:: tangent ::

Dick on Iraq

2007-08-13T16:53:00.000-04:00

Note the date in the upper right corner. via BoingBoing.

Thoughts on WWDC Keynote (2007)

2007-06-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

So, now, that I've had time to digest some of the WWDC Keynote address, here are my thoughts:

1) Cover View - This iTunes-initiated interface is getting out of hand. It's on Apple's redesigned web site, it's now a view option in Leopard's Finder. It's on iPhone.

I just don't think it's very effective for a large amount of stuff. It's nice in iTunes, as you see the album covers, and it harkens back to a time of flipping through LPs…but for the Finder? No way. Give me a list of files and their content and I'll be happy. A better way to improve Finder navigation would simply make column view default to always show full filenames (instead of truncating them). People need better ways to find their stuff (like Spotlight, not another way to view icons).

2) Safari on Windows & Ver. 3 - Hooray for re-arrangable tabs! Finally!

People are bitchin' about restarting upon installation. Doesn't bother me too much. I'm sure the newer versions won't have that.

The fact that it is available for Windows is so smart and so huge. iTunes is on everyone's PC, and it's ease of use has piqued people's interest in Macs and OS X. It does open up an interesting question of how these two operating systems (Windows and Mac) are starting to come closer together and are we beginning to see the end of true differentiation between platforms.

3) New dock - Eh. Not sure how cool it is. Kind of weird to see it recess into space, although it seems to be working towards the feel of Time Machine. I just don't think I need to see more reflections in design. Our Web 2.0 obsession with the properties of glass has jumped the shark, I hope.

4) New menu bar - Oh, we're just realizing that people put their own pictures on their desktop? And now we're going to make the menu bar semi-transparent so you can see 10 pixels more of a photo. I don't think so. This reeks of degrading functionality and seems unnecessary. Hopefully, it'll be an option we can turn off.

5) Stacks - Like tabbed browsing in iChat, this seemed a long time in coming. My biggest question is why are these opened stacks leaning like the tower of pisa? Is it just me or is there some funky reasoning behind this windblown effect?

6) iChat - Looks awesome. Tabbed chats, finally! Love the presentation feature. It makes it much more appropriate for business use. The changing backgrounds thing is weird, and I can foresee more pornographic uses for this than actual functional uses. Plus, I don't know how many times the holographic version of me can bee seen before getting old and just weird.

7) Time Machine - Sounds great, but seems like it will be less easy to use than Jobs has been boasting. First, you need a massive hard drive to keep backed up with all your home computers stuff. Second, if you're going to do this wirelessly-even with the new 'n' protocol-it seems like it will take a much longer than demonstrated.

Ultimately a good first step, but I don't think most people will have the resources needed out of the box. Plus, am I the only one who feels like the whole swirling space time-contiuom feel is a bit to treky for my liking?

8) Quick Look - Seems like a great answer to a common frustration. Opening the wrong file, and waiting for an application to load is always a tad frustrating. So, if this can help that's great. I don't think I'll be using it a lot, and I actually think there are some big problems with it.

I think people are going to open files via Quick Look and then want to edit them. I don't think people will understand that it's a "quick look." I see it's use in driving the iChat functionality, but I'm afraid most everyday users will misunderstand the purpose and find it frustrating.

Plus it seems like the biggest pain is having developers add the quick view functionality to their files. I can Quick Look this file, but not this one? Seems like something's not working right, then. How much bigger are these files with a high quality preview in Quick Look? How much resources does it take up to use it? Is it a RAM hog like Dashboard?

Plus, for some apps, what's the difference between Quick Look and the app? For example: Quicktime and Preview. If I can play a quicktime file via Quick Look and make it full screen, then why do I have an app for Quicktime? Same with Quick Looking PDFs. What's the point of having the Preview app?

9) iPhone apps - This seems like a joke. I'm no developer, but if you wanted to show me how developing an app on the iPhone is cool, you could give me something better than a directory. Doesn't this thing already have an address book? Don't I already have a sense of what that looks like? Didn't you just do the same thing with an LDAP on the back end?

This is the coolest extension of the iPhone's capabilities that I have seen: a shopping list application called OneTrip.

10) .Mac stuff - "Back to my Mac" is fantastic, and really nice the way the IP integration works behind the scenes. My biggest question is will it work when the computer I want to access is asleep?

11) Boot Camp - Parallels is way better. I don't know why you just wouldn't use that.

Overall, I'm not too excited about Leopard yet. Tabbed iChat browsing and the Safari features are honestly all I'd want right now. Tiger is so nice, and these newer features seem like they will really need some solid user time to work out their functionality.

Lastly, does anyone know for sure if Leopard will be a Universal app?

Has Google become a modern, technological paparazzi?

2007-06-03T09:56:00.000-04:00

Apparently, some folks are up in arms about Google Map's new "Street View" feature. The interesting thing to me, is not that people are being caught picking their nose or entering a strip club, but that people are reacting the same way celebrities do to paparazzi.

