Wow! I love a good speech and this is a great one. I wish I'd 'heard' it in High School. I'm not sure that my parents didn't actually tell me, but I sure didn't hear it. And the hearing is what matters. There are a couple of places that I have to disagree or would comment further, but overall, I think that Paul has put into words what it took me until graduate school to put into practice.

Like him, I knew something was up before that, and I did my best to 'stay upwind' (although not necessarily in the best ways - failing to commit isn't really a positive expression of the art). On the other hand, his statement that olympic champions are just 'relieved' is a gross oversimplication that detracts, in my opinion, from the correct statement that doing things that are hard is reqarding.

What You'll Wish You'd Known

I'd love to hear your comments about what you wish you'd known, too.

As part of my effort to disseminate accurate information I point you to:

Mature Video Games in the Minority on FileFront

in direct contrast with

MediaFamily.org | Facts: Chidren And Media Violence

I've always felt that it was more important to be able to synthesize and draw conclusions from information than it is to be able to follow the strict scientific method.

Wired 13.02: Revenge of the Right Brain

Dan is really a visionary who has successfully tapped in the zeitgeist of the technological trends of the last decade several times. He tends to 'get it' early and publish late, though. Maybe this time he is actually ahead of the curve.

See, mom, I'm not crazy for getting into this industry...

Computer and Video Game Software Sales Reach Record $7.3 Billion in 2004

I've been using Firefox on and off for years, but it since it's official release late last year, I've used it almost exclusively. Tabbbed browsing, good shortcuts (like ctrl-click), and it's more attractive, to boot.

Download for free at:
Firefox Homepage

for a primer, you might want to pick up:
oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Don't Click on the Blue E!

From Pip Coburn's AlwaysOn article:

At first, this was just funny to me - especially since Kelly (not his) and I got married not so long ago. But as I read, I thought more about one of my favorite topics, Usability.

I bought Kel an iPod+HP this month so that she would have something for her now-longer commute since we moved. Because I already had iTunes on my computer, I expected to be able to just plug it in and go. No such luck. (Granted, I had tweaked the install substantially, so I can't really blame Apple) However, even after uninstalling the version I had (newer than the one on the disk that came with the iPod) and reinstalling it, it still didn't work. I had to uninstall again and use the one on the disk. 5 reboots later, I was ready to go. At which time, I tried to move stuff to the iPod. Not easy when the library on the computer is bigger than the iPod can handle - so hard to choose.

Long story - short point: If Apple and HP can't make something foolproof working together, the PC as we know it is too complicated. And tech in general is too hard to use.

I can't really guess how many hours I've spent working on my computer - not doing things on the computer, but actually trying to fix/tweak/modify/build it. I actually enjoy it, but that doesn't mean that I want to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out why the wireless isn't working only to have it miraculously come back to life without my knowing why.

Enough for now - enjoy the article

For Better, For Worse, But Not for Tech-Support

For Better, For Worse, But Not for Tech-Support
Pip justifies his "admin-avoidance" lifestyle, and explains the draw of an article that might as well be titled "10 Reasons to Hate iPod."

Pip Coburn [UBS Investment Bank] | POSTED: 01.25.05 @00:28
On July 28, 1990, when Kelly and I got married in New York City, we vowed to stick together "in sickness and in health" and "for richer or for poorer" and a number of other "good times and bad times," but there was never any mention of gutting it out together through the grotesque IT problems that would certainly befall us in the Digital Age.

Accidental omission?

I have my doubts... there may have been untold wisdom at work.

Last week's blog centered around the 611 viruses that "tech geek" found on Kelly's Acer Tablet PC. You may have wondered why I—as a Global Tech Strategist—would let Kelly's machine become hostage to such villainous activity. As a Global Tech Strategist, I certainly have a duty and an obligation to solve and handle all tech-oriented issues facing my own physical or virtual household, no...?

Lol... No way!

Kelly is on her own, here.

