Tyler Barth2015-12-04T15:32:03+08:00http://www.divergio.com/Tyler Barth 包泰樂Cars and Futurism2013-04-06T23:37:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/04/06/cars-and-futurism<p>There was recently an absolutely fascinating <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/post/47063460311/episode-76-the-modern-moloch" title="the modern moloch">episode</a> of the podcast 99% Invisible about the development of the concept of jaywalking.</p>
<p>It’s most interesting from a futurist perspective if you think about the kinds of discussions they are having about cars, a technology which was still in its nascent stage and for which there was little precedent.</p>
<p>Listen to this and then imagine what people in the future will think about the discussions we have around the role and legal status of technologies which are new to us now.</p>
<p>We’re the frog in the soup, so we don’t feel the changes and lots of things seem normal; but between 2013 and 2035, as a civilization we’ll be developing and determining the roles of many technologies. Nothing is actually inevitable.</p>
My Most Desired iPhone Enhancement2013-03-25T07:30:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/03/25/most-desired-iphone-enhancement<p>My iOS software enhancement wishlist is pretty long. Off the top of my head I can think of: some form of inter-app communication, an easier way to change brightness (or more functional automatic brightness adjustment), allowing minor updates without requiring a restart, and of course some solution to the iCloud/document siloing problem. But the iPhone enhancement I really want is faster app-switching, which I think can only be satisfactorily solved with a hardware modification.</p>
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<p>App-switching is inherently a power-user feature. Grandma really shouldn’t need to task switch, just like she probably doesn’t even need to know how to copy and paste. The built-in sharing features should be able to capture her use cases. Even casual users will only need to task switch every once and a while. I bet a lot of iPhone users don’t even know they can double-tap the home button, instead falling back on pressing the home button and selecting the second app from the home screen. Power users, however, want to switch apps all the time. They may be doing research in one app and writing in another, or reading in one app and chatting in another. For them, the home button double-tap is cumbersome and annoying.</p>
<p>The iPad elegantly solves the fast app-switching problem with a four finger swipe. Because the friction of moving from one app to another is substantially decreased, this feature enables streamlined new workflows. A lot of iPad users probably don’t know about this feature. For them, the home button is still available. I would compare this to how most people might not know about Command-Tab app-switching on the desktop, but how power-users who want that speed depend on it.</p>
<p>I’ve seen mock-ups and hacks on jailbroken iPhones trying to improve the app-switching experience. Some of them have small app previews, which are nice but don’t solve the speed problem. Others use swipes in from the side of the screen, which I think is confusing (it’s likely to be triggered by accident) and steals another gesture from app developers. The swipe from the top has already been stolen by the notification center, if swipes from the left and right are taken, too, then it really limits the utility of the swipe gesture for app developers, not to mention confusing users.</p>
<p>With screen gestures we’re too limited in space on the iPhone. Multi-finger swipes take too much room. Therefore, I think the best way to solve this problem is with hardware. I propose taking the home button and widening it by about a half centimeter on both sides (it might look something like this <a href="http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/iphone-5-larger-screen-home-button-thinner-design/" title="iPhone 5 mock-up">old mock-up</a>)</p>
<p>This expanded home button will be touch sensitive across its whole surface, but it will also be a button across its whole surface. Apple already has a design similar to this: the trackpads on all its laptops. Now, add one gesture to this home button: swiping left and right moves between apps (optionally, you might add a second, two-finger gesture to bring up the home panel).</p>
<p>Because the button still acts as a button, we keep all of the advantages of a single button smartphone. It still acts as an escape hatch. People who don’t know you can swipe on the button don’t have to. It’s not a required interaction because the old style app-switching (press home, reselect from home screen) is still there. The swipe gesture is easy to recognize and not easily confused with a button press gesture, so it doesn’t interfere with the standard home button usage. With it, though, app-switching becomes a one swipe operation, making the phone feel a lot faster, and the use of multiple apps a lot more enjoyable.</p>
<p>With this simple enhancement, Apple would please the power-users while still maintaining it’s famed ease-of-use for beginners.</p>
Web App Idea: Rendezvo.us2013-02-14T15:41:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/02/14/business-idea-rendezvo-dot-us<p>I’ve had a web app idea in the back of my mind for the longest time. For reasons I explain, I haven’t tried to do it myself. It has continued to bother me, though, especially in those times when I wish it existed so I could use it myself.</p>
<p>Considering its extreme relevance to Valentine’s day, I’ve decided to write it up and just put it out there.</p>
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<h2>Problem</h2>
<p>Nowadays, people have friends living all over the place. They have their high school friends, their college friends, their friends from when they were an exchange student in Germany, and their friends they met on vacation in Guatemala.</p>
<p>Families, too, are getting more spread out; a sister might live in Seattle, and her brother in New York. Where should they meet for a reunion?</p>
<p>When you want to meet up with a friend or family, you don’t necessarily want to fly straight to their home city. Sometimes you want to meet half-way and have a short vacation.</p>
<p>Of course, people in long-distance relationships especially want to find places to meet up. Friends can FaceTime, but lovers probably want to meet in person, and they might not be especially picky about where they meet. A destination is okay as long as it could be a moderately entertaining city, because the city is less important than the person they’re meeting.</p>
<p>So what do these people do? They find some place that is cheap for both of them to fly to, attempting to minimize the combined flight cost.</p>
<h2>Missed Opportunities</h2>
<p>To solve this problem, you would probably start out with countries or cities approximately equidistant from both people, doing two flight price searches per city and manually adding the prices. This works okay for a few cities, but you might miss the best options because you never thought to check them.</p>
<p>You see, the topology of flight pricing is not directly related to distance, and it’s sometimes counter-intuitive. It might be cheaper for someone in Florida and someone in Tennessee to meet in Chicago because United has a hub there. It might be cheaper for someone in Malaysia and someone in Hong Kong to meet in the Philippines, because Air Asia is running a limited-time promotion. Certain longer routes can be cheaper than much shorter routes simply because of increased competition on certain stretches of that route. For the adventurous and flexible (destination-wise) traveller, this gives opportunities to explore a new city and save some money.</p>
<p>Currently, the best way to find these things is to just obsessively search as many destinations as you can, or maybe use something like KAYAK’s <a href="http://www.kayak.com/explore/" title="kayak explore">Explore</a> or Skyscanner’s <a href="http://www.skyscanner.com/flights-to/cheap-flights-to-cities-all.html" title="sky scanner fly to all cities">all flights search</a> for each person’s city, but there has got to be a better way.</p>
<h2>Solution</h2>
<p>The solution, as I see it, is to leverage the power of the Internet flight search engines. If one of these providers had an open-use API (i.e. allowing programmatic searches from third-party apps), it would be extremely simple to write an app that, given two locations, starts brute force querying all likely cities and tabulating total costs.</p>
<p>Of course, that would be a dumb and extremely search intensive method. The smarter way is to start to build a graph based on past cached search results to try to minimize the number of fresh searches required, performing searches only on especially promising or especially volatile routes.</p>
<p>The final result would be a “Rendezvous Report” with a list of potential meeting cities and prices.</p>
<h2>Complications</h2>
<h3>Data Source</h3>
<p>It’s a pretty simple idea, but the difficulty is in the execution. By far the biggest complication is getting the flight pricing data. All this flight pricing data is locked up behind proprietary interfaces and data agreements.</p>
<p>To implement this app you need to do dozens of searches per user. Most of the flight providers won’t be happy with you freeloading on their searches, especially when your primary monetization methods are probably competing with theirs.</p>
<p>KAYAK, my favorite flight search engine, used to have an API, but we know that it was expensive to operate In fact, they <a href="http://www.kayak.com/labs/api/search/" title="kayak API message">shut it down</a> due to “costly misuse.” I haven’t searched recently, but last time I checked most of the other providers (and I think KAYAK is the savviest of any of them) don’t have APIs either, or have only extremely locked down or expensive APIs.</p>
<p>This is why I think the best place to implement this is within one of the existing travel search engines like Kayak, Google, or Skyscanner. They’ve got the expertise and the data, and they’re most able to optimize the searches and caching because they already collect historical flight data from their primary business. They’ve also got the monetization part solved.</p>
<h3>Searchability</h3>
<p>The second problem is searchability. How do you let people know about this site? This is a problem that a lot of people have, but not one that they necessarily go looking for a solution to.</p>
<p>When confronted with a problem, I usually look on Google and try to find a technological solution, but I don’t expect most people to act like me.</p>
<p>Even if they did, what do they search for? There’s no quick and easy keywords, only abstract explanations of the problem. How do you buy the keywords for a long search query like “finding the cheapest city for two people to fly to.” It’s difficult to Google, with lots of generic “cheap flights” noise, so it would be difficult to help those people to even know you exist.</p>
<p>This is another reason why an existing player would be great. They can put up a splash message on their front page, and (my favorite idea) have a huge valentine’s advertising push: “Looking for somewhere to meet up with your sweetheart??” They might even be able to detect search pattern and offer Microsoft paperclip-style advice: “It looks like you’re trying to find a city to meet, want to try our special search?”</p>
<p>Other than that, you’d probably also want to advertise on places like ex-pat forums, and maybe even online dating sites, though that potentially gets a bit sleazier.</p>
<h3>Name</h3>
<p>I like “Rendezvo.us” because it’s clever and Web 2.0, but most people don’t know how to spell rendezvous so it’s kind of a non-starter. Other ideas: HalfwayPoint, LetsMeetHalfway.com, MeetYouHalfway.com. These are all mostly bad.</p>
<p>My friend thought “Rendezvous Report” would be a nice name, but I think it’s too long for a domain. As a sub-brand of another provider it might work.</p>
<h2>Novelty</h2>
<p>I haven’t found anybody else who had quite this idea. There are a lot of sites which will find a convenient location for you to meet using driving directions, but I couldn’t find any that would look for flights or help you choose a city based on pricing. I imagine it is because of the data problem, because the idea isn’t that far out and I expect there are others who have thought of it.</p>
<p>This goes back to the other main problem, though: searchability. If this already exists I can’t find it. If you know of a site like this or another blog post like this please contact me (<a href="https://twitter.com/divergio" title="divergio twitter">@divergio</a>), I would love to know about it. If you see any other fatal flaws in this plan, I’d be interested to hear them, as well.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>I still think it’s a good idea, and an existing player with just a little bit of engineering time and expertise could easily roll something like this out in time for the next Valentine’s day.</p>
<p>My best bet is Kayak, because at least historically they were pretty savvy and disruptive, and even have a Google-like “Labs” <a href="http://www.kayak.com/labs/" title="kayak labs">project</a> page. Though recently I haven’t seen many exciting enhancements come out of them besides their well-done iPhone app.</p>
<p>I looked at Google’s <a href="https://www.google.com/flights/" title="google flight search">flight search</a> and it also looks more developed than I thought. Someone could do it as a 20% project, though in that case I’d be worried about the typical Google ADD-style product abandonment.</p>
<p>I hope someone can do it. Those of us in long-distance relationships or living far away from friends and family could really use a tool to help us meet up with those we care about.</p>
<h3>Addenda</h3>
<p>A few other non-essential additions:</p>
<p>For bonus points, you could integrate with other transportation networks. If it’s cheaper for me to take a hydro-foil to Macau and meet there than for her to fly direct to Hong Kong, then the app would find that solution. If she can take Megabus to D.C. and save me $100 on a flight, then the system would recommend that possibility.
Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any successful provider who has really got multi-modal travel search (with pricing) working well even in the normal case of point A to point B.</p>
<p>Another idea: integrate hotel pricing, and maybe even other cost of living factors. If you’re price conscious enough to be using an app to find a cheap flight, you probably don’t want to go somewhere where all the hotels are $300 a night and meals average $30 a person. Kayak has some of this information.</p>
Design Technologist2013-02-07T22:54:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/02/07/design-technologist<p>As part of the <a href="http://hackdesign.org" title="hack design">HackDesign course</a>, I read an <a href="http://somerandomdude.com/2012/01/10/transition-from-development-to-design/" title="article from P.J. Onori">article</a> about transitioning from development to design.</p>
<p>One part that stuck with me was a quote near the beginning:</p>
<blockquote><p>If there is one thing to take away from this email, it is to refrain from mentally separating design and development. When you are creating wireframes, you are implying code that needs to be written. When you are coding, you are actualizing user experiences. To mentally separate each process is the first step towards viewing the creation of software as an assembly-line process. We have a lot of horrendous software due to that line of thinking.</p></blockquote>
<p>Though of course there is a limit to this way of thinking (at some point responsibilities need to be divided to increase productivity), one thing I really like about the mobile device space is that it’s really possible to look at app design as more of a holistic craft.</p>
<p>It’s a great feeling envisioning how a control should work, implementing it, and then actually being able to touch the result.</p>
Roderick on the Universe2013-02-07T01:19:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/02/07/roderick-on-the-universe<p>When I go running I listen to Roderick on the Line. In this way, my body is exercised but also…<em>my soul</em>.</p>
<p>On the <a href="http://www.merlinmann.com/roderick/ep-30-cement-gravy-boat-of-suffering.html" title="Roderick on the line episode 30, cement gravy boat of suffering">episode I listened to tonight</a> Roderick and Mann steered into some seriously philosophical territory, as they are wont to do.</p>
<p>The part that really stuck with me was when Roderick was staring up at the stars, trying to sleep on a beach in some Dutch city (at 34 minutes in):</p>
<blockquote><p>What I realized, in that moment, was that the lights of the city, the electric light, has formed a kind of dome over the cities where we live. And it is a protective dome, a protective shield, that shields us from full awareness of how deep and infinite space is. </p><p>Right, so we sit in our cities, and our electric lights have blanked out the sky, for us, and we no longer have first hand experience of the existential terror that is available to you at any point in time if you just try and spend one night outside on the beach or in the forest. </p><p>And that is something that human beings knew intimately throughout the whole course of human history.</p></blockquote>
Love The One You’re With: Sticking with iTunes Match2013-01-29T16:51:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/01/29/love-the-one-youre-with<p>Last week I <a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/01/19/defecting-from-itunes-match/" title="Defecting from iTunes Match">wrote</a> about how I was considering defecting from iTunes Match to Amazon’s Cloud Player, owing to Amazon’s new ability to purchase MP3s from the iPhone. This week I realized there was a critical flaw with my argument.</p>
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<h3>Google Music</h3>
<p>First, I should say that I neglected to mention <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/throwdown-itunes-match-vs-amazon-cloud-player-vs-google-music/" title="Google Music">Google’s offering</a>. They have a free music cloud. I am distrustful of this solution because Google hasn’t even made a first-party iOS client, and also because I’m simply accustomed to purchasing music from Amazon. For someone with less loyalty who doesn’t want to spend any money and is willing to deal with the convenience, Google Music is probably worth investigating.</p>
<h3>Missing Metadata</h3>
<p>I realized a major flaw in my argument. There is still another feature that third party music cloud programs can’t use: they can’t sync back meta-data to your iTunes library. For some people this won’t matter, but I still care about things like “play count” and “star rating.” I use them to help sort playlists and create smart playlists. This may not seem like a critical point, but it’s enough to make me stick with iTunes match for now.</p>
<h3>Best of Both Worlds</h3>
<p>In the meantime, however, I <strong>can</strong> actually get the best of both worlds. If I’m out and about and want to purchase a song from Amazon, I can. I’ll just temporarily have to switch out of my normal music player to Amazon’s Cloud Player to play that song or album. Then, later, when I’m back at my computer, I can download the songs from Amazon, import them into iTunes, and upload them to iTunes Match. Finally, once in iTunes Match I can then stream or download them to my iPhone using the built in Music.app.</p>
<p>The process sounds convoluted but in practice most of the steps are done automatically by Amazon’s MP3 Downloader and iTunes. The big difference is simply that I have to temporarily use the Cloud Player app instead of the Music.app to play a purchased song on my iPhone until I can use my desktop to get the same song moved from Amazon’s cloud to iTunes Match.</p>
<p>So I guess I <em>will</em> be renewing my iTunes Match this year.</p>
Living in the Future2013-01-26T18:47:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/01/26/living-in-the-future<p>It’s 10pm, and I’ve just gotten home from work. I check my email to find one panicky message from my aunt. She says she’s lost all her photos in iPhoto.</p>
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<p>I check my international time widget and find that it’s 10am where she is, so it’s okay to call. I first use SkypeOut to ring her phone, then move her over to the computer.</p>
<p>It becomes apparent that the problem will require more than a few minutes to solve, and as anyone who has had to walk an older relative through trying to diagnose a computer problem over the phone knows, it can be a slow, frustrating, and painful process. To bypass this problem, my first step is to setup remote access.</p>
<p>The trickiest part is getting her to setup iChat (she’s still running Snow Leopard). Fortunately, she remembers her gmail password and I’m able to use a Google image search of the “Accounts” menu to step her through the account setup process. It goes surprisingly smoothly, and five minutes later I’m remotely connected to her desktop.</p>
<p>Now, not only do we have audio chat, but I actually have full control to manipulate her computer remotely. She demonstrates what is causing the problem and I help diagnose it, doing my own research locally and sending over any tools I need using IM.</p>
<p>It takes a couple hours of me puzzling it out and waiting for her older iMac to run diagnostics. The repair process is not without drama as I find that her iPhoto database is corrupted, but eventually I’m able to restore from a Time Machine backup and fix the problem.</p>
<p>Before saying goodbye, I notice her Time Machine drive is full and getting old, so I follow it up by using my Amazon Prime account to send her a new backup hard drive with double the capacity. Just to be sure, because I notice she’s not backing up as often as she ought to, I sign her up for a year of automatic <a href="http://www.backblaze.com" title="backblaze, nice online backup solution">online backup</a>.</p>
<p><span class=’pullquote-right’ data-pullquote=’I’ve been doing this kind of thing for years, now, and it seems so commonplace, but if I step back for a moment, it is actually amazing.’>
I’m a software developer by day, but my family still knows me as the “computer whiz,” so I’ve been doing their tech support since high school. After moving first to the other side of the country and now the other side of the world, I’ve had to switch to remote desktop solutions like I’ve described. I’ve been doing this kind of thing for years, now, and it seems so commonplace, but if I step back for a moment, it is actually amazing.
</span></p>
<p>There I was, about to get ready for bed at 11pm, 7000 miles away in sub-tropical Taiwan. My aunt was about to take her kids to school, in freezing cold, snow-laden Minnesota. Yet, somehow, through the power of technology, I was able to help her solve a problem that less than a decade ago I would only be able to solve by driving out to her house.</p>
<p>Technology has enabled me to express my devotion to family not with mere words but with actions, performed invisibly, across thousands of miles. I solved a problem that materially affected my aunt’s emotional well-being, and I’ve done it from the other side of the world. She was panicking that she’d lost all her photos, but I managed to recover 99% of them. For her to take her iMac to the Apple store would have been a huge hassle, and in the mean time she would have been stressed out and feeling helpless that she’d lost all of her photos. Because of technology, I was able to save her from all of that, and I didn’t even have to leave my apartment.</p>
<p>There have been a few posts getting attention about how <a href="http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14314" title="warren ellis on living in the future">we live in the future</a>, but the point bears repeating: There might <a href="http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/09/07" title="penny arcade comic, hoverboards">not be any hoverboards</a>, but we’re living in the future, folks.</p>
Defecting from iTunes Match2013-01-19T17:24:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/01/19/defecting-from-itunes-match<p>I was excited to hear about Amazon’s <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/17/amazon-optimizes-mp3-store-for-mobile-safari-to-attract-ios-device-users/" title="Amazon announcement about new mp3 store">recent announcement</a> that they are optimizing their MP3 store for viewing on mobile Safari.</p>
<p>The reason for my excitement stems mostly from the fact that this removes most of the barriers to completely switching my music cloud allegiance to Amazon’s service, and it actually adds an incentive. It took a long time to get to this point.</p>
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<p>I’m a bit old fashioned. I know the cool kids these days all use Spotify or Grooveshark or some other streaming subscription service, but I still prefer to purchase individual songs and keep copies of them on my own computer.</p>
<p>The old way to get songs onto our Apple portables was to physically plug in our devices, and then sync them with iTunes. This worked okay for a while (and was a notable improvement over manual file management), but problems started to creep in.</p>
<h3>Problem #1</h3>
<p>If you’ve got more songs than room on your device to store them, then you have to make a decision during the sync. You have to decide to only sync some of your songs. If you’re out and about and want to listen to a song that you didn’t sync, you have to somehow make a note of it and try to remember to sync it next time. In the meantime you can’t listen to the song.</p>
<h3>Problem #2</h3>
<p>You have to physically connect your phone to your laptop or desktop to sync. With other changes in the architecture of iOS and iTunes, Apple has moved to make iOS devices and OS X devices siblings on the same level, this syncing goes against that architecture. Besides, it’s 2013, connecting your phone to your laptop is <em>so</em> last decade.</p>
<p>To solve these problems, Apple created the iTunes Match service. What iTunes Match does is basically identify all of your songs, and then give you access to copies in Apple’s “cloud.” It solves problem #1 by giving you unlimited storage in the cloud for all of your songs, but providing a reasonably elegant interface to download, on demand, any song from your collection that you want to listen to. Over time this makes it so that your device organically caches those songs that you most often listen to, while still allowing you access to songs in your collection that you spontaneously want to listen to but haven’t downloaded to your device yet. It solves problem #2 because now you don’t have to connect your phone to your computer: the cloud syncs from your computer, and your phone syncs from the cloud.</p>
