Eric Portelance

Sad to hear that Handsome Furs have called it quits (as a band,...

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:40:00 -0400

Handsome Furs, Washington D.C., 2009

Handsome Furs, Washington D.C., 2009

Handsome Furs, Washington D.C., 2009

Handsome Furs, Washington D.C., 2009

Sad to hear that Handsome Furs have called it quits (as a band, and as a couple, it seems).

They put on a great show and I had the chance to see them four times over the past few years. The above shots were taken in Washington, D.C., where I saw them for the first time. It also happened to be their second wedding anniversary.

I’m looking forward to Divine Fits, the new band from Dan Boekner and Spoon’s Britt Daniel.

attentionsurpluspodcast: Last week’s talk with Lisa Charleyboy...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:34:43 -0400

attentionsurpluspodcast:

Last week’s talk with Lisa Charleyboy inspired us to try an activity she mentioned: making a collage of images representing things we’d like to have or pursue in the future. We spent an hour or so before this week’s show with some good friends, some bristol board and a stack of magazines, cutting and pasting photos to produce a sort of mood board for our lives. On the episode, Sean and Eric discuss what they learned from the process and the end results.

Eric’s dream board

Sean’s dream board

We also mention:

10Q, the online “question vault”

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

A very special and personal episode of my podcast, Attention Surplus, this week. We did a creative exercise about visually mapping out our goals and feelings about our lives over the next few years. It was incredibly powerful. In the show, we discuss how we approached it and what our initial feelings were.

The Beekeeper. The third video in the excellent Made by Hand...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:20:05 -0400

The Beekeeper. The third video in the excellent Made by Hand series is just as good as the first two. Worth a watch.

Coney Island, New York, 2012.

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:31:26 -0400

Coney Island, New York, 2012.

NYC Taxi Lights and User-Centered Design

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:43:36 -0500

I was intrigued and pleased to read on Gothamist this evening that New York is getting rid of the confusing lights atop taxis and replacing them with a much simpler system in the coming months.

The author is skeptical that the current system needs replacing, but I strongly disagree. As a new resident of the city, I’ve found the system to be very confusing and frustrating. Anecdotally, observing even seasoned New Yorkers trying to hail a cab has been amusing. They don’t seem to understand the system much, either.

The current system has four states, actuated by two separate sets of lights — the medallion or taxi number, and the two “Off Duty” badges. Those four states are:

Both lights off – The taxi is occupied
Both lights on – The taxi is available at the cab driver’s discretion
Only “Off Duty” lights on – The taxi is not available
Only the medallion light on – The taxi is available

If you’re standing on a busy avenue during rush hour, trying to find an available cab, there’s only one thing you care about: Is this cab available?

Half states or “maybe available” don’t matter to customers. In fact, it promotes poor customer service. Likewise, the difference between a cab that is off duty and a cab that is occupied is completely inconsequential.

This is a system that was designed with the system designer’s needs in mind, as opposed to the end user’s needs. I’m pleased to see that the needlessly confusing system is being replaced by a straightforward system that is used in many other cities around the world. Two states. One light.

Light on – Available
Light off – Not available

The Mountain. Beautiful time-lapse photography.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:02:04 -0500

The Mountain. Beautiful time-lapse photography.

A short film about the Prime Burger Restaurant in midtown...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:38:12 -0500

A short film about the Prime Burger Restaurant in midtown Manhattan, which has been in operation since 1938.

One of the best episodes of Attention Surplus yet. A discussion...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:14:15 -0500

One of the best episodes of Attention Surplus yet. A discussion about vocation and purpose. What are you at heart? What do you want to be when you grow up?

attentionsurpluspodcast:

“What do I want to be when I grow up?” That’s the question on the cover of the little book that first drew our attention to this week’s guest. Pat Thompson is a leadership consultant, Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Massey College.

She visited our living room studio to talk about vocation and good work, the value of being stuck, and the vital importance of reflection and good conversation.

The notebook, available at Dark Horse Espresso in Toronto, contains other deep questions and thought-provoking quotes — and, of course, plenty of space to reflect.

