Life after the Bike

SXSW: Spotify - Keynote

2010-03-16T14:11:00.004-05:00

@Spotify SXSW playlist

http://www.spotify.com/

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/848

#tuesdaykeynote

SXSW: Is Canvas the End of Flash?

2010-03-16T12:00:00.005-05:00

https://bespin.mozillalabs.com/

http://code.google.com/p/flot/

progressive enhancement from tables to pie charts.

Haase: The canvas api is good, but there aren't any tools for it.

http://code.google.com/p/explorercanvas/

http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/

http://asalant.github.com/snowballs/

http://9elements.com/io/projects/html5/canvas/

It was interesting to see a few people that I've been listening to on podcasts for a few years. Admittedly it's been a while since I've heard Ben Galbraith's voice, but he looks and acts just as you'd expect. He's an evangelist for sure.

The takeaway is that canvas cool, but lacks the browser support to be a mainstream tool for traditional browser development. I also noticed that the cpu usage on my MBP goes way high when I fire up the canvas demos in FF3.6.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/561

#canvasendflash

SXSW: Can You Run a 'Serverless' Business?

2010-03-16T11:03:00.004-05:00

biggravity, ec2, rackspace, unfuddle, etc.

Know your application. The application characteristics determine if the cloud is right for you.

Ah-ha idea: cloud for government level security.

This panel was interesting and my notes don't really do it justice. I think the really thought provoking ideas were that your infrastructure should be transparent or a tool, not a hindrance. With some of the panelists representing sites that can have 20x traffic spikes, the takeaway quote was, "Don't let your best day become your worst."

This has inspired me to try to go further than I'd planned with our server monitoring and deploy automation. Trouble is that most website failures are a failure of code, not of hardware...

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/439

#runserverlessbiz

SXSW: Prototyping Web Apps - Nobody Loves a Wireframe

2010-03-16T10:10:00.003-05:00

The guys at Google prefer prototyping. The ppt was pretty good so hopefully they'll post that soon.

slidefolder.com

hypercard, fireworks

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/637

#prototypingwebapps

SXSW: Augmented Reality - Gimmicky Trend or Market-Ready Technology?

2010-03-15T17:01:00.003-05:00

Audience was split 50/50 on whether Yelp's Monacle is a good idea or not.

Good ideas: Lego, USPS, Google SkyMap

Demos: John Mayer's Heartbreak Warfare, DollhouseAR, Zugara's social shopping app

This panel only helped reinforce my opinion that AR is a gimmick in most cases. It can definitely be a great idea when the technology fits and it's executed brilliantly (like Zugara's apps).

That's all I have to say about that.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/409

#sxswar

SXSW: Beyond the Desktop: Embracing New Interaction Paradigms

2010-03-15T15:26:00.002-05:00

Minority Report and Iron Man were used as good example of futuristic interaction paradigms.

Industrial/Mechanical technology 1 input 1 output. Post industrial/digital technology.

This panel got really interesting as questions were asked and conversation developed. The crowd seemed a bit awed with Johnny Lee Chung (of WiiMote hacking fame), but to his credit, he did have some rather insightful slides. David Merrill also had some interesting comments. I'd see him before (at least I think it was him) on TED videos demoing his Siftables.

I don't think Johnny Lee is going to publish his slides, but the thing I found most striking about them was late in the deck, when he talked about the range of interfaces, from an iPod Shuffle, to a in-dash navigation system in a car. Any beyond a desktop computer we begin to use another, smaller device to control. Any device as small as a phone the trend is to use touch, so we can have input and output in the same space. Keyboard and mouse has been so effective for the space in-between a phone and TV that it's unlikely that a new paradigm is going to over take it. Where the challenge becomes more interesting is where you want to have more than one input to your device. Collaborative programming was the example used in the session. Food for thought.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/421

#bede

SXSW: Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon

2010-03-15T12:37:00.006-05:00

http://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Whole-Milk-Gallon-128/dp/B00032G1S0

Bring when the user is going to receive the item to the fore.

1. Engage through content: reviews. Target vs. Amazon (they're built on the same software). Target shoppers shop at target.com for things they would buy at Target. The users don't think to go back and leave positive reviews.

Reviews are integral to Amazon's success. The 'was this review helpful' question is estimated to be worth 2.7Billion to Amazon in 2009.

Ratio of reviewers to purchasers 1:1300. 20 reviews is the tipping point where reviews gain credence. 2% conversion of viewers to purchasers. You need 1.3Million viewers to get 20 reviews.

2. Don't fear new ideas:

Experimental critical to moving forward.

3. Eliminate Tool Time:

Don't have to authenticate.

Security Levels:

Level 0. No cookie.
Level 1. Amazon knows who you are from a cookie. You can
Level 2. Amazon wants to reveal something only you should know - like address.

Goal Time vs Tool Time:

Goal time is when the user is improving the outcome of the experience. ex: user is considering the products they wish to purchase.
Tool time is when the user is moving forward without any improvement in the out come of the user experience

Changing the interface adds tool time. Amazon chooses to phase in interface changes. Took 12 weeks to roll-out updated navigation.

Not all use cases are the same. Salsa: Amazon vs. CD Baby.

Negative operating cycle. Amazon turns inventory in 20 days. BB turns in 74. Standard payment terms are 45. The days between day 22 when they're paid and day 45 when they pay vendors, they have cash float. Amazon can survive on that.

Playmobile security checkpoint, laptop steering wheel here.

Jared Spool did a great job presenting. Not only was the content inherently interesting, but he made it more compelling than it would have been otherwise. You can relive the experience here.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/647

#Amazon

SXSW: Making Content Relevant To Me

2010-03-15T11:30:00.006-05:00

I got to this late cause Dave and I bailed from the interview seminar.

http://hunch.com/

How do the recommendation engines account for aging? They need to forget as the user gets older.

De-anonymizing Social Networks: article

The discussion in this panel was really interesting and therefore few notes. Twitter was popular with this crowd as well and I picked up this very good summary there: http://pattyryan.tumblr.com/post/450169096/making-content-relevant-to-me-sxsw

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/583

#contentrelevanttome

SXSW: Conducting Great Interviews

2010-03-15T11:04:00.001-05:00

This was a bust. Too diverse a group in an open conversation and nothing was getting accomplished.

http://www.thingsontop.com/remixing-deep-dive-interviewing-secrets-990.html

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/447

Mashable Party

2010-03-14T23:07:00.001-05:00

The Mashable Party was at Buffalo Billiards, a pretty cool, dual level sports bar. I think the nice foosball tables would make a few people in the office jealous. ;)

SXSW: Gmail: Behind the Scenes

2010-03-14T16:49:00.004-05:00

Jonathan Perlow - Set out to make an email client that he would want to use: never have to delete mail, make the UI feel as sleek as desktop app.

Arielle Reinstein - leads the gmail blog, the public relations of gmail.

