Drew Hamlin

Kindle

2007-11-19T17:00:00.000-08:00

I think the new Amazon Kindle is actually pretty neat.

When I heard about it today, I was naturally quite skeptical. (Who's isn't?) This no new idea, so the first question is “Yeah but, is it actually good?” And since Amazon has a track record of pretty poor taste, there's this real conceptual bias to get past.

But after some strong consideration, I think they might be onto something. There are a few key points. People don't like to stare at screens instead of books, so the new electronic paper technology is just mission critical. And it looks like they got the physical size and weight right, and their wireless and battery life answers are logical. The store sounds great.

The physical attributes and the look-and-feel of the software seem rough and poorly resolved. Seeing as how they've worked on the product for three years, this is just a non-surprising result of Amazon's poor taste and improper priorities. At least they kept things kind of simple, but they could have taken it even further. I wish they'd learn to be smarter on that level. But I'll look past this for the moment because there's still a story.

On the other hand, I find myself rolling my eyes at the inital customer reactions. People are full of the same old knee-jerk responses we all hear year after year, on product after product. Seriously, be realistic, it's a first product offering. The price point ($400) is beyond acceptable. This price is the sweet spot: don't you guys remember the iPod?… And backlights and color screens are totally irrelvant right now. It's far more important that it just actually read like paper.

This should be an interesting new product. Of course time will tell, but I don't think this is another Segway. This product has some real, honest potential. (And I don't say that often.) I can't wait to get my hands on one.

Read more about Kindle.

VCD + Facebook + iPhone

2007-06-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit crazy recently but I've been having a lot of fun.
I want to stop for a minute though and share some stuff I've worked on and talk about a few things that I've been spending time thinking about.

Visual Communication Design

I just heard from the Design department at UW that I've been accepted as one of the twenty-two Visual Communication Design majors for 2009, which I'm very excited about.

Last year we had a bunch of fun assignments. Here's some of my work:

Playful Word Pairs — layout and typography study
Recipe — layout and typography study
Sweatshops — double-sided poster for both sides of world issue
Teabox Set (blueprints: T / E / A) — 3D product packaging
3D Cube (side one / side two) — corporate case study on REI
EngineerYourself.com (website / poster) — UN goal promotion

I love the faculty and the talented students I'm with and I'm looking forward to my classes next year as a junior in the program.

Facebook

Switching gears, if you haven't heard of Facebook yet, you must not be paying attention. With over 27 million people returning to the site every month, they're the 6th most popular site in the US and the #1 photo sharing site on the entire web. (I know, a lot of people think Flickr is the #1 photo site... but it's actually not even close. If you want to see the impressive numbers, check out this blog post on the stats behind Facebook photos.)

I mentioned Facebook here before and I said I liked the site, but what I didn't say is that I really believe they're doing some cool stuff. Just under a year ago I decided I liked them a lot, so this summer I'm interning here with them. They're a 200+ employee company in Palo Alto, which means I'm back in beautiful Silicon Valley this summer.

I joined the small team of Product Designers, so I'll be working on the user experience and look-and-feel of the site.

There's no doubt Facebook is slightly controversial and there's still a lot of opportunity ahead. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about the site: what you like, what you hate, and what you think in general about their future. I'm spending every day this summer thinking critically about Facebook and I'm learning a lot from being here.

But I think it's important for me to say that I don't think Facebook is just a dot-com bubble or a fad. I think it's actually a really neat tool that's useful and is a great way to keep in touch with real-world friends. I also think there's still a ton to do and the coolest stuff is yet to come.

iPhone

The web has been buzzing with talk about the iPhone for the past few months and especially the past few weeks. It is pretty funny to see everyone's take on the phone.

A lot of people spend time talking about Apple's marketing. And it's true that there is probably a good amount to talk about. Whatever you think, there's no denying they did a great job getting people talking... and that's the point of marketing after all.

But the real story is the phone itself. And seriously, I can say with 100% confidence that I think Apple is about hit a home run with this phone. They did what they do best: take the core of what a product should be and make that work really nicely, then throw away everything else.

That means you'll hear gadget geeks complain about it doesn't have this feature or it doesn't have that feature, but at the end of the day it does exactly what a mainstream phone should do and it does it incredibly well.

There are many examples, from Visual Voicemail to Google Maps. For a lot of people Mail is going to be the coolest part of the phone. I know that sounds funny because it seems so uninteresting, but it's actually a crucial feature that I could see myself using a ton of the time and it seems like it's done very nicely.

And it's always easy to point to technologies that should one day be in the phone but aren't yet... 3G, GPS, developer support, etc. But remember this is a 1.0 product. There will be a place for those features in the future (as well as a full product line and cheaper hardware). This is day zero and right now I think the iPhone is on track for a great release and I'm looking forward to using one myself. I can't wait to see them shake up the cell phone world a little. And I have no doubt they'll do exactly that.

