August 3, 2010
0 Comments
The following works well for doing app demos for protoypes or pre-release apps:
Makes an excellent tool for app demos to a room of people using a laptop projector or using gotomeeting for a remote demo.
November 6, 2009
1 Comment
I posted some information back in August about GUI mock-up tools. Since then, I have tried a variety of tools, including the hosted Protoshare and the multi-platform desktop application Balsamiq Mockups. In the end I selected Balsamiq Mockups as the preferred tool to use.
The following shows an example of the type of prototyping that Balsamiq Mockups can deliver. It also provides the ability to automate the navigation to more easily show the flow and intended behavior of the application.
The following video provides a good overview of the tool and its features:
The reasons for selecting Balsamiq Mockups:
To make it easy to share the mock-up files within the team, we also decided to use dropbox.com. Dropbox allows seamless sharing of files with a team, provides backups of the files, allows multiple computer access…
Updates:
This blog entry has some good pointers to various templates and stencils that are useful for doing iPhone mockups – http://iphoneized.com/2009/03/roundup-iphone-stencils-graphics-templates/, as well as additional insights into iPhone mockup tools (both computer and pen and paper!) – http://iphoneized.com/2009/11/21-prototyping-mockup-wireframing-tools-iphone-app-development/
October 26, 2009
0 Comments
Morgan Stanley recently published data on key economy and internet trends. The presentation is available online at various locations, including SlideShare below:
October 26, 2009
1 Comment
There is a lot of interest these days regarding social “things” and their potential to change how people communicate. There are currently three main categories of social “things” on the internet today:
Some social networking statistics from 2009 are available here.
October 25, 2009
0 Comments
August 11, 2009
0 Comments
I took a COBOL course while in University (not sure why I did at the time, other then I found programming languages interesting (and still do)) and also subsequently took a part-time job as teaching assistant for COBOL courses back in the ’80′s. Unfortunately I never had occasion to use my COBOL programming skills in any meaningful way — although I found the database/records orientation of the language to be useful in other contexts.
I was recently surprised to read that COBOL – one of the industry’s oldest programming languages – still “equates to 80 percent of the world’s actively used code,” according to Stephen Kelley of Micro Focus.
August 11, 2009
0 Comments
This is another cool technology – a lab on a chip that does over 1,024 different chemical reactions in parallel.
The technical paper describing the technology is available online.
August 11, 2009
0 Comments
The video below gives a very interesting demonstration of a holographic-based user interface. It is particularly interesting since they have integrated ultrasonic sound to provide a tactile component to the user interaction with the holographic interface.
August 1, 2009
3 Comments
I spent some time recently looking at GUI mock up and associated requirements management applications. I grouped the tools into three categories: general purpose tools that could be used for mock ups, specialized tools oriented towards mock-ups and simulation, and hosted services for mock-ups and collaboration with teams and customers.
My research so far has identified the following -
General Tools for GUI Mock Ups
Specialized Tools for GUI Mock Ups
The feedback from several people who have used a variety mock up and simulation tools seem to favor the more general-purpose tools such as Visio and Omnigraffle for general GUI mock ups.
Relative to requirements management, I have never been a big fan of specialized tools (and there are a lot of them on the market, many with big price-tags) and have tended to favor tools such as MS Word, FreeMind mind mapping, Excel and powerpoint as means to capture, analyze and organize requirements.
Still some more research to do, so if anyone has any suggestions based on their experiences please let me know!
UPDATE:
HELLO THERE!
Are you an experienced User Experience designer? Drop me a line (brian@purpleforge.com) – we are always on the look-out for good people to work with on new projects at Purple Forge.
Like Zombies? Take a look at this!
June 17, 2009
0 Comments
Lead to Win held a reception on Monday evening for participants and supporters. Special guests included the Mayor of Gatineau and the acting Mayor of Ottawa. Both expressed their support for the Lead to Win program and new businesses the participants are hoping to launch.
