0:00:00I thought this would be a magic elephant
0:00:01my computer and it's not and I'm sad
0:00:03this is hypocritical weekly talk show
0:00:06ruminating on exactly what is wrong and
0:00:08we love apple and related technologies
0:00:10and businesses nothing is so perfect
0:00:13that it cannot be complained about by my
0:00:15friend and yours host of the show John
0:00:17siracusa I'm Dan Benjamin today is
0:00:19friday november nine 2012 this is
0:00:22episode number 94 me like to say thank
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0:01:26my node dot-com how are you doing today
0:01:31John Siracusa little warm today believe
0:01:34it or not no kidding warm is meaning all
0:01:37over 40 40 degrees Fahrenheit so the 50s
0:01:40was sunny yeah wow that is very warm
0:01:44unseasonable yep no forgot to close the
0:01:49door in here no it's closed alright that
0:01:52just means we won't hear your AC but we
0:01:54might still hear your lawn do they they
0:01:55don't I didn't launch my what my AC
0:01:57don't you have an AC that runs in there
0:02:00oh I do have yes I'd ever I've like a
0:02:02window unit but no I don't need that on
0:02:0450 degrees okay all right another
0:02:10variety show today oh I love those
0:02:13yeah considering you were out Syracuse
0:02:17at last week by Marco this week you get
0:02:19out of strong I was out what by Marco
0:02:21I'll never be out sir cuted by Marco
0:02:23that's like by definition impossible ok
0:02:28his name's not even siracusa no yeah all
0:02:33right i'll start with some follow up
0:02:34this first one is from michael
0:02:38cammalleri Camilleri so I'm gonna go
0:02:42with him with Camilleri this is about
0:02:45the exact executive reshuffle that was
0:02:47sort of the main topic of the last show
0:02:49the executive reshuffle an apple scott
0:02:51forstall out Bob Mansfield elevated role
0:02:54and all the other executives
0:02:56responsibilities reshuffled and I was
0:03:00talking about early on how if you're a
0:03:02fancy-pants executive like once you
0:03:04reach a certain level within a company
0:03:06they don't they don't fire you the same
0:03:09way as they would if you were below
0:03:10whatever that invisible line is like you
0:03:13know they never say that you're fired
0:03:14you you get to sort of go out with your
0:03:16dignity intact and they give a vague
0:03:19press release like oh you know he'll be
0:03:21leaving the company and blah blah you
0:03:23know whereas if you're just below that
0:03:25line they'd aspire you and you're out
0:03:26and they call it a firing and that's
0:03:29that right so he offered some reasons
0:03:32for why this might be beyond the obvious
0:03:34like once you're sort of in with the in
0:03:37crowd there's a certain minimum level of
0:03:38respect to you get as a important
0:03:41powerful rich person and called out of
0:03:43the stuff he works for a law firm in
0:03:45Australia so obviously their laws of
0:03:47different in Australia the United States
0:03:48but he thinks there's enough
0:03:50similarities that his insight is
0:03:52worthwhile and what he does with is
0:03:55prepare employment contracts
0:03:58occasionally at the executive level he
0:04:00says so he's got some direct knowledge
0:04:02of this least in Australia and when he
0:04:04says is that executive level contracts
0:04:06typically have a gardening leave
0:04:07provision in gardening leave I I thought
0:04:10this might have been a made-up term but
0:04:11now it's right there on Wikipedia
0:04:12gardening leave I put the link in the
0:04:13show notes that allows the company to
0:04:16continue employing and executive but
0:04:18prevents the employee from coming into
0:04:20the office so you're still working for
0:04:22us but don't come in seriously you're
0:04:25not allowed to come in
0:04:26and you still get your salary and so on
0:04:29and so forth but you're otherwise cut
0:04:30off from the company and michael says
0:04:33you typically want to do this with fired
0:04:34executives because they will have
0:04:35detailed knowledge about the plans of
0:04:37the company at least up until the point
0:04:38of firing and the longer the executive
0:04:40is on gardening leave the staler this
0:04:41knowledge becomes and less useful it is
0:04:43to a competitor so he said gardening
0:04:45leave provisions are usually included in
0:04:47addition to employment restraints to
0:04:49seek that seek to restrict the executive
0:04:51from going to work for a competitor
0:04:53confidentiality agreements and you know
0:04:55non-competes and stuff like that but
0:04:56they're those can be very difficult to
0:04:57enforce particularly in California which
0:04:59has a very lenient laws about
0:05:02non-competes I don't think they're valid
0:05:04at all in California ah so that's that
0:05:08would be one reason why I mean that that
0:05:10will find out if this is the case it
0:05:11will see how long's got forestalls at
0:05:13Apple if he's on gardening leave that
0:05:15means he'll be with the company for a
0:05:16long time and they're basically keeping
0:05:17him trapped there you know as part of a
0:05:20provision provision of his executive
0:05:22contract says you know we can fire you
0:05:23basically make you not come in anymore
0:05:25and let you stew while still paying you
0:05:26you don't have to do any work you just
0:05:28can't come in and learn anything so the
0:05:30by the time you do go on the free market
0:05:31maybe you don't know about what our
0:05:32super secret plans are or you know and
0:05:35never mind they you know the laws are
0:05:37probably valid laws restriction all you
0:05:39can't tell you can't go to another
0:05:40company let me tell you what Apple's
0:05:42planning the next two years because I
0:05:43know like that's surely against the law
0:05:44but you know how these things are like
0:05:47yeah tell them but you can go to another
0:05:49company and say I think we should really
0:05:51do this so didn't do with Apple know
0:05:53nothing do with Apple I just think it
0:05:55would be a good idea if you entered this
0:05:56market or didn't end you know what I
0:05:58mean so gardening leave is a good way to
0:06:00protect against that again we have no
0:06:02knowledge of whether such a clause
0:06:03existence got four stalls executive
0:06:05thing the only information can be
0:06:07offered here is it this is a thing and I
0:06:10guess we'll see like you said New Year's
0:06:12Day you know Scott forestalls out in the
0:06:13street I mean it's cardboard box and
0:06:15he's walking out of the building right
0:06:16getting into his Ferrari with a really
0:06:18sad face driving to his palatial
0:06:20mountain home yeah and just being
0:06:23depressed but if we see that like he's
0:06:25not on the free market like you know he
0:06:27doesn't go any we don't see like I was
0:06:28God Forrestal now they doesn't work for
0:06:29Apple he's you know hanging out of the
0:06:30cafe or he goes to work with you know
0:06:32and then mold it could be that he's on
0:06:34gardening Li and the next point he has
0:06:37is the reason why I company rarely at
0:06:40ever admit that an executive was fired
0:06:41he says he doesn't know again that's not
0:06:44enough about California law to be sure
0:06:45but his guess is that it has nothing to
0:06:47do with respect for the former employee
0:06:48and everything to do with fear of being
0:06:50sued a statement that a person was fired
0:06:53beacon could be considered defamatory or
0:06:55libelous depending on what was said and
0:06:58the circumstances in which was said and
0:07:00you know he says this is true of any
0:07:01employee but it's usually not such a big
0:07:04deal with jr. love our employees because
0:07:05they're less likely to have the
0:07:07resources to sue basically meaning
0:07:08they're not rich the and it costs a lot
0:07:10of money to sue anybody and even if they
0:07:11did sue it would be difficult for them
0:07:13to prove damages their reputation
0:07:14because the peon employees don't have
0:07:16much of reputation to be damaged those
0:07:18means both of these things kind of get
0:07:20back to the yet because you're when
0:07:21you're an important person hey you rich
0:07:23and be you know you can make you have
0:07:26enough money to sue and you can say well
0:07:27everybody knows about this now and it's
0:07:29a big deal and you know you can't say I
0:07:31was fired and all that stuff so many
0:07:34many reasons why top-level executives
0:07:37what the rich are different than us as
0:07:38they say Dan why they don't get fired
0:07:41practical reasons reasons that makes
0:07:43sense the gardening leave totally makes
0:07:44sense to me especially in a state like
0:07:48California where non-competes are not
0:07:50powerful at all where are they powerful
0:07:54I think Massachusetts has i mean i don't
0:07:57know like I've had plenty of non-compete
0:07:59to my employee agreements and it's
0:08:01always like they're there that'll tell
0:08:02you I've always heard they're not really
0:08:04like they're not really enforceable and
0:08:06yeah California has explicit laws that
0:08:09says you can't have things called
0:08:10non-compete superior right whereas every
0:08:11other state or at least every other
0:08:13state that I've worked in there like
0:08:14yeah but if you actually tested this in
0:08:17a court of law it you know they put
0:08:19wording in there that's much too strong
0:08:20and it would never hold up completely
0:08:21but do you really want to find out it's
0:08:23all one of those I don't know what you
0:08:25would call it but like things that exist
0:08:27that are you know agreements that exist
0:08:30this is a power imbalance like you don't
0:08:32have the money to pursue this legally
0:08:34even your if you're a hundred percent
0:08:35the right kind of like patents where if
0:08:36you are a little person trying to make a
0:08:39software startup and in doing so you
0:08:41unknowingly violate bazillion patents
0:08:43because it's impossible not to you just
0:08:45don't have the resources to prove that
0:08:46these patents are invalid or to prove
0:08:49anything so same thing with a
0:08:50non-compete like you know if you had
0:08:52infinite money you took all
0:08:53you know all these issues to court you
0:08:55could win on every single one
0:08:56theoretically but you don't have that
0:08:58kind of money or time and so it's just
0:08:59used there as a no as a cudgel to force
0:09:02you to do what the more powerful richer
0:09:04corporation wants you to do I've never
0:09:08tested any of the non-compete ssin that
0:09:10I've signed over the years and I don't
0:09:12want to test any of them and nobody
0:09:12wants to test any of them but it's nice
0:09:14than in California that's one thing you
0:09:15don't do worry about they're just sort
0:09:17of putting the threat out there saying
0:09:18you know what like we don't really trust
0:09:21you but we want you to work for us so
0:09:24science document that that'll make that
0:09:27just for the lawyers the lawyers make us
0:09:30give you this and the things they say it
0:09:32crazy like some of the ones i've signed
0:09:33of like you can't work in this industry
0:09:35for two years I can you know what is
0:09:37this industry like does that mean
0:09:39anything having to do with computers or
0:09:41just like you know I mean really don't
0:09:43care p an employee goes off work for
0:09:45someone else that are not gonna be sure
0:09:47you your you're not going to you know
0:09:49it's it's kind of silly and stupid I
0:09:51wish they didn't exist at all but you
0:09:55know if it's something the company
0:09:56lawyers can get away with doing like
0:09:59it's not illegal to make someone sign
0:10:00one then they'll do that you know and
0:10:03you can just refuse and see if the will
0:10:04you still hire me if I refuse depending
0:10:06on the company maybe they'll star you
0:10:07maybe they won't you know I'm gonna be
0:10:08standing on firm ground do that you just
0:10:11you know you just make your choice like
0:10:13is it important enough for me to not get
0:10:15this job that you know please that's it
0:10:17that's a you know that's a very likely
0:10:19outcome depending on the company then
0:10:20just you know make your stand and that's
0:10:22another criteria you have to use for
0:10:23finding employment but if you're an
0:10:27executive I like I think I would sign
0:10:30the thing with the gardening leave
0:10:31because that's like hey you pay me my
0:10:32humongous salary and I don't have to
0:10:34come into work it's like paid vacation
0:10:35for rich people because you know who
0:10:37needs paid vacation it's rich people
0:10:39right they needs more than more than we
0:10:43do thanks to Michael for Australia for
0:10:45that insight and the the fun term
0:10:47gardening leave which I had never heard
0:10:49before I wonder if Scott will do some
0:10:51gardening the next bit from Jay Andrew
0:10:55yang all one word I don't think I ever
0:10:57found his real name from but I bet it's
0:11:00jay and rehang from twitter about the
0:11:02imac and i cant couldn't remember if i
0:11:05had corrected myself on
0:11:07this in any of the past shows I look
0:11:09through the notes and I didn't see it so
0:11:10forgive me if this is double follow-up
0:11:12but you might you maybe you'll remember
0:11:14we talked about the imac and i said like
0:11:16oh they're just using laptop parts and
0:11:18slapping on the back that I correct
0:11:19myself about that already I don't think
0:11:21I don't think you'd you did make a
0:11:25comment about it but what is there to
0:11:28correct that's true I'll do it quickly
0:11:30again like they use desktop CPUs in the
0:11:32imax they're not laptop CPUs they do
0:11:35tend to use mobile GPUs but that has
0:11:37been true and not true various points
0:11:39but the point is it's not Mac Pro stuff
0:11:41back there it's not Zeon's it's not Ram
0:11:43with ECC it's not yeah this was in the
0:11:45context of cannon and imac replace a mac
0:11:48pro for some people and certainly the
0:11:50GPUs have not been like gigantic double
0:11:53with full-length pci you know those type
0:11:54top-of-the-line GPUs so my points about
0:11:57it Stan but I incorrectly said that it
0:11:59was completely laptop parts back there
0:12:01it's you know CP using storage usually
0:12:02desktop and then the graphics and
0:12:04sometimes the optical drives as well
0:12:06because their skin here are laptop parts
0:12:08but when do you think the distinction
0:12:11between laptop parts and desktop parts
0:12:14not talking just CPUs but when you think
0:12:17that distinction will be blurred away so
0:12:18we won't have to talk about it anymore I
0:12:20don't know if ever because like you know
0:12:26if so anything anybody needs can always
0:12:28be you know that tops are all anybody
0:12:30needs so why would anyone make a desktop
0:12:32thing well if you have a bigger power
0:12:33budget you and and more physical space
0:12:36you can make a more capable thing like
0:12:38that will always be true no matter how
0:12:40the technology advances and I don't
0:12:42think we're anywhere near the point
0:12:43where a more capable more powerful thing
0:12:45is not incrementally more useful than a
0:12:47less powerful thing right so I think
0:12:49whether the terms we use to describe it
0:12:52to the same that the distinction between
0:12:54know something you can fit in your
0:12:56pocket something you can carry one hand
0:12:57something you can carry two hands and
0:12:58something that's plugged into the wall
0:12:59those distinctions will continue to
0:13:02exist or something that is sometimes
0:13:03plugged in you know that continuum will
0:13:05continue to exist so I don't think it's
0:13:07gone away okay next bit is from jared
0:13:10williams who gives us it gave us the
0:13:13definitive link on the available disk
0:13:15space in the microsoft surface this is
0:13:16from microsoft com itself he sent it i
0:13:19think by email knows
0:13:21bye bye Twitter and then that same day I
0:13:23saw it linked around all over the web so
0:13:24this is kind of old news but i just put
0:13:26it in the show notes for completeness
0:13:26microsoft coms page it says this
0:13:30phrasing is so weird and this how much
0:13:31hard disk space do you have available on
0:13:33your surface hard disk space like that's
0:13:36just the term they use I can kind of
0:13:37understand because I try to explain to
0:13:39my parents about you know I get them
0:13:41like a yeah then you got a 32 gigabyte
0:13:45ipod touch what is that 32 gigabytes
0:13:47mean and I have to to make them
0:13:49understand I have to say that's like
0:13:51your hard drive like to distinguish it
0:13:53from ram and no matter how much I
0:13:55explain this I think I've talked about
0:13:56it before my mother in particular was
0:13:58obsessed with the idea that by deleting
0:14:00applications it would allow like she had
0:14:03an old ipod touch and modern games were
0:14:05like crashing on launched on it they're
0:14:06probably being killed by the low memory
0:14:08killer because it just wasn't enough
0:14:09memory to support these things for maybe
0:14:10they're just buggy or whatever I said
0:14:12the problem is you don't have enough
0:14:13memory and she would say oh I can fix
0:14:15that by deleting some applications i
0:14:16don't use never mind the fact that half
0:14:18of the you know 32 gigs were free anyway
0:14:20and i tried to emphasize know like
0:14:23deleting things from your quote-unquote
0:14:26hard drive on your ipod touch is not
0:14:28going to give you more ram like they're
0:14:30two separate things was there for the
0:14:32age-old confusion going back to the
0:14:35beginning of time yeah and like at least
0:14:37we before we have like well one is the
0:14:39size of you know one is like a big metal
0:14:41box with a spinning thing and the other
0:14:43one is chips that don't move right and
0:14:45now they're all chips though they're all
0:14:47chips and don't move and the
0:14:48distinctions because you're so microsoft
0:14:49refers to the store the internal flash
0:14:52storage of and now we use flash to it's
0:14:55like well flash is different than ram
0:14:56because you know when you turn the power
0:14:57off all your data doesn't leave flash
0:14:58but does Leibrandt you know all these
0:15:01increasingly nuanced distinction so
0:15:02microsoft says forget it we're just
0:15:03calling it a hard disk hard disk space
0:15:05this it's it's hard i guess there's no
0:15:07disk okay so notice page says the 32
0:15:12gigabyte version has 16 gigabytes free
0:15:14hard disk space and the 64 gig version
0:15:16has forty five gigabytes free and then
0:15:18dozen more detailed breakdown so this
0:15:20link is in the show notes right from the
0:15:21horse's mouth see where Microsoft has to
0:15:23say about the hard disk on your surface
0:15:25and the other point that lots of surface
0:15:27fans and other attentive people brought
0:15:31up is yeah the surface OS and install
