SIGNAL VS. NOISE

Smart Design Not in the Budget

So, I'm looking for a rental car for an upcoming trip and checked out a variety of sources. I checked out the comparison sites like Expedia and Orbitz and also the individual rental car company sites like Dollar, Avis, Hertz, Budget and others.

First off, most are really bad (especially Hertz). Confusing, quirky, slow, etc. But, what really stood out was Budget's method for displaying prices. Instead of showing a per day cost, Budget shows a trip duration cost. So, if I'm going somewhere for 5 days, they'll display $134.71 instead of $26.95/day (see screenshot below). While it's nice to see the total cost, displaying only the total cost makes it very difficult to compare Budget's prices with their competitors who display their prices using the industry standard price-per-day pricing model. It should say something like "$134.71 for your trip ($26.95/day)."

Hey Budget, when I'm looking for a rental I compare prices. Your pricing display method requires me to pull out a caluculator to see how your prices relate to Avis' or Hertz's. This is bad design. You make me feel like you don't understand the rental car experience. Even if you think consumers would benefit by knowing the total cost, you need to "speak the same language" as your competitors if you want me to listen.

New Airport Pre-Screen

Delta is planning to test a new security screening plan at a few major airports during the month of March. How does it work?:

Transportation officials say a contractor will be picked soon to build the nationwide computer system, which will check such things as credit reports and bank account activity and compare passenger names with those on government watch lists.

Seems like a relatively smart way to check for potential threats (as opposed to screening and detaining everyone and their grandmother equally), but what about the privacy and civiil liberty implications of this measure? Would you be willing to give up a little privacy for a nice green stamp on your boarding pass?

A Tablet PC in every hand?

Accoding to this story at New.com sales of Tablet PCs in both the U.S. and Europe have far exceeded manufacturer's expectations.

Toshiba several times has increased production of its Portege 3500 tablet, after having trouble meeting initial demand...HP also has inked a few large corporate deals involving its tablet PCs...The company recently signed an agreement to provide 1,000 tablets to a large company.

Indeed, tablet PCs have "done better than the industry expected for the short period of time they've been shipping," said Alan Promisel, an analyst with IDC...The research firm forecast U.S. tablet PC shipments to reach 150,000 units in 2002...That figure is expected to jump significantly in 2003 to about 675,000 units, or roughly 5 percent of the overall notebook market, Promisel said.

I have to admit that for some inexplicable reason I've wanted a Tablet PC since they were released late last year, but I thought I was one of the crazy few. Still, I've yet to see anyone with a Tablet PC nor do I know anyone who has one. Has anyone been using a Tablet PC for any amount of time? If so, any thoughts? The reviews I've read thus far have largely been lukewarm, but I'd love to hear from people who have made real world use of one of the machines.

Poor Jimmy

Poor, poor Jimmy Kimmel. Steve-O? Jared from Subway!? Tom Arnold!!? Jeesh...why not just pick some schmo off the street to talk to for an hour? I actually think Jimmy's got potential but how can any late night talk show host be expected to survive with a guest list like this?

Thursday, Feb. 27: Anna Nicole Smith, Lennox Lewis, Greg Proops
Friday, Feb. 28: Steve-O
Monday, Mar. 3: Actor Jeff Goldblum, Model Molly Sims, Rapper Fabulous
Tuesday, Mar. 4: Jared from Subway
Wednesday, Mar. 5: Model Rachel Hunter, Actor Eugene Levy, Hip Hop group Nappy Roots
Thursday, Mar. 6: TBD
Friday, Mar. 7: Actor Tom Arnold, Musical guest Bowling for Soup

Daniel Libeskind's World Trade Center Design Wins

Daniel Libeskind's plan for a jumble of angular buildings and the world's tallest tower was chosen as the plan for the World Trade Center site on Wednesday. One of the most interesting features of the original plan, a memorial at the original trade center foundation 70-feet below ground, was changed to 30 feet to allow for infrastructure and transportation. Overall, do you think the complex Libeskind plan is good design or just design for design's sake?

The Jewish Question

This N.Y. Times column by Thomas Friedman argues that European support for Palestinians is rooted in anti-Semitism. So Europeans out there, do you think there's truth to this notion?

