The Wandering Geek: 2007

Resistance is futile

when less than 1 ohm

picked this up somewhere. hehe.

Telegram Post

Google Tech Talk Pinas last Monday night. Got a shirt. Yeah!

Desktop Share: Featuring Frets on Fire

Frets on Fire: Isinusumpa ko ang nagturo sakin ng kaadikang ito...

Nga pala, sinong may Guitar Hero DVD na pwde kong mahiram? :D

Six Words

Got this from "Niniane's Blog" (yes that Niniane): she posted that her professor in writing said that Hemingway once claimed that he could write a story in six words.

Here's the story:

For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

...

Getting Things Ummm...

Winners of my to-do list's Loyalty award*:

Organize all my MP3s and AACs
Consolidate all my file (spanning 3 hard disks now, and possible a few others already lost)
Start getting healthy
Start my own GTD system (start = design and execute)

No 3 is actually an afterthought because when the idea of this post first came to my mind, I was thinking of just the computer context.

*they're still here!

Name Game

The name of Yahoo's first CEO is Tim Koogle*

*Got this from John Batelle's "The Search: Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture"

Gmail gets IMAP

And it just keeps getting better...

Also, did you guys notice that Gmail storage is now in the 4Gig range? Again, the IMAP support is not available for everyone yet. I just checked my gmail and google apps and I still don't have it.

Links:

Apple and Google: Strange Bedfellows?

Love him or hate him, but there's no denying that he writes very interesting stuff. "Robert X. Cringely" on the Google - Apple collaboration.

I wrote many years ago that the best start-ups are composed of symbiotic combinations of hippies and nerds. Hippies have the grand vision while nerds mind the details. Each is less without the other. Think of Jobs and Woz in 1976 and now Jobs and Schmidt (or, more properly, Apple and Google) in 2007. Apple is driven by design, which is entirely subjective, even emotional, while Google is driven by the almighty algorithm, which is only following orders

Simple Man

One of the best movie opening songs I've heard. From the Movie Reign Over Me

Google in Black - Lights out SF

I just finished installing Gutsy and was configuring Compiz when I saw my google homepage turned into this:

Click for the full screenshot

It almost threw me off because I was actually having a hard time getting compiz right down to the pixel and I knew that an inverted display (affecting just my browser) means another compiz trouble to look into.

I didn't notice at first that it's actually an awareness campaign promoting Lights Out SF, a San Francisco CA - wide, conservation event encouraging people to turn their lights off for an hour (among other things). Honestly, what really caught my eye is the black Google home page, but hey, if like what it did to me, it makes billions people aware of environmental events like Lights Out SF, then it's a good effort. :)

The black google really looks neat, and I'm sure the people behind Blackle will be very happy. ;)

OMG SDK!

The other night Sir Ariel and I went down to Figaro (for the wifi) from the office to install some apps on his iPod Touch. I't's unbelievable to see the progress the iPhone / iPod Touch hackers has made in taking advantage of the Apple super-device as a development platform. But a day before that, we first had "jailbreak" the Touch before we were able to install the apps.

Come next year though, the jailbreak part will be unnecessary. Steve Jobs just announced that Apple will be releasing the iPhone / iPod Touch SDK in February.

Also, check out the updated Leopard page in Apple.com they put in a lot of cool stuff, and the 300+ new Leopard features is a good place to mine information about the upcoming OS X release.

On the other news, I almost wet my pants.

First Hand Encounter with the iPod Touch

(I mistaken referred to Jonathan Ives, Apple's Senior VP of Industrial Design as John. Updated to correct this error)

My Boss finally gave in after years of putting off his iPod purchase, but he pretty well made up for it in kick-ass-ness. Last Tuesday he got his kick-ass iPod Touch and showed it to our team as soon as he came in to the office (Yup, he still came.hehe. Peace Sir! )

Anyway, just some thoughts. When it comes to user interfaces, Apple is know for two things: something simple, and something flashy (and yet still simple). The success of the original, or should I say classic iPod, can be attributed to the first: Apple was able to make an interface so simple that almost anyone can use it without difficulties.

In fact, the classic iPod line's UI simplicity somehow masks the enormous talents of Apple's engineering, UI and industrial designers (hail to the king Jon Ives) in creating it.

As you would have probably guessed already, for this post, the second attribute of being flashy (and yet still simple) attribute will be all about the iPod Touch (and the iPhone).

The iPod Touch (and its iPhone sibling) has the slickest UI available in any device available in the market today, bar none. It's so easy to use because its really simple that things behave as you expect them to behave, and it's so fun to use because Apple has made it flashy enough that you actually see visual feedback on what you're doing with the interface in the classic apple taste. Okay, I will just stop trying to describe it here because as the cliche goes, words doesn't do justice.

Mutating Pictures

A population of 1,000 random pictures each, created in October 2007. You allow the fittest pictures to survive. The higher your rating for a pic the more mutated offspring it produces.

My Feed

Here's the thing. I may hardly find time nowadays to sit down and write for this blog, but I'm mostly active in other things online, specially in del.icio.us. If you have tried "stalking" someone either thru his / her twitter updates, delicious bookmarks, 30boxes calendar, google calendar, or any other service that offers feeds for subscription for that matter (who doesn't, at this point in Internet time?) you'll realize that it actually gives you more idea about what someone is currently up to. :) Believe me when I say that this not just a lame excuse for my blog drought. As I said, I'd really like to give more time for this blog. :) (hopefully sooner than later)

I recently joined friendfeed, the new startup of Paul Bunchheit (creator of gmail, and the google "don't be evil" motto) that basically lets you subscribe to other people's feeds. You add services (e.g. flickr, twitter, google reader, blog) to your own friendfeed feed, and people subscribed to that friendfeed gets updates about your services feeds.

Still with me? Okay, so here's my friendfeed url: http://friendfeed.com/markg, and heres' the atom feed. Technically anyone can do this using readily available tools such as google reader, yahoo pipes, or feedburner, but since i got lucky to snag an invite for friendfeed, i don't have to do the dirty work anymore.

