Another set of weeknotes that have lapsed over three weeks. We’ve been busy with various projects here and there.
The beginning of May was when we had to turn in our value-added tax forms. In Iceland, you turn them in every two months. We spent a bit of time getting all our financing in order and generally reviewing the status of our hourly rate, runway and general turn-over.
We spent some time in week 170 to meet-up with a few interested parties about a Bio Hacking Lab here in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was the start of a conversation to see what is needed and to prioritize any next steps. There are several Bio Hacking Labs around the world. They range from very simple DIY hacker spaces to much more BioCurious style workshops and laboratories. Iceland plays host to several large companies dealing with very low-level biological systems. Both deCODE genetics and Orf genetics, operate from Iceland. It would be great to build-up a ramp to improve the community and teach locals about genetics rather than rely on bring in foreign talent. We’ll see how the possibility of a DIY Bio Hackerspace develops.
Next month, in June we’ll be traveling to Lisbon, Portugal for UX-LX to give a half-day workshop on data visualizations. The back to Iceland for a week then off to New York City for SmashingConf to do it again. That means we’ve been finishing-up slides and practicing presentations.
In New York, we’ll be presenting a new talk all about going from digital to analog. Over the next few weeks, we’ll have a few supporting articles here about the process and how you can do some of these projects yourself. It also means that a few more open source projects published to aid our audience.
The Bláfell project has been pulled out of storage. A client has asked for something very similar, so we sat down and wrote all our thoughts and procedures for the project. Their’s is a more limited scope, so it made things easier, but overall we could re-use vast amounts of knowledge that has already been discussed, tested and even built. Even if the original project never launches, it was great to know we were/are on the right track with Bláfell.
Our other internal project is also taking a few more steps forward. We’ve gotten a second round of beta testers to actually look more into the admin portion of the application. This is were we’ll find more confusing labels, actions and design decisions. Hopefully, with some feedback we’ll clean-up all these loose-ends and be able to roll it out further soon.
Bric-à-brac
SIGGRAPH is one of those events that shows-off some of the amazing advances in computer graphics and technology. This is just a sample of what is in the pipes for 02014.
It is amazing to watch this wall ebb and flow, readjusting itself to the needs of the room. An incredibly low-resolution wall, but fascinating to watch at that scale.
Internet of Things
The whole Internet of Things is making its way out of the Peak of Inflated Expectations and getting into the Trough of Disillusionment. In the mean time, we keep finding amazing examples of internet connected objects.
NESCAFÉ Alarm Clock. A coffee grounds container that doubles as an aroma alarm clock.
A Homing device for your hire bike. It lets you know the nearest drop off point. The creator Tom Armitage is a smart guy, he’s been behind a few city scale projects in the past which have proven very interesting.