Mayor of Gatineau, Marc Bureau
Acting Mayor of Ottawa, Michel Bellemare
Participants at the reception commented on the strong and growing support from the community for the Lead to Win program.
Past Lead to Win Alumnus David Vicary, CEO of Weyes Eyes and past CEO and founder of Nakina Systems announced that he had secured seed funding for Weyes Eyes, his second start-up venture. For more on this, please read the related Ottawa Business Journal article.
David Vicary, CEO Weyes Eyes
Photos from the event are available online.
The reception was hosted by Développement économique – CLD Gatineau (DE – CLDG).
June 16, 2009
0 Comments
Robert Half Technology issued data on IT jobs outlook this week, key findings from their survey:
Technology executives attribute staff reductions largely to reduced IT budgets and company wide layoffs
Employers cite rising workloads as the primary reason to add IT personnel
CIOs in the finance sector are most optimistic about hiring
Project management is the job area experiencing the most growth
Five per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) expect to hire full-time employees in the next three months, while 11 per cent anticipate personnel reductions. The majority of respondents, 80 per cent, plan to maintain current staffing levels.
May 31, 2009
0 Comments
The server market is getting hit hard these days – announcements in just the last few months:
My bet is on Cisco capitalizing on the turmoil and emerging stronger and more dominant then ever before.
IDC forecasts server market to decline through 2010
May 15, 2009
0 Comments
‘SixthSense’ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world with digital information and lets users use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.
It offers some interesting ideas for potential new applications.
April 19, 2009
0 Comments
This new technology from Sensitive Object presents some interesting potential for new applications.
Their technology can turn almost any object into a touch-sensitive interface!
April 19, 2009
0 Comments
The Nintendo Wii and it’s accessories represent a new platform with a lot of new opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop derivative products from.
A case in point, Johny Lee at Carnegie Mellon University has developed and posted working designs and software for a low-cost interactive whiteboard based on the WiiRemote and a PC. You have to see it to believe it -
Software for the Wiimote Whiteboard is freely available
Links to this and other Wii related projects he is working on is available at this location.
April 18, 2009
0 Comments
Green tech and clean energy is the new snake oil – and is increasingly being pushed in Ottawa and other communities as “the future of technology” and the source for attracting venture capital, private investment and driving massive economic growth… However the facts paint a different picture!
Venturesource reports steady declines in Venture investment in the green tech and clean energy sectors, with $189 million of Venture Capital invested in 15 deals during the first quarter, down 59 percent from the $457 million invested in 24 such deals last year. This is in comparison to ICT investments, which even in the worst of times are still almost 10 times greater for the same period!
Clean Energy, Green Tech – it walks, talks and looks like a Monorail -
April 15, 2009
0 Comments
April 16, 2009 – Press Release
Ottawa, Ontario
Lead-to-Win Turns Economic Downturn into Opportunity for Laid-Off Technology Workers in Canada’s Capital Region
In the tech meltdown of 2002, four out of five laid-off tech workers did not find work in high tech, and in Ottawa-Gatineau two out of five laid-off tech workers left the region. In 2009, Canada’s Capital Region high tech sector faces a significantly greater challenge.
Today, Ontario’s Talent First Network is pleased to announce the launch of the Lead To Win program for laid-off tech workers. The program is based upon a program of the same name that was delivered during the last economic downturn in 2002. Over half of the participants in the 2002 Lead to Win program created a new business in Canada’s Capital Region. These new businesses collectively created over 300 jobs and attracted over $90M in investment.
“Lead to Win is a great initiative for our region and we are pleased to support the program,” stated Larry O’Brien, Mayor of the City of Ottawa. There is a proven recipe here. This is precisely the sort of innovative action that takes the current economic situation and turns it into a compelling opportunity for growth.”
Professor Tony Bailetti of Carleton University stated “We have a real opportunity to drive massive innovation in Canada’s Capital Region. Lead to Win will equip the next wave of technology entrepreneurs to launch new businesses that target the right market spaces. We did this in 2002 and we are going to do it again.”