What's Next

2007-05-05T13:00:00.001-07:00

I want to look at the state of the industry for a minute. Looking forward, there are a few big changes that I can point to:

Hard drives will be replaced with flash-based storage.
This one is starting to become common knowledge for anyone closely following the industry. The cost of memory keeps going down and the storage size keeps going up. This transition will have great speed benefits across the board for computers and it really opens the doors for hardware speeds. Some people think the start of transition is still far away, but I believe it is right around the corner in the next couple of years for laptops. (It's already happened with the most popular iPods, for instance.)

Resolution independence will improve how we see content.
There have been a lot of murmurs about this recently. Despite all the discussion, I don't think a lot of people understand what resolution independence means. In a sentence: it gives people the ability to easily control how big everything is on the screen. If you have a big screen and don't need the screen real estate, you can adjust everything larger without causing pixilation due to resolution emulation. This has many positive implications, but moving to it requires a good amount of developer effort and it's not going to happen overnight. It sounds like Leopard will ship with support built-in to encourage developers to get started thinking about scaling factors... but it probably won't be until Mac OS X 10.6 (after Leopard) when it becomes a full-fledged feature for consumers to enjoy.

The web is in its infancy and it will get unbelievably cooler.
Tim Berners-Lee outlined the World Wide Web in 1990, and didn't start taking off until a handful of years later. For all intents and purposes, the web is maybe 12 years old or so. That means we're at a point where lots of people are going "Oh yeah, the web" and talk about it like it's reached its full potential and it's "finished." We've become accustomed to it in our daily lives and so easily forget it did not exist at all just a few years ago. Here's a wake-up call: think about cars when they were 12 years old... suddenly you realize we're just barely getting started. There is so, so, so much more that can and will be done with the web.

I think these are some of the most important changes up ahead. There are of course many other trends we're moving toward in the future as well and I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments.

Don't Keep the Bad Stuff

2007-03-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is something I've learned through experience. It might sound obvious but when you're actually faced with the situation, it's not always so easy...

Whenever you work hard on something you really care about, you sew your heart into it. That's a great thing because it means it's honest.

Sometimes though, down the road it turns out you made a mistake. The interface or feature you've spent a week designing or coding is just not feeling right...

The problem is that it can be quite tricky to let that hard work go to waste. When you spend a lot of time on something, you feel like you must somehow justify the work being done in the first place. There is a temptation just to leave it in or tone it down or make it a setting.

Don't do it. Don't keep the bad stuff. Throw it out. You do not need to keep something just because you spent some time on it. Go back to the drawing board. Kill it, start over, and do it right. If it's just not needed, leave it out.

Never let "but I worked so long on it" be an excuse to keep a feature that isn't working or isn't necessary. Mistakes happen. That's part of the process. Move on and feel great knowing you did the right thing.

This process works great as well for something even when you think it is working. Weeks into a project, it can be amazingly helpful to drop everything, get a blank slate, and just start over. You might be amazed at some of the things you learned through your initial attempt that radically change the way you think about it the second time around for the better.

In other words: always throw yourself into your work... just don't become attached to it. Never get so involved that you forget to step back.

Removing Photos from vCards

2007-02-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

I was faced with a challenge the other day:
How do you quickly remove photos from a multiple-entry vCard file?

For those familar with regular expressions, here's my crafted answer:
PHOTO;BASE64:(\s+[=+/\w]+)+\s

Here's the context of the question:
Facebook just added a new feature called Find Your Friends that lets you easily find people on Facebook who you already know in real life. It's especially useful for new users just signing up, but relevant for anyone.

(By the way, if you haven't heard of Facebook, sign up. It's quite simply the best way to keep in touch with friends. Think MySpace, except good.)

Actually, Find Your Friends isn't entirely new, but they just added the ability to import your contacts from a vCard file, which makes it useful for anyone who uses Mac OS X's Address Book to store their contacts.

The problem is that Facebook only lets you upload a file that's 500KB — and when your Address Book has lots of photos, it's going to be much, much bigger (10.5MB, in my case).

Here's the full solution:

Export your vCard file.
Select all your Address Book entries and drag them to the desktop.
Open the vCard in your favorite modern text editor.
May I recommend TextMate or SubEthaEdit.
Look at the content. Is there an empty line after every line?
If not, skip this step. (If you do it, you'll just get gibberish.)
If so, it means that one or more of your entires contained a non-basic character, like an accent character, so the file is UTF-16.
TextMate: File ▸ Re-Open With Encoding ▸ UTF-16 (Big Endian)
SubEthaEdit: Format ▸ File Encodings ▸ Unicode (UTF-16); choose Reinterpret
Open the Find window and paste in the magic incantation.
This goes in the Find field. Leave the Replace field empty:
PHOTO;BASE64:(\s+[=+/\w]+)+\s
Check the box for Regular Expression / RegEx.
Replace All and Save.

Mission accomplished: you've got a much smaller vCard file that contains no images, perfect for uploading to Facebook's Find Your Friends.

