Comment on iPad Usability Study Reveals What We Do and Don’t Like In Apps by wonderwhy-er

Actually just day before read another criticism on touch/gesture interfaces usability http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/gestural_interfaces_a_step_backwards_in_usability_6.html that makes good points on how they are step backward for now and need a lot more work.

Comment on iPad Usability Study Reveals What We Do and Don’t Like In Apps by wonderwhy-er

Backlink: http://gigaom.com/apple/ipad-usability-study-reveals-what-we-do-and-dont-like-in-apps/#comment-626944

Location Efficiency Study

This research analyzed a sample of 40,000 mortgages and found the higher the rate of vehicle ownership, the greater the probability of mortgage default. The authors conclude, "location efficiency matters."Abstract:

Using a sample of over 40,000 mort

Tags: foreclosures walking new urbanism

Location Efficiency Study

Backlink: http://www.blogcatalog.com/search/frame?term=location&id;=0897862e2dce7c09620411ab2605b179

Melting Sea Ice May Trigger Colder Northern Winters, New Study Says

The steady loss of sea ice in the eastern Arctic could produce significant changes in the region's atmospheric circulation, possibly resulting in a period of colder winters in the planet's northern latitudes, even as the global climate warms, according to a new study. Using computer simulations to model decreases in sea cover in the eastern Arctic, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found what they called a "pronounced nonlinear response" of air temperatures and winds in the eastern Arctic.

Specifically, the decrease in winter sea ice in the Barents-Kara Sea area, located north of Norway and Russia, may well direct colder winds over much of Europe. "These anomalies could triple the probability of cold winter extremes in Europe and northern Asia," said Vladimir Petoukhov, a climate scientist and lead author of the study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. "Recent severe winters like last year's or the one of 2005-06 do not conflict with the global warming picture, but rather supplement it." Photo by Kevin Botto/flickr/Creative Commons Reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360

Post originale: http://featured.matternetwork.com/2010/11/melting-sea-ice-may-trigger.cfm

Directi Case Study Competition 2010 on Location Based Social Networking Services

I spent a fun day at the Directi office today, judging the finalists in the Directi Case Study Competition 2010 on location based social networking services.The brief to the business school students was to "explore creative uses of location based soc

Tags: social media speaking social web location services social-networks directi

Post originale: http://www.blogcatalog.com/search/frame?term=location&id;=1c9889a01be938661509bb0283016bc3

Weekly Case Study: Gateway Bancorp Reduces System Downtime by 80%

Gateway Bancorp's bank tellers, loan officers, and other employees rely on a series of financial software applications behind the scenes to better serve customers.

In order to achieve maximum uptime for these key applications, Gateway chose to virtualize its infrastructure.

The result? The bank reduced system downtime by 80%.

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Post originale: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/HD_V2BzyZVM/case-study-gateway-bancorp-red.php

Study Case Serpentine(Parametric)

Post originale: http://www.slideshare.net/mariotorcinaro/study-case-serpentineparametric

Study Case Serpentine(Parametric)

Post originale: http://www.slideshare.net/mariotorcinaro/study-case-serpentineparametric

OpenStudy Teams Up With MIT OpenCourseWare to Help OCW Users Study Together

As we wrote earlier this month, MIT OpenCourseWare is one of the most popular site for learners to freely access university course materials, with over 70 million visitors to the site from all over the world. Yet despite the increasing popularity (and push, by the likes of the Gates Foundation's new initiative) for opencourseware, one of the downsides has long been that the materials - syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, exams - are presented in a static and solitary fashion.

There has been no mechanism for instruction for and no interaction among MIT OCW students. Until now.

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Studying OCW Shouldn't Mean Studying Alone

At the beginning of this academic year, MIT OpenCourseWare and OpenStudy joined forces in order to provide an interactive environment for those studying certain MIT courses. OpenStudy, a social study network that originated at Georgia Tech and Emory University, allows users to work collaboratively and to answer one another's questions.

Steve Carson, MIT OpenCourseWare's External Relations Director, told ReadWriteWeb that MIT tried to have a BBS several years ago to foster discussions about courses, but that there were never really enough traffic for any one course. And it's this experience, perhaps that made the pilot program for the OCW OpenStudy groups only tackle three MIT courses: Introduction to Computer Science, Single Variable Calculus, and Chinese I.

The response, says Carson, has been "extraordinary." There are now 3000 students participating in the CS study group, 2400 in the calculus study group, and 800 in the Chinese one.

More Students, More Courses

And seeing this response, MIT and OpenStudy have added more study groups - there are study groups for ten courses now - which in just a couple of week's time, have elicited enrollment from hundreds of students.

According to Phil Hill, OpenStudy's CEO, "Our goal is to bring a more social learning experience to students on MIT OpenCourseWare by ensuring they don't have to study alone. Seeing so many of them now working together from all corners of the globe is a great first step." And this global element is important, adds Carson, noting that participants will almost always find someone online in the study groups.

Carson says that the response points to new ways for the MIT OpenCourseWare program to expand as it's clear OCW learners are interested not just in the availability of the course materials but in a community in which to share and discuss the ideas they're learning.

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Post originale: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/oSZtsZ97qV0/openstudy_teams_up_with_mit_opencourseware_to_help.php

Study Shows Babies Think Friendly Robots Are Sentient

seanonymous writes "A study from University of Washington claims that babies think robots are human, so long as the robots are friendly. No word on what evil robots are thought to be. From the article: 'At 18 months old, babies have begun to make conscious delineations between sentient beings and inanimate objects. But as robots get more and more advanced, those decisions may become harder to make. What causes a baby to decide a robot is more than bits of metal? As it turns out, it takes more than humanoid looks — babies rely on social interaction to make that call.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Post originale: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/w5Rmie0ihJA/story01.htm