Google Speaks Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs Sergey Brin and Larry Page
Google Speaks Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs Sergey Brin and Larry Page
An up-close look at the people and philosophies behind one of the most important new companies of our time
Google Speaks is an engaging and informative look at one of the most important companies of the twenty-first century. It reveals the amazing story behind Google, a company that in less than 15 years has become a global household name and, in the process, created a new model for corporate responsibility and employee relations. Lowe explores the values that drive Google’s founders and discusses how they have created a culture that fosters creativity and fun, while at the same time, keeping Google at the forefront of technology through large, relentless R&D investments and imaginative partnerships with organizations such as NASA. This book also addresses controversies surrounding Google, such as copyright infringement, antitrust concerns, and personal privacy.
Janet Lowe (Santa Fe, NM) is the author of numerous books, including the second editions of Warren Buffett Speaks and Jack Welch Speaks. Her articles have appeared in more than 100 publications, including Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Morning News.
Designing Gestural Interfaces Touchscreens and Interactive Devices
Designing Gestural Interfaces Touchscreens and Interactive Devices
If you want to get ahead in this new era of interaction design, this is the reference you need. Nintendo’s Wii and Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch have made gestural interfaces popular, but until now there’s been no complete source of information about the technology. Designing Gestural Interfaces provides you with essential information about kinesiology, sensors, ergonomics, physical computing, touchscreen technology, and new interface patterns — all you need to know to augment your existing skills in “traditional” web design, software, or product development. Packed with informative illustrations and photos, this book helps you: Get an overview of technologies surrounding touchscreens and interactive environments Learn the process of designing gestural interfaces, from documentation to prototyping to communicating to the audience what the product does Examine current patterns and trends in touchscreen and gestural design Learn about the techniques used by practicing designers and developers today See how other designers have solved interface challenges in the past Look at future trends in this rapidly evolving field
Only six years ago, the gestural interfaces introduced in the film Minority Report were science fiction. Now, because of technological, social, and market forces, we see similar interfaces deployed everywhere. Designing Gestural Interfaces will help you enter this new world of possibilities.
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Simple minded and shallow look at off the desktop interfaces
If you have ever seen an iphone, played the wii, or gone to the bathroom and used an automatic flushing toilet then you probably have pretty much the same amount of insight into “gestural interactions” the author has.
If you are looking for any new insights into gesture recognition or touch interfaces, you will not be pleased with this book. If you are looking for any guidance on how to implement any of these systems you will be disappointed.
Basically the one interesting point that he brings up, all though not new, is the fact that you need to have some way to tell people about these invisible interfaces. However even here the author fails to really come up with any good solutions or patterns for doing this. But still its nice to have people thinking about it.
However if you need an overview of what is out there today, and some buzzwords, or want to break into this area maybe it might be helpful.
In the end I think this book is 4 or 5 years too late to be interesting without explaining how to do any of it other than simple paper/video prototyping suggestions.
2 Stars Good for beginners and newcomers only
If you have been a designer for the past five years and have some experience with touchscreen or interactive surfaces of one kind or another, then Designing Gestural Interfaces is not for you. This book is best for the beginner as its content is very basic and superficial. There is no deep thinking or insights here. Unfortunately, the occassional good topic is glossed over and your left with only the beginning of an idea.
It’s true that designing for gestural interfaces is a relatively new area, but the author presents the reader with general and basic design information that has been known and practiced for many years and not nearly enough useful information about gesture design. For example, in the chapter on Prototyping Interactive Gestures, the author talks about the purpose and value of low-fidelity prototyping, but offers nothing related to gestural UI design; no hints, tips, tricks, pitfalls, solutions, etc. In this regard, I found myself getting frustrated many times throughout the whole book.
In general, the book reads like an introductory design book, a primer of sorts, updated to include gestures. I suspect that within the next year or so, updated versions of this book or even other books / articles will come out that offer much deeper insights. If you’re a veteran designer, save your money and spend your time wisely reading other more insightful books.
