Tool June 2, 2007
Posted by erik in : Music , 1 comment so far
Day 3 of the Tool extravaganza. Thursday Caleb and I flew down to Orlando to catch Tool in concert and the show rocked. It’s been something like 6 years since these guys toured and I have this fear that this might be the last, hence why this is day 3. Today we find ourselves in Jacksonville, FL where tonight we will be seeing Tool again. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a band twice on the same tour and I’m not sure what to expect. The set has been pretty good, I’m horrible with names however so don’t ask me to name what songs, but they have been playing a lot of my old favorites in addition to new stuff off of 10,000 days. 
Too many Tool might seem as just another angry metal band but for me I’ve always considered Tool a pretty spiritual experience. It’s a raw power sharply focused that I find deeply energizing. That’s not to say all of their songs talk to me, but most of them do, and they wake something up inside me.
Ok, off for breakfast, tonight the show goes on.
Palm Foleo - Dumbest Idea from Palm ever May 31, 2007
Posted by erik in : Technology , 1 comment so farPalm has lost it, and I mean totally lost it. What the hell are they thinking bringing a product like this to market? As I read about the announcements at the WSJ D event I came across the Palm announcement. I rushed off to learn about it - maybe they had reinvented the smartphone, perhaps their OS, or maybe something else that would have been newsworthy. What I found was a worthless sub notebook sized “thing” that doesn’t do anything unless you have you have paired it with your SmartPhone. I say thing because the device is utterly useless on it’s own, it can’t do much unless you have synced it with your phone. I honestly don’t know who does their market research but they need to be fired. Lets start with the basics:
First, when do people use their SmartPhone? Answer: When they are standing in line, sitting on an airplane before takeoff or landing (or sneaking a peek during the flight), walking to lunch, driving their car, or sitting in meetings that have gone too long. What do all these things have in common? It’s all time that is considered “reclaimed time” that would have otherwise gone wasted if it wasn’t for some convenient pocket sized device that they could fiddle with in one hand while doing whatever else they were doing.
Second, why do people have a SmartPhone? Answer: To carry their info and remain connected to the world when on the go, these people are road warriors who are not interested in adding anything to their carry on bag because it’s already full enough. They are always looking for ways to make their SmartPhone do more so they don’t have to carry around a laptop or really anything larger than their phone. If there was an easy way for a sales guy to run PowerPoint presentations off their phone, they would.
Third, where is the pain this device is solving? Answer: there is none. Is it hard for me to write out long e-mails on a treo or stare at pictures of other peoples kids? Yeah, maybe. Am I going to go buy a 500 dollar device to make it easier? Hell no.
Fourth , who’s going to shell out the cash for this thing? Answer: No one. This device is targeted at business customers and no corporate IT group is going to buy this thing for their people. Why should they when they have already been issued a laptop and SmartPhone, what more do they need. No geek is going to be caught with this thing either, it’s too limited in it’s capabilities and anyone caught with one is most likely going to be made fun of. Road warriors are not going to shell out a dime for this thing either, its just going to clog up their travel bag. So that leaves the consumer market, are they going to buy this thing? Nope, they are perfectly content texting each other using the dial pad, much less do they have a SmartPhone.
So lets recap. The Foleo solves a problem that doesn’t exist for a market that would rather use their SmartPhone for everything and all other times their laptop or desktop and no corporate IT department is going to acquire these things for their users so my guess is about 2 of these things are going to be sold and those 2 people are going to be laughed at for shelling out 500 dollars on this thing and not a cool new iPhone like everyone else.
Palm, what happened to you? You were once a great company, a source of innovation, but this is just pathetic. I declare Palm dead and think they have 6 to 12 months to live before the company collapses.
Chicago part 2 May 28, 2007
Posted by erik in : General , 1 comment so far
Day 2 in Chicago - We are never going to leave!
The weather was absolutely perfect. I mean really really perfect. Blue skys, no clouds, amazing. We got our start around 10 when we hopped on the Red Line going north, got off at Chicago station and walked our way to the John Hancock building. It could not have been a better day to be up there looking out over the city. We could see as far as Gary Indiana and the vistas were spectacular. From there we walked the Magnificent Mile and ducked in and out of the shops, I picked up a pair of shoes and Rebecca picked up some clothes from H&M.