0:15:35software might take up a lot of room
0:15:36more room than the equivalent if there
0:15:38is an equivalent thing on the iPad and
0:15:42iOS devices do but the surface has an SD
0:15:44card slot so if you're like oh I bought
0:15:47the 16 gigabyte surface well go buy
0:15:48yourself a 64 gigabyte SD card for like
0:15:51you know 50 bucks or whatever they cost
0:15:52and you know if you just given yourself
0:15:54more storage than any iOS device that
0:15:56you can buy at any price can ever have
0:15:58alright it has a micro SDXC card slot
0:16:03this is getting to be kind of like the
0:16:04alphabet soup of resolutions it was like
0:16:08vga you mean you might notice these from
0:16:09your pc days what's a lot what's the
0:16:11most obscure letter combination for
0:16:12resolutions that you know i'll stop your
0:16:15head i don't know any of them anymore
0:16:16it's wqx you BGA yeah like they just go
0:16:21great anyway so SDXC is not getting that
0:16:23bad but I had to look up what I meant
0:16:25secure digital extended capacity the
0:16:28exes or extended and those cards go up
0:16:31to two terabytes in size loyal you can
0:16:34buy two terrified SD card and I don't
0:16:36think the surface would support it
0:16:37anyway and the sdhc which is the other
0:16:40alphabet super standard before that
0:16:41stopped at 32 gigs so yes you can get a
0:16:4464 gig SD card and go nuts that's the
0:16:46the microsoft way give you an SD card
0:16:48slot and that you know if you think
0:16:49about that that would be nice to have it
0:16:51an ipad like everyone would get a 16 gig
0:16:54ipad and by the SD card but it's not the
0:16:57Apple way because you know the Apple way
0:17:00is don't provide a device where a naive
0:17:03user can while using the thing yank out
0:17:04the SD card and not understand what that
0:17:07does machine like what happens when you
0:17:09do that the half your apps go right what
0:17:11gets put on the SD card vs anywhere is
0:17:13are you manually manage storage does it
0:17:15use it like a fusion drive an iOS like
0:17:17it's yeah probably you can imagine that
0:17:20that feature not coming to iOS devices
0:17:23but it's on the surface so that
0:17:24mitigates a lot of these space
0:17:26constraints and really up well and I say
0:17:29Microsoft should be pushing that harder
0:17:30but I don't know how Microsoft Surface
0:17:32OS manages space either so you wouldn't
0:17:37want to say oh you can manually manage
0:17:39where your stuff is by copying it to the
0:17:42SD card and you know for as much
0:17:44criticism as Apple received initially
0:17:46when they were doing
0:17:48you know things that essentially with
0:17:50iOS that essentially changed the model
0:17:52to say yes you have files but don't
0:17:53don't worry about where these files are
0:17:55you know I think in a way looking at
0:17:59these issues with the surface kind of
0:18:01say well this maybe is why well you know
0:18:06Microsoft obviously not taking that
0:18:08right but that makes like in some
0:18:11respects that it makes it gives it like
0:18:13the SD card he gives the user of the
0:18:15surface more control but is thinking
0:18:16said I want this over here and I want
0:18:18that over there and these are on this SD
0:18:19card and that's not all right on the
0:18:21other hand Apple Apple is the only one
0:18:23with the flexibility to later on say you
0:18:25know we know holographic cube supporting
0:18:27you plug in a holographic cube in the
0:18:28back of our iOS device and we
0:18:29transparently manage what stuff is
0:18:31stored on the holographic cube and how
0:18:32can we do that because you never had any
0:18:34control over where stuff was anyway
0:18:35right we've always managed it right so
0:18:37we can make sure that like entire
0:18:39applications on all their data are over
0:18:41there so when you gank out the
0:18:42holographic cube that you know certain
0:18:44apps disappear in their entirety you're
0:18:46not left with like half of a nap and
0:18:47missing files and stuff you know never
0:18:49allowing direct access to the files
0:18:51gives you the most future flexibility to
0:18:53how to manage storage whereas allowing
0:18:55access to manage files like Microsoft
0:18:56does gives you the most current day
0:18:58practical flexibility for people who
0:19:01know how to manage that stuff I think
0:19:03apple is in the right here but Microsoft
0:19:06strategies always been a contrast Apple
0:19:08strategy you know that entire product
0:19:09and with their OS so it's probably
0:19:11appropriate for them some fusion drives
0:19:16stuff I asked some questions about
0:19:17fusion driving people answered on
0:19:19Twitter this is it should practice his
0:19:20last name Hinrich one headin I'm killing
0:19:25that one I'm sorry I probably killed the
0:19:27first name too maybe it's a V
0:19:29pronunciation because it's like German
0:19:30anyway I asked if you could boot from a
0:19:36fusion drive you know some people making
0:19:38the fusion drives that attached to like
0:19:40other random acts so he's like you made
0:19:42a fusion drive for his mac pro and
0:19:45Buddha promo it works fine and you can
0:19:48read and write the fusion partitions
0:19:49issue committal is HC ABI TT le says
0:19:56that homebrew fusion drives do support
0:19:59installation of OS 10 he provided
0:20:02to Apple fusion drive on late 2010
0:20:04macbook pro someone's little diary of
0:20:06them taking their macbook pro and
0:20:08they've got an SSD and a hard drive in
0:20:10there and get a fusion drive and it
0:20:11boots just fine so this you know this
0:20:13appears to be at all these people are
0:20:15basically working in unsupported
0:20:16configurations and I would not recommend
0:20:17this but for people who want to give it
0:20:19a try it seems you know everyone is
0:20:21having success whatever thing they can
0:20:23think up that they think might work it's
0:20:24working for them Alexander Torres
0:20:27tweeted something in Spanish that I
0:20:30tried to translate with google translate
0:20:31but it doesn't matter because the thing
0:20:33he tweeted as a picture of a dialogue
0:20:34with sin English it shows what happens
0:20:36if you have a fusion drive and try
0:20:40looking at it connected to a mac that is
0:20:43running something earlier than OS 10
0:20:4510.8 point2 and the dialog box is pretty
0:20:48good so we're talking about before of
0:20:49how Apple handled the transitioned hfs+
0:20:53and by the way I had since looked up
0:20:55some of that stuff either i looked it up
0:20:57or had a better recall when you
0:21:00connected an h press + drive to a mac
0:21:03that didn't understand that volume
0:21:05format that you know that with an OS
0:21:07that existed before hfs+ it would look
0:21:10like an h FS volume and it had like a
0:21:11readme file like it was it wasn't just
0:21:13the readme file explained what the
0:21:16situation was so it the hrs + drive
0:21:18masts itself as an h of a tiny HFS
0:21:20volume with a single readme file that
0:21:22opened liked each text or whatever the
0:21:23current version of the apples text
0:21:26editor was so that was those cute anyway
0:21:28the dialog box for fusion drive says
0:21:30this is in the Charlotte's to the disk
0:21:32use the disk instead of this disk maybe
0:21:35this agree translation the disk uses a
0:21:36format that your current version of OS
0:21:3810 does not support to use this disk a
0:21:40newer version of OS 10 is required or
0:21:42all your files are still on the disk so
0:21:45it's a pretty good error message like it
0:21:47it doesn't just totally unrecognized it
0:21:49and say you want to initialize it it
0:21:50recognizes it must have been enough even
0:21:52back in whatever version this is to say
0:21:53this isn't totally alien but it doesn't
0:21:57work with this version maybe they have
0:21:58some version information of the thing
0:21:59whatever so it says you know it's not
0:22:01broken you just need a newer version of
0:22:03OS 10 and this is an older version
0:22:04saying that so that's likely forward
0:22:06compatibility thing that I was trying to
0:22:08talk about before where old software can
0:22:11make intelligent observations about
0:22:12things that didn't even exist when it
0:22:15was written based on you
0:22:16some metadata or whatever or just clever
0:22:17engineering and the reassuring thing all
0:22:20your files are still on the disk like
0:22:21your stuffs not gone you just can't see
0:22:23it from here oh that's pretty good job
0:22:25on that message Lee hutchinson and ours
0:22:29has been doing good job of breaking this
0:22:31stuff down yeah yeah learning more about
0:22:33fusion drive he's got this big article
0:22:34achieving fusion with the service
0:22:37training doc ours tears open apples
0:22:39fusion drive so you got like the apple
0:22:41store service manuals for like how to do
0:22:43stuff when people bring in their max
0:22:45that have fusion drive how does he get
0:22:47have someone get that stuff leaks that's
0:22:49it that's how it works okay someone
0:22:51who's an apple store employee your nose
0:22:53and apple store employee you know it
0:22:54things get leaked I mean it's not
0:22:56groundbreaking it you know if you wanted
0:22:58to see what their service guys look like
0:22:59or what their instructions are just
0:23:00tells you it's very you know it here's
0:23:03how you work with someone who brings in
0:23:04a fusion drive it's actually pretty
0:23:05complicated and like if you just gave
0:23:08someone those instructions who didn't
0:23:09know what they were doing you you know
0:23:11they wouldn't follow them right or would
0:23:12be confused by a certain point like you
0:23:14know seeing how people in these stories
0:23:17are expected to follow these fairly
0:23:18complicated instructions and not screw
0:23:19them up that's not easy to do I course
0:23:23we all expect them to not screw up I
0:23:24brought out of the apple store and they
0:23:25destroyed everything but yeah anyway uh
0:23:28you can take a look at that articles in
0:23:30the show notes there's another one from
0:23:32Tom who all lowercase whose name I gave
0:23:35up trying to find this is a BYOD fusion
0:23:39there's a couple of things with BYOD I'm
0:23:40assuming so bring your own disk he's got
0:23:42an article about his experience of the
0:23:44fusion and finally there's someone from
0:23:46something from tripod tech tryb ODT ACH
0:23:50has a video on youtube of do-it-yourself
0:23:53fusion drive so basically if you're
0:23:55interested in fusion drive and you have
0:23:5610 82 but you don't have one of those
0:23:58new max there are many many resources
0:24:00for you to go to to learn how to
0:24:03potentially destroy all your data but
0:24:05also have a lot of fun so I haven't
0:24:07tried any of these things I think you
0:24:09can't to watch other people stuff than I
0:24:11you know I don't have a spare SSD to add
0:24:14to the mix or whatever but like I said
0:24:16I'm looking forward to using fusion
0:24:17drive and whatever our next new mac i
0:24:19buying 2013 but for now it's not for me
0:24:22but if you want to tried many resources
0:24:24to do so
0:24:28to our first sponsor you know to pro
0:24:31follow up first sponsor squarespace com
0:24:34everything you need to make an amazing
0:24:36website fully hosted completely managed
0:24:38you make any kind of website we use them
0:24:41for like our news blogs things like that
0:24:43but you can make full-fledged websites
0:24:45that do tons and tons of things
0:24:47portfolios image galleries and what's
0:24:51cool is that you can decide within
0:24:52Squarespace what you want to do with
0:24:54these sub pages you can give them the
0:24:56URLs that you want to give them you can
0:24:58have a blog you can have a gallery you
0:24:59can have all of this stuff and it's
0:25:01super easy to create it there's a
0:25:02drag-and-drop interface it makes it
0:25:04super easy and I was messing around with
0:25:06some of the advanced settings in there
0:25:07because they're always improving stuff
0:25:09they're always changing things behind
0:25:10scenes they don't always I mean I'm sure
0:25:12you could read there like you know
0:25:13developer notes and things like that but
0:25:15I notice the other day that they have
0:25:17now and I don't know how long they've
0:25:18had it maybe they've had it for a while
0:25:20but I just saw it they have like a
0:25:21default preference it says when you
0:25:23create a new post when you start typing
0:25:25something new do you want to use their
0:25:26cool WYSIWYG editor well it's pretty
0:25:28cool but you know what me no I don't
0:25:30want to use that I want to default to
0:25:32marked animal that's a built-in
0:25:34preference all of these little things
0:25:35they've thought about all of this stuff
0:25:37they have built in you know if you view
0:25:40the source on a site it's clean all the
0:25:42templates that they have are responsive
0:25:44so that you can look at it on an iOS
0:25:45device and you see a really nice version
0:25:47of the site not one of those garbage
0:25:48mobile versions of sites you know
0:25:51they've got SEO built-in image
0:25:54versioning retina ready stuff
0:25:55everything's integrated depending on how
0:25:58long you sign up for if you I mean first
0:26:00of all this and it's not free you're
0:26:02gonna spend ten bucks a month you want
0:26:04their unlimited plan you're going to
0:26:06spend 20 bucks a month you sign up for a
0:26:08year you get twenty percent off you sign
0:26:09up for two years you get twenty-five
0:26:10percent off and neither of those you'll
0:26:12get a free domain name registration with
0:26:14it or you just use your own no credit
0:26:17card nothing like that you go to
0:26:18squarespace com / 5 by 5 that is the
0:26:22best way to support the show to get
0:26:25started with squarespace and all that
0:26:26stuff squarespace.com / 5 by 5 when
0:26:29you're there use the code dan sent me 11
0:26:30because it's the eleventh month dan sent
0:26:32me 11 we get ten percent off whatever
0:26:34you sign up for so go check them out
0:26:35squarespace com
0:26:36[Music]
0:26:40getting direct messages on Twitter but
0:26:44people need to tell me whether the
0:26:47things that direct messaging me about
0:26:48the show that they're currently
0:26:49listening to can be spoken about on the
0:26:51show and like it would like of any
0:26:53knowledge i can just can't talk about it
0:26:54so thanks for sending me live feedback
0:26:56please tell me whether i can convey the
0:26:58lied feedback to the listeners otherwise
0:27:01i won't maybe they could use a little
0:27:03like a capital y or capital n to make
0:27:07that determination always do it as a
0:27:09preface that's my tip for when providing
0:27:11information to somebody either that you
0:27:14do or don't want them to make public
0:27:16start start with start with the what I'm
0:27:19about to tell you should or shouldn't be
0:27:20blah blah blah blah and then tell it
0:27:22don't do the reverse cuz then they read
0:27:24it and then quickly you know especially
0:27:26when you're talking to somebody who's on
0:27:27the air live what if i just read it off
0:27:29you know in my excitement right anyway
0:27:31topics today i don't know how many will
0:27:35get to depends on how long they go i
0:27:37have a lot of them and the notes get
0:27:39longer as the topics go on but who knows
0:27:41so we'll just maybe maybe we'll cut it
0:27:43off after a couple of topics go by and
0:27:45it decide that that's it because we've
0:27:48had a lot of long shows lately I don't
0:27:50know what this one's going to people say
0:27:52so the first thing I want to talk about
0:27:54is usually the third rail for tech
0:27:58podcast is to talk about anything having
0:28:00related to politics i'm not gonna
0:28:01actually talk about politics i gotta
0:28:03talk a little bit about tech just a tiny
0:28:05little bit ah specifically about voting
0:28:08technology i assume you voted in the
0:28:11presidential election everybody's should
0:28:14exercise the right to vote and whether i
0:28:16voted and how i voted is something that
0:28:18she'll be a mystery whether you voted
0:28:21whether i voted and how i voted shall i
0:28:23can ask us how you do not even see why
0:28:25do not discuss politics i did not
0:28:27discuss voting i did not discuss
0:28:28religion i will talk about buddhism as a
0:28:30philosophy with Merlin man on the back
0:28:32to work show and those are the only two
0:28:34rules i have you can say shit which i
0:28:37will not say if i voted i will not say
0:28:39how i voted on that say where I voted to
0:28:42look like it's a Maya I do not like it
0:28:44this is that this is the there are only
0:28:46two rules that I have and those are the
0:28:48two now you have so many more than two
0:28:51wrong no not not when it comes to
0:28:53podcasting
0:28:54alright well so what I want to ask about
0:28:56let's say you can draw on your past
0:28:57experience if you've ever heard this
0:28:59implies that I've ever voted oh yes
0:29:01that's too much so anyway like voting
0:29:03technology like how the mechanics of how
0:29:05people pick you know who this is this is
0:29:08the way it works for those who have
0:29:09never voted in the United States you are
0:29:12you walk into a booth there's a very
0:29:15large lever or lever and you you you
0:29:19take a small mallet and you tap the end
0:29:22of a little stick to punch out a card
0:29:25through this block of a hole through
0:29:26block of wood and then you pull the
0:29:29lever and it the card falls straight
0:29:32down into a big you know like open
0:29:34opening in the floor there are many
0:29:38different things that people use to vote
0:29:40and the thing you're talking about were
0:29:41you going with a booth and there's a
0:29:42lever and stuff I never actually used
0:29:44one of those but I remember seeing them
0:29:45when I was a kid like in my elementary
0:29:47school and they would be better if I
0:29:48have ever voted I would have definitely
0:29:51used one of those as well and I I
0:29:54however I will say that I have never
0:29:56having no knowledge of the voting
0:29:58process because I cannot say if I've
0:30:00ever voted or not I can say that I've
0:30:02never used a computer system to vote
0:30:04yeah so another common system that i
0:30:07have used is kind of like the
0:30:09standardized testing things you take in
0:30:10school where there's like little bubbles
0:30:12and you fill them out scantron with a
0:30:14pencil or pen yet I can't drop optical
0:30:17scanning a bunch of empty circles and if
0:30:19you film one of them with darkness then
0:30:21you set it through a machine it finds
0:30:22the one little circle that is filled in
0:30:24with darkness because it's less
0:30:25reflective than the ones that weren't
0:30:26because the paper is white and that's
0:30:28how it registers your votes that's what
0:30:30I had this year I did vote and they gave