Of course using regular expressions sometimes feels like just one step up from compiling your own kernel... so I've filed an Apple bug report (rdar://5022380) suggesting that this really should be an Address Book feature in the form of a preference checkbox.

Update 2/27: Tweaked the expression to reach a corner case.
Update 12/13: Apple listened. In Leopard, they implemented this feature exactly the way I proposed it. You can find it in the vCard tab of Address Book preferences.

Hurting Customers

2007-01-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

Here's one thing I hate: the "security device" labels on CDs and DVDs. These things are ridiculous. I guess they're there to prevent theft of the disc from the case?

But they're really annoying for actual paying customers. Seriously, how effective are these things? Doesn't the plastic wrap work well enough? Are these labels really stopping thefts? It seems like if you really wanted to steal something, a little tape isn't a show-stopper.

When only the customer is hurting, something's very wrong.

(This gets even more foreign when you order from Amazon.com, who ships you items that still have the labels despite having never been on a shelf. I assume that's how they come from the factory, but come on...)

Here's another: when I call customer support, why do I always have to repeat my problem when I'm transfered?

I understand the need to transfer me. There are times when this gets out of hand (twice or more is kind of pushing it), but mostly I'm okay with that in and of itself. The annoyance is when you've just finished telling the customer service rep your life story only to have to repeat it all a couple seconds later to the next guy (this time, invariably in summary).

Sometimes they'll even ask you to verify your mother's maiden name or such and then when you're transfered, they need to know it again. Hello... I'm the same guy... on the same call.

Why can't customer service reps jot down your problem on their computer and have that information passed along with the call? It doesn't seem like a technical challenge... I think the industry is just brain-dead. And again, the customer gets the short end of the stick.

I think there is probably an endless supply other situations like these out there as well. I don't get it.

Tidbits

2007-01-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

A tidbit is a small piece of a something. Tidbits are life's building blocks... by themselves are they often meaningless, but become very powerful when combined together.

It is impossible to tackle anything successfully if you just think in terms of generalizations and abstractions. When you start paying attention to the little things, you'll do great work.

Good products have tidbits that are not coincidental. With great products, for better or worse, we usually fail to notice the tidbits at all (we just get a good feeling) and find ourselves scratching our heads wondering "What did they do right?" The answer of course is... everything... every detail. If you are aware of this, I think you appreciate it even more.

Don't worry about spending too much time on tidbits. If you work on the right ones, they'll pay off. Make sure you're working on the right ones.

At the risk of no context, here are a few tidbits of mine recently:

Typography Project — my initials in serif + sans-serif
Study of Visual Opposites — over 300 photos later...
Mock Cover Design — his architecture is truly stunning.

VAMacros.h — makes variable-length arguments easier
AliasExtensions.h + .m — round-trips paths with alias data

Cocoa programmers are welcome to use the code above as they see fit.

Winter Soundtrack

2006-12-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

Songs I have been listening to recently.

Blink

2006-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

I've just finished listening to a book called Blink by Malcom Gladwell that I really enjoyed. Blink is about "thin slicing," the concept of making snap decisions about people, things, and situations (literally in the "blink" of an eye).

We thin slice probably hundreds or thousands of times every day, and this very human process has both positive and negative implications. Often we may be completely unaware that we are judging things this way. For example, what do you think artificial coloring does for sales of margarine? How about the shape of ice cream packaging?

What I loved about this book is that it kept getting better as it went along. It's pretty wide-spanning in the topics it covers. Here are a few I found especially interesting. (Don't worry, no spoilers.)

The Pepsi Challenge. Why do people prefer Pepsi in a sip test? Why did New Coke, which was especially designed to beat The Pepsi Challenge, fail miserably as a product?

The Aeron chair. When this chair debuted in 1994 it was seen as a joke - ugly and backwards. How has it transformed into an office symbol?

Truth and Information. Can psychologists listen to a married couple arguing and determine if the marriage is doomed? Does information like a patient's race and background help doctors more accurately diagnose problems--or will it make predictions worse? Do your facial expressions reveal if you're lying?

Kenna. This young artist immediately caught the attention of high-ups in the music industry including Fred Durst, who heard his music and immediately told his label to "Sign him." Kenna sold out a performance hall on 24 hour advance notice. People love him... so why do focus groups rate his songs dismally?

Police Error. In 2003, an unarmed 23 year old immigrant was shot 41 times outside his home in The Bronx by four NYPD officers. The officers were acquitted unanimously on murder charges. What happpened that night? Did the police make grave mistakes or is this just an unfortunate result of the way our system works?

And there's a whole lot more. I think it's a fascinating book. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly recommend checking it out.

Getting Real

2006-11-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard of 37signals (creators of Ruby on Rails, which I am currently working at learning) and their book Getting Real, you need to check it out. At its core, I think this book is just common sense written out. I've followed many of these principles for years (especially when I worked at Delicious Monster)... without really ever thinking of them as principles. But at the same time, the majority of the world doesn't think this way... and it should.

