Tev Makes Some Words Happen

From an AIM chat with Adam, talking about the song “Burn it Down” by AWOLNATION:

Adam: this song is stuck in my head http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjT8YpNUxY4&noredirect=1
Tev: i listen to that while committing arson
Adam: I can’t see that
Adam: doesn’t really fit that action
Adam:  I do it when making muffins

[then the following were typed almost simultaneously]
Adam: and petting kitties
Tev: when petting kittens

Adam: hahaha
Tev: get out of my head
Adam: I won that one

Just got my Kindle Touch, I’ll post thoughts about that later, but also got a cover for it, the Lightwedge Verso Prologue Antique Cover – Tan.  Here’s what I think of it.

Appearance

The look of it is great, and what drew me to this over some other covers.  It’s designed to look like an antique leather book, and is made with a fabric/rubber material that reasonably replicates the look and feel of leather without any dead animals.

The embossing is great, although the gold paint feels a little cheaply done.  I’m fine with the chips in the lines, they feel intentional, giving it a slightly used look, but there were also small spatters of gold on the back and front, as if someone put glitter on it.  Probably a result of the production method used, but minus points for attention to detail.

The back is plain, aside from unintentional small flecks of gold paint.

Fit with Kindle Touch

The Kindle Touch is secured in place with 4 elastic straps.  It’s a very snug fit and feels very securely held.  It’s a fairly common design for covers, and works very well here.

There’s also a pocket, which on Lightwedge’s site they show being used to hold the reader – you fold the cover behind and use the pocket like a mitten.  I tried it and it’s a little weird, I don’t think I’ll ever be holding it like that.  I suppose it could act as an actual mitten and keep your fingertips warm if it were cold out… but other than that, you could store some papers in there.

There is one thing about the fit that I don’t like.  The case is designed extra wide on the left side.  I don’t know if this is to accommodate a larger device (perhaps the nook touch is slightly wider than the kindle touch?) or if the designers just didn’t factor in the hinge area when creating it, but it means the overall case size is about a half-inch wider than it needs to be.  This may not seem like much, but a half-inch can make all the difference when trying to stuff something in your coat pocket.  It just adds overall to the surface area and bulk for no good reason. The hard back and cover are simply designed too wide.

I took a photo edge-on so you can see the wasted space:

Other Comments

When I first got it, the cover did not close on its own, instead it would stay slightly opened.  However, I worked the hinge for a while to try to loosen it up, and it seems to have helped.  It also doesn’t lie flat when the front cover is folded behind (the way I read most often), it is more elevated on the hinge side.  I think this will also improve with use but probably never lie completely flat.

Summary

Overall it seems like a decent cover, it’s certainly pretty but the fit and function isn’t as good as the Amazon cover I have for my Kindle 3.  For $40 it’s not as well-designed as it should be.  It’s not clunky enough that I’ll return it, but it’s not as slick as I’d hoped.

Trying to get organized?  Me too.

I’ve tried out a number of To-do apps on the iPhone, here are 4 that for me stood out from the rest.

Do it Tomorrow

Do it Tomorrow is a nice, simple, free app.  There are only two screens, Today and Tomorrow, which lets you focus on the tasks immediately at hand.  There is an arrow to shift a task between the two days.

The interface is nice, with a handwritten Moleskine look.

Today

Today is similar to Do it Tomorrow, but with more features.  In addition to today and tomorrow, you also get “yesterday” and “someday”.  “Someday” is handy for jotting down project ideas without specific deadlines.

Tasks also get more detail, you can set a category, priority level, and a due date beyond just today and tomorrow.  Overall it’s a very clean interface, although a bit too clean at first – many of the functions are hidden, so read the instructions before diving in.

This one is my current favorite.

Todo

Todo is a feature-rich all-in-one project organizer app.  It has different types of tasks, such as “call” with Address Book integration, or “Project” with sub-tasks.  It’s powerful but with an easy-to-use interface.  I kind of fell out of using it though, because for me, it almost had too many features.

Epic Win

Epic Win is a more light-hearted approach to a to-do list.  In Epic Win, you create a character, and by categorizing tasks based on stats, you improve your character’s stats and level up.  You also reach checkpoints where you get an item – an amusingly described trinket.  There is no game beyond leveling your character and collecting items, though.  There are coins you also collect, but currently they don’t do anything in the app.

It’s a cool concept, and well executed, but I got tired of it after a while.

So there you have it, 4 excellent apps for keeping on track. Right now I’m using Today, but they all offer a different angle on a simple concept. As long as you use it regularly, any one of them will serve you well.

If you have an iPhone:

• Buy SnesMusic for $2. (the icon is ugly, but the app is good)
• On your iPhone, go to snesmusic.org
• On the Top 100 page, scroll down to the Top 100 (top of the page is Worst 100)
• Pick a game, for example, Chrono Trigger
• Click on the Download SPC Soundtrack link and choose to open it with SnesMusic
• Enjoy!