Of course, the big difference here, is that Google's cameras are not seeking to photograph people intentionally, nor in non-public view. What people don't realize is that you can rightfully be photographed any time you go into public.

In some places this is not a concern (mostly where you can't be easily identified as you, i.e. crowded places like train stations or busy city streets or huge riots :-) But when someone takes a photograph of us fixing ourselves when we thought the coast was clear…that is suddenly outrageous.

The outrage does not derive from Google, but instead the fact that Google is an Internet company and these images have a good chance of being seen by many a set of eyes. Think of all the photos you have where someone in the background is picking their nose, or making a weird face, or propositioning a hooker. (You know what I mean.) It wasn't a big deal to have those bits of our lives in other people's photos, because most of the world wouldn't see it, nor would they be scouring your negatives to find it.

So, has Google become the modern equivalent of a technological paparazzi? Maybe, but there's nothing you can do about it. Perhaps this will get people to think a little more before doing some of the things they do in public.

Steve Jobs at D

2007-05-30T23:10:00.000-04:00

Terrific, if for nothing else, the last 15 seconds.

Memorial Day and Prayer

2007-05-29T14:40:00.000-04:00

I watched some pretty powerful stories about our soldiers this Memorial Day. Thinking about the families involved and putting it in their perspective really drives home some powerful thoughts. I noticed how much it seems that those in power say that they are praying for the safety of our soldiers and it reminded me of this quote:

"To say 'prayer changes things' is not as close to the truth as saying 'prayer changes me and I change things.'" - Oswald Chambers

Somehow I don't see a lot of changes, despite all the praying.

Caption contest

2007-05-23T22:32:00.000-04:00

Okay, so let's have some fun. Gates and Jobs were seated together at some D4 conference thing-a-ma-bob (I'm sure not as cool as TED).

Anyway, let's write some captions for this photo. Whoever writes the best one will be given…a brand new Zune! There's enough leftover, that we're willing to give some away. So, caption away.

*Zune prize to be awarded if and only if Zune sales exceed iPod sales in the next 3 months.

Rob & Big Rule

2007-05-20T12:38:00.000-04:00

I haven't watched much of MTV in a long time. I didn't grow up on MTV (although I should have) and I never really understood what it has tried to do in the past 15 years.

So, I was rather surprised when I happened upon a new show called Rob & Big. Okay, it's not so new any more, but it was for me last night when I watch 3 or 4 straight hours of it. I love it!

Is it weird that it's about two guys living in the same house? Not when you consider Entourage. Is it weird that I cannot figure out how they make enough money to live where they do? Not when you consider Paris Hilton.

In fact, the funny part to me, is that these guys are clearly using the show to pay for things they would like to do, but instead of spending their own money, they spend MTV's, film it, and make it an episode.

I love their friendship and their humor. They come across more genuine than any reality show I've ever seen. Once you accept their situation, you really want to hang out with these guys. And essentially that is what you do with the show.

I love it. Season 2 is on the season pass already.

AI: Season 6, Round of 3

2007-05-20T11:26:00.000-04:00

I thought that if I took some time before writing about the Round of 3 results that I would be more rational in my response. As it turns out…I'm not.

Melinda got robbed! I'm not sure if I can believe that America really voted more for Blake than Melinda. Melinda is far more interesting, talented, and likable. I joked that she looked like Arthur's mom, but she is genuine and joyous. She owned any song that she sang.

Blake, on the other hand, is a great imitator. His beat-boxing is momentarily interesting. His style is not very unique if you look at modern urban teens. His voice is good, but not in the same world as Melinda.

I'm not sure if the producers couldn't stand to have a female/female final or a black/black final, but I think they had a hand in it. Just the same as how Sanjaya left right before their baby, "Idol Gives Back", I can't believe that this was a result of America's voting alone.

All that said, and Melinda will have the best career of the bunch. She is destined to sell a ton of records. Jordin has a great career ahead of her as well, especially since she is so young. Blake should fade out with the likes of Rueben or Justin.

But here is the real rub: it all doesn't matter. Being American Idol doesn't mean success like it did when Kelly Clarkson became the first. Now, we know that you can get ousted early and be more successful than the winners (cite: Jennifer Hudson). So, does it really matter who wins tomorrow night? Do we really think it's the last we'll see of who's in second place? The contestants aren't interested in winning anymore.

Proof of this could be seen all season as the contestants were less interested in competing with each other as they were in supporting each other. Every week someone was crying like they were putting down their dog…like they didn't know someone would be voted off. As much as Simon may hate it, the contestants aren't hating each other. I think the major reason why is that winning isn't important to making it big anymore.

So, go ahead, Blake. Win American Idol this week. We'll forget you anyway. We'll be listening to Melinda and Jordin for years to come.

