Tactile Feedback (Touch)

I've managed to acquire both an iPod Shuffle (the original style) as well as an iPod Touch. As attractive and fun as the iPod Touch is, for listening to music the iPod Shuffle wins for me hands down. Why?

It's all about touch.

With the iPod Touch changing tracks, changing the volume, fast forwarding, or pausing the tracks require me to swipe my finger across the display and then figure out where on the screen I should tap or touch.

With the iPod Shuffle, I can control it blindfolded. I need to make it louder? No problem, just feel for the round ring and press up. Pause the track? Just find the big round button and press. The tactile feedback is wonderful (and the way it feels when pressed is very intentional, I'm sure). Even better, I can control the iPod through gloves or clothes, whereas the iPod touch I would need to hold it and have the skin make contact with the screen.

This reminds me of some fascinating research done by Patrick Baudisch on audio-based user interfaces, where sound cues are used to let the user know what is happening. The video below demonstrates the work:



See http://research.microsoft.com/users/baudisch/projects/earpod for the writeup.

Word Play

I love this kind of word play:

"Pricey Popcorn Prevents Premium on Picture Show"
[Santa Cruz Sentinel - http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_8345238]

The San Francisco Chronicle has been doing fun headline puns for years on their website. Recently it went through a major redesign. I wrote to the Chronicle and asked if they were going to continue writing puns. Sure enough, they wrote back, with a pun!

Thanks for the nice comments. Check one.

A. SFGate will go all serious in its headlines.
B. We'll never have any fun again.
C. Pun of the above.
(I'd bet on C)

-- News director, SFGate

I Kidjo not!

Very few people know this, but I have danced on stage with Grammy winner Angelique Kidjo. It's true!

Buying airplane tickets on Virgin America makes me furious.

Buying airplane tickets on Virgin America makes me furious, especially when pricing games are being played.

I had to buy plane tickets in two separate transactions that would let two people fly separately on different days but fly back together on the same flight.

I opened up two different browsers (IE7 and Firefox) so any settings made in one browser wouldn't affect the other one. Using Kayak.com I found the cheapest airfare at Virgin America for both of our trips, clicked through , and entered my billing info. I then purchased one ticket for a great price ($175). Next, I completed buying the other ticket only to be told that my original cheap ticket selection ($169) was suddenly unavailable and the only option for the desired flight was $243! Every other flight for the day and time were still cheap at the same $169 price.

Could it be that I bought the last cheap ticket for the flight home when booking the first flight? Maybe Virgin America has some timer, counter, or cookie set so that a user can only get one deal per unit time and then sneakily be shown the expensive prices after the first ticket is bought?

I tried to get prices for Virgin America using both browsers, both using Kayak and by directly visiting the Virgin American website. The specific flight was still extra expensive. Ok, maybe the price is just high. Next, I tried a different computer and also found that the price for the specific flight was still high. Hmm... I'm still not satisfied since it seems awfully suspicious that that one particular flight is so expensive while all the others are cheap and that there are still plenty of seats left.

Where can I get a different IP address? All my computers are plugged into the same router and I think look like the same IP address to the outside world. Ah ha! I also have a wireless connection on my laptop, and the wireless network has a different set of IP addresses. I visited the Virgin America website using the wireless network and the prices were cheap again! I was right! I quickly bought the right ticket at the cheap price.

Just to retest my hypothesis, after buying my ticket I immediately went back and searched for the same flight again. Sure enough, the price for the specific times had skyrocketed from $169 to $243!Very sneaky. It's completely legal but I feel like the company is playing games with me. I would rethink about buying tickets with them in the future.

(On a related note, Amazon.com used to do variable pricing for their goods (depending on when and how often you viewed an item) and that really upset a lot of people. See http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2000/09/38622 for the story in detail.)

Shadow Puppet Theater

Last night I saw Printer's Devil Theater and Sgt. Rigsby & His Amazing Silhouettes presenting "A Boy in the Beastly City". This was a shadow puppet show and voice acting in one. Like a radio drama, it featured four voice actors sitting next to the screen in 40's clothing.

The story was loosely about a boy trying to find his lost pet monkey in the city. The humor was often Pythonesque, with non-sequiturs and intermittent complaint letters being read, as well as a couple of Benny Hill chase scenes. In some ways it felt like a 12-year-old had written it -- the story was all over the place and had juvenile humor -- but was contrasted by the beautiful set and great period costumes.


I love this kind of theater -- creative, unusual, and something off the beaten path.

HMS Endurance finds MV Explorer in the Antarctic

After the Titanic sank, it took decades before it was found. By comparison, the MV Explorer found just a few days ago, only a couple of months after it sank. What's astounding is that it is more than two-thirds of a mile below the surface.

From www.mod.uk
After an initial unsuccessful search earlier this month, Endurance revisited the area to carry out the systematic search of an area ten kilometres by five using the ship's advanced multibeam echosounder, which uses sound waves to create an accurate chart of the sea bed.

The seabed in the search area was flat and featureless, but a contact was detected at a range of 4,373m from the reported sinking position of the vessel. When compared to the reported sinking position of M/S Explorer this was broadly consistent with the direction of the prevailing current.

The wreck's position is at the northwest end of the Bransfield Strait, and was located at a depth of approximately 1,130 metres. The actual location is at 620 24.2929' south 570 11.7748' west. It was judged that the depth of the wreck showed that it presented no hazard to shipping. Apart from the oil slick, no debris was seen in the water and no debris was observed on any of the land in the vicinity of the wreck visited by personnel from HMS Endurance.

