Aaron Parker
aaronp.meThoughts.
Posts categorised as thoughts are generally opinion pieces.
One year later. TO DO.
Write a blog entry for the first time in goddamn ages. Write something that someone might actually want to read. Redo the theme or something. ~ Aaron
2013
The Gamification of Tooth-brushing.
Well it’s finally happened, the gamification of tooth-brushing. Starting next month, you could trade in $50 of your hard-earned cash for your very own Beam Brush, a toothbrush that uploads your brushing stats to your smartphone and gives you rewards for reaching your tooth-brushing goals. I recall that tooth-brushing was held up by an early gamification…2012
Second Life Statistics for 2011.
As we reach the end of 2011, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back on some Second Life statistics for the past year. The last time I did this was almost two years ago, where I briefly analysed the Second Life concurrency statistics for 2006 to 2009. This time I’m going to give a brief overview…2011
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
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
Suggestion: Second Life Social Ads.
It’s not always easy being sociable in Second Life. Sure you can go and accost some unsuspecting resident, make conversation, and then friend them manically before they finally give in, but this is often an awkward, unsuccessful, and extremely daunting process — especially if you’re a newbie. So it’s kind of strange then that whilst the…2011
The Corruptive Power of Knowledge over the User Experience.
You may have seen the image above plenty of times before. If not, look carefully — what do you see? At first glance the image appears to be a group of dots — but if you study it for some time an image of a Dalmatian sniffing at the intersection of some paving slabs appears. The interesting…2010
On Cultivating a More Friendly Writing Style.
When it comes to writing, one thing I obsess about is my narrative style. I’m quite aware that without a degree of difficulty and inaccessibility I’m not taken seriously, but when I try my writing seems fragmented and pretentious. I’m not really a fan of excluding people by making a text harder, but then again I wonder if it comes at…2010
