Sony Cybershot DSC-T1 5.1MP | October 16, 2004

A few friends and family members have been asking my advice about digital cameras lately. I think everyone is gearing up for the holidays and wants to be ready to capture the perfect picture OR wants to think about it as a gift to themselves. Once again, Sony proves that they have the design and functionality in the bag. Not only is the T1 thin and light, it has a generous preview screen, flip down lense protector and best of all, it's made mostly of metal. That's right, METAL!! In an age where everything is cast plastic, the look, feel and durability of metal raises the bar beyond all except for those few boutique product companies.

If I didn't already own a Nikon D100, I would seriously consider this camera. And in case you're still wondering how many megapixels to get and what it all means, here's my quick cheat sheet:

2-4 mp - great image quality for enlarging up to 8 x 10
4-5 mp - overkill if you're not going to consistently be printing enlargements above 4 x 6
5-7 mp - semi-professional quality and expensive.

Cupcake | October 15, 2004

For my birthday, J bought me a 105mm MACRO Sigma for my Nikon D100. This ihttp://www.tmobile.com/images/products/230789/large_front.jpgs the first picture I shot with it. By the way, the best cupcakes in the world (besides Magnolias in the West Village) are found at Party Favors in Coolidge Corner, Brookline. The store is tacky and you have to watch out for old ladies cutting you off in line.

Cuba Picture | October 14, 2004

I was viewing some travel pictures the other day and this one caught my eye again. This is an apartment builing in Havana, Cuba. Check out more pictures in my photo gallery.

Eclectic Shopper | October 10, 2004

Living so close to numerous Whole Foods Markets almost provides no reason to ever shop at Shaws or Shot & Shop (as my kids call it) again, save for the occasional junk food urges consisting of Coke, Oreos and Wonder Bread. At first glance, a Whole Foods Market will strike you as a supermarket that’s missing all the name brands. At second glance, it strikes you as a boutique market that has better (and more expensive) brands, which are often noticeably tastier. It’s not until 10th or 12th glance that you start to notice the really unique items that are often prized by veteran visitors with an appreciation for the eclectic-the few pieces of gold among a vast rubble of rock. However, they’re not easy to spot. They’re not in the same categories. They’re often out of stock. And they never, ever go on sale. You’ll never see free samples of these products and their lack or popularity keeps them from having end cap appeal. Following are the 5 items that I pickup every few weeks from WFM.

Aisle 8 - Spanish Clementine Juice-Imported from Spain, this bottle of Juice is not from concentrate and differs from Orange juice in a few ways. It’s slightly sweeter, has a velvet texture and a longer pleasant aftertaste, It’s as good warm as it is chilled.

Aisle 4 – Lima Fleur de Sel (Salt of the sea). Like Milk and cheese, unprocessed Salt naturally has a top layer or crema that is both too expensive and too low yielding to be harvested by mass production standards. Lima’s Fleur de Sel is hand skimmed from the top part of Atlantic salt beds before standard production begins. It resembles small snowflakes, has a saltier taste and adheres to food unlike the “sand” version of salt we all use, which drops off.

Aisle 6 – Manuka Honey is a New Zealand product and is made from bees that feed solely on the Manuka trees. It has two layers; the first resembles the consistency of typical honey (golden and thick) and the second is more white and creamier. It’s great as a spread or in tea. It’s also less sweet which I find more palatable.

Aisle 8 – Lorina Sparkling French Limonade is a product of France. It’s as close to what authentic drug store carbonated soda use to taste like. They achieve this by first using all natural ingredients, with the most important being pure cane sugar (not fructose syrup). They also use oils along with the real limejuice for flavor. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that the carbonation is added using very small air ducts which make the millions of bubbles have a smoother texture on the tongue. The alternative texture would be that of Polar Seltzer Water (any flavor). The bottle even comes with an old fashion clamp down stopper for keeping all that great carbonation under wraps.

14 Movies I Want 2-C | October 8, 2004

I've been looking for a good movie review site for some time now. I finally found one while I was blogging. My thanks to Andy.

