Brainrub

The much-lauded iPad. Is it for you?

Ssssoooo… the iPad was finally released and instantly snapped up in the US. (I live in Canada, so I don’t get to witness that patricular level of retail frenzy – should I show up for it – until April 24th.)

Co-owner of Brainrub, Stewie, is jonesing for one as we speak.

You would think that someone like me, a gadget nerd since a very early age, would be drooling to get one of these, but I’m as surprised as you might be that I’m not even slightly interested in getting one. I can’t even put my finger on why, precisely. This may change when and if I ever get to try one out in person, but I just don’t find I’m all that excited about what it offers, or even the new-generation interface design it presents to users.

A lot of my friends have been asking me “So when are you getting one? What do you think about it?” Enough of them thought it was worth me posting it here, so that’s why this story exists. (Fascinating!)

I will admit that the iPod Touch / iPhone user interface (UI) is one of the most groundbreaking user interface designs I have seen or used in quite some time. This is, when you think about it, the first really different interface since perhaps the late 1980′s. As long as most people can remember, an interface meant a mouse and a keyboard. (Less often: a pen / tablet interface and keyboard, for you designers out there.) Every new technological device since, say, 1990 has included some variation of this pairing: a scroll-wheel and keyboard, a center-scroller and keyboard, etc. The only variations on this were the Newton in 1993, and the Palm in around 1995.

What the iPhone interface does so seamlessly is remove the mental requirement for a two-hand interface. Pretty much everthing short of long-message typing can be done with a single hand in either horizontal or vertical orientation. That is definitely no small feat.

Why I mention this at length is that the iPad seems to draw that out even further, providing (obviously) a larger screen surface with which to interact, and offering new and interesting variations on this UI. I can only base this on available media coverage, of course, but more than a few people I know in the US have gotten their hands on an iPad and they really loved some of the extras it offered.

So my feeling is: I get that. I understand it. But I don’t really get any sense right now that I need it – at least not yet. I also have an aversion to version 1.0 of pretty much any new technology. My first iPod was a 10gb 2nd generation regular old white iPod with a huge, clunky firewire plug on it, and a grey, backlit LCD screen. I still use this as an “archival” iPod. I waited close to two years, and I talked myself out of buying it many times. I have a netbook, and while it doesn’t have the flashy UI, it is fast, it does start up quickly, and it does what I need it to do. The only things it can’t do are the same things I notice that neither the iPad or the iPhone can do either, notably play open-source games like the MAME arcade emulator. It doesn’t appear that they will do so anytime soon, either.

I do notice that many people keep asking me “What do you think it is? Is it a cross between an iPhone and a laptop?” This shows me that both the launch and the media hype following the launch have failed to really capture what specific need this device is trying to fulfill. In my opinion, it’s a mobile information / entertainment device. It’s not meant to be a replacement for your laptop, and never was, so it kind of bothers me that most mainstream media kept saying “but it can’t run powerpoint like my laptop can.” That was never the point, even with iLife being offered as an optional application suite. So the iPad, in my opinion, was meant to be slightly less than a laptop, and slightly more than an iPod.

“So a netbook,” I hear you conclude. I don’t think that’s necessarily true either. Netbooks are (again, my opinion) primarily meant to be quick-startup informational devices. Yes they can play music and movies, yes you can read books and other documents on them. And yes you can even do some semi-heavy lifting document creation or programming on them. They’re mini laptops. But they are not primarily entertainment devices, and they don’t appear to be meant to straddle that line. They’re really just very compact laptops, period. (They used to be “limited RAM, limited hard drive” laptops, but people complained, apparently.)

Key difference between a netbook and an iPad: powerup. iPad: nearly instant. Always. Short of having to fully restart the thing because it crashed for some reason ([ahem]game play[/ahem],) you hit the power button, and it’s on. Netbooks from hibernation mode: a few seconds, then (if you secured it, which you did, right?) a few more seconds while you log in, then a few more while it restores your last view.

That key detail right there is what’s going to attract more of the “casual user” that the netbook was originally designed for, probably more than the new-fangled UI on its own.