Edward Ho - Buzz lead, sense/strength/quality of team more important than the quality of the code. Have often code reviews to make sure people are executing as well as ideateing. The team sat unnaturally close to each other so that im & meetings were unnecessary. Also, there was less confusion, because everyone is aware of everything and able to contribute to decisions.

Todd Jackson - Google Gmail/Buzz project manager. Leads the group through consensus. Shit funnel vs. shit umbrella. "You have to be the shit umbrella."

Braden Kowitz - User experience at Google Ventues.

Google is a company of do. When someone has an idea, they do it (prototype, mock-up, etc.) Good example is the gmail un-send. That was a large internal debate and an engineer who wasn't even part of the core team implemented the feature into labs.

Google has on-demand build/deployment so they can test a full build of gmail with their real user accounts.

Latency is a critical issue. All new features go through testing to make sure latency isn't added along with the feature. Added latency can kill a new feature.

Listening to all the feedback from all the users is a challenge. Everyone on the Gmail team uses reader feeds to keep a pulse of the conversation about Gmail.

90%+ unit tested.

"We have this amazing technology called 'work really, really hard'".

Really extensive summary of the seminar:

http://www.williamhertling.com/2010/03/notes-from-gmail-behind-scenes.html

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/5072

#gmailbehindthescenes

#gmailsxsw

SXSW:Experimental Design: Your User Interface Is Your Laboratory

2010-03-14T15:18:00.005-05:00

When I heard that Kent Brewster was going to basically have a redo of last year's "Kick-Ass Mash-Ups", I decided to head to this panel on test driven design iterations. I'd hoped for some higher level discussions, but it kinda turned out to be an A/B Testing 101.

Example:

Do screenshots convert better than video?

A/B test for a couple days and results showed that screenshots converted better.

Interesting concept put forth by the FreshBooks and Google rep: The goal of all the testing is to keep more people in the funnel through out the process...basically to plug the holes in the bottom of the funnel. Google wants websites to have higher conversions (make more money from each entry to the funnel) so that they can get more ad business.

The moral of the story is to use funnel analysis to determine where you should do the A/B testing. Then, taking into account the user cycle, perform the test for at least one cycle. Also, testing is just a single component of the testing (personas, interviews, etc.)

I should have just stayed in Kick-Ass Mash-Ups.

http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

#interfaceisyourlab

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/497

SXSW: Sunday Keynote - Valerie Casey

2010-03-14T14:28:00.001-05:00

The Sunday keynote was a talk about the interactive community's role in sustainability. I figure I'll put up these notes and come back time permitting.

Why does a salad cost more than a big mac? NYTimes.com

Iraq burn pits

The Designers Accord:

personal accountability

collective accountability

FastCompany.com

a system is more than the sum of it's parts

feedback delays + bounded rationality = design traps

no such thing as a side effect

creating the right measurements of success

selecting the correct lever for change

enabling new models by recognizing the relationship between structure and behavior

Issue attention cycles: degree of awareness is inversly correlated to the degree of production action

Cannot get a new bahavior from a system without changing it's structure slinky vs. box

The Hub - place for social entrepenuers to collaborate

A system is a colleciton of elements and interconnections that are highly organized to achieve an overall goal or purpose

every profession bears the responsbility of understanding the circumstances that enabled it's existance

www.valcasey.com

SXSW: What If Your Phone Had Five Senses?

2010-03-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

We're accustomed to a phone having the sense of touch, sight, sound, and location...temperature, voice?

Sleep cycle app, nearness nearfield.org

microvision: laser displays. Averch

Biddulph: the technologies that will takeoff are the ones with interfaces that are most familiar to us. Something foreign to human interaction isn't going to take off overnight.

#phonehad5senses

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/717

SXSW: Augmenting Maps with Reality

2010-03-14T09:25:00.005-05:00

It was tough to get up this morning to make it to this session, but it was worth it. This is why I come to SXSW. Before the session started, I was browsing and found a few interesting sites for metro mapping:

Laura Diaz of Navteq: The base map is established, but as more geotagged content is shared the map begins to become a spacial

How about another axis? The z-axis? Z is unlikely to be elevation. It's more likely to be inside buildings or time.

Dennis Crowley of FourSquare: Indoor mapping is the next challenge, but likely most compelling: malls, stadiums, convention centers.

Kellen Elliott-McCrea of Flickr: We try to keep the map interface visual.

Ryan Sarver of Twitter: Difficult to represent non-specific or non-point data. Polygon is messy to render on a map. Pub vs. Yankee Stadium.

A challenge is to keep the map real-time. It's difficult to pull all the data together to get it into a public map.

The idea of dropping virtual things into actual space was a founding idea behind FourSquare. At SXSW, the ah-ha moment was to have the crowd shift embedded in a map. All the data is there, but the presentation layer could use a re-imagining.

There's so much temporal data, but it's typically not shown because it gets messy for an app to manage.

Considering the spotty accuracy of user generated geo-location data, at what point would maps become untrustworthy. For driving, this is important. In most cases, the mapping systems have nailed accuracy. For most other applications, the temporal information is more important. 8-bit Google maps.

Place data should be free. Place data is public data and in the public domain. Great Maps + great data should equal great social tools.

trendsmap.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html

hot potato

Flook

app that'll remind you of something you wanted to do. Say it's 1pm. The app knows you haven't checked in for lunch yet and your phone knows you're active because of the accelerometer. It can remind you that there's a lunch place around the corner that you want to go to.

Geo fences. When you or a friend enter a space, the app can alert you.

Other links that came up on Twitter at the end of the panel:

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/7270

#maps

SXSW: Doing it Wrong: Recently Possible Technology

2010-03-13T17:01:00.003-06:00

NYC Resistor & Garage Geeks:

Guitar Heronoid

Dove shitting Dove

#twittershiters

mp3 player grenades

breathing books

real need for speed console

sudo make me a sandwich

http://hackerspaces.org/

There were a lot of slides which I'll try to get a link to. This was an awesome unwind to the day.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/481

#DIW

SXSW: Playing with Place: Location-Based Games and Services

2010-03-13T13:04:00.003-06:00

I got to this late...

Scvngr - Provides digital location based games for enterprises. Examples are the Smithsonian (take pictures in front of the shuttle, count teeth on a dinosaur, etc.) and the DARPA Balloon Challenge.

There were a few interesting ideas, but nothing really earth shattering. I pulled this summary from Twitter which gives more information than what I got: http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q110-sxsw-2010-location-aware-games/

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/631

#playingwithplace

SXSW: Web Framework Battle Royale

2010-03-13T12:26:00.005-06:00

http://www.symfony-project.org/ (PHP)

http://seaside.st/ (SmallTalk)

http://www.sinatrarb.com/ (Ruby)

http://heroku.com/ (Ruby)

http://www.zope.org/ (Python)

This is pretty low level. I'm going to bail for Location Based Games and Services.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/710

#frameworkbattleroyale

SXSW: CMS Admin UX

2010-03-13T10:43:00.004-06:00

Steve Fisher. Success is when the technology blends into the background.

