Exploring Cloud Architecture

From the MSDN Magazine:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh852589.aspx

Internet & Cloud for Astronomy

I really liked this paper since it uses software engineering and a species of (Internet/Cloud)-based services to render its results.

Look at page 3:

"We created a workflow, i.e. an automatic data retrieval and analysis system to search for cE galaxies in large data collections provided by the Virtual Observatory (VO, (12)). It comprised the following steps. (i) Identify nearby galaxy clusters at redshifts z < 0.055 using the Vizier Service (13) at the Centre de Donn´ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg. Without this condition our potential candidate cE galaxies would have been too faint for spectroscopic follow-up. (ii)

Once the sources were identified, gather more precise measurements using other VO services including the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED, (14)). (iii) Use the IVOA Simple Image access Protocol to find and fetch the HST images of selected galaxy clusters from the Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA, (15)). (iv) For each image, run the SExtractor source identification software (16) to obtain half-light radii, total luminosities and approximate light profiles for all galaxies in each frame. (v) Apply color corrections to homogenize the results for all photometric bands and use the surface brightness – half-light radius criteria to find cE candidates. (vi) Finally, query NED, Vizier and a database of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (17) to find additional information for candidate objects, such as published redshifts and integrated photometry."

A Population of Compact Elliptical Galaxies Detected with the Virtual Observatory

Time-lapse Video of the Night Sky

http://vimeo.com/dakotalapse/temporaldistortion

Keyboard Pants

http://www.gizmag.com/keyboard-pants/21469/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=9653baeb36-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

The Beauty of Things

The beauty of things -
Is in the beholder's brain - the human mind's translation
of their transhuman
Intrinsic value.
...as mathematics, a human invention
That parallels but never touches reality, gives the astronomer
Metaphors through which he may comprehend
The powers and the flow of things: so the human sense
Of beauty is our metaphor of their excellence, their divine
nature: - like dust in a whirlwind, making
The wild wind visible.

-Robinson Jeffers

http://www.youtube.com/v/xHkq1edcbk4?version=3

Underwater Statues

Dutch Bridge Creativity

This sunken bridge located in the Netherlands is giving visitors a unique way to access a beautiful 17th Century Dutch fort. Designed by RO & AD Architects, the Moses Bridge literally parts the waters that surround the fort, allowing pedestrians to pass through.

Growth & Innovation

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0113_growth_innovation.aspx

On IT Careers in 2012

On IT Careers in 2012

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/010412-ceo-follow-254518.html

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/122311-outlook-staffing-quit-254362.html

An Entity Framework Book

http://visualstudiomagazine.com/efbook

.NET Developer Salary Survey

From the January 2012 issue of the Visual Studio Magazine:

http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2012/01/01/developer-salary-survey.aspx

File-Share Religion

A "church" whose central tenet is the right to file-share has been formally
recognised by the Swedish government:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16424659

Prospects for Global Restraints on Cyberattack

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2011_12/Prospects_for_Global_Restraints_on_Cyberattack

Water-Scrum-fall is the reality of agile

From the Software Development Times (www.sdtimes.com):

http://sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=36195&print=true

3 observations:

1. Water defines the upfront work
2. Scrum comes in the middle of the process
3. Fall: Limits to release frequency

Agile Slaves

http://sdtimes.com/blog/post/2011/11/11/Agile-slaves.aspx

Books on Lean Software Development

From Software Development Times (http://sdtimes.com/):

"Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash"By Mary Poppendieck and Tom PoppendieckThis book taught me a different way of thinking, and helped me understand where the agile approach to software development comes from. I had read a lot of agile stuff on the Web, but the ideas presented there were not well defended. The authors of this book show you the research behind their approach to software development.— Bill Wagner

"Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are Not the Point "By Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck"Leading Lean Software Development" addresses one of the key issues that software development teams following the Scrum methodology tend to struggle with: how to focus on the larger organization, not just the team itself.— Ellen Gottesdiener

Art & Technology

Tag: We’re It is a digital art installation that used projectors to deliver a floating field of droplets along a white wall. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to share a memory which is recorded and they were then presented with a frame which they could use to reconstruct a Microsoft Tag by placing their frame on any grouping of droplets on the wall. This may sound confusing – just hit play on the video above to see the resulting beauty of the installation. Viewers could use their smartphone to scan the tag that their frame created and access any one of a hundred pre-recorded video memories, perhaps even their own.

The exhibition was attended by over 400 people in two days, and was extended by the gallery for two weeks through the E.A.S.T. Austin studio tour - Austin’s single largest art event of the year. It was the work of Lisa Kaselak, a filmmaker and digital artist and Lee Billington, a creative director and designer specializing in interactive design. They wanted a two-dimensional piece of art that you could explore and that delivered more than just the surface content. Microsoft Tag afforded that opportunity, not least as the Tag’s are dynamic (unlike QR codes) so the video content could easily be changed.

To quote one of their visitors - "I haven’t seen art and technology come together in quite this way"

http://vimeo.com/leeandlisa/tagwereit

Piet & Other Languages

I love Piet! It’s so cool!

Piet: http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html

Chef: http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/chef.html

Other esoteric languages: http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/

2 Articles of Touch User Interfaces - TUI

Two useful articles on TUI:

http://www.eetimes.com/design/embedded/4231144/The-challenges-of-multi-touch-gesture-interfaces?Ecosystem=embedded

and

http://www.eetimes.com/design/embedded/4231057/Gesture-recognition-first-step-toward-3D-UIs-?Ecosystem=embedded

Book on Touch User Interfaces

In the book "Brave NUI World: Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture", Daniel Wigdor and Dennis Wixon discuss the design of Touch User Interfaces (TUI).