So, at the risk of sounding like an egotistical bastard, if you want to get updates about me or what I do online (hah, no pr0n, since i would never dare share my google web history) or sometimes, even offline, and if you're already subscribe to this blog's feed anyway, Add my friend feed to your favorite reader.

I've been dying to post here

But this is all that I came up with.

Gnome 2.20 Released

Improvements are nowhere near revolutionary, but I like how Gnome consistently improves the desktop experience and simplicity. Two particular "minor" improvements caught my attention:

Tomboy notes synchronization - I swear by this cool app to manage all the "stuff" and information that needs to be handy when I'm in the computer, and making it available across all the computers I use through synchronization is a big PLUS. I am definitely looking forward to this in Gutsy...
This is a personal pet peeve. Gnome's window list (or the task bar in the Windows world) has this annoying "bug" that resizes the width of its buttons (corresponding to open applications) when the length of the window title resizes. It's much easier to see, so I'll try to post a screencast of this later, but the most important thing is that IT'S FIXED NOW! Sa wakas...

For a complete low-down on what's coming, go to their (tasty) release notes: But then again, if you're a gnome fan then you've probably read that already, and if you're not, you probably don't kare at all. :p peace.

A live cd to try the new features out is coming! I heard someone's got a good Internet connection at their office ... nuninuninu

Google Presentation App

It just keeps getting better. Google Docs (formerly docs and spreadsheets) has now a presentation web app. See official blog post here and see initial review here.`

Prince Caspian

Desktop Brag...errr Share

(Updated Screenshot)

Of course, this is not my working settings, (who can work with transparent desktops*?) But this is just a glimpse of the things you can do with a 3D linux desktop (well... besides putting off the other things that you need to do)

*notice the back view of the movie player on the right desktop and firefox on the back desktop.

New iPods Released: Shuffle, Nano, Classic and Touch

New iPods. I know some of you just want to go right in to the juicy details: head right to Apple.com.

Here's a quick review of what transpired at 1:00 am today.

Lots of new colors for the iPod Shuffle, including (red); same form factor, same memory sizes. As always, excellent entry point to the iPod line.
iPod Nano major upgrade: all-metal, new colors, now plays videos and games, features cover flow. Fatty nano! (that has to be said)
Original iPod form factor is now called iPod Classic. New all-metal enclosure, two colors: ash gray and black; thinner than ever, and still the iPod with the largest storage: 80Gig and a whopping 160GB
iPod Touch. Four words: iPhone without the Phone. Thinner than the iPhone, runs OS X, uses multi-touch interface; has wifi, safari browser, youtube, and other applications. Killer feature: iTunes Wireless Music Store
~~$100~~ $200 price cut on the iPhone 8GB model (they're probably dropping the 4GB one).
iTunes Wireless Music Store: buy music from the iPod touch or iPhone (will be added later through a software upgrade), through your wifi connection. Probably one of the least interesting things for those in countries where Apple Music Store is not operational to start with, but this is one of the biggest (probably bigger than the touch, since it was expected) of all the announcements. This further catapults the iTunes Music Store ahead of its struggling competitors. This is going to be big.
Very interesting deal with Starbucks: free wifi access for the Wireless iTunes Music store: the app automatically adds a starbucks button to the Music Store that allows you to purchase the song that's currently playing in Starbucks, as well as the 10 most recent tracks.

A "6-pixel" Post

on User interfaces...

I didn't notice when this feature landed on Google Reader, but I like that they added it:

The option to hide the feeds list in Google Reader just got a lot more discoverable. There's now an arrow in the splitter to do that. (before it was just a keyboard shortcut: "U"). This allows you to see more of your feeds when you're reading stuff.

On that note, I remember something I read in Signal vs Noise:

Will Shipley (of Delicious Monster) said:

This is all your app is: a collection of tiny details

As long as you don't forget about the big picture, I couldn't agree more.

(Minor edits on construction and some typographical errors)

The CAPTCHA Thing

CAPTCHA was invented in an effort to fight the war against spamming, and other shady activities that involves bots pretending to be humans. So when this feature was added to blogger's comments, i immediately added it to my blog. I remember getting one or two spam comments before that, so I reasoned that it was perfectly reasonable. Everybody else seemed to have done the same.

But then blogger's captcha started to act up. I haven't really identified the problem, but nowadays when I'm commenting on a blog with CAPTCHA, it's almost always the case that my first attempt to enter the challenge code will fail and I will have to re-enter a new one. It can get really frustrating sometime.

I realized that a CAPTCHA challenge, though trivial to use, (for a human, that is. ;p) poses an irritating usability barrier to a feature that's used very often, such as the blogger comment form. It is perfectly necessary in sign-up pages and other sensitive pages that a user will use once or a few times while using the web service, but beyond that, I think we have to find of a perfect balance between being spam-proof, and being user-friendly. Now in the case of this blog, which is low-traffic, the serious problem of spam is yet to really show up. And frankly I think I can get away without having CAPTCHA in the comments.

So a month ago I removed CAPTCHA from Wandering Geek to make commenting easier and faster. I realize that I'm monitoring my comments anyway (both thru blogger's comments feed, and the comments email notification) so in case any spam gets through, I can easily delete it. Honestly, if it makes things easier for readers, I don't mind doing that.

This is a lesson in designing a user interface: sometimes we think too much about solving an "expected" problem that in doing so we alienate the very people that we are designing the user interface for.

To Some "US Americans"*, P2P Hurts Corn Farmers

The few times that I feel good about what's happening in the Philippines is when I see much much more absurdities happening in other countries.

Take for example the recent scuffle between iTunes and NBC: NBC asked Apple to raise the per-episode price of its tv contents in the iTunes Store. Apple stood firm against it, and NBC went home with the ball, announcing that they're not renewing their contract with Apple.

Discussions on this happenings promted John Gruber to point to a document from NBC in its filing to the US Federal Communications Commission back in June, calling for more regulation of the internet:

Because of our nation’s interlocking economy, two-thirds of the lost earnings and lost jobs are in industries other than motion picture production. For example, in the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theaters would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment...

