¢hristopher hill's blog

CHill Tools blog

2011-02-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

I've decided to start letting people know about the technology tools I use and love... so check out CHill Tools at http://chilltools.blogspot.com/ to see what technology makes my life a little bit happier.

Goodbye Shrink Wrap

2011-02-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

Prior to the opening of the Mac App store - the Macintosh equivalent of the iTunes App store for the iPad and iPhone - I hadn't spent much money on software in a few years. I upgraded iLife, but that was about it. The App store opened and I checked it out out of curiosity on the day of its launch. My first surprise was Apple had discounted Aperture, the pro version of iPhoto, from $199 for the shrink wrap edition to $80 or so. I have long considered buying Aperture, but $199 was too high. The discount was too good to pass up and the I quickly made my first Mac App store purchase.

Aperture worked out so well for me that I found myself poking around the App store to see what was there. I wasn't really interested in purchasing games as I have far too many iPhone and iPad games to play... but nonetheless was intrigued by and purchased Braid. It's a bit of an unusual game and I'm a sucker for creativity.

The floodgates have opened! Since January 6th I have purchased Comic Life 2, Civilization IV: Colonization, Desktop Curtain, Cinch, Art Text 2, PinPoint, Boinx TV Home, Postbox, FGDesktopLoupe, and Camtasia. In just over a month my software purchases went through the roof.

Many of these apps I had never heard of before. Some (like Cinch, FGDesktopLoupe, Desktop Curtain and PinPoint) were great little utilities that I could probably have found but I didn't know existed or that I would even need. Even if I had wanted these, going to each site to pay the $0.99 - $4.99 at all these sites was too difficult for the little bit of utility they provide that I would probably have just figured I could do without them. But now with the iTunes store buying, downloading and installing is a single-click process.

I've also been thrilled that no longer do I have to monitor these apps for updates. Instead, the App store helpfully lets me know whenever an update is available for any of my purchased apps and makes it a simple process to update them all in a single action.

Yes, Apple charges the developers a 30% premium to have their wares in the store, but the developer gets simple purchasing, doesn't have to implement anti-piracy or auto-update notifications or code, and marketing. And I haven't provided much money to the Apple development community at large in the last few years. In one month I've exceeded $300 in spending. Sounds like a good deal to them.

I think Apple may have a hit on their hands...

Sharing Internet while Traveling

2011-02-04T00:18:00.000-08:00

I travel a lot for work and one of the issues I have is trying to get an Internet connection to all my devices. Rather than pay for a separate connection for my laptop, phone and iPad, I have managed to share my Internet connection in order to minimize my expenses. Here is how I make one paid connection carry over to three (or more!) devices.

1. A 3G plan on my iPhone
My iPhone has a 3G plan which ensures that under most circumstances I can get Internet on my phone. For an extra $20 I added tethering. Tethering isn't as great as a hotspot, as it requires me to either connect my phone to a laptop via USB or Bluetooth and can only share Internet with that single device. And my Wifi only iPad doesn't have tethering support, so it cannot directly use my iPhone's mobile connection.
Still, the 3G plan serves to get my laptop on the Internet any time my phone can connect.

2. Wifi sharing on my laptop
My Macintosh laptop has the built-in ability to create an ad-hoc Wifi network and share its Internet connection with any connected Wifi devices. When my laptop is connected via Bluetooth or cable to my phone I share that connection. If I happen to have an Ethernet connection to my laptop (as is the case when onsite with a client or at a hotel), sharing over Wifi ensures my iPad (and even iPhone - and friends' computing devices) can access the connection. Wifi sharing seems very reliable once you get it set up.

These two techniques mean that not having a 3G iPad isn't really proving to be a liability.

Rumor has it that AT&T will offer iPhone hotspotting. This means that your iPhone can share its connection over Wifi to up to 5 devices. If that occurs, then my iPad will be able to access the Internet through my phone (no laptop middleman required!). I suspect this will be the case as Verizon has already announced hotspot support on the iPhone, and most competing phones offer the same capability.

So no need to spend money on a 3G iPad and its monthly plan...

Apple's Aperture

2011-01-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

I've been using my Macintosh for over three years now, and one of my favorite features is iPhoto and its integration throughout the operating system. iPhoto slowly won me over as both it and I evolved until it has become one of my most-used and favorite applications. I've always known that there were high-end, "professional" solutions like Adobe Lightroom and Apple's Aperture, but the high cost of these applications and my relative lack of knowledge of what they add to my photo management and editing workflow left me uninterested.

Less than a week ago I updated my Mac to the latest release of OS/X and found that Apple had released the Mac App Store. I tried out the new marketplace and was impressed at how easy it was to find applications in a wide range of categories. But what jumped out was that Apple's Aperture, for sale traditionally for $199, was available for $80! For reasons I cannot fully explain I immediately made an $80 application my first App store purchase.

I've been using Aperture for several days and now I don't know how I lived without it! My iPhoto library was a mishmashy mess of events, half organized, and difficult to navigate. After a few hours with Aperture, I was able to import my photo library, organize all the projects (events from iPhoto) into a folder structure, and managed to finally have some semblance of order. But even more interesting is that Aperture includes just the right amount of photo retouch capability that I previously relied on Photoshop Elements for. I was actually evaluating Photoshop Elements 9 (an upgrade to 8 which I currently own), but found that after my latest Puerto Vallarta trip I did all my photo edits in Aperture, never needing any tools from an external application.

There is a learning curve to using Aperture. I spent some time with the tutorial videos and the manual to get where I am now. I'm by no means a power user, but have been able to get more than enough value to justify the purchase. In fact, now I would not hesitate to spring for the $199 license if I had to.

Aperture is also well-integrated into OS/X, just as iPhoto is, so I can access all my new, better photos just as easily as before.

At $80 Mac users who do a lot with photos should seriously consider Aperture. It is worth the cost and effort!

Invasion of the Body Scanners

2010-11-23T12:05:00.000-08:00

A Security Surprise

I am a frequent traveler for work and am pretty up on the security routine. Last month, however, I was on my way to New York from Seattle. The flight left quite early, so after rousing myself at 3:30am wasn't exactly my most alert self going through airport screening. I have a system for making my passage through screening as efficient as possible and usually have little need to interact with the security screeners. This time, however, as I prepared to head through the metal detector a female agent quite adamantly refused my passage since I had my driver's license in my hand. I told her it was non-metallic but she demanded I go back and put it in the scanner. This was odd as I usually keep my license with me throughout the screening process. It wasn't until after I sent my license through the X-ray machine that I noticed that I was actually being sent through two blue walls and was asked to stand on a pair of footprints with my hands over my head. I was in a full-body scanner! Rather than make a scene at this point I did as I was told (stand still for 10 seconds while who knows what was happening) then exited the contraption and was asked to stand face-to-face with a TSA agent while he waited for word on whether or not I should be allowed to pass. We waited what seemed like an uncomfortable length of time then he said, "Where is the anomaly?" into the headset. We waited. He repeated. Finally I heard him say something like, "No, this is not a woman" then he said I was free to go. I wasn't sure how to take that comment, but it did make me wonder what the answer to the anomaly question might have been.

After that experience, I sat at my gate a little annoyed at the whole proceeding. I also started wondering about exactly what the machine I just allowed myself to be scanned by does. So I got out my iPad and started doing research. The results of my research made me vow that I would "opt out" of full body scanning from that point on. Since then, I have followed the media developments and would recommend we ALL opt out of the scanners.

The Scanner

The body scanner I went through uses X-Ray technology and is manufactured by Rapiscan Systems. This corporation has close ties to Michael Chertoff, the former Department of Homeland Security Secretary under George W. Bush. Chertoff is a strong advocate for whole-body scanning, and is a lobbyist for Rapiscan. The sales of these systems are making Chertoff an awful lot of money. There are other full-body scanning technologies based on radio waves that do not use X-rays.

Safety Concerns

Unfortunately, X-rays are known to have the potential to damage human DNA and can be a potential cause of cancer. The TSA claims for the amount of radiation an individual is subjected to is, from what I can determine, low. Actual dosages, most third-party experts surmise, are probably 20 times higher than advertised. Nonetheless, the dosages are very low, perhaps 1/100th of a chest X-ray. That said, since radiation exposure accumulates over time, if I were to go through security for every flight last year I'd have the equivalent of an extra chest x-ray or two in the year. Safe? Probably. But no one really knows for sure. Last weeks' episode of Science Friday on NPR had a radiation expert discuss the issue in depth. I would suggest everyone listen to this program to get a better idea of the technology and risks before being herded into one of these machines. The short answer: the government says it isn't dangerous even for frequent fliers or airline personnel. They say they have tested the equipment and that we can "trust them." Yes, trust the government. I would rather trust but verify knowing some of the ill-fated actions of our own government in the past. Unfortunately it appears that no third-party has access to test these machines. Since there is no "radiation meter" how do we know what a silent machine might be doing?

Another concern is the fact that the TSA employees work in close proximity to radiation-generating equipment but are not provided with any means to measure their exposure. Radiation dosimetry badges are routinely worn by medical personnel and researches who work in radiation departments. The badges are cheap and ensure that over time no individual is overdosed with radiation. But the TSA will not provide these to their employees.

Privacy Concerns

Many are concerned about the fact that these images reveal too much and might leak out or otherwise embarrass the scan-ee. I don't really worry too much about that, but although the government says it is "impossible" for these images to be retained, I think we know better. Mobile cameras are everywhere, so it seems plausible a TSA employee might use one to take snapshots of their screen. Beyond that, however, public documents make it clear that these machines do have the ability to store and send images as that was one of the features the government required. "Trust us, we're the government." The government claims that they can only send and store images in "test mode" and that "test mode" is impossible for airport personnel to activate. But the government declines to have anyone verify that this is indeed the case, nor even expand on the mechanism in-place to ensure privacy.

Bad Security

Worst of all, all this effort, time, and money is probably one of the less effective ways to deal with airport security. In response to the "underwear bomber", these scanners supposedly plug that security hole. But it appears that may not even be the case. Many of the items easily seen on the scan were already detectable by metal detectors. Instead of developing a system of prevention, these scanners continue our security theater by fighting the last war rather than thinking ahead to the future.

Israeli security experts in Tel Aviv have never deployed such machines, and it appears the reason why is that they just don't work. Rafi Sela, the former chief security officer of the Israel Airport Authority with 30-years experience in airport security claimed he can smuggle enough explosives through these machines to bring down a 747 when addressing Canada's parliament. Israel appears to rely on intelligent interrogation by numerous people you encounter as you make your way through the airport. Key here is "intelligent." Israel places highly-trained personnel at their airports who know where to focus their resources and determine where the true threats to aviation lie. Rather than invest in paying for training and investing in the TSA personnel to make them expert interrogators likely to uncover known and unknown risks to aviation, we instead have cast our lot with training them to to herd people through mindless machines that claim to be able to cope with all threats. Michael Chertoff and other businessmen like this because they can make a ton of money selling machines that will no doubt become obsolete very quickly as terrorists adjust their behavior, requiring new improved versions of the machines to deal with the next threat that comes through. They simply can't make a ton of money training people in proven interrogation techniques, so they lobby strongly for the automation. And we all are herded like cattle into these machines, most of us having no more questions than the cow who's about to get a bolt into their skull. Radiation in the skull may not have the same drama, but who knows about the long-term effects.

Just Say No

The second time I was asked to enter a machine in Montreal I was prepared and immediately opted out. The agent wasn't too happy and attempted to persuade me by saying "these are totally safe machines that don't use the same technology you are probably worried about." I told her I couldn't really tell anything about how safe or not this machine is by just looking at it and opted out. I received a highly invasive pat-down, but at least I was confident that the procedure was safe and I knew who it was who had rubbed my chest, groin, thighs, and butt. I would rather look the screener in the eye and be a human to them rather than have my naked image sent to a private room where some faceless agent looked on. But most importantly, I did not have to try to determine if the agent was telling me the full story when she said the machine was totally safe. I didn't have to wonder if the vast amounts of money involved might lead some people to downplay real risks in these machines. I did not need to consult a doctor, physicist, engineer, and who knows whoever else to decide if the procedure I had just been exposed to was a health risk. No, instead I just got felt up by a stranger.

We cannot blindly allow our government to take a path that may have hidden health risks, may not improve security in any appreciable way, and wastes a ton of taxpayers money when clear alternatives exist. Instead of pursuing a policy of making airport security something any idiot with a cattle prod could conduct, I want to feel that the people I encounter at the airport are diligent, truly looking for threats. Machines and procedures always develop blind spots, and terrorists are continually trying to capitalize on those blind sports. Well-trained people are not so easy to design around. But building a staff of well-trained people for our airports is a challenge that does not mean lots of cash for a small group of Washington lobbyists.

Tomorrow has been declared national "opt-out" day. For me, that will now be every day.

iOS 4.2 + AppleTV = LOVE

2010-11-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

I updated my iPad and iPhone 4 to iOS 4.2 today and must say my favorite new feature is being able to stream video directly to my Apple TV. For $99 I am now able to immediately start streaming video content to my living room HDTV. What's more... multitasking is supported so I am able to exit the video player and continue to use my iPad while the video continues playing over the Apple TV.

After some terrible attempts to do the same using a Samsung Blu-Ray disc player and a Windows media server, I am impressed with the quality as there seems to be no buffering or synchronization issues within my home network.

If you consume video on you iPhone or iPad and have a HDMI slot available on the living room TV I highly recommend the Apple TV for this functionality alone. Beats my audio-only sharing via an Airport Express for the same price!

Bringing Apps to your TV

2010-08-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

For more than ten years I have been using computer technology in some form or another as a television. I am still using a Windows XP machine in my office to record video using BeyondTV from Snapstream. Even though it appears Snapstream has completely redirected all resources to commercial offerings, the consumer-targeted BeyondTV is still a compelling experience for television. I enjoy being able to record video to unprotected, standard formats that I can easily move to my iPod, iPad, iPhone, or another computer when needed.

Unfortunately, outside of television functionality the computers I've attached to my TV screen have provided a substandard, difficult experience - especially when navigating between various content types (i.e. television, movies, DVDs, music). Windows 7 and OS/X both include media center functionality, but you have to pretty much commit to staying within their software universe for content.

My Samsung Blu-Ray disc player includes an Internet connection which allows you to install apps for streaming content or even playing games, but the games are utterly lame. Streaming from Netflix or Amazon seems to work ok, but if I try streaming from my media center PC the voices are out of sync with the video. Seems like this problem should have disappeared ten years ago or more, yet it still persists.

Apple TV worked well, although it was very limited in the types of content you could bring in and largely not extensible to the average consumer. It played well with anything in iTunes but, again, if you wanted to venture out of that ecosystem you had very limited options.

Google and Apple appear poised to bring their solutions to getting content on the living room screen by the end of this year. Google announced the Google TV project this year to embed their software into new televisions. I don't really relish replacing the flatscreens that recently replaced the tube sets, but apparently Logitech will be offering Google TV in an add-on box.

Apple is rumored to be announcing an update to Apple TV next week that sounds like it will bring iOS (the operating system powering the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) to your television. This sounds very exciting for a number of reasons:

Huge, available app ecosystem
Easily extended via apps
Already in-place e-commerce through iTunes
Familiar interface

If Apple can bring the iPad/iPhone experience to the television they may have a hit on their hands. You will still be in the Apple ecosystem, but the iOS ecosystem allows for content providers to create new experiences outside of iTunes if they want.

It's strange that my TV has been limited so long when my phone has become a killer content consumption device. I'm hopeful that by the end of this year that situation will change and my TV can really enter the 21st century.

My new favorite iPad stand

2010-07-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

Wired magazine's Gadget Lab reports on using a Gorillapod (the awesome tripod from Joby) as an iPad stand. Ironically, my Joby has been sitting on my desk for months next to where I sit my iPad. As soon as I read this I tried it out and now I'm getting dual-use out Joby's super-flexible tripod. If you haven't used a Joby, I highly recommend it. I had poor luck with the Joby suction cup, but if your camera can accommodate a screw mount I highly recommend it for your next vacation, especially if you like taking low light photos or use the camera timer as the Joby gives you the ability to set your camera up almost anywhere.

And now as a bonus I can show off my fabulous photos in the evening with my Joby-supported iPad. And I see on the Web it now comes in more colors!

In defense of Facebook

2010-06-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Lately the media seems to have decided it is time to pile on Facebook for its privacy issues. One of my favorite podcasters, Leo Laporte, made a big public deal of canceling his Facebook accounts. He said he was uncomfortable with their changing privacy policies and didn't want to encourage people to use Facebook.

I have to say I feel a bit betrayed by Leo on this issue. He is the guy sharing purchases on Blippy. Sharing his location on Foursquare, Latitude and other services. Sharing information willy-nilly with Google by using their products (including the Android Smart Phone). Sharing his weight. What exactly was Leo posting on Facebook that made him so uncomfortable?

I think Leo and the media have gone a bit overboard in condemning Facebook. Most users are smart enough to know what they are willing to share. And many people don't care if the world knows they have Herpes, like fetish videos, or knows a variety of details that some people would consider intensely private.

What the Facebook critics are missing is that in all likelihood people who reveal what the media consider "too much information" on services like Facebook know full well what they are doing and don't really care.

I know from the time I started using Facebook I assumed that any and all information could become public. After all, if I share the fact that I have developed a nasty case of crabs or enjoy sex in airport bathroom stalls or just ate a grilled cheese sandwich with my friends then it would stand to reason that I am aware this information could possibly travel beyond the intended audience. Facebook is just a way friends can learn about and propagate this information if I let it into the public. And quitting Facebook doesn't immunize me. I don't have to be a member of the site for someone to post crazy photos or videos of me at a bar last Saturday night.

I'm more concerned with corporations like Google watching my every browsing habit. After all, the Web sites I go to I never expect to be made instantly public for any reason. My Facebook status can be re-tweeted, screen-captured, or otherwise distributed instantly by anyone who I've chosen to "friend." To that end, I've made an effort to "spread it around." I now use Bing as my default search engine. Google email. Apple hardware. Evite for parties. Facebook for friends. Linked In for work. At least then I avoid an easy concentration of information, although this is probably effectively not doing much for my privacy.

So to Leo - you quit Facebook but advocate the use of Google products without much warning. Yet the information Google does or does not collect about me while I use their search, their phone, their new OS, and receive their ads worries me a lot more than the Facebook information I post. After all, if I post it I know it could be shared beyond my intended audience. Just as when I tell a friend something in confidence I run the risk that they may share information with others without my permission. The social world never had the control Facebook critics seem to assume it did. Granted, the information can spread farther and faster via the Internet. But that risk exists regardless of whether I belong to a site like Facebook or not.

Just asking for a reality check here to keep it real. I still love Leo. I still use Google. And I still enjoy the value provided (free of charge!) by Facebook. But I'm a bit over the overreaction on the part of the media around this subject.

My iPad Case Solutions: Dodocase in the Nude

2010-06-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

In my review of Apple iPad accessories, I mentioned some of my dissatisfaction with Apple's iPad case. Well, this week my iPad has changed for the better. First, I received the iPad Nude from SwitchEasy. The nude is an invisible case that covers the back of the iPad like a glove. It also comes with a clear screen protector, but most reviews of the iPad indicate that such a screen protector is not needed (or even recommended), so I didn't bother putting that on (anyone want a slightly used Apple iPad case and a screen protector?).

The nude also arrived with a microfiber cleaning cloth as well as a black and a white plastic stand for the iPad that works perfectly. Not a bad value at $29.99, especially if you want some protection without sacrificing the iPad's form factor or design aesthetic.

The Nude is a highly unobtrusive way to protect the back of the iPad from scratches, adding negligible weight to the device. With the iPad in the Nude you can't fit it into any of my cases, but for my around-the-house iPad activities it is perfect for me. I like the negligible form-factor increase as well as the ability to sit my iPad down on any surface without worrying about scratches. I've located the two stands at typical hangout locations so I can also set my iPad down in style.

I have also received a new Dodocase. This is by far the classiest addition to my iPad. It is hand-built in San Francisco, lightweight, and fantastic to hold. Carrying it around it looks like a nice moleskin journal. I plan to make it my "iPad on the road" accessory, formalwear for my iPad. Highly recommended! I ordered the case on May 4th and it arrived on June 5th, so be prepared to wait for your Dodocase to leave the nest.

I think my iPad case search has ended. Now my iPad can lounge around at home in the nude or hit the town in the classy Dodocase.

AT&T Capping iPhone/iPad Mobile Data Plans

2010-06-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

AT&T has announced data plans next week with a pretty big catch: there is no longer an unlimited data plan for the iPhone or iPad. But for some people the plans may offer a cheaper option.

I've used the iPhone for a year now so I have my billing history to examine my data usage on the iPhone. With that data I can see if I might want to take advantage of the cheaper plan or stick with my current $30/month unlimited iPhone data plan.

Looking through my data usage for the last year, I was surprised to discover that my usage maximum for a month was about 550MB. The new data plans have a 2GB cap for $25, so I should be safe with this number for the time being. I could probably get by with the $15 plan, as most months I average 150MB. AT&T promises to be generous with plan changes, allowing retroactive plan changes for the month if you find yourself going over the 250MB cap, but for $10/month I would go for the larger cap and have less to worry about. AT&T also has made overage data charges more reasonable so perhaps this is just a legacy feeling I have based on the high overage charges mobile operators generally charge for their services.

Checking my iPhone's data counter (available in the iPhone's Settings panel) I see that for the life of my iPhone (approaching 1 year) I have used a grand total of 1.8GB over the cellular network.

So for now, given my current iPhone use patterns, I could save $5/month with the 2GB plan and leave plenty of breathing room for future use. Considering the bulk of my iPhone data use is over Wifi, with my current habits I won't be effected by the new plans.

I still worry, however, at the way in which these capped data plans may stifle some innovation as AT&T will be less inclined to increase network capacity as new technologies emerge. Also, the new multitasking features of iPhone OS 4.0 will make streaming and other applications more interesting which will probably increase my mobile data consumption habits.

Don't have a history of data usage to look at when considering which plan to buy? AT&T has a Data Calculator utility to help estimate your potential bandwidth use.

iPad Accessory Roundup

2010-05-29T00:16:00.000-07:00

I've been living with the iPad since the first day it became publicly available and have owned all of the Apple-offered accessories to date except for the keyboard dock. Now that I've had almost two months with the iPad and its Apple entourage here's my review of current iPad accessories.

Apple iPad case

Apple describes the neoprene case as "the perfect way to carry around your iPad." By far it is the accessory I have used the most as I leave the iPad in the Apple case most the time, and all of the time when traveling.