A side view of the M/S Explorer on the seabed created with HMS Endurance's multibeam echosounder
[Picture: Royal Navy]

Gearing Up For Repairs

Q: When is a gear not a gear?
A: When it's missing it's teeth.

The real punch line is that one of my favorite gears, the one in my garage door opener, needs to be replaced (because it's missing all of its teeth).

Signs that the gear is stripped include that the opener sounds like it is working but the chain does not move, and white "confetti" appears below the opener. There was literally a little pile on the ground, as well as plenty more in the cover, which I've removed so you can see it in the picture below:

In doing some research, I found this fascinating comment by Eric on why the gear may be designed to fail first and the larger issue (the garage door assembly probably needs work):

The plastic gearing is actually designed to strip when the GDO is under excessive strain. The “sacrificial” plastic gear saves the more expensive parts (motor, circuit board, sprocket) from being damaged. Garage door openers are not designed to lift doors, they are only remote control devices. The lift is provided by the counter-balance system (springs), which is why you can raise 150-400 lbs of wood or steel up over your head with one hand (a perfectly tuned door can be raised with 2 fingers). If the gear has stripped you probably need work done on the door. Weak springs, blown bearings and low quality/worn-out rollers are typical causes. As for Genie quality, it has diminished greatly in recent years, particularly in regards to their electronics and I certainly hope you didn’t buy the Excelerator model as it tends to damage doors and can in fact be dangerous. Get the door serviced by a qualified technician. Hope this helps, Eric - Garage door professional.

Looks like my education in home repair is only beginning...

Traveling Lightly

I'm flying home for the holidays and with each passing year I bring more gear. I could travel lighter but since I go straight from being dropped off at the airport to being picked up from the airport and staying with family the whole time, traveling heavy isn't too big of a worry.

This year I'm bringing the following:

• Lenovo Thinkpad laptop computer + power brick (for serious work and writing code)
• Full-size mouse (see: serious work)
• Ultra-mobile PC (Samsung Q1) (for photos, games, internet access, and watching movies)
• Cell phone + charger
• Headphones
• Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR camera
• Canon 24-105mm zoom lens
• Canon 50mm prime lens
• Apple iPod Touch 8GB
  
• Canon PowerShot S70 camera (small camera for when a big one is too big)
• Flash card reader (quicker to dump photos to other computers)

What's more amazing is that all this gear fits into my backpack and in my pockets. Going through security at the airport, however, is quite an ordeal. Despite all the electronics, I spend most of my time visiting people (with my trusty camera at my side).

In the Chilean News

They made the front page in Chile, yet only made it to page A7 in the local paper. What's neat is that a few national news agencies have been calling and leaving messages on the answering machine requesting interviews. Good Morning America interviewed them too but another couple was featured instead.

Saved Before Abandoning Ship

"I saved a memory card of all photos except last day == 2 gigabytes. Backed up my diary to flash memory two days before." They lost everything else (their luggage, their camera, and even a laptop).

A Sinking Feeling

My dad is in Antarctica and is having a had a great time, with one exception: his ship hit an iceberg and is sinking. I think he accidentally signed up for the "Titanic Experience" package when setting up the trip. Fortunately everyone was evacuated safely to another ship. (What a deal -- two trips for the price of one!)

Read all about it at the New York Times. There are good photo galleries at the New York Times and ABC News too.

Update Fri, Nov 23:

Subject: We're okay
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:56:33 -0800

You may have heard by now that we had to abandon our ship, the MS Explorer this (Friday) morning. We are now okay and are at a Chilean base in King George Island near the Antarctic Peninsula. If all goes well we will be evacuated by air tomorrow to Punto Areanas Chile. I heard a bump and then water leaking this morning at 12:30. Felt water on the floor. We gathered things up. Put on our heavy winter coats and went to muster station. We abandon ship at 2:30. Spent 2 hours in life boat. Fortunately weather was "good". We were picked up by the ship NordNorse and deposited here. We're coming home as soon as we can.

Update Sat, Nov 24:

Subject: RE: We're okay
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:11:37 -0800

We just got word that a plane has punta areanas. We hope to leave today. If not tomorrow. Lost all our luggage. We we given clothes on boat. She has only her wellingtons to wear. dONT EVEN HAVE HOUSE KEY. fortunagely we have passports and a credit card. this is a bad connection.

Update Sun, Nov 25:

Subject: Punto Arenas
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 05:52:26 -0800

We are now alive and well in Punto Arenas.

This whole thing is surreal. Things like this only happen to other people. In the Chilean base I gave phone interviews in Spanish (a trying experience) and English to a paper in London. Here have given an interview to Toronto Star.

We wont' get off until tomorrow at earliest.

I saved a memory card of all photos except last day == 2 gigabytes. Backed up my diary to flash memory two days before.

Today we go shopping for clothes.

Looking forward to coming home. We're leaving on the 4 pm flight for Santiago,Chile. Save newspapers and magazine articles for us.

Bill and Me

This morning I met former President Bill Clinton after his speech. I reached my hand out in a sea of other hands and got a handshake back. A girl next to me wanted her photo with the President, who was gracious enough to pose with her, and I tried to take a photo with her camera. It didn't work so I quickly used my camera. The President looked at me and started to speak just as I was about to take the photo.

"Please hurry up. I'm getting late," he said.

Yes, I'm proud to say that I managed to annoy the President.