The Font Fiasco

So Ikea recently pulled the unthinkable: they changed their font.  Now seriously, how big of a deal could it be when a company changes their font.  Clearly, it could be a really big deal.  Ikea has always used a custom version of Futura for their type-face.  The font has become a key part of the Ikea brand, fitting in flawlessly with the economical but modern design the company boasts in their furniture.

Unfortunately though, having a custom typeface can be extremely expensive, especially with regards to multiple languages and such.  Ikea made the logical cost-cutting choice: change to a major font in order to lower the company costs.  Unfortunately though, everyone has an opinion, and in this case, most people didn't like ikea's decision.

Consumers have come to respect Ikea for its breathtaking designs, and low prices.  Consumers have grown to love the upstairs show-rooms, the huge maze of products downstairs, and Ikea's store as a whole.  The decision to pick price over quality and design has always plagued Ikea, and lately they have been making the wrong decision more often than not.  The problem is not only that Ikea chose to change their font, it's the font they chose to switch to.

Verdana is a font designed by Microsoft specifically for the internet.  With the large large spacing between words and lines, it is much easier to read at a small size on a monitor.  The draw back to these successes though is that it really isn't too pretty of a font.  In fact, at large sizes (such as catalog titles, product labels, and Billboards, it looks completely horrendous.  This is what consumers are pissed about.  Ikea sold out big time.  They chose a hideous font (though some say Microsoft may have bribed them), and for a company that claims to have great design, they definitely flunked out on this one.

UPDATE:

I forgot to mention that there's a petition with over 5000 signatures already.  You should all go sign it ASAP!

We Don't Care If You Can't Handle It ...

So for a very long time (pretty much from the very beginning), people have constantly been getting pissed at AT&T for the terrible connectivity and service on their network with the iPhone.  There are simply too many holes in their service, and times when in major metropolitan areas (SF, Chicago, NYC), you simply cannot get a 3G or EDGE connection.  This is normally, try to imagine how terrible it gets when there's a major event or celebration (I personally experienced this at pride this summer and at VMworld this year).

So essentially, support for the iPhone on AT&T's network has been terrible.  In fact, between going to Israel and coming back, my service has gotten even worse: I now have practically no service in my room in places where I had service before on my old Sony Ericsson phone and on my iPhone.  So obviously this really sucks for me.  If I didn't have Google Voice, I just wouldn't be able to talk to like anyone.  So after a really long time of people being pissed off at AT&T, AT&T decided to respond.  Watch the video and then I'll respond.




My response is quite simple ... I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!  I pay $30 per month extra as an iPhone user for the 3G connectivity and other services (visual voicemail, iPhone OS updates, etc).  I expect to receive the services I pay for, and I don't really care for any explanations over why I can't receive them.  Obviously there are hiccups in services (such as Netflix's hiccup with Watch Instantly).  But they did their users right, and everyone who tried to watch a movie during the time with no service got 2% back.

AT&T made a decision to take on so many iPhone users, and it's really not my problem that they can't handle all the users.  Basically, I think this explanation is complete PR bullshit.

Not Always Right, Always Funny Though

So my friend Tim pulled through again and introduced me to a hilarious site called Not Always Right when I should have been heading to bed Wednesday night (though I guess actually Thursday morning).  The site is essentially conversations that are hilarious where one side is clearly mistake (generally the customer out of stupidity or simply being a total dumbass).

There isn't really much more to say since the site pretty much speaks for itself.  I just thought I would say that "Every (Bad) Crowd Has A Silver Lining" is definitely my favorite one so far.

So forward this on and enjoy it while you can.  My friend Sylvia and I strongly believe it will disappear into the realm of old news once it becomes too popular like Texts From Last Night and fmylife.com; I just hope that time won't come too quickly since it's really quite a fun site at the moment.

Who Robs an Apple Store With a Security Guard Inside?

Well apparently five people form New Jersey did. As explained on MacRumors, five people managed to Rob an Apple Store in Sagemore, NJ. In 31 seconds they managed to steal 23 MacBook Pros, 14 iPhones and 9 iPod touches. Seems pretty reasonable right, they smash the window with a rock and steal the crap.

But get this, there was a security guard inside. Apparently this store was already robbed, so they had a security guard inside during the night to guard the store from being robbed again. Clearly the investment was a worthy cause since it worked oh so well. Any-whose, they played the video online and they're trying to get info from anyone who knows anything.

I just thought this was fairly interesting so I figured you might wanna hear about it ...

Aardvark: Get All Your Questions Answered Live

So my friend Tim introduced me to this great new service called Aardvark that I've been using for a while now, and it's been really cool.

So the basic premise is that you often have questions that you want answered. Generally, I turn online first and search there. For my specific questions, I'll sometimes find answers under Yahoo! Answers. But what happens when I don't find the answer quickly? I'll often keep looking through the search results and get blogs and forums about stuff related to what I need to know, or such. Traditionally, if I couldn't find my answer, I would need to make an account on the forums and post my questions there, hoping to get an answer. But that could often take forever, or simply be unreasonable and such.

So this is where Aardvark comes in: when you don't find your answer online quickly by googling, you ask Aardvark the question. Now Aardvark isn't some crazy smart AI, it is simply a service that connects people who have questions with people who have answers. I've found so far that it works REALLY well. In fact, I haven't had any question that hasn't received a good answer (and believe me, I've asked some very difficult questions).

When you sign up you choose the topics you believe you know about, and Aardvark will forward you questions about those topics later on. Aardvark will even tag the topics on the questions you ask. Usually the auto-tagging works pretty well, but occasionally it fails miserably (it's fairly entertaining when it does). Aardvark is pretty reasonable about the amount of questions you get asked (you can set how many you want), and theyre generally legitimate questions. They even have an option to type "google" if the questions was stupid and could be answered by simply searching Google for the answer (like when someone asks when does movie ______ release on DVD). Aardvark even goes one step further and provides the user with a link to those results.

Generally it's important not to ask stupid questions (I've gotten a few) because it really pisses people off and doesn't make them want to help you. Most of the stupid questions I've gotten were of people "testing" the service. I found the answers to their questions as the first or second option on Google, and it was an annoying waste of time. If you're going to ask a question to "test" the service, at least ask a question that isn't on the first page of results when you Google the topic or whatever.

Aardvark is also integrated very well with IM, email, facebook, and twitter. The most convenient thing about the service is that it operates mostly through IM: you ask your questions, get answers, and help people out through GChat, AIM, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger, so you don't need to have a website open or download any special software. You can also ask questions by direct messaging Aardvark on twitter. It also goes further by allowing you to easily invite friends from your emails and Facebook to Aardvark, and when someone from one of the services joins Aardvark, you have a place where it tells you and suggest you add them to your network of friends. They're also beta testing an iPhone app, and you can ask questions via email. I'm waiting to be able to ask questions via SMS, since that will be the most convenient ever.

Aardvark generally forwards you questions from your network: your friends, friends of friends, groups you belong to, and location. Since the service is starting up, they're really promoting that you invite your friends and such to Aardvark. They claim that when you have 10 friends join, you'll get a free T-Shirt (they claim they will contact you). So far I've had 13 people accept personal invitations (22 people in my direct network), and I have not had anyone try to contact me (it's been at least a month or two).

Any-whose, whenever you have questions you can't answer, turn to Aardvark, you'll be surprised by how well it works.

If you need the link again, it's here: http://vark.com/s/A0re

So I just realized I posted this twice by accident. Sorry.

Lies & Alibis ... Fun and Quirky

So I watched this fun movie a while back called Lies and Alibis, also known as The Alibi (though netflix doesn't have it by that name). It was quite a lot of fun.

So anyways I found it last night when I got home from VMworld and was looking for a film to watch on netflix online. I watched the first 15 minutes and remembered how funny and quirky it really is. The premise is the following: A guy develops a service that helps men and women with their infidelity. It allows them to cheat on their spouse and will help maintain the illusions their clients create.

The owner of the company, Ray (Steve Coogan) has a simple rule: he does not cover crime, or revenge. In the opening scenes he hires a new employee, Lola (Rebecca Romijn) Who is extremely creative, quick on her feet and insightful. It seems the two will be extremely succesful, and Coogan is hopeful he will be able to hand off his first, and only remaining personal client to Romijn. His client has just one little request: to take care of his son's alibi personally before the son's wedding. Reluctantly, Ray agrees.

The only problem is, the son kills his mistress, and suddenly Coogan is framed for murder.

This is a great and fun film, and I hope you enjoy it.

I Found a Bug in Snow Leopard: Mac Keyboard and a KVM

So I upgraded early last week to Snow Leopard at work to complete testing of VMware Fusion 2.0.5 on Snow Leopard at work. If you use both, it works great (see the blog post), and I have been using Snow Leopard since.

I noticed really quickly an interesting bug between Snow Leopard and my KVM at work. For those of you who don't already know, a KVM is a device that allows you to share a monitor and keyboard & mouse between multiple computers (the one I have serves up to four) so that you don't need to have 4 monitors and 4 keyboard and 4 mice on your desk. It's pretty cool and useful.

Anyways, in order to simplify things, you always connect your mouse and keyboard to this device. OSX does a great job of detecting the keyboard to figure out which key layout it is. In Leopard, this setup worked fine, and the keyboard was connected perfectly. When I connected it the same setup to Snow Leopard, my keyboard was detected as an older keyboard. This doesn't seem like it would be a huge problem, but before Apple created the new thin keyboard, the function keys were in different spots. The volume control and eject button were over the number pad; Dashboard and Expose were setup around the F8 key, though without any images. There were no play or pause buttons then either.

When I connect my keyboard directly to my Mac Pro, it is detected correctly. However, when I connect it to the KVM, it detects it incorrectly. Initially I thought the computer detected my keyboard as the old one since the dashboard and expose buttons were over the F8ish function keys, but I later realized that the volume control was not over the number pad as it had been in the past. In fact, I have been completely unable to find the volume control anywhere on the keyboard.

I'm assuming this is a bug in Snow Leopard with the connection to the KVM since this did not happen at all on Leopard. Obviously I am not sure exactly what is causing the problem, but it's really annoying and I'm hoping it is fixed sooner rather than later.

Aardvark: Get All Your Questions Answered Live

So my friend Tim introduced me to this great new service called Aardvark that I've been using for a while now, and it's been really cool.

So the basic premise is that you often have questions that you want answered. Generally, I turn online first and search there. For my specific questions, I'll sometimes find answers under Yahoo! Answers. But what happens when I don't find the answer quickly? I'll often keep looking through the search results and get blogs and forums about stuff related to what I need to know, or such. Traditionally, if I couldn't find my answer, I would need to make an account on the forums and post my questions there, hoping to get an answer. But that could often take forever, or simply be unreasonable and such.

So this is where Aardvark comes in: when you don't find your answer online quickly by googling, you ask Aardvark the question. Now Aardvark isn't some crazy smart AI, it is simply a service that connects people who have questions with people who have answers. I've found so far that it works REALLY well. In fact, I haven't had any question that hasn't received a good answer (and believe me, I've asked some very difficult questions).

When you sign up you choose the topics you believe you know about, and Aardvark will forward you questions about those topics later on. Aardvark will even tag the topics on the questions you ask. Usually the auto-tagging works pretty well, but occasionally it fails miserably (it's fairly entertaining when it does). Aardvark is pretty reasonable about the amount of questions you get asked (you can set how many you want), and theyre generally legitimate questions. They even have an option to type "google" if the questions was stupid and could be answered by simply searching Google for the answer (like when someone asks when does movie ______ release on DVD). Aardvark even goes one step further and provides the user with a link to those results.

Generally it's important not to ask stupid questions (I've gotten a few) because it really pisses people off and doesn't make them want to help you. Most of the stupid questions I've gotten were of people "testing" the service. I found the answers to their questions as the first or second option on Google, and it was an annoying waste of time. If you're going to ask a question to "test" the service, at least ask a question that isn't on the first page of results when you Google the topic or whatever.

Aardvark is also integrated very well with IM, email, facebook, and twitter. The most convenient thing about the service is that it operates mostly through IM: you ask your questions, get answers, and help people out through GChat, AIM, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger, so you don't need to have a website open or download any special software. You can also ask questions by direct messaging Aardvark on twitter. It also goes further by allowing you to easily invite friends from your emails and Facebook to Aardvark, and when someone from one of the services joins Aardvark, you have a place where it tells you and suggest you add them to your network of friends. They're also beta testing an iPhone app, and you can ask questions via email. I'm waiting to be able to ask questions via SMS, since that will be the most convenient ever.

Aardvark generally forwards you questions from your network: your friends, friends of friends, groups you belong to, and location. Since the service is starting up, they're really promoting that you invite your friends and such to Aardvark. They claim that when you have 10 friends join, you'll get a free T-Shirt (they claim they will contact you). So far I've had 13 people accept personal invitations (22 people in my direct network), and I have not had anyone try to contact me (it's been at least a month or two).

Any-whose, whenever you have questions you can't answer, turn to Aardvark, you'll be surprised by how well it works.

If you need the link again, it's here: http://vark.com/s/A0re

Star Trek (2009), fucking awesome!

So I definitely would not consider myself a Trekie. In fact, I don't think anyone out there would consider myself a Trekie. Prior to this last month I had only seen Galaxy Quest (which was hilarious) and Star Trek: Nemesis. Nemesis totally sucked, I think I was like in 8th grade when it came out ... anyways I saw it and it sucked. So because of this I never really had an interest in like the space sci-fi-y movies or TV shows, and never allowed myself to watch anything Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica.

Anywhose, so I never went to see Star Trek when it came out in may or whenever because I maintained I'm really not a trekie. But on the way to Israel they were playing it, so I was like what the hell, I'll watch it, and it was really good.

It had a few familiar faces:

• Zachary Quinto from Heroes who was honestly REALLY REALLY good.
• Leonard Nimoy from the original Star Treks!
• Eric Bana the lead from Munich.
• Zoe Saldana from Center Stage who didn't have a huge part in this movie but was great. She was also Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• John Cho from the Harold & Kumar series ... did you know there was a Harold & Kumar go to Amsterdam, cuz I definitely did not.
• Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
• Anton Yelchin, my personal favorite since he's fucking amazing. He was the star of Charlie Bartlett, and the kid who gets kidnapped in Alpha Dog. Yelchin is charming and hilarious. To think he was only 19 when he filmed Star Trek.

Anywhose, I had fairly low expectations for this film, and honestly, I really really liked it and have even considered watching the other trekie type movies (Michael you can educate me there).

Sober by P!nk, which is the original?

So I guess I'm kind of stepping on Emale's turf with this one. Emale, if you read this, sorry.

So I was driving home today and listening to the radio, and there was almost nothing on. So I was listening to this station by Alice (I think it's 93.7), but it's in the Bay Area, so if you're not in the Bay Area then don't search for it on the airwaves. Anyways, back to the conversation ...

So a song came on that was pretty familiar, and I was like hey it's P!nk. But it was hella slow, so I was like this is an interesting remix. So I decided to Shazam it to see what song it was, and was shocked by what I found.

Quick detour for those of you who don't know what Shazam is (if you do, skip to the next paragraph). Shazam is this awesome program that records an 18ish second clip of music, and analyzes it and spits out what song it is. As long as the recording is of decent quality, not outrageously noisy in the back ground, or immense amounts of talking. I've found it almost always works in the car, and yesterday it even worked while people were talking very loudly for the first 8 or 9 seconds. Oh, did I mention it can even identify most official remixes? Anyways back to business ...

So Shazam told me this was Sober by P!nk. I was like wait what, I listen to that song all the time on Energy 92.7 and Wild 94.9, and this definitely wasn't it. So I got home and did some research. Turns out I wasn't listening to the original version, I was listening to the "Bimbo Jones Radio Edit" all the time. And it totally makes sense, that version is WAY better.

When I first heard this on the Radio, I was like this is really boring and slow, but that's because I was expecting the fast, hyper, upbeat, club version I was used to. When you're driving home at 1:30pm, going 70 on a nice sunny day, you want a crazy fast hyper dance song, you don't want a slow, relaxing, semi-depressing song. But when I watched the video and listened to the song at home today, I changed my mind. I really like this song.

I always thought (through the Bimbo Jones Edit) that this was a crazy song about having fun sober at a party and like how the fuck does that happen (since you rarely have fun when you're sober and everyone around you is drunk off their ass). But the original really isn't like that. You watch as P!nk observes how pathetic her own life is (cool effects with the whole her watching herself and comforting herself while puking). She slowly takes the step to realize it's wrong, going nowhere, and she doesn't need that. So she moves past it, and you see some weird effects.

Then you see her seduce and hook up with herself, which I personally think is creepy and completely fucked up ... Then again, I guess it's twins to the next level.

But she really gets it: "When it's good, it's good, it's so good, till it goes bad ..." This is what partying is like, and seriously, it sucks when it goes bad.

It's interesting how in modern times with so many crazy remixes out there it's often difficult to find the original version, or the specific version of a song. Just search for any pop song on youtube, and you'll see tons of remixes, it's crazy.

In case you wanna hear the sound clips / see the video, here's the original version Sober, and here's the Bimbo Jones Radio Edit.

Sketchpad in 1963 ... Really Advanced

So a while ago, while meandering the twitter world, I found a link to this awesome video of a graphics device (it wasn't really an application back then) being demoed. Obviously the UI (user interface) is extremely simplistic compared to modern UI's, but watch the video (analysis / discussion afterwords), and just remember this was done in 1962 (the program was released in 1963):



So ignoring the UI, this technology is extremely revolutionary. Even in modern times, there aren't many tools where we can draw two lines and have the application automatically make them parallel, or perpendicular. Obviously there are applications sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars that can do more then this, but there are also new apps that can do less then this app can. While obviously many of the simple apps today can do 3D, opacity, and color, many of them can't align vertically, or allow for master images.

In fact, most graphic programs don't allow for master images at all. It's revolutionary to think that this idea existed and was a reality in 1963 before computers even existed.

It's crazy to think that the modern computer wasn't invented until 1984, but they already had such complex graphics programs back then.

Sudden Ominous Music Heard Across US!

So I found this video on the homepage of youtube a couple days ago. I personally think it's hilarious and figured I would share. I've been watching random Onion News video recordings for a few years now, and I've always thought they were hilarious. In fact, they have a Video Podcast of them that you can subscribe to on iTunes if you like (it's free).



Not all of them are as good as this one, but this one is so good that I figured I had to share it with everyone. Hope you like it!

Chuck: A Hella Funny Show

So this summer I got really bored, and ran out of stuff to watch on TV (well by TV I mean TV shows on my computer), so I asked people for recommendations. As always, Talia came through (she also recommended Dexter to me), and she recommended an NBC show called Chuck.

Now chuck is a fairly new Show, having just completed its second season, and I remember the advertisements for it quite clearly (since I was waiting to watch Heroes always). Frankly, those ads completely sucked. The show looked completely idiotic, and honestly, I understand why: the concept itself sounds pretty dumb ...

This kinda cute, loveable guy works at a fake version of best buy, and is living a life below his ability. He got kicked out of Stanford after his best friend and room mate turned him in for cheating on a test he claims he didn't cheat on. And get this, his girlfriend then dumped him for his best friend. So he's living at home with his sister and her boyfriend, Captain Awesome, who is simply AWESOME. Chuck's best friend isn't exactly the brightest tulip in the bunch, and you can tell that Chuck's life is going no where.

But here's the cool twist: in the first episode, Chuck's enemy (his old room mate) turns out to be a spy, steals a super machine that houses all of the CIA and NSA's secrets, and sends it as a series of images to Chuck. Chuck accidentally watches it before the computer data is all destroyed, and all the information is stuck in his head. Now the US government needs Chuck to help with important cases and act as though he is the computer.

I'm assuming you agree with me that the above description honestly looks like a pretty bad B-list movie, or maybe some Made-for-video or made-for-tv movie. Thats what I thought when I first heard about it. But when Talia recommended it, I took a chance, since she nearly always has great recommendations.

Boy was Talia right. The show was witty, entertaining, and purely comical. There were fun action scenes, filled with rich humor, and Chuck's antics, clowning, and pure goofy-ness were hilarious. You don't get frustrated or annoyed with how Chuck keeps messing up, you burst out laughing as you see how in his mind he's doing the right thing, how everyone else needs saving, but how honestly, he really screwed it up.

And the show doesn't die quickly. Both seasons have been great. The second half of season 2 has gone on a self-discovering journey of Chuck, and it almost seemed like they were running out of great ideas. However, with the incredible season finale, and the crazy new plot twist, I can't wait for the next season!

I would strongly recommend EVERYONE watch this TV Show!

The Preview Was Better: The Ugly Truth Totally Sucked

Save your money. Don't watch The Ugly Truth in theaters, in fact, I don't even recommend renting it ... Maybe watch it when it's on TV for free. Honestly, this movie was completely over hyped; you would figure, that with Katherine Heigl (who is fucking amazing), the movie would totally rock.

Unfortunately though, that really wasn't the case. Pretty much everything funny and entertaining was in the movie. The only really funny part was the salsa scene, where all the dancers were completely off beat from the actual movie. The plot itself was honestly really bland and slow, almost nothing happened at all.

I personally feel like the preview was way better than the film. If you still want to know more about the film, you can find it on imdb or watch the preview.

(500) Days of Summer ... Best Movie of the Year!

So the Friday before I went to Israel I went to see (500) Days of Summer down in San Jose after work with Michael. I'm not gonna get all analytical and such, cuz we all know I hate that crap, but the movie was amazing, and what I find more interesting is why I chose to watch it.

I went into the movie not really knowing much about it. I had never watched a preview, I didn't know who the actors were (well technically I had read their name, but I hadn't connected the names with any specific actors because I'm surprisingly terrible at remembering names and such ... kinda sad actually). Anyways, back to business ... So I was reading the Apple RSS feed and came across this article. So anyways, I read it and was really intruiged so I decided to go see the movie. I think it's one of the few movies I've actively pursued watching that I never searched for a preview of. Sometimes I obviously haven't been able to find the previews, but I didn't even go looking for it this time, and I still haven't watched it.

If you're intruiged in watching the preview, you can do so here.

I guess the best description of this film is that it's not a love story, it's a tale about love. So basically the main character is endlessly in love with a girl names Summer, and we get to see life through his eyes. But rather than just see life, we get little glimpses into his life, bouncing around from day 300+ to day 124, and is you watch the movie, you get to piece together what happened.

I definitely plan on rewatching this movie, possibly even in theaters (text me if you wanna). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.