Comments for E15 Blog http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:36:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 Comment on E15:YouTube by mud http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=31#comment-283 mud Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:53:30 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=31#comment-283 Hi Jonathan. I just saw the project from a NY Times article on slashdot. The idea of E15 is much broader than image browsing. We know we need to leave the browser, but no one really has the best solution on how to do this. E15 is a tool we developed so that we can experiment with different ways of interacting with web content provided by current web pages and web services. Of course it's nice to see that there is public desires for these new ways of interaction beyond the browser. Hi Jonathan.

I just saw the project from a NY Times article on slashdot. The idea of E15 is much broader than image browsing. We know we need to leave the browser, but no one really has the best solution on how to do this. E15 is a tool we developed so that we can experiment with different ways of interacting with web content provided by current web pages and web services. Of course it’s nice to see that there is public desires for these new ways of interaction beyond the browser.

]]> Comment on E15:YouTube by Jonathan Lin http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=31#comment-282 Jonathan Lin Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:51:32 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=31#comment-282 Have any of you encountered Piclens http://www.cooliris.com/ ? It's a much more basic / non theoretical take on image browsing that has I believe is pretty close to the visual presentation of your tool. It's a cross platform browser plugin. Have any of you encountered Piclens http://www.cooliris.com/ ?

It’s a much more basic / non theoretical take on image browsing that has I believe is pretty close to the visual presentation of your tool. It’s a cross platform browser plugin.

]]> Comment on New look, new features by brent http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-261 brent Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:03:03 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-261 For a (still unfinished) project I've been working on for the past few months, one of the core tenets I've laid down is that people make insights about data via their own manipulation and experimentation, and then they share those insights with others via social connections. Social web systems can facilitate sharing and collaboration. PLW has done a lot of that stuff the past few years. But you need some revolutionary content to make this social exchange worthwhile. Seems like that's what you're going for here. You're building the tools for the manipulation and creation of insights. And instead of pre-canned massaged data sets, you're designing something that chews on dynamic data straight out of the very fabric of the web. Definitely powerful. For a (still unfinished) project I’ve been working on for the past few months, one of the core tenets I’ve laid down is that people make insights about data via their own manipulation and experimentation, and then they share those insights with others via social connections. Social web systems can facilitate sharing and collaboration. PLW has done a lot of that stuff the past few years. But you need some revolutionary content to make this social exchange worthwhile. Seems like that’s what you’re going for here. You’re building the tools for the manipulation and creation of insights. And instead of pre-canned massaged data sets, you’re designing something that chews on dynamic data straight out of the very fabric of the web. Definitely powerful.

]]> Comment on New look, new features by buza http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-259 buza Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:04:07 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-259 The sandboxing problem is something we've thought about, but don't have any current plans to address. Sandboxing prevents things like reading and writing of client files, which I personally find useful in E15. Remember, E15 is a desktop application, not a web application, and not all of the traditional web security problems directly apply. At the highest level, the problem we're addressing is the 2D "page" model of the web. We're providing people with the tools to obtain and manipulate web data in a much more dynamic fashion. With your current setup, can you visually compare four web pages at once? No. Can you procedurally extract select pieces of content from a page or a set of pages and place them in a new context where new relationships can be visualized between them? No. One goal of E15 is to make these types of things easy. We just came back from a talk by David Small who labeled this "browser problem" as one of the three most important issues that needs to be addressed in the future. You're right, the web and it's associated aesthetic clearly won't be going anywhere in the near future. People know how to use it, and they're ok with that experience. Building tools that allow people to grasp and shuffle different types of web data around is an important first step towards a different browser experience. The sandboxing problem is something we’ve thought about, but don’t have any current plans to address. Sandboxing prevents things like reading and writing of client files, which I personally find useful in E15. Remember, E15 is a desktop application, not a web application, and not all of the traditional web security problems directly apply.

At the highest level, the problem we’re addressing is the 2D “page” model of the web. We’re providing people with the tools to obtain and manipulate web data in a much more dynamic fashion. With your current setup, can you visually compare four web pages at once? No. Can you procedurally extract select pieces of content from a page or a set of pages and place them in a new context where new relationships can be visualized between them? No. One goal of E15 is to make these types of things easy. We just came back from a talk by David Small who labeled this “browser problem” as one of the three most important issues that needs to be addressed in the future.

You’re right, the web and it’s associated aesthetic clearly won’t be going anywhere in the near future. People know how to use it, and they’re ok with that experience. Building tools that allow people to grasp and shuffle different types of web data around is an important first step towards a different browser experience.

