As technology evolves, people are more and more depending on it to function properly. But the nature of technology is that it needs networks, sources, software, batteries and signal. Once these conditions fail, horror scenarios unfold for those who depend…
Supercut video by fourfour.typepad.com | Related: Cellphone Minutes, the Next Currency, Crackberry Addicts, Handset gets taken to the grave.
Kevin Kelly — senior maverick at Wired — asks people how they see the internet and if they can, visualize it. Here is how:
“The internet is vast. Bigger than a city, bigger than a country, maybe as big as the universe. It’s expanding by the second. No one has seen its borders. And the internet is intangible, like spirits and angels. The web is an immense ghost land of disembodied places. Who knows if you are even there, there. Yet everyday we navigate through this ethereal realm for hours on end and return alive. We must have some map in our head.
I’ve become very curious about the maps people have in their minds when they enter the internet. So I’ve been asking people to draw me a map of the internet as they see it. That’s all. More than 50 people of all ages and levels of expertise have mapped their geography of online.”
About the project | Download pdf and participate | View more maps; Read the rest of this entry »
How can we unfold the Earth? Making a map of the earth is an ancient problem. For thousands of years cartographers, mathematicians, and inventors have developed methods to flatten the curved surface of the earth into a 2D plane. The main problem is that you cannot do this perfectly, such that both the shape and size of the surface are depicted properly everywhere, hence the result is never neutral.
Visualization professor Jack van Wijk developed a new method of unfolding the earth: Myriahedral projections. The idea is take a map of a small part of the earth, which is almost perfect, glue neighboring maps to it, and repeat this until the whole earth is shown. Of course you get interrupts, but does this matter?
In the future, every street will be a Nokia street? Perhaps not, however we may expect some changes in street signage due to the arrival of mobile & gps technology. Once everyone is carrying a personal navigation device those bluntly placed street signage may become obsolete – Try and find a cellphone booth in your neighborhood if you are not convinced.
I guess the question is not whether GPS technology will alter street signage, but rather which navigation solution feels more natural. Lets do a quick poll.
Which of the following feels more natural?
A) Finding your way using street signs and a paper map.
B) Finding your way with an interactive GPS solution.
Type your answer + explanation (optional) in the comment box below.
On the Road, Google Manhole, Your grand-grand-grand parents new media, Follow the red cable. Image via Postais Globais.
Peculiar holiday of the week.
The most distributed image ever is being phased out. What remains is a hill in Sonoma Valley, California.
Charles O’Rear used to pass that hill almost daily between his home in Napa and his wife, Daphne, who lived in Marin County. He always carried his medium format camera.
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There’s no reality gap. There’s no reality gap. There’s no reality gap.
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