The Good: The iPad is fairly easy to put in and remove from the case. The case has convenient options for folding so that you can stand the iPad in a variety of positions. It is lightweight and doesn't add a lot of bulk.

The Bad: Most any case cannot work with any of the docking stations. Fortunately, you can fold the case so that the iPad stands up and connect it to the dock connector directly. The case shows a lot of dirt and smudges, but can be easily wiped clean with a damp cloth. The worst thing about it, though, are the edges. They are somewhat "sharp" and not comfortable against the hand.

The Verdict: The case has been decent but I'm not particularly excited about it. I have ordered a hand-built California original, the DodoCase, which should keep me ahead of the unwashed iPad owners of the world. I've seen other case solutions as well, notably the InCase convertible, which seemed to get the job done but aren't particularly exciting to me. Without seeing the DodoCase I'd probably still go with the Apple case, but would not have purchased the iPad Dock since I rarely use it. More on that later.

Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit

The iPad Camera Connection Kit includes two connectors for the iPad dock: one a Secure Digital card reader and the other a USB connector. This is a very useful travel accessory, as now I can travel with my iPad and my camera and offload content from the camera to the iPad without having to drag around a laptop. When you get home you can easily sync the iPad to your computer and move the photos off the iPad. It works easily and if you need this functionality is great. The USB connector can also connect to my iPhone and offload photos as well quite easily. In addition, the USB connector supports USB keyboards, headsets, and some other devices. This is a "bonus" feature that isn't documented. I use a standard headset/mic with a 3.5mm connector so it isn't as useful to me, but kind of cool.

The Good: Works easily, as advertised.

The Bad: Won't work if you forget to bring them. Not too useful at home because I transfer photos to my desktop computer.

The Verdict: If you travel with a camera and want a way to offload photos without a computer, perfect. Otherwise, might not be a must have accessory.

Apple iPad Dock

The iPad Dock seemed like a must-have accessory when I got my iPad, but I rarely ever use it. It connects to a standard dock cable so that you can put your iPad in it. Unfortunately, it only holds your iPad in a portrait orientation and cannot accommodate an iPad in a case. If you plan to use a case with your iPad I suggest you avoid this accessory.

The Good: Doesn't fall over. Works with a dock-to-computer or dock-to-VGA or dock-to-power or dock-to-whatever connector, but the VGA connector only supports landscape mode (1024x768) so some programs will require you to tilt your head to use this. Has an audio output port so might be useful to connect an uncased iPad to a home stereo.

The Bad: Only works in portrait orientation, won't work with a case. Easier to just use the iPad case to hold the iPad up and connect the USB-dock cable directly.

The Verdict: Avoid this. Very few people would find this useful. If you plan to use an iPad case just rely on a standard dock cable and the case. Email me if you want mine. For under a dollar you can buy a business card holder from Office Depot that can hold the iPad and then use the included charger to hold the iPad in both portrait and landscape with or without the case. You can also use a stand up case and the charger and forget about a dock. Or just prop your iPad up on a pillow or something else. I've just ordered a very pretty stand from Twelve South that looks pretty and promising because I love the look. I do not recommend the iPad dock.

Apple iPad 10W USB Power Adapter

This is almost the same power adapter that comes with the iPad, but includes a longer three-prong power plug cable if you want to cover more distance than a typical USB-to-dock cable. Any standard USB-to-dock cable will work with this.

The Good: Longer cable than included for charging the iPad. Reliable and quick iPad charging.

The Bad: Does as advertised.

The Verdict: Since the iPad is very finicky about power adapters, this might be a good add-on, although you can save a lot of money with a power-to-USB solution like the Belkin travel adapter. Beware, though, that the iPad's increased power demand means that you should only use one USB port at a time on the Belkin as adding a second charging device will cause the iPad not to charge. A bit expensive compared to the Belkin without as much flexibility, but I'm happy to have a second one in my living room for reliable charging.

Apple iPad Keyboard Dock

I don't own this, but based on my experience with the regular dock and the wireless keyboard I would avoid this at all costs.

The Good: Keyboard connection without Bluetooth power consumption, same benefits as the iPad Dock above. Has a couple of iPad-specific keys to make a few things easier without having to leave the keyboard to touch the screen (but many of the Apple Wireless Keyboard functions work as well, without the dock).

The Bad: Same negatives as the iPad Dock above, but now your keyboard is limited to portrait-only operation. This sucks for many programs.

The Verdict: Avoid! The one accessory from Apple I didn't buy, don't regret, and cannot recommend for any reason. Buy a wireless keyboard and use any of the dock options outlined in the verdict of the iPad dock above.

Apple Wireless Keyboard

I already had this for my iMac, but had replaced it with the full-sized USB keyboard from Apple for a numeric keypad so it was sitting in a closet gathering dust. The iPad makes me so happy I have it!

The Good: Great wireless support for the iPad. Works as you would expect. The DVD-eject button in the top right allows you to bring up the screen keyboard when needed.

The Bad: Missing a few iPad-specific keys and labels of the dock keyboard above.

The Verdict: Very useful. I use this quite often and its small size is great for travel. To get use out of this you need a dock of some type or a stand. Luckily there are a ton of stand options for you, from free to extravagant.

Apple iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter

When this arrived, it was the most disappointing accessory for the iPad I received. It does not mirror the iPad display and only works in Landscape mode (at least for all the VGA-supporting programs I tried). It only works with programs designed for VGA out, and even in those programs does not show the iPad screen but some other view. When I first got it, it only worked with video playback in the Youtube app and selected movies (movies I ripped, not movies purchased from iTunes- DOH!). It worked very well with the iPad Keynote application. That was about it. The lack of general browser support meant my iPad was pretty much useless for presentations as I always combine my Keynote presentation with some views from the Internet through a browser.

In two months, this has changed. The iTunes store has a variety of new browser options to output to the VGA adapter (I use a program for the iPad called "Expedition" which has gone from sluggish to very fast and useful for outputting a browser to VGA). The following applications I use with the VGA output successfully:

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro: draw live on the iPad and see it live on an external VGA display.
Keynote: Show presentations on a VGA display
Expedition: Show the browser on a VGA display
Youtube/Videos: Show videos externally (but not purchased content from iTunes).

There are a few other applications available with VGA support, and probably more to come.

The Good: Gets VGA output from applications that support the connector. Seems to work well.

The Bad: Only displays in landscape and only with supported applications.

The Verdict: For business presentations this makes the iPad good for Keynote, browser and sketching applications. Ok for videos but since protected videos won't output is a bit limited for entertainment. This is not very useful for a lot of people but for my business presentations is just what I needed.

iPad - AppleCare Protection Plan

Since I was buying this as an early-adopter I decided to splurge for the $99 AppleCare plan to hedge my bet. If the iPad is durable as my iPhone it is probably overkill.

The Good: Protects my iPad for 2 years against defects/failures and allows me quick easy access to Apple's support for that time.

The Bad: A touch expensive at $99.

The Verdict: I was on the fence about buying this, and probably wouldn't have if I had bought the low-end model. But at $699 decided to go for the two-year protection.

An alternative, more flexible iPad charger

2010-05-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

I've been loving my iPad, but found that nothing beats charging it using the included charger. I spent the $29 for an extra charger, but since then tried out my Belkin Mini Surge travel surge suppressor/3 outlet/2 USB port adapter using one of the USB ports. It works great! My iPad charges perfectly using a Dock-to-USB cable into one of the USB ports on the Belkin device.

Since I already travel with the Belkin to handle the limited outlets in most hotels, it is good to know that the cable I already travel with to charge my iPhone will charge the iPad instead. And at under $15 on Amazon.com this is a cheaper, more flexible option for traveling with a charger for my iPad.

Is Apple trying to avoid being the next Atari?

2010-04-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over Apple's latest developer agreement prohibiting the use of compatibility tools or intermediary layers in applications developed for the iPhone. At first, this seems like it could be a draconian measure intended to stop other companies from offering cross-platform developer tools for mobile devices. These tools promise to give a developer the tools to write an application in one environment then create compiled applications for a variety of mobile devices at the push of a button. Without learning the developer environment of any of the mobile devices, developers can crank out applications using a single tool.

To the critics, Apple's move is anti-competitive and aimed at preventing Adobe and other vendors from offering tools such as Adobe's upcoming Flash CS5 which allows an application to be written in Flash then compiled into a pseudo-objective C+ application. These applications would instead run in an Adobe-created layer for the iPhone that abstracts out the hardware-specific features of the phone. Presumably Adobe intends to offer this abstraction layer for other mobile devices which would allow a developer to easily compile their application and run it on Android, the iPhone, Windows phone, Palm OS or any other device as long as the Adobe-provided abstraction layer exists for that particular model.

This sounds attractive. As a developer, by giving control to Adobe I can quickly get applications written for any platform. But there is a dark side to this that we have seen before.

Hardware abstraction layers that eliminate - at least from the developer perspective - the hardware the software is running on encourage a lazy, "least common denominator" model for the devices they operate on. Programmers are not going to add features to take advantage of hardware that are not widely supported, as it will require additional effort to work around when compiled for a device that doesn't have that hardware. This could be seen as an implicit discouragement of innovation as there is no reason to add new hardware if most applications are using an abstraction layer that doesn't support that hardware.

Runtime environments may stifle innovation

In this world, imagine that Apple adds a front-facing camera to the iPhone for videoconferencing. Apple will take a lot of time to ensure that the hardware does not impact battery life too adversely, cooperates with existing applications, and is available through their provided API. But in a world where iPhone applications are developed from cross-compiled Adobe Flash tools, Adobe would control when or if developers would ever be allowed to use the hardware. If Adobe's Flash development toolkit product managers decided against supporting this new hardware by not supporting it in their cross-platform tool then no new software supporting the hardware would be developed. Apple's hardware business would be subject to Adobe's business decisions regarding the availability and nature of features available on the platform.

We saw something like this back in the 1990s when Microsoft adopted a strategy for Microsoft Office for the Macintosh that effectively removed the differences between Windows and Macintosh and made the two programs look and act the same (and I even believe share large portions of the code base) in Office 4.2. This was roundly criticized as one of the worst Macintosh Office releases because it effectively removed the Macintosh experience from the equation. Ultimately, Microsoft abandoned this effort.

Runtime environments may adversely effect quality

There is also a potential quality issue at hand here. In the late 1970s and 1980s Atari dominated the video console scene for the home with the ingenious Atari 2600. By 1982 the Atari 2600 cartridge market became filled with a glut of poorly designed game titles. The E.T. game is cited as the beginning of the great videogame crisis of 1983 which effectively destroyed the console market. By 1983 so many crappy titles overwhelmed the Atari 2600 that game prices plummeted due to unsold inventory and consumers lost interest in the console as quality titles struggled to be noticed. For two years the market contracted, until in 1985 Nintendo released the NES.

Nintendo took a different approach to third-party games. Instead of following in the Atari 2600 model and losing control of the quality, volume and overall customer experience around the NES, Nintendo required third parties to officially license all games before being supplied with a chip that made their cartridges compatible with the standard NES consoles. In this way, Nintendo could prevent the release of materials which detracted from their brand and desired user experience. While subject to a lot of criticism, the NES revived a market that was considered all but dead.

Devaluing the developer

Ironically, in many ways a cross platform, low common denominator abstraction of all mobile hardware also devalues developer skills. Why hire someone who writes clean, tight code in Objective C+, C# or a devices preferred language against the hardware manufacturers API when I can crank out Flash applications that run on all devices. So what if the Flash applications have a weak user experience and limit the value users wring out of their hardware or chew through batteries or lock up all the applications in a unified manner. That will just be blamed on the hardware manufacturer anyway.

Apple's customer experience

The tension now with Apple's strict controls of applications for the iPhone/iPod/iPad platform is also part of the attraction mainstream users have toward the platform. Apple's ability to prevent applications which make poor use of resources (memory hogs, battery hogs, etc.) and their control over the basic user experience means that these devices work. I have yet to experience the equivalent of a blue screen of death on an iPhone.

Despite these strict rules, the application store is quite possibly the most phenomenally successful software store ever created. I've spent less than $150 on software for my new iPad and have more games, content creation tools, video entertainment and utilities than I have on my desktop or my laptop. And I enjoy the experience immensely.

Walking a fine line

Nonetheless, Apple isn't guaranteed a rosy future in its application store. There are many quality competitors out there. Palm has an interesting OS, Android is an "open" platform - although there still are restrictions imposed by Google and their business relationships, Blackberries have open distribution options, and Microsoft offers Windows Mobile and the upcoming Windows Phone environments. Developers and customers can readily move to a new platform tomorrow if they wish. If Apple's rules start to become too restrictive they will risk creating a move away from their devices. That is Apple's business decision to make.

On the flip side, already I've had my Android friends irritated that their particular device is still running an older version of the OS and newer applications won't work properly on their hardware. Such is the challenge of a more open model.

Developers cannot demand that every piece of hardware support Flash, HTML, or any other proprietary or standard technology. Doing so would stifle innovation and competition. I for one am happy that the iPhone has ignited a lot of excitement in the mobile device space and look forward to the innovation Apple, Google, RIM, Palm, Microsoft, and everyone else are forced to pursue to remain competitive in this landscape.

Thoughts on iPhone multitasking

2010-04-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

I followed along some Liveblogging for today's iPhone 4.0 announcement from Apple. I'm glad that they are making logical, iterative changes rather than trying to overhaul the entire iPhone model. This may disappoint people who look for something radically new every few years, but will be welcome news to the mainstream audience who have mastered the use of the iPhone OS and wouldn't necessarily want to start over with whole new operating paradigms.

Most interesting to me was the discussion of multitasking. I must say I'm a bit relieved that Apple is taking a conservative approach to multitasking. Almost a year ago I explained why I wasn't missing multitasking on the iPhone in my Constraints Can Be Beautiful post. I came to this conclusion after a few nasty run-ins with multitasking on a Blackberry I used to use. I installed some third-party applications onto the Blackberry to take advantage of my first phone. Nothing big, a Twitter client, an IM client, and a few other sundry applications. Somewhere along the way the phone reacted badly and for a week every time the phone would ring I would press the answer key and have an hourglass appear for anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes (or until I removed the battery in frustration). Needless to say, I started missing a lot of calls. I tried all sorts of solutions including removing all of the applications but still couldn't seem to get the phone back to stability.

My best guess is that the phone allowed applications to interfere with its core purpose - voice communications. To me that is a complete deal-breaker when it comes to a mobile phone. At that time, I switched to the iPhone and haven't looked back.

That said, I have noticed a few compromises I've accepted in giving up multitasking on my phone. Streaming music applications like Pandora only play when they are open, so I can't do other things and continue to enjoy the music (although the iPod functionality does multitask). The other place where I miss multitasking is in Skype. Because Skype must be open in order to receive calls - and because when a phone call comes in - Skype is currently a suboptimal experience on the iPhone. Steve Jobs called these two use cases out specifically in his presentation of how iPhone OS 4.0 takes on multitasking.

I'm cautiously optimistic that Apple has taken its time to add multitasking to the iPhone in a way that will not seriously compromise the core functionality (and battery life) of the device. They seem to have thought through a number of use cases and have adopted a model which will ensure third party applications won't bring my phone to its knees in some way.

Reviving my inner science geek

2010-04-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

I have fallen in love with a book that I have heard of but never read - until I purchased it on the iPad yesterday. The Elements is an iPad app version of a book by Theodore Gray that covers all the of elements from Hydrogen to Lawrencium in gorgeous detail. It is an absolutely fantastic presentation of a book with animation, music, interactivity and integration with Wolfram Alpha. There's even the Thom Lehrer song about the elements included (with much prettier graphics than the Youtube video linked to there).

I spent quite a bit of time last night reading up on the elements, something I normally do not do any more. Even though I love science it seems that I haven't taken much time outside of my IT duties to think about things like elements. Did you know that Americium - a synthetic radioactive element following plutonium on the periodic table - can be purchased in any hardware store? In fact, there's a good chance you have it in your home right now.

Another great application for the iPad is Star Walk, a stunning astronomy application that lets you easily locate constellations, planets and other astronomical objects in the night sky. The iPad will be absolutely fantastic to take out on some clear night or to my next camping trip. It's like having a portable planetarium. Astronomy is another subject that I love but have not pursued much in my busy life.

The ease with which I was able to acquire these applications and then have them available at my fingertips means that I can now fill my spare time with some scientific interests. Sure, I could have done that before by hauling around a set of books or reading through Wikipedia, but something about the presentations of these topics in these two applications spark my interest in a way that Web sites have not.

It's exciting how the iPad offers new ways to explore and diversify my interests.

The secret of the iPad's success

2010-04-06T14:29:00.001-07:00

I received my iPad last Saturday, and in that short time it has muscled its way into my daily life in a way that only the iPhone had done before. Prior to Saturday, my workdays were mostly spent at my desk in front of an iMac, or on the road with either an MSI Wind netbook or an IBM Thinkpad from work.

What makes the iPad so useful to me? Here are the features I now cannot live without:

Battery life: I can go more than an entire day on a single charge with the iPads insanely long battery life. I haven't yet run out of power in a day, but I'm estimating easily 10 hours of life on the thing. Probably substantially more. That means that I finally have a device that can keep up with me whether I'm flying across the continent or just wandering off to a local coffee shop to work.

Mobility: I can grab the iPad at a moment's notice and take it with me wherever I need to go. No more fumbling around for a charger, unplugging it from USB hubs, and making sure I have all my accessories. I can even leave the Bluetooth keyboard behind and get by reasonably well with the onscreen keyboard. And when I grab it, it already has all of my music, movies, podcasts and TV shows ready to go.

Size: The iPad is nearly the perfect size. Right now I have the iPad on a stand and am typing on my Bluetooth keyboard. I can easily ready what I'm typing from a comfortable distance. I find the iPad fits in my hand just about perfectly. The screen is so much more useable than my netbook (amazing how much more usable 1024x768 is for the Web rather than 1024x600). The ability to quickly re-orient the display to portrait or landscape is a simple, obvious addition, but one that radically improves the usability of the device as a book, magazine and Web site reader.

Applications: The included email application is even faster for me to use than Entourage or Outlook. The calendar is also a superior experience to my usual desktop applications. And I'm already impressed with the available applications for the device. I've got a great office suite (iWork), a gorgeous database (Bento), a really fun sketching program (Sketchbook), some impressive news applications (BBC News, Thomson Reuters, USA Today), a fantastic Twitter client (Twittelator), an amazing flight simulator (X-Plane), great book and magazine reading (iBooks, Kindle reader, Zinio), some good games and a variety of other pieces of software. In fact, I already have over 50 apps installed on the device already and I haven't even spent $80. On a laptop I'd have dropped that just for the office suite. And lets not forget that Safari makes a great mobile browsing experience.

They say every rose has its thorns, and the iPad has some things that could stand improving. Here are the things that bother me most:

Weight: The iPad is a bit heavier than one might like to hold for long periods of time, although it is far from heavy - especially compared with my laptop or netbook. Still, in a perfect world, I'd ask for even less weight. That said, most of its competitors appear to be on the heavier side. The Joo Joo tablet is a full pound heavier.

Keyboard shortcuts: There aren't enough shortcuts for the Bluetooth keyboard in the current apps. I'm imaging as developers become more accustomed to the external keyboard as input this will change, but for now I do wish I had a few more keyboard shortcuts.

Printing: It would be nice to be able to print from the iPad. Currently, you have to sync with your desktop and print from there. That said, I don't print a lot of stuff any more. But it still might be nice to have.

Here are the things that seem to bother the tech pundits and my geekier friends, and where I tend to agree (or disagree) with them:

No multitasking: I'm a skeptic of multitasking on mobile devices. After having numerous problems with errant applications making it impossible to answer a phone call on my old Blackberry, I decided for a device like that multitasking was too risky. If someone can implement multitasking and make sure it does not destroy the user experience, I'd be all for it. Rumors are Apple will be announcing multitasking as a part of the iPhone OS 4.0 this Thursday. I'm cautiously optimistic they'll make sure any of that multitasking goodness won't come with the problems I've had on other devices. Still, I'm pretty happy with the single-tasking nature of the iPad. It is so quick to stop and start applications that it really hasn't bothered me. But for some applications (radio streaming, etc.) multitasking would be very nice.

No USB ports: I really do not want my iPad to become the hub of an octopus of connections, so the simplicity of a single connection appeals to me. I plan to get the camera connection kit to connect the iPad to a SD card so that I can easily transfer photos from my camera when on a long trip. But I don't see a need to attach a bunch of accessories to my iPad via USB. I rarely use my USB ports on my netbook, mainly just for backing the thing up to a backup drive. iTunes takes care of backing up the iPad.

No camera: I'm not a big fan of Web cameras. I work from home and would rather not have to worry about my hair, clothing, etc. when communicating. I can't see the reason why I'd want to take pictures with the iPad... my iPhone and a dedicated camera fill that bill for me just fine. I have a Web cam on my netbook that I literally have never used for anything other than just testing to see if it works. Apple will probably add a camera to the device, but I probably won't use it any more than I do the Web cams on my computers.

Did I miss any pros or cons? I'd be curious to hear if others share (or don't share) my use cases...

My netbook goes legit...

2010-04-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

After a few days with the iPad, it has become clear that there is not much room in my day-to-day life for the Hackintosh netbook I have blogged about previously. I've pretty much found that the functions I used to turn to the netbook for are now being met quite well with the iPad. My desktop computer has even seen less use since the iPad has arrived. With its gorgeous screen (1024x768 vs. the Hackintosh's 1024x600), onscreen keyboard for light duty and pairing with my Apple bluetooth keyboard for more intensive typing, the iPad is now my portable option of choice.

So where does that leave my MSI Wind U100 Hackintosh? Pretty much at a dead end. Since I won't be needing its services much, I decided tonight to drop the unauthorized Mac OS/X installation as the average user can't really be expected to deal with the various idiosyncrasies of running OS/X on unauthorized hardware. So my netbook is going back to Windows from whence it came.

Now if I decide to pass the netbook on to a relative or friend I don't have to provide a list of caveats on upgrades and the various oddities of the hardware.

So long my Hackintosh friend...

8-bit GEOS nostalgia: my first Graphical User Interface still lives

2010-04-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, "A tale of 4 computers," I waxed nostalgic on the early history of my involvement with computers. In it I mentioned Geoworks, a graphical user environment for the Commodore 64 (and later an enhanced version for the Commodore 128) that I used as my first GUI. GEOS was incredible, bringing early Mac-like functionality, printer support and a full GUI environment to a very affordable computer platform. The included word processor was quite nice and supported bitmapped output to my Commodore 1526 dot matrix printer.

GEOS 128 for the Commodore 128 supported much higher resolution and double the processor speed available in the machines 128-mode. I think my favorite program for the machine was GeoPublish. Many of my friends from high school and college still have cassettes with covers made using this technology.

My parents first bought a DOS machine (with an amber display) in the days before Windows existed. I put GEOS on that system and they used it for many years. GEOS for the IBM PC ran circles around other software solutions (especially those early attempts at the mouse paradigm). Windows 1.0 (and probably 2.0) were nothing compared to this product.

GEOS was incredibly tight code and a very affordable product that I still admire today. So I was surprised to see that the product is still alive and well (even recently releasing a presentation program, GEOPoint!) at Breadbox.com. Reading the site it is clear they are still doing a little business with GEOS serving the education market and making ancient hardware donations useful. GEOS also was the OS in Nokia smartphones prior to Simbian.

Makes me happy to see GEOS is still out and about!

AppStar Games releases the coolest programming titles I will ever read

2010-03-31T10:11:00.000-07:00

Growing up in the 70's and 80's, my first interaction with video games in the home came in the form of Atari's Pong console. For those younger folks, this was an early video game system that you connected to your television with two paddle controllers that allowed you to play Pong on your home television. And that's all it did. The console could do some minor variations of Pong, but at the end of the day we contented ourselves with controlling rectangles on the screen to bounce a square off of walls and ultimately off the screen to score against our opponents.

A few years after that, the Atari 2600 game console had become the rage and finally arrived in my home in the early 80s. The 2600 quickly became my favorite pastime. I loved the included Combat cartridge, although I often lacked an opponent. Air Sea Battle was better for solo play, but I was completely in love with Space Invaders. At the time, Space Invaders was a revelation of videogame graphics in the home. I spent hours on the game. At one point my dad became totally hooked. Even though he never really played videogames, he took to Space Invaders like everything else in life and essentially beat the game, playing for hours and hours (with a few pauses for bio-breaks) and rolling over the scoring mechanism. He ended up stopping after that accomplishment... but the invaders never defeated him.

I remember a lot of great games after Space Invaders, but nothing grabbed my imagination so much as the titles from a new company called Activision. Activision released games that looked far better than anything else on the 2600 up to that point. I remember one of my favorite titles, Barnstorming, for the extremely cool rainbow sunset behind the mountains on the horizon. It was 8-bit beauty. Starmaster was another fantastic title at the time, using the 2600's black-and-white/color selector switch for changing the game display. Funny how a single hardware switch increased my immersion in the game. But it was perhaps Pitfall that impressed me most. The first platform game I had ever encountered, Pitfall had incredibly crisp graphics and engaging gameplay that made it truly a masterpiece on the 2600.

What set Activision apart was the prominence given to the programmers of the games. In the early 80s, my heros became people like David Crane, Steve Cartwright, Alan Miller, and Garry Kitchen. Each cartridge box showed a picture of the programmer and enthusiast publications conducted interviews with Activision programmers. Up until then, Atari console programmers were invisible. Activision's personalization of these people had some responsibility for ignited my interest in becoming a programmer - which ultimately lead to my own programming career.

I used the 2600 all the way until college. It was obvious that the early titles were graphically far simpler than later titles. But the 2600 hardware itself was completely unchanged. I always wondered what magic they were putting into the cartridges to enhance the experience so dramatically. Compare the screenshots of Combat and Pitfall to get an idea of what I mean.

The coolest programming titles I will ever read...
Finally, after nearly 30 years, a programming title has been released to explain what I've wondered about since my childhood. AppStar Games, founded in early February of this year, is releasing three programming titles on the iPhone/iPod Touch by David Crane.

2600 Magic (released in a free and longer $1.99 version) explains the fundamentals of 2600 programming. I had no idea until I read this that the 2600 was the only home system that used television scanline programming in order to accomplish its graphical magic. The title also explains why Atari 2600 Chess had a weird window blind effect on all of the pieces. I've done a fair bit of programming in my time, but reading about what these videogame designers had to contend with makes me even more in awe of their work. I purchased the app and read it last night, and I thought it well worth $1.99. The UI resembles the Atari 2600 console. It includes very clear writing and examples and lots of interesting tidbits about the history of Atari 2600 programming. If you have any interest in the subject I wholeheartedly recommend this title.

Dragster Magic is the second volume in the set. I haven't read it yet but look forward to it. It "explains the extremely obscure technical tricks invented to make a game like Dragster possible." It's more expensive, at $3.99, but after reading 2600 Magic I'm hooked.

Pitfall Magic is not yet released, but I can't wait to find out how we got from Combat to Pitfall on the same hardware.

What struck me is that a few years ago this whole set would have been released as a book. Fortunately, in the iPhone presentation they can animate the illustrations to help make some of the complex programming techniques clearer. This is a perfect, short set of titles of read on your iPhone. You can leave at will and pick up where you left of easily.

I will never employ the techniques covered in these titles, and no longer even play Atari 2600 games much except in emulation. Despite this, the fact that one of my childhood idols has created a series of iPhone apps that uncover a 30 year-old mystery and document what was probably the most important pieces of videogame hardware ever created makes this easily the coolest programming title I will ever read.

Thank you David Crane for bringing back a bit of my childhood!

Why you need a content hub (and probably don't know it)

2010-03-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

For more than two years at Nstein (and many more in my previous job at Isogen), I have been out promoting the idea of a content hub to content-centric organizations. At Isogen this was largely focused on the technical publishing space while at Nstein the focus was mainstream media groups - newspapers, magazines, online publishers, etc. In all that time I have been in some way or another promoting the idea of creating a content hub - a centralized, strategic place to represent all assets in a way that is accessible to anybody in an organization regardless of job function. My colleague Chris Scott provides more explanation on his blog and asked an interesting question regarding whether one should use their editorial system or a DAM for this function. In a rather long comment I left there I made the argument that neither should be used. Rather than expand that already long comment, I will elaborate a bit more on the subject here.

So what does it mean to build a strategic content repository in the form of a content hub? In short, it is the idea that organizations need a place to represent all of the available content assets (i.e. text, images, videos, audio, etc.) somewhere that makes it accessible to anyone in the organization, regardless of role. Why might I need this? Look at the underserved needs throughout most publishing organizations today and you get an idea:

A Web editor may need a photo for a story, slideshow or some other purpose on the Web site. Rather than dig through arcane folder structures or a DAM designed for the needs of photography professionals, they instead choose to go to a photo service and purchase new stock photography because it is difficult or impossible to search for assets managed by their creative group.
A writer may be looking for new ideas for a story. Since they are immersed in the print culture of the organization, they either neglect to or cannot easily check all of the company's blog sites for ideas on a given topic. Instead, they research and reinvent everything from scratch never knowing they may have a blogger available to provide additional context or texture to their story.
An advertising sales manager may be prospecting for new companies to advertise within the content. Unfortunately, they have only visibility into what is currently, already published and cannot see what is in-progress without getting a login to the print or Web production tools and learning how to navigate within those systems. They also find it difficult to know how much content is available within a contextual category of content as to come up with this information they would have to do a manual search of all articles in all of the company's Web sites, blog sites, and print publications. Instead, they just sell what they already know.
A writer working in Seattle is writing a car review for a Seattle-based publication. Another writer in the same company is writing a review for the same car in Orlando. Because they are in different groups (and may not even know each other exists), they do not collaborate on the story but instead waste time researching the same exact information on the car.
A sudden news event becomes the hottest topic on the Web, and a Web editor wants to rapidly collect as much content around the subject to capitalize on the sudden buzz on the topic. In order to do this, they search the Web CMS for content. Unfortunately there is a lot of related information in the print editorial systems and archives that takes too much time to aggregate and convert to a format suitable for the Web site, so they end up with a small subset of what they could have put together on the subject.

A content hub can help in all of these (and countless more) scenarios if properly deployed. The idea is a content hub is not designed to address a specific tactical need such as "creating a Web site" or "managing a print editorial process". Instead, those tactical systems, at key stages of the content production process, create a format-neutral representation of the content they produce in a system that is not designed to serve a particular channel, but instead is designed to feed all channels.

In his blog post, Chris Scott asks the interesting question of where it makes sense to create a content hub, in the editorial system or the DAM for an organization. If you take the strategic view of a content hub that I do, I would contend that neither make any sense. Trying to make a tactical system that serves a highly specific production process - like a traditional DAM or editorial system - also serve as a strategic repository is not easy and in fact will probably never succeed. That is because the needs of tactical operations are so directly related to the bottom line that you will always make concessions to the tactical processes at the expense of the strategic functions of the system.

Log in to a typical production DAM or editorial system and look around as if you were completely removed from that production process. Would the fields, buttons, search interface, etc. look familiar? Probably not. In our above scenarios, a sales professional would feel utterly lost, a stranger in a strange land. People hate that feeling and will avoid using the systems that put them in this untenable situation.

Most tactical, production systems require significant training to log in and use. It is impractical to think that you can create a production system that is simple enough for anyone to use it without training. It is also hard to think that training every person in a company to use every tactical system is a winning proposition.

And so there emerges a need for a content repository that serves the strategic needs of an organization. This repository I have been referencing as a content hub. Some characteristics of a content hub that you may not find in the tactical systems used for production I consider critical include:

Straightforward interface that is accessible with little or no training
Standard, format neutral representation of all assets regardless of origin (XML)
Simple search interface
No arcane, production-oriented labels or terminology
Browser driven, easily accessible company-wide
Ability to create straightforward, accessible workflows for collaboration or distribution of content
Ability to either house assets or represent assets housed in external production systems
Ability to enrich assets to achieve a standard level of metadata regardless of a piece of content's origin (this is where technologies like Nstein's Text Mining Engine adds enormous value)
Ability to rapidly create content feeds to serve production systems, partners or other external consumers

I could go on and on, but by now you should be able to see that making a production system like a print editorial system or a DAM oriented towards the needs of layout, photographers, or videographers becomes a problem. How can you address all of these strategic needs and also address the very specific needs of your production world?

You need to insulate the strategic needs of your organization from the day-to-day production requirements if you are to have any hope of addressing the strategic, horizontal needs of your employees. Otherwise the strategic needs - which are long-term and less tangible than day-to-day production requirements - will always take a back seat to tactical production requirements.

Deploying a true content hub requires a dedicated, separate system designed to serve the strategic needs of your organization.

Applications in a world of iPhones and iPads

2010-03-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

It has been interesting to see how the cost of applications has scaled wildly downward in the iPhone world. I have spent more in the last year on iPhone applications (and various in-application purchases) than on desktop software. With pricing starting at 99¢ and the lack of a complicated check-out process, it is easy to justify buying a new application. One cannot underestimate the value of Apple's App store in this regard, as it is unlikely I would have bought even a quarter of the iPhone applications I have in the last year if I had to individually deal with each merchant separately.

Now with less than a week to go until I get an iPad in my hot little hands I am heartened that this model will be extended to the new device. Already Apple has announced that Pages, Numbers and Keynote will each be available for $9.99 for the iPad. No doubt those will be among the first purchases I make.

I'm excited too to get Bento, the personal database software from Filemaker, for the iPad. I have a long history with databases - my first paid computer gig was developing applications in Microsoft Access - but lately haven't had too many reasons to run out and get a database tool for my Mac. I've eyed Bento for OS/X since it came out, but couldn't think of enough of a reason to spring for the $49.99 piece of software that I might not use a lot. But Filemaker announced that an iPad version of Bento will be available for $4.99. At that price, I'll buy it in a heartbeat. And having the ability to create and use a database on the go with an iPad sounds great. If I end up not using it much, $4.99 is a tiny price to pay.

Apple has opened up a whole new world of applications with their App store and the iPhone and iPad. Suddenly buying a database can be an impulse purchase. Developers who create small applications for desktop computers suffer because to sell a 99¢ application I have to set up a Web site and figure out a payment and delivery mechanism for the software. This makes it far too expensive for small developers to offer small tools at a small price. With the iPhone and soon the iPad, developers can offer such applications without the overhead. If I write a small, elegant piece of software for the iPlatform I have a convenient way to sell it. I can still market the application with a traditional Web page, but the overhead involved in actually conducting a monetary transaction disappears. This is a huge win for the little guys.

Apple gets a lot of criticism for its handling of the App store, but for a small developer they have opened up vast new opportunities. They deserve a lot of credit for setting up an ecosystem where the little guy can make a bit of money even on a modest application.

The screen resolution, elegant user interface, and convenient form factor of the iPad will probably end up being where most of my ongoing software purchases are made. A lot of the tools I use on my iPhone will be more fun and useful on the iPad's bigger screen. I'll bet by the end of April I will have spent more on iPad applications than I have on my OS/X software in the last year.

The top 5 reasons why publishers need automated text mining

2010-03-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

Automatic text mining is the process of using a computer to tag content as it is created. The information provided becomes metadata that can live seamlessly alongside any manually provided metadata, curated as needed, and used in a variety of ways. Metadata is key if you want to create new content products. If I'm a publisher and get asked to create a channel in conjunction with an organization who wants to market their products alongside my content, I need to know which content deals with subjects appropriate to associate with that product. If I decide to create a new section of the Web site, print publication, flyer, or any other information product metadata is key to being able to sift through my volumes of available content for those items associated with the topic at hand.*

Historically, content creators have done this using manual processes. I might assign an editor to search through our vast archives for content. That approach dramatically raises the time and cost associated with creating new content products - for most providers to the point of making such products impractical.

I might ask the content creators to provide metadata themselves when they create content. That way I can ensure that anything that gets created has sufficient metadata. In my previous post, however, I declared that "a losing proposition." I realize that I made this statement in passing in that post and wanted to list some of the reasons why asking content creators to also be metadata providers is a losing proposition.

Here are my top 5 reasons why publishers need to consider using automated text mining as part of their publishing process:

1. Content creators are not focused on the big picture

When content is created it is often the last thing on a person's mind to imagine all the potential uses beyond the task at hand where the content may be applicable. Even if I as a content creator knows every detail of every possible new product or strategy currently envisioned by my organization, I still cannot predict how future events may influence interest in a particular piece of content. Look at the tags on the right side of this blog (at the bottom). I add freeform tags to all my blog posts but do not take a lot of time to try for consistency or accuracy. And I often realize that previous blog posts are interesting to a new line of discussion I initiate later, only to discover the older post wasn't tagged with that new thinking in mind.

2. Tools for tagging content are generally poor

Even if I make an effort to add metadata to my own content in as broad of a way as possible, often the tools at hand hinder my ability to create or manage metadata. Many CMS systems are set up with too much restriction, say allowing me to only enter three keywords or assign my content two a few categories in a taxonomy. For photography the problem is even more severe. How many digital cameras have you used that allow you to add keywords to the photos you take? Some may be out there, but they are few and far between. And the volume of photos that are often taken outstrip even the most diligent efforts to provide metadata. Video becomes even a greater challenge as a single clip may have sections of diverse content that may be usable separate from the clip as a whole.

3. Metadata becomes stale

Like it or not, the metadata provided will become stale over time. I may have a corporate taxonomy today that is completely different from a taxonomy of fifteen years ago. In the year 1995 there was no such thing as a "blog". Instead, we had online diaries. In 1997 we saw the first use of the term "weblog". It was in 1999 that someone jokingly coined the term blog. Think language evolution has reached the end? Think again. The language is in constant evolution. Your metadata will have to adapt to this over time.

New terminology aside, users in 2010 are searching for different things in different ways than in years past. Have a look at the interesting Google Insights for Search tool to explore back to 2004:

1.	gmail	Breakout
2.	firefox	Breakout
3.	athens 2004	+4,800%
4.	olympics	+250%
5.	情色	+50%
6.	terra	+40%
7.	qq	+40%
8.	mozilla	+40%
9.	michelin	+40%
10.	mapquest	+40%

Now look at the results for 2010:

1.	haiti	+3,400%
2.	facebook en español	+500%
3.	fb	+250%
4.	avatar	+200%
5.	lady gaga	+80%
6.	facebook login	+70%
7.	youtube videos	+60%
8.	4shared	+60%
9.	www.facebook.com	+50%
10.	twitter	+50%

Not a single match. What will we be searching for in 2012? 2020? 2100?

In ten years, it is probably no practical to go back through your entire content archives and manually re-tag every piece of content. But with automated systems old metadata can be refreshed quite easily.

4. Manual tagging is inconsistent

Ask three people to select three keywords for a particular piece of content. Most likely you will get different results, sometimes radically so. Humans focus in on items they think are important, but if you ask different people they may see the same content with a different attitude. Machine assigned metadata can be a great help in ensuring a minimum level of consistent metadata. Once that is provided, it can be curated if necessary, or augmented with additional human-provided information, but at least you are sure there is a baseline for all content.

In my work at Nstein, when we train our text mining engines we often are told that some result is inaccurate and adjust the engine accordingly to accommodate. When the new results are presented, it isn't uncommon for the same group of people to request that the result be restored to its pre-modified state.

Again, take a look at the tags associated with the limited amount of content in my blog (it's again over on the right at the bottom). You will probably note a great deal of inconsistency.

5. Content creators are too busy

I hastily add "labels" as Blogger calls them (or "tags" as I call them) to my posts but depending on how busy I am or how tired I am after creating a post, I am unlikely to spend time worrying about consistency or thoroughness. I'm just trying to get on to my next important task. Most content creators are at least as busy as I am. Few can spend the time doing a complete and thorough job of tagging their own content.

So there's my top 5 reasons publishers should be looking at text mining tools for associating metadata to their content. Can you think of others?

* for a good post on how poor metadata leads to integration challenges, check out this post from Loraine Lawson: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/lawson/why-is-integration-an-ongoing-challenge-blame-the-metadata/?cs=40220

Lost without semantics

2010-03-23T12:35:00.001-07:00

I've spent the last few years working at Nstein Technologies with our sales and marketing team and for much of that time was heavily involved in the overall product strategy. I joined the company largely because of its capability to bring semantic analysis of content to the world of CMSes. I've worked with and sold a number of CMS systems in prior jobs, and one of the compelling problems with almost all the tools out there was that the tools, whether powering Web sites or housing internal content archives, were largely incompetent when it came to uncovering new information and relationships between content. It is amazing how prevalent this problem remains.

It also amazes me how many tools are sold to publishers to attempt to address this problem, but these tools either just try to optimize manual processes - a losing proposition as the volume of content available continues to grow - or try to add automated intelligence to the content after the fact. It is clear that the cleanest path to semantic intelligence lies in applying semantic intelligence as close to the point of creation as possible. That is the power of integrating text mining technology into your production process. When I saw this being done at Nstein I joined the company. I'm just amazed how few competitors have done anything like this. Most are still trying to append semantics to the content after publication. While this can help mitigate the problem of finding content on published sites, it doesn't benefit the editorial processes.

Have a look at your favorite sites and see if they do any of the following:

Are there links to interesting, related content items you are likely to click?
If you follow the links, do those pages also offer interesting links?
If you type some typical terms into the site search box, do you get back the results you would expect?
As a comparison, do you get any better content back with a similar search from Google, Bing or Yahoo?
Do your favorite sites show up on these results?

Maybe mom was full of malarkey...

2010-03-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

It is amazing to me how much of the conventional wisdom of our mothers is accepted at face value and then amplified even in the technology community. In talking about the upcoming Apple iPad, numerous podcasts and lots of my friends talk about how they think the Amazon Kindle's screen is so much easier on the eyes. I'm starting to think that because our laptops and LCD screens share a common experience to the television of our childhood people assume that mom's admonition not to sit too close to the TV is true and applicable to TV-like devices.

The truth appears to be more complex. Last month the New York Times published an interesting article exploring the eyestrain issues of electronic devices, and mom's wisdom on eyestrain appears to be completely wrong. Among its key points:

Conventional wisdom that sitting close to the TV is bad for our eyes is wrong
Focusing on a single point for too long is the problem, which is an issue close or far from the TV or other device regardless of display technology (including printed paper!)
e-Ink screens may be worse for our eyes in low-light situations
Paper is often inferior for reading than electronic alternatives
LCD's often lack a decent viewing angle for best reading, but the IPS technology of the iPad appears to have addressed this
The bigger iPad issue will be glare from other light sources

Amazing that I still hear tech podcasts assume that e-Ink is a superior reading experience than other technologies because it is so close to paper.

I think the Kindle, iPad and other tablet technologies may actually help with the eyestrain issue because they are small and light enough to move around for a better reading experience. With a laptop or a desktop, the limited options in display position may make it hard to adjust the angle or distance from our eye for optimal reading. Lightweight, handheld devices have much more positioning flexibility so that they can overcome some of the limitations of the display method more readily.

It will be interesting to see if mom's misperceptions persist as these devices become more prevalent.

On being Kindle in an iPad world

2010-03-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Webmonkey reports that Amazon may be looking for browser engineers for their Kindle team. Interesting development, although I can't imagine how useful a grayscale browser without a convenient means of clicking links will serve anyone on the existing Kindle hardware. The hardware is really optimized through paging through book content, not navigating links scattered around a page. I tried one out recently and found myself continually touching the screen then having to remind myself that it doesn't work that way.

What will Kindle need to compete with an iPad? Start with color and a clickable screen. Without those, it remains a bookworm's tool that is not adequate for much else than e-book reading. The lack of apps will be a problem unless the price is dramatically lower than the iPad. And even then it will be a tough sell for Amazon outside of the book market.

Internet Explorer 6 funeral garnering overwhelming response

2010-02-26T11:54:00.000-08:00

Denver's Aten Design Group has taken advantage of Google's announcement that they will drop Internet Explorer 6 support starting next week. These guys very cleverly are hosting a funeral for IE6, and you can register to attend (or not) at http://ie6funeral.com. The funeral will feature "a special time of remembrance, delicious tapas, and a full service bar." If I was in Denver I think I'd attend.

The cause of death is attributed to "a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc."

Kudos to the Aten Design Group for their clever marketing! Clearly there are a lot of people who have aggregated around their funeral page. Check out some of the very clever remembrances on the Web site.

The futility of paywalls

2010-02-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

The media industry continues to try to find new monetization strategies for their digital content. I previously blogged about paywalls and micropayments several months ago and it should be obvious I'm not yet a believer in the paywall for the Web.

Hearst newspapers were reportedly looking to a paywall strategy a year ago as discussed in paidContent.org. A year later and there is more optimism coming from Hearst, with Chuck Cordray, senior vice president and general manager of Hearst magazines talking about opportunities for focusing on advertising rather than paywall revenues. Apparently the ad-supported model isn't dead yet.

The problem with trying to charge people for content on the Web is significant for mainstream newspapers and publications. It really comes down to how available the information is through free sources, in my mind. The news finds its way out through a variety of channels, so putting up metered access for content will mostly result in readers defecting to other deliveries. Even if every online newspaper site charged for content, there are still other channels to keep tabs of what is happening in the news:

I get most of my headline news from CNN via their excellent iPhone application. The application lets me get breaking news as a popup alert and cost all of $1.99. While many of the reviews complain that there are ads within the app, they don't bother me. If they are going to charge a measly $1.99 one time for me to forever consume content on the iPhone via this app, then advertising will no doubt be required to continue this service over time.
Bloggers will also take over reporting functions. In Seattle, neighborhood blogs are doing a better job of getting local news out than the big papers. As more larger news sites lay off journalists and start charging for their content they create a lucrative hole in the market that more bloggers could fill. And a small blogging operation without a lot of corporate overhead could be a credible alternative.
Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and other social media platforms already break news faster than most Web sites. The problem here is with accuracy, but if I know that eventually I'll get the big news via these social media channels I may be less likely to pay for a subscription to a Web site.
Most folks can still turn on the news on their television. Even without a cable or satellite subscription you can get breaking, local and national news from multiple sources over the air.

There are a number of psychological problems in paywalls that need to be addressed.

Lack of perceived additional value

Users have been reading the news for free on the Web for more than a decade. Most news Web sites are little more than static stories, so there is not much value-add over free television news coverage or the printed papers. The Web offers a lot of opportunity to do so much more with the news than most papers have exploited.

News applications on smart phones and in prototype demos for tablet devices are re-thinking the presentation in a way that the newspaper Web sites have not. Check out the Wired iPad edition demo. When you add value like this you can charge for content. The technologies used for this demo (Adobe Air, HTML 5, etc.) could be used on the Web, but most news sites just deliver text and photos and occasional video in a dull presentation.

Lack of re-use

There's been some talk of having à la carte models where I pay for each story, like paying for individual songs on iTunes. The problem is that when I buy a song I intend to listen to it many, many times (even if I ultimately do not). A newspaper story is unlikely to be read more than once.

Presence of advertising behind the paywall

Check out some of the reviews for the CNN iPhone application. Most the negative reviews focus on the presence of ads in a paid application - many getting downright irate over the fact that, after shelling out a whole $1.99 for the app, advertising is present in the application. Apparently a large, vocal group of users are thinking that they should pay a one-time $1.99 for an application that will continuously deliver news in perpetuity without any other revenue. This is completely silly, as we are accustomed to seeing advertising in a number of paid venues. My satellite TV subscription, cable subscription and movie tickets all cost money and all deliver advertising behind the "paywall."

I would be interested to see if CNN could sell the iPhone app for $1.99 with ads, or for some monthly or annual price for the app without ads.

The bottom line is that the more you charge for the content, the more users will expect perks for the experience. Interactivity, news alerts, cool presentation and freedom from ads are all available ways to justify paid admission. But most newspaper Web sites don't really offer added value over the competition for their paywall content.

Logging in and rendering payment

Another huge problem is the annoyance factor of a paywall. I have so many individual logins and passwords to keep track of for all the various Web sites I use already that even with a free registration I quit looking at sites that want me to set up an account. The fact is I already have too many accounts to keep track of. Entering my credit card information again means I will move on to other places to consume content. And the news is not just competing with other news sites for my attention. If I visit a news site and it is slow to load or wanting me to register, I may just opt to go to Facebook and interact with my friends instead of reading the news. Or plop down on my couch with my iPhone and use my CNN application instead.

Even if I do want to pay, it isn't transparent on the Web. On my iPhone I paid for my CNN application and do not have to register or enter credit card information - the iTunes store already handles all of that for me. I am already in a trust relationship with Apple so any app I buy does not require me to re-enter all my information or otherwise start a new relationship with yet another entity. This is a subtle but I think critical reason why paywalls on the Web will ultimately fail. Early on in the Web every site wanted me to enter all kinds of personal information for registration. Most sites learned that they were better off keeping registration minimal (and offering some value without registration). Paywalls are even worse. It is one thing to ask my name, address, name of my favorite pet, and the first school I ever attended. But as soon as the "credit card information" screen comes up you better be someone I know and trust or I won't proceed. That is why I will pay extra for buying from Amazon. That is why I have 12 pages of applications on my iPhone. That is why I never paid for a single application on my Blackberry.

It's about news products, not the news

At the end of the day, newspapers cannot expect to be able to look at their costs for producing a given news story and being able to pass those costs along directly. Instead, they have to focus on creating great products around the news. I pay for a great news product - not the news itself.

Some basic products should remain free, sustained by advertising or managed as a loss-leader for the other streams. This would seem most appropriate for Web sites. Much as magazines have been experimenting with ways to use the Web to drive traffic to their other product (the print edition), newspapers should use the Web to drive traffic to their other products. The problem is, most newspapers offer me only one other product - the printed paper - which is a product I do not want.

News companies need to create great new news products and maintain their Web site as one means to build value around their brand, generate some advertising revenues, and promote their other news products that can be seen to clearly offer additional value. Mobile phone applications, tablet applications, or who knows what else may be able to get me to pay for the experience they provide.

The first newspaper was published in 59 B.C. Since then, there have been enhancements but the product remained essentially paper and ink. I know I personally no longer want paper and ink for my news. If you want me to keep paying, then you better offer an alternative product that gives greater perceived value.

Paywalls for the loss

Newsday has seen sharp drops in traffic after establishing a $5/month paywall. I suspect that most of the traffic they have kept is in their strategy to use the Web in conjunction with other product offerings. In this case, people receiving the print edition of the paper or subscribing to parent company Cablevision's broadband service do not have to pay the $5/month.

Unfortunately, rather than using the Web presence to grow Newsday's audience they are instead walling it off and making themselves ignored outside of the local markets served by the print edition and the broadband service.

Musical Madness

2010-02-18T22:54:00.000-08:00

I have always been a fan of a diverse variety of music. I grew up listening to my children albums (Peter Pan records anyone?) on a Close-and-Play record player, but gravitated toward an incredibly diverse array of music that I commandeered from my older sister and my parents.

My father was mostly a fan of the country genre, so I grew to appreciate outlaw country of the 70s at an early age. Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson figured most prominently. But just when you thought you had him pegged, he would bring home a crazy Bette Midler album or inform me that Barbra Streisand was one of the greatest singers ever.

My mother probably had the most to do with an early expansion of my musical horizons. She was often involved in some kind of dance class or activity around music. Musicals? Check. Her tap dance soundtrack (Bubblin' Brown Sugar) quickly became a favorite soundtrack for me and my younger sister's roller-skating. I remember my mom brought home the Jazz Singer soundtrack after she saw the remake of the movie. I still haven't seen the film, but that record forever cemented Neil Diamond's cheeziest moments deep within my musical tastes. I saw Neil live in Seattle - by myself - 6 or so years ago. Anyone who ends 75% of his songs with his fist in the air is a winner in my book. My mom also spent several years in a belly dance troupe, and just a few years ago I managed to resurrect my favorite Middle Eastern hit Port Said by El Bakkar. You can download his stuff for free on the internet. I still have no idea how his music ranks in the Middle East, but I still like it. My mom was also an early afficionado of The Alan Parson's Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, forever providing me with a musical view of the works of Edgar Alan Poe. To this day I still love that album. And apparently once of my earliest pop performances was Don Ho's "Tiny Bubbles." I was so happy to have had the opportunity to see him perform live at a casino in Tacoma before he died, although he was clearly past his prime. Still, I was one of the few audience members who cheered when he played the video of his daughter Hoku's hit "Another Dumb Blonde" on the big screen during the show.

My older sister, with a 5 year lead on me, gave me a crazy tapestry of musical interests. I used to borrow her 45 records for my own listening pleasure and at an early age knew a range of disco hits - able to sing through most of the lyrics of "It's Raining Men" and "Afternoon Delight" before I had any idea what I was getting in to. But like my parents, my sister didn't fit comfortably into a single genre. Alongside the latest Olivia Newton-John hits - my sister took me to see Grease when it came out - she gave me a taste for a crazy variety of music. The Electric Light Orchestra's "Out of the Blue" remains one of my favorite albums to this day - I think I actually stole that one from her because I was enthralled by the album art. Speaking of album art, if you get a chance to check out Elton John's album release of "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" you should do so immediately. I had no concept of the meaning of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" as me and my sister performed it with our Ernie and Bert hand puppets - but looking back it seems eerily appropriate. Throw in the greatest hits of Van Halen - "Sweet Emotion" was a favorite but I also have "Back in the Saddle" burned into my brain eternally - as well as everything from the Rolling Stones to The Carpenters courtesy of borrowed 45s from my sister's incredibly diverse collection and perhaps you start to understand the source of my musical madness. I used to DJ my own radio shows from an early age, recording my shows on cassette. Hardly any of this survives, but I would venture a guess that my early shows were the only place you might hear a song from The Muppet Movie followed by a Van Halen tune and then a disco hit.

To this day, I retain my incredibly diverse appreciation of music. I remember Abba's "Super Trouper" as one of the first albums I independently sought out - my younger sister and I listened to that one endlessly. My first cassette tape purchases - the fruits of some record store gift certificates left in my stocking - were Toto's "Africa" and the first Flock of Seagull's album ("I Ran" is still brilliant!). I adore Dolly Parton. I still listen to Willie and Waylon. Tina Turner is my diva. Johnny Cash is a god. Abba owns a huge portion of my iPod's drive space. Band of Horses? Amazing. Beyonce? Goddess. Holy Fuck is one of the best live performances in recent memory. Of course the day I first enjoyed them I was also utterly enthralled by the live performance of United States of Electronica (thank you Bumbershoot!). And how can I deny my decade-long obsession with everything Styx. Just last month I cruised iTunes for all the great 80's and 90's-era Aerosmith hits that I failed to appreciate in their time. Disney World's Hollywood Studio "Rock'n Roller Coaster" - an awesome ride featuring Aerosmith - reminded me to follow up on my favorite childhood rockers. Empire of the Sun? Epic music and videos. My ultimate megamix veers wildly between genres and is guaranteed to alternatively delight and offend nearly everyone. You think you got weird music in your collection? Don't make me dig out the 70s work of the Ray Conniff singers. And lest you think this is just some kind of stunt - I really do watch re-runs of "The Lawrence Welk Show" on PBS by myself. Thank grandma and grandpa for that one!

Right now I'm listening to one of my favorite albums of the 2000s - Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief". The album nearly brings me to tears by the time the devastating "Wolf at the Door" closes the album. It is so tied to my political and social experience as an adult I suspect it will forever be an album that I am compelled to experience from beginning to end as a whole. It is highly likely, though, that after some Radiohead I will throw on Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A." to help bring me out of my funk. If that doesn't work a dose of Ke$ha or Kid Sister will surely do the trick. Or maybe I'll pull out some Alanis Morissette and get in touch with my feminine side. After all, what better than "Jagged Little Pill" to dredge up how pissed off I should be about my romances?

Then again, Lawrence Welk is waiting on my Tivo...

Data consumption and Smartphones

2010-02-13T13:00:00.001-08:00

Consumer Reports released an interesting study that compares the data use rates of iPhone users to those of other smartphones. And the results are quite telling.

The average iPhone user consumes 274MB per month in comparison to 54MB per month for Blackberry users and 150MB for other smartphone users. Interesting figures. Part of the 54MB on the Blackberry can be possibly explained by Blackberry's use of proprietary email server technology that was designed to compress the data for email, although shockingly the study excluded business users which means that most or all of these figures eliminate that variable.

What accounts for the dramatic difference? Are iPhone users über-geeks obsessed with data useage? I don't think so. Looking around at the people I see in airports on their iPhones it appears that the device has reached a mainstream audience.

Instead I think it is the quality of the experience the iPhone presents. It is so easy to install applications on the iPhone via the App store that my most tech-challenged friends have a variety of applications they bought and added themselves to the device. Some of these applications (like Facebook) encourage the consumption of data.

The iPhone browser, while still limited by the mobile hardware, is still light years ahead as a browsing experience than the Blackberry. When I was using the Blackberry Curve 18 months ago, the browser simply could not reliably display Web pages. While some sites worked ok on the device, most were unusable. Coupled with the extreme difficulty in trying to navigate that meant that I rarely used the Web browser for anything. Comparing the activities I did online with my Blackberry and now with my iPhone:

Applications:

Blackberry: Installed a few applications, but difficulty finding and installing them and then application crashes discouraged me from exploring many apps. Mostly I used Google Maps, the built-in email client for work email (but usually not for personal email), and Facebook. I never found any games that I enjoyed playing on the device, and after three tries at a decent Twitter application resulted in frustration (and lockups!), I gave up on that.
iPhone: I have 12 pages of applications installed. I have tried more than 100 applications. I play games on my iPhone all the time (I'm addicted to Fieldrunners, Settlers of Catan, Trism, and a few others that I play a lot - but I have several pages of games installed that I will fire up now and again). I use the Facebook application regularly. I have three twitter clients that all work well, although I don't Tweet much lately. I have written blog posts on my iPhone. I use Trip It to keep track of my travel constantly. Some of these apps, once installed, don't require much data use. And the largest cannot be downloaded over the 3G network due to limitations imposed by AT&T.

Web:

Blackberry: I hated the Blackberry browser. Web pages rendered so poorly to be nearly unusable. I installed Opera Mobile, and while the experience was better, trying to navigate the Web using a little scroller ball was still a bit of an exercise in frustration. I've heard the browsers for Blackberry have made great improvements over the last year, but I still need a bigger screen than the hardware-keyboard Blackberries have in order to have what I would consider an acceptable Web experience.
iPhone: I browser the Web constantly in my free time. The iPhone browser, while not supporting Flash, is still a great experience most of the time.

Music/Audio:

Blackberry: I hated the Blackberry's music player. I loaded some music on it initially but went right back to my iPod Nano for listening. I never downloaded music into the device directly. I never listened to audiobooks on the device. The one time I did try the player did not easily remember my location in the book.
iPhone: I love the iPhone's iPod functionality. I do listen to some audiobooks and music on the device at times, but I still rely on my iPod Nano. Part of this is because the Nano can go a very very long time without a recharge. That is also why most of my audiobook listening is on the Nano too. That said, I find myself regularly buying music on the iPhone as when I travel I will hear something I like and buy the album right away so I don't forget. I will listen to it on the iPhone. The fact that the iPhone syncs the music right back to my desktop when I get home transparently, and in turn my iPod Nano gets the new music when it syncs to the desktop makes the experience seamless enough (and no more costly) that I regularly buy stuff on the iPhone iTunes store.

Video:

Blackberry: I don't think my curve supported video at all. If it did I never saw it.
iPhone: The iPhone's included YouTube application practically begs for you to watch video. My 3GS can record video as well, but I have never uploaded any videos. But I often will watch YouTube on the device. And video podcasts are also beautiful to watch, so much so that I never watch my video podcasts on my Nano any more. I have purchased movies and TV shows while traveling, although the limitations imposed by AT&T prevent you from downloading large videos over the 3G network.

Photos:

Blackberry: I liked the Blackberry camera well enough, and would occasionally take pictures to upload to Facebook.
iPhone: I take a lot more pictures with the iPhone than I ever did with the Blackberry. I'm not exactly sure why, but the camera is more fun to use. I still occasionally upload pictures to Facebook. I also send them via text message (which only started last fall). Other than that, I mostly just sync photos to iPhoto which doesn't use the data network.

Email:

Blackberry: I used this for corporate email (to a corporate Blackberry server) all of the time. While the study did not take corporate use into account, Blackberry servers - from what I understand - compress the email data heavily to minimize the bandwidth requirements. I hardly ever checked my personal email on the device (Gmail). I hardly ever downloaded attachments on this.
iPhone: I use this all the time (even at home) for corporate and personal email. I use the email client for Gmail, but also regularly use a hyperlink to the awesome iPhone-tailored mobile presentation of the Gmail Web site. I download attachments fairly often so I can go over things while traveling.

Tethering:

Blackberry: I never used my Blackberry for tethering although I believe it was theoretically possible.
iPhone: Still no tethering offered from AT&T. I might have gone with tethering a year ago but now I am so satisfied with my Sprint Overdrive that I am no longer really interested. I like having a backup data connection. This proved useful last week when I was in New York. My hotel had no outward-facing windows. AT&T couldn't get a reliable connection to my hotel room unless I sat in the window well. My Sprint Overdrive had a great 3G connection so I was able to use my iPhone and laptop over the Sprint network with no issues.

Future predictions

I have heard anecdotally that Android users are even heavier data consumers than iPhone users. I would believe that based on the probability that the Android adopters thus far are more tech-oriented than the average iPhone user (as is usually the case with earlier-adopters). Multitasking also will provide more data consumption opportunities, as you might have numerous applications on Android consuming data simultaneously.

But the high data consumption on Android is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of iPhone users out there. I think for the near future most other carriers will not have the scalability issues that AT&T has faced for two reasons. No device will be in the short term as popular as the iPhone, and other smartphones do not have the easy, integrated means to consume content that the iPhone does (via the App store, the iTunes store, etc.). Yes, you can buy and add music and apps to these devices but it still will remain a bit of a challenging experience and seems to be nowhere near of an integrated experience that Apple has created.

I think in the long term, AT&T's growing pains force it to expand its data network far beyond other carriers. While it has been a struggle for them, they are wise to keep iPhone exclusivity while they build out their network. Then, someday, when the iPhone moves to other carriers they may be in a great position as the growing pains they have already overcome begin to tax the rival networks.

Kicking in the overdrive

2010-02-08T05:14:00.000-08:00

I have been using the Sprint Overdrive, a new mobile hotspot that allows you to carry around a Wifi access point for up to 5 simultaneous connections. I decided to get rid of my old USB mobile broadband modem. For the same monthly price, I now have a lot more flexibility. If my AT&T wireless signal is weaker I can connect via Wifi to my Sprint device. When I get an iPad I can buy the cheaper, Wifi only model and still connect to the Internet on the road via the Overdrive. Also, not having to power up a 3G radio in each device should improve battery life. And when I travel to conferences, trade shows, or even just with colleagues we can share the connection and save on Wifi access charges.

So far it seems to work pretty well. Unlike the Mifi, the Overdrive includes an informative screen on its face that gives connection status information, battery life, number of connections, GPS status and other information.

Speed seems pretty good. Sprint's 4G network is a bit limited. In my Central Area home I cannot get a 4G connection (but the 3G connection is very good). At the airport I have full 4G. I imagine the coverage will improve over time.

HTML's new tricks sends old browsers out to pasture

2010-02-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

In my previous post, I talked about YouTube's new HTML 5 beta that allows you to watch videos in your browser without Flash. After my informal testing confirmed that Flash is indeed a bit of a resource hog whose presence on a Web page seems to demand 50% of my Core 2 Duo 3.06 Mhz processor. Seems excessive especially when many sites use Flash just to have jazzy navigation or animation that really provides little to the experience. I've installed the nifty ClickToFlash plugin for Safari that only allows Flash objects to load if I say yes, which means a Web page can't arbitrarily commandeer half my processor for the latest display ad.

Interesting that I received an email from Google yesterday that informed me that Google is going to be adopting "faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5" and so will be phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6.0 and "older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers." I will shed no tears for IE 6 as it introduces even more cross-browser compatibility issues when trying to write Web applications.

It is clear that both Apple and Google are intent on moving the Internet onto HTML 5 - with Apple steadfastly refusing to support a Flash player on the iPhone as well as the new iPad. While I hear a lot of grumbling about this decision, I think this is really the only way that we advance the state-of-the-art on the Web.

According to W3Counter's Web site, IE 6 had a 10% browser share. W3Schools shares a statistic that is close to the same figure. I've seen a few other figures that fluctuate between 10 and 20%, so those seem like safe figures. There is a significant cost in supporting IE6 and other old browsers, so I'm glad to see that 2010 will be the year we finally enable HTML5 for most users.

HTML 5: Flashkiller and the future of Google

2010-02-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

I was listening to This Week In Tech with Leo Laporte and with the discussion of Apple's iPad listened to a discussion about the lack of Adobe Flash support on the new device (and on the iPhone). They mentioned how Steve Jobs allegedly has stated that Adobe is "lazy" with their Macintosh Flash code and that it is the biggest cause of crashes on the platform.

Rather than speculate, I decided to test things out with my own computer. So I fired up OS/X's Activity Monitor application then headed over to YouTube to watch an interview with President Obama. With the default, YouTube Flash player my CPU usage for Safari stayed at around 14% of my CPU cycles. The Flash player ran anywhere from 28% to 42% of the available CPU resources. All told, watching that video in Safari meant that anywhere from 42% to 56% of the CPU resources were dedicated to my YouTube watching pleasure.

I then joined the YouTube HTML 5 beta by going to http://www.youtube.com/html5 and clicking the "Join the HTML 5 beta" link. Apparently this sets my preferences so that YouTube streams via HTML 5 rather than using the Flash player. While watching the same video, there was no video player application, and Safari used anywhere from 7% - 14% of my CPU resources. The video looked the same to me in Safari.

Amazing that simply delivering video via HTML 5 can free up anywhere from 28% - 49% of my CPU resources! Upgrading your machine at the time of purchase by that much can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Try it yourself and see. I can see why Apple so adamantly opposes Flash, as on a more CPU-constrained device Flash causes a huge drop in performance. And I personally will be thrilled to be able to eliminate this resource hog from my system...

Come on over to iPad

2010-01-27T11:59:00.001-08:00

I watched Steve Jobs introduce the iPad today. Most of the details weren't too surprising to me, as the iPad is essentially a giant iPod Touch. In my mind that's a good thing, taking a successful idea to a new level. There are some interesting parts of the announcement that have me ready to pre-order as soon as I can...

Office productivity software... check
VGA output for projectors/television... check
Optional hardware keyboard... check
Reasonably priced - $499 is great, of course I'll spring for the $699 model

Who needs to worry about this?

My hackintosh Netbook, which will be utterly obsolete. The biggest challenge I've found with my Netbook has been its screen resolution and itty-bitty keyboard. Oh, and the mouse pad is too small too. The 1024x600 resolution is strange. The Apple iPad will support a more normal 1024x768, and can be rotated for optimal viewing. And multitouch will be great for most of my keyboard needs on the road. Having the hardware keyboard option I can throw in my luggage will make leaving my PC at home a reality.
Amazon and the Kindle. Let's face it... the Kindle is only suitable for book reading. Yes, its battery life is great. But all you can do with it is have a fairly static book reading experience. For less than $200 more you could have a truly great multimedia experience and a tool for getting your work done as well. And I can read all the Kindle books. The e-readers will stay around as niche products for those who are truly hardcore book fans. Most of us will end up preferring a device like the iPad.