David Vicary, founder of Weyeseyes and previously President and founder of Nakina Systems was also a 2002 Lead to Win participant. Vicary stated “The Lead to Win program was developed to help entrepreneurs in tough times. The lessons learned in Lead to Win were critical to my success in founding and growing Nakina Systems.”
The program is intended for talented individuals who want to launch a new technology business. The program is free to qualified applicants. Applications are currently being solicited for the program. Space is limited and interested individuals are encouraged to apply online at www.leadtowin.ca.
Lead to Win is sponsored by the City of Ottawa, Talent First Network and Carleton University. Lead to Win associates include alumni from the 2002 Lead To Win program, local businesses, and faculty members and graduate students of Carleton University’s Technology Innovation Management program (http://www.carleton.ca/tim).
About the Talent First Network
The Talent First Network is a successful Ontario-wide initiative funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Carleton University. The Talent First Network enables the commercialization of market offers that rely on open source projects and global ecosystems for their revenue.
Contact: Tony Bailetti, Bailetti@sce.carleton.ca, 613 829 8885
April 12, 2009
0 Comments
Wireless M2M networking enables the monitoring and control of devices that have historically been difficult to access and were previously un-managed. Standards are becoming more common and stable. Further, the implementation and production cost of wirelessly enabling and managing devices continues to drop. This opens up a broad range of potential new applications and business opportunies.
Some examples of companies that provide development platforms and system building blocks for Wireless M2M include:
March 31, 2009
1 Comment
HP is currently running a beta of a new online service called “MagCloud“. The service allows anyone to produce a magazine and print it – on demand – for $0.20 a page. The service also offers an online store to allow publishers to sell their magazines. The service will take care of printing, mailing, subscription management, and more.
HP’s longer-term plan is to sell their specialized printers and inks to businesses who will offer regional on-demand printing services.
This ability to do on-demand printing of magazines can allow smaller operations and professional service organizations to offer new services to businesses which need to quickly and cheaply produce magazines. One of the benefits offered by the service is the ability to do tweaks to the magazine master document much more quickly and with less cost then traditional methods of producing magazines.
March 29, 2009
0 Comments
This interesting chart is from the New York Times, it highlights the speed of adoption of new technologies over the years. The general conclusion is that adoption/consumption of new technology occurs much faster today then in the past.
March 24, 2009
0 Comments
I attended the Carleton University engineering poster session on Mar 20th. 89 engineering students displayed the results of 36 4th year projects (http://www.sce.carleton.ca/courses/sysc-4907/webforms/posterLocations.php).
The projects ranged from the abstract to the commercially viable, and from simple to complex. The one thing that stood out in general was the high quality of the students. The projects I found most interesting were the ones which struck me as being commercially viable with further development – examples from the poster session included:
Poster sessions like this can be a great way to help advance commercialization of university work and link local investors/entrepreneurs to ideas and talent.
March 15, 2009
0 Comments
Local start-up Trigence has quietly changed it’s name to AppZero as well as quietly ejecting the last founder from the team. Trigence had a great product but has not appeared to make any significant sales or progress since CEO Chuck Colford departed. Unfortunately Trigence/AppZero’s new direction does not appear very compelling in an already crowded virtualization market that is dominated by VMWare, XEN and soon Microsoft.
The main industry news on Trigence appears to be on the ongoing churn in senior leadership.
Trigence’s new logo and name are both very close to NetZero (I did a double-take myself since NetZero is a well-known brand), so it won’t be surprising if they end up having to change their name -
March 15, 2009
0 Comments
A recent Rand report , “The Global Technology Revolution 2020″, looks at 16 upcoming key technologies and the ability of 29 countries to acquire and to implement. The following chart identified the key technology applications -
Only three of the 29 countries examined by Rand were identified as being able to acquire and implement all 16 key technology applications – the United States and Canada in North America and Germany in Western Europe.
