The Blog / July 2013

Consider the workspace

So I’ve enrolled in a five week on-line course called ‘Design Thinking’ – run by Stanford University.  I’ve just submitted my assignments for the 2nd week and thought I’d share some of that here.  Specifically this week they have asked us to get all self-reflective about our Mindset, Process and Workspace.  It’s this last one […]

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Chomsky vs Žižek. Empiricism vs Philosophy/Theorists. Get the popcorn.

Oh this is just superb.  I am totally chuffed today because (thanks to Katie Hepworth) I have stumbled across a rich vein of both name-calling and insight in the great debate about the value of empiricism vs ‘theory’ or philosophy.  And, gloriously, taken up by two giants of their respective fields:  Noam Chomsky and Slavoj […]

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Console interface design and… does that thing fly the Enterprise?

So, in answer to your question: yes that is a real thing.  I helped design it.    It’s manufactured here in Australia and called the ‘Smart Console’.  No it does not fly the Enterprise – although we used to joke about how it felt like you were ‘flying through your mix’.  Below is a little […]

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A critique of Galloway’s Protocol: ‘Interrogating the Algorithm pt II’

So, the following will not be for everyone.  It is in fact, at times, a bit shouty.  But some of this really got my goat.  The idea that technology is not value-neutral and that it manifests cultural assumptions and reflects and sometimes enforces existing power structures is an important one.  In light of our increasingly […]

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A journal for Brain-Computer interfaces

Another quick one today. Ever since my research project at NICTA (that will be published as part of INTERACT 2013) where I was involved in assessing ‘brain-computer interfaces’ (EEG based systems) I have been fascinated by the potential for these things.  So it’s terrific to see a new journal being launched that will focus specifically […]

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Computers learn the most important lesson of all. And then team up to wipe out humans…

Just a quick one today. ‘In-game’ AI’s have come a long way since the ‘uniform blocks of baddies twitching back and forth’ of space Invaders.  Some of the more sophisticated ‘bots’ now use basic weak-AI principles to allow them to learn from player behaviour – resulting in them becoming continually more efficient at killing the […]

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