But that wasn’t the mission for the day, if you recall from yesterday, the goal today was Pizza and we hit the mother load. Gino’s East was recommended to us by a friend and it was absolutely delicious. Exactly what we were looking for - a true slice of Chicago pie. The line was just long enough to know you had come to the right place but not too long as to annoy you. Once we got in we noticed that just about every flat surface in the place was covered by the graffiti the thousands who had come here before, pretty cool. We ordered a Gino’s Sausage Supreme. Our waiter warned us in advance that they cook everything from scratch and that it would take about 45 min for the pizza to arrive but it was worth it. If you find yourself in Chicago, looking for Pizza, I highly recommend you head over to Gino’s on 162 E Superior St.
We spent more time walking the mile and shopping, we hit up the Apple store for fun and then headed to the original Marshall Fields store to explore. Most department stores in the US are well, department stores. Boring, formulaic and just what you are expecting. The original Marshall Fields store however has character, in some ways parts of it reminded me of Harrods in London if you can believe that, and that’s a serious complement for any store in America. Despite wandering around for some time, we ended up not buying anything except a box of chocolates which I’m enjoying right now 
We took the red line back home, dropped off our booty for the day and then headed immediately off to meet up with Rebecca’s cousins (whom we are staying with) and enjoy a concert at Millennium Park. Completed in 2004 it transformed a part of the city once dominated by a railroad switching yard into 25 acres of parkland. Center to the park is a huge outdoor pavilion designed by Frank Gehry which is where we enjoyed our dinner and watched the concert.
Also in the park is “the bean” or Cloud Gate sculpture created by Anish Kapoor which is this gigantic stainless steel “bean” that has been polished to be super reflective. It wraps a warped reflection of the skyline around it’s curves and really catches your eye. You can walk underneath it where you feel like you are entering into a fun house mirror of the most extreme kind. I heard this thing cost a ridiculous amount of money, I think it was worth every penny.
The concert came to an end, we wandered back home and now as we get ready to turn in I can’t help but feel like in the past 2 short days I’ve really gotten to know this city. I’m adding it to my short list of places I’d consider living next.
Chicago May 26, 2007
Posted by erik in : travel , 1 comment so farI’m in Chicago for Memorial day weekend. Chicago is the one big city in the US that despite my best attempts, I’ve never wandered around in. Today I put that to an end. Despite the gray day and threat of rain we headed out on a morning bike ride around grant park, the aquarium, navy pier and everything in between. After having a Chicago Dog at Navy Pier we biked back home and then headed off to the Art Institute for some museum exploring, we barely scratched the surface of that place. We then proceeded to wander south through the city and walked back home (in the rain, but who cares!).
I think I like Chicago. The city has this Gotham feel, the architecture is intense, the people seem decent enough and the proximity to the lake adds this intangible cherry on top of everything. I found myself wondering what it would be like to be here in winter, not because I wonder if it would be hell (or rather hell frozen over) as I’m sure it is, but because I wonder how the city operates in the winter, what it looks like, what effect it has on the people, how do people cope? There is something fun about putting on a ton of warm clothing and braving the winter in a city, you instantly have this bond with everyone else around you as you brave the elements. Why I find this fascinating I do not know.
Tomorrow I plan to have our whole day revolve around my search for Pizza. We plan to head for Giordano’s or perhaps Gino’s East (I’ve been recommended both) for a slice of Chicago style pizza pie, what we do before then or after is still up for debate but with so much to see in such a short time I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.
p.s. I’ve been “tagged” so that means I’ve got some more blogging to do very soon!
On the subject of Airplanes May 5, 2007
Posted by erik in : General , 1 comment so farThis video is just amazing. 873 people in 77 seconds, you can read the full story here. I wonder just what this whole thing would look like if you threw in some real fire and smoke?
