Author Archives: dnw

Hive Mind

HiveMind [http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/] Interesting what vanity searches turn up sometimes. Often lead you to services and sites either never seen or long forgotten. A link to me turned up in my email this morning pointing to the Flickr search tool over at HiveMind [http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/]. It does really fast searches on tags, interestingness, user, contacts and allowsContinueContinue reading “Hive Mind”

Geezers play Hilton RSL

Went to Christmas music extravaganza put on by my mate Mike’s band Geezers (as in old). Great fun time. Now the secrets. Enjoy!… or in Mike’s case ‘suffer in ya jocks’. 🙂 More Photos on Flickr Photos posted to Twitter from my phone – one, two. And finally, some audio captured off my Camera. TwoContinueContinue reading “Geezers play Hilton RSL”

El-E – a laser guided “companion” Robot

El-E is a robot controlled by laser pointer. Here’s a video via healthcare-robotics : http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=777847&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 El-E the Robot from Cressel Anderson on Vimeo. Maybe I could use this to pickup my MouthStick when I drop it. But how’d I press the button on the laser pointer? Hmmm…a real “companion” would notice I’d dropped it andContinueContinue reading “El-E – a laser guided “companion” Robot”

Ray Ozzie knows about Mouthsticks … do you?

Wired recently ran an article about Microsoft CEO Ray Ozzie. One incident in particular introduced Ozzie to the magic that comes when people connect via computer. He had taken a part-time assignment helping a professor finish writing some courseware. The prof lived on the other side of town, so Ozzie collaborated with him remotely. OzzieContinueContinue reading “Ray Ozzie knows about Mouthsticks … do you?”

ControllerMate 4.3.9 – Use joystick, gamepad, trackball in place of keyboard. (Shareware)

For those who use a mac, this little piece of shareware could be handy for custom control input. From MacUpdate blog: ControllerMate 4.3.9 – Use joystick, gamepad, trackball in place of keyboard. (Shareware): ControllerMate 4.3.9 ControllerMate is a controller programming tool that allows custom functionality to be added to standard HID devices (joysticks, trackballs, gamepads,ContinueContinue reading “ControllerMate 4.3.9 – Use joystick, gamepad, trackball in place of keyboard. (Shareware)”

We’re a net, and we have chosen

http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf all my internet friends – Lyrics Amanda French wrote a very melodic and nice song inspired by her Internet friends – aptly titled “all my internet friends”. It’s a witty song, and I guess to many that’s all it will be, which is fine, however to me it somehow seems very poignant. I thinkContinueContinue reading “We’re a net, and we have chosen”

Crowd-sourced Adaptive Technology

Image by vividBreeze My friend Mark Pesce writes in one of his latest missives titled “Crowdsource Yourself” : “…it is possible for us to pool our intellectual resources, and increase our problem-solving capacity.” Exactly what Lifekludger is about. Crowd-sourced Adaptive Technology.  [CAT]  

Tactile silicone case could offer iPhone use by the blind

ReadWriteWeb have an interesting post which points out a prototype case for the Apple iPhone called invisual – which is a tactile silicon case designed for blind users. The case completely covers the phone and supposedly allows full access to the multi-touch screen beneath it. Relief symbols in the case offer tactile feedback to beContinueContinue reading “Tactile silicone case could offer iPhone use by the blind”

Enabling Occupation

EOGS2-2008.JPG Originally uploaded by dnwallace I do some occassional lecturing at the University of South Australia in the School of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy. The subject is called “Enabling Occupation”, occupation in this sense being ‘undertaking an activity’ – or as I like to call it ‘doing stuff’. I focus on how different technologies andContinueContinue reading “Enabling Occupation”

Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop

Sat in on a session at the Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop in Second Life. It was being streamed so thought I’d grab the audio and screen shots of the presentation. Slides and audio (was a bit scratchy, but understandable) from presentation by Chris Collins – Logan Linden – given at Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop, 29ContinueContinue reading “Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop”

Lifekludger Project 001 – Goal reached, underway.

What a great response to the first Lifekludger Project fundraising. I’m glad tosay thegoal was reached and Fundable has paid the pledged amount (less it’s 10% fee, of course) I’ve started a spreadsheet where the funds for project will be tracked and it’s viewable from theLifekludger blog (or right here). The item has been orderedContinueContinue reading “Lifekludger Project 001 – Goal reached, underway.”

ASUS Eee Top launched – clever, appropriate use of Touch

ASUS are the smart cookies. They virtually started the consumer Netbook phenomenon with the affordable, linux based, eee pc. Now they release a stylish, all-in-one device with a Touch screen that’s based on XP obviously targeted at friendly family use at, hopefully, a competitive price – the ASUS Top. The screen must be resistive typeContinueContinue reading “ASUS Eee Top launched – clever, appropriate use of Touch”

Lifekludger Project 001 – Pilot Pledge

Lifekludger has the desire to connect people together around a project to solve a problem. For the long term it’s desirable that  the number projects are scalable as well as the funding for them.  Coming from that thinking I’m running a kind of Pilot project to see if there’s a way that projects can be funded using the site “fundable.com”.ContinueContinue reading “Lifekludger Project 001 – Pilot Pledge”

Revisiting touch on the OLPC XO laptop and hardware access design

“Accessibility is about accommodating characteristics a person cannot change by providing options” — Joe Clarke, 2001 * An outline * some ideas in olpc first look was promising * accessibility and usability are hardware issues too * accessibility should venture out of the online space into hardware design Last year I had a first lookContinueContinue reading “Revisiting touch on the OLPC XO laptop and hardware access design”

Happy Birthday – JP : Abundant-Heterogeneous-Creativity

JP : Abundant-Heterogeneous-Creativity Originally uploaded by dnwallace I hardly visit Facebook much, relying on alerts hitting my email inbox before I decide to visit the site. However one good thing that I stumbled on when last there was a notification that JP’s birthday was imminent. I wanted to mashup something for the occassion. Anybody everContinueContinue reading “Happy Birthday – JP : Abundant-Heterogeneous-Creativity”

Roy’s Because Effect

UPDATE: Roy was interviewed on the show about Visual Facilitation – see the youtube video here. My mate Roy Blumenthal from South Africa, who is the man behind my portrait on my lifekludger blog, has scored himself a gig as a weekly co-anchor of CNBC AFRICA’s business magazine show, ‘Kaleidoscope’ where he employs his visualContinueContinue reading “Roy’s Because Effect”