Month: March 2004

I mentioned in Sam’s 3/28/04 update that Spencer and Nancy Stang, friends of ours from Graduate School, came to visit us last weekend and brought their 7 month old baby, Carson. We had a great time hanging out, grilling, and comparing babies, but to keep things from being too All American, we discussed the privatization of the health care industry and why people should be able to take experimental drugs until they die. From the drugs.

Anyhoo, here’s some pics:

It reminded me of the late nights in graduate school, except that we were holding babies instead of beers.

I mentioned a while back that I was giving the web browser Firefox a try as a replacement for Windows Internet Explorer. I’ve been using it ever since, but wasn’t really convinced it was better than IE until the other day when some of the guys at the Quarter to Three forums told me a few things that propelled Firefox to the top.

Two things were revealed about Firefox that instantly made my ‘net surfing much more enjoyable. First is the FlashClick plugin that doesn’t play flash ads unless you click on them. Second was instructions (in the thread) on how to have Firefox play an animated .gif file once and then stop. These two things, along with the built-in popup killer, make Foxfire far better than IE.

Heck, look at the screenshots below. On the left is GameSpy.com as seen through Internet Explorer. On the right is the same site through Firefox with the settings described above. Click through each to have a good look. Now, to complete the experience, imagine that the one on the left has advertisements that move, make sounds, and generally get on your nerves, while the one on the right does nothing of the sort.

Quite a difference, eh? I can now surf in peace again. (I don’t, by the way, mean to pick on my friends at GameSpy.com. It’s just that they’ve gone and made themselves one of the most illustrative examples I could find.)

Of course, this raises an ethical conundrum as well. By blocking the popup, flash, and animated .gif ads on the sites I visit, am I “stealing” their content? For that matter, is it wrong to use TiVo to fast forward through television commercials? Having been on the other side of the fence for no short period of time, I appreciate the fact that advertising pays the bills and allows sites to put up content that doesn’t cost me anything except some of my patience. So, do I feel bad about cheating the system in this way?

Answer: No, not really. Advertisers are the ones who pushed things too far by putting up crap that got so annoying that it drove me to actively seek out ways to get around it. I still see unobtrusive ads (banners, skyscraper ads, rectangular ads) and I can still view the Flash ads by clicking on them. And besides, they’re still getting “credit” for serving the obnoxious stuff to me –Foxfire is a client-side program that doesn’t nuke anything until it’s rendered (or not) on my end. And since I never clicked on any of the ads in the first place, things are no different than before I started blocking the ads. Except, of course, that I can actually enjoy these sites enough to visit them regularly.

Want to see an example of web advertising done really well? Check out the “Uniform” short feature on the American Express website, which features Jerry Seinfeld and Superman. I just watched a four minute commercial for American Express and at the end I wanted more!

So, if you think online advertising has gotten unbearable, give Firefox a try with the FlashClick plugin installed. If you don’t like it better, I’ll eat a bug.

If you get bitch slapped by Richard Simmons, can you really call yourself a man any more?

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Flamboyant fitness guru Richard Simmons was cited by authorities for allegedly slapping a man in an airport who was poking fun at his exercise videos, police said on Thursday.

…”He apparently said ‘Hey everybody, it’s Richard Simmons, let’s drop our bags and rock to the ’50s,”‘ said Sgt. Lauri Williams, a reference to a series of his well-known videos. “Mr. Simmons took offense and said he had to ‘bitch slap’ him.”

That guy is never going to live it down.

TiVo, I think, is the best product I’ve ever owned. I use it more than any luxury/entertainment product with the possible exception of my computer. This is true even though I really only use two of the little black box’s features regularly. I use it to record and pause shows so I can watch them at my leisure (stay up until 11:00 to watch the Daily Show? Nah. TiVo will get it.) and I use it to fast forward through commercials.

It’s this latter feature that has a lot of TV execs –and, honestly, the people at TiVo themselves– nervous. In a way, it’s like killing the obnoxious, tacky goose (Aflack!) that lay the golden TV-shaped egg. Despite that most people dislike it, advertising keeps television on the air. And if nobody is watching the ads thanks to TiVo or similar digital video recorders (DVRs), then something has to either adapt or die. Yay Darwinism.

Thankfully, there are people trying out new ideas. TiVo already has space in its system menus for advertisers to pitch products and sweepstakes, as well as slots in its “TiVo’s Showcase” recommendations areas that seem to be for sale. And according to this story they’re experimenting with something that lets viewers “click through” traditional ads to watch short (3 minutes or so) videos about a particular product that interests them. They then return to their show where they left off. Not interested in the product? Don’t click it and continue on with your life.