Having heard stories about how people react when the plane really is in distress (a strange fascination of mine) I’ve often heard that a lot of people just freeze up, even if the fire is right behind them. It’s almost as if people are unable to come to grip with the reality of the situation and they just shut down. For me, the closest I’ve ever been to that edge was on a flight many years ago from San Francisco to Tokyo. Half way there as we crossed over the last of the Aletuiens I felt a shudder go through the plane unlike any turbulence I’d ever felt. I looked up at the flight attendant and the look on their face immediately told me something was wrong. All over the plane they simultaneously sprang into action without any trace of instruction, it was pure training as they ran down the isles ordering “SIT DOWN, FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT, REMAIN SEATED, REMAIN CALM”.
In a matter of seconds they had verified all were seated and strapped themselves in as the plane began a very sharp decent. I heard someone ahead of me in the cabin say “Oh God” and in an instant there was an amazing wave of panic that rolled through the entire cabin, it hit everyone in their own way, no one got up and ran around the cabin, no one screamed, some started quietly weeping, but no one spoke. The silence was unbelievably spooky and everyone around me looked terrified.
It was surreal, I felt the panic, the fear, had the cliché moment where I wondered if this was how I was going to die and then the most amazing thing happened to me. I realized I wasn’t in control. It didn’t matter what I did in the next moments, it was out of my control. With this realization came a deep and profound sense of calm. I looked around at everyone in the cabin with an amazing sense of clarity and curiosity and then I did they only thing a calm person does on a trans-Atlantic flight - I put my earphones back on and finished watching the movie (which they had thankfully left running).
That was in the first 30 seconds, the next 30 minutes were what I can only imagine excruciating for just about everyone else. The plane continued it’s dive towards the earth and then abruptly flattened out. I could feel the plane circle for the remainder of the time and then finally the Pilot spoke. “Folks, we had an engine failure and I apologize for the steep decent to 10,000 feet. Thankfully, this is a 747 and we have 3 perfectly good engines still functioning. Even better we have been able to restart the fourth engine and since we are at the half way point we will be continuing to Tokyo, again sorry for the excitement, please let the cabin crew know if they can help you in anyway”
So we all lived, we didn’t get pushed all the way to that edge that day, but I can tell you one thing - I still miss that sense of calm I had that day, I’ve never had it since.
Airplane on a Treadmill SOLVED April 12, 2007
Posted by erik in : General , 2 commentsI was wrong. It’s quite refreshing to be wrong, but hopefully I don’t become addicted to the feeling.
So why have I gone complete 180? How will the Airplane take off? It’s all bout the Forces baby! Really forces acting on forces or rather forces that don’t counteract forces, or something…involving hamsters? OK even that wasn’t good enough for me to understand it. Apparently I’m a visual thinker and through the fine art skills of a friend of mine (Jeff) at work, he helped me see the light. Here’s what he shared with me:
So what’s going on in this image? First, you have the usual suspects, the plane, the treadmill, but what you don’t have is the planes engines. Instead of those Jeff has substituted the engines for a crane on wheels. The crane is what provides the forward force to move the plane. By now everyone reading this who was thinking there was no way for the plane to move forward is smacking their forehead with their palm, don’t deny it, I can hear the smack from here, it’s OK, I did it too.
The best part of this diagram is it’s simplicity, you don’t have to understand the physics at work here to just know immediately that no matter how fast the planes wheels are spinning against that treadmill when that crane moves forward, so is that plane. For a final kicker, imagine the plane doesn’t have wheels at all, but rather it’s a hovercraft and it starts making even more sense. Oh the huge manatee!
Jeff, thank you, the world owes you a debt of gratitude, and so do I. Perhaps the Internet might actually be able to put this one to bed? I await your comments!
