Project OrielEmbracing Change

* If you have never seen the Gettysburg Address as PowerPoint, check out how wrong it can be. When you are done, read up on why design matters to knowledge workers: “Design is strategic, and impeccably designed systems, products, and services are really all that separate one organization from another these days. Quality alone is not enough – a lot of people have good quality, right? Instead, the overall DESIGN of the ‘thing’ must be so compelling that it serves as a key differentiator.” Garr also has a great section on presentation tips.

* Apparently the new iMac’s are some of the best machines suited for Vista: Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal says he tested it “using Vista’s built-in Windows Experience Index, a rating system that goes from 1 to 5.9, with scores above 3.0 generally required for full, quick performance. My iMac scored a 5.0, the best score of any consumer Vista machine I have tested.”

* For nerds in the group (intrigued by quantum physics?), you have likely heard about Schrödinger’s Cat. If so, then you’ll find humor in this picture. If you want to learn more, check out the book In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat. I read it 4 years ago, though I can’t say I remember much more than the basic theory.

* Heard of Six Degrees of Separation? How about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?

* “There are only three countries that do not use the metric system: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.”

* Thanks to Mike for Yolf – Yard Golf. Pick up your set here: http://www.amazon.com/Yolf-Indoor-Outdoor-Golf-Game/dp/B0000BYQC6

* Two new research papers are out: Better than one out of every 6 laptops sold are Apple (17.6%). http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/123150/laptops-help-apple-increase-pc-market-share.html

* Andersen now has a nifty online window designer. “WindowCentrics Wall Planner” See the article: http://www.builderonline.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=26&articleID=558330 or visit the site directly: http://www.andersenwindows.com/design

* A Wind farm in in the middle of the ocean by the UK. http://www.npower-renewables.com/northhoyle/ (last month 50% of our home electricity was from Excel’s “Wind Source” program … it cost only $2 extra to be green)

* A hide-a-bed that converts into a bunk bed. Nifty. http://unclutterer.com/archives/2007/08/redefining_the_sofabed.php

* “Eco-friendly reusable bags” http://www.reusablebags.com/ We’ve been making great use of our’s and have avoided using many plastic bags from target and the grocery store.

* International Comparison of teacher salaries: http://threestandarddeviationstotheleft.blogspot.com/2007/08/teacher-salaries-international.html

* Quote: “I wonder how different the world might look if the default ‘new meeting’ time in calendar programs were 10 minutes instead of 1 hour.” – Merlin Mann http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/statuses/218086812

* Driving directions at Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) now gives you rush-hour estimates on how long your drive will take. http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-long-will-it-take-at-rush-hour.html

* There are 46,871 miles of Interstate highways, and most use the font Highway Gothic for their road-side signs. Without changing the size of the signs the new Clearview font is readable at further distances than Highway Gothic: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html?ex=1344571200&en=86b63388e4ee637c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

* Historical approval ratings for Bush compiled by someone at the University of Minnesota

* This is old news, but if you don’t like telemarketers, place yourself on the national Do-Not-Call list: https://www.donotcall.gov/

* Smart Car’s have been in Europe for many years, and they are finally making it here next January. These cars are so small it makes the mini look like a station wagon. You can park three of them sideways in a normal parking spot. Cool. Apparently they are quite safe too: http://www.feldmannsmart.com/

* Quote: “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” — Lin Yutang http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang

The second half was not as interesting as the first half. As the author suggested, Law 1-3 were the most thought out, and the remaining ones were works in progress. It seemed a bit pompous overall to pass these things off as “laws”.

To varying degrees his Laws were not coming from the same perspective. Law’s 1-4 were phrased in a “If you do Law X, the thing will feel simple” where the other laws were more secondary in nature ie “A thing that feels simple will have Law x attributes”. Save for the first 3, they were attributes that surrounded simple things – not laws that governed the level of simplicity a thing might have. Additionally, he seemed to be flipping back and forth between why a simple thing may be loved (ie, why are there iPod fans) and what actually made it simple (ie, fewer buttons and a good navigation system). As a side note, I can’t stand acronyms which he used over and over.

The book reminded me of two quotes I’ve shared before:

• “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• “Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attributes of information.” – Edward R Tufte

It is FRIDAY today. Sorry for earlier day-of-the-week confusion that the SPECIAL caused on Tuesday!

* Mike recommended the Darwin Awards project. “Honoring those who improve the species… by accidentally removing themselves from it” http://www.darwinawards.com/

* For those that don’t know, Mike puts many miles on his bike every week (50-100?), so I’d like to nominate him as our team’s Cycle Hero: http://www.cyclehero.com/

* An essay on collecting and keeping stuff in your house: “What I didn’t understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn’t the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it.” http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html

* “Apple’s stock is on a tremendous roll; the company is now in the Fortune 100 and has a market cap of about $120 billion. For comparison, that’s almost four times greater than Yahoo’s, about twice Dell’s, $20 billion more than Oracle’s, roughly the same as HP’s, and only $40 billion behind Google’s. Even the mighty Microsoft’s cap, at $277 billion, is only a little more than double Apple’s. To put this in historical perspective, five years ago [...] Microsoft’s market cap was about 33 times greater than Apple’s – $210 billion to $6.3 billion.” http://daringfireball.net/2007/08/taking_stock

* Fitts’s Law: “The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.” See what this means for software design in QA form at http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html or try it yourself at http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~cs5724/g1/tap.html

* “ACCIDENT, n. An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable natural laws.” – Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce http://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/