12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Chris Sligh)
9: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Gina Glocksen)
8: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Haley Scarnato)
7: ~~Haley Scarnato~~ (Sanjaya Malakar)
6: ~~Chris Richardson~~ (Phil Stacy)
5: Chris Richardson
4: ~~Jordin Sparks~~ (LaKisha Jones)
3: ~~Blake Lewis~~ (Melinda Doolittle)
2: Blake Lewis
1: Jordin Sparks

Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

Optional articles?

2007-05-09T10:10:00.000-04:00

Random question for the day: Why do Brits always refer to hospitals without the article 'a' or 'the'?

For example, "Princess Diana was taken to hospital this morning."Should it not be, "Princess Diana was taken to a/the hospital this morning?"

Are there other words where this convention applies in British vernacular as compared to American?

Great Idea…Juuuust a Bit Outside

2007-05-08T11:23:00.000-04:00

I love the idea behind Major League Baseball's Pink Bat Day. Players will be using pink bats in a show of support for women with breast cancer. Fans can purchase these bats, and make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at the same time.

Besides the big idea of supporting breast cancer awareness/cures, I love the fact that a very macho, masculine sport is willing to look past using pink bats to do something meaningful.

So, what could be so wrong about such a great idea? If you look again at the price of these bats, they are $59.99. Okay, you say. It costs a bunch because they're giving money to charity. Wrong! Only $10 of that goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Yep, only 10 bucks.

I imagine the problem here is that it costs way less for Louisville Slugger to make these bats, but they still charge MLB a bunch to buy them. So, Louisville Slugger has to keep their price high, because if they sell them to MLB for $15, then MLB turns around and say, "Hey, why don't we get them priced like that all the time?"

And MLB could sell them for $30 and give their proceeds to charity, but then customers turn around and say, "Hey how come this pink one is so much cheaper than the real deal in the natural Ash color or Black?"

So, instead of keeping the price point within reach for most people, MLB and Louisville Slugger have kept it out of reach, and thus I think they won't sell too many bats. It already costs way too much to go to a game. There's no way I'm going to spend $60 on a pink bat, when I can't afford the beers and hot dogs to get me through the 9 innings.

When it comes to charity, we all should take a page from the Livestrong notebook and keep the price point within reach. It involves a greater number of people, and keeps awareness high.

If you really want to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation, try their much more economical and meaningful pink rings.

A small reminder of why we need to care about design.

2007-05-08T09:11:00.000-04:00

I think, as designers, we have moments where we truly feel good about our profession. We contribute to beauty within our culture. We help product and consumer find each other. We create excitement and fun. At times, we can even feel like we've positively contributed to the world in which we live.

Then we run into something awful and grotesque and disheartening. Something that makes us want to bury our heads in the sand or pull a King Lear. For me, that moment came this past weekend while traveling in my car.

Some may say that there isn't much to be caught up about in this photo. Some might not give the back of this truck a second look. But, for me…on this day…this is what made me frustrated with the world of advertising and design.

The first thing that bothered me was the logo. There are probably worse typographic blunders out there, but this one has a number of things to make my blood boil.

First, the dropped 'J.' Drop caps can be beautiful and eye-catching in editorial design, as it gives your eye a place to start reading an article, and very often it can fit in with the layout of an editorial spread.

This is not an editorial spread. This logo has three words and an abbreviation. I know where to start reading. Your typeface is 400 points tall. I also don't find your "tuck the blue bar behind the letter J" trick all that amazing. It certainly isn't reason enough to offset the 'J' with that much weight.

Now let's attack the problem of letter-spacing. It seems that this company would prefer to be known as "Je a d." This is better known in some circles as jihad…not a term with which you want your company confused.

This logo represents your company. I can only assume you don't care too much about your brand, because you used Microsoft Publisher to create your logo.

Lastly, let's just kill this idea of using a company's logo in the middle of a sentence. It's not a word, it's a mark. If you want to say that this truck is on it's way to another satisfied "jihad" customer, then say it. Don't interrupt the sentence with your huge-ass logo, and leave the poor word 'customer' on it's own, fighting to be seen.

Do you remember those children books that use pictures instead of words, so that kids can feel like they are reading? That's what you're doing here. Your interrupting the sentence with an image. I am driving a car. I can read. Don't insult me.

And there's another thing. Why are you distracting my driving with all of this reading? Are you trying to get me in an accident, so that I need your auto parts?

Oh, the humanity!

So, what about you? Share a moment when all the design world seemed ot fall apart before you.

AI: Season 6, Round of 6 & Giving Back

2007-04-30T20:18:00.000-04:00

Due to work constraints I haven't been able to weigh in on Idol of late. In fact, I did not even see the round of 6's performances. I did however see the much hyped "Idol Gives Back" 2-hour plead-o-rama.