As funny as the argument is, Mr Art Brodsky still dilligently refuted this claim in his post in public knowledge.

On a the same note, Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter research came up with probably the best description of some old-school movie and television executives:

Sometimes I think God put video content guys on the planet to make the music guys look progressive and visionary.

That really made my morning. :)

*Words borrowed from Miss South Carolina.

Introducing the Google Phone

A bold headline by The Boston Globe. But they have a pretty good reason for that.

Cambridge has a chocolate factory, and a Willy Wonka. The chocolate factory is Google's local research lab, located on the seventh floor of a Kendall Square office tower, and the resident Wonka is Rich Miner, a Google executive sometimes described as the company's vice president of wireless but officially a "technical staff member," according to a Google spokesman.

The golden ticket is a chance to see a prototype of Google's new mobile phone, which Miner has shown to a handful of Boston entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, some of whom have signed nondisclosure agreements and some of whom haven't.

Now I'm torn.

Bill Gates Doll

Learned about this site (via Matt Cutts) that lets you "dress up" a variety of dolls. There are a few business personalities there, including Bill gates, which i played around for a while. Anyway, see what I came up with (click on the picture for thecomplete version). :)

Create your own

I know, i know. I should just start working...

Cloud-based Anything

I'm spoiled. My google web history is turned on, my google talk chat history is turned on, and right now i'm really frustrated because i was trying to remember the site of a book fair that connet ( i can use your name here, right? oops, too late. :p ) mentioned but I'm not sure if Yahoo messenger is saving your chat history (in the cloud) so I can't find it right now (I was using pidgin at work when I chatted with her). My google calendar, though lately has been ignored, is still my main calendar. I can't live without del.icio.us (i have learned not to trust my memory too much) to annotate my web browsing, and I can't live without my foxmarks. The list goes on.

The thing is I'm one of those who are really sold out to the idea of putting things (well all that makes sense to put there anyway) in the cloud. Yeah, privacy be damned - frankly I don't worry much about privacy concerns, because 1) I either put things that are private in services whose security I trust, or not put them up at all, and 2) the convenience of easily accessible information very much outweighs the privacy paranoia that seems to plague the mindset of most users and naysayers.

I remember when I was on my way to a job interview more than a month ago. On my way there (around 45 minutes before the appointment), I suddenly realized that I left the index card with address to the building where I'm going and I'm not really sure about its exact location. Knowing that I probably won't have much time left to look around, I was faced with dilemma. I contacted my friends and tried to request them to google the building for me, but almost all of them were either offline or got my message too late. Salvation came from Jason, a good friend at work whom I had to call. I gave him my google password because I'm quite sure that I added the address as a note to my calendar event of the said interview (this was also the first time that he learned that I was moving to another company) . I was in MRT the whole time, and as I look at my trusty (well, used to be anyway) Nokia 1100, i couldn't help but wonder then how things would have been different if my phone was more capable (read: has a web browser).

Anyway I did get to the place on time, but the punch line came at exactly 15 minutes before the interview: my phone (which i was bashing moments before) buzzed with a new SMS message: a notification from my Google calendar giving me every bit of information that I was frantically looking for just minutes ago. I setup my SMS alerts in GooCal and i forgot about it. This is one of the best things about information in the cloud: they can be made accessible through devices other than your internet-connected desktop computer. It may have not worked in the most ideal way (i should've trusted my system more), but in the end, at least for that moment, it paid to have things in the cloud. :)

Pisay Homecoming 2007 on Ustream

Batch 82 has setup a Ustream channel for the upcoming Pisay reunion. Cool... Another reason not to feel too bad about not going. hehe.

Apple Special Event on September 5

Just a public service message, just in case any one (of my 3 readers -- this is getting old) is planning to buy an iPod soon: Unless you're planning to get a shuffle, here's my advise: Dont' buy an iPod now. Wait for the announcement here on September 6.

The Google Mobile Phone OS?

You probably heard about the rumored Google phone / OS, since this has been blogged to death many times already. My hesitation to jump in though is that nobody was really sure if indeed there's a hint of truth to this. If I remember it correctly, the image on the left of what is rumored to be a Google phone showed up around the same time Steve Jobs announced his baby to the world.

Things have changed though, with Crunchgear having the confirmation from a senior (and anonymous) HTC executive that the company has made around 20 devices for Google to test the new mobile OS on. Another blogger have claimed earlier to have gotten the confirmation from a Google insider (who, according to the blogger wasn't entirely sure if he can or can't talk about the rumored google phone) that Google is indeed working on a mobile phone.

Now engagdet is reporting that the project could have started around 2005 after Google acquired a mobile company called Android. At last, 2 years after we began to wonder about the fate of the technology and (talents) brought by this acquisition, things seem to be starting to make sense.

Google could indeed be developing a Mobile phone OS, and according to the Engadget article, it's based on Linux and offers a plethora of customizations targeted for hardware manufacturers. It has also been said that Google has the developing market as its target and that the Phone OS integrates very well with Google's products.

Having tried Motorola's linux-based handset, I strongly feel that the industry needs a mobile linux implementation that doesn't put a taint on the Linux name with such a crappy UI (not that Linux is known for it). With the iPhone setting the bar for what a good mobile phone UI is like, things are starting to become interesting.

New Nokia Models: Black is Back

I don't usually blog about mobile phones simply because following them can really become dizzying because of the speed at which new models arrive. I made a few exceptions though, with (of course) the iPhone, and my one-night fling with the Samsung Blackjack.

So add this to those two exceptions: According to the gadget blog GearFuse, Nokia is releasing new phones soon, and what caught my eye here is the new update to the super nokia phone N95. Now dubbed as a music edition, it features 8gig of internal memory and my favorite part: it now comes in black. One of my pet peeves in the previous version is that it got a cheap-ass material for its external enclosure that if you didn't know about its features (everyone knows it kicks iPhone's ass, feature-wise), you'd be hard-pressed to buy it because really, it just looks (and feels) like a cheap phone. Okay. Rant over, and thanks Nokia for listening to my thoughts, and probably to a million of your users' feedback. :)

For more details on these new phones, just read the post on Gearfuse.