Is it worth the price? I don’t personally think so as of this writing. It’s not super cheap – hey: it’s Apple – but for the innovations it introduces it’s also not bank-breaking. I personally just can’t see myself throwing down $500 for something without an 80gb hard drive in it today, and there are numerous devices that are cheaper that feature such a hard drive. Instant-on isn’t worth that price to me either. There are far cheaper dedicated book readers out there, notably Sony’s (which is on my list, as I transition off my Palm for good.) There are equivalent media viewers out there which are less locked-down than the iTunes driven iPad. (Don’t get me started. I like iTunes, and I like that whole platform, but open source gives you far greater flexibility.)

This is all merely my opinion, and I’m totally okay with it not matching up to yours. (I assume it won’t, in the majority of cases.) Will it be worth it to you? That depends on which of the innovations and features most appeal to you.

I kept seeing people on news stories over the past weekend claiming “I don’t need an iPad. But do I want one? You bet.” My great equalizer these days is that there are still, as we speak, people who need a roof over there head and financial assistance to buy food. Most of the people I saw in lineups on news stories about the iPad all had an iPhone and a Mac laptop, while they were waiting in line. I’m happy for these people because it’s nice to have that level of choice in your life. I’m not judging these people, but a statement like “need” in relation to a device like this is sort of jarring to me in light of the past two years and how the economy has turned out. That’s not to mention eathquakes (three so far this year), floods, bail-outs, layoffs, bankruptcies and whatever else you care to add to that list.

It’s a nice looking device. I may buy one someday in the next two years, possibly by version 2.5 of the product or the revised iPad OS. Do I need one? Not yet. Possibly you want one, and I encourage you to comment here if you get one.

Thanks for reading.

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Since I started at my new job, one of my co-workers, Stef G., has consistently come up with very odd, random topics of conversations. If this were anyone else I might feel a bit odd or even annoyed by it, but he’s so genuinely entertaining that it’s actually a breath of fresh air.

Today, randomly, he and another co-worker (Simon B.) were discussing the ordering experience at our building’s deli. They got chili, and there were options like “spicy or extra spicy”. This led Simon to suggest that they should just have an option called “guess.”

The level of Monty Python that this conversation reached was actually pretty cool, and not in the way I usually refer to that troupe and its material.

A sample bizarre scenario: The soup of the day is called “Guess”, posted on a board at a restaurant.

Customer: I’ll have the soup of the day.

Waiter: ‘OK, extra spicy?

Customer: Uhhhh…. yes?

Waiter [shaking head and giggling to himself, writing further notes on his pad...]

I might actually eat at that restaurant.

It’s refreshing working with funny creative people again. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that environment, and it’s a welcome change.

I was officially hired on full-time on Friday, which was a full month a head of schedule. (I was still in a preliminary “probation” period via the recruiter that placed me here, Aquent. They are highly recommended.)

I have been asked to further blog about an upcoming bread-making tutorial I’ll be doing with my friend Andrea. I’ll try to take pics. We’re making both basic French bread and pizza, and I’ll be teaching how to properly toss the dough. (Note: I am not of Italian background, but Andrea is. I’m sure this violates some historical context but I’m not certain.)

Two more weeks until Spring. At a guess, 6 – 7 months until I take a vacation.

Onwards!

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Hello again.

Many of you may have known: I was laid off last year. I am far from the only person this happened to. I was laid off in May from what was at the time my favorite job I had ever had. Working for a great company (Leo Burnett, in their digital ARC Worldwide division,) working with great, very smart people, working for great clients and companies (Kelloggs, primarily) and then: gone. It was unfortunately a purely numbers decision. Everybody was cutting costs, and my salary was a big enough cost that it warranted cutting. I get that.

I did get a severance package but it only covered me for maybe an additional two months. I didn’t find work again until the last week of August. When I did, it paid roughly 1/3rd of what I had been making for the past eight years. (Note: I will not name names or figures. Just because.) This meant that as the months wore on I fell further and further behind on bills, rent, the ability to afford food, the ability to afford transit, etc. Add to this that transit fare also rose in the past few months. This would prove to be an additional burden.

