Floozy Speak!

What is it about Rolo’s?  I can consume a whole pack of rolo’s in like seconds.  I think they are designed to do just start, you start unraveling them and presto they are all gone. 

Sooo much new I say, sooo much new.  First the Mac.  The mac is good.  The transition going to mac has been much easier than I thought it’d be.  In fact its pretty damn slick.  I like the mac alot.  It’s a bit like my first pc experience, in the sense that i bought my first pc to play Doom.  I bought my first mac to use ilife.  Cause that’s all i got on it.  Heh. 

If you sold ilife on its own, it’d cost $500+ easy on a pc.  I mean imovie is a great little editing tool, iphoto and making books and calenders is a snap, and you can do effects in it too, then idvd which i havent even touched yet but I know is gonna be good.  iWeb is cool, and i’ve just glanced at its abilities for a sec.  Garagband is waaay cool, GatorDave and I took a tour of that this weekend, very cool ablities in that software alone could cost ya big bucks.  Folks, ilife is an excellent deal of a suite o tools. 

On the browser side of things, Safari is, well, a browser.  Its clean and mean and is fast as I would expect.  Its built in RSS reader is kinda handy but I miss the extension goodness firefox enables me with.  The biggest thing that bugs me is the lack of delicious integration.  I dont bookmark in the traditional sense any more, I’m all deliicous enabled.  I want to tag my bookmarks and send them directly to delicious in a smart and simple way. 

Some of the simple things in the mac are there, but i cant think of them yet or I dont know cause i’m well, new i guess and I have an old way of doing things, but i havent found a simple way to get safari to consider delcious just yet.  If i could get over that one hurdle i wouldnt have any complaints about the browser. 

Theres aspects of the mac where you feel OS X is basically telling you “stop thinking”.  Little things that get to me in using the mac at times.  On the PC you get a big eject button on drives cause theres something about the comfortable phsyical representation of a button you can actually have command over that will enable you to eject a disc.  I know that if my finger hits that button, i’ve told it to do something, and its phsyical, its my finger to do, where as on the mac its my hope that my intent to do, will be understood as a do, and thus done based on what command ive asked it to though theres a chance its also thinking about other stuff to do at the moment of the do. 

Its like powercords, you yank them and you have assured result – power off.  You had control.  You feel powerful.  The mac does away with a bit of that control and enables you to find it in ways well… you have to get used to.  Its not that i couldnt eject a disc, it was the uncertainitly in finding the way to eject that bothered me, even if it was just for a split second, that feeling of no control, at the whim of a “clicking” disc drive was incredibly painful.  The same kind feel sits in me when i download and install files, where do they go really, they just install, they just work, all is well is what the mac tells me.  I’m so used to being uberly nosey on the pc, where’d that file go, make room here, there, and so on.  I just dont have that knowledge to be percice on the mac yet, and i sometimes wonder will i get it? 

Another point in fustration is software.  On the PC the question is never “is there an app that does x” its more of finding it via the web.  All the pc apps are done, they are out there, go find them.  On the mac its different, did someone make this kind of app yet?  Like blogging clients on the mac so far as dismal compared to the pc, in fact its really kinda lame at best on the mac.  Your choices are 1 or 2, and the pc, you have the choice from a dozen i bet.  And then on the mac where theres no apps, there may be widgets and vice versa.  Widgets in the desktop are handy, neat and semi-useful.  To me, its cool code that if you got a purpose great, if not…… well. 

One thing that is fun is resting on the heels of all these intel-native-binary RSS sites for the new mac systems.  There are daily posting of apps that are not native on the new dual core machines.  Watching these lists is like a constant new high you can tap into daily.  You know how I love the new, well, RSS brings you the beauty of new daily on these babies! 