Let's start with the Europeans. There is only one group of Arabs for whom Europeans have consistently spoken out in favor of their liberation -- and that is those Arabs living under Israeli occupation, the Palestinians. Those Arabs who have been living under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein or other Arab dictators are of no concern to President Jacques Chirac of France and his fellow travelers.

We all know what this is about: the Jewish question. "For too many Europeans, Arabs are of no moral interest in and of themselves," observes the Middle East analyst Stephen P. Cohen. "They only become of interest if they are fighting Jews or being manhandled by Jews. Then their liberation becomes paramount, because calling for it is a way to stick it to the Jews. Europeans' demonstrations for a free Palestine -- and not for a free Iraq or any other Arab country -- smell too much like a politically correct form of anti-Semitism, part of a very old story."

37signals Looking to Hire Freelance PR Help

We're actively looking for freelance Public Relations help. We've done a decent job promoting 37signals (and the 37Better Project and our first E-Commerce Search Report and Design Not Found) on our own, but we want to take it to the next level. If you think you can help, please email [email protected] and let us know. Thanks.

The 3rd Degree

Not content to simply market MSN or MSN Messenger to net-saavy teens, Microsoft has taken a different tack with threedegrees. What's really interesting (aside from the potential for yet more security holes in your OS) is the music sharing aspect. From their FAQs:

Do I get to keep the music my friend shares with me?
No, a musicmix session works like a party. Your friend brings her CDs to the party so everyone can listen to them, but she takes them home when she leaves. With musicmix, however, you can use the Shop button to purchase the song elsewhere if you like it.

The above analogy sounds an awful lot like an internet radio station to me. And yet the RIAA clearly has a stick up its butt about this kind of music sharing. Curious move on Microsoft's part.

Guinea?

According to this story about the Iraq/UN situation, "the crucial votes now belong to Angola, Cameroon, Guinea, Pakistan, Mexico and Chile." Oy.

Islamabad "Sex and the City" Meetup

You know Meetup is taking off when the Sex and the City Meetup is Islamabad's #1 Meetup topic. But I'm not sure they understand that Sex and the City is a TV show. Take a look at some of their personal messages (listed under the Who Has Signed Up section). saleem_pakistan says: "hay Just females any female u want tasty sex mail me." guest2001ca says "hi I am from Islamabad and I am male, who is looking for good and sexy females for sex in islamabad." zakeish_sher says "Not your average boy toy in town looking for regular thingie. Something kinkyly amazing is what I seek." Funny stuff.

The "Proof" for Usability's ROI

The Usability Professionals' Association has published a useful, statistics/numbers-heavy resource for those looking to justify usability expendatures. This would also be useful for consultants/designers trying to make the case to a client that usability is worth the investment. Thanks UPA. [via WebWord]

TSG & The Grammys

ESPN's The Sports Guy (Bill Simmons) tackles the Grammy awards.

8:39 -- Speaking of ads, we're up to two CBS promos for "My Big Fat Greek Life" -- and aren't we all rooting against this show -- as well as an ad for Chris Rock's new movie, "Head of State." Poor Chris. If this movie doesn't work out, he passes Katie Holmes and grabs pole position in the "Least Successful Film Career In Hollywood" race. You'd hate to see that happen.

8:52 -- Eminem wins another Grammy (best rap album). Man, he's so serious and miserable, isn't he? Is his life really that bad? What would he look like if he hadn't made a ton of money, a hit movie, some great albums, and won a bunch of awards. He and Allen Iverson really need to get into a support group together.

9:50 -- Our first anti-war comment of the night -- as well as the quote of the night, and possibly the year -- from the immortal Fred Durst: "I think we're all in agreeance that this war should go away as soon as possible." (Right on, Fred. We're all in agreeance. And if things fall apart, I guess we're all headed to Bolivian.)

10:06 -- Highlight of the night: Erykah Badu (with a giant afro) trying to read cue cards, screwing up, saying, "I knew I should have gone to rehearsal," as a horrified B.B. King looks on, inexplicably waving to the crowd, then finishing her cue card reading, but going one line too far and reading the word "APPLAUSE." Words can't possibly do that sequence justice. A solid 98 on the Unintentional Comedy Scale. I'm really enjoying myself tonight. Can you tell?

By the way, a fun game is to watch Jimmy Kimmel's new show and try to spot TSG's influence (he's a writer there now). Last week, Kimmel had Quentin Richardson showing off the cars of various L.A. Clippers players -- definitely a bit inspired by TSG.

