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Online Demonstration Applet

Labels: Design, Visualisation

Choosing a color pallet for your website usually is hard and if not chosen properly they can ruin a page. Not everyone understands color theory or knows what colors are complimentary to each other. With this handicap in mind a lot of color schemers has emerged. One of the best is Color Schemer and costs $49.99. But, there are very efficient and usefully color schemers online that don't cost anything.

Number 7 on the list there is 4096 Color Wheel.
4096 Color wheel offers just the basic functions of a color schemer. It will not offer complementary colors but will only provide you with color value that is web smart or web safe color. But, as most of web designers already have Photoshop that can also identify web safe etc. colors. This tool has little purpose in professional realm.

Number 6 is Color Scheme 2
Color Schemer 2 is more advanced and is a Color schemer unlike 4096 Color Wheel. Its interface resembles the Color Schemers but does not offer some advanced options. It will allow you to select the mode of selecting complementary colors like contrast triad and others.
One interesting feature is that it enables user to see how people with different color blindness or convert a existing color scheme to more pastel based colors.


Number 5 is Color Bender
Color Bender does not offer visually as much as Color Schemer 2 but the results are more usefully. You can save your color scheme or view saved profiles from other users. You can export your color scheme to ACT (Photoshop Color Table) or ESP (Illustrator). There is also PANTONE matcher.


On Number 4 is Color Schemer Online v2
Color Schemer Online v2 is online version of excellent Color Schemer. It is really rudimentary but offers the best result.
You just select your base color and it will display colors that can go along side your base color.


The third best is The Color Wizard v3
The Color Wizard v3 is a Color schemer that features most of functionality of a proper color schemer. What struck me the most is that this nice looking web application has no save,load feature, no export to Photoshop or Illustrator Color profiles and it does not offer the ability to test how our scheme will look to people with color blindness.
Nice execution but... not the best.


At number 2 we will find HTML color code
HTML color code is by far the best online color scheme generator. We can select that kind of complimentary color scheme we want to use. It has easy to use color sliders that take into account the complimentary scheme when dragging. We can check and correct web safe colors and see the results in a windows divided into five regions that enable us to compare if colors work well together. There are also Saturation and Brightness sliders that other Online Color schemers lack.


And the Best but "something's wrong with me and I refuse to load correctly" is Adobe Kuler
Adobe Kuler is a Flash based online Color Schemer tool. It is the best but for some reason it loads correctly but does not display any color schemer. It offers all functionality of all described above and is more intuitive and visually attractive.
This is the king of color schemers.

Labels: Design, Web 2.0

Past week I had a really big problem. There was a document that I needed to make each and every day.

The problem consisted of having one unsorted sheet with diverse data and as it is not constant, on one day a piece of data would be in row 113 and the next it would be in row 65, it would be simply a mammoth mask to undertake each day in organizing the data to fit the table.

The picture on the left is a sample of one such table. Code column is scrambled and you have to unscramble it every day. Now imagine that there are more than 100 or 1000 such entries.

First we need to create on another sheet (in this case it will be Sheet1 and unsorted table on Sheet2) a layout of how we want our report to look like. On the right is yet again a sample of how it could look. Note that the code Column is sorted. This is our reference for extracting data from the table. It could contain any form of data (text, date etc). There is no specific need for code column to be the reference one, it could have easily been the Value or Name column.

Now comes the "Hard" part. In columns that we wish to populate we need to enter this formula:

=INDEX(Sheet2!B:B,MATCH(A3,Sheet2!A:A,0))

There are two functions in this formula. First is INDEX and the second is MATCH.

INDEX(Sheet2!B:B,MATCH(A3,Sheet2!A:A,0))

• Sheet2 is from where we will take the data
  
• B:B identifies the column from which the data will be taken
  
• MATCH(A3,Sheet2!A:A,0))
  
  • A3 is that we are looking for and in our case it is the Code (product code, etc.)
    
  • Sheet2 is where we will conduct our search
    
  • and A:A is the range in which we will search. A:A means the entire column A.
    
  • 0 is a Match Type argument number and for more information on it type MATCH in Excel Search bar. With this set to 0 there is also a possibility of doing searches with wildcards like * or ?. Where * is any length or letters sequence sequence and ? stands for just one letters character. This does not work with numbers.
    
  • All of this together searches entire column A in Sheet2 for value in A3 on Sheet1 and returns the row in which that data was found.