Hmmm…. in other news, on the blogsphere side of things… ok one thing, had to go…

Drowning out the good vibes of LazySunday

Apparently LazySunday had to be yanked form YouTube because it was copyrighted and thus really SNL’s right, yadda dadda material.  Its sad when the struggling show like SNL makes a clip, it goes viral on the web, gets massive, makes SNL come to life again in the hopes and dreams of consumers and then.. legal freaks SLAM on the breaks, take it off the sites that made it massive and of course.. they decide to then sell it or promote it thru more certified channels, tis a shame they didnt do that in the first place but then again they wouldnt of known if it wasnt for sites like YouTube.  This is classic corporate agenda crap that can really back fire on end users.  Now I have a host of mixed feelings, I love LazySunday but I’m pissed that SNL/NBC doesnt recogonize the fact that the web made breathed life into their otherwise nearly dead show in fact, I watch SNL now, on my tivo, soley for the hope to see more digital shorts.  In general the writing of the show has been in the dumps lately. 

The viral ad scene on the net has exploded lately.  Has anyone seen those clips of the Burger King and Brooke Burke on the web lately?  They are hilarious.  And its all web, strictly on the down low in the hopes to generate more buzz, and the more underground it is the better it seems to grab at folks.

Posted by dan at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got tired of the lame replies from google adsense department of “it could take several weeks” to get adsense ads to work properly on the site.  So, i dunno what’s wrong, but I know what’s right, banish them!  BE gone ads, that did me no good.  Gone for now, maybe try another day but i really hated ads that didnt connect with the content, and i’m not waiting another month for it work out.  Thats just silly, in fact, its lame, in fact its basically the reply that says “we dont know why it doesnt work.. but keep trying”.. i know that line, I give that line out myself all the time. 

Posted by dan at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

onedarillowACT

Man I am ranty today.  I think its a combo of my toothache and this last bit of work that needs to get out.  Anyways… I checked out a few “web2.0” blogs today…first let me say…woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… cause thats whats in web2.0 today.  Web2.. simply called 2, is filled with such golden goodness that 1 could never compare to its awesomeness.  Yeah its that fake at the moment. 2 is falling into the trap. 

First real snare on the trap is the mass misguided usage of naming.  MyStuff, IPod, IGOD!  MyDiscoTreats – a superior index of all the treats you’d have on board while at the disco.. now with tags! 

A study in names.  Look at the list of 2 tools on Emily’s site, which by the way, rocks.  But just look at the names. 

namesLikeTHIS, you start to see that a bit

then

Zimbra the Legend, names that sound like funky animals in far away galaxies or actually at first i thought about names people wrote down after taking lsd or extacsy.

or

SomethingMagicalEDIT, word+function,  KooppailCOPY, edtagnasSHARE, add that action word, ok so you picked yer favorite word after takin a bit of x, now you need that action word so people can really understand it. 

or what about

Two Zon’s, a Zar and Ing walk into a bar, again the attack of the zars, zons, ings and rl’s 

Posted by dan at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hate it when search engines and help indexes don’t speak in the language that error messages do.  If the error message says “talk to the yellow bunny for details..” and then I go to help and search for “yellow bunny” and i get NADA, that really pisses me off.  The word combination was accutely apparent in the error message, it wasnt dark bunny, or sad bunny, it was yellow bunny.  THATS the language, and I EXPECT that to be in help.. and of course.. it isn’t.  Its sad how bankable my instincts are on getting that rat bastard of an answer from help.  How typical.  AS if they planned on it.  You begin to wonder could it really be the help folks and the coding error folks, NEVER talk?  In microsofts case thats oh so true it seems.  Yellow bunny shouldnt be a hunt either,  it shouldnt be mass dig of 20 entries, it should noted that the user said “yellow” first and then bunny.  So MAYBE just MAYBE the system could see that and make the connection.  Instead you get all entires of bunny, yellow and hell probably “ “ as well. 

Way to go Bill!  Confuse the hell outa me please!  I BEG YOU!

Then of course after you dig, get mad, blog yer anger, you then find a possible connection to the yellow bunny yer lookin for of course its not written as yellow bunny though, more like blond rabbit details are here.  Or blond critter that resembles bugs present in many popular cartoons is here.  Pretty soon you get the joke, thats on purpose or yet another design intent that got trampled by the due process of creation and having 9000 people sign off on it. 

Posted by dan at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Speak like spam! 

