India: Hole-in-the-Wall is amazing--
"An Indian physicist puts a PC with a high speed internet connection in a wall in the slums and watches what happens. Based on the results, he talks about issues of digital divide, computer education and kids, the dynamics of the third world getting online."
In the morning my husband and I crowd the hammock, tilting it precariously, sloshing coffee on our robes. The day promises heat-- I say to Philippe "On a day like this, it feels like Spain, I wish I was in Seville" and he says "Why can't you just be happy to be here, in the backyard, instead of at work. Why do you have to wish you were somewhere else?" Why can't I? Why can't I love Palo Alto the way I love Spain?
Later I'm driving, running errands, it's hot like summer. Suburban buildings slide by and I slide a Ry Cooder into the CD player: "it's that part of the movie" I think as the music begins. Only the insistent scent of jasmine and the throbbing cut on my foot prevent the experience from being entirely cinematic. I am more than a pair of eyes and ears; I feel, I act, I am unscripted.
There is too much technology in my life-- I need to fight for the balance. I pushed an old rusty mower across our yard in the afternoon. It works unevenly, cutting some blades, merely bending others. I mowed barefoot, keeping my toes from the mower blades, but letting them embrace the sensation of the damp cut grass. After, I collapsed into the hammock, and was soon joined by a (flock? swarm?) a dozen wasps. I couldn't decide if I should keep still, move gently or run away. After some thought and more wasps showing up, I opted for moving gently away.
In the evening my husband drives us to San Francisco. We take two hours to do it, driving small winding roads. On highway 85 I yell and throw my hands into the air to catch the wind, eucalyptus dappling the sun on my face and shoulders. Then I hang out the window like a puppy. I have such a big smile on my face, a bunch of Indian tourists who have stopped to look at a view spontaneously wave at us-- I wave back. It's not a queen wave, but a big nine-year-old-kid wave, requiring the entire arm. I keep thinking "I don't have to live forever, I just have to live now." I know it is a trite thought, but it is still exactly true.
Then the ocean appears in the dips between the green rolling hills, and 85 hits highway 1. The cliffs along the ocean startle me again with their beauty. After 14 years of driving highway one, I'd think they wouldn't but they do. It's no less affecting than when I was 22, driving my old fiat down from oregon, hungry, near broke and ready to be a californian. Now the sun is low, making all the colors saturated: the ocean more blue, the cliffs more orange.
Finally san francisco, and dinner, family, conversation, then home to sleep. I stare up at the stars and realize orion is gone-- I suggest to my husband we need to visit a planetarium. I need a new constellation.
IA Summit 2003 Pictures for fun or blackmail.
found by adam
I have been working late the last few night, as we approach a launch. I drive home in our miata. It's "new to me" and even though I only drive a few miles home, it brings me a great deal of joy.
Part of it is the engine and handling-- I enjoy slushing around the speed bumps in the near-empty Yahoo parking lot. I like accelerating in the curve onto the highway. I love to pass. I love when I accelerate, I am pushed back into the bucket seat as if by a gentle invisible hand-- it's like a miniature version of an airplane takeoff.
I enjoy having a decent stereo for the first time in my life. I was blasting French-arab music and suddenly realize both that I was stunningly out of sync with my country (it's odd I don't know who coolplay is, I discovered in conversation last night with a product manager) and also that I really love that music's complexity, which I could never hear before.
But most of all, I love top up/top down. I've had the cabriolet for a while, and I don't really have to sing the praises of top down. Sun on your face, hair tangling, blue emptiness above you-- it kinda sells itself. But top up in the miata is a very different experience. The cabriolet has a high roof. Top up is very like having a hard top car, quite comfortable and respectable. The miata has a very low roof, and top up the interior is a cave, especially at night. Driving home last night, I couldn't understand why I was suffused with a sensation of comfort. I felt warm, protected, taken care off. Then I remembered Bachelard's Poetics of Space and realized that the interior of the miata was poetically a nest.
Picture a nest with a bunch of baby birds and a mother sitting on them. Being sat upon doesn't sound nice most of the time, but in the cup of the nest, with warm feathers of a living duvet tucking you in and providing parental "hugs" at the same time-- it is a sensation I long for, especially after a brutal day. Better than a martini or a rough workout, to be nestled is what I dream of.
So I climb in the miata, top up, heat kicks on, the dashboard softly glows, the music comforts (news in the morning commute, music at night), the space is just the size of me and I am carried home.
