A Completely Personal Post About My Visit to San Jose, Part I

I flew to northern California last Tuesday for a week-long onsite working session. The routine is a bit more established this time, and I'm starting to make some progress that feels like progress...that is, I can actually see stuff on the screen now. I've been ramping on some video game graphics technology (Microsoft's XNA 2.0, which we've switched to after giving Managed Direct X 1.1 a go). XNA has a much cleaner API than MDX, and does away with a lot of legacy issues that I'm glad I don't have to worry about. What's been frustrating is the documentation, which on the surface looks comprehensive but lacks the kind of detailed guidance at the mid- and low level references that help flesh out the complete picture. I've been making my own references to fill in the gaps.

On the flight to San Jose, I perused Southwest's "Spirit" Magazine and took some notes:

Possible Food Destinations: The Independent Retail Cattleman's Association is an organization that promotes "the great steak houses of North America", which is an idea I could really get behind. Steak seems to be a big part of airline magazine advertising for some reason; perhaps business travelers looking for deductible junkets are the target audience. I noted a few other mentions of beef places to look into: Arcadia Modern American Steakhouse here in San Jose, Austin Land & Cattle Company in Austin (might have to visit there for SXSW in March), and a place called Lawry's for (yum) prime rib. I love steak because it's an elemental food when it's prepared well: it's essentially meat + heat, with a dash of salt. Once you master the heat aspect, you can do a lot of interesting variations on the basic theme. I

Cirque du Soleil packages excellence, and so should we: The article described how world-class athletes are swarming to Cirque Du Soleil for work, and it's quite a competitive process. What struck me about the article was that Cirque Du Soleil has really developed a methodology for putting on sustained productions of exceptional artistry and uniqueness. Because they handle every detail of the productions they develop, they are the go-to people for creating this type of entertainment experience. So how can we apply this to our own, less acrobatic work? If we can make our obsessions pay off (that is, financially they turn a profit), I don't see why we shouldn't relentlessly pursue them IF we are also competent judges of our own excellence. That takes a pretty uncommon objectivity.

My New Car Could Be a Mini Cooper: The original re-issue Mini Cooper was very cute, but just too small. The new Mini Clubman, though, adds way more rear legroom and cargo space that's accessible via two swinging rear vertical doors. Cool!

Randal Ford's Norman Rockwell-inspired Photography: Randal Ford staged and shot live versions of Norman Rockwell's classic illustrations of Americana. It's amazing that actual people can actually contort their faces into the exaggerated expressions depicted in the original paintings.

Receipt Filing Service: I hate filing receipts, so I do a very poor job of it. I was intrigued to read about shoeboxed, which will consolidate your online receipts and scan in your printed ones. They have a service where you can mail in your receipts and they'll scan 'em into your account, and mail them back to you. While the receipt service itself is free, the scanning service is not. It's an interesting idea! I suppose a real accountant would do the same thing; I wonder how much the difference would be in cost.

And here in San Jose:

Old School Mac Stores: In San Jose I got a chance to visit an actual old-school Macintosh store called Mac Pro, which by strange coincidence is the exclusive North American distributor for be.ez laptop bags. I had just read about the LEvertigo 17 the week before, which seemed to have the combination of vertical carry and cleaner styling I wanted for the new 17" Macbook Pro. My hands-on experience: it's a nice bag, though lightly-built compared to the rugged Briggs and Riley Computer Brief that I used for my smaller laptop. If Briggs and Riley made a 17" version of their brief, I would be so happy.

I want Fry's with that: I also have been to Fry's Electronics in San Jose a couple of times already, and I was enthralled by the selection of components available. I saw things in person that I've only read about in online catalogs. I wish we had one back East; the closest thing I've seen is the Micro Center in Cambridge off of Memorial Drive, and it is nothing like Frys. Not even close.

I probably won't have time to do a tour of the historical landmarks, but it's just cool to be in the birthplace of the (micro)computer revolution.