0:30:33you I explained on Twitter that they
0:30:34gave us little pins like sharpie markers
0:30:37to fill it in we like to fill in the
0:30:38bubbles and then it bled through to the
0:30:40other side like you'd fill in the little
0:30:42thing not like I'm not going crazy like
0:30:43trying to make it a darkest serpent just
0:30:45you know minimal filling in of the
0:30:47circle so that you know and then it
0:30:48bleeds through the other side I don't
0:30:50think it's an issue because the other
0:30:51side where I bled through is not an area
0:30:53that would be scanned like it's not
0:30:54that's not where the answers were on the
0:30:56other side but that's that's just sloppy
0:30:58there were some videos but of touch
0:31:00screen voting machines where someone
0:31:02would tap one choice and the other
0:31:03choice would get selected of course
0:31:05partisan political people are like aha
0:31:07that's because party
0:31:08is sabotaging the machines but the
0:31:10problem worked in both directions there
0:31:12you know tried to vote for at Canaday
0:31:14and B was selected and then other
0:31:15touchscreen voting machines tried to
0:31:17vote from Canada B and a was selected so
0:31:21that's not that's obviously it's either
0:31:22the worst kind of political hacking or
0:31:24it's just you know bugs in the system of
0:31:26course we had the butterfly ballot swear
0:31:28it was hard to even in Florida from 2000
0:31:30it was hard to even tell who you were
0:31:32voting for I just bad you I just you
0:31:34know there's lots of articles around
0:31:352000 about the user interface of voting
0:31:37and how like hanging chads it should
0:31:40yeah that the hanging chads are punching
0:31:41out paper like it should you know the
0:31:44qualities of a good voting system
0:31:45technologically speaking are pretty
0:31:47clear like the person voting has to know
0:31:49who that they're voting for they
0:31:50shouldn't have to puzzle over this thing
0:31:52like it shouldn't be like when most
0:31:53people figured it out but something will
0:31:54be confuse like there it's kind of like
0:31:56connectors like it's your job to design
0:31:57connectors are certain criteria for it
0:31:59if it's your job to design voting
0:32:01technology there it mean I don't think
0:32:04it would be is rocket science for us to
0:32:06come up with criteria I should know who
0:32:08I'm voting for it should be clear who
0:32:09I'm voting for it should be easy to
0:32:11count an automated mannered you know all
0:32:13these other qualities about it and yet
0:32:15the voting technology that we're all
0:32:16using and it changes because like this
0:32:18these things are controlled I guess by
0:32:19the states or the counties or whatever
0:32:20there's no like big federally mandated
0:32:22this is how we voted in the United
0:32:23States well everyone's using different
0:32:25machines you know filling in bubbles and
0:32:27things pulling levers punching things
0:32:28out using various touchscreen electronic
0:32:31voting devices and stuff and over the
0:32:32years there have been stories and a tech
0:32:34press about these electronic voting
0:32:35machines and how incredibly terrible
0:32:37they are like you know they they get
0:32:41government contracts because of their
0:32:42connections with the government but the
0:32:44machines themselves are terrible they're
0:32:45not secure their buggy they're not easy
0:32:48to understand like most people say oh
0:32:50you know those electronico machines are
0:32:51terrible we should stick to the tried
0:32:53and true technologies like the lever and
0:32:54the pencil things I filling in the
0:32:56bubbles because those are in and most
0:32:58respects their true they all the
0:32:59electronic things are worse in almost
0:33:01all possible ways in the old ones but
0:33:02that doesn't mean that better voting
0:33:05technology is impossible and so I
0:33:07continue to be fresh grated every every
0:33:08time there's an election at the dismal
0:33:10state of the technology used for voting
0:33:12mostly because this is like this is a
0:33:16problem that we know we meaning like
0:33:18humanity humanity knows how to solve
0:33:20right
0:33:21we have the mathematics and the
0:33:24technology to make something fulfills
0:33:27all the criteria that a rational person
0:33:29would lay out for voting user interface
0:33:30is still a little bit hard because
0:33:31that's not it's more a little bit of art
0:33:33more than science in there but it's
0:33:35testable like find out if this ballot is
0:33:37clear to everyone who's using it and
0:33:38just make it until it's like super duper
0:33:41extremely clear so the technologies I'm
0:33:44talking about it there's actually a
0:33:45Wikipedia entry on like this as a
0:33:46concept not even to specific things the
0:33:49page i linked is end-to-end auditable
0:33:51voting systems which it's kind of like
0:33:55sounds like end-to-end data and
0:33:56racketeering ZFS but this particular
0:33:58property that you can this is something
0:34:00you can do with electronic voting
0:34:01systems that you can't do or can't do is
0:34:03easily with a paper type system so their
0:34:05definition is and and auditable voting
0:34:08systems are voting systems with
0:34:09stringent integrity properties integrity
0:34:12properties and strong tamper resistance
0:34:13and they often employ cryptographic
0:34:16methods to craft receipts that allow
0:34:18voters to verify that their votes were
0:34:19not modified without revealing which
0:34:21candidates they voted for so that's
0:34:25basically I don't get into the Mathmos
0:34:26because I don't understand it myself but
0:34:28it's kind of like public key
0:34:29cryptography where with with a system
0:34:32like this every aspect of it can and
0:34:34should be completely open completely
0:34:36open source the implementation is
0:34:38completely opened everything about it is
0:34:40like everybody come look at it there's
0:34:42no secret black box where you can't see
0:34:43behind you can see how this thing works
0:34:45anybody can make a machine that worked
0:34:48in this way uh and we can mathematically
0:34:51proved you can mathematically prove to
0:34:53yourself that your vote was counted that
0:34:55it wasn't changed and no one else can
0:34:57tell who you voted right so like it
0:34:59gives you all the benefits of you know
0:35:01anonymous voting and stuff like that or
0:35:03whatever but but you know with a
0:35:04mathematically secure system if anybody
0:35:06tampers with it you'll know and any
0:35:08citizen if they have any doubt that
0:35:10their vote was not counted or was
0:35:11changed and correctly can verify to
0:35:12themselves in a way that that
0:35:13verification couldn't be faked without
0:35:15you know access to the ability to find
0:35:20humongous prime factors beyond our
0:35:21current technologically like any any
0:35:23cryptographic system will have to keep
0:35:25pace with technology because it would
0:35:27get like quantum computers and all of a
0:35:28sudden are our secure voting system is
0:35:29insecure because in theory you know the
0:35:32US government or
0:35:33could use their NSA supercomputers to
0:35:35fake your authentication make everyone
0:35:38think their votes counter and really
0:35:39they didn't write you have to keep up
0:35:40with it but we totally have the
0:35:42technology to do this now to make a
0:35:45voting system that does not stink that
0:35:47is way better than all the paper systems
0:35:49and that is verifiable in ways that no
0:35:52current system can come close to
0:35:53matching and also we we know have the
0:35:55technology to make user interfaces that
0:35:57don't confuse people like this isn't
0:35:59it's not like we're asking them to uh
0:36:01fill out a you know it parts list for
0:36:04747 you're just voting for you know this
0:36:06guy or that guy or that guy this guy
0:36:07that is not or gal it's not a it's not a
0:36:12as far as you I problems go this doesn't
0:36:15seem like rocket science to me not that
0:36:18I'm saying you couldn't have a great but
0:36:19you know we and in this country we have
0:36:21people who understand this technology we
0:36:23have we even have government agencies
0:36:24who understand this technology
0:36:25understand cryptography understand
0:36:26everything about obviously you cannot
0:36:27the government make these things
0:36:28themselves for variety of reasons but
0:36:31and yet maybe you don't want the federal
0:36:32government forcing you to do it but this
0:36:34technology exists out there and you just
0:36:36don't see it anywhere all you see are
0:36:38increasingly crappy electronic voting
0:36:40machines that make things worse and the
0:36:42old systems that are bad in their own
0:36:43ways and the you know so I'm frustrated
0:36:47by this mostly because it seems like
0:36:48whatever our system of government is
0:36:50here whatever you want to call it it
0:36:52makes it really really hard to get from
0:36:54the things we have to the things we know
0:36:57we should be able to have like what why
0:36:59is it that we can't get you know change
0:37:01the voting machines is it because
0:37:02they're not federally controlled would
0:37:04it be worse if they were federally
0:37:05controlled and be like mini tell and
0:37:06we've got this boo be stuck with you
0:37:07know the lever machines forever I keep
0:37:10picking on mini tell sorry France people
0:37:12yeah I don't know what the solution is I
0:37:16know is that it is insane to me that I
0:37:18went on election day and filled out a
0:37:20scantron thing with a pen and that you
0:37:24may or may not have done something
0:37:25similar no way to know what I did no
0:37:28waiting yeah so anyway that the levant
0:37:34ones are cool though that was
0:37:35disappointing to me it just seems like
0:37:38you know it it's not like sound like all
0:37:40the other areas where we all knew we had
0:37:42the technology to sell music
0:37:43electronically and people were just
0:37:45dragging their feet but at least that
0:37:46solved itself voting stuff it's like
0:37:48she's never you know it's moving so
0:37:49slowly every every state is different
0:37:51every place you go is different what
0:37:54they all want to do is different the way
0:37:55that they tabulate the results is
0:37:56different the way they count the results
0:37:58is different the way the report the
0:37:59results is different and it's you know
0:38:04it's complicated you can even say that's
0:38:07a strength being crazy the amazing
0:38:09technological biodiversity if you want
0:38:11to call it that of all these different
0:38:13things because it makes more difficult
0:38:14for someone to systematically you know
0:38:16change the vote on a wide scale if we
0:38:18had sort of a technological monoculture
0:38:19of like a government-sanctioned
0:38:21quote-unquote auditable and and
0:38:23verifiable voting system if someone
0:38:25broke that and they've just broken the
0:38:27bank I'm not even saying that you need
0:38:28to have some centralized thing it's just
0:38:29that you would expect at least some of
0:38:31the individual places there that are
0:38:34changing their voting system to an
0:38:35electronic form would do it right like
0:38:38to somebody anybody like is it
0:38:40impossible to find the people who know
0:38:42how to do this for you and get like it
0:38:44seems like you know the people who get
0:38:46these government contracts for these
0:38:47electronic voting machines they do bad
0:38:49work the electronic voting machines are
0:38:51bad they're bad in obvious ways than
0:38:53anyone remotely skilled on the art can
0:38:54look at that and say no you're an idiot
0:38:56this is wrong I don't even understand
0:38:57why you're doing this and that's why evo
0:38:59ting like that phrase e-voting has such
0:39:01a bad rap because year after year when
0:39:03anybody with a clue looks any of these
0:39:05machines are like this thing is a joke
0:39:06it is the most incredibly hackable
0:39:08insecure doesn't give us any of the
0:39:09benefits that we could be getting under
0:39:11what you guys are doing but oh i guess
0:39:13you got the government contract to do
0:39:14this since you know corruption or
0:39:15incompetent serve some combination of
0:39:17them it's just depressing this is yet
0:39:21another opportunity by the way for nerds
0:39:23to make the world better again not a
0:39:26partisan issue nerds if you are a young
0:39:28nerd out there could i listen to the
0:39:30show grow up and make better voting
0:39:33machines like when you make that
0:39:35something that you do with your life
0:39:37this seems like a way that nerds can
0:39:38help our country it you know is not
0:39:41partisan at all it's not about any
0:39:43parties just about we have the
0:39:44technology to do good voting let's let's
0:39:46do not say everyone has to vote from
0:39:48their cell phones but like you know if
0:39:51you if you picture the future like when
0:39:52you're a kid like on the year 2000 we
0:39:54will all vote from our mobile
0:39:55communicators like on Star Trek there's
0:39:58no reason we couldn't all vote from our
0:39:59cell phones
0:40:01here we have a technology to do that
0:40:02we're just so far from that in terms of
0:40:04you know actually getting that stuff
0:40:06implemented you know in a way I mean
0:40:08think about this I mean let me tell you
0:40:10about something do you ever do you ever
0:40:11do online banking you trust that enough
0:40:13you're a credit union guy aren't you I
0:40:15am a crazy I knew it so here's the thing
0:40:18some of these banks have these apps out
0:40:21there where you can deposit a check
0:40:23without taking the check to the bank
0:40:27have you seen this you take a picture of
0:40:29it now right and this is so this is how
0:40:31this typically works you take your you
0:40:33take your check you put it down on the
0:40:34desk I'm assuming you still have to
0:40:35endorse the back I did I don't know but
0:40:39you take a photo of the front of the
0:40:40check with all within the app photo of
0:40:42the back of the check and then you enter
0:40:45in the amount and then this this goes
0:40:48away and then usually a number of hours
0:40:50could be 12 could be 24 later it shows
0:40:52up on your on your online statement you
0:40:56know you can log in and see that it's
0:40:57there and the deposit went through and
0:40:58then I guess you're supposed to dispose
0:41:00of the checks after 14 days or something
0:41:02if you're aware of this yep you won't
0:41:05you can't admit to whether you ever have
0:41:07or have not used it I which I respect I
0:41:09don't think we've ever used this this to
0:41:12me my guess is that a human being is
0:41:15looking at these photos right I don't
0:41:18know about that like that can't they
0:41:19just read like this there's OCR Bowl
0:41:21routing stuff on checks right there
0:41:24definitely is I'm just wondering if a
0:41:26foe if the photograph is like I I
0:41:30imagine there has to be human at some
0:41:32stage because what if the photograph you
0:41:34take was in bad lighting I intentionally
0:41:35took one of them one of the photos in
0:41:37less-than-ideal lighting to see if it
0:41:40would throw it back or complain about it
0:41:42or if I would get an email or some
0:41:44nothing it went through and it was
0:41:46correct I bet there's people looking at
0:41:48them but like that that all doesn't that
0:41:49strike you as a talk about skeuomorphism
0:41:52I guess it's not quite the same things
0:41:53like we're gonna send you a piece of
0:41:56paper that says that you were going to
0:41:57get money and if you show this piece of
0:41:59paper to your bank then they'll take the
0:42:00money from my bank account and put it
0:42:02into yours and so and so forth and now
0:42:04you take a picture of this piece of
0:42:05paper that we sent in the mail and then
0:42:07we'll look it's like a
0:42:08right the wire we have wires connect me
0:42:11everybody converges in a direct deposit
0:42:12is how I do most of my things cuz like
0:42:14why you know I I like that that seems
0:42:16more like the future than taking a
0:42:17picture of your check but in the end if
0:42:19you were to look at how banking
0:42:20technology look you would be similarly
0:42:21depressed about what are the actual
0:42:23security and checks and balances how
0:42:25many things are in there they're just
0:42:26like well it's just tradition in the way
0:42:28it's been done in like rules of decorum
0:42:29and manners we're holding our financial
0:42:31system no that's exactly that's exactly
0:42:34it and when you think of the two sort of
0:42:36oldest systems in in the world in here
0:42:40at least you know when it come to you I
0:42:41think of like voting and banking would
0:42:44be in that list of things that involve
0:42:46paper and Trust and it's the whole thing
0:42:50about voting is it really there's so
0:42:52much trust that's involved in this
0:42:53process which is something that is is
0:42:55our right and arguably responsibility on
0:42:59the one hand and then banking which is
0:43:00something that that's equally is
0:43:02frightening and and there's so much
0:43:05trust involved that I mean this is think
0:43:07about this I was visiting South Korea
0:43:09this is gosh I don't know eight years
0:43:11ago 10 years ago something like that and
0:43:13we were we were checking our luggage but
0:43:15they at the time they didn't have it we
0:43:17were just walking with earlier a guy
0:43:19walked up and he looked at our tickets
0:43:21and he said okay and he took that he
0:43:24took the luggage I'm like wait like that
0:43:25don't get a receipt for this there's no
0:43:26barcode is there something you know
0:43:28nothing and I and he's like no no it's
0:43:31fine and he walked away with all of our
0:43:33luggage and our handler over there who
0:43:36was a retired colonel from the South
0:43:38Korean army very distinguished position
0:43:40I very fluent in English cases no no no
0:43:44it's fine i'm like like i did a guy like
0:43:48I get that you say it's fine I
0:43:49appreciate that thank you I feel like I
0:43:52want some kind of receipt fine he's he
0:43:55just sort of laughed because this guy
0:43:57the guy who took our luggage you know
0:44:00this is a young guy the white gloves on
0:44:02the it would be unthinkable for him to
0:44:08not get that luggage to us wherever it
0:44:10was going yeah it would be dishonorable
0:44:13he might have to commit suicide if that
0:44:16happened it was like it was it was funny
0:44:19that I was even asking to these guys it
0:44:21was funny that I was even
0:44:22think about it and here in the US you
0:44:24got guys chucking iPads around in the
0:44:26back of walmart you see that video and
0:44:28it's so it's like it's so different and
0:44:30yet there's still so much trusted to
0:44:32them that was not an issue of trust that
0:44:33was an issue of honor and like you don't
0:44:35question that but here it's like please
