My 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette – For Sale!?!

February 9th, 2010 | Categories Gear

corvette and b52 250x185 My 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette For Sale!?!About eight years ago I bought a “dream car,” a 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette.

I have admired Corvettes since 1973 from watching Bill Bixby in a show called The Magician. He played a mystery-solving magi who lived on the top floor of the Hollywood Magic Castle. He would drive his white Corvette up a ramp to park in the back of his private 747. Gas was cheaper then.

Corvettes were well out of my price range in the ’80s. But I found that if you let them age for 20 years, they become quite affordable.

My ‘82 Vette has been a fun car. It was once written up in Corvette Magazine, and I even built a little tribute web site for it. But it’s really about time I drove something built in the 21st century. I posted the Vette on CraigsList a few weeks ago.

IMG 0917 1023x379 My 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette For Sale!?!

My daughter was 5 years old when I bought the Vette. She loved playing with her dolls in the rear compartment when it was parked in the driveway. Here is a photo from the day I brought the car home:
haley vette 2002 500wide My 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette For Sale!?!


Eight years later, on the eve of selling the car, I parked in approximately the same place, and crammed her into rear compartment to take another photo.

IMG 1996 1024x768 My 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette For Sale!?!

The 1982 Collector Edition Corvette is a unique vehicle. A special multicolored design called “Silver/Beige” incorporated decal graphics, multiple pin stripes, and custom interior leather, and the first ever Corvette hatchback. Chevrolet only made 6,759 of this special edition. Mine even has an 8-track tape rack in the glove box. Groovy.

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Flash Fight – h.264 Free for Five More Years

February 4th, 2010 | Categories Multimedia

bluelego Flash Fight h.264 Free for Five More YearsThe MPEG Licensing Authority (MPEG LA) announced yesterday that it would extend the royalty-free period for use of H.264 for free streaming video through 2015.

This is just the latest punch in the fight for online video codec ubiquity. Last month both YouTube and Vimeo posted beta tests of their HTML5/h.264 offerings.

Last week Steve Jobs flaunted his Flash-less device around the Yorba Linda stage. Blue lego after blue lego paraded across the shiny iPad screen, as Apple took another not-so-subtle shot across the bow of their ex-BFF; Adobe.

There are over 30-million Flash-free iPhones around the world. Even with a few million more high profile Apple devices about to hit the street, the rumors of impending death to Flash are greatly exaggerated.

The extension of free h.264 licensing did not impress the open source community. John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, tweeted this prophetic warning regarding the announcement; “It’s good they did it, but they sort of had to. But it’s like 5 more years of free to lock you in 4ever.”

This should be an interesting year for fans of video streaming codec legalities (all 12 of you.)

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Does the iPad fill a much-needed gap?

February 1st, 2010 | Categories Featured, Multimedia, Netbooks, The Apple Netbook

gaplogo 250x250 Does the iPad fill a much needed gap?With Apples reveal of the long-rumored iPad touch tablet, tech pundits and mainstream press alike shift from predictions to post-announcement reaction. Skepticism abounds regarding the need for this “third category” device.

The iPad is a perfect solution to an unknown problem. It is likely to spark the next revolution in personal computing and user interface. But it could just as easily turn out to be summarized by Moses Hadas’ famous phrase; “It fills a much needed gap.”

Tablet computers have been around for years, but have mostly been repackaged versions of the existing Microsoft Windows user experience. All have failed to capture the mass interest or imagination of the public in general. Apple’s approach brings fresh thought to the space by defining the use (some might say dictating), and refining the user experience.

Apple has a history of success in taking over existing markets with innovation in these areas. The iPod captured virtually the entire portable music player industry from successful predecessors, none of whom names come to mind. The iPhone brought smart phones to a wide consumer audience that had no interest in the devices … until they did.

Creating a new industry from scratch is another order of magnitude in difficulty and expense. But history shows that innovations in User Experience Design (UX) can open new markets, as well as create them.

