Old Fashioned Modernist

Tablet frenzy coming up

Dell Streak

I knew about this after paying attention to what was going on on CES this year. Lots of tablets where announced, from the JooJoo to that HP running Windows 7. You’ll find reviews on them here, here and here.

Funny thing is most of those were announced before the iPad. Yet the iPad got all the attention because Apple knows it’s Marketing better than those other guys put together. Masters of Spin they are they’re probably making everyone believe they invented this tablet idea.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with all these and how do they evolve. Android or Chrome Os sounds like a nice thing to run on one of these. Apple’s iPad is almost impenetrable. You even have to Sync it with iTunes (!?). That’ all very nice since to find their market, some hardware company will build something with HDMI, camera and all the toys for the same price or less running Android… and for that I might wait in line at some underdog store.

Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.

Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.

The problem with this kind of statement is that at first it sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, a lot of people stay with that only but if you dig deeper you’ll find there’s something wrong with it.

Mark Greenspan talks about the subtleties of the surveillance campaign on the Toronto subway at a presentation on the Toronto Ignite Conf 2010. What he notes is that the campaign sends subtle discrimination messages. And maybe this wasn’t done intentionally, but the messages are clearly there.

Great idea for form design

“The hard part first” is a post I came across via Designer Depot. Now, there’s not research into it but as soon as you read it it makes complete sense. Basically, what Chris Coyier proposes is that when doing form design, we should put the actual action that the user requested first.

This might sound obvious at first and you might not know what the hell I’m talking about but think about the form for leaving a comment on certain websites. First thing you’ll get requested for are your details, and then you can leave a comment or send a message. We’ve been doing it like that for so long that we haven’t even questioned the way it works. What Chris suggests is that we put the actual comment box first and then we go into the annoying details which make the process more cumbersome. That way you commit to filling the form and, for whatever the reason, it seems like an easier experience.

Anyway, he has more examples in hist post so take a look.

Windows Phone 7

Crazy! Unbelievable. This is my favourite phone interface yet and this one was actually announced. It’s not like courier which ended up being a myth (or maybe something which M$ was to conservative to roll out).

No beveling or anything like that. Crazy navigation and everything has a two-diesh look. I like this a lot more. Beveled buttons I’m bored of. And I thought my next phone was going to be an Android Phone… Well, we have to see what happens with the apps because all the old apps are going to mess up the look. We’ll see.

But I’m pretty impressed. Windows mobile has a LOT of software. Including an Office suite for it. Making the interface cool is a BIG deal.

Soft Pretzels in Toronto

I love this stuff and decided to compile a list of what you can find in Toronto. My source was this chowhound forum. But I’m organizing the list for myself, so use it at free will. ;-)

Pretzel Maker:

Chainlike over-sweetened Pretzels (North American style). This ones I’ve tried so that comment is mine.

Amadeus Restaurant

Rabbit says:

“It’s not a street vendor pretzel, but it’s German and fat and squishy and fantastic – Amadeus restaurant at Richmond and University has wonderful pretzels.”

Dimpflmeier Bakery:

jonnybee says:

“Though not as soft as the pretzels you get in the mall, the large pretzels from the Dimpflmeier Bakery in Etobicoke seemed to me more like like the ones found in NYC. I did not have them warm, but they were dense and kind of chewy and great with some mustard.”

You’ve probably seen this guys breads. They’re sold all over the place in certain supertmarkets. Apparently they sell Pretzels on their store.

Stonemill Bakehouse:

Mila says:

“Stonemill Bakehouse, downstairs at St Lawrence Market, has the real German pretzels on Saturday mornings”.

The Bagel House:

Full Tummy says:

“My mom and I, both German and very fond of excellent salt pretzels, are addicted to the ones sold at The Bagel House. They’re somewhat bagelly, but they are a heck of a lot better than most. Fresh each day, crisp and chewy, with plenty o’ salt.”

Aunty Ann:

There’s 1 Aunty Ann in Toronto GTA right now. This guys have a kit so you can cook them at home too.

Sobey’s:

cherrytreegirl says:

“The Sobey’s Express on Yonge south of Wellesley carries them in the bakery section. They are pretty good but you would have to prepare it yourself- heating it, adding butter, mustard etc.”

Raw Milk

While I was on holidays, Michael Schmidt triumphed against the dreaded Canadian Dairy industry in his co-op cow sharing concept. You can basically get raw milk with him if you buy part of the cow. The law which forbids anyone in Canada of drinking milk  which is not Pasteurized, does not apply to farmers. If you buy part of the cow then you become one.

Of course, when you read what pasteurization protects you of you kind of think it’s the right way to go. But if you dig deeper you realize that if the process is clean and you buy from the farmer the risk is almost nonexistent. Not only that, all those things you can contract (salmonella, listeria, etc…) you can actually get from a LOT of meats and eggs you can buy at the supermarket. So what’s the deal? We don’t pasteurize bacon, do we?

Even worse is when you read what pasteurization takes away. A lot of nutrients, bacteria which helps digest milk better and, on top of that, ultra-pasteurized milk can cause allergies. And I should know about that since my daughter cannot drink caws milk. Funny thing is that when we travel to Argentina, where milk is only pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized, she doesn’t get a runny nose and annoying coughs like she does over here.

On top of that, even regular pasteurized milk tastes better than the ultra-pasteurized one. I can only dream of how good must raw milk taste. I wish I could try it but right now, here in Canada, you just can’t. You can make a choice of smoking cigars or drinking Coffee with Nicotine (like the Tim Hortons one) but you can’t risk it with Raw Milk.

Raw Milk seems to be a real threat. It’s like drinking water with toxic stuff in it like fluor or clorox… oh wait, water already has that in it and its completely legal!

