vanderwal.net

Mac trains its user

A while back I turned on speech feature in OS X. I only have it speak system and application alert to me. I have chosen Victoria (the Uli's talking moose has always been a similar voice for me). A few weeks ago, when Joy was away the TiBook lid became ajar during the night waking the TiBook. It was not much longer before the TiBook began speaking, as our house has all hardwood floors the voice carried. This startled me from my sleep and had me quite startled, then I realized what it was and went to soothe the Mac and put it back to sleep.

This last week a similar incident happened, but with Joy home and I asked Joy what she said. In the middle of the night, out of a dead sleep, Joy said "it was your computer talking" and went right back to sleep. I got up to check and put it back to sleep.

I guess this is our baby preparation application. Somehow I don't think that is the intended purpose, or even any demi-intent for use. I guess our Mac nows understands our lives better than we thought and "just works".

E-mail outage again

E-mail was barfy again yesterday here at vanderwal.net. It seems mail was down for 5 or 6 hours. Everything seems to be back to normal again.

Quiet before the news

After five weeks of visitors or travelling out of town, things on the home front are finally somewhat quiet, other than another leak in the basement (this time at the valve from the street is dripping).

Okay quiet for folks who are expecting a baby in late-September or early October. As our niece says, "Joy is having baby. Joy have baby in her tummy."

We are back

We have been down for the past 36 hours or so, due to a hardware crash and recovery. Most everything is back, but recent e-mail. Please resend anything sent since Monday evening. E-mail seemed to be the first thing to go. One nice thing about a full entry in the RSS feed is being able to save the RSS feed and restoring the last two entries that did not make it onto the backup tape.

I did not realize how dependant I am on my links page until it is gone. Much of what I read at home is out of RSS feeds, but at work, many of the links I use and share as resources are on that page. The links page has been my bookmarks for well over seven years now as it began at some point in early 1996.

NoHo SoHo and other New York observations

The weekend also included some fun NYC adventures in our "spare" time. I tried to find some fun funky casual shoes, which seem to allude the DC area. I teased my sister-in-law by asking when Barney's was open until when Joy and I returned from the wedding. My sister-in-law loves to shop, so when I asked if she was interested in going along to shop for shoes, she said she thought I would never ask. We tried Barney's, but found nothing in my size and found help only slightly easier to find. We ducked into Bloomingdale's and found some things of some interest and in my size, but the fit was not good.

Joy and I went started today at the NoHo Star Diner and had a great brunch. I really enjoyed the Eggs Idaho (sunny side up eggs and potato pancakes), the fresh ginger ale, and Peet's coffee. We ventured just down to SoHo to check out stores. We stopped in the Apple store, which is a wonderful space, to look at the new iPod (very nice and impressed me with the non-moving parts keys that are really nice) and look around. We stopped and tried on shoes in a few places, but if I liked the shoes they were not in my size or were not comfortable on my foot. I was surprised how much SoHo has changed since the early 90s, which was the last time spent time there. SoHo is much like an American mall (up scale American mall) these days. Gone are the funky art galleries that filled the neighborhood and the many eclectic shops, bars, and restaurants. I liked SoHo, but not as much as I used to. New York used to be a very Cosmopolitan city as it did not feel like it could be anywhere in America, it was New York and had a funky flair. More and more it has the same large chain stores and restaurants as anywhere USA, which is sad. New York still has many many "only in New York" places and people, but it is slipping into the mediocrity that enwraps much of the US.

New York City also has become more dirty with trash than any time I can remember in the past 10 years. I was continually stepping on or over trash. New York City has been very proud of is transition into a clean inviting place to visit and live, but it has dropped from that place since even December. I was told my many that this can be attributed to the cuts in City services due to the shortfall of money. Sad.

Joy and I keep saying we need to take a trip to NYC to just see friends there, as we have many who we never really get to see as our trips are short or filled with other reasons for going, other than seeing friends. We hope maybe June could offer this trip before things are a little more restrictive for us travelling. Already our ability to get around is slower than normal, but I was able to get aut and about to run quick errands and shopping trips (and tracking down a Mr. Softee truck, which we did today to get a cherry dipped cone that was great as usual).