(image taken without permission from GearFuse)

Ubuntu Blog Entry Poster Test

Will It Post? [Edited in blogger]

I've been setting up our new (hand-me-down) pc at home and I'm currently fixing some things in Feisty.

Currently testing the Gnome Blog client. As with most Gnome apps, this is pretty freaking bare. I hope this works; anyway that's what matters most.

[Update]: It did post, but it didn't put on the correct title. Oh well, I'm manually adding one. Minus 10 pogi points (the title should be a pretty minor thing). No posts management either.

Disclaimer:
This application doesn't come with the default Ubuntu installation, so this really shouldn't count against the distro. I hope this app improves over time though. Next: another blogging app: BlogGTK.

OMG. iPhone Unlocked

[Updated]
Engadget reports that a team called iPhonesimfree has finally unlocked iPhone for use in any network inside and outside of the US. The hack is pure-software, so it's the iPhone dream that everyone was really looking for. Although iphonesimfree is not yet releasing the software, I believe the Engadget guys (that's saying a lot about Engadget, coming from me) when they say that this is the real thing.

Okay, so just in case this hasn't sinked in yet, this means that the "jesusphone" is coming to the philippines earlier than everyone was expecting.

I probably won't join the bandwagon just yet though. I will just wait for the official release here in the Phil, but that's mainly because i can't afford to buy one yet. Also, I'm still waiting for Apple to add some hardware features and software apps to the iPhone (MMS, Video-camera, Todo list app, etc.), and here's hoping that those upgrades will grace the offical Asian release next year.

For those who are ready to take the jump, this is the good news that you've all been waiting for. :) I couldn't be any happier for you.

(image taken without permission from Engadget.com)

Update:

An earlier hack has been published by another team, but this involves both software and hardware hacks, so it's not really for the faint of heart.
A third team, one owned by the owner of uniquephones said that they will be selling software for unlocking an iPhone in iphoneunlocking.com

"Hello... Is anyone here?"

I know. What's the point of making your blog more readable and usable when there's really nothing to read? I've been really busy with many things preparing for the next thing (more on this soon) so i haven't posted here (and will probably remain that way in the next weeks or so).

I've had my own share of unfulfilled blog post promises, so I'm not about to make another. I'm just dropping a note to let my three readers know that this blog is alive, well sort of. :)

No time to blog, so this only means one thing: bullet points..

Compiz on Feisty (translation: 3d desktop in Ubuntu) is freaking awesome.
Why I want an iPhone? One word: software.
My brother and his family just moved to Australia, so the next time we'll see them is three years from now.
I'm sure you noticed this before, but the Geek Dash section of my sidebar is actually a feed from my tumblog. (powered by my del.icious, tumblr, this blog (recursive yeah!) and some of the things i stumble upon online)
So many things to blog about, so little time before guilt strikes in (for blogging and not working). Have to go kids...

So, till my next update. Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

Because I Love My Readers

The Wandering Geek is now easier on your eyes...

I did a quick css hack-a-thon for an hour (I started at around 6 am) to finally fix some of my peeves about this blog's design

1024 x 768 is the new 800 x 600. That's what my Google analytics data tells me. So I took the liberty of increasing the widths of my main content and the sidebar to allow for well, more content. :)
Small is out, big is in. I've been wanting to increase the default font size here, because I know, being here can totally hurt your eyes (and the dark background doesn't help that much either). Now we're 1.2 em big. Not as big as how I originally wanted it to be, like this and that, but I think this as big as I could go for now without really changing the rest of the design.
I've been using Trebuchet because that's what came with the Emire blog template (damn you.. :p ). When all this time I've been really into Georgia. Finally, The Wandering Geek is now Georgia-powered. Yeah. :)
Comments. I still can't find a way (read: didn't even bother to google) to change the style for alternate comments. But for now, I hope the little improvements i did in the comments will ease your eyes enough that you wouldn't be turned off to comment. What comment-bait?
So that's it. I hope you these things help, that is if you still read The Wandering geek outside an RSS reader, and, I have to add, if you're not on a suck-ass, pixel-y OS like Windows 2000.

Thunderbird: Finding a New Home

Thunderbird might be leaving MoFo to become an independent entity. Mitchell Baker discusess this in her blog and Scott Macgregor, lead engineer of Thunderbird, also chimes in for a more in-depth explanation about why Thunderbird is looking for a new home.

This could be seen as a sad moment from the community's point of view. But like all things that "are hard, but must be done," I think this is a necessary step that will benefit both Firefox and Thunderbird. I will just point you the mentioned posts above, as well as one by Ben Goodger (on renaming the Mozilla Corporation to Firefox Corporation) for more thoughts on this.

On Calling Them Users

An enlightening post by Josh Bernoff:

I promise to avoid the word user whenever possible.

I will think of people who use technology as people, customers, and friends. I won't use them, and they won't use me.

And another take on the topic by Jimmy Guterman at the O'Reilly Radar:

As has often been noted, there are only two industries that refer to their customers as users: high tech and illegal drugs. Is this the company we want to keep?

But perhaps the best crafted thoughts on this is one by Don Norman:

Words matter. Psychologists depersonalize the people they study by calling them “subjects.” We depersonalize the people we study by calling them “users.” Both terms are derogatory. They take us away from our primary mission: to help people. Power to the people, I say, to repurpose an old phrase. People. Human Beings. That’s what our discipline is really about.

OCSAFAK

I missed our last climb to Mt. Romelo (Famy), and Ariel, my previous boss here at OCS missed it too. That turned out as a problem because we were the only two who have climbed Mt. Romelo before, so the group ended up leaving for Famy without a clear plan for their guide. To make matters worse, it was a night trek (on a new moon). They ended up hiring a guide for the climb.

Next we'll be climbing Mt. Makiling, since most of the members group haven't been there. That includes me by the way, since I didn't reach the peak the last time (and first time) I tried.

