2010年8月31日

Health 2.0 summit at 49th floor

(cc) esaskar
I returned from Germany to Aizu-Wakamatsu about a week ago to be part of ‘Eyes, JAPAN’ for the third time. Being an information engineer specialized in web and publishing standards, I took my first steps in working on medical applications last year. Working in the field of medicine is always a bit intimidating for newbies. And opening a huge paperwork of medical standards has somehow the sensation like opening the door to a hospital, at the beginning. The environment is very unnatural to you; you have to get into a foreign context to gain some basic orientation and understanding; and somehow the professionals of medicine seem doing magic when doing their job. However big the appreciation for medicine and for those mastering it, lay people normally feel relieved when leaving the realms of medicine.

The interesting part was when I realized that people think and feel sometimes the same way about computer science. To me not only using computer systems but especially manipulating and creating new ones according to specific needs is very natural – it’s what I learned, it’s what I like to do. It’s surely the same for anybody else working in computer science. But I guess for most people computer science might be only a tool that helps to solve some problems of humankind, being happy if there is somebody else who can harness it. And that’s surely something that medicine and computer science have in common one to another.

Last week I had the great pleasure to attend the second meeting of the Health 2.0 Tokyo Chapter. I think times are very thrilling these days, where worldwide people think about how we can combine the benefits of medicine and computer science to make health care more efficient. And to bring together experts from both fields to exchange ideas and achievements is the first big step to reach this goal.

Frederik q!

投稿者 Frederik : 11:52 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月30日

Reading anything anywhere

In our digital and highly connected world we often travel and still be able to receive email and links to interesting documents. Even though we might have a few seconds to share to look at messages passed to us within social networks like Facebook or Twitter we most likely lack the time to read the documents we deem interesting for us thoroughly. This is the point where so called Read-it-later-services come into action. One of this sites (the one that I am making heavy use of) is Instapaper.

It is supported by many applications and browsers through plug-ins. A very famous use case is to keep track of interesting links provided by Twitter with the official Twitter for iPhone application. When selecting a Tweet a simple touch on the read-it-later-button sends the link to the Instapaper website. The nice thing is that there not only the link will be bookmarked, but the contents of the site will be processed for easier later reading.

It is also possible to purchase the official iPhone and iPad application which provides a function for offline reading and archiving (or get the free version).

In case you count yourself to the kind of person that is receiving a plethora of information through the internet and often is on the run and short of time you might want to give Instapaper a whip.

q!

投稿者 sascha : 16:21 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月27日

Gone Bananas

In contrast to yesterday’s blog entry regarding the lack of a topic, I have volunteered in place of Frederik (who has, ahem, kindly agreed to write on my behalf when it’s my turn the next time) to be in charge of today’s blog entry. Not exactly related to my previous entry, I would like to introduce the term “banana”.

Banana; a term to describe people of Chinese descent leading Western lifestyles and are unable to speak Mandarin, or those who have a blind-admiration for everything Western. I have never been called a banana, but I do not deny my inability to speak and my condescension towards what is supposedly my mother tongue (which is my mother tongue only by default of my of Chinese heritage). In Singapore, there is a stereotype that the more-educated speak better English, while those from neighbourhood schools speak more Singlish and Chinese, or whatever their mother tongue.

The concept of banana-ism (or “the grass on the other side is greener”) exists in other parts of Asia, including Japan, too, as I have observed since coming here. Being a native English speaker I have been on the receiving end of awe and admiration when I speak in the language that is most comfortable to me, which is all very flattering, but I rather be included in “this side” than be on the other side of the fence. Which was why I refused to stick with fellow foreigners during my schooldays and put effort into conversing in Japanese with my Japanese classmates.

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

Something getting harder to do, as Rome is becoming increasingly banana.

Ying Tong (a proud banana and banana-hater and wondering about the next banana shake) q!

投稿者 yingtong : 15:14 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月26日

ネタ切れ

ミーティング、食事会という流れを経た帰り道にふと「あれ、もしかして今日当番だったような?」という一抹の不安を抱き、帰宅後自分の思い過ごしであることを祈りながらメールを確認したところ、嫌な予感はあたるものです。というわけで本日のブログは私、阿部が担当させていただきます。

私は今とても困っています。何に困っているのかというと、当番だというのに何を書くか思いつかないのです。厳密にいうと書きたいことはあるのですが、それはこちらで書くような内容ではなく (この記事もどうかと思いますが) 、かつ上手く文章にまとめられないので書けないのです。というわけで、「ネタがないときどうするか?」というテーマにしたいと思います。

私の場合は、まず最近の記事 (誰が書いたかは気にしない) を読みます。そうすることで、おおよそどの程度の文章量を書くのかを意識します。その後、適当に思いついたことについてひたすら書きます。メモ帳開いて書きなぐります。話が途中で変わっていようがおかまいなしです。そうして出来た変な文章群を読み直して、その中から一番まともに書きまとめれそうなものを選び清書、という形をとっています。

普段からしっかり意識して生活していれば「ネタがない」なんていう状態にはなり得ないはずなので、今後はもう少し気をつけたいと思います。

担当:阿部 (怠慢の結果) q!