Today’s entry is composed soley of spam email which I’ve been getting alot lately.  Usually I just delete them all but sometimes you find some golden nuggets in there.  Let’s begin…

Posted by dan at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think Jacob gets too much credit. The guy can post an “alert” about the proper way to chew chicklets and he’ll get a few billion hits on that. 

Jacob has recently posted an entry on the Top Ten Design Mistakes for Blogs. 

Personally to me, blogs are just that, personal.  I’d argue that they are alive as well.  Thriving things.  Emotional, crazy, unbalanced, fresh, diggity, wombastic, dynamic, see alive, almost human like.. so maybe they carry human like qualities as well. 

Jacob flashes his usability badage and says:

1. No Author Biographies.  –  I see that.  I like them, yes, we need them.  Correct.

2. No Author Photo.  –  Minior nitpick really, he lacked the material and gave us the obvious, really should be wrapped up into 1. 

3. Nondescript Posting Titles.  –  Jacob claims “Hey kids! Comics!” is a bad headline.  Basically Jacob wants you to sound like a press release engine and not a human.  I dont usually speak in press-releases, “Man Found in Alley with Toast Tongs Serves Life Sentence..” – Thats the proper headline Jacob wants.  I’d much rather say “Yo Toast, What Gives?! “ but noooooooooooooo.  Thats not good enough. 

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go – So what?  Get over it.  “The Web isnt High School”, see now again here we see the dangerous preachy side of Jacob lash out.  What’s wrong with high school?  Communities, youth, hackers, remixing ipod generation wired teens who carve out niches and build better brands.  I say bring on the high school.  Heck we have tv shows reminding us how cool high school was.  Who doesnt want to go back to high school? 

5.  Classic Hits are Buried.  –  In research we love the classic hits, the one off wonders that define yer character and in yer blog they are lost to us unless you brag about them and repost them, link them, so do that basically.  I could see that.  So so.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation.  – Negative, you usually calendar, scroll bar, tags, catagories, archives, side bar items. 

7.  Irregular Publishing Frequencey  – Yes, need to post. 

8.  Mixing Topics  – My problem.  But then again i’ve always been a man of many hats.  Hats are good really.  I’ve rarely met someone that just fished and nothing but fished, odds are that fisherman also has an opinion on toat as well.  Basically if you mix the topics yer not official, yer weak and bad in Jacob’s eyes.  If you don’t mix topics yer more official, more “the rock” more stable, better for ya, but boring as well since you basically lack character. 

9.  Forgetting that You Write for Your Future Boss.  – And if that boss is you?  Do I really want to be born to be owned by a boss so easily?  I understand these typical top tens have this “thing” about them to be read and taken seriously but seriosuly, what if my future boss is me?  For a guy that cares so much about the human factor i find it hilarious how far off the mark he gets on really understanding humans.  Actually saying things like “think twice before posting..” the hell with that.  You have a brain for a reason, you choose.  So my future boss just read this entry saying how much i diss’d the idea that my future boss would care what i wrote here and is now considering that i’m not applicable to the future job that i could take, future wise.  Well how shallow!  In the future if you met me you’d know who’s boss really mattered in this world. #9 really ticks me off.  Its basically a huge threat.  Thats nice Jacob.  I’ll put you right up there with the evils of DRM with this entry. 

10.  Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service – Yes I’ll agree there.  Own it yourself, host it where you can but own it. 

Posted by dan at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think TYPEKEY blows.  There I said it.  Anything that basically deters the spontanity of replying to conversational thought really bothers me.  Typekey means well, i’m sure it does, but its like a 9000 pound gorilla at the gate that needs to tripple key encoded passcode with a seven digit microfiber indication codex that will then give you the ability to walk in. 

I have a kiwi-mart with bars and locked doors.  Sure you want a slupry eh?  Sure we all do, well, break out the hacksaw…..15 minutes later, and now you could care less.

I don’t have the patience to comment on my own postings, so why would i expect anyone else to have the patience.  Maybe I’m missing something, maybe theres some silent and easy way to comment.  “stay logged in you say…” i think that bites as well.

I think I want the “read this image” spam filter for commenting than typekey, or maybe that java code that knows whether or not yer actually human and typing comments system.  Cause I think typekey essentially says “dont bother commenting cause i will send you thru fire to do…”.  Thats great! 

