How Designers Fail

Interesting article on SpeakUp:
“…just appreciate the fact that design is all about failure. Every designer I’ve ever met has failed, and failed miserably, and they continue to make a successful career out of failing.”

Random Bits.

I found a repair kit for our Jeep window regulator on eBay, and emailed the seller about whether or not it will fit our model (we have a 2-door and the kit is for a 4-door). I got a detailed response from him last night, and if my memory serves me correctly (I’ve only had the thing out of the door three times so far) the kit he sells will work. I have to wait until the rain passes to tear the door down to confirm, but to have this fixed would make me so happy.

After reposting on Cragislist, I’ve got a nibble on my spare iMac, which means I might be able to liquidate that and turn it into a new set of tires for the Jeep, something else that vehicle desperately needs. How we made it through the winter without sliding off the road into a ditch is still a mystery to me, but the sky pilot has smiled on us so far.

I also found a used Yakima rack system on Craigslist at ¼ retail, which I’m hopefully picking up this weekend. The plan is to bargain shop for a used roof pod to free up internal space in the cabin (or mount the spare on the roof, whichever is cheaper) so that babyhauling becomes easier.

My experience with iPhoto’s printing service, especially with black and white prints, is that color consistency seems to be a moving target. I sent two pictures out to be reprinted last week and the difference between these and the first batch is huge—where the first batch had a bluish hue, these are much warmer. Now I need to go get some more IKEA frames to put these in, as well as the OBEY GIANT poster I’ve had in my office since December.

Having problems with OS 10.5 not picking up a DHCP connection? Frustrated because it happens every time you restart? Try this solution.

In System Preferences, Go to Security and click the Firewall tab. Change the top setting to “Allow all incoming connections”, and then click Show All at the top (thus closing and saving the Security pane).

Go back to Network, click on whatever method you’re using to connect, and then the “advanced” button at lower right. When the pane drops down, click the “Renew DHCP Lease” button at upper right, then wait to see if you pick up a new DHCP address (something starting in the 192 range). If you’re successful, great!

Click “OK”, go back to Security -> Firewall and turn the firewall back on.

If you’re not… sorry, bucko. You’re on your own.

GoCraigsy.

A few months ago, I had the good luck to do some basic design work for an iPhone app (an icon, splashscreen, and some minor beta testing, but not the website) and it’s now available through the iTunes store: GoCraigsy is an app which will create and post new Craigslist listings. If you’ve got an account (and even if you don’t, I believe), you can create an ad, populate it with location and Google map data based on your phone’s location, take and add photos with the iPhone camera, and post the whole thing to the Craigslist city of your choosing.

It will also let you browse your current listings based on supplied account information, which makes it invaluable for people who have a ton of stuff to get rid of which doesn’t fit in one listing.

Overall, it’s clear there was a lot of thought put into how the overall user experience works; it’s designed to get the user to the places they need to be with a minimum of fuss and tapping around. Taking a picture is easy, and the ability to flip and delete photos is included; there’s a field for boilerplate text, which means tedious junk like contact and terms info can be entered once and forgotten. And, my suggestion to add horizontal text entry was included, so it’s that much easier to type longer entries.

My only beef with it is that it’s difficult to find through the iTunes store; you’ve got to know what to search for exactly in order to find it, but that’s an Apple issue.

If you have an iPhone and sell a lot of stuff on Craigslist, you can’t beat the price. Go try it out!

Jeep regulator repair kit

Looking through eBay for replacement Jeep parts, I found a $50 repair kit for a $500 OEM replacement part. I’m seriously considering this solution instead of trying to source a new regulator.

Ugly Doll, Pretty Girl

I got Finn a pair of Uglydolls for her 6-month birthday last week, and they arrived on Monday. She’s next to Moxy in the photo, who she likes to play with when she’s awake, and she has Ox to keep her company while she sleeps.

Out for a walk with the girl

Sunday afternoon, Finn took me for a two-hour walk around the neighborhood to look at the flowers and budding trees.

Still Alive.

Yeah, I’m here. Not a whole lot of time to write. The weekend is coming up, though. I hope it’s sunny and warm.

Inquisitive Face.

News Recap.

1. AIG names recipients of bailout money. I understand that AIG underwrote all of these shit loans, and that somebody’s got to pay out the money to keep the banks afloat, but jesus christ, man, why wasn’t the company regulated to capitalize more than it was? Which leads me to…

2. AIG’s Insistence on bonuses raises ire in Washington …as well as everywhere else.

AIG Chairman and CEO Edward Liddy said his company was taking steps to limit compensation in AIG Financial Products — the British-based unit responsible for issuing the risky credit default swaps that have brought the company to the brink of collapse.

While I understand that the bonuses are written into the contracts of these employees, we, the American taxpayers, now own most of this company. Fire their asses, and give them nothing.

3. Cheney: Hey, Don’t Blame Us For Mess

While discussing the question of fault, Cheney suggested that Democrats on Capitol Hill had tried to block his administration’s efforts to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Right. You couldn’t fix that with a majority in the House and the Senate? Tool.

Yet it was a lobbying group with GOP ties that convinced leading Republicans in the Senate to kill a Republican-sponsored reform bill in 2005. And Politico reported that it was Republican holds in the Senate that delayed a reform bill in late 2007 that would have allowed the terms of mortgages to be rewritten.

