Weeknotes for March 13th, 2016
Work
New gig started this week, which is pretty exciting. I've already done an 18-month stint for BBC R&D, but that was as a freelancer on a specific project. I'm now a Producer / Technologist in the excitingly-named Internet Research and Future Services department, which means I'll be working across a few projects with a pretty good degree of agency. In fact, this week I've mostly been left alone to figure out where I fit into IRFS's existing slate of projects like a goddamn grown-up.
It currently looks like I'll be doing some work around VR & 360 video, a project investigating and attempting to improve tellybox UI and doing a bit of prototyping with Radiodan, a hardware and software platform for internet-enabled radios.
Tellyboxes
It's apposite that I'm getting involved in a telly UI project since I have some previous here, having worked on a large set top box design project in recent memory. Some of the thinking we started back then tends to come back around. I won't go into detail here, but two of the areas that I think are ripe for prodding are: the brokenness of the interaction model assumed by most TV UIs (telly UX very much != computer UX, or mobile UX) and the potential for interesting, fuzzy interfaces that reflect how people think when they're in passive entertainment mode (not work mode, see previous parenthesis). Oh, and maybe some user-centered design, anthropological studies of how people actually use TVs, because looking at how most tellyboxes currently operate I can't believe that this has been done much up to now.
IRL
Been seeing a lot less of K & Max this week, due to, y'know, actually going to work. This has been pretty tough (especially after a month of the three of us just hanging out), and I'm feeling a bit conflicted about the roles this is forcing us into (STAY-AT-HOME-MUM! BREADWINNER DAD!). Still, not a lot we can do about basic biology and late capitalism. For now.
nrrdptch
When I was backpacking a few years ago, I got interested in the patches people would attach to their packs. Mostly collections of flags from the countries they'd visited, there was also a handful of band patches and a few other bits and pieces. This got me thinking about how people were using these things as exterior markers of their personality & interests, like some kind of social plumage.
So when we got home, I designed and ordered some nice embroidered patches for the nerds to identify one another (fun fact: getting patches made in Taiwan is really cheap, and not that hard!). Being me, I then completely failed to market them successfully (more on this character flaw next week) and so still have loads in a box under my desk.
This week, thanks to Twitter and Rachel, I sold a few sets! Woo!
I really need to get better at marketing.
Linkdump
(Those Electronic Brains Are Coming To Get Us [Again] Edition)
Showdown
As AlphaGo’s algorithms are tweaked, and as it gathers more data from which to learn, it is only going to get better. Asked whether there was a ceiling to its abilities, Dr Hassabis said he did not know: “If there is, we haven’t found it yet.”
AlphaGo beats Lee Sedol again in match 2 of 5 | Hacker News
“It's both exciting and eerie. It's like another intelligent species opening up a new way of looking at the world (at least for this very specific domain). and much to our surprise, it's a new way that's more powerful than ours”
Mystery 'Dude' Rattles Turkish Stock Traders With Massive Bets
“This algo guy just discovered a new market and he’s running his own show because there’s not enough competition, but it will come,” Okte said. “We are in the very early stages, but we know from developed markets that machines always win this game.”