Many of you may be aware that I finally did secure a decent new job which puts me essentially in the same kind of position (Tech Lead / Senior Developer) at a company I genuinely love (6 Degrees, working in their Real Interactive division) working with some more extremely smart, funny, talented people. I started in January and it’s been great.

Why I say all of this is: finding work has consistently been something I’ve been good at, and something I’ve been good at assisting others with. I’ve personally written cover letters for just over 30 friends of mine, and assisted with editing and prepping their resumes.  I pre-set a time limit for how long we take at massaging the resume or the cover letter, and depending on who it is or what industry it is, I may take a stab at a few kinds of resume. (Functional versus historical, etc.) It’s been very educational for me because it takes me out of my own personal work history and familiarity with my own work background and instead forces me to examine this as “net new” content. I have been successful with all but three of these resumes, and until last year I was very successful with my own resume.

Last Summer’s events nearly broke me both financially and in other ways, and it made me question everything about how I look for work, and how well I do what I do. It also made me question whether it was time to find something completely different to do for a living.

My reason for mentioning all this is that I know many people who are on the fence about completely changing their career path. Some work in quasi-entertainment industry (I can’t really refer to it strictly as the music industry anymore,) some in design, some in advertising, etc. Those kinds of decisions excite me because I actually really enjoyed my career transitions. I have had three so far. First was retail, but always tied to entertainment. Second was music industry in all its facets, spanning three cities and at least ten job descriptions. Third was interactive / web / digital, where I remain despite the derailment of last Summer.

If I want a more extreme example of a very drastic career change, I need look no further than Brainrub founder Kim Stewart (Stewie, The Stoob, etc.) In the 15 years she and I have been friends, she has been a journalist for a couple of different US dailies,  a copywriter for a variety of online magazines including MSN in its very early days, a travel writer for Expedia, and – most recently – a paramedic, recently working with the US International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSRT) where she was deployed in Haiti for two weeks, working in a tent hospital.

I strongly encourage you to read her personal blog where she accounts her experiences there. This story, especially, is worth a read.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that especially if you’re unemployed right now, and especially if you’re discouraged, do not give up hope. There is work to be had, even if that means taking a huge pay cut. (I can’t say that was a necessarily wise decision on my part, but it’s one I made, and I survived it. I’m not alone in that.) If you think you may need to switch careers, there are support systems to help get that going too. In my case I was considering becoming (no joke) a carpenter apprentice, something I might still do in the future. I also debated going back to cooking, something I did for a very brief stint between 1990 and 1992. (But I do cook all the time.)

The work is out there. It may not be the work you want, but it is some work, which at least can take your mind off of the stresses of having no work.

More importantly if you’re in a job you despise, and you wish you could be doing something you feel you aren’t qualified to call your main source of employment, you might be surprised at some of the support methods out there to get you started. If you’re younger than I am (note: just had a birthday) you have an even greater chance of receiving support since it’s mostly younger workers who gain these benefits.

Another thing is: I think we could all agree that the concept of keeping the same job for decades is from a bygone era. I used to know people who worked for Eatons, a century-old department store that went bankrupt in 1998. Before the bankruptcy was even on the horizon (and this was a shocking event in Canada. Eatons was an institution,) the people I knew who worked there had supervisors who were on their 30th year of employment in whatever position that was. I can’t imagine that at all today. I don’t know anyone who can. I’m sure they exist, but their days must be numbered.

So I embrace the fact that even my shiny new job that I love could still be vapor in a few years. That’s no statement about my confidence in my own work, or the strength of the company I work for. It’s just… the facts. GM declared bankruptcy last year. In fact they did so the very day after I was laid off. If I needed an example to complement my personal life-change, that would have to be it. (Leo Burnett does quite a few TV ad campaigns for GM.)

I’ve been working steadily since I was 16. I find that there has really never been a shortage of jobs out there. The shortage is in great companies, smart people and great clients. (In my case anyway.) There are ways to find those also, and fortunately or not that involves a great deal of effort and diligence.

Personally I’m still striving for my ultimate career switch: astronaut. I doubt that will happen anytime soon, but then I never expected to be in the field I’m currently in either.

Thanks for reading.

