Hype vs function
The current PCS phone I have is most likely the worst designed phone you could purchase and use on a regular basis1. But my contract is up and Telus Mobility has graciously given me a credit with which to purchase a new phone and extend my contract.
In addition to the basics, I am limiting myself this time to phones with Java 2 ME on them. Not so I can download and play games (though I admit that may be fun for a few minutes) but so I can develop some applications for phones and have an actual phone on which to use them. This led me to the LG 60702.
That is until I ran across the latest in hype – FastapTM, a technology put out by Digit Wireless. They have come up with a tiny keyboard that makes entering text faster as you no longer have to rely on a built in dictionary or the old multi-tap text entry techniques. Imagine that.
Okay, while I can see that having all the letters of the alphabet each on their own key will likely be faster, there are two problems. First, other than the fact that Digit Wireless has come up with a way to fit all the keys on the PCS phone there doesn’t seem to be much to the technology, so to speak. But there’s lots of hype – so much so that I’m even going to check out the LG 6190 to see if lives up to it all.
Second, the keyboard itself seems to have been laid out without any thought to functionality whatsoever. It’s simply an A to Z layout, with A in the upper-left and Z in the bottom-right.
Seems logical, given that it’s the same layout basically as phones have now with respect to letters, right? Not so when you read this excerpt from the Digit Wireless website:
Digit Wireless, LLC is a technology development and licensing company focused on advanced interface for next-generation mobile and portable products.
Hmm, an alphabetical keyboard doesn’t seem like a very advanced interface at all, especially if you have read Donald A. Norman’s study of alphabetical and Dvorak keyboards or perhaps read Norman’s book ”The Design of Everyday Things.” Long story short, according to Norman, an alphabetical keyboard works barely better than a keyboard with a random layout3.
So in the end, it’s all about the hype. Same phone, pretty much the same keyboard, somewhat improved functionality4. Hype.
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1. At least if you have been using mobile phones for ten years or so anyway. If you have, then you probably aren’t a teenager and what you care most about is does the phone have a normal ring of some kind, does it vibrate so I can actually feel it and, most importantly, does it have good sound quality in and out.
2. The LG 6070 appears to be a decent phone, subject to an actual working trial.
3. Donald A. Norman’s book “The Design of Everyday Things” is one of those rare books that, although would seem to apply more to designers of products, software, etc, is enjoyed just as much by everyone else. I bought my copy in 1995 for $20 or so for use in CPSC 481 (Human-Computer Interaction) at the University of Calgary and since then have re-read it on multiple occasions and referred to it on a regular basis. But several non-developer friends have also borrowed it and read it.
4. I’m not convinced (until I try it) that FastapTM is actually much of an improvement. The current hype around the “improvement” is based on measuring the number of keypresses. And while that is indeed one way to measure it, anyone who has ever seen a regular SMS user will have found themselves in awe of the SMS user’s ability to generate messages at a rapid rate. But you can’t simply presume that reducing the number of keypresses will make text message generation that much faster because we’ve changed the actual interface.
Role of a shareholder
I am large stakeholder in a public traded company on the TSX-V. It’s not THAT large but large by some standards; something like 4% of available shares or just short of that. The company releases quarterly reports as well as an annual report at their AGM. And there are news/press releases intermixed occasionally between all that. They release news when there is something worth releasing and not just because they haven’t released anything in a while. And prior to some releases in late November, it had been several months since their last release.
But I’m not overly concerned. There are several things I think they could do better, but then again, I’m not privy to all the information – I’m not there day to day, dealing with clients and handling business and partner relations. But on occasion I’ll fire off an email to one of the people I know there to see how things are going and to offer my thoughts. His replies usually come a week or two later because, in terms of running the company, I’m pretty low on the list of priorities. Although I may have invested my money in the company, a 30 minute email reply to me isn’t going to generate any more cash.
