My wild and crazy brother

1991 demo of NEXTSTEP by Steve Jobs

It's amazing how much of the Next stuff made it into OS X. Jobs has been plotting this for a long, long time...

Kottke on the tragic loss of public social space

I am with Jason -- portable personal technology is a product of a culture that has devalued public space, but it's not the driving force. This kind of technological determinism has never convincingly explained anything.

I finally bought (and started reading) Revolution in the Valley

All my cool friends use iChat

(Notice the green "audio chat" icons next to my buddies' names.)

Forget the iPod halo effect -- this is the jazer halo effect. People around me can't help but use Macs!

There is no Social Security crisis (zing!)

THE HASSELHOFFIAN RECURSION (brace yourself)

Saved by the Bell history

I can't... I'm mormon

Bill Gates poses for Teen Beat, circa 1983 (my year of birth)

I'm a geek with free time (watch out)

Since I've had free time in the last couple of weeks, I've started to rate my music in iTunes. This sounds like a monumentally boring and stupid waste of time, but I think it's actually going to be really useful.

See, once I've rated (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars) a good deal of my music library, I can start to do cool things with it. Like make a smart playlist that only gives me songs rated 3 stars or above. Or use AutoFill to load an iPod Shuffle (which I don't have yet but will soon) with only my most favorite music. I can listen to all my top-rated jazz, or rock, or hip-hop, or whatever. It's going to be great.

Rating songs in iTunes is easy, and it's a great way to kill time -- think of the fun you'll have while procrastinating at the library this semester! Here's how it works:

1. First, pull up your iTunes Library and make sure you can see the "My Rating" column.


2. If it's not there: Choose the "Edit" menu, then "View Options" from the bottom of that list. Make sure "My Rating" is checked.


3. To rate a song, highlight a song in iTunes and click the number of stars you want in the "My Rating" column.


4. I have been rating songs by playing through all my music on shuffle. When a song comes up I want to rate, I hit Apple-L (that's Control-L for you Windows folks) and iTunes finds the song and highlights it for me.

One of the coolest things to do after you've rated your music is to make smart playlists. This is easy. Here's how:

1. In iTunes, choose the "File" menu, then "New Smart Playlist..."


2. Check "Match the following condition" and select "My Rating" from the left-most drop down.


3. Specify how you want this playlist to choose music -- greater than a certain rating? Less than? Only right at a certain rating?


4. Make sure "Live updating" is checked.


5. Click "OK," and your playlist will appear in the Source column of iTunes. Now any songs that match your criteria will show up in this list, automatically. It's magic!

Have you thought of any other cool ways to use iTunes ratings?

Live from my buddy list

I never thought I'd post AIM away messages on my blog, but I cannot resist.

[Recorded today at 4:50 p.m.]

TinLizzie1111's away message:

chilling out, maxing
and relaxing all cool
and all shooting some b-ball
outside of the school

UWTyrese's away message:

Chillin' out max and relaxin' all cool, and shootin' some b-ball outside of the school.

So, what sort of pop-cultural trend am I missing out on now?

Psychological sizing

Today I found myself in a Tommy Bahama store in Chicago's North Bridge mall (don't ask). After trying a few things on, I noticed it all ran about a size too big. Usually, I'm a 'large' -- but even the 'medium' was a bit baggy there.

So at the register, I mentioned to the cashier that "the sizes run a little big."

"Yeah, about a size big. Tommy Bahama is known for a more... relaxed fit."

I didn't really know what to say to that. "Fit" and "size" are supposed to be independent. For example, my favorite Gap jeans are "low rise boot fit," but they're still the same size I wear everywhere -- 32/34.

Then after some hestitation:

"Well, you know... most of our customers are a bit older," the cashier said. "Some of them are getting bigger than they would like," he said as he placed a hand on his belly.

"So it's a trick?"

"Yeah."

This blog is ALL SPAM

They aren't just spamming the comments -- this is a blog devoted to spam.

Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle

Ugh, checks

Today I wrote myself a check to move funds from my Green Lake checking to my Madison checking. This is a rather routine process for me, as my money never seems to be where I need it.

I went to the bank, and handed the check and deposit slip to the teller (who happens to be my roommate Joanne). Checked the receipt -- okay, all good.

When I got home, Joanne said: "John, you deposited a check to yourself today."

"So?"

"Well, it was from your First Federal account, and you just deposited in your First Federal account!"

"Oh."

Gmail has an Atom feed

I just discovered (first time for me, at least) that I can subscribe to an Atom feed that will show new messages in Gmail. That means I could track my entire life in NetNewsWire -- blogs, news, email, Basecamp -- and that is a scary, scary thought.

Just when I thought un-bolding things for a living couldn't get any worse, this discovery threatens to wreak havoc on my ability to live a balanced life.

Short books

I have decided that short books are my favorites. Ones you can read in an afternoon, day or evening. I don't know of any idea or topic that can't be explained in a day, and so it should be with books. It's 2005, the information age is running at full steam (no pun intended) and things should be as brief as possible.

Here are my favorite short books, off the top of my head (most of my books are in Madison; I am not):

• The Old Man and The Sea, Ernest Hemingway. A classic story of struggle and heartbreak, delivered in a beautiful 128 pages. A nice evening read.


• The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier. This book totally altered my outlook on how to persuade using sounds, words and images. A must read for anyone in marketing, advertising, design, publishing, management or... branding.


• Interface Culture, Steven Johnson. Compelling analysis of the interface metaphor, and how it dominates not only modern technology but much of our culture. Not quite "short" at 250 pages, but still manageable in a day.


• Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug. Subtitled "A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability," this book gracefully covers the major points of web usability (and spares us Jakob Nielsen's condescending tone). Since I have two copies, I share this book with nearly everyone I work with.


• In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway. Sorry for the Hemingway overload, but this is great short fiction. It's actually a collection of stories, but it's thematically consistent so it makes for a great afternoon read. Sad, desolate and personal, delivered with uncompromising effectiveness.

If anyone is reading this, what are your favorite short books?

"Obsolescence on line one"

Brad does Brown (Charlie)

I'm listening to Brad Mehldau's new Live in Tokyo, a solo piano tour de force. Around 3:00 into "Monk's Dream," Brad quotes Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" from Charlie Brown! How cool is that?

(Anyone that understands my love for the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack can verify that this is really very cool.)

Derek's virtual Chaunkah

Emotions make decisions (as quoted by Derek Powazek)

Nick is going to teach a class at his house

Titanic in 30 seconds with bunnies

"Dude, it's like Jurassic Park in my backyard!"

I wrote this story back in May, but just discovered it floating around in my archives, unpublished. The original date is May 25, 2004. Enjoy!

If you live in south-central Wisconsin, all this talk of X-Treme Weather is probably getting old. Tough.

It started here with blustery winds and quasi-torrential rains (what does it take to be 'torrential,' anyway?). Trees were flopping, flipping, and flapping and the ground went from soggy to soupy.

As you may know, our backyard is a little jungley already, so imagine the view from John Buchel's room with all this outdoor commotion. He was already excited about the "wild kingdom" noises coming from behind our house, but the thunder, rain and wind really got going. One day he came running downstairs and exclaimed, "Dude, it's like _Jurassic Park_ in my backyard!"

For a few days, Stormapalooza was little more than an interesting distraction. In some ways, it added to the after-school sense of chaos and anarchy that we feed on.

It wasn't enough that two people were living in my tiny bedroom;º it wasn't totally novel being out of school and going out any night of the week; and the ants living with us were mega gross and disconcerting but not really a big deal. But storms — that got us going.

I had been transported from the structured world of classes and finals to the wild and wooly One-Four-Two, complete with muddy backyard, strange animal noises, crashing thunder, and perpetual houseguests.

It's good be home.

º Having sub-leased her apartment, Michelle moved in with me for the week of May 17-23. It's a good thing she's not very big, because her stuff took up all the extra space in my bedroom.