]]> Comment on New look, new features by brent http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-258 brent Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:08:47 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-258 Yeah, I also ran into this stuff with Promiserver. There were some documented ways to approach this with Ruby, but none of them were ideal. Funny these recurring issues within the same research group. Also, if you don't mind me challenging a bit of this, I don't quite grok this "do what they want" versus "do what they have to" distinction. I recall seeing a similar message from you guys in other materials, so it seems like a core assertion of the project. But what is the exact problem now that his solves? I don't feel like my current web experience is impoverished simply because I can't script it or view it in 3D. So I don't doubt that there is something new here, but I'd like to see some of these assertions drawn out into solid arguments. Yeah, I also ran into this stuff with Promiserver. There were some documented ways to approach this with Ruby, but none of them were ideal. Funny these recurring issues within the same research group.

Also, if you don’t mind me challenging a bit of this, I don’t quite grok this “do what they want” versus “do what they have to” distinction. I recall seeing a similar message from you guys in other materials, so it seems like a core assertion of the project. But what is the exact problem now that his solves? I don’t feel like my current web experience is impoverished simply because I can’t script it or view it in 3D. So I don’t doubt that there is something new here, but I’d like to see some of these assertions drawn out into solid arguments.

]]> Comment on New look, new features by rocha http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-255 rocha Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:25:04 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=27#comment-255 Great idea! One question: are you guys sandboxing the python code? I ran into a similar problem a while ago, where it was possible to run evil python code. I ended up using PyPy, but I am not sure if that will fit your specifications. Let me know if you found a better solution. Thanks! Great idea! One question: are you guys sandboxing the python code? I ran into a similar problem a while ago, where it was possible to run evil python code. I ended up using PyPy, but I am not sure if that will fit your specifications. Let me know if you found a better solution. Thanks!

]]> Comment on Scripting by buza http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=22#comment-88 buza Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:05:16 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=22#comment-88 One goal of E15 is to be able to use it as an information visualization engine for web-accessible content. Clearly, being able to "filter and move" is an important feature to collect relevant results. Currently, nearly everything can be done through Python, as it basically serves as an interface to the E15 "kernel". So, once filtered, we could write a few lines of Python code to save those results to a file, or in a data structure to be loaded in another portion of the E15 environment. We are currently thinking of ways to avoid having to always go down to the Python level to do these sorts of interactions, however. A release is coming, once we get our thesis proposals in gear... One goal of E15 is to be able to use it as an information visualization engine for web-accessible content. Clearly, being able to “filter and move” is an important feature to collect relevant results. Currently, nearly everything can be done through Python, as it basically serves as an interface to the E15 “kernel”. So, once filtered, we could write a few lines of Python code to save those results to a file, or in a data structure to be loaded in another portion of the E15 environment. We are currently thinking of ways to avoid having to always go down to the Python level to do these sorts of interactions, however.

A release is coming, once we get our thesis proposals in gear…

]]> Comment on Scripting by brent http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=22#comment-87 brent Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:45:35 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=22#comment-87 The scripting and filtering are hot. How do I interact with the results? When I find pages that are interesting to me, is there any way I can put them aside into a set? Looking forward to a release I can play with... The scripting and filtering are hot. How do I interact with the results? When I find pages that are interesting to me, is there any way I can put them aside into a set?

Looking forward to a release I can play with…

]]> Comment on Type and Mipmaps by mud http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=13#comment-18 mud Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:23:26 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=13#comment-18 The text is German, since I took some words out of Müller-Brockmann's Grid Systems. German words work well for type specimen because they have many words with lots of characters. It also uses accented characters. I should make a Japanese specimen to show support for two-byte characters. None of us are German. I'm Canadian, Luis is Mexican and Kyle and Kate are American. But we do like Germans! The text is German, since I took some words out of Müller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems. German words work well for type specimen because they have many words with lots of characters. It also uses accented characters.

I should make a Japanese specimen to show support for two-byte characters.

None of us are German. I’m Canadian, Luis is Mexican and Kyle and Kate are American. But we do like Germans!

]]> Comment on Type and Mipmaps by Uwe http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=13#comment-17 Uwe Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:27:35 +0000 http://e15.media.mit.edu/blog/?p=13#comment-17 I wonder why you chose German text in your examples. Is E15 driven by German students? I wonder why you chose German text in your examples. Is E15 driven by German students?

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