Feed Sift (07/24/2015)

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SETHGODIN.TYPEPAD.COM -- Why do you do it this way?

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ENGADGET.COM -- Google researchers create amazing timelapses from public photos

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TWISTEDSIFTER.COM -- Recycled Animation Sequences from Famous Disney Films

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ARCHITECTURALDIGEST.COM -- Best Hotel Pools (Slideshow)

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COOLORS.CO -- Create Awesome Color Palettes

Feed Sift (04/18/2014)

Here's a few things I've come across recently that I thought was worth sharing...

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LIFEHACKER -- Eight Myths About Jury Duty Debunked

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XKCD -- Before the Internet

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Feed Sift (04/11/2014)

A few things I've read recently that I wanted to share...

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LIFEHACKER -- I'm a Telemarketer. Here's How to Get Rid of Me

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I, CRINGELY -- An impending black swan for electric cars

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Feed Sift (04/04/2014)

A few things from around the web that I wanted to share...

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LIFEHACKER -- Why Time Feels Like It Passes Quicker as You Get Older - there you go - have more random, memorable things happen. I think music also plays a big role. As things are new and novel, the music is part of it. So when you hear old music, you get nostalgic because you're partially temporarily transported back, but not entirely, so it feels a little bit hollow and like you're reaching for something you can't quite grasp.

-2-

BOB CRINGELY -- Google Evil? You Have No Idea - he calls it an exhaustive list. I disagree. There's plenty more.

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SETH GODIN -- Confidence is a choice, not a symptom

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THE GUARDIAN -- 8 pronunciation errors that made the English language what it is today - yikes

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NY TIMES -- Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney - a lengthy book excerpt that is both interesting to read and discouraging all at the same time.

Feed Sift (03/28/2014)

Here's five things I've found recently that I wanted to share...

-1-

LIFEHACKER -- How to Get Better Sleep (and Need Less Every Night) - though I must be doing it wrong.

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ANDY SERNOVITZ -- How many people DIDN'T hear about it? - just another example of Google being evil. Or at least short-sighted and stupid.

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GOOGLE -- Bring a little something extra to Docs and Sheets with add-ons

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NY TIMES -- What You Learn in Your 40s - she says there are no grownups. I still think grownups are people taller than me who wear dress clothes.

-5-

ENGADGET -- This list is brought to you by 25 years of the world wide web

Apple vs. Google #onejob

Siri, you are no help at all. 

You get an F.

(You had one job, Siri. One job.)

Thanks, Google - a video and everything. 

Brilliant.

Free Speech

Recently, my wife got a nasty cold that robbed her of her voice. It made it difficult for her to communicate in any way, except with a whisper.

I realized you could use Google Translate (English-to-English) to speak for you. You type in a term, translate, then click the speaker icon and the voice speaks it for you.

and

Feed Sift

Five interesting things I wanted to share...

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Recreating the Past with Model Cars and Forced Perspective -- Neat camera trick! (Twisted Sifter)

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Seattle Gets Its Redneck On -- Country music and NPR. Makes for interesting political beliefs. (Crosscut)

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Feed Sift

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Skyscraper Slums: Insider Tour of World’s Tallest Tent City - This is fascinating, video is totally worth watching. (WebUrbanist)

-2-

Disney Research makes paper cool again by turning it into a generator - This is pretty neat. Another short video worth watching. (Engadget)

-3-

Googlefail (@gmail)

Now when I press "C" to compose a new message in Gmail, I see this. The first I saw it I was like "Uh - what? Wait! Nononono." And then I recognized "hikingfan@gmail.com" because Google uses it all the time in its promotions.

This should be labeled as an advertisement and the arrow to the $ should be bigger and the background of the entire popup should be a different color to stand-out more.  And there should be a checkbox for "Never show this again."

Otherwise, perhaps this is the newest way for Google to make money.

Probably not. This may not be evil, but it's pretty lame.

Control: @Waze vs @GoogleMaps & hi to @WSDOT (A Work-Related Post)

So in May, a bridge collapsed. As soon as I heard about it, I headed to Waze where it had already been removed from the map and Google Maps where the best I could do was submit a report.