5 Stars Outstanding Guide To Physical Interaction Design
This new guide by Dan Saffer of Kicker Studio is the first book of its kind that addresses the issues of designing interfaces which involve physical interaction, and it borders on Industrial Design, Physical Computing and Software Interaction Design. It contains several useful methods and heuristics for designing interfaces for these systems. The title, which might imply that this approach is limited to interaction involving physical gestures, or systems with touch screens, is too limiting for this excellent design guide. Many new kinds of Physical Computing Platforms, Consumer Electronic Devices, Games, Cars and Instruments are offering new paradigms for how the user communicates with an Intelligent Device. None of the existing design guides goes through the methods of designing for a physical system which interacts with the user in a new way, whether that method involves touch, facial action, dancing or drawing in the air. While all of these interaction techniques are now available on the palette of the Interaction Designer, Product Developer, and Electronic Systems/Physical Computing Engineer, until now no book addressed how to approach these intriguing but complicated design opportunities. No single volume can answer all the questions in this emerging field, but this is the first and best book to date which has addressed the physical, software, electronic design, and interaction paradigm issues which must be confronted in designing these new systems. I recommend this book for anyone who needs to know how to approach designing intelligent tangible systems, from the Wii, to ATM’s to Arduino Physical Computing projects, to facial expression recognition systems.
–Ira Laefsky
3 Stars Good for beginning concepts
There is not one line of code in this book. This text is about how gestures in the air and on surfaces can replace or augment the commands given by mice, keypads, and stylii. It is a broad overview, and contains few concrete details about how you would actually implement such systems in detail. For example, there is no “start to finish” design that is so common in O’Reilly books of this type. The author mainly just goes through what it takes to get your thoughts organized in such a way to design such systems. Each chapter has some very good “further reading” recommendations. You’ll come away from this book knowing the issues involved in designing gestural interfaces, but not much more. I guess I was just expecting something meatier. For something meatier but a bit older I would recommend Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. The table of contents for this book is not yet included in the product description, so I do that next:
Chapter 1. Introducing Interactive Gestures
Section 1.1. TAP IS THE NEW CLICK
Section 1.2. DIRECT VERSUS INDIRECT MANIPULATION
Section 1.3. A BRIEF HISTORY OF GESTURAL INTERFACES
Section 1.4. THE MECHANICS OF TOUCHSCREENS AND GESTURAL CONTROLLERS
Section 1.5. DESIGNING INTERACTIVE GESTURES: THE BASICS
Section 1.6. DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATE GESTURE
Section 1.7. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 2. Designing for the Human Body
Section 2.1. BASIC KINESIOLOGY
Section 2.2. THE ERGONOMICS OF INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 2.3. THE ERGONOMICS OF MOTION
Section 2.4. DESIGNING TOUCH TARGETS
Section 2.5. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 3. Patterns for Touchscreens and Interactive Surfaces
Section 3.1. HOW TO USE PATTERNS
Section 3.2. TAP TO OPEN/ACTIVATE
Section 3.3. TAP TO SELECT
Section 3.4. DRAG TO MOVE OBJECT
Section 3.5. SLIDE TO SCROLL
Section 3.6. SPIN TO SCROLL
Section 3.7. SLIDE AND HOLD FOR CONTINUOUS SCROLL
Section 3.8. FLICK TO NUDGE
Section 3.9. FLING TO SCROLL
Section 3.10. TAP TO STOP
Section 3.11. PINCH TO SHRINK AND SPREAD TO ENLARGE
Section 3.12. TWO FINGERS TO SCROLL
Section 3.13. GHOST FINGERS
Chapter 4. Patterns for Free-Form Interactive Gestures
Section 4.1. PROXIMITY ACTIVATES/DEACTIVATES
Section 4.2. MOVE BODY TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.3. POINT TO SELECT/ACTIVATE
Section 4.4. WAVE TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.5. PLACE HANDS INSIDE TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.6. ROTATE TO CHANGE STATE
Section 4.7. STEP TO ACTIVATE
Section 4.8. SHAKE TO CHANGE
Section 4.9. TILT TO MOVE
Chapter 5. Documenting Interactive Gestures
Section 5.1. WHY DOCUMENT ANYTHING?
