Listening is believing.

tech blog

A weblog by Ovi Demetrian Jr that puts the state of technology into a real-world perspective.

South by Southwest Interactive 2010 Notes

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:30:45 +0000 - They may not be as creative as all the sketch-based notes out there, but here’s what I got out of some of the South By Southwest Interactive panels I went to this year: Sketching: Mood boarding for getting a good sense of the style Concept sketching for early stage visualizing of various pieces Process: Design, research, design, build Storyboard lifecycles [...]

Tech trends shaping habits and social interaction

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:12:51 +0000 - Two kinds of technologies have in recent months changed my daily habits and how I interact with people: web-based apps and smartphones. Let’s start with web-based apps. For email I’ve been using Gmail for over three years now and is in my opinion the best email app around, web-based or desktop-based. For keeping track of appointments [...]

On Web Standards and rounded corners

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:06:55 +0000 - I think I agree with this article written ten years ago when the web was still in its infancy. While general web practices make sense, the need for having formal standards seems unnecessary. Website-building technologies have in a lot of ways standardized themselves because of individual developers deciding what is appropriate to use. Looking at the reasons [...]

Farewell Windows Mobile, hello Android

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:33:48 +0000 - My two-year contract expired in May, which means I’m looking for a new phone. I’ve decided on a Google Android-based phone from my current Motorola Q with Windows Mobile. I wasn’t thrilled about Android’s version one release and now version two is coming out which is a lot better software-wise, I’m just not sure about [...]

Change is in the air

Sun, 31 May 2009 23:25:26 +0000 - In recent years, there has been an essence of ongoing change leading to some big changes. The internet is perhaps the biggest factor, if not the primary factor of this as it has been changing entire industries and affecting our lives more than ever before. And based on this and other factors, everyone seems to [...]

Evolution of storytelling and technology

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:17:06 +0000 - Since the beginning of humanity, storytelling and our ability to learn is what has set us apart from other species. It almost seems that our interest in stories is in our genes and is what makes our brain work the way it does. I really don’t know if that’s the case, but for the sake [...]

The self-evolving website

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:47:42 +0000 -   An idea I’ve been thinking about for a while now is self-evolving web design. The self-evolving website would be a combination between having dynamic database-driven content and something similar to smartphone technology where the presentation of content changes based on specific user interaction. It’s difficult to really describe at this point, so I figured I [...]

Online photo sharing done right

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:00:49 +0000 - For the last few years I’ve just been keeping folders of my digital photos on an external harddrive. At the same time I’ve kept my eyes open for good photo organizing software to use, but there was always a key component that they all seemed to be missing: a simple way to share photos with [...]

New Xbox Experience (NXE) interface

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:49:49 +0000 - Three years after the Xbox 360’s release comes a new version of the Xbox… software. In a similar move to the Zune, Microsoft has decided to focus on software upgrades for improving their current hardware. While some would say the new interface overhaul was unecessary, after actually using it for a while, besides being prettier, it starts [...]

Why Windows 7 should be a free upgrade to Vista users

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:54:30 +0000 - Details have been coming out about the next version of Windows, to be called Windows 7. Vista hasn’t gotten very good praise since it came out. Even though I’m a Vista user and do like it overall, it seems like Windows 7 is basically designed to make critics of Vista happy. And to make it [...]