Just got this email from Google Maps in response to an update I submitted in late May...

Review: I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards

I've come to realize that I enjoy a good biographical or autobiographical book - you get to see mostly the highlights of a period of time, to get some more insight, some more backstory.  I enjoyed the Conrad Hilton story and DisneyWar and I definitely enjoyed this one.  The downside to biographical books is that at some point the book ends but history moves on.  This was less frustrating because the period covered (1999-2005) is still fresher in my mind and the details explained were ones I had lived through as a customer.

This was a really good read - it was fascinating to learn what went on inside Google, but provided some cautionary tales as well.

The takeaways I got from it:

* You really have to give someone something to believe in.  It would be harder (but not impossible) to foster that kind of culture within our large, old non-profit.  But it has to feel special, it has to be something people want to be a part of.

* You always need to be hiring people smarter than yourself. I've often heard it said that "Wow, if I was being interviewed today, I wouldn't get hired."  I know that's not entirely true, but on the other hand, it's because we're there, we're smart and we're improving the process.  Therefore, we need to continue to bring in smarter and smarter people to shake things up and make sure we're doing the right things.

* Trust the data and test, test, test.  Take risks, but make sure you can measure them.  Don't use the testing as an excuse not to intuit or move quickly and boldly.  If you're transparent, apologies will be accepted and mistakes forgotten quickly.

Back Atcha. @GoogleReader #savegooglereader

If between Google Reader, Feedburner, Blogger and AdSense somehow the brilliant minds of Google couldn't figure out how to offer it for free and still make money, they're lying or they don't understand its value or they are not as smart as we think they are.

And heck, if you want to talk insights, if Google Reader users are subscribing in large numbers to the same feeds, then every time we read or don't read a post that could influence the PageRank. I think this will hurt overall readership of the internet and actually even hurt Google. I think it was shortsighted.

And that's why on July 1, I will stop supporting their fledging social network, Google+.

And I'm really scared about what's next...

• Feedburner? (Duh. That's in round 3 coming in two weeks.)
• Blogger? (It's extraneous - you can post on Google+!)
• Google Voice? (Pfft... voice... You can host a hangout and use video!)
• Gmail? (You'll have more fun chatting with your circles!)
• Google Apps for Personal Use? (Oh... wait... you already killed that. That's why you keep hounding me for $5/person/month.)

Speaking of wanting my money... where's the offer to pay to use Google Reader? Not that they need the money, but pretty sure they could make a profit selling subscriptions to Google Reader. But no, they're not interested. Shortsighted, I tell you.

Wondering what all the fuss is?  Here's an explanation of Google Reader I wrote in 2007.  Sadly, so little has changed since then that this is still probably a legitimate guide to using Google Reader.  Still Not Using Google Reader? (tvjames x blog, Nov. 2007)

If only...

So I went and checked my AdSense the other day.  The only way AdSense could allow me to live the life I always dreamed is if everything I needed cost less than 23 cents a month.  Yes, in 7 years I've amassed $43.  When it hits $100 they'll send me a check.

I'm scared that mocking AdSense is a violation of their terms of service.

Ouch

Not being political. Just screen grabbed this awhile ago. Not sure why I was even doing this search.  Oh... wait... I remember... was trying to figure out the etymology of "bastard" during a 1:1.   Anyhow, yeah... aaaaawkward.

Stuff

Is this Google stuffing the ballot box?

Evil Dogfood

I have been praising Google's Android Design guide to anyone who will listen.  It's a thing of beauty.  It describes why you should use a specific methodology and look and feel when designing apps for Android.  (Some of my readers will wonder what Android is - it's the software powering the phones of your friends who don't have an iPhone.  Unless they're a former hipster, who's now looking for work, mostly because they want a new cell phone.  Those friends are still using BlackBerry.)