Thanks han for letting me me join this one. :)

By the way, we used to call the group OCS Akyat, but since we're not really all from Oberthur, we decided to call it OCS and Friends Akyat instead, or OCSAFAk, to Carlo's prodding. :) So we're now the ocsafakers. You don't get any more classy than that.

...

I just wish it's easier to learn not to care.
Saves us all the trouble.

Discovering Dylan

He's probably one of the greatest artist and songwriter and it's a shame that I haven't even listened to any of his original performances.

Sam's (not so) New Look

26-06-07_2102
Originally uploaded by jazzyminn

Sam's head usually gets too hot (literally) with his old cherub curls so we had his hair trimmed a month (ish) ago. He looks a lot like a big boy now (emphasis both on the BIG and the BOY).

Photo was taken by tita Jazz (or was it tito Rohel) using Moto RAZR V3X in Medical City.

I usually get asked at the office for a more recent picture of Sam since the one I have on my office desk is quite old (taken before his first birthday). Now I'll just point them here. :p

We're in Medical City This Time

Status report from the bookish bimbo

A Close Encounter With Someone from The Mothership

HCI (Human Computer Interaction) is a field that has fascinated me from the day I learned of its existence, or perhaps more accurately, from the day I felt it's importance, that is, when I saw the elegance in Apple's user interfaces.

Apple surely did not invent this field, but you would be hard-pressed to disagree that it is in this field that Apple draws its strength (besides Steve Jobs' RDF) and the magic that powers its computer products, software applications, iPods and soon, the iPhone.

What would excite the HCI geek in me more than anything else is to meet (lest hear speak) an Apple User Interface designer: someone from the mothership. And yesterday, i had the chance to listen first hand to this someone.

It all started with Angel's email inviting me (and nikki) to a lecture on HCI. A hurried and excited scan of the email lead me to the person who will be giving the lecture: Mr. Jose Arcellana - a senior manager of user experience at Oracle Corp who has also worked for 11 years in Apple (faints...). And as if the name doesn't give it away enough, Mr Arcellana is Filipino who was an AB English cum laude from UP Diliman (circa 70s if i remember it right) and who holds a Master's degree in Communication from Stanford University. When he was at Apple, he worked on Rhapsody which would later become what we now know as the Mac OS X, created the Apple Assistant (their "better" version of the Microsoft Wizard) and argued with Steve jobs (more on this later)

His credentials actually made me think: Did he really want to be a "user interface designer" when he made the academic decisions that he did, and in corollary, if one (looks around) wants to do what he's exactly doing now but is in the IT business, what is the pathway to enlightenment? (i wanted to ask this during the Q&A part but shyness got the better part of me)

Moving on, he did an excellent presentation on HCI, its principles, the processes involved in doing UI research and design, and a lot of other cool stuff (will be sharing those stuff with the team here in OCS). His Silicon valley anecdotes were my favorites though. He recalled arguing with Steve Jobs over the dock because he didn't think that it was a good idea. Of course Steve Jobs won, being the one with the "expert opinion". He said that during their argument he almost forgot that the one he's arguing with is his company's CEO.

It really sucked that we were not able get a video or photos for the event (angel left her camera in Tiwi), but it was one hell of a Lecture. The most enjoyable one I've ever been to, and the closest I would probably get to someone from the Mothership. :)

Tax and Health

A little trivia: Hannah just called Maxicare to ask about the remaining benefit balance for Sam's Health card and learned that a large chunk of our Hospital bill last time he was shouldered by the Government. In fact the amount they shouldered is around a quarter my total expected tax contributions for this year.

Hmm, now I don't feel too bad about the tax we pay. For now.

Belated...

Happy Birthday to Nikki!

iPhone New York

I've been enjoying watching this for a few days now and I thought I'd share it here.
A cool unofficial 60 second ad for iPhone.

On a (minor) Blogger Design Flaw

I just noticed that if you have a single image (and no words) as a blog post (think post-secret), showing the "original post" in the comment form has no real value. You will just get a text that says "[photo]". What's that?

I think it will give more value to the readers if Blogger uses the alt attribute of the image posted instead of just sticking the word [photo] (which gives almost zero information). That way, bloggers who do this kind of blog posts will be encouraged to make use of the alternate text attribute to give more information for the readers. :)

In the end, commenting readers will be happier (saving a click on the back button to take a peak at the post again).

Until that's fixed, i would suggest the use of the pop-up version of the comment form.

A Very Sweet Solution

As some of you probably know by now, iPhone will not be having support for native 3rd party iphone apps. This has bothered a lot of geeks and developers as well as key apple watchers because Apple is (again) leaving developers in the dust. Hopefully things will change later down the road, but it's still hard to ignore the discontent of the developers. Though for some would-be-iPhone-users this is a non-issue. For some, the lack of capability to load potentially kick-ass iPhone apps from great Mac developers is a glaring limitation of the iPhone.

As if things are not bad enough for the developers, Steve Jobs during his WWDC 2007 keynote struck a lot of developer nerves (to an extent that some say as an insult) when he announced "third party applications" for the iPhone:

We've come up with a very sweet solution.…We've got an innovative new way to create applications for mobile devices. Really innovative.…

I've yet to find a reaction that will top Michael Tsai's. It's the best hit so far. :D

Blogger Draft

Ey kids. Want to upload a video to your blogspot blog? Then go try Blogger in draft, featuring a direct video upload.

WWDC 2007

I'm doing a google post for a writing stint that I got from helping hannah out and at the same time keep going back to this page Where Macrumors is going to be live blogging the event. T-10 minutes and counting. awwww. I'm gonna need a bottle of red bull to keep me up tomorrow. Adios amigos. To my fellow mac fans, good times! (my phone just buzzed with Google Calendar's reminder of the event).

I'm waiting, Stevie boy. Fire away.

Out.