投稿者 abe : 23:25 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月25日

いろいろな噂の絶えない驚くべき新製品たち

発売前も発売後もなにかと話題の絶えない新製品を出してくるAppleですが、
「iPad」や「iPhone 4」などにつづいて今年はさらに新製品を投入してくるようですね。この手の話題にはなにかと誤報が付き物ですが、今のところよく言われているのが以下の製品たちです。

昨今の流れやAppleの動向からもはや確実に出るだろうといわれているものや、すでにい一部リークされちゃったものなどいろいろあります。これらの製品は年内中から来年の頭までに発売される予定といわれていますが、Appleの正式な発表があるまでは未確定な情報ばかりです。
とりあえずは9月1日に開催されるスペシャルイベントを楽しみに待っていましょう。

安保 (ホワイトモデルはまだですか?) q!

投稿者 admin : 21:21 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月24日

iPhone Developers Meeting開催!

昨日、社内で初めてiPhone Developers Meetingが行われました。
私が担当して開催したのですが、結果として、私の司会がうまくいかなくて、皆さんに迷惑をかけることになってしまいました。初めて行ったんだから、失敗してもしょうがないと言われればそれまでですが、私ももう二十歳。いつの間にか法的には立派な大人と言われるようになっているのです。そのため、大学生といえども、こういう事ができなければならない年齢になっていると、個人的に思っています。

今回の反省点として、やはり一番先にあげられるのが、準備不足です。一応、議題として流れを書いた文書を作っていたのですが、私の読みが甘く、ほとんど思った通りに進行する事はありませんでした。
しかし、今回実施したことによって、この先どのように行っていけばいいか少し見えた気がします。どのくらいの内容の発表を一度の発表にまとめたり、1つの議題をさらに細分化し、複数の議題として話し合ったりと、議題をまとめ直して、次回のミーティングでは、今回のような過ちを、すこしでも少なくして、有意義な時間となるように頑張りたいと思います。また、このミーティングは基本的に英語なので、少しでも話せるように、日頃から、少しずつ英語を混ぜてしゃべっていったりと、少しずつ自分を変えていきたいと思います。

iPhoneの開発を初めて、早くてもう5ヶ月、ですが、まだまだ立派なiPhone Developerとなる日は遠い気がしてしまいます…

担当:金田 (また一つ、失敗を重ねて強くなる) q!

投稿者 kaneda : 17:55 | コメント (1) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月23日

失敗談

先日、有料モーションの撮影に同行してモーションと一緒にS3DC(Stereo 3D Content)の素材となる映像を撮影してまいりました。先に結果を晒してしまいますと、素材撮影の方は「失敗した」と断言せざるを得ません。今は、S3DCの為の素材撮影失敗について社長や先輩方から頂戴した意見をまとめ、今後のことを考えているところです。

今回の撮影失敗の原因は、大雑把に分けて2つ。

1つ目は、「映像を通して何を伝えたいのか」ということに関して積極的に考えなかったことです。創作物にどんな芯を通すのか、それを念頭におかず作業に入ってしまったことです。
芯というと難しく聞こえますが、現在の自分には芯の選択肢が用意されていたはずでした。「純粋な作品としてのS3DCを制作する」もしくは、「mocapdata.comのCMとしてのS3DCを制作する」のどちらかです。たった2本。これだけ。それなのに、撮影することばかりに気を取られていた自分はそれらから選ぶことも出来ませんでした。

2つ目は、事前の準備不足。ここでいう準備というのは機材の用意とかそういう意味ではなく、アングルの研究や予習といった意味です。準備をしていなかったわけではないのですが、致命的に足りていなかったというのは言い逃れのしようもない事実。こちらも難しく考えず、それこそYoutubeなどで検索をかけてみれば参考になる映像を見つけることができるのに、そこまで考えが至りませんでした。

他にも多くの原因が考えられますが、中でも一番重要で致命的なのはこの2つ。これらが欠けた状態で取り組んだS3DC制作の結果完成したのは、味気の無いただの記録映像でした。

さて、話題が暗くなってしまいました。失敗談ですので当然といえば当然ですが、暗くなろうが凹もうが撮り直しはできません。別に開き直るつもりはありませんが、ここまで失敗した原因・理由が分かっていると逆に清清しいものです。今回の失敗についてよく考え、今後の活動(撮影と編集共に)に生かしたいと思います。
まずは、芯というものを改めて考えるためにオススメされた、「PVを観る」。これを実践していこうかと思っています。

担当:OYAMA (さて、鉛筆削りはどこだっけ…) q!