I gotta say: somewhere Jerry Lewis is crying tears of joy, because his attempts to kept the telethon genre rolling had seemingly died, until American Idol decided to pick it up and keep it alive. This is a touchy subject, because no one wants to bad-mouth efforts to do something good, BUT this was 120 minutes of crappy television.

First off, the parade of celebrities was about as ungenuine as it gets. I didn't believe that any of those people were there for any reason other than their own PR. The only celebrities who I believe were doing this out of their own desire to help others were Bono and Madonna. They were the only two that I knew had a solid history of doing good prior to the show.

The other bright spot was Ellen Degeneres, who at least tried to do some creative things to solicit donations.

Why put Simon in a situation where he is clearly uncomfrotable, meeting AIDs patients? And why have him and Ryan in the way of a patient getting to the hospital? Just ridiculous, set up crap to sell the idea of getting people to give. I don't believe for a second that Simon wanted to be there.

Everything else felt like it was produce by the same people who brought us Bob Sagat and America's Funniest Home Videos in the 80s. What was that horrible "music video" with all the celebrities? How scary was that Celine Deion/Elvis performance? What the hell was that? Did we learn nothing about creepy celebrity rebirths with Orville Redenbacher?

And although they gave a bunch of money, I was not impressed by all the corporate sponsors. If those companies really wanted to prove to me that they cared about these causes, they would have given the money and expected no credit for it. No logos, no sponsored music videos, no corporate personailities appearing on TV. Oh, and they would have given enough money, so that we television viewers wouldn't have been asked to pony anything up. The sad thing is that the people who probably gave the most, were the people who couldn't afford to give much anyway.

The whole thing with no one being kicked off was lame. Just tell us you're not going to send anyone home right away. You're just stringing people along and it's lame. I'd understand if you told me that you're not going to send anyone home that night. They should have had enough leverage with all their celebrity appearances, not to need to do that.

Since I didn't get a chance to say it last week, I'll quickly weigh in on Sanjaya's departure: it was a fix. How do you drop from top 5 to being kicked out in one week? You have producers manipulate the numbers, so that your charity show isn't overshadowed by the embarrassment of Sanjaya and the vote for the worst phenomenon. I think it was pretty obvious from Simon's comment, that Sanjaya's departure was timely for more than one reason. I really don't think Idol would survive another season if Sanjaya had won. Alright, enough of that.

A review of where we are:
12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Chris Sligh)
9: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Gina Glocksen)
8: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Haley Scarnato)
7: ~~Haley Scarnato~~ (Sanjaya Malakar)
6: Chris Richardson
5: Phil Stacy
4: Jordin Sparks
3: Blake Lewis
2: LaKisha Jones
1: Melinda Doolittle
Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

Virginia Tech: Blame the shooter

2007-04-17T10:02:00.000-04:00

We are all mourning today after yesterday's horrific incidents on the campus of Virginia Tech. But I can foresee the mourning turning to anger and frustration soon enough. I think we're going to start seeing headlines about people demanding answers about the administrations reactions or lack-thereof after the first shooting.

While ideally we would all like to believe that the second half of this rampage, which took exponentially more lives than the first, could it have been avoided, I am not so certain that it could. It is far too easy to look back with all that we know now (which still is not much) and say this could have been prevented. In truth, this student seems to have been on a mission and had predetermined that he was going to kill others. I am not so sure that an "aware" student body would have stopped someone with concealed weapons who was also a student.

Listening to the timeline and first response of both police officers and school administrators, I don't believe, initially, that they fell short of what should be expected of a college campus. I was thinking about what the response would have been 20 years ago, and there would have been no e-mails or web site messages or emergency phone public bulletins. All these things were the right use of the technology. I also don't think there was any reason that the shooter would go on the second rampage that occurred. In fact the police seem to have been questioning their primes suspect at the time of the second murders.

Ultimately, we only have one person to blame for all of this: the shooter. And since that person has been counted among those lost, people need another outlet for their pain and frustration. The easiest target becomes the police chief and the school's president, but this doesn't mean they are deserving of such blame. We must give the administration and police credit for doing what they could with the information they had.

It's so hard to be powerless in a situation like this. We want to be mad at the shooter, the administration, the police, the government… maybe even God. It's natural to feel this way, but it doesn't mean that anyone deserves blame for this shooting other than the man who pulled the trigger.

AI: Season 6, Round of 8 (J.Lo)

2007-04-10T21:49:00.000-04:00

Melinda Doolittle (tough genre for her and it showed)

LaKisha Jones (better than Melinda in terms of performance, but lacking the Latin edge it needed)

Haley Scarnato (HOT with a side of too much lipstick… I thought they were faulting the genre more than her performance… at least she could move… everyone else is so fixed on hitting their spot or staring down the camera… she performed!)

Phil Stacy (awful hat, awful song, awful performance… poop on a stick)

Chris Richardson (I just didn't like it very much… hard to compete with Rob Thomas and Santana… whatever they did with the arrangement was too far off the original)

Jordin Sparks (on point… excellent)

Blake Lewis (he proved that he's technically better than Chris and probably going to be the last man standing… his hat needed some LEDs, though)

Sanjaya Malakar (WASH YOUR FACE!)