I think we attempted to do typekey vs what we had before which was mass spam.  We dont want mass spam.  I agree, mass spam sucks.  But typekey is the opposite extreme, you can post, only if you jump thru these eight flaming tires and sneak pass the hungry tigers. 

Posted by dan at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

DRM, digital rights management.  The era of DRM is approaching.  If you’ve got a DVR, a tivo like goodness device and you follow the blogs out there parcing out the info on what happening next in the waves of digital video recorders to come you probably know a bit about the evil vile thing that is DRM.

Caught this today… Broadband Reports tells me that Microsoft has aquired a new patent for "Control-based content pricing", where the cost of your service is raised or lowered depending on whether or not you skip advertising.

That just makes my blood boil.  I hate this mentality of YOU WILL CONSUME OUR MEDIA ADS OR ELSE.  Will the future of tv and home enteratainment be an endurance fest?  I picture myself watchin tv in a room with a cop who will beat me if i skip forward thru an ad. 

DRM is coming to everything, pc’s, tv, music, as more technology gives me free willy access even more technology arrives to attempt to reset the balance and then in reality really punish me.

Who’s to say all those ads I skipped thru would of even mattered to me regardless?  Thats another thing that bugs me, if i dont care about Joy dishwashing fluid, I dont care, so I skip it, yes saves time, yet if i watch it, i still dont care, yet somehow in watching it, they feel justifed, at least you had to watch it!  Bring on the blipverts! 

I wonder how much more I’d pay a month for adless TV sponored by Coke, Ford and Sony.  I pay homage to brands that give me freedom from mass ad clutter and in exchange i actually like them better for not attacking my every move watchin TV.  What would i pay for that?  Hmmmm

Posted by dan at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I tried to publish my brief comments on the Molly’s Buzz report article on how social networking was dying.  Here we see the classic registration required for opinion.  Yet another site that beckons response yet gives me a hoop to jump thru.  This falls into the catagory of degradation of my idenity.  My identy is worthless to cnet, due to how disrespectful they deem it me as.  A simple comment posting should not require me to bleed yet more of my idenity yet, apparently they want that. 

“ Signing up is quick, easy and FREE.” its not free, its time you offer to waste for me.  You said Molly you dont have time to waste in your article “ Five reasons social networking doesn't work” yet you trip over your own words in the aspect that cnet is attempting to do the same to me.

Soooo many sites need my login, my idenity, and for what, to post 3 lines of content. 

Posted by dan at 12:00 PM | Permalink

Now playing: Bootay - bucci blag

There are times in your day when you need to just tune out reality.  Tune out the aspects of life that don’t go together.  Rule out everything else and just let the beat guide you.  Crank the music and forget about everything else.  Focus dan, face the fear head on, get to know its name, take it dinner, tattoo it.  Stare it right back in the face. 

Tune out.  Focus.  Forget. 

Posted by dan at 07:20 PM | Permalink

Nothing solves the festing what if, who am I, whats going on, than just a good old plain conversation.  What’d I do?  I confronted my project manager.  I got it “off my chest” and we talked.  We communicated.  We put aside our fears and saw eye to eye.  We both understand.  We recognize where we both stand and now.. I feel soooo much better. 

Now only if we could all just do that.  Talk. 

Posted by dan at 02:24 PM | Permalink

Boy this first draft opened a can of worms on me today.  But its not all a loss.  Maybe I suck at taking feedback, I dont think so but maybe, I do suck at that.  The more I think about it, the more I open doors to better understand how I think and process.  Often my writing is viewed as being too wordy or too “cute”.  Again this is not an intent.  I can be overly wordy when I want to, but I never try to strive for cute ness.  Scarastic maybe sure, but I dont see that as cute.  Unless were talkin “dont be cute with me” which is a form of scarasticness.  Ok so maybe thats what they meant. 

I look at it like this.  I could say:

The apple is simple.