Weirdness

Since Cherry nicely tagged me with this meme, i'm politely complying. :)

Each player of this game starts with 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

I used to have second thoughts about going to heaven because i doubted if there are shiny things up there. Just so we're clear, i don't care anymore (if there are none) :p
What's weird? We sometimes play Chinese garter at the office. What's weirder? It's my idea. I' m probably the most child-like i know at 26.
I think i have a distorted image of my body. No i don't think i have a hot body, but somehow I feel good about it That's good, right? right? (the sound of 3 browsers closing) :p
I ~~like~~ love to travel at night and during the wee hours of the morning. I observe the people who are traveling with me and wonder what's their excuse for traveling that late.
I wanted so much to feel what it is to live on the streets. (i think this is an ofshoot of no. 4). I was so envious of Paulo Bediones when he did that in Extra Challenge.
...
I have a thing with number 6.

okay, the last 1 was a joke, but it was too good to pass up. (i hope i didn't ruin the meme by doing that). Just to complete it: I love to have a glass of cold water with hot pandesal for my breakfast. (though i seldom get the chance to do that...)

Ohkay, now i'm taggin 6 weird people i know...Hannah, Thea, Nocturne (yes, you), Alekos, Nikki, Kei

Jobs and Gates on D5

who's your daddy?

Decisions

Sometimes I wish decisions can be made based solely on what we want to do or where we want to go. No complications.

On the other hand, having constraints is also a good thing. It defines your problem more, and it's an oppurtunity to creatively work around them.

Microsoft Surface Computing

Remember that multi-touch demo i blogged about before? At the end of this year Microsoft will be delivering its own "surface computing platform" to actual customers, making them initially available to restaurants, hotels, retail locations and casino resorts. Popular mechanics has the details on Microsoft's new technology but if you just want to quickly see what it's about, Surface.com is a good place to go.

Quickie Post

Welcome back Frank! Here's to a healthier frank "junior" (i know, that got shot down too) and mommy Ria. God Bless to the Guevarra family.
We're that close to losing internet access in the office. Ugh the agony...
Miss Japan looks hot. (but that's judging on some crappy photos that we could access from the office, since the miss universe site is blocked. tf!)
Facebook just pulled the most brilliant play i've seen to date in the social web. At last, one of the next big things is (somehow) beginning to shape up. Social Web Operating System? Hmm...
Microsoft is touting that they will reach 1M zune sales by the end of this month. This is not what it seems to be. More on this later...
Tip: Using Firefox on Linux but hates the way the web controls look (they're fugly)? Your suffering ends here. Slicker firefox web controls saves the day.

Google Analytics Fun

Sometimes its fun to go sniffing through the tidbits of information that Analytics gives out. Without going too much into the technical (and business) side of things, It's nice to see for example that on some days i have reader(s) using firefox on linux that's using a computer with its (wide) display resolution set to 1280 x 800. Yup, it matters.

Tapuymoments

It's not my business to interfere, but tapuymoments (the blogspot URL, not the actual blog) just got taken over by some pinkgirl1234. That sucks. :(

Foxkeh

Where the Japanse people get their talent for creating uber-cute mascots beats the hell out of me. But I think i just found my own "hello-kitty", open-source geek edition. Meet foxkeh, Mozilla Japan's mascot for promoting Firefox to new users. First saw it in Asa Dotzler's post where he pointed to undoubtedly the cutest firefox banners/chicklets i've ever seen, calling that they be ported to english. It didn't last long, and now Foxkeh is localized in EN. I just subscribed foxkeh's blog feed.

The downloads section also boasts some really delightful surprises, topping them is the history of the Firefox (know your roots!), they come in 3 flavors: the jap, en and a special foxkeh edition.

Wallpapers. I think i have the (pa)cutest desktop wallpaper in the office right now.

And of course, other foxkeh images. :)

I'm just waiting for the english versions of the banners then they'll soon grace the sidebar of this green emire, color coordination be damned :) . (or I will worry about that part later)

Email this Post

At long last the Reader team has upgraded Google Reader's Email this feature - my pet peeve. What used to be a non-formatted stream of words (without even line breaks to separate the title from the content) is now sent as an html-formatted email message. So the post you are emailing will appear (almost) exactly the same to how you see it in Google Reader.

The other cool feature is that the email feature is now tightly integrated to the Reader application. No more pop-ups when emailing a post. The email form is now integrated to the post itself, just like in Gmail. Nice... And of course, the "tightly-integrated" feel will not be complete without the address auto-complete. (pun fun. weeeee!)

web.im

I don't use YM that much but I'd say that this thing is slick. And with a very cleve URL to boot.. :)

Mt. Pulag Pics

Mt. Pulag Climb

Pulag pics on Picasaweb. Click.

Dell heart Ubuntu

From Dell's website:

Ubuntu, on Dell.
Smokin'...

At the Peak

Labels Update

Heads up to my 3 readers... I will be fixing the labels here so you might see outdated posts shown as new again in your Reader. Sorry for that.

Home

Just arrived home 10 minutes ago. Thea is here. Brought back lots of things from Pulag. Dirty clothes. Dirty tent, dirty pack, dirty gears. Clean memories! Climbing Mt. Pulag is the hardest thing I've done recently. Will do it again...

Sorry for the "ugly" (to borrow han's word for it) format of the mobile blog posts. I had to make do; what's important is that i have the timestamps...

Will post the pictures later.

After the Summit

PULAG. Peak. No words to explain. Cold. Sleeping.

Ambuklao Dam Stopover

PULAG: Ambuklao dam stopover... Beautiful place. U

Jeepney Ride to Ambangeg

PULAG: Left baguio. On the way to Ambangeg...

Victory Bus Station in Baguio City

PULAG: Victory bus Station. U. Baguio will never be the same...

Victory Bus Station in Pasay

Victory station pasay. Waiting 4 the last group to arrive...

1 Hour to go...

PULAG Test blog frm phne.

Time Quote of the Day

Design plans

I'm planning to make this template more user-customizable using variables for CSS values. That way, anyone on Blogger can easily pick the template and customize it to his own liking. I might also do something about the remaining "bugs" in the design (the still hard-to-read comments section is a pet peeve).