<p>iTunes Match costs $25 a year, and might seem a little silly to pay for just to be able to access your songs on demand, but the elegance of not having to make a decision about what songs to put on my phone makes it worth it to me.</p>
<h3>Why Amazon?</h3>
<p>I prefer to buy all my music from Amazon’s MP3 store. The reason is kind of nerdy, but I think it’s quite valid: I prefer MP3 over AAC. The reasoning behind this is mostly historical. Apple’s iTunes Store used to sell DRM’ed AAC files. For obvious reasons, I’ve always tried to avoid DRM’ed media. When Amazon opened their store and started selling DRM free MP3s, I jumped aboard immediately.</p>
<p>In truth, Apple now sells only DRM-free files, as well, albeit in the AAC format. As an audio format, AAC is actually technologically superior, and MP3 is probably more burdened with patents, but MP3 is still more compatible and more future-proof. Someday, in the future, I may switch to a non-Apple music playing device, and though I can guarantee it will play MP3 natively, it might not play AAC. I also prefer to keep my music collection in one format, so continuing to buy MP3 makes sense for me.</p>
<h3>First Party Privileges</h3>
<p>However, being an Amazon MP3 store partisan has always had one huge disadvantage on the iOS platform: you can’t buy songs on the go. If you shop on the iTunes Music store you’ve been able to browse, purchase, and download songs directly to your mobile device for many years.</p>
<p>To use the Amazon store, I would:</p>
<ol>
<li>Buy songs on Amazon</li>
<li>Download them to my desktop</li>
<li>Import them to iTunes</li>
<li>Wait for iTunes Match to match them</li>
<li>Finally, download them to your device.</li>
</ol>
<p>With the introduction of the new, mobile Safari compatible Amazon MP3 store and the existing Amazon Cloud Player iOS app, that convoluted process is collapsed to only two steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Purchase the song in Safari on Amazon’s website</li>
<li>Download the song directly to your device in Amazon’s Cloud Player app.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Brave New World</h3>
<p>Before, the native syncing via desktop iTunes could not be replicated by Amazon and their cloud app seemed unnatural. Now, Amazon’s Cloud Player and Apple’s Music.app (with iTunes Match) are just two different but comparable cloud music syncing apps.</p>
<p>I must admit that alternative music players for the iPhone are still second-class citizens to Apple’s Music.app. Apple is still the platform owner and has access to private APIs that let them do more things. However, in the past five years iOS has progressed to close the gap between third party and first party apps to a great extent. Now, background playing and AirPlay are standard features for third party music apps. The largest remaining deficiency is that third-party music apps can’t share their music to other apps. This means only the music in your Apple music library can be accessed by other apps that might enable value-added features like lyrics or visualizations. If you use these features, Amazon’s Cloud Player might not work for you.</p>
<p>If you can look past that minor problem, then we have at last arrived at the reason I’m excited for Amazon’s announcement:</p>
<p>For the first time in the history of the iOS platform you can use Amazon’s third party music client while still having (almost) all of the perks of Apple’s Music.app: buying songs online, syncing songs with the cloud, and downloading new songs on the go.</p>
<p><strong>For the first time, I am considering canceling my iTunes Match subscription and giving my $25 a year to Amazon instead of Apple. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Update</strong> My opinion has changed on this, see the <a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2013/01/29/love-the-one-youre-with/" title="Love the one you’re with">new post</a>.</p>
River Tracing Story 溯溪的故事2012-08-22T15:16:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2012/08/22/river-tracing-story-su-xi-de-gu-shi<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969385802/" title="P1170031 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8040/7969385802_e1b19c6201.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="P1170031"></a>
<figcaption>Ready to river trace</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is my river tracing story. I gave a speech about it at the end of the semester. This is the extended unedited version, along with the English back translation.</p>
<p>我上上個週末有機會去溯溪。你可能不知道溯溪是甚麼意思。簡單地說,溯溪是沿着小溪趟水爬山。你需要携带特別裝備像安全帽,救生衣,防水書包,和水中專用鞋。</p>
<p>Two weekends ago I had the chance to go river tracing. You might not know what river tracing means. Basically, river tracing is wading and bouldering up a small stream. You need special equipment such as a helmet, life jacket, waterproof backpack, and special water shoes.</p>
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<p>那一天是早上六點開始的。我們先在地鐵站集合,我似乎遲到了,因為下錯公車站。我們大約有二十個人,搭了三輛麵包車,然後開到宜蘭南邊山上的鄉下。</p>
<p>I started that day at 6 am. First we gathered at an MRT station, where I was almost late because I got off at the wrong bus stop. The twenty or so of us boarded three vans and drove to a mountain village south of Yilan.</p>
<p>到了小溪以後發現有很多逆流爬山的團體。有一些團體大部分是外國人,有一些大部分是本地人。我們收到裝備以後開始爬逆流。</p>
<p>After arriving at the stream I discovered that there were actually a lot of river tracing groups going upstream. Some of the groups were mostly foreigners, others were mostly locals. After we got our equipment we started heading upstream.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969384594/" title="P1170040 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8458/7969384594_eec4099672_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1170040"></a>
<figcaption>River tracing scene</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>我認為溯溪,雖然有一些危險的地方,還有一些需要認真預備的地方,基本上是一個童心的活動。舉個例子來說明,如果溯溪的時候面臨一個選擇:一條路比較容易,沒有很多水,和一條比較難,讓你像落湯雞的路,我們會選擇後者,原因在于我們覺得這樣比較好玩。這明明是小孩單純的邏輯,所以覺得這個活動真會讓我們假裝回到年幼的時候。</p>
<p>I think river tracing, although it has some dangerous parts and requires serious preparation, at its core is actually a very child-like and innocent activity. If we’re river tracing and we come upon a choice: one route that is easier and dry, and one route that is more challenging and would result in us getting drenched, we would always choose the latter. The reason is simply that it’s more fun. This is the pure and innocent logic of a child, so this activity lets us pretend and go back to the pure joy of a child jumping in puddles for the sheer fun of it.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969381920/" title="P1170104 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8444/7969381920_253f227067_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1170104"></a>
<figcaption>Jumping for the fun of it</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>有一些比較難的障礙,可是我們彼此幫忙跨越過去,最後到了目的地。那裡有一條蠻高的,很漂亮的瀑布。瀑布下面有一潭水。我們計劃在瀑布前面吃午餐,可是我先探索那潭水。</p>
<p>There were some harder obstacles, but we always helped each other to get past them. In the end we got to our destination: a tall, beautiful waterfall. Underneath the waterfall was a large pool, where we planned to eat lunch at the waterfall, but first I went to explore the pool.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969393094/" title="Nanao River Trace 011 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8440/7969393094_b7c1d4fcbf_z.jpg" width="640" height="426" alt="Nanao River Trace 011"></a>
<figcaption>The waterfall, photo copyright <a href="http://neilwade.com" title="Neil’s photography site">NeilWade.com</a></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>因為重量和空間有限的關係,我差一點沒帶我浮潛裝備,可是因為我是一個潛水員,總是喜歡知道旁邊的水下到底有甚麼生物,所以我還是終於帶了裝備。</p>
<p>Because of weight and space concerns, I almost didn’t bring my snorkeling equipment. However, because I’m a diver, always curious to see what’s living in the water near me, I ultimately decided to bring it along.</p>
<p>我戴上面罩和呼吸管,就下水。我發現水很清,也很快找到幾個小動物的種類。有兩種魚,一種是水中游泳的鯉科小魚,一種是河底吸盤魚。除了這兩種魚,還有青蛙的小BB,就是蝌蚪。可是最重要的是我找到一種咖啡色的小淡水蝦。</p>
<p>I put on my mask and snorkel and went into the water. I found that the water was very clear, and I quickly discovered a few different creatures living in that pool. There were two kinds of fish: one a mid-stream swimming minnow, the other a bottom-feeding sucker fish. Besides these two fish, there were also tadpoles. But the most important thing was that I found a kind of small, freshwater shrimp.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969385124/" title="P1170036 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8296/7969385124_aa8c7f52bf_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1170036"></a>
<figcaption>Underwater scene</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969384076/" title="P1170050 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8180/7969384076_a96a1d74a6.jpg" width="500" height="394" alt="P1170050"></a>
<figcaption>One of the sucker fish</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969383090/" title="P1170084 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8031/7969383090_83f14deb63.jpg" width="500" height="401" alt="P1170084"></a>
<figcaption>Tadpoles</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>你可能想問,淡水小蝦有甚麼重要性呢? 讓我繞解釋:</p>
<p>You might be asking, what’s so special about a freshwater shrimp? Let me take a detour and explain.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969382880/" title="P1170087 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8029/7969382880_225db7c620_z.jpg" width="640" height="640" alt="P1170087"></a>
<figcaption>A slightly blurry shrimp</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>我小時候很喜歡養魚,高中的時候我發現有新風格的一種水族箱,發明者是一個日本的藝術家叫「天野尚」,日文叫「Amano Takashi」。 他所發明的風格叫「大自然水族箱」。他的水族箱的內容大部分是水中植物,還有一點點魚類和蝦類。他嘗試模仿大自然的外形,你可以說他是運用有機物和無機物的材料來圖立體的山水畫。除了外形,他也嘗試用水中生物來創造一個穩定的生態系統。譬如,植物是吸入二氧化碳,呼出氧氣的,動物是相反的,所以放在一起是相輔相成的。另外一個例子,如果水族箱有水藻的問題,他就可以用吃水藻的魚或蝦來調整。</p>
<p>When I was younger I loved raising fish. In highschool I discovered a new style of fish tank invented by a Japanese artist named Takashi Amano. His style is called “Nature Aquarium.” His aquariums contain mostly plants, and a few fish or shrimp. He tries to imitate nature. You could say he uses organic and inorganic materials to try to paint a three-dimensional landscape. Besides external appearance, he also tries to use aquatic organisms to create a stable ecological system. For example, plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, animals are the opposite, so if you put them together they form a complementary pair. Another example is how he tries to use algae-eating fish or shrimp to regulate the algae in the tank.</p>
<p>我第一次看到他的圖畫書,覺得「於我心有戚戚焉」。以後,我養的水族箱都是模仿他風格的。我甚至在莫種程度上,我住在日本的時候去新瀉參觀他的畫廊。因為太常搬家的原因,所以吃虧我現在沒有水族箱。</p>
<p>My first time seeing his picture book, I immediately thought, “This really resonates with me.” Afterwards, all my aquariums imitated his style. I liked him so much that when I lived in Japan I <a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2006/07/05/niigata-ni-ikimashita/" title="a blog post about my trip to Niigata">traveled to Niigata</a> just to see his gallery. Because I move around too much, unfortunately right now I have no aquariums.</p>
<p>拿到我第二個例子,我究竟可以說明這種蝦的重要性。天野尚推廣了這個用蝦調整水族箱的方法。他特別用莫一種很喜歡水藻的蝦,所以給養水族箱的社會介紹那一種類蝦,就是我那一天看到的。其實,因為他的推廣,那種蝦現在叫做「天野蝦」。 我很熟悉這種小蝦,因為我以前在水族箱裡養過這種小蝦。我好像知道台灣是一個牠的起源,可是忘記了。看這種蝦我不能說是我的人生願望,可是還算是我來台灣以前非常希望做的事情。</p>
<p>With the second example, I finally can explain the importance of the shrimp. Amano popularized the use of shrimp to control algae. He used a certain species of algae-loving shrimp, which he introduced to the aquatic gardening community. This species is the one I saw on that day. Actually, because of his popularization, this species has come to be known as the “Amano shrimp.” I’m very familiar with this little shrimp, because I’ve raised them in my aquariums before. I think I knew they were from Taiwan, but I forgot about it. I wouldn’t say seeing the Amano shrimp in the wild was a life-long dream, but at least it was something I really wanted to do in Taiwan.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969383238/" title="P1170069 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8036/7969383238_877da18dae_z.jpg" width="640" height="481" alt="P1170069"></a>