Thats simple, to the point, clear, but leaves out any room for any clarification or possible notion that the apple is anything other than simple.  Research never works like that.  There arent simple answers.  Users dont break down bad design into it “just sucks” theres aways a reason, and yer a bad researcher if you just accept “just sucks” as an answer cause thats really a permission to probe further for people.  They are asking you to ask them to deep deeper.  If they tell me:

The apple sucks cause its red, round has a shine to it, makes me feel simple, too possible, too easy, its simplisitc, its not where i want to be,  i’m not just an apple. 

I tend to write that out, thats a nice base to word.  Meaning that the way I write is wordy cause I can work from words down, I cant work from simple up.  If you have no data you have nothing to go on.  But if you have data you can purify that to where you want to be.  Does that make sense?  Start large, refine to finish.  Thats why I write gobs of material.  You may clarify it later which is fine, I will clarify it later as well, but unless i understand where i’m at i can make the jump to clarity without the data present to help formulate it. 

Do more of that in yer head.  Well I cant. 

Posted by dan at 12:57 PM | Permalink

Realization.  I haven’t drawn anything in awhile.  That’s where these feelings need to go. 

Posted by dan at 12:18 PM | Permalink

I've been ranting alot lately.  I need to get back to drawing.  The pure simple pleasures of drawing. 

Well my room mate has moved out and has left me with the decision to rent some more or buy a house/condo, which is like the furthest thing from my mind presently.  Still I probably "should" cause it'd be "smarter" in the long run.  Damn long run gets me everytime. 

So now I'm condo shoppin.  Though I keep thinkin, I just need a bit more time!  Or maybe just another room mate.  My place is really nice for 2 people.  Especially considering i live in my room 24/7 pratically. 

Sad thing about looking around for other apartments is that by the time I find something thats 1bd with an attached garage (which i want now, im spoiled), its damn near what I pay currently.  SO.. what to do.  1 month to decide. 

Lastly, I bought a PAL today.

I've been eyeing these babies for awhile now.  As the nice weather comes, I need a better outdoor speaker setup, and I'd like something for road rallys and picnics, and I'd like a better audio solution than the crappy logictech speakers at work, plus it'd be nice to swap out the rolands in the lab as well.  This baby meets all those needs and more.  Velcro the shuttle on the side and i've got a 1gig portable boombox. 

Its AM/FM with aux in and headphones jack, waterproof and has a nice battery life.  Oh ya and lotta colors to choose from, I went with "earthen brown".  Price? $129.  Not bad really, one of my co-workers has one next door and it sounds great.  I love the rubberized ruggedness of it as well. 

Posted by dan at 05:29 PM | Permalink

I think creative people need to wield big axes and swing them around more.  There's this odd dance some managers do on creative folks. 

Step 1, Can you?

Its the can you do this?  Is it possible?  The unknown?  The energetic wow, is that possible?  Its hope, its a the maybe, its the ya, we could be famous.  The wow.  The sun glistening off the face of possibility.

Step 1a, Of course.

We agree, it can be done, we are excited about the acknowlegement that it is possible.  We get ideas.  We get juiced up.  All is well and we can do it.

Step 2, No so fast silly wrabbit...

High on the promise and energetic about the ideal, we get yanked.  No budget.  You cant do that.  Did we authorizie this?  We cant do this.  We shouldnt do that.  Excuse me Billy, put that pen down.  We dont have time for that.  Are you mad, who told you to work on this?

Step 3, Internal tainted, external delight.

Internal people are tainted with the ass paint of badness, we are all marked, we are all marked with uncreative ways, we cant possibily do better, we're exposed, we need outsiders, we need other brains, we need someone else to guide us, take us away from the darkness we are in.... or what management is wading through. 

Step 4, Implementation of the new...

Look at what Barry can do, this is what we need, why can't you all do this?

Step 5, Barry becomes internal just like you.

What was once new is now old.

Step 6, Rinse Repeat.

Go to Step 1. 

Posted by dan at 10:36 AM | Permalink

It doesn't happen very often in the physical world, yet online with my eyes wide open expectations of all that is good will happen for me... well it happens alot.  Today's offender, the kickin of me in the balls is SafariU "now in beta flavor!" 

The tag line is Your Course In Print On the Web Your way. 