Trip to New York

This weekend's adventures took us to New York . [All other information for this post has been removed, you have the most important bits now (really)]

Hello Month

Yes, I know I need to fix the beginning of the month selection. I am off up the coast this weekend for a wedding. Entertain your self, maybe buy a new song or two from Apple, if you don't have a Mac, buy one of those, you will love it.

Quite time here

Yes, things have been quite here, largely due to a cold/allergies, which has left my head feeling like it is filled with shaved rubber eraser bits swimming in foggy jello. This roadblock started with a cough, extremely worn down, and achy so yes, the first thing I did was go to the CDC to peek at basic info on SARS. I am not worried about SARS, but the last thing I would want to do is infect others.

Time theories and information gathering

Ftrain's accordian time I found to be enjoyable. I enjoy time theories and find this to be close to my own personal favorite as accordian time accounts for the percieved difference in time. Some folks have a, so called, strong inner clock that is in step with metered time.

Chronological time is problematic for many as their lives feel wholly out of step with the beating minutes regulated to 60 seconds. Time seems to move in spurts and is quasi-random. My personal time theory to account for the difference in perceived time is that everybody is on a different time pace and some folks do have time moving faster for them, while others have time moving far more slowly. These differences are synched at night so that we all can work and play together. This is just an unsubstantiated theory on my part, but I am happy to find others thinking of other time measurements that can account for perceived differences in time.

Alan Lightman has a collection of time scenarios in his Einstein's Dreams. I found ED a wonderful quick read that added a wonderful collection of time theories to my existing stack. It has been a few years since I read ED, but it seems about right to pull it off the shelf and have another go.

Time, or perceived time, is important to understand when developing applications and information structures. Different individuals will become frustrated if they can not find the information they seek when they desire that information. This is partially dependant on the persons perception of the passage of time or their relation to metered time. A person who normally has time passing slowly may find most information is easily found, but if they are trying to trackdown the address for a date or interview in a relatively short time before the event the persons perception of time may increase. This impacts the perceived ease of finding information or re-retrieving that information. The frustration for this person may increase as they can feel the minutes or seconds slipping away. This cognative element is helpful to understand as we test and build interfaces.

April showers in the basement

A phrase some of you will understand... Pin-hole leak. Oh yeah, we have copper misting forth and plumbers avoiding the phones. I have the house to myself and a misting spray in the basement. I would turn off the water at the main, but the corrosion around that valve has made that a tenuous endeavor also. Well I have buckets and tape (to direct the spray into the buckets). We have been waiting for an estimate from a plumber to repipe the house as we know there have been leaks in the past. Our copper pipes have patches every 18 inches to two feet. We have been lucky not to have a leak yet. I only wish we could have made it to repiping first.

Philip Greenspun has a view of the future university

Philip Greenspun offers his view of the university of the future. It is a very different view and part of it is somewhat odd, in that Philip would like to see large group work areas for students to huddle by subject area. This is odd as Philip is very wired, but it also makes sense in that the bits I hear about ArsDigita convey the collaborative environment it offered.

I rather liked the Spring and Summer breaks, which meant I had to work, sometimes up to three jobs. But it was a time to digest what I had studied in the previous nine months. This time allowed me to investigate subjects with more time to reflect. My favorite time in college may have been the summer I lived in Berkeley and had two jobs (one on campus and the other running roomservice at a hotel in Oakland). I also really enjoyed Jan-term (one course during the month of January two or three hours a day four days a week.

I do agree that the cost of a university education is getting out of hand. Joy and I went to Georgetown for brunch on Sunday at the Tombs and walk around the campus. We read that tuition will be $28k next year for tuition (that does not include book, bedding, or beer). That is just nuts. I got a great grad school education there and Joy a great under grad education, but we were a little shell shocked. Something needs to change I guess.