In fact, even top down in the sun it is a nest-- the mother bird has flown off and the nest is exposed to the sky, a hand cupping me as the sun falls on my face. I drive to work with the top down and slow traffic is no worry; the sky is nearly cloudless and I'm in no hurry to dive into the stresspot that awaits.
I wondered if having such a car for a commute made sense (though the mileage is fantastic). It seemed to me that it was a weekend car. But I've found that it is the salve to the wounds that work's latest bout of intensity has been giving. I fought with Philippe over it-- he leaned toward a practical vehicle. But I fought back-- if one drives, which is (in my mind) a bit morally reprehensible (though my back requires it for awhile longer-- the bike is still triggering spasms), then one should get pleasure out of the act of driving.
it may not be a VW, but it is still farfenugen.
From a great article: How to get the most out of conferences - UIWEB.COM
"Posters: Some conferences have poster areas, where professionals or students put together summaries of their work for people to look at. This can often be a lot of fun. ... Sometimes there are scheduled times where the posters are manned, so you can ask questions of the people that did the work. This can be great fun. Don't be shy: usually they're thrilled that anyone is looking at their stuff, much less asking questions. "
My husband is a research scientist, and things begin what they are, I've wandered around a few of his conferences. Science conferences pretty much always have poster sessions, and I saw what a really terrific icebreaker they were for strangers to start conversations.
We did it last year at the IA summit, and we're doing it this year. If you are attending, take advantage of this to both meet folks and learn what they are doing....
Anyhow, I'll be around. This is what I look like, feel free to come introduce yourself. If we meet saturday night at the bar, make me drink water... I don't know how I'll make those 8:30 sessions.
Potential conversation starters --
"Is food really that much better in France?"
"Have you ever eaten tongue?"
"Don't you think you are a bit silly in differentiating rules and guidelines"
"Do you secretly hate Jakob?"
"Are you double jointed/Explain your scars"
"What's your favorite greek island"
"Why is Wurman relevant?"
Potential conversation enders
"Why did you choose the name Asilomar?"
"What's up with Yahoo mail?"
"What's up with this Bush guy" (for non-americans)
"What's going on with Yahoo! Search?" (I'll have to just look coy, due to NDA)
"I like your book" (I'll blush and not know what to say-- better to insult or question it. ;-)
Mention Google.
Looking forward to seeing/meeting you all!!!!
Persuasive Technology is in turns fascinating and sinister.
This book is a must for any designer working in the technology field. B.J. Fogg is clearly a upright fellow, yet the techniques he offers to persuade desired behavior are so clearly articulated that it is easy to see how they will be used for unethical ends.
Stanford professor Fogg lists many positive uses for these techniques, such as educating teens about domestic violence, or teaching diabetics to monitor their blood sugar levels, or getting RSI sufferers to stretch-- yet it's no effort to image the dark side. A later chapter on ethics does just that, showing his student's experiments in designing unethical tools, such a Pokémon game that coaxes personal information out of children and persuades them to bug their parents for toys.
That said, ignorance is not an option. We need to understand these methods, as designers and as users. I had never seen Amazon' Gold Box as more than a very silly bit of foolishness.. now I understand it for the highly crafted and effective sales tool it is.
Even if persuasion turns you off, you need this book for chapter 7, on web credibility. Check out the website for a taste. Design and information architecture are critical pieces in the struggle to differentiate a site from the vast number of personal sites and imitators sites... an increasingly difficult task for users.
When you finish this book, the hackles on your neck will rise, you'll feel lightly slimey-- but you will be a better designer and a smarter consumer.
I was very excited about the summit-- I still am, but I feel odd, knowing it's happening in such a time. Still, it will be very good to see old friends again. When I feel like this, I always turn to poetry, often T.S. Eliot.
MORE...a new comment on table manners just makes me very very sad.
I feel for my husband... he's not a Chirac fan. I know when I went to Europe at the time of the first Bush, people would ask me why my president did what he did. I'm sure if I went now, I'd get the same. I never know what to say-- and neither does Philippe.
When I was much younger I used to joke that I hated the French, because everyone needs to have an other to hate, and the french already hated everyone so they wouldn't mind. I didn't really hate them, though I did view them with suspicion. I couldn't really believe that no one is Paris understood me when I asked "ooo-ay lee sally de bane." They must be messing with my head-- everyone knows how stuck up they are.