Getting Real is written for web developers. But what it says applies far beyond web development. It's certainly pertinent to designers and desktop software engineers, but I think this stuff holds true for everyone's day-to-day life decisions too. Honestly. It's just about working smarter.

Here are some of my favorite pages:

The whole book is online for free and you can order it in paperback too.

Autumn

2006-11-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

Summer is over and autumn is already has almost slipped by as well. An update here is long overdue.

Apple. I had a good time at Apple this summer. It was a lot of fun seeing how the company works from the inside. It was my first real experience in such a large work environment. I learned a lot and met some smart people. Silicon Valley — Cupertino, Palo Alto, San Jose, Mountain View, Santa Clara, and the like — is a really nice area.

Visual Communication Design. This quarter I declared my major. Known as VCD for short, it's essentially studies in graphic design. This means it's all about visual structure, composition, layout, color, and other elements. Design is everywhere in the world and great designs make surviving impressions and shape user experience.

I discovered the Design department at UW last year after stumbling across literally breathtaking posters in the halls of the Art building. I don't think they have the best stuff published, and their websites are a little frustratingly awkward to navigate (isn't this the point of design?), but you can check out some galleries of student work: one, two.

Internship at Apple

2006-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today I embark on 15 hour drive down to Cupertino CA. I've been offered a summer internship at Apple and I already start on Monday. I'll be working in the Applications group creating software.

I'm very much looking forward to what will absolutely be a great summer.

Nike+iPod

2006-05-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

On the heels (no pun intended) of the stunningly flawless MacBook and a new gorgeously designed Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York, comes Apple's latest innovation...

Introducing Nike+iPod. When will these guys stop thinking of cool stuff?

PS - Today's my 20th birthday. So long, teenage years. :)

The new MacBook

2006-05-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Introducing the superfast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook.

My iMix

2006-05-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Some of the best songs in the world.

Berkeley on iTunes U

2006-04-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

The University of California, Berkeley and iTunes have just teamed up to offer free audio from classes through the iTunes Music Store through a new feature they are calling Berkeley on iTunes U.

This is nothing short of amazing. There are courses in Computer Science, Arts & Humanities, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Natural Resources, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences, as well as a number of related events and other material.

You can listen to a single class or download and subscribe to an entire course. It's all free.

I hope this just the beginning of material like this. This kind of resource is phenomenal. You should definitely check it out.

Spring Break in Whistler

2006-03-25T22:35:00.000-08:00

My friends (Aaron, Abby, Coma, Tricia, Kristin, and Zach) and I just got back from our Spring Break trip to Whistler, stopping in Vancouver along the way. We had a ton of fun and it was a great way to relax after an intense Winter quarter.

Thanks to Coma, here are some photos from our trip:

Audiobooks Rock

2006-03-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe it's been nearly a month and a half since I've left Delicious Monster. I'm rapidly nearing the end of Spring quarter at UW (and it's a little shaking to realize that I'm nearly half way done with college!).

I'm really enjoying tons of the work I'm doing now and it's crazy to watch the weeks fly by. One great development is that I have decided on a goal for a major. I am pursuing a dual-major in Visual Communication Design and Philosophy. I still have a few hurdles to cross to turn this from an idea to a reality though and it's not a slam dunk just yet. But I think I have what it takes and I am super excited about getting into even more specialized classes in my quarters ahead.

Every morning when I walk a few blocks to campus, I grab my iPod before I head out. I'm not alone; white earbuds can be spotted all over campus. But while music is fun and great for a background soundtrack (I nearly always listen to music when I am at home or working), on my trip to school I listen to a book instead. It's no secret that Audible exists. It's been going for a number of years now and Apple got privy to it fairly early on, but I'm surprised how few other people take advantage of audiobooks this on their way to school or work.

I'm also surprised by how few books most people read. I guess I shouldn't be. When I ask other people my age if they're reading a book right now, they go "You mean my textbook?" There are absolutely exceptions - lots of people find time in their busy schedules to sit down and relax, but I think the majority of us just feel like there's no time to fit in a book during the precious daylight hours when we could be doing something productive or something necessary for school or work.

The truth is, even very short trips like I make every morning (10-15 minutes from my door to my seat) and then again on my way back home a few hours later (another 10-15 minutes) really, really add up. Think about it. That's 210 minutes a week. Over 14 hours a month. Do you know what you could accomplish if you just had 14 hours extra every month? A lot! The problem of course is, that you can't fully use that time, because you're walking (or driving, or biking, or however you get to where you're going). But instead of throwing it out completely by listening to the same music you'll hear later in the day when you're working, or re-hashing the same ideas you've been thinking about recently, why not have a book read to you? It's genius, really.

This year, I recently finished the mammoth DisneyWar (which was SO good - I super-strongly recommend it!) and I'm a Stranger Here Myself (a fun book that is really just a whimsical and humorous outlook on everything in life). Previously I've listened to both Fast Food Nation and 21 Dog Years, which were also great. Right now I have just started listening to My Life by Bill Clinton, which is already quite good. Next I plan to finally listen to The Da Vinci Code. See all these books? You can read them too, in the time you didn't even know you had!

