Intelligent physical modelling systems - Why?

“What did you think you were doing?” Was the question posed by the conference organizers to me as the inventor and constructor of the first working Tangible Interfaces over 40 years ago. I think the question was intended to encourage me to talk about the underlying ideas and intentionality rather than describe an endless sequence of electronic bricks and that is what I shall do in this presentation. In the sixties the prevalent idea for a graphics interface was an analogue with sketching which was to somehow be understood by the computer as three dimensional form. I rebelled against this notion for reasons which I will explain in the presentation and instead came up with tangible physical three dimensional intelligent objects. I called these first prototypes “Intelligent Physical Modelling Systems” which is a really dumb name for an obvious concept. I am eternally grateful to Hiroshi Ishii for coining the term “Tangible User Interfaces” - the same idea but with a much smarter name. Another motivator was user involvement in the design process, and that led to the Generator (1979) project with Cedric Price for the world’s first intelligent building capable of organizing itself in response to the appetites of the users. The working model of that project is in MoMA. And the same motivation led to a self builders design kit (1980) for Walter Segal which facilitated self-builders to design their own houses. And indeed as the organizer’s question implied, the motivation and intentionality of these projects developed over the years in step with advancing technology. The speaker will attempt to articulate these changes with medical, psychological and educational examples. Much of this later work indeed stemming from the Media Lab where we are talking. Related topics such as “tangible thinking” and “intelligent teacups” will be introduced and the presentation will end with some speculations for the future. The presentation will be given against a background of images of early prototypes many of which have never been previously published.

Entertaining the E Word : Barrie Kosky's On Ecstasy [A Review]

A review of Barrie Kosky's essay, On Ecstasy : Most of us describe the E word as a pleasant, out of this world experience—a type of boundless, artificial joy, deliberately induced by some kind of technicoloured drug. For others, it is that “lovey dovey” feeling. A spinning ceiling. Anything Lindt. For sensualist and soup connoisseur Barrie Kosky, it is easier than this. Being On Ecstasy involves, quite simply, his grandmother's chicken specialty—something warm and golden, surrendered with vegetables and a side of transcendental bliss. “A soup that took you to the beginning and end of time itself. A dazzling, pure, clear rhapsody” (7).

Death by Drowning : Gary Bryson's Turtle [A Review]

Accused of being autobiographical, as many debut novels often are, Turtle, upon first reading and further prying, does read as a story wrenched out of Gary Bryson’s own life. In a recent interview with Mandy Sayer, however, he was quick to deny all sorts of archetypal allegations. “Any resemblance to turtles living or dead”, Bryson explained, “is entirely coincidental”. Regardless of the many parallels that align author with protagonist—both were born and raised in a grey-skied Glasgow, both grew up in self-described dysfunctional families, and both returned to the colourless city to attend their mothers’ funerals—the narrative combines bruising black comedy with moments of magic realism. The result is an unlikely but often surprising concoction of twists and turns, each of which mixes the fallibility of memory with the slippery nature of truth. This playfulness between the material world and its metaphorical counterpart raises questions, not only about the curse that poisons its characters, but about the ethical implications of blurring fact and fiction...

Once Upon a Misconception : Mark Juddery's Busted [A Review]

Forget Disney's timeless tales of rags-to-riches. Princesses are the most overrated public figures of all time. Apparently. Cinderella, after all, was 'a calculating, sinister go-getter' who murdered her step-mother at the instruction of a jealous governess (88). Sleeping Beauty was raped as she slept, woken not by the wet kiss of a handsome prince, but the kick and punch of twins stirring in her belly. Over the centuries, only the pea-detecting princess has remained herself: hedonistic, melodramatic and 'still perhaps the most pampered, precious wimp in the history of fairy tales' (88). There are, however, shards of truth to be salvaged from the fractured lives of these glassy-eyed women. After all, even Princess Mary worked in real estate.

Thelma and Disease : Susan Gilman's Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven [A Review]

In the nineteenth century, when female travel narratives of miss(adventure) were still read as excursions rather than expeditions, it was common for women travellers to preface their writing with an apology or admission of guilt—a type of disclaimer that excused the author for engaging in such inappropriate activity and bothering the reader with their trivial endeavours. Susan Gilman’s Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven offers no such thing. Instead Gilman begins her memoir with a confession about its lack of lies, half-truth and spin. ‘This is a true story,’ she writes, ‘recounted as accurate as possible and corroborated by notes I took at the time and by others who were present.’