My (pathetic) countdown prediction:
12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Chris Sligh)
9: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Gina Glocksen)
8: Phil Stacy
7: Haley Scarnato
6: Chris Richardson
5: Sanjaya Malakar
4: Jordin Sparks
3: Blake Lewis
2: LaKisha Jones
1: Melinda Doolittle

Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

AI: Season 6, Round of 9 (Recap)

2007-04-04T21:21:00.000-04:00

First thought: Haley could stand to wear a pair of jeans or pants or something on nights like this, when no one is voting. She found her secret weapons, but she could stand to tease us now and then. Although she doesn't need to go to the same extreme as Jordin.

These Ford commercials make me want to yak.

Why couldn't Tony Bennett sing a song? I mean Michael Bublé is fantastic and all, but Tony couldn't follow thorugh with a performance?

These past two weeks have been surprising send-offs for me. Gina clearly didn't deserve to go home. She really hit the bottom of the voting fast from last week to this week. The only nice thing was that her song choice was appropriate, "Smile, although your heart is breaking." She is the only contestant whose passion for winning the show were completely obvious. Everyone else seems to be in it, hoping that they will make it long enough to get a break. Gina wanted to win really bad!

My (pathetic) countdown prediction:
12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Chris Sligh)
9: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Gina Glocksen)
8: Phil Stacy
7: Haley Scarnato
6: Chris Richardson
5: Sanjaya Malakar
4: Jordin Sparks
3: Blake Lewis
2: LaKisha Jones
1: Melinda Doolittle

Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

AI: Season 6, Round of 9 (Tony Bennett)

2007-04-04T00:14:00.000-04:00

Tony Bennett? Oh, why? I'll watch and listen to Tony Bennett, but no one is going to make Tony bennett-like album from this group. Ugh! Let's let them do something modern, something that they want to do, something that will sell today-not 60 years ago!

So, the question is whether or not I'm going to join this growing posse of people who are voting for Sanjaya on purpose. Howard Stern has joined Vote for the Worst in picking Sanjaya as their pony and seeking to 'ruin' American Idol. I think they could potentially ruin Simon's mood for a very long time, but they would actually bolster American Idol by showing the beauty of the contest - that the results are determined by the fans with the most determination and the most votes.

The big key is that with Stern's audience contributing, Sanjaya is safe for weeks to come now. I don't see him in danger until maybe even the top 3 now. Unless, of course they doctor the votes, and I'm sure there will be some people who will/do believe that to be the case.

Blake Lewis (I remember playing Mack the knife in Jazz Band back in the day, and thinking… this song is old… it's still old)

Phil Stacy (if I saw him walking on the other side of the street, I'd run across it and smack him across that big fat bald head, and I tell him, "You're boring! Go home to your wife and stop trying to kiss her ass.")

Melinda Doolittle (I finally could see her place in pop culture with this song - as a lounge singer in a remake of a Dick Tracy movie… maybe a Jennifer Hudson-like move)

Chris Richardson (ok, but nothing very surprising… he just always sings out of the side of his face)

Jordin Sparks (boring song… I'm ready for bed)

Gina Glocksen (discovered makeup this week… and included medusa braids in the front of her hair… totally uninterested in every song this week)

Sanjaya Malakar (creepier than ever… I wore a suit like that to a high school prom and it was as big a mistkae then as it is now… and if you're going to dance with a lady, push her chair in when you're done. punk.)

Haley Scarnato (eatching Haley on Idol is like watching her go through puberty… a few weeks ago she discovered her legs and now this week she discovered cleavage… way to ignore Toney Bennett's advice there, Haley… you shopped that song around to everyone in the audience… she worries WAY to much about pleasing Simon, and has shown her immaturity far too often)

LaKisha Jones (another one to ignore Tony's advice… and he looked pissed that she would add a little tag to the end… Tony likes you to sing it like it's written!… watching her perform is like watching the Yankees or Lakers or Colts play: you know that they're going to be there in the end, and they just have to go through these regular season motions first… and she has a really big forehead!)

Tomorrow's bottom three: Phil Stacy, Gina Glocksen, & Jordin Sparks

My countdown prediction:
12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Chris Sligh)
9: Phil Stacy
8: Gina Glocksen
7: Haley Scarnato
6: Chris Richardson
5: Sanjaya Malakar
4: Jordin Sparks
3: Blake Lewis
2: LaKisha Jones
1: Melinda Doolittle

Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

Flexibility vs. Simplicity

2007-04-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

Apple and EMI made their big announcement yesterday about DRM-free music and premium downloads. It certainly is a big deal, as those who care a lot about technology and music, have been fighting for a wider range of DRM-free music for a long time.