A site dedicated to the UX of Drupal 7: http://www.d7ux.org/.

Designing in the open vs. Just doing it.

Jane Wells. Works for Automatic contributing to WordPress admin UX.

http://make.wordpress.org/ui/

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/843

#cmsux

SXSW: Reinvent the Wheel: Sketching your own Design Process

2010-03-13T09:31:00.005-06:00

Chris Fahey of behaviordesign.com gave a somewhat high-level talk on how to rethink the approach to UX design. This would be good food for thought for any designer or information architect. I underlined the takeaways that Chris outlined on the last slide of his presentation.

Always keep space open the the general waterfall model for reinvention/revision of the concept. Plan to change the plan.

"Design is about solving problems - not about creativity and personal expression." -unattributed

Difficult to go from conservative to radical, much easier to go from radical to conservative.

We're pretty good at making things work, but not quite there when trying to make the applications interesting or fun to use.

Data-Driven Design. Google tests every design change with multivariate tests. Ex: testing 41 shades of blue for the link color on the results page. The decision to do that in-and-of-itself is an idea. http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html

Data-Inspired Design. Ex: Designers did interviews with end users and created their own deliverables to share with the larger team.

Designers as Researchers. Get designers involved in the research.

There shouldn't only be process or path to the finish. Here's a nice visual of the UX design path http://findability.org/archives/000230.php. The idea of having a deck of cards that contain all the UX design process steps. You can use the cards to create your own process. Stephen Anderson: Mental Notes Cards getmentalnotescards.com

Sketch "Resolution Spectrum" - Gestures/Words to Functional Prototypes. Each project requires it's own process and UX deliverables. Consider the client. Information visualization can be a great tool to distill an idea for a client. Make up your own deliverable.

Periodic table of visualization methods/elements

Don't use templates when beginning a deliverable.

Tricks:

Blank Canvas
Exercise: What Is It? - Figure out what the final product is going to be.
Thumbnail Quantifications: How many pages? etc.
Least Wanted: What would you hate to see in the final product. What don't you like about your current site.
User Persona / Flash Mob: a.) gather user research b.) brainstorm all the types, don't assume you have all the personas at the outset. c.) Find patters among these micro personas d.) define smaller/condensed personas to represent the group.
Personality Characteristics: What's the personality of your product? Factual/statements vs. questioning and suggestive?
Metaphors: Content, Social, Tools.
Make up your own words.
Sketching
Sketching as prototype
Listening: The Critique
"Prototype as if you are right, listen as if you are wrong" -Diego Rodriguez
Pair designing

Questions:

How to manage budget/brainstorm? Like Agile, have scrums frequently.

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/640

#reinvent

SXSW: TIme + Social + Location: What's next in Mobile Experiences?

2010-03-12T16:43:00.008-06:00

The title of this one kinda says it all. I had high hopes, but it fell short. I was hoping for some demos and at the very least interesting ideas from all players, but was left with a few interesting snippets from Naveen of FourSquare and nothing more.

Paraphrases from the seminar:

"Just hitting the critical mass of devices that easily support geo-location. Sharing is increasing popular and open (the progression from FB -> Twitter -> FourSquare)."

Realtime tracking is creepy.

The hook. How do you achieve the hook? Make it somewhat of a game. The points on FourSquare, drop-off/pick-up on Gowalla, progress bar on LinkedIn, etc. The want to get all the achievements on a game or get the most points of all your friends.

I'm unimpressed with these insights so far. I think Jesse Schell did a much better job communicating this in a video I watched last night: http://fury.com/2010/02/jesse-shells-mindblowing-talk-on-the-future-of-games-dice-2010/

Naveen Selvadurai (@naveen of FourSquare) didn't think that augmented reality out of home is going to provide viable interfaces in the foreseeable future.

There was a question about serendipity, specifically when checking a feed. It seems to boil down to controlled serendipity vs. social serendipity. Naveen seemed to think it's mostly controlled because algorithms control what to see in your feed even if you don't know it.

A question was asked about game mechanic fatigue. How do you keep users engaged? Naveen conceded that fatigue is inevitable, as it is with anything. But people come back. What about advertisers? The panel responded ideas like sponsoring, what's nearby, etc.

#timesociallocation

http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/5285

I kinda wish I'd entertained a guilty pleasure: http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/4995. This one was a dud.

SXSW: Jacks of all Trades or Masters of One?

2010-03-12T14:59:00.005-06:00

This seminar was overview of how Generalist and Specialists fit into an organization. I was typing quite a bit during this one, so I'll leave you with the notes...

Venn diagram of Technology, Business, & Design: Specialists vs. Generalists

http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/web-designers-who-cant-code/

Breadth vs. Depth

Specialists are the perfect tool the the specific job
Generalist takes care of what's needed

A Specialist can keep up on current trends and techniques
Generalists can ensure that execution matches intention. When working with others communication is key. Generalists are good at communication.

A Specialist's thinking isn't limited by external constraints. They'll think outside the box (though inside they speciality)
A Generalist can see the big picture in a project. Terry Irwin quote.

Specialists can take advantage of specific market opportunities (SEO, UX, etc.)
Generalists can easily pivot in their careers.

For Yourself:

Do you feel the need to be the absolute best at something? Yes, specialist. No, generalists.
Do you like handling things from start to finish? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Do you like working alone on projects? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Can you learn and understand foreign concepts quickly? Yes, generalist. No, Specialist.
Are you competitive & a perfectionist? Yes, specialist. No, generalist.
Do you want to work on the new, hip, sexy project? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Do you need much variety in your career? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Are you good at knowing when you're in over your head? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Is job security a priority to you? No, generalist. Yes, specialist.

Team:

Are you small? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Do you have a decent process in place? Yes, specialist. No, generalist.
Is that process more agile than waterfall? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Is amazing execution you top priority? Yes, specialist. No, generalist.
Can you keep a specialist busy for the length of the job? No, generalist. Yes, specialist.
Do you need someone who can pitch in in various ways? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.
Are you hiring a manager, exec, or very senior role? Yes, generalist. No, specialist.

Open question to anyone reading. Can a specialist manage a generalist?

Is a multi-specialist a generalist?

Moral of the story that began to come out during the questions: It doesn't really matter. It's all in how you see yourself.

#jacksofalltrades

SXSW: In Code We Trust

2010-03-12T14:22:00.003-06:00

Although this wasn't the panel I was planning to attend (Mobile UX was full), In Code We Trust, which addresses technology's role (especially open source) in government, was pretty interesting. Here's some takeaways:

When selecting a software solution for a project, it's important to make sure at least one open source solution is evaluated.
Open source is best because the public can evaluate the code.
Use contests to get help in generating solutions for as many platforms as possible.
In government, there's a lot of data. The challenge is to organize and share the data in a user friendly way. Dashboards are a good example of this.
By promoting open source you can build a community that interacts with the government day-to-day. An example would be making public requests open to the public...basically keeping everyone on the same page.
To address the digital divide, multiple channels are used. SMS is typically the lowest common denominator for mobile.

