tomorrow?

Anyone out there remember Annie? It was set in the depression and Daddy Warbucks was one of the richest men in the world. This billionaire was naturally a Republican and the president FDR was a Democrat. My point is this, while they had very different views on just about everything they agreed on one thing.

'The sun will come out tomorrow"

when FDR says "republicans to Oliver, sing' and Daddy Warbucks sang along. He didn't go on the radio and cry about his party being out of power. He didn't act like he had all the answers, even thought apparently none of these answers where available for the prior 8 years. He didn't say I want your policies to fail. I wasn't a big fan of George W but I never wished he would fail, I just really wanted him to change his idiotic and evil ways. All in together now.

Okay I will actually post something on design but the politics of the day have got me swirling. I had to get it off my chest.

design thinks of us yet we don't think...

I often occurs to me that for the most part people don't really think about design. This usually occurs to me daily as I marvel at the built environment that is New York City. This revelation would hold true for most large cities and some even more so than NYC, but the stunning realization that EVERYTHING around you in the city is man-made (or woman-made).

I mean think about it. Everything around you, everything that you walk on, walk by and gaze upon with the possible exception of the sky a few large bodies of water has been designed by human hands. In NYC even the trees are designed. Not to say that anyone can make a tree, but every tree in NYC is there because it was either planted or consciously allowed to live and meticulously pruned at least once a year. Much of the land by the rivers of Manhattan have been artificially increase adding earth and sand to the shoreline.

The reason I'm sharing this daily epiphany is that people really don't think about design enough. I don't just mean the client that says to make it 'cool' or 'hip', but the designer that made any of the hundred of car models that are just plain uncomfortable to sit in. The rat fink bastards responsible for the thousands of mobile phones that are all different in how they do the same damn things. WHY should I have to relearn a new phone that does the same thing as the other phone. Digital cameras, alarm clocks, universal remote controls and web sites.

When something is well designed we truly have the luxury of NOT thinking about it. We can just make a phone call, set our morning alarm, take a photograph or turn on your turn on your telly.

modern design geek signing off...

Hobo Camp

Okay this has little or nothing to do with design or tech but it is kind of modern. Watching Kit Kittredge and I'm thinking about Hobos. Yeah I know strange, but dig this. Hobos were essentially homeless people but they were mobile. Being able to move around, go to another town and find work, living out in the woods by the river.

Well nowadays you can't really jump on a fright train so much and hitchhiking is pretty much out with interstate highways and off ramps. Living off the land by the river well that could be problematic as there isn't a whole lot of uninhabited land hanging around. And taking a drink from the lake might be the same as sipping sewage from a drain pipe.

Well the world is getting smaller and better connected. These are good things but it makes it really difficult to stop a disease or hmmm, I dunno, say a financial melt down.

Well better living through design I say. If we must live in a shelter or lean to let's make it the best darn lean to around.






modern design geek signing off..

new iPhone rocks, kinda...

Well alright, day four with my iPhone 3G and well I've got to say it is really fresh in many ways. It's still ugly but these ugly things allow it to be so darn functional. The body bulges out more in the middle, allowing for more CPU guts and hardware tings. The reason I hate it so much design wise is that it is no longer a rectangular prism, slab kinda of thing but more like any other phone. Oh course this is only on the outside.

I LOVE the reception on the new iPhone because it is much better than the old model. With my iPhone 1.0 I really couldn't get a signal in my house at all, except if I ran over to the window in the backyard. With the 3G iPhone I get a decent signal anywhere in my house. I HATE the plastic backing but I LOVE that the plastic backing gives a better signal.

I HATE that the battery life is worse than the 1.0 iPhone, I would assume this is because of the 3G thing. It does seem a tad bit faster but honestly I can't really tell that is is much faster.

I HATE that the 3G iPhone will not charge with my car charger. I HATE that the 3G iPhone won't fit into my boom box speaker system, because it is wider and fatter than the 1.0.

I LOVE the speakers on the 3G iPhone. Light years ahead of the 1.0 iPhone. I mean these babies rock. I don't need to connect it to my car stereo, it rocks raw dog. You can hear it loud and clear in the back seat. nice.

I LOVE the GPS. When you get the dot, fear not. I mean I live in New York City and I can actually zoom to the point of seeing the lane I am in on 6th avenue (nice). Of course this is sucking down my battery life also.

I LOVE the fact that the 3G iPhone really turns into landscape when I turn it 90 degrees. The 1.0 would often not respond when I turned it.

I would LOVE to get 16GB iPhone but I'm kind of poor when it comes to money.

the new iphone sucks

Okay that's a bit of a hyperbole. The new iPhone is actually amazing in a functional way. The GPS is awe inspiring, and the speaker is much louder. The standard 1/4 inch headphone jack is really a blessing and the gyroscope seems to be much more responsive when I move from landscape to portrait and vise versa. It is the physical design that scorches my geek britches. Okay here it goes...

Just got a new iPhone and it's great but I'm feeling the same sense of design loss I felt when I upgraded my first generation G4 titanium powerbook to the 3rd generation powerbook. It is a much more functional machine but nowhere near as beautiful. The 3G iphone feels like just another phone whereas the first iPhone is a silver slab of design genius. Am I the only one who feels this? It doesn't not feel as important in my hand or my pocket. The unit appears to be wider so where the first gen iphone felt like just a screen and a button, the 3G feels more like a phone. There seems to be a larger border around the screen on the left and right sides, it ruins the illusion of a screen and a button. Damn you apple you are suppose to be cool!


Well all of that said the 3G iPhone is drop dead amazing as a phone. It does not have cut and paste and only stores 200 emails and there are many other things about it that pisses me off but the next iphone with a much faster multi-core processor will go a huge way towards a smooth user experience.

Modern Design Geek signing off...