-- ADVERTISEMENT --


As folks this past week whose patience and interest I am grateful for—like Maureen O'Hara, Melanie Wyld, Tam Dell'Oro, Adam Devito, Adam Lashinsky, Paul Pangaro, CJ Maupin, Steve Hayden and a bevy of clients in San Francisco—can attest, I can focus for hours on issues surrounding the Change Function, Total Perceived Pain of Adoption, and BioCost, and can also romanticize how wonderful the world was when Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar quarter-backed the Cleveland Browns non-stop forever... but my attention span/patience for expending time on solving tech problems—mine or others'—is about a nanosecond. And I gear my life as best I can to avoid getting sucked into the fray.

I want technology to work.

I like playing snow football with my kids on the weekends—pretending to be Brian Sipe or Bernie Kosar even now at age 39—or going to the movies with Kelly and other things normal humans do. I do not want talk with "tech geek" or install anti-spyware.

Yuck!

As I travel, I have no desire to learn the intelligent lighting system at the San Francisco Mandarin hotel. I just want the lights in my room to go on and go off. I don't want to figure out the complexity of a high-end microwave. I don't need an extra button on it that says "popcorn." The fewer choices the better. I don't want to change batteries in my headset at work. I don't want to read a short/easy manual.

I don't want any of it.... Much like Walt Mossberg, I want technology to work seamlessly and I don't want downtime.

I almost bought Kelly a BlackBerry at Christmas. You know, my favored little companion.... Why not let Kelly in on the new world? And then I woke up to a few things just in time:
· First, $49.95 per month through Verizon is a lot to spend without knowing if Kelly really wants to get sucked into the ugly world of adult attention deficit disorder. Perhaps having only one psycho communicator/connector in our marriage is a part of the formula for success....
· Second, we use text messaging a ton and that seems to do the trick for the two of us in many, many instances.
· Most importantly, I do not want to be Kelly's IT department.

See, when she buys an Acer Tablet PC I feel no obligation to pitch in as IT administrator. None. But it would really be bad form to give her the gift of a BlackBerry and then look the other way when myriad BlackBerry issues arise.

"No, No, No, No, Kel, you call Verizon."

Bad form....

Why do I adore BlackBerry? High "crisis" and low "total perceived pain of adoption."

High "crisis" for me—I like cleaning my inbox on the fly, knowing that I am current, and through BlackBerry I send maybe 75 well-placed e-mails a day on the fly to stay connected while on the road. I rarely check e-mail on my laptop or desktop anymore. I have more home in home-time.

And Blackberry provides a "Low Total Perceived Pain of Adoption."

How so? Well, as a UBS employee, any time I have a BlackBerry issue—and there are quite a few—I ask Fazia to hand my valiant little pal over to the IT staff to fix it, and voila, it comes back, and away I go again. Near zero downtime. RIM has reduced total perceived pain of adoption of enterprise BlackBerry. My IT staff reduces my pain. But in the consumer space, I would be Kelly's IT staff and, again, no thank you! In sickness and in health, sure, but sitting on hold waiting for the helpdesk to grace me with their presence? No way.

Will I be able to hold out forever in my "admin-avoidance" life strategy?

Of course not.... But you companies out there can help me out and also lure me into more and more tech indulgence if you are interested.

Here is what the change function says:
Change = f (crisis vs. total perceived pain of adoption)

"So what do you want companies to actually do if they grok your change function?"

If you are able to identify my "crises" before I do, I am deeply indebted. BlackBerry—and its long-ago predecessor, Motorola's PageWriter—have given me mobile e-mail for the past seven years, and I thank you. I am deluded but happy in thinking my life is better for it.

If you are able to reduce my total perceived pain of adoption, I will buy more tech gadgets as well.

And the best way to do that has nothing to do with Moore's Law of price reduction and lower prices and all, but rather everything to do with simpler, sharper, easier, clearer, more lucid design and dramatically improved, bug-free, hassle-free, "admin-avoidance" reliability. I do not wish to be a guinea pig. I want tech to work.

The broader market at large is thinking along similar lines. The Analogist world is generally terrified of tech and looks for reasons to justify resisting the societal calling and peer pressure to adopt a "digital" lifestyle. I noticed that this month's issue of Cigar Afficionado—no, I don't smoke cigars—had a cover story "What you should know about iPod before you jump in!" or some such headline. Not sure what iPod has to do with cigars, but apparently it's an affinity group issue.

