Just got word that they are accepting applications for volunteers for SoMD GiveCamp 2012.
2010 was a blast and 2011 was pretty good too. Let’s top them both!
http://www.somdgc.org/Volunteers.aspx
Technical and non-technical volunteers are being accepted!
Good web designers should be able to put themselves in other people’s shoes. How will a user experience the website?
A very eloquent article on why Google Reader is a lesson in web user interface experience:
Being a person who spends a great deal of time producing content, I like hearing stories that involve intellectual property, and the harm that the idea does to the world.
This movie shows how patent law is used to extents previously unforeseeable, for the benefit of a few.
The movie sticks just to facts (no opinion/analysis), up until the end. I don’t like how it ends; the movie makes an example of a hypothetical application of IP law to make a point which I thought was ineffective. Really, they could have just used real-life examples- that’s really all you need to demonstrate the absurdity to which IP laws are used to justify certain actions.
The website is here:http://patentabsurdity.com/
Looks like I’ve gotta make an amendment to my lifelong to-do list. After hearing about some recent stories (in the last 4 months) coming out in the news regarding people who made games and got other people to play them in order to solve scientific problems, in recent weeks I have decided I have a new goal.
I would like to create a game. A game that actually looks and works like a game and is fun to play. However, the purpose of the game is to find the solution to some social, economic, or scientific problem.
In the story I read about, biologists used in-game information from the players, in order to collect data about how some protein folds or something like that. Though I may be mixing it up with a story from ten years back, when scientists used a distributed computing “screensaver” in order to solve some protein-folding problem. Well, I’ll post a link later if I can find it.
But anyway, here’s my amendment:
By the way, consider this an open invitation to anyone who is aware of a problem that can be solved by data-mining/collection, repeated/automated action, distributed computing, or some other task that involving information that necessitates a lot of resources. Making a game to solve a problem would be great!
Having recently written a Cold Fusion Markup Language version of a text captcha (a Section 508 compliant CAPTCHA, that is usable to individuals who are blind or deaf), it occurred to me that I could kill two birds and go ahead and write a PHP version too. My website’s commenting system has let a few spambots get through, so, expect an improved system for readers to post comments in the near future. This website runs on mostly on PHP software, so I would want to have a PHP version to use on this website.
If you have a non-profit organization that could benefit from any kind of Information Technology services such as: creation of a website, application (web, mobile, client), electronic database, please contact GiveCamp. Even if it turns out you don’t need their help, it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Contact:http://somdgc.org/NonProfits.aspx
GiveCamp is an event where IT professionals such as DBAs, Web Designers, and Programmers, devote a weekend to providing services for free to local non-profits. Organizations often need to store, retrieve, and sort information. Sometimes they just need a way for members to communicate with one another. Sometimes they just need a website. GiveCamp can give a hand. SoMD had one in 2010 and 2011, and we are set to do one for 2012 as well!
