digiTea

A Digital Cup of Tea

[digi-tea]

Microwave cooked design?

The American graphic designer Milton Glaser once said "Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking". Since he grew up in a different age and had his education towards art instead of applied design, with drawing and different art techniques in focus, it's not uncommon that his statement is taken more literally, like the way I used to interpret it. For me, this was an idea that no proper design could be made on computers, as it's only by hand that a true artistic quality could be achieved, but having to design a poster and a website for college gave me a broader point of view not only about this quote, but about creative process as well.

When first having to design a website, I thought I had a pretty neat idea for it, basically four saturated pictures in a blank screen that would take you to colourful pages with the different sets of information about the website, but it didn't take a second thought to actually see that it's kind of an old design, since website nowadays tend to be more content oriented. In fact, I was half way through the mark-up when I gave up this webpage and started another one trying to make a modern one, visually full of effects which was also abandoned midway through as well since most websites seem to tend to be designed in a simpler way these days. My next option was a big picture to the left and some content floating around to the right which seemed impractical too, as most new websites I visit online seem to be centered and responsive.

This was a long and almost useless process, I have to say, but it served me well. Working on my fourth idea now and I think I finally got it right. Simple design, focused on content, centered, responsive, few colours and the most important thing of all: an idea. It might not even have a good result in the end, but at least I’ll be able to finish it without that feeling of uncertainty and insecurity. I believe that what Milton Glaser said about design and computers are very true. The cooking, per say, is how we develop the idea in our mind, even before we put it on paper or on a computer, in a way that all the computer does is prepare a vision formed beforehand. An idea is the most important thing without which any kind of design will feel like a meal cooked in a microwave: tasteless and not special.

[digi-tea]

My Windows 8 experience (phone, this time.. argh)

So I had my first 12 pubs of Christmas since I arrived in Ireland and it ended as expected: lots of fun but Jacket-less and phone-less. I wouldn’t mind the hangover or the jacket that I got it back from the club a couple of days later, but my Galaxy S3, this one will be truly missed. The S3 is one of these phones that has so many pros that the cons seem totally unimportant and it got me very addicted to being always connected. After losing it, I have to say, even walking down the street felt like a boring process. Other everyday activities like waking up in the morning seemed somehow incomplete and having to check my email account on a laptop seemed a journey to the past. I actually couldn’t wait to get home from work to check my Facebook and being away from all of these things for a few days made me feel less anxious and more in tune with the environment, I have to say.

  Everything has a limit, though, so buying a new smartphone was in order. When deciding which one would be a best option I opted for something I would normally NEVER do: buying a Windows phone. Yes, I did buy a windows phone but I have an explanation here. There’s much speculation about the release of the new Galaxy S5, but everything points out that it will be in the end of February and it’s been decided that I’ll definitely buy it, after all, there’s no point in buying the S4 if a new and improved one will be released 3 months after (even though rumour says it’s not going to be an android phone, but Tizen OS instead, but having 5 different Samsung phones over the years taught me I should trust them). With that into consideration, I got a cheaper one, the Nokia Lumia 625, which has a respectable size screen (4.7in) and a very decent processor (dual-core 1.2GHz), which is amazing for its price:150 euro.

  About a Windows 8 phone… oh god… I recently blogged here about updating my computer to Windows 8 and how everything felt like a mobile phone, right? I’ve been using my laptop for a little while now and I kinda got used to it, so it’s not very weird that I think that Windows 8 phone feels like using a Windows 8 laptop. Or is it? Coming from an android, Windows 8 feels so constrained. You are constrained to the same colours, boring boxes and absolutely no aps. I seriously don’t know why they call it an App Store if there are no aps in it! I always enjoy experiencing new things and that was the main reason for me to get this phone, but Windows phone is a joke. It feels like using those old mobiles with buttons and with nothing to do about it. Everything is connected so it’s hard to get out of Microsoft or Bing (argh, Bing!). The phone itself is nice, reliable, excellent battery, ok screen, pretty fast and there’s an interesting grip to it, even though I don’t see the need to 4 outside buttons, but Windows OS is at the same place it was 4 years ago when i first bought a windows phone (samsung omnia): in the past. About this experience, so far, i can only say one thing: I can’t wait to get my new phone! (or learn how to install an Android on it)…

[digi-tea]

Take this Like and shut up!