I'm not trying to plug Audible or iTunes really as much as I am just really excited about learning tons more about the world in what time I would otherwise have literally written off. It is really great and I hope some of you guys try it, because I know you will get hooked too.

On a not-so-sidenote: I know at least a handful of you are dying to know what I have been doing with the REST of my time, outside of school and walking to and from there. Well... let's just say... I've been busy. =D

Future

2006-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Today, I start a new chapter. Due differences in opinion that have developed over the last several months, I've decided to leave Delicious Monster and move on.

It's been a whirlwind of 15 months at the company, which I've worked at since the day we opened for business. But my history with Delicious Monster goes back even further back...

If I was overly narcissistic, I might even claim credit for its roots; I first introduced Mike and Andrew Kazmierski (the original developer of Library) only a few years ago. I'm not sure that the extended history of Delicious is on the books anywhere, but it actually grew out of a company that was originally going to be called MAD Softworks (standing for: Mike, Andrew, Drew). Thank goodness that name didn't stick.

Wil joined on shortly afterwards and I fell behind with my own projects and finishing high school -- but not before giving up my G4 Cube to the company, which went on to single handedly serve up the first day's $56 thousand of business. (Andrew too had a full plate outside of Delicious and dropped off the bill a little after than me.)

Just as Delicious Library launched, I joined back up after being the #1 beta tester by bugs fixed and (if you excuse the cliché) the rest is history.

But the real point is - I've been really invested in this thing for nearly the last two years. And although I've been bracing myself for over a week now, it's still both a shock and a relief to finally let this off my shoulders.

Now to turn the page and start something new.

Delicious Monster in the News

2006-01-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

We're back from a great week at Macworld Expo. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth! We're really happy that we've been able to let even more people know about Delicious Library and we're super excited about what we're working on for this year.

Delicious Monster was featured in the Seattle PI yesterday. It's a good insight into what we're about, what we've been been up to lately, and where we're going next.

PowerBook for Sale

2005-11-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'm selling my old 17-inch PowerBook G4, so if you're interested be sure to check it out. This is a really great machine.

UPDATE 11/29: Sold! Thanks to everyone who bid!

College

2005-11-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Although I've struggled a bit with really loving college, I have to say that, for the most part, it is enjoyable. It's much more fun than high school because the classes are more interesting and I get to pick them. Although I'm still undecided about my major, I am starting to have a few ideas.

I was thrown off at first because I went in assuming I'd be interested in Computer Science, but I am not cut out for it. I am not as mathematically-oriented as it requires, and although I enjoy some of the logic behind programming, it is not my true affinity (and the upper aspects of the Computer Science major, which seem to revolve around animation and polygon math, are not that interesting to me). Recently I've considered many things: everything from philosophy to business to design. I am still fairly directionless but I feel like I've made progress since I started.

I've basically been taking random classes - ones that look interesting or ones where I read the description and go "Wow, that sounds really obvious. What on earth could they spend an entire quarter talking about?" I've noticed that I really end up having fun in these classes because there is so much more to them than I ever would have imagined. It seems like so much of college is taking what you think you already know and turning it into a clearly outlined and much clearer idea.

I'm taking an Intro to Law class right now that I am really, really enjoying. It is rapidly becoming my favorite class so far in college (although still battling an Intro to Logic class that I took last year). It is a perfect example of what college stands for to me, I think. Sure everyone knows about the Supreme Court and the judicial system and the US Constitution. I knew about all of those things when I started the class. But still shy of two months later, I'm already realizing that perhaps I didn't know as much as I thought. It goes back to the "The longer you spend on something, the less you realize you know" factor I mentioned here before. But while I certainly have more questions now about the Supreme Court than I had before, I also have a lot better understanding of its benefits. The class has been really enlightening to me and it revealed a lot of details in an area that I had only extremely minimal knowledge of before. (We just got our midterms back. Here's mine. Quite to my surprise, I fell only 0.1 short, on a 4.0 scale, of the highest grade in the class.)

And I've realized that the more fun I have in a class, the better I'll do - which has lead me to think about what I've done well or done poorly and how it's affected the end result in my classes. I think I've come up with the basic list of what's important in college, based on my experience so far:

Go to class. Woody Allen wasn't kidding around. If you do just one thing in college, make it going to the classes. Skipping out on either lectures or sections is bad news and a sure route to disaster. While it's true that no one is there to take attendance or watch your back, you are only hurting yourself when you miss class. Plus, skipping could easily be contagious. The more you do it, the more you will find yourself doing it. This year I have not missed a single class and it has been really nice. If you're having trouble with this one, think about how much it costs you to miss class. At UW, in-state tuition is close to $1900 a quarter. At a full load of 3 classes a quarter, that's about $633 a class. Classes are 10 weeks long ($63 a week) and my classes this quarter meet three times a week. So every class I might miss is basically the same as leaving a $20 bill on the street. (And missing a day might cost you $60!)