Links for this episode:

Pat’s website One Alpha Avenue

Frederick Buechner, writer and theologian

Wendell Berry’s essay “Conservation is Good Work” (PDF)

Parker Palmer, author and activist

“Is Your Job Your Calling” (Fast Company)

“The Way It Is” by William Stafford (“There’s a thread you follow”)

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

Dr. Brian Goldman’s TED talk from this year’s...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:02:32 -0500

Dr. Brian Goldman’s TED talk from this year’s TEDxToronto event has just been featured on TED.com. It’s a great talk and well worth your time

Yosemite HD (by Project Yosemite)

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:52:59 -0500

Yosemite HD (by Project Yosemite)

Unbelievable. I only just found out that there is a Kickstarter...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:57:36 -0500

Unbelievable. I only just found out that there is a Kickstarter project to fund an HD restoration of Manos: The Hands of Fate — one of the worst films of all time, and subject of a classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode. This clip shows some of the early results.

Hey, look! I’m in one of Ren Bostelaar’s daily...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:26:12 -0500

Hey, look! I’m in one of Ren Bostelaar’s daily photos. If you haven’t checked out his 300 project, it’s well worth your time.

He’s always been a great photographer, but I think this project has forced him to become and even more interesting and creative photographer.

renbostelaar:

#110: 20-1-2012 - Shadows, Toronto

New week, new episode of North America’s favourite podcast...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:50:29 -0500

New week, new episode of North America’s favourite podcast about shame, doubt, and regret. ;)

attentionsurpluspodcast:

This is as close as you’ll get to New Year’s resolutions from us: Eric talks about how he came to write a self-critical personal manifesto for 2012, and Sean offers his theory of a “threshold of distasteful actions” as one of the roots of procrastination.

Next week, we dig into Eric’s manifesto.

We mention:

Sean’s New Year’s Eve exercise for recognizing your accomplishments

Episode 42, with Jon Crowley

Episode 38: Valuing What You Do

the Inbox Zero method

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

"You have great ideas, but the only way you can feel ok about not realizing them is when the only..."

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:31:43 -0500

“You have great ideas, but the only way you can feel ok about not realizing them is when the only hurdle is yourself.”

Shut Up And Play The Hits. A trailer for the upcoming...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:42:09 -0500

Shut Up And Play The Hits.

A trailer for the upcoming documentary about LCD Soundsystem’s final show. I’m really excited to see this.

Move. Eat. Learn.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:04:00 -0500

This is what travel is all about.

My Favourite Albums of 2011

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:36:00 -0500

In keeping with a somewhat regular tradition, I’m documenting here my favourite albums of 2011. If you haven’t listened to these, you would be doing yourself a favour to check some of them out.

M83 — Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Girls — Father, Son Holy Ghost
The Strokes — Angles
Bon Iver — Bon Iver
Real Estate — Days
The Kills — Blood Pressures
Handsome Furs — Sound Kapital
Holy Ghost! — Holy Ghost!
My Morning Jacket — Circuital
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks — Mirror Traffic

Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas. One of my favourite films and...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:32:00 -0500

Nastassja Kinski in Paris, Texas. One of my favourite films and an incredibly memorable performance.

I was inspired last night by Neven Mrgan’s post What...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:33:56 -0500

I was inspired last night by Neven Mrgan’s post What iMessage did to my text-messaging usage and decided to do my own quick analysis of sent and received text messages over the past few months since Apple introduced iMessage in iOS 5.

As it turns out, my usage has been declining rapidly since October, and I believe this month will continue that trend — to the point where I may eventually consider downgrading or canceling my text messaging plan altogether. September is an aberration in my overall usage as I was too busy organizing the TEDxToronto conference to do much else that month.

Simple Computing or: Why Closed Systems Need to Win

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:10:02 -0500

Over dinner this evening, my family and I began discussing some issues they’ve been having with their computers. The details of these techincal issues aren’t particularly important, but it’s worth noting that they all stem from multiple devices or components that aren’t playing nice together.