<figcaption>An Amano shrimp</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>我們回到故事吧。吃完午飯之後,我們開始順流往回走。我覺得這個方向比較好玩。這之所以好玩是因為有很多大自然的水滑梯。這樣一來,這條小溪變成像水上樂園一樣。</p>
<p>Let’s return to the story. After having lunch, we started downstream. I think this direction is more fun because there are a lot of natural water slides. In this way, the small stream becomes like a waterpark.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969388582/" title="Nanao River Trace 019 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8462/7969388582_842f474e27_z.jpg" width="640" height="426" alt="Nanao River Trace 019"></a>
<figcaption>A natural water slide, photo copyright <a href="http://neilwade.com" title="Neil’s photography site">NeilWade.com</a></figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>可是回去的時候面臨了一個問題。我們的一個隊長,玩水滑梯的時候,他的眼鏡掉到水裡。那個地方蠻深的,何況因為水滑梯的原因,所以水流很強。</p>
<p>However, on the way back we faced a problem. One of the group leaders lost his glasses while going down one of the slides. The place he lost them was actually quite deep, and because of the water slide the current was quite strong.</p>
<p>他說明他的眼鏡很特別。他的眼鏡不但很貴,也很難訂造,所以新的一副大概需要一個禮拜。因為他的視力很差,如果他沒有眼鏡的話,他就沒辦法騎車或者上班。連回到麵包車都會很困難。</p>
<p>He explained that his glasses were pretty special. Not only were they expensive, but they were special order and required more than a week to replace. Because his vision is very poor, if he didn’t have his glasses he couldn’t go to work or drive his motorcycle. Even returning to the van could be a challenge.</p>
<p>我說:「我有一個面罩」。我戴著面罩下水,探索水滑梯下面的地方。我潛水了幾次,可是只找到了各種垃圾。因為水又冷又急,讓我很累,所以我停止找,就把我的面罩給別人讓他們試試看。隊長先查一下,可是沒找到甚麼。我們團體的幾個人也尋找了幾次,可是都沒找到甚麼。</p>
<p>I said,”I’ve got a mask.” I donned my mask and went under the water, exploring the area underneath the slide. I dove multiple times, but only found garbage. Due to the cold water and the current, I tired and stopped searching, giving my mask to others to try. The group leader tried first, but he couldn’t find anything. Then a few other group members tried, but they found nothing.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969380618/" title="P1170113 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8319/7969380618_a7203dd8ac.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1170113"></a>
<figcaption>The place where the glasses were lost</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>到了這裡,我們大概花了十五分鐘。因為我暖和了一點,我再次下水尋找。這一次,我看見了一個反光的物體。我深吸一口氣,潛了下去,抓住了那個東西。那個就是一副咖啡色的眼鏡。
我戴著勝利的微笑高舉起了眼鏡. 被我們吸引的遊客都為我們熱烈地鼓掌。我把眼鏡給隊長,他試戴後就說「這不是我的」。</p>
<p>A this point, we had spent probably 15 minutes. I had warmed up a bit, so I tried searching again. This time I saw something reflective. I took a deep breath and dove again, seizing the object in my hand. The object was a pair of brown glasses matching our group leader’s description. Wearing a triumphant smile, I thrust the glasses in the air. The crowd we had drawn all cheered and clapped. I gave the glasses to our leader. After trying them on, he turned to me and said: “These aren’t mine.”</p>
<p>雖然有一點失望,我們把這第一副眼鏡當作成功的預兆,就繼續尋找。</p>
<p>Though we felt a bit defeated, we took this first pair as a good omen and continued searching.</p>
<p>又一個十五分鐘過去,我們找到了另外一副不是隊長的眼鏡。下游有幾個好奇的台灣人來幫助我們。有一些大約八九歲的小男孩來了。他們在問「誰的眼鏡?誰的眼鏡」還一邊指著我的面罩一邊說「借我吧,借我吧」。 到了這個時候,潭水擠滿了人,有一個小孩有我的面罩,另外一個在玩我的呼吸管,還有很多沒有裝備的人在下水找。旁邊的石頭上有觀眾看著我們。風景變得熱鬧得像馬戲表演一樣。過了一會兒,小孩子們失去興趣就走了,可是有一個台灣的男士留下來。這個人,雖然是中年人,還是看起來很矫健。</p>
<p>Another fifteen minutes passed before we found another pair of glasses, which also weren’t the group leaders. Downstream there were some curious Taiwanese people who came up to try to help us. There were some nine or ten year old boys, they came up and excitedly asked,”Who’s glasses? Who’s glasses?” Staring at my mask and snorkel they shouted, “Let me borrow it!” at this point, this area if the stream was crowded with people. One kid was using my mask, another was playing with my snorkel, and a bunch of people without equipment were under the water searching. On the nearby rock, there was an audience watching us. The atmosphere was that of a circus. After a while, the kids grew bored, but a Taiwanese man remained. Despite being middle aged, he looked extremely young and healthy, as if he went for a swim every morning.</p>
<p>他借用我的面罩開始認真地尋找。他找了幾分鐘之後,找到了另外一副眼鏡,卻不是我們想要的。到這個時候,我們找到了三副眼鏡,他跟我們開玩笑地說「你們可以開眼鏡店」。他繼續找,用一副眼鏡做實驗,看水流會怎麼影響掉下水中的眼鏡。他找到了第四副,可是還是不對。他認真一共一直找了十五分鐘,可是還是沒有用,所以他決定放棄。</p>
<p>He borrowed my mask and snorkel and started seriously searching. After a few minutes, he found another pair of glasses, but it still wasn’t the right one. We had found three pairs at that point, so he joked with us, saying we ought to open a glasses store. He kept looking, even using one of the pairs to observe the effect of the current on glasses falling down the water column. He found a fourth pair, but it still wasn’t right. In total he searched for about 15 minutes straight, longer than I ever had, but it still wasn’t any use and he gave up.</p>
<p>我杵在旁邊,覺得很丟臉。雖然我即累又冷,我還是知道我大概是最好的浮潛者,況且因為是我的裝備,我最熟悉怎麼用。我知道我是最有能力的,所以我義不容辭地應該再找一次。</p>
<p>Standing at the side, I felt useless. Although I was cold and tired, I still knew that I was probably the most experienced snorkeler. What’s more, it was my equipment, so I was most used to it. I had the greatest ability, so I was duty bound to search again.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969495358/" title="包泰樂期末final.009 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8458/7969495358_441c4077aa_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="包泰樂期末final.009"></a>
<figcaption>My credentials</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>到了這裡,天色暗了很多,溫度也降了一點。我們差一點決定放棄,可是我還是願意再找一次。我抱歉地說「對不起」,因為我給了他希望可是終究沒有結果。</p>
<p>At this point, the sky was darkening, and it was getting colder. We had pretty much given up, but I still wished to search once more. I apologized to the group leader, saying that I’d given him hope but it only resulted in disappointment.</p>
<p>我鼓起勇氣下水,游來游去地尋找。在我第三次潛水,在淺一點的地方,我看到一個東西。我站起來以後,再次調查,發現那個東西是眼鏡。這一副看起來細細的。我認為這可能是因為它在水下太久而磨損了,但我還是給隊長看。</p>
<p>Summoning courage, I thrust myself into the water and began furiously searching, swimming back and forth. On my third dive, in a shallower area that we hasn’t searched as thoroughly, I spotted something. I stood up, and then went down to investigate again. I discovered it was a pair of glasses, but this pair looked very thin and fragile. I imagined this was because it had been under water for a very long time and had deteriorated, but I still presented it to our captain to take a look.</p>
<p>他居然興奮地說「天啊!這是我的啊」,並且說「我一定得請你喝一杯啤酒」。</p>
<p>He unexpectedly excitedly shouted, “My God, these are mine!” Then he added, “I definitely owe you a beer!”</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/7969381264/" title="P1170112 by divergio, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8038/7969381264_00c2939dd5_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1170112"></a>
<figcaption>Us with the five pairs of glasses</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p>
<p>天色已經很晚,所以我們整理裝備,就走回去。回去的時候,我碰到那個給我們很大的幫助的男士,就興奮的向他宣佈「找到了」。他用了一個熱情的微笑回答。 回到麵包車以後,我們團體踏上了幾個小時回台北的路。</p>
<p>It had already become quite dark, so we organized our things and started back. On the way back, I saw the older gentleman who had given us a lot of help. I shouted to him, “We found it!” to which he replied with a warm smile. Back at the van, we started our long trip back to Taipei.</p>
<p>總而言之,那一天溯溪不但好玩也發生了很多故事。坦白地說,我本來不確定是否應該帶我浮淺的用具。我現在很高興我帶了, 否則這個故事就沒法子發生。</p>
<p>That day was not only extremely fun, but it also provided a lot of stories. To tell you the truth, I originally wasn’t even sure if I should bring my snorkeling equipment. I’m sure glad I did, though, otherwise there is no way I’d be able to have these stories.</p>
Kindle 4 vs Kindle Touch2012-01-23T19:50:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2012/01/23/kindle-4-vs-kindle-touch<p>I’ve never owned an e-ink reader, though I’ve wanted to for a long
time. Every few years I check the
<a href="http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix" title="e-book reader matrix">E-book reader matrix</a> to see what the state of the art is. In the
past I might have been an early adopter, but the expense and
performance of early systems wasn’t enough to convince me to try
them. Until now I was able to make do with the Kindle app on my first
generation iPad, and of course physical books.</p>
<p>But finally, the price of the Kindle was so low that I decided to take
the plunge. Touch sounds like a great idea, but according to
<a href="http://www.marco.org/2011/12/02/kindle-touch-vs-nook-simple-touch-kobo-touch-kindle-4" title="marco’s touch review">trusted internet authorities</a> the touch implementation was
clunky. Combined with a review which poked my nostalgia
button by describing the Kindle 4 as something out of Star Trek
because of how lightweight it was, my decision was sealed and I
ordered the Kindle 4.</p>
<p>Talk about first world problems, but I immediately had buyers remorse
upon receiving my Kindle 4. It feels like a great product, but some of
the things that were so easy to do with the iPad app were difficult
using the Kindle 4’s buttons. I ordered a Kindle Touch and decided to
compare the two.</p>
<!–more–>
<h1>Background</h1>
<p>You should read this if:</p>
<ul>
<li>You’ve decided on a Kindle, for whatever reason (you’re tied in to
Amazon, you like Amazon’s selection, whatever)</li>
<li>You’re trying to decide between the Kindle Touch and the Kindle 4</li>
</ul>
<p>Briefly, I’ll give my justification for those two requirements.</p>
<p>I’m using Amazon because I’m already used to buying books on Amazon, and they have support
across all platforms. I can’t see a compelling reason to use iBooks or
Nook or some other platform when Amazon seems like the most reliable and
seems to have the best selection. Amazon is king, and they’re the one
I most expect to be around in ten years. When we’re talking about
DRM’ed eBooks, that matters.</p>
<p>I’ve been impressed with their iPad app, and I even read a few whole
novels on my iPad when I was unable to buy them because I was
overseas. The iPad reading experience was surprisingly good, but I’ve
still sought a dedicated device using e-ink because it is better on
the eyes and better for reading lengthy text.</p>
<p>I would choose the Touch or 4 over the Kindle Keyboard because I don’t think
any ebook readers are good for taking notes, and I think the keyboard
is just extra weight and and a waste of space for something I’m
reading on only. I’ve also only looked
at the wi-fi ones because I don’t see any reason to get the 3G, and I
travel overseas where I don’t even think the 3G works anyway.</p>
<h1>Continuing…</h1>
<p>After receiving the Kindle Touch, I immediately noticed two
shortcomings. First, looking up definitions for words is a
hastle. Second, viewing footnotes is a pain.</p>
<p>I was used to very easily looking up definitions on the Kindle app for
iPad. I’m still learning new words
all of the time, and if I’m reading a challenging book I often want to
see definitions. On the iPad, it was a matter of holding your finger
over the word for a second, and then seeing a definition appear at the
bottom of the screen. The Kindle Touch isn’t much faster than the
Kindle 4 for looking up definitions, but it is easier. Just put your
finger on the word and the definition will pop up. I don’t like that
it pops up. The popup has to be closed manually, and I would prefer if
the definition just shows up in the same way as
the Kindle 4 or the iPad, but the ease of use of touching the word is a huge
advantage over the flurry of button presses to navigate to the correct
line and word on the Kindle 4. It’s not that difficult, but the
additional hassle quickly makes you more reluctant to look up
definitions.</p>
<p>Footnotes are implemented differently in different eBooks. Some
publishers do a terrible job and don’t embed links for the footnote
numbers. In this case, the Kindle 4 or Touch are both equally
handicapped. However, if the publishers do a better job and make each
footnote a link to a footnote section, then the Touch works much
better. You just put your finger over the footnote, and it jumps back
to the appropriate section. To go back, you bring up the menu and
press the back button. Using the touch screen to perform this
operation is a little troublesome because of the delay, and I think
it could still stand to be improved in terms of usability.