The death of more than just common sense...

Here are some snippets from an incredible article at the N.Y. Times on the topic of appeals by people on death row on the grounds of new evidence. Keep in mind that these are real quotes from a real appeal hearing:

A prosecutor was trying to block a death row inmate from having his conviction reopened on the basis of new evidence, and Judge Stith, of the Missouri Supreme Court, was getting exasperated. "Are you suggesting," she asked the prosecutor, that "even if we find Mr. Amrine is actually innocent, he should be executed?"

Frank A. Jung, an assistant state attorney general, replied, "That's correct, your honor."

"To make sure we are clear on this," Judge Michael A. Wolff of the Supreme Court replied, "if we find in a particular case that DNA evidence absolutely excludes somebody as the murderer, then we must execute them anyway if we can't find an underlying constitutional violation at their trial?"

Again, Mr. Jung said yes.

What the fuck is this country coming to? Why are we so incredibly eager to kill people, even people who could very possibly be innocent?

Something very wrong is happening here and it's frightening.

Got Tea?

I love quality tea. If you love tea, be sure to check out the great tea selection at In Pursuit of Tea. This stuff is very high quality full leaf tea (no tea dust/fannings here). Their white tea selection is fantastic -- especially the Yinzhen Silver Needle. A great way to taste a few of their best whites and greens is to pick up a white tea sampler or a green tea sampler. If you're not into tea at all, but are curious, their finest tea sampler (a sample of white, green, oolong, and black) is a great place to start.

Disconnected: ESPN's CSS Redesign Upgrade Page

So, ESPN redesigned their site using mostly standards-compliant CSS layout techniques. Good for them. They even put together a custom browser upgrade page with links to the latest browsers for those who aren't using standards compliant browsers. They even let you send them a note if you feel you reached this page in error. That's smart contingency design. But, a quick read of the upgrade page provides a perfect example of the huge disconnect that still exists between the common-person and people who design web sites.

The upgrade page talks about "standards-compliant browsers," "standards-compliant code," "open standards," "performs more consistently," and "non-compliant browsers." What does this jargon mean to the 2% of the people who will see this page? And, keep in mind that the 2% of the people who see this page will probably be the least technically inclined of their visitors (otherwise they probably would have upgraded their browser long ago).

Bad copywriting is the biggest cancer on the web today, and ESPN continues that tradition by lathering on the jargon and washing away the simple, easy-to-understand language that is required at a critical contingency design crisis point. If you are going to ask someone to do something, you better speak their language and put things in their perspective.

"The essence of the human competitive instinct"

Did sibling rivalry drive Charles Darwin? What made Darwin a creative thinker (BBC News) discusses a study that concludes "the instinctive behaviour adopted by younger children to help get them noticed can stay with them for life."

...the ability to compete may be most fully realised in younger children, who face a tough time jousting with older siblings for their parents' attention.

"Real" Americans

Something has been bothering me lately... I keep hearing certain people clamoring about how certain economic plans, policies, etc. aren't good for "real Americans." And then today Gephardt announces his campaign for President and he says he'll lead a crusade to put "hard-working Americans first." Why don't they just say "middle-class and poor." This use of "real" -- and Gephardt's "hard-working Americans" bit -- really bothers me. Wealthy people aren't "real Americans?" What is a "real American?" Many wealthy people have worked their asses off to earn their keep. Many wealthy/successful people continue to work as hard as anyone to continue their success and provide opportunities for others to achieve their own. Maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing, but it really bothers me when "real" and "hard-working" are used as words meant to exclude those who have been successful on their own effort, hard work, risk, and determination.

Your Name, My Ass

eBay fosters the entrepreneurial spirit: Your Name Written on My Ass - Only $5.00. BTW, when I say "My Ass" I mean the person's ass who posted the eBay ad, not mine. Just wanted to clear that up ahead of time.

Stylized

This guide is based on the style book which is given to all journalists at The Economist. I think the common problems section is an excellent idea -- especially the "-able" "-eable" and "-ible" subsections at the bottom. And the jargon section gives the best advice of all: Avoid it. You can pre-order the eighth edition of the book from Amazon (to be released June 2003).

Hornby

This review of Nick Hornby's "Songbook" (NY Times) offers an interesting insight about the author of "High Fidelity" and "About A Boy."