And so, as I tried to explain to my parents what might be causing these problems, my dad began (rightfully) to rant about how complex computers continue to be, and how little they have evolved from the days when he was spending entire nights installing Windows 95 from 13 floppy disks. Most computers still require an incredible amount of technical know-how to operate, and even minor problems are often extremely frustrating to diagnose and resolve.

Novice computer users are often surprised that geeks like myself also get frustrated when computers don’t work the way they should. Why? Because I realized years ago that, although I love learning about and tinkering with the guts of a computer, at the end of the day I just need the tools to work with me instead of against me. I don’t buy computers becasue I want to endlessly tinker with them. I buy them because they’re supposed to solve problems and make my life simpler. And yet, in many cases, they don’t.

My father brought up two interesting analogies — the automobile and the television. In both cases you can go out and purchase a low-end product and it will function in essentially the same way as the high-end product. The car will get you from point A-to-B, and the television will turn on and display video from an input source. Sometimes these devices have issues that require maintenance, but they are generally just as reliable as their high-end counterparts. This makes sense.

In both cases, televisions and automobiles are also not particularly user-servicable. In order to diagnose issues, you need to take them to a trained professional. Yet most of the time, you can get in your car and expect that it will reliably get you to your destination. There’s even complimentary roadside assistance to ensure that any serious issues are resolved with the least amount of discomfort.

What about computers? My parents own a high-end Windows-based laptop that is substantially more powerful than anything they have ever owned before. And yet it doesn’t help them do the things they needs to do any more reliably or frustration-free. Error messages are just as cryptic, they’re still not able to reliably print to a wireless printer, and email server issues are causing real headaches. They are having to compromise and find painful workarounds to these solutions.

The difference between a computer and a car

Traditionally, computers have been open systems in which a vendor licenses an operating system to a company that assembles a computer from various off-the-shelf and custom parts. Both those companies, and the individual component manufacturers, try their best to account for all potential hardware and software variations, but the systems have been fundamentally designed with flexibility in mind.

It should, in theory, be able to support thousands of potential printers, external displays, hard drives, networking components, and other peripherals. It should also support them through third-party software packages that are either installed by the computer vendor or the user. As such, there are likely millions of possible configurations that must be supported — some of which weren’t even on the market at the time th computer and operating system were conceived.

Therefore, we would consider most of the computers ever designed to be open systems. They are made to accept and work adequately with tens of thousands of devices and millions of configurations.

Automobiles are far less complicated. To begin, they are closed systems — meaning that there are only so many different inputs the owner has the capacity to modify. It may be possible to select from a few different packages when purchasing, but it will be almost impossible for the average person to upgrade major components in the car after purchase.

Would we expect a car to be just as reliable if every owner could change the engine, muffler, carburator, or one of the dozens of on-board computers? Would we expect them to be as reliable if Honda, for instance, licensed its designs and components to third-party companies who could then modify them in dozens of ways and sell them directly to consumers?

No. And yet this is the situation most people have been dealing with since the dawn of the personal computer. The sole manufacturer who has been relentlessly pursuing a closed-system approach to computing is Apple, with iOS-powered devices like the iPad and iPhone thus far being the purest expression of that mantra.

Why simple must prevail

Most computer manufacturers have always tried to have it both ways — they want to make the user interface intuitive and powerful while offering consumers choice and flexibility. These are fundamentally opposed concepts. A system cannot be infinitely flexibile and remain reliable and simple.

Closed systems like iOS will prove to be the future of computing. Even Microsoft, historically the greatest champion of open systems, seems to have understood this with the concessions they have made in Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming Metro UI in Windows 8. And consumers have been voting with their wallets, given how quickly the market has embraced Apple’s new breed of mobile devices.

As with cars, there will always be a market of tinkerers who want freedom (as-in free speech), but these should be a small minority of users. Computers must serve their users and become useful but unobtrusive tools. They will only do that if their designers embrace human-centered design, and make hard compromises to ensure those solutions are vertically-integrated and simple from a user’s perspective. Simple means saying no to the realm of unconstrained possibilities, and only closed systems can achieve that goal.