What do I need to make it all work?

Hey there, GotoMeeting or Webex, how about supporting the iPad? I know there is already a Webex app for the iPhone (which should work on the iPad), but we need some real screen-sharing capabilities for managing remote presentations.

Go for WiFi only, or wait for 3G?

So in 60 days they say they'll ship the WiFi version of this. The 3G edition will be in 90 days... and have data plans (month-to-month, no contract) starting around $15.

I am not sure I need the 3G support. Lately I've done some testing of the Mifi WiFi-to-3G card from Verizon. It allows any WiFi device to access the mobile network. It worked flawlessly. Battery life seemed good enough. Since I require mobile wireless Internet for my work it might make sense to do something like this instead of futzing around with built-in 3G. With the Mifi I can share my connection with other people or even use it with my iPhone. Plus, I think much of the time when I do not have access to WiFi I am on the move anyway and will use my iPhone instead of digging out an iPad.

Come on over to iPad...

Apple might be able to resurrect and re-work 70s era Stri-Dex commercials for marketing the iPad. And I'm sure in a few months we'll forget all about the disturbing - but oh so prescient - MadTV parody. This thing feels like it will be a huge home run for Apple. With the iPhone, they entered a humdrum smartphone market - a market that Microsoft, Nokia, and Palm spent a decade working in with limited customer satisfaction - and reinvigorated it completely. Other companies (Nokia, Microsoft, and a bunch of others) have tried with limited success to sell tablet devices. But those devices were, like most pre-iPhone smartphones, all about compromise. They end up being a lot more trouble than their worth for most people leaving them in the niches.

The iPad's ability to run iPhone apps make this the device I've been waiting for. And I'm astonished that they are doing it at such an attractive price. I can't wait to get my hands on one.

Reading Playboy for the ads

2010-01-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting experience today when I was perusing Playboy's archive site at http://www.playboyarchive.com. No, I wasn't reading it for the articles. I was actually looking at the presentation as it came up in a discussion of modern ways to deliver magazine-oriented content with one of my customers. It may not surprise my friends, but as I looked at back issues of Playboy from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, I was entranced by the advertising and the changing approaches to advertising throughout the decades. It was a repeat of the same sort of experience I had when National Geographic released CD-ROMs in the 90s containing their entire magazine collection - including the advertising pages (since available on fewer DVDs).

Years ago I used VHS to tape all the Star Trek episodes. The tapes survive to this day and my friend who inherited the collection told me that it is fun to watch to see the old 80s-era television advertising.

What does advertising mean in the digital age? Most ads on the Web or delivered via iPhone app (or perhaps via Steve Jobs' new device I will be drooling over tomorrow) are placed by computers based on either analysis of the content, the user, or some combination thereof. Even with digital video distribution the ads for even ancient content are updated. Watching an old "Doogie Howser" episode on Hulu? You won't know it from the ads. They are completely up-to-date and modern. Reading something in the New York Times archive? Again, the advertising is also fresh and new.

Publishers save their content in an archive for repurposing. The Internet Archive creates snapshots of popular sites. But they don't do every page of every site.

I wonder how many publishers are doing the same page-level archiving for their sites? Not just of content, but of the presentation at a given point in time?

Facebook, Google, privacy and you

2009-12-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

A lot of people enjoy taking Facebook quizzes or the myriad of other Facebook applications. I mostly ignore these, but hadn't really thought of them as insidious until the latest episode of Leo Laporte's This Week In Tech podcast. They were discussing Facebook's new privacy settings and then the subject of applications and quizzes came up. I heard something alarming, specifically that even if I avoid adding these Facebook applications to my account my friends can be compromising my privacy and supplying all of my personal information to third-parties whenever they take a quiz, play a Facebook game, or otherwise authorize a Facebook application.

The TWIT team mentioned a quiz on Facebook put out by the ACLU to educate users on this huge privacy breach called "What do Facebook quizzes know about you?" I tried out the quiz and it was quite illuminating. If you use Facebook you should try out the quiz.

The Associated Press put out a story on this today that I read on Boston.com walking you

through some of the Facebook privacy issues called "Want privacy on Facebook? Here is how to get some." If you haven't thought about Facebook privacy it's a good place to start.

As cloud computing becomes more prevalent we should remain more diligent to ensure that we don't all inadvertently give up all privacy. Need evidence of this? I was watching a CNBC documentary called Inside the Mind of Google. During an interview with Eric Schmidt, he dropped this little bomb: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Gawker points out how Google itself has, in the past, blacklisted CNET for publishing information gleaned about Eric Schmidt from their own search engine. Check out The Huffington Post for more on this and to watch the video.

I use Facebook and Google, and realize that we give up something to participate in this stuff. But it is our responsibility to remain acutely aware of exactly what tradeoffs we are making and remember that our participation in online communities is the very thing that gives these companies such power. By granting this power, we are all responsible to police it as well.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." -- Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Have you visited www.google.com lately?

2009-12-14T12:51:00.001-08:00

I don't usually make a habit of visiting a browser's Web page any more as I generally conduct all my Google searches from the search box in my browser. So I haven't really kept up on advances on Google's search page.

As shown in the screenshot, some queries will begin offering you information without even leaving the page. Start typing "weather in ..." and Google offers to auto-complete the query. What's more, as it zeros in on the city you are interested in it offers you immediate feedback.

You can try this with other types of information. Type in "Current time in London" or any other city to calculate times. Type "NWA 2260" and without leaving the search box find out the latest flight status. Type "6 teaspoons to tablespoons" and the drop down will appear telling you the answer.

I'm not exactly sure what other tricks the search box has up its sleeve... but I like the idea. I wish the same functionality was available in the browser's search box in the top right.

A Christmas Miracle: Fixing your holiday lights

2009-12-07T22:46:00.000-08:00

I've been busily digging out Christmas lights over the last week. There is nothing more frustrating than finding several strings dead after being put away in perfectly good working condition.

I was at my local Lowes and saw the "Lightkeeper Pro Repair Tool," a tool designed to troubleshoot and repair holiday lights.

I tried a strand that was 1/2 dead. The directions said to plug in the lights, remove one of the dead bulbs, plug the empty socket into the tool, then squeeze the trigger up to 20 times. When the lights light up, remove from tool, replace bulb and the set should work.

HUH? I read that twice and could not figure out what in the heck randomly removing one of the dead bulbs could do to revive my lights. Yet I tried this on three strands and all came back to life with a couple of pulls of the trigger. My roommate and I were both wide-eyed and startled when it actually worked! He had been questioning my $20 purchase, but in the end it seemed like a crazy magic trick. I read the package a bit more for information on the science behind the miracle...

Turns out, each bulb has a shunt that closes the connection in the event the filament burns out. But cheap bulb shunts sometimes fail to close the connection properly when a light burns out, leaving the circuit dead. The Lightkeeper Pro sends a strong pulse of electricity through the line to force the dead bulb shunts closed.

Try try try to understand... it's a Magic Mouse?

2009-11-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have spent a few days using the new Magic Mouse from Apple. I have been around the world on the input device front. Over the last 20 years I went through all sorts of mice. I tried trackballs for a number of years. I have a Bamboo tablet. But sometime in the last 5 years I sort of gave up on input devices and just started using whatever was available.

When I got my iMac it came with the Apple Mighty Mouse. The whole mouse was a button (although it could simulate a right-click - a bit unreliably). It had a weird "squeeze" feature that was pretty much useless to me, but I used it for day-to-day work. When I started playing World of Warcraft I brought an old Logitech MX Laser mouse out of service. I'm not a demanding mouse user even in that game (I'm pretty sucky at it actually), but the unreliability of the right click on the Mighty Mouse drove me bonkers.

So I'm not sure what possessed me to order the new Apple Magic Mouse for $69. Expensive for a mouse, but I guess I was ready for something new. And I'm thrilled I did. The new Magic Mouse is the first mouse that made me excited to use it in years.

Like the Mighty Mouse, the whole mouse is a button, but the top of the mouse is touch-sensitive, like a track pad curved onto its surface. I have yet to note a single case where it confuses my left-click for a right-click.

But where it truly outshines everything else I've used is on the scroll action. It is so sensitive, subtle, and perfect when scrolling I almost get tingly when I use it... weird! And you can run your finger across almost its entire surface in a scroll action. Want to scroll in a circular motion? No problem.

The CTRL-scroll makes for a lovely zooming experience. And if the program doesn't support zoom the entire Macintosh screen zooms. Smooth and very useful!

I haven't had as much occasion to use the double-finger slide motion... but it seems a lot more convenient to have around. I do remember to use it for a Web back once in a while, but I seem to have a mental block around this most of the time.

Whenever I reach for the mouse now I suddenly feel like the epitome of elegance... yes there's an old can of soda, spilled peanuts on the floor... and my desk looks like a tornado just blew through the hall of records. But I touch this mouse and feel like I've achieved a new sophistication.

Mac users - head over to the Apple store and try one out.

TV's greatest friend: The DVR

2009-11-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

Bill Carter of the New York Times published a very intriguing article discussion how the DVR has become televisions greatest friend. It seems that all the TV executives' fears that DVRs drive down the value of advertising is not happening. In fact, the DVR has increased the number of viewers for ads.

It appears that 46% of the population who watch a show also watch the ads. Why? They argue that because television in a passive activity these viewers are not prone to pick up the remote and skip over ads.

In the old days also viewers who didn't happen to be home when a particular show aired just missed the show and its related advertising. Now those users tape the show. Coupled with a 46% chance that they will watch the ads, it seems that this results in more exposure for the advertising not less.

Internet Explorer: With Chrome! If you can't beat 'em, plug 'em!

2009-09-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

I was reading a short article on Webmonkey about Google's fantastic new way to make ancient versions of Internet Explorer behave like civilized beasts. Coincidentally, I also heard a Slate podcast of an article "Chrome for Clunkers" on the same subject. Both articles are good, but geeks will gravitate toward the useful Webmonkey article since it gives you the magic tag to enable the Chrome plug-in on your Web pages.

So to get around the hordes of users who have never upgraded their browser -- and, from the Slate article, most likely don't even know what a browser is -- Web developers can call a plug-in that runs Google's Chrome browser as a plug-in inside Internet Explorer. And for those of you who wonder if this might be a tough thing to do for a Web developer, never fear. Webmonkey tells us that it is absurdly easy to do. Apparently this takes advantage of Microsoft building in backwards compatibility between IE7 and IE8 using an emulate tag in an unexpected way.

From then on the HTML rendering is handled by Chrome. The browser-ignorant will just get yet another mysterious plug-in to install ("Install? Just click "Yes" to everything!"). And Web developers will rejoice at being able to gloss over Microsoft's lack of HTML5 support.

Just when I start to think Google has gone corporate yet again they prove me wrong by finding a clever hack to a complex problem that makes the world better. And on the same week I was going to try to start using Bing! Ok, so I'm a sucker for an excuse not to update my browser preferences and bookmarks...

That appears to be the strategy of the Google Wave team. Apparently rather than code for or test with IE, they run Chrome Frame (the Google Chrome plug-in for IE). If a user adamantly refuses to run Chrome Frame, apparently much of Wave works, but only after ye who enter there click "OK" to the "Abandon all hope" disclaimer.

What a cool, ingenious way to pull developers off of the Microsoft products. It takes advantage of two common behaviors of the unwashed technology masses -- the propensity to say "Yes" or "OK" to anything a computer asks you, and the propensity to never update your software. All converge in what appears to be a fantastic way for Google to ensure that Web developers code to Google Chrome's advantage, despite its tiny market share. And years ago I used to wail at the differences and quirks in the various versions of IE -- oh marquee tag, we hardly knew ye. Mighty seductive to be able to work in HTML 5 and forget about these things.

I will probably never need this, as I use a Mac and Safari is my browser of choice, and being Webkit based will probably remain largely in step with Chrome. And I have a propensity to click yes every time my computer wants a system update. Since IE is clearly here for a long time, this is the next best thing to using a cool browser.

Paywalls, micropayments, and the future of news part 2

2009-09-18T13:42:00.001-07:00

I've been reading more interesting debates on the concept of paying for the news. PBS.org has an interesting 2 part debate between David Carr of the New York Times and Mike Masnick of Techdirt.

I suspect that one thing to add to the debate (and that newspapers need to consider as they try these strategies) is that audiences are much more likely to move to alternative news outlets when walls are erected around the traditional content providers. In Seattle a number of hyper-local neighborhood blogs are providing local news. If there were paywalls around the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer sites, would these grow even more rapidly?

As I blogged earlier, Jeff Jarvis contends that one can make a pretty nice living blogging local news.

If the audience leaves the newspaper sites due to barriers, will the people writing the news also depart and form networks of community blogs? Will that be the new local news model?

The W est Seattle blog serves a neighborhood in Seattle and has evolved rapidly. Look at the menus and see how it is drifting towards becoming a news site. And look at the stories covered on the site - these are things you don't see in the big printed papers or on the larger newspaper Web sites.

And other players are looking to move into the online news space in a bigger way, at least in local markets. Check out some of what's going on here.

Yet another UI rant

2009-09-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

I continue to be perplexed at the way in which products continue to be released with crummy UI decisions. My DishTV receiver (a VIP 722) has a feature set I love. I can record three shows at a time and simultaneously deliver television to two locations in my house. It's got plenty of space. But compared to my old Tivo or Snapstream (PC-based DVR software I still use) the user interface is needlessly complicated. The scheduling features are powerful, but many of the common things I do regularly are buried in menus. I don't know how new products continue to be released with so many UI shortcomings... the Tivo set the standard ten years ago!

With effort, though, I've managed to become adept at managing my DVR despite its UI shortcomings. But I cannot get over the most annoying information message... when the satellite signal deteriorates, rather than discretely notifying me of this with a small icon in the corner or something, a gigantic box obscures the entire screen to let me know of the problem.

When I fail to do something right I try not to scream my shortcomings to the world in the loudest possible way... I wish my DVR would do likewise.

Paying for the news online

2009-09-03T11:29:00.001-07:00

I was reading a recent article from PaidContent.org outlining how newspapers who have set up paywalls are faring. As I expected, it appears that the answer is not very well. Yet there are a substantial number of newspapers who are thinking that paywalls and Web site subscriptions are the key to saving their organizations.

At the same time, you have people like Jeff Jarvis who are touting a new business model for the news. He recently posted an excellent piece called "What crisis?" where he contends that there really isn't a crisis in the news. What's a media organization to do?

Often when paywalls enter the conversation people point to Web sites who have successfully maintained a subscription model. The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal are often cited. The Chronicle of Higher Education uses subscriptions effectively. If they can do it, why not my local newspaper?

What people fail to understand is that the successful sites above are all sites that can sell subscriptions as a business expense. If I am in finance I can get my company to pony up for a Wall Street Journal subscription. Or claim my subscription as a business expense tax write-off. The same is true for a lot of niche publications that serve very specific markets - like the Chronicle mentioned above. But when I am at home spending my own money, I'm likely to be much more reluctant to give my credit card information to a bunch of general news sites. For one, 90% of the stuff is re-cycled and available free elsewhere. Two, the news doesn't necessarily have any predictable business benefit. If I don't read the paper tomorrow, it may not make a bit of difference to me. If something significant happens that directly effects me, I'm likely to find out about it through my other networks (Facebook, Twitter, colleagues at the water cooler, friends, family phone calls, TV and radio, blogs...).

What I found most interesting in the PaidContent.org piece was how many of the newspapers explicitly said their goal was not to make any money charging for online subscriptions, but instead put up a barrier that drives people to get a subscription to the print edition of the newspaper.

REALLY?!

I am utterly shocked that anyone would make such a statement publicly. I have long thought that this was the real motivation behind a lot of the moves towards paywalls and registrations, but figured that was sort of a conspiracy theory. Something I thought might be true when thinking that the newspaper leadership were utterly out of touch. I had no idea that not only was it more true than I thought, but an openly stated strategy!

If I was an investor in a newspaper and was told that the new Internet strategy was to make online content expensive of difficult to access in order to bolster our print business I'd fire the guy on the spot. It is unbelievable that these leaders are sacrificing their future with such short-sightedness. This is an attempt to kill online news by a print organization. Good luck with that one, Don Quixote.

In Seattle, the thriving West Seattle blog is delivering hyper-local news in a way the newspapers never did. Non-profit news organizations have sprung up in San Diego and Minneapolis and are spreading around the country. News organizations are fond of saying that bloggers and other alternative news outlets won't compete because they won't want to sit in a boring water board meeting. Well I have some news for you - the newspapers didn't sit in those water board meetings either, especially given the dramatic cuts to the staff of reporters at most newspapers. But a lot of citizens do... and those citizens can easily post content relating to their experiences and ideas online without the benefit of a printing press.

I've done a number of informal surveys and it seems to me that it is harder to find anyone under the age of 25 who reads a newspaper. Yet these people seem highly engaged with news and communication, sharing lots of information on Twitter and Facebook, glued to their computers and mobile devices, and able to access more content more quickly than ever. This audience is not going to grow up, settle down, and get a nice old-fashioned newspaper subscription in 10 years. On the contrary, they are the future on which the news must build their business models.

Newspapers who focus on preserving their ivory tower are wasting their effort. Forget about trying to recreate the glory days of news and get with the business of building a new model of doing business. Yes, it will be smaller. No longer will newspapers have armies of delivery trucks hauling paper. Instead they will have to become smaller organizations focused on online experiences. And about those gigantic buildings - time to think about scaling those back too. Reporters can easily work in the field. Editors should be interacting with people outside those walls as much as those inside. It's time to take a hard look at what is really needed to accomplish to goal of informing the public efficiently.

That's not to say that there is no money to be made online. Quite the contrary. Jeff Jarvis presented findings in Aspen last month that hyper-local bloggers are currently bringing in $100,000 to $200,000 annually in ad revenue alone and they "...believe that can be optimized by at least 50 percent with the creation of metro, local, and ecommerce networks and with better training, technologies, and efficiencies."

So a memo to the newspapers who are trying to save themselves by looking to the past: those reporters you are laying off, or paying less than $100,000... they are working on how to build a new Web-based news business model while you wall off your content and work to protect your print revenues.

Are you going to bet that they can't do it?

Visit your classified ad department and think about Craigslist.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

2009-08-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

I updated my iMac to Snow Leopard Friday. It was trivial to install, and so far I am most excited about the changes to Exposee and the yellow "minimize" button. Now all windows associated with an app can be easily seen by clicking and holding on its icon in the dock. Extremely useful and intuitive. And an option now allows minimized windows to hide in the application icon (instead of the right hand side of the dock).

I was already using Safari 4, and so haven't noticed a big jump with that upgrade. But overall everything seems quite smooth.

Lick it and watch it: Magazines are jumping the shark

2009-08-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

I think we are starting to see increasing desperation on the part of publishers to keep print relevant in the increasingly digital world. Welch's Grape Juice is running lickable advertising in People magazine (from the Wall Street Journal). CBS is running video advertising in Entertainment Weekly (from the Associated Press).

I suppose lickable magazines will discourage me from borrowing issues of my favorite publications from associates or, heaven forbid, the library. Perhaps that will drive sales as we race to taste our way through our favorite publications.

It seems to me that these are desperate, last-ditch efforts to try to add value to the print production processes that built these publications. It seems once and for all the publishers have jumped the shark.

So what is wrong with lickable advertising? Well, sanitation aside, I don't think lack of flavor is the problem with declining subscription revenues. Who wants to lick a magazine? And is this really going to sell more grape jelly? Who doesn't know what grape jelly tastes like already?!

The embedded video player is an impressive technical feat... but if I want video in my Entertainment Weekly I'd probably be more inclined to fire up my iPhone, computer, or tablet and watch it there. The last thing I need is a magazine that is impossible to recycle because it's stuffed with electronics. Electronics that, as far as I can tell, will only play the trailer for an episode of "The Big Bang Theory." How many times do I need to watch that? And is it going to play every time I open the magazine? Can I silence it?

These gimmicks may provide minor boosts in the short term, but I think the whole idea is as doomed to fail as print itself. Instead of gimmicks, these publishers and advertisers should be focusing resources on retooling their processes for the impending digital world. The Web, media tablets, iPhones - reach me there instead of trying to seduce me back to a dying format.

It's good to see publishers trying to innovate. Too bad they're wasting effort on this kind of nonsense.

Genius or Menace? Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel

2009-06-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Preface: I started this post in April... but sort of abandoned it and left it sitting with my other draft blog entries. With the death of Billy Mays last weekend, I thought I'd go ahead and finish it up.

I have an unhealthy fondness for "reality" television, but have been trying to avoid getting sucked in to any new shows. But I couldn't resist tuning in to the Discovery Channel's new show Pitchmen. The show follows Billy Mays and Andrew Sullys as they attempt to find the next great infomercial invention. A show that combines inventors, infomercials, and reality TV? How can I resist?

And I must say I am hooked. Each show starts with 4 pitches by inventors hoping for their big break. They select one, then go about building the infomercial. We get to see it being filmed then wait eagerly once the spot airs to find out if the inventor is a millionaire or not.

The show works because Billy and Andrew are interesting characters who seem genuinely interested in helping inventors - even though they are getting rich off the deals. They work in direct response marketing, where a TV show can yield millions of sales in a single night.

I've actually started reflecting on how to apply some of their techniques to my work. One episode they took an aspiring teen inventor and helped him learn some of the tricks of pitching a product. This inspired me to adjust my pitch here and there.

I, too, am essentially a professional pitchman. Like Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan seem on the show I also work hard to ensure that I pitch something I truly believe in. They seem to genuinely care about the people they pitch for and to. I hope I can always manage to do the same.

I will miss Billy Mays and his friendly presence on "Pitchmen." But I'm glad the show gave me the opportunity to appreciate his unique talents. I'll be offering Billy a toast tomorrow night as the final episode of the season - and final episode with Billy Mays - airs.

If you haven't seen Pitchmen (and want to), set your DVR to record the 12 episode marathon on the Discovery Channel on July 1st.

Dr. Strange Love: How I learned to stop worrying and love Apple

2009-06-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't set out to become an Apple fanboy. But their product strategy has lead me down a primrose path right into a land I used to rail against. I have long been a lover of all things Microsoft. I worked hard to keep Windows a vibrant part of the high school where I used to teach. I loved helping people custom-configure their computer systems. I built my own computers and hand assembled several machines for friends around Windows. Be it age, experience, or fatigue, I am now completely out of that phase of my life.

