A note on consumption

A friend of mine works in a plant that produces bottles, exclusively to be filled with the second or third most popular dish soap in the U.S. The capacity of the factory is somewhere north of a million a day. But their rate of production is pretty steady, at a little over 600,000. Every day. They are the only plant that makes these, and they only make them for the U.S. market. There is no major governmental surplus of this product, no notable spoilage, or anything else. American buy some 600,000 bottles of this particular brand of dish soap every day. There are around 110 million* households in the U.S. today. So even at that hard-to-grasp daily rate, it only means 1 in 25 households are buying a new bottle of soap each week. The scale at which the world operates freaks me out sometimes. *http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1129.pdf

I am gonna be on the radio

Really. Its as niche as it gets, but last night I recorded a guest spot on Chris Larsen's show on this little AM station in Liberty I have never heard of. Show airs Christmas eve, so I expect zero listeners, but they'll podcast it eventually at (I think) Larsen's OD Journal site. For anyone not following, milsim means "military simulation." Some paintball clubs, most airsofters, and especially KCAA play their pellet tagging-out games in the most practical way possible, so are milsim. Re-enactors are, obviously, doing the same thing, but don't exactly shoot at each other. Christopher is also opening up his training programs more broadly, and creating a commercial program where you can come out and shoot at your friends with real MILES training gear. Yeah, you can't do this anywhere else. Its the only civilian group with this equipment, anywhere in the world.

Targeted marketing

I do have a PVR, so I skip thru commercials. But skipping :30 at a time still allows me to see bits and pieces. The wife and I often boggle at how badly targeted so much TV advertising seems to be. That, or we are totally atypical of the audience. But right now I am looking at something interesting; the HD-only channels have HD-specific ads. Disney movie ads with a few seconds at the end dedicated to the HD format DVD. An ad for a camera that has HD output, so when you take photos of the kids you can show them off better (direct from the camera, if you are like that). Etc. Its interesting, because its been recognized for what it is: a market I am totally certain of. Everyone watching these has this specific piece of equipment. We can appeal to that! I'll bet there is a lesson here about how targeted marketing has largely failed in desktops and mobiles; even mobile browsers tend to have UA strings that say the device is mobile, if not which one. Even if privacy concerns leave out the near-term option of addressing customers based on carrier-provided information, location and other specific info, there's probably something that would allow more targeted marketing than "get the latest hip-hop ringtones!"

I love 1080

I have always been a tad of a naysayer about HD being the Second Coming. Our old TV was very good quality, attached to good equipment and calibrated (not ISF, just my Avia disk, and an SPL meter for the audio). So when we got the new TV the change in DVD quality was negligible. Though the big screen was nice. Yes, I've seen top-of-the-line monitors playing HD or BlueRay disks, and they are only a bit better, I think. Well, backing up, mostly good equipment. When we got the new TV the dish looked like crap. Something about the extra resolution available, the display technology, the ability of S-VHS to display the signal or...something, just made it look awful. All the JPEG artifacting is just super-visible. Even in the menus, for some reason. So, today our Christmas present to ourselves arrived. With several guys, each with their own truck, and lots of ladders. Just 5 hours later, its done! Revelation. Its SUCH high quality I cannot believe it. You know how some shows (say, good ones) have a certain look? Well, I don't even recognize some of them (like Law & Order), because I had gotten used to the awful quality of NBC OTA to the local Dish site, then compressed. Also, neat system. Entirely aside from some specific UI neatness, we switched from two PVRs to one. The one in the living room is on the same circuit as the one upstairs, and there is data on multiple frequencies flying about. Watch any show, on any TV. Neat! Interesting point regarding my opening about high quality products is that the installers said this was by far the nicest monitor they had seen. Everyone else has "Samsungs and Sanyos and /Vizios/" (emphasis not added). And, this is by no means the top of the line panel. I guess not too many people have the money for the top products.

Coyote!

Out for my run today, I pass through this office park near my house, as dusk approaches. Suddenly, Coyote! With a capital "C." I stop. Its just standing there, sideways to me, looking at me with its head down in that wolfy way our dog does sometimes. But its definitely a coyote. That's not really moving. And is slightly foreshortened. And isn't /quite/ touching the ground. So, I walk over and as I get closer, its clearly flat. I look it up when I get home. http://www.gemplers.com/product/145539/Two-dimensional-Coyote-Decoy-Goose-Repellent Flat Coyotes. For fending off geese. Only $28. I guess they work if I believed it. Or, alligator heads if that is more your speed.