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We at Brainrub are aware we have been slow at getting new content up here. I think this is a symptom of many sites that are predominantly blogs: people get busy.

The biggest problem we face is separateness. When Brainrub began, that was something to celebrate. Now that we’re all so slammed with our $dayjobs, it’s become a hindrance. We plan to change that.

In the coming weeks we’ll be adding new content, and writing generally about technology and modern life in all its odd contemporary facets.

I’d like to thank those of you who kept pestering me to add new content. You can always check out the Friday Links in the meantime. Those update every week.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.

Adam D.

Starting around the second week of December, I started experimenting with interesting ways to give gifts or other random things to friends of mine who live quite far away from me. It’s been interesting to say the least, and has brought to light many of the security risks inherent to long-distance gift giving while using the web as the intermediary.

Keep in mind: I’m in Toronto, Canada.

Here are three examples:

1) Pizza delivery, San Diego, CA.

I have a female friend who lives in San Diego who I talk to very regularly. She was at home one afternoon while I was working and was starving, but didn’t have available cash on hand. On a total whim I decided: I’m gonna buy my friend some lunch. This turned out to be more problematic than it seemed. I first tried using online pizza ordering services like Dominoes, Pizza Hut, etc. All of these require that whoever’s credit card is in use should be present at the address to sign for the order. They both flatly disallowed any third-party purchase without the card owner being present. I suggested to both that they should have a “buy a friend a pizza” option, but both were dismissive of the idea.

I can understand why this would be the case. Any maliciously-minded person could just abuse any credit card and send random pizzas with no checks or balances in place. I get that. But there are several sites out there that offer “this is a gift” options, with reasonable means of verification. (Amazon and ThinkGeek immediately spring to mind.) But, no go.

So I asked her: if you were to order a pizza, where would you order it from. She suggested a place right in her neighborhood: Pizza Gourmet Express [link] They have a website, but no online ordering. It’s a fairly small but popular local operation. So I decided instead that I would call. As luck would have it, I got the actual owner of the establishment on the phone. He turned out to be very receptive. He even knew who I was talking about when I said who I was buying for. He made it clear this was an unusual request, but I made sure he knew he could call me back to confirm who I was, or even call my work to verify my identity further. He said that sounded fine. So I said I’d like to place an order for a pizza and some dessert. Fifteen minutes later my friend sauntered over and picked up her pizza.

Total time to find one pizza place that would accept my remote order: 25 minutes.

Total order time: 5 – 10 minutes.

Time from initial discussion to friend receiving and eating pizza: ~45 minutes.

Success!

I do believe this functionality will likely show up in the future. I just think about parents with their kids away at University wanting to surprise them with a nice dinner or some other little extra. Campusfood.com should offer this option but does not. I think it would be a huge success, and again: the technology to cover all the bases for this process does exist already. Hopefully this is a good “next step” that these restaurants can take.

2) Order a surprise book gift for my friend, Kim, in Seattle, WA

Kim, as you may know, co-authors this blog (though lately neither of us has had much available free time to do so.)

She and I had a lengthy online discussion about all manner of things and at the end of it I was inspired and wanted to send her a book I knew she would enjoy. I had never used any gift feature of any site, and I wanted to remain in my quick and spontaneous moment. I found the book, ordered it, chose to ship it to her address, and Amazon smartly recognized I had never shipped to a third-party address before. It asked me to confirm my credit card. I did so. A few clicks later and off it went. The entire experience lasted maybe 3 minutes, tops. I received a confirmation email 30 minutes later. The package had been shipped. She received it two days later.

This is easily one of the most convenient features of Amazon.com, or indeed any shopping site I’ve ever used.

3) Third party purchase of a DVD for me, via a friend in Austin, TX

I have a friend in Austin, Texas who I converse with regularly about film and music. We’ve known each other for nearly ten years now. He’s a quirky guy and he’s adamant about recommending films for me. I had heard that one of my favorite French films, Betty Blue (or: “37°2 le matin” [wiki]) directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix had had a re-release on dvd adding some 70 minutes to its original length. I had never been able to find a copy anywhere locally so I asked him if he knew where I could find one. He said he’d just go buy it for me but I said I wanted to compensate him for it, since this was a reasonably rare find. (Speaking of which: if anyone has a line on the director’s cut of Michael Mann’s 1985 film Manhunter, I’m all ears.)

