Dropbox

» Dropbox - easily manage files between different computers. Looks pretty smart. The only reservation would be the privacy bit in regards to having your files on someone else's servers.

Bumptop user interface

A collection of randomly cool links

» Moo, cool print.
» Global Rich List, How rich are you?
» Designing interactions, recommended reading.

The end of a first term

We had final presentations in the Visual communication module this Thursday. My group, who did the BeeHive project, got very good feedback which is always nice! The class website is also being discussed (under much secrecy). But for now, it's Christmas holidays and portfolio making in the works!

The future of music listening?

» Tunerec
» Spotify
» Chilirec
» One Llama
» Audiolizer
» Fizy
» Deezer

The most tiring week

I've worked double shifts this week. In school and out of school. I'm tired. My eyelids keep closing on me. Deadlines. Must.. stay.. awake.

Portfolio introduction

Today we had our first lecture aimed towards helping us with our portfolios. Nina Åkerstam and Björn Jeffery were both here, talking about different things. Nina had more of a planner's approach while Björn talked a lot about internet strategy.

Cd case

Yey, the first actual designing at school! (It's only been four months). They had us smell on "Surströmming" and asked us to visualize the stench. This is what I came up with.

Essen talks brands

Today we had a really good lecture from a guy from Essen. The lecture was about branding in all its different forms and I was amazed by how interested I was in this. Definately something to look into more thoroughly. Unfortunately, I had to catch my train at lunch so I missed half of it, which was a real shame since he really managed to capture my interest.

An interesting footnote, though, is the fact that it took me exactly one hour and five minutes to realize it was actually the logo on all of his Keynote-slides and that it spelled out Essen in inverted letters. Oops.

All Web 2.0 services in one place

Ever wondered what else is out there, besides YouTube, Blogger and Digg?

» Go2Web20.net

48h Mission

Pretty cool campaign from Nokia. People add and vote on different dares for someone to do. A panel picks people to do the actual dares and the "dare devils" get a chance to do them (documenting everything on the way, of course).

» 48h Mission

Via Webbsverige (in Swedish).

Visual communication

Now we've started a new module called Visual communication. It seems intense. I get the feeling most of us around here are just waiting for Christmas to come. The module's aim is to get us into the role of client/agency and so we're in two different groups at the same time.

Concept book & presentation

We're currently making a concept book, finishing up the Business plan and budget, making a prototype and a presentation for this Thursday. Here's a sneak peak.

Kristoffer's new toy

Kristoffer came into our cell the other day and placed a little white cylinder shaped object in front of me and Henke. Then he pushed a button.

It started to dance.

Robin has a video.

Push the button

I thought I should write something about what's been going on lately. We're still in the Concept development module, and to sum things up we've basically just been fine tuning and developing our one idea out of the first fifty. I think we've come a pretty long way with our concept which we call "Push the button". This week we've been producing a business plan with a budget. Next week we'll make a presentation, concept book and practice actually presenting this to the investors (Thursday).

Should be interesting.

Tele2 redesign

I rather like Tele2's new layout. It's stricter, but really nice.

Tutti frutti soda?

Today I e-mailed Cloetta Fazer asking them for a tutti frutti soda. I know I'd buy it.

Idea development

We've come up with 50 ideas and chosen the best five. We've also managed to narrow it down to the one final idea. Now we're developing it.

What's going on in Stockholm?

The HyperHummus tells a bit about what's going on in the Hyper Island Stockholm facilities at the moment.

The importance of GUI design in Mac applications

The thing with having a Mac, at least to me, is the feeling it gives me. The genuinely well-thought out order of things. Everything just feels right. That's why it bugs me when applications are for example ported and have an altered GUI (that is inferior to the Mac OS's own). There are both good and bad examples of this. Mostly bad, though. Take, for instance, Mozilla Firefox. It looks alright by most standards, but there's something there. There's something that is off. Something that makes Safari feel like more of a Mac browser than Firefox. Let's not even get into Opera. Mozilla Thunderbird is another example of a good idea, but with bad execution.

A good example would be Panic's Coda application. It's got a very good-looking, "Mac OS X"-feeling to it, even if it has been designed in a way that is not specific to Apple's operating system. What it seems to boil down to, at least for me, is that it doesn't matter that much if the user interface is different, as long as it's good different, meaning the interface has been designed in an attractive and well-thought manner.

Therefore, it's nice to see that something will happen to an app like Opera.

Twisted Brains with Attitude

That's our group name! Frickin' awesome. Our task this week is to come up with fiddy different business ideas and select the top five. It's not as easy as one might think.

Getty Images Reportage

I got a link from Alexander Koste a few weeks back which I haven't had time to check out since now. It's from Gettyimages and their Reportage section. Check it out. There's some really nice photos.

