January 2000

meg pointed out the story about the absurd diffference between Mattel’s Hot Wheels PC and the Barbie PC, Barbie PC: Fashion Over Logic. You would think after the “Math Class is Hard” bad press they would have learned, but they didn’t. Time to boycott Mattel. And they further infuriate me by slighting all the research…

On Regret: Counting Crows: “I have dreamed of a black car that shimmers and drives down the length of the evening, to the carnaval side. In a house where regret is a carnaval ride we are spinning and spinning and…” Sugar Ray: “We can go out on the weekend, cause the weekend is free. We…

Forecast for 1/26/2000: Wednesday…cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s Forecast for 1/27/2000: Thursday…cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s. The five day forecast for yesterday had the temp right but predicted partly cloudy when it was sunny. I…

Forecast for 1/25/2000: Tuesday…partly cloudy. Low 20 to 25. High around 30. On 1/16 they predicted today would be cloudy and in the 30s, but it’s sunny and between 16 and 24. Wrong. So far the count of the National Weather Service is 1 right and 1 wrong.

I thought I was using the word “table” wrong, in the idiomatic sense. But according to Merriam-Webster you can use it in roughly opposite meanings and still follow common usage: Idioms: on the table Up for discussion: “Two new proposals are on the table.” Postponed or put aside for consideration at a later date. So…

Trust and the perception of security – one of those articles that shouldn’t surprise us so much, but does because Internet professionals are so far removed from the typical user experience. Reinforces the reasoning behind user testing. This observation puzzled us. Discussions about security on internet seem preoccupied with technical issues such as 128-bit encryption,…

It’s time to compare forecast with reality. Reality (in NYC): High of 31, low of 23, and it snowed today (woohoo, first good snow of the season). So the forecast from 1/15 is darn close: “a chance of snow showers. Low around 20. High in the upper 20s.” But the forecast from 1/16 didn’t mention…

The Slate, a pretty cool Internet (web browsing) appliance. Ya know, for me, the Internet is not only about interacting with remote servers, it’s about interacting with the people on the other side of those servers. Mostly this means I want to send email and view attachments (like Word, Excel) on the computer I’m surfing…

Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss. Found via brig, it’s one of those things you have to keep in mind throughout life: One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.

Forecast for 1/24/2000: Monday…windy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High 25 to 30.

Stop reading this. Go do something nice for someone else. Still reading? I’ll assume you’ve plum run out of nice things to do for others and are ready to do something nice for yourself, like get a job at Razorfish. You can work with smart, talented people on broadcast, mobile, physical, and Internet stuff, travel…

Thoughts on my deliverable format: “First tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, then tell ’em, then tell ’em what you told ’em” – Teddy Roosevelt, I think. In general, not impressive. Doesn’t connect strategy with architecture. Doesn’t stand on it’s own, explaining what you’re seeing. Comes from lack of narrative and and lack…

Forecast for 1/23/2000: Sunday…cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the mid 30s.

Forecast for 1/22/2000: Saturday…partly cloudy. Low 15 to 20. High 25 to 30. Thursday’s high is now forecasted to be in the “mid 30s.” Basically an average of the estimates of 1/15 and 1/16. Three different forecasts for one particular day yielding 3 different estimates varying by about +/- 5 degrees.

Forecast for 1/21/2000: Friday…variable cloudiness. Low in the mid 30s. High in the mid 30s Whoa, it didn’t take long to see some major shifts. Yesterday they thought Thursday’s high would be in the upper 20s, now they’re saying “High around 40.”