John Dessauer struggled for years to build a working prototype of his plain paper copier. Without funds to manufacture and market the device, in 1956 he took it to IBM. But rather than build units or user test the never-before-seen product, they commissioned an 18-month viability study. The study conclusively proved that there was no market for a plain paper copier.

mimeograph 120x300 Does the iPad fill a much needed gap?

Two main issues; there was no volume market for copies, and the mimeograph process, which the study chose for comparison, was 10 times less expensive.

Mimeograph copies required the user to first “cut a stencil.” Waxed paper mounted on stiff cardboard was inserted into a with a ribbon-less typewriter. Forceful typing created the stencil holes. The resulting stencil would be affixed to an ink-filled drum which was hand cranked to turn out fuzzy purple copies; a process that Gutenberg himself would have found familiar.

Long story short: Dessaur and Chester Carlson, the inventor of electrostatic photography later called xerography, founded their own company. Changing the user experience of inexpensive printing from an ink-stained hand-cranking to push button simplicity sparked a multi-billion dollar industry.

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User Experience – Invent, Test, Repeat

January 31st, 2010 | Categories Multimedia

As User Experience Design (UX) continues to mature into the twenty-first century, the practice evolves from guessing game to repeatable process. Many practitioners have histroically approached UX as an exercise in clairvoyance; pseudo-psychically connecting to unknown masses of users and predicting their future actions.

Several factors play into this choice of process; from time, budget, and resource limitations to designer arrogance or even corporate risk aversion. Alan Kay, one of the fathers of graphic user interface, illustrates the necessity of risk in this story from his days at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) research.

I remember in the early days of PARC–during one of the many visits by Xerox executives–when I had just come up with the idea of overlapping windows. We had implemented a test version of it, and I showed this to the executive who was there that day. I wound up the demonstration saying, “What’s even better is that this idea only has a 20 percent chance of success; we’re taking risks just like you asked us to.” And the executive looked me right in the eye, and said, “Boy, that’s great, but just make sure it works.”

Kay famously said; “…the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” The researchers at PARC however never lost sight of user experience design as a proactive and reactive practice; proactive in predictions while reactive to user testing.

Steve Krug is one of the leading thinkers in usability testing. Through his consulting firm, Advanced Common Sense (which he refers to as a “fictional, one-person DBA company”), his books, website and public speaking, he evangelizes the need for user interface testing.

Steve’s excellent first book, Don’t Make Me Think, revealed “everything I know about Web usability.” His second, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is a how to guide DIY testing. A usability testing expert teaches how to avoid hiring a usability testing expert. The video clip below explains why he chooses this anti-sales approach and demonstrates much of the testing process.

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Digital Beatles to ship in ugly physical package.

November 4th, 2009 | Categories Gear, Musicians

beatles2 Digital Beatles to ship in ugly physical package.The digital release was inevitable. The only remaining question was distribution; Apple, Amazon, EMI web site, or some new online upstart. Who would have guessed that the initial digital release of the Beatles catalog would arrive on physical media; a bulbous green USB memory stick that is as ugly as it is useless.

So the music gets put in silicon, the silicon into metal, the metal into plastic, plastic into boxes, boxes into trucks. The trucks are driven to giant brick and mortar buildings, then more trucks take them to smaller brick buildings. So thanks a bunch EMI. We would have loved to welcome you to the 21st century by cleanly zapping Beatle bits from there to here, but instead you hand us music with a carbon footprint as large as the device we use to listen.

beatles1 250x90 Digital Beatles to ship in ugly physical package.Can this even be considered a true digital release? Technically yes, but it’s delivered in a physical enclosure, just like a CD and we already have those.

I have always been perplexed at the hubbub surrounding the eventual digital release of the Beatles catalog. Most fans have the material on CD and many have vinyl (I have both) and have already ripped them to various iDevices. Digital distribution would only bring a new level of purchasing convenience to those filling out their catalog or newly discovering the band … or so we thought.

