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06.21.07 I never post funny videos. First, little Archer is going to be one hell of a crooner one day. That's my friend's Axton Kincaid that he's singing along to. Second is this little dishwasher gem. My favorite part is how they filmed the keyboard inside the dishwasher. So simple, so brilliant! # 06.16.07 I've been thinking a lot about the moderately disappointing announcements from Apple at last Monday's WWDC. I mean, there was so much hype surrounding the "secret" features of the next version of OS X that I think everyone expected it to toast your bread and clip your toe nails. Not that Apple is excused, since they're the primary culprit responsible for hyper-inflating expectations. But let's step back for a second and look at the new features of OS X for what they are — an upgrade to a collection of technologies that enable. Here's the idea I'm coming to on this one. Apple is, by and large, recreating the BeOS. They almost bought it; they hired Dominic Giampaolo to introduce journaling to the filesystem; they introduced metadata (although not to the extent Be had it) and "instant" searching along with smart-folders. Now they're introducing Quick Look, which I think is a much more powerful subsystem than anyone's yet realized. First and most importantly, it supports plug ins for expanded compatibility. Second, it appears to be more or less an available server (see Cover Flow). The big thing BeOS did was eliminate the need for external viewer applications. You could open an image file or play an mp3 or video right there in the OS. Apple has had something like this in place for certain applications, thanks to the OS-level Quicktime framework. But if you can view documents (potentially any documents, with the plug in expansion), play MP3s, videos, right there in the Finder, well hey, that's halfway there. No wonder the Finder has been redesigned to look like iTunes. It's the next level of media jukebox. Now, I don't want to go around putting lipstick on pigs, but I think Cover Flow is also pretty significant. I wont lie, I don't use it at all in iTunes, and I don't imagine a huge application for it in the Finder, but if they've managed to make it work as smoothly as it seems to in the videos, and it has access to any file Quick Look can see into (which, as we've established above, is nearly infinite), well then, it represents something else entirely. It represents a deeper layer of abstraction from your data. It's another step away from the hierarchical files-and-folders metaphor and the spacial Finder of old. Combine this kind of data visualization with instant search and smart folders and you've got yourself a pretty powerful visual pile-sorter. Imagine flipping through your files like you might a stack of paper on your desk. Imagine throwing things into visual piles that fly apart to reveal their contents with one touch. How hard is something like that going to be to implement with this stuff in place? I think these technologies, along with Core Animation, are big set ups. I think Apple is sowing the seeds of a rethinking of the standard desktop interface concept. I don't think they're going to be the ones to make the first big leap (for all of their big talk, they haven't got the balls), but I think they're putting all of the technologies in place for someone else to invent exactly that. And I think once someone else proves that there is a better way to interact with your information and work, they'll jump on it ahead of any one else. Now, I don't know if any of these new technologies are any different from what Microsoft is offering with Vista (I've never touched the thing, so I wouldn't begin to know). And I know that for all their joy-kill and interface slap-dash, they have a pretty robust imagination (see: the original WinFS concept, the new Surfaces table-top interface). But I have the sense that they don't have the balls to throw caution (or a 90% marketshare or whatever it is they have these days) to the wind to be the first to market with something entirely new. Then again, maybe I'm just day-dreaming. # Does your company ever do those "read-aloud" kind of training sessions? Maybe it's because I belong to such a big, fuzzy, touchy-feely corporation. On Friday we had this hour long working session, in which our whole department was split into groups of 6-8 to receive some new training. The way it works (and they've done this before) is that we have a "moderator" who passes around a master instruction sheet and makes us each read a passage or two aloud to the table. Then, on cue, the moderator hands out little cards with smaller scripts of information and makes everyone read their little bullet point of information aloud to the table. Now, I have to give some credit to the internal folks who put this thing together, because I did learn a LOT about the subject and come away with a much better understanding, and the people at my table had some really interesting discussions about the subject. But... still. There must be some way to engage a group of people (all of whom have a vested interest in the subject, mind you) that doesn't make us all feel like kindergartners. I mean, right? # Hey, Blu-Ray disks are rotting! Look at me extrapolating unfounded conclusions from insignificant data points! Somebody get me a scatter-plot and a pointer! # 06.10.07 I'm borrowing my friend Sam's bike for the summer. He's away until September and, rather than put it into storage for three months, graciously offered to let me tend to it's care and feeding, the better to convince me to bike to work. On Saturday I rode down to my office and back, a quick little trial run made all the more necessary by the fact that I have never ridden the streets of San Francisco, nor really in traffic anywhere. It was exhilarating. Completely fantastic. A little nerve wracking (and bumpy, going down 16th near Potrero) but really exciting and fun. And the thing that struck me on my return trip was the realization of freedom. It was a little like the first time I drove a car. I get around just fine right now, treking by foot, by bus and by cab. And there's always the Boyfriend Express when I need a car. Ok, so it's just a bike and everyone in SF but me already has one. But suddenly being able to move myself, by myself, all the way across town for free and on my own schedule was liberating in a way I didn't expect. This morning, I went for a fun ride out to the beach, through the park. Weekends at Golden Gate park are wonderful because JFK drive is partly closed to traffic. Early in the morning, it sits like a runway, just a huge, flat, pristine space. And really, the park is the only thing that's worth seeing in San Francisco on these cold, gloomy days. I can't quite get over the fact that I was able, on a lark, to listen to the fog horns, see the ocean, and watch the gorilla's run. # 06.09.07 Fantastic little web app that generates graphs showing your listening habits over time, using your last.fm data. Kinda fun to look at and see what your spikes (if you have any) correlate to. For me, I have spikes in listening that center around the discovery of new artists or new albums from artists I love. # « May 2007 | archive index | July 2007 » built with movabletype |
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