Participate. The best way to learn is to repeat back what you are hearing. Anyone can sit in class and tune-out, but it takes a stronger character and a better learner to speak up. Almost every class deals with gray area and very little that you learn is cut-and-dry. Don't be afraid to take a stance on an issue and voice your educated opinion. You may be surprised not only how much this will help your participation score, but also your knowledge.

Have fun. You might think this one's out of place, but it's not. Just like a career, if you aren't having fun, your life will be miserable. Taking classes that you'll enjoy is one of the best things you can do for yourself in college, I think. Sure there will be assignments here and there that are a pain and you may even have a few bad classes, but try to get in as much stuff that you love as possible. If you enjoy it, there's a way better chance that that knowledge will come up again in the future and you'll be glad you took that class.

Ask questions. There is a common perception that asking questions makes people think you're dumb and (except in extreme cases), it's just not true. If you don't understand, seek clarification. I think you really should go to every professor and every TA's office hours at least once every quarter. And the day before the exam does not count. Most days I've noticed that it seems the teachers sit alone in their office and do their own work. This is a time for you that almost no one takes advantage of. Go in with questions. Not only will you leave with a lot more resolved in your head, but it can't possibly hurt that they'll remember your name. You don't have to go every week, but if you have unanswered questions, there is no reason not to.

Don't take notes. Actually, that's not true, but I wrote it to make a point. Do take notes, but not the kind of notes that you think of when you think of "taking notes." In a big lecture with a presentation, watch how many people around the hall write down the presentation bullets. It is sort of sickening. None of these people realize that the presentation bullets are not the point and will not help them. The professors stand up and talk for a reason. If they wanted to give us bullets, they would give us the presentation file and not have us go to class. I've found that most often, the really important information is in what the teachers describe BETWEEN bullets. THESE are the keys you should be writing down. Never write down something that you do not understand (except to make a list of things to ask about in office hours!). You will only find yourself looking at it later without understanding. It does not make any sense to take notes that will not help YOU. Also, when you take notes, do not tune out the teacher. Keep your ears open while your pen is working and be ready to jump into your next note. If you find yourself looking up at the screen for the next thing to write, your process is broken.

Try not to procrastinate. This is hard for me to say because I am not particularly good at this myself. But I can say one thing for sure: assignments I have done early have been a lot less stressful and ultimately a lot better. I tend to put off working on things that I don't like, which leaves me with a short time-span for a project that is exacerbated by the fact that... well, I don't like it in the first place! One thing I've taken to doing recently is setting a fake deadline for myself. As stupid as that seems, it totally works for me. Obviously I'm not really fooled, but I am motivated enough to really work towards getting something finished. And then when something lacks polish or totally fell apart, I have a second chance. This is a place where I can still spend a lot of time improving on myself (and I have a feeling I'm not alone at all).

If you can, read the material. I know that sounds horrible. I think the reading is important - there is a reason that the teacher assigned it. But I have to say of all the things you should absolutely make sure to do, it is among the least important in my mind. That is not to say you shouldn't read the material (and in some classes it is essential), but as a general rule of thumb, I have found that it is not always the key to doing well - especially when contrasted with attending class. That is not to say however, that it will hinder your learning and I think that almost unfailingly keeping ahead and reading before attending classes will no doubt enhance your understanding and memory. And while I'm not one to endorse corner-cutting, if you were to live by that philosophy, your books would most certainly remain shrink-wrapped.

I've completed three and a half quarters of college so far and I am eagerly awaiting my next eight and a half. And I'm sure I still have not only a lot to learn, but also a good deal to learn about learning. :)

The Importance of User Experience

2005-11-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

The best products offer the best experiences. While first impressions are key, a great long-term experience is the best single thing that any product can provide.

There are many elements that lead to great experiences. Design, ease-of-use, and reliability are easy to flag as very important factors. And they are. But no matter how perfect any product is, there will always be customer questions and frustrations. Sometimes they'll be the result of something that could be done better (and a great way to spot how you can improve), but lots of times they'll be the result of something out of your control.

Although my work at Delicious Monster is all about user experience (I help with Delicious Library development and my latest work is the new Delicious Monster Support knowledge base) - working to create a great experience for customers, I'm a customer in the world just as much as anyone else.

Which leads me to a good story.

As everyone knows, the government is not known for its especially great user experience. In fact, if you think of the worst user experience, you probably think of a government-run facility like the DMV or the post office. At these wonderful places, you'll probably find absurdly long lines, emotionless "just doing my job" workers, and a new numerical identity for yourself that is found on the card ticket they ask you to take.

And so maybe not so coincidentally, the post office has recently been a source of frustration for me personally. A few weeks ago, I placed a large order (at least for me) for a couple hundred dollars worth of DVDs from Amazon. Looking forward to nearly doubling my collection, I was surprised when they had yet to turn up a week and a half later.