The announcement is really wonderful and begins the slippery-slope of DRM changes that consumers have been demanding. There are a few things that haven't been discussed in the Q&A session that I found interesting.

First, EMI's CEO, Eric Nicoli, made the statement that EMI had known about Steve Job's feelings about DRM far before his well-known open letter about DRM. It seems that this letter was more of a rebuttal to attacks on Apple's iPod and iTunes in Europe than an attack on the music companies. It was as if Jobs was letting the nay-sayers know that he has been in favor of DRM-free music all along, but it was the music companies holding everyone back. Kind of like saying, "I told the big boys already, but their not listening, so stop blaming me and my company." Passing the buck a bit.

Anyway, the really interesting comment to me was from Steve Jobs on choices (Timestamp 41:02): "Life is a balance between total freedom and simplicity. We try to strike the local maximums… where we can give people what they tell us… and what we think they want… and yet keep it very simple."

I connected to this statement, because it Jobs articulates the struggle of design very well. As designers you want to create something that will satisfy the consumer's problem (i.e. I want to buy music easily and securely form the Internet), be flexible (i.e. I want to buy only one song, or a song at a better quality, or without dirty words), and yet keep it simple (integrate the store within the player, make backing-up the music integrated, and give me album artwork automatically, etc.).

To me companies like Microsoft and Sony have always been scoring really high in the total freedom category. Their products can be "modded" and third-party applications abound for them. They allow a person to do virtually anything related to their products.

Companies like Apple and Google have done well with simplicity. Here's one white page with a dialog box, one image, and two buttons. Apple for years had only a one-button mouse ship with it's computers.

To me the race is now on for that balance that Jobs mentions. Google's front page is actually a bit more complex now, including a personalized home page, and customizable widgets. Apple has embraced a mouse with four buttons and a click-wheel. Microsoft is simplifying it's interface to resemble the more user friendly OS X.

Google's Adwords is a terrific example of the two extremes of simplicity and freedom. There are two ways to use Google's Adwords: a Starter Edition and a Standard Edition. The Starter Edition is on the simplicity side of the extreme and the Standard Edition is all about Freedom. Starter has one campaign, one defined area, one set of keywords, etc. Standard has the ability to create multiple campaigns over many specific areas with various keywords. It includes analytics and reports. You have a virtually infinite array of choices.

Jumping from a Starter Edition to a Standard Edition is overwhelming, and I wish now that I could jump back for my NJ Mac Help campaigns. If you have ever "graduated" from Starter to Standard like me, then you perhaps know what I mean. There is no middle ground for Adwords.

Apple, I think has been doing a great job of opening itself up to more flexibility, while still safeguarding it's simplicity. Boot camp, the Intel switch, iTunes/iPods working with PC's: these were all flexibility moves. So, as we see Apple become more balanced or hit those "local maximums," I wonder how many people will seek to reap their benefits.

Hydrogen, Fuel and the Future

2007-04-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

I was reading an e-mail by NY Times columnist David Pogue about the future of car fuels, and I thought that he served up an interesting solution via BMW and a new car they a prototyping.

Basically, BMW has created a prototype of hydrogen car that runs on both hydrogen and regular gasoline. Like current hybrids it seamlessly switches between gasoline and hydrogen power, when the hydrogen runs out. This is necessary as there are not enough hydrogen refueling stations to make an all-hydrogen car viable yet. The big benefit here is that hydrogen fuels by product is pure water instead of Carbon Dioxide, and other greenhouse gases.

You can read all of David Pogue's Column on BMW & hydrogen fuel here.

As I was reading about it, I thought to myself that there are probably a lot of opinions about this technology, and I might have my own, but it's certainly not as informed as those who are currently working in fields related to fuel technology. So, I e-mailed three of my chemical engineering friends who do do work in the field to see what they thought. Below is a condensed version of their thoughts, as one statement. I thought their thoughts were worth sharing:

"Fossil fuels are finite."

Agreed. In the meantime oil company salaries are probably only going to keep going up and up as we try to squeeze out every last drop. If you are interested in a good read about the future of oil, check out either of the two books here: Hubbert's Peak and Beyond Oil are both fantastic. Ken Deffeyes weaves an excellent story about the past, present, and future of oil.

"Hydrogen as a fuel."

I am extremely skeptical of the hydrogen economy. In my opinion there is currently no viable technology to store hydrogen. Activated carbons have been promising, but we are nowhere near DOE targets. Anything involving nanotubes is a load of crap. Adsorption on MOFS is partially irreversible. I think all of these chemical storage methods are likely to be better than compression though. How far did that car go before refueling or before the tank heated up? How are they cooling it? If the tank is "a tank so bulky, it makes a visible bulge behind the rear seats," what family is going to want that in their car? How will they fit in their 5 kids? Storage is the big problem. How much weight does it add to the car to have these high-pressure tanks?

"Their primary objection, of course, is the amount of energy that's consumed (and pollution generated) in producing hydrogen in the first place."

