as by its availability, as a free of charge offer based on third party R&D and development, such as Google’s ever-improving Google Earth.

If you’ve used Google Earth before, you already know some of the drill. Type in any location in the world (or click on it on the map), and you’re there. Personally I couldn’t resist ordering a huge container vessel to the Oslo harbour, as seen in this screendump:

A container vessel next to Oslo's Aker Brygge.

As you will see from the above screendumps, Ships is nowhere near the realistic experience you get from simulation programmes applied in commercial training, but it is great fun, offering different angles and vantage points, a selection of vessel classes, close to realistic navigation features (but no cigar) and, above all, hours of fun, if you’re so inclined.

I suppose it’s pretty obvious by now that I have no future as a gaming critic, but I thought you might be interested. Please check it out (requires that you download the Google Earth plugin). Before you do, you may find this brief walk-through interesting, though:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AQXvHSf3yQ

Top photo: Screendump from Ships, showing the “Queen Mary 2″ in Rotterdam.

ePaper — Newsprint’s saviour?

Jarle Petterson — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:20:58 +0000

Amazon’s Kindle DX launch stirred enthused response in the media business the other day, which shouldn’t come as a surprise really, seeing how the old media for the time being seem to be on a desperate search for ways out of the current downturn.

The Kindle DX, Amazon’s generation 2 ebook board, with a larger screen, specially designed for newspapers, is by many expected to be the salvation for a newspaper business in utter distress. The very idea is, of course, brilliant. Save the forests and reduce costs! But is it a viable business model?

First of all, the Kindle is sold in the U.S. only, mainly, I expect, because it connects to the Internet via Amazon’s own Whispernet, through Sprint’s 3G network. No wi-fi connection, what are they thinking? There are, however, ways around that obstacle, I’ve been told. More important, I think, is the Kindle’s – or rather the distributed newspapers’ – lack of links, interactivity and multimedia.

The news consumers’ flee from newsprint to news on the net isn’t related to the medium (i.e. the paper/the platform) per se: If links, leaving instant comments, sound and living images were an option on newsprint, chances are we’d stick with the good old rags. Unfortunately it’s not. Or rather… Who knows? The electronics industry have been fooling around with bendable, unbreakable electronic displays for over a decade now (I seem to remember Philips experimenting with it, sometime back in the 20th century, too). Maybe it’s time we could expect an outcome?

Back to the Kindle DX: Let’s take a closer look at how it works, shall we (text continues underneath video clip)?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIjFb8TfQag

The New York Times have been at the forefront for several years, in terms of finding new methods for traditional newsprint distribution. Several years ago I tried out the NYT Reader, in beta at the time, presenting the newspaper on-screen, pretty much in exactly the same fashion as a traditional newsprint paper – on the computer, but I soon tired of it.

This time around they attack the need to boost circulation with a different platform. According to a press release issued by Amazon last Wednesday, The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers, which ties in nicely with the media executives’ expectations. Clearly, the intention is to maintain – or increase, even – “traditional” circulation and subscription figures. The medium, the newspaper, that is, remains the same. The new thing about it is the distribution channel, as it were. Furthermore, according to the press release:

The New York Times headquarters. Photographer: Haxorjoe/Wikipedia

“At The New York Times Company we are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to have full and continuing access to our high-quality news and information,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company and publisher, The New York Times.

“The wireless delivery and new value-added features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audience, no matter where they live, with an exciting new way to interact with The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Additionally, by offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favourite newspapers. Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with Amazon to make The New York Times and The Boston Globe experiences on Kindle better than ever.”

Old copies of The Times with supplements (Wikimedia Commons)

You really can’t blame them for trying, but, as indicated above, I really wouldn’t hold my breath. For one, the revenues are dramatically reduced by the mere fact that Amazon charges 70 percent of the subscription income. Secondly, the reason we all fled the print editions is the Internet’s ability to offer additional functionality, which isn’t featured in the Kindle version.

I could go on, of course. Suffice it to say the technology obviously remains at its earliest stages. With Amazon offering U.S. newspapers only, I’d guess that the market has its limits. Why don’t they open up a bit? This really could be Amazon’s equivalent to Apple’s global iPhone success!

But there are alternatives. Take the Plastic Logic Reader, for instance, sporting a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. Plus (BIG plus!), it has wi-fi connectivity (text continues underneath picture)!

ePaper from Plastic Logic (photo from Plastic Logic).

Let’s have a closer look at that one, too:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaQHDxOxVhs

In all honesty, I think it’s time the media execs leave the old print editions behind, regardless the distribution channels or platforms. Modern day man wants the Internet interaction. The platform itself isn’t so bad, though. I’d love reading news on a Kindle or a Plastic Logic reader, but with Internet functionality, if you please.

If I’d like to have one? Of course, but gadgets – any kind of gadget – are a little out of reach if you’re a freelance journalist these days – as an interesting reflection of the overall and very tangible news business crisis.

Neverending browser wars

Jarle Petterson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:32:07 +0000

Apparently, there’s a new war going on, or a campaign, rather, launched in order to convince corporations and websites to make Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 usage impossible on their sites. There’s plenty of information out there, on why phasing out IE6 is imperative. You could go here or here, or to a number of various international and national campaigns to that effect.