Checking the post office's tracking information, I noticed that the package was marked as "DELIVERED" only two days earlier. Not really entirely sure where to check first, I went straight to the post office (where I experienced another wonderful experience like the one I described above) and was told they'd "look into it and call me back the next day." Of course they didn't.

Calling them again and re-describing my situation a second time (always a blast) and also inquiring about drop off policy, I was told that the post office wasn't supposed to ever leave this kind package without actually seeing a person. Although a signature was not required, they won't leave it at the door. If no one is home, they will leave a note of attempted delivery, the person told me. (Obviously my delivery guy isn't hip to the system.) Again the representative told me they'd look into it and call me back the next day. I bet you can guess if they did. (By the way, my phone works.)

Oh and the rep also told me - the post office isn't responsible for items that aren't delivered. While legally understandable, I actually find that part pretty hilarious.

Since all of this was getting nowhere, I decided to call Amazon. Although it is true that Amazon actually doesn't publish their customer service phone number (I can imagine how many people call them with straightforward questions or trying to place orders), I was lucky enough to have remembered reading an article that had the number in it a while back, so a quick Google search got me right there. After only a minute or so waiting, I was speaking to a person.

Having previously listened to 21 Dog Years, which I've mentioned here before, I felt like I was already in-the-know when they opened by asked me for my order number (which, by the way, I had ready).

I explained the situation again as well as my post office experience then laughed, telling them "I have no idea what you guys can do, but I figured I might as well see if you have any suggestions." It's a pretty ridiculous to blame Amazon here since they really did everything they were supposed to. They got the items, boxed them up, and shipped them to me. I felt almost bad asking them for their take on the situation. After looking into the order information, the representative got back to me. "Okay," she said, "I've resent the items."

She sort of caught me by surprise. Honestly, I was expecting some kind of explanation like the post office gave me. You know, the good old "We'll look into it [but not really]". I was expecting to be blown off and instead, they went above and beyond and completely solved my problem. Hanging up, I realized that that was exactly the point - it was great customer service.

While a couple hundred dollars worth of DVDs was a big deal to me, it has to be incredibly trivial to Amazon. More important is my continued satisfaction and my perception of the company. And it totally worked. Although I wouldn't have stopped dealing with Amazon just because of this mixup, I would have at least been annoyed over the entire ordeal. Instead, I was really impressed. And if Amazon can impress their customers, not only will they keep coming back, but maybe they'll even tell their friends -- or write about it on their blog. ;)

The DVDs arrived a few days later. They were left on the doorstep of our busy street.

I called the post office again asking about the policy and re-iterating that items can't be left on our doorstep. We'd much rather pick up items at the post office if no one was present. They said that that was totally reasonable and what in fact should be happening. The person on the phone told me she filled out a special request form to make sure that our post office realized this is what we wanted.

A few days later another unrelated package arrived. It was placed on top of my roommate's car (couldn't be bothered to make it to the doorstep?).

The post office rocks.

But seriously, this is a perfect example of user experience. The post office is a broken experience. Amazon is not without shortcomings, but they will take an extra step and align themselves with their users to reach a solution. And it makes a good impression not only on me but one that reflects back on their company favorably.

The New iTrip

2005-09-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm about to write an entire post about a two-inch piece of plastic, but I'm going to. Griffin Technology released their new iTrip last week. It's a lot like the old one, but with one new key change: it is easy to use.

The old iTrip was previously the best FM transmitter on the market. The reason? It tunes down to 87.9, something that, oddly, none of the other FM transmitters were able to do (most stop at 88.1). So as a result, you can actually hear what you're wanting to hear -- instead of static all the time. But the way that you used the old iTrip was, well, somewhat painfully confusing.

You load software onto your computer, which installs iTunes playlist songs -- one for each station. So you've got a "song" named "87.9", a "song" named "88.1", etc. To tune the iTrip, you start playing the song and the iTrip starts blinking and then goes solid when it's set (the technical aspect behind it: each song consists of audible beeps of various lengths - like a Morse code that the iTrip device listens to to get which station to set to, which was actually a pretty neat idea).

Neat. They made it so you can control it from the iPod. But... since they're regular songs, wouldn't they like, appear in shuffle and stuff like that?

Yeah. They would. So to make sure you didn't accidentally re-set your channel, at the end of each of these "songs", it actually just cancels out the set. So it goes beep-beep-beep-beep, then sets for a few seconds, then (if you keep letting the song play), it cancels it back out.

So to set the station, you have to let it blink, wait until it goes solid, then PAUSE. Now go back to the menu and start playing what you want. If you ever encounter an iTrip station song in the future, just let it play and it will eventually cancel out the request and move on to the next song.

So they actually covered all their bases. So where's the problem? Well, the problem was that it takes several paragraphs to explain, as evidenced above. Being behind this first hand at the Apple Store (and considering the fact that most people don't even understand the concepts: "Can't I just play music through the cigarette lighter? My friend does that, I swear!"), it can take 10 or 15 minutes to explain about the iTrip, why it's the best because of 87.9, and then how to actually use it.