I trace the start of my indoctrination back to my first iPod. I had a digital music player (two in fact) before the iPod existed, and like most early adopters thought Apple's me-too product would be just another blip on the radar. I thought it was a bit overpriced. And I didn't think anyone would want to shop in the iTunes store. But the straightforward clickwheel interface, seamless syncing to my PC, and podcasts in iTunes won me over and after my first iPod Mini I never looked back. I loathed DRM, but iTunes was so seamless an experience it kept luring me back to fork over 99 cents for my tracks. Even though I knew perfectly well I could find the music for free. But the inconsistent quality of these free tracks, the screwed up filenames and messy ID3 data had me gladly paying 99 cents to avoid the hassle.

This was the first chink in my armor. At the same time Apple was courting me with their sexy music players Microsoft was releasing increasingly difficult-to-maintain software. Continuous patches, random driver issues, and the way in which Windows installations race toward entropy - requiring a complete OS reinstall at least every year to maintain performance - were also increasing my negative feelings towards my small herd of temperamental Windows-based technology. The move between major Windows releases invariably involved driver issues, replacing my peripherals, changing out cards, and generally a major hassle. So when I downloaded the beta of Windows Vista and started testing it out, I was dismayed that it looked to be a lot of Windows XP's pains and then some. And I actually thought its interface redesign was trying way to hard to be cool, with a lot of garish makeup but an aging back end. It was then I bought my first Macintosh. And that was followed by two more Macintosh purchases - not to mention my Hackintosh...

The announcement of Snow Leopard (the new version of OS/X) at last week's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) makes me appreciate my switch even more. First, they have a very low upgrade price ($29 from Leopard). There aren't a lot of new features, but there is a lot of under-the-hood architecture changes that will help performance, stability, and the ability of developers to create great applications. It's a good time for Apple to be doing this as they are currently seen as the "leading" OS and probably do not need to rely on new interface elements or new features to sell it. And the Exchange integration with the built-in apps will be most welcome.

My PowerPC friends will finally need to throw down on a new computer, but other than that Snow Leopard seems to just continue adding fuel to my confidence in Apple.

I blogged previously regarding the beauty of constraints. I've become intolerant of the garish - but eminently flexible - hardware and software in the Windows world. Yeah there are a ton of Windows laptops to choose from. But I have yet to see any approach the elegance of a Macintosh. Yes, they have more buttons. More lights. LED displays. Garish neon lightshows last seen in a disco. I do appreciate tacky, but I'll save that for my decor. My computer needs to quietly get work done.

I find it a bit ironic that Apple products are dismissed by competitors (Windows in the PC world, BlackBerry and Google's Android phones for mobile) as "not serious" computers. Actually, I spend a lot less time babysitting my hardware ever since I adopted Macintosh machines. My frustration with the BlackBerry had reached a breaking point and, since switching to the iPhone, I now see why so many people spontaneously want to tell me how much they love the iPhone when they see mine. My Blackberry routinely gave me an hourglass for seconds to sometimes more than a minute at critical times - when the phone rings, or I want to answer a quick email before the plane door closes, or I am trying to Tweet the latest happenings. My Blackberry friends were more than happy to recommend a bunch of troubleshooting steps. But I no longer wanted the enjoyment of providing IT support for my phone.

The limitations Apple places on the user means you spend less time troubleshooting drivers and reinstalling operating systems and more times in the software where you actually get things done. I can't tell you what a revelation it is to have a computer that can reliably enter sleep mode and reliably wake up when the lid is opened and closed. Not one of my Windows laptops were able to maintain this behavior past the first few months of use. My first Macbook succeeded at this every single time.

So I find myself now one of the crazy Apple zealots I used to disdain. A part of me does cringe a little when I find that I am in such a walled garden. And my household is still home to a Windows XP machine recording television via Snapstream. I must admit that machine has been reliable - most likely because of its single-purpose focus and my continual effort to simplify the hardware configuration to minimize the potential for driver issues. But the other Windows XP machine is now in such a state that troubleshooting it is all but impossible. It is subject to random slowdowns, strange crashes, and about 80% of the time opening the control panels causes a bluescreen. This machine desperately needs a complete reinstallation, but somehow I doubt I will do that work. I'm done with typing in a huge string of random letters and numbers to activate the operating system. I'm done trying to remember all the drivers I need to get the computer back to a functioning state. I'm done spending the better part of a day raising my ailing circuit boards from the dead. When this machine finally bites the dust, if I need a replacement it will be a Mac.

The future of reading

2009-06-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

I was listening to this weekend's episode of NPR's On The Media and was glad to hear a story called "For The Love of Reading" where they interview avid reader and author Ann Kirschner, who read Charles Dickens' classic "Little Dorrit" as a paperback, on the Kindle, on an iPhone and as an audiobook.

The story is an interesting one that I have grappled with since I started using Audible.com back in 2001. When I listening to a book on audio, have I read the book? How do I talk about the book to others? She mentions that people look at her funny when mentioning that she "read" an audiobook, and she has come to realize she loves reading - not books. When challenged with the opinion of many that listening to an audiobook does not constitute reading she replies, "Oh I think that's an ideological falsity. It's reading, it's just reading in a different format."

I second that opinion. Audiobooks have transformed my reading habits. I read at least one book a month (courtesy of my Audible.com subscription) in audiobook format, but it has been several months since I've sat down and read a book. With my busy travel schedule, the audiobook is great as I can listen to books in all sorts of settings where a regular book would not be possible or convenient.

What I haven't tried is reading a book using an e-reader. I had been wanting a Kindle from Amazon, and nearly bought one last year. Had the price been a little bit lower I very well might have. I haven't tried the device, but I know how electronic paper works, and Kirschner makes the interesting observation that she was bothered by e-paper's means of turning pages . The technology behind the Kindle's screen - e-paper - means that when you turn a page, the screen goes blank for a nanosecond and redraws in a noticeable way. This saves a lot of power, as there is no power drain on the battery once a screen is redrawn. This is different than turning a page on an e-reader on the iPhone (or a computer screen), as the screens on these devices have high refresh rates and must be constantly redrawn, and thus constantly consume power. The downside is less battery life, the upside is enhanced brightness and many options for how to show a page turning (one of which is to mimic what you see in a physical book).

This is the first time I've heard someone speak about the visceral experience e-paper has on reading, specifically turning the page.

Kirschner observed that in the end, the iPhone won the "words on a page" category of reading hands down. She attributes the fact that the iPhone is with her all the time - convenience - as ultimately winning the day over paper and e-paper-based devices.

I've installed the free e-reader Stanza on my new iPhone this weekend. I paged through a book to see if the interface will work for me. Seems like it will. Now I'm still deciding what book to read as there are 1000's of classics readily downloadable from within Stanza. I think I will like reading on the brighter, albeit smaller, screen... and have already ordered a battery pack to keep the power flowing.

Hearst has talked of introducing an e-reader to help save the magazine and newspaper industry... but I'm skeptical that a new device will open up significant new revenue streams. At the end of the day I suspect that an iPhone application might prove much more effective at connecting with an audience. I blogged some months ago about the pending home run from Apple regarding the iPhone 3.0 operating system's ability to sell content from within applications. I've already bought some content from within an iPhone app - when I was bored and waiting for a taxi - and the transaction is so utterly painless I may not even care so much about my rising iTunes bill. And for those people who want a larger form-factor, I remain convinced that within a year we will see a large screen iPod Touch-type device from Apple. But I suspect the dominant business model will be around distribution through devices people are already carrying.

Hackintosh 5 months later: "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid."

2009-06-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

I blogged about my new Macintosh netbook last January. I had taken an MSI Wind netbook, bought my own copy of OS/X, and then completed the steps needed to make it an OS/X machine. I've been living with this solution now for 5 months so figured it might be time for a status update.

Since last January, I have only taken my Thinkpad traveling twice. Both times I had yet to be fully convinced the netbook would work out for me. Since the software I demonstrate for my job is browser-based, I don't have to worry about computing power for the demos. The browser interfaces run as well on the Wind as anything else I use, albeit with a much smaller display. When traveling, I'm most often demoing things in front of an audience using an external projector, so this is mostly a non-issue.

There are a number of issues that I have to deal with on the Wind running OS/X, some of them having to do with the hardware and some due to OS/X itself (or the device drivers). For those wondering if life with a netbook is filled with rainbows and sunshine I offer these observations from my 5 months of experience. I'll also give you my wishlist for a perfect traveling device.

1024 x 600 10" display

The smaller display is heavenly when seated in a full coach cabin of an aircraft. The Wind's 10" screen is short enough that it can remain fully open even when the seat in front of me is fully reclined. That said, the 1024x600 pixel resolution is a bit of a pain when trying to run a Webex without an external display. My sales team complains about how short the screen is if I share this screen through Webex. To their point, it is nicer to see our interface laid out in a bigger space, although there is nothing inherently wrong with my small screen. Fortunately, it isn't THAT bad (sales people are notorious complainers) since the 1024 width still shows the flexibility of the interface, albeit with more vertical scrolling.

For day to day work, OS/X helps with this a lot with Expose, the "multi-screen" technology built in to OS/X. Expose lets me set up separate desktops with their own programs, something enormously useful on a smaller screen.

External monitor issues

A more serious issue arises when connecting an external monitor to OS/X. By default, when a new screen device is connected to the VGA port of the Wind, OS/X automatically shifts to a screen-mirroring mode where both screens show the same thing. The driver for the Wind's graphic chip (and weird screen size) cannot cope well with this, so both screens turn to garbage. When this happens, there is a small program which toggles this behavior (you can also boot into OS/X's "safe mode" by holding down shift during boot, set the mirroring to off in the display driver, and reboot). I type Command-Space followed by the word Mirror and know (without being able to see due to the screen corruption) that Spotlight has found the program. I hit enter which turns off mirroring. Once off, the external display works perfectly. And OS/X remembers that for that particular display not to enable mirroring again. This would be solved if I could tell OS/X by default to not mirror displays, but I can't.

This is almost always an issue when I'm connecting to a new projector or display device for the first time, especially in front of an audience. I've learned it well enough now and always plan 5 extra minutes of setup before a presentation - something I've tried to always do but now am more insistent on that.

There are a few new display drivers that support screen mirroring on the Wind, but apparently they cause a lot of artifacts. Since when presenting I prefer extended desktop mode, it isn't a big deal to me.

One last word on an external monitor: I love hotels with flat screens that I can easily connect to a VGA port. I now travel with a VGA cable for my netbook and can, in most hotel rooms, use the TV as a display device. This is also how I cope with the Webex issues of screen size. I just run the Webex on the TV device. When doing live demos this isn't usually an issue as I use a projector or large display.

Wireless network issues

Many people on the forums discuss replacing the included wireless network adapter with a Dell adapter. Apparently OS/X knows the Dell adapter and automatically works with it as expected. I am still considering the hardware upgrade...

When I first set up OS/X on the Wind, I had no idea what wireless card was in my machine (and it appears to vary within the line). So after some trial and error and reading many entries in the forums, I found I had a RaLink adapter. I got the driver and it works fine for normal wireless activities. The driver is essentially a program that must be running at all times and creates a "virtual" ethernet port via the Wifi. Not the most elegant solution, as many OS/X niceties aren't used. You can't share Wifi using this technique. You have to manually connect to networks when setting up Airport or Airport Express hubs. And most Wifi utilities are useless in this arrangement. I haven't yet gotten so fed up that I want to crack it open and replace the wireless adapter, but I may decide to do this as the cards are cheap.

Memory

One thing I did do was to crack open the Wind (violating the warranty terms) and upgrade to 2MB. This was pretty easy to do and helped performance noticeably. If I had it to do again, I would have planned to do both the RAM and the wireless card simultaneously. It would have saved some time and I'd have OS/X-standard wireless.

Audio I/O

There is a bit of effort to get the headphone port working. You have to install developer drivers, but it works. That said, there is a software "switch" that changes between the headphone port and the internal speakers. You have to run a script to toggle between them, but I found in the forums a utility called Audieee which makes switching between headphones and speakers relatively painless (although still manual - there is no detection of something plugged into the headphone jack like on most computers).

I actually find Audieee good enough that it doesn't bother be. But no one seems to have found a way to activate the sound input hardware for connecting an external mic or using the internal microphone. Because I do like to use Skype on the road for voice calls, I splurged and invested in a nice USB microphone from Blue called the Snowflake. I could have gotten the Eyeball for a bit more, but don't really need the Webcam functionality. Speaking of Webcams...

Built-in Webcam

The Webcam built in to the Wind varies, but it appears that most current units are incompatible with most of OS/X. When I first got it set up, I could get the cam to work in some limited applications (I think it worked in Skype once before - but now it doesn't). The built-in camera did not work in Photo Booth or iChat. The light goes on and the cam apparently activates, but no image can be seen.

I don't really care too much about this, but if this were a big deal I would have splurged for the Blue Eyeball. I have read that some enterprising hackers have replaced the Webcam hardware, but this seems far too ambitious for me. Better to keep an air of mystery on those Skype calls.

Keyboard

The Wind's keyboard is mostly useable although its annoyances have become a testament to the genius brain we all have - as after 5 months I instantly adapt to the keyboard when I start using it. The Wind's biggest keyboard flaw is the slightly smaller size keys between the M key and the right shift. The comma, period and forward slash are about 3/4 the size of the regular keys. This doesn't impact me much except the period and comma are a little more left than I'm used to reaching when I type. It took me a few days but now my brain seems very adept at switching to this keyboard and controlling my right-hand ring finger to make the extra bit of a leap to a period. Switching back to my full-size desktop keyboard occasionally has me missing my period key, but after a few minutes I'm back to normal.

I certainly would not want to become a professional typist on this keyboard, but for most duties I find it serviceable. So much so that I have never considered carrying another keyboard with the machine.

Touchpad

Another area where the Wind is different is the touchpad. Some units support a sort of "multitouch" touchpad letting you do two-finger scrolling and maybe a few other tricks. But I don't think there's any way to emulate the fantastic touchpads on the real Macbook/Pros. The touchpad is small. The button feels a little cheap (although it has a true right-click unlike Apple's pads), and even when I hacked the driver to support two finger scrolling it was such a difficult thing to do that I never use it. I definitely prefer even a crappy small travel mouse over this - so I now travel with a tiny mouse. I can get by with the touchpad when I need to, but if I'm doing a lot of pointing and clicking will get out the travel mouse.

System updates

The other area to be aware of is that the work done to get everything working on the current release of OS/X may need to be re-performed for upgrades. I originally installed 10.5.6, and recently upgraded to 10.5.7. There was some issue with the video driver that, had I just accepted a software update over the Web and rebooted, would have resulted in display corruption making the problem very difficult to fix. If, however, you check out the MSI Wind OS/X forums, you'll see people providing guidance on how to do the software update then install the patched display drivers before rebooting. This made my update experience quick easy (and fortunately all the other adjustments carried over fine). Still, I will only update the OS of the machine after careful research on the forums.

For other software (iLife, iWork, MS Office, applications, utilities) I doubt there are too many caveats. I've done a number of updates of these without any issue.

Software glitches

I have had my Wind crash the entire OS when I closed the lid occasionally. I'm not sure what causes this, but it has only been very occasional (and I always save everything before even closing the lid of my computer). It hasn't been frequent enough for me to spend any time worrying over it.

A bigger problem crops up due to the 1024x600 screen resolution. Since this is smaller than any current Mac screen, many programs assume that they will have at least 640 pixels vertically. So sometimes buttons or other things get cut off the bottom. The workaround is to connect an external display to work with such programs. One is the iPhone simulator (which fits fine in landscape orientation, but portrait cuts off the simulated iPhone). Slingbox remotes also get cut off, but the Slingbox software makes it easy to scroll across the remote control.

There is a utility that can scale an application's size. I haven't tried it as this problem only crops up once in a while...

I might note here that amazingly I am able to play World of Warcraft on this tiny computer using the normal 1024x600 display or on an external monitor. I turn all effects down as far as they go, and do notice some hurky-jerks while playing, but I found I am able to actually play a session of WOW on this tiny thing. Quite remarkable - if a bit of an eyestrain...

Back it up

While I haven't had a reason to test it, I did use SuperDuper to make a full, bootable backup of my Wind. In the event that disaster strikes, all my effort won't be wasted. I just boot from the drive and reinstall. SuperDuper supposedly makes this easy. The backup certainly was. Fingers crossed a full restore is as well.

I've made up my mind... I'm keeping my baby

So even with the aforementioned quirks, this is one baby I am keeping. I love the form factor. I love OS/X. And now I keep most of my data I need traveling "in the cloud". This means that reliability is not as important as it once was. If I ran into an emergency where my machine failed (or got lost, stolen, spindled or mutilated), a quick trip to Best Buy could have me in a replacement for under $400, and a quick connection to the Internet could get back all of my data. The days of having a bullet-proof, super expensive travel machine seem to be waning in favor of lightweight, "expendable" devices. Devices that are inexpensively replaced should disaster strike - with their data safely tucked away on a cloud.

Public Response

I travel and speak at a lot of shows and conferences, and present at companies all over the US. While visiting in person I often get questions on what this machine is... Apple folks are largely curious as to how it works or how they get one. Some complain that the thing is a monstrosity - my own personal demonic baby. By some reactions you would think I was Saruman breeding wolves and orcs in the bowels of Isengard.

Windows people tend not to have the extreme negative response. Their garden has always welcomed a variety of strange and unusual beasts roaming about, so I suspect they are less taken aback by this hardware/software mashup.

Linux folks appreciate rebelliousness, although they generally comment at the end that I might as well just switch to Linux. When my colleague can reliably conduct a Skype conversation on his Linux laptop and I can live my life without ever uttering the words "recompile the kernel" I might reconsider.

Long-term prospects

So at the end of it all, how likely am I to be using this machine in a year? Well, it all depends.

I could see myself move to a Macbook Air, but frankly the form factor isn't exactly what I'm looking for (try opening it in coach with a reclined seat in front of you!).

The Macbooks are great, Macbook Pros gorgeous and I would love traveling with either. The weight is getting better. Battery life is a lot better on these more powerful machines than I get. But still they aren't the ultimate in mobility for me.

I've been using an iPod Touch for a few months and absolutely love it. So much so that I've pre-ordered the iPhone 3G S and will be moving from my Blackberry to that platform. I realized with the iPod Touch that a large number of my day-to-day tasks are well-served on this tiny device. Which got me thinking about my real needs in a mobile computer...

The perfect travel device could very well be some kind of touchscreen-based, large-ish iPod Touch type device. Maybe about Kindle sized or a little bigger. Here are some must-haves:

Have a 10" or so screen preferably with at least 1024x768 resolution (may be negotiable...)
Have no permanently attached keyboard
Have the multi-touch interface
Run the iPhone/iPod Touch operating system
Have the aforementioned's OS virtual keyboard for use on the plane or other quick typing tasks
Have an optional hardware keyboard for more typing duties (in my hotel, in a meeting) that props the thing up for proper viewing angle
Have Wifi and possibly some mobile wireless card
Output video (VGA required - as I use a lot of projectors, HDMI preferred as well)
Be able to use GoToMeeting (my company is switching from Webex)

I also would need a way to edit basic presentations and documents. PowerPoint is ok (although I've been converted to Keynote). But even this isn't a dealbreaker as there are a number of online solutions for this... or I could resort to using HTML or PDF files.

When Apple gets some kind of device like this I will reconsider my mobile life. For now, the netbook has won me over.

Blindly searching - but can you find?!

2009-06-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting a bit with search engines yet again - and today had yet another reason to turn to Google for something simple - more on that later.

A colleague of mine turned me on to Blindsearch - the search engine taste test. This tool lets you run queries "blind" so that the look and feel of the sites are isolated from the search results. I've been trying it out with a number of queries and the results have been interesting. Note that it only displays the top 8 hits from a query, so this discussion focuses largely on that narrow band.

I've noted that for most straightforward queries the results are very similar. Where I see differences are on more niche proper names (product names, people names, etc.), misspellings (some seem to see through my misspellings at some times while producing other things at other times) and more vague concepts.

As an example I took my name and location and put it into Blindsearch. I discovered that Yahoo! provided my Facebook page as the first result. Google found some other Seattle-based Christopher Hill. And Bing was mostly focused on Christopher Hill the US ambassador to North Korea... it didn't seem very in-tune with the fact that a proper name search with a city should give preference to people living there, not passing mentions of Seattle with a national figure like Christopher Hill the diplomat. There was one Facebook page for someone else with my name who it wasn't clear lives in Seattle. Other than that it was all about national news.

Interestingly, Yahoo! was the only site listing the front page of my blog site in the results. Weird since Google is hosting this blog. Yahoo! indexed my blog twice - the front page and a particular posting, and also found my Linked-In page. For my "Christopher Hill Seattle Wa" query Yahoo! gets the gold, Google the silver and Bing the bronze.

I tried numerous other random queries... and it seemed that usually Google was my #1 or #2 choice. So overall I think I'm correct in choosing Google as my current favorite... although Yahoo! is quite good too especially when looking at regular people.

This leads me to today's search disaster. I ordered the new iPhone 3G S from my friends at AT&T. I decided to go check on the order status. I couldn't find the order in my account when logged into my account page on the site, but assumed that a hardware order might not show up with my account details (this appears to be true unless there is a link I couldn't find).

So I typed "track order" into the AT&T wireless search box. Nothing came up regarding actually tracking orders in the first page of results. There were several articles on music playback for specific phones (the "track" is interpreted as a music track), a couple of random products (TeleNAV track, HomeManager terms & conditions), and something called an "On-Demand provisioning portal". I actually tried "more results" and went through page 2 and 3 of the results with no link found as to how to check the status of an order.

I just went in to Blindsearch and tried "AT&T wireless track order". Both Google and Bing gave the actual page where AT&T allows users to track their orders as the first result. Yahoo! didn't give the page even in the top 8. So clearly for this particularly query Google and Bing win.

Incidentally, my new iPhone is "In Progress." Get me the phone by Friday, AT&T, and I'll forget about your crappy search.

Airport Express + iPhone/iPod Touch: A great home audio solution

2009-05-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

I enjoy listening to podcasts and music stored on my home computer throughout my house. I've accomplished this in the past using my iPod, but sometimes headphones are a bit of a pain in the neck. Since I don't have a computer in my living room, playing music during dinner or when having guests over isn't particularly easy either.