The current patent system is broken.  There’s really no other way to say it.  If I were to come up with an innovative new tech service and it catches on, chances are I would be hit with a dozen cease-and-desist notices from various patent holders.  Probably they would be patent trolls, companies that exist solely to scoop up patents and enforce them, or perhaps it would be a huge company with an ammo belt of patents used to shoot down competition.

There are several problems here.

One is software patents, which are often for obvious things, like updating a form value using an onclick in JavaScript.

Another is along similar lines, conceptual patents that are also obvious, like “showing a map on a smartphone”.  These are often broad obvious concepts that discourage innovation.

How to fix it?  Well besides the obvious step of reevaluating how the whole patent system works, how about this:  a public scrutiny period.  During that period, rather than a single patent clerk examining the patent and deciding on its validity, why not crowdsource it, let the public at large try and come up with examples of prior art?  Perhaps have a badge system, cash awards, or other incentive to encourage people to join in.

There are plenty of tech-savvy people who hear about a patent to update a form value using an onclick in JavaScript and point out how absurd it is, why not put their righteous indignation to good use, let them submit examples of prior art and help shoot down incoming patents that don’t deserve to be granted.

Along those lines, why not have a patent validity dispute process that is similarly publicly crowdsourced?  Many patents would probably not hold up to scrutiny, but it usually doesn’t come to that because the threat of an expensive lawsuit usually leads to a company settling out-of-court with a patent holder, rather than risk the expense.  This would allow stupid patents to be revoked.

Currently, patents are mostly a rich man’s game, only companies big enough to own a patent portfolio, survive a lawsuit, or afford an out-of-court settlement gets to play in the tech innovation game.  It’s time we level the playing field at least a little with the power of nerd rage.

NPR did a survey to find the top 100 Sci-fi and Fantasy books. I took the list, and checked off the ones I’ve read.

It’s a very good list, but here are a few that didn’t make the list:

Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.  Although his Solaris did make the list, I feel Cyberiad is both a more creative and more accessable book.

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis.  True, this is a graphic novel series, but Watchman made the list, so why not Transmet?

The Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper.  I loved this as a kid, it’s an amazing story of classic good vs. evil

Wrinkle in Time Series by Madeline L’Engle.  Time- and space-bending adventures.  I remember them, like C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, getting somewhat Christian-y at times, but they were still fantastic stories.  Plus it introduced young Tev to the concept of a tesseract!

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.  The first book, Black Cauldron, was adapted into a movie by Disney – one of the darker Disney flicks, and one that’s not a musical.  The full series is much more epic.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien.  Sure, it’s a kid’s book, but it could almost be a parallel book to Flowers for Algernon, if Algernon had escaped along with other test animals.

One concept that’s been rising in popularity over the past decade is augmented reality (AR).  It’s the idea of a computer overlay on top of what you see, placed in space over real objects.  This is a private view that only you can see.

There are various methods of doing this, right now the most popular way is looking through your smartphone – the phone’s video camera captures a live feed, and shows it on-screen with AR data added, for example, Yelp will show the names and reviews of nearby restaurants as you look through your phone and move it around.

Another less-popular AR display method is goggles.  These are used by the military and hardcore nerds, but not by the public at large, mainly because they are goofy-looking.

A couple methods at the edge of reality but still for the most part only science-fiction or concept products not in production are normal-looking glasses with AR, or better yet, near-invisible contact lenses with AR.  They might be stand-alone, but more likely they would communicate wirelessly with a smartphone-type device in your pocket.

These would allow computer data to be overlaid on whatever you look at, without other people being able to tell what you are seeing.  The possibilities are endless, and range from indispensable to annoying to terrifying.

Two good science-fiction works I read recently that discuss these possibilities are Vision Machine and Rainbow’s End.  Vision Machine is more focused on the gadget itself and how copyright laws would apply to it, and Rainbow’s End is more about what the overall world would be like with such a device in it.

It feels like AR is coming, right now you can see the first faltering steps, with iPhone apps, GPSs Kinect games, PS3 virtual pets… I feel like it’s bubbling, beginning to churn and swirl, and soon it will explode into something major.

What sorts of content to expect?  Well, could be anything, but here are some obvious ones:

• Maps (GPS-type directions, or museum-guide style floorplans)
• Instructions (either usage instructions on a product, or Ikea-style assembly instructions)
• Contacts (names and relevant data hovering above people you see)
• Ads (which could ruin everything if we’re not careful)
• Complete virtual overlays (CGI “suits” that completely change the look of people or things… like everyone you see having the heads of cats)
• PDA functions (to-do lists, clock, calendar)
• Camera functions (stills, video, editing, special effects)
• Phone functions (IM/texts, calls, email)
• Purchasing Info (prices with tax, calorie counts on food, price comparisons)

It’s a brave new augmented reality world, keep an eye out for it!

Playing around with QR code generation and URL shortening…

I have tev.net, which is a pretty damn short domain, but just to be a *little* shorter, I registered tev.bz and set up YOURLS, an open-source URL shortener.

