I don’t know why nobody thought of that before. You can now get rid of your books on the virtual space! Web sites sell books, second price books, offer people to sell their personal books, but no site aggregates the needs of users in coordination with students who wants to get rid of their past year textbooks or more recent used books.
Selling books online is a new concept and most people do not think to sell used books online. I am not sure of the competitive advantage with local resellers such as university associated bookstores, but this site that allows you to Sell TextBooks is really neat: you enter the ISBN number of your book and it offers you a price for it. If you don’t have a ISBN number for your book or if you’d like a deal for a specific book, you can just email the bookstore. You ship your books to the bookstore (shipping being reimbursed after 10$ of books are being sold to the company). A very convenient way to get rid of your textbooks and you can also check the price for any books you want.
They usually buy books that are in good or better condition, that have an ISBN and that have a demonstrated demand in the used book market. Books that they typically do not buy are: encyclopedia sets, magazines, music books, comic books, books that are in poor condition, romance series and western novels, outdated text books, outdated computer books and Time-Life books. I tried with a few books, unfortunately not all of them are popular, so it seems it would work best with university textbooks, but it is worth a try. So if you want to clean your desk or need a new series of textbooks, this is a place to try!
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Get rid of your books online!
For the beauty of the eyes ...
A video on the beach by Keith Loutit that resembles stop motion (effect Tilt Shift) found on this super neat French blog Fubiz. The video animates beach lovers that shape like sharp color points using the fashionable effect called Tilt Shift, effect I used a lot to present my sculpture work, playing with a unusual depth of field, to create optical illusions and to give it a maquette look and feel. This effect is apparently also called smallgantics, popular effect based on a Thom Yorke music video.
For the amateurs of the animations with the beach, don't forget to check “la plage” by Bokanovski.
Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Another video by Keith Loutit where the effect is even more stunning!
Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
A very satisfying video of human motions within the light. Large format camera and filmed in high definition, the video entertains the viewer with light coordinated with motions. It is pleasing and becomes satisfying to watch the dancer twisting and jumping throughout the streets, playing with water and flowers. The soundtrack is a nice add-on by M83 (You appearing, Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun), Sigur Ros (Staralfur) et Besnard Lakes (Devastation). Enjoy!
Human Movement in Light from Jordan Clarke on Vimeo.
Online surveys tools for social research
I am currently investigating social research to analyze people’s interaction with reactive systems. I often refer to the book: Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook for Social Research by Martin W Bauer & George D. Gaskell that I recommend to be introduced to the broad range of techniques available for the systematic analysis of social data that is not numeric. It makes the key point that neither quantitative nor qualitative methods are interpretive and at the same time demonstrates once and for all that neither a constructivist perspective nor a qualitative approach needs to imply abandonment of rigor.
I wonder about questionnaires and online surveys. Software to generate online questionnaires could help survey a population with a set of pre-defined questions. One site, Zoomerang, helps with many kinds of surveys from the customer satisfaction survey to education and non-profit surveys. It seems to program your questions or suggest the best way to get the feedback you need. The system hosts your surveys to keep heavy survey traffic away from your main site, and to not influence your results with your personal host. If you have no time for running in organizing a clean survey, the system converts paper-and-pencil questionnaire into a high performance online survey for higher participation, faster response and easy analysis.
Every choice you make regarding materials, question delivery, and, of course, context, directly influence the attention and type of response that you’re going to get from a subject. Rethinking some of my previous survey work, and the availability of tools such as this, I wonder in which areas, if any, old-school pencil and paper would win out. For instance, in one recent study, I was interested in aspects of an individual’s personal music listening life. Questions were purposely open-ended to allow the subjects the flexibility of considering many different contexts of listening to support general self assessments like, “I consider myself expert in popular music.” In the moment, subjects would ask many different unexpected questions to relate their individual experiences under such global questions. “I grew up in the 60s. It’s completely part of my life, but not really popular today. Does that count?” Or, “I am expert in theory, composition, and music form. Does that theoretical knowledge make me expert despite that I don’t like popular music?” Space for these unpredictable questions was critical to getting an accurate picture of diverse forms of “expertise.” In the end, I wonder if an online survey system could leave a space open like many styles of survey need.
However, it seems that such online surveys tool could collect powerful feedback fast as well as provide you with advanced analytics, cross-tab features for in depth study, etc.. so probably the fastest and most reliable way to obtain quick data.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Low cost wearable sensor for detecting Electromagnetic fields
My work "Electromagnetic Field Detector Bracelet" has been accepted as a video. The video will be presented at Ubicomp in Seoul South Korea during the one minute madness Monday 22nd and during the video reception 17:15 - 19:00!