He said (via MSN) “well you could do a wire transfer.” I thought that might be too much work. Instead I said “how about a straight online banking transfer?” He felt that would be too complicated. I went to my bank’s online banking section. They actually offer a “transfer to another account” option. Previously this was for accounts which my own bank handled, but I guess they now offer it for any account. I asked him for the details of his account based on the numbers on a typical cheque. He provided this. Approximately 30 minutes later: he had the money transfer.

He went out later that night to buy it, and shipped it the next morning. I received it five days later. (This guy is a pathologically efficient man.)

That may not be the most obvious way to do things but I was surprised to discover this expanded functionality from my online banking. As one would expect, there was a lot of prerequisite “are you sure?” moments in setting up the actual funds transfer, and I did overshoot the actual dollar amount due to the exchange rate. (Call it a gratuity for my film friend’s access to the rare dvd.)

I’m intrigued to see if this kind of transaction becomes more common in the future. When the Internet started to first get popular, I remember seeing pizza delivery sites based solely in Manhattan, which had really comprehensive ordering menus. That was in 1996. Maybe in the coming decade I can buy my friend in San Diego a pizza shipped from Manhattan. That’s obviously a bit of a long shot, but it’s the kind of wacky undertaking I’d love to explore.

Thanks for reading.

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“You could start,” my friends tell me, “by answering your phone.” This, unfortunately for them, is met with my usual tepid silence. It is not that I am taking time to ponder a meaningful answer. It is more that I don’t have anything to say.

My friends, you see, are not very fond of my cell phone. The problem, they tell me, the real crux of their angst, is that I am not using my cell phone—like the rest of the world does—to communicate with them on a regular basis.

I am not, as it turns out, doing what they do in Japan, which is write entire novels using their thumbs. Nor am I downloading ring tones that get me into embarrassing situations when the phone rings. I am, essentially, a cell phone neophyte.

So I come to find out what they mean by “regular basis.” They mean daily. But judging by their attempts to communicate with me, I would have to argue that “regular basis” really means hourly. Either way, I apparently do not communicate with them on a regular basis, and this is causing them angst.

Communication, they said, could start out slow and work its way up to a regular basis. I could start by simply answering my phone when they call. This, much to their chagrin, makes me laugh because I tell them I would need to start with something more simple than that. I would need, I say slowly and clearly, to start by turning the volume on.

This, unfortunately, is not what they were expecting. What they were expecting, I gather, was more like: “Got it! No problem! I’ll answer every time you call. I really do want to be cellularly hip.” Thus I was not surprised when my comment was followed by an awkward silence, a tilting of the head, and the scrunching of eyebrows.

My cell phone, I explain, is not a constant portal into my world. And I will not answer my phone if I’m engaged in any of the following: sleeping, going to the bathroom, showering, having sex, exercising, relaxing or eating. The list is longer, actually, but those are the big ones, and I’m hoping it’s enough for them to get the point.

Unfortunately, they do not get the point. So I try to be more crystal clear and explain that I don’t use my cell phone for any of the following: taking pictures, listening to music, twittering, surfing, watching videos, managing my life, organizing my social calendar, or downloading ring tones. Again, the list is longer, but at this point I don’t think a longer list will help clarify the point.

You see, I tell them, my cell phone is a tool, and I use it to make phone calls. It’s my one-way portal into the other world. The world that requires I use a phone to call in sick for work, order pizza, reserve quarter barrels of my delicious Pilsner, and refill prescriptions for happy pills. This list, you might have realized, is slightly longer, but hopefully you get my point.

But there is something I don’t tell my friends. I don’t tell them that I am actually trying to communicate on a regular basis. I read their text messages, I look at their photos. Sometimes I even chuckle because something they said is funny. I just don’t typically have a response.

All of this, I know, is terribly analog of me. It also tends to enforce the notion that I’m socially inept. There are other things to add to this list, but I’ll stop here.