Here’s an example, I shortened a URL, from http://www.linkedin.com/in/tevkaber to http://tev.bz/3 and then generated this QR code image containing the shortened URL:

can your phone read this?

If you’re not familiar with QR codes, it’s basically a type of barcode.

A barcode is 1-dimensional, a series of bars of varying length.  Although they have vertical height, it’s the same 1-dimensional data just stretched to make scanning possible.  The most common barcode you’d be familiar with are product UPC codes, but there are many types.

A QR code is a 2-dimensional barcode.  It can’t be read by an old 1D barcode reader, although many systems have been updated to read 2D barcodes.  UPS and other shipping companies were some of the first places to use 2D barcodes.

Old 1D barcodes are just letters and numbers.  New 2D barcodes are still just letters and numbers, but can contain more of them.  So a 2D QR code can contain, for example, a URL, or someone’s contact info.  The more text a QR code contains, the larger it is, which is why URL shorteners are typically used, to keep the QR code small so it doesn’t take up too much room on a page or label.

An emerging use of QR codes is in marketing.  The idea is, rather than type in a long URL from a print ad, the user can scan the QR code from their smartphone.  Most people have cellphones, most cellphones have cameras, and an increasing number are smartphones capable of displaying a website.

The problem is, the average person has no idea what a QR code is.  On Android smartphones, QR code software comes bundled, but on iPhone the user would have to install a free app.  The overall process of scanning and using a QR code has to be quick and easy, and while it’s not difficult, it’s not immediately obvious to the majority of users.

The common use of QR codes by consumers will either take off, or drift into obscurity like the ill-fated cueCat.

Strange dream last night.

We were in a European town, or perhaps England.  The kind of medieval-looking village with cobblestone streets and houses with thatched roofs, but with drugstores and bus stops mixed in, creating a mixed sense of place and time.

We meet some graduate students and their professor, a tall statuesque woman with a commanding presence, wearing a lab coat over her other clothes.  They have partly taken over a room, converting it to a makeshift lab and classroom.  The focus of the project is a pair of laser-based devices, or maybe it was one device with two modes.

The device works like this: first, record mode is active, and you sit in front of it.  A visible laser beam plays across your face and settles on your forehead.  Then a recording is made.  Another person then sits down, and playback mode is activated.  A beam of another color locks onto their forehead, and they then see a recording of your face.

That’s the surface functionality.  The research they were doing was to go deeper – the bandwidth of the lasers meant that much more information should be coming across.  In theory, thoughts should be transmitted as well.

Currently, though, all that is theory.  It’s only being tested on rats.

I somehow figure out the correct way to make this work. I want to skip the animal testing stage though, since trying to tell if rats have read each other’s thoughts would be very difficult.

I need volunteers.  We are somehow out on a roof.  There are several warlike (tribes? non-human races?) sitting on benches.  No one will volunteer but then the smallest group steps up.  I reveal that in return for help with testing, they will get a huge cache of weapons, making them the strongest group.

With their help, I get the kinks worked out and soon it is refined and easy to use.

Soon everyone in our group and the research group is trying it.  Two of the people with us: Dave, and Steve Carell. We are drinking flavored seltzer water and thinking of different things to record.   At one point, one of the female students secretly records herself masturbating.  The teacher accidentally experiences the playback (closing her eyes, moaning, exposing her breasts while pinching her nipples, in front of everyone), and instead of punishing the class, she encourages them to think of new and different ways to use the technology.

One student expresses concern that the technology could be misused, for example, a Coke machine with the device embedded to make anyone walking by feel thirsty.

We split up, to walk around town to get more ideas.

The town is also desert-like in ways, like an old western.  There is one old structure there where rebels holed up against a corrupt government.  I walk through the building with Sarah and couple students.  The building has been rebuilt over the years, but instead of on top of the old structure, it was built *around* the old structure.  In one area there is a cross-section of the wall, showing the different versions of the building layered within.

We go into the basement.  I walk into an old room. There is a drawing on the wall, a detailed plan of the town made by the original rebels.  It is very meticulous and somehow still accurate.  There is also a detailed model of the town on a central table in the room.  I call for the others to take a look, and they come in the room.  Suddenly one of the students scratches his palm, like it itches.  Then a look of panic comes over his face and he collapses in some kind of seizure.

Then the same thing happens to the other student.

Sarah starts to say something about calling 911, but then she collapses as well.

I take out my phone to call, I feel my palm start tingling, and then suddenly I am reliving the experiences I sampled with the laser device.  It’s like some kind of acid flashback, but so immersive that I lose control (and even sensation) of my body and crash to the floor, my phone still in my hand.

Some time later, the flashbacks stop and we stand up again.  We head back to the classroom.

Everyone is experiencing the same condition, an unforeseen side-effect of the laser.  A couple hours later, it happens again.  We are not sure if it will continue to happen, or if the effect will wear off over time.  I posit that maybe it had to do with drinking flavored seltzer while using the device.

It seemed likely to me that berry-flavored seltzer would react badly with psychic lasers.