0:44:37count my vote please let me make this
0:44:39deposit that's legit and that I didn't
0:44:41really add an extra zero to the end of
0:44:43this thing on the check you know what
0:44:44I'm saying like it's it feels very
0:44:46different here and you're in that Korean
0:44:48airport no one said you care and no
0:44:50one's going to take that here right I
0:44:51was just weird no one's gonna get that
0:44:55one I know that's right uh yeah so the
0:44:58thing about that is that if he had
0:45:00handed you a piece of paper that would
0:45:01have made you feel better if yes in a
0:45:03weird way like yeah it makes it legit
0:45:06like the Jersey that piece of paper you
0:45:09can wave that in hell you want the
0:45:12papers not gonna make them come back but
0:45:14but I have a piece of paper right great
0:45:16Abby's a bit well you do you admit you
0:45:18feel a little bit better if you've got
0:45:19something that's what I'm weird about
0:45:21those checks and that's what's weird
0:45:22about the voting they don't give you a
0:45:23receipt when you vote but the piece of
0:45:25paper is the same that piece of paper is
0:45:27what you needed to make you feel like if
0:45:29you were in a trusting scenario that
0:45:32you're familiar with right and the lack
0:45:33of the piece of paper like it's just a
0:45:35difference in what mate you know what
0:45:36you're used to in what makes you feel
0:45:37better so they said oh I don't need the
0:45:39piece of paper to feel safe you say well
0:45:40I need the piece of paper she'll say it
0:45:41right both with without that piece of
0:45:42paper in fact I've taken your bags
0:45:44they're gone they're still gone right
0:45:46it's just a question of what you expect
0:45:48then that's the thing with a voting is
0:45:49like you know the general sort of
0:45:51resistance to change and you know
0:45:55Luddite ISM of like technology scares me
0:45:57and I don't trust it and like people are
0:46:01much more comfortable with like in
0:46:03person corruption like actual theft and
0:46:05actual fraud and you know election
0:46:08workers doing bad things then oh no the
0:46:11scary computer hackers are going to
0:46:12change all our votes so Mickey Mouse is
0:46:14going to be president right like the
0:46:15systemic kind of stuff that you can do
0:46:17once things are connected with computers
0:46:18like a one individual is not empowered
0:46:21to you know change hundreds of thousands
0:46:25and millions and billions of votes like
0:46:26I mean even if like the guy who has the
0:46:28power to change every vote in california
0:46:29he can't change those in texas as easily
0:46:31because they're not connected and so on
0:46:32but whereas one computer hacker if
0:46:34everything's all connect
0:46:35or if it's you know the danger of
0:46:37computers is like I don't trust that
0:46:38like I'd rather have the little piece of
0:46:40paper even though I know it's less
0:46:41secure than the computer things because
0:46:42I don't understand computers I don't
0:46:44know what hacking is I don't know how it
0:46:46happens I just know that it does once I
0:46:48got my credit card stolen online and now
0:46:49never trusted electronic voting and like
0:46:51there's something to that like a
0:46:53interconnected electronics and
0:46:56networking does empower an individual
0:46:58actor to do more damage that is
0:47:00definitely true but it also that same
0:47:03technology also empowers us to have way
0:47:05more security than we ever had before
0:47:07right like you know this cryptographic
0:47:09systems with you know public algorithms
0:47:11and public keys like this still a
0:47:13private key somewhere and what if
0:47:14someone gets that and you know it I
0:47:17don't know that the reasons this is on
0:47:19so many different levels on a gut level
0:47:21it's on like you know not able to get
0:47:23our acts together level but i just think
0:47:24even he went in the realm of like not
0:47:26trying to make a cryptographically
0:47:27secure voting system for the entire
0:47:29country just the amount of level doing a
0:47:30competent job of equaling or bettering
0:47:33scantron we're not we're not able to do
0:47:36that as a society it said and the check
0:47:41thing that I think banking will move
0:47:43faster than voting I God effing Utley
0:47:45because you know easily your check is
0:47:48it's something like they did direct
0:47:49deposit they want to they want it to be
0:47:51all more automatable and have less human
0:47:53interaction and they also actually do
0:47:55want more security and they're there
0:47:57they're empowered to change things
0:47:59within their bank more than it seems we
0:48:02are all empowered to change our various
0:48:04voting systems yeah change happens
0:48:08slowly will say well what let's
0:48:11reconvene when were 80 years old to see
0:48:14if Odin technologies improved at all you
0:48:15know if we're still playing out freaking
0:48:16scantron hover com simplified domain
0:48:21management you probably registered the
0:48:22domain with the company just wants to
0:48:24sell you stuff you're not interested in
0:48:25to not so with hover John Syracuse I
0:48:29know you registered domain sometimes you
0:48:31can transfer your domains to hover using
0:48:33their transfer valet services is very
0:48:35cool speaking of human beings behind the
0:48:38scenes that's that's what goes on here
0:48:40when you use their transfer service this
0:48:42valet service it's free it doesn't cost
0:48:44anything but the price you're already
0:48:45paying for the domain when you transfer
0:48:47it a real live human be
0:48:49will oversee the process which can be a
0:48:50very weird process it's not the same
0:48:53with different registrar's it involves
0:48:54as weird i can email and all that stuff
0:48:56they'll handle the whole thing for you
0:48:58they'll make it super simple for you to
0:49:00use it's the best thing ever and i love
0:49:04their service i love the folks behind
0:49:05the scenes here they get a toll-free
0:49:07number you can just call them and you
0:49:08can do it all talk to a person if you
0:49:11don't want to use the computer or you
0:49:12can use a computer for everything it's
0:49:14amazing what these computers can do you
0:49:15type the domain that you want in the
0:49:17little search box it's available click
0:49:19plus you're done pay for it and use
0:49:21paypal you can use a credit card
0:49:22whatever if they don't find it you can
0:49:25enter in that they will suggest a whole
0:49:28bunch of different alternatives for you
0:49:30they'll show you other domains that are
0:49:31similar and available you can even like
0:49:33due the auction stuff through there but
0:49:34it's super simple elegant clean check
0:49:36them out hover com / dan sent me you get
0:49:39ten percent off you can use that code
0:49:40dan sent me for renewals you can use it
0:49:43for their email hosting you can use if
0:49:44you're already customer hover com sludge
0:49:46dan sent me check it out did you see
0:49:50that someone tried to paste an SVG into
0:49:52the chatroom and it's gone nuts Duan
0:49:55Duan Daniel Duan he's a young man here
0:49:59in town I is what I assume happened this
0:50:01happens to me a lot to within modern OS
0:50:0410 and most desktop operating systems
0:50:06when you select something in an
0:50:08application and you just like copy ah
0:50:10yes like you see it happen regardless of
0:50:14what actually happens then like the idea
0:50:16is like oh I've copied this thing and if
0:50:17you were looking at it and it looked
0:50:18like it was text right you think you
0:50:20just copied that text but you may be
0:50:21surprised to find that when you paste
0:50:23that into an a text application that
0:50:26understands different typefaces and
0:50:28colors that it's reproduced exactly as
0:50:31it was when you copied it so like if you
0:50:32copy something web page and paste into
0:50:34text edit and on the web page it was
0:50:35like pink Comic Sans it'll be pink Comic
0:50:38Sans you know 24 point in the thing so
0:50:40it didn't just copy the text it copied
0:50:42all the styling information as well and
0:50:43the same goes for images where a lot of
0:50:46web browsers when you copy you think
0:50:47you're copying an image or even just
0:50:49copying the URL of an image or something
0:50:50like that if you paste it into a text
0:50:52editor you get the URL but if you paste
0:50:54into an application that claims to
0:50:55understand for example SVG it will say
0:50:58oh this recipient of the pasteboard data
0:51:00says that understands SVG so i will give
0:51:03the SVG incarnation of this thing you
0:51:04copied and I don't know if that's what
0:51:06actually happened but it it happens
0:51:09frequently to me when I copy like a link
0:51:10from an application I just want the text
0:51:12URL but I try to paste it and like beeps
0:51:14at me so though I don't understand links
0:51:16like because it copied it is like a
0:51:17bookmark link or something and the
0:51:18application says i can receive you know
0:51:20that type of format but really can't so
0:51:24what's on the pasteboard or the
0:51:25clipboard depending on what operating
0:51:27system you want to take the terminology
0:51:29from is usually sort of a multiple
0:51:32incarnations or a promise to get
0:51:34multiple incarnations of a piece of data
0:51:36and which one you end up getting depends
0:51:37on what the recipient of that paste said
0:51:40it was going to accept so maybe Duan can
0:51:43fill us in on what what the major
0:51:45malfunction was there but he said he was
0:51:47dead atang an SVG file yeah I maybe just
0:51:50didn't know he had that on the clipboard
0:51:51and he thought he had something else and
0:51:52it was just plain text so I don't know
0:51:54and Swilley amez now we're gonna get a
0:51:56few weeks of follow-up on your mistake
0:51:58how right he is yeah yes I know it
0:52:03wasn't deliberate him we all like
0:52:04mistakes I've I've done it many times
0:52:06pasted the wrong thing in the wrong
0:52:08place all right one small one and then I
0:52:12guess will they find a larger topic for
0:52:14today will do and yeah maybe that won't
0:52:17last that long but I have a humongous
0:52:19not humongous it's two equally large
0:52:21topics and I don't think they're both
0:52:22going to fit in this show so i'll save
0:52:23the second one but first a small topic
0:52:25small topic is google voice search have
0:52:28you tried that out i have tried it i
0:52:30have also seen the video of the
0:52:32comparison these quote-unquote
0:52:33side-by-side comparison between google
0:52:36voice search and built in serie and it
0:52:39in my own experiments with it it does
0:52:42seem to mirror those expressed in this
0:52:44video that the guy took running each on
0:52:48the iphone five it is faster and i think
0:52:54it's i think it's better i put it in the
0:52:57show notes a link to oh god I'm gonna
0:52:58have to trim the show notes who'd be
0:53:00someone tailing trimming off that second
0:53:01topic have a million show notes on it
0:53:03this is a feature request that you
0:53:05should put into the CMS I'd like to be
0:53:07able to just move all those aunts the
0:53:08next show I know I can I mean I can do I
0:53:11can do that for you and like one line
0:53:13but i would have to you would have to
0:53:15the
0:53:16tell me they do never directly update
0:53:18the database in production have you
0:53:19learned nothing as a web developer I oei
0:53:21back the thing up nightly so big deal oh
0:53:23yeah rollback yeah the worst ones where
0:53:27you don't notice you did you know update
0:53:29without a where clause and there it
0:53:30executed fine and then six weeks later
0:53:32you go was titled every story the same
0:53:34hmm all right uh anyway this link in the
0:53:39show notes is a Gruber's take on this a
0:53:42typical tourist form he's got a link to
0:53:44I think it's the same movie the you saw
0:53:46it was a gizmodo has a side by side
0:53:48thing it is gizmodo yes yeah and he
0:53:50links to it and his you know one line
0:53:53commentary on it is how fast should
0:53:56Serie B this fast right anybody who has
0:53:59an iOS device with the microphone who
0:54:01hasn't tried the google voice search
0:54:03thing it's just it's just the google
0:54:05search app like it's not i don't think
0:54:07it's a separate app right it's just a
0:54:08google search app did a little blue g
0:54:10and ask where it's free application when
0:54:13i heard everyone raving about this
0:54:15before I'd even seen the videos i
0:54:16downloaded onto my cruddy ipod touch
0:54:19previous generation not particularly
0:54:21fast it does have a microphone on it and
0:54:24i tried it out and you know i was
0:54:28shocked at how how much faster and
0:54:31better it feels then Syriana iphone
0:54:34iphone 4s like my wife's iphone for us
0:54:36yeah there's a couple of aspects of this
0:54:38right the first aspect is an area where
0:54:40Apple where Apple should be a contender
0:54:44and that is the area of make it feel
0:54:47fast it doesn't necessarily have to be
0:54:50fast but make it feel fast and the
0:54:52reason google voice search feels like
0:54:54well i'm not fast but more responsive is
0:54:56because when you start talking stuff
0:54:59happens on the screen stuff happen
0:55:01immediately that and it shows it shows
0:55:03what you're saying it shows that it's
0:55:05understanding you and it's that instant
0:55:08visual feedback and you know Google's
0:55:11been you know you got to give a Google
0:55:13credit they get this concept if you
0:55:16think about gmail you you know when you
0:55:19hit Send in gmail it's not sent that
0:55:21fast you know that anyone who knows
0:55:23about computers knows it's not sent that
0:55:25fast but it instantaneously look like
0:55:26it's been sent and what does that do
0:55:28that's a token you know
0:55:29it's been sent good you're not sitting
0:55:31there waiting with a little spinner it's
0:55:32sent then of course it's going into
0:55:34Gmail's massive queue and it may take a
0:55:37minute before it actually sends but it's
0:55:41that instantaneous visual response and
0:55:43this is this is the thing that strikes
0:55:44you if you just watch this video and you
0:55:45need to install the app you get that
0:55:48instantaneous feedback that something is
0:55:51happening where's was serious just a
0:55:52little swirling around microphone thing
0:55:54you're like I wonder if it even heard me
0:55:56yeah there's different levels of this
0:55:58one is something happens like you always
0:56:00want to see something happens because
0:56:01then you especially novice computers
0:56:03just like did I do it is it is it doing
0:56:05something for me like you want to know
0:56:07something's happening so that's the
0:56:08first level and Siri mostly does that
0:56:10like once you start talking something
0:56:12happens on the screen to let you know
0:56:13like the phone's not frozen like
0:56:15something is actually happening here
0:56:16right and the second level is something
0:56:19is happening that exactly reflects what
0:56:21it is that you're doing so it like it's
0:56:23kind of like in fantastical when you
0:56:25type in something you know and it's like
0:56:27parsing your natural language of the
0:56:28date and you can see it gives you a
0:56:30little visual representation here I
0:56:31figured out that I think you said a
0:56:33month and here I think you're saying a
0:56:34day up you type something different now
0:56:35i misinterpreting it this way or like
0:56:37quicksilver my my favorite launcher as
0:56:39I'm typing the first few letters I'm
0:56:41looking at the icons changing it's like
0:56:43nope not that one not that one that one
0:56:45as soon as i typed enough for a tia to
0:56:46the icon i want my pinky it's returning
0:56:48them off right it's real-time visual
0:56:51feedback of how it is how it is
0:56:53understanding what you're doing so not
0:56:55only are you sure that it isn't frozen
0:56:56you are sure as you're talking that it's
0:56:59getting things right or if it's not
0:57:01getting things right you know you see in
0:57:02what way it's failing right part of the
0:57:05reason I think Apple currently doesn't
0:57:07do this in serious because they don't
0:57:09have on phone recognition like it's it's
0:57:11packing everything up sending streaming
0:57:13it out to the server and the service
0:57:14figuring out and sending your response
0:57:16like it's offloading the processing and
0:57:18we said when seriouser was around like
0:57:20you know it seems like there's enough
0:57:21horsepower on these handheld devices to
0:57:23do you know maybe not as fancy kind of
0:57:26recognition but a new some recognition
0:57:27here on the phone and Android does have
0:57:30on phone recognition but the second
0:57:32thing is I have no idea of google voice
0:57:34is actually doing on phone recognition
0:57:35and why because google has the server
0:57:38side chops to make it so that for all I
0:57:40know it's sending the data as I speak in
0:57:42real time to
0:57:42they're incredibly responsive fast
0:57:44servers it's giving me a response in
0:57:45like 50 milliseconds or some insane low
0:57:48leg you know amount of time and it's
0:57:50bouncing it back that is you know to two
0:57:54things that one apples the decision not
0:57:56to do on phone recognition Google
0:57:57decision to do so at least on Android
0:57:59and to the uh you know Google's ability
0:58:02to make a server-side architecture that
0:58:04is just so much more responsive
0:58:06available reliable high performance than
0:58:08anything apples have been able to field
0:58:10so Cirie just takes longer to do stuff
0:58:14and feels it feels even slower than it
0:58:16really is because if you look at the
0:58:17side-by-side videos series sometimes
0:58:18gives better results than the google
0:58:20thing because Google just doesn't have
0:58:21the same infrastructure and doesn't have
0:58:23a nice appearance for all their stuff a
0:58:24lot of the Google stuff ends up doing
0:58:26google search and you end up getting the
0:58:28mobile google images search which
0:58:30sometimes it's pretty good but you know
0:58:32syrian more likely to have custom
0:58:35tailored responses and thought like that
0:58:36but the the responsiveness and how fast
0:58:39it feels is just you know is it's night
0:58:41and day it really is and that's that's
0:58:42the thing that you can watch the video
0:58:44but when you're sitting there trying to
0:58:45do this yourself and you just want an
0:58:47answer I just give me an answer don't
0:58:49and this is this is something else that
0:58:51if you had to describe the user
0:58:52experience people said well isn't serum
0:58:54more elegant well no the faster answer
0:58:57is more elegant for me like you know
0:58:59give me the answer I'm looking for right
0:59:01now the most killer one in that video I
0:59:03figure were the exact things it was like
