Jamendo Jammap, Marker/Music: Google music map mashups bring the world of music right to you!

Here are a couple of interesting ways people are using Google Maps for music:

Screenshot of Jammap, featuring music from Brazil, created by Cassioso Oliveira :

China:

Marker/Music

"marker/music is an interactive sound and music map created by Darren Solomon, the students and faculty of Northern State University, and members of the community of Aberdeen, South Dakota. From October 18th - 22nd, 2010, the group shot over 70 videos in the area, from which 12 were chosen to be embedded in a custom Google map. The project was inspired by Darren's inbflat.net, and is intended to explore the concept by producing the entire project locally in a single community, rather than through internet-based crowdsourcing." -marker/music website

RELATED

Google Maps Mania Posts (tagged Music Maps)

Jammap v03! A geolocation based music player :)

(Scroll down for "how-to" information.)


Thanks to Richard Byrne and Julien Llanas for sharing this information!

JavaScript HTML5 iPad Multi-touch Game Controller "How-To" by Seb Lee-Delisle

I'm glad I decided to glance at Twitter today and find a tweet with a link to Seb LeeDesilse's Creatively Digital website.  If you are interested in learning more about HTML5, Canvas, the iPad, multi-touch, etc, the site might be worth taking your time to explore. Here is the link:
Multi-touch game controller in JavaScript HTML5 for iPad (Seb Lee-Delisle, Creatively Digital, 4/15/11)


Seb's post includes the following video, plus sample code:

About Seb Lee-Delisle: "Seb is a digital media consultant and founding partner at award-winning agency Plug-in Media. He specialises in programming creative visual effects and interfaces for games, physics, motion detection, 3D and visual effects (like particle systems). His work has pushed the boundaries of what is possible both on and off the web, and won a BAFTA for the Plug-in Media project Big and Small for the BBC."

"He lectures and runs training courses world-wide and speaks at conferences worldwide such as iDesign, FMX, FITC, Droidcon, Adobe MAX and many others. He blogs at sebleedelisle.com  and tweets at @seb_ly."


RELATED
Touching and Gesturing in the iPhone
nroberts, Sitepen, July 10, 2008

For more "how-two" information, check out Seb's tutorials and guides - it looks like his website is a treasure trove of information -  here are a couple of gems:
3D engine in 10 lines
HTML5 Canvas 3D Particles
HTML5 canvas sprite optimisation


Don't forget to listen to the "Creative Coding" podcasts, a collaboration between Seb Lee-Delisle and Iain Lobb: 
Podcast episode 6: openFrameworks, Adobe CS5.5, and multi-touch gaming

Thanks to Alpay Kasal for the tweet about this link!

Interactive Display with 4,500 Streaming Videos, Powered by a NAND flashcard by Fusion-io

The video wall below streams 4,500 videos through Fusion-io's NAND flash card. It can take care of 1 million transactions per second, the equivalent of 6 gigabytes of throughput per second, according to a recent Computerworld post by Lucas Mearian.


Wow.




FYI:  Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, serves as Fusion-io's chief scientist.
RELATED
What a wall of 4,500 video streams looks like
Lucas Mearian, Computerworld 4/12/11
Fusion-IO Jobs (Colorado)
SIGGRAPH 2009 Version of Fusion-io's Streaming Video Wall:






SOMEWHAT RELATED
Driving Data Warehousing with ioMemory
Fusion-io Whitepaper 1/11/11
Transcription:  Fusion-io CEO David Flynn on Enabling a New Class of Cloud Computing Apps
Bert Latamore, Wikibon, 4/8/11
"We're talking about a fundamental new building-block. So it impacts and will impact everything in the entire data center. In the database world it typically means that a database server can do about 10X the throughput, for the same server. And those queries are answered 30%-40% faster. So it means faster page loads, more throughput per server. So Answers.com retrofitted their MySQL scale-out database tier and saw 9X the throughput per server. What they chose to do was to shrink the database farm four-to-one. So they got a 75% consolidation, and with that remaining one-out-of-four servers they were still getting more than twice the throughput they had before." - David Flynn

Folk Dance Your Algorithms! (Intercultural Computer Science Education, Sapientia University, Romania)

An interesting post by Nathan Yau, of Flowing Data, crossed my path today.  I anticipated something about interesting information visualizations, but to my surprise, I had a chance to view a couple of videos of.... folk dancers!    Nathan shared information about about Algo-rythmics, a project created by researchers from Sapientia University (Romania) that blends art, culture, and technology to enhance computer programming education: 

"Sorting algorithms demonstrated with Hungarian folk dance".

Before viewing the videos below, take a moment to read the abstract from a research paper written by some of the people behind the Algo-rythmics project:

Zoltan Katai and Laszio Toth (2008)  Technologically and artistically enhanced multi-sensory computer-programming education Teaching and Teacher Education Volume 26, Issue 2, February 2010, Pages 244-251

Abstract

"Over the last decades more and more research has analysed relatively new or rediscovered teaching–learning concepts like blended, hybrid, multi-sensory or technologically enhanced learning. This increased interest in these educational forms can be explained by new exciting discoveries in brain research and cognitive psychology, as well as by the accelerated integration of technology (computers, intranets, internet, etc.) in education. We have investigated how the educationally valuable outcomes of these trends could be implemented in computer-programming education and in what ways this process could be catalysed by arts (dance, music, rhythm, theatrical role-playing). We present a theoretical basis for technologically and artistically enhanced multi-sensory teaching–learning strategies. This work focuses particularly on how dance can be involved in computer science classes."

Sapientia University, Mathematics–Informatics Department, Tirgu Mures/Corunca, Soseaua Sighisoarei 1C, 540485, Romania

"In the case of each algorithm we chose such implementation version that fits best with the characteristics of the corresponding folk dance. After students have understood the key features of the algorithm the teacher should discuss with them the possibilities the algorithm can be optimized." AlgoRythmics  (Also see the Alog-rythmics Facebook page)

FYI: There will be additional algorithm concepts presented through folk dances in the near future on the AlgoRythmic's YouTube channel.  

Enjoy!

Insert-sort with Romanian Folk Dance

Bubble Sort with Hungarian ("Csango") Folk Dance

Credits (as listed on the AlgoRythmics YouTube Channel)

Created at Sapientia University, Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Romania.
Directed by Kátai Zoltán and Tóth László. 
In cooperation with "Maros Művészegyüttes", Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Romania.
Choreographer: Füzesi Albert. 
Video: Lőrinc Lajos, Körmöcki Zoltán. 
Supported by "Szülőföld Alap" and evoline company.

Select-sort with Gypsy Folk Dance

Shell-sort with Hungarian (Szekely) Folk Dance

RELATED

Sorting algorithms demonstrated with Hungarian folk dance

Nathan Yau, Flowing Data, 4/14/11

Sorting algorithms as dances

I Programmer, 2/10/11

AlgoRythmics:  Sorting Algorithms in European Folk Dance

Clyde Smith, All World Dance, 4/13/11

Sorting Algorithm Animations

Pervasive Retail: Theme of the April-June edition of Pervasive Computing (IEEE)

This is just a teaser.  I'll have time to read it next week when I'm on break!


FYI: This is one of my favorite tech journals. This issue's theme focuses on the use of pervasive technology in retail settings.   Other topics in this issue include wearables, pervasive health, smartphone computing in the classroom, innovative Ubicomp products, and more.


IEEE Pervasive Computing

Virtual Choir 2.0 "Sleep": 2052 People, 58 Countries, Global Collaboration

This is an interesting way of collaborating on the Web!


For more information:   The Virtual Choir








Eric Whitacre's TED Talk:  A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

Immersive Cocoon Interaction: "It's people who are now the interface" (Updated, with videos, photos, links.)

"It's people who are now the interface." -Ole Bowman, cultural and architectural historian


I found the above quote from the Immersive Cocoon website and smiled.


When I first learned about the Immersive Cocoon in 2008, I thought it was just another technological fancy that probably would not come to market anytime soon.  Although it still is in the concept stage, I think it has a chance of making it, given the rapid advances in interactive technology over the past few years.

It wouldn't surprise me to see i-Cocoons finding a place in libraries, educational settings, museums, and other public spaces within the next 5-8 years, given an economic turnaround.


What is the Immersive Cocoon?
"The Immersive Cocoon is a future concept study by Tino Schaedler with design collective NAU; an idea to push the envelope and provoke a new conception of interface technology...Directed and 3D CG by Oliver Zeller. More info, behind the scenes and full credits at i-cocoon.com." -adNAU"


What is inside the cocoon?



Photo: arch.nau.coop

Photo: arch.nau.coop
Teaser Video:

Immersive Cocoon "2011" | 1080HD from adNAU on Vimeo.

"Please play fullscreen and LOUD! ...This spec teaser reveals an evolution in computing interaction, within a setting inspired by the penultimate scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey...Starring that film's lead actor, Keir Dullea; "2011" was developed over a two year period. Live action was filmed multi-camera, against green screen atop a backlit plexi floor on a shoestring budget. Mr. Dullea was then integrated into an entirely digitally created CG set rendered at 1080HD."

Here are some previous videos about the iCocoon concept:

RELATED
Immersive Cocoon Concept Website
Designers developing virtual-reality 'Cocoon'
Mark Tutton, 9/12/08, Telepresence Options /Human Productivity Lab
Immersive Cocoon-Facebook
"NAU is an international, multidisciplinary design firm, spanning the spectrum from architecture and interior design to exhibitions and interactive interfaces. As futurists creating both visual design and constructed projects, NAU melds the precision of experienced builders with the imagination and attention to detail required to create innovative exhibits, public events and architecture."
FYI:
Concerning interactive technology, things have changed a bit in my corner of the world - as I write this post, there is a Kinect beckoning me to dance in my bonus room. The Kinect was something that came to market much sooner than I expected.  I'll have an iPad2 sometime in the near future- another example of how rapidly things are evolving.   I skim the news by touch/swiping my now-outdated HTC Incredible.  My 88-year-old aunt, has used Skype more than once to "chat" with her baby great-nephew across the miles.


I use a Wii at work at least once a week to support social interaction skills with some students who have moderate-to-severe autism. Every classroom in the main school I serve has a huge, immersive, interactive whiteboard that relies on touch and kinesthetic interaction-my colleagues can't imagine going back to teaching without them.  

Interview with Don "Design of Everyday Things" Norman on Design Education: STEM+D+Social Sciences, Too! (MIT Technology Review)

The Problem with Design Education

David Talbot, MIT Technology Review, 4/6/11

"I think that the current emphasis on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—needs a "D," for design. Designers need to learn STEM (where S includes both the hard and the soft, social sciences). But similarly, engineers need to learn D: after all, the point of engineering is to develop things for people and society."-Don Norman


"...the creators of good products and services also must have a working knowledge of everything from the technical underpinnings of microprocessors and programming to the policy aspects of information security."  -Don Norman


RELATED
Some of my previous posts mentioning Don Norman and his work:
Words of Wisdom from Harry Brignull: UX Roots in Psychology, Design, Information Architecture, and so much more!
Essential Interaction Design Essays and Articles: Dan Saffer's Lists, Don Norman, and Interactions Magazine
Don Norman's Keynote at the 21st Century Transmedia Symposium "Design Challenge:  Co-creation" (New technologies allow creativity to blossom)
The Transdisciplinary Design Approach to Building an Interfaced World: A smattering ofideas, food for further thought.
Dr. Jan Borchers' (Annotated) Top Ten List of Books on Human-Computer Interaction -Of interest to HCI students and HCI students-at-heart.

SOMEWHAT RELATED
The following post generated a good deal of unexpected discussion ; )
For a Smile:  Gain Detergent Container Looks Like Don Norman's User-Unfriendly Teapot

Below is my final response to the conversation:
The UX of Laundry Washing:  Response to Comments and Videos of Gain Detergent Fans!

Keeping up with Facebook complexity

Need I say more?

"Playful Interface Cultures" exhibit video showreel, just released (Ars Electronica Festival 2010)

Playful Interface Cultures from Interface Culture on Vimeo.


"This video showreel provides a walkthrough through the "Playful Interface Cultures" exhibition at the Ars Electronica Festival 2010. The works shown were created within the Master and Ph.D. program at the Interface Culture Lab, University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria." http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/​

"The exhibition design has been based on traditional Austrian tobacco brands in reference to the historic venue of the former tobacco factory built by the German designer and architect Peter Behrens." -Interface Culture Lab


Instructors:
Georg Russegger
Martin Kaltenbrunner
Michaela Ortner
Varvara Guljajeva
Design
Vesela Milhaylova
Henning Schulze
Production
Reinhard Gupfinger
Technical Support
Mar Canet
Anika Hirt

University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz


SOMEWHAT RELATED
TuioKinect, by Martin Kaltenbrunner: "A simple Tuio hand gesture tracker for Kinect"
Reactable 

mtBAR Multi-touch Bar Video (Aaron Bitler); Physical Vision, a Kinect Alternative Video (Jonathan Brill); DARPA's 3D Glassless Urban Photonic Sandtray

Here are a few interesting videos and links:


The mtBAR Comes Alive!
Aaron Bitler, 3/28/11


Physical Vision, The Alternative to Kinect
Jonathan Brill, Physical Vision, 2/26/11

DARPA's Urban Photonic Sandtray enables 3D battlefield planning without glasses

Tim Stevens, 3/28/11, Engadget

"It's a DARPA project, a fully holographic table (no glasses required) that can be scaled up to six feet diagonally and allows visual depth of up to 12-inches. The technology comes courtesy of Zebra Imaging, which earlier wowed us with some insane 3D printouts, and the data will come from LIDAR systems like this ROAMS bot." -Tim Stevens

-Photo from Vizworld

Weekly Belated Linkfest
Rouli, Games Alfresco, 4/4/11


So much to share, so little time!

ICT MxR Lab's Response to Google's "April Fools Day" Gmail Motion, using OpenNI and FAAST

I recently purchased a Kinect and have been chomping at the bit to do something creative with it.  I have been  too busy with work to dive into a project. Fortunately,  great minds have been paving the way!


I was almost fooled by Google's April Fools prank, "Gmail Motion", a mythical application designed to allow Gmailers the opportunity to conduct email tasks through gestures alone. 


Robert Kosara, an assistant professor of computer science at UNC-Charlotte, and author of the EagerEyes visualization blog,  recently shared a link to a video of  a working prototype of the Gmail Motion concept.  The video features Evan Suma, a post-doc at USC who earned his Ph.D. at UNC-Charlotte.  



"This morning, Google introduced Gmail Motion, allowing users to control Gmail using gestures and body movement. However, for whatever reason, their application doesn't appear to work. So, we demonstrate our solution - the Software Library Optimizing Obligatory Waving (SLOOW) - and show how it can be used with a Microsoft Kinect sensor to control Gmail using the gestures described by Google. This project uses OpenNI coupled with FAAST and was made by Evan Suma and the folks at Mark Bolas' MxR Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies."

Below is the video that almost had me fooled on April 1st  : )
>

RELATED
FAAST Video Gallery
Download FAAST from the USC ICT FAAST website.
University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies (USC ICT) 

The FAAST website has loads of  additional "how-to" information. The list below is just a sample of what can be found on the site:

To use FAAST, you will need to download and install the following software:

1. OpenNI Unstable Build for Windows v1.0.0.25
2. PrimeSense NITE Unstable Build for Windows v1.3.0.18
   During NITE installation, enter the free license key from OpenNI: 0KOIk2JeIBYClPWVnMoRKn5cdY4=
3. Hardware drivers for your sensor (only one of the following)
   • Microsoft Kinect: SensorKinect Module – download Win32 installer from Bin folder
   • PrimeSensor: PrimeSensor Module – this does NOT work with the Kinect

FAAST should then run out-of-the-box; no additional installation or setup is necessary. If you encounter an error on startup, you may also need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package.

FAAST project members are Evan A. Suma, Belinda Lange, Skip Rizzo, David Krum, and Mark Bolas

INTERACTIVE TABLETOPS AND SURFACES 2011 CALL FOR PAPERS AND NOTES (6th Annual ACM ITS 2011 - Nov. 13-16)

Thanks to Johannes Schöning for sharing this information!

CALL FOR PAPERS AND NOTES

6th Annual ACM Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2011

ITS 2011

November 13-16, 2011

Portopia Hotel, Kobe, Japan

http://its2011.jp/

The Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2011 Conference (ITS) is a premiere venue for presenting research in the design and use of new and emerging tabletop and interactive surface technologies. As a new community, we embrace the growth of the discipline in a wide variety of areas, including innovations in ITS hardware, software, design, and projects expanding our understanding of design considerations of ITS technologies and of their applications.

Building on their success in previous years, ITS again features Papers and Notes presentations, as well as tutorials, posters, demonstrations tracks and a doctoral symposium. ITS 2011 will also include workshops.

ITS 2011 will bring together top researchers and practitioners who are interested in both the technical and human aspects of ITS technology. On behalf of the conference organizing committee, we invite you to begin planning your submissions and participation for this year's conference!

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: PAPERS AND NOTES

The use of interactive surfaces is an exciting and emerging research area. Display technologies, such as projectors, LCD and OLED flat panels, and even flexible display substrates, coupled with input sensors capable of enabling direct interaction, make it reasonable to envision a not-so-distant future in which many of the common surfaces in our environment will function as digital interactive displays. ITS brings together researchers and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds and interests, such as camera and projector based systems, new display technologies, multi-touch sensing, user interface technologies, augmented reality, computer vision, multimodal interaction, novel input and sensing technologies, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), and information visualization.

The intimate size of this single-track symposium provides an ideal venue for leading researchers and practitioners to exchange research results and experiences. We encourage submissions on (but not limited to) the following topic areas as they relate to interactive tabletops and surfaces:

* Gesture-based interfaces

* Multi-modal interfaces

* Tangible interfaces

* Novel interaction techniques

* Data handling/exchange on large interactive surfaces

* Data presentation on large interactive surfaces

* Software engineering methods

* Computer supported collaborative work

* Middleware and network support

* Virtual reality and augmented reality

* Social protocols

* Information visualizations

* Hardware, including sensing and input technologies with novel capabilities

* Human-centered design & methodologies

* Applications

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

Conference Co-Chairs

Jun Rekimoto, The University of Tokyo / SonyCSL, Japan

Hideki Koike, University of Electro-Communications, Japan

Kentaro Fukuchi, Meiji University, Japan

Program Co-Chairs

Yoshifumi Kitamura, Tohoku University, Japan

Daniel Wigdor, University of Toronto, Canada

SUBMISSIONS

Papers/Notes: We invite paper submissions of two kinds: Papers (10 pages) and Notes (4 pages). Papers must present original, highly innovative, prospective and forward-looking research, possibly in one or more of the themes given above. Notes must also report novel and complete research, but where the scope and scale of the contribution is more focused and succinct than papers. Submissions must be submitted as a single PDF file in the ACM format through the submission system. A template for submissions can be found on the ITS

website (http://its2011.jp/).

All accepted submissions will be presented at ITS 2011 and appear in the ITS digital proceedings and be archived in the ACM digital library.

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper/Note Submissions: June 30, 2011

Paper/Note Author Notifications: September 2, 2011

Paper/Note Camera-Ready Deadline: October 21, 2011

The calls for the posters, demos, tutorials, workshops and the doctoral symposium will be published soon, please check our website for further information.

RELATED

ITS 2010 Proceedings

ITS 2010 Awards

Best Paper:	Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment by Till Ballendat, Nicolai Marquardt, Saul Greenberg
Best Note:	MudPad: Tactile Feedback and Haptic Texture Overlay for Touch Surfaces by  Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers
Best Poster:	A Multi-Touch Alignment Guide for Interactive Displays by Mathias Frisch, Ricardo Langner, Sebastian Kleinau, Raimund Dachselt
Best Demo:	MudPad - A Tactile Memory Game by Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers

Best Paper:	Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment by Till Ballendat, Nicolai Marquardt, Saul Greenberg
Best Note:	MudPad: Tactile Feedback and Haptic Texture Overlay for Touch Surfaces by Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers
Best Poster:	A Multi-Touch Alignment Guide for Interactive Displays by Mathias Frisch, Ricardo Langner, Sebastian Kleinau, Raimund Dachselt
Best Demo:	MudPad - A Tactile Memory Game by Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers

Who's Who

ITS 2010Conference General Chairs 

Johannes Schöning, DFKI GmbH
Antonio Krüger, DFKI GmbH 

ITS 2010 Organization Committee

Daniel Wigdor, one of the ITS 2011Program Co-chairs, co-authored the following book with Dennis Wixon. The book has not yet been released.
 
Brave NUI World: Designing User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture

Note: This post includes links, please let me know of anything I should correct.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Touch the Web 2011 2nd International Workshop on Web-Enabled Objects

CALL FOR PAPERS: Touch the Web 2011

2nd International Workshop on Web-Enabled Objects

The workshop will be held on June 20-24, 2011 in Paphos, Cyprus, in conjunction with the:

International Conference on Web Engineering (ICWE)(Information about this CFP was taken from the workshop's website: http://www.pros.upv.es/touchtheweb/ )

The vision of the Internet of Things builds upon the use of embedded systems to control devices, tools and appliances. With the addition of novel communications capabilities and identification means such as RFID, systems can now gather information from other sensors, devices and computers on the network, or enable user-oriented customization and operations through short-range communication. When the information gathered by different sensors is shared by means of open Web standards, new services can be defined on top of physical elements. In addition, the new generation of mobile phones enables a true mobile Internet experience. These phones are today’s ubiquitous information access tool, and the physical token of our "Digital Me“. These meshes of things and “Digital Me” will become the basis upon which future smart living, working and production places will be created, delivering services directly where they are needed.

The fundamental questions in this workshop are:

How do we apply the lessons learned in Web Engineering to the Internet of Things?

What kind of Web-based interaction patterns for embedded devices (streaming, eventing, etc.) can we identify?

Applications, deployments, prototypes and evaluations of Web of things systems.

Human-things interaction models and paradigms (mobile interfaces, etc.)

User-oriented, context-aware discovery and dynamic search for the real world.

Compositions of Things and Meshes of Things.

What kind of interfaces, business models and scenarios these smart things will create, address and modify?

How can the services in the surroundings be composed and orchestrated?

The research areas involved are many, including Web Engineering, Ubiquitous Computing, Product Engineering, Distributed Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Economics, Artificial Intelligence, and many more. We look forward in this workshop to bring together different areas of expertise to help us shape a vision of creating living and working surrounded by meshes of web-enabled things.

Workshop format

Expected number of participants is no more than 20, for a full-day workshop. A tentative program (to be adjusted following the number of participants) is organized as follows:

A short (15 min) opening session by the workshop organizers

Two full paper presentation sessions (each session with 3 papers, 20 min presentation each)

Lunch break

One short paper presentation session (up to 6 papers, 5 min presentation each)

Discussion session. A specific agenda to discuss and provide feedback upon will be proposed and the organizers will moderate the discussion.

The last session will be devoted to consolidate and present the results of the discussions. The workshop organizers will write a workshop summary and publish it as part of the workshop proceedings.

Links - Web of Things: Touch the Web 2011; Web Patterns and the EPC Cloud, Windows 8 Rumors, Human Centered Service Design

WEB OF THINGS
Touch the Web 2011
Dominique Guinard|Web of Things|3/21/11


EPC Cloud: Reducing Software Complexity Thanks to Web Patterns
Dominique Guinard|Web of Things|3/8/11

View more presentations from Dominique Guinard.


WINDOWS 8 RUMORS

Windows 8 Beta Collectors Waiting with Bated Breath for a Leak

Mary Jo Foley |All About Microsoft|ZDNET|3/30/11

HUMAN CENTERED SERVICE DESIGN

Service Design Toolkit: A toolkit for the design of public service 

Service Design Toolkit Downloadables

(Via Putting People First)

FYI:  My dog woke me up very early this morning - so I decided to post a few interesting links. I'll share more in-depth posts in the future when I have a bit more time : )