What issue might such an affinity group have? Geez, maybe, let's see... how 'bout feeling stupid about, and being afraid of, tech. Home and Garden might run a similar story.

Do cigar-smoking Analogists want to read an article describing how they are stupid for not adopting iPod? Nope, cancel subscription. Do they want to read an article that helps them justify why they haven't adopted iPod and other tech foolishness without 'fessing up that they are just plain scared of the stuff?

Oh, yeah! This is a great Analogist feel-good article that could be re-titled: "Why tech stinks and you shouldn't feel bad about not wanting to use any of it even though the world will soon roll right over you if you don't jump in."

Catchy title? Nah. Tad lengthy.... "10 reasons to hate iPod" works much better, as my contact at AlwaysOn, Nina Davis, might readily agree.

So, Kelly, after nearly 15 years of marriage, I look forward to another 60, and if we can avoid clashing over fixing your Tablet PC, I think we stand a pretty good chance.

"There is too much needless complexity in the world, he argues. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, has taken a wrong turn. In 20 years we've gone from the simplicity of MacPaint to Photoshop. While the first fostered a creative explosion, the second gave birth to an industry of how-to books and classes. And such complexity is commonplace, Dr. Maeda says. Despite the lip service paid to 'ease of use,' 'plug and play,' and 'one-click shopping,' simplicity is an endangered quality in the digital world, he adds, and it is time to break free from technology's intimidating complexity...."
- Jessie Scanlon, quoting John Maeda, associate professor of media arts & sciences at MIT Media Lab




"and the day came
when the risk
to remain tight in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took to blossom"
- Anais Nin




Pip Coburn is a managing director and global technology strategist in the technology group of UBS Investment Research. Mr. Coburn is responsible for integrating the research efforts of 120 technology and telecom analysts worldwide.

Ok, I try to be 'fair and balanced' in my reporting (unlike Fox News Channel, whatever it may say (an example of that below)), but after having the chance to talk to a number of high ranking military leaders, all of whom agreed that Rumsfeld is a hinderance to their performance rather than an asset, I encourage everyone to consider sending a letter to the White House and demanding Rumsfeld's resignation. Copy your Senator and Rep, too.

A sample letter (and quick form) is available at
JohnKerry.com - Thank You

RE Fox News - last year I was in a hotel diner and heard the morning 'news' on Fox (this is before I started bringing my remote to breakfast and changing the channel). The 3 people talking (not sure what show) were complaining how people were being critical of Bush, but that "no one ever complained about Clinton" WHAT?!?!? These people never heard of Whitewater? 40+ million spent to investigate a non-event? How about the outcry over going into Bosnia - where we didn't lose a SINGLE soldier?

Anyway, if we focus on one of them at a time, maybe we can actually get some of the worst offenders out of office.

Ok, I try to be 'fair and balanced' in my reporting (unlike Fox News Channel, whatever it may say (an example of that below)), but after having the chance to talk to a number of high ranking military leaders, all of whom agreed that Rumsfeld is a hinderance to their performance rather than an asset, I encourage everyone to consider sending a letter to the White House and demanding Rumsfeld's resignation. Copy your Senator and Rep, too.

A sample letter (and quick form) is available at
JohnKerry.com - Thank You

RE Fox News - last year I was in a hotel diner and heard the morning 'news' on Fox (this is before I started bringing my remote to breakfast and changing the channel). The 3 people talking (not sure what show) were complaining how people were being critical of Bush, but that "no one ever complained about Clinton" WHAT?!?!? These people never heard of Whitewater? 40+ million spent to investigate a non-event? How about the outcry over going into Bosnia - where we didn't lose a SINGLE soldier?

Anyway, if we focus on one of them at a time, maybe we can actually get some of the worst offenders out of office.

Ok, I try to be 'fair and balanced' in my reporting (unlike Fox News Channel, whatever it may say (an example of that below)), but after having the chance to talk to a number of high ranking military leaders, all of whom agreed that Rumsfeld is a hinderance to their performance rather than an asset, I encourage everyone to consider sending a letter to the White House and demanding Rumsfeld's resignation. Copy your Senator and Rep, too.