His one profound worry, in truth, is his young son, Danny, who is autistic and can barely communicate. (Proceeds from the book benefit children's educational organizations in London and San Francisco.) Danny's relationship to music is different from his dad's, but, not surprisingly, no less intense: he has to listen before he goes to sleep at night, he wanders the house with a portable cassette player, the volume cranked, and he goes to his room sometimes to listen to songs more carefully, his head lowered onto his player's speaker. What can he be hearing? What can the music be saying to him? Perhaps, Hornby suggests, what Danny is listening so intently for is that something everyone longs for from a song -- that ''something in him that he wants others to articulate.''

Bloogle

There seems to be a lot of hubbub surrounding Google's acquisition of Blogger. Not to be upstaged, MovableType founders Mena and Ben Trott bought a fax machine. Only time will tell which news story will have greater impact for self-publishing enthusiasts everywhere.

Consumers' Republic

A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America is a new book from Harvard historian Lizabeth Cohen. Among other things, the books examines the process that helped create the little niche markets that mark today's world:

It was no accident that the rise of market segmentation corresponded to the historical era of the 1960s and 1970s, when social and cultural groups such as African-Americans, women, youth, and senior citizens began to assert themselves in a way that came to be called "identity politics," where people's affiliation with a particular community defined their cultural consciousness and motivated their collective political action. Marketers who, had they not been in search of new ways to avoid saturated mass markets, might have despaired at the splintering of the mass in the 1960s, soon seized the opportunities for selling it offered.

The complete interview with the author can be found on HBS Working Knowledge.

I Don't Want To Get Off On A Rant Here...

Don't miss Dennis Miller's most recent rants (pulldown menu at the bottom of the page). His rant on the Middle East is vintage Miller:

The sad truth is, everyone in this thing just needs one good hard slap-upside-the-head of common sense. Hey Sharon, stop building settlements and pretending the Palestinians are going to go away. Hey Yasser, stop buying explosives with European money and wearing a map of Israel on your headscarf. Hey Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, stop talking peace but refusing to meet with the Israelis. Hey Chester the Cheetah, stop packing your bags of Cheetos with 97% air and half a coke-spoon of orange powder and laying that "Contents of package may settle" bullshit on me.

I can't get enough.

Photobloggies

The finalists for the 2003 Photobloggies.

A Glimpse of a Future in a New Kind of Light

Spotted another interesting article in the Times today, this time about LED lighting.

Some interesting tidbits...

Light bulbs, which lighting experts deride as heaters that happen to give off visible light, work by forcing electricity through a metal filament in a vacuum. About 6 percent of the energy ends up as light. Today's light chips are up to five times as efficient...One widely cited study for the Energy Department concluded that the widespread use of solid-state lighting by 2025 could cut electricity demand 10 percent and save consumers $100 billion.

That's a long way out, but the article mentions many other benefits of LED lighting that go beyond power savings (if I was a gamer I'd be really into the gaming application that's mentioned). Some nifty stuff that is already a part of our lives (in the form of street signs, lighting in newer cars, etc.) and will only become increasingly so.

Bin Laden Speaks of Iraq 'Partnership,' Powell Says

In the spirit of "all Iraq all the time" I figured I'd post on this topic yet again. I just couldn't help it when I read the above headline from a story in today's N.Y. Times. Powell goes on to say...

This nexus between terrorists and states that are developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored.

The article goes on to say that Powell told members of Congress...

...that a paramount reason to disarm the Hussein regime is the fellowship it feels with terrorists.

This is the sort of thing that I think makes reasonable people take a step back and say "this government is feeding us a line of bunk."

So bin Laden distributes a tape stating his support for Muslims in Iraq and Iraq's conflict with the U.S. and that's proof of Iraq hosting al Qaeda members? Oh come on, Colin. I'd expect that from Colin Quinn maybe, but not you. OBL has expressed support for the Palestinians too, are we going to bomb them next?

The same article quotes C.I.A. Director George Tenet as saying...

We see disturbing signs that Al Qaeda has established a presence in both Iran and Iraq.

Last time I checked it seemed that al Qaeda had established a presence in the U.S. too, and Germany, and England, and Saudi Arabia, and so on and so forth. Are we going to bomb ourselves and our allies now in the name of homeland security?

