Aaron Parker
aaronp.meHistorical.
These posts were imported from my old blogs and may not be up-to-date.
Attitudes towards video conferencing at Sun Microsystems.
Here’s something interesting, two reports about attitudes towards video conferencing at Sun Microsystems during the 90s. Tang and Isaacs (1993): Generally positive attitudes, system was so popular that it was difficult getting it booked. Henderson and Henderson (2009, reflecting on user attitudes in the late 90s): “It was common belief at Sun that videoconferencing was horrible,…
2011
The Economist on Bell’s Picturephone (1969).
I love this quote. It pretty much summarises the disconnect that some companies have with user attitudes towards their products. In the 1960s and 70s when Bell/AT&T were running around declaring Picturephone to be the communications medium of the future, here’s what ‘The Economist’ had to say: “Even in the United States, the picturephone is by…2011
Experimenting with Pixel Art in Second Life.
Here’s a little Second Life project I was working on over the Easter Break. Basically I just wanted to see whether or not pixel art would work in SL. Turns out it kind of does. My original plan was to just create wall, ceiling, and floor textures — but I got a little carried away and ended up making furniture and…2011
Is Gamification Sexist?.
Gamification is everywhere at the moment. People from all across the internet are blogging and tweeting about how anything and everything can be made better just by making it more game-like. The premise is simple, games are fun and engaging, therefore anything game-like will be fun and engaging too. It’s a dubious claim, but it’s one…2011
It’s not about “fear of change” — it’s about identity and control.
In a rather unconventional move of PR penmanship, Hamlet Au took to his blog last month and blamed his entire readership for the future downfall of Second Life. It’s your “fear of change” that threatens SL he wrote, guffawing at us all as if we were backwards yokels afraid that electricity might actually be witchcraft. You…2011
Meaning, prims, and sense-making mechanisms.
Last night I visited @sorornishi’s Second Life art exhibit, Transubstantiation. I’d read an interesting blog post on it by @botgirlq (who’s Machinima I thoroughly recommend you check out!) so thought I’d drop by. As beautiful as it is, one thing I found particularly intriguing was the philosophy behind it. Soror writes: “The Prim contains my body and my…2011
My Main Reason for Jailbreaking: RetinaPad.
There’s literally just three reasons why I Jailbreak my beloved iPad. One is the infinitely handy SBSettings, another is for the Last.Fm app Scrobbl. But my number one reason for Jailbreaking has to be the absolutely awesome RetinaPad. I mean, just look at the difference it makes to iPhone/iPod touch apps! What you see there is a knight…2011
Fantastical Menu Bar Calendar App for OSX.
“Your Mac’s calendar will never be the same again.” Well that’s according to the tagline anyway. As someone who’s recently ditched to-do lists for good old-fashioned calendar agendas, Flexibits’ Fantastical is something I’m really looking forward to. A UI teaser shot posted on dribble hints at a menu bar calendar app not totally unlike MacCalendarClock, which I currently use…2011
Empathy declines in students, possibly due to social networking.
According to a meta-analysis that’s due to be published in Personality and Social Psychology Review next month, college students are much less empathic than they were twenty years ago. Reviewing 72 samples taken between 1979 and 2009, Sara Konrath and colleagues showed that when it comes to concern for others and ability to see things from…2011
New Second Life Lab.
I’m slowly getting around to making a new lab in Second Life. My old one was a self-build and starting to look a tad dated, so I’ve replaced it with this prefab. Really not sure what direction I’m taking it in yet — had planned to give it a café style look (thus the counter and tables), but now…2011