Nonetheless, the situation is an improvement over the Kindle 4, where
in the same manner as the definitions you must select the footnote using the jog switch.</p>
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
<p>My only reservations with the Touch are that it feels very much like a
first generation product. Whereas the Kindle 4 is a beautiful, stripped down and perfected
fourth generation minimalist e-ink reader, the Kindle Touch is an awkward first
revision. They wanted to go all out with the touch capability, but I still think the
physical page turning buttons are a necessity on an e-reader. They
crammed in a bunch of
additional features (double battery life, music player, text to
speech) which I don’t think are necessary in an e-reader. The bezel is
deeper to make room for the touch sensing, which makes it feel less polished. The result
is something which is noticeably heavier and feels clunkier to navigate.</p>
<p>My ideal Kindle would strip out as many of the extraneous features
that the Touch offers in order to become more like the Kindle 4
(lightweight, physical buttons for page turning), but keeping the
touch screen for definitions and footnotes. I’m hoping this is what
Amazon does for their second generation Kindle Touch.</p>
<p>So, in summation, I think that if you would potentially read a
nonfiction book or a book with a lot of footnotes, or if you are the
kind who often looks up word definitions, then the Kindle Touch,
despite its flaws, will serve you better.</p>
<p>If you are just reading novels and rarely look up words, the Kindle 4
will work fine, and, because it weighs less and is more polished, will feel more like the
future.</p>
Missing Google Reader Sharing2011-11-06T14:51:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/11/06/missing-google-reader-sharing<p>I really liked Google Reader’s share functionality because it made it
very easy for my close friends and me to share links between
each other. We were all “following” each other on Reader.</p>
<!–more–>
<h3>Before Google Reader</h3>
<p>Before Google Reader, the old way of reading a shared link went
something like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Come across the link on Facebook or Twitter or plain old e-mail</li>
<li>Be forced to make a decision on if you wanted to read it now or later</li>
<li>If later, you had manually add it into your own reading system
(Instapaper, read it later)</li>
</ul>
<p>This process is too active because the other person has to look for
the link and then take some direct action to put it in their
system.</p>
<h3>The Old Google Reader</h3>
<p>In contrast, the old Google reader system was passive. If you chose to
follow me, then all my links came to you and were already in the
reading system you were used to (and maybe you had keyboard shortcuts
and iPhone apps to support it).</p>
<p>That system was, unfortunately, locked to Google Reader, but most of
my friends were using Google Reader so it wasn’t a problem.</p>
<h3>The New (not Improved) Way</h3>
<p>Google recently redesigned Reader and tore out all of the old sharing
functionality and replaced it with a poor visual design and some
hacked on Google+ sharing features which they assumedly would prefer
us to use.</p>
<p><span class=’pullquote-right’ data-pullquote=’If I really wanted to share my links with Google+ I would have already been sharing the links through Twitter or Facebook.’>
If I really wanted to share my links with Google+ I would have already been sharing the links through Twitter or Facebook. Nevermind
your feelings about Google+ as a social network, it is not a
replacement for the previous Reader functionality. The previous
sharing functionality put articles shared by friends directly into our
reading system, and didn’t force a task change between “skimming
social network” and “reading RSS feeds” which the new system does.
</span></p>
<p>This change has understandly
<a href="http://kirbybits.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/wherein-i-try-to-explain-why-google-reader-is-the-best-social-network-created-so-far/" title="a good post about what has been lost">upset</a> a
<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/google-reader-diaspora" title="Google reader diaspora">lot of people</a> who loved the previous functionality.</p>
<h3>Solutions</h3>
<p>I tried to craft a solution using a Tumblr blog to create an RSS of a list of
links, but that doesn’t solve one of the most critical features: full
text RSS feeds could be shared with full text. This was zero-friction
reading (combined with zero friction sharing with a single share button), and worked with peoples caching iPhone/Android Google Reader
apps. Unless I manually copy and paste the text and repost it on
my own site (which is questionable from a copyright standpoint), I
can’t replicate this functionality.</p>
<h3>The Future</h3>
<p>We could wait for a competitor to come out with a new RSS feed
service that offers the kind of sharing Google Reader had. This isn’t
really satisfying, though, because I’ve already paid for a nice Google
Reader iPhone app, and because the website works fine except for the
crappier sharing functionality. Also, I don’t want to have to convince
all my friends to jump ship.</p>
<p>I think the best solution we can hope for is that Google <em>further</em>
integrates Google+ with Reader. Add a tab to Google Reader that lets you browse
your friend’s Google+ posts as if they’re RSS feeds.</p>
<p>This wouldn’t please everybody. Some peoples’ use of Reader share
functionality apparently isn’t replicable using Circles. For me,
though, I’ve got no problem using Google+’s circle metaphor to create
a sharing circle. I just want to read the shares in Google Reader, not
as links in a stream of status updates.</p>
The Joy of Podcasts: Android or Non-Apple Tech Podcasts2011-10-10T22:04:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/10/10/the-joy-of-podcasts-android-or-non-apple-tech-podcasts<p>You may have noticed that the bulk of the technology podcasts I listen
to are focused on Apple. I admit my strong interest in all things
Apple. I use their products and hope to build a career on them.</p>
<p>However, upon realizing that all of the podcasts I listen to are Apple
analysis (though they often discuss other parts of the mobile space),
I wanted to find some views from the other side.</p>
<p>I went in search of podcasts about Android or non-Apple mobile
technology, if only to check my biases and make sure my vision doesn’t
become constrained. I wanted to find something like an Android or
Windows Mobile version of Marco Arment or John Siracusa. I wanted
someone with strong opinions they were willing to defend and someone
who would recap recent news stories and provide industry analysis, but
less focused on Apple and more focused on the other companies in the
tech industry.</p>
<!–more–>
<p>I asked Android developer friends and searched rather exhaustively. I
ended up finding a few different shows:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>This Week in Tech</strong>: Okay, but kind of boring.</li>
<li><strong>This Week in Google</strong>: Same.</li>
<li><strong>Motodev</strong>: Too technical, not what I’m looking for.</li>
<li><strong>All About Android</strong>: stopped after five minutes, too chatty.</li>
<li><strong>Android Central Podcast</strong>: see below.</li>
</ul>
<p>I listened to an entire episode of Android Central podcast. I wasn’t
very impressed with the analysis or attitude. They seemed noncommital
and nonjudgmental for too many things. They were unwilling to state an
opinion and defend it, and more likely to equivocate as compared to
the 5by5 hosts who are willing to call a spade a spade and point out
when something is poorly designed and unlikely to be used or
appreciated by most people.</p>
<p>For example, in the episode I listened to
no one was willing to say anything bad about the failed HP Touch
Pad. No one would state the obvious that it probably isn’t a very good
idea to buy a device which is unlikely to be supported in the
future, and that it doesn’t make much sense to buy another gadget just
to have it lying around the house (an attitude I grew out of years
ago).</p>
<p>The one exception is the occasional co-host who has a strong
anti-Apple stance, but in the episode I listened to they just
dismissed Apple and didn’t defend their reasons for doing so.</p>
<p>This podcast also seemed to adopt the “pile on the host” podcasting philosophy
which I mentioned earlier. They had a bunch of guys in the episode but
none of them were memorable or seemed particularly insightful. The same criticisms apply to a
lesser extent to Leo Laporte’s podcasts (the first two listed). I
found them okay but not interesting enough to keep me coming back.</p>
<p>Maybe I am so trapped in Apple’s “reality distortion field” that these
podcasts are actually full of mature, insightful analysis and I just
can’t see it. Maybe, for whatever reason, there is just less market for this kind of podcast in the non-Apple
world, or there aren’t enough charismatic defenders of other
companies’ mobile products.</p>
<p>If anyone has some further recommendations I’m open
to trying out some other technology podcasts. Maybe if Metro is a hit
some Microsoft-focused mobile podcasts will emerge.</p>
<p>In the end, this is a bit of a trick post. After all that searching, I didn’t
find any Android podcasts to permanently add to my lineup. The Arment
or Siracusa of the non-Apple world either doesn’t exist or hasn’t emerged.</p>
<p><strong>This completes
<a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/26/the-joy-of-podcasts/" title="the first post of the series">my series of posts</a> about my favorite podcasts. I hope this has been useful
to some people out there. </strong></p>
Goodbye, Steve.2011-10-06T11:42:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/10/06/goodbye-steve<p>When Steve Jobs resigned, a lot of us still had hopes that it was
temporary. We hoped maybe he would recover and, maybe even a short
time later, come back to Apple energized and ready to share some more
magic.</p>
<p>Of course, this was wishful thinking. It seems now that Steve
understood his fate and stepped down in August to spend time with his
family and to help prepare Apple to stand alone.</p>
<!–more–>
<p>As a jaded cynic born in the 80s, I never had many heroes. Those I did
have were technologists: Elon Musk, K. Eric Drexler, John Carmack.</p>
<p>I discovered Apple pretty late. I never owned an Apple II. My only
experiences with Apple products were on the underpowered school
computers and the silly technicolor clamshell Macs in my high school
computer science class. At that time I felt like Macs were
underpowered, with a UI like a toy computer. Besides, I played video
games and the only proper operating system for a gamer was Windows 98
or Windows XP.</p>
<p>In my senior year of college all this changed. A few close friends of
mine were switching to Apple. I was able to try out their machines and
they explained what they liked about them. I was impressed with the build quality and attention to detail. I
wasn’t much of a gamer any more, so the underpowered graphics weren’t
much of a concern. In my programming classes I had come to respect the power of UNIX-like
systems, and I was impressed that OS X was built on BSD.</p>
<p>My laptop was due for an upgrade, so in a short time I went from
having no
Apple products to being an iPod touch carrying Macbook user.</p>
<p>As a gadget geek, I had owned Windows Mobile and Palm devices in the
