The House (Computer) Always Wins

Bill Seebek was playing a $4 slot machine for a half hour in a Florida casino, when the sirens of you-just-won-a-shiteload-of-money sounded. He had won $166,666,666.65. He thought. The casino roped off the machine and after inspecting the "machine" (evil computer), they ruled that it malfunctioned. The max on that machine should have only been $99,000. Instead, Bill Seebek got nothing because that is the payout for a malfunction.

It always annoys me when I hear someone blaming "the system" instead of the organization that deployed that system. It's like when you're on the phone with your bank or credit card company and they say:

"The system is down now...Sorry...Can't get your information to help you right now"
"The system is so slow"
"I can't get that information because the system doesn't track that"It's as if the computer is culpable for doing something wrong.

Every day we are let down by the computers that surround our lives. Just imagine that it wasn't the bad UI at the self-service checkout, but losing a 9 figure prize instead. As more data of our lives goes online, what "malfunctions" will cause us to have a Seebek situation?

Here is the news story of the incident:


Direct link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGIsN9PfPtA

Howard Stern, DOTS iPhone Gloves and a New Era of Innovation

During the first hour of conversation this morning on Howard Stern, Howard talked about his older children not owning televisions in their homes. They used laptops to watch TV shows or Movies. Howard was really shocked by this since he encouraged his children to watch as much TV as possible as he did while growing up. Howard said that as a child, the cast on his favorite Television shows were his best friends. That's the kind of twisted relationship with a product that TV Content Producers cherish. Robin also commented on how young people she knew watched most of their media on phones even though they had a TV.

After listening to this, I went online and noticed a story on NYDailynews.com about DOTS gloves for iPhones. The problem was that in cold areas of the country, people had to take off their gloves just to answer the phone. This product comes from a pair of 22-year-olds, Larry Lairson and Chris Harrison.

Life in a post-TV-is-the-center-of-our-life world will produce lots of change in the products in our lives. The gloves are low hanging fruit, like remote control holders for couches, but you can see that the needs for new products is just beginning.

BlogPress for iPhone Entry

I read about this iPhone app called BlogPress and wanted to try it out. So far so good. I was able to snap a photo and type away. Cut/copy/paste is a huge help too. I think I may purchase the full version (using lite now). Fingers crossed... Going to hit publish now...

My Child Was Born With The Conficker Virus

I recently experienced the birth of my son. As we were waiting for him to arrive, a lot of time was spent looking at the screen which monitors contractions. I remember looking at this same screen over a decade ago when a friend of mine was about to give birth. Not much had changed, except there was something blocking my view this time. There was a VirusScan On-Access pop-up in front of the information on the graph. The computer which monitored the contractions and the heart rates of mother and baby was infected with the Conficker Virus. Welcome to the Internets, baby!

The IKEA Font Mishap: Why Were They Blind To This And Why Are They Still In Limbo?

A lot has been written about the "Font War" going on between IKEA and its customers. I even had people at work come up to me and ask me if I'd heard about it. At the root of the story is IKEA's choice to change the font in their print catalog from Futura to Verdana. Branding is a huge part of the story of IKEA, so this shouldn't have been a trivial decision to make. The backlash was fierce now that we live in a viral, online world. Words like disgusting, horrific and cheap are scattered online around blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

What is sad about this is that Verdana was never intended to be used in the way that IKEA chose to use it. It was designed for legibility on screen (not smoothed) at only a handful of point sizes (8-12). IKEA is using it mostly in Flash online and in print, leveraging the ubiquitous of the font on Windows machines but ignoring the aesthetic of the misuse font.

The thing that is most curious to me is how can IKEA's Product Lifecycle not have a check/balance for a decision like this. I can see the design firm that did this for them giving them a valid technology reason for this choice, but it probably didn't warrant getting someone high up in the food chain at IKEA involved. In the future, it should.

What is ironic about all of this is that the ad on the home page of IKEA.com for the new catalog is still written in Futura. Just enough to tease loyal customers that may think they were still getting the same brand that they have grown to love and then snatch it away from them when they click on it. User Experience Design includes being able to listen and learn from mistakes and make changes rapidly. Either stick with your decision and provide a rationale for it and remove the banner on your home page, or go back to what customers like better and apologize.