Create publish and share your own book.  Yes sure you pay for it, but you can create it.  You pull what you want and you learn.  Now I like this idea.  I like it alot.  Sure I got 800 some idenities on the web, what's another, lets add safariU to the list, yet another login. 

I take the tour, seems all good, I hit apply. 

Now apparently this site is only for educators.  WTF?  OWWW kicked in the balls!  Take that!  Where on this site does it say "educators only"???  Does it actually expect me to read the terms of service agreement?  Does anyone actually read that any more?  Maybe that little notifcation was in there.  Nice move!  Course I dont know, I dont ever plan to read another terms of service agreement for awhile.  Where else could be the flashing red light of warning only spend time on this site and or concept if you are an educator!!  You could argue that I should of known!  I mean isnt it obvious, it does say your course!  Well guess what we teach classes here at work all the time, still not an educator in the official sense.  Ok lets keep looking....Well in the fine print of "how it works" theres still no reference as far as i can see in a quick read of the page regarding me, the need of me to be an official falculty member.  I did notice just now the $700 bucks min order notice.  Thats a neat little reality not tossed into the overal vibe you get from the site. 

SafariU is a lie.  Its a big bad wolf in sheeps clothing or something.  Basically as a user i'm hit with golden promise up front, the wismical idea, the animated tour of all that is possible and then i'm fucked at the door to get in. 

I bet money I'm not the first joe blow that thought this was a cool concept of a site and tried to join up only to get the "notice" that it aint happenin. 

So the problem is all these joe blows really.  I remember working on an ecommerce project for a clothing company and the CEO's response to the errors and failures people had via their checkout process was "well can we get smarter people?"  Blissful arrogance, thats what we all need eh? 

The idea what I should of known bothers me really.  I got the link off the Make Magazine website.  A DIY for hackers and freaks messin with empowerment and technologies, not really a site i'd associate with educators and falculty members.  The only thing that applies to the placement on Make's website is the DIY factor, but its not pure like Make's, its with a catch.  So sell on the promise of possibility and then smack them dead center in the door pane when the attempt. 

Sure in hindsight yer right i dont have $700 to blow on books for my students.  But the concept makes me want to still use it.  Creating my own How To on using flash sounds interesting, or perhaps a cafepress style creation or biz model would make more sense for me.  Still a win win for Safari.  A stupid cash cow win win if you ask me.  They provide the interface and content, I provide the passion and drive to make the ideal book, they make them and profit.  Where is the problem here.  Production costs?  See cafepress. 

Well I guess i'm done here ranting about yet another experience online.  Balls intact! 

Posted by dan at 02:40 PM | Permalink

Nothing kills me more than to watch people I know struggle with an application that I know is not right for what they are doing.  Like someone using word to edit video, not possible you say, i'm sure someone has done it, it was painful but thru enough backend loophole connectors and macros and what not its possible.  Ok thats an extreme example.  But researchers on the whole don't really, well let me say, pure researchers are about analyzing data and coming up with ideas, they aren't folks who obsess on what tools could be used to help them visualize it.  Those freaks are me. 

I love new applications, new softare, new ways to do things.  I love anything new.  Ok I'm a new junkie.  Maybe I'm short attention span theater boy but I also like things that work well consistantly.  So while I love the new, the what works is just as desirable.  But the just works also needs to be right. 

What is the right application?  To me you don't need Quark or InDesign to make a proceedure map.  Heck its a mind map right?  Yer goal is to get yer ideas down and think about what yer seeing now fiddle with 400 little widgets to draw a line.  That drives me nuts.  It should be:

realize >> synthetize >> translate >> produce

Realize whats happening, sythetize the gist of it, translate it into your chart, produce the chart. 

Typically to realize means you had a big meeting, a brainstorm, a bunch of folks talkin, OR, you observed, you denoted, you watched and took notes.  Then you sythetize, you compile your findings, you make an affinity diagram, you get it all out, ya break it all down and look for patterns, the big buckets, the nuggets of goodness.  Next up you translate it, you build your map of whats happening, you sketch it out, yes SKETCH it out as to whats occuring, you conceptually create based on the evidence at hand.  THEN, once you got narrowed down, sketched out, finalized as it to be, THEN you produce.  Create it.  Finalize it. 