I'm sad to think that the behavior I forgave in Spain I was agreved by in France. We have a lot of hang-ups about French people. They stink, they eat everything disgusting, they chase our women, drench themselves in colognes and chain smoke... do we still think of Irish as lazy? Polish as dumb?
Then, fate begin as she is, I fell in love with a Frenchman, met his friends and family and discovered the French are... well, humans. Smart, dumb, shy, brave, proud, humble and so on. Maybe a few more proud than humble, but still... they could claim the same of us. What is patriotism but pride?
Hate for the French as a people is racism. Let's not pussyfoot around it. And if you have ever had a president you didn't agree with, reconsider your attitudes toward the French people. You can hate Chirac or love him, but don't hold him against the French people. He got a barely higher percentage of votes in his country than our president did here.
Hate the politics, love the people, hope the future will be a bit saner....
from terremoto.net
"Kansei is a japanese term where the syllable kan means sensitivity and sei means sensibility. It is used to express the quality of an object for producing pleasure through its use. "
Happy Birthday Boxes and Arrows. Our baby is one year old! Mama is so proud!
my husband and I saw this bird on our weekend away-- any idea what it is?
I feel like a little kid in december. Is it christmas yet?
Is it ASIS-T IA Summit 2003 yet?????????
Actually, my husband did. I rode. We're talking about buying a car. And for fun, I suggested we test drive the new beetle convertible. It is unquestionably a triumph of design-- ergonomic, quiet (even Whit the top down, it's remarkable windless) efficient, elegant and even beautifully quirky. But no fun to drive. Smooth and silky, 60 feel like 30 as we flew down the highway. But is that a good thing?
After my husband and I drove home in my ancient cabriolet (also not much fun to drive) we talked about the cars that gave us the most joy behind the wheel. He loves his '58 bugeye sprite. Even when driving 45 you feel like you are flying. It's old and small and basic, so the road feel is really intense. When he and I get out of it, it's like seeing clowns come out of their car-- yet when you are in it, it's pretty roomy.
I miss my old fiat. Driving winding roads in the marin headlands, getting a bit of slide in the corners, top down, shifting down to grab more power-- that's joy.
We've driven friends' Z3, friends' porches and these cars can do 90 before you start to feel any speed. It's terrifying to realize you've broken the speedlimit without noticing, and you are driving a dangerous speed without feeling it.
Comparing it to Philippe driving the back-roads in the bugeye and I'm holding on for my life at 30 mph and shouting for joy at the tall trees overhead, I have to wonder if the new car's emphasis on comfort is entirely a good development?
Maybe a bit of discomfort is part of the sport car experience. A driver has to feel some challenge, some sense of control and of power-- but the bugeye's 43 horses can feel just as powerful as the Porsche's 360. A bit of road feel, a bit of slip in a turn, a bit growl in a downshift-- it's feedback and it's fun.
VW says in their ads "Drivers wanted" but honestly, I doubt real drivers will want them.
Anyhow, this was all set off by reading dancing mango's thoughts on pleasure. See what he has to say on the matter.
Check out the opening of this newsletter from my ISP, Dreamhost. You can't accuse them of not having a voice...
"0. Introduction.
I think every February newsletter I end up either talking about what a
short month it was and how it only makes sense that the newsletter is
going to be short, or else how it's my birthday in four days, and my
birthday is the best.
This time I'm going with birthday.
My birthday is the best! It's March fourth! Which is the only date
that's a command! And it used to be the date of the U.S. presidential
inaugaration! And it's a tricky birthday too because it sneaks up on
you because February is so short (now I've covered both topics!)..
always around February 25th or so I'm like "my birthday is in like two
weeks or something" and then one second later I'm all "I MEAN ONE!"
The other great thing about my birthday is PRESENTS. I can't really
think of anything I want or need, but I know I'm sure as sure going to
take everything I can get! In fact, I think the theme for this
newsletter is going to be "presents for Josh". This may just be the best
newsletter ever.
I would like to stress the purpose of this newsletter is to inform
Happy DreamHost customers about important DreamHost going ons."
I'll include the whole thing in the "more" section. Pretty funny. This may be why I keep forgiving them, despite the fact they break something or another almost every month (they do usually fix it again under 24 hours, which maybe the other reason)
I'm not sure why someone isn't suing Lindows.com.
Despite the incredibly derivative UI, I suspect they are on to something. Click and run makes sense.
I'd like to try it out. I hear Kmart is selling computers for a couple hundred bucks with it installed....