Pasteurization makes the life of dairy companies easier. They don’t have to worry about quality control like they would with Raw Milk and the milk can last for a longer period of time. So it’s the old battle about healthy natural food against processed junk. And the processes junk will loose in the end because it tastes worse and it’s worse for you.

Can’t wait until other farmers start doing this so I can get some for myself.

Yet another post about the iPad

I’m sure there’s a million posts about this so I’ll keep it short. Like with the Courier which was never released and we got a Windows 7 tablet, the iPad was a disappointment.

Thinking a bit more about it I realized that it’s the first Apple release that I can remember where the Hardware is more interesting than the software. If you compare it with a Netbook it’s not interesting at all. But if you compare it with other tablets and eReaders out there and the ones coming out in the near feature, it’s the most compelling one in terms of price. Basically, a big Kindle costs the same, and that is ridiculous. The Kindle has always been a rip-off and I have no clue who buys this stuff. But after all this new e-Readers where announced on CES a couple of months ago, I can’t see how they’re going to be able to hold that price anymore. The iPad will be the Kindle killer, if the Kindle was ever alive. That eReader is going to have to drop at least $200 to compete.

Other than that, the software sucks right now. This device uses a great OS for phones which is not a great Os for a 9.7 inch device. And that has been said over and over again so I’ll leave it at that. I guess they’ll make it better in the future and it might become a device worth considering. I still can’t see why the heck would I want any of this tablets or e-Readers.

Netbooks are so cheap and powerful that unless someone brings some amazing new experience, I can’t see myself using one ever.

(no Flash or multi-tasking, are you kidding me?)

The Travel Industry needs to move forward

Years ago someone had the great idea to let people pick they’re destination, price and dates on their own. Remeber how it used to be? You had to go to a travel agent and spend some time making decisions on best price and dates for your trip. And the price advertise wasn’t necessarily available. And maybe there were no tickets for those dates.

It was faster, though. You took less time to decide unless you went price shopping, in which case it would have been extremely time consuming.

Now you can check prices online, pick your airline, hotel, date, room, you name it. You can even tell this sites that you’re flexible on dates and they will offer your alternative pricing. Plus you can track certain packages and be notified when the price drops.

Super crazy competition. The consumer (or user) has the power… kind of.

So it was a big boom back then, but now not much has changed. While a lot of other online services keep getting better (interfaces, new social features, richer content) the travel booking sites got stuck.

The Travel industry is not the most forward thinking. This boom they had in the early 2000 (or late 90’s) was because of Expedia and all those crazy big guys who made the push. But it didn’t came from the travel industry, it came from the technology industry which found a hole there. The travel industry had to catch up.

Now no one seems to be interested in it anymore. It seems.

Forms are lengthy and annoying. Difficult to fill, no Ajax, no helpful hints or things to make your life easier. Forms are long and the process is tedious. Most of them have redundant fields (you get asked the same thing more than once). The search results themselves are nothing to call home about.

All this takes me to the most important stuff which is where this industry fails: customer service.

They are horrible! They can disguise their sites with bells and whistles, but that will never change. The whole travel industry is, and has always been, a mess. They have fees for every single extra feature you would like, and they will charge you for every single change you ask for after you booked something. They will never ever waive anything, and they lay the law as if they were God.

On top of that, travelling is uncomfortable, most flight attendants now a days are rude and airplane food (if you get any) sucks. So until you get to where you have to go, you won’t enjoy yourself. And sometimes, even when you get there, the reservation was wrong or you never got there in the first place because the flight was cancelled.

When any of these set-backs occur, the travel industry does the least possible, or worse, they get defensive.

How can you run a business treating people like that?

Well, you can’t. That’s why most Airlines and Carriers are almost broke and this industry is so fragile. They blame it on the economy, rising gas prices, etc… But the fact of the matter is that people only travel when they really need it because the “travel” process is not exactly a great experience.

Avatar Hurts

I haven’t seen it, but I have to say I can’t get past the Jar Jar Binks aliens. On top of that, everyone says there is no story, it’s just a special effects trip.

And the cost? Rumours claim it ranges from 300 mil to 500 mil (NY Times which seems to think story is original)!? But they did get their money back because they’re making a ton of money. You can’t get a sit in an Imax to watch it around here.

Anyway, the other day I watched The Hurt Locker. A tense war movie about an elite Army bomb squad. I been wanting to watch it for a while but I couldn’t watch it on the cinema because I can rarely go there with my crazy family life.

It all happens in Iraq, of course. If Iraq would get royalties on all the movies that get done over there lately, they’ll be rich (Although maybe they are rich over there already, with all the petrol they have. It’s just the money doesn’t get on the hands of the poor, I guess.). But back to the movie. The story is really well written with some new fresh awesome talent (except for some small cameos). It’s beautifully shot and well directed and It probably costs 1/100 of what Avatar did.

Funnily enough, while I was watching it I was thinking to myself what a guy’s movie it was.

And then I learnt it was directed by a woman. And not only a woman but Kathryn Bigalow, who’s James Cameron’s ex-wife (Yes, that’s why I was comparing these two. I know it makes no sense comparing War movies with Sci Fi). I have to say, I’ve watched a couple of movies from her before but I never saw anything this good.

On the other hand, James Cameron just spent some ridiculous amount of money on a movie which is, mostly, computer generated. And in a couple of years it will be remembered as some shitty movie with great special effects, just like Titanic.

And I tell you, I’m a fan of Terminator (1) and Aliens, but the more money this guy gets, the worse his movies are.

Even more interesting is that they’re both running for the Oscars. But it’s interesting that Cameron’s Avatar won Best Drama on the Golden Globes (USA today calls it a Sci-Fi soap opera) while Bigelow’s Hurt Locker won Best Film.

(She’s not only smarter, she’s also prettier than him).