Too many steps you say?  Well researchers need steps.  Gotta have steps.  Can't quite tell the client the gusto unless you have evidence to prove it.  I think what happens is researchers skip the translate part and go right to produce.  So now in my managers eye, (which i use alot), I have this researcher, a brilliant peep diving into the world of photoshop and indesign to create their masterpiece.. and struggle.  Wait you say they're brilliant, sure but rather intolerant when it comes to tech, they are stubbron folk I say.  So they get fustrated, sigh and waste time trying to create the perfect diagram when they should be merely translating it. 

I say let the designers, the hardcore kids of art and mayhem bang out yer piece.  They are the producers.  They are the folks that zip thru inDesign in 7 seconds.  To me its a waste of time to struggle with an application and when I see a researcher doing it, I wish I was the manager. 

Sure I respect those that want to learn, thats a given yep, but every project has hours alloted to it.  Your time is based on that, and not learning now to draw. 

Another thing that gets me is that they dont know so they forge ahead in the snow.  They're researchers damnit, they should question everything, shouldn't they be saying "damn this blows and this is gonna kill my zeeal on the project attempting to learn this damn app all i want to do is build a mind map.. geeze" but... perhaps they are like diehard programmers we find in usability studies often.  Its like the badge of honor when it comes to unix folks.  You could hand them a broken toaster that burns plastic and gives them massive headaches and they'd still give it a high rating of "ya its good, i can deal".  As consumers and researchers we tend to pile up alot of "ok's" in this "we'll deal" pot. 

Deal with it Dan. 

Posted by dan at 09:12 AM | Permalink

Here's a topic that i've been pondering for awhile.  How many different identities do you think you have on the net?  Logins, email accounts, irc and instant message handles, online dating personas, forum message boards, i mean the range of creating you over and over and over is really endless.. how do you keep up with them all?  On amazon I'm this, on that other commerce site im that, son on and so on.  How many different passwords do you try to keep track of, or do you use an app to remind you?  Who was I last night on that one site.. was i joe, fred, hami, spock.. etc.  I'm getting lost in all my indentites and the idea of needing an app to track and tell me who i am to them and those other folks really bums me out.  Pretty soon will I need an app to remind me who I am in real life?  Will I need software to tell i'm off line, i'm awakeware? 

I think of all identity crime happening out there.  And we ourselves are encourged to create multiple identites to continually keep the masters off our fence.  Thats a weird one, the masters on the fence.  I like it.  Typically we in the social reality space are encouraged to be just us, in person i'm dan, hello.  Faking who i am in reality doesnt fly well, i can get arrested easily.  Yet you can do it in one place, at least conversationally you are encouraged to lie about who you are as a person.  Not bars, nope.. telemarketers, sure ok maybe there, those bible thumpin door knockin peeps perhaps but they are on to ya if ya do, no i'm talkin about car salesmen. 

This past weekend my brothe Paul and I test drove the Chrysler 300C Hemi.  Beautiful car but we had no, thats right, no intention of ever buying it.  We just wanna drive it.  We have to go thru the dance of disbelief with them however, otherwise you can't drive the car.  You have to lie.  Its sublimminaly encouraged.  Least by my mind set.  My brother is far better at the game than I.  He talks the talk well.  He loves test driving cars.  Lately we've been enjoying tossing eachother statements in front of salesmen to keep our story evolving.  Sure the ID's we pass to get into the cars are real but nothing else is.  We just moved here, visiting a friend, just bought a house, need to a car, a truck whatever.  The talkin game does get old though.  I have no patience for cars salesmen.  Not when I just wanna drive a car.  I want, you give me.  Thats what I want.  Nope car salesmen dance all day long with people, maybe half, hell maybe a third are really real.  So the 300C Hemi was good, big car, nice feel, super cheap for what ya get.  34k loaded is nice, and the price is goin up 1k next year they tell me.  Demand on those critters is crazy.  Fun car.  Whats really nice is the space for tall folks, there is a ton of room in that car, that alone is like 70% of the sale to me really.  Funny how that car has a ton of room and you look at it and go.. "ok ya.." and then the mini has equally as much room (for the driver) and you look at it and go..."umm no.. no tall person could get in that thing". 

