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Someone said that if cars worked like computers, nobody would ever buy a car that randomly crashes, do not always start, have weird unexplained problems, can get viruses and other bad things that live inside it (and I am not talking about mice chewing on things under the hood of the car), or have parts that refuses to work with each other. But that is what we get with computers. These days, we are all also supposed to be able to figure it out ourselves, know HTML, command line code, a billion settings and options, and be able to find buttons that are hidden or staring us straight in the face but not associated with any description or text.
I have just spent more than one hour trying to fix why our little icons for 'mail this', 'recommend this', etc., wasn't showing up on our blog. This blog. It was added by me a few years ago to the template through the 'click this button and you get it on your blog' in the Blogger settings. But they never showed up. So now, a few years later, I decided to see if I could fix it. Some googling, lots of testing with suggested html code in new places, and now finally it works.
The Blogger Help Forum didn't solve it, I found the solution in a post on another blog that had had the same issue. Such a simple thing, and just imagine how many of us that are trying to solve similar issues in our daily lives, including our daily work.
"Why can't I import this file?"
"Where is that command again to fix the white balance on my photo?"
"Why did Word do THAT?"
"How do I get rid of that?"
"Help, I can't sign into gmail!"
"Why do I have to sign in everyday even if I click 'remember me'?"
"Why is Firefox so slow?"
"Why isn't Netflix working (again)?"
And on and on... Ever heard anybody complain about their cars like this? No, me neither.
How in H*LL is anybody that knows nothing about html supposed to be able to fix something like this by themselves? Why aren't these things foolproof? If computers could be insured, and cause bodily harm, like cars are and can, then I bet we would have a lot better working computers. It is pretty amazing how sensitive and breakable this system is, and I am not talking about silly buttons at the bottom of blog posts, but in general. We are pouring our work and private lives into these machines, and they are totally non-dependable. Sure, they work most of the time.
But if you have a broken car you take it to a mechanic and he/she fixes it. For computers, having them fixed by an expert would mean 1) at least weekly visits to a computer mechanic, 2) immense costs, and 3) sometimes things can't be fixed because of bad hardware or software. For a car, you can usually choose not to fix something because it would not be worth the cost, but many times for computer you simply can't fix it, you are simply not given any options.
"Sorry, you laptop monitor is broken, can't be fixed, better get a new laptop."
"Sorry, I can't recover your harddrive data".
And still, we have so much invested in these undependable units - photos, memories, letters, work data (a lot in my case), finances, and so on.
So, gals and guys, here is my advice:
At work we have a copy machine that you have to sign out of when you are done, by clicking buttons on the Touch screen THREE (3) times. First, click your name in the upper right corner, then select Log Out from the menu, then a new menu comes up asking: Are you sure you want to Log Out? and then you have to hit yes. Isn't it amazing that something as simple as logging out is made so convoluted? They can't blame it on safety.
When you drive a car and turn left, nobody stops you and wait for you to confirm once or twice that YES, INDEED, I want to turn left. Imaging the number of accidents that would happen if you had to confirm every little action while driving a car... and response times would increase as would frustration and road rage. What a waste of time in front of the printer.
At home we have a printer that stops working as soon as one of the colors is finished, even if there is black ink left and you only want to print in black and white. It just won't print. It is on strike until you have bought new, expensive color ink (or photo gloss, or whatever it might be), that you don't need for that particular print job.
When you drive a car, and the windshield washer fluid runs dry, the car just doesn't stop working and waiting for you to fill up more of it, regardless of where you are. That would be inconceivable.
Sometimes when you surf the web and look at stuff, the network gets clogged, or the software slows down, and even sometimes, the program or even the computer just crashes, and you are forced to restart the computer.
When you drive a car, it suddenly just doesn't stop randomly or goes at tiny speed because of some outside force field or sluggish connection. That would be pretty dangerous.
Many times you look around on the web and try to find a good restaurant so you browse their web pages, but when you go to their website you are met by 'the intro' - some awful music, slow things (usually photos) moving across the page, and you have to sit there and waste your time unless you can find the tiny semi-hidden text called 'Skip this intro'. After that torture and time-waste is over, you can start to look for 1) opening hours, 2) address and directions, and 3) the menu. You would think those three things are the most important information to get to your potential customers, and that at least 1 and 2 should be listed on the opening page of the home page. Oh no, you often have to guess where it is, maybe under 'Contact Us", or 'About Us', or some other non-direct heading. And often you have to scroll down because the bottom of the page can't be seen at first sight. For the menus, those are often under a tab, but many are hidden under headings that are tiny, and on extremely slow-loading pages (including the crashing pdf-format), or just small.
If you drive a car, it doesn't play unwanted intro music when you start it. It starts up, then it immediately shows you if anything is wrong with the car on the dashboard (any Check Engine light on? Doors open? No, good!). All information is right there, ready to check out and react to. Restaurant web pages are like Lego Men hidden in pizza dough, you can't find them or you find a little piece but you can't see the rest.