I get Twitter, but I still don't use it

I do get the theory of Twitter; I have a username, I've "tweeted" (hate the cute terms) and so on. But there's no real point as no one else I know uses it. Those who have usernames do the same as me, and use it at conferences and so on.

When I say I get the theory, I mean that I like making my current status available, and seeing others. How? Simple, IM already has a status line:


I update this all the time, and people actually read it. I get comments directly back on the status several times a week. If I forget, and it just says "available" I'll more often get "so, how's it going?" IMs, just to keep contact.

IM, and even better the IM client that connects to several systems, means that I can do this with almost everyone I know, without them having to subscribe to some new system or process.


While awful in every other way, the corporate IM platform we used at Sprint (MS made it) automatically changed the status based on what your calendar said. That was super-convenient, as it would have both the standard auto-status (e.g. offline) and with additional data (in a meeting). I'd love to have an IM plugin that detected location, time, etc. and said what I was likely to be doing as well as what I type in.

Next I should set up the IM client on my S60 so it works well and actually do all this even when I don't have a computer in my hands.

There might be a problem with your business process if...

I promise I will not get into the UI issues of the ATM again. Well, not directly. Its prohibiting me from doing someting which I think I should be able to do. And, instead of prohibiting me, it throws an error after I have pressed 25 buttons and submitted little slips of paper. So, I'm annoyed. Its the one in the Hy-Vee (grocery) near the house. Maybe 15 yards (meters) away is a mini-branch. Its not busy, so I ask why.

No idea.

I mean, she was nice enough, but maybe I could get the question answered if I waited for the branch manager to get off the phone. I didn't wait that long. When chatting before I gave up I said something like "these new ATMs are much worse than the old ones, which were terrible."

Oh yeah, we hear that a lot.

So, in how many ways is this bank failing? 24/7 technology is emplaced immediately next to the face-to-face store, but:

• It has different business rules (not just technology limits) than the counter or website.
• The people have no idea how it works.
• And, they have no method of seeing what you did, or correcting it in any way (at least the terrible self-checkouts have an employee over-ride).
• The employees do get lots of complaints, and are aware there are problems.
• No one in charge of buying, specifying, customizing or installing the machinery has ever, apparently, thought to watch them in practice, or ask the people standing there every day their opinion.

Not to pick on my bank, I think this is totally typical of almost every technology implemented by a company. Even those heavily lauded for their experience, like Apple (ever tried to register the products online? and what is the point of dotmac anymore?). Netflix and Vonage are the only serious companies I know of that have any useful integration between their people, their product and their technology. And they are new, internet-only companies.

Why does this switch exist?

Wal-Mart has by far the best price on propane, so I'm there with the rest of the fearful masses buying stuff to survive the impending storm. Across from my lane one of the cashiers is closing down, and keeps having to tell people to move along. At once point I hear: "Lanes 9, 10 and 11 are all open... though John hasn't turned on his light yet." And my cashier hits this switch: And it occurs to me that I have always wondered "why?" The register is already a piece of powered equipment, has been for well-nigh a century. Generally, the operator has to enable the device; now by signing on with their own credentials, but in the past at least with a key. So, why a separate switch? Why not just have the light come on when the register is in "ready to accept transactions" mode? Sure, I can come up with cases where the register is being used for administrative tasks, but that's an exception, and an over-ride can be provided I guess. But the primary case by far is being missed, badly. Now, off to brave the ice weasels.