The second car.. well truck we looked at was the Dodge SRT10 truck.. a small little truck with a dodge viper engine in it.  Hilarious, 500 horsepower.  Thats crazy.  We had to drive it.  The story changed a bit, we knew we couldnt take it out together, thats ok, Paul is driver really, I'm the admiring white cloud of smoke tire burning brother.  Heh.  I love seeing my brother behind the wheel of a car, truck etc.  So the results?  The truck is damn fast.. a different kind of speed compared to the Ford F150 Lightning we drove this past spring.  The story on this SRT10 was 41k out the door, it was used.. hardly a break I say but the 500horsepower beast is.. well a beast.  The story goes a man with a viper traded his viper in and bought the truck new for 45k, and then ten days later returned it and got his viper back.  When you look inside the hood of an SRT10 and see this massive viper motor you cant help but smile.  It rests easily inside the body, in fact it looks like its got room to spare and this isnt a big truck.  It roars nicely as well, though it didnt have the cool windup whine of the Lightning kickin on the turbo.  Still 500 horsepower in a small truck like that.. like why.  Heh.  Lotta fun. 

Posted by dan at 06:16 PM | Permalink

Starbucks to increase prices.... WHHAT?!  LOL thats hilarious its already 3.50 for a tall white chocolate mocha.. and that thing is tiny! No more for that Joe! 

Course I don't drink coffee any more anyways.  Its not the caffinee issue its the coffee issue that doesn't jive with me tummy. 

190 comments?  Yep, all on:

Tipping debate: How much should you tip for a cup of coffee?

Posted by dan at 08:02 PM | Permalink

Ok i know how that sounds but everyone measures up one way or another on the cock meter.  Lately some of the folks I know in the workplace are excelling at being utter cocks about work.  That attitude doesn't sum it up enough, its pure cock in my opinion.  Its the ego throw of look at me, behold my utter cockyness i am the big cock! 

Ya know cocks don't motivate, well not like that Tuggernut, but in general a cock at work is flaming lip like action.  Yer a pouting sour puss baby you ain't no cock! 

I wish I could be colder with people.  Maybe just babble at them... Quzaaamar DuuuKOT!  Yes. 

Posted by dan at 06:24 PM | Permalink

Sigh.  Ok sure juice has just as many calories as coke right ok i see that.  Today I headed off to the gym talked to my two docs: excersise good sure, bikes bother me, must find taller seats... treadmil works, i dig that, strength training tomorrow cant wait, wanna get into that stuff in a hurry.. but my diet, sigh, lay off the naked juice they tell me, wait a sec its like really good for me, yes but too much is bad!  Bah.

I'm still getting over my alum creek water flu too.  I have scratchy throat- yahness! 

Well break out the map, Ottawa Canada here I come where is that.... ( flipping pages.... ) ahhh yes, and then Chicago!  Looks like we RIDE this July.  I really need to find a beach for a few days as well.  Maybe I should visit SuperSocks or SallySue, NZ would rock as well of course.  :)   Ya know Sara ie Tuggernut is in Canada this week on vacation, i wonder where she's goin up there. 

Delicious always delivers unique links.  Ahhh ha!  Discovered at last, it's "Coast" by "Sedona" you don't know how long i've been searching for the who of what of that song. 

Oooo more gmail goodness, the addy importer!  Oooooo more goodness.. Casshern gets a review!  Its out!  Er well.. over there.

More and more cool design portals out there.  Ummm a goggle portal?  Yikes.

Posted by dan at 12:50 AM | Permalink

I really hate how Internet Explorer deals with favorites. I have a ton of links. I remember ages ago it seems and how back then Netscape made dealing with favorites rather easy like really.. yet with Internet Explorer, it just seems like a massive cluster#$&%!!.

Go download something to fix it ya say? Sure i guess, take chance on another adware app or something to break something else. Or lets just get Google to fix it. I use their toolbar, now fix my favorites.

Posted by dan at 10:44 PM | Permalink