Abstract of the work
We present the design of a cost-effective wearable sensor to detect and indicate the strength and other characteristics of the electric field emanating from a laptop display. Our bracelet can provide an immediate awareness of electric fields radiated from an object used frequently. Our technology thus supports awareness of ambient background emanation beyond human perception. We discuss how detection of such radiation might help to “fingerprint” devices and aid in applications that require determination of indoor location.
Come see me to talk about this work! If you cannot make it, here is the video:
A bit of motivation for this work
Today, many people fear electromagnetic fields. They believe that ambient fields can negatively influence their health. Perhaps, by visualizing the presence of common electromagnetic (EM) fields, users might feel in control of difficult-to-perceive information and transcend their fear, beginning the process of recognizing and moving beyond fear. An analogy might be found in the cheap RF power meters that are sold to enable people to gauge radiation leakage from their microwave ovens. Conversely, providing users with blind data could increase their paranoia when low-level field leakage from common appliances is visualized. Clearly, people need to be educated in how to properly interpret this data. Regardless of one’s belief on the health impact of background EM fields, visualizing the unseen in this way always leads to fascinating and playful exploration. All devices emit background signals (electrostatically, magnetically, acoustically, and optically) that are characteristic of particular devices and also sometimes indicate that device’s mode of operation. Indeed, government contracts mandate that computers and displays used in highly classified work be kept in shielded rooms (SCIFs) to thwart espionage that monitors such background leakage fields.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Graphic design competition -> A new logo for C'N'C Plug Generation!
C'N'C plug generation asked me to spread the word about the C'N'C Plug Generation Contest, a new graphic design competition for talented graphic designers! Interpret in your own way the slogan C'N'C Plug Generation with a photo, a composite, mural, stickers, video clip or sculpture and send it in!
The best creations will be used as graphics for a series of T-shirts and accessories to be showcased during Milan Fashion Week in February. You’ve got till 30 January 2009 to focus your ideas, create them and send them in! The jury will select three original and unpublished concepts (such as pictures, composites, wall-paintings, stickers, graphics, banner, sculpture) representing in a young and creative way the logo "C'N'C PLUG GENERATION".
Prizes
1st - 1000€
2nd - an iPhone
3rd - an iPhone
+ your winning T-shirts and accessories logo will be presented during Milan Fashion Week this February 2009!
Rules
Read the rules ->here<- Participant must create a concept with any artistic technique, including free-hand drawing and digital art, photography and sculpture. The concept must be sent online to CND in JPG, TIFF, GIF, PDF or PNG format, file of a maximum of 5 MB. The directions on how to upload your creation can be found ->here<-
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Jabberstamp awarded by I.D. magazine!
-> The I.D. review <-
A child playing with Jabberstamp and me in the background blurred by the magical photoshop touch!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Robots need hugs too.
Thank you Adrien!
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Blog Jouons 
Iced Chest
I had designed a system to cool down the body for mental health support. It is always nice to see how such system can be used in another context such as the Nike Lab that designs innovative garments for athletes. One of the product, that I found in the Print edition of Fast Company Magazine, is a jacket that cools down the body. Discovering that performance falls off drastically when core body temperature hits 103 degrees, the Nike lab designed a vest that slows the rise of core body temperature. It is simply filled in with water, then frozen overnight. The vest is meant to be wear an hour prior to competition.
Screenshot from the Nike designer story
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Ghost of a Victorian christening dress
This is the photogram of a Victorian christening dress by Adam Fuss. Gelatin silver print photogram. Discovered in ARTnews, is this the ghost of a child or the ghost of a dress? is it instinct of culture that makes us automatically assume that transparency and translucency are properties of the spirit? This work makes us feel as if a spirit had brushed the hem of its garments across a photographic plate.
"Subject and technique conspire to let us participate vicariously in the experience of those early photographic pioneers, high on darkroom chemicals and on the possibilities of their new toy --Francine Prose for ARTnews"
Healthy sculptures
Grassland designed by Bernd Oette turns real dried grass into an element of the living room. The grass seeds grow not on soil but on various materials-using water and light only- and are dried subsequently. What is special about them is that the grass changes from lush green to straw-colour. Bernd Oette developed growing and drying techniques for the roots to adhere to the stainless steel mountings.
Grassland is the result of many years of experimentation to grow grass and to let it dry under controlled conditions. The special appeal of the objects is to make visible the concept of change and the transitory nature of things, turning them into real “memento mori”. To experience every moment of change makes these objects fascinating and vests them with a life of their own in the living room.
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