I've now got two of Apple's Airport Express devices in different areas of my house. The Airport Express has an audio port on it that can be connected to a stereo or any set of speakers. Any computer on the same network will see the speakers in iTunes and music can be readily streamed. I've had an Airport Express in my living room for a while and recently added one to my bedroom - allowing me to play my audio throughout the house - but if I wanted to skip a song or if my playlist or podcast ended it meant a trip downstairs to the computer to select something else. Sort of a pain in the neck.

Fortunately, Apple has a great application for the iPhone and iPod Touch called "Remote" that provides a fantastic interface for controlling iTunes on your computers through the wireless network. The program shows what's playing (along with album art), allows you to navigate through the audio, browse your audio library, control volume, and activate or deactivate any Airport Express speakers throughout your house. Even better, Remote is completely free. In the past I had actually considered a solution like that from Sonos for house-wide audio, but this solution seems better to me and costs a lot less. For my setup, I would have to buy the Sonos controller + ZonePlayer combo ($599) and an additional ZonePlayer ($349) for a total of $948 to get the same functionality as an iPod Touch ($229) and two Airport Expresses ($198) totaling $427. Plus the iPod Touch can be used for tons of other things than just as a remote.

Setup was very easy using my existing Wireless network (I just had each Airport Express join my existing Wifi Network). Now I can wander my house without headphones, turn on the speakers in the rooms I want to listen, and stream anything that's on my computer to any room in the house. I'm actually using one of the Airport Express devices in my home theatre cabinet where it also serves as a wireless bridge to my Dish Network DVR giving broadband access to the ethernet-only device over wifi through its ethernet port (it can extend the wireless network and allow one ethernet device to connect to it - or multiple devices via a hub).

Constraints can be beautiful

2009-05-11T13:19:00.001-07:00

I've been observing what things I see that "work" and have decided that a successful system - be it a city, software, airplane, or whatever - is determined by the constraints applied to that system as much as the features.

Take a look at my favorite US cities:
Seattle, WA: The Puget Sound and Lake Washington squeeze the city on both sides, preventing Seattle proper from sprawling.

New York, NY: On an island.

Montreal, QC: ditto

New Orleans, LA: on a delta, bound by a lake and the Gulf of Mexico

Austin, TX: Constrained by the Colorado river

My less favorite cities to visit are difficult to get around without constantly fighting traffic. Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver... they are starting to address this through neighborhoods, but aren't my preferred vacation spots. Notably my favorite parts of these cities are select constrained neighborhoods within them.

Software design is similar. The iPhone is defined as much by what features it doesn't have. Copy/paste? Coming this summer, but only after a few years of everyone saying they can't live without it. Multitasking? Nope. And good riddance I say.

My tech friends no doubt hate the idea that they can't multitask on an iPhone. And they will probably gravitate to the Blackberry or Google Android platforms. But my experience on my Blackberry shows the inherent problems with multitasking on a small device. My Blackberry does what Windows always did to me: it slowly runs out of steam until it is nearly unusable. Friday I received a phone call on my Blackberry. I pressed the "Answer" button and got an hourglass. Apparently the Blackberry had better things to do other than let me answer the call. By the time the hourglass disappeared the call vanished. I finally had to remove the battery completely to get the thing to work again. Was an errant application to blame? Low memory? I have no idea. I had better things to do that do IT troubleshooting on my Blackberry.

I drool over the iPhone interface. Does it stack up feature-for-feature against the Blackberry? Or Samsung's Android G1? Nope. Is it more elegantly designed? Does it seem to anticipate my wishes at times? Is it more fun to use? Without a doubt.

Ultimately, that is why I make Apple's OS/X my platform of choice. I've used my iMac as my primary personal machine for nearly a year. I've added tons of software, demoware, hardware to it. Occasionally I've crashed something, but only once have I had to reboot. And once rebooted, the machine was running at full speed.

Compare that to my Windows XP-based notebook I have for work. I had it reformatted to a pristine state last fall. I didn't add much in the way of software other than Office, Firefox, and a few utilities. I don't play games on it. I don't connect my iPod to it. I try to leave it be. Yet in the 5 months since the "pristine" format it has become increasingly sluggish. I'm sure that if I keep using it I'll be ready to have another reformat in a few months to get it back up to top speed.

But reformatting is a pain in the neck with a lot of pitfalls. Last time I forgot to back up my local exchange data and lost my custom calendar. I also somehow didn't get a few PowerPoints copies that I wanted.

Constraint is something I try to promote within my own companies software design. Fortunately, our product managers are pretty good at this. We try not to design everything including the kitchen sink. Some "features" are left out because they would be too disruptive from a UI perspective. This is at times a challenge as a lot of RFPs are based on endless lists of features - a method of selecting software that will be sure to delight the programmers but almost always results in a less-than-effective solution for the end-users.

Constraint is also something that I am applying more actively to my personal life. When I visit a new city, I now avoid madly dashing about to see every possible attraction before I have to head home. I try to pick one or two things I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy. And if some morning I awaken and decide that lying in bed watching TV sounds better than trying to hit a museum I do it. I try to keep focused on the things I do, and not the things I miss. And those tend to be at the heart of my favorite experiences.

On the beach in Santa Monica

2009-05-07T18:44:00.001-07:00

It sure is nice to have a sunny stroll on the beach.

Our attention spans are not shorter!

2009-05-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

I still continually hear amongst media types that "today's consumers have too short of attention spans." Bollocks! People are just making excuses for the fact that, when given a choice, we make choices other than those that they would prefer.

Think about it for a second. I watch my nephews play hours on end of the same videogame in order to master its secrets. The same kids that allegedly have these short attention spans. When I taught programming courses in Virtual Reality, teenagers would stay for hours after school working on their projects. I had to kick them out of the computer lab. Short attention spans? I think not!

What we are doing is confusing choice with attention span. Given a choice, people do not like to sit quietly watching one television channel all night. When I started watching TV, there were no remote controls and only 3 channels in my local market (cue grandpa yelling "and we LIKED it!"). You got up, tuned the TV, then sat down. If something a bit dull came on you weighed the prospect of getting up, crossing the room, changing the channel, and then standing there waiting to see what else was on. And the tuners had special "fine tune" dials that often had to be tinkered with for several minutes in order to get the best signal. Hardly worth it. I just endured the boredom... Enter the remote control. Now, with choice, who doesn't channel surf during commercials we don't particularly like or dull parts of the evening's programming?

Radio? Same thing. Many radios even today have woeful tuning capabilities. Trying to get the tuner to the right station might take several minutes during which you were rewarded with squeals and static. And you might never get the tuning right. Enter the digital tuner. Suddenly I could rapidly tune my stations.

Take music. I started listening to records. Remember trying to skip a bad track on a record player? It was a nightmare. You had to lift the tone arm ever so carefully to avoid scratching the record, estimate where to place it, then endure the inevitable CLUNK that occurred as the arm slipped out of your fingers and fell onto the song. How about cassettes? It wasn't until the late 80s that I had a deck capable of skipping to the next song through a "fast-ish forward" feature on cassette decks. Given these hindrances, it was often less frustrating to endure a bad song. CDs revolutionized this. With a single click I could accurately and immediately skip bad songs. Digital music takes this further, eliminating the need to even change media.

What digital tuners, remote controls, and digital media did was vastly improve my ability to make choices about what media I was consuming. Is it a coincidence that with each technology our attention spans seem to shorten? Or are they providing new opportunities to pursue the choices that were difficult or impossible to make before?

The Internet is lousy with choices. Slow connection at NYTimes.com getting me down? I'm off to The Washington Post. Not finding the latest viral cat video entertaining? Take me to Hulu.com for some TV. Bored reading about sports? How about an instant search for the latest Brangelina gossip? Sick of staring at spreadsheets? Take me to play Desktop Tower Defense.

Media moguls who blame attention span for users tuning out some or all of their content are ignoring the fact that I may have a good reason to not consume content packages they define. If I leave its probably because I have somewhere better to go...

Now if you'll excuse me I've got to find out who got voted off The Cougar.

Do United's for-pay options devalue their brand?

2009-05-06T20:49:00.001-07:00

I've been traveling like a madman since January. I think I can count two weeks in that time that I haven't taken a plane somewhere. So much for my carbon footprint.

In all that traveling I've found myself gravitating heavily towards Delta airlines. I suppose the main reason is I have achieved a high status with them, and they often upgrade me automatically to first class. I have high status with American too, but they require me to use special upgrade points that run out all too fast. Alaska Airlines can be great too, although they don't always go as conveniently to the places I go. They also offer gold members automatic upgrades like Delta.

I fly United sometimes too - but there's something about their constant requests to nickel and dime me that makes them seem a bit sleazy. The regular economy class seats are way too tight. I found that putting two magazines in the seatback pouch results in my knees rubbing against it - and I'm just 5'11. They will, however, let you pay extra for a few more inches. Want "priority" access to breeze through security and board first? You can pay extra. Want to earn extra miles? You can if you pay extra. Checking a bag? Pay extra. In principle, having a lower base far then the option to upgrade the extras seems like it should be a good idea. But they ask all these questions when you buy your ticket then again when you check in on the kiosk. You have to go through three screens declining offers before you get your ticket. Even the user interface nearly tricks you into adding the options.

Something about all that starts to feel a bit cheap. I guess I wouldn't mind if, when I buy the ticket on the Web site, they had three optional checkboxes for these upgrades.

When I am checking in at the airport you could also offer these options in a similar fashion. But dedicating a screen for each that I have to go through and click "Decline offer" on is too much.

I fly United when it proves to be the best option, but if there are any comparable fares from Delta, American, or Alaska Air I take those instead.

Help me love your advertising!

2009-05-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

I was watching a television program on the Internet recently and, during one of the commercial interruptions, started thinking about the role of advertising in our content. People often think of ads as a necessary evil, but good ones can become more popular than the content itself.

I continue to use Google as my main search engine and they supply ads. I like receiving my “Ticketmaster alerts” - ads in my email that I ask to receive letting me know what they have to sell. I read my Delta airlines emails containing promotions and ads for flights. Buy.com sends me ads for good deals on products. I often open these emails when I see something that sounds good in the subject line. And I often visit Amazon.com just to see what was on the homepage.

I’ve typed http://www.apple.com into my browser for the specific purpose of watching their latest ads. I’ve skipped backwards on prerecorded shows to see ads that looked interesting as they flew by on fast forward to catch a movie trailer or a visually cool Target ad. And I’ve even saved shows that I would otherwise delete to preserve some interesting ad I want to share with my friends.

So what is it that makes these instances ads I want to see... but still the majority of advertising I try to avoid? A big part of this has to do with context. Context traditionally involves taking into account the demographics, time of day and such. On the Internet context can be so much more.

Ask the viewer: If you treat advertising like content, why not allow users to rate ads? I’d be happy to click a Tivo-like thumbs up/down button to indicate whether I like an ad. In return, do your best to take viewer preferences into account not only the next time they visit the site but also as you continue selling advertising.
Give some control: How about doing something creative or interactive in an ad? Maybe even turn it into a game, or give me a button to push to request the next ad be about cars, movies, sports, or whatever?
Creative: Internet advertising can be even more creative than the traditional stuff. If you are going to put 4 ads scattered across 30 minutes of content, how about using those short ads to build on each other. Tell a story... make some jokes... just don’t show the same thing over and over.
Inventory: Internet sites should be a variety of advertising content inventory so that when you do start to determine what it is I like you have some variety to draw from. Many sites seem to only have a couple of advertisers to draw from. I don’t like to read or watch the same content on the Internet over and over whether its an ad or something else.
Non-intrusive: Google pioneered the art of simple ads that do not overwhelm the page. Ads that play sounds without my permission, cover up the content I’m trying to see, or use other tricks to distract generally end up making me unhappy with the ad and less likely to come back.
Appropriately sized: Inserting a 30 second pre-roll in front of a 40 second video is completely inappropriate. On the Internet, 30 seconds is a long time to wait. I’m more likely to abandon the whole effort and look elsewhere when this is done.
Entertaining: Ads are content like anything else, and if they are entertaining they are likely to keep my attention.
Personal: The technology exists to automatically enrich content (videos, Web pages, blog entries) regardless of whether that is an ad, video, audio file, photo or text. Keeping track of metadata around content - aspects such as who is in the content, who is mentioned in the content, what category the content falls into, the tone of the content, etc. - makes matching and suggesting appropriate related content much easier. If I’m watching an episode of “The Daily Show,” I’m likely to also enjoy watching an Apple ad since John Hodgeman is a popular comedian who appears prominently in both. It is amazing how many publishing platforms do not provide the ability to store detailed metadata about content.
Aware: I’m continually amazed at how brain-dead lots of Internet advertising is today. The Internet allows publishers to remember who I am, what I’ve responded to in the past, and what kinds of content I prefer based on the clicks. If you have rich metadata about all content - ads and otherwise - you have the opportunity to learn about my preferences. If I like snowboarding, don’t show me golfing ads. And if I’ve seen an ad two or three times today, pick a different one to show me.
Non-repetitive: I watched a television episode over the Internet recently that tried to be non-intrusive in its length. There was a 15 second ad distributed every 8-10 minutes or so. Unfortunately, it was the SAME annoying ad. The same 15 seconds repeated 3-4 times in 30 minutes begins to feel highly intrusive.

Tweet crap

2009-04-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues, Chris Scott, started a blog recently with a couple of postings (http://chrisscott.org/?p=4 and http://chrisscott.org/?p=13) about Twitterbots and how they create annoying Tweets. I particularly was interested to read that the poor quality of the content of the Tweets resulted in his unsubscribing from some corporate Twitter streams. He makes an excellent point that may have been lost of corporations eager to capitalize on this new medium: that good content is STILL required even if there is a 144 character limit. Companies who create automated Tweets from the CMS or other systems are doomed to fail if the Tweets themselves do not carry meaning.

The publishing industry needs to take their Twitter strategy seriously and, as the example Chris provides of the Pepsi promotional Tweets show, have a lot of room for improvement.

Automated Tweets will require sophisticated software and algorithms to be effective. So far companies act as if the 140 character limit gives them license to publish crap. But Twitter is like many other human endeavors (Haiku, city planning, product design, etc.) in that greater limitations require greater effort - often with greater rewards.

Truncating Tweets is the easy way out, but as Chris describes results in dissatisfaction with the result.

Advertising advice

2009-04-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues, Diane Burley, posted an interesting discussion on her Silicon Valet blog of Eric Schmidt's talk at the NAA convention in San Diego this month. I attended the event and was interested in how much "back to basics" advice was going out there... focus on advertising (not just big, expensive display ads but the little guy)... subscription pricing (you don't have to charge a consistent amount for the print subscriptions - and should be figuring out if some of those print subscriptions cost more to deliver than they're worth)... and other details that seem quite obvious to me.

It makes me wonder if publishers are having issues in general adopting not just a digital publishing strategy but a digital business strategy. Are they using the best tools and techniques of the digital age to provide self-service directories, advertising systems, and other tools that serve their communities? How about a community bulletin board with paid options that can be readily set up with a credit card? Do they have on their staff talented people who know how to make a spreadsheet of print subscription revenues dance? Does the leadership of these organizations have members who embrace and truly understand the latest trends in digital content consumption?

If I were a publisher I'd be worried about these things as much as or more than my Web site...

I take it all back

2009-04-15T16:03:00.001-07:00

OK. The droning CNN televisions here in the airport mentioned this clip of Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent. I jumped on to YouTube and was enthralled...

Fine. I'll put up with the damn televisions. And can someone give Susan a big kiss?!

Tea bagging

2009-04-15T15:41:00.001-07:00

The media is all over the national tea parties. I hear that "1000s of American's are protesting." 1000s? Maybe it's that I'm currently stuck in the Philadelphia airport with CNN blaring this update every 8 minutes that is making me a bit over all of this. Reminds me of the Summer of the Shark...

Recent Gallup polls tell us Americans are ok with today's tax rates - as reported on Robert Schlesinger's blog. I'd gladly have some of my airport taxes to getting the infernal TVs out of all the public spaces in our airports. Whatever happened to those great TV chairs?

The bell tolls on...

2009-04-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me recently that all this whining about the death of media, whether it is music piracy, newspapers, magazines or whatever, is really all about the corporations who dominated these industries to hang on to their relevance and our dollars. In a world where the Internet enables self-publishing - whether that is my own book, podcast, movie, article, or whatever - the traditional packagers of media are no longer required as the center of content creation. Everyone has access to the digital printing press at very low cost. Why do I need a gatekeeper deciding what content gets out?

The Internet is also shaking up the way this stuff gets packaged. I don't need to buy albums on iTunes. I don't need my news Web site to also provide syndicated comics, crossword puzzles, a jumble. I've got better ways to pursue those interests on dedicated sites.

Should we be crying for the content creators? Only in the sense that these people have traditionally been screwed over in the big business of media publishing. Most music artists make tiny amounts on their CD sales. An entire generation of 60s artists received next to nothing for music that still is a staple of American culture today. This is nothing new. It's so common the unappreciated, brilliant artist who dies penniless is a stereotype.

So why are we so worried about the "death of media?" Frankly, I'm over it. News will always survive... somehow. We're already seeing pieces of this emerging in blog sites (The Huffington Post, The Drudge Report, Gizmodo, TMZ.com, the Daily Kos, TechCrunch), alternative - and truly nonprofit - news outlets (www.voiceofsandiego.com, www.minnpost.com). Apple's iTunes store made it easy for a single programmer to develop and distribute software to the masses. YouTube has created its share of Internet celebrities who want to create and distribute cheap video. And we like it...

So remember that all the news of the death of culture at the hands of free information on the Internet is being reported by the same folks who have a monetary interest in preserving the status quo. Folks who have had plenty of opportunity to do right by their employees and find radical new ways to adapt to the demands of digital publishing. Folks who have failed to lead their organizations successfully but now are making their last ditch efforts to hide behind paywalls.

Rest assured, those content creators are still out there. And their messages are already finding new successful Internet distribution channels.

Apple's pending home run

2009-03-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Apple computer announced their new iPhone 3.0 software this week. Exciting new features that have been desired for a long time are coming including copy/paste, turn-by-turn direction capabilities, stereo Bluetooth support, and a bunch of other improvements that will no doubt insure that the iPhone remain the dominant platform. But there is one feature that may seem more innocuous that could reshape the way we consume media more than any other.

The iPhone update allows, as outlined on MacRumors.com:

In-App Purchasing: Allows developers to sell additional content from within applications. Highlighted uses include magazine subscriptions, eBooks, additional levels and items for games.

The most stunning point here is the eBook/magazine subscriptions.

One of the great problems of content providers like newspapers, magazines, and other media is that the Web is, by default, a free domain. Everyone on the Web is used to getting everything they want for free, and if it isn't free then they go elsewhere. I have long said that if a universal micropayment standard had existed 10 years ago the media companies would have had a much easier time transitioning from print to digital. Advertising would no doubt continue to be a major revenue channel, but people would also have become accustomed to paying small amounts for content.

There is, however, a place where this model has successfully transitioned from free to payments. Music. Apple through the iTunes story made it so much easier to purchase music for a small fee without worrying about entering credit card information and all the other impediments to e-commerce then sync that music seamlessly between mobile and home computers that the iTunes store is the number one purveyor of music.

With the iPhone Apple repeated this formula with iPhone applications. I'm not sure if they expected the enormous success, but overnight the app store for the iPhone created a vibrant marketplace for software applications. And most of that is around small applications, a large number priced at $0.99, that suddenly provided a means for small developers to compete with large software houses. And by tying the app store to the payment system already in-place for iTunes Apple made it so brain-dead simple to buy these iPhone applications that consumers have flocked to purchasing them without a lot of thought. If I don't have to enter a credit card, if I don't have to do anything to install the application, and if it only costs 99 cents then impulse purchases of even remotely interesting games and applications skyrocket.

Now, with the ability of content providers to sell content from within applications, Apple is poised to become the main channel for digital content consumption. If buying a breaking news story from my local paper, or maybe purchasing today's entire newspaper, is possible with the touch of a button and is going to cost me less than a dollar I suspect consumers will also flock to have this content available on their iPhone. By the end of the year I suspect smart newspapers and magazines will already be making serious money through the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Fast forward to late summer - and I suspect you are going to see Apple release a device that looks something like a giant iPod Touch. With a 10" screen, super-skinny formfactor, touch-based interface, and the ability to run all current iPhone/iPod Touch applications, this device will be the perfect e-Reader, Web browser, email client, and calendar tool. It will be Apple's answer to the Netbook phenomenon, answering 80% of the problems Netbooks address and serving as a perfect compliment to Apple's current laptop and desktop OS/X computer line. A netbook would cannibalize Macbook sales. A giant iPod Touch device would compliment it. Now I can lounge on the couch and do a lot of the things I want a computer for, but when I'm doing serious writing, photo editing, or other creative endeavors I'll reach for the traditional computer.

Apple's firing on all cylinders and it looks like they are poised to be at the center of the distribution of media.

Slingin' TV

2009-03-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

I had a Slingbox lying around the house that I had never set up or used. Then I saw that Dish networks was offering a beta of their new integration with Sling and decided to try setting up the Slingbox to my Dish network DVR.

A number of issues were immediately a problem. First, my DVR is in another room from my Internet connection. At first I thought there might not be a solution, but then realized that binI have an Apple Airport Express located in the media cabinet with the DVR. It is hooked to the stereo system to provide iTunes streaming in the living room. As it turns out, a simple configuration makes the Ethernet port on the Airport Express serve as a wireless network bridge. So I connected the Slingbox to the Ethernet jack of the Airport Express, did a little configuration, and was in business!

Other than that, setting up the Slingbox was straightforward and now I'm sitting in my hotel room in Montreal watching my home TV in Seattle. The quality isn't perfect, but the video is smooth and watchable. I've also connected my laptop to the hotel room flat screen TV so with my dual display am able to watch my home TV on the big screen and work on my laptop simultaneously.

I love having access to my favorite shows through Slingbox. I can watch TV when I'm traveling, which is great because that's when I have the most free time in the evenings.

Exploring Netbooks

2009-01-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

I was in New York today and wandered into an electronics store where I looked over the netbooks. I've been reading quite a bit about them since I discovered some models can be hacked to run OS/X. So I decided to try one out and picked up an MSI Wind netbook in white. At least the color is right for a Mac...

I haven't tried to put OS/X on it. But I will say it is quite usable so far. It isn't THAT much smaller than my IBM X61 laptop I use for work, but it seems to run a lot cooler. It is also lighter which is always great.

Apple should get on this trend sooner than later...

