Ben Turner's Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Applications: Martin Nisenholtz

Ali Sajjadi — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:37:29 -0000

You know I was just trying to remember his name and I realized he left the NYTimes after years of developing their digital products just a month after he talked to us!

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nyti...

Re: Mobile Web: 2 Classes Left

Sean Montgomery — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:54:13 -0000

StreetEyes is looking great! Your app has a number of quirks/bugs, but it's impressive what you've done.10/10

Re: Mobile Web: Week #3 Homework

Sean Montgomery — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:43:00 -0000

Lookin good, Ben. I'm not totally sure I understand your dilemmas, but let me know if you're having trouble with it and we can discuss in person. 10/10

Re: Mobile Web: Homework and Project Proposal

Sean Montgomery — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:06:19 -0000

Great break down of your 'stages'. My guess is that you won't get half of it done by March 12th, but please prove me wrong. With regard to pitfalls, I'm not 100% sure how you're going to stream video and audio. As such, I would start with pictures and see if you can get that working, but do some research on how you might stream audio/video so that whatever design choices you make now will be compatible with streaming down the road.I couldn't find your photoshopped screens.8/10

Re: Dynamic Web Dev & Mobile Web: Final Project Proposals?

Sean Montgomery — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:18:44 -0000

Great job and great writeup of the homework. 10/10I like all your ideas for apps. Most important next step for you is going to be narrowing in on what you want to do so you can focus your effort. I look forward to it! Let me know if you want help thinking through what makes the most sense as a tractable goal for this class.

Re: My 2011 Reading List

Ben Turner — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:40:00 -0000

Well, to be fair, Klosterman is totally a men's type of writer, right? That may be why I rated him higher than you would? Also he writes about the stuff I experienced as a kid, like The Real World and other pointless MTVish trivia.

Re: My 2011 Reading List

katematlock — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:53:12 -0000

I have read #14 and #19. I think you're being a little bit generous with the grade for #19, but it's been a while since I've read it; and in comparison with your other reading, it might have been a nice change of pace. As for Tony Bourdain - I <3 him.

Re: Applications: My Personal Experience Riding the m5 Bus

Charter Bus Trip — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:11:00 -0000

Great post.Thanks for sharing such a useful information with us.

Re: Comm Lab Web: probablyGonna

Ben Turner — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:00:42 -0000

Hey! Thanks for writing. I'm taking a break right now but will probably work on pG a bit when I get back to NYC. The Ruby was making my head hurt.

The "definitely/probably/maybe" designation is a good one. This was mentioned in one of the questions raised in class, but you put it a little better. I like how one could use it to firm up plan details. Will add that for sure!

Reputations for locations...would definitely love that. Great idea! I'd been thinking that I wish there were a way to rate one's night based on the location. Like, had a great time there, this was the crazy stuff I saw happen there, would go there again.

The posts I was thinking would be as customizable as I could figure out how to code for. Maybe make it either public, or add individuals. I'd have to work on it longer to make groups of people (like Google+'s circles). But it should definitely have this eventually.

An algorithm for likelihood of a good time...you hit the ultimate endpoint of it right on the head! I want to figure out (and reward) the most promising events, and quantify whether it was valid or not. The "predictive badges"? Brilliant. That'd be the most interesting thing to code, I'll get on it.

Great suggestions, thanks!

Re: Comm Lab Web: probablyGonna

Jeffrey Johnson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:09:00 -0000

Great project. Thought I'd throw out a few questions/suggestions of my own. Hopefully they aren't rehashes of other suggestions.

So would you only rate reliability for the originator or for everyone who responds? If the originator is flaky, but you have a few solids scheduled to show up, it would still be a good chance at good time.

Have you thought about giving the user an option on how likely they are to show up? Something along the lines of definitely/probably/maybe.

What about reputations for the locations? Users doing their after-action review could rate not only the originator, but the location.

