Monday, February 6, 2012

[ data data data ]

Subject: [ data data data ]

  • note: originally emailed 02/06/2012 and sanitized for public consumption
  • sidenote: posting here so i can lead people here whenever they ask me about this stuff...
From: XXX
the "need" for convenience
I have learned a very important lesson about that phrase when a friend of mine told me this:
"Me and computers are like a plugged in electric toaster in a bath tub full of water.  I am willing to pay extra for the added convenience of having something that just works.”

Authenticity… trustworthy… 'to be treated as humans'
There will always still be the need for anonymity, especially if you’re a parent with children trying to keep them safe from the crazies.

I'm beginning to see a resurgent desire for simple, straightforward, lasting, superior items.
Beginning?  This has always been the bane of internet browsing forever -- terse and obtrusive $#!t plastered all over the website.  How many web sites have you been to that was just too cluttered to use in the past 10 years -- flash heavy, ads spaces everywhere, pop up windows, "join/create a profile" overlays...

I don’t surf web sites anymore.  I find them on RSS feeds or when they are mentioned on podcasts.

I always use ‘adblock plus’ on my browser.


I absolutely agree that simpler, cleaner and streamlined web sites are the future -- to bad marketing will do everything they can to screw that up.  I almost shed a tear when 'mobile' sites started showing up -- a simpler, cleaner and streamlined version of their desktop counter-part.  Too bad many of them are a little 'too simple/vague'.


I don't know how many scripts I have to auto download web pages for me; snip the areas of interest I want; and collate all of the relevant data on a single page.  Too many web sites now want you to click through so many links to get the overall data, and most of them with extremely s.l.o.o.o.o.o.o.w response times.

Will we ever have so much information online that people stop asking each other for recommendations (i.e. will we ever make an information filter that is as personal and reliable as another human)?
I have learned a funny thing from another friend of mine:
If there are no ads, who will tell me what to buy next?

Now, you have to ask yourselves; are advertisers just as 'reliable' as another person?  I mean, they are done by people.  They are put up on TV, radio, print, whatever that are run by people.

Many 'humans' use them as a 'source' for [ finding out more / talking about it ]. It would seem to me that information online is just the same.  A source to springboard off of to find out more information about it if it interests you.

I always like to say:
Having too much information is better than not having enough.

I would like to close by also saying this; sometimes, information overload is perceived that way only because 'humans' are also very visual creatures.

You can look at a ton of data (i.e. 'read' it) if you like to watch paint dry.

Or you can 'watch' the data if it's been converted into a more palpable format.  Visualization (in computer graphics) is one of those exciting areas where art and design is merged in with the terse and bland 'data tables'.  One famous example of this is the visualization of flight path data.

Some good books on this topic:

I know there are more, I just don’t remember the titles to them off hand.

[But,] here’s something cool I just ran into:
http://www.blendernation.com/2012/02/08/blender-movie-winner-in-2011-science-visualization-challenge/


Posted by Nick Shin at 4:22 PM

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