Ubiquity may never get here

And its not the technology. Really, 1980s computing and networks could get halfway there. Its us. The people who specify, design and develop software and systems. To be clear, ubicomp -- to me -- is not just the state (which we're already in) of computers embedded in every device, or the almost-there step of them talking to each other all the time and being aware of their surroundings, but when the communication and awareness with which each device or process is endowed can work to actively help us out. Us, as in "the humans." Lets take the dead-simple, totally mobile-free example that spurred this post. I copy a link from Safari (apple product). I immediately go into Mail.app (apple product), type a short message, maybe even with the word "link" in it, then fail to activate the "paste" function before I send it. Why, oh why doesn't the system ask me if I forgot something? It doesn't even have to be interruptive, just disruptive; a status message blinks next to the send button, reminding me. Or, maybe a prominent paste button conditionally appears next to the send button. Or... whatever. This is the core of my issue. Software from all one vendor, one one machine, cannot work together to solve (much less /prevent/) something that has happened to everyone I know, dozens of times. What hope is there for a sea of mobiles, or PAN-connected peripherals to help you accomplish your daily tasks? Unless we all apply ourselves to the problem, and think of users, usefulness and usability, instead of making users bend to the will of the systems.

Error loop at PayPal

Error loops are great, aren't they? Especially when there is no reason to believe you have done anything wrong. I won't even go into the theory of why they are bad, lets just show one off that is actually happening to me, RIGHT NOW. I am trying to ship something that I just sold on eBay. Using the eBay to PayPal to USPS automatic payment thingy, this is usually easy. Well, its too long and complex, filled with esoterica. And don't get me started on international forms. Explains nothing, only allows you to put 15 characters in a field visibly like 128 long. Etc. Anyway, this one is domestic. Should be a snap. Submit and I get this: Right up top, on a recycled shipping details page. Anyone see a button of any sort? I keep looking for options to "cancel transaction" and "continue anyway." Nope. Not a one. So, I think maybe its a one-time error, and if I submit again they'll consider that dismissal of the condtion. Nope. Errors again. And again. Nothing gets rid of it. There continues to be no recourse given. Just an error. And, the more I look, the worse it becomes. See that. "Confirmed address." Paypal knows he lives there. I just cannot /use/ the address. Nice. So, I come up with another plan, and copy the purportedly good info into the "edit address" fields. Letter for letter. Nope. But now it highlights the zip in red. Why? Nope. No change in the error box. This is great stuff. And, what to do? I guess stand in line at the post office and NOT use paypal money to pay for shipping. Hopefully the shipping rates are the same and I don't get screwed on this, but I have low hopes. The integrated nature of so many services means there is minimal recourse. Too bad the blog isn't better read and eBay/PayPal can be guilted into fixing it.

I didn't know half these people were still alive

I watched the Helvetica movie. Nicely constructed film, actually. I like how its (almost) entirely narrated by the interviewees. Instead of being about a specific font per. se., I read a lot of this as a discussion of contemporary design. Nice hook to get lots of designers to talk about the role of type in design and meaning, how design and typography communicates meaning, and the future of visual communcation as it continues be more egalitarian and accessible. Highly suggested.

No shopping carts

We did some shopping today, mostly for christmas. At the entrance to Toys "R" Us there's this sign that seems to say "No shopping carts." Being obviously untrue, I approached. Its like something out of a Tufte book. The repeated, easily identifiable item -- the shopping cart -- is by far the most bold item. The "no" slash is always thru the cart, and hardly touches the case that is bad about it. Much lighter, so you cannot see it at any distance, are the variable items, the child. And sometimes the parent, but bisecting the white circle, I didn't even notice her till I got home and opened the picture. I also like how the labels are impossibly tiny (the bottom of the large sign is above head height) impossible to scan, and way too wordy. And how some have consequences, like "this may cause the cart to tip over." But what will happen if I let my child push the cart? I don't know! Okay, National Treasure sucks, so I went ahead and did it they way I think it should have been. Note I kept most of their drawing style even. The cart is gray, as its iconic, and repeated often. The heavy prohibition slashed circle was removed in favor of the simple X. Let me put it over the prohibited part, implying a specific location or activity, instead of implying everything about the situation is wrong. The parent figure is only present when needed to show she's not paying attention; otherwise it might have been lost in the clutter. And, the titles were changed to be shorter, and the "Do not" part is on another line to make the instruction component scanable. Though now that I look at them, the capitalization is nonsensical; it scans well, but doesn't make sense. Hmm... There were two additional images, and a title block above, but I didn't get them in the photo. So, its still incomplete, sure. I believe one graphic was how to use it right. In this case, I like green circles to say "do it this way."