Here's a few examples or references from the seminar:

Mobile Boarding Pass Fail

2010-03-12T07:58:00.004-06:00

Nevermind the lightening delay at O'Hare. I want to talk about how my mobile boarding pass didn't work at O'Hare's Terminal 3 security or at the American Airlines gate.

I find the idea of a digital boarding pass quite intriguing, but after seeing the backup methods for identification verification, I'm a bit disturbed. At security, the TSA agent used the information below the QR code on the ticket (my name, flight #, etc.) and my ID to verify my identity. I'm not too worried about that, but there wasn't anything he put into the system to verify that the ticket was valid. I suppose I could have created by own digital ticket and gotten through security...

At the gate, Greg was wondering what would happen if the scan failed to work again. Surprise! Fail. All I had to do is give the attendant my last name and onto the plane I went. This is all kinda surprising considering the recent reemphasis on air travel security.

My previous experience with mobile boarding passes (Delta out of ATL Hartsfield) was just fine...

iPhone 3GS

2009-07-29T23:41:00.002-05:00

first pic from the iPhone

I took the plunge. There was a time when I said that I didn't need a driver's license (Mom loves to recount this). There was a time when I when I said I would never join Facebook (Erin reminds me of this fact once in a while). And there was a time when I said that I'd never get an iPhone on AT&T's network.

Well, all that's changed. When Mom decided to take the family plan to AT&T for the sole purpose of getting iPhones, I caved and got the fanciest one on the market. So far I've been able to sync my Gmail contacts and all my music to the phone as well as set up several o f the popular apps.

I can see how having such a connected mobile device is going to be a game changer for me. All I can hope for now is for AT&T to quit being so restrictive of Google and for the AT&T service to continue to work in my apartment.

Invited to Google Voice

2009-07-12T11:49:00.002-05:00

I opened Gmail yesterday to find a Google Voice invite. Prior to the invite I hadn't given the service much thought. I figured it was probably handy for someone with several different numbers to juggle or someone who wanted to keep an old number as well as get a new one? In any case, the reality of the interface is much more familiar than I'd originally thought.

Think Gmail for your voicemail (cause that's basically what it is). It takes no more than five minutes to setup and get acclimated. You can have the Google Voice number forward to any other phone number that you have access to. I've yet to fully explore the integration with Google Talk due to PC troubles, but I'd expect that Google's aiming for a Skype-like app.

One cool feature is the transcription of your voicemail into an inbox message. I can't it's all that accurate though. It transcribed this, "Hey Mike, eh, the cubs just struck out in the bottom of the third and the score's tied three to three so starting the fourth inning. Bye bye," to "hey mike either have a comes just truck out in the bottom of the 3rd tennis course tag 323 so starting before thing bye bye." A cool feature, but totally impractical if this is representative of the quality of transcription. All in all it's cool, but not that amazing.

IE8 finally working on my netbook

2009-07-05T02:51:00.002-05:00

The netbook is back! I'd set it aside a few months ago after getting the MacBook from work. Don't get me wrong, I still used it, but just not quite as much. Then I foolishly decided to let Windows Update install IE8, and the crash-on-launch behavior of IE8 began. I got frustrated. There didn't seem to be a quick fix, and so I quit using the 1000HE (IE isn't my primary browser, but is easiest for me to check my work email).

Now that my main Windows box is still experiencing the sniffles from a full blown virus, I've returned to the netbook and am happy to report that IE8 is all better. As part of the repair process for the desktop I went through the Control Panel to reset all Internet Options to the factory settings. This proved to be the fix for IE8 on the 1000HE. If you happen to have a similar problem or hear of someone who does, suggest this simple solution. You'll loose all your customizatinos, but you should probably be using Firefox or Chrome as a primary browser anyway.

HTML5 Drum Kit

2009-07-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

This is just cool.

http://www.randomthink.net/labs/html5drums/

Enough said.

Dave Brubeck at Symphony Center

2009-06-27T11:13:00.002-05:00

When my mom first asked me about going to see Dave Brubeck at Chicago Symphony Center, it was a kneejerk yes. Dave Brubeck has long been one of my favorite Jazz musicians and I doubt he's going to be touring much longer. The concert itself certainly didn't dissappoint. In the second half of the show he played Three To Get Ready and Take Five, both of which are favorites.

I have a few live recordings of Dave Brubeck, noteably the Quartet at Carnegie Hall, and I was somewhat ambivalent of what seeing Brubeck at Symphony Center, from the balcony, when he's in his late 80's would be like. Like I said before, he didn't disappoint. He wasn't quick on his feet, but he's great in front of a piano. The crowd also got into it, which livened it up more than I had expected.

Launched a Facebook Application

2009-06-19T16:22:00.004-05:00

We launched a Facebook application for AutoTrader.com today. It's a relatively simple application, but was built with extensibility in mind, so we can add quizes, questions, answers, etc. without much work. It's not the largest undertaking, but definitely something to be proud of.

What Kind of Car Am I?

The Cloud Explained

2009-06-13T22:04:00.002-05:00

Erin's said that I don't describe tech things very well to non-tech people...and she's probably right to some extent. A couple months ago, I tried to explain the could to my aunt and it don't think I got the point across. Anyway, I saw this article on NYTimes.com and it gave an descent outline of data centers and the could.

“In reality, the cloud is giant buildings full of computers and diesel generators,” Manos says. “There’s not really anything white or fluffy about it.”

Article, Photos

Funny - VC Non-Admissions

2009-06-09T10:14:00.003-05:00

Humorous deck I saw on TechCrunch:

VC Non Admissions

View more Microsoft Word documents from vcobserver.

CMMY Prom 2009

2009-06-03T09:15:00.003-05:00

A few weeks back we had an awads party at work. With this economy it was a low-budget affair, but was just as fun as anything we've done in a while. Oh, yeah...Did I mention it was prom themed? Not what I would have chosen, but I got through with a tux-tee handily.

Photos

Now Would'ya Look'it That!

2009-04-21T23:03:00.004-05:00

USB Ultrasound device coming to a Windows Mobile phone near you?

Did I ever mention that I worked with these two professors on a Capstone project at Wash U? We developed a USB-powered harmonic ultrasound system. Prof. Zar had the imaging software and Richard was the professor for the hardware design class. It was my by far my favorite hardware class at Wash U.

Tasks for the desktop

2009-04-20T22:06:00.002-05:00

I've been looking around for a nice Google Tasks widget for the Dashboard but so far have only found this neat AIR based widget.