Do they (meaning the Bush administration) really need to treat us all like idiots? It's this kind of bullshit rhetoric that I think turns a lot of people both inside and outside of this country against what the administration is trying to do.

Nothing To Say

Yep. We have nothing to say. How about you? What do you want to talk about?

eHazmat

Thanks to the internet, and the Yahoo! Store, it's never been easier to get your very own hazmat suit. Take your pick from the beautiful, bright yellow Tychem BR, or, for the hard core paranoia enthusiast, the shiny silver Tychem NFPA Reflector Level A Suit. Next-day FedEx shipping is recommended.

Book Title: 2 Choices

There are two finalists for the title of our book on contingency design. Which do you think is better?

Back On Track

or...

Making Mistakes Well

The working subtitle is "Improving Web Errors, Help, Forms and Other Crisis Points."

"You are a great judge of talent..."

Wanted: Video clip of Triumph the insult comic dog interviewing Simon Cowell from American Idol the other week. Anyone?

Powell Makes His Case

What all of us have learned ... is deeply troubling (includes highlights).

Powell began by playing audiotapes of what he said were two Iraqi officials discussing an upcoming inspection by U.N. officials. "They are inspecting ammunition you have... for the possibility there are forbidden ammo," said a voice Powell identified as an Iraqi official in the U.S. translation. "We sent you a message yesterday to clean out the areas, scrap areas, abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there."

The US makes its case. I'm convinced. Are you?

Iraq! I Mean, A New NYT.com Design

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the New York Times site will begin making its online pages appear more similar to their print counterparts. Nav moves to the top, articles move to the left, and big half-page ads move to the right. I say good for them trying to squeeze more revenue out of their site. You say? [link via WebWord]

The Sounds of Silence

A comment in this post mentioned my silence on political debates here:

What I find most interesting is that ML, the 37signals' resident political science major, rarely chimes in on political discussions.

Why the silence? A lifetime of dinner table arguments (Dad was archconservative prosecutor, Mom was new-age hippie) and too many classes on political science have taken their toll. I can't get it up for political debates anymore. I think 99% of the time they're a waste of effort. As that noted political philosopher Steve Krug wrote:

I usually call these endless discussions "religious debates," because they have a lot in common with most discussions of religion and politics: They consist largely of people expressing strongly held personal beliefs about things that can't be proven - supposedly in the interest of agreeing on the best way to do something important...And, like most religious debates, they rarely result in anyone involved changing his or her point of view.

That's how I feel. What difference do these debates make? How often does anyone actually change their mind? It's amazing how people (and countries) will twist whatever facts are presented to justify the views that they already believe in.

Look at Rush Limbaugh. Look at Jesse Jackson. Look at the Arabs. Look at the French. Look at the U.S. Look at the posts at SvN. We all believe what we want to believe. And somehow the facts always seem to support whatever positions we already hold.

Anyone here have a conversion tale to prove me wrong? When was the last time you changed your mind on a major political issue? Have you ever realized "I was wrong" and switched to the other side? Why?

Being Weak After Being Powerful is a Terrible Thing

Thomas Friedman gets it right in Sunday's NYT op/ed. Ah, Those Principled Europeans [N.Y. Times, requires registration], summarizes my personal feelings about Europe's insecurity and growing anti-American sentiment -- especially over the possible war in Iraq. I just love this piece.

But next to the meat imported from the U.S. was a tiny asterisk, which warned that it might contain genetically modified organisms -- G.M.O.'s... Europeans, out of some romantic rebellion against America and high technology, were shunning U.S.-grown food containing G.M.O.'s -- even though there is no scientific evidence that these are harmful. But practically everywhere we went in Davos, Europeans were smoking cigarettes -- with their meals, coffee or conversation -- even though there is indisputable scientific evidence that smoking can kill you. In fact, I got enough secondhand smoke just dining in Europe last week to make me want to have a chest X-ray.

The end of the op/ed draws a clever, and I think spot-on comparison between shopkeepers temporarily putting up "U.S.A. No War in Iraq" signs in their windows as insurance against Davos economic forum protesters, and the lack of true moral conviction by some European leaders. Do read it, and do comment.

Space Shuttle Columbia and Crew Lost

It's breaking up...Spiral in the sky...Space shuttle lost.
The space shuttle Columbia, with seven heros aboard, broke up at 200,000 feet as it descended over central Texas today before a planned landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.