It’s always a tough gig to take care of your shareholders; when the company is small you are so busy trying to build the business that you don’t necessarily have time to deal with individual shareholders and when the company is large you have so many shareholders you can’t possibly deal with them all individually. Unless you are Microsoft or Nortel and have entire departments of employees to deal with that sort of thing.
That said, I am always available to answer questions via phone, email or Jabber from any investor or potential investor. I may not have all the answers all the time or there may be some information that is not available to be released, but what I can tell you I will. All you need do is contact me. And if there are any questions about our technology or the inner workings of our products, I can answer those also. Again, a phone call or an email is all that is required.
CPSC vs ENGG at UCalgary
While looking for a link for MacEwan Hall at UCalgary, I found a funny comment on a UCalgary CpSc student’s journal. The guy was quoting something he had read in the “Three Lines Free” section of the university’s student newspaper, The Gauntlet.
Dear engineers: your mothers are so fat, it takes me 25 minutes to download a picture of each one of them from the web!
- CPSC DUDE
Although the comment is a bit rude, I was delighted to see that the rivalry that existed during my 4 years there is still alive and well.
Putting on a good concert
If you ever get a chance to see James Brown in concert, especially at a small venue, it is well worth any price. I saw James Brown a couple of weeks ago in MacEwan Hall at the University of Calgary. The concert was absolutely fabulous not just because it was James Brown but because it was so entertaining.
One of the problems with concerts these days is that it is pretty much the same thing as listening to the CD except that it’s live – and it takes a lot more that just playing songs from your CD to entertain me, especially when the ticket price is 3-5 times the cost of just buying the CD.
The biggest part of James Brown’s show was the level of involvement with the crowd. In addition to soliciting responses from the crowd, James and his band read the crowd perfectly, playing all the right songs at all the right times in a set that didn’t seem at all rehearsed in terms of the order.
And, of course, it was James Brown after all.
Airline Marketing for Dummies
I’m not entirely sure why but most of the people responsible for marketing at major commercial airlines (within North America) are morons. At least I think they are.
I just saw that Delta has rebranded their aircraft and Air Canada did the same last month. And I remember that shortly before Air Canada bought out money losing Canadian Airlines in 1997 that Canadian Airlines threw away their trademark chevron logo for a flying goose.
I’ll take this opportunity to mention that I used to work for Canadian Airlines in high school as a baggage handler and I loved that airline with a passion. And unlike a lot of people I also like Air Canada. But when a company is losing money, and not just a little money but piles of money, the last thing I expect that company to do is gloss themselves over. Canadian’s stylized goose was pretty cool but what they should have done is spent some of that rebranding money on figuring out how to reduce costs and operate at a profit. But perhaps they are trying to make people think that things are fresh and new and that something has changed and that as a result people will switch to flying on their airline instead of the airline next door.
A company that all airlines could learn from, as far as I’m concerned, is Qantas. They have had the same distinct and world recognized logo since I can remember. And instead of rebranding their entire fleet, they simply rebrand a couple aircraft in a spectacular way, and keep the logo. Nice. And moreover, they continue to spend money improving things that directly affect me - better food, better seats, etc.
I’ve never actually flown on Delta so I can’t comment on them, but I can comment on Air Canada. I flew on AC shortly after the start of their rebranding campaign, which is either a hit or miss with people due to Celine Dion’s involvement (people either love her or hate her, there’s no inbetween). As far as I was concerned nothing had changed – the plane had the old logo and the crew had the old uniforms. Not that it concerned me. I don’t fly Air Canada because of how their aircraft look, I fly on AC because they have a number of flight times to choose from, their flight costs are pretty much on par with the rest of the field, they have in flight entertainment, they have some sort of meal that consists of more than a package of nuts and because the in flight crew is 100% professional.