This American Life Live

2009-04-19T22:30:00.002-05:00

The show was great. It's really interesting to see radio performed. It makes me excited to take advantage of the weekly tapeings of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and possibly catch a performance of Prairie Home Companion sometime. Here's an excerpt from the show description in case the website comes down.

Ira Glass will host an actual episode of the radio program, performed onstage by some of our favorite contributors. Dan Savage, Starlee Kine, and Mike Birbiglia will tell stories. David Rakoff and Dave Hill will conduct a ‘special investigation.’ Plus a new cartoon by Chris Ware, additional visuals by Arthur Jones, and a very special appearance by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

App Engine

2009-04-11T12:39:00.001-05:00

One of the things I've been thinking about all week is how I could build a quick and easy site for everyone to share memories about Grandpa. I've wanted to experiment more with App Engine after SXSW and the Google developer day. Last night I combined the two and created an App Engine site where memories can be saved and photos can be uploaded. It's in really rough form with a few bugs due to half implemented features, but hopefully I'll have time to actually finish it off (or at least work on it some more).

It's written in the Python version of App Engine, but I just signed up for the Java version as well.

http://michael-lanyon.appspot.com/

Grandpa passed

2009-04-06T15:42:00.003-05:00

My Grandfather passed early this morning.

UPDATED:
Early Saturday morning Grandpa passed out from what we later found to be a mild heart attack. Thankfully Grandma was awake and heard him fall. He was taken to Skokie Valley Hospital and was being moved to the ICU when I found out what was happening. Erin and I went to see him on both Saturday and Sunday. Early Monday (like 2:30am) he passed.

He was in good spirits on both Saturday and Sunday, talking about the price of gas and what the weather was like. At one point Grandma was going through some of the hospital's things and found a really large comb. Grandma exclaimed, "Look at the size of the comb. Now all you need is the hair!"

On A Mac Now

2009-04-02T20:52:00.002-05:00

So it's official now, I'll be getting a Mac for work. A MacBook Pro arrived from the Toronto office for me today. Nate's just begun to set it up, but hopefully I'll have it for the weekend. I've only used a Mac for short spurts before, so it'll be interesting to use it like I'm gonna keep it.

Sweet!!!

Chrome Experiments

2009-03-27T14:59:00.000-05:00

Google put together a very cool collection of demos showcasing the V8 JavaScript Engine and what I'm guessing is HTML 5. For those Linux and Mac users, Firefox and Safari will run the demos as well.

Chrome Experiments

Google Developer Day

2009-03-26T15:44:00.005-05:00

This was a pretty interesting opportunity for some small group time with some Google people to talk about their current product offering. First off, their office on 20 W. Kinzie is pretty freakin' awesome. It fits into any other office tower layout, but they've done some inventive things with the space.

The 'Keynote' was just that, a kinda state of the union for Google product offerings, breaking them down into Client (Chrome), Cloud (Data APIs, App Engine, Google Docs, Apps, etc.), and Connectivity (Andriod, GWT, OpenSocial).

Breakout 1: Google App Engine

Don Schwartz, an App Engine engineer, went through a demo/tutorial about how to create a messageboard. It took only 45 minutes, granted he's an expert with notes, but it really showed the power of being able to deploy an application to the cloud. This is he app he built. He also talked about how the question and voting part of Obama's digital townhall was built on App Engine.

Breakout 2: Geo APIs

Delson Ting presented the Geo APIs. The presentation was basically a breakdown of a demo he had prepared beforehand which showed how to gracefully degrade an app based on what plug-ins the client machine has. The mapping points are pulled from a Google Docs spreadsheet feed, but could work with any xml feed. Check out all the code here.

Breakout 3: Google Data APIs

Sarah Graham presented a use case for the Data APIs and data aggregation. Most things are based on AtomPub and REST-ful communication. She showed a handy JSON inspector and explained how a MLB Calendar/Map mashup works. I was surprised that so many people use Google Docs or Calendar as a reliable datasource, but I guess it makes sense in some cases.

All in all it was a good experience. There could have been fewer code demos and more about how large brands or enterprise companies are using Google's products. I think the tipping point will occur when those entities begin using Google products. It could occur when a critical mass of one-off developers use the products, but I'm more interested in seeing how enterprise level companies are using Google's product offerings. You can find a review of the day here.

Photos embedded in Google Street view

2009-03-26T15:39:00.000-05:00

I noticed something this morning when I was mapping my route to the Google Developer Day. Google Maps Street view has added an embedded picture feature to their street view. Click through to the map and look for the thumbnail in the upper right corner.

View Larger Map

Surface

2009-03-19T11:14:00.002-05:00

Worth watching.

DaVinci (Microsoft Surface Physics Illustrator) from Razorfish - Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

Mohawk

2009-03-17T10:25:00.004-05:00

After PhizzPop we went to Mohawk to meet up with Jamie and Wendy. It was a great venue and a great time.

I joined Twitter

2009-03-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

SXSW - ThemeSong

2009-03-16T16:32:00.001-05:00

I went to a generally unimpressive presentation but did come away with one cool idea. ThemeSong is a new AIR app that you can setup to provide some extra office humor. ThemeSong

SXSW - Graffiti Research Lab

2009-03-16T16:22:00.004-05:00

This presentation was kind of a wash but there were some very cool stories and I found the next cool project to play with: GRL Laser Tag

http://muonics.net/blog/index.php?postid=15

SXSW - CMS Showdown

2009-03-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

The open source CMS showdown was between Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress. I generally don't think of Wordpress as a CMS, but apparently they've been moving into that space.

The showdown was based on a challenge to provide a community leardership organization with an easy to use content managed website. They all had the same design template and had to have the same features. In the eyes of the intended client, Drupal was the winner with Joomla a close second. It was the separation between the blog and the admin dashboard in Wordpress that tripped her up.

The Ironworks

2009-03-16T13:32:00.003-05:00

We finally got over to The Ironworks for lunch. This is a barbecue place really close to the convention center -- you're actully look out onto the convention center from the back porch.

The food was great. As you can see, Jamie enjoyed it as well.

SXSW - Scaling Synchronous Web Apps

2009-03-16T11:07:00.003-05:00

This presentation was a bit of an indulgence. Synchronous web apps are services like web based chat where the multiple users are expecting to interact with the same content in real time. There were plenty of questions about load testing, server monitoring, how to rollout new features, and the actual application stacks used. It sounds like nagios is pretty popular along with keynote.

In the work I've done at CM, we've had expert release engineers who've taking care of all the servers.

Facebook Party

2009-03-16T10:53:00.002-05:00

The Facebook party started about an hour after the SXSW award ceremony. We got to watch as someone's car was towed from right in front of the club, Pangaea. We were fortunate to get there early enough that getting in wasn't all that big of a deal. It turned out to be not just a party, but a show as well. The first act was a band called Lights from TO. Next up was a very good break dancing crew.