Kung Fu Hustle
Ju-On: The Grudge
Alexander
The Incredibles
Raise Your Voice
Saw
House of Flying Dagger
New Police Story
Shark Tale
Wimbledon
Shaun of the Dead
Head In The Clouds
Hero
Cellular

31 Flavors | October 8, 2004

Baskin (31) Robbins built a great brand back in the 70s. Offering 31 Flavors was like crack to ice cream lovers, especially when most establishments were only serving the basics (vanilla, chocolate, coffee, pecan, you get the idea). As an ex-BRphile", I will let you in on a tip-The best two flavors are French Vanilla and Chocolate Fudge. They’re creamy, rich and memorable. Best of all, they only cost $.50 more. Supposedly, more eggs and chocolate are used in the process.

Of recent and due to corporate and real estate efficiencies, many BR’s have physically partnered with Dunkin Donuts (the worse donuts on the planet). Sort of like a subway and Steve's Ice Cream setup. Two establishments sharing resources and maximizing efficiencies, while offering two distinct, non-competitive, complimentary products. While the business concept is solid, it's awful for dedicated BR fans. Any Baskin Robbins that is partnering with DD only offers selected flavors, not the full 31. And wouldn't you guess...French Vanilla and Chocolate Fudge are not in the offering. It's off brand and crazy. They shouldn't be allowed to keep their full name in instances like this. It should be "Baskin Robbins (15)" or "Baskin Robbins-Outlet center-formerly serving all 31 flavors".

At the risk of digressing, check out Turkey Hill Ice Cream? What Madison Avenue brand guru came up with that naming?? Do they replace the their mint chip ice cream with chunks of Turkey? Is the Carmel swirl really Gravy swirl? What’s even more disturbing is that it really is from Turkey Hill, CT (home of Martha Stewart) but who cares! Caviar is simply eggs acquired from cutting open the bellies of particular fish but you don’t see them calling their $75/lb gourmet product “Gourmet Eggs from Fish Bellies”. Why would you name an ice cream after a holiday that conjures up thoughts of stuffing, gravy, football, family-dysfunction and of course, Turkey.

If anyone knows of a Baskin Robbins that serves all 31 flavors (the one in Harvard Square no longer exists), please email me. Below, I have taken the liberty of sharing their flavor list. You should try each one. I guarantee you'll come to love ALL their flavors. Attention high cholesterol eaters–try the sorbet instead.

• Jamoca® (coffee)
• Mint Chocolate Chip
• Jamoca® Almond Fudge
• Pistachio Almond
• Strawberry Cheesecake
• Pink Bubblegum
• Pralines 'n Cream
• Gold Medal Ribbon
• Cherries Jubilee
• World Class® Chocolate
• Oreo® Cookies 'n Cream
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Chocolate
• Peanut Butter 'n Chocolate
• Chocolate Chip
• Very Berry Strawberry
• Rocky Road
• Old Fashioned Butter Pecan
• Vanilla
• Chocolate Fudge
• French Vanilla
• Nutty Coconut
• Reese's® Peanut Butter Cup
• Key Lime Pie
• Love Potion 31
• Tax Crunch
• Strawberry Cheesecake
• Quadruple Chocolate
• Rainbow Sherbet
• Red Raspberry Sherbet
• Daiquiri Ice

Added at a later date...

• Berries N' Banana
• Chocolate Chip (no sugar added)
• Espresso 'N Cream Lowfat Ice Cream
• Maui Brownie MadnessTM
• Chocolate Almond
• Black Walnut
• Lemon Custard
• Macadamia Nut
• Rum Raisin
• New York French Vanilla
• Chocolate Ribbon
• Creole Creamcheese Ice Cream
• Orange Sherbet
• Pink Bubble Gum

Annual Apple Picking | September 26, 2004

I’ve been blogging on and off for about 3 years now. My friend, Will #2 (not to be confused with Will #3 who’s dead or Will #1 who I met first), got me excited about the idea of channeling my energies toward authoring and posting thoughts that probably would never be read by anyone. With friends like that….

They say the exercise of personal writing is a solo event that’s for the author and not intended for any particular audience. My blog, Hoverblog, is mostly a resource for other designers and creative people looking for interesting and useful links and information. Mostly means: everything but the home page, which is typically a rant and rave monologue. Even though I post, I never expect anyone is reading it although that would be OK…I think.

