Browser Penetration

Browser stats have been updated for February here. As a breakdown IE7 is losing ground to IE8 (.2 percent up and down) while Firefox continues to grab marketshare - mostly at the expense of Opera (trending downward).

When will the day come when we can stop supporting IE6? For the Norwegians it seems that now is the time as several large properties are actively telling users to upgrade.

Why does Nicotine bind in the brain but not muscle?

Nicotine should kills us quicker than smoking a pack a day for 20 years. The fact is, it binds to receptors in the brain but not to those same receptors in muscle tissue which would cause immediate and lethal muscle contractions. Caltech has found that there is a small change in the acetylene receptor in our muscle tissue that doesn't allow this to happen.

Study gives more proof that intelligence is largely inherited

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Feb. 18, UCLA neurology professor Paul Thompson and colleagues used a new type of brain-imaging scanner to show that intelligence is strongly influenced by the quality of the brain's axons, or wiring that sends signals throughout the brain. The faster the signaling, the faster the brain processes information. And since the integrity of the brain's wiring is influenced by genes, the genes we inherit play a far greater role in intelligence than was previously thought.

Genes appear to influence intelligence by determining how well nerve axons are encased in myelin — the fatty sheath of "insulation" that coats our axons and allows for fast signaling bursts in our brains. The thicker the myelin, the faster the nerve impulses.

Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol (HSTP)

Giving a new dimension to the internet, the Indian research arm of the US-based IT giant IBM has developed a technology that will allow users to talk to the web and create voice sites using mobile phones.

SQA Methodologies

In large, complex applications, such as operating systems, it is practically impossible to iron out every single bug before releasing it both from a difficulty point of view and due to time constraints. Different software applications require different approaches when it comes to testing, but some of the most common tasks in software QA include:

• PPQA audits: Process and Product Quality Assurance is the activity of ensuring that the process and work product conform to the agreed upon process.
• Validation testing: Validation testing is the act of entering data that the tester knows to be erroneous into an application. For instance, typing "Hello" into an edit box that is expecting to receive a numeric entry.
• Data comparison: Comparing the output of an application with specific parameters to a previously created set of data with the same parameters that is known to be accurate.
• Stress testing: A stress test is when the software is used as heavily as possible for a period of time to see whether it copes with high levels of load. Often used for server software that will have multiple users connected to it simultaneously. Also known as Destruction testing. Fault injection is especially useful for any software system with exposed interfaces, e.g., protocol implementations.
• Conformance testing: Confirms that the software implementation complies with established standards.
• Load testing: Establishes the maximum amount of traffic that a target can accept.
• Usability testing: Confirms that the software solution is "user-friendly" enough.
• Robustness testing: Software systems are presented with invalid or unexpected inputs to determine whether they have robust error-handling or input validation. Such systems pass the test(s) if they can tolerate a wide variety of invalid or unexpected inputs across the entire protocol interface specification.

The unexpected is a key to human learning

The human brain's sensitivity to unexpected outcomes plays a fundamental role in the ability to adapt and learn new behaviors, according to a new study by a team of psychologists and neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania.

Using a computer-based card game and microelectrodes to observe neuronal activity of the brain, the Penn study, published this week in the journal Science, suggests that neurons in the human substantia nigra, or SN, play a central role in reward-based learning, modulating learning based on the discrepancy between the expected and the realized outcome.

New organic material may speed Internet access

The next time an overnight snow begins to fall, take two bricks and place them side by side a few inches apart. In the morning, the bricks will be covered with snow and barely discernible. What you will see resembles a phenomenon that, when it occurs at the smallest of scales on an integrated optical circuit, could hasten the day when the Internet works at superfast speeds.

Second Mac Monitor

Here's a guy who decided to add a second monitor to a MacBook and have it display through the Apple logo on the back. Pretty cool idea.

Cybernetics and Spare Parts: A Robotic Opera and Workshop in Ontario, Online

3 commodore 64’s running Cynthcart and MSSIAH. Details here

jQuery Leopard desktop

Here is a great tutorial of what can be done with jQuery. The author has recreated the Mac desktop complete with save states in jQuery.

RIA frameworks

Here is a great post examining the most frequently used controls (there's 30 of them) available by framework.

QFocuser

One of the missing components in the browser is the ability to use keyboard navigation (other than tabbing from element to element) without jury-rigging flash.

QFocuser adds this ability to your AJAX to "listen" for key events. Be prepared however to create a work around for Safari.

Capacinno - Atlas

Cappuccino is a drag and drop editor for creating desktop applications created by 280North. It includes built in libraries and behaviors that enable options like autosaving and cut-and-paste.

New is Atlas which takes the fundamentals of Cappucinno and simplifies it even more adding WYSIWYG editing to the mix.

Capucinno and Atlas are MVC framework (Model-View-Controller) objects. This means that the UI is separated from the business logic allowing for easier modification of the data (Model) from the UI (View). The controller is the glue that manages the communication of data and business objects used to manipulate the data between the two states.

Boffswana and Flash

There is a company in Australia that has combined your webcam with some interesting technology to allow for 3D images to appear on your screen triggered by a specific object in the flash.

The way it works is pretty simple in theory; the camera picks up on a shape that you've printed up and replaces it with an object.

The example below is a simplistic version of what you can do but the possibilities are endless.


Papervision - Augmented Reality (extended) from Boffswana on Vimeo.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)

One of the better legislative rules that have forced web developers to pay attention is the introduction of the ADA and the resultant guidelines that they force developers to use.

The primary function is to provide alternative means and to facilitate assistance technology like screen readers to access content and functionality on your site.

Generally, the guidelines state that you must
a. provide text equivalents for non text elements (i.e alt attributes and/or LONGDESC)
b. avoid dependence on colours (i.e. red lettering for error messages)
c. avoid actions that are not triggered by user input.

HTML should be used for structure and CSS for style.

Communication Seminar

As a DOT, I get to spend a lot of time in seminars and presenting my ideas. My earlier background is in stage and voice prepared me for presenting in front of large groups but my issue has always been the more than 5 less than 50 crowd.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a working session with Mark Bowden, a brit that has advised people such as Tony Blair and Harper on presenting.

His theory revolves around the idea that our primitive mind has a large effect on our newer (by evolutionary standards) frontal cortex. Some of these effects are subliminal - such as the fight or flight response to a crowd, the idea being that primitively our mind sees groups as threat (cause they can eat you) and it is only by acknowledging our primitive mind that we can overcome.

Another of his ideas take many queues from early art (especially Michelangelo) on arm placement. There are three main areas belly button, chest level and above the shoulders that convey truth, passion and ecstasy. One of the prime examples in art is the deception of biblical crucifixion (disambiguation) . Scientists and anthropology experts have agreed that in order for crucifixion to be effective the arms have to above the head (this brings on asphyxiation) but the majority of artistic impressions place the arms perpendicular to the body in the passion position.

Great ideas and strategies for dealing with group presentations.

TED Talks

I'm a great fan of the TED series of lectures and the latest posting is one of my favorites. Taking a look at the economy, Juan Enriquez talks of the bubble burst that is still yet to come and how the savior will not be Santa Claus giving billions of dollars to failing banking institutions but science.