Concept development

A new week and a new module! Today we've had an introduction with Micke Ahlström to our new module called New digital business / Concept development. Other than that it's the usual drill, getting divided into teams and writing the preject (how we will deal with issues that come up, how we'll treat each other etc). Looks to be quite a challenging and fun module (something I've come to expect from Hyper!)

Experience Technology 2008

What a blast! We went up to Stockholm by bus last Tuesday and arrived at around 5.30 pm. Everyone got off and checked out the Hyper Island Stockholm facilities, which were impressing! The following two days were spent getting our installations ready at the exhibition area, but not without having some time over to check out the city!

Then came exhibition day, which was really fun. I'm not sure how many people came or how many that played our game, but I can say it was a success! There were people everywhere, mingling and experiencing the different projects we'd created. I also stumbled upon Nico up in Stockholm (DM09STO), which was nice. As to which class performed the best? No idea. I was very impressed with many of the Stockholm class' projects as well as my fellow class mates from Karlskrona so I can't really decide. It was very interesting to see the different outcomes and styles of our creations even though they blossomed from the same types of technology.

I was in a discussion panel about the tech surrounding the project, which was a little bit odd since I'm not a tech guy per se. But there I was, sitting in a group with other Hypers discussing the programming bits and what it was like in front of a camera crew.

All in all this module has been a very frustrating, but incredibly rewarding, experience.

Setting up

Today's been a pretty good, laid back first day up here in Stockholm. We were supposed to get to school at around 11.30 am, and when I'm walking towards school I see Sarah, Alexander, Nella, Stian and Lil' K coming towards me. They're going into the city to eat lunch. I tag along.

We walk around for a while trying to find someplace to eat (which is hard being six and all). We end up at Pizza Hut by Hötorget where I can't remember the name of "selleri". I spend a good fourty-five minutes scratching my non-existent beard and calling up people (even asking the local staff), but to no avail. Finally we went by some fruit and vegetable stands and there it was. The "selleri".

After that we go to Åhlens to get some cloth for Alex's group.

We get back to school at a while past three o'clock and everything is set up and rocking. Since we've made everything in Karlskrona and tested it there, all we needed to do was to connect a cable to the projector. Turns out speakers for the sound was included in our spot, so John didn't even had to bring his. We really do have the perfect spot at the exhibition. It's close (relatively, at least) to the entrance and the projector is big and awesome.

This evening we're going out for a beer or two to celebrate, but tomorrow it's presentation at school at 9 in the morning. We originally had one of the latest time spots but Robin and Max's group wasn't going to be done in time so we had to switch.

Almost ready!

It's Sunday today but I still went to school to fix some things, so we'll take it a bit easy tomorrow. The biggest bugs are now officially squashed, which is a huge burden of our chests. I also put in the ending when you've reached the final level of the game.

John is still trying to find a way to get the motion background in the end. We'll see how it works out.

There's not very much left to be done on the project, actually. There's some minor things like screwing the RFID reader to the box and getting a cord for the projector, but apart from that the actual coding and interface is done!

Finishing up

It's getting better and better. The game, that is. Everything seems to be circling around that at the moment. Today me, John and Eliot went to the printers' to get our print out. It looked really good. 218 crowns, though. What the heck, you're only young once, right? Today I got all of the levels in, plus the "prepare for next level" fly-by's. We spent one and a half hour (yes, hour) to try to carry it to Ångan and trying to make it work with the projector there. It didn't work. Finally we got it back to Häktet and we borrowed a projector to try it out.

Except for a few small bugs there's not much left to do on the game. Things of concern: we must get a Mac cable for projecting the image. We also must mount the RFID reader under the top of the box.

Interface elements

Today we've added some felt to the backside of our wooden letters, with the RFID tags baked inside. We've also rendered out most of the interface and gotten it to work in Flash. The one thing we're still struggling with, however, is the background video loop of stars flying around in space. We're unable to get a .flv file that looks good enough, and we've tried using .swf but the files end up way too big.

We've got most of the sound effects in and have selected music. It looks gooood.

Photos from the project

Here's some photos of what we're doing.

During the process

At the moment me and John are working on the code and interface elements. There are still some minor bugs in the code that need to be worked out and that's what I'm sitting with. At the moment, you can swipe a letter to the reader even when the game is showing the level sequence. That's something that needs to be fixed. On the level side we have four at the moment, of a total of around 10. Tim has been calling around trying to get a hold of a projector and Mathias has been running around to a lot of different meetings. Even though things have been slowing down a bit I still feel confident in us being ready in time for the exhibition.

Bringing the pieces together

Yesterday I thought I was going to cry myself to sleep. Today, though, is a completely different story. Much thanks goes out to Åsmund, who helped me understand the way our project was supposed to be coded, and also to Max, who helped me actually do it. Due to the efforts of these two gentlemen, my group is now on its way to achieving victory, fame and glory up in Stockholm in two weeks.

