data exhaust n. The digitally trackable or storable actions, choices, and preferences that people generate as they go about their daily lives. Some firms will make a living based entirely on mining “data exhaust”, the bits and bytes produced by other activities. One example is Google’s PowerMeter, which not only lets users check their use of electricity online but gives Google access to lots of data to analyse and, not least, sell advertisements against. In Brin’s way of thinking, each of our lives is a potential contribution to scientific insight. 1998 (earliest) Merchants have a larger problem when it comes to collecting data about customers. Data exhaust is also sometimes called digital exhaust, a term that dates to about 2008. Did you like this entry? © 2015 Logophilia Limited
The Truth About the Average Twitter User [STATS] A new study from security firm Barracuda Labs provides some interesting insights into the state of the Twitterverse. Unfortunately for the microblogging startup, the stats say that most of its users aren't very active. The study looked at around 19 million Twitter accounts (PDF) in order to figure out how people are using Twitter. There's a great deal of interesting data in the breakdown. In terms of tweets, the report estimates that 34% of Twitter users hadn't tweeted even once, while a whopping 73% of Twitter's users tweeted less than 10 times. Barracuda Labs also analyzed Twitter's growth over time, and the numbers are consistent with previous reports that show while Twitter grew like wildfire in early 2009, it has dramatically slowed down in recent months. While the news isn't stellar, it isn't all bad for Twitter — these metrics are moving in the right direction. [via MediaMemo]
THE Q&A: DIETER RAMS, INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER In the realm of industrial design, Dieter Rams is Yoda. The foundations were laid during a 40-year tenure as design director of Braun, a German electronics manufacturer. Rams helped to usher a functional modernist agenda into households the world over. Elevating audio speakers from the carpet and removing the record player from its heavy wooden tomb, Rams ignited a design revolution with a philosophy of “less but better”. His Ten Principles of Design are routinely referred to as “commandments” in the field. Now London’s Design Museum pays tribute to Rams’ body of work with “Less and More—The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams”, a definitive retrospective of his career. Just before the retrospective opened on November 18th, Rams spoke with More Intelligent Life about his distaste for noise pollution, the need for better instruction manuals and the awful cult of celebrity designers. More Intelligent Life: You’ve always emphasised the importance of functionality in design. DR: No.
bäst i världen på interaktivitet - DN.se Publicerad 2010-04-30 11:00 Dagens Nyheter vann första pris i marknadsförings-VM för sina initiativ att skapa interaktivitet och lojalitet med sina läsare. DN vann i kategorin Public Relations i INMA Awards i New York i konkurrens med tidningar från hela världen. Det är olika initiativ som DN-galan, DN under jord och DN:s utrikesdag som nu uppmärksammas. – Vi kallar det för DN Live, som vänder sig till våra trogna läsare med DN-kortet, säger Johan Othelius, upplagedirektör på Dagens Nyheter. – Läsarna är på plats och kan ställa frågor och träffa de som framträder – det har kommit över 10. 000 personer vid varje tillfälle. – Roligt är också att vi blev nominerade i fyra klasser totalt, och i konkurrens med 535 tävlingsbidrag från 47 olika länder. Dela med dina vänner
A Swedish brownshirt jailed for plotting the theft of the Auschwitz entrance sign. An interesting way to become famous: A Polish judge has jailed a Swedish man for two years and eight months for plotting the theft of the "Arbeit macht frei" Auschwitz entrance sign. Anders Hoegstroem, a former neo-Nazi leader, admitted theft under a plea bargain last month and will be moved to Sweden to serve his sentence. The infamous sign was stolen in December last year and recovered in three pieces three days later. The judge in Krakow also jailed two Poles for up to two-and-a-half years. One of the pair, named as Andrzej S, apologised in court for the offence, Polish media report. The 5m (16ft) wrought-iron slogan which translates as "Work sets you free" is a potent symbol of many of the Nazi-era atrocities. The sign has since been repaired although it now hangs in the Auschwitz museum and has been replaced by a replica at the entrance to the former death camp. Three other Poles were given prison terms earlier this year for the theft which was thought to have been ordered by another Swede still at large.
