Learning Mac OS X takes some time ...

Having been a Windows and KDE / Linux user for many years I have found learning the shortcuts on a Mac OS X (Aqua) quite frustrating, however, once I have learned them I believe they are way more powerful than the Windows / KDE variants. I think this has a bit to do with the fact that Mac OS X uses different names for the term I am used to in the other OSs.

What I need is a good place to learn all of these commands :-)

This web site seems to have some good information: http://switchtoamac.com/guides/

Aesthetic Computing

I recently finished reading "Aesthetic Computing" edited by Paul Fishwick. It is related to my studies and I found it to be of great value. I found the chapters about "Processing" and "Aesthetics and the Visualization Quality of Software" most interesting since they are mostly related to what I am doing right now. It is an interesting book if you want to see how art and computer science is merged into one subject area. There are some shorter articles that exist and some links from Paul's page.

Being Human HCI in the Year 2020

Finished reading the research report entitled  Being Human HCI in the Year 2020, published by Microsoft Research. It is an interesting look at what has happened in the past, but doesn't live up to expectations on what is going to happen in the future. It has an interesting chapter that extends the research and design cycle which now includes: "Understand", "Study", "Design", "Build", and "Evaluate".  The new concept is "Understand". These are ideas I want to use for my studies and was mentioned to me a few years ago by Alan Blackwell. Good read short report and worthwhile getting a hold of if possible.

iWoz

Just read Steve Wozniak's iWoz book. It is a great inspiration for someone wanting to be a software engineer or invent things. It was a good honest biography. This guy might be a shy person and the rest, but he certainly has guts to do the things he has done and still be happy nonetheless. I wish I had his ability to invent things ... I am certainly happy however :-)

Mythical Man Month

I finished reading the Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks Jr. I heard him speak at OOPSLA 2007, it was a great talk. I think a lot of the values still hold today. It is a necessary read for anyone who is working as a software engineer.

Long Tail Books

I recently read three books that were related to the Long Tail, Google, and Search.

The Long Tail book by Chris Anderson explains the phenomenon of the business economics of the Long Tail, where businesses such as Amazon, Google, and Netflix thrive. It is well worth the read. Alternatively there is the original Wired article about Long Tail article and the Long Tail Blog. Also see the Wikipedia:Long_Tail article.

The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time is an interesting read which documents the history of Google. It even mentions Craig Nevill-Manning a New Zealander who created Google Products.

Finally, I also read The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture which was also good but not as good as the other two. It details the histories of other search based companies as well. The Google story is told better in the other book. This book is slightly long

The theme of these books is a look into how successful companies are making money on the Internet using the Long Tail concept.

If you had to choose one book to read I would read the Long Tail book.

ABs back to basics

The All Blacks had a convincing win over the Wallabies which just made my weekend. I managed to get soaking wet after the game as I had to walk home. However, the sun even shined the next day and I managed to do some gardening.

You know you are in New Zealand when ...

You know you are in New Zealand when you travel economy on a domestic flight from Wellington to Auckland and you get to sit right next to the Deputy Prime Minister (Winston Peters) and the highest paid former CEO of Telecom NZ (Theresa Gauteng). I guess that is what I like about NZ it is really small and there is not much bureaucracy compared with other countries.