Net Neutrality’s Revenge March 19, 2007
Posted by erik in : Technology , add a commentRemember Net Neutrality? A lot of people stopped paying attention when the Telco bill that got everyone upset died but because no one passed the bills that would make it illegal to bring the idea up again later means the idea is still out there lurking. Around the same time I predicted that if anti-net neutrality laws were allowed to pass that it would accelerate the move to an all wireless Internet. According to this report, it would look like I was right. Of course the article doesn’t go far enough with a lot of the focus on what will happen to existing wireless providers like AT&T and Sprint, but that’s way too short sighted. It doesn’t take a genius to plot out the Moore’s law chart of wireless data networks to come up with a trajectory that says in 20 years time I’m going to have a hand held device that can talk to your hand held device on the other side of the country, but it won’t do it over anyones network, it will do it point to point. So what happens when the average guy on the street has nationwide point to point capabilities, and then soon after world wide? Think mesh networks on steroids.
At that point, information really will be free. Just as the P2P crowd found out, the only way to get data from me to you is to eliminate the middle man because the middle man always wants a cut of the action.
So as far as net neutrality’s concerned I’m OK that the threat is still there that AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner could cruise in and rain on our parade, it just accelerates the beginning of the end of big telco and hopefully, finally, as David Isenberg perdicted in 1998 the real rise of the stupid network
Viral Marketing and the Year Zero February 27, 2007
Posted by erik in : General , add a comment
Nine Inch Nails right now is in the middle of one of the more interesting viral marketing campaigns i’ve ever seen for their new album Year Zero. Watching the events unfold has been pretty exciting for me, both from fan’s perspective and a marketing one. I don’t know of any mainstream musicians who have gone to such interesting extreams in promoting their work and it’s about time.
For the uninitiated you can get the cliff notes of what’s been going on here or for those looking to just see a collection of everything that has been scraped together you can go here and try and figure out just what the heck is going on yourself. The short version is that pre-release tracks have been poping up on random flash drives left in night clubs. Technology savy folks out there have discovered data embedded in the tracks (either data or in morse code) as well as other numbers that lead to phone mail boxes and random web sites that paint a post-apocolyptic vision a potential american future where our rights have been erroded to almost nothing by the religious right and the “necessisty” of the War on Terror.
Clearly Trent Reznor has a political point to make (one I support, but that’s another blog posting)
So what about the Marketing part? So far as part of this marketing program 4 songs have been released, for free, that’s pretty amazing in itself for the Music industry but what’s more amazing is how fast all of this information has been peiced together by the NIN fan base (clearly very technology literate). The program reaches back to reference NIN songs many years old or to the present with highlighted letters on the back of the recent European tour shirts pointing to bizzar web sites. The amount of work and planning to pull this marketing program off feels immense, something that seems just as important to the success of the program as the program itself. As a fan it’s impossible to not feel infected by all of this, and it’s a strange feeling to both simultaniously realize that it’s a completely fictional marketing campaign created to promote the new NIN album and to also willingly want to set aside disbelief and allow myself to
get wrapped up in it.
It’s too early to tell all the directions this is going to go in, but I plan on spending some time really analyzing this whole program from start to finish, putting together a timeline of events and identifying the things that made this program (assuming it is) a success.
In the meantime I am going out of my mind waiting for that next album and keeping my eye out for the “presence”
I’m making a bet with myself
Posted by erik in : General , 1 comment so farSomeone I know just found my MySpace page. This comes as a shock I know to both of us that 1) You know I have a MySpace page and 2) Someone actually found it.
I feel like this just might push me over the edge, that magical edge where I start taking this blog, and my online presence in general seriously. I mean come on, if you have been reading this blog then you know I’m not one to post very often, and it’s eating at my soul damn it .
So I’m making a bet with myself, a bet that I will either start blogging like I mean it, or that’s it I’m taking this site down, closing shop, calling it day, that’s it. Fin.
That’s a pretty harsh punishment for me, scary even…so hang on, I’m going to go throw some cold water on my face and come back here with a new mission real quick, otherwise the consequenses will be dire.
Airplane on a conveyor Belt December 11, 2006
Posted by erik in : General , 2 commentsThe plane will not take off people, I can’t believe people are debating this.
Why you ask? The airspeed relative to the wings of the airplane will be zero. For example when this happens in flight, your plane stalls and you fall from the air. You are not going to get off the ground no matter how much thrust those engines put out unless the airspeed over the wings changes.