Slydial is a voice message service Questions Without Answers for John Baldessari John Baldessari, Portrait: (Self) #1 as Control + 11 Alterations by Retouching and Airbrushing, 1974. A major exhibition devoted to the mercurial conceptual work of John Baldessari is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Here, on the occasion of that retrospective, the master painter David Salle puts some probing questions to Baldessari, his friend and former teacher. I have always felt a deeply humanistic undertone in your work, despite its use of irony and obliqueness. Is a Conceptual artist different from any other kind of artist? A lot of ink has been spilled about art as the new religion, with the museum as its church. Here's a fan question: How did you come up with the idea of singing LeWitt? What’s the one thing an artist must never do? Harold Brodkey once said that people don’t like to be outshone—they’ll kill you if it bothers them enough. John Baldessari, Noses & Ears, Etc.: Blood, Fist, and Head (with Nose and Ear), 2006.
3D printer could build moon bases (PhysOrg.com) -- An Italian inventor, Enrico Dini, chairman of the company Monolite UK Ltd, has developed a huge three-dimensional printer called D-Shape that can print entire buildings out of sand and an inorganic binder. The printer works by spraying a thin layer of sand followed by a layer of magnesium-based binder from hundreds of nozzles on its underside. The glue turns the sand to solid stone, which is built up layer by layer from the bottom up to form a sculpture, or a sandstone building. The D-shape printer can create a building four times faster than it could be built by conventional means, and reduces the cost to half or less. There is little waste, which is better for the environment, and it can easily “print” curved structures that are difficult and expensive to build by other means. The printer can be moved along horizontal beams and four vertical columns, and the printer head is raised by only 5-10 mm for each new layer. More information: D-shape: d-shape.com/
Defend Your Research: Commercials Make Us Like TV More The finding: Though people say they prefer to watch television without ads, they sometimes enjoy programs that have commercial interruptions more. The study: Leif Nelson, in collaboration with Tom Meyvis of New York University’s Stern School and Jeff Galak of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School, showed subjects three kinds of TV shows: Taxi episodes, nature documentaries, and Bollywood programs. Some watched the shows with commercials, some without. Subjects who watched TV with commercials reported greater enjoyment—and were willing to pay more for DVD collections of shows by the same director—than subjects who watched without interruptions. The challenge: Could those annoying ads actually enhance television shows? Professor Nelson, defend your research. Nelson: Not only did people report greater enjoyment when shows were interrupted by commercials, but they did so regardless of the quality of the commercials. HBR: Frankly, we’re struggling with this finding. Nothing, actually. Age.
Alliance of European Republican Movements Angela Merkel reveals her East German food stockpiling habit She may be the most powerful woman in Europe but that does not stop her from stockpiling food and cleaning products. German chancellor Angela Merkel, who spent her first 35 years in communist East Germany, where people often queued for food, has admitted that the fear of running short of consumer goods continues to haunt her 20 years after unification. In a magazine interview today, Merkel said that try as she might, she cannot break her hoarding habit. "I still buy something as soon as I see it, even when I don't really need it. It's a deep-seated habit stemming from the fact that in an economy where things were scarce you just used to get what you could when you could." The leader, on an annual salary of €303,000 (£257,000), said that her diet continues to be shaped by foods with an eastern European flavour which were typical in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). She said she also still uses a brand of East German washing up liquid out of habit.
Why Doesn’t Facebook Look Like This? As you may be aware, tomorrow, Facebook kicks off its big f8 developer conference in San Francisco. We’ll be there to cover what’s going on, but it looks like a lot of the information is already out there — Inside Facebook, All Facebook, and GigaOM have good write-ups of what we can likely expect. We’ve previously reported on a bunch of these possible announcements such as the Meebo Bar-clone, the “Like” button for the Internet, and auto-logins for Facebook Connect. Obviously, I’m interested in any location announcements the company may make tomorrow — but it’s not clear if Facebook will actually announce anything yet as their plans have been fluid, and possibly still aren’t solidified. These grandiose plans are great and all, but as I sit here the night before f8, I find myself wondering something very simple: why does using Facebook frustrate the hell out of me? And then I see something like this. Sure, it’s a bit Outlook-inspired, but wow do I wish I could navigate Facebook this way.