past. I even relied on an ancient Windows Mobile PDA for my Chinese
dictionary. Of course, I had played around with its browser and mail
client in the past, but they were such a pain to use that I eventually
disabled them all in order to increase the performance of the
dictionary. Mobile devices seemed like toys, fun to try out but too
irritating to actually be useful day-to-day.</p>
<p>As I saw the iPhone blossom and experienced the increasing utility of the iPod
touch, my skepticism about the value of mobile computing disappeared.</p>
<p>Soon enough, I was working to convert my friends and family to Macs
and iPhones, not only for their own experience but also to make it
easier for me to provide (or not have to provide) technical support.</p>
<p>I started checking Apple news sites daily, subscribing to Apple
podcasts, and envisioning a career where Apple products are a central
focus.</p>
<p>In that short space of three years, Steve Jobs became a hero to me. An exemplar of a
true visionary: a man who, seeing in his mind a world which doesn’t
exist, through his actions brought his vision closer to reality.</p>
<p>We’ve lost a great man, an inspiring man. He brought us a long
way. Let’s all try to go farther.</p>
The Joy of Podcasts: Apple-related Podcasts2011-10-03T23:42:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/10/03/the-joy-of-podcasts-apple-related-podcasts<p>As someone very interested in mobile computing, I follow a lot of Apple
related blogs. In the past few months I’ve started listening to more
and more Apple-related podcasts. I’ve compiled a list of my favorites here.</p>
<!–more–>
<h2>Build and Analyze</h2>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: over an hour, less than two hours.</p>
<p>This is an <a href="http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze" title="build and
analyze podcast">excellent podcast</a> hosted by Marco Arment and Dan Benjamin. Ostensibly it’s about the world of iOS development and mobile devices,
but the hosts stray into all manner of topics. I originally listened
to this because of its focus on iOS development and because I had used the main
host Marco Arment’s excellent Instapaper
<a href="http://www.instapaper.com" title="Instapaper service">service</a> and
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instapaper/id288545208" title="Instapaper app">app</a>. Then I
discovered the podcast through his equally excellent
<a href="http://www.marco.org/" title="Marco.org blog">blog</a>. Now I just like
listening to the guy talk and finding out his opinion on whatever they feel
like talking about.</p>
<h3>Hypercritical</h3>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: usually less than an hour and a half.</p>
<p><a href="http://5by5.tv/hypercritical" title="Hypercritical podcast">Another podcast</a> from the 5by5 network. Once you start listening to one
you hear the hosts mentioning the other podcasts because many of them
listen to each other.</p>
<p>This podcast is hosted by John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin, perhaps best known for his
lengthy and thorough reviews of
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars" title="ars-technica os-x lion review">each new OS X</a> release on Ars
Technica.</p>
<p>Siracusa offers good analysis of the mobile space with an Apple
focus. He’s also a geek and sometimes they talk about home theater or
Star Wars or other various geeky topics.</p>
<p>One of my favorite episodes demonstrating Siracusa’s take on business strategy
in the technology world is
<a href="http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/31" title="Strong arguments for and
against episode">episode 31</a> where they discuss HP’s exit from the PC business
and the effect of that move on Microsoft. It’s a bit dated now that Amazon’s device is revealed to be running
an Android fork, but they talk about the pros and cons of Amazon
potentially buying webOS to use for their new tablet.</p>
<h2>The Critical Path</h2>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: less than an hour.</p>
<p><a href="http://5by5.tv/criticalpath" title="Critical Path podcast">Listening to Horace Dediu</a>
makes me feel like an industry insider. He’s got a lot of insightful analysis of
technology companies and the phone and mobile space. He’s a bit more
serious than the other hosts on 5by5, and he leverages his experience
in the industry to give keen insights.</p>
<p>He writes on his blog <a href="http://asymco.com/" title="Asymco website">Asymco</a>,
but those posts tend to be more about numbers and
financials. On the podcast he has more business and strategy
analysis. He is apparently actually a go-to guy for a lot of
heavyweight publications when they want opinions on the telecom and
mobile industries, so I feel grateful to get his time and analysis
basically for free.</p>
<h2>The Talk Show</h2>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: nearly two hours.</p>
<p>This show is hosted by Dan Benjamin and John Gruber of <a href="http://daringfireball.net/" title="daring fireball site">Daring Fireball</a> fame. The content is similar to Hypercritical
and Build and Analyze. They are usually discussing the same topics,
but with slightly different perspectives.</p>
<p>Depending on when Apple news comes out one of these podcasts will get the first chance to comment,
and then the others will have their own unique, usually complementary,
take on recent events. This is the main reason I
like to listen to all of them. I actually rank Gruber’s show last in the Apple
podcasts, because personally I like Siracusa’s or Arment’s speaking
style more, but you ought to give him a try if you are interested.</p>
<h3>An aside about 5by5</h3>
<p>All of the previous few podcasts are co-hosted by
Dan Benjamin, who runs the <a href="http://5by5.tv/" title="5by5 network">5by5 network</a>. Dan Benjamin is a really
likeable guy and he’s clearly very skilled at running such a successful podcast network. However, I have some
reservations about his role on a lot of the shows. I can’t count the
number of times that as an audience member I understood exactly what
one of the hosts was saying when Dan would make some kind of off-topic
remark that didn’t much advance the conversation.</p>
<p>In my opinion he is most in his element talking to Merlin Mann or
Horace Dediu, but when placed beside John Gruber, John Siracusa, or
especially Marco Arment, sometimes I get frustrated when he sidetracks
the host too much. I don’t question his credentials as a long time Mac
user and developer, but he has trouble keeping up with some of his
co-hosts.</p>
<p>I still believe in the strength of his two or one host style. So many of the
podcasts I tried listening to on other networks try to pile on half a
dozen hosts to try to cover up the fact that none of them are strong
enough to host the show alone. The result is too much chatter, and
rarely anything interesting is said.</p>
<p>I think his role is to highlight and complement the main host and
to keep them talking. When he strays from this role he can be a distraction, but
not enough to cause me to discontinue listening to any of these
shows.</p>
<p>However, when he was on his hiatus and Merlin Mann
<a href="http://5by5.tv/talkshow/57" title="talk show episode 57">took over for him</a>
on “The Talk Show,” it brought this problem into sharp contrast. John
Gruber is normally pretty staid and unenthusiastic, but with Merlin
he was excited and animated and they ended up talking for over two hours.</p>
<p>This particular anecdote may not be a fair comparison. Merlin Mann is one of the most
charismatic characters on the internet, and he was put in a new
situation for a one-off show. Maybe if he had to do it every week it
wouldn’t be quite so exciting. Also, with Merlin they got way off topic and
ended up talking for over two hours about many strange topics. This is
good, sometimes, but maybe Dan is better at keeping the hosts more
focused on the specialty of the podcast.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, to me it was one of the most entertaining
episodes of the Talk Show in recent memory.
At the very least it should give Dan Benjamin pause to
contemplate his role on some of his shows.
Giving that show a listen (which he still
hasn’t, according to Merlin’s recent show), might give him ideas
about how to make his excellent shows even better.</p>
<p><strong>I hope this list has been useful. Look forward to an addendum about
Android podcasts next week.</strong></p>
The Joy of Podcasts: General Interest2011-09-29T00:03:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/29/the-joy-of-podcasts-general-interest<p>This is the first in a small series of posts about my favorite
podcasts. I first began listening to podcasts as a way of keeping up
with the news on my bus commute to an internship in Houston. Before
ever being interested in technology podcasts, I listened to news and
culture podcasts. I’ve added some more in recent years, but some of
these I’ve been listening to for quite some time.</p>
<p>I describe these as general interest because they aren’t technology
focused and they should appeal to any curious audience.</p>
<!–more–>
<h2>This American Life</h2>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: about 60 minutes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/" title="this American life site">“This American Life”</a> is hard to describe. They take a variety of
stories from place in or related to America, and organized
around a theme depending on the show. Sometimes, though, they’ll
do a whole show following just one story.</p>
<p>Hosted by Ira Glass, this show is always entertaining and
oftentimes informative. I look forward to it every week and I
listen to it regardless of whether I have a commute or not. It
also helps me feel a little bit more connected to the US when I am
abroad.</p>
<p>I recommend this podcast without reservation to all audiences.</p>
<h2>BBC Global News</h2>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: less than 30 minutes.</p>
<p>For international news source I rely primary on the BBC World Service. The
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/globalnews">Global News podcast</a> is compiled twice a day, so whatever time
zone I am in there is usually a recent one available. The only
exception is on weekends, when it’s not published.</p>
<p>The key thing to know is that Global News is just the highlights from
other BBC shows. It’s short and sweet and to the point on different
news stories. If you only have time for one news podcast and you want
to get up to date with what is going on in the world in less than 30 minutes, this is the podcast.</p>
<p>If you have more time, want to hear longer interviews, or need a news
podcast on the weekend, I recommend the related podcast from the
World Service,
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/newshour" title="BBC
Newshour podcast">BBC Newshour</a>.</p>
<h2>NPR Intelligence Squared</h2>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: less than hour.</p>
<p>Billed as “Oxford-style debating on this side of the Atlantic,” <a href="http://intelligencesquaredus.org/" title="Intelligence Squared podcast">this podcast</a> is recordings of live debates on various contentious topics related to
modern American life.</p>
<p>They only come out about once a month (or less), but they’re usually quite
interesting and very informative. Past topics have included:
* “Is the Two-Party System Making U.S. Ungovernable?”