SXSW - Agile Developement/Design

2009-03-15T18:17:00.001-05:00

Dave went to this and came away with a few interesting links:

SXSW - iPhone Dev

2009-03-15T17:31:00.000-05:00

Dave strongly suggested I go to this...so here's some notes.

browser devs don't consider system resources when developing

browsers have built in status/progress indicators

iphones don't have any of that – how to do that?

Iphones are asynchronous and should think consider multithreading

Objective-C, what is it?

C w/OO added

Different from web languages

pointers

memory management

non-linear code execution

syntactical old-school

Gotta use Xcode

Cocoa – the display/interface framework – interactions are asynchronous

Protocols

https, u/p authenticated, REST, JSON (rest is considered best practices because it's lighter)

Demo & Tutorial:

MVC, events & delegates

Use Xcode to pull templates down onto the gui

AppDelegate is like the master controller and is where the app is initialized – has to be AppDelegate.m

below that sits models and views

use http://code.google.com/p/json-framework/ to parse json

Memory Management

if you alloc/init then you have to release it

if you don't, do not release cause you could cause exception

use instruments to profile apps, cause you need to be able to respond to release memory request

SXSW - Nate Silver Interview

2009-03-15T15:23:00.002-05:00

This was a pretty interesting interview. Nate talked about his experiences forecasting the 2008 presidential election (FiveThrityEight) as well as PECOTA, the baseball performace prediction system.

Irrational Exuberance

SXSW - Kick-Ass Mash-Ups

2009-03-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

Kent Brewster, a self proclaimed 'Web Guy', gave a seminar on mashups, pipes, and YQL. These are all things that I've heard of and things that I can easily conceptualize, but have never really looked into.

As Kent said, this stuff is pretty powerful and easy to implement. He rightly highlighted several shortfalls, a couple of which are: the content you're repurposing is not yours and could become malicious and when a badge or mashup becomes popular it basically turns into a distributed denial of service attack. All in all, it was some very interesting stuff.

SXSW - Neocartography

2009-03-15T11:16:00.003-05:00

I missed the beginning of this, but the general idea is how digial map and their interfaces are evolving. I've pulled some of the links from the presentation:

http://chicago.everyblock.com/ - This is what was up when I walked in. I don't have much context.
http://code.google.com/apis/earth/ - The Google Earth app has come to the browser.
http://www.mysociety.org/2007/more-travel-maps/ - This was a very interesting mashup where you can use sliders over a map to show different metrics. One of the maps on this page shows London with real estate prices and commute times. Very cool.
http://walkscore.com/transit-map.php - This is another cool mashup that superimposes walk times over a Google Map of an area, in this case the Bay Area. It's a good example of the time access
http://www.london2012.com/map - This is another very cool example of time based mapping. There's a lot of different data that you can toggle on/off of this map. Too bad it's all in flash.
http://www.areyousafeatlanta.com - This was shown inn response to a question about direction engines routing people through bad areas.

SXSW - Metadata and Bite Sized Info

2009-03-14T16:55:00.002-05:00

I started last session in the metadata talk and left. It's pretty simple, apply metadata where it fits and where it'll have a lot of contributors (if it's user generated). In my opinion, the point was belabored.

I then went over to a panel titled Feed Me: Bite Size Info for a Hungry Internet. I didn't catch enough of that one, but I wish I had.

SXSW - Opening Remarks - Tony Hsieh

2009-03-14T14:56:00.004-05:00

I'm sitting in one of the simulcast room watching/listening to Tony Hsieh talk aboutwhat make Zappos a great company. After reading two of Jim Collins' books, I can tell you that this is one of the few true implementations of that school of thought. Zappos was built from one set of core values with everything based on that. For Zappos it's customer service. You find the right people, people who share your core values, and then keep them happy.

One quote I just heard and lots of people jotted down: "Hire slowly, fire quickly."

Update w/materials from the keynote: Slides

SXSW - The Secrets of JavaScrript Frameworks

2009-03-14T14:12:00.002-05:00

This was a decently stacked panel that spoke to 4 topics: YUI's new loader, meta languages, ARIA, and JQuery. The YUI and JQuery materials were most interesting. Some interesting things to check out are the firebug js profiler, fireunit, and testswarm.

We went to Stubb's for lunch. Yum.

SXSW - Even Faster Websites

2009-03-14T11:22:00.003-05:00

Steve Souders, writer of YSlow, gave a talk about making websites even faster. Here's my notes:

parallel script loading
if you use script dom element method, make sure you check race conditions in IE
DO NOT put inline scripts after stylesheets
iframe suck

His full deck is at http://stevesouders.com/docs/sxsw-20090314.ppt

UPDATE:

One this that's interesting to note about this PowerPoint deck are slides 66 & 67. They show how the frontend optimization discussed impacts a business's bottom line. This is how you would sell in the extra initial cost.

Heading out to SXSW

2009-03-13T16:15:00.001-05:00

I'm going to do my best to post during South by Southwest. I dono if it'll turn out that way, but who knows.

Herdict

2009-03-12T22:19:00.002-05:00

Crowd sourcing has become one of those buzz words. I usually try to ignore such things, but I heard about Herdict by way of The World's Technology Podcast. Basically people can post that they can't view a website. The crowd either verifies or refutes the claim. The podcast coverage was better than I could do, so see that for more info.

Mom's Birthday at Shaw's

2009-03-09T20:51:00.003-05:00

Last night we went out to Shaw's Crab House on Hubbard in Chicago. I've heard about Shaw's plenty of times, but it was my first time dining there and I strong suggest the Alaskan King Crab (you can see Emily playing with one in the picture). The crab was delicious and dinner was fun. Happy Birthday Mom.

EeePC 1000HE

2009-03-05T22:33:00.002-06:00

I got a new laptop today!!! I ordered an Asus EeePC 1000HE netbook last Saturday and it finally (no fault to newegg) arrived this afternoon. I gotta say that I'm really impressed. This little laptop has just the right sized screen, 160Gig of storage, the newest Intel Atom (N280) processor, a multitouch trackpad, realtime performace stepping, and what seems to be a realistic 7 hours of battery. Read the Tech Report review for the details and good pictures.

The realization that no laptop under $2,000 was going to satisfy my application development needs lead me toward getting a netbook. The Tech Report article pushed me to purchase, and so far I'm very happy with the decision.

Mundial

2009-03-04T22:18:00.000-06:00

Erin and I went to Mundial Cocina Mestiza for dinner this evening. I won't get into a full blown review because I could just do that on Yelp.

That said, if you go, strongly consider having their Chile en Nogada. Simply put, it was stuffed peppers, but in truth the flavors were a fantastic, delicious combination. Erin's rib eye entree was very good, but not great. All in all, not a place we would return, but a nice dinner as a one-off.

gChat comes to iGoogle

2009-03-03T10:25:00.005-06:00

I've been waiting quite a while for this, but finally, gChat has come to iGoogle. It looks and functions basically like gChat in Gmail did before they added the SMS and video capabilities. Finally iGoogle is becoming the one-stop-shop.