Weather fluxuations

Uh... yes it is snowing. The snow is sticking to the grass and the crocus, daffodils, and other wonderful bulb plants in our yard.

This reminds me of Oxford in the Spring of '88. One day it is shirtsleeve weather and the next it is snowing.

Number 6

Just when you think everything may not be on the Web... Sonny Sixkiller's jersey pops up. Who? Sonny was was my first collegiate hero, he is a Native American who was the starting quarterback for the Washington Husky's in 1970. If I remember correctly my parents took me to my first college football game to see him play. He also had a role in The Longest Yard. Mush.

Portland Dreams

The trip to Portland, Oregon was wonderful. The city was not quite familiar at first and many things seemed to be about 90 degrees off. One night walking with Joy we came across a public square near the Bank of California building and it was very familiar as it was near (I believe) a building my dad worked in and I remembered the view. The problem was it all was facing the wrong direction.

Portland was rainy in that wonderful clean Oregon way. I spent nearly all of my time downtown. I had a great meal, with Joy, at Jake's Famous Crawfish on Thursday night. The bread at Jake's is an elastic sourdough with a perfect crust. I had the clam chowder, which seems to have a sweet smoked bacon and the hint of wine or sherry. Joy had cod and I had shark for our main course. Each of them was great.

Portland is a city that pays attention to the details. The street and public signage is very clear and easy to use. The city is filled with public art and ornamental iron works. Portland also has a great blend of older buildings which have kept their decorative elements and newer buildings designed with personality. The public transportation is some of the best in a U.S. city as it is easily accessible at street level. On the way out I took the street car to the airport and found it very easy and dropped me off right at the airport needing minimal walking to get inside (there was an issue with a quick door closing that could have been rather problematic, were it not for some friends).

I was very impressed with the PGE Park, a multi-purpose outdoor ballpark-stadium. I saw many Portland Maverick games (now the Beavers) in the 70s here as well as the Portland Timbers professional soccer team. The park has the true feel of a post-WWII ball park with retro signage and iron works. Much of the feel is it is an older park, but it feels new and clean at the same time. Portland is in contention to get a major league baseball team, as is Washington, DC. and from this trip and seeing the park, it has a true baseball feel to the area. The feel reminded me of Fenway Park in Boston, but much closer to the downtown. I know Portland is planning a new Portland ballpark, but PGE seems wonderful.

One of the best assets of Portland has to be Powell's Books. The book assets of the store are truely impressive. I wandered around on Thursday night for a while, but spent a couple hours and a few dollars (or so) there on Monday before leaving. I found great buys (they have used books next to the new books) on many books I had been looking for and picked up Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought, which has been of particular interest, but I had not been able to find a copy to see if it was what I had hoped it would entail. My book purchases caused me to have an overage charge for my bag I checked on the airline, but it could have been the Tully's Coffee.

I have many photos of Portland to download and post over the next few days.

Quick overview of IA Summit

I am back from Portland, Oregon from the IA Summit. The Summit was fantastic, although I seem to have missed a few of sessions that were said to be fantastic. The two session that Rashmi lead, user reseach methods and a panel on Navigation and Wayfinding in Digital Spaces (also on the panel were Mark Bernstein and Andrew Dillon who had similar comments on the problems with the navigation metaphor) were said to be fantastic and I am upset I missed them. I will write up my notes and outlines by the end of the week on the wonderful sessions I did attend.

In all it was a great conference, and I deeply thank Christina Wodtke for her work on putting this conference together. There was a IA Summit blog put together by Adam Greenfield, which had some postings, but it seems connectivity problems (many of us lost our broadband access from our hotel rooms) hindered the contributions. There was a wonderful vibe at the conference, even with the rarely mentioned war going on (many admitted to watching news during downtime) and very large storm troopers in riot gear wandering about. Unfortunately I was a little cranky and lost in a blur of an airline cold for much of the conference, but I did get the opportunity to put faces and wonderful people with the names I am familiar with.