0:59:04how many pints in a quart or something
0:59:05and you want the answer to that now and
0:59:08series like looking it up for you
0:59:09alright alright here's your a no stop
0:59:12talking seems like you're trying without
0:59:13without from spaceballs you know just
0:59:16give me the friggin ants and Google was
0:59:18like that was not only did it feel
0:59:19faster it was faster like it gives you
0:59:21up here is your answer it's not a hard
0:59:23question right Google Google's not
0:59:25dislike Watson and jeopardy trying to
0:59:26figure out this it's you know how many
0:59:28pints in a quart if we can for what you
0:59:30said they were this is the google
0:59:31leveraging his it's a google calculator
0:59:33thing this is something that people may
0:59:34not know about I'm always amazed when
0:59:35people don't know about this but for
0:59:37years and years and years now if you
0:59:38type a unit conversion question or
0:59:40anything similar into a Google search
0:59:42box it will do a search yes but it will
0:59:44also just give you the answer you know
0:59:46yeah and that's that's the coolest thing
0:59:48and especially for little things like
0:59:50you know even even us geeks forget like
0:59:53how many megabytes Meg
0:59:56bid conversion type things all of that
0:59:58any kind of convert
0:59:58any kind of convert
1:00:00Shin that you want to do from currency
1:00:02to wait to volume you name it and just
1:00:05type that in and give and it's like you
1:00:06say it gives you the search but it gives
1:00:08you the answer and it's fast right and
1:00:10and Cirie has the same ability i think
1:00:12it's using it might be using wolfram
1:00:13alpha it might even be using google for
1:00:15but the bottom line is that google
1:00:17servers answer that question and the
1:00:19answer comes up on your screen when
1:00:20serious still like and holding you and
1:00:22saying i'm checking this out for you how
1:00:24are you having a good day like I said
1:00:26don't converse with me Siri just give me
1:00:28the answer immediately and Google just
1:00:30crushes it I don't know if they went to
1:00:32their server for that that's the whole
1:00:33thing with google like that'sthat's
1:00:34Google's dream is like you shouldn't
1:00:35know whether I'm doing this all locally
1:00:37am i doing recognition locally do I have
1:00:38all the unit conversion logically
1:00:39locally or am I just talking to a server
1:00:41that's close to you that has a low ping
1:00:43and talking to one of our amazing web
1:00:44services written and god-knows-what c++
1:00:47optimized thing that gives responses in
1:00:49under 100 milliseconds and apples like
1:00:51da da maybe make a connection to this
1:00:54web service and send the stuff and see
1:00:56it's just the kind of sort of again and
1:01:00and the kind of end end discipline
1:01:01required to make any kind of server-side
1:01:03thing that responsive uh is like a
1:01:06company-wide effort you can't tack that
1:01:09on you can't change it after the fact it
1:01:11needs to be put in through and through
1:01:13now I still think Siri is a better way
1:01:16to do voice stuff on your phone because
1:01:19from what I've seen people who do you
1:01:20see really use it for things that Google
1:01:22boys can't do like you know setting
1:01:23timers and you know interacting with the
1:01:26phone and actually modifying the
1:01:29plumbing of iOS and eventually maybe you
1:01:31know cooking up the application and
1:01:33stuff where is the google thing is
1:01:35mostly just a fancy way to use Google's
1:01:36existing web services and searches but
1:01:39really I don't think we should have to
1:01:40choose between those two this is an
1:01:43example of Google once again flexing its
1:01:46muscles and showing its strength and
1:01:47once again making me feel bad about the
1:01:49fact that Apple feels like it needs to
1:01:51do everything and it's you know just not
1:01:53good at that server side part and on
1:01:55this end it's also getting creamed in
1:01:56the client-side experience for both
1:01:58technical and cultural reasons yeah so
1:02:01like Gruber said how fast should to beat
1:02:04this fast or it should feel this fast or
1:02:06it should be this good you know it's
1:02:08just better
1:02:11chopped apple and do you think that
1:02:14they'll be changing something in
1:02:16response to this do you think that they
1:02:18will ever do and again listen I likes it
1:02:21when I when I'm saying something to this
1:02:22google search and it just shows the
1:02:24words that little thing that it hears
1:02:29you and it's making sense of what you're
1:02:30saying right now and it's really
1:02:32accurate I doubt we'll ever see that in
1:02:35serie because apples whole thing and if
1:02:36you think about these commercials that
1:02:38they've done with Siri Siri is supposed
1:02:40to be like your friend it's supposed to
1:02:42be like a little person it's the little
1:02:44secretary inside your phone or whatever
1:02:46it's not supposed to be the robotic and
1:02:49Google search is very robotic it looks
1:02:52like there is I am a computer I hear
1:02:54what you say here are the words to prove
1:02:56it you know instead serious like I'm
1:02:59listening to you hmm here's what you're
1:03:02looking for it it would you be content
1:03:04John if Syria just got really accurate
1:03:07and really fast and never gave you this
1:03:08kind of feedback like I said when I
1:03:10first talked about Siri serious trying
1:03:12to provide the illusion of a system
1:03:14that's better than anything we can
1:03:15actually make now commercials make it
1:03:17seem like you know like like artificial
1:03:20intelligence or like something close to
1:03:21it or like you're talking to another
1:03:23human being whereas the Google
1:03:24implementation is more honest it more
1:03:27correctly reflects the actual
1:03:29limitations of the thing in real time
1:03:32and I don't know this happens for non
1:03:34tech savvy people maybe it does maybe
1:03:35this non tech savvy people just bail on
1:03:37Cirie but like there's that in
1:03:38comfortable period of time after you use
1:03:41Siri especially if you're like trying to
1:03:42demonstrate it to somebody where you're
1:03:43like I wonder if it understood anything
1:03:45that I said or if it's gonna show me egg
1:03:47freckles now right like that that time
1:03:49period when you're waiting you're just
1:03:51like you all you want to see is like
1:03:53Siri what do you think I said and the
1:03:55you know three milliseconds between the
1:03:56time you finish saying what you're going
1:03:58to say and the time what it thinks you
1:04:00said appears on the screen and like the
1:04:02worst is like when when what thinks you
1:04:03said appears on the screen and its egg
1:04:05freckles me like oh god and just still
1:04:07goes through like looking at beg
1:04:08freckles for you here you go you're like
1:04:10oh no you know as soon as you see what
1:04:12it thinks you said that it's wrong right
1:04:14and yet you have to endure the poor
1:04:16little spinny thing going off and doing
1:04:17some web service request to give you
1:04:18some bogus answers or offered to do a
1:04:20Google search or something whereas with
1:04:21the real-time feedback that
1:04:23time where you're wondering with your
1:04:25fingers crossed come on Siri understand
1:04:27what the hell i said is eliminated
1:04:29because you see it in real time as
1:04:30you're looking at it now again with
1:04:32voice stuff like part of the whole idea
1:04:33series you're not staring at your screen
1:04:35like if you could stare at your screen
1:04:36why would you be using voice control
1:04:37it's like so you can pick up the phone
1:04:38and say you know remind me to call sue
1:04:41tomorrow and put it down without looking
1:04:43at it right again that's what the
1:04:46promise of series to do that and it does
1:04:47do that pretty well but for just general
1:04:52voice control when you can look at the
1:04:53phone Google's and validation is you
1:04:57know it's just like Johnny I've it's
1:04:58more true to to what it is then the
1:05:01Serie 1 series is aspirational with all
1:05:04that entails when it falls down you're
1:05:06like I thought this would be a magic
1:05:07elephant my computer and it's not and
1:05:08I'm sad whereas Google is more
1:05:10straightforward like it is what it is
1:05:12you can see what it's doing it works it
1:05:14doesn't yeah it has less of a potential
1:05:19to make people disappointed that it's
1:05:21not magical like in the commercial
1:05:23because if they did a commercial from
1:05:24google voice and for all I know they are
1:05:25doing it because I don't see commercials
1:05:26anymore but if they did the commercial
1:05:28they showed someone talking into it they
1:05:29wouldn't have to put that little
1:05:30disclaimer that says like sequences
1:05:32shorten or whatever maybe they would
1:05:34have did a long Google query but I think
1:05:37they could get away with doing an actual
1:05:38real time like no we're not making this
1:05:39up no sequence is shortened this is how
1:05:41fast it actually is like try it for
1:05:43yourself people out there listening even
1:05:45on a cruddy iOS device it is shockingly
1:05:48responsive you wouldn't have thought
1:05:49that your phone or thing was able to do
1:05:51this like it's more response this is
1:05:53what said to me it's more responsive
1:05:55than Dragon Dictate 3 running on my like
1:05:57Mac Pro with 16 gigs of RAM you know
1:05:59like I have tremendous computing
1:06:01horsepower and like a fiber optic
1:06:02connection to the internet and when I do
1:06:04real time talking and Dragon Dictate
1:06:06yeah it comes out but there's more of a
1:06:09lag I mean again it was Dragon Dictate
1:06:10is doing much more thinking than this
1:06:11thing is and it's recognition is way
1:06:13better than anything out of foam will
1:06:14ever be but it does take longer for the
1:06:16first few words you know when I speak a
1:06:18sentence to come out often i speak the
1:06:19entire sentence and nothing appears on
1:06:21my screen until I get to the period and
1:06:23the whole sentence appears right because
1:06:25it's really thinking very hard about
1:06:26what the heck OS 10 means and how you
1:06:29type that out and into Dragon Dictate
1:06:31credit it gets that stuff right like
1:06:32that's why costs on whatever dollars and
1:06:34I trained it in all my old I
1:06:36OS 10 reviews and so now when I speak a
1:06:38crazy sentence full of jargon that gets
1:06:39a right capitalization and all but
1:06:42talking into my little phone thing the
1:06:44words appear faster it's a good job
1:06:49Google bad job APPL now I let people
1:06:53know we have it we have it on our
1:06:54iphones so yeah i guess the only thing
1:06:58you know if I bet that there's tons of
1:07:00people out there who say well I really I
1:07:01like this better than Cirie I wish I
1:07:03could map this to double tap in them you
1:07:05know the home button or whatever you're
1:07:08holding it holding down the home button
1:07:09i think i feel like people would would
1:07:11love to have the ability to map it to
1:07:13that Buchan yeah it's an open ecosystem
1:07:17but not that open not that open and this
1:07:20is like people gave me flack on the past
1:07:21shot when I was listing the things that
1:07:24could have contributed to Scott
1:07:25forestalls downfall the things that we
1:07:26can see like when he was the guy in
1:07:28charge you know the maps thing happened
1:07:31and I also listed Siri among like the
1:07:33demerits like Siri happened on his watch
1:07:35and it was you know his thing that he
1:07:37endorsed and people like what are you
1:07:39talking about maps fine everyone knows
1:07:40there were some problems with map date
1:07:41and stuff like that but Siri like that
1:07:43wasn't that good and I listed it for a
1:07:46couple reasons first I listed it because
1:07:47it was released its beta and that's not
1:07:49an apple if thing to do they ship it
1:07:50when it's ready so this is a change from
1:07:52the apple way and it's a change in terms
1:07:53of like you know Apple shipping
1:07:55everything about it sweaty ready is what
1:07:56gives it the reputation of like when
1:07:58Apple comes out with that I know it's
1:07:59gonna be good it's not like when Google
1:08:01comes out with you like yeah it's
1:08:02probably just the bay then I might just
1:08:03go away right so it put a dent in that
1:08:06image that Apple have been so careful to
1:08:08maintain that's not just an image it's
1:08:09like an actuality like uh you you build
1:08:12up trust in the consumer that when you
1:08:13ship something that's gonna do what you
1:08:15say it does right and having to put the
1:08:17beta labels like this one not so much
1:08:19like it might kind of do what we say it
1:08:22will do whatever but then you also back
1:08:23with a giant ad campaign that doesn't
1:08:25really emphasize the beta aspect of it
1:08:27like I don't think Siri was a failure or
1:08:30bad or a bad idea or anything like that
1:08:32I think it's probably a net positive but
1:08:34it had more severe downsides than a
1:08:38typical apple launched right like it
1:08:41wasn't just like benign or neutral like
1:08:43it had parts of it that that caused
1:08:45backlash or the didn't work is described
1:08:48or that you know that when the servers
1:08:49weren't working
1:08:50for those people who first got their
1:08:51phones the early adopters they did not
1:08:52have a good experience with Siri because
1:08:54the servers were constantly slammed
1:08:55because everyone was taking out the
1:08:56phones and trying to talk to it uh and
1:08:58you know and Game Center the same thing
1:09:01not this is forestalls problem but uh
1:09:03you know I let her press slamming game
1:09:05center gives Game Center a bad rep right
1:09:07and what could have been like oh I I
1:09:09just got this great game like it could
1:09:10have been a halo effect finally a game
1:09:12becomes popular in our little nerd
1:09:14circle that uses Game Center and so we
1:09:15all think the game center is great
1:09:17because we love the game that would have
1:09:18been a halo effect we got the opposite
1:09:20we like the game but Game Center is
1:09:23falling down there for now games that
1:09:24has a bad rap in all our minds right
1:09:26because it didn't it didn't live up to
1:09:28the task well Siri and voice recognition
1:09:31an apple there's a little bit of that
1:09:33you know bad reputation going on there
1:09:36where I'd be you know late night talk
1:09:37show host doing jokes about Cirie and
1:09:39some people just giving up on it except
1:09:41for very for a very narrow band of tasks
1:09:43like setting timers or reminders or
1:09:45stuff like that and how much improvement
1:09:48of Siri can reverse that how much
1:09:49improvement of Game Center can make us
1:09:51forget about that like even Twitter to
1:09:53this day twitter has been pretty stable
1:09:54and up and it stayed up during election
1:09:56and stuff like that and yeah the three
1:09:57hundred thousand tweets more than three
1:10:00hundred thousand tweets a minute then a
1:10:03no fail whale right and but yet we all
1:10:05still remember the fail of course like
1:10:07like that reputation of Twitter as that
1:10:08service that couldn't stay up is still
1:10:10in all our minds despite the fact that
1:10:12it's been so good for so long right that
1:10:14they've solved that problem it's very
1:10:16difficult to come back from that so
1:10:17that's why I listed Siri in the list of
1:10:19possible you know demerits on forestalls
1:10:22resume alright I think will be the final
1:10:26topic for today is a talk about an
1:10:29article written by contro but a cage ah
1:10:33contra with a que how to see a video
1:10:36game I like contra the two guys running
1:10:38around shooting what country were they
1:10:40in the iran-contra scandal uh we know a
1:10:43country Iran part over to somewhere were
1:10:45the contrast anyone chatroom Nicaragua
1:10:48give him a second mailchimp calm easy
1:10:50email newsletters MailChimp helps you
1:10:52design email newsletters you can share
1:10:53them on social networks you integrate
1:10:55with services tons and tons of services
1:10:57you can track the results so that when
1:10:59you send out a campaign you say oh these
1:11:02people have received it
1:11:04this many people have received it this
1:11:05is the country that there it's very cool
1:11:06stuff you can customize your signup form
1:11:09to match the brand they already have so
1:11:11that it integrates perfectly with your
1:11:12website when you go to 5 by 5 that TV /
1:11:15newsletter for example it's going to
1:11:17look like the rest of the site it's not
1:11:18like some weird what if you just want to
1:11:19use their sign up form on their site you
1:11:21don't to host a thing do it fine put an
1:11:23iframe whatever it's your choice can
1:11:27even integrate all this stuff in your
1:11:28Facebook page on a Twitter you can
1:11:29collect signups from an ipad or laptop
1:11:31when you're at a tradeshow can even
1:11:34integrate it into your iOS app or your
1:11:36Android have like we do for the five by
1:11:37five app when you sign up for the
1:11:40newsletter right there that's using
1:11:41their code they give you that code you
1:11:42just embed it in your app it's genius
1:11:43there's never been a better time to try
1:11:46them out you can send twelve thousand
1:11:48emails a month to two thousand scribe
1:11:50subscribers for free forever it's really
1:11:54great they've got tons and tons of
1:11:55really cool resources books that they've
1:11:58put out that are free great tools that
1:12:01will help you see exactly what the email
1:12:02that you're composing is going to look
1:12:04like and pretty much every single email
1:12:05reader that is known to mankind
1:12:08humankind you can learn more by going to
1:12:10MailChimp calm / 5 by 5 even just going
1:12:14to that URL will show your solidarity
1:12:16your Syracuse Ian solidarity malcham com
1:12:20/ 5 by 5 please go check them out done
1:12:24tell group says it says it was Nicaragua
1:12:27cross then Scott Newcombe and EU km
1:12:30shames himself in front of the entire
1:12:32world by incorrectly typing in the
1:12:34Contra code the konami code they don't
1:12:39know if anyone didn't when the chatroom
1:12:40catch it and and shame him scott duke
1:12:43nukem yeah my problem with it with the
1:12:48konami code is that the poland storm
1:12:51song about Frogger tends to intercept it
1:12:54in my mind and I'm avid do you know that
1:12:55one no I don't know that one find that
1:12:58for the show notes and throw it in there
1:12:59and move all the other things in there
1:13:01it's not call is it called the Frogger
1:13:03storm the Frogger song I bet if you just
1:13:05do Paul and storm Frogger song you will
1:13:08find it and we should put that in the
1:13:10show notes don't let me forget that