I mention the crew professionalism because the last thing I want at 37,000 feet is a crew that’s all about having a good time – I want a crew that is friendly but in a professional way. And as a huge supporter of bilingualism, I hate being told (pay attention here WestJet) that “they are doing the safety briefing one more time in French because they have to.” And even then, 9 times out of ten, all they are doing is playing a recording; WJA should focus on hiring more French speaking crew (but not at the cost of quality). And I absolutely detest it when they mention that something is done “because that evil entity Transport Canada says they have to” – Transport Canada exists to ensure the safety of all involved in aviation and is a big part of the reason that Canada’s aviation safety record is so good.
Anyway, I digress. I’m not sure if the airlines have smart marketers but the CEOs ignore their advice or if the airlines have simply hired the bottom of the marketing/PR/communications barrel. In either case, the airlines need to take a long, hard look at all these rebranding campaigns – all they are to most people are a big waste of shareholder money.
Ya, we'll do all that
I’ve been listening to the air traffic control feeds courtesy of www.liveatc.net recently, and yesterday I discovered that they are now featuring Toronto frequencies.
In aviation, it is fairly common for the pilot to read back all (or at least the key parts) of an ATC instruction, and in some cases (such as hold shorts) it is mandatory. Today, while listening to Toronto ATC, a controller issued a somewhat long instruction covering an altitude to level off at, a turn and a speed adjustment. Instead of the typical read back followed by the aircraft’s callsign, I heard:
“Ya, we’ll do all that. United 123 Heavy.”
Presumptuous microwaves
What is it with the designers of microwave interfaces? I don’t really get their need to try and tell me what to do next, given the small amount of available space and character display limitations on the microwave touchpad/LCD. For example, if I open the door on the microwave at work to check on how the reheating is going, the display kindly tell me to “close the door.” Gee, thanks.
Of course, the best messages are the ones displayed when the time you selected is up; the one at my old job displayed “enjoy your meal” and the one at the Zymeta offices takes the cake for presumptuousness: “your meal is ready” … how the heck does it know that my meal is ready? I’m pretty sure that it actually has no idea because I put some soup in there for one minute last week and it was far from “ready” … it needed another minute before it was warm.
CBC continues to educate me
I love watching CBC Television, mostly for Hockey Night in Canada, The National and Canadian content stuff like The Red Green Show. And even better than CBC on the television is CBC on the radio. CBC Radio One is hands down the only radio station worth listening to consistently.
I am constantly learning thanks to the CBC, and not just by listening to the programs which are designed to teach. Anyway, yesterday, thanks to the CBC I learned that Regina (the provincial capital of Saskatchewan) is the Latin word meaning Queen. I actually may have learned that fact years and years ago but if that’s the case, I’d long since forgotten.
Get the facts
I think Microsoft is truly taking Linux serious now. I know that Linux has been on the Microsoft radar for quite a while but now they’ve moved into range and have their sights targeting Linux. I know this because everywhere I look, websites, tv, magazines, whatever, have advertisements telling me to ”Get the facts.” I haven’t bothered to read any of the case studies or anything more than the headlines on the page, but I’m sure that the ‘facts’ are laden with fine print that reduces the differences between the TCO (buzzword: total cost of ownership) of the two.
Airline vs Airline UK
I’ve been watching a lot of Airline and Airline UK on A & E lately because it’s consistently entertaining. The only other show that makes me laugh more is Spike TV’s MXC, which is another story altogether.
I find it rather amusing how different the two shows are. I don’t mean the premise of the two shows; that is basically the same. Both shows follow a discount airline’s employees around as they handle various issues, ranging from weather problems to drunk passengers. The difference between the shows is the level to which people get out of control, mostly relating to alcohol. It’s almost as it’s acceptable to a point in the UK to be drunk when flying. On Airline, 9 times out of 10 you don’t get past the gate if there’s even a hint of alcohol on your breath. On the UK version, it’s the complete opposite; and they’ll only kick you off the plane once you’re on the aircraft if you really misbehave. In one episode, there is some large group going to mainland Europe for a stag or something and they are all drunk, yelling at each other and grabbing at the flight attendants. And all this while the safety demonstration is going on. I can’t even imagine this happening in North America, on any airline whatsoever.