So you can imagine my surprise when of all people, my sister-in-law, Linda, mentioned during our annual apple-picking event, that she frequents Hoverblog. I forgot exactly how it came up but I was both excited and shocked that I actually had met a real Hoverblog reader. Not sure exactly what the draw is, but I imagine much of it’s f r e a k s h o w appeal. I guess if she’s entertained, I’m doing something right. She ribbed me about it for a few minutes as retribution for an earlier family incident in which I made her laugh in someone's face with one of my famous take-no-prisioners remarks. Linda is one of my favorite in-laws--she tells it like it is and you would be crazy to cross her, but she has a heart of gold and is a great mother. You can usually find us hanging together on the sidelines during ANY Evans B-day party sing-a-long.

Well here you go Linda. You made it into my blog. I’m sure you’re already plotting your revenge but while you do, think of the bright side…I decided against the inclusion of your picture.

Pain Lane | September 25, 2004

Anyone who uses the Mass Pike enough knows that The Fast Lane should be renamed “The Pain Lane”. This joins other public works blunders such as “The Big Ditch” and The MBTA (Mass Bay Tunnel (not transit) Authority). Maybe I’m over expecting but I thought the idea behind an “express or fast lane” was just that, fast and simple. Not so. The concept is great but Massachusetts’s execution is embarrassing. Let me explain how it should work.

Go to Denver, NYC, LA and their version of “The Fast Lane” is truly an efficient, time saving event. Maybe I’m gently retarded when it comes to Public Works process and strategy but isn’t the main idea to keep traffic moving at full speed in a dedicated lane? In Boston, your regular travel lane automatically turns into a “Fast Lane” 100 yards prior with no early signage systems. The result is hundreds of cars cutting each other off in a lane jockeying frenzy. Cash-only cars getting out of fast pass lanes and visa-versa. To add insult to injury, you must slow down to 5 MPH when going through the detectors only to once again, jockey again on the other side of the toll to get back into the correct lane.

The whole prepayment process is screwed up as well. One would think that giving a debit or credit card number and having your tolls deducted would be simple enough. We all have auto deduction transactions such as health club fees, student loans, etc. Why is it that Turnpike Authority wants you to send in a check and have you work toward deducting from it rather than just pulling from a debit or credit card every month. Then there wouldn’t be a need to keep sending in checks, usage would probably go up and there wouldn’t be a need for that annoying yellow light that says “low balance.”

The subway authority is even stranger. Boston’s idea of an “Express Train” is a train that is does not to stop for 4-5 continuous stops but slows down to 2 MPH while passing through those stops (slow enough for even a grandmother to jump on/off safely if they opened the doors). And did I mention that it’s not on a dedicated track? So the train is still in traffic (behind 6-10 non-express trains), and often stands by at non-designated stations for several minutes but won’t open the doors. So people on the platform don’t understand why there is this train sitting there that won’t let people on or off. So they start thinking there is something wrong and looking for emergency personnel…

Dragon Memory | September 4, 2004

Thanks to Apple, style is playing a gigantic role these days in the computer and electronics market. Just one look at the new iMac or iPod should be a strong indication that there may be no limit to how far product design and brand will go to differentiate itself. “Intel Inside” was coined many years ago and was one of the first successful “ingredient brand” slogans to permeate every household in America and Europe. What use to be grouped under the hardware manufacture’s brand, was now taking on a brand promise of its own and becoming even more powerful than the beige boxes they were coming in. Hats off to Intel.

There is an even cooler player on the market these days. It’s Geil USA and they produce memory DIMMs. What Intel is to chips, Geil USA is to memory…but on acid. Most memory manufacturers are wrapping their DIMMs in different color aluminum to dress them up but Geil has launched their series of “Golden Dragon” memory line-possibly the best looking and packaged memory on the planet. They come in a Chinese-like case that’s velvet-lined and the chips are gold plated with a sketch of a dragon that has two tiny red led lights for eyes….and yes, they light up when the chip is inserted. Even if the looks don’t kill you, the performance will. Geil are considered by some, if not many to be in the top several performance memory manufacturers. This puts them right alongside Kingston, OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin, and Twinmos. I’m buying some in the next couple of days for my system but it will be a couple of weeks until I actually install them as I’ll be showing them off to family and friends.