Yes! Hydrogen can solve the fuel problem. Burning hydrogen is clean but making hydrogen is not- although it should be cleaner than burning gas. Big Al Gore (and I mean big, have you seen that dude lately?) won't be too happy to find out that although greenhouse gases aren't coming out the tailpipe, they are coming out somewhere else. OK, what about CO2 sequestration? This is not completely feasible at the present time, but it is closer to working than any of the methods to store hydrogen.

"Ethanol?"

The efficiency of ethanol is very low. And corn prices are skyrocketing. This idea is better for the American farmer than anything else.

In conclusion...

I pretty much agree with Pogue. I have bashed all of the technologies out there, but I do think all of them are only in their infancy. Importantly, none of them is the silver bullet. Each will only makeup a portion of the total solution. People out touting the greatness of just one of these technologies drive me nuts. Especially when they quote figures to make a case that their solution can make up 100% of the total. No freaking way. Whatever the final solution is, it doesn't exist right now. In the meantime, we need to conserve. All new vehicles should be hybrid within 5 years, 10 at the most. If we can double efficiency, then we have double the time to come up with a better solution before oil runs out.

I propose a minimum 25-50 cents a gallon tax on gas with all money going toward renewable energy research. This would also encourage people to drive less and buy more fuel efficient cars.

The holy grail is hydrogen from water using sunlight. There is an infinite supply of both.

Many new technologies plus conservation need to contribute to the total solution. I am actually part of a collaboration that is working on solar-powered water splitting to make hydrogen. There is "capital" CO2 produced in making the device but no "operational" CO2 produced to keep it going. Our method is just one of many being tried. Hopefully one will work. At least we are trying, the worst thing anyone can do is the same thing that we've been doing for the last 50-100 years.

Anyone else have an opinion?

Day of Fools!

2007-04-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was of course April Fool's Day, and I am catching up on my reading, and beginning to notice some nice web versions of jokes from the day. Here are a few that you also might enjoy… no joke:

Google TiSP: A new type of ISP service, bringing service through your toilet?
Millennium Falcon: make sure you read the press release about this new bird species very carefully.
The Consumerist Mutual Fund

Through sleet, snow, freezing rain… may the force be with you.

2007-03-30T17:01:00.000-04:00

The United States Postal Service has got into the act of consumer feedback by asking Americans to vote for their favorite stamp choice in the new Star Wars stamp collection. There are many great choices and nice designs, but my vote went to the incomparable Boba Fett, whose look alone will ensure your letter's delivery. Other favorites were Chewbacca (of course), Storm Troopers, and the classic Princess Leia/R2-D2 moment.

Perhaps the coolest part of the relationship between Star Wars and the USPS is the creation of R2-D2 mailboxes to be scattered across the country. What a perfect idea… the mailbox is already shaped similarly to R2-D2, so they just overlaid R2-D2's likeness, and wha-la! Now R2 can delivery your message safely, just like he did for Lea and so many other characters. Plus, he knows a bunch of languages. That should help with international deliveries. It'd be interesting to see if the USPS gets any letters addressed to characters on Star Wars planets like Tatooine.

And just in case you don't have an R2-D2 mailbox near you, you can make your own with this PDF. Way cool!

Let's go shopping!

2007-03-30T13:38:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have found a few interesting items online that seem very cool, but I just can't afford to buy right now. Figuring that you might have the same interest, yet more available cash flow, I post these sites for your shopping pleasure:

Perpetual Kid - which directed me to this (pictured above)

Mighty Goods - which directed me to this cool item.

Suck UK - another doormat, which looks eerily similar to the work of John Langdon (you don't know him now, but you know him if you read Angels & Demons)

Not so Sirius

2007-03-30T02:01:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago now, Dee and I went car shopping as her 92 Jetta, Vicky, was finally on her way out. Something about not having brakes pushes a person towards a new car.

After some deliberation, Dee landed on a beautiful, brand-new VW Rabbit. It was the last 4-door on the lot and it had a bunch of extras that we didn't intend on getting, didn't need to get, but got. Some, like the heated seats and sunroof, have been rather enjoyable pluses to the car. One thing we definitely didn't need, nor want was a satellite radio. VW must have a deal with Sirius satellite rado, as the car came with three introductory months of it instead of XM. (Of course, at this point it's irrelevant anyway.)

Well, we have been using the Sirius radio, because it's free (for now) and we were very curious as to what was on and what the experience was like. I was fairly excited by the many sports stations, the score being displayed on the console, two NPR stations, comedy stations (uncensored), commercial-free, not losing reception… what's not to love? Well, how about the last two things.

It turns out that Sirius is not commercial-free and does lose reception. Hmmm. How can this be you say? Well, it turns out that Sirius needs an asterisk involved with their commercial-free claim, as it's only music stations that are commercial-free. Sports, comedy, and other talk stations have plenty of commercials. Why would I pay to hear commercials? Well, so far I'm not, nor will I.

