A scholar commentary on the new breed of human, the “UX Designers”.

A scholar commentary on the new breed of human, the “UX Designers”.

It is Sunday, not a day for deep thought, so let’s keep it lighter…

https://uxdesign.cc/the-creatures-called-designers-1974b81d089b

OpenWhisk is an open source platform for serverless computing that works very well with Swift!

OpenWhisk is an open source platform for serverless computing that works very well with Swift!

2nd in a series of articles by Matthew Burke of Capital One, where he works with IBM Cloud, (cloud services infrastructure formerly known as Bluemix).

https://hackernoon.com/serverless-computing-with-swift-4fa27ab36161

First article: https://medium.com/capital-one-developers/serverless-computing-with-swift-f515ff052919

How did I miss this Kickstarted for a Roomba for the Garden.

How did I miss this Kickstarted for a Roomba for the Garden.

Designed by a Roomba engineer, Tertill is a solar-powered and weatherproof robot that weeds your garden every day., Shipping in May for $399!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLQAFaU3fIw

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rorymackean/tertill-the-solar-powered-weeding-robot-for-home-g

Sales Link: https://www.tertill.com/product/tertill-weeding-robot/

Steve Wozniak debunks the Garage origin myth of Apple.

Steve Wozniak debunks the Garage origin myth of Apple.

Along with a lot of other tidbit, Steve talks about the early days of personal computers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJif4i9NRdI

Designed to be free to all German primary schools students, Calliope is a small star shaped tiny computer.

Designed to be free to all German primary schools students, Calliope is a small star shaped tiny computer.

The hardware for $49 is impressive, but I am most intrigued that the programming language of choice is Swift!s

https://www.calliope.cc/en

Swift 5 has been released, enabling binary compatibility for all Apple apps and libraries.

Swift 5 has been released, enabling binary compatibility for all Apple apps and libraries.

Beside ABI, Swift 5 has new Standard Library data types (including Vectors), and support for dynamically callable types (interoperability with Python & JavaScript).

https://swift.org/blog/swift-5-released/

Paul Hudson Video explaining the features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iw4zf8gtqs

Apple unveils new game service for all their platforms (as well as Apple Credit card, new Video & New services)

Apple unveils new game service for all their platforms (as well as Apple Credit card, new Video & New services)

Why bother talking about anything else, everyone is watching Apple Event stream.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/25/18280589/apple-arcade-gaming-subscription-release-date-pricing-features

VR UX has people coming up with new techniques in design, in this case “Brownboxing”.

VR UX has people coming up with new techniques in design, in this case “Brownboxing”.

I have created mock up and cardboard demos for years, but in VR, they need to be 3D, thus this idea..

https://medium.com/pcmag-access/the-secret-to-vr-development-brownboxing-303cbc1e3d6e

Yes, there was more than one “Knowledge Navigator” videos, most released in 1988.

Yes, there was more than one “Knowledge Navigator” videos, most released in 1988.

“Parkbench”, “Volcano” and “:Future Shock” were visions from 30 years ago of the future of computer interaction.

https://www.mprove.de/script/88/apple/knowledgenavigator.html

pd. Yesterday posting caused some surprised emails, thus this follow up.

When you say “Knowledge Navigator” to software designers, they flash back to the groundbreaking 1987 concept video.

When you say “Knowledge Navigator” to software designers, they flash back to the groundbreaking 1987 concept video.

There were several videos, but “The Professor” was the one that ignited everyones attention, and had them dreaming of new designs.

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/knowledge-navigator.html

Direct Link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/-jiBLQyUi38

Wiki entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Navigator

Videos of the complete Virtual Reality track at MagFest 2019

Videos of the complete Virtual Reality track at MagFest 2019

6 presentations, 2 panels, and a lot of fun in January, We hope to do it again next year!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5389I84EKb7MSkVs7qKh-KGeFkFWxZ_I

ps. Drop me a note if you want to be involved in 2020!

DCVR in VA meetup for March will present Yours Truly (Steve Sheets) with an updated talk on the State of the Union in VR.

DCVR in VA meetup for March will present Yours Truly (Steve Sheets) with an updated talk on the State of the Union in VR.

