The train is passing through beautiful mountainous land right now. Next to the tracks is a very pretty and quite frisky little river that is getting bigger as we decend from the pass we took over the Rockies. It looks like it would be a fantastic canoe/kayak destination.

I’m in the front seat in my cabin, next to a defective door leading to the lounge car. As we trundle along and weave from left to right, the door freely slides open and closed again on its well lubricated wheels. This wouldn’t be nearly as interesting or entertaining if it were not for the steady flow of new passengers that it confounds about every fifteen minutes. On the front of the door is a large black button marked “Press”. Despite a very clean white sign (which explains the door is broken and must be pushed aside) that has been placed in the center of the door’s window at about 5′ (eye level), the draw of the giant ‘Press’ button is clearly undeniable.

Typically, the interaction seems to follow a set script. The player approaches the door with their eyes firmly on the next car (head tilted slightly to peer around the annoying white sign inconveniently placed directly in their field of view). Looking down, they begin to press the button with increasing enthusiasm and firm dedication. Bending down slightly and bracing a back leg gives them a bit more leverage and allows them to periodically re-inspect the button to be absolutely sure that it does indeed say “Press” on it and that they are not somehow missing it. After some time and frequent body repositionings to generate more leverage or a better angle to inspect the button, the train inevitably makes a gentle right turn, rolling the door open by itself. At this point the pushers, satisfied that they have figured out the exact amount of angle and force with which to press the button correctly, stride confidently through the door.

The most desirable scenario requires the victims to arrive in pairs, as this allows plenty of room for self doubt and an excellent chance for the exchanging of places when the door doesn’t respond to the first player’s efforts. There is generally some short exchange of helpful information involving such critical tidbits involving buttons and pushing and a bit of optimistic pointing. Then the first player gives way to the second (usually male) player’s much improved positioning and pushing techniques. As in the earlier example, the train inevitably takes pity on them and turns gently to the right, sliding the door smoothly open again. It’s entirely possilbe that the slight swagger in player two’s step as he strides through the defeated door and leads his partner into the conquored territory of the lounge car may be my imagination.

Ballsy Colbert

Since its a little long, I suggest skipping over Colbert’s sample press secretary video in the middle.  He’s got some nice lines in there, although the audience looks like a tough one.  Enjoy!!

Stinker Review

I suppose one of the things about capitalism is that with enough money hungrily searching out the right recipe for a desirable consumer product, somebody always manages to stumble across the right mix. That said, Apple seems to have remarkable success in designing products that people love to use (Ipod), even when they were not that practical (Macs).

I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a review as bad as that Samsung one.

Stepping back for a moment, it seems clear that five years from now, everybody will be carrying around one or more electronic devices to:

• Listen to music
• Play videos
• Telephone
• Surf the web (google search, maps, news)
• Media Storage
• Email
• Instant Message

I’ve been carrying around a Dell Lattitude X1 which weighs about 3lbs with the extended battery pack in it. Although the specifications of the laptop pale in comparison with most heavier laptops, I find it more useful simply because I always have it.

Of course it easily does everything in the list above, but the question for all the designers is how small can you get a really useful package? It seems to me that the really tricky one is web browsing. The way the web works currently, there is simply no way to enjoy a web browsing experience on a tiny screen. I really think that the dam will break as soon as somebody figures that piece of the puzzle out.

It also seems to me that the last thing you want in a truly small consumer electronics device is bloatware, which is why I can’t imagine that the next Ipod will run anything written by Microsoft :0)

If they were not MIT students, then one might feel pity. However, these are the most successful, smartest and most driven students that the world can produce. Seriously, how hard can it possibly be for smart, driven young students to learn to swim anytime during a four year stretch? (including summer breaks!)

Gremlins at MIT

Check out this funny little clip which shows dozens of antlike airplanes twisting and turning to slide past a large stormfront and into the airport. Short but it has fun music and is kind of cool to watch

read more | digg story

Overclocking the new cheap Pentium

My desktop is an overclocked P4 2.4c that I had stable at 3G by learning from the overclocking community at the
Overclocking Forums

I think it would be a lot of fun to get back into overclocking. This particular processor is an incredible bargain at $130, considering that it can be overclocked to compete with the $1000 extreme gaming chips

Better yet, somebody else should do it while I’m travelling so that I can live through you vicariously!