INDEX takes information about the row number that is provided by MATCH and completes the formula so that we get the data from the row we want and from column B on Sheet2.
After entering the formula we can copy it to others and we have our self a report that stays the same regardless of how our data change. The only prerequisite is that data is sorted into columns that don't change places.There is additional improvement on the original that does not return errors if nothing was found but more on that later.

If any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Labels: Excel, Programing

Labels: Design, Visualisation

Ever since I first used WinAmp plugin to turn off/on my keyboard lights I wanted to reproduce that effect. finally some time ago I found out how its done and here's how.

The image on the left is from KeyLED 0.9.3 plugin for Samurize that I made.

My programing language of choice is Delphi from Borland since its first birth as Pascal for Windows and later as Delphi 1. Never needed to change so code will be for delphi but it is such a small part of code that it could be translated to any programing language with relative ease.

The trick with controlling your keyboard lights is a very old one. Computer communicates with keyboard on I/O ports 60h which is data port, and with port 64h which is Command/Status port of keyboard. By writing to port 60h we bypass the system and change the LED indicator for eg. Caps Lock to off even if Caps Lock is on but without changing the Caps Lock status. Caps Lock stays on even if LED is off. This enables us to play with keyboard lights without any worries.

Port 64h is used to detect if keyboard is ready. We do that by waiting that status of port 64h becomes 0. Then we prepare keyboard to change keyboard light by writing EDh to port 60h and then wait port 64h to once again become 0.

The waiting for 64h port to become 0 is a safety measure that can be bypassed but I would recommend against it. You would still be able to change the LED state but by waiting for ready state you remove some unwanted artifacts like missing keystrokes etc.

After we prepare the keyboard we can turn off and on Keyboard lights. By writing to port 60h combinations of

1. Caps Lock = 4 or second bit = 1 (00000100)
   
2. Num Lock = 2 or first bit = 1 (00000010)
   
3. Scroll Lock = 1 or zero bit = 1 (00000001)
   

we can selectively turn on and off lights on the keyboard without changing caps lock or numlock status.

This is all just theory but how it is applied in reality? Well, Windows XP introduced restrictive methods for accessing hardware ports so we need a library that can to that for us. In the good old Dos there was Int 9 and direct access to ports but not anymore. Library that I use is Inpout32.dll. It is open source so if you really like it you could incorporate it directly into your applications removing the need for "one additional file to carry around".

First we need to create functions connecting to DLL by

function Out32(wAddr:word;bOut:byte):byte; stdcall; external 'inpout32.dll';
function Inp32(wAddr:word):byte; stdcall; external 'inpout32.dll';

With functions for port access defined we can now proceed with writing and waiting and writing and waiting by:

PROCEDURE Set_keyboard_lights(n,c,s : boolean);
var
bErr:byte;
val : byte;
BEGIN
val := 0;
IF s THEN inc(val);
IF n THEN inc(val,2);
IF c THEN inc(val,4);
repeat until (inp32($64) AND 2)=0;
bErr:=(Out32($60,$ED));
repeat until (inp32($64) AND 2)=0;
bErr:=(Out32($60,val));
END;

Procedure presented will take three parameters that can be either true of false; NumLock Status, CapsLock Status and NumLock Status.

This small snippet is all you need to control your Keyboard Lights. Have Fun!!

Labels: Design, Open Source, Programing

TuneGlue is a service that in its intent is similar to LivePlasma or MusicMap but with one distinction. It is quite usable. Data used to produce results comes from Last FM and Amazon.

To start using TuneGlue just enter desired artist name into the search engine and the first node will appear shortly. By clicking on it you get additional options like to expand to similar, browse news related to the artists or to view their discography.

Unlike MusicMap it utilizes more data sources and unlike both MusicMap and LivePlasma it offers prettier eye candy. I also found it faster in discovery.

It is somewhat bare and minimalistic but with small improvements it could be a much better. Features missing or not easily accessible are such as album lists could be visible all the time as a sidebar and a track preview would be nice.

TuneGlue is a must see site for any music lover.

Labels: Design, Music, Visualisation

Thinking Machine 4

Ever since the dawn of computers man played chess with them and in 1997 IBM Big Blue was the first computer that won a match with a world champion, Garry Kasparov.

Chess programing algorithms are one of basic algorithms every programmer learns sooner or later. Along side the traveling salesman problem chess problems are usual problem posed to high school student on computer programing competitions.

One of interesting sites actually shows the generation of paths inside the algorithm or the "thinking" process of the computer, Thinking Machine 4.

Labels: Design, Visualisation

Cambrian House went all out and fed Google 1,000 pizzas.

Labels: Digg, Programing

Cambrian House

Cambrian House defines them self as crowdsourced. They started with a simple idea in 2005, and that idea was to allow

"brilliant ideas are submitted (by you) for the community (that's you too) to rate. If an idea gets a lot of support, Cambrian House will build it with the help of the worldwide development community (there you are again). Contributors take their pick of exciting projects, and in return, they get a piece of the royalty pie (...that's money)."

Cambrian House is a part of SourceForge.org and there are currently 3288 ideas submitted.

One of interesting moves in order to thank people that pay, Cambrian House decided to feed Google 1,000 pizzas.

Labels: Open Source, Programing

Baby Name Wizard

Some time now I been been playing with voice recognition shipped with Windows and how to interface with it and make a custom voice control application. This posed a slight problem, not with programming part but with something quite different.

After 16 years of owning a computer I was compelled to name my computer. Lame, but necessary. I didn't want computer to activate voice recognition every time someone yells "computer". So I decided to name it. should it be a girl or a boy. I choose a girly name.

First off, I had problems choosing a name so I checked the web for some page that could help me. The Baby Name Wizard - NameVoyager was the best I found.

It not only provides boy and girl name but also shows how popular was any given name in a span of over a century. There is also a search function and to spike things up its a Java app that is animated and nice to use.

Planing a family or just want to name a pet or a gadget check it out.

Labels: Design, Visualisation, Web 2.0

Bleenks just updated its online index of streaming full length episodes. Some of new TV shows listed are SG1, X-Men animated, Robot Chicken, Amazing race etc.

Pretty soon there will no longer be any need for that non interactive box called the TV.

It seams that the list of shows is growing and is going to continue to grow. Nice!

Labels: Web 2.0

We can debate was the War in Iraq necessarily, did they have WMD etc. But, one thing is non debatable, people died. Iraq War Coalition Fatalities web site displays animated flash map of Iraq with one day per frame. Its fast and a scroll bar would be nice as you cant stop or rewind the animation which is a shame as it is really nicely done. Thous features would add whole different dimension to the animation making it a tool. Only thing you can control is which country's fatality's in Iraq you would like to see animated on the map.

Not only instant death on the battlefield is recorded and displayed but also death from injuries in hospitals. You will recognize these, they appear on different locations and sometimes even on sea, presumably a ship.

Data is gatherd from icasualties.org and geographical locations from www.globalsecurity.org. s
When this article was written the last update was 10/23/06.

Labels: Money, Visualisation

Making sense of the world by having fun with statistics!

GamMiner is a non-profit venture focused at delivering statistical data in statistical form so anyone can understand it. They mainly produce stunning visuals from available statistical data.

Available data ends with 2004 but starts with 1975. Nevertheless it offers very intuitive interface. You can change what each axis will represent; will it be life expectancy in correlation with income or with urban population. There are 16 different statistical indicators which you can combine as you wish. You can also select more countries to track.

One interesting thing I found is that Rhuanda, if looking at life expectancy with urban population you can see a sharp decrease until 1992 where only 6.5% of population is considered urban while life expectancy was ONLY 24 years. One missing feature is interface with for example Google Trends that would automatically input news and we could make more sense of what we see.

In addition to this flash application their main site is full of animated graphs that show from education indicators to the failure of UN's effort in reducing child deaths.

Labels: Design, Visualisation

we pay!

On the eve of this "historic" day while surfing for some political news I stumbled upon TheyRule. It is a website that indexes connections between companies or government institutions or between both of them.

"They Rule aims to provide a glimpse of some of the relationships of the US ruling class. It takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, which share many of the same directors. Some individuals sit on 5, 6 or 7 of the top 500 companies. It allows users to browse through these interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. A user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and email links to these maps to others. They Rule is a starting point for research about these powerful individuals and corporations. "

It looks like it was last updated in 2004 but the site is still active with last post in 2006 so it is possible that data has been refreshed. Even if it wasn't refreshed it is still a rich source of information and a well thought out research tool.

To immediately start using it go to load map option and choose between recent of popular.

Labels: Visualisation

Rutan won the $10M Ansari X-Prize for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded craft to enter space twice in a 2-week period.

Labels: Space

Technology, Entertainment, Design awards

This is a presentation of this year winners. A must watch, amazing people, great role models.

Labels: Design, Web 2.0

Come on.... We like IT !

At the beginning of 2006, Jeff Han from TED conference 2006 held in Monterey. He displayed an absolute revolution in Human Computer interaction. There are some really interesting project alongside this one at his webpage.

For a long time the only input devices for computer were the keyboard and the mouse. In 1971, Dr. Samuel C. Hurst invented touch screen. Touch screen is “display overlay which is typically either pressure-sensitive, electrically-sensitive”.

They are expensive and their price increases drastically with size. But now, Jefferson Y. Han from Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU demonstrated the new approach to how users approach the computer. Technology is not new and is nothing drastic but the application of available technology is stunning.

It is a “simple, inexpensive, and scalable technique for enabling high-resolution multi-touch sensing on rear-projected interactive surfaces based on frustrated total internal reflection".

This basically means that the technology is independent from the size of the display and relatively inexpensive. The most expensive part is the projector. But not necessary. LumenLab has offered to the general public (or non DIY community) a cheap but interesting projector for less then $500.


What it means is that this whole project almost has a a DIY potential. What you need is a projector, slightly better "web cam", a plate made of Plexiglas or acrylic. Plexiglas would be a bad choice but maybe it could work. Trough the sides light is inserter at an angle where no light passes to the outside of the plane, also called the Total Internal Reflection.

When a finger is pressed to the plate it lights up. Video from web cam is afterward processed by a computer. Now, the only tricky part is how to program multi input. Imagine having 10 mice's moving around your windows. Windows wouldn't know what to do with all of them clicking at the same time.



Good, old Star Trek (actual shot, not taken from Star Trek).
Now I know where they got the idea from.

Labels: Design, GUI

Functional Piercing

While doing research for prior posts about web shops that "sell" Cyborg equipment and augments I found this site quite interesting.

Shannon Larratt from BMEzine.com wrote a very interesting article on how piercing can be more then just decorative art. It can actually serve a purpose, just like pierced tongue (go for it ladies).

I also wear an eye piece so this approach to the classic "problem" of that is the best way we can augment our eyesite is interesting to me.
One distinct problem with this approach is that to many people still distrust or are disgusted by a thought of inserting a foreign object into their body.

But this is a completely different debate.

Labels: Cyborg, Design

Hi-Tech upgrades for your body
Human Upgrades is one of most disturbing as it is fascinating websites that exist on the web. It has no graphic violence, there are non of gruesome pictures and vids shown on websites like rotten. There is something about the website that sends chills down my spine.
Are we this close to making this a reality, are there people that would like to have webs between their fingers, clitoris on their palm, or one nostril?


Nevertheless the content, unlike Cyborg Web Shop , takes it self really serious. It looks like it could be real but, but its just to stretched out to be.
Where Cyborg Web Shop admits its a test site, this site does not. Who knows, my bee its for real.
I sent them a email request but still no reply.

Labels: Cyborg, Design

Ever so often there is a site that just brings smile on your face. For me this is one of them, Cyborg Web Shop. It is just a concept site representing a future web shop for a aspiring Cyborgs. We can find titanium bones, news chip that implants into the brain, DNA aging inhibitor, younger skin or a play station implant chip.

• Can I use the play station implant chip for applications other than the playing of video games?
• Of course! The play station implant chip is a microcomputer in your head and can be used with all standard software packages. You can even use the Internet if you have the mobile phone implant chip implanted. However, you must have additional equipment for using the wireless mouse.

(sites FAQ)

For a test site it is quite detailed. Every entry is described and categorized, there is also detailed FAQ. Only thing that is somewhat awkward is the entrance where you are not presented with a web shop but a small questioner.

The design was made at the beginnings of 2004 but it still look fresh, not a Web 2.0 but close enough for that era.

Labels: Cyborg, Design

Does anyone remember how a search for a particular font used to look? They were just links to download or rar archives with huge number of fonts that once installed brought computer to its knees. If a site had preview they were static images much like TypeNow still has.
Now theres a site called BetterFonts. It offers, or declares that it has over 10,000 free fonts for download and its all packed into nice little webpage that lets you preview the font with text of your choosing.

updated> There is another interesting site called DaFont. Also you can also check this post with alot of links to other font resources.

Labels: Design, Visualisation