Would the posts be open to everyone or would their be some sort of social circles? For example, an originator could limit the post to his immediate circle of friends or expand it to plus one (friend of a friend), plus two (friend of a friend of a friend), etc.

If you did have all that data, have you thought about some sort of algorithm to predict the likelihood of a good time. Based on the reputation of the likely participants, the location, and how well the event fit a user's profile, it could decide how well a fit the event is for a user. One way to rate it would be a percentage "likelihood of a good time". Scores that met a certain threshold could notify the user of the event via text/email/twitter/(whatever). Alternatively (or additionally), you could use the data to score events with predictive badges. Some possibilities might be "bring cab fare, you're getting drunk" or "likely sausage fest".

Re: On #OccupyWallStreet

ChristopherChantrill — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:38:43 -0000

Ben.

I came to this post because of the OWS/TeaParty Venn diagram and because I love your father's writing.Let's suppose both Venn diagram assumptions are correct. Corporations have too much power and government has too much power. What do we do next? Surely it cannot be to give the government more power. We've had a century-long experiment in giving the government more power, and it has given us Wall Street crony capitalism and unaffordable entitlements for middle-class seniors like me.Moreover, the share of entitlements going to the poor is going down. Of course it is, because the middle class outvotes the poor; government spending benefits the biggest voting block.I recommend Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Democracy cannot be the rule of the people, for the people cannot do any more than choose the men/women who will rule them. Democracy is the rule of the politicians. Politicians rule, needless to say, by rewarding their supporters.Also try Deirdre McCloskey and her Bourgeois Cycle. She combines virtue ethics and celebrates a bourgeoisie dignified and free.

Re: 8-Bit DNA

Robbie T — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:40:46 -0000

Really awesome stuff. Love the thought behind breaking down the r,g,b's to get at somethings DNA. I'm working on breaking down r,g,b right now to just get the average color. Your example was helpful :) Here's a behance that I thought you might also like: http://www.behance.net/gallery...

Re: Applications: Guest Speaker Mike Hawley

Mike Warren — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:31:05 -0000

Yeah, it is very important to have a strong team and each member do their role very well. Mike Warren

Re: Physical Computing: Wheredipuddit? RFID Inventory Boxes

Ben Turner — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:16:56 -0000

1) Yeah, the main limitation as well as as a benefit is that the tags need to be really close (like, almost touching) to be excited by the RFID reader. I'm going to have to do some contingency testing on it once I put it together, to make sure parts don't slide over and get picked up by the reader, or when two boxes are placed/stacked next to each other. If I knew what I was doing more, I could probably put a switch onto the RFID reader so that it would only power on when you press a button to scan the tag.

2) Yes, you're right, it's not the cheapest solution, although RFID tags are getting pretty cheap for hobbyists and for large scale (not so much for mid-scale). Also, it's easier to get components for RFID than for getting a barcode scanner and then having stickers made (and having to basically lay out the bar codes into images to have printed out). It's also something I just wanted to play with and demonstrates some usage for the Arduino. :) So it's not entirely cost effective, but it's a definite learning experience!

Glad you wrote, thank you. :)

Re: Physical Computing: Wheredipuddit? RFID Inventory Boxes

Cathy — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:36:48 -0000

Hey hey! Cathy from facebook here. Lover diagram; I never knew u had such artistic talent!
So, this whole time I'm reading the story, and am on edge with one question:
1. I was assuming the containers would automatically sense the physical spot the object was in and light up appropriately. So, I was curious how the setup could prevent one container from sensing an object in the other container, but still allow the user to be able to sense the object from any airspace. I see you avoided that problem by having a human manually scan it in.

2. This makes for an awesome project, but im wondering what is the practicality and cost advantage over using a regular 2d printed barcode in place of the RFID?

Or if I'm totally missing the point here since I'm not an EE, feel free to ignore me!