This is smart, I think, because it lets advertisers really get at people who identify themselves as interested in a particular kind of product. Neat as it is, though, I don’t think it alone will replace traditional TV ads. I could see clicking through to learn more about a new movie or what’s on sale this weekend at Sears, but I doubt anybody’s going to think “Wow, I’d really like to watch a 3-minute video about Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing.” I also think it would drive TiVo users away to competing services if they started popping up little icons during the shows.

Still, it’s one step in the right direction –away from an advertising model that’s been out of date for a couple of decades now.

In response to my discussion of iTunes and my new iPod, Christine mentioned that WalMart.com sells downloadable music for 88 cents per song. That sounded about 11 cents better than iTune’s 99 cents per song, so I checked it out.

Unfortunately they’ve decided to cripple the service by only allowing you to download in WMA format and putting horrendous limits on how you can use the music you buy. To quote from their FAQ:

What file format do Music Downloads come in?

Music Downloads from Walmart.com are 128-bit WMA files. The WMA format allows record companies to protect their music by using Digital Rights Management (DRM) encryption. This means that music downloads are legal, safe, and easy to use. The 128-bit WMA files also offer superior sound quality.

Will media players other than the Windows Media Player 9 play, burn and transfer WMA files?

Please consult the documentation that accompanies your non-Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 player to see if it supports music files encrypted by DRM. Although other media players may be able to play music you download from Walmart.com, we only verify that the music you download from Walmart.com will play using Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 9 (or higher).

Can I transfer the music I download to a portable player?

Yes, you can as long as the player is able to play WMA files (note: iPods currently DO NOT play WMA files).

So, for your money you get a song that they will only promise you can play on your computer and only using one (dreadfully clunky) media player. Hmmm.. Pass.

Does anyone really expect this kind of thing to present a viable option to “free”? Are people really buying this stuff?

I wrote yesterday about my experience buying an iPod from the Apple Store. If you haven’t already, go read it now, because it kind of sets the tone for this update. I’ll wait for you here.

Done? Good. As promised, I thought I’d write a bit about my foray into the Apple orchard now that I’ve had a few days to play with the iPod. Let me just say without further preamble that I friggin’ love this thing. LOVE IT. It’s now on my list of “Best Products Ever”, which goes like this:

1. TiVo
2. The George Foreman Grill
3. Apple iPod

Samantha seems to love it, too:

I know that I paid a lot more than products that do the same things (or more), but there’s definitely something to be said about the iPod’s smooth design and user interface. I’d be a big fat liar if I didn’t admit that was part of the appeal. All the other high-capacity audio players look like ham-fisted neanderthals next to the iPod’s sleek, Miss Universe good looks. Nobody else has gotten it this right, and in the end it’s worth a few bucks¹.

Heck, even the packaging is cool. Besides the swank shopping bag/backpack the Apple Store gave me, the iPod comes in an intricate cardboard cube that unfolds into smaller cubes like a new age matryoshka doll. Inside everything is wrapped in clean smelling plastic and snugly fit into styrofoam hollows. Apple definitely knows how to do presentation.

Once you get the thing out of its styrofoam and plastic womb, it’s really easy to use, too. Like anyone else with thumbs, I especially like the scroll wheel that lets you move the cursor through lists and menus just by running your finger over it in tiny circles. It’s the kind of thing that I just keep doing for the novelty of it. I don’t need to do this much scrolling, but it’s fun, damnit! Wheee! Clickity clickity click!

In fact, the only interface complaint I have is that if text is too long it gets truncated to the point of incomprehensibility while you’re browsing through menus. It should side-scroll when highlighted so that “The Best of Metallica” and “The Best of Miles Davis” don’t both show up as just “The Best of M…”.

And of course, it’s amazingly cool to be able to carry every CD I own with me and play them at any time. So far I’ve ripped about 400 songs from my collection, plus a 15-CD audiobook (I got this thing in no small part for its ability to hold entire audiobooks) and I’ve only used a fraction of its capacity. This level of “load and forget” convenience is probably the best reason to get this kind of product.

Now, iTunes I’m less happy with. This is the music management/shopping program that comes with the iPod, and is the program Apple practically forces you to use. For many things, it’s pretty powerful. It will organize your tunes by genre, album, artist, etc. It will rip CDs for you. It will let you buy digital music. It will transfer music from your computer to your iPod. It does all this moderately well, though I must point out that the user’s manual and online documentation are pathetic, requiring you to dig deep through the help files and resort to trial and error like a lab rat trying to get a treat in some incomprehensible experiment.

iTunes also has an online music store that would be awesome if it weren’t for the crippling fact that you can’t save your purchases ($.99 per song) to .mp3 format, so you can only play them in iTunes or on the iPod. I’ve ranted about this before, and my comments still stand despite the fact that I’ve bought maybe half a dozen songs. To Apple’s credit, their selection is fantastic and it’s perilously easy to shop for, buy, and download music from them.