Section 5.2. EXISTING MOVEMENT NOTATION SYSTEMS
Section 5.3. DOCUMENTING GESTURES IN INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
Section 5.4. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 6. Prototyping Interactive Gestures
Section 6.1. FAKING IT: LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Section 6.2. HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Section 6.3. TESTING PROTOTYPES
Section 6.4. PROTOTYPING RESOURCES
Section 6.5. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 7. Communicating Interactive Gestures
Section 7.1. THREE ZONES OF ENGAGEMENT
Section 7.2. METHODS OF COMMUNICATING INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 7.3. FOR FURTHER READING
Chapter 8. THE FUTURE OF INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Section 8.1. FUTURE TRENDS
Section 8.2. TOWARD STANDARDS
Section 8.3. THE ETHICS OF GESTURES
Section 8.4. FOR FURTHER READING
Appendix A. A Palette of Human Gestures and Movements
Section A.1. GESTURES FOR TOUCHSCREENS
Section A.2. GESTURES FOR FREE-FORM SYSTEMS
Section A.3. FOR FURTHER READING
No Kindle Required The Complete Kindle for iPhone Users Guide Unlock the Lightning Web Navigator for iPhone and iPod Touch DRM Free with Text to Speech Enabled User Friendly
More than just a guide and introduction to the new, free, must-have Kindle for iPhone App, “No Kindle Required” also provides all that you need to unlock a dazzling new “service in a book,” the “Lightning Web Navigator for iPhone & iPod Touch.” For everything you will ever want to do with your Kindle for iPhone App, and some things you haven’t even thought of yet, bestselling Kindle guide author Stephen Windwalker walks you through each step in the clearest, most concise, easy to follow language.
You’ll be pleased to see how easy it is to read Kindle books on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and amazed at how the “Lightning Web Navigator for iPhone & iPod Touch,” included here in the low 99-cent price, allows you to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a seamless, direct, no-extra-steps web-browsing computer.
Includes: The Convergence of Convergence Devices - Why Kindle for iPhone is a Must-Have App For iPhone and iPod Touch Users - Getting Started with the Kindle for iPhone App - Making Your Kindle Books Available on Your iPhone or iPod Touch from the Manage Your Kindle Page - Deleting Books from Your Kindle for iPhone App - Sampling and Buying Content from the Kindle Store with Your iPhone or iPod Touch - Reading with Kindle for iPhone - Shopping Other Amazon Departments from Kindle for iPhone With Our “Lightning Web Navigator For iPhone and iPod Touch” - Unlocking “Lightning Web Navigator For iPhone and iPod Touch” - Index To “Lightning Web Navigator For iPhone And iPod Touch” Links And Bookmarks - Free Book Sites - Kindle Store Bestseller Links - Amazon Store Bestseller Links - Best Blogs - Blog Lists - Book Catalogs - Book Reviews - Business & Finance - Comics - eBook Downloads, Support & Discussions - Entertainment - Hobbies - Kindle Blogs - Kindle Gear - Local Favorites - Magazines - Mail & Message - Mobile RSS Readers - Mobile Transcoders - Mobile Site Lists - News: National - News: Sports - News: Technical - Reference - Shipping Carriers - Shopping - Travel - Weather - Glossary
Plus Free Excerpts from The Complete Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle 2: A Sleek New Hardware Package - From an Ugly Duckling to a Swan - No SD Card Slot, but Seven Times the Storage Capacity of the Kindle 1 - The Crisper, Faster Kindle 2 Display - Enhanced Design and Placement of Buttons, Switches, Bars and Keyboard - A 5-Way Joystick Controller for Better On-screen Navigation - Dual Rear-Mounted Stereo - Speakers for Improved Hands-Free Listening - Addition by Subtraction: Designer Covers for the Kindle 2 - The New Kindle Battery and Charging Options - What’s Inside the Kindle 2 - An Enhanced, More User-Free Kindle Reading Environment - Let Your Kindle Read to You with a New “Read-to-Me” Feature - Hands-Free Reading Options - Improved Periodical Navigation - Improved Reading and Web Navigation with the Joystick and the Back Button - Zoom in to Enlarge Graphics, Tables and Pictures - Instant On-Screen Dictionary Lookup - WhisperSync Feature Allows Instant Synchronization of Catalog and Reading Place Across Kindles and Other Devices - Slightly Improved Content Management and Sorting - Opening, Deleting, and Restoring Kindle Content - An Electronic Paper, e-Ink Display Screen, Purpose-Built for Long-Form Reading and Easier Navigation - The Best Features of the Original Kindle, Improved - Whispernet Wireless Connectivity: The Kindle’s Connection to Millions of Books - Instant Access to a Growing Amazon Catalog - Greatly Improved Free Wireless Web Access - Emailing Content to Your Kindle Address - Traveling with Your Kindle - Using the Kindle to Translate Foreign or Technical Words and Phrases - Making the Most of Your Kindle Connections Overseas - Using the Kindle as a Travel Guide - The Kindle and GPS - Checking Sprint Wireless Coverage for the Kindle 2 - Downloading Kindle Editions via USB Cable - Using Gift Cards, Gift Certificates, and Promotional Certificates to Give or Purchase Kindle Content
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars The Good, the Unnecessary, and the Unknown
This book has three main topics. If any one of them helps you, it’s worth the price.