Who designs these things? I thought designers' jobs were to make things that WORK WELL and LOOK GOOD. The first of those things, i.e. practicality, user-friendliness, and usability is as important as that it looks great. The funny thing is that often the companies insist that their way of doing things are for our convenience, when in reality these things cause us inconvenience, frustration, or just waste time. Books never fail to open. Compasses never run out of batteries. Simplicity and ease-of-use means just that, simplicity.
Will it take 50-100 years to make the internet, printers, copiers, and computers as user-friendly and reliable as cars? I hope not. Of course cars break down at times, but they are far more reliable than most of our other home electronics. I love things that work and that even if complicated, are easy to use. Don't get me started on the design of remote controls... you would think they get paid by the numbers of buttons they put on them. How long did it take for cars to enter the phase of user-friendliness? And maybe cars are now on their way to become less user-friendly again? I haven't mastered the GPS in PP's car at all, because it is not at all intuitive.
PS. OK, you want examples of bad design offenders? Here is one...
Prune Restaurant, New York City
You have to CLICK to enter their website. What did they think, that you got to their website by accident and need to confirm with them that you actually want to be there? And then click on Menu and see if you can see their partial tiny menu in a scrolling window... The prices on the lunch menu are about 4 mm tall on my screen. That is about half as big as a black pepper corn. Anybody that can read the ingredients on the Bloody Mary menu online ought to get a free drink, or two. Prune, shape up, and fix your website please...
I think Steve Jobs got it right in this quote:
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Oh, hi again everybody!
Life is going on as usual, and some new and old things on the internet...
knit bacon (yes!) and hamburgers [Core 77]
others make fantastic art out of subway maps [Core 77]
or octopi out of sausages,
make food out of the throw-away parts (which reminds me of the one time my grandfather tried to make porridge out of potato peels, not a success, and I was retold the story as a little kid by my mom) [NY Times]
some whiskey needs special fungi... great science story [WIRED]
and as usual, Shorpy manages to find the best end photos.
PS. This is post 2050 on this blog. That is a good number too, as is 44 and 33. Right LA?
This article is featured in The Swedish Tourist Association's (STF's) 1912 book:
Two Days in An Automobil, on the old royal highway Stockholm-southwards, by Gunnar Anderson.
He describes a roadtrip starting on June 20 (1912, presumably), with not the best weather, "close doors and security hooks, put on rainhats and raincapes, because it is only +9 degrees C, and now we will speed off".
Maybe someone can identify the car on the photo?
The Ford Focus orchestra, a must see: LINK
Update: More info on the Ford Focus orchestra here.
And here is a stringy favorite! Check it out. (I love the sightings.)
I believe Sweden still is String Cheese free. That is good for them. Except, maybe Swedes can buy it now. I just read on the all-knowing Wikipedia that is actually comes from Europe.
Let kids make things with strings, and other things. Make them into makers. (Wired)
Real packages uses string. Except the US post office do not allow string anymore. It is all tape, tape, tape.... (Shorpy)
I find this facinating, not only from the perspective of art but also math.
Great work, Michael Johansson. Haven't you thought about this - how much can you fit into a specific scale and also keep it upright, without falling over? It is just that Michael works on a larger scale than we usually imagine (not the three stories in the building behind the art.). I think the Volvo cars are great for this purpose, due to their particular angular shapes. Fantastic work! It is well worth your time to check out his website.
and when I summon up the activities it´s been a good day with a few mishaps.
First, in the morning, overslept and had to reschedule. Well, not really a problem. A tour to town in the morning.
Back at home again, apple picking and plum picking, and a few cherries too. A nice moment between rain and thunder, which continued and created large waterfalls from the rain drains.
Me and the kids decided it was a good day for cooking and baking. Sugar pretzels was their choice. I did plum and cherry marmalade (with port wine). A few pretzels and some lunch and then off to the dentist for one in the family. On the way to town there where large water pools and streams in the road. Kids laughing happily when the water sprayed high around the car. The thunderstorm continued.
Back home and a "fika", getting stuff and off to the cinema, Cars 2 in 3D. Gets highest grade from the kids and an OK movie for me. But you can see the game scenes in the movie. I particularly like the "007 Bond" character. Great secret agent theme!
If you liked Cars, you will probably like this.
On the way there I had to change a tire on the car, almost flat!! And after that I backed my car into another car! The number plate fell off from the car front. Stupid me! At least the woman was nice especially considering it was my fault completely.
Some planning for the weekend, and then back home to end the day with a sip of whisky, "dubbelträ" or doublewood , a 2 cask matured whisky from Scotland.
Great day despite the mishaps. How was your day?
They fixed my broken exhaust system with a leftover pipe and some welding instead of buying $800 of parts from Subaru. We love you! This is what it means to be customer friendly.
I don't like people complaining about things, but today I feel like complaining. I just don't get it - how hard can it be just to be efficient, official, and friendly to make everything go more smoothly?
