Miscellaneous and Useless Information – Page 7 – James Lin’s infrequently updated blog

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-28

Argh, haven't read Twitter for 6 days, totally drowning in tweets. It's been a busy week… #
At lunch a plane flew over Google with a banner, "Will Google play in Peoria, IL?" Today is last day for cities to apply for Google Fiber. #
@drjpierce I doubt the gimmicks will do any good. AFAIK, Google didn't encourage this behavior (but it probably doesn't mind the publicity). in reply to drjpierce #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-21

@drjpierce Great, now I can play with your iPad instead of getting my own. in reply to drjpierce #
Finally saw my dissertation in print at the Berkeley Engineering Library, which seemed to make it more real. (And it's two volumes!) #
Watching an episode of Mission: Impossible in honor of Peter Graves, who died today at the age of 83. #
Google accepts Buzz criticism, invites danah boyd to speak on privacy (GigaOM) http://bit.ly/91sni6 #
My NCAA bracket picks: a mixture of wishful thinking, ignorance, and pure randomness. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-14

A visual guide to choosing the right chart. http://bit.ly/d2ZW59 (via @manukumar, @priyacmu, @azaaza) #
Good news: I found my camera, which I had lost 1.5 weeks ago. OTOH, there goes my excuse for buying a new camera. 🙂 #
@proclubboy You better not tweet about it at the altar! in reply to proclubboy #
I see @2leeoh also found these fun "maps": http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/my-way/ (interesting that he uses Google's map style) #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

Up in Berkeley today, I found a parking space right in front of Unit 3. Parking karma doesn’t get any better. #
At Doug Crockford’s talk on JavaScript and the DOM tonight, I won a copy of Doug’s book, JavaScript: The Good Parts! #
RT @landay Go Yang! RT @yangli169 http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/03/search-your-android-phone-with-written.html #
@tessalau If you had Crockford’s book, you’d know. 🙂 Or you can watch his talk at Google (which I recommend): http://bit.ly/OHbHb in reply to tessalau #
@2leeoh Actually, that would be “noogler.” Or is it “n00gler”? in reply to 2leeoh #
@jeffbigham Right-click on the title in a Finder or any document window, and a menu with the path drops down. Obvious? No. Convenient? Yes! in reply to jeffbigham #
Julia, you are a star! RT @jewelia my new IBM commercial airs tomorrow! check out the advance copy: http://bit.ly/9O6MnS #
I borrowed “Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut)”, a 6-hr documentary on you know who, from the library. Let the madness begin! #
The Secret Language of Signs http://www.slate.com/id/2245644/ (thanks @nancyf, @mr_alan_cooper & @williamlidwell) #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21

Impressed with what I've seen of Windows Phone 7 so far. http://bit.ly/yuCgw They should make a tablet with the UI! #
IBM Research releases CoScripter Reusable History for recording and sharing your web history http://bit.ly/coTWMr (via @jwnichls) #
I already know how cool CoScripter Reusable History is — I was there when @ianli wrote the first version. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14

Collection of iPad UI conventions pulled from frames of Apple’s demo videos. http://j.mp/daLakN (via @manukumar, @veen) #
RT @wattenberg a celebration of color (new piece with @viegasf): http://hint.fm/blog #
Must check this out: RT @landay nice talk by Paul Gross of Wash U. (C. Kelleher student) on code reuse in end-user programming tool #iui2010 #
Google Buzz: someone’s post can pop into my feed if enough people recommend it, even if I don’t follow them. Very useful within a company. #
Google’s code name for Buzz: Taco Town. http://bit.ly/afqsIF A lot of Googlers still calling Buzz postings “Tacos”. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

@landay I find iPhone’s UI still has more polish. Plus, I’m still in an AT&T contract, and Nexus One doesn’t support AT&T’s 3G frequencies. in reply to landay #
@j_lin Google Voice also avoids the annoyances of voicemail. in reply to j_lin #
Whatever happened to the opening crawl in Star Wars? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8O8YbnworA (via Gizmodo) #
Who says an iPad won’t fit in a pocket? Just ask Stephen Colbert: http://bit.ly/9UKqt0 #
@landay Nexus One supports three 3G frequencies, but the other two are used in Europe and Asia. in reply to landay #
Combating bribery by giving “cash” worth nothing: http://bit.ly/c7XnVR (via @landay) #
Just saw a “free iPad” ad in Facebook, which screamed “BS”. A quick web search led me to a Technologizer article: http://bit.ly/bIQjZo #
Where the heck did January go? Soon it will be 2011! #

A few thoughts about Apple’s iPad

One day after the iPad was introduced, reactions in the tech world have been mixed, so I watched Apple’s announcement to see for myself.

There are quite a few features the iPad lacks: multitasking, a camera, Adobe Flash support, HDMI video output, USB ports, an SD slot, and so on. But remember that at first, the iPhone didn’t 3G or native apps for a whole year. And who would have thought you could successfully sell a smartphone without copy and paste for two years? I bet the iPad is starting out the same way — start off with just enough features to get people hooked, figure out what’s really necessary, and then add on.

If you paid attention to Steve Jobs’ pitch, he may have talked about features and specs, but he really emphasized the experience of using the iPad. “The Internet in your hands,” he said over and over again. Hey, it may look like just a giant iPhone, but once you actually try it out, you’ll be hooked. He’s trying to appeal to your emotional, sensual side — which helps explain why a lot of left-brained geeks weren’t buying his spiel.

A few other random thoughts:

I found it quite interesting to see what were essentially full-screen iPhone menus being used as pop-up menus or sidebars in iPad applications. If Apple designs its SDK well, it may not be too difficult to create one application that works on both the iPhone and the iPad.
The home screens look anemic on such a large screen. The icons look too small, and the spacing too large. I’m surprised Apple didn’t put more design work into this.
For input, I didn’t believe the rumor that the iPad would require you to learn a complex set of gestures, but I was hoping for something more interesting than a virtual keyboard (hello, ShapeWriter). I’m curious to try it out and see how well it works. While the iPhone keyboard isn’t perfect, it works better than I expected on such a small screen. And at least you can use a Bluetooth keyboard with it.
The biggest surprise for me was how aggressive the pricing is, $500 to $830.

I’d love to get my hands on an iPad, try it out, and see whether it’s as “magical” as Jobs claims. But even if it is, I won’t buy one yet. I never buy the first generation of a gadget, and in the case of the iPhone, it was a good idea. Let’s see what the iPad 2 is like.

HCI well represented in this year’s TR35

Congratulations to the HCI researchers in MIT Technology Review’s list of top 35 innovators under 35: Jeff Bigham, Jeff Heer, Shahram Izadi, Shwetak Patel, and Jamie Teevan. Represent!

Technology Review: TR35 2009

Memory price drops

As I was cleaning out my papers, I came across some old receipts for various tech gadgets. While I’m used to high-tech stuff getting cheaper and cheaper, I still find it stunning how quickly prices have fallen for certain items:

Item	Purchase date	Purchase price	Current price	Annual depreciation rate	Annual overall inflation rate (CPI)
1 GB USB flash drive	Dec 16, 2005	$69.99	$7.99	−43.8%	+2.4%
2 GB SD Flash card	Nov 24, 2006	$84.98	$9.99	−57.6%	+2.4%
Canon PowerShot 7.1 megapixel camera	Nov 23, 2006	$361.49	$179.99 (8.0 MP)	−24.4%	+2.4%