Garden-Level Restaurants | September 2, 2004

What is it with underground or "Garden-Level" restaurants? I just can’t eat in them. It feels like a basement no matter what the decor. Every now and again, I dine at Morton’s Steak house (for special occasions), a high-end chain restaurant located on Boylston Street. They have great decor and $35.00 steaks, but it still doesn’t change the fact (or feeling) that it’s in the basement of a bank. Maybe it’s me, but is there something about eating below the water table that dampens ones appetite? Comments welcome.

Product Design & Sony | August 26, 2004

I was in CompUSA the other day doing my bi-monthly walk-through and briefly stopped at the “gadget counter”. I usually don’t stop but I’m currently in the market for the new Treo 610 and wanted to see if it was out yet. The reason I don’t usually stop is the very same reason that I vomit whenever I sit in an American made car-allergic to cheap non-thoughtful, unintuitive design wrapped in plastic and formaldehydes. While product design has gotten better as of late (Ipod, HomepPod, Nikon), it’s nothing compared to the way products use to be designed. Closely check out some of the Rios or Canon cameras and you’ll realize that they put way too much effort and resources into over-designing them to the point where they no longer provide an intimate experience. Whatever happened to less-is-more? Sony recently opened a few stores under a new name and brand (name forthcoming) in order to push high-end products that were more closely tied to their original brand promise (beautifully designed and functioning products). I’ll try and find the original article that ran in the Circuits Section of the New York Times describing the stores mission and locations. Supposedly, you need an appointment and the medium price for any specific product is about $4k.

Bi-Entrance Flow Etiquette | August 11, 2004

No one seems to know the rules as applied to navigating bi-entry establishments. To define, this is a store that has two separate doors. Most Starbucks have them. When I was young, the hallways of my middle school had a dividing line going down the middle. The rule was simple; one always walked on the right for each direction (much like driving in the states). I've been wondering why most people want to exit an establishment through the entrance door (right door). Do people feel that compelled to exit the same way they entered? This isn't spelunking or under water caving you know.At an early age, we all learn about our rights and lefts. In most cases, if you stay to the right, you're going to be OK. There one exception to this etiquette. On such occasion that one of the doors is locked, one has no choice but to use the same door for entering/exiting. This process is called "Mono-Batilinek flow". Otherwise known as ABSURD! Why do stores always lock one of the doors? Is it to cut down on heat or AC loss? Doesn't it all come out in the wash when a single door is left open for twice as long? Being I frequent many Starbucks, I'm starting to make a list of the ones that are suffering from Mono-Batilinek flow and crossing them off my list.

Below is my black list:

Coolidge Corner
277 Harvard St
Brookline, MA 02146

874 Commonwealth Ave
Brookline, MA 02215

473 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02146

Brookline-Washington Sq.
1655 Beacon Street

Chestnut Hill
1154-1160 Boylston Street

LifeGraph | August 8, 2004

During the last few months, I've been working on getting my portfolio site together (hoverpod.com). It's a daunting task-sort of a library of congress for all the work I've been doing over the last 10 years. Like any good site, they're is always the "about me" section that contains the obligatory resume. Just when you thought you had updated it for the last *$*#) time, it's time to do it all over again! For almost any profession, it's a must but for a creative they're is always that drive to do something a little more creative and "out there" that haunts us to no end.After cafeful thinking and some creative brainstorming, I decided that eventual employers should see the real me...the whole me...the "show" from the beginning and thus I created a LifeGraph charting my life post-womb to present. With icons, color, shading and a good legend, this LifeGraph does a pretty good job of contexualizing employment, education and other interesting facts (such as the boss who hated me and my dance with death) along my entire life cycle. Sort of an Information Architecture of my life.

It was an interesting exercise. I'd actually forgotten half the jobs I've had and aligning my various job to points in my life actaully brough some clarity to why I chose particular paths. Check it out at hoverpod.com and keep a look-out for the flash version.