Interesting how general trends in behaviour seem to appear and disappear over so little time. Since beginning of Facebook until not long ago, it seemed to develop this trend of number of connections, and it only made sense since they called these connections by the name friends, so the more friends you have the better. It became so important that even South park aired in 2010 a brilliant episode called "You have 0 friends" (Season 14, Episode 04) which they focused mainly on this importance that people were putting on the number of friends and the level of popularity, sucking people into this virtual tendency. They were only portraiting something that was so much in evidence at the time, and I remember how we used to add people as numbers and tell others about the number of total friends we had.

This trend seemed to have a change though. Since it became apparent that it wasn't really that hard to have that many friends and most people would easily have more than 100 acquaintances on Facebook, it became important to be interesting and, even more important than that, have people interested on their posts, measured by the number of Likes that they get. People would actually get angry if their friends wouldn't Like a post or a comment, which still happens a bit but it seems that after people stopped blogging so much and started micro-blogging in pages like Twitter there was a shift between being heard (and liked) to just expressing ourselves.

And this is the moment were we are at the moment. We don't care much about the number of Facebook friends anymore (actually, less friends means better ones) or the number of likes, even though they are always welcome. In fact, Like became mostly a way of marking the territory, a way of saying "I've been here". We use Like when we give up a conversation, when we don't actually like it but also don't want to discuss it any further, we basically say: take this Like and shut up! And that's the socially accepted thing to do.

[digi-tea]

"There's no way out. We are all stuck. In our minds"

When preparing my Podcast about Music in the Digital Age, I realised it’s impossible to forget mentioning a Music/TV/Philosophy project created a few years back, in 2002. With all this talk about hyper-connectivity and Networked Society, sometimes we forget how the human factor actually made it possible and how, even though we find ourselves in a new age, we still have the same issues as our ancestors.

The brilliant thing about this project, called 1 Giant Leap, is how they used it to discussed main matters that makes us ourselves, while using technology to record their thoughts across 50 different countries. The main idea was to create a base idea so musicians from all over the world could add each one their own thoughts, their own instrument. It’s almost like the Internet, in the music form. One song could have, for example, a bass player from south America, singer from asia, percussion from Africa, and so on, in a way that the music really becomes global.

The duo responsible for 1 Giant Leap, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman, travelled carrying their cameras and microphones and record it on spot, wherever they were. This was impossible to be made few years back and only the fact that they could make a record outside a studio shows how music making changed in the past years. Also, during their trips, they would discuss human issues and collect amazing opinions and philosophies from all over the world. From this project, 2 CDs were created and a Tv show, consisting of episodes that would have each one a different theme. For me, still one of the most amazing music projects ever made.

[digi-tea]

I don't know if i'm doing it right.... :P

(source: 9gag)

[digi-tea]

Interesting how a good idea comes up and gets around, and fast! It was not long ago since Dave Hakkens first came up with the concept of phones that were built in modules, the Phonebloks. The idea is pretty simple. Like Lego toys, all the mobile components would be developed in blocks, like memory, camera, screen, and so on, according to the main interests of the user on his phone, and they are attached to a main motherboard in a way they could be interchangeable, in case any of them breaks or a more advanced one comes up in the market, reducing also electronic waste. There was much attention drawn to it especially in social media websites, like Facebook, and soon Motorola created the Ara project, working alongside with Dave Hakkens.

Set to be released in a few months, Ara project’s idea is to develop a free, open hardware platform for highly modular smarthphones. But they are not the same thinking this way. Last month, not long after Motorola’s project, ZTE decided to go for the same market, announcing the ECO-MOBIUS, now focusing on the idea of being able to do more while being less expensive. Either way, the idea of customizable phones seem to follow the trend of customizing lives that we seem to be following and indeed a good idea. Catchy really, don’t you think? Let’s wait until they release their phones and we will be able to get a grasp of which direction this new technology will go.