Examples:
If you write an official work-related letter (= e-mail) to someone you don't know at your workplace or wherever, at least include a title on the letter (so it doesn't look like spam), explain what the request is about (don't just ask them to open an pdf), and include a signature line with your full name and contact information so the recipient know who they are dealing with and where they are located. This is just common courtesy among work people, I think, but I see people failing to follow this all the time at the Big University where I work.
If you send a letter to a foreign (American) address, at least include the full address (even if it doesn't fit Swedish standards), and don't just delete the city name. Thankfully the letter we were waiting for made it anyway, despite being incomplete and arrived here today.
If you write a letter, don't date the letter three days after it was sent. Postmarks don't lie.
If you write to anybody, by e-mail or letter, sign any decision or order or directive with your name, and your contact information. Don't let the letter be a anonymous bureaucratic nobody's responsibility. Take responsibility for your actions, even if it is just for sending a letter or making a decision. In my experience, many Swedes are especially bad at making official decisions (it has to be backed up by official policy or a boss have to tell you what to do). Here in America you can always make decisions and then apologize for them, which has other problems associated with it :). But making a decision and then not signing off on it, is weak.
Make sure you write the addressee's name correctly, and especially do not mix up last and first names. (OK, this can be hard for Chinese names, but should not be a problem for Swedish and American names that are constructed the same way).We just got a letter today where the last name was the first name and vice versa and it should have been obvious it was wrong. So nobody took the time to 1) put in the name correctly, and 2) check that the name was correct. (They also got the street name wrong... sloppy....)
A new rule from our not so dear governor of NJ, states that to be a professor, custodian, or just an employee at a NJ state-funded university you have to live in NJ, unless you get a special exemption. All current employees are exempt, but not if you move or get hired. The governor doesn't care that only 20% or so of the university budget is funded by the state and that considerations regarding spouses and others might make you decide to live in New York and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), cities that are right next to NJ but not in our state.
More annoyances - the Check Engine light on my car goes on and off like a delayed lighthouse with PMS. You never know when it will hit and when it will turn off. I ignore it mostly. As long as the engine runs smoothly it is OK. But it has done this for 7 years... Subaru, fix your electronics.
But there are good things too: The Griggstown CSA had their first pickup today and it was great (about 8 kilo of fresh organic vegetables), the sun was shining without it being to hot, and the tomato plants are thriving in my garden despite the Colorado beetle I found yesterday. It is now dead and will soon be mounted on an insect pin for my Dad in Sweden. I bet he doesn't have one in his collection.
OK, I am cranky tonight. But in general, life works so much more smoothly if everybody is just trying to be pleasant, efficient, exact, and do the right thing. It is not that hard, but it doesn't allow for sloppiness or irresponsibility, I guess. Accountability is not a bad thing...
Interesting article in The New York Times about a car designed to run on steam, but never did, the Paxton Phoenix from 1960.
A new delicious monkey species have been reported on by the satirical magazine The Onion (funny!)
I am steaming after I discovered that someone stole my ATM card number and the pin too (how?) and have been taking out over $1700 dollars from my bank account. The bank tells me I will get the money back. Why are some people so MEAN?
Apropos mean, they have started to steal human hair from salons. What is next - cutting of a long braid or ponytail from someone's head in the subway?
In case you missed it, all three nuclear reactors in Fukushima have had nuclear meltdowns and are leaking radioactive water into the ocean. The Japanese say a total shutdown will be done in 6-9 months (which is questionable if it is even doable). Let's hope for no more tsunamis or big earthquakes between now and then...
Poor world, too much is happening to it and us right now - tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding Missisippis, tornados, rain and drought....
I love clean lines, organic forms, and purposeful meaning to shapes and parts on things made by humans. Not a mess, not a mix of too many colors, and functionality. In the past, what was beautiful and well-made and worked well lasted. These days you buy a salad spinner knowing it will break in a few months or a year (even if it has 'lifetime warranty'). Nobody would have made or bought a rake a hundred years ago if they thought it would just break fast. I really, really, really dislike things that are not made to last and be used for real.
Anyway, we spent an evening in Hopewell, NJ, recently, looking at vintage cars, and here are some reflections in and about shiny objects:
A classic. Reminds me of the clocks outside my elementary school in Sweden.
What - no GPS? No Check Engine light? (Which always comes on, at least on my Subaru, and then goes off, for no reason at all.) But this is all you need, I think, and it was on a 1932 Ford truck. Red, of course.
I can't decide what this Corvette grill reminds me of. A grill of course, but more a lamprey mouth, a leech with sawing teeth, or a shark? Or jail cell window? It looks pretty mean. And here is a different one, similar style.
I love these 'gangster cars', which I think look like something out of movies about Al Capone's Chicago. Did you know he had a bullet-proof car?
A classic. Practical. Box. Works. Well. But mint-green?
The US in LOTUS. OK, you can drool with these guys. I think older cars are a lot more fun than these, so how about this one? Porsche 911 T Targa from 1971 - first owned by the King of Sweden. But most things with four wheels that don't look like today's mainstream cars are interesting.
I love blue. There is no other reason for this photo.
Tiny engines under giant hoods. Flip-flop.