The other thing is that almost every time we go under an overpass or an extensive series of overpasses, we lose reception, and we get a "Linking" message. Other times, the stations just skip like a scratched CD. It's rather annoying, and actually frustrates me more then standard radio fuzz, or white noise.

So, for all that is potentially cool about Sirius radio, it just falls short on some fairly critical claims. I've heard better things about XM and wonder if things would change in a merger. Anyone have XM or have a different Sirius experience?

AI: Season 6, Round of 10 (Recap)

2007-03-29T11:11:00.000-04:00

I declare shenanigans! Chris goes, and Sanjaya is not even in the bottom three! Was yesterday opposite day? Tell me it was opposite day. Someone broke into my TiVo and replaced my actual American Idol footage for some craftfully edited mashup, where it only seems that Chris Sligh got booted last night. Right?

Looking at American Idols own web poll, a majority of voters said, it was his time. Who are these people watching? There's no doubt that Chris's stock has dropped recently, but below Haley, Phil, and Sanjaya… worse than Sanjaya?!

Chris actually had some interesting, and more open comments about AI, after the send off show.

Let's examine Sanjaya for a second. He's now managed to push himself up and out of the bottom three, with a hairstyle that would make Cher go, "Oh no he di'n't." Is the American voting public really that into hair? Has Vote for the Worst got that much pull? Is this the sign that AI has jumped the shark?

I don't know about you, but I think that Simon is semi-fuming about his "singing" competition becoming a mockery of a high school popularity contest.

My countdown prediction:
12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: ~~Phil Stacy~~ (Chris Sligh)
9: Sanjaya Malakar
8: Phil Stacy
7: Haley Scarnato
6: Chris Richardson
5: Gina Glocksen
4: Jordin Sparks
3: Blake Lewis
2: LaKisha Jones
1: Melinda Doolittle

Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

AI: Season 6, Round of 10 (Gwen Stefani)

2007-03-27T21:22:00.001-04:00

So, if you wanted to bring Gwen Stefani onto American Idol, what would you choose as the song list? Well, apparently the producers have decided to do a complete cop out and use No Doubt Songs or songs that inspired Gwen (a.k.a. - The Police or Donna Summers). Oh, well that limits the choices. Why couldn't they pick any song produced during No Doubts tenure? My friend Elisabeth called during the show to complain about this, and I couldn't agree with her more. What a cheap way to go!

Alright, so beyond the song choices, did anyone else notice that Gwen Stefani now looks exactly like Holly Madison from Playboy's "The Girls Next Door" television show on A&E? I mean, exactly.

No Doubt:
Gina Glocksen (Awesome! I disagree with the boot assessment… UGLY boots… great performance)
Haley Scarnato (last week Haley found her true colors: her legs, and she brought them out tonight again… along with a pretty good performance, despite what they said)
Melinda Doolittle (she's just better than everyone else, and proves it each week)
Blake Lewis (looking strangely like Sting tonight… sounding great… thank God he didn't do any beat boxing)
Chris Richardson (Justin Timberlake covers No Doubt… what with the Members Only jacket?… I didn't want to like it, but I did… very nice)

Doubtful:
LaKisha Jones (I didn't like it… just found it boring… I think I'm finding her to be pretty one dimensional)
Chris Sligh (great song for his voice, and I liked it, but he is off the beat… it really doesn't bother me that much, 'cause I do that all the time, but if you're going to be a recording artist, you got to show you)
Phil Stacy (appropriate song, becuase he looked like a stalker in that getup…vocally he is a solid guy, but I just don't want to look at him anymore… and he has about two standard gestures on stage… just uninteresting)
Jordin Sparks (love the song choice… she looked like a picnic on a stony mountain top - awful boots… didn't work the song nearly enough, but sang it well)

A ton of doubt:
Sanjaya Malakar (he's just not trying anymore… and I don't care)

Bottom 3 Prediction: Phil Stacy, Sanjaya Malakar, & (surprise!) Chris Sligh

My countdown prediction:
12: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Brandon Rogers)
11: ~~Sanjaya Malakar~~ (Stephanie Edwards)
10: Phil Stacy
9: Sanjaya Malakar
8: Haley Scarnato
7: Chris Sligh
6: Chris Richardson
5: Gina Glocksen
4: Jordin Sparks
3: Blake Lewis
2: LaKisha Jones
1: Melinda Doolittle

Also check out: Vote 4 Idol Online, Vote Fair

Another great mashup, Super Mario-style

2007-03-27T13:45:00.000-04:00

Another video that combines things that I like: stop motion animation & Nintendo video games. Courtesy of another fav, BoingBoing. I want to know who has posted the music for the Mario theme on recorder. Enjoy!

Dailymotion blogged video
Mario Bros. Lego
Video sent by Bibi-de-Bibopof