Adam and I have been very busy getting through holidays, new years, and the like. We were not, as one might have hoped, hiding away in dark rooms listening to ambient music and playing the Wii. In fact, neither one of us scored a Wii in 2007, and that’s because people think you need useful gifts when you’re over the age of 35. For the record, and to be totally honest, Adam and I would both prefer a Wii. Until then, we’re back until another moment of hiatus returns.

Like most others, I heard the news yesterday of Google’s impending “Android” platform for cellular software (stories available here and here, for example.) It’s stuff like that that makes me excited about the era in which we find ourselves. My first cellphone (purchased in 1996) was a bulky affair whose biggest bonus feature was that it could send and receive text messages. My current phone (a Nokia 6265i, which appears to be discontinued) is a full-featured media center, including a fairly functional video camera. I never even use most of its features.

Apple’s iPhone is an invention which I think most would say was an inevitability. We don’t need GPS on our phones. We don’t need a web browser. But sooner or later somebody was going to put all of that into it. And now Google is providing a platform upon which everyday programmers can add whatever they want. What will that mean for cellular communications in general? If Japan is any kind of example to follow, it could mean that your cellphone genuinely becomes your actual computer, replacing the need for any laptop or home pc. In fact this metamorphosis of the cellphone into the everyday computing device could eventually redefine what we mean when we call something a “computer.” My TV is a computer. My iPod is a computer. Etc. Where does the line officially blur? In a related news story, it was stated that sales of PC’s in Japan and other countries are way, way down versus 2006 and 2005, and numbers are expected to continue to decline. (Stories available here and here.)

The sad reality is that even with this announcement from Google, technologically speaking we (and by “we” I mean mostly North Americans) are at least 10 – 15 years behind Japan, and possibly four to six years behind Europe in terms of what we expect from our cellphones. Citizens of Tokyo read serialized books on their phones. They play Playstation-1-quality videogames on them. They shop with them. They use vending machines with them. It’s a huge shift in terms of the familiarity of that interface and what a user can be expected to do with it. I would like to think that this new Android platform gets us somewhere closer to that realm of functionality, and hopefully much sooner than expected.

Over the past week or so, we started posting content to the brain again. It feels wonderful! We’re out there exploring sites, reading blogs, and finding good things again. And, of course, our goal was always to share the geeky, fun and cool stuff with you. So you’ll start to see content coming out here and there on all kinds of random tech topics.

Both Adam and I still have jobs and are trying to fit everything into our lives that we want – sometimes that’s not the easiest thing to do. Neither Adam nor I are stay-at-home geeks. We like to get out there and enjoy concerts, new pubs, museums, restaurants, the wilderness, etc. But we both realized that we missed the brain, and so did our readers. So we’re coming back, slowly.

And we need your input to help shape the new brainrub. Holler at us with some ideas or comments. We used to have a lot of columns, lots of great stuff, but we don’t have time for that anymore. So help us figure it out. Help us develop the new shape and style. Let us hear what you think – write a comment and give it to us straight.

Thanks,
Adam and Kim

Hello at last!

We have left this site in a somewhat dormant state over the past two years or more. Some of you have continued to come back (particularly to my personal site and the site of my late Speck. Thank you for that.)

Kim and I have been extremely busy in our daily lives, working away. We hope to begin posting to this site again soon. There’s so much out there that’s cool, and we’re excited to talk about it, and (hopefully, spammers notwithstanding) hear your comments about it.

We know that there are a billion blogs out there, and there are numerous gadget and technology related blogs. We’re not really attempting to compete here. We just like technology, and media, and the entertainment industry. And as such we’ll hopefully continue to post interesting things to say about it.

As an aside: I have begun a Friday Links list which I post to every Friday at approx. 3pm Eastern Time. No more than four links per week, always interesting / funny / bizarre. Those are archived on this site and I’ll attempt to build out a list generator for it. It may become its own section here. It’s certainly popular enough.

And Kim decided it was time to launch her personal site again, which you can find here.

Anyway thanks for hanging in there. We hope you’ll stick around and watch as we again grow and nurture this site.

Thanks for reading!

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