The iTunes program also suffers from being a round peg crammed into a square hole. Or in this case, a square Window. Not only is it as slow as spit (10-second pauses are common when I try to do certain things), it ignores many Windows navigation and user interface conventions, and it’s ugly. Todd and Joost have recommended Anapod Explorer as an alternative to iTunes, and it looks impressive. I’ll probably check it out.

So in summary, I love my iPod but I only like iTunes. The iPod isn’t perfect, but my only substantial complaints are having to use iTunes (which can actually be replaced), its lack of accessories (I already discussed the nickle-and-dime routine to sell me things that should have come with something at this price), and its relatively short battery life (8 hours is barely long enough for me to use it throughout the day at work). Still, I love it and it has definitely changed the way I listen to music and audiobooks. Thumbs up!

¹Not that I’m now sold on buying an Apple computer, since they have such an anemic software library –particularly games. If the iPod only played 20% of the music I like, I wouldn’t have bought it, either.

My current employer has an awesome annual bonus program, and I did well this year. To celebrate, I decided to spend part of it on an overpriced toy, preferably something with blinking lights and the ability to annihilate any money that comes close to it. The gadget I decided on was the Apple iPod, an impressively expensive, hard drive based, portable music player. Take that Samantha’s college fund! Here’s a picture (for reference, it’s about the same dimensions as a deck of cards):

I considered going with one of the many competing high capacity mp3 players, since they tend to be either cheaper or offer more capacity for the same price. But God help me, I wasn’t just shopping for just an mp3 player, I was shopping for a gadget. Something I could admire and subtly place in conspicuous places where other people could admire it and know how hip I had become. I wanted style in a little blinking box, and it didn’t hurt that the iPod is the most highly rated “big enough to carry your whole Library of Congress” player out there. Basically, I figured that if I’m going to blow a few hundred dollars I might as well boot rationality out of the driver’s seat and get the one I really want. So I last Sunday I headed for the Apple Store at the local mall.

In fact, shopping at the Apple Store was such an experience that I must comment on it first. Again, I could have bought the iPod online or slugged through a filthy place like Best Buy with the rest of humanity, but like millions of Japanese people, I secretly relished the chance to really shop at the Apple Store instead of look at things while feeling like I wasn’t cool enough to be there. Coincidentally, the guys at Penny Arcade posted a comic a few days before that turned out to be pretty representative of my experience.

When I got there I crept into the gleaming Apple Store, smudging the frosted glass doors as I pushed them open. Inside I found pure style, packaged and neatly arranged on shelves and little kiosks that looked like they belonged in a museum of modern art –not a beige box in sight. The floors were hardwood, the lighting was recessed, and in the back of the store a hip youngster on a a massive monitor glibly informed shoppers about the wonders of using Apple products. The subtext was that if you didn’t use Apple products, you had herpes. Everything in the store looked like it had been wiped down with those little wet napkins they give you when you order ribs at finer restaurants. I think it even smelled clean.

I spent a few minutes looking at iPods kiosk again, because going straight up to the counter and demanding one would look too needy. After a moment, I got the attention of a store employee. She was a young woman wearing kakhi pants and sporting a frisky haircut that leaned towards hipness, but didn’t blunder so far into it that you wouldn’t trust her with your hundreds of not-very-hard-earned dollars.

“Hi,” I said. “I’d like one of the iPods.”

Her mouth smiled. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed that her eyes didn’t join in. Maybe I looked like I had just come from Target. “Sure,” she said. “Which one?”

“The 15 gig one.”

“Oh.” Her eyes definitely weren’t smiling. Apparently I’d be much trendier if I spent $200 more dollars on the larger capacity versions, but rationality was still managing to yammer at me even in its temporary role as a back seat driver. I was reasonably sure I didn’t need to pay for enough hard drive space to store two copies of every song ever made.

She gestured towards a wall full of sanitary-looking products. “Let me show you the accessories.” I didn’t like where this was going, but I acquiessed. I didn’t want to look too stingy or –heaven forbid– unhip.

“The 15 gig model doesn’t come with a docking station, belt clip, or USB cable,” she said, pointing to each product as she said it. “But the 20 gig version does. So are you sure you don’t want that one?”

I tallied up the additional costs in my head. They came to about $75, but something occured to me. “Do I need all those things?”

She blinked, and now her smile was fading a bit. “Well, no…” She seemed to think of something and brightened. “Unless… Do you have USB or Firewire on your computer?”

“Ah, USB.”