More Move, More Loss: Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip [A Review]

A review of Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip; winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize and shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize.

Lucky or Lagging? Anne Summers's On Luck [A Review]

Described as 'The Lucky Country' over forty-years ago, Australia continues to play on and onward with a fervent belief in luck, her people often described, usually by themselvess, as 'graced' or as living in 'God's Own'. With our comfortable lifestyle and isolated location, white sands and soft mangoes, it is easy to see why we embraced the term so eagerly. Where else could you win the lottery twice? While these national stereotypes are an essential part of the romance that drives and defines us, the idea that luck is the central motif of Australian culture has become a cliche, and a dangerous, almost disastrous one at that. In On Luck, Anne Summers observes, "You hear it everywhere: in all sorts of conversations, in Qantas ads, from the mouths of travellers returning from overseas trips full of complaints about the climate, the crowds, the uncivility of other places".

Pleasure Consuming Medicine : The Queer Politics of Drugs By Kane Race [Review]

The queer studies field works to deconstruct dominant western discourses which cast gay men as hedonistic partygoers. Concurrently it examines the real social ramifications for some gay men for whom partying, illegal drugs and casual sex is an everyday reality. Another reality of gay male culture is HIV/AIDS and the legal prescribed medicines which accompany these conditions. Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs explores these realities and the discourses surrounding them. Exploring the embodiments of illegal and prescription drug users, this book problematises the binary between prescription medicine use, where drug use is configured as a matter of consumer choice, and 'illicit' drug use which is heavily policed and condemned. Returning to the gay community it reviews community approaches to safe sex and drug use, and individual practices, to demonstrate alternative approaches to condemning drug usage.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory edited by Giffney and O'Rourke [Review]

The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory is a solid collection providing an overview of the past, present and future applications of queer theory. The Companion confidently lives up to its name as a research companion offering useful theories and methodologies for the reader to utilise queer theory in their own work.

Pleasure Consuming Medicine : The Queer Politics of Drugs By Kane Race [Review]

The queer studies field works to deconstruct dominant western discourses which cast gay men as hedonistic partygoers. Concurrently it examines the real social ramifications for some gay men for whom partying, illegal drugs and casual sex is an everyday reality. Another reality of gay male culture is HIV/AIDS and the legal prescribed medicines which accompany these conditions. Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs explores these realities and the discourses surrounding them. Exploring the embodiments of illegal and prescription drug users, this book problematises the binary between prescription medicine use, where drug use is configured as a matter of consumer choice, and 'illicit' drug use which is heavily policed and condemned. Returning to the gay community it reviews community approaches to safe sex and drug use, and individual practices, to demonstrate alternative approaches to condemning drug usage.

The Proposal [Film Review]

The Proposal is a well-executed romantic comedy that easily meets its low ambitions. Director Anne Fletcher (Step Up, 27 Dresses) and newcomer writer Peter Chiarelli team up to deliver a lighthearted comedy termpered with heartwarming family values. The cute and lovable cast, headed by Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, enriches this simple tale...

Evaluation of TxDOT’s J.A.C.K. model for revenue and expenditure projections

This research report documents work conducted by the Center for Transportation (CTR) at The University of Texas at Austin in analyzing the Joint Analysis using the Combined Knowledge (J.A.C.K.) program. This program was developed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to make projections of revenues and expenditures. This research effort was to span from September 2008 to August 2009, but the bulk of the work was completed and presented by December 2008. J.A.C.K. was subsequently renamed TRENDS, but for consistency with the scope of work, the original name is used throughout this report.

Policy filtering with XACML

This paper presents a modified approach to evaluate access control policy similarity and dissimilarity based on the proposal by Lin et al. (2007). Lin et al.'s policy similarity approach is intended as a filter stage which identifies similar XACML policies that can be analysed further using more computationally demanding techniques based on model checking or logical reasoning. This paper improves the approach of computing similarity of Lin et al. and also proposes a mechanism to calculate a dissimilarity score by identifying related policies that are likely to produce different access decisions. Departing from the original algorithm, the modifications take into account the policy obligation, rule or policy combining algorithm and the operators between attribute name and value. The algorithms are useful in activities involving parties from multiple security domains such as secured collaboration or secured task distribution. The algorithms allow various comparison options for evaluating policies while retaining control over the restriction level via a number of thresholds and weight factors.