The author has assembled the best set of web links for e-books I have ever encountered. First, there is a set of links into different parts of the Amazon Kindle store that makes searching and shopping easy. Jumping back and forth between this book and the iPhone’s Safari browser sounds clunky, but is easier that doing the same searches using the browser alone. And the links to free e-book web sites–most of which have nothing to do with the Kindle, by the way–are numerous and usefully organized. Both of these sets of links will save you time and money.
The main topic of the book–how to use the iPhone Kindle app–was reasonably well-written, complete, and seemed error-free. It also seemed unnecessary. I read Windwalker’s book about a week after downloading the Kindle app. Everything I read I had already figured out either from the app’s help file or just by using it. If you are able to purchase, download, and begin reading this book, you don’t really need it. Not for this section, anyway.
The book’s last section contains generous excerpts from the author’s book on the Kindle 2. I don’t have one and don’t anticipate getting one, so I only skimmed this material. No comments, good or bad.
Overall, I recommend buying this book if you plan to read books on your iPhone–or even if you don’t, but want a good set of links to free e-books. It’s well worth a buck. And your time.
5 Stars This ebook actually makes my iPhone work better!
This is so awesome! I set up the Kindle for iPhone App, downloaded this book, and now I can go directly to hundreds of websites without trying to type in the address with my thumbs. Ya gotta love it! Oh, yeah, the book also tells me everything I want to know about how to use the App.
Spiders Backyard Science Home Use
Spiders Backyard Science Home Use
This video shows the various parts of the spider’s body and explains how these parts function. It also illustrates how the spider traps insects and other small animals on which it feeds. Viewers see how web-building spiders catch food and how the trapdoor spider builds a nest and catches food. The video also shows the life cycle of the spider beginning with the creation of the egg sac. (2nd Edition) Part of the “Backyard Science” series produced by Norman and Marjorie Bean. Each “Backyard Science” program offers a fascinating first glimpse of the wonders of nature through encounters with the kinds of small creatures children may find when they play in their backyards. (For Home Use Only)
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com’s standard return policy will apply.
Tech Trends
Stunning Canon 5D2 Time-Lapse Video
Having great equipment helps, but both of these examples show that equipment is only part of the equation.img...
Interview with U.S. Senator and Majority Whip Richard Durbin
Interview on current topics with the U.S. Senate Majority Whip, Senator Richard Durbinimg src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/trarticles/~4/LzxdHVr7vSI...
Did the Kansas City Chiefs Cut Larry Johnson Because of Twitter?
The Kansas City Chiefs release controversial running back Larry Johnson.img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/trarticles/~4/LvZrdEqJsbU...
Web Technology
The West and Karzai on Different Pages
Hamid Karzai and his foreign backers appear headed in opposite directions.img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/trarticles/~4/XbG-S1W8Fb4...
5 Shops Unique to Calgary
If you're in Calgary for a vacation and looking to do some shopping, this guide should help you find...
Blog Focus: CoTweet Paid Service For Twitter
Twitter goes big business as services go after big businesses on Twitter. What does that mean? CoTweet...
Main Content
Google Speaks Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs Sergey Brin and Larry PageGoogle Speaks Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs Sergey Brin and Larry Page An up-close look...