[digi-tea]

Facebook and Coke

As the world gets more hyper-connected, with smartphones becoming the minimum standards for mobile phones, Social Media websites get more part of our everyday lives. Almost addicted to them, most of us don’t get out of bed in the morning without checking these main channels of our social lives, me being one of them. There’s one thing that I think gets very interesting here, which is how marketing is made nowadays. One way or another, it seems brands reach us more easily, as they seem to know more about us than we think. In fact, small bits of information like our profiles and conversations online are much easier to be dealt with and profiling consumers becomes even easier when they choose to follow or like their products. Not only that, we are responsible for doing the Marketing for them! A great example of a successful campaign that had the fact that we share things on Social Media in mind at the moment it was created was the latest Coca-Cola ‘Share a Coke’ marketing campaign in which they printed the most common names in each country on cans and bottles of their product dropping their own brand in an attempt of reaching its consumers in a personal level. Before spreading their campaign to the rest of the world, the result of its first trial in Australia in 2011 was an overflow of posts, hashtags and tweets, and a growth of 870% of Facebook traffic on its branded page. Not only they were able to create some personal connection with page likes growing 39%, and to spread the brand name, increasing young adult consumption by 7%, they acquired the best marketing profiling system, making it an easy task to gauge their consumers behaviours and their profiles. Very smart move, Coke! That’s why we like you! Still trying to find my name though…

[digi-tea]

I still remember when I used to gather around the Nintendo 8bit along with a few mates waiting for our turn to play some of the most addicted games of our lives. They were not realistic like today’s but hell, they were fun! Actually, exactly because of the lack of this realism they were so creative that’s hard to find better music or plot in games even nowadays, and this is one of the reasons that retro pieces of technology are having their come back, because they were good. It was only 5 years ago that my parents were giving away all the vinyl records that can be bought for 20 euro in stores now. And the same with retro gaming consoles, that we can even download an emulator and play all of them on a laptop, but it won’t be the same. I recently purchased a mega-drive and it’s been so much fun but when we think back, we always want to play a bit of different consoles. Yes, we do want it all, that’s why I got very excited when I learned that Hyperkin had a plan of releasing the RetroN 5, a gaming console that play cartridges of 10 different consoles, like NES, master system, mega drive, game boy and others for less than 90 euro. So far, its release date is December 10th, but this might get delayed as there’s reports of changes on its design. Nothing against the new games, which take a lot of my days, but some appreciation for the old ones is in demand, which comes with respect and lots of fun.

[digi-tea]

[digi-tea]

GIFs

When GIFs were introduced to Orkut (a social network that started almost ten years ago by Google and got extremely big in Brazil), it was said that it would destroy its functionality, cluttering every space with shining stars and blinking letters, and it actually did. Because of them, Orkut became so annoying that most people were happy to migrate to the new Facebook at the time. For this reason, I have to admit I got a bit worried when I first learned that Facebook would introduce not only pictures and videos on its status and comments, but also GIFs. I should have known that times have changed. GIF evolved from very rudimental non-stop movements to funny bits taken from our own cultural background, sometimes being a better substitute to even smiley faces or actual words.

In fact, they have become so popular that it’s easy to see most of them becoming memes, spreading very fast online. On the top of this post there’s an example of what it used to be followed by a recent GIF at the bottom of this post. It’s noticeable how technology helped in this matter. More advanced computers with faster internet make its products evolve as well, it’s pretty obvious. But they are what they are, motion photos, and not much future can be reserved for them, at least that we can predict. Even so, Vimeo acquiring Echograph in the beginning of this year makes us think that, maybe, like GIFs changed so much so far, they have still more to evolve. Anyway things go, I like this trend and hope they stay at least for a little while more.

[digi-tea]

It’s less private when you share…

So much has been said about privacy lately that it’s hard not to be caught up in thoughts about this subject, but the scary part of it, for me, is a bit more than the fact that much of our actions online has been monitored, it’s the fact that most of our lives is actually online.

For the first time in history, our memories can be stored either in a small hard drive or online. Letters, emails, photos, music, diaries, conversations and so many things that thanks to new technology may be reached out until even after we are gone. This really becomes an issue when we think it’s the time in history that we most share the content of our lives and, with that, this large quantity of things may also stay reachable for others, almost unforgettable, proof of experiences we would forget otherwise.