Phiddlers, continued

Today's been a good day! First we had a lecture by Henry Brook of Digit and then me and Eliot went to get some color. The guy at the paint store only had white, but since it was free we happily walked out of there with 4 liters of paint.

Phiddlers

The Experience Technology module has started at full effect and we're currently in our cells trying to research on ways to make our project a reality. Our idea is based on a memory type of mind game which John in my group has devised. Tim and Eliot have been out getting wood so we can build a box to house the computer in.

The technology we got assigned to us was the Phidget RFID kit. Last Friday we sat down and had a brainstorming session where we basically just tried to come up with a bunch of different ideas. In the brainstorming process some of the ideas were very far out there and some were more "doable" in the sense of time and within the range of our skills. Since none of the members of our group are self-acclaimed "coders" or "technies" I felt that it was important for us to focus on what we actually could accomplish rather than spend time on complex and, in effect, impossible ideas. We have also heard that most groups that struggle at the exhibition are the ones that have took upon them too much. The keyword, it seems, is to keep things simple. At the end of the day we decided to roll with John's mind game idea.

The basic concept is taken from the game Memory and then upgraded with new technology and tweaked to be more fast-paced. We have been very ambitious with our ideas and thoughts on how our space at the exhibition should look like and we have a pretty good idea of how things should work. Tim and Eliot have already begun searching around for the physical resources like wood and Plexiglas that we need for the project. Me and John are looking into the coding part, which will be based on Action Script 3.0. Mathias is our project manager and is also in the exhibition group which will handle the practical issues surrounding the event.

We haven't really run into that many problems yet, besides the fact that we're still sort of new to the whole thing and don't really know exactly what we should be doing all the time.

Since I'm not very "techie" as a person, I decided to challenge myself and try to be a part of the coding process for this very reason. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute with something, but for the moment I'm mostly just looking on, pointing a finger here and there and speaking my mind when I have something to say.

Introducing.. Bluestring Technology

Today we've had workshops with Stefanie Wuschitz who is an artist working in the technological space and uses it as a tool for her creations. We got an assignment to come up with something based on a word. My group's word was "bandwidth". We made an old school string phone which actually worked. We didn't really expect that.




This afternoon we're going to do some java programming and put the results on our mobile phones.

Android: Robotic Scarecrow

Today we've been listening to Robin Gavin and also brainstormed for cool concepts we would like to build. My group, consisting of myself, Koste, Max, Nella and Sara, came up with the fantastic idea of taking the old school scarecrows, but pimping them for the 21st century. We call it Android: Robotic Scarecrow.

Commuting colour

I just wanted to shout out that Boeoes Kaelstigen has a sequel to Pan European out with a very nice video.


Boeoes Kaelstigen - Commuting Colour EPK from Tor Rauden Källstigen on Vimeo.

New module: Experience technology

Today we had our first introduction to our new module "Experience technology" with Petter Wärnsberg. It was a pretty thorough introduction and it looks like we're going to have about two month's work ahead of us, but one month to actually do it. It looks like I'm going to have four hectic, but interesting, weeks ahead of me. The module's aim is to get us to dive into the tech bit, which is something that I personally haven't really touched on that much in the past. I've done my share of small javascripts and RealBasic programming in my youth, but nothing beyond that. PHP for example, would be something neat to try out. Action Script and Ajax-stuff as well.

Microloans

So far 7,580 investors from 74 countries have invested €4,652,307 in 2,782 businesses in 6 African countries. 91% of these businesses are successfully repaying their loans on time. The average interest rate for investors is 12.8% p.a.

MYC4.com

Kamu

This is a pretty neat idea. Anyone can design, print and fold their own Kamu.


I am Kamu

Idea factory

Today has been about ideas. Tomorrow will be as well. To our help we have Linn Bay and Rolf-Arne Leer from the Danish company 370°. Maybe it's because it's Monday, but it feels like it's been a really long day. The concept of brainstorming and talking about idea generation feels a bit off to me. They are nice words and all, but I'm having trouble putting them to practice. I guess I'm a bit skeptic to mind maps and the likes.

Presentation technique

We've had Johan Westermark in presentation technique and body language this week. It's been good. We've done some theater style acting exercises following the mantra "farting on stage".

Ubiquitous

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Graffiti

Just thought I'd post this link from Smash Magazine: Tribute To Graffiti: 50 Beautiful Graffiti Artworks

This one is awesome:

Module evaluation

Today we had the transition day between Information society and the next module, Experience technology. Basically we sat for a few hours and discussed what worked well and what could be improved; first in a smaller group and then with the whole class. Being Hyper, I'm used to it. Then we took some photos for the website and cleaned out our cells.