Re: PComp, Week 1: Lab, 1st Arduino Program

atif khair — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:23:16 -0000

NIce work that are using in CCTV cameras .
Jaycon

Re: Physical Computing Group Project: Your Tweet Has Been Scent

jcopro.net — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:37:58 -0000

Hi! Just wanted to say thanks for the link to my "Air Freshener Teardown!" Those fresheners are great for hacking!

Re: Adding Processing Sketches to WordPress Posts

sciencelifeny — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:32:16 -0000

awesome!! ITP stackoverflow begins!

Re: Curation of Some of My Favorite ITP Stuff So Far – Fall ’11

Robbie Tilton — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:43:37 -0000

Great stuff. It's awesome to see many of us together on one page. We should continue to do more recaps as it's really powerful to see how much we're producing as a combined class.

Re: Curation of Some of My Favorite ITP Stuff So Far – Fall ’11

Matt Richardson — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:56:42 -0000

Thanks for the shout out and nice round up!

Re: On #OccupyWallStreet

tracieoh — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:55:42 -0000

Hi Ben, glad to see you're as passionate as ever. I'll try to make this quick and add just a few thoughts. I think one of the reasons people are put off by OWS is due to the lack of an alternative. If you check out my rants on reddit under normal1 you'll see that I think the problem lies in erroneous conventional wisdoms that label R's as capitalists and D's as socialists.

Since no one wants to be on the "losing" team or labeled a commie in our capitalist country, even those with reservations hold their tongues, too afraid to speak out. They express their unease with angry or cynical comments, but ultimately give up in frustration over the whole mess. Sure, the hypocrisy of accepting corporate welfare as good and community welfare as bad is well known, but again, when your only other choices appear to be a variation on socialism, the choice is going to be the "devil you know."

This is a good place to stop. By the way, if I haven't already mentioned it before in previous posts/emails, thanks for introducing me to some great web site (boing boing, Kottke, etc.)

Tracie

Re: On #OccupyWallStreet

Uberleonard — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:48:42 -0000

I agree. I disagree. Lots of issues. Income disparity is the most important issue and has to be addressed by government regulation (but I'm more inclined to gradually phase minimum wage up to a living wage pegged to inflation then I am to cap executive pay). Same time, a lot of government spending has to be cut away (sorry, social security is a waste of money). Maybe the new unemployment is the new baseline. Maybe there is no recovery. Passing through the needle's eye of requirements to become part of the 'elite' is a pain in the ass, but it's doable. A couple things I don't like about the protests: the sense of entitlement, e.g. signs to forgive debt and student loan; the sense they could use their time more wisely, like engaging in innovation and entreneurship, figuring out ways to create income; the catch-all nature of the protest which can and will be co-opted, just like the tea party was. They need leaders and focus. I think it's good overall that we've had a strong backlash to the government industrial complex from both sides of the aisle but now that frustration, these protests, need to be channeled into legislation.

Re: On #OccupyWallStreet

Mark Kleeb — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:43:23 -0000

Ben, I think I shared similar sentiments, and I was seething when we left for break during Applications. The thing that bothered me the most was that OWS was described as a "global" movement, so of course many people viewed the 1% as the global 1%, not the American 1%. Sure, there is more opportunity in America than most other places, but OWS is an inherently AMERICAN movement. The disparity in the US is 100 times larger than most other countries as far as wealth distribution, and I think this is what we need to focus on. Many people still think OWS is just a bunch of unemployed hippies complaining about being in debt. They've never read a list of demands, and the media is still feeding people notions that nothing is serious. The only way things are going to change is if people start viewing this in a serious light and start doing something about it.

Re: On #OccupyWallStreet

Rtt233 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:02:20 -0000

Ben, great post. I really appreciate it. Your comments resonated with me. Knowledge = power.

Re: On #OccupyWallStreet

Stu Stribling — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:48:45 -0000

As the guy who writes the training for Apple's enterprise customer support, I'm astonished you know how to spell MySQL, let alone know what it is and how to install it ;-)

Nice post, btw.