Zach Klein

Temporary Move

2007-11-19T11:28:00.000-05:00

I'm blogging over at secretenemyhideout.com, my stealth domain, while I design a new format for this site.

Apes & Androids announce their new album BLOOD MOON

2007-11-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

One new track called Golden Prize is available for free download.

I’ll Tumble 4 Ya

2007-11-06T12:20:00.000-05:00

I was remiss not to add my thoughts to Ricky's post about Tumblr yesterday:

Tumbling reminds of when I was in 7th grade and dated a girl at another school. We only saw each other on the weekends, but we spent every weeknight on the phone for at least 3 hours. We didn't say much -- we just watched TV apart, often the same channel, and would repeat funny parts to each other.

I subscribe to 25 tumbles, and of those friends, I've only seen 7 in the past month. There are many unique reasons why I haven't met with any particular one of them, but that's an accessory to my lament: passive relationships aren't fulfilling but that's all we seem to have time for.

Tumblr is thrilling because it's dispelled the maintenance guilt associated with blogs and relationships, usually manifested by apologies like Sorry I haven't posted/called in awhile -- been busy. Instead, we're seeing the opposite. Users are rabidly posting and proselytizing and keeping tabs on each other. I'm seeing people post 10 items a day who only a month ago had never blogged before.

What I boiled out of Ricky's editorial is that Tumblr is a useful and addictice service with an occasional side-affect of overusage and repeating, meaning that we're sharing bundles with each other, but we're not saying much. I agree that it's happening and that it's underwhelming in an overwhelming way, but most importanly it isn't sustainable and will evolve. It's a great service because it allows us busy folk to post lots of content quickly -- but it begs the question: When do we have the time digest each other's output?

It's only a matter of time before this disparity balances and we find a sensible way to include Tumbling and Twittering in our lives, in a way that promotes active relationships and distribution of creative thought. Here's room for invention -- we must make useful meaning of all these feeds! Otherwise, it's possible that might we devolve to the point where we're all just sitting in front of monitors watching each other, caught in a mindless feedback loop, staring and creating nothing at all.

If anything is certain, Tumblr is a superior publishing tool that will trump the current jokers as the blogging platform of choice. If it's any indication, I'm tumbling while I decide whether or not to switch to their backend after 7 loyal years with Blogger.

Tumblr? Don't Bothr: The Case Against Hyperblogging

2007-11-05T09:52:00.000-05:00

Ricky Van Veen:

Words have relative values. Someone who talks a lot has less value to their words than someone who rarely speaks. But when that quiet person speaks, people listen. When you publish 20 posts a day, your individual posts lose value. And when you finally do have something to say, it gets lost among the clutter. Your signal to noise ratio is too low.

I'm hiring.

2007-11-02T21:52:00.000-04:00

SEEKING FREELANCE DEVELOPERS ANYWHERE. I'm interested if you have any combination of experience with Ruby, PHP, ActionScript, and especially SMS gateways. No need to send resumes -- just tell me about yourself and include descriptions of your responsibilities with previous projects.

Email zklein@gmail.com

!!!

2007-11-01T14:10:00.000-04:00

Saul Williams's collaboration with Trent Reznor is available for free download.

Also, there's a related interview in New York Magazine.

Halloween 2007

2007-10-29T09:06:00.000-04:00

I dressed as a shark attack.

2007-10-25T21:54:00.000-04:00

Perfect surf hits the Golden State as wildfires rage on... COOL SURFING PICS

Listening to Bon Iver

2007-10-24T19:16:00.000-04:00

I'm crushing hard on Bon Iver's album For Emma, Forever Ago.

Download Skinny Love.mp3

via Rubin.

New glasses. $7 frames on eBay + $45 lenses

2007-10-24T18:03:00.000-04:00

2007-10-24T16:48:00.000-04:00

Microsoft Inks Deal with Facebook - WSJ.com: "Microsoft Corp. agreed to invest $240 million for a minority stake in Facebook Inc. that values the social-networking site at $15 billion, beating Google Inc. in a closely watched contest."

jetBlue wants to fly to Colombia

2007-10-23T19:01:00.000-04:00

I'm excited by their announcement to fly daily between Fort Lauderdale and Bogotá, potentially making them the first low-cost American airline to fly to South America. What's especially interesting is that they selected Colombia as their first destination. I doubt they'll market the route to mainstream customers but leverage the 140,000 Colombian-Americans living in South Florida to break their way into the Latin American market. But, either way, this is good news for the adventurous traveler.