Allegedly, maintaining websites for IE6 users takes too much of a toll on web developers, as well as bandwidth and server resources, as I understand it.

It would appear that the campaign originally started in Norway, which makes the illustration above all the funnier. No Opera? I’m sorry for that, but nicked the image somewhere. I’m such a bad, bad boy.

I can’t help thinking about the late 1990′s browser wars, and must admit that I’m still mourning the loss of Netscape, in a very quiet way. For the last four years or so, it’s been all Firefox for me, with a little Chrome, Opera and IE play on the side, just to check website functionality. Prior to that I spent four years running a corporate website, among other corporate communications chores, whose CMS actually demanded IE6 in order to work. Hopefully that’s no longer the case.

We shall fight in the streets…

But I saw something today, reminding me of Sir Winston Churchill’s famous words:

[...] we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…

You see, at first glance – at a distance – I could’ve sworn I saw a Firefox poster on the neighbourhood bus stop shelter. “Damn, so it’s come to this,” I thought. Apparently, my eyes played tricks on me, it would seem, once I got to take a closer look (then again; All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream, as the late Edgar Allan Poe once put it):

Pure Rush poster disguised as a Firefox ad - or is it the other way around?

Notice the head, if you please. You have to admit: The resemblance is somewhat striking, no? Oh, by the way, do you see the piles of snow reflected in the surface? That’s here. Right now.

Overwhelming Firefox presence

As for Insignificances, traffic figures reveal a total of 52.9 percent Firefox presence (all versions), 29.7 percent IE (all versions), 17.2 percent others (including Safari, Opera, Mozilla, Google Chrome and so forth). IE6 alone makes out a total of approximately 9.5 percent – undoubtedly on the decline.

And as always, I prefer ending things on a lighter note:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x87r3EMaMk8

Lying through my teeth

Jarle Petterson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:13:37 +0000

Oh the irony! Only days following my blasting our die-hard feminists I learned today that I’ve been assigned to write for a supplement on women in science, technology and engineering in one of our business dailies. But rest assured, I know how to be perfectly PC when recquired, so this is all going to be about missed opportunities by not recruiting female expertise – or how to attract it, as it were. The usual HR crap as we know it from numerous publications (of which I’m responsible for quite a few, I’m afraid).

I shan’t bother you with my regular two pennies worth on the matter, not until it’s been published, anyway, but I would appreciate your view on an underlying complication, though:

Would you say that printing a supplement on women, exclusively, in science, technology and engineering is somewhat degrading, in the sense that they’re thought worthy of special attention, as if they’re unable to stand on their own two feet?

It certainly brought my inner feminist to life, that’s for sure.

That’s all, really.

Flabbergasting 3D map

Jarle Petterson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:29:24 +0000

I’ve been visiting a few websites recently, which took my breath away, almost literally, alternating with an occasional fit of hyperventilation, one of which makes Google Earth and Maps look hopelessly obsolete — Norwegian search engine Sesam’s “Sesam 3D-kart” (plugin installation required):

Here’s the Oslo royal castle, as observed from a random angle, altitude and latitude, provided with continuously updated geodata. Pan, zoom, rotate… You have to try.

Fliff-flaff-fluff. That is the (extremely rapid) sound of me opening what ever digital device at hand, kung fu-style, on responding to foreigners asking directions.

I’ve treated myself to a not-so-guided Oslo tour already, planning on another virtual and aerial “stroll” tonight, unless I pass out after entertaining daughter and accompanying neighbour kid.

Endless possibilities.

My next mobile is an Android

Jarle Petterson — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:34:34 +0000

There can be no doubt. After seeing a brief walk-through of Google’s Android platform, I know, with something very close to a 100 percent certainty, that my next mobile is very likely to be an Android. German (US-based) T-Mobile launched their HTC-manufactured G1 yesterday, sporting Google’s brand new, Linux-based Android platform, and I have to tell You: For my purposes this beats the crap out of Apple’s latest iPhone. An absolute must-have if you’re depending on net-based applications in your everyday life, which I do. But I can tell you this, too: I’m in no hurry, since 1) Android-enabled mobiles won’t be available on the Norwegian market until sometime early next year (at the earliest), and 2) I’m not in the habit of buying goodies the minute they’re introduced to same market.

Desirable products are introduced to consumers on a near daily basis, and truth be told, I’m quite happy with my now soon one year old mobile. There are numerous reasons why you shouldn’t frequently renew your gadget armoury. I, for one, simply cannot afford to, and if I did, I’d think twice before polluting our environment with more electronic waste than absolutely necessary.

Of course, you’ll have to weigh the impact on your work-effienecy against all that, and in my case this constitutes a huge improvement, so we’ll just see. Affordable, too, at about USD 179 (in America, of course). As for the improved productivity… What can I say, that hasn’t already been said:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7qbPa1O8Ys

So yes, I think I’m going for an Android mobile, unless something better comes along. But that’s it, isn’t it: Something always does.