Anyway, look for this sickly shiny green apple at a grocer near you on December 7, 2009 (Dec 8 in the states.) You know, this probably would have played out very differently, and year ago, had Steve Jobs just come up with a different name for his computer company.

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Apple’s Magic Mouse – Elegant, Functional, Unusable

November 1st, 2009 | Categories Multimedia, Reviews

apple magic mouse small 250x103 Apples Magic Mouse Elegant, Functional, Unusable

It would be all too easy to sprinkle prestidigitation metaphors throughout an article on Apple’s new Magic Mouse. References to “disappearing” buttons, “amazing” design are obvious. So lets get straight to the point, clear and simple. Apple has created a mouse so perfect that it is unusable. Ok, so much for clarity.

This may be Apple’s most elegant current product. The compound curves of plastic, aluminum and space converge at each edge with a beauty and precision unparalleled in consumer electronic devices. The technology of touch is integrated is a uniquely usable fashion. All pre-purchase doubts about a touchpad mouse dissolved within minutes of use. Scrolling, swiping and sliding quickly become second nature. The low-profile is challenging at first, and require some getting-used-to time. The utility this mouse provides would make it worth the effort, if not for one fatal flaw.

mice 250x187 Apples Magic Mouse Elegant, Functional, UnusableThe Magic Mouse places it’s optical sensor in an unusual place. In use, it falls right under the fingertips. Logically this would seem to be the ideal spot for a device used for pointing. This location was never possible with rubber ball mice. The size of the track ball required the point of control to fall deeper in the palm. When optical mice swept through the industry replacing ball mice, they simply mimicked the same positioning.

The control point of my current mouse (Macally IceMouse) is right under my first knuckle. The Magic Mouse moves that point more than an inch further from the palm. This small shift is enough to completely change every gesture my muscle memory has been imbedding for the last two decades. In particular, side-to-side motions, fulcrumed from the wrist, are magnified dramatically and would require relearning as much slighter motions.

Perhaps a secondary preference control could allow a separate tracking setting for smaller side motions. Until then, the retraining required for using the Magic Mouse would be comparable to relearning to draw left-handed.

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World’s Coolest Mixer, The Korg ZERO 8 – Discontinued!

October 8th, 2009 | Categories Gear

zero8 pers 250x183 Worlds Coolest Mixer, The Korg ZERO 8 Discontinued!I had been vacillating for weeks on replacing my aging Mackie 1202VLC mixer. The headphone jack died months ago, and several channels need periodic jiggling to make connection. When I ran across the Korg ZERO 8, it seemed to have everything one would want in a mixer, and so much more. Between the time I placed my order at Musicians Friend and the expected ship date, Korg killed the product line.

What a shame. This was an amazing piece of gear; 8 stereo channels, Firewire I/O, effects, a touch screen that doubles as a Kaoss Pad, lots of knobs, slider, and “blinken lights.” The ZERO consistently receive rave reviews. Why would Korg kill this dream machine, less than 2-years after its release? It could be any of many reasons. Here are two.

Price. All this digital power does not come cheap. With a list price of $2,450 it’s difficult to understand to whom this unit was targeted. The street price apparently quickly dropped and was currently hovering around $1,000. A few weeks ago, some retailers started clearing these out for about $850. That’s when I made my purchase.

Sound. While many ZERO 8 owners were quite happy with the sound quality, a small but vocal group of users groused about their units being crazy noisy for a fully digital mixer. Several months of no response from Korg only made this community louder and angrier. When a response finally came down from Korg many of these users took it as a denial of the issue. You can read all about it on the Korg Forum. I don’t have an opinion on this subject, but I was looking forward to forming one upon receiving my ZERO.

Which will now never arrive. So farewell ZERO 8. We hardly knew you. Does anyone have any recommendations for an alternative? My Mackie is ready for retirement.

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