I visited Colombia this past summer and realized it's an incredible country despite popular mischaracterization here. Given America's appetite for cocaine, Colombia's drug industry is still very much alive and well, but it's mostly contained to the wilderness in the southern part of the country -- although tropical, it's the equivalent to the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve here. In Bogotá, however, I experienced a modern and culturally unique city with a population the size of New York living at an elevation of ~8000ft, more than 50% higher than Denver. Its geography is majestic and its people are handsome, the wealthier classes clad in jackets and leather shoes during it's year-round autumn climate. Vast, however, are its poor neighborhoods and slums. Drug trafficking has stigmatized the country and continues to hamper overall economic development as it distracts foreign investment.

Most people are relieved to hear that I always felt safe. The only reminder of danger came as the hotel valet swept cabs with a mirror attached to end of a pole, scanning the undercarriage for bombs. It was cursory and seemed more like a formality to comfort foreign visitors. Also, most street corners were occupied by baby-faced soldiers wielding rifles, which was reminiscent of National Guard units standing idly in airport terminals after 9/11.

Bottomline, the place is beautiful, secure and practically tourist-free. You should visit while it's still affordable.

2007-10-23T11:48:00.000-04:00

That place is so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.
- Yogi Berra

To my teenage entrepreneurial readers...

2007-10-23T00:25:00.000-04:00

Are you looking to make some extra cash this month? I recommend the following business model:

Go door to door around your neighborhood and offer Halloween Insurance for $20. This covers cleanup for pumpkin smashing, egg throwing, and teepeeing, etc. If a neighbor declines, add them to the list of pumpkins to smash, and rest assured that they'll pay up next year.

Sure fire way to make $$$$$!

You're welcome,
Zach Klein

Culture Shock

2007-10-20T09:47:00.000-04:00

And this town's officials wonder why there's a brain drain, a depletion of their creative class ...

Fort Wayne republican mayoral candidate Matt Kelty is running this homophobic radio ad against his democrat opponent Tom Henry who supports gay rights.

Duh.

Visiting Indiana ...

2007-10-18T22:27:00.001-04:00

2007-10-11T18:48:00.000-04:00

HD transcoding and my new design for the video page launched on Vimeo today. There's still a couple of things I made before I left waiting to be released. Thankfully, the team is crushing through the queue.

Jakob posted a related entry on the Vimeo dev blog.

Update: TechCrunch calls Vimeo the best-designed video site.

Condense fact from the vapor of nuance

2007-10-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

In Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, the character Juanita explains her first interaction design epiphany:

"When I was fifteen years old, I missed a period. My boyfriend and I were using a diaphragm, but I knew it was fallible. I was good at math, I had the failure rate memorized, burnt into my subconscious. Or maybe it was my conscious, I can never keep them straight. Anyway, I was terrified. Our family dog started treating me differently-supposedly, they can smell a pregnant woman. Or a pregnant bitch, for that matter."

...

"My mother was clueless. My boyfriend was worse than clue-less -- in fact, I ditched him on the spot, because it made me realize what an alien the guy was -- like many members of your species." By this, she was referring to males. "Anyway, my grandmother came to visit," she continued, glancing back over her shoulder at the painting. "I avoided her until we all sat down for dinner. And then she figured out the whole situation in, maybe, ten minutes, just by watching my face across the dinner table. I didn't say more than ten words -- 'Pass the tortillas.' I don't know how my face conveyed that information, or what kind of internal wiring in my grandmother's mind enabled her to accomplish this incredible feat. To condense fact from the vapor of nuance."

...

She continued. "I didn't even really appreciate all of this until about ten years later, as a grad student, trying to build a user interface that would convey a lot of data very quickly, for one of these baby-killer grants." This was her term for anything related to the Defense Department. "I was coming up with all kinds of elaborate technical fixes like trying to implant electrodes directly into the brain. Then I remembered my grandmother and realized, my God, the human mind can absorb and process an incredible amount of information -- if it comes in the right format. The right interface. If you put the right face on it.