Slight design tweaks on Google Maps

2009-02-28T08:37:00.003-06:00

I just noticed that Google has a slightly new look for Map. I'm not sure if I like it. It's the first time that my eyes have progressed down to the ad listing. Usually I hardly notice the ad placements, but this new, blocky layout was different...dono if I like it.

Going to SXSW!

2009-02-27T21:54:00.000-06:00

I found out this morning that I'll be going to South by South West. I expressed some interest in going last November, but with the state of the economy, I didn't think I'd be going. But to my pleasant surprise, I now have plane, hotel, and conference tickets. The interactive conference overlaps with film, but I'm going to miss the music. Now it's time to select the seminars I'd like to attend...

Erin's New Job!

2009-02-23T20:39:00.001-06:00

Erin was formally offered a full time position at Matec, the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center. She's been working there part time since early December. Yay!

Israel!

2008-11-09T21:33:00.000-06:00

Erin and I both got a free trip to Israel from Shorashim!!! We depart on the 5th of January but we'll likely extend our trip to tour Egypt.

Vegas Sports

2008-10-24T20:52:00.004-05:00

Sports had the same concept as music, but was still a big project. This screenshot has it all. This casino has an upcoming event, a news story, and highlights. Instead of some javascript motion for the 'Overtime Guaranteed' (auxillary) content, Sports uses a 3-D papervision scoreboard. Very Cool.

Vegas Sports

Vegas Music

2008-09-15T20:32:00.010-05:00

The music project for the LVCVA was an effort not only to make people more keenly aware of the music scene in Vegas, but also to show them what else is happening around the show. The concept of Play Louder is to show how Vegas takes further or louder than any other city in the world. Now for the tech goodness.

Music is heavy with fast moving ajax. That's almost a given, but what you can't see behind this scenes is the full blown CMS (Drupal core) that we implemented to associate and augment existing data. We also worked with a 3rd party to integrate the artist bios.

It was quite an undertaking and quite an achievement.

Vegas Music

Vegas Right Now

2008-05-17T14:16:00.000-05:00

Vegas Right Now - go.

This campaign has been under constant evolution since it launched in March. I chose to highlight it only because it has been through so many iterations. It first went live as a very simple, almost static page. It's since evolved into a house for several sweepstakes, and most recently because a fully content managed page. :)

VRN

My Vegas

2008-02-22T19:47:00.002-06:00

We launched My Vegas. It's a closed social networking site and was my first large project at CM. It was a titanic amount of work and code, but now it's done.

I'm particularly proud of the galleries, message board, themes, and use of ajax, and...well all of it really. It was a great learning experience and portfolio project. It's a project that's never finished though we rarely find time to work on it.

It was designed in tandem with RSVP - The Vegas Planner, an all flash trip planner. Ideally there would have been deeper integration between the two, but we didn't really get that far.

Check out My Vegas when you have a chance.

I'd like to point out that it's a closed network. This means that you have to be invited and there's no way to search through other users that you're not already friends with. An open network was deemed a content/liability concern for the client.

Happy Wednesday

2008-02-06T11:42:00.001-06:00

Sarcastic Wednesday - courtesy of Hallmark

Working...forever

2007-12-03T23:58:00.001-06:00

I worked most of the weekend. I'm not going to complain per se. I take great pride in the site we're developing, but I'm getting to the point where I want to see it done. It's at the point of an alpha release, and will be at the modern definition of beta in a couple weeks. I'm just so anxious to be able to showoff my work to everyone who can't see my personal dev environment.

Murderball - The Movie

2007-11-30T09:57:00.000-06:00

Erin and I watched Murderball after dinner. The movie was not really what I expected, as it went deep into the personal lives of some of the players. Basically the quad rugby players are normal people playing a sport. There are nice guys and a$$holes. It was a good movie and a rental I would recommend.

Wii Tennis Pro

2007-11-27T16:37:00.000-06:00

I just became a Wii Tennis Pro while waiting for my computer to do a disc scan. It's actually really fun, and I encourage you to try it if you haven't.

Flat Screen TV

2007-11-24T23:05:00.000-06:00

So I've been thinking a lot about getting a flat screen. Sony, Samsung, and Sharp all look like good TVs to me, but honestly I don't really know which reviews to trust. I've found the Samsung LN-T4065F. I've been to a couple stores, but haven't found this particular model in any stores, but the LN-T4061F looked pretty good. Has anyone had experience with any of this? Any advice?

American Gangster - The Movie

2007-11-23T19:53:00.000-06:00

Erin and I saw American Gangster this afternoon. It was a very, very good movie. Enough said.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T22:32:00.000-06:00

Erin and I joined the rest of my family and friends at Joanne's house for the third annual Thanksgiving. Aside from amazing hors d'oeuvres, drinks, main meal, and dessert we have a tradition of playing the game.

Here's the game: Every player writes the name of ten world, national, or local personalities on slips of paper and put them in a bowl. Then everyone is paired into teams. The goal of the game is to provide hints to help your partner guess the name on the slip of paper you draw **without using name or spelling. Each pair of the group takes a 60 second turn before getting another turn. The end of the game is arbitrary, but the team with the most name at the end wins. It sounds lame on paper, but in between the mean and dessert of Thanksgiving, it's a lot of fun.

Workin' From Home

2007-11-21T09:51:00.000-06:00

I'm working from home today. This is so much better than treking down to the office!

i really like my job

2007-11-19T22:44:00.000-06:00

After spending yet another late night night at work, I can confirm that I really like my job. I mean, this is the type of stuff that I would do for fun, not just to get paid. I feel very fortunate to have found something that I like to do as a job.

Thanksgiving Practice

2007-11-18T22:34:00.000-06:00

Erin and I went to a practice Thanksgiving at the apartment of one of her good college friends. It was the first time since leaving school that I've been to a gathering like this, and it was nice. I didn't really know more than a few people prior to the party, but it was good to see people in that atmosphere once again. Makes me miss my friends...

Yay for Spot Bonuses!

2007-11-16T13:37:00.000-06:00

I just got a spot bonus for the extra work I did on Dreft in October! Although the pat on the back did go a long way, money is good too.

Long work hours continue

2007-11-15T22:06:00.000-06:00

I've continued to put in log hours at work. It's not really that I have to, but I foresee extremely long days ahead if I don't. The current project that we're developing for Vegas is huge, and we're doing it in about half the time recommended. The late night this evening wasn't so bad however. Reid (my boss and project tech lead) stayed late with me to get a particular database query hammered out. It's 140 lines in the query config format, but should resolve to much less when it actually runs. Not bad for a late night's work.