“No Firewire connection?”

“Not a single one.”

“Then,” she said, beginning to scan the perfectly neat shelf space, “You’ll need to buy either the USB cable or a Firewire card for your computer.”

Actually, picking up a Firewire card was something I’d been wanting to do anyway. I needed it for transferring movies from my camcorder to my computer for editing. “Hmmm. How much do you sell the Firewire card for?”

“Those are sixty-five dollars,” she said, reaching for one, presumably in preparation to thrust it into my face.

At this point, rationality leaned over the back of the driver’s seat and grabbed the wheel. “What?” I snorted without thinking about it. “I can get one for cheaper than that at Best Buy.”

By her reaction you’d think I had just said I liked to eat babies. With ketchup and a fork. At any rate, smile time was over. Apparently the folks at the Apple Store aren’t used to customers putting limits on Apple’s uncanny ability to get you to overpay for sexy products that do the same damn thing as cheaper ones you can get elsewhere. Overpaying for the iPod was one thing, but I wasn’t going to overpay for a Firewire card or USB cable no matter what fruitylicious color it came in. That and the whole nickle-and-dime routine had really begun to annoy me. I’m paying $300 for a mp3 player and they have the apples to try and charge me $20 for a cable that the vast majority of PC owners are going to need? Forget that and your trendy haircut, lady.

The saleswoman may have sensed that rationality was fighting its way back to the forefront, because she stopped trying to foist overpriced accessories off on me and just rang me up (though I did indulge myself with a nice leather belt clip/holster). Despite my unwillingness to choke on the typical Apple force feeding, my sense of coolness finally snapped into place when she handed me the bag.

It was, without a doubt, the sexiest shopping bag I had ever held. It had the stylish Apple logo on it, plus clever drawstring ropes that turned it into kind of a disposable backpack. And it smelled like rubbing alcohol for some reason. Heck, that bag was almost worth $300 by itself. Drunk on the coolness of the bag and my new purchase, I strode out of the Apple Store and spent the next hour in Nordstrom’s pretending to look at $45 tee-shirts, then sullied myself at Best Buy to pick up a $39 Firewire card.

Next time: My impressions of the iPod and iTunes once I got the damn thing out of the box used it.

If I were to start a band, I’d call it “Pavlov’s Dog.”

Our first album would be entitled “Life Outside the Uterus.” Or possibly “Nipple Confusion.”

That’s all.

You learned reading comprehension in school, right? If you went to college, you were most likely tested on it before they let you in. You have to be able to read a passage of text and tell what it means. Analyze it. And if you were taught well, you’ll understand why the author used one phrase instead of another, or chose to omit some pieces of information and include others.

Why don’t we do this with video, like television and movies? What about still images like advertisements or photographs? It’s 2004, for crying out loud, so why don’t we formally teach our kids how to be savvy and intelligent consumers of all kinds of media?

Some policy makers in Georgia have the right idea and want to add this kind of thing to the required curriculum. To make with the quoting:

Vanessa Melius of C-SPAN had just explained to Bridget and her peers at Crews Middle School in Lawrenceville how different shots of political candidates can manipulate viewers’ feelings.

Shooting a candidate from below can make him look tall, powerful, like a leader, Melius said. Shooting from above can make the politician look short, unimportant, inconsequential.

“I never thought about that before,” Bridget said… “They have a lot more power than I thought.”

…

As early as next year, sixth-graders throughout the state could be expected to identify propaganda in television commercials or explain the appeal of a popular television show like “American Idol.” Eighth-graders may be asked to interpret how news photographers influence people’s opinions, and high school sophomores might be expected to analyze NBC’s coverage of the Iraq war vs. that of Fox News.

Now that someone mentions it, I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE NOT DOING THIS. I’m not talking about teaching cynicism (though we could all do with some of that, in conjunction with a curious and open mind). And I’m not talking about an elective course in college. This should be done in grade school and high school. People –especially kids– should learn to recognize propaganda when they see it. They should understand the tricks advertisers use to influence them. They should learn to realize when they’re being misled and when they’re being given honest answers. And the fist book this class should assign is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

Forget being able to recite the names of all the past U.S. presidents. I want my kid to know when the current one is feeding her a line during the State of the Union address.

The baby parade continues, with the Lorenzo Thomas Evans as the latest participant. Lorenzo was born on Sunday February 29th to Kevin “Earl” Evans and his wife Marina. Kevin and I are fraternity brothers who went to University of Tulsa together. He was also the best man in my wedding. Here’s a picture of Lorenzo for you “ooh’ing” and “aah’ing” needs:

It’s nice to have a picture of a different baby on this site every now and again. Congratulations to Kevin and Marina!