Anyhow, the Android Design guide is insightful and inspiring.  In the "Design Principles" section, it has three main categories - "Enchant Me" - "Simplify My Life" - "Make Me Amazing" - and in each case, "me" is the person holding the phone and there are subcategories for each that give specific examples of the types of interactions that best exemplify those traits.

But one thing struck me... there's a bunch of time spent on where to place buttons, how they should look and act, and even a section admonishing the developer not to get lazy and just make an app for Android, Apple iOS and Windows Phone 7 (yeah, I've never heard of that either), but to take care to use the conventions of Android for Android apps so you don't confuse or alienate your users.

Apparently, that advice doesn't apply to them.  Google offers up a Gmail app on iOS.  It offers you access to some of the Googlely goodness of Gmail that the built in iOS Mail app can't offer.  But it's supremely ugly.  And clunky.  And different from any other professional apps on the iPhone.

And yet, to read this guide, it sounds like it's following most of the Android conventions and I suspect to use the app on Android, it would feel beautiful, fluid, consistent.  That this isn't a problem with the app, per se, it's a problem with the guys who built it not following the advice of their colleagues - that the Gmail app for iPhone isn't designed with the iPhone in mind.  That it's simply a copy of the Android version with Android's purposefully non-3D, non-rounded, dark, low-resolution icons and menu placements.  

In the same way that you must spend several seconds on each new website unconsciously learning the conventions of their menus (why most websites adopt the top and left navigation structure and why IMDB is so frustrating), there's a "switching cost" each time you move from app to app that doesn't follow convention.

And the Gmail app certainly does not follow iPhone convention and therefore there's a negative association immediately upon first use because even if it's supremely powerful (it is) and offers you access to all kinds of features the built-in version doesn't (it does), the fact that it forces you to change your way of thinking immediately gives it a negative switching cost.  

Perhaps that's why it only has 3-stars.f

It's the little things

Sometimes it's the small mistakes that give you away.

I knew Google had a time machine.

The Problem with the Internet

So last night, the internet once again captivated me in the strange way it does.  It's such a good example of how dangerous it can be to someone like me, inately curious, especially when the one thing I wish I had more of was time.  The internet can so quickly rob me of that.

So last night I started on the homepage of MSNBC.  And then Arab League threatens sanctions against Syria. So then I had to look up Syria on Google Maps.And then I wandered around the Middle East until I ended up in Tarsus in Turkey.  And then I was puzzled by street names ending with the abbreviation "Cd" and "Sk" 

So, off to Wikipedia and then it was all rabbit trails from there:

• Street Names
• Streets and Highways of Washington, DC
• Malbone Street Wreck - a subway crash in New York that claimed the lives of 93 people, thanks to a train going to fast with an inexperienced scab driver on a brand new tunnel
• Circus - a bigtop misdirect, thanks Wikipedia
• Drake Circus Shopping Centre
• Charles Church - the shell of a very old church, bombed in 1941

And then just like that, more than 30 minutes was gone.  Reminds me of this NSFW xkcd.

Never did figure out what CD or SK meant.

Odds and Ends 97

1. MSNBC -- Will it be a merry Christmas for Borders, Barnes & Noble?

2. LIFEHACKER -- FlashVideoReplacer Replaces Flash Videos with Windows Media, QuickTime Equivalents - I don't use Firefox, but this sounds cool. If you use Firefox, would you let us know how well it does (or doesn't) work?

3. MASHABLE -- Everyone Uses E-mail, But Blogging Is On the Decline

4. SETH GODIN -- Who's On Your List?

5. ENDGADGET -- Wireless carriers openly considering charging per service - super lame.

6. ROBERT CRINGELY -- How to Plug a Leak: Don't

7. GOOGLE -- Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011

8. SEATTLESCAPE -- Uniform Taxation: A TIF Problem to Solve -- complicated, but interesting

9. WSDOT -- WSDOT adds 29 rail cars to Washington Grain Train - an example of good government - collective capitalism that doesn't cost the tax-payers anything, but creates an opportunity for small businesses that they wouldn't otherwise have

10. INHABIT -- Chevy Volt Parts Made From 100,000 Pounds of Gulf Oil Booms