obso1337.org

Client deliverables for end of project, HIG profiles and personas, three days of user testing, Justin’s birthday, HIG architecture and meta data, KDE4 Core in Norway, a wedding, finalizing HIG guidelines to submit for community review, various new contracts we are fleshing out at work, three publications I want to submit to, start of summer classes at UMCP, HOPE conference in NYC, preparation for a research study, visiting Morgan in Boston, start of fall semester at UBalt…

… and that’s only the next two months

seele :: Jun.27.2006 :: Asides :: Comments Off

Yesterday I finished Isaac Asimov’s Robot Dreams, a collection of his short stories from the 1940’s to 1980’s. Interestingly, they republished “The Little Lost Robot” which is already a part of I, Robot. Not that I’m complaining, the U.S. Robotics stories are probably my favorite shorts from Asimov. Also included was the title story “Robot Dreams” which was previously never published (most of Asimov’s shorts were published in SF magazines). Susan Calvin is my hero.

seele :: Jun.20.2006 :: Asides, Books :: Comments Off

The world is full of good and bad design. For the sake of humanity, I hope most of it is good however sometimes the bad ones tend to stick out a little more. It is relatively easy to pick out the bad designs but today I want to highlight one I think is pretty clever.

Printers, copy machines, and faxes are common appliances in the home or office. They are notorious for being difficult to troubleshoot (a la Office Space). Some manufacturers provide software to help provide useful feedback and help diagnose problems — but that is assuming a lot about the user and his/her environment. Most home printers today are connected via USB and ultimately detected via Plug ‘n Play (if in Windows) and are automagically installed. The vendor software may or may not be installed. If it is, then the user enjoys 3rd party software competing with the operating system’s own handling of the devices. Regardless, they have useful information about their printer available such as improved queue management, fine tuning, and ink level information.

But what if they don’t install it?

Justin’s printer has been running low on ink for a while. Well, let me correct that — the low ink indicator light has been off and on for a while. The printer is a basic home model which prints decent pictures and a few pages of plain text a minute. Color and Black ink cartridges are separate and both are expensive.

Neither of us have anything to print which demands great quality except for the occasional picture, so we are OK with letting the ink run dry before it gets replaced. However our printing habits are not consistent, and we have no idea if both or only one cartridge is low and which color that might be. The vendor software isn’t installed on Justin’s computer so there is no way for us to know what the ink status may be other than ‘low’.

Or is there?

Today the subject of printer ink came up in conversation between myself and Justin, and we wondered which color might be low. We both knew he didn’t have the vendor software installed on his computer which would normally give this kind of information. We went through an anthropological analysis of our printing habits to try and determine which could be low. Finally, he asked “Did you look on the printer?”. Look on the printer? As in it will tell me what is low? I have been using the printer for quite some time, and it is a pretty simple model. As far as I knew, there were no lights or indicators on the cartridges themselves. What was I supposed to do — take them out and shake them?

I heeded Justin’s advice and took a better look at the inside of the printer. When I opened up the hood, the cartridge slid from its resting place in to a position near the center of the printer. I inspected the ink cartridges and lo and behold, there was a little yellow arrow pointing up. I looked up and I noticed the arrow was pointing at a graphic shape imprinted in the case of the printer. It was pointing at an image which depicted the state of the ink cartridge.

Oh my gosh, how freaking cool. There were five pictures separated in to three groups: the left two images were empty color and black cartridges; the center two images were low color and black cartridges; and the right most image was a happy smiling (and full of ink) cartridge. I don’t know how it would do combinations such as one low, one empty, or both empty, but Justin’s printer can tell me how much ink is left in either cartridge, which is a hella lot more useful than an ambiguous indicator light. The best part is that there are no software or operating system requirements, it works regardless.

In a way, it feels silly to be making such a big deal about the design of such a small piece of information. But in all seriousness, how cool is that? These small design considerations are worth so much more to the user experience than crazy features and other whiz bang functionality. This example reminds me how excited El got in Málaga when she saw the little crosswalk dude start running as the time ran out ^_^

seele :: Jun.19.2006 :: Design, General :: 2 Comments »

I got this off the Planet HCI wire:

Code like a girl is a humorous observation of people obsessed with beautiful code in response to Jamis Buck’s Beautiful code, test-first post. The author “stereotypes with abandon”, however is extremely funny and somewhat true (as most stereotypes are of extreme situations).