March 3, 2009
0 Comments
The 2008 report on Canadian R&D spending from Research Infosource identifies the following top 10 R&D spenders -
| Nortel | $1.851B |
| BCE | $1.26B |
| Magna | $.725B |
| Pratt and Whitney | $.444B |
| IBM | $.377B |
| Atomic Energy of Canada | $.228B |
| RIM | $.253B |
| Alcatel-Lucent | $.236B |
| Sanofi-Aventis Group | $.207B |
| Apotex Inc | $.181B |
Nortel currently accounts for 32% of the R&D spend in the top 10 spenders in Canada, and Magna (automotive parts) currently accounts for 13%. Over 45% of the R&D spend of the top 10 spenders in Canada is in decline and at risk of evaporating to nothing.
Unfortunately – RIM which is always held up as the shining tech light for Canada – isn’t even in the same league as Nortel and never will be. It could be argued that RIM is likely to rapidly diminish in size/scope over the coming years as technologies such as the iPhone and Android continue to see rapid adoption.
February 28, 2009
0 Comments
While Linux does well as an OS for server applications, it continues to be irrelevant on desktops. Latest numbers posted by Net Applications are below:
February 25, 2009
0 Comments
Sun has developed Sun Small Programable Object Technology (SPOT). It’s an experimental platform to inspire developers to build the next great toy, sensor, communication device — who knows — using Sun technology. The Sun SPOT devices make include a flexible hardware platform as well as the software and tools to make it easy to innovate, experiment, and prototype whatever a developer can imagine.
The Sun SPOT Device is a small, wireless, battery powered experimental platform. It is programmed almost entirely in Java to allow regular programmers to create projects that used to require specialized embedded system development skills. The hardware platform includes a range of built-in sensors as well as the ability to easily interface to external devices.
This little platform is full of potential for “Creative Class” people to base a microbusiness on.
February 25, 2009
0 Comments
A small computer in a wall-plug, running Linux.
Marvell is selling this “development platform”, targeted at the following applications:
For those of the “Creative Class” looking for new microbusiness ideas, it might be something worth looking at.
February 24, 2009
0 Comments
The Pew Research Center published a report in Dec 2008 which identified a significant trend that may represent the beginning of the end for traditional Newspapers.
For the first time, more people (40%) said they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).
Another interesting trend is the Amazon Kindle. I have had one of the Kindle’s since it came out. For travelling, there is nothing better. On the Kindle you can get books and newspapers delivered wirelessly to the device.
The price for the Kindle is around $349, but is likely to continue to drop in price.
Newspapers and magazines have repeatedly tried to sell their content in various online formats targeted at PC users but generally met with limited results. I have tried several of these “digital editions” and have found them to be cumbersome to navigate and inconvenient to access. Portable devices such as the Kindle and Sony eReader present a much more portable, and straight-forward user experience. I imagine an Apple eReader can’t be far off…
For years I religiously subscribed to home delivery of local and national newspapers (more then one). I stopped subscribing more then 10 years ago after I subscribed to broadband internet service. Looking back on the last year I have purchased a newspaper less then 10 times when I have been out of the house with some time to kill.
Google is helping the demise of newspaper with it’s recently announced plans to start offering advertising on it’s Google News service.
A related personal trend I have noticed is that I no longer simply rely upon traditional news producers for my insights and opinions, but tend to draw upon a much wider set of sources – including blogs, ezines, etc.
Allan Mutter has a great blog that talks to the mistakes, challenges and general state of the news publishers.
Times are changing.
February 24, 2009
0 Comments
There are a vast, and increasing, number of technical certifications available. A big question many people have is what is the value – if any – of an individual spending the time and money to obtain a certification. Will the certification increase prospects for employment? Will the certification increase the salary of the holder?
A study published by TechRepublic “2008 IT skills and salary report“, gives some insight into the salaries of various certification holders:
TechRepublic also published another report identifying the following IT-specific certifications as being the “Top 10″ relative to increasing employment opportunities:
CompTIA has a comprehensive list of IT/Technical certifications.
