Yelp, P.I.
Yelp + guy looking for a private investigator = hilarious.
Rooting for Boxee
Xbox media center is a great product. Not only did it offer a slick way to play most of your media on your TV, it was also supported by a large developer community. What's more, it repurposed hardware that otherwise would have been shelved once you replaced your old Xbox with the latest and greatest console. Now XBMC has been used as the basis for Boxee, a media center front-end for Macs and later Linux boxes. The UI has been revamped, and there is a great plugin for Muxtape that lets you create and share mixtapes from your library. Overall it seems like there is more social networking incorporated into the base media center functionality.
One thing that's interesting and different about Boxee is that it is running on a Mac, not necessarily something that's already required to be hooked up to your TV like an Xbox. So you either have to be content dealing with your media on your laptop, or you may have to do some work to incorporate your Mac into the rest of your home entertainment equipment. It will be interesting to see how this affects Boxee's adoption curve, if its success is based on the assumption that a Mac/PC and TV will reside on the same shelf in the home.
Trib'd
Back from my vacation, more on that later, but here's a piece on my group at Motorola that went to press in the Chicago Tribune while I was away. I have a "quote" there which is really a paraphrase. I'd like to hear how readers of this blog, all 3 of you, interpret it.
Update: Here's a scan of the article
Download chicago_tribune_062208.pdf
Worst book ever?
Not mere hyperbole, this reviewer may just be right.
Feedback vs Bureaucracy
Any user interface experts will tell you that feedback is important. You need to let someone know that their actions had an effect, that something happened when they pressed that button or clicked that link. In addition, when the system is working behind the scenes, it's generally good practice to give feedback for that, too (think progress bars).
At the same time, experts will tell you that an interface is at its best when it is nearly invisible, when it integrates seamlessly with the way you already do things. Feedback mainly comes into play when something is broken or when errors are detected. Anti-lock brakes are a good example. Open-road tolling (ORT) is another. Or is it?
I bring this up because I received a ticket for approximately $940 last week for tollway violations dating back to July 2007 ($40 in owed tolls and $900 in fines). At its best, ORT is invisible. You drive, the little I-PASS transponder on your windshield is detected at the toll plaza, and your account is debited. Behind the scenes, though, your I-PASS transponder is being matched against your license plate number (presumably to prevent theft?) If your license plate is not recognized, that's a violation. So if you, say, change your plates from PA to IL in July 2007, you get fined. But according to the woman I spoke with on the phone, you aren't notified of the violation until anywhere from six weeks to a year and a half after it occurs. So if you're not aware of the first violation, you're going to keep accruing fines every time you drive through the toll plaza until that ticket arrives in the mail. This is where the slow machinery of government comes into play. You don't get your feedback that something is amiss until long, long after the error occurred.
Fortunately, the folks at the Illinois tollway seemed to recognize this problem as well and waived the fines, only requiring that I pay the tolls I owed. It makes me wonder, though...is there a way, through email/SMS, or even an indicator on the transponder itself, that I could know immediately whether everything worked as it should?
Go Granpa!
My grandfather got an article in the lifestyles section of his local paper. I have always been amazed by his longevity and fitness level as he continues on into his mid-90's, now it seems many others have as well. I hope I inherited some of those genes :-)
GWAP launch
Luis and Co. have launched their Games With a Purpose site. In addition to old favorites like the ESP game, there are some newer ones there related to common-sense knowledge (Verbosity) and music tagging (Tag a Tune). Happy addiction.
How much is your attention worth?
I was pointed to Seriosity today when Jenn sent this article along. The premise, rooted in research on models of attention from MSR among other places, lets users attach a sort-of attentional currency to their outgoing messages as well as to the messages they read. In this way an economy develops that (hopefully) results in a reliable indicator of which messages are important and what is required to get certain messages read quickly.
I think it would be a lot of fun to study how these kinds of economies develop within an organization, how people make these estimates (e.g., what factors go into the amount of currency attached to a particular message, such as importance, immediacy, etc.), and how long it takes to stabilize. More importantly, it will be interesting to see whether people will incorporate the additional work of using Seriosity currency (called Serios) into their email habits.
Splitsville
Just a quickie on the most recent news coming from my employer. No, it wasn't that big of a shock. As far as work goes, it's pretty much business as usual, though we are of course a bit distracted. As far as what is going to happen, I'll hopefully know more by the end of the week.
Oh, thanks to ABC news by the way for saving me the trouble of spending 15 minutes Photoshopping that image.
Bass tribute
Ok, it's from October '07 but I just saw it recently. Pretty brilliant, compare to the opening titles of Monsters Inc (or the end titles of the Incredibles) or Catch Me if you Can. Or see some of the real deal.