Four Classes of Adults

There's a children's book called Half Magic by Edward Eager. My sister claims that we both read it when we were kids, but I found I had pretty much forgotten everything that had happened in it (as usual), so it was like new to me. I'm fond of children's books that are about lazy summers spent exploring and having adventures, and Half Magic is pretty much in that vein. It was also written back in 1954, so the slight oddity of language to my contemporary ear makes it all the more enjoyable. It's also quite an observant book when it comes to noting adult behavior; this excerpt regarding the four kinds of adults that the children are aware of is, I think, right on the money (emphasis mine):

The four children generally divided all grownups into four classes. There were the ones like Miss Bick and Uncle Edwin and Aunt Grace and Mrs. Hudson who---frankly, and cruel as it might be to say it---just weren't good with children at all. There was nothing to do about these, the four children felt, except be as polite as possible and hope they would go away soon.

Then there were the ones like Miss Mamie King, who---when they were with children---always seemed to want to pretend they were children, too. This was no doubt kindly meant, but often ended with the four children's feeling embarrassed for them.

Somewhat better were the opposite ones who went around treating children as though the children were as grown-up as they were, themselves. This was flattering, but sometimes a strain to live up to. Many of the four children's school teachers fell into this class.

Last and best and rarest of all were the ones who seemed to feel that children were children and grown-ups were grown-ups and that was that, and yet at the same time there wasn't any reason why they couldn't get along perfectly well and naturally together, and even occasionally communicate, without changing that fact.

It took me a while to figure out why this passage struck me so, and I eventually realized that it was because I felt it seemed to generally apply to the making of connections with other people.

• Some people, like Miss Bick and Uncle Edwin, you just merely try to get along with because there just isn't a connection of any kind. You come from such different worlds with such distinctively different personalities that no connection, however tenuous, is likely to hold. So you talk about the weather, and silently exult when someone's cell phone rings to break the awkwardness.

• Then there are those people, like Mamie King, who really do want to get to know you, and they go a little too far and make you uncomfortable by crossing certain boundaries. You know, like that guy at the bar who insists on telling you the intimate details of his life story, or the girl at work who laughs a little too quickly and loudly at your jokes. And in the reverse, when we find ourselves reaching for something---anything, really---that will get us through that endless two minutes on the elevator ride up to the office by cracking the same tired old jokes...sigh.

• The people we get along with in a social sense are good people, but they're never quite that close because we've got to watch what we say. So these people aren't so much like the teachers that expect the best of us; as adults, we expects that other adults adhere to certain norms of civility and etiquette. Conformity, in other words. Of course, it's wonderful when you fit in, but it's also kind of a strain because you can't tell your favorite dirty jokes, relate something Bobby said on King of the Hill, or express a heartfelt sentiment like, "You know, Hillary Clinton is kind of hot" and not have it taken the wrong way by someone. Your safe areas of conversation are lawn care, mortgages, sports, and top 10 television shows. Comfortable, but kind of limited.

• The best people of all are those ones that accept you as you are. They're your real friends, and you've decided for whatever reason that you get along and there's nothing more to discuss. Say anything around them, and it doesn't affect the way they feel about you and vice versa. They are indeed the rarest of them all, and the ones to keep around you.

I'll have to re-read Harriet the Spy next; I believe my sis left a copy here for me somewhere.

Kodak Camera Industrial Design Surprise

I was at Circuit City a few days ago, browsing the digital camera aisle. My trusty Canon G2 has served me well, but its bulk prevents me from carrying it around with me at all times. I also have to admit that its operating speed is starting to feel a little sluggish compared to the newer cameras. It wouldn't hurt to look, I reasoned.

As I looked over the assembled Nikons, Canons, and Olympus cameras, I found that none of them really moved me. Feature sets, form factors, etc...all of them have pretty much settled into a silvery melange of difficult-to-differentiate product. What stood out most, though, was the surprisingly attractive Kodak EasyShare One and Kodak V570One cameras.

Good-looking consumer electronics design from an American company???

Something a Little Different

I had become used to skipping over the blobby, featureless designs from Kodak and HP for years, preferring the matter-of-factness of Japanese industrial design. They have a visual design vocabulary that's hard for me to describe; part of me thinks it comes from living in high-density urban areas and a love for iconography and fine detail. My favorite American design tends to draws on the bold attitude that accompanies having lots of resources and the space to show it off. Admittedly, I haven't done an exhaustive review of the American design scene other than what I see in big-box retail stores; what I see there isn't very inspiring.

So it's nice to finally come across a couple US-designed cameras that catch my eye.

• Innovative Features. The EasyShare One was the first camera, apparently, to have built-in WiFi. It also has a very large LCD back panel with a stylus for clicking things off...that's pretty cool. The V570 has a dual-lens design: one is for zoom, the other is for wide-angle. In practice, the transition between zoom and wide-angle seemed a little sluggish and uneven to me, but it's a great feature, in a compact package.

• Nice Design. A lot of American consumer electronics design is just terrible. At best, it gets the job done without being too ugly (Dell comes to mind here). When it comes to making something look awesome, though, it's hard to touch the Japanese. They live and breath small. The only American company that comes to mind in the same space is Apple, with their luscious iPods and brushed-metal Macs. The balance between austere unblemished surfaces and clusters of electronic functionality is usually overlooked. The Kodak V570, by comparison, draws upon retro influences (I love the lens cluster) and bold rectilinear form. It's just so yummy...it's a brick of digital camera goodness bursting with visual candy. It manages to strike a balance between that austerity and excitement, a little reminiscent of the Sony PSP, but more fun. The flat front face almost looks like a cartoon diagram of a digital camera...awesome! And the lens closing mechanism makes the coolest "thunk" sound.

I have no idea if the camera shoots well...I'll have to check Digital Photo Review to see what they're saying about it. This camera, though, is at the top of my list for a new point-and-shoot, if it meets my technical criteria...and when I have some money to spare. In the meantime, the old G2 is shooting just fine.

Can I Pick 'Em or What?

I was curious if the V570 was designed in-house at Kodak, so I did a search on "industrial design V570 kodak"; I discovered that the camrea won an IDEA 2006 Award from IDSA, the Industrial Designers Society of America.

A little further digging uncovered the design house that worked with Kodak on both the V570 and, as it turns out, the other Kodak camera I liked: Blue Map Design in New York City. They have a great photo spread (see above) on the V570 camera. Sweet!

Be sure to check out the other IDEA 2006 award winners...great design deserves recognition! According to the Blue Map website, they also were a Red Dot Award Winner in 2006, a prize I am not familiar with. The Red Dot website, though, looks like it has a lot of interesting communications design resources. Bookmarked!

A Minor Design Mystery

I was visiting a company in the Boston area last Tuesday, and happened to walk by this awesome Vespa scooter accessorized with an Apple Sticker. Two stylish icons of design, separated by some 40 years of technology. Yet, they both somehow draw from the same pool of associations.

This was quite a mystery until I found this photo on Flickr, showing Steve Jobs (with Apple hardware design deity Steve Wozniak on the right) wearing his trademark turtleneck at age 21.

Jobs still seems to favor turtlenecks today. So the chain of association goes something like this:

Apple Computer
is connected to...

Steve Jobs
who wears...

Turtlenecks
which were favored by...

The Mod Scenesters
who rode...

Vespa Scooters

Mystery solved! I have my "hip" sister to thank for that, because she's the one who told me about the whole scooter thing in the first place. In celebration, we must all watch The Lambretta Twist and smile! Beep beep! :-)

Naturally Predatory Business Practices

I was watering the basil plant on my deck when I noticed that an industrious spider had woven a web around the blossoming flowers. I could see the spider laying in wait, its webby business plan optimally deployed to start generating revenue in the form of hapless flower-loving insects.

I couldn't help but think that this is a common business model:

1. Find some popular content or a popular destination
2. Insert yourself as a middleman or as a distraction
3. Reap a percentage of the traffic that is flowing to the content

Nothing wrong with this, as this model is underlying premise behind television advertising, the businesses that line the roadways to Niagara Falls and Anaheim, billboards, bumper stickers, news agregators, for-profit trade shows, retail channels, Google AdSense, toll roads, taxes, financial services, and many forms of brokering. It's profitable, and you don't actually have to spend time creating anything other than the web. For people who don't create content, managing content is a pretty good way to make a living, because content creators can often use the help; it's a lot of work, and when the partnership is symbiotic, everyone wins: creators, managers, and customers.

In the case of this industrious spider, however, its business model is actually leveraging the creative energies of the flower to ensnare visitors that would otherwise assist its pollination effort. In other words, the spider's interests are in conflict with the interests of the flower, and it grows fat at the expense of the community of flowers.

If this was a business instead of a spider and a flower, I would be absolutely disgusted. Ordinarily I would leave nature alone, but I'm going to go break up that web and encourage the spider build its snare somewhere else. Go ahead, call me a meddling human; I bet the FTC will be on my side :-)