By the end, they're almost always wary, and even though it's the best choice and I do my best to explain that while giving respect to the other products, they still sometimes go with a device that I just *know* they'll be returning (we got a *ton* of those back over the three months I worked there, because no one can ever find a static-free station with it!).

So, to summarize the iTrip experience: station-setting hard, music-listening easy.

And that's where everything stood... until now. Enter the new iTrip - wildly easy easy to use, finally! It's just a knob you twist to set the station! No more software and no more hassle and no more confusion - everyone can use a knob! So I picked one up and plugged it in right away only to discover to my horror that....

IT NO LONGER HAS 87.9! NOOOO!!!

What now? This is clearly an improvement, but if it can't play down to 87.9, is it worth it? What would I tell the customers?

So I walked around for a day with this literally haunting me (I hate to admit it, but I actually had a dream about it, in which, of course, I discovered a crazy hack to get it to go down to 87.9. I know...)

Then, a day later, I finally figured it out. HORRAY! THE NEW iTRIP CAN TUNE TO 87.9! The setting to do so is, ironically, somewhat of "a crazy hack" (I must be clairvoyant in my sleep!). The trick is to tune it to INTL mode (as opposed to US). You have to hold down the knob for a whole 5 seconds and then it will let you switch over. Thank goodness - 87.9, how did I live without you?

Honestly, though, I don't know why they hid it away like that. INTL just lets you get a range below 88.1 so it seems to me like they should have just put them all together and done away with the mode switch, but it works at least so that's the important thing. They probably did it because -- without some confusion, the device might be, you know TOO easy to use... Grrr....

... Of course, this all will be potentially moot come tomorrow. ;)

UPDATE 9/7: The new iPod nano ROCKS and sadly... as was seemingly inevitable... does not support the new iTrip.

UPDATE 10/12: It appears Griffin has announced (but not yet released) yet another new iTrip that uses the dock connector on the bottom of the iPod. It says it works with the new iPods with video released today, but it is strangely not clear whether or not it works with the nano.

UPDATE 10/17: Griffin has clarified on the new iTrip's product page that it does in fact support the nano. Nice. It ships in "late October," an impressive turnaround for a company who has, in the past, been known for their somewhat long manufacturing times.

UPDATE 3/1: Well, it's been quite a few months since I originally wrote this article, and several iTrips have shipped since I did, but the iTrip is still the best FM transmitter on the market. There are now three options you can choose from. The dock connector version that I mentioned on 10/12 is still available. It fits all iPods and it a lot like the one pictured in this article, but oriented on the bottom. It's okay. There's also a new iTrip that I didn't mention that came out in late October or November that is designed specifically for the nano. It's intriguing. But by far the coolest iTrip is the new (as of November or December, at least) iTrip auto. I got one of these recently and I absolutely am loving it. Kudos to Griffin for improving on an already excellent product and totally keeping up with Apple's fast changes to the iPod lineup. Oh, and the best part of the iTrip auto? 87.9 is included as an option in the default US mode. Confusion gone. (Or, as Steve Jobs might say, "boom.")

Summer Draws to a Close

2005-09-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

So, as seems to always be the case, life continues to race by.

Mike is apparently having a blast at Apple, although he can't tell anyone what he's actually working on! Tim, too, has joined the team down at Apple, a fact that I knew was happening since Mike's departure but only now is something I can mention. It sounds like they're both working on very cool projects and I can't wait to see some of the stuff they make.

As for myself, I am staying on at Delicious Monster with Wil and we'll continue to work on Delicious Library. We already have a great start on what is going to be some awesome stuff for the future.

I have also said my farewells at the Apple Store. It's been a blast working there but I really want to focus on software development. The funny thing I never really realized about the Apple Stores before: sure, it's about Macs and iPods, but that's actually second to what it's really about, which is retail. Although it has been awesome working with the talented team there and I've learned so much my head is still spinning, I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of job. It's pretty exhausting being on your feet and talking all day long. (And admittedly, explaining DRM restrictions, FM transmitter choices and the pros/cons of various iPod cases can get a little old after the millionth time...)

It's also very hard to have nothing to show for hours and hours of hard work. Sure, there's a paycheck, but that's not at all the same as, say, an application. Not only is writing software less physically exhausting and more mentally challenging, it's actually more rewarding work. Plus, if you are working on a COOL application, you are always doing COOL stuff! I can't wait to deliver some of the stuff that we are working on right now because when people see it, they're going to love it.

School starts again later this month, on the 28th. I always have mixed feelings at the end of the summer. I think this has been the best summer of my life so far - certainly the most action-packed.

But more imminent is yet another move for me. Tomorrow I move from this four-person apartment to an eight-person house (yes, eight people!). I can't even imagine how crazy it will be living with seven other people yet. I'll keep you posted - I am sure there will be lots of stories (for example: we don't have a dishwasher).