I was blown away by the short clip below. These eco-environments were created by ecositema urbano architects. They are made from commercially available products. They are portable and assembled using only screws. These “trees” are also revenue generating; excess energy from solar panels is sold back utility companies for a healthy profit. Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?
Urban Air Trees
July 6th, 2009
HTML5 and the death of XHTML
July 3rd, 2009
There’s been conversation of late regarding the announcement that the XHTML2 group is expected to stop work at the end of 2009. The plan is to increase resources on HTML5. I’ve been hearing buzz about HTML5 for some time now, but had never really delved into it much due to the time commitments required by my job, where it’s more important that stuff works on current and legacy browsers. I also knew that browsers had not yet begun implementing support for HTML5. The announcement got me reading a little more on the holiday weekend. I found the article HTML 5: Could it kill Flash and Silverlight? It’s a great article that brings up the argument that some companies like Microsoft may implement support for the standard because it could potentially undermine their business.
In my experience in providing a web based solution to small businesses, they are likely to adopt a browser that will work for them. We’ve done it in the past. Many are not even aware that there are other options. The impact of upgrading a browser in smaller organizations, which still make up the long tail of American business, is not that significant. The same level of red tape that exists at corporations with big IT departments are unlikely to exists. If I tell a customer they can obtain offline access to an application and still browse the web like they do, they are likely to switch browsers because the value proposition is such that they see something to gain.
I propose that lack of support by Microsoft and other companies for the standard would only undermine their business. People will find alternatives. Companies will provide alternatives. Quickbooks Online does not work on Macs because it requires Active X. The solution … try to find something else. Finding the solution that does what I need is far simpler in a world where the Internet makes the distribution of solutions extremely cost effective; the competitive landscape will continue to increase for the foreseeable future as the world is transformed through new ideas. HTML5 looks to be a significant and exciting step in that process.
Clay Shirky Talk
June 21st, 2009
Clay Shirky is amazing! In this chat, he continues to explore the impact of the Internet on the media landscape within which we interact everyday. As the medium for all other media, the Internet has enabled an environment previously unseen in human history. Consumers are now also producers. Massive use of technologically “boring” tools enable new and exciting forms of communication. I can’t imagine a more exciting time to be alive!
[hearts]
June 15th, 2009
A little experiment borne out of cab rides, tunes, my fiancee’s patience and a desire to create things using rudimentary, consumer grade tools.
Shot using a little Canon Powershot SD450. Edited in iMovie. Music: This Place is a Prison by The Postal Service
What you see is what you get
May 26th, 2009
This is a shot I took earlier this year in Washington DC. I am particularly fond of it because it has not been edited. This is straight out of my ol’ (and I do mean old) Canon Powershot SD450.
Messaging: Wordpress iPhone App
May 16th, 2009
I installed the Wordpress iPhone app in order to obtain a little more flexibility on how I publish content … and also because the experience designer inside me foams at the mouth at the prospect of performing a task in a new way. The app is great. It empowers users to publish to blogs hosted by Wordpress or on their own servers.
In attempting to connect to this blog, I encountered an error. One of my pet peeves is poor error messaging. If an application is going to stop me from accomplishing a task, i’d like a little guidance as to how I may help myself to overcome the nuisance without having to resort to some knowledge base or Google, the great knowledge base of the internets. I’m looking at you and your cryptic, code bearing, 0×1278365 messages – Microsoft.
To my most pleasant surprise, the message provided by the Wordpress App allowed me to fix the problem with relative ease. Here it is:
The message clearly states the problem and how to fix it. However, things can usually be improved or done differently. So, how might one improve on this message?
Part of the challenge here is that this message was presented on my iPhone, meaning I can’t easily copy and paste the URL to get to the desired location. The lazy person in me rather not attempt to type the URL … missed a letter, doh! A more useful message might be one directing me to the correct location within the application, namely Settings > Writing.
Messaging is critical to more usable applications. It’s not uncommon for users to encounter errors. Use those opportunities to efficiently communicate with users and walk them through a potentially stressful experience. It will only make the experience stronger and everyone can quickly get back to accomplishing their tasks – usually something other than dealing with errors.
Web 2.0 Expo: Next Generation of Browsers
April 6th, 2009
Today was an interesting day of at Web 2.0 Expo. There were 2 sessions in particular that caught my attention because they clearly mark the next step in the transition from the desktop to the “cloud.” One of these sessions was the Chrome Developer Session by Ojan Vanfai, one of the project engineers from Google. Given the affirmation that ”Google’s main hope (being) to see web applications succeed,” they have built a new javascript engine for the browser called V8. The engine is open source, as is a version of the product called Chromium; I think this will go a long way to addressing privacy concerns by providing transparency to the product. Chrome uses the web-kit rendering engine also used by Safari. The product also comes with WebKit Developer Tools, think Firebug. Both Mac and Linux versions of the product were in development.
The other really interesting session was that by Pete LePage from Microsoft’s IE8 team; there’s a pdf copy of the presentation slides available. Like Chrome, IE8 seems also poised to provide a platform for web based applications. While this was not explicitly stated, it was clearly evident from the presentation. IE8 includes native support for JSON. They too have also built a Web Developer tool very reminiscent to Firebug. IE8 has a new rendering engine which is much more standards compliant …. yeeeeaaaay! It has a button that allows users to switch between the IE7 and IE8 rendering engines. Pete mentioned this was meant to be easy so that “your mom” could do it. Personally, I think this is a stretch. He implored designers and developers to test their websites as there are Pete did a great job of sidestepping the all too common complaints regarding rendering engine issues pertaining to standards.
Happy Thanksgiving
November 27th, 2008
Nothing quite speaks to the arrival of the holiday season like the Macy’s Day Parade. Here’s a photo I took from the office building across the street during last year’s parade (2007).
Experience review: WSJ online survey
November 25th, 2008
I was reading an article at the online version of Wall Street Journal. A survey window descended asking if I would take a couple of minutes to answer some questions. Unless I am really pressed for time, I usually take a few moments to provide feedback to companies that request feedback via the web. The problem was that it was a survey about banks, not a survey about WSJ. It was a standard “how do I feel about brand X” type questionnaire. I quickly abandoned the survey, as I was willing to provide the WSJ feedback, not some marketer gathering feedback on another company.
Experience Review: US Postal Service Self Serve Kiosks (Automated Postal Centers – APC)
October 28th, 2008
Kudos to the US Postal Service on their Automated Postal Centers (APC). These self service kiosks have been installed at some office locations. My experiences with the ever growing amount of self service kiosks have often been less than ideal, but this was shinning example of an efficient and simple process. The USPS has done a great job. The interface was simple and clear. The steps were clearly communicated and lacking any of the trappings of complexity that one might associate with a process requiring a similar breadth of options (to insure or not to insure, postage, weight, etc.). The machine has a scale built into it, so you can ship virtually any size package. It accepts either debit or credit cards as payment and will easily guide you through the process of printing stamps for several packages.