Come to NovaLab in Reston to explore what 2019 means for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality.

https://www.meetup.com/DCimmersive/events/259538402/

Professional curiosity: Who has signed up for Apple’s WWDC lottery?

Professional curiosity: Who has signed up for Apple’s WWDC lottery, hoping to go to the developer conference in San Jose, CA? In this day and age of Internet, is it worth going in person?

The 8th annual DevFest DC has been announced for June 14, 2019

The 8th annual DevFest DC has been announced for June 14, 2019

One of the largest DevTech Events is host by Google Developer Group DC, but covers a large collection of developer activities and technologies.

https://www.devfestdc.org

Direct Link to tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/devfest-dc-2019-tickets-58835481509

An excellent PDF guide for Qualities of Engaging Voice-First Games by Amazon.

An excellent PDF guide for Qualities of Engaging Voice-First Games by Amazon.

While aimed for Alexa games, the listed principles can be used for all voice input apps.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/mobile-apps/dex/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/guide/AlexaforGamingGuide.pdf

ps. I am back from vacation and will continue my daily technical posting of things that interested me.

Tech Blog Announcement Hiatus

Tech Blog Announcement: Tomorrow I am transporting back to the Current Middle Ages, by attending Gulf Wars, a large SCA event in the Kingdom of Gleann Abhann (Lumberton MS). As you can imagine, I will have limited Internet access during my vacation, so my daily tech postings will be on hiatus until my return.  Considering the number of Rapier tourney I plan to attend, make that my bruised return somewhere around the 18th.  Fare thee well!

The second part of Jacob Payne articles on UX 101 for Virtual and Mixed Reality deals with the Senses.

The second part of Jacob Payne articles on UX 101 for Virtual and Mixed Reality deals with the Senses.

Vision, sound, touch, these are all sense that are part of uses interface to real world and VR. 

https://uxplanet.org/ux-101-for-virtual-and-mixed-reality-part-2-working-with-the-senses-c39fbd502494

To understand Virtual Reality, you need to know a bit about the UX of Real Reality. Part 1 of Jacob Payne two part article helps out.

To understand Virtual Reality, you need to know a bit about the UX of Real Reality.   Part 1 of Jacob Payne two part article helps out.

Jacob talks about how to adapt the Physicality of 3D interface to Mixed Reality

https://uxplanet.org/ux-101-for-virtual-and-mixed-reality-part-1-physicality-3fed072f371

Engineers at Google give advice regarding interviewing for Coding positions. Very helpful for new or experienced techs.

Engineers at Google give advice regarding interviewing for Coding positions. Very helpful for new or experienced techs.

I once was interviewed by Google. It was not one of the most happy moments in my professional career.

https://www.webpronews.com/software-engineer-google/

A humanoid robot with such a high dexterity, that it can thread a needle.

A humanoid robot with such a high dexterity, that it can thread a needle.

Using a new Micro Servo system, Chinese company Innfos Technology is pushing the boundaries of tasks it can complete.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2019/03/01/service-robot-thread-needle-dancing.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-robots/

Additional info: https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/listing/innfos-technology/

Long time “Mac Guy” Guy Kawasaki talks about how it was working for Steve Jobs during early days.

Long time “Mac Guy” Guy Kawasaki talks about how it was working for Steve Jobs during early days.

Main thing he learned from Jobs: Tell the truth, it's also easier than lying

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/former-apple-employee-guy-kawasaki-once-stood-up-to-steve-jobs-here-is-the-amazing-response-he-received.html

The Apple “Holy Grail” of software development, code once, having it run on all Apple platforms.

The Apple “Holy Grail” of software development, code once, having it run on all Apple platforms.

The Marzipan project has been talked about for whzile, but Bloomberg reports it is the works.

https://download.cnet.com/news/universal-apps-for-macs-and-ios-may-be-on-horizon-with-apples-marzipan-project/

Excellent article on top mistakes when designing an Application from the Nielsen Norman Group.

Excellent article on top mistakes when designing an Application from the Nielsen Norman Group.

Some of these are common generalizations, but most are concrete suggestions on making better Apps.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-application-design-mistakes/