PC Magazine: Pure digital

2008-11-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.ziffdavis.com/press/releases/081119.0.html

I've subscribed to PC Magazine since the early 90s, and before that avidly read copies in the library or bought the occasional issue on the newsstand with my paper route money (such a geek). But for the last few years I've drifted from reading it cover to cover and began finding that a lot of the information in the magazine I had already read on a variety of blogs and news sites. So I decided not to renew my subscription. I guess this was the sign of the times, as they recently announced they are abandoning the magazine format and going all-digital. I'm a bit nostalgic already... I remember the glory days in the 80s and 90s when the magazine topped 400 pages. Today's version is decidedly more compact. A toast and fond farewell to the print edition of the magazine for serving the tech community well all these years. Here's to hoping they pave a profitable path for the other magazine publishers.

Advantageous DRM-Free Music

2008-11-18T08:02:00.001-08:00

I have long been a proponent of DRM-free music purchasing. I'm a member of http://www.emusic.com and have been for a long time, preferring to buy my music as MP3 tracks instead of as protected tracks from the iTunes store. This allows me flexibility in what software I can use to listen to MP3s.

Recent announcements such as Yahoo! and Wal-Mart saying they'll suspend their license servers on their digital music stores give one good reason to seek out unprotected tracks. While Yahoo! shelled out money to those who purchased tracks that will no longer be playable, Wal-Mart warned its customers that they needed to burn everything to CD in order to preserve their investment. Conceivably, any DRM protected content could eventually be rendered worthless by such actions.

So I have remained a loyal subscriber to eMusic, although the library is light on mainstream artists. Oddly enough, that fact has actually kept me as a member. Every month I have to use my pre-allocated song allowance (or lose the credits) which is a bit of a pain but has led me to find more new artists that I really love than any other activity (besides browsing Sonic Boom records or some other good store). So I continue to wander the emusic library every month in search of interesting new music.

For mainstream music that isn't on emusic I've generally just bought tracks from iTunes. While there is some content sold unprotected by DRM, the bulk of what I buy there tends to be protected. I also have bought a few tracks in the past from Amazon (who sells unprotected MP3 files), but only as an experiment. All-in-all I found it just inconvenient enough to use their store that the convenience of iTunes won out.

That has changed. Mac users can now download a script that works with iTunes to allow you to very easily check for cheaper, unprotected music tracks on Amazon. Called AdvantageousMP3 (http://www.advantageousmp3.com/), you install the script. Then when you find a song/album/artist you like in the iTunes store you click the "script" icon in the menu bar and select "Get MP3 from Amazon."

It's fast, very convenient, and lets you quickly buy unprotected, cheaper versions of tracks. While I feel a little guilty, the long-term prospects of having unprotected music wins out for me.

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OK folks, time to abandon McCain

2008-09-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

McCain is ill equipped to become president of the United States in 2009. While he may claim to have been correct on the surge in Iraq, this is a decision that may be tactically correct. As Obama correctly observed in last Friday's debate, McCain may get some tactical decisions correct but McCain is a mess strategically.

But perhaps most telling of his sheer indifference to the state of the nation is how he has completely fooled himself that Palin is a good vice-presidential choice. He is losing thoughtful conservatives who, after the disastrous Katie Couric interviews, is clearly not ready to assume the presidency next January. She cannot sit across from a woman who is reputedly "news lite" and yet the McCain campaign continues to assert that this woman could sit across from Vladimir Putin. McCain cares not for the welfare of our nation as if, as the actuarial tables suggest, McCain has a 33% chance of dying in office we would be saddled with a president Palin he apparently need not worry about the future of the nation.

McCain must know by now that Palin was a terrible choice. His inability to even attempt a correction but instead to continually insist that the fair (and I would assert, highly predictable) questions that Katie Couric asked in the interview with the vice-presidential candidate could not be addressed in even a remotely competent way were "gotcha journalism" is politics of the worst sort. Instead we should realize that the decision McCain made to put Palin an elderly heartbeat away from the presidency is irresponsible and COMPLETELY DISQUALIFIES him from serving in our nation's highest office.

The question of whether Barack Obama can be President has become moot. He is the only sane option.

Distorting Factcheck.org

2008-09-13T07:05:00.001-07:00

McCain continually claims to want to change the tone of politics, but until he can figure out how to do some basic research I'm not buying it. His campaign's latest ads falsely use factchecking from FactCheck.org and attribute wild Internet claims to Obama's campaign.

I also am still unhappy with his choice of running mate. Palin's interviews have been largely terrible, offering very little substance. She has offered no "straight talk" in every interview I've seen with her... instead twisting questions of National Security and energy policy to one end: bring more Alaska oil into the United States. This dangerous policy will continue America's decline as we continue to ignore the implications of relying on an increasingly antiquated petroleum based economy. The environment, American competitiveness worldwide, the middle east and a host of other challenges cannot be met by drilling for more oil in Alaska.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A tale of 4 computers

2008-09-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

The first computer I ever touched was an Apple II. A neighbor had one, and after seeing it I knew I needed a computer. I had no idea why.

I saved my paper route money and eventually purchased a Vic-20 computer. For the first 2 months I had no permanent storage, so until buying the cassette drive I would type in sample programs from the manual or COMPUTE! magazine and play with them a bit before turning off the machine and sending all my efforts into oblivion.

I sold a program to Compute! magazine when I was in 8th grade called "Bomber Squadron." While this gaming masterpiece never managed to get published in the magazine (the Vic-20 coverage dwindled away shortly after the sale) it was eventually published in a compendium book. With those proceeds I added a color monitor to replace the black and white television I'd been using up until then, a 7-pin dot matrix printer, and a floppy disk drive.

In high school I migrated to a Commodore 128, funded with proceeds I earned in the fast food industry. This was also the first time I found I had a choice of operating systems when Berkeley Softworks released GeoWorks, a Macintosh-like GUI for the Commodore 64 and 128. I used this productively all the way through high school and college. At the time I was probably the only person majoring in computer science who was working from my dorm room on a Commodore 128 - with IBM PCs and a few Macintoshes the norm on my campus.

I had dreamed of upgrading to an Amiga computer, which at the time was probably the most capable computer/OS on the market, but budgetary limitations through college prevented me from making this switch.

It wasn't until I started my professional career as a teacher that I managed to purchase my first IBM-compatible PC, a Pentium Pro computer from Gateway. It ran Windows for Workgroups (Windows 3.11). I would upgrade this machine over a number of years to Windows 95, 98, 2000, and eventually Windows XP. Over a period of years the machine evolved through these operating systems, and I eventually upgraded all components of the machine - including the case and motherboard - until the last piece of original equipment was the floppy drive.

Oddly enough, that was the only IBM-compatible PC I ever bought, although I'm sure the upgrades over the years added up to the cost of many new computers.

It is strange to realize that my purchase of an iMac a few months ago is only the 4th computer I've purchased with my own money. And that half of those computers were made by Commodore.

Addicted to WOW

2008-09-04T22:55:00.001-07:00

So a friend of mine recently asked if I'd like to be part of a World of Warcraft group... and because of the popularity of the game I thought it might be a new virtual means of socializing. Well, I've been playing for a week and can say I love it! It is very well done with lots of balancing to allow casual players to play alongside gaming psychopaths.

It's quite easy to pick up and draws you in in a way that games like Command & Conquer or Civilization has for me in the past. It is my first entry into the massively multi-player genre and I must say I am impressed.

Fortunately, there are limits on my new social group so I'll only risk losing an evening a week playing the game...

My inner geek feels very satisfied.

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First Impressions: Google Chrome

2008-09-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

I downloaded and am writing this using Google's new browser, Chrome. The accompanying image gives you an idea of the interface.

I use a lot of browsers, most recently settling in with Flock, a social media oriented browser based on the Firefox codebase. But after trying out Chrome, I may have found my new browser. I've been using it for all of 10 minutes and already have found a lot to love.

I love the fact that the search box has disappeared and you type searches in the address bar. I love the tab-based interface that allows you to drag tabs into new windows or dock them back with the other tabs at will. It really is a logical progression of the browser interface. And unlike Internet Explorer 7, it keeps the usual buttons (forward, back, refresh) where they belong.

Since Chrome is based on the Webkit browser rendering engine it should be as compatible as Safari with the Web.

Speed seems good and I haven't used the browser long enough to verify its stability claims, but it sounds promising that Google says a crash in one tab will not affect the other tabs.

I'm going to start using this as my main browser on my Windows machine... and we'll see if my current infatuation turns into true browser love.

Here's hoping too that the Mac version comes soon!

Sarah Palin musings

2008-08-30T12:54:00.001-07:00

I'm still wondering about the logic of McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President, although I think I can see how the campaign hopes this will play out. They are hoping we will focus on:

Palin's reformer history and going after the "good ol' boy" networks
Palin being attractive to the women of the country who supported Hillary

I watched a Newsweek backstage interview when she attended the Women & Leadership event and saw her in action (and being very casual).

She may have already run afoul of Hillary supporters with her open criticism of Hillary accusing her of "whining."

She's a communications-journalist major (with a political science minor) and married her high school boyfriend.

Here are what I can find for qualifications for the job of Vice President:

She started in politics in 1992 when she ran for city council of Wasilla, Alaska (population 5,469 as of 2000), serving 2 terms from 1992 to 1996.
In 1996 she became mayor of Wasilla. She was re-elected in 1999 and elected president of Alaska Conference of Mayors.
She served on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003-2004 and resigned in protest over lack of ethics and exposed the Republican Party Chairmen and fellow commissioner Randy Ruedrich and Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes who both resigned from office. This appears to be her main whistle-blower credential.
She was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006.

That seems pretty thin to me.

So it looks like McCain is going after a "change" message, which is odd since he has seemed to have been actively courting the right wing of his own party, and Palin does not seem to be targeting that agenda. Instead he seems to be going after the middle voters.

I was curious to compare how the stories are being handled on the campaign sites, and it was interesting indeed.

John McCain's site is prominently playing up Palin, but I find the execution not particularly good. First off, the site itself looks a bit like a fake campaign site made for a TV movie about an election. The colors are all over the place, and the straight-on headshot of McCain and Palin side-by-side backed by red, white and blue bunting feels a bit cheesy.

But the top news story they are featuring a Wall Street Journal editorial calling this "a reform ticket". Is this a sign that McCain may shift away from trying to associate closely with the right wing of the Republican party? I think he has to if he is to get any traction out of this pick. Which is why I think this choice may ultimately ring false. Not that I think Palin is false, but the contrived feel of the whole thing will most likely make the whole campaign feel a bit disingenuous.

McCain's campaign is also highlighting a quote from U.S. Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM) who states "You know, Governor Palin has more executive experience than Senator Obama, Senator Biden, and Senator Schumer combined because those guys have never run anything."

That is quite interesting... because if there is any credibility in this statement you could add "Senator John McCain" to this list of criticism. After all, his biggest "run anything" position was commanding officer of a training squadron and received commendation for that, but I don't know that that qualifies one for President any more than Barack's success as a community organizer in Chicago, service as editor and president of the Harvard Law Review, or twelve years as a contitutional law professor or service on various boards.

Looking around at the messaging on the McCain site, they are in danger of falling into the "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" strategy. McCain's choice of Palin is a part of that, in that it flies in the face of some of the other strategies they have been attempting.

Palin may be great for the social conservative base of the Republicans, but I don't think she's going to go over that great with the others on the Republican right. In her introduction speech she said, "If you want change in Washington, if you hope for a better America, then we're asking for your vote on the 4th of November."

Seems like a crazy move considering all the time McCain spent in the primaries cozying up to traditional Washington Republicans.

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Barack Obama: He Completes Us

2008-08-29T09:51:00.001-07:00

I love the Daily Show, and they have outdone themselves with this video on Barack Obama.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=183509&title=barack-obama-he-completes-us

I also watched Barack Obama's speech and was impressed with that too.

I'm not sure what I think about McCain's choice of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin for Vice President. One part of me is impressed with the choice in that she has a whistle-blower past who is known for her criticism of her own party. But I know very little about her. Perhaps my Alaskan friends will have more to say.

The cynical part of me regrets that he would make such an obvious play for the disenfranchised women who supported Hillary. Especially someone so inexperienced internationally.

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Controlling Ubuntu from a Macintosh (the harder way)

2008-08-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

I figured there was a way to remotely log in to my Ubuntu laptop from the Mac without using "Remote Desktop". While it is super easy to set up that way (see my previous post), you are limited to only connecting when the Ubuntu system is logged in, and limited to the screen resolution of that session.

So I searched the Web and found the answer at http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-299916.html.

In short, in the Ubuntu machine I did the following:
1. Went to "System" then "Administration" and selected "Synaptic Package Manager". I searched for a package called "XFS" and installed it.

2. I went to "System" then "Administration" and selected "Log in window".

3. Selected the "Remote" tab of this panel.

4. Changed "Remote login disabled" to one of the other options (I don't think it matters, just in how it looks).

5. Rebooted the machine.

Once the machine was ready, I opened the Terminal window on the Mac and typed:
/usr/X11R6/bin/X -query computername-or-ip-address

The login prompt came up, I put in my username/password, and in a few seconds had a fullscreen view of my Ubuntu laptop.

Everything seemed great until I tried typing anything. Turns out there is some keymapping issue that means the mouse is fine, but the keyboard is all screwy.

Back to the forum listed above and the last post outlined a solution. Some items were not complete for a Linux newb so I had to figure a few extra details out... but here's what I ended up doing:

1. log out of Ubuntu (if still in) and pressed -C to cancel and close the Quartz stuff.
2. From terminal the ssh command they gave in the forum used some default that I could make work, so I typed:
ssh -l username -X computername-or-ip-address

3. It asked for the password which I provided.

4. Generated the keymap as instructed in the above post:
xmodmap -pke > $HOME/.xmodmaprc

5. Logged out using the "logout" command.

6. Now logged in as before:
/usr/X11R6/bin/X -query computername-or-ip-address

7. This time it took longer, and popped up asking if I wanted to load the keymap file. I clicked the file listed and clicked the Load button then OK.

8. Tested the keyboard. As advertised in the above post, it didn't work completely (specifically, the SHIFT keys were notably broken).

Followed the last steps in the above post. I'm copying them below:

9. At the beginning of the file add this text
clear shift
clear lock
clear control
clear mod1
clear mod2
clear mod3
clear mod4
clear mod5

8. At the end of the file add this text
add shift = Shift_L Shift_R
add lock = Caps_Lock
add control = Control_L Control_R
add mod1 = Alt_L
add mod2 = Num_Lock
add mod3 = Mode_switch
add mod4 = Meta_L
add mod5 = Scroll_Lock

9. Save the file

10. Log out of Ubuntu and close the X session.

My note: I found I had to select "Log out" in Ubuntu then go to the terminal window on the Mac and press .

11. Run the /usr/X11R6/bin/X -q command again, login, and your shift keys should work.

So far it seems faster than remote desktop did... so that's nice. But the BEST part is that it works at the full screen resolution.

The Windows are a bit strange... and I find it best to use Spaces and switch to an empty space to launch all this.

But overall this is great! My Windows laptop now lives in the closet when I'm at home.

Controlling Ubuntu and Windows from a Macintosh

2008-08-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased an iMac for my home use. I have been working since December on a teeny-tiny Lenovo X61 computer with a 12" screen which is great while traveling but very very inefficient at home. I kept meaning to buy an external monitor, but never really got motivated to do that and just suffered.

Now with a gorgeous 24" iMac screen in front of me I set about figuring out how to make my dual-boot Ubuntu/Windows XP laptop work with the Macintosh.

Controlling my Ubuntu system from my Macintosh

To my great joy, I found that for an Ubuntu laptop (8.04 hardy) to work with the Mac (OS X 10.5.4) I didn't have to do much of anything. I enabled remote desktop in Ubuntu very easily by going to System/Preferences/Remote Desktop then checking the appropriate boxes and adding a password.

I had thought I might need some viewer product on my Macintosh, but it turns out that Apple's implementation of remote desktop works just fine with Ubuntu's remote desktop. So when Ubuntu is running on my laptop, I just open a finder window and under the "Shared" section of the Finder sidebar I saw "hill's remote desktop". I clicked the item, clicked "Share Screen", then entered the password I had set up on Ubuntu and I was in business.

Nice! The lag is fine for normal tasks, although watching a video isn't really possible (at least not on my network). I will note my laptop is connected wirelessly so it probably would be much better on a wired connection.

The downside is that my shared screen is the same resolution as my laptop (1024 x 768). So I don't get the benefit of using my screen real estate on the iMac in Ubuntu. My guess there is another way around this but I haven't investigated.

Controlling Windows XP from my Mac

After the success with Ubuntu Linux and the Macintosh (10.5.4) I turned to Windows XP (with SP3 installed). Enabling remote desktop on a PC is almost as easy as on Ubuntu... you just go to the Control Panel. First step is to go to your Firewall and make sure that exceptions are allowed (it's a check box). Then make sure that on the exceptions tab "Remote Desktop" is checked.

Once that's done, back to the Control Panel to actually make sure Remote Desktop is turned on. Going to "System" and then the "Remote" tab. On this tab you'll see a checkbox to enable Remote Desktop.

I had hoped that connecting to the Windows XP system would "just work" like Linux, but unfortunately I did not see the option for a remote desktop in the Finder. After browsing around Google I quickly discovered a free piece of software from Microsoft for the Mac called "Remote Desktop Connection". A quick install and I fired it up. It asks for the name of the computer you want to control. For whatever reason I could not get the tool to find my laptop by name, so I resorted to its internal IP address on my home network.

It worked great! And even better, if you don't log in on the Windows machine (just leave it at the login prompt) you can log in as normal. In the connection properties under the "Display" tab you can even tell it to run fullscreen. And it is very fast with minimal lag.

Paradise Achieved
It's extremely nice now to be able to control my laptop from my Mac. My laptop, when I'm home, now lives in an obscure corner and I do all my work on my iMac.

There are a few issues that you may have to work out. I know in Remote Desktop for Windows XP if I need to use the function keys I have to push "fn-control-F1" (for F1) in order to have it send that keypress to Windows. I don't know how to use the "Windows" key... but don't really care enough to worry about it too much. And copy/paste is possible between the machines making my life all the better!

My switch to a Mac has been made all the more seamless using remote desktop.

Safety videos review: Delta Airlines

2008-08-26T16:38:00.001-07:00

I do a lot of flying and was going cross-country last week on Delta. I was struck by the new safety video they produced. Most people don't think much about the safety video in a plane, but I have always been intrigued with the art that goes into the banal productions of daily life. I always check out the safety cards to see what sort of art they use as well...

The Delta video is impressive as it remains all business but subtly works in a few striking tongue-in-cheek moments that surprised me. With a very interesting to look at cast and some interesting cinematography, I found myself watching the video 4 times over a three day period instead of continuing to read my magazine.

The video starts with a "captain" who could be communicating with you from your own cockpit. Then cut to a dramatic shot of a redhead who should be guesting on Desperate Housewives standing at the rear of the plane, the overhead bins framing her perfectly.

To emphasize each point ("all carry-on items should be stored securely") we cut to views of people doing exactly that, although the sound effects heighten the drama of these activities. In a subtle way the effects make those actions seem so satisfying, I want to find nearby items to put away.

The redhead continues to almost flirt with us as she continues on to discuss mobile phones and other safety information, interspersing little near-winks with her safety lecture. And she completely won me over with her saucy wag of the finger while telling us that "smoking is not allowed on any Delta flight."

The graphics showing the exits are even subtly high-tech and interesting without distracting from the message.

The male flight attendant who demonstrates the life vests for a water evacuation (unlikely!) looks like a great character actor, with a glassy stare as he follows her instructions. Then he smiles as if when we inflate our life vests it may even be fun! And in his final scene the use of the seat cushion as a flotation device is punctuated with a brief shimmer off his teeth. Delightful!

At the end, the male captain who started the video is gone, replaced with a very competent and attractive nordic-looking woman who I do not doubt could fly the plane quite well!

Thumbs up to Delta for this entertaining video! They did something right to get someone who flies nearly every week to watch it.

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Camping at The Gorge for Jack Johnson

2008-08-26T11:10:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my boyfriend and I went with our friend's sister and her boyfriend to see Jack Johnson at the Gorge in Eastern Washington. I love concerts there, although they purchased "premium" overnight camping which put us in an exclusively restricted camping area with access to air conditioned toilets and shower facilities.

Unfortunately we found people in the "commoners" campground seemed to have a lot more fun. And they were closer to the concert venue so they could more easily walk (we took a crowded shuttle bus - air conditioned though!). I think the premium area we were in was much more family/RV oriented.

So the moral of the story: if you go camping at the Gorge save your money and camp out with the cool frugal people.

I haven't listened to a lot of Jack Johnson but his laid back style was just what I needed to end my busy week.

If you ever have a chance to see a concert at The Gorge I highly recommend it. Amazing venue and well worth the drive. I recommend the annual Sasquatch music festival highly!

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Wubi!

2008-08-26T01:11:00.001-07:00

In the last few months, I've started using the cool Ubuntu installer known as Wubi. It installs like a Windows application, but instead of requiring you to repartition your drive to install Ubuntu you instead have a virtual drive in a file on your Windows hard drive. It sets up your system to offer a dual boot when you start up, and even uninstalls cleanly.

I've been running some server software on Ubuntu for work and am quite impressed with the OS. Overall it is rock solid, although I have run into many issues regarding drivers that I don't particularly love, and for applications that are not in the package managers (as preconfigured) it can take a lot of effort to figure out how to get them installed.

Ubuntu also suffers just a bit in that it is an OS with a "kitchen sink" approach. There are literally so many options for configuring and customizing the OS that it is probably way too intimidating for many users.

But I cannot get over the speed. On my Lenovo X61 laptop it screams compared to Windows XP. Where Windows shows me my desktop then may get around to actually performing my mouse clicks about a minute or so later, Ubuntu's desktop shows up and is immediately responsive. The eye candy available in Ubuntu (cool Windows effects that rival the Mac or Vista) do not seem to drag the system down much... unlike I have seen with Vista. I even began to wonder how much I wanted a new iMac I had planned on ordering...

If you have 10-15GB free drive space and feel like trying something new, I recommend Wubi wholeheartedly!

In the coming postings watch for more on Wubi, Windows, and Macintosh as I have been knee deep in getting these three OSes on proper speaking terms.

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Welcome to my blog

2008-08-18T01:41:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to start blogging... not that I assume anyone is the least bit interested in my thoughts. But I've got a lot of interesting tech and otherwise experiences to share. So I shall blog if for none other than myself.

Soon you will be reading interesting ideas on technology, the Internet, communication, and lots of other issues.

Enjoy and write back to me at chill2k@gmail.com.