Ubuntu Mobile

Ubuntu introduces Ubuntu Mobile:

Ubuntu Mobile is an Ubuntu edition that targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices. Ubuntu Mobile, based on the world's most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, are redefining what can be done in mobile computing.

From the possibilities:

Facebook®, MySpace®, YouTube®, Dailymotion®, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that's easy and fun to use

What does it mean to 3G services, such as radio, multimedia messages, multimedia broadcast and multicast? It was a nice try at that time, but now it looks like a dead end. Not only that those applications are available as internet services, but the internet versions give more convenience:

• known environment from another internet-connected devices, such as home or office computer
• huge amount of content is already available, including consumer - or better prosumer - generated
• already shareable by peers
  
• faster application evolution, more flexibility to user demands
  
• no application vendor lock-in nor telecommunications company lock-in
  

Purpose of 3G? Only better internet connection.

Social Network Preferences

Interesting map of social network preferences around world. Top networks:

North America

• MySpace
• Facebook

Europe

• Bebo
• MySpace, Skyblog, Facebook

Latin America

• Orkut
• Hi5

Asia

• Friendster
• Cyworld, Orkut

Slow corner rounding

I was reading some articles about web design and usability in quite usual depth-first manner of browsing instead of breadth-first. I hit a page about CSS rounded corners. Quite a lot of important information there, many links to how-to pages, manuals and examples how to make corners of frames on your web page to be rounded not thorny. I hit some random links and returned back to the list of the pages. Then I realized: why does such list exist?

Rounded corners are used on many sites for quite a while and there is still a list of thousands methods how to do them. Why? Because every one is waiting for W3C to approve CSS specification. Once approved, browser developers can implement the rounding attributes.

Even though rounded corners may be considered just a visual sugar, they are pretty and I like pretty things :-) What I just do not understand, why this very simple visual property with simple specification, easily implementable by any graphical engine, does so long to get standardized and therefore implemented in a browser or a web rendering framework?

How many development time and time spend writing those tutorials for such a trivial thing can be saved and used for more important matters? :-)

Broken links, intentions and Z-Swap

It is as simple as:

Broken link shows that once there was a link but someone broke it or changed the strength of the link. Now "Once friends ... now the barely know each other" can be depicted quite easily...

I promised to talk about Z-Swap, however I have realized that I need to talk about intentions first as well:

Intention curves are for showing that a person wants to change a relationship. Possible intentions:

• strengthen, be more friendly, change from friends to partners: + or ++ for stronger intention
• weaken: - or -- for stronger intention
• break: x

For showing that person wants to do something to the relationship but we just do not know what just use a question mark.

What is a Z-Swap? It is a situation, when Mr. Green and Lady in Red want to be together, however, they both are already engaged by someone else:

So how the story goes? It starts with intentions and if everything goes well, ends in the desired state:

However, that was very smooth progress, but things might go wrong. Next? Maybe conflicts.

Programming Bible

Finally my Christmas present is here! Yesterday morning a postman from a delivery service brought me three book set of the programming bible "The Art of Computer Programming" by Donald E. Knuth. One of the reasons I ordered it, despite I can get it from a library anytime I want, is that it is definitely a piece of art.

Let the brain exercises start again. I was reading about things I once used almost daily and it started to bring memories and ideas from the back of my brain. Mixing process has immediately begun, old thoughts with new experiences, old plans with new directions... It is interesting how new ideas started to emerge, some of them related directly to the paragraphs in the book, some of them off-topic at the first sight.

For example idea of Artificial life simulation, behaviour evolution triggered by MIX computer. Decompose the computer to basic elements: registers, flags, memory locations or even numerical constants. Put enough copies of those objects in a simulated world. Make some of them join randomly into a small evolving population of agents, the rest of the material should remain scattered around. Obvious idea. Now, make each component and each bound (connection between components) to require certain amount of energy to be able to operate or to sustain in the organism. Put energy sources in the game and let them fight.

 

Ok, I am going back to reading and fighting with math.

Meta Connections, Distance and Social Diamond

What is a Social Diamond? Well, first have a look at another social network graphical language elements to be able to understand the diamond pattern.

What are meta connections? Try to guess from the image:

Meta connections are connections to connections. They give the reader more information about connections, for example, how they were created or who is aware of them. Sometime in the future I would explain another type of meta connections: how to show intentions. However, I do not want to complicate things right now.

Social distance d is number of connections between entities

• distance between me and my friend is 1
  
• distance between me and a friend of my friend is 2
  
• distance between me and stranger is ∞
  

However, there can be more distances between two people: how they see it, how others see it, the shortest, the longest, the simplest, the most achievable... It would be enough to use one or two for the moment:



Finally, we can show the social diamond, this one is from real life experience:

Have you been in a similar situation? Sometimes the life would be much easier if "compliant" people would be friends, but it requires the "men in the middle" to connect them...

Next: Broken links and Z-swap

Social Networks Graphical Language

Have you ever tried to explain relationships from a romance book, film or a soap opera to a friend? Not so easy task if there are too many people and connections between them. Next time you can try to draw it on a piece of a paper or on a napkin in a restaurant.

Note: I will try to moderate myself and try to not to use too mathematical language when describing social networks, even the descriptions would be more precise.

We begin with some basics: persons and places. Well, instead of person more general would be to use term entity, as it can be a horse, dog, company or anything you can think of.

Situation focus is an entity (or a person) of main interest to the situation, main hero. Or ot can mean self or the story narrator, the person who describes the situation. Or... it can be a person to which a situation is described to as well, just make it clear what is the focus. Group represents, surprisingly a group of people, group of entities or a community.
Place can be part of the social network graph if it is relevant to the described situation. It can be room, building, city, state, or even non specified place (meaning "somewhere").


The entities are connected, and together with links they form a network or better a graph.

People are strangers to each other when they do not know each other. This fact is depicted by not putting a link between the people. However, note that the diagram can be created by third person, not involved in the described situation. Or the creator does not have full knowledge of the situation. Or just simply the relationship is not relevant to the situation being described. Because of that, missing connection does not necessarily has to mean that the there is no link between the people.

Friends will be friends... Remember that one? Queen. Anyway, I am using the term friends for simplicity, as majority of such links would represent that the persons are mutual friends. However, it can be considered as any simple link where entities interact quite frequently and they most likely have contacts to each other. To the contrary, acquaintances just know about each other's existence, they interact very rarely or rather randomly, and do not have to have contact to each other. Partners are more than friends. There is stronger binding between the two. In some cases the link can represent a binding by contract or marriage. Some people just know about other people, but the reverse knowledge does not exist or we just do not know about it. And of course, unbalanced relationships exist as well.

Knowing the social networks graphical language basics we can try to explain a situation at a party where eleven old friends met:


Coming up next: Meta connections, or connections to connections.