1:13:11alright but about this article written
1:13:14by contrib with a que who is mysterious
1:13:16his description is
1:13:17a veteran design and management surgeon
1:13:20parentally perennially in search of
1:13:22complex problems to operate on this is
1:13:24one of those few anonymous people on the
1:13:26web who I don't actually know who they
1:13:27are ah but anyway he nobody no nobody
1:13:31knows oh sure I'm sure everybody knows
1:13:33no nobody knows no people no oh people
1:13:37know he doesn't post frequently but he
1:13:41when he does posts easier to got
1:13:43something to say what he but the dials
1:13:47article is as Apple's design problems
1:13:50aren't skeuomorphic talked last time
1:13:52about Forrestal and the skeuomorphic
1:13:56design and not just gear morphism but
1:13:58also this sort of the graphical
1:14:02treatment of elements being more heavy
1:14:03weight than they used to be and the
1:14:04possibility that since you know
1:14:06reportedly Steve Jobs was heavily into
1:14:08that kind of design and so was Forrestal
1:14:10and jobs has gone and then Forrestal was
1:14:11the one in charge of iOS it seems like
1:14:14he was heavily in favor of it too most
1:14:16of the people out in the tech world
1:14:17don't like it as much and wish there was
1:14:20less of it and wish that it would go
1:14:22away and so there was lots of
1:14:23skeuomorphism flat blowback of saying
1:14:26finally a forcible begun and in theory
1:14:28but all this bad stuff we don't like
1:14:32will go away and Johnny Apple save us
1:14:33all and conscious article is like that
1:14:35what was wrong what's wrong with apples
1:14:37he's mostly fucking outstanding iOS here
1:14:39but you know in general what's wrong
1:14:41with apples software and user interface
1:14:43is not there all skeuomorphic the
1:14:46problems are deeper than that so he
1:14:49lists a couple of things here like these
1:14:52may seem like small things but I'm gonna
1:14:54focus on one of them in a bit but he
1:14:55lists well here's a line of focus on it
1:15:00on the Notification Center yeah there
1:15:04are lots of jailbreak hacks that make it
1:15:06so when you swipe down with your thumb a
1:15:07notification center you don't just see
1:15:08you notifications you also see a small
1:15:10set of other items that you want quick
1:15:11access to and so Congress has six items
1:15:14that drain mobile battery devices GPS
1:15:16Wi-Fi cell radio bluetooth and screen
1:15:19brightness still require laborious
1:15:21multiple clicks in multiple places not
1:15:22immediately obvious to non 70s just turn
1:15:24on and off without any simple thematic
1:15:26or geofence grouping right so anyone who
1:15:29has a mobile
1:15:30iOS device and uses it when they
1:15:32traveller just just that you know it's
1:15:34like I want to turn GPS off because I
1:15:36don't need it now I want to turn
1:15:37cellular data off because I don't need
1:15:38it now we're in turn bluetooth codes
1:15:40never used i went from the screen
1:15:41brightness up screen brightness down and
1:15:42doing all those things with a non
1:15:43jailbreak iphone requires going to the
1:15:45Settings app and filling around with
1:15:47stuff and it's you know you're like boy
1:15:48if you know it's one of the reasons that
1:15:50people jailbreak like I know this
1:15:52jailbreak stuff where I just swiped my
1:15:53thumb down from the top of the screen
1:15:54and I get direct access turning
1:15:55bluetooth on and off the flip side of
1:15:57that is like people saying how often do
1:15:59you really turn bluetooth on and off why
1:16:00are you always turning Wi-Fi on/off we
1:16:02just leave everything on the OS will
1:16:03manage the battery for you don't have to
1:16:04do it or whatever but in practice
1:16:08jailbreakers and android are kind of
1:16:10like the things i talked about before
1:16:11that you know the paths in the grass
1:16:13like if you don't if you don't constrain
1:16:16people if you give people a green field
1:16:17to do whatever they want like jailbreak
1:16:18people are like Android people if
1:16:20something you know trends become clear
1:16:23paths start getting worn into the grass
1:16:24from everybody going and everyone
1:16:26wanting to have a thing to turn
1:16:27bluetooth on and off and her Wi-Fi off
1:16:28and maybe you know that maybe they're
1:16:31not right maybe they shouldn't be doing
1:16:32that may be the solution is to have the
1:16:33OS manager better but they're clearly
1:16:35voting with their feet that this is
1:16:36something that they want and that's not
1:16:40gonna do with skeuomorphism a contour
1:16:42less iCloud desktop integration and file
1:16:44sharing among Apple devices we all know
1:16:46how to pain that is like things get into
1:16:48iCloud and you edit a text document with
1:16:50text edit but it's not visible on your
1:16:52phone at all because there's no doc
1:16:54there's no application from apple or
1:16:56otherwise that reads the iCloud sandbox
1:16:58for text edit and how do you share among
1:17:00applications to have multiple
1:17:01applications working on the same
1:17:02document he says the iwork suite is
1:17:05begging to be updated preview text at in
1:17:07contacts desperately need of you I
1:17:09overhauls you know says that he says
1:17:12core functionalities like dictionary and
1:17:13iOS keyboard layout and auto correction
1:17:15not best-of-breed I don't I don't know
1:17:17because I don't spend enough time of
1:17:18other things but apparently those things
1:17:20are better on other platforms I'll take
1:17:21his word for it there the iOS
1:17:23organization of just using folders like
1:17:25we're lucky we even get folders versus
1:17:27just a grid of icons then okay now you
1:17:28can get a grid of icons nested with a
1:17:30sub grid of icons navigating among apps
1:17:34not as not as a fancy or as interesting
1:17:38as it was on like things like webos or
1:17:40whatever now
1:17:43this may sound like just an individual
1:17:45list of one person's peeves about like
1:17:47how iOS isn't the same as Android and
1:17:49you may be thinking I like all of
1:17:51apple's decisions here all these things
1:17:53that that people want are actually bad
1:17:55things and Apple is correct to hold the
1:18:00line on them I'll have more on that in a
1:18:02bit but first I want to get back to the
1:18:05notion from last show about Forrestal is
1:18:07that like as in all things we don't know
1:18:09how many of the things from this list or
1:18:11from any of the lists are a you know
1:18:14that forest all is to blame for just
1:18:16because he's the guy who got forced out
1:18:18doesn't mean that everything you don't
1:18:20like was his doing and now that he's
1:18:22gone it will change and I actually got
1:18:24right before the show one completely
1:18:26anonymous tidbit from somebody who heard
1:18:29this directly from forestalls mouth so
1:18:31it's I guess this is what secondhand
1:18:32information well that if you really
1:18:35trust the person and Mario no i don't i
1:18:37don't know this is the anonymous tipster
1:18:38i don't know them and they even if there
1:18:41are a hundred percent accurate which i
1:18:42think they are cuz like there's no
1:18:43upside to blend with us they're just
1:18:45conveying something that forced all said
1:18:47to them okay and here's directly
1:18:49directly to them yes direct all right
1:18:51right so it's at second hand write like
1:18:54a second where we are saying it died
1:18:56hands go anyway take it all set it to
1:18:59this person's ears this person said it
1:19:01to me and here it is uh he says that
1:19:04Steve Jobs and Johnny I've didn't want a
1:19:07home button on the iPhone and forest all
1:19:10had to fight them for months before they
1:19:11finally decided to have a home button
1:19:13alright and this source says assuming
1:19:16this is true and he says it certainly
1:19:17rings true knowing what we know about
1:19:19dives and jobs like doesn't that sound
1:19:21like something that I haves and jobs
1:19:23want no no buttons at all just the
1:19:24screen it's pure it's just the screen
1:19:26like that totally sounds like something
1:19:27that fits in with a personality but
1:19:28anyway this is assuming that Forrestal
1:19:31story is true an iphone created at a
1:19:34time with I've in charge might not have
1:19:36been the device it might have been a
1:19:37device without a home button on it right
1:19:40now you know it I think we all agree at
1:19:45this point that having that one button
1:19:48like it's been touted by many people
1:19:49like contemplate the design of iOS and
1:19:52like no you don't understand like it's
1:19:53not you know when they were rumors of
1:19:55getting rid of the home
1:19:56like you don't understand the home
1:19:57button is genius having the one button
1:19:58is a genius because almost everything
1:20:01has to be on the screen but there has to
1:20:02be an on-screen escape hatch for like I
1:20:05don't know what's going on just forget
1:20:08about this stuff and rescue me and
1:20:10that's the physical home button and
1:20:12despite the fact like it's not
1:20:13mechanically hooked up to anything it's
1:20:14a software control button if your think
1:20:16freezes the home button does nothing
1:20:17anyway or whatever it's reassuring to be
1:20:19able to have a physical button it could
1:20:21be that ives and jobs at the stories
1:20:23accurate we're right and an iphone
1:20:25without the home button would work
1:20:26better but all of us are looking at what
1:20:27we do have and it's very difficult for
1:20:29anyone who's an iOS aficionado not to
1:20:32come down the side of saying you know
1:20:34that home button was one of the best
1:20:35decisions they ever made so I don't know
1:20:37how listeners feel about this I think
1:20:39the home button was a good idea but
1:20:40there is some aspect of it of like not
1:20:42being able to envision how it work
1:20:43without the home button but you know
1:20:45this story is accurate here's yet
1:20:47another example where forestall who none
1:20:50of us probably know personally you know
1:20:53is doing something that most people
1:20:54would agree was a good thing Frankie
1:20:57that was down at least one good thing in
1:20:58his tenure now oh yeah other thing is
1:21:00that's the meta point is we don't know
1:21:02which things forestall like you know if
1:21:04you just want to do all the bad things
1:21:06he's responsible for those well you
1:21:08don't know how you don't know what he
1:21:09did at all we none of us know he might
1:21:10have done all hundred percent good
1:21:12things or all hundred percent bad things
1:21:14or a 50-50 mix we don't know we just
1:21:15know he was in charge and so like
1:21:17regardless of whether he's responsible
1:21:20for let me get some responsibility like
1:21:21the buck stops here if you don't like
1:21:22iOS 6 and you want to blame one person
1:21:24you could blame the CEO of Apple and you
1:21:26can blame Forrestal he was in charge
1:21:28right so that that is legitimate but on
1:21:30an individual basis you don't know so
1:21:31here's yet another example of a story in
1:21:33the left one from last week was choosing
1:21:35OS 10 instead of like Linux or something
1:21:37for their phone OS and I think that one
1:21:39I can much more heavily defend that as
1:21:40being the right move in retrospect right
1:21:42uh the home button I can go either way
1:21:45on but I mostly of the opinion that that
1:21:48was a good call and so if he was four
1:21:49Souls behind that that's another example
1:21:51for all the people out there who think
1:21:53the Forrestal just did terrible things
1:21:54like like I said in the last show
1:21:56history is written by the winners and
1:21:58that means that all the stories you see
1:22:00out of Apple and stuff about what a tear
1:22:02all these terrible things that for us
1:22:03all did well of course it's the entirety
1:22:05of the company that fired him versus him
1:22:07who is basically probably being quiet
1:22:09and Rob
1:22:09has to be quiet so who knows when we'll
1:22:11know the real story but I would say to
1:22:12everybody regardless of personality
1:22:15issues and all this stuff like that who
1:22:16knows don't be so quick to decide that
1:22:19forest all responsible for all this this
1:22:21bad stuff alright so you know all that
1:22:24is to say we don't know that things will
1:22:26get any better you know all the things
1:22:28that that you know contra is talking
1:22:30about here not just give you a morphism
1:22:31but all the things that he's complaining
1:22:32about we don't know that any of those
1:22:34things will be better now the forest all
1:22:35is gone one thing I think we can be
1:22:37confident about is that things will be
1:22:39different because different people are
1:22:41in charge like it would be shocking to
1:22:42me if with this huge reshuffle of like
1:22:45oh now Federer he's in charge of iOS iOS
1:22:4710 and now I was instead of in charge of
1:22:49user interface the things didn't change
1:22:50like we don't know what little bitter
1:22:52for worse but we I do think they're
1:22:54gonna change like how could they not
1:22:55change right unless there was some other
1:22:57you know if Steve Jobs was still in
1:22:59charge I can imagine them not change
1:23:01because he sort of exerted his taste on
1:23:03the entire company but Tim Cook doesn't
1:23:05seem to do that so I would think with
1:23:06this executive reshuffling things are
1:23:09going to change now getting back to the
1:23:11the you know easy way to turn on and off
1:23:13Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and cell data and
1:23:15stuff like that uh if I had to pick one
1:23:18word to describe apples handling of the
1:23:20evolution of iOS would probably be
1:23:22intransigence like they have shown over
1:23:26the years of especially the later years
1:23:28a general unwillingness to to bend to
1:23:33these to the will of things that
1:23:35everyone thinks they're going to have
1:23:36you got to have flash on this thing
1:23:37apple says no actually we don't have to
1:23:40have flash and no matter how much you
1:23:41complain over how many revisions then
1:23:43right how many news stories come out and
1:23:44say the iphones great except if only it
1:23:46ran flash we're just not going to do it
1:23:48right whether it was forestall or not
1:23:52behind that the dynamic has been that
1:23:55users and developers like clamor for
1:23:57something an apple mostly just says no
1:23:59and sticks to his guns and holds firm so
1:24:02the dynamic in this relationship is
1:24:05Apple is the stern adult that knows best
1:24:07and we are out there going and you know
1:24:09who we as we is just like consumers tech
1:24:12pundits gadget reviewers saying Apple
1:24:15you got to do this Apple you add to that
1:24:16happy good an apple just says calm down
1:24:18we know what we're doing we're not going
1:24:20to do that
1:24:21the app store policies are another
1:24:23example where everyone was screaming
1:24:24about what the app store policy should
1:24:26be and how they're going to kill
1:24:27everything or whatever and what you get
1:24:29from Apple has been we're just we're
1:24:32staying the course here minor
1:24:33adjustments true some minor backpedaling
1:24:36but for the most part it's been you know
1:24:38we know best we're gonna stick with or
1:24:40doing same thing with the UI simplicity
1:24:42like I know you want all these fancy
1:24:43features I know you want to have gadgets
1:24:45on your home screen and all these sort
1:24:47of things that Android has or whatever
1:24:48we're just saying a grid of icons is the
1:24:50way to do and trust us long term this is
1:24:51the right thing to do and again this
1:24:53this intransigence is frequently cited
1:24:55by Apple fans as boy is an apple great
1:24:57see how they are able to hold strong in
1:25:00the face of demands for features that
1:25:02you might think you want but if you keep
1:25:04going that direction eventually you'll
1:25:05end up with a big complicated phone no
1:25:07one likes and that you know they're
1:25:09doing the right thing right ah you know
1:25:13and another example of this
1:25:15intransigence is the spread of fanciful
1:25:18interfaces and skeuomorphic interfaces
1:25:21and things with like fake materials and
1:25:23you know just both of those aspects both
1:25:25in terms of actual skeuomorphism where
1:25:27you're trying to have a knob on the
1:25:28computer screen because people know what
1:25:29knobs are but you don't actually need
1:25:30knobs anymore and a slider way better
1:25:32and just in terms of it works just like
1:25:33a regular application it's got buttons
1:25:35and scroll the region's only the buttons
1:25:36look like they're made out of leather
1:25:37for no reason like a very heavy weight
1:25:39visual that thing is another example of
1:25:41something when Apple started doing it we
1:25:43all went what are you doing Apple this
1:25:45is big mess like I don't like it it's
1:25:47ugly doesn't make sense I learned a new
1:25:49world quote skeuomorphism and that
1:25:50proves that you're bad and you know like
1:25:52we all just like that's enough yet
1:25:54another example of a place we think
1:25:55Apple is going wrong uh in this case I
1:25:59think there is more weight behind it
1:26:00because it's not just that we want what
1:26:03we want i want my gadgets i want
1:26:04something fancier you know I think
1:26:06folders exist at all because of people
1:26:07complaining about things and even that
1:26:08is pretty simple you know I want my easy
1:26:10buddy turn bluetooth on and off they're
1:26:11holding a line on those and those are
1:26:13more easily supportable than the case
1:26:15where there they you know usually make
1:26:18these fanciful defensible whimsical and
1:26:19sometimes schemer interfaces because
1:26:22those tend to those interfaces tend to
1:26:24happen at the you know to the detriment
1:26:26of functionality and usability like it's
1:26:29not like you know they're holding fast
1:26:30and they haven't been proven right so a
1:26:32great example this is the podcast
1:26:34the is just called podcast seven
1:26:36contests yeah yeah with a purple icon
1:26:38yep beautiful eve you have purple I yeah
1:26:42and it's got like this is about blue
1:26:43right the reel-to-reel tape thing in
1:26:45there which is not really skeuomorphic
1:26:47because it's really just you know I
1:26:49candy you don't really manipulate it
1:26:50with your fingers and who knows maybe
1:26:51you can but like it's you know it's it's
1:26:55a perfect example this type of design
1:26:57and and it appen typical apple fashion
1:27:00they're like you know we like podcast
1:27:01we're sticking with it like this is what
1:27:02we know that's like the culmination of
1:27:04everything they've done leather address
1:27:06book yep we love that we're sticking
1:27:07with it everything looks like tomato
1:27:08plastic and stuff like that up we love