* “Should Airports Use Racial And Religious Profiling?”
* “Is Islam a Religion Of Peace?”</p>
<h2>Other Podcasts</h2>
<p>For whatever reason these podcasts aren’t listed as my top
recommendations, but I still listen to them.</p>
<p>They are for the most part still top notch, but might be less reliable
week-to-week (i.e. the occasional bad episode). I might also only
listen to them occasionally when I’ve run out of the main ones. For others, I might
still be giving them a chance to impress me.</p>
<h3>Back to Work</h3>
<p><strong>Run Time</strong>: around an hour.</p>
<p>I’m still not quite sure what <a href="http://5by5.tv/b2w" title="Back to Work podcast">this podcast</a> is about. Merlin Mann is
really famous from his days, now behind him (deliberately, on his part), as a productivity
guru. They talk about work/life balance stuff, philosophy of work,
etc. I had this in the Apple-focused podcast post but I’ve moved it
back to general interest, because though they both like Apple they
don’t talk about it that much.</p>
<p>Listening to this podcast I often have some epiphany about how I’m
doing my work or making decisions. It’s also quite entertaining,
mainly because Merlin Mann is an intensely likeable and very funny guy.
The only reason this podcast isn’t in my top recommended section is
because I’m still not sure what the podcast is even about. It seems
like sometimes they ramble on forever. I still enjoy it, and I’m
giving it a chance to win me over, but I prefer my other Apple
podcasts more (to be revealed in a later post).</p>
<h3>On The Media</h3>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: less than an hour.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/" title="On the media">On The Media</a> is quality analysis of media bias. Each show takes an
investigative approach around one topic. I’m not sure why I put this
in the “other podcasts” section. When I switched podcast programs I
think I forgot to add this, so I just haven’t listened to it in a
while. I would definitely give this a try, especially if you are
interested in any of their topics.</p>
<h3>Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!</h3>
<p><strong>Run time</strong>: less than an hour.</p>
<p>This is a
<a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/" title="link to wait wait don’t tell me">quiz show from NPR</a>. It’s usually pretty funny, but sometimes
I don’t get the jokes because I’m not hooked into the 24 hour news
cycle in the US (many of the questions are related to the news of the
week, and it’s usually US-centric). They get political and entertainment figures on the
show, sometimes, and they are usually pretty funny. This is something
to try out and see if you like the format.</p>
<p><strong>Check out the next in the series, my <a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/10/03/the-joy-of-podcasts-apple-related-podcasts/" title="a link to the next post in the series">Apple-related podcast recommendations</a>.</strong></p>
The Joy of Podcasts2011-09-26T02:02:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/26/the-joy-of-podcasts<p>I’ve compiled a list of my favorite podcasts.</p>
<p>Every once and a while I move somewhere where I have a long daily
commute. Suddenly I have a much higher demand in my life for audio
content. I have listened to some audio books, but I usually can’t
focus on nonfiction audio books while commuting. Also, shorter
segments like podcasts can help give a sense of finality to a commute,
instead of leaving you excited to continue like an audio book might.</p>
<p>I can understand if you don’t <em>get</em> podcasts or think podcasts are for
those <em>other people</em>. Podcasts are probably
less efficient as a way of receiving information for most people,
because most can read faster than they listen and many podcasts have a
lot of extra banter.</p>
<p>On the other hand, in the case of some of these podcasts you get
additional thoughts and get to borrow more of these peoples’ time than
you would be able to if you only read their blog posts. They don’t
write blog posts for every topic they think about, and it’s much easier
for them to communicate these thoughts in the informal atmosphere of a
podcast.</p>
<p>In that spirit, I have compiled a list of my favorite
podcasts. Originally it was one post but the list went on so long that
I have split it into sections.</p>
<p>Here is the list:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/29/the-joy-of-podcasts-general-interest/" title="general interest podcasts">General Interest</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/10/03/the-joy-of-podcasts-apple-related-podcasts/" title="apple related podcasts">Apple-related</a></p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/10/10/the-joy-of-podcasts-android-or-non-apple-tech-podcasts/" title="non-Apple podcasts">Android or non-Apple technology podcasts</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Note: The title is a play on The Joy of Sex or The Joy of Cooking, but
I noticed
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22The+Joy+of+Podcasts%22" title="google search: joy of podcasts">I wasn’t the only one to think of it</a>, including some
<a href="http://aprilmains.ca/2011/05/21/the-joy-of-podcasts/" title="girl who
likes Build and Analyze, also">people</a> who like the
same podcasts as I do.</strong></p>
Finding Things in Hong Kong: Vietnamese Coffee Brewer2011-09-25T00:39:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/25/finding-things-in-hong-kong-vietnamese-coffee-brewer<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6178555030/"
title="Vietnamese Iced Coffee by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img
src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6164/6178555030_27d631b100.jpg"
width="500" height="374" alt="Vietnamese Iced Coffee"></a>
<figcaption>Vietnamese Iced Cofee Brewer </figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finding things in Hong Kong is easy, as long as you know where to
look. Knowing where to look is the hard part.</p>
<!–more–>
<p>Things in Hong Kong are often sold in concentrated areas. There aren’t
many general stores where you can get everything, instead there is something like a street devoted to selling bathroom fixtures, or a building with dozens of computer parts stores. There also is very little online shopping.</p>
<p>If you’re trying to get something, it’s a question of finding out if
this cluster of stores exists for the thing you’re looking for. For
example, I thought Hong Kong had very poor selection of headphones,
because in my computer market (the one I go to is in Mong Kok) they
only had crappy brands and poor selection. Later I found out that
actually headphones aren’t sold at the computer market, and that there
is another market a few blocks away specializing in headphones that
had all of the brands I wanted.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to determine which cluster the thing you’re looking for
is in, if that cluster even exists, and where it is located. Sometimes there is only a vague, outdated post on
<a href="http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/" title="Geoexpat forums">Geoexpat</a>. So,
when, after much searching, I find the location of an obscure item, I
sometimes like to give back to the global internetworking knowledgesphere by
writing a post about it.</p>
<p>I’ve been enjoying Vietnamese food since freshman year of college in
Houston. There is a Little Saigon area of Houston with a ton of excellent
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ph%E1%BB%9F" title="wikipedia article about pho">pho</a>
restaurants, and I often went there to enjoy a bowl of delicious
rice noodle soup.</p>
<p>My favorite beverage to enjoy with these is
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_iced_coffee" title="wikipedia article on ca phe da">Vietnamese Iced Coffee</a>. This is served by bringing out a
miniature, single-serving metal coffee brewer/filter. This is placed
over the cup and hot water is allowed to drip through the ground
beans and turn into coffee. This is mixed with ice and sweetened
condense milk to make a delicious drink.</p>
<p>After introducing a friend in Hong Kong to pho, she said she really
loved the the way they made the coffee and wanted to try making it
like that in her apartment. As the experienced Hong Kong expat, I set
out on a mission to find the required miniature coffee brewer.</p>
<p>I tried all of the usual methods for finding cheap appliances: Japan Home, wet markets, City Super, and various Japanese department stores. All of these
methods failed, and I was about to give up. That is, until yesterday,
when while walking around in Yau Ma Tei we spotted a restaurant supply
store. The supply store had knives and pots and pans and all of the
equipment you needed to open a new restaurant, but most special of all
they had the Vietnamese coffee brewer. I can’t remember the exact
Chinese name, I think it was called “越南滴漏咖啡壺.”</p>
<p>We comparison shopped the surrounding area and found that the whole
area was full of restaurant supply stores, and a good portion of them
had the coffee brewer. The prices are similar to what I found on
websites in the US. They ranged from 42 HKD for the smallest, lowest
quality one up to 200 HKD for a nicely polished, luxury one. There were kinds with screw-down insert and also kinds with a
gravity insert, kinds with a handle, and kinds with the weird plastic
stubs on each side. We settled on a 65 HKD one which had good capacity and
reasonable quality (the company was Tantiendat).</p>
<p>To find this “restaurant supply” cluster go to Yau Ma Tei station and take exit C. Then
walk west on Man Ming Lane until you hit Shanghai Street. Then you can
just wander up and down Shanghai Street looking at the various stores.</p>
<p>The location is Yau Ma Tei (油麻地) district on Shanghai Street (上海街) centered around Man Ming Lane (文明里).</p>
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Yau+On+Court&aq=&sll=22.311562,114.169659&sspn=0.001412,0.002036&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Yau+On+Court,+322+Shanghai+St,+Hong+Kong&t=m&ll=22.311669,114.169949&spn=0.001737,0.00228&z=18&output=embed"></iframe>
<br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=Yau+On+Court&aq=&sll=22.311562,114.169659&sspn=0.001412,0.002036&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Yau+On+Court,+322+Shanghai+St,+Hong+Kong&t=m&ll=22.311669,114.169949&spn=0.001737,0.00228&z=18" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>
<p>Those looking for baking supplies (especially for baking cakes), quality knives, and all kinds of
pots and pans might also find what they are looking for in this
district.</p>
HK Apple Store Opening2011-09-24T21:21:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/24/hk-apple-store-opening<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6178196102/" title="photo6 by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6159/6178196102_32547c6c9e.jpg" width="374" height="500" alt="photo6"></a>
<figcaption>The brochure they handed out at the entrance</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, the International Financial Center mall location Apple
store on Hong Kong island has opened.</p>
<!–more–>
<p>It’s not difficult to get Apple products in Hong Kong. You can order
from the Apple store, you can get an iPhone from the wireless
companies, or you can get them from various retailers throughout the
territory.</p>
<p>Even when Apple products had delayed releases in Hong Kong, it was
always possible to get grey market products almost immediately, albeit
at a steep markup. In fact, impatient for the arrival of the iPad I
bought an Australian one from a small retailer in 2010.</p>
<p>Before today, if you wanted to see new Apple
computers in person you could find many small “Apple-style” stores in
computer markets across Hong Kong. They
didn’t claim to be official Apple stores, but they sold only Apple products and
usually had glass windows and nice displays.</p>
<p>As Apple opened stores in Shanghai and Beijing, Hong Kongers could be forgiven for
feeling a bit jealous of their mainland compatriots. It was easy to
get Apple products in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong still lacked it’s own
official, physical Apple presence. At long last, however, the wait is
over.</p>
<p>I didn’t wait in line or even try to show up early in the morning. As
much of an Apple enthusiast as I am, I didn’t think it worth lining up
merely for the opening of a new store as compared to the release of a new
product. I rolled into the store later in the evening around 7:30 PM.</p>
<p>At that time there was no line to get into the store but the store was
still busy and nearly full. As cynical as I am, the atmosphere of joy
and excitement was contagious. At the entrance there was a gauntlet of
chanting Apple store staff giving high fives to entering
customers. Inside, there were dozens of each kind of product, and it
wasn’t hard to find an available device to play with. There was good,
upbeat music in the background (I heard Led Zep’s “Ramble On”), and
there were many employees wandering around and looking for people to
help.</p>
<figure>
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="225" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=4910c3a92b&photo_id=6177670699"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=4910c3a92b&photo_id=6177670699" height="225" width="400"></embed></object>