Posten Norge

This is the old and new logo of the Norwegian post office. For me, it's a shame. It's a shame to go from the traditional horn symbolism, and the new replacement in turn does absolutely nothing for me. It doesn't show anything about the organization. It doesn't show what the organization does. Another one bites the dust.

Motion showcase

Right now we're looking at everyone's individual motion projects in "Ångan". It's awesome to see what everyone else has done and the difference in individual styles.

Woolies

On a side-note, Woolworth's just got a rebranding which I must say I like quite a bit! Their old logo felt just that; old. The new one is way more cleaner and forward, while still delivering a fresh feeling.


Brand New: Person or Apple? Discuss

Motion, motion, motion

Our group project in motion is going well, much thanks to Linus and Kalle. I feel a bit inadequate with After Effects, I must admit. I'll have to try and spend some time with it this weekend or something to catch up, because it looks like it could be a lot of fun. I just haven't gotten a grip around it at all, that's it.

Motion week

Motion week started yesterday. With a bang. We have a group assignment that is due tomorrow morning which is a group effort. I think it will turn out pretty good. We also have to write up the written report and hand in.

So far, I like it. Hyper, that is. It's pretty fast-paced but if you compare it to the 8-5 job I had before, it's more dynamic. It changes. One thing, though, that me and my class mates aren't that happy about is the hefty invoice we got from the school. 4600 Swedish crowns for UGL, Team building (one night at a ranch sort of) and another fee ("kompendieavgift") that I can't understand what it means.

Friday, oh Friday

I'm typing this on my new, beautiful, shining, crisp, happy MacBook! I love it. My god I love it. The only problem I had with it was that the iSight camera refused to work, but after a fifteen minute call to Apple the problem was solved.

The presentations yesterday went... fabulous. Absolutely great. I got a lot of great feedback which was really nice since I had practiced several hours. I wasn't that nervous when we were presenting, it was more butterflies before we actually went up. And when it was my time to shine everything just went so smoothly. Good stuff!

We did get some negative feedback as well; only the slight problem of our presentation not really having much to do with our main focus which was Transports & Communication. Ooops. We kinda saw that one coming, though.

So now me and Linus have to rewrite some stuff and add more focus towards our industry and then hand in the written report this Wednesday.

Getting the pieces together

I think it's looking quite good actually. I'm more or less done with my part of the writing, so today we're going to merge all of our findings into one kick ass presentation. The presentation is done in Apple's Keynote and we're going to do some practice run in the "Steam central" to make sure everything runs smooth tomorrow.

New week, deadline approaching

That would be a cool title for a movie. Or not. Anyway, it's Monday again and today we've had a lecture by Magnus Forsbrand regarding the mobile industry. We have also been working with the group process follow-up document which is due tomorrow. Also tried making some calls but no answer.

Calling the US of A

Tried calling around last night at Linus' place but to no avail. I got transferred around in automatic telephone navigation systems until I had no choice but to hang up, got shot down with the answer "I'm sorry, we don't do that here" or got stuck in a answering machine loop that got me no where. Thank god for e-mail.

Process follow-up

Now we're back from our process follow-up and it seems like it gave us a little push in the right direction. We have to organize our group and get on the same page.

RFID?

After doing some more research at Linus' place yesterday we found something that might be a nice trend to do something with, namely RFID. Today were going to have a Process follow-up after lunch. We'll see what happens and if we're on track.

Signals

Today we've listened to Carina Sjödin about analyzing trends in the big media environment by listening to "signals" and filtering these using different methods. Even though most of us thought the tasks we were given were a bit confusing I think we got the grip of it towards the end of the day.

Regarding the Information Society module, I think we're making progress (although slowly compared to others, it seems). We've gotten some replies from the e-mails we sent out and hopefully we'll locate and decide on a digital trend before Friday.

Cross them fingers.

Progress?

Today we've been sitting in our cell, basically trying to uniformly scratch our heads and figure out exactly what we have to do. It's been a bit of a frustrating ride because of all the loose ends and confusion regarding what to do and how to do it. On the whole I think we have at least managed to get closer to our goals in researching the transport and communications industry.

Today we've just mailed out a lot of questions to people within the industry asking for tips regarding latest trends.

Le Grande Introduction

Okay, so here we go with this personal blog thing we've been asked to do as part of our first set of assignments at Hyper Island. This blog, wickedly named HyperJulius, will most probably follow me through my two years at HI.

As people close to me should know, the first thing I would do now would be to pour a few sweaty hours into customizing the design (probably before I even typed this!) but as we're a bit short of time here and there's lots of things I have to get me head wrapped around, I'll just make this a short introduction and leave the little nitty gritty details 'til a more suitable time presents itself.

Today's been the first "real" day at HI with information about the first module, Information Society, and a really good lecture by Phil Paul Collins about the industry.