How Technology Can Save You and Punish You: Hofstra Gang Rape Case

Five men went to a party at Hofstra earlier this month to have a good time. Their lives are changed forever after a student accuses them of rape. Four of them were arrested immediately while police looked for the Fifth. What they found when they located the last suspect was that he had recorded the sexual act between himself and the girl on his cell phone. The police judged the act to be consensual and released the other suspects. One of the suspects, Kevin Tavares, said this about what he thought was going to happen to him before the video came to light:

"It wasn't looking good for us...A lonely girl and five kids...Whose side would you take? You would take the girl's side."

The girl, Danmell Ndonye, only recanted her story of rape after she was told of the cell phone video. It's being reported that she made up the story so that her new boyfriend didn't think she was a slut.

When Tavares returned home, he received a letter from his employer, Cablevision telling him he was terminated. He wonders how he will face his future now that he has been branded an accused-rapist. He doesn't just mean just on his record or what people say about him, he means online. One of the other accused boys, 19 year old Stalin Felipe, said this:

"Anytime anyone Googles my name, rape is going to be right there beside it. My name is forever tarnished. What if I am applying for a job or whatever in the future? I feel like I am always going to have to offer some explanation."

They are thankful for Technology for keeping them out of jail for the next 25 years, but are now also suffering from it now that they are free.

Watch this news story from AP, and listen at 0:51 at how the DA, Kathleen Rice, describes the turning point in the case:

The Rawlings S100: They Should Have Listened to Miles Davis

I remember once seeing an interview with Miles Davis in the 1980s. The interviewer asked Miles what was the most important thing he thought about when he was on stage. Miles chewed his gum and thought for a bit while wearing his big sunglasses. As a musician, I leaned forward and anticipated what musical tidbit I could learn from his genius. Finally, he stopped chewing and said, "You got ta look cool."

Fast Forward to 2009, where Rawlings is about to unveil its latest batting helmet. Current batting helmets only protect players up to 70 m.p.h. The goal they had was to create a helmet that could withstand the impact of a fastball thrown at 100 m.p.h. They succeeded in meeting that goal. Then they showed it to the players. Here are some quotes:

Jeff Francoeur, NY Mets: "No, I am absolutely not wearing that. I could care less what they say, I’m not wearing it. There’s got to be a way to have a more protective helmet without all that padding. It’s brutal. We’re going to look like a bunch of clowns out there."

Nomar Garciaparra, Oakland A's: "I want a helmet that’s comfortable and that doesn’t look bad."

Mark Teixeira, NY Yankees: "I'd feel like I'm wearing a football helmet in the batter's Box"

Rawlings themselves thinks that the helmet it a "very nice cosmetically looking helmet" as you can see in the video below. Clearly there is a disconnect somewhere, and it looks like it is in the product lifecycle at Rawlings. It seems silly that these players would let aesthetics factor in here when their health is on the line, but they do. How much of a percentage of "cool" goes into the product design process at Apple? How do you measure or track this? Not simple to answer, but we should remember Miles the next time we embark on a new product design.

Direct link to Rawlings video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IwD3jmCczo

UPDATE #1: 3 days after the New York Times has a story on this new helmet, David Wright was hit flush on the temple area of his old helmet with a 95 m.p.h. fastball.

UPDATE #2: Upon David Wright's return after being on the disabled list, he wore the Rawlings S100. He was made fun of by both teams because of the size of the helmet and said it needed "tweaking" because it fell over his face while he ran the bases. Innovation is imperfect strikes again!

What is Taobao? It's Big.

I had never heard of Taobao before. Then I read that this year they will sell more than Amazon will (about $19 billion). They have 120 million users. Wow.

Here is a definition of Taobao I found online:

Taobao is a shopping marketplace for consumers in China. Founded by parent Alibaba Group, it facilitates transactions between individual consumers and a wide range of sellers such as retailers, wholesalers, and other individuals. Similar to eBay, sellers are able to post new and used goods for sale on the Taobao marketplace either through a fixed price or negotiated sale or by auction.

A key difference between Taobao and eBay is that they make no money from the transactions. They make all their money from advertising.

I wonder if the Taobao experience and business model will begin to wag eBay and Amazon as Google and the iPhone have in their markets.