<figcaption>The entrance gauntlet. </figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6177665707/" title="photo3 by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6156/6177665707_ce2e3efc1b.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="photo3"></a>
<figcaption>The store was busy.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were almost as many security personnel in black shirts as there
were staff. Earlier in the day they may have been more
necessary for crowd control, or perhaps Apple or the mall administration was actually concerned
about possible security problems. I don’t know if this is typical of
Apple store openings elsewhere. Despite the huge security
presence it didn’t feel overbearing. They just stood against the walls
and at the exits, and I didn’t see them speak to anyone or discourage
anyone from doing anything.</p>
<p>I overheard a few exchanges between Apple store staff and
customers, and they seemed as knowledgeable and helpful as I’ve come
to expect elsewhere. I doubt Apple had much trouble finding people
enthusiastic about Apple products in Hong Kong, and I’m sure the
staff had been well trained.</p>
<p>I talked to one of them and asked about how they were selling the
iPhone’s. They were selling them alone or with contracts on Hong Kong
CSL. He asked if I wanted one so I took my iPhone 4 out of my pocket
and showed him that I already had one. I told him I was an iPhone developer and that I
lived in Hong Kong, so I wanted to check out the new store. He said he
had met another app developer earlier in the day who had iOS 5 on his
phone, to which I replied by showing him that mine, also, had iOS 5
installed. He tried to sell me a computer or an iPad, but I told him I
already had my Apple purchases planned out (iPad
with retina display in the spring, etc.) He saidI should come
back some time.</p>
<p>I read online that they had given T-shirts to the first 5000
visitors. The employee said that they ran out of those in the first
couple hours.</p>
<p>The store itself is two stories, with a central entrance on the bottom
floor. Each floor is split into two areas, and the two floors are
connected by a large spiral staircase. The bottom floor had Macbooks
on the left side and iOS and iPod devices on the right side. On the top floor
there were accessories and genius bars on the right side, and Apple
one-on-one teaching stations and purchasing areas on the left
side. The top floor has two exits, one on each side.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6178193506/" title="photo4 by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6158/6178193506_34f0bc0861.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="photo4"></a>
<figcaption>Some kids playing Lego Star Wars</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The presentation and organization was almost flawless, and as I said
the atmosphere was very upbead. However, in John Siracusa style, I did
notice a couple problems.</p>
<p>First, they were using iPad’s to give product information. This seems
like a cool idea, because pricing and specifications can be updated
without having to print out a new information sheet, and also because
the customer can explore the iPad menu to find more information about
the product. It also helps with cross-promotion, because the customer
gets exposure to the iPad.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6177664133/"
title="photo2 by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img
src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6177664133_e1007cd03c.jpg"
width="500" height="374" alt="photo2"></a>
<figcaption>Confusing display.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is one problem with the iPad as product information system: When I first saw the display I thought
the product <em>was</em> the iPad, and I was confused as to why they had locked
down its interface to make other apps inaccessible. Only after
wandering around and looking at other displays did I realize that the
iPad was only there to provide information about the iPhone or about
the iPod touch. I think the issue is that the iPad’s large, bright
display was being used to sell much smaller products (even the iPod
nano). My attention was immediately captured by the iPad, and I barely
noticed the presence of the iPod touch. When I saw the same sales
tactic being used with the Macbooks or iMacs it made a lot more
sense. For those, the product wasn’t overshadowed by the information
system.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6177668609/" title="photo5 by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6155/6177668609_7b5d3266db.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="photo5"></a>
<figcaption>Those are a lot of Apples. </figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second problem was with the dock connector. The iPhone’s and iPod
touches were connected to the tables by their dock connectors. They
weren’t placed in a standard dock, instead there was some kind of
translucent assembly around the connector. Before
seeing store staff disconnect one from it’s connector, I thought maybe this was an anti-theft
device, and I was uncertain about removing the the iPhone from its
position. Using a more familiar dock might make this more apparent.</p>
<p>I’m still a little skeptical of the necessity of global Apple retail
store expansion. Maybe, as a power-user, I underestimate the usefulness of a single
point of contact for support and training. Regardless, the Apple store is a wonderful showcase
for Apple products, and as a person living in Hong Kong I look forward
to more store openings (perhaps Causeway Bay Times Square, or
somewhere in Tsim Sha Tsui?) in the future.</p>
<figure>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/divergio/6178188970/"
title="photo by tdenton137, on Flickr"><img
src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6178188970_4bedc0fafa.jpg"
width="500" height="374" alt="photo"></a>
<figcaption>A beacon of hope in an otherwise barren landscape of
boring technology companies.</figcaption>
</figure>
Finding Things in Hong Kong: Body Fat Analyzer2011-09-01T02:02:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/09/01/finding-things-in-hong-kong-body-fat-analyzer<p>I was curious about starting a new exercise program in Hong Kong, but first I needed an important tool so I could quantify my progress.</p>
<p>Body fat analyzers are useful if you are starting a new weight loss or
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030746363X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=divergi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=030746363X" title="4 Hour Body Amazon affiliate link">exercise program</a>,
because weight gain or loss only tells half the story. If you’re trying to gain weight but not paying attention to fat percentage, you might just be getting fatter and not more muscular. Likewise, if your weight loss slow but your body fat percentage goes down, you may still be making a lot of progress.</p>
<!–more–>
<p>Though they aren’t as accurate as ones using other methods, the bioelectrical impedance-based models are the cheapest and easiest to use at home. If you take the measurement under the same conditions (especially the amount of water you’ve consumed, for example in the morning after urinating), you can at least expect reasonable accuracy measuring the trend of your body fat percentage. The objective value of the reading is pretty much useless, however, so don’t try to compare readings taken with other methods.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a body fat analyzer in Hong Kong you might have some difficulty, especially if you’re relying on English language resources only. For whatever reason, if you want a blood pressure monitor you can find it at almost any electronics store, but for a body fat analyzer you’re going to be searching all day to try to find anything.</p>
<p><strong>Fortunately, I did most of the searching already.</strong></p>
<p>I started out with a search on Geoexpat, and went from there. I’ve determined the following possibilities:</p>
<ul>
<li>As spotted on Hong Kong <a href="http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/33/thread181145.html">GeoExpat forums</a>, Wing On
department store has a number of Tanita scales. You can see the
various model’s on <a href="http://www.wingonet.com/" title="wing
on department store">Wing On’s website</a>. I can attest that the TST East location had a
few models. They sell for around 800 HKD, you can see some of the
prices on the website.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m not sure about the relative accuracy of the scale type that measure impedance through your feet. They have the advantage that they weigh you at the same time, so you don’t have to input your weight.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I found a single scale type of unknown brand at Broadway
electronics store in Mong Kok. It was on the top floor and was quite expensive, something like 1200 HKD.</p></li>
<li><p>I think that various small medical instrument supply stores
througout the city may carry lesser known brands with more of the
scale-type body fat analyzers. I ran into one such place, Hong Yee
Medical Instrument Co., whiile walking along Nathan Road. I think they
might have had this <a href="http://www.bremed.com/product_page/BD7730.html">model</a>. I don’t
remember the price, but I think it was cheaper than the Tanitas. The
information for that company is Shop B, G/F, Nathan Tower, NO 518-520,
Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong (MTR Exit D). Their number
is 3525-0928.</p></li>
<li><p>The handheld Omron model was very difficult to find. I was told
they might be available at some weight-lifting stores or fitness
stores. I was also told they used to be sold at Watsons. Finally, a
helpful pharmacist at Watsons pointed me to the Sogo electronics
section. Only the
<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=sogo+causeway+bay&hl=en&cid=17800385737830013441" title="causeway bay sogo google maps">Causeway Bay Sogo</a> location has it. They sell the
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006WNPU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=divergi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00006WNPU" title="handheld Omron model Amazon affiliate link">HBF-306</a>, which is the most common model. It was 500 HKD, which is about twice the price you’d pay in the US, but I guess that’s what you get for shopping in Hong Kong for something other than luxury watches, electronics, or jade. Further, as Sogo is a Japanese department store this was a Japanese model. There are English instructions, but the display and buttons are in Japanese. It doesn’t interfere with use as long as you memorize a few symbols.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to the handheld models, Sogo had a couple of high end Omron scales, the kind with the extendable hand holds. These kind have six different impedance sensors, so they can give some even fancier readings like different kinds of body fat. I’m not sure if they are any more accurate for total body fat percentage. I wasn’t in the market for these, so I don’t remember the price. They were probably over 800 HKD.</p>
<p>I move around a lot, so I chose the handheld model because I can take it with me. Then I bought a 100 HKD digital scale from Japan Home so I can measure my weight before using the device.</p>
<p>If you’ve seen these sorts of devices anywhere else, please leave a comment.</p>
The Design of Everyday Smartphones2011-02-26T00:00:00+08:00http://www.divergio.com/blog/2011/02/26/smartphone-usability<p>I know I’m not the first one to <a href="http://c3sart.com/design/overcoming-failure-through-good-design" title="c3sart">point</a> <a href="http://www.davidstagg.com/2009/08/26/a-note-on-the-design-of-everyday-things/" title="davidstagg">this</a> <a href="http://bill.dudney.net/roller/objc/entry/foretelling_the_iphone" title="bill dudney">out</a>, but I found that the modern smartphone solves (though probably also creates) many of the problems discussed in Donald Norman’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465067107?ie=UTF8&tag=divergi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0465067107" title="Amazon, Design of Everyday Things">“The Design of Everyday Things”</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Would you like a pocket-size device that reminded you of each
appointment and daily event? […] It has to be small. It has to be
convenient to use. And it has to relatively powerful, at least by
today’s standards. It has to have a full, standard typewriter keyboard
and a reasonably large display. It needs good graphics, because that
makes a tremendous difference in usability, and a lot of memory–a huge
amount, actually. And it should be easy to hook up to the telephone; I
need to connect it to my home and laboratory computers. Of course, it
should be relatively inexpensive.</p></blockquote>
<p>The only unmet feature is the “relatively inexpensive” part, but even that is changing.</p>
<p>I know there is still a lot of work to be done, but I’m pretty happy with how many of the problems of task management, password memorization, and number memorization are solved by smartphones.</p>