It’s official: I’m now ready for it to rain here. I lost track awhile back, but it’s been roughly since April or May that it last rained in Silicon Valley. Yes, the Mediterranean climate here is lovely, and there are advantages to never having to worry about making plans in the summer in case it rains (although it can bite you too: I had to Boston a couple of weeks ago and I completely forgot to pack an umbrella because I’d just started assuming that it won’t rain). But now I’m tired of the brown and would like some lush green again.
Yes, I know it’s sad to gripe about the never-ending sunny warm weather (sunny and 80s here today). But at this point I’m happy that the weather forecasters are saying there’s a chance of showers on Saturday. I’ve been humming The Cure’s “Prayers for Rain” on and off in my head for the last week or two. So let it rain!
I realize full well that the fine folks at Apple tend to be control freaks. It’s hard to produce consistently good user experiences, as Apple does, without being a control freak. But the folks at Apple appear to be drinking too much coffee / koolaid / other problematic beverage if the latest rumors about Apple slapping NDA notifications on iPhone App rejection letters is true.
So let’s see; a community of increasingly vocal people are complaining about a particular situation, and rather than trying to fix the situation to at least partially address their concerns you’ve instead decided to try to just stop them complaining. Yes, that’s worked so well in the past.
That move, if it is indeed true, seems particularly boneheaded when Google/T-Mobile are holding a press conference to hype the G1 and attempting to see how many times they can say the word “open” while still having their sentences make some vague amount of sense (watching the press conference footage is a kick: everyone simultaneously tries to say open as much as possible while avoiding the words Apple and iPhone altogether). Didn’t Apple learn from the whole Windows – Mac OS experience that encouraging developers to write for your platform is key?
T-Mobile announced the G1 today, their “iPhone killer” running Android. I’m still working through the discussion of its capabilities, but I have to admit that my initial reaction is to wonder how hard it really is to find a good industrial designer. Seriously, look at the thing. If you’re trying to beat the iPhone, wouldn’t it make sense to create a phone as sleek and elegant? The iPhone looks good and feels good in your hand. This thing looks like a clunky cheap plastic block. I’m reminded of the cliche about bringing a knife to a gun fight.
It’s bad enough that our government is working to spend my hard-earned tax dollars bailing out idiots too stupid to realize it’s a losing proposition to lend money to people who can’t afford to repay it, but insulting my intelligence while they’re at it is a bit too much. From the NY Times coverage of the changes proposed by the Democrats to the bailout plan, in the context of restricting pay to executives whose firms get bailed out:
But Mr. Paulson said that he was concerned that imposing limits on the compensation of executives could discourage companies from participating in the program.
“If we design it so it’s punitive and so institutions aren’t going to participate, this won’t work the way we need it to work,” Mr. Paulson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Let’s talk about executive salaries. There have been excesses there. I agree with the American people. Pay should be for performance, not for failure.”
But he quickly added: “But we need this system to work, and so we — the reforms need to come afterwards.”
Yes, because an institution in danger of going bankrupt is going to balk at having to pay their CEO less, because they’d rather go out of business than reduce executive compensation. Yes, that’s likely.
On the way to drop off my daughter at school today I noticed that the Saturn dealership on the way has hung up a banner that says “Saturn = MPG”. Further proof that car dealerships are running scared that they’ve designed their fleets around the assumption that people want big vehicles instead of fuel efficiency and then got caught unaware by the sudden interest on the part of the buying public in not spending $100+ to fill up their vehicles.
Of course, they leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what Saturn = MPG means. Good MPG? Bad MPG? It’s amusing to watch as the car companies attempt to portray themselves as having fuel efficient vehicles without actually quantifying anything (kind of like the Mitsubishi TV commercial I caught where they bragged about how fuel efficient their top 5 vehicles are without displaying a single number). Because car dealers and trust are two things that go so well together.
I had a little extra time to wander around after the IBM conference ended today, so I ended up wandering along the Charles River as the sun set. Very pretty, and it reminded me that I like living in cities that are right on the water. Seattle. Washington, D.C. San Jose sadly lacks a waterfront, but the proximity of San Francisco somewhat compensates. Pittsburgh, even though I’m burned out on it from my PhD years there, had the Three Rivers, plus a great “entrance” to the city as you approach it from the airport.
I’m not quite sure exactly what it is I like about the water so much. I think it’s a combination of enjoying the play of light over and around the water and finding watching the wave patterns very relaxing. Either way, I can imagine that it would be nice to live in Boston (although I’m sure the winters would suck rocks).
I think John McCain needs to go revisit his Adam Smith. Does Mr. Free-Market, Let-Market-Forces prevail not realize what market forces are? Apparently not, since he’s lambasting the “unbridled greed” on Wall Street. Uh, John? Those market forces you like so much are essentially just that: a bunch of people acting in their own self-interests, also known as greed. I actually generally support free market ideas, but I don’t try to pretend that they’re this happy, fluffy thing that they’re not.
Further proof the Republicans are either idiots or they think we are.
Why is it that hotels feel the need for really artistic, Designed interfaces for controlling the shower? I’m sorry, but the last thing I want at the equivalent of 4 AM PST is to be spending my time figuring out how to get hit water. Can’t they all just standardize on a single interface and declare victory?
And don’t get me started on the alarm clocks.
Well, I’m back in Cambridge. Yet another business trip for IBM. This time it’s for the IBM Academy Conference on Future User Interfaces. On the one hand, it’s a good opportunity to network, and with a keynote and a regular talk I’ll have lots of chances to talk about what I’m doing.
On the other hand, business travel when you have a small child is an exercise in guilt. The positives may outweigh the negatives, but not by a whole lot.
I’ve decided that you can tell what sort of traveler a person is by how quickly they adjust their watch. The eager traveler will do it as soon as they’re on the plane (I used to be in this category). The reluctant traveler will never adjust their watch, preferring to keep track of the time of the place they left. That’s the category I find myself in these days; even when I go to Europe I keep my watch on PST. If nothing else it gives me a chance to practice my math skills.
On the ride to the library this week, our daughter suddenly asked the question, “Does the Internet really know everything?” in a dead-serious tone of voice.
So be careful out there saying “The Internet knows all” too freely around your kids.
jeff pierce 