A sample letter (and quick form) is available at
JohnKerry.com - Thank You

RE Fox News - last year I was in a hotel diner and heard the morning 'news' on Fox (this is before I started bringing my remote to breakfast and changing the channel). The 3 people talking (not sure what show) were complaining how people were being critical of Bush, but that "no one ever complained about Clinton" WHAT?!?!? These people never heard of Whitewater? 40+ million spent to investigate a non-event? How about the outcry over going into Bosnia - where we didn't lose a SINGLE soldier?

Anyway, if we focus on one of them at a time, maybe we can actually get some of the worst offenders out of office.

Myths about Video Games

Henry Jenkins is one of the top academics who are paying attention to the games industry.

The Video Game Revolution: "Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked" by Henry Jenkins | PBS

ps thought I'd linked to this before, but I guess not.

Games are educational - even when they aren't intended to be.

Although this article focuses on the educational uses that games can be put to, and on language study particularly, he misses, I think, the bigger picture. Namely, anything that kids pay attention to teaches something.

That something may not be 'good' in either a societal sense has just as strong a chance of teaching as the good things. It really depends upon the parents to put things in context. Saying "That's not real - you can'tdo that in real life (IRL)," when they see on the news that yes, bad things do happen in real life, just makes them not trust you. discussing that although some people might do some things that they see in a game doesn't mean that they should and why is a better option, I think.

Getting back to 'good' educational aspects of games. as more and more jobs require computer literacy and invovle some form of simulation (spreadsheets are a simulation, too) the ability simply to use the machines becomes more important. Likewise, many games do have content that, when understood, teaches. Civilization III Conquests (which my company made), has some real 'history' behind it. Children of the Nile (tm TiltedMill) likewise.

Even Everquest II can be said to teach many things.
1) It's very complex, so you don't have the oversimplification of life you might see in other games.
2) Actions have consequences - quests require followthrough
3) Teamwork becomes increasingly important as you level
4) Making things in the game (crafting) requires a proscribed set of steps and ingredients and can be traded or sold on either a open market or to a retailer. This helps kids understand that TVs don't just grow on trees, and neither does money.

Anyway, recognizing that MORE SO THAN TV, games teach, both intentionally and un-, will help parents choose and hopefully involve themselves in games with their kids.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Games help you 'learn and play'

Gamers are Human

New evidence suggests that they aren't total weirdos...


New Data Shatters Video Game Player Stereotypes

Shameless promotion of my friend's blog.

We miss you already!

Shannon & Steve

This is just a cool link - an iceburg the size of Long Island is about to hit a glacier in Anarctica

NASA - Get Ready for the Largest Demolition Derby on the Planet
Scientists say Slow-Motion Collision Near Antarctic Research Station Imminent

Lots of people have made comments on the emotional impact of video games. This guy decided to be explicit about it.

Farkempt!

Farklempt! Rules

Time's Blog of the Year
Power Line

Why not? We don't really need to buy anything on any particular day, and unlike most of these, by specifying a date instead of a generic day, people might get organized enough.

Doesn't matter if you are Lib or Neo-Con, anyone who thinks that we shouldn't have gone to Iraq (either because it was a bad idea, or that we weren't prepared, or that there were false pretenses) should participate.

Subject: "Not One Damn Dime Day" -
Jan 20, 2005 - Inauguration Day

Help Make a Difference...

Please mark your calendars now...

"Not One Damn Dime Day" - Jan 20, 2005 - Inauguration Day
Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the
war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the
moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday,
January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.
On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is
happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour
national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.
During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not
one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for
necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for
nothing for 24 hours.
On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart,
Target...Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store.
Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for
that matter). For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut
the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the
people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal;
that they are responsible for starting it and that it is
their responsibility to stop it. "Not One Damn Dime Day" is
to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the
United States of America, not for the international
corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the
corporations and funnel cash into American politics.
"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The
politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now over 1,200
brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis
have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan - a way to
come home.
There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No petitions
to sign.
No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn
Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your
mouth by keeping your wallet closed. For 24 hours, nothing
gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious
leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to
end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Please share this e-mail with as many people as possible



Others are promoting, too Google Search: "Not one damn dime day"