2007-10-09T00:21:00.000-04:00

NY Times delivery in India

2007-10-08T22:46:00.000-04:00

Courtney is staying at the Taj Hotel in New Delhi. They slip a printout of the nytimes.com frontpage under her door each morning. They're want her to feel at home.

PS. This is a screenshot of Skype Video. We haven't talked since she arrived there 3 days ago and today we spent a couple hours catching up. Some of the time, we weren't even chatting with each other, just doing our own thing on our own end. The quality was true enough that it felt like being in the same room with her. We spent time with each other today.

The British equivalent of 'Copy and Taste'

2007-10-08T16:21:00.000-04:00

via Nico.

They've got nothing on us.

2007-10-07T18:00:00.000-04:00

Michael Townsend secretly created an apartment in an abandoned area of a mall parking garage. He 'lived' there four years before being caught this week.

Notes on traveling to India

2007-10-02T09:32:00.000-04:00

My girlfriend Courtney is leaving for Delhi, India on business this week. It's her first visit there. Nick Gray, having just returned from Mumbai, sent her the following advice, which I think is great:

Pack like a normal trip to a big city.

Dress as you usually do, but lean to the right (conservative). I felt comfortable in slacks and a button-down, long sleeve Oxford every day.

"Dhost" means FRIEND (rhymes with toast). "Merry dhost" means MY FRIEND.

You don't need to get any immunizations or malaria medicine, but you could take two Pepto Bizmol capsules starting on Thursday night and continue them while you are there. Your output will be black, but it gives your stomach a little protective lining in case anything bad goes down.

Sandals! Everybody in Mumbai wore sandals, even when it was raining. All Indian people seem to like sandals.

A simple gift would be some SOUR SWEETS. Indian people almost universally love sour sweets. I am talking like Sour Patch Kids, lemon drops, Mega Warheads, etc. I brought about 3 lbs of sour sweets and my host families LOVED them.

Indian people stare. A lot. It's friendly and curious.

If you take the time to learn even a few words in Hindi, people will give you MAD respect.

"Ha" means YES; "Nay" means NO.

"Bod-meh meh-len-gay" means SEE YOU LATER. Have Zach call me if you need help with pronunciation.

Awkward silences are not awkward.

Things can take forever. Most business doesn't start until 10am. Many people might stay in the office until 7pm, and dinner could be as late as 9 or 10pm.

Indian people are really smart and savvy.

I would avoid sarcasm; my jokes were rarely understood.

Everyone you interact with will speak fluent British English. Enunciate your words, and don't talk too fast unless you are sure that you are being understood.

Orkut is the most popular social networking site in India, but Facebook is gaining fast.

"Gulab jamoon" is a typical Delhi sweet. It looks like a soft, maroon golf ball and it might be served in a bowl of sugary water. It is delicious and safe.

A paratha (pa-rah-ta) is like a multi-layered tortilla. A chapati is like a wheat tortilla. Both of these are good alternatives to naan bread.

To avoid getting ripped off, take someone from the Hindustan office with you if you go out shopping.

Go to the Taj Mahal if possible. I did it in one full day - 6am to 6pm. If you don't have enough time to go to Agra (city where the Tajis), then you MUST go to the Lotus Temple in downtown Delhi. It is a very chill space.

You will almost definitely have a car and driver, so it is likely that you may never encounter beggars. But DO NOT give money to any beggars.

If you want to give money, then give it to a temple or donate to a charity. Tell beggars to go away ("Chellay jow!"); don't be afraid to be forceful. A lot of the beggars work for gang-lords.

India is the safest country that I have ever been to. In over five months there, I have never once had anything stolen or felt threatened. The people are VERY curious and VERY nice.

Easy iCal event creation

2007-09-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

I've been looking for an easier way to make iCal events, without having to open iCal (eg. I'm checking Animal Collective's website and see they're playing NYC on 9/30 at Webster Hall -- I want to add to my calendar). With text2cal, I can highlight any text any where and it will parse an event and automatically add to iCal -- and it's smart enough to know that tomorrow means today's date+1.

Now, looking for a good way to share iCals without having to pay for iLife.

I'm from Indiana and I made this shirt so that people know it.

2007-09-24T13:42:00.000-04:00

Indiana is a brand whose identity I want to improve.

Soon, I'll have made enough to sell to you other Hoosiers.