Sorry if I'm talking about more design stuff again and less of the actual substantial content. It's because of two things really: From the start I really wanted to transform this design (emire) into something that "originally" belongs to me (my tastes and preferences). Second, I'm having a hard time writing these past few days. I lost the initial momentum, but I'm sure it'll pick up speed again later. Bad days i guess.

Night folks. Mommy Han is calling me already (and i heard sam cough). I'm too sleepy anyway. Hope everyone's having a good day/night.

I'm doing something with a little more substance for my next post (started to work on it actually in the office)

Something

This will become a mainstay in my sidebar.

README

and now is a good time to do just that.

Honesty

A funny thought that came to mind yesterday on my way to work:

Honesty pays. Just not always in the currency that we want.

Post Secret (Sorry Jem)

No One Belongs Here More Than You

Back then when i was preparing myself for an internet-deprived work place (good thing that didn't happen), i thought about maintaining my blog by scanning hand-written blog posts in index cards, then post them every weekend.

Today I came across an even better idea: a dry-erase board as a website. This idea isn't mine, but it's the most creative website I've seen in a while.

By Miranda July:

OK, here I go. I’m going to make this whole website right now on this dry-erase board.

[via Daring Fireball]

Microsoft is Dead

From Paul Graham: Microsoft is Dead

I already know what the reaction to this essay will be. Half the readers will say that Microsoft is still an enormously profitable company, and that I should be more careful about drawing conclusions based on what a few people think in our insular little "Web 2.0" bubble. The other half, the younger half, will complain that this is old news.

This is old news...

Lists, Lists and even more Lists!

Warning: anal-retentive post below. :p

I am a GTD follower, or rather a GTD non-practicing believer. :p

One of the best things that GTD has taught me though is the power of lists. A flat collection of all the actions that you need to do to accomplish something. In the real, paper and pen world, I always keep my stack of index cards handy for jotting down quick lists, and for the software bits, i use sticky notes to keep track of short-term action lists. I still suck at keeping things in control though: my GTD collection proces is really a mess, but I still manage to make a little out of it. This is one of the the good things about the GTD sys tem: you can still benefit from it even if don't implement the whole thing. That actually ruins the whole idea, but oh well. :p (I'm really trying to start with my GTD system again)

That being said, and moving on with the topic of lists, i have also tried setting up online task lists. Web-bases lists has the advantge of being available anywhere you have internet access and some tools actually integrate well with my existing online workflow tools such as email and IM.

I have tried backpack, ta-da list, both 37 signals products, Google IG's to-do list widget and a some other web apps that I can no longer remember.

Tonight I started experimenting with Remember the Milk, a weirdly-named but actually clever and interesting web app. I'm still yet to master all of its features and bells-and-whistles, but the app actually seems really promising.

Need an online list? Explore the apps i mentioned above. :)

DRM is dead. Apple and EMI announces DRM-free music

It all started with Steve Job's Thoughts on Music, a memo calling for the abolishment of DRM as the best answer to the problem involving music devices interoperability.

No, let me correct that. It all started with an army of consumers, music lovers and users who wanted freedom from the draconian hold of the Recording Industry on the music that people buy and listen to. Steve Job's memo might become one of the most memorable milestones in the abolishment of DRM, but it should not be forgotten than it is the people who really made things move into this direction.

And today, Apple announced that EMI's entire digital music catalog will be sold DRM-free from the iTunes Music Store:

CUPERTINO, California—April 2, 2007—Apple® today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

Thought this may no directly affect us since the iTunes Music store is not available in the Philippines, this is still a monumental triumph of of the internet/music community over the RIAA.

Here's EMI's announcement
Head over to techmeme for the party...

DRM is dead. :)

Linkify

I've been wanting to toss this idea to the lazy web, but I've been too lazy to even do that. hehe. Now someone finally mashed up a a very cool bookmarklet: Linkify, by Xenomachina. Every link in this post has been created by the bookmarklet.

Here's the problem: creating a blog post or a comment that properly links to relevant resources is really the good way to blog, but the process could be a little cumbersome. If you're lucky and you still have the original page open in your browser,

go to that page/window,
copy the url,
go back to your blogpost,
hightlight the word where you want to put the link, press the
LINK button, and
paste the URL.

And you have to do that for all the links. If you still have to look for the page, then it involves even more steps.

Enter Linkify: while in a textarea like in Google Blogger's post window (in edit HTML tab) or in comment fields,

select the text that you want to create the hyperlink,
click the linkify bookmarklet,
then select the appropriate google search result and click Create Link

Ah. quick, effective workflow. Now all you have to do is drag this bookmarklet: [linkify] to your Browser's bookmarks toolbar, then you're all set. :)

A Buzz in the Air: Over the air charging

Business 2.0 reports about what could possibly be one of the biggest breakthroughs of the year: an over-the-air charger for low-power devices (cell phones, MP3 players, automotive parts, temperature sensors, hearing aids, and medical implants)

The system works through a power transmitter - recevier module (see illustration on the right). The receiver that "catches" the power from all the bouncing radio signals and converts it to DC power is actually the magic piece of the system. And it just costs 5$ to make.

Powercast, the company behind the product, has already partnered with many device manufacturers to produce the "receiver" for these devices to make them compatible with the company's over the air charging products.

Pimp your Firefox

Explanations to follow later. For now, just wanted to show off my *pretty* fox...

Po and Sam

Had a great time at Tesla's birthday. So did Sam, enjoying the "papag" instead of the usual king-size bed. :)

(picture downloaded without permission from Po's Picasaweb. I took the picture! :p )

Bayante heart Ubuntu

Bayantel came over today and installed our DSL and phone line. Yay to them. Service installation is estimated within 3 - 5 days and they did it on the 3rd! It took some mark-type "convincing" but it's really good that they listened and prioritized our application. One minor caveat though: we applied for a phone + dsl package and surprise, surprise: the phone unit doesn't come with the phone line. Dang. If I'm not too tired (and mukhang takot na sakin yung agent) i would have fought for it but Oh well, I'm just glad that they were able to install the DSL quickly.

