Understanding 2-Way Network Communication

What is 2-way network communication? My answer to that question would sound something like this: it happens to be a near instant connection between 2 network nodes where each node transmits and receives messages. I would hope that my definition is sufficient.

Its pretty clear, though, that my definition is less than ideal for mass consumption. The following video, Universal Orchestra – How it works, introduces the concept masterfully.

The explanation uses vibrant imagery, animation, a clear voice, and, most importantly, an easily relatable example.The resulting video presents a computer science concept in a very accessible way.

The video is part of the Chrome Web Lab, which I recommend visiting. The site presents other videos that masterfully introduce other concepts. At some point, resources on programming will be added, which will reward the more curious. Overall, this project effectively promotes literacy as it relates to computer science. Well done.

Evolution of the Web

Web developer/designer friends and web enthusiasts, take a look at this timeline of the web’s evolution Google and a few other groups put together. The site has been around for a while, and had gone through a couple of iterations.

It feels as if the site was designed to be playful and dynamic. The colors give the site a child-like creativity and evoke a sense of fun while the arrows give off a sense of scale. This approach was also used on the google+ demo page, but I feel the design has been further refined.

Live London Metro Map

This is a pretty cool map. The project can be improved by adding functionality which would allow people to select specific routes and really drill down. The Map is awesome. I would love to build something like for NYC, but, alas, the MTA doesn’t provide the necessary data to make it happen.

Screen shot of a map that shows live metro data.

HTML5 | Canvas Experiment

There’s a lot of excitement about HTML5, and a lot of developers are experimenting with some of the new elements. So there’s a lot of cool stuff out there. I came across the following experiment with the canvas element and it’s pretty impressive.

htm5boom by Sean Christmann

Basically, the author loads a video into the canvas element using the drawImage function. An event handler is also added to the canvas element that, when clicked, breaks the image into smaller bits (sort of like blowing up the image).