Sold My CompuTrainer

2007-11-13T20:55:00.000-06:00

I sold my CompuTrainer last week. End of an era you ask? Well yeah! I no longer intend to spend hours on my bike, inside, during the winter. That just doesn't sound so fun anymore. Wait, that was never really that fun. As my dedication and desire to become a pro bike racer has waned, I'll be looking to unload some of that more expensive training equipment. That includes a set of Zipps (new rims) and an Hypoxico Altitude Generator.

Dan In Real Life - The Movie

2007-11-11T10:40:00.000-06:00

My Mom, Dad, Erin and I went to see Dan in Real Life last night. Although I wanted to see the movie I was in more of an American Gangster mood (a movie I still haven't seen). I was pleasantly surprised by Dan in Real Life. The one sentence summary of the plot is simple, but the way it's played out with the complex characters is much more interesting. In my opinion, Steve Carell tops is performance in Little Miss Sunshine. I recommend it.

Wake-Up Cat

2007-11-07T09:03:00.000-06:00

This is what Toby likes to do to Erin in the morning. I was ready with the spray bottle this morning.

Batter Blaster

2007-11-06T19:18:00.000-06:00

Did you work late? Sleep late? Have no actual cooking skill what so ever? This product is for you!

Zodiac - The Movie

2007-11-04T11:42:00.000-06:00

Although Erin and I had intended to see Dan in Real Life, it was sold out, so we went back to my parents house and saw Zodiac. It was pretty good, though long and kinda creepy. I don't like the idea of a serial killer that doesn't get found. It takes place in California between the 60's and 90's. There was a lot of story to tell, so I understand that it was long, but for it's length, I would have liked more character development. It was event packed, but not a whole lot of time was spent showing characters' emotions. Still a good rental though.

Exhausting Week

2007-11-02T19:04:00.000-05:00

This past week has been exhausting. Ever since the Dreft project I haven't been sleeping all that well. I would have expected to be back on my sleep cycles by now, but I'm still only able to sleep about six hours at a time. So much for going out tonight. I think take-out and a movie are in order.

In other news, the new LVCVA project is coming along. There's a ton of work to do, but I'm decently pleased with the amount of work we completed this week.

BeerCamp

2007-11-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

BeerCamp you ask? At the workplace, during work hours? Yup.

Critical Mass has an event called Beer Camp every month where informal discussions are started around presentations on an area of interest to someone. The presentation can be about anything - yes, anything. I've seen everything from digital marketing strategy to someone's experiences as an American Idol participant. Everyone in the office is encouraged to participate. Oh, and yes, there are coolers full of beer throughout the office to make sure the event stays true to it's name. November's BeerCamp in tomorrow afternoon.

Processor Lifecycle

2007-10-29T15:26:00.000-05:00

The contributors to tweakers.net have come up with a really interesting article, Chip Magicians at Work: Patching at 45nm. The article just skims over some of the iterative development process, but exposes some really cool technology that's utilized to get a processor into production. Debugging can be "done by evaporating certain chemicals into the laser beam, which are then shot directly into the chip. Using corrosives, connections can be broken, while metal and silicon are used to make new structures." Read the article for the full effect, but clearly someone at Intel has their thinking cap on. Note: I originally found this on Slashdot.

Intent

2007-10-28T23:46:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted. There are a few good reasons for that, but the one I'd like to highlight is that "Life On The Bike" no longer reflects what my life is about. Over the next few weeks look for changes to my blog; changes that reflect where I am in life now. I also hope to do some back fill entries so that there isn't a gaping hole between late September and late October. There's a lot of exciting stuff so share, so please bear with me.

Rockwell Neighborhood Grill

2007-10-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

Erin and I went to the Rockwell Neighborhood Grill this evening for dinner. It was my first time out of the house today. I was up and down, sleeping most of the day. The Grill hit the spot for my burger craving, but offered a diverse menu that warrants a second go. It was nice to have a relaxed meal. It my first relaxed night in a while. The Dreft site went live sometime this afternoon. I'm glad it's up. I don't suspect I'll have to work on it again.

Dreft.com

2007-10-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

This past week I've been doing apps dev for the Dreft.com site redesign. I got pulled onto the project near the end of the day on Monday. I stayed till 9:30, but a couple of other people stayed well into the AM hours. Tuesday wasn't so bad, but Wed. & Thurs. were back to the late nights. Unlike college, I felt like I was only able to work so late. When you start at 9am or earlier, you can't really work much past 9pm.

Friday was the worst of all. The idea was to get the site into staging, final qa in the early afternoon, and deploy in the evening. Yet more unforeseen issues came up and pushed is back so far that we ultimately weren't able to get the site up, but still stayed till 1:30am. The perks of working all the time are free food and expensed cab rides home...totally doesn't make it worth it. I hope the next big vegas project doesn't come down to the same situation.

Posted after the fact

Ink's on the Paper

2007-10-18T19:47:00.000-05:00

I signed my permanent contract today! Good news. I asked for a large raise, and got half of what I asked for. The employment is retroactive to 10/1, so I'll be getting the back pay in my check at the end of the month. I'm also all signed up for my medical benefits, pretax transit money, and 401k. I'm all official now. Feels good.

Fiesta!

2007-10-11T19:44:00.000-05:00

The Fiesta Open House last night was a huge success. It's more difficult than I would have thought to get good people in advertising, so to get the word out, we had the Fiesta. I didn't do any recruiting, just drinking. We drank lots of strawberry margarita, and stay with co-workers till near midnight. Fun fun fun.

iPhone - My Impressions

2007-10-10T14:47:00.001-05:00

Work has an iPhone that people can take home for an extended period of time. I recently got the iPhone over the weekend. Here's the blog post I wrote for work about it:

My first impression of the iPhone: “This is really cool”. If you’re somewhat of a nerd, geek, etc. you’ll probably giggle at some of the ways the iPhone displays. But I’ve had it for 4 days now, and the equivalent of new car smell is gone.

The iPhone’s many virtues have been extolled in countless blogs and websites, so I’ll focus on what I believe will keep it from mass adoption. The first and most obvious drawback is the smudged screen, and learning curve in where your finger will actually register on the screen. You get over these things with familiarity.

The second big drawback is that Safari for the iPhone doesn’t support flash. Could this be a licensing dispute between Apple and Adobe? Either way, it handicaps significant portions of some of the coolest sites. I hope all CM’s non-flash replacements are up to date.

The third drawback is that Apple wrote their own custom apps for Google Maps and YouTube. This means that for whatever reason, Apple thought they had better functionality for these apps then the creators and overwrote that functionality. When navigating to a site that embeds Google Maps, the map can be viewed, but the user cannot click and drag the map…because Apple didn’t want you to double tap and drag.

These incongruencies with what a user expects from other touchscreen and touchpad devices as well as Apple’s need to override functionality could be a downfall of the iPhone.

On another note, the phone functionality experience wasn’t all that great. All the iPod Touch needs is broadband internet to become THE mobile device.