Nick Carroll

We found this flash based game online called The Maze. In this video we tested the maze out on an unsuspecting visitor to our office. If the boss dropped by, our excuse would be that we were “performing some usability tests”. Although I don’t think he would have bought it with the Guns n Roses music blasting in the background.

Some people would call this a video log or vlog for short, others would say it is a video podcast. It was quite easy to do, in fact the video was filmed using my Sony Ericsson K608i. The video file was then transferred to a mac using bluetooth. The phone encodes video into the 3gp format, which isn’t the best format to be using for the web. I found an excellent converter called iSquint, that converts the 3gp file to an mp4 file. I then embedded the video into the blog entry.

Alternatively, you can view the video at Google Video.

Geo Map Overlay

I signed up for Google Analytics last month as I wanted to gather some statistics for this website. I thought about using Webalizer, which I use for other sites, but I wanted to give Google’s solution a go.

After signing up for Analytics and embedding a chunk for javascript into the site template, I had to wait a further two weeks before the chunk of javascript was detected by Google. Once it was detected it took a further 2 days before any reports were generated. So if you have just signed up, then expect a bit of a wait before you cast your eyes on your website’s statistics.

I was very impressed with the reports that were generated. Apart from the usual stats that you get with other server log file analysers – such as search engine keywords, entry pages and exit pages – you also get a map of the world showing you the location of visitors from around the world. From this map you can see that most of the visitors originate from Australia, Spain and the US. I suspect the Australian visitors are either visits from my friends, or sadly they could just be me. The visitors from Spain and the US are probably those that are interested in e-portfolios, more specifically tracking my progress on dotfolio.

For those visitors interested in dotfolio, I would like to state that I have not forsaken dotfolio. In fact I am working on this other package called Curriculum Central that will add learner focused tracking features to dotfolio. I have about 2 weeks left of development on Curriculum Central before returning to work on dotfolio.

I find the geographical demographics to be quite useful in providing an overview of this site’s visitors. There are other sections of the Analytics report that provides graphs and numbers. They are useful, but not as interesting as the Geo Overlay.

Rotomahana Challenge

I got a taste of things to come in the new Super 14 tonight, after watching a pre-season match between the Waratahs and last year’s Super 12 champions, the Crusaders. The match was promoted as the Rotomahana Challenge, and will be a feature game between the Waratahs and Crusaders for the next five seasons.

Although it was a pre-season match, both sides fielded full strength teams. Both sides played in last year’s grand finals, so it was going to be an interesting match.

The Crusaders were the first on to the field for their warm up session before the kickoff, and they were the first on to the field for the kick off. It was as if they were keen to get on with the job. Daniel Carter was the first to put some points on the board with a penalty kick for the Away team. This was soon followed by a break away try by man of the match Mose Tuiali’i, after scooping up a spilled line out ball, and dashing 20m to score the first try of the match.

Peter Hewat scored a penalty goal moments later, but then the Crusaders stepped up a gear and rushed in three more tries before the end of the first half. Ross Filipo scored a try down the short side, Aaron Mauger scored a try from a six on two play, and Chris Jack snatched an intercept to send Leon MacDonald for the final try of the first half.

As a Waratahs supporter I felt like leaving the game, as they didn’t seem to be able to do anything right in the first half. Credit to the Crusaders, as they were able to hold their defensive lines, and their back line worked well to smother the Tahs most lethal pairing of Sailor and Tuqiri on the wings. However watching the under 8s play during the half time break cooled some nerves before the second half started.

The second half started with the Waratahs trailing 27-3, but they weren’t down and out just yet. Ewan McKenzie threw on some impact players, and the game turned around completely. Within moments of making it on to the field Wyclif Palu made a break from a lineout, then passing to Rocky Elsom for a try in the corner. Peter Hewat made the conversion, and the Waratahs were looking like they had a chance of winning the game with a couple more trys from Shaun Berne and Wyclif Palu.
The Waratahs fought back to within a field goal from victory. The score was 32-30. With 5 mins to go the Waratahs had a brain explosion, make that two brain explosions where they attempted two drop goals to try and snatch the lead. I didn’t see the logic behind this strategy. They had time left to settle themselves and try to milk a penalty closer to the try line. In fact the Crusaders were down a man for the last 10 minutes of the match, so they could have gone for the try. Instead the two drop goals wasted precious time, and the Crusaders managed to send play back into the Waratahs half for the dying seconds.

The final score looked more respectable than the score at half time. But overall it was an exciting game to watch, especially when Tuqiri and Big Dell had ball in hand!

I know of a few people that religiously carry a Global Positioning System (GPS) with them everywhere they go.  They use the device to log their locations, and then overlay their tracks onto Google Maps.  They find this quite useful when they go on their weekly bike ride around Sydney.  Furthermore the geo data that the GPS unit logs can be used to associate photos with a set of coordinates.  This allows photos to be searched by location.

The problem with GPS units is that they are big and bulky, and they have the form factor of a brick.  However, geek demand for these gadgets is obviously on the rise, as we are starting to see a new generation of GPS units that are smaller and more portable.  The TrackStick is the first I’ve seen of a GPS unit packed into the form factor of a USB stick.  The TrackStick is simply a GPS unit with a USB interface, and costs around USD300.  It records up to about 1MB of data (location, speed, heading), and can export the data to a number of formats for use with Google Earth,  Google Maps, etc.

What I want to see is the convergence of GPS and other portable consumer goods such as digital cameras, music players, and watches.  I’ve already mentioned that photos can be organised according to location, therefore geo data would be an excellent feature for for next generation digital cameras, especially since EXIM metadata supports location information.

Personal music players would be able to use GPS data to play certain tracks depending on where you are and how fast you are moving.  The GPS enabled music player might detect that you are moving at about 8 km/h, which is about jogging speed, and will play tracks that you have marked for your exercise routine.  If you are travelling faster, then you might be driving around town, in which case tunes that you have selected for such an occasion will be pumped through the speakers of your car.

We should be able to expect this technology built into our mobile phones.  The mobile phone is the ultimate convergent technology, with some models that look more like cameras or music players than mobile phones.  I for one would like to be able to track my phone on Google Maps, especially if it ever were to be stolen!