1:27:10that too we're doing that it's got to
1:27:11have a wood title bar in OS 10 it's you
1:27:13know we're sticking it like they have
1:27:14not in fact they've doubled down like
1:27:16from line to mountain lion that's
1:27:17justice just spread even farther and
1:27:19farther right and so again they're just
1:27:21sticking to their guns and then podcasts
1:27:23app was like look see this is just you
1:27:24know what how could it have been a
1:27:26different when podcast come out what
1:27:28were you picturing your head at this
1:27:29point we're like it's gonna be like some
1:27:31disembodied microphone or a reel-to-reel
1:27:33bag of course it has to be of course
1:27:35right and the proof is in the pudding go
1:27:38look at the reviews on the podcast app
1:27:39on the App Store it's got two stars this
1:27:41is a written by a you know the biggest
1:27:45company in the world with supposedly the
1:27:46most talented engineers and it just gets
1:27:48it's just gets slammed it gets trashed
1:27:50right it's gotta out of 15,000 total
1:27:53ratings about 10,000 of them are one
1:27:56star like people don't like it they
1:27:58don't it doesn't work well it doesn't
1:28:01look good it's hard to use it you know
1:28:03it has so many bad things but every end
1:28:05is not just because it looks like a tape
1:28:06recorder because 10,000 people out of
1:28:0815,000 would not give it one star for
1:28:09looking like a tape recorder if anything
1:28:11if this thing worked great and was fun
1:28:12to use and you know how it was good in
1:28:15all aspects nobody cares that it's
1:28:17skeuomorphic or anything like that if
1:28:18it's a fun usable good bug free
1:28:20application fine but as you know contra
1:28:23points out in an article they're not
1:28:24just falling down in some esoteric kind
1:28:27of philosophical way that we disagree
1:28:28with they're just making bad apps it's a
1:28:30bad application it's not good people
1:28:32don't like it you know people are
1:28:34deleting it off their phone because it's
1:28:36like downloading podcast in the
1:28:37background and burning through their
1:28:38cellular day that things like i think i
1:28:40deleted off one of my devices so far I'm
1:28:42deleted all
1:28:43but I don't use it that that's
1:28:44definitely true and it's not just like
1:28:47the first version with bad they fixed it
1:28:48if you look at the current version the
1:28:50rating is still two stars and out of the
1:28:51current version is 710 ratings and 480
1:28:54of those are one star uh so this is the
1:28:58case where you know this dynamic between
1:29:01us complaining and Apple not doing
1:29:03anything is taking the turn for the
1:29:05worst because for the first time Apple
1:29:07is like unquestionably not in the right
1:29:10like it's not a matter of opinion
1:29:11they're making bad software software
1:29:13that people don't like software that
1:29:14doesn't work right and you know it's not
1:29:17because it looks like a tapir order
1:29:18recorded just you know they're just
1:29:19doing the wrong thing you have to think
1:29:21that the development time spent on
1:29:22podcasts some portion of it had to be
1:29:24spent making that stupid tape recorder
1:29:26stuff work and that's time that could
1:29:27have been spent making an actual good
1:29:29application or some portion of the
1:29:30design process was short-circuited by
1:29:32someone deciding oh I know let's make it
1:29:34a real tree tape recorder and then out
1:29:35the window go tons and tons of possible
1:29:37interfaces that would have been more
1:29:38friendlier easier to use my talk I had a
1:29:42phone call with the developer shortly
1:29:44after came out and I asked him I asked
1:29:47him about some of this and and the way
1:29:48that the way that it was described to me
1:29:50was that the there was one person who
1:29:54was in charge of doing the user
1:29:55interface design stuff and there was
1:29:57another person who was in charge of
1:29:58writing the code and of course they
1:29:59worked as a team they collaborated I I
1:30:03don't know how much but my impression my
1:30:07strong impression was the two of them
1:30:09created the app and they they worked
1:30:13hard on it they had a vision for it they
1:30:14did it they were supported and their
1:30:16choices were supported but the distinct
1:30:20impression I got was not from on you
1:30:24know from on high saying this is how
1:30:25this app is going to work it was more
1:30:27like hey we're gonna we're gonna build a
1:30:28cool app and they built it and they they
1:30:30got it out there and my understanding
1:30:32again I could be wrong was that this was
1:30:35like a two-person team who built this
1:30:38app together I don't think it's a
1:30:40top-down thing where they're forcing you
1:30:42know their developers to make it like
1:30:43this it's it's the opposite it's that
1:30:45Apple had created an environment where
1:30:48the type of applications they give a
1:30:50thumbs up to our applications like this
1:30:52like for example can you imagine
1:30:55developers either working for apple or
1:30:57not making an application that looks and
1:31:00behaves like this like it you know in
1:31:02classic mac OS like you know if you were
1:31:06inside Apple and it was your job to make
1:31:08I can't think of a classic Mac
1:31:09application it's your job to make like
1:31:11the keychain a manager keychain existed
1:31:14a classic Frank OS there was an
1:31:16application where you messed with it and
1:31:17they decided to make it look like
1:31:19something like with like a padlock
1:31:20animation a key thing and like a
1:31:22metaphor that uses you know physical
1:31:25keys stuff like that if you went to your
1:31:27superiors as a two-person development
1:31:29teams that we're thinking of making this
1:31:30they'd be like what no use a scrolling
1:31:32table view with sortable columns like
1:31:34that's not how you make a mac
1:31:35application let alone like one
1:31:36officially from Apple right it's not a
1:31:38game right this is the keychain
1:31:40application right now that a
1:31:42counterexample there from the classic
1:31:44mac OS days is the CD player remember
1:31:45that Apple CD player yes yeah first
1:31:48hints of like those guys said we want to
1:31:51make it look kind of like an 80s Sony
1:31:52plastic thing can we do that like a CD
1:31:55player it's kind of ok but see player
1:31:56also you know kind of worked ok that's
1:31:59like a balance between those things as
1:32:00you get more fanciful getting into games
1:32:02where the UI can look like anything
1:32:03there's a bounce so key change shouldn't
1:32:05look like that CD player can look it's
1:32:07mostly like a regular you I but it looks
1:32:08a little bit different but it certainly
1:32:09was you know podcast is way on the other
1:32:11side of it and as it turns out unlike
1:32:13something like garageband podcast
1:32:15application has utilitarian functions
1:32:18that need to be fulfilled and this one
1:32:21is over the line and it's not the
1:32:23people's fault for proposing and wine to
1:32:25do that it's apple's fault for for
1:32:27creating an environment where this type
1:32:28of application is given a thumbs up like
1:32:30that it fits perfectly and it's not an
1:32:32aberration it's not like those are the
1:32:33crazy guys made the apple CD music
1:32:35player thing Apple CD audio play or
1:32:37whatever it's called they're not an
1:32:38aberration they are in the mainstream
1:32:40this is how Apple does development now
1:32:42and that's what we're talking about not
1:32:43not so much to pick on these particular
1:32:44people doing this one application but
1:32:46this is how Apple has decided this is
1:32:48what software development is for iOS in
1:32:50the Mac you make these crazy high
1:32:52concept very art heavy things uh and if
1:32:57it looks awesome in it and it demos well
1:32:59on a stage and the graphics of these
1:33:01things are great you can't complain that
1:33:02that's not a good looking real the real
1:33:03thing was just like that's not what
1:33:05what's important about an application
1:33:06you know that's that's what countries
1:33:08get
1:33:08his article here he has this strangely
1:33:11worded section at the bottom I don't
1:33:15know if this passive voice or just
1:33:16flipping around of object and subjective
1:33:18anyway says a serious mistake would be
1:33:20to hide many of these behavioral
1:33:22functional expert experiential software
1:33:24problems under a more attractive
1:33:25aesthetically unifying display layer so
1:33:27this is like what would Johnny I'd do to
1:33:29fix everything right and she says such
1:33:31as a more modern less cheesy looking
1:33:33game saying a game center redesign that
1:33:35doesn't have a social layer so I've
1:33:37complained myself about Game Center how
1:33:38it's insulting the gamers and gross
1:33:40looking and just terrible and everything
1:33:41like that so Johnny I've swoops in and
1:33:43he says I'm gonna fix this and he makes
1:33:45game center not look like green Felton
1:33:46and all that stuff or whatever but he
1:33:48hasn't actually fixed it because one of
1:33:50the you know that's surface level what's
1:33:52you know what's really wrong with game
1:33:53center well it's not as good as xbox
1:33:54live it's not as good as like steam or
1:33:56you know I need to other similar
1:33:57services that provide similar functions
1:33:59just functionally like where's the
1:34:01social layer wow how easy it is it to
1:34:03find and add friends and and you know do
1:34:05matches and find out what they're doing
1:34:07compared to you and stuff like that you
1:34:08know it's not just how the thing looks
1:34:11ah and aesthetically unified itunes
1:34:14without appreciably better content
1:34:16discovery what's wrong with iTunes it's
1:34:17not just that it's ugly and buggy and
1:34:19stuff like that but it should be easier
1:34:20to find stuff that you like right
1:34:22Assyria app without the background linen
1:34:24but still lacking much deeper semantic
1:34:26integration with the rest of iOS right
1:34:27is what's wrong with Syria it stupid
1:34:29Linden background no we just talked
1:34:30about this many things that are wrong
1:34:31with Syria have nothing to do with how
1:34:33it looks and with a little metal button
1:34:35that looks there and whether is Linden
1:34:36behind everything a Maps app without the
1:34:38ungainly surreal visual artifacts but
1:34:41still missing a robust search layer
1:34:42underneath you know what's wrong with
1:34:43maps is not the ugly graphics and we
1:34:46were three 3d flyover like that's all
1:34:47gravy we're willing to accept that it's
1:34:48the data that's bad in iBooks app
1:34:51without the wooden shelves are in your
1:34:53spine shadow but still with subpar
1:34:55typography and emic hyphenation and
1:34:56justification I books I complained about
1:34:59it looking like a book it's stupid the
1:35:00wooden shelves seem like they're
1:35:01pointless whatever but that's not what's
1:35:02wrong with ibooks it's not a good book
1:35:04reader doesn't you know do hyphenation
1:35:06while you can't do floating images it's
1:35:07like you know the store experience on
1:35:10how you update think we have the all
1:35:11show complaining about I book stuff it's
1:35:12not like people will focus on the
1:35:15looking like a book and I think that is
1:35:16a problem and they've addressed it by
1:35:18having non-book looking the modes
1:35:19whatever this
1:35:20much deeper things wrong that Jony ive
1:35:22or anyone else can't fix by putting a
1:35:23new coat of paint things or he ends with
1:35:26a podcast app without the tape deck
1:35:28skeuomorphism but with all the same
1:35:29navigational opaqueness wise podcasts
1:35:32are difficult to use you can't tell
1:35:33where you are and your catalog and find
1:35:35and you know your list of things like
1:35:37it's difficult to find where you are
1:35:39ignoring that the tape deck thing
1:35:40entirely there are deeper things wrong
1:35:42so he's in conclusion here at the end in
1:35:45the end what's wrong with iOS isn't the
1:35:47dark linen behind the app icons at the
1:35:49bottom of the screen but the fact that
1:35:50iOS ought to have much better
1:35:51interaction management and navigation
1:35:53than users fiddling with tiny icons I'm
1:35:55fairly sure most Apple users gladly
1:35:57continue to use but there what are
1:35:59supposed to be skeuomorphic Lee
1:36:01challenge calendar notebook apps for a
1:36:02thousand years apple can only solve more
1:36:04far more vexing problems software
1:36:06problems of applied the unification when
1:36:08using iTunes the app store and
1:36:09performance and reliability of the same
1:36:10like the the point of this article is
1:36:13that there are much much deeper problems
1:36:15then what these things look like in a
1:36:17metaphor is they use even though it's
1:36:19not you know if not saying those things
1:36:21aren't problems in many cases those
1:36:22things are problems in many cases those
1:36:24decisions cause other problems but the
1:36:26problems are much deeper they all the
1:36:28way down the software stack all the way
1:36:29through the wires into the server all
1:36:31the way to the company policies just you
1:36:33know everything uh so Johnny I've does
1:36:36have his work cut out for a minute too
1:36:38I'm not saying he doesn't he doesn't
1:36:39understand it's like we're giving
1:36:40something that you know you're telling
1:36:41John you have something doesn't already
1:36:42know I think he understands how deep
1:36:44usability goes and how it's not just a
1:36:46coat of paint like no it certainly has
1:36:48shown that he understands that hardware
1:36:50right but people out there thinking if
1:36:53iOS 7 comes out and linen texture is
1:36:56gone and it looks nicer it's like Oh
1:36:57Johnny I saved us all no I don't think
1:36:59he will have unless he's addressed all
1:37:02these other problems or you know
1:37:03federighi combination of him and
1:37:05federighi have addressed these other
1:37:06problems and maybe maybe this
1:37:08intransigence will start you know fading
1:37:10where it's like finally is iOS freed to
1:37:13evolve again to say we want to you know
1:37:17not just do a toe dip into data sharing
1:37:19but like let's solve the data sharing
1:37:21problem once and for all and let's be
1:37:23more bold with what springboard looks
1:37:25like like adding folders was like a
1:37:26concession and it's not like a great
1:37:29concession it's like what can we do
1:37:31within the current meta for this
1:37:33kind of fits with the because people
1:37:34what they want like is there something
1:37:36beyond springboard someone should be
1:37:38thinking you're working about that when
1:37:39the iPad came out I remember thinking
1:37:40like well it's not just going to be a
1:37:41grid of icons because a tablet interface
1:37:43require you know you have more space a
1:37:45different metaphor will be appropriate
1:37:47and they just stuck with springboard the
1:37:48way it was which works it's not terrible
1:37:50it's better than doing something that's
1:37:52bad but I still feel like there's
1:37:54something beyond the grid of icons they
1:37:56can go to and again as people will say
1:37:58like you don't understand apples right
1:38:00here sticking with the Civil grid icons
1:38:01this was genius about you have to think
1:38:03it has to be this simple like in many
1:38:05areas Apple is right I do applaud them
1:38:07for holding fast but things do need to
1:38:09evolve an apple does need to recognize
1:38:11the difference between when it's holding
1:38:13fast in a case where it turns out to be
1:38:15right and when it's holding fast in case
1:38:17where it turns out to be wrong and on
1:38:19the user interface stuff in the past two
1:38:20versions of both Mac os10 and iOS I
1:38:23think they've been conclusively proven
1:38:26themselves to be on the wrong trap and
1:38:27track in terms of how to design
1:38:29applications both look and feel and how
1:38:31they work to make users happy and to
1:38:33make people happy with those
1:38:34applications I think well this isn't
1:38:41this is one of those things where when
1:38:42you look at the history of the way that
1:38:46people have felt about this and the
1:38:47vocal people who are like contra you
1:38:52really don't know who he is I really
1:38:55don't i don't think anyone knows you
1:38:58know he one of the points that i think
1:39:01that he's making here that's one of the
1:39:03you know one of the the points a lot of
1:39:07people have been trying to make is we
1:39:11want to see changes you know what I'm
1:39:15saying and that's part of why I think
1:39:17people get upset about this is the
1:39:19changes that we know are coming or not
1:39:21always one that we're hoping for we're
1:39:26going to see progress not well yeah okay
1:39:28that's a better way to say progress but
1:39:29we don't know nasty stagnation yes
1:39:31there's a balance between not giving in
1:39:34to every stupid user whim and ending up
1:39:36with something looks like windows with
1:39:37stickers all over it and sticking with
1:39:40something past it's expiration date and
1:39:42then the war so who's going to determine
1:39:45what that expiration date really is
1:39:46well you mean that's that's as we pay
1:39:49apple for right that's that that's their
1:39:50job to you know that up until like up
1:39:53until maybe lion and mountain lion Mac
1:39:55os10 both evolved and changed you know
1:39:59tremendously in big dramatic ways but
1:40:02pretty much universally in positive ways
1:40:04and only with lion and mountain lion
1:40:07have things come in that the initial
1:40:10impression of them was that they were
1:40:12off pudding or you know that we didn't
1:40:14like them doesn't mean that they're
1:40:15wrong but like then it was it was a
1:40:16change from like you know every version
1:40:18had something for someone to complain
1:40:19about her pet feature didn't get done
1:40:21but in general we all felt like we're
1:40:22moving in a positive direction and
1:40:24here's this thing that goes in an
1:40:25unexpected direction and an unexpected
1:40:26direction can be amazing like when you
1:40:27come up with the phone with no buttons
1:40:28on it like that was unexpected and we
1:40:30people are uncomfortable with it it
1:40:31seemed like it was a terrible idea but
1:40:32turned out not to be yeah well this
1:40:35trend with you know changing their
1:40:37applications like this like in the
1:40:39beginning like could be cool but I'm
1:40:41kind of uncomfortable but let me just
1:40:42keep an open mind but they just to keep
1:40:44executing on this thing and like the
1:40:46worst part is that it works great in
1:40:47some contexts like garageband which is
1:40:49practically it's not it i'm gonna say
1:40:50it's a game like that'll make Merlin mad
1:40:52like it is amazingly powerful
