http://halfwaytoreality.com Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:59:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en How does your organisation represent itself in its emails? Do you have a brand document that declares in minutiae the absolute font, size, colour and wording of signatures? Do you leave it to managers or individuals? I've lost count of the number of job titles I've given myself over the years. Certainly, ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2008/is-anyone-policing-your-out-of-office-comments What do you really need from a phone? How do you really use it? This is something I photoshopped a while back and forgot about, but it seems quite relevant just ahead of the 3G iPhone arriving in shops. Pic 1 is of the LG KF700, another phone trying something different, in ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2008/tactile-phones-forget-about-touch-and-haptics Like many others, I've got mixed feelings about the "relaxing" of top-level domain names. There are great potential domain extensions like .movie, .book, .sony, .apple and many more. Some leave me puzzled, would I prefer myrestaurant.ldn or myrestaurant.london? Some will leave me baffled at their arrogance, ignorance or avarice. No ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2008/the-gold-rush-to-new-extensions-gandi-bar For good or bad, or probably just being plain nosey, I find myself attacking a questionnaire on my radio listening habits. It's a long and fiddly one, and just when I find myself getting towards the end, I get thrown by this: A cold viewing, I suspect, would make absolute sense. However, ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/web-experience/2007/form-design-simple-mistake National Geographic's Swarm Behaviour is a thoroughly interesting article on insect behaviour. It discusses how research into insect behaviour is leading to new techniques in problem-solving, management, and artificial intelligence. It even could shed light on humans and our behaviour. "A honeybee never sees the big picture any more than ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/brains-behaviour/2007/national-geographic-swarm-behaviour I feel indebted to Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen for introducing me to Benjamin Zander, or at least the following video of him talking to music students: Link: YouTube - Benjamin Zander Speech Preview Zander is the British-born conductor of the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, clearly an incredible presence on stage, and apparently ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2007/benjamin-zander-in-contribution-there-is-no-better Spotted in a Tottenham Court Road tech store window last month, it's a laptop running Vista. But what's that box in the right-hand corner? Should we wait until service pack 1? http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2007/windows-vista-how-to-inspire-confidence As every week, Gerry McGovern provides food for thought, this time on the wisdom of crowds. In Web facilitates wisdom of crowds he says: The Web is not about crowd-think, but rather about amalgamating and sifting the results of many people's independent opinions on particular subjects. This approach is the essence of ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2007/web-facilitates-wisdom-of-crowds-gerry-mcgovern One of these days I'll get my hands onto some eye tracking tools! Cognitive Daily: Artists look different discusses research into the differences between the way trained artists and ordinary folks view images. As someone who works daily with architects, structural engineers, graphic designers and architectural photographers, I'd love to see how ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/brains-behaviour/2007/artistic-composition-eyetracking-and-training I know everyone's talking about the iPhone and, hey, I'm no exception. This is the first product in a long time that has drawn real attention from technology fans across the spectrum (i.e. dedicated PC nuts), and it's been interesting to see a lot of the initial excitement fade as the ... http://halfwaytoreality.com/general/2007/iphone-where-are-the-games