I had no problem thinking about my friends and how they code and who was very feminine in their approach to code. Many of them are very particular about their code, making it as semantic, usable, and understandable by a second set of eyes as possible. I imagine this is from their experiences of working in a team environment — however I also know plenty of developers who must write code readable/usable by others who fail miserably.

How do you code? I’m definitely a girl, I pay a lot of attention to semantics, comment format, and indentation. It helps others read my code, but also myself when I reference it in the future. If this were applied to any other aspect of my life, I’d be a guy — I’m incredibly messy and unorganized without my computer :)

seele :: Jun.15.2006 :: General, Humor :: 5 Comments »

Its been a long while since I read a book for recreation. This weekend I read “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich, the story of one of the MIT blackjack teams who took Vegas for all its worth in the 1990s. It was a pretty light read for my standards, but entertaining nonetheless. If you are interested in blackjack, Vegas, or just really smart people who take advantage of the system, you would probably like this book.

I’m disappointed how few books I have read so far this year. Last year I did very well, the long Metro rides to FEMA allowed plenty of “me” time with books and SuDoKu puzzles. Lately I feel like I always have to be doing something productive: working, reading research papers, KDE, homework, grinding rep and honour for an epic mount (don’t ask if you don’t know). Having that hour and half of me time every day was nice, even if I had to get up at the crack of dawn for work. I just need to find some kind of break in the day for “me” again. People have suggested going to the local coffee shop to have a break and read a few chapters. Besides the few (more than two chances) bad experiences with a poor product, its not really a scene I could relax in.

Which gets me to thinking… we really need better coffee shops than Starbucks or Caribou Coffee. What ever happened to private establishments? The 61c back in Pittsburgh always seemed to do well, however it was in a more grass-roots area of town in which people were proactive towards supporting local business. Tryst here in D.C. sustains itself enough for seemingly impossible rent, however I suspect its profits are more from food and alcohol than coffee and tea.

Why don’t I like [Insert Chain Coffee Shop]? You mean other than its commercialized appearance and pseudo-pretentious crowd drinking some trademarked concoction of sugar and cream with a dash of coffee? For starters, the coffee itself isn’t anything to write home about, and the price makes it even harder to swallow. Many places have streamlined production in such a way that many of the popular flavor combinations have been reduced to a syrup or a powder, rather than making it from scratch. It is extremely frustrating to see them make a [flavor combination] chai by dumping brownish colored powder mix in to steaming soy milk. Does no one brew/steep tea anymore?

When I think of a coffee shop, I think of the 61c Cafe in Pittsburgh. I want to see a wall of beans, a grinder, and an actual espresso machine. I want to see tins of loose tea, not commercialized tea bags I could buy in the store for a fraction of the price. I want to get water that is the appropriate temperature to steep my tea in or a latte with froth on it. I want to see people sitting at tables enjoying their beverage, not a zoo of people lined out the door to get over-priced coffee which is going to get cold on their way to work.

I haven’t been much of a coffee drinking since college, mostly because I’m particular about my foods and there are no good coffee shops where I live. I don’t make it at home because I don’t have the equipment and Justin doesn’t drink much coffee . Mostly its laziness, but most importantly its because I can’t make as good of coffee as I would like to enjoy. We eat out often, and usually I’ll get coffee when were out and I know its good.

In essence, I think I am projecting my dislike for commercialized coffee shops as a way to express my frustration for the lack of support of smaller businesses. Too often you see mom-and-pop shops move out for larger, sterile corporations. Cookie-cutter planned urban communities (such as the one I live in) have the chance to provide a supportive environment for private establishments. Instead they fill the streets with the same things you see in the next neighborhood over, providing convenience and hurting the local economy.

seele :: Jun.12.2006 :: Books, General :: 3 Comments »