There is no forgetting in the digital age. A bad act has the potential to be forever remembered and pose as trouble when, let’s say, an employee searches online about a candidate to a position in a company, and no legislation rules pro or against it in most of the countries in the world. It’s actually been speculated that none of our steps online are ever really deleted, even after we delete them from our profiles, and with marketing companies and governments gaining access to these websites we feel more vulnerable than ever.

Learning when to share, when to keep and when to delete is key in an age that this tends to only get worse with the amount of new technologies being introduced to us. Even if, on the other hand, everything we most value can be stored in a little box that fits our pockets, at least those files would be safe and untouched. For these ones, just make sure to keep a back-up in a different pocket. As for the ones that are online, though, who knows what might happen to them?

[digi-tea]

Windows 8 or a new laptop?

When thinking about buying a new laptop since my not so old one started acting up on me, an idea came up that maybe I should just change the operating system and give it a try. After all, I’m not really pushed into this touch-screen trend and I do believe I can definitely get a little bit more out of my current computer, which is good enough. The good news is that windows 8 goes in a different direction than all its predecessors, making its system requirements actually very similar to windows 7, so I got the upgrade and after not so long I had my plain screen full of multicolour squares ready to be played with.

First of all, it must be said, Windows 8 has a feeling of a big mobile phone (Windows phone, of course), but, ironic enough, it mixes its usability feeling with an Apple product. One email account to keep all programs and updates into one place. Skype, like everything else, is integrated too. A windows store seems almost unnatural when most of us keep trying to leave our windows experience to a minimum, but it’s fair enough they keep it around for its programs. Actually, program is not the right terminology anymore. It’s all apps. Windows 8 was clearly made for tablets.

Encouraging its users to never shut down, they actually made it pretty hard to find the place to do so at first, but to be honest, since the first Windows versions, sleeping mode works at its best. Truth be told, few things work at their best. Way faster than its predecessor, this version seem to multitask extremely well with a better resource management. It’s also up to date with new technologies, offering 4G and USB3 support, SkyDrive (Windows cloud service that’s also cross platform) and better security against malware and viruses, even though these don’t interest me much, personally. For me, the main thing is that it’s fast, quite fast indeed, and this made me very happy with my old computer again, so, like with all other versions, I guess we just learn to live with the cons.

[digi-tea]

As a rule, conventions only become conventions if they work.

Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

[digi-tea]

Working out? Don’t forget your phone!

Deciding to eat healthy and exercise regularly can be quite stressful when done properly. As for me, going back to the gym included paying my subscription, buying some clothes and, unexpectedly, downloading apps for my phone. After all, there is a certain amount of calories to be ingested daily, divided into a number of meals and different percentages of protein, carbs, fats and sugars intake, then there is the work-out itself, which comprises few different exercises using different weights for each one of them that changes almost daily, so much to remember that it’s easier to leave the thinking bit to these apps.

After some research online and downloading and testing, I believe I found my favourites, which impressed me in the way they act. For keeping track of calories, MyFitnessPal seemed to do what others didn’t: make it easier. Like all others, all you have to do is add whatever you eat during your day and it will give you your total intake facing your ideal one, but the difference here is the large community that uses this app, always uploading with new foods, in a way you can literally just scan the barcode of what you’re eating and the information is uploaded.

As for keeping track of gym exercises, JetFit acts showing you what exercises need to be done, how much weight to apply on them, how to do them through pictures and explanations, how long to rest and a history of all that’s been done with charts of your progress.

Hopefully I’ll be able to keep my plan this time, but even if I won’t, at least I’m having fun messing around with those apps. After all, it’s nice to see apps that deliver more than we expect at first.

[digi-tea]

First words

What’s better than a hot cup of tea in a cold day? Or any day really… That’s exactly the purpose of this Blog. A Digital Cup of Tea for a this digital era is about reassuring us of our technology and what we can do with it, it’s about recognizing how much of a future we can achieve and how much of a future we are actually living at the moment without even noticing. I’m a big fan of all this, which makes me a big fan of the human race for being able to conceive it, so feedback is always appreciated. Also, being a Digital Media student, I might bring the subject towards Media or Design sometimes, but it’s all part of this big modern scope that allow us to be so many things still being one. I’m Fernando Dischinger, Brazilian, living in Dublin for the past five years. So sit down, relax and have your DigiTea. I hope you enjoy it!