Btw, they didn't configure the DSL since their technicians didn't know how to do it in Ubuntu. (fair enough...) Their usual protocol is to have the user download rp_pppoe first, a pppoe dialer with gui for the PPPoE connection (you'd have to do that outside, of course), then call their tech support for the step by step guide, but it turns out that ubuntu's out-of-the-box pppoeconf works superbly with Bayantel. Thanks goes to this great guide by a fellow Ubuntu user. Yehey ulit. I'm still thinking if i will still install the a gui pppoe dialer, but since i already set pppoeconf to connect at boot time, i can put that off for the mean time.

Themes on Google IG

Google IG is now prettier! Thanks to it's (new) support for themes.
Before:

After (sporting the Bus stop theme):

Like what i said to a friend, i am a big fan of sleek, clean lines.

New Ubuntu.com

Ubuntu just unveiled a redesigned website. Sweet. The navigation bar on the left is a very welcome improvement. :)

Amazing multi-touch demo

Multi-Touch Interaction Research, a research group from NYU Computer Science led by Jeff Han, showcases the amazing applications of the multi-touch display (yes, that sounds like the iPhone technology, but this stuff is even more pioneering, and the group has been doing this for quite some time)
Bi-manual, multi-point, and multi-user interactions on a graphical display surface.
The day when we see for real what Tom Cruise was doing in Minority Report may not really be the far off. Enjoy this video.

GNU/Linux on the desktop

A quick post about GNU/Linux.

My boss just finished downloading (and installing) Mandriva on his laptop. And of course, he called me over to show off xgl-enabled desktop. Made my officemates drool (gen suddenly remembered the ubuntu cd i gave her). Of course, i already saw xgl in action before, once in a an ex-roommate's laptop, and some videos on youtube. But it's still always awesome to see it live.

I'm starting to believe lately that the Linux on the desktop is about to tip. I have no idea when, but the circumstances around me all points to this fact. Hannah has been using ubuntu (dapper) for the past month, thea has been a linux user ever since High Flyer (their internet cafe) was born, a good friend who, for reasons i can't understand chooses to hide her geeky-ness, has been on archlinux for two years now. Angel is now running ubuntu (edgy) both on her (their) desktop and her vaio laptop (dual boot).

Dang. i forgot my planned ending/conclusion for this post. Oh well, go GNU/Linux! :p

Influences

Body painting. in steroids. :p

300 is all the rage

I love alekos's blog, kahit na minsan minsan lang magupdate

There are no sentences in 300, sentences are for the weak! Real men talk in fragments! And you will be in awe of those small fragments of speech, because THIS IS... 300!!

Read the rest here
He pretty much summed up everything that i wanted to say abou the... naah. He didn't, (cliches be damned). For one, he forgot to mention the girl point of view:

...Spartan's rock-hard abs would make it all worthwhile

(cherry did)
But he did write a classic alekos piece: witty and amusing to read. :)
(leks, i'll send the bill later, ok?)

:)

Watch Your Step

[update: I just failed the "your / you're" test. My apologies to the grammar police.]

... I moved things around.

First, a few acknowledgments. Blog template originally designed by Phu Ly for Wordpress and converted to Blogger by Gecko&Fly (classic) and BlogCrowd (beta). Now that I have paid my dues, a few notes:

Will probably change a few things here and there (already did a bit) to make this more personalized to my taste. The fonts used for the main posts will definitely be changed, though i'm already satisfied with the one used in the sidebar.

Notice the new sidebar widget? (Currently...) This is powered by twitter, made by the same guys that created Blogger and Odeo. I still have not put the other old widgets like my Google Reader shared items, though they will follow soon. Also, notice that horizontal navigation on top, featuring (at last) a link to Hannah's blog, among other things :) The Photos link points to my Picasaweb Albums (i haven't updated that yet, though) which now comes with 1gig of photo and video storage.

So far, I like how things are shaping up.

Google Maps - Send to BMW

Cool Google Maps Deutschland feature. :)

Drafts, Part I

I've been wanting to do this...

A collection of unpublished posts. I don't know a similar meme already exists. But here's the idea. Find all your posts never got past the "draft" stage. Take the title, and the date on which it was supposed to be posted. Add the first line (or few words) of the original post, then comment on what the post was about, to add more context to your drafts.
Here we go:

Neko No Kimochi (May 6, 2004)

"i am not good at"
it's supposed to be a post about a favorite japanese song (sang in a very cute way by a little japanese girl) - Neko no Kimochi. The lyrics is actually as cute as the music. :P

Google's Next Step? (July 16, 2004)

"I was pondering over the possibility of Google eventually delivering an instant messenger client..."
pre-Google Talk talk. :P

Google Flavored Search (July 26, 2004)

a post about Google's early efforts on personalized search back then, you have to manually "teach" the personalized Google search engine about your preferences and interests. Now it does that for you...

MSN News Bot (August 3, 2004)

"if you have been watching closely the developments in the technology landscape, it is not new to you then that Microsoft has turned its eyes to Google as its new target."
a post about MSN News bot, a Google News copycat from Microsoft. Back then, people actually believed that Microsoft can easily topple Google (just like what they did to Netscape, or Apple).

The REAL deal (August 18, 2004)

"Here's the thing, as Real wants you to see:"
a post about Real's pathetic attempt to make the world believe that all they really wanted to do when they cracked Apple's DRM is to make this world a better place by "opening up" the iPod, and not gain market share for their own profit...

Sound the horns... (again) (September 2, 2004)

"Microsoft launched the beta version of the MSN Music store today, a day earlier than everyone expected"
Before the Zune Marketplace, there was MSN Music store (and a couple of other microsoft technology-powered music stores) that tried to stop the store that would eventually become the most popular and most succesful (so far) Digital music download store: Apple Itunes Store

I'm too sleepy, this is shorter than what I originally intended Part I to be, but you get the idea. :). Till next time, for the continuation.... (hint: they're not all tech stuff, so they are actually more interesting than this)