 Christopher Butler Strategy and Resourcing Hi, I'm Chris. I've been working at Newfangled since September, 2004. | Chris Butler's Blog |
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Blackle, the Green Search Engine
July 27, 2007 at 8:00 am by Chris
Wow! Google could save 750 Megawatt-hours each day if it switched from a white background to a black one, according to Blackle, a website that has already taken the initiative to apply a black background to Google's search engine.As far as I can tell, the search results are the same using Blackle and Google. Here are my Blackle results for "web development," and here are my Google results for "web devleopment." At this point, Blackle is limited to web searches only (no image, groups, video, news, or blog specific searching yet). (FYI: The Wall Street Journal disagrees with the 750 Megawatt-hours a day savings assessment. They argue that the savings would come from CRT monitor useage, a technology already on the decline anyway.) UPDATE: 08/09/2007: Read an official Google blog response to the Blackle idea. |
Tags: technology google search
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The Accuracy of the Mean (or on The Wisdom of Crowds)
July 26, 2007 at 8:00 pm by Chris
The general premise of the book is that accuracy tends to increase as the sources of input grows. So, if many individuals are asked to guess, for example, the weight of an ox, the mean of their collective responses will tend to be much more accurate than any single response. The Ox example, by the way, refers to a specific historical anecdote involving Sir Francis Galton, a 19th century proponent of eugenics, who happened upon a local town fair at which many people were asked to guess the weight of an ox. The crowd's collective guess at the ox's weight was 1187 pounds- just 1 pound off from its actual weight of 1188 lbs! While this may not have fully thwarted his ideas of eugenics as they relate to individuals, it suggested something new about collective 'intelligence.'
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Tags: social-media audio books
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The Internet Breathes New Life into Radio!
July 18, 2007 at 9:00 pm by Chris
Many that know me as an Project Manager at Newfangled probably do not know that I actually studied and received my BFA in film-making at RISD. I ended up in that course of study mostly due to my passion for audio recording and experimentation, and a hope that film-making would give me a context to apply that passion in diverse ways. (How I ended up working in web-development is a winding tale indeed, just like the one that explains how I actually began my time at RISD by declaring Painting as my major! What was that all about???)Though my days are not spent working and exploring audio technology, it still remains an interest of mine. In fact, I believe that one of the greatest things to come out of internet technology has been the revitalization of radio as a creative and educational tool. Really, using the word radio at this point is a bit of a misnomer, given that those cool podcasts we listen to are not delivered via radio waves. However, many of them still find a home on the actual radio, so, for now anyway, Radio lives! But, it really is the internet that has made radio an even stronger and popular media format by giving us the ability to access programming that would have been easily out of range when we relied on radio towers to receive it. Case in point: while living in Malaysia, I was still able to 'tune in' daily to one of my favorite NPR programs, On Point. I even called in to the program using Skype! Ah, the glories of technology... Speaking of NPR, while podcasting has created a means for anyone to create audio programming, it seems that public radio groups like NPR, PRI and American Public Media have really taken it to the next level. Some of the programs sponsored by public radio are not only creative, interesting, informative and inspiring, they even take their craft to an art level. This brings me to my hidden agenda in writing this post: I really want to recommend Radio Lab, a weekly show produced by WNYC that creatively explores scientific topics that make for informative and accessible education for anyone at the same time as being an exhilarating feast for the ears. (Did I really write that?) This show is produced with a level of imagination and quality that I haven't experienced in any other audiocast. Recent shows have included 'Mortality,' 'Memory and Forgetting,' 'Zoos,' 'Sleep,' and 'Who am I?' Check this one out- it's too good to miss! |
Tags: audio blogging
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Re-Building Stonehenge: One Man's Attempt
July 18, 2007 at 4:00 pm by ChrisThis video is amazing! How inspiring that an individual can do what many might have assumed could only be done by many. |
Tags: video technology
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