投稿者 oyama : 21:55 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月20日

Native Application VS. Web Application

Yesterday, I saw some blogs by accident. They were talking about the comparison between the Iphone Native Application and Web Application for Iphone.
The main content was about several new features of HTML5 and other new technologies of web application for mobile phone. It really attracts many developer for Iphone or mobile phone.
Native Applications are the applications which are downloaded from ITunes App Store. Web application are the Web sites which are optimized for viewing on the iphone.
The iphone users know that the native applications have sexy interfaces, high performance, can call device api, etc. All these features make the native applications popular. To make perfect native applications is the motivation of Iphone Development Team.
But we can not just focus on the native development, we should care about the powerful competitor, Web Application.
As the appearance of HTML5, Google Gears, and some other new technology for web application. The web applications can work more like native applications. In Table 1, it gives the comparison between native application and web application.

Table 1. Comparison between Native Application and Web Application

Yes, the web applications can be better than before. But the new technologies are under development. We should continue to pay attention to their development.

References:
1 Michael Brown. “Which IPhone app is better- web or native?
2 John Arne Sæterås. “Mobile Web vs. Native Apps. Revisited
3 Chris Camero. “Will Mobile Web Apps Eventually Replace Native Apps?
4 Peter-Paul Koch. “Native iPhone apps vs. Web apps

q!

投稿者 will : 18:50 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月19日

Many options to choose from

places.jpg

According to the recent news Facebook made public they new service called “places”.
So, there is simple question here: how or in what way will it change the world?
I’m pretty sure all of you familiar with such mobile and web service as Foursquare.
And when Facebook started offering something similar it is obvious that people would think about what common points, advantages and disadvantages both of them have.

I couldn’t understand what you are talking about…is it edible?

Let’s start from simple things.
Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location.
Points are awarded for “checking in” at venues. Users can choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook or both.
Users can also earn badges by checking in at locations with certain tags, for check-in frequency or for other patterns such as time of check-in.
The company has stated that users will be able to add their own custom badges to the site in the future.
Foursquare started out in 2009 with limited availability in only 100 worldwide metro areas.
In January 2010, Foursquare changed their location model to allow check-ins from any location worldwide.
As of March 2010, the service had 500,000 users internationally.
Foursquare currently has iPhone, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry applications.

foursquare.png

In general, this known as Geosocial networking.
To put it simple it is social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics. Geosocial networking can allow users to interact relative to location and time. Web mapping services with geocoding data for places such as streets, buildings, and parks can be used with geotagged information (such as meetups, concert events, or nightclub or restaurant reviews) to match a user with a place or event or local group in which to socialize, or enable a group of users to decide on a meeting activity.

What about Facebook?

As it stated on their web-site, to start using this service you need to do several steps:
” To get started, you’ll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation.
Go to Places on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com site and then tap the “Check In” button. You’ll see a list of places near you. Choose the place that matches where you are. If it’s not on the list, search for it or add it. After checking in, your check-in will create a story in your friends’ News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place. ”
So, as a common sense suggests with Places, its users are in control of what they share and the people they share with. It is also possible to choose whether or not to share the location when one checks in at a place. When you check in, you can tag friends who are with you but only if their settings allow it. When you are tagged, you are always notified.

To sum-up about the difference between these two services, I can only say, that there are benefits and drawbacks in both of them. For example, Facebook has bigger user based and people who are using Facebook can use Places right away, on the other hand, currently it is available only for US. In case of Foursquare, it works worldwide and has pretty features as medals, but number of active users is not so big, so advertisement on a large scale is not possible.
As for me, main drawback of these two apps is the fact it is two of them, so you are to use them both if you already have friends in both accounts. In any case, whatever future brings, we’ll see.

References

q!

投稿者 denvazh : 17:18 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us

2010年8月18日

Little Red Dot and the Hinomaru

Singapore celebrated its 45th birthday last week, on the 9th of August. Although a small and young country, it has already overtaken its neighbours to become the most developed country in South East Asia. There is peace, both politically (if not because the People-In-Charge have a good carrot-and-stick policy for voters) and culturally (thanks to the People-In-Charge’s sensitivity to everything racially-sensitive), it is clean, safe, has a wife variety of great good, etc etc. There is a list of 50 reasons why Singapore is the best city in the world here written by a fellow Singaporean.

I am proud to be a holder of the bright red Singapore passport. And I am now happily living and working here in Japan.

q!

投稿者 yingtong : 18:22 | コメント (0) | save to del.icio.us