HP Labs research reveals impact of ‘social influence’ on decision-making

 Technology  No Responses »
Sep 162011
 

New research from HP Labs reveals how ’social influence’ can affect decision-making, particularly purchase decisions.  Here are the key findings:

  1. Our choices (i.e. purchase behavior) can be reversed when we’re exposed to the recommendations of others. In a surprising twist, though, we’re more likely to change our minds when fewer, not more, people disagree with us.
  2. The influence is stronger when people are required to make their second decision sometime later, rather than immediately.
  3. Finally, the time people spend making the first decision significantly predicts whether they will reverse their decisions later on, while demographics such as age and gender do not.

The full report is available for viewing and download here. You can also find out more at this blog post on HP Data Central here.

Social Engineering anyone?

Initial Google+ API made public – Only public data available for consumption

 Development, Technology, Web Development  No Responses »
Sep 162011
 

Google+ API is finally public for developers to build applications around Google+. This initial Google+ API release is focused on public data only — it lets you read information that people have shared publicly on Google+. Right now there are only 4 APIs available for public use:

  • people.get which will get the public profile of the user id
  • activities.list which will list the public activities (or posts) of the user id
  • activities.get to retrieve back a specific public activity
  • OAuth 2.0 to authorize you app to a logged in Google+ user.

Pretty primitive at the moment, but I can’t wait to see what kind of applications will come out of this.

Check out the new Google+ developers site, the place to go for policies, terms, discussions with other developers, access to documentation, tools that make development on the Google+ platform easier and more fun, and of course, the place where announcements concerning new releases will be made.

Singapore’s First iPhone Film Festival on 26th December, Calling for Submissions now

 Technology  No Responses »
Sep 162011
 

Did you know that there’s going to be an iPhone Film Festival held in Singapore? Are you an avid iPhone videographer? This is the right place for you. Now you can showcase your iPhone video works at the Singapore’s First iPhone Film Festival. Right now it’s entry submissions and here are the rules:

  1. The film must be shot 100% with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to be eligible for a prize.
  2. The film must be less than 180 secs.
  3. No excessive nudity or excessive profanity will be allowed. Nudity of upper body can not exceed 4 seconds and no more than 4 profane words in a film.
  4. You cannot use copy written material unless you have a written permission to do so.
  5. You can use multiple iPhone and iPod Touch for your film.
  6. You can use any software to edit video and audio.
  7. You can use any software for color correction or special effects.
  8. You can use external  microphone, wide angle lens, lighting, tripod, etc.

Note the submission deadline for the 2011 Singapore’s iPhone Film Festival is December 1st, 2011. The results will be out by 15th of December 2011 and the screening will be 26th of December 2011.

Go to http://www.iphoneff.sg/ for more information.

Catch me on 938Live Raw & Ready Friday 16th 7pm to 8pm

 Personal  No Responses »
Sep 162011
 

I’ll be on 938Live today on the radio talk show Raw & Ready airing at 7pm to 8pm. Catch Ruiwen, Luther, and myself live on the show talking about the most geekiest things ever. Various topics from Squarecrumbs, to Tech65, not forgetting Hackerspace.SG, will be discussed on this 1 hour show.

You can listen to 938Live Raw & Ready online too at http://entertainment.xin.msn.com/en/radio/938live/raw-and-ready.aspx.