Hangin’ on the iPod-o

Now that my iPod is all decked out in its new iSkin I’ve actually been taking it out to play some more. This has led to two new discoveries. 1) I tend to leave my mobile at home more because I think the lump in my pocket is my phone. 2) It’s fun to download spoken word recordings and listen to them on the way into work.

My favourite IT Conversation so far is from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the Tipping Point. His chat on Human Nature describes how marketing studies just don’t work because they depend too much on context and subtle clues. One example he gives from his upcoming new book, is where people did a test where they had to join two hanging ropes together in a situation where they couldn’t quite reach both. There were 4 solutions, and people generally found the first 3 easily on their own but then were stumped. So the researcher would brush past one of the ropes gently causing it to swing, at which point the test subjects would ‘suddenly’ come up with the idea of swinging on the rope. When asked why this was later, they would say that they suddenly had the idea of a monkey in the forest or some such thing. From this he concludes that people are strongly affected by eternal context, but then create their own stories around why they do things. Scary – especially in the face of the upcoming elections.

Skinnin’ up

Yay! The iSkin just arrived for my iPod – huhroo! Bit too late though, as I’ve already scratched it up pretty good. Oops.

First impressions.. Very tactile, nice grippy feel. I chose the carbon (ie, grey translucent) one from the website but I’m not sure now that was the right choice. Think blue or green would have been better. Guess I’ll just have to use that one for business and buy a blue one for pleasure. On the downside – the slight raised cover around the ‘hold’ switch means you can’t just feel along the top of the iPod to change the setting – which makes the remote control even more important. The same gripe applies for accessing the base socket – it works fine for the firewire lead, but I’m not sure it will work so well with the dock.

Of course all of this is a bit moot since I’m now officially miffed that the iPod Photo came out just after I get a 40GB version on the premise I could store more photos on it while travelling! The U2 special edition iPod is also ex-strawberrily cute. Now where did I put that spare $20 million…

Red Moon Risin’

Wow. Last night’s lunar eclipse was absolutely stunning. From the point at which a little chunk of the moon disappeared to the whole orb being a deep, dark red the sky was beautifully clear over Queens. I sat outside on the balcony for pretty much the whole first half, scoffing down pasta (red sauce), drinking red wine and wishing I had my telephoto lens with tripod (my digital photos are less than impressive – even after I’d realised I was over-exposing what is effectively a reflection of the sun). Once the moon was completely red the most amazing cloud patterns came overhead from the west. Extended tendrils of cloud circling the moon, looking like the leaves of a fern. Stunning. Then the cloud covered the entire sky, leaving the fluorescent reflected glow from New York, alongside an eerie dark swirl of absent cloud that would have fitted well in an 80s sci fi epic.

The whole spectacle lasted about 2 hours and was just as breath taking as seeing the aurora borealis earlier this year in Kiruna. Much though I love being back in the hustle and bustle of New York, there are times when only natural phenomena will do it for me. Big up to Stephen for letting me know it was happening {:)

Sundazed

It’s been a while since I’ve had a properly slobby and un-productive Sunday, but today was definately bringing the average back up. Had a great night out catching up with Jemma, fresh off the boat from Britland and getting into the NYC fashion scene – hence the lazy Sunday. Nice.

To be fair it’s not been that un-productive, helped Mateo get Text.com version 1.0 up on the web – huzah. Check out some of the artwork on his site, it’s awesome.

Also, in a random moment on TV I noticed an old colleague from Quidnunc, Courtney, in the background of a Howard Dean interview. Bizarro.

Veesa’d up

It’s very strange when the anticipated long bureaucratic (sic) process of applying for a full US visa suddenly finishes in two days… but that’s exactly what happened. Strange.

So now, after only 20 days back in London (it was still a bureacratic process after all), I’m back in the good ol’ NY of C – ready and raring to go with my new position of Chief Architect at Fountain Mobile, purveyor of all good things text messaging related.

Next up.. finding a plush new pad in Billyburg. Stay tuned!

NYC Tipped

Currently reading The Tipping Point, which is a great book about how social trend epidemics start. For example, how come Hush Puppies suddenly became popular and why Blue’s Clues is better than Sesame Street. The last chapter was talking about context, and discussing why New York’s crime rate suddenly plummeted at the end of the 80s. One phenomenon described was the ‘broken windows’ theory – that is, if people see disrepair at a small level such as rubbish on the streets, then they assume that noone cares and then go on to perform bigger mis-deeds. So the way in which New York tackled this was to prevent fare evasion and clean up the grafitti. Oh, and check everyone arrested for fare evasion for an existing criminal record – of which 20% of them did. And now here we are in 2004, with nice shiny subways and less apparent crime than in London – hopefully Mayor Ken will take note!

Hangin’ on the Telephone

Got this great link just now about phone etiquette from the 60s. Very funny.

In the meantime the madness continues as I pack ready for a month back in England. Visa had finally been applied for, but it transpires there’s a 27 day wait for the now compulsary visa interview. Grrr. Not that I mind being back in Britland catching up with folk, it’s just a shame that I miss New York in October – the nicest month of the year. Fingers crossed it all goes through smoothly.

You may now kiss the Scot

Another weekend, another wedding. This time it was Stephen and Yi-Hsian’s turn to say their vows in front of family and friends at the Hudson Hotel. The evening was absolutely awesome, with perfect weather, great food and good times. Check out the pictures here. Or find out how Stephen and Yi-Hsian got together at Scottish Grooms.

Those wedding photos have been aided by judicious use of the new cheapo flash I bought about 2 hours before the event. I have to apologise to everyone who I blinded (half or wholely) by not realising quite how strong it was! The professional photographer (whose name is currently escaping me) was using a very nice homemade flash diffuser, using a combination of clear stiff plastic with diffusing paper inside. Definately a trick to try next time.

While uploading those photos I noticed that dotPhoto has done a great job of re-organising how you file your photos. So I spent a happy few hours doing that, while realising that a lot of my photos still need some serious re-organising! Apologies to those of you who have waded through some of the crap that’s up there. I’ll try and be more judicious in my editing from now on.

Coming soon to an Atlantic near you

Just checking the weather as I prepare to fly back to the east coast, and I noticed that Tropical Storm Lisa is now being tracked. This means that the next storm in the Atlantic season of 2004 is… drum roll please… Matthew! Think it’s time to start printing up some amusing joke t-shirts for myself such as “I survived Matthew 2004” and the like.

On an opposite tact from mass destruction (nature stylee), I’d just like to say another big ‘congratulations!’ to Mark & Alicia who got married this weekend in Sonoma. The ceremony was beautiful, the food was lush (cooked by Mark’s own fair hands) and the booze was plentiful – good fun all round. They are about to head off to Fiji and NZ for their honeymoon so bon voyage et a bientot!