Sunday, April 29, 2007

Maps: Usability vs. Accuracy

Can He Get There From Here?

Great NYT article (via SvN) about one man's quest to revise and simplify the NYC subway maps.

"He wisely recognizes that usability is more important than geographic accuracy here. Subway map readers want to know how to get from A to B a lot more than they want to know the exact curve of the tracks along the way. Sometimes truth is less important than knowledge."

I completely agree. Reminds me of the magic that makes the old MapBlast LineDrive directions so powerful. A clear blueprint of where you're going is far more important that whether or not the map is "to scale" in a traditional sense.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Very Observant

Hey BoRyan: We were right, and it goes even deeper:

Replays of Red Sox’ Homer Feat Tell Different Story

It was the third inning when Manny Ramírez, J. D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek each hit bases-empty homers to put the Red Sox ahead, 4-3. Each one was accompanied by a colorful verbal send-off by ESPN’s Jon Miller.

As ESPN rolled the replay of Drew’s drive, Miller said, “Theo Epstein was watching and was pretty impressed.” In a taped reaction shot, Epstein, the Red Sox’ general manager, appeared to say, “Oh my God.”

A few minutes later, as ESPN replayed Lowell’s shot, Miller said, “Manny Ramírez was watching it from the dugout.” Ramírez jumped off the bench, exultant, and hugged a teammate or a coach.

Then the third inning ended, and ESPN offered a sequence of the four home runs, and this time, Epstein’s reaction no longer came after Drew’s home run, but after Varitek’s, the last in the record-tying run.

In the seventh, the sequence was shown again, and Ramírez’s reaction was shifted to look like he was celebrating Varitek’s shot, not Lowell’s. Epstein’s reaction shot followed, again making him look like he has been stunned by one home run when he was really amazed by another.

In the sequence that ended the broadcast, ESPN shifted Epstein out of his original reality to look like he was reacting to Lowell’s home run, not Drew’s or Varitek’s. He was now unstuck in time, like Billy Pilgrim in “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Superman?

Gary will appreciate these related random findings in the news today. Maybe Superman is real. First they discover his Achilles, then his home...

I read this in the morning:

'Kryptonite' discovered in mine
"A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia."

And this the same night:

Potentially habitable planet found
"The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun."

Saturday, April 21, 2007

DNS Update - blog.towform.com

I setup Towform to use the Custom Domain feature that Google provides. You shouldn't notice any differences, but it technically means that you'll want to set your favorites to go to http://blog.towform.com (that is the official url of the blog now).

For now towform.com and www.towform.com are redirecting to blog.towform.com.

Anyways, just geeky stuff that I was playing with.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Save Internet Radio

I don't usually post things like this, but...

Save Internet Radio Petition

Recent legislation has nearly tripled royalty fees for streaming Internet radio stations such as Pandora and KCRWMusic.com, which could be the death of this industry as the fees prevent them from sustaining a viable business.

Signing the above petition sends a customizable email to your political representatives expressing your objection to this ruling.

Special bonus on topic UI coolness:

Love how filling out the "Your Name" box in the signature section of the petition auto parses and populates the first name/last name boxes on the right hand side. Brilliant, elegant simplicity at its best.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Day 6: 11pm-12am

Um...BEST EPISODE EVER!!!!!!

Even though the message boards think otherwise.

Brilliant all around, and crazy that it's what the rest of this ok season has been setting up all along.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Let Her Go And Start Over

Interesting blurb about how to revamp the Internet for more security, speed, and functionality in a mobile age.

Researchers explore scrapping Internet

Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.

The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for completely different assumptions," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a Rutgers University professor overseeing three clean-slate projects. "It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today."

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

GMaps Easter Egg

Funny little hidden "feature" of Google Maps, courtesy of my cousin Adam.

Search for directions from anywhere in the US to anywhere in Europe.

Using this example, read down to step 38 of the directions...

The Kitchen Website

Perfect score on the website creativity meter:

No One Belongs Here More Than You

via SvN

Sunday, April 01, 2007

TC + FC?

Not sure if this one is another prank, or just an ill-timed announcement ala the original Gmail launch.

TechCrunch Acquires FuckedCompany

In some regards it makes sense, in others these seem to be two guys who would enjoy an elaborate joke.

In either case, I did like the subtle teaser on the FC landing page: