Stack of Cards

A stack of index cards, curated from the raw pile of cards here. This is the notebook collection for my main blog. Cards posted here often end up there, with more elaboration. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-606631-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

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Papernet Design Axiom - Enable instant capture and sharing

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Papernet Design Axiom - Tag first, fill out forms later (or not at all)

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Papernet Design Axiom - Keep the focus on the outside world It is easier to context-switch between a static printed medium and your surroundings, than it is to do so between your surroundings and the attention-consuming virtual world of the smartphone display. Another way of saying this is that paper's "borders" seem softer. Both paper reading material and a phone, however, are absorbing, so the most jarring context switch is to jump back and forth between the two.

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Papernet Design Axiom - When I print, I am saying something about the document Why is it that my web browser doesn't tag the pages I print? Why don't Word or Illustrator mark a milestone in a document when you print it? It's like dealing with someone incapable of following unspoken social cues.

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Demon-Haunted Notebook: Magic Pen & Notebook

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Demon-Haunted Notebook: Magic Camera

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Demon-Haunted Notebook: Magic Image Parsing

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Demon-Haunted Notebook: Magic Twitter Hashtag

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Demon-Haunted Notebook: Magic Email

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Demon-Haunted Notebook An idea, inspired in large part by [Matt's Demon-Haunted World](http://huffduffer.com/paperbits/26621) talk, and Mike Kuniavsky's [The Coming Age of Magic](http://www.orangecone.com/archives/2006/10/the_coming_age.html): a notebook that demands use, and complains loudly to you and others when you neglect it. The notebook would have a [unique name and id](http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2010/11/information-shadows-and-spimes.html "no name, no spime"), and a daemon would watch for "tribute" -- online sharing of what you put in it. The tough bit of implementation would seem to be defining a way to pay tribute, and to make it fun and easy, rather than onerous. Implementation ideas to follow written up [here](http://paperbits.net/post/1471783673/implementing-the-demon-haunted-notebook).

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Papernet Anti-Patterns In which I declare that you're doing it wrong.

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Computational Origami See

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Papernet Design Pattern: Microprinters ### **Problem Summary** Print small bits of online data from a web service or mobile device, without drivers, formatting, or special software on the client ### **Example** [Ben O'Steen's MP Expense visualization](http://benosteen.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/making-the-physical-from-the-digital/) parses a Google Spreadsheet and generates receipts, which are linked back to the source material via a QRCode. ### **Usage** * Use for printing a stream of data (such as a twitter hashtag, @replies to a user, etc.) without human intervention * Use as a networked printer for links, triggered by a call to a web service -- as in the [instapaper](http://www.instapaper.com/) bookmarklet * Use when the output is intended to be ephemeral (e.g. directions to the pub you're meeting at, to be crumpled and tossed when you arrive) * Use when you want to collect data in real time and display it in a non-interruptive manner * Use when you want offline access to important information in situations where use of a smartphone or tablet may be awkward, inappropriate, or difficult * Use when the data to be printed is textual or graphically simple (e.g. a sparkline graph or QRCode) ### **Solution** An arduino and RS232-serial interface connect to the serial port on a simple thermal-paper printer. The arduino uses an ethernet shield to poll a custom hosted web service; the service receives the data to be printed and formats, then queues that data for the arduino. When the arduino receives a positive response from the service, it magic to receive the data, then prints to the thermal printer. From a user's perspective, what happens is, when a certain set of criteria is met -- a URL has been passed to a service via some mechanism such as email or a bookmarklet, or new data has appeared on an external service such as Google Alerts, Twitter, Tumblr, RSS feeds, etc. -- the microprinter prints a slip of flimsy thermal paper with the information on it. ### **Rationale** A microprinter provides a physical output mechanism for digital data. It's not so much a finished product as a sketch that points at a pattern: the low-friction way to produce little tangible icons of digital data.

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Papernet Design Patterns The [papernet](http://www.aaronland.info/papernet/) seems to be catching on as an idea. Certainly, it's been a minor obsession of mine for years, now, as my long-suffering friends can attest. Here goes a first run at collecting a kind of design pattern library for it. It's the result of experimentation and drunken ranting on the parts of myself and others over the last few years. My intent isn't to be dogmatic, but to present a few first draft ideas and start a conversation about where the [experimentation and discussion](http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com/design/2010/10/papercamp-2-review.html) in this field might lead. *** (Crappy drawing of card catalog drawer badly copied from www.unshelved.com/store/Shirts/NeverForget) (The one sad thing about scanning index cards: they display larger than they're drawn. Bad for the drawing ego.)

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Tell me how you measure me, and I'll tell you how I'll behave