1:40:53application but like the skeuomorphism
1:40:56they're actually serves a role because
1:40:58the people who are able to use this this
1:40:59application to do anything worth a damn
1:41:01probably at this point in history are
1:41:03familiar with the devices that they're
1:41:05they're mimicking maybe there's kids
1:41:06growing up and they've never seen like a
1:41:08wah pedal and they don't know why this
1:41:09thing looks like a little box with that
1:41:11with knobs on it they don't understand
1:41:13what it's emulating whatever but like
1:41:14that I feel like a creative application
1:41:17has more leeway to do that type of thing
1:41:18but GarageBand on the Mac where it's a
1:41:22multitrack Audio Editor maybe it doesn't
1:41:23need the wood title bar like but we
1:41:25didn't really mind that much but they
1:41:27just they keep going down this path
1:41:28despite all of the negative signals from
1:41:31from users and everything that maybe if
1:41:34you shouldn't paint everything with the
1:41:35same brush and maybe it's not the way to
1:41:37go and losing sight of the things that
1:41:38used to be on track without getting
1:41:40blinded by the incredible high quality
1:41:42of the visuals they have in these
1:41:43applications right because their
1:41:45pictures are pretty like you know when
1:41:46Apple give Apple credit when they do ask
1:41:49you a morphic application where they
1:41:50make something out of fake real-world
1:41:51materials they look really really good
1:41:53even if you hang their ugly you have to
1:41:55admit they're well
1:41:56rendered and especially retina
1:41:57resolution and that can blind you to
1:41:59what is actually wrong with this
1:42:00application right and what's actually
1:42:02wrong with it is if you did the you know
1:42:04wireframe information architecture
1:42:06diagram it would be you know it's too
1:42:08cumbersome to go from here to there or
1:42:10that's you know too much of a pain or
1:42:11whatever so all this is all mixed up
1:42:13into one kind of feeling of user
1:42:15interface malaise right like the visual
1:42:18malaise of like just too heavy witness
1:42:20hurting my eyes and like Windows 8 is a
1:42:21breath of fresh air right and the other
1:42:23malaise of like even I've just ignore
1:42:25the visuals I don't like this
1:42:26application because I can't get it to
1:42:28work and do what I wanted to do all
1:42:29right you're upset yeah all right I'm
1:42:36not that hopeful like I because I
1:42:39haven't been totally against this stuff
1:42:41you read my line the mountain lion
1:42:42reviews like you know I great pains to
1:42:44point out that like it could be that you
1:42:48know a lot of the feeling against like
1:42:49the leather calendar and stuff is like
1:42:51does it make it a worse calendar
1:42:52application is this what the problem is
1:42:54is that the leather or the stitching and
1:42:55like people don't like it because I
1:42:57think it's ugly and that's that's
1:42:58legitimate thing using something ugly is
1:43:00not fun but like the real problems with
1:43:02the calendar application we're like that
1:43:03you know didn't have features to be
1:43:05wanted it was cumbersome to use or and
1:43:06you know I did hammer on the
1:43:08skeuomorphism as like if you're gonna do
1:43:10that that's not helping if you're making
1:43:12visual promises you know these graphics
1:43:15are you know writing checks this
1:43:17interface can't cash the graphics say
1:43:18one thing the interface says no sorry
1:43:20right and they're closer to that balance
1:43:22in iOS but you know it's that I was
1:43:27mostly on board with this thing but now
1:43:29I feel like uh we've done we've run the
1:43:32experiment and this school of design has
1:43:35its limits Annapolis crossed has Apple
1:43:37has crossed over them and it needs to it
1:43:39needs to regroup and pull it back and
1:43:41focus less on the visuals and more on
1:43:45what the thing exactly to do and maybe
1:43:46that means you get to keep these visuals
1:43:48fine keep the cool appearances and stuff
1:43:49but just you know regroup and
1:43:50concentrate on making it also like if I
1:43:52took this application removed all of the
1:43:54textures and just made it wireframes
1:43:55would still be an awesome application
1:43:57like a recent example letterpress that
1:44:00basically is that yeah but that severe
1:44:02that's a very special case I mean how
1:44:04many apps are gonna be like that where
1:44:06they're gonna be awesome if you removed
1:44:08everything fifty percent well think of
1:44:10male male is basically it's like an iOS
1:44:12wireframe yeah right like it's just the
1:44:15simplest possible controls and you know
1:44:17if it's fast and responsive especially
1:44:19in the early days when this was the only
1:44:20you know people liked male like now
1:44:21maybe people are grumpy because it's not
1:44:23quite as feature rich as they want it to
1:44:24be but really any great application you
1:44:26should be able to completely remove the
1:44:28fancy visuals and just keep it in
1:44:30wireframes and it should still be useful
1:44:31and pleasing to use maybe not doesn't
1:44:33delight people as much as you don't get
1:44:34like a cool shredding animation or some
1:44:36even letterpress makes things explode
1:44:37when you remove the game stuff like that
1:44:39yeah like that's that's icing that's
1:44:40like progressive enhancement but it just
1:44:42got to be a solid you know solid user
1:44:44interface design in terms of like you
1:44:46know enough its law applies to touch
1:44:49things with like touch target size
1:44:50location obvious navigational model
1:44:53mental model like that's all got to work
1:44:55and then you make it look awesome on top
1:44:56of that you can't start from the other
1:44:58direction you know just to kind of take
1:45:00this off uh on a tangent a little bit I
1:45:04assume that because you know we can
1:45:07either confirm nor deny that you had
1:45:08anything to do with voting this year but
1:45:10if you were watching any of the results
1:45:11on television after after voting in as
1:45:15it was closing and things like that they
1:45:18have on an NBC was especially bad for
1:45:21this you know when NBC would go to
1:45:24commercial you'd have to an unfortunate
1:45:25task of switching over to the CNN which
1:45:27is worse you they would play very
1:45:31dramatic music in the background
1:45:32especially CNN in the background the
1:45:35whole time to do to hold while they're
1:45:39talking while they're talking about poll
1:45:40results they would have the picture of
1:45:42Obama come up and it would have liked a
1:45:44little highlight move across the square
1:45:46box around him framing his picture and
1:45:48it would flip out and roll out and
1:45:50there'd be little like explosions and
1:45:52fading things in and fading T who needs
1:45:55that garbage and that to me that's
1:45:56exactly what's going on with these apps
1:45:58like just show you know what I would
1:46:01have liked a screen that just showed on
1:46:03on it here's a picture here's a picture
1:46:05the other dude here's information about
1:46:07the dude that's all that I want need to
1:46:09see I don't need to see little flyovers
1:46:11and call outs and weird little things
1:46:13like that it's all extra it's all crazy
1:46:15stuff I mean it's bad enough that we
1:46:18have little scrollers are going across
1:46:19the bottom of the screen you know
1:46:21I don't need a lens flare happening in
1:46:24real time over a picture of a candidate
1:46:26like it's it's not necessary having a
1:46:29you know it's almost like hat like when
1:46:31you watch a TV show from the 70s or 80s
1:46:34it's got a laugh track on it and it's
1:46:36painfully obvious that it was a laugh
1:46:38track and not done in front of a studio
1:46:40audience this is the laugh track of the
1:46:43apps that we have today these things and
1:46:45I hope at some point people realize that
1:46:47none of this garbage is really necessary
1:46:49just give us a nap now fine you pointed
1:46:52out games like games great do cool stuff
1:46:54with the game because it's a game and
1:46:57usually it's a full screen interface
1:46:58like you've identified but you know just
1:47:01stay wat why why do companies feel like
1:47:04they need to do this stuff there are
1:47:05there people out there who like who
1:47:06think it's cool i think there are I
1:47:08think there are people how did you see
1:47:09the interface looks just like paper it
1:47:13looks just like paper like there are
1:47:15people who love that John well there's
1:47:17some room for that I think like you know
1:47:19artistic application or even just like
1:47:20the metal dock which I actually I think
1:47:22I'm staring it now I'm mountain lion on
1:47:23my mac pro here and I as I said in my
1:47:25review I was gonna try to keep this like
1:47:27metal slanty dock thing and I kept think
1:47:29is I think it looks I think it looks
1:47:30nice like I would like to own an actual
1:47:33physical thing that was made of this
1:47:34cool shiny metal thing uh there's room
1:47:37for that like that it's like icing on
1:47:39the cake you know I I don't think
1:47:42everything needs to be completely plain
1:47:44even straightforward applications uh can
1:47:47make you feel better about using them
1:47:49because it's like an emotional
1:47:50experience making right better to click
1:47:51I mean even just the OS changing the
1:47:53buttons to be like aqua colored and then
1:47:55making them flat or whatever like you
1:47:56want things to look cool and nice or
1:47:58whatever but never to the detriment it's
1:48:00always got to be an enhancement never
1:48:02the detriment and never to be in a
1:48:03distraction and speaking of the sound
1:48:05background thing two things in that
1:48:07first it reminded me of closer to home I
1:48:09don't know if you ever listen to these I
1:48:11think you tried to do this like once I
1:48:12don't remember but you know the podcast
1:48:14thing where there's light background
1:48:17music kind of like the stuff you just
1:48:18imitated yeah throughout the entire
1:48:20podcast array or does it sometimes to
1:48:22Howard Stern used to do it no drive me
1:48:23crazy like Howard you do not need that
1:48:25music behind you yeah but either during
1:48:27the ads he would do it sometimes like
1:48:29well I don't know what that is is there
1:48:30a term term of art for that background i
1:48:32I'm sure there is I
1:48:33admittedly I don't know that did you
1:48:35ever do that I thought I was right i did
1:48:36at one time as a as a joke on Marco show
1:48:39after he had done his he did his spot on
1:48:42howard stern show and had it had the
1:48:45music behind it and as a joke I said oh
1:48:47we should do that on this show we should
1:48:49have you know music behind the ad reads
1:48:51during the spot and and talk over and
1:48:53and and so put it on there as a joke for
1:48:55that show and boy you should have seen
1:48:57the emails and tweets I got from people
1:48:59who didn't know that it was a joke that
1:49:01you know they're there was like One guys
1:49:02like I really like it it sounded cool
1:49:04and then everybody else was like if you
1:49:08do this again I'm unsubscribing from
1:49:10every show and I will never listen to
1:49:12any of these people again and I need to
1:49:15listen to these people so please don't
1:49:17do it or I'll kill you like I mean
1:49:18almost death threat kind of thing it was
1:49:20really a joke it was just a joke hi
1:49:24Indian says it's wallpaper music and it
1:49:25always bothered me as well as like they
1:49:27do that on TV as well you know that and
1:49:30also like the lens flare later oh it
1:49:32also has a sound like the swooping sash
1:49:33yeah yeah that is that's awful and many
1:49:37different ways and the second thing
1:49:38about background music is that this is
1:49:40the reason that television stations do
1:49:43it a place where background music is
1:49:46used to good effect in an appropriate
1:49:49context but in the same exact way is in
1:49:52boss fights and video games yeah they
1:49:54have more dramatic intense higher pace
1:49:57music that makes sense it's a game is
1:49:59because it makes you like oh my god oh
1:50:01my god it's the boss right uh it's
1:50:04manipulation it's it's manipulating you
1:50:06yeah to being more nor more excited and
1:50:09under like because you know if you were
1:50:11actually fighting a gigantic you know
1:50:13spider thing and you'll you how was a
1:50:14sword you would be scared and like the
1:50:16game wants to convey that emotional
1:50:18experience same thing with movies you
1:50:19know movie sound right but in particular
1:50:20boss fights because uh it's an
1:50:23experience that you control some aspect
1:50:25of so the when I play video games by Sun
1:50:28frequently he gets freaked out on a boss
1:50:30and he just wants to continue with the
1:50:31game so has me beat the boss or he keeps
1:50:33dying or whatever and he's not he
1:50:34doesn't keep dying because it's too hard
1:50:35for him to do the bosses aren't actually
1:50:37harder than the rest of the game right
1:50:38hey you know go through the minibosses
1:50:40and stuff like that it's that he gets
1:50:42psyched out by the music right and so
1:50:44this is this is I
1:50:46faq as Merlin say for any kid young
1:50:48children Sarah I get young kids know
1:50:51this I gamers know this anyone I think
1:50:53anyone who's been here for any period of
1:50:54time knows this may be young people
1:50:56don't if you're having trouble on a boss
1:50:58fight one of the things that you can do
1:50:59is just mute the TV all the sudden like
1:51:02it decreased the the difficulty by a low
1:51:05level right now there may be sound cues
1:51:07that you need to actually beat the boss
1:51:09in that case you've got problems but if
1:51:10you just put it on mute lowering the
1:51:12volume kind of helps when I really but
1:51:14just put it on mute suddenly it's like
1:51:16oh I can relax I want you to do is wait
1:51:18for his attack move to the left take out
1:51:20this thing shoot them and there I move
1:51:21to the right role here and do that and
1:51:22repeat it three times and he's dead and
1:51:23it becomes like so easy and by the way
1:51:25the second thing if you're having
1:51:26trouble with boss fights in the modern
1:51:28age the second thing you can do
1:51:29especially if it's an actual difficult
1:51:31boss fight that is physically difficult
1:51:33to controlling you're not just getting
1:51:34psyched out go find a YouTube video
1:51:36someone beating the boss just watching
1:51:38some but not that you don't know what to
1:51:39do like once you know what to do which
1:51:40is can't execute it like I know you
1:51:42gotta do these things I just can't
1:51:43execute it's too hard for me watch a
1:51:46video of someone else doing it you would
1:51:48think what difference does that make I
1:51:49know this guy can do it I we both know
1:51:50what to do you both got it yeah I know
1:51:52you have to do this thing I just can't
1:51:53physically do it it's just too hard just
1:51:55watching someone else do it will
1:51:57subconsciously or perhaps consciously
1:51:59convince you that it is possible to beat
1:52:02this boss and just by watching someone
1:52:05else dude it becomes like oh this is a
1:52:07thing that can happen I see human beings
1:52:09can do this assuming it's not an
1:52:11emulator don't watch emulator videos
1:52:12you'll you'll feel bad about yourself
1:52:13watch someone else do it and then go off
1:52:16and do on your own so any right like the
1:52:18music thing that emotional manipulation
1:52:21there's a dark side of the light side to
1:52:24that the dark side is the political
1:52:26thing of like dunton Tom be nervous
1:52:27about whatever it is right storm is
1:52:30coming storm of the century your
1:52:31children could be poisoned election
1:52:33results whatever it is right and the
1:52:36positive side of that is if you're
1:52:37watching a movie you want to get into it
1:52:38if you're playing a video game like it's
1:52:39part of it you want to get into it you
1:52:41want to get that feeling that thrill and
1:52:43in software all these tools this amazing
1:52:47you know ability to make beautiful
1:52:49graphics and everything can be used for
1:52:51good and and for evil unintentional evil
1:52:54like the good is you have an amazing
1:52:56application that works great and if it
1:52:57was just black and white wire frames
1:52:58people would use in
1:52:59joy this application and love it and
1:53:01become dedicated to it because it's
1:53:02solid it's reliable to functionality
1:53:03you've employed it is great and now take
1:53:06your amazing application let's say it's
1:53:08an art application and make it look like
1:53:10a piece of park from people and make the
1:53:12tools look like beautiful real world art
1:53:13tools that artists who use this program
1:53:15are going to be familiar with they will
1:53:16love the program even more as long as
1:53:18it's also an awesome program on top of
1:53:20all these visual enhancements and using
1:53:23it for evil unintentionally is getting
1:53:25to concentrating too much on making this
1:53:28paintbrush tool graphic look like your
1:53:30favorite real life sable paintbrush but
1:53:33the rest of your application stinks and
1:53:34if you took where the paintbrush graphic
1:53:35you wouldn't be able to sell it for two
1:53:36cents this is supposed to be I didn't I
1:53:42didn't Claire in short Gina I had hopes
1:53:44but they're not I will tease that the
1:53:47topic I have for next week which if you
1:53:48look at my show it's you would see
1:53:50there's a million links for it is the
1:53:52story about Apple said to be exploring
1:53:55switch from in from Intel for the Mac
1:53:58businessweek story the idea of Apple
1:54:01ditching and telling going with arm
1:54:02instead I've a lot to say about that
1:54:04I'll cool we'll save it for next week
1:54:06unless something else preempted by about
1:54:08five TVs I hypercritical such 93 as all
1:54:10the links for this episode that John is
1:54:12put together for you you can follow John
1:54:14on Twitter at Syracuse is I RAC us a
1:54:19nosey siracusa he is also siracusa on
1:54:23alpha dot net and Siracusa on 10th asst
1:54:25and i'm dan benjamin on twitter dan on
1:54:30alpha I think damn benjamin on tendus I
1:54:33guess and if you would like to you can
1:54:36send us feedback about the show by going
1:54:38to five by five TV such contact or you
1:54:41can pick hypercritical from list send
1:54:43the email john promises he will read it
1:54:45he may not reply he may even talk about
1:54:48it on the show and and that's it what
1:54:51else you got time
1:54:52I think that's all all right well thank
1:54:55you we'll be back next week and thanks
1:54:58everybody for tuning in and thanks to
1:54:59all the Jackals in the chat room see you
1:55:01next week
1:55:15you