Global color usage diagram in 25+ Useful Infographics on Web Designer Depot

Using data collected from Adobe Kuler, Adobe teamed up with Stamen and created Adobe Kuler Pulse, a fantastic user interface allowing users to explore colors with respect to geographical location and time. I liked the idea but wishes to see if there are any observable patterns, and that's when I created the following diagram using micro/macro principals.

Some nice folks put it on Web Designer Depot as one of 25+ Useful Infographics for Web Designers a week ago, which is quite an honor.

What would be even more delightful though is if Adobe would provide APIs to allow folks to mash it up with all kinds of extra stuff--something I sure would love to get my hands on now that I'm playing with Python :)



Global color usage with respect to time and location
Compiled using Adobe Kuler Pulse by Strategically Mutated Lifeforms
kuler.adobe.com/#pulse

Time: The four seasons of 2008
Location: USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil

View Large (1024x1024 jpg)
View Original (4000x4000 png)

UI Design credits: Stamen Design, a design and technology studio in San Francisco. (reference: Contagious issue Seventeen)

Adobe Kuler is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Strategically Mutated Lifeforms are part of the SML Universe. All screenshots captured on 2009-01-11.

Mopeds, Euro sedan and high-tech tanks: the story of Windows, Mac and Linux

After 10 years since it was originally written, this passage extracted from Neal Stephenson's witty essay remains to be my favorite readings of or relating to Linux and opensource software. True to spirit, the author made it freely distributable online at the book's official web site a few years back. I thought that I'd share with you as it gives a great intro to my life-changing experience since I've switched my main OS from Vista to Ubuntu about half a year ago...

The analogy between cars and operating systems is not half bad, and so let me run with it for a moment, as a way of giving an executive summary of our situation today.

Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are situated. One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.

There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began selling motorized vehicles--expensive but attractively styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a mystery.

The big dealership responded by rushing a moped upgrade kit (the original Windows) onto the market. This was a Rube Goldberg contraption that, when bolted onto a three-speed bicycle, enabled it to keep up, just barely, with Apple-cars. The users had to wear goggles and were always picking bugs out of their teeth while Apple owners sped along in hermetically sealed comfort, sneering out the windows. But the Micro-mopeds were cheap, and easy to fix compared with the Apple-cars, and their market share waxed.

Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a hulking off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) which was no more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little more reliable.

Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled sedans and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns. They have had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for so long that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps making bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs.

On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along more recently.

One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the BeOS). They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, better designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as reliable as anything else on the market--and yet cheaper than the others.

With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It's a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army tanks. They've been modified in such a way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.

New users of Linux are almost always exposed to it through a member of the userbase, insuring that they have at least one person on-hand who can answer their inevitable questions and undo their horrible mistakes. The above is a romanticized description of the Linux experience, because it implies that the ubiquitous Linux veteran is not a factor. Unfortunately, Linux was not designed for end-to-end ease of use -- in that respect, it was not "designed" at all.

Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.

Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these customers deride them cranks and half-wits.

The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to accept, at least for now, that it's a fringe player.

The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"

Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"

Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"

Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music."

Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!"

Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!"

Bullhorn: "But..."

Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"

SML Life Card

Introducing the SML Life Card. It's like the Joker except it's brighter.

QDOS = Digital presence tracking metrics

Screenshot: http://qdos.com/user/See-ming-Lee/3a0f686c608b5a3da8200b97aacdfc48/html

QDOS is an service which measures a person's digitial presence, which is a formula based on the person's popularity, impact, activity and individuality.

QDOS index fluctuates overtime, and was most evidential in my recent absence from Internet play. The charting application (not shown here) can plot a person's QDOS over time. I wish that there is a way to chart multiple person over time though.

According to today's report, I have higher influence than Julia Stiles at the moment, having a Q4916 (the higher the better) and a ranking of #2,166 out of 67,660 actively tracked profiles.

To put things into perspective, Robert Scoble has Q6064 (ranking #628) while Pete Cashmore (Q7313) is at #187. Barack Obama has a Q11733 and is the top-ranked person at the moment, followed immediately by Britney Spears, 50 Cent and Beyonce Knowles.

What's your QDOS like? Find your QDOS and post a screenshot on Flickr.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

SML Massify Pitch: Crazy is Good

Created my first pitch on Massify today:

http://www.massify.com/pitches/crazyisgood



I hope that I'll be able to do a bit more interviews with the folks the next time I head out again.

About Massify
Those of you who is unfamiliar with Massify: it's a film production social network / community that unites filmmakers, actors and fans in the pursuit of great film. The site provides tools targeted to filmmakers, as well as abundant space for users to showcase their portfolio and reels. In addition to features commonly found on other social networks, Massify also partners with recognized film production companies and organizes competitions to promote and attract talents.

Their latest competition is a music video challenge where directors will get to pitch ideas for the rock band Low vs Diamond. The winner will get to work with Epic Records and RSA Films - a great opportunity for aspiring filmmakers indeed.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Facebook: New Design Rollout 2008

www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=667218034

Facebook started rolling out a new site design on July 20, 2008 for users to preview and test the functionality of the site. The new design has been under testing since the beginning of this year, and more than 100,000 Facebook users have participated in user testings which led to many layout and features included in the final version.

The profile page comes with a single status feed + the wall, with additional info and photos pulled into separate tabs. All the applications have been grouped into the Boxes tab. The users can add additional application tabs as required (similar to iGoogle fucntionality).

Tabs should address the insane load-time with many profiles, but the added benefit to Facebook is that there are now more opportunities for them to display ads - so it's a win-win situation for the company as well as the user.

You can check out the new design at www.new.facebook.com


©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe

Animoto = Generative music video using photography

I have been meaning to try out Animoto for a while now and I finally got to it today. The service analyzes photos and music to create a video slideshow.

Images can be uploaded or imported via popular photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, etc. For the soundtrack, you can either upload your own or pick from their music library, which covers several different genres, from classical to electronica, from jazz to indie rock.

As with any generative services, the results are mixed. You don't really have a say on how the effects will be mixed together. But it is good if you need to throw something together quickly.



SML Photography from See-ming Lee 李思明 SML on Vimeo.



Coney Island Mermaid Parade / 2007-2008 / See-ming Lee from See-ming Lee 李思明 SML on Vimeo.

©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe