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John Woram | 1 Dec 2005 15:04

Re: InfoD-Cafe: JPEG2000 format

Deborah,  Stephen Boyd et al,

After chatting with Deborah on the MapHist list, I joined this list, 
and tried opening her files -- and my own. Using her first file 
(183.7 KB, compressed in PS using Lead Technologies JP2 plug-in), 
here's what I find on my Power Mac G5, running OS X 10.4.3:

Opera: Not tested here.

Firefox 1.0.6 gives me the option to open the file in Preview. No 
other options are given. But then the file opens in Safari (not in 
Preview) and uses the ExpressView viewer to display the image.

IE 5.2.3: Same as Stephen: opens as text garbage in the browser window.

Safari 1.3.1: Stephen reported ii opened smoothly in the browser 
window without dialog. No problems. I'm using Safari 2.0.2 (416.13). 
File opens briefly, then Safari crashes and exits, and a "The 
application Safari quit suddenly" message is displayed. However, if I 
double-click a JP2 file previously saved to the desktop, the file 
opens properly in Safari, using the ExpressView viewer.

So far, the *only* combo that works properly at all times is on my 
PC, running Windows XP SP2, with the ExpressView viewer. In every 
case, ALL JP2 files open immediately, the zoom and positioning tools 
work properly, and no intervening download windows are displayed. If 
there's a way to get similar performance out of a Mac, so far I 
haven't found it.

John Woram
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Deborah Taylor-Pearce | 1 Dec 2005 21:08
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InfoD-Cafe: Welcome, John!

All,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to John Woram (of the
MapHist list) who I just learned has finally joined the Café.

He and I have been discussing Web site design (and related
technical matters) for a while now on the MapHist list,
which has a limited tolerance for such talk.

So I invited him to join this discussion list, and am very
happy to discover that he now has.

John brings a fresh, outsider's perspective on ID, along
with a good dose of practical wisdom that will be
appreciated here, I'm quite sure.

For those who would like more of an introduction, John runs
a great Web site on the Galápagos:

<http://www.galapagos.to/>

(and small tours, too ;-).

And from now on, I'll let him speak for himself ...

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
dtp <at> she-philosopher.com
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Randal | 1 Dec 2005 21:46
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InfoD-Cafe: Mapping Widgets

For those interesting in online mapping solutions, I just found that there is a mapping widgets solution
for Drupal now:

http://drupal.org/node/24727

Drupal is one of the most popular open source content management frameworks. 

More on mappingwidgets:
http://mappingwidgets.sourceforge.net/

Demonstration:
http://mappingwidgets.sourceforge.net/demo/wmsclient

-- Randal
___________________________________________________________________

Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: 
 infodesign-cafe <at> list.informationdesign.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit:
 http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe

For all Information Design matters:
 http://InformationDesign.org

Problems? Write to:
 InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin <at> list.InformationDesign.org
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John Woram | 1 Dec 2005 22:19

Re: InfoD-Cafe: Welcome, John!

Deborah,

Thanks for the nice welcome mat, and the mention of my website--to 
say nothing of the tours. Now all I need to do is figure out a way to 
sneak ID into ID (Intelligent Design into Info Design) and I'll be all set ;-).

John Woram

___________________________________________________________________

Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: 
 infodesign-cafe <at> list.informationdesign.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit:
 http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe

For all Information Design matters:
 http://InformationDesign.org

Problems? Write to:
 InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin <at> list.InformationDesign.org
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Deborah Taylor-Pearce | 6 Dec 2005 20:17
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: JPEG2000 format

Café,

I've run some more JPEG-2000 experiments, and posted them to
my Web site at

<http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/technical/graphicsS1.html>.

This time, I tested compression of a high-resolution file
(original TIFF sized at 131.18MB).

With JPEG-2000, I got my high-res image of the Velasco Map
down to a very respectable 2.62MB, but of course, that's not
the end of the story....

;-)

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
dtp <at> she-philosopher.com

___________________________________________________________________

Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: 
 infodesign-cafe <at> list.informationdesign.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit:
 http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe
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Deborah Taylor-Pearce | 9 Dec 2005 21:04
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: Mapping Widgets

Randal et al.,

> Demonstration:
> http://mappingwidgets.sourceforge.net/demo/wmsclient

Am I the only one who encountered problems with this?

I think my slow dial-up connection is at the root of my
difficulties, but I also think the interface design needs
work....

For those of us who confront huge delays after even the
simplest interaction (like drawing a rectangle around the
area to be zoomed in on), some sort of feedback is needed
... a little hour-glass graphic or whatever ... but
something to at least let you know that the system's responding.

Otherwise, you have no idea what's going on, and figure that
the tools aren't working, or at least don't work the way you
thought they would.

I also find the toolbar unintuitive (e.g., the icons for
back and forward bring up previous views, not necessarily
your last action). And I can't figure out when I'm supposed
to be doing things (like zoom) on the overview map to the
left vs. the larger map to the right. There's some sort of
(redundant?) relationship between the two, but I'm not sure
exactly what, since both views appear to be active.

And, when I turned to the online manual for help, I didn't
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Conrad Taylor | 20 Dec 2005 17:46
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InfoD-Cafe: Season's greetings, and some nice software at no cost

Sorry I can't send all you Cafe subscribers a Christmas present,
but how about having your attention drawn to a lovely piece of
free software instead?

"Express Scribe" does a great deal to speed up transcription
from audio files.  That might be useful for conference recordings,
or usability studies with think-aloud protocols, or what have you.
It's available for Macintosh OSX and Windows, and it is free.

The software provides a work area into which you drag audio files
from which you want to transcribe; such as an MP3, for example.

At the bottom of the window is an area into which you can type,
and transport control buttons to stop and start and "rewind"
the recordings.  But that's really not the best way to use the
software.

It's better to use the Preferences panel of the software to
set up system-wide control-key combinations, which will work
to control Scribe playback from *whatever* application you
are currently working in.  That means that you can run Scribe
in the background while you write in your word-processor in
the foreground.

And when you do set up these key combinations, you have access
to some very nifty special features, such as making the playhead
jump back five seconds to listen again to that bit you didn't
quite get the first time round, and changing the speed of the
playback.
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Conrad Taylor | 30 Dec 2005 23:53
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InfoD-Cafe: IDJ+DD: views?

A bit early, but...   Happy new year!

Is there anyone out there who is still a subscriber to,
or a regular reader of, "Information Design Journal +
Design Journal" ?

(Background:  The right to publish IDJ was sold a few years ago
to Benjamins: publishers in Amsterdam.  After two years, Benjamins
merged IDJ with their highly theoretical journal "Document Design",
edited in the Netherlands, which focuses on issues on discourse
analysis, etc.  There is a concern among some Information Desigers
that the combined journal IDJ+DD is dominated by theoretical
[and mostly Dutch] academics, without much practical application
to everyday Information Design work.)

I have been retained by Benjamins to do copy-editing and
proof-correction work for IDJ+DD, which I have done for two
years now as diligently as I can.  (If I had not, you would
have been reading "Double Dutch" in IDJ+DD!)

I am very concerned that the articles I am being asked to
review and correct these days for IDJ+DD  are of very low
quality, highly academic, of trivial relevance to practical
Information Designers, and more designed to raise the status
of the Dutch universities where the current editors work than
any other purpose.

Am I wrong, or is this perceived the same way by others?
Any ideas about what to do about IDJ+DD's descent into
near-total irrelevance?
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Karel van der Waarde | 31 Dec 2005 09:35
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Re: InfoD-Cafe: IDJ+DD: some thoughts?

Dear Conrad,

Thanks for your message: I think you raise a very relevant issue 
which is close to my interests. [competing interest declaration: I 
edited - together with Piet Westendorp - Information Design Journal 
for 2 volumes before its merger with Document Design.]

Conrad asks about the relevance of IDJ+DD for readers. Three points: 
Interest?, Relevance?, Publishing?

1) Interest
I am fairly sure that there is an interest in information about 
'information design'. About 50 establishments teach it as a core 
topic on all levels (BA, MA, PHD); About 50 conferences per year have 
part of the conference dedicated to Information design, and there are 
many websites dedicated to Information design. For example:
- http://www.informationdesign.org
- http://journal.aiga.org/content.cfm?Alias=clear
- http://www.infodesign.org.br/ingles/home.html
Commercial practice in information design seems to divide itself in 
'application fields' or 'specialisms'. Examples are: 'signage 
systems', 'public transport information', 'museum design', 'health 
information', 'financial information', and so on. In each of these 
areas, many more courses, conferences and journals are available and 
many more practitioners work.

2) Relevance?
'Relevance of information' seems to have a time factor. Some 
information is relevant for short term (day, week, month), other 
information is relevant for medium term (6 months - 3 years), and
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Gmane