4. Possibly the best piece of non-journalism ever committed to tape: Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer. This will take a few hours out of your day, but it is well worth the time if you’ve seen your 401k drop by 1/2 in the last six months. (I can’t find an easy link to the whole series, so do a search for Cramer on the Daily Show site).

Dinnertime!

Babyconferencing.

Finn catches up with Grand via the web. (I have a shot of her doing this with my folks too, but they are so dark as to be invisible).

Digital pinhole camera

MAKE: Blog: $0 digital pinhole camera. I am so totally gonna try this when I get home.

Weekend Recap.

70° days are rare in Maryland this early in March, so this weekend we tried to balance spending as much time as possible with Finn and as much time as we could outside in the fresh air. Saturday was dedicated to long-overdue yardwork, which consumed a good portion of our afternoon, but, what a beautiful afternoon to do it!

I made the mistake of wearing work jeans, and after a half an hour raking leaves off the foundation, I had to switch to shorts because I was too hot. We had five inches of snow last Monday. I am surprised I did not blind the pilots of overflying passenger jets with the sunlight bouncing off my pale knobby knees.

Anyway, while Finn slept off her second breakfast, Jen and I filled twenty bags of leaves from the back of the house, the driveway bed, and the odd area under our back porch, which seems to attract all of the loose leaves in this zipcode like a great sucking vortex.

Once that was accomplished, we three got a bite to eat, changed our diaper, brought the swing outside, and commenced to cleaning out the sad, dilapidated tangle of weeds that was our garden while Finn supervised. I cannot describe to you the sense of satisfaction it gives me to look out on that bare patch of earth and know the neighbors aren’t cursing us under their breath anymore.

While raking up the leaves, I reflected on the sad harvest we reaped last year (mainly due to the toll taken by varmints), and decided that this would be the year I modify our greenhouse to grow vegetables properly. Doing some research, I found online suppliers who sell polycarbonate glazing and ventilation systems, which will be an up-front investment and take some engineering to install, but should turn our useless sealed hothouse into a productive greenhouse.

Meanwhile, I straightened up the pots and barrels and soil and made way for seedlings.

Then, I moved out to the garage and straightened up as much as I could around the Scout without actually diving into doing something on it. I did break down and disassemble some of my new parts–but I’ll go into that elsewhere.

Sunday we got the girl up early—or is that the other way around?—and made preparations to take a long walk around a lake in Columbia before doing our grocery shopping. After her first bottle of the day, this child, who almost never stops moving, did something she’s never done with me before—she leaned her head down onto my chest, under my chin, and quietly nestled up against me for three of the longest and best moments of my life.

Once we got out onto the trail, she was fine for the first fifteen minutes or so, but soon decided she wanted to be facing forward, which meant we wound up carrying her like a football for two and a half miles. Once out of the stroller, she was her usual observant self, appraising each new passerby with a taciturn stare, careful to warn away strange ladies who, no doubt, were plotting to rush over and pinch her chubby pink cheeks. Touch my face and I will projectile vomit all over your track suit, that glare said. And it worked.

Jen and I are afraid nobody will ever see the inside Finn, the girl we get to see who is giggles and smiles and gets so happy her entire body spasms repeatedly like she’s hooked up to a car battery. When she’s around us, she’s Miss Congeniality, and when she’s out in public, she’s Steve McQueen, staring down a hostile world with those steel-blue eyes and a .44 magnum. I will show you proof that she can smile:

After our return to the car, we hightailed it over to the grocery store, where Mama stayed with her in the parking lot while I hustled around and got our shopping done. A quick trip to the health-food store, and we headed home for a three-hour nap and some more yardwork: the front hedge got cleaned out, the greenhouse got a final sweep, and the toolbench in the garage got cleaned off.

About the time I was finishing up for the day, Finn woke up for dinner: avocado and pears. MMMMMMMMM, avocado. And then it was bathtime, and as soon as she was diapered and dressed, it was time for sleep. I’m exhausted just writing about it all.

Too Legit.

60° and Sunny.

This weekend is supposed to be warm and bright, and it can’t come soon enough. The snow melted off in yesterday’s balmy weather, revealing piles of dead leaves I still have yet to rake. I’ve been ignoring the yard since last fall, and the bill has finally come due; doing some basement straightening last weekend, I found an entire box of yard waste bags just waiting to be used. I think we will also have to get Her Highness outside for an afternoon in the yard—maybe while we clean up the garden? I predict the fresh air will do us all good.

In other news, I traded some time with a long-time client for a used but shiny G4 tower that was sitting in their old production room, unused and unloved. After a five-minute drive swap last night, it replaced the ancient G3 tower we’ve been using as our music server, and now paves the way for future data storage. (The 11-year-old G3 BIOS doesn’t recognize drives over 120Gb in size, which sucks when I’ve got two 250GB drives sitting idle and in an age when terrabyte-sized drives sell for less than $100).

Finally, I’ve been obsessing over getting out into the garage and working on the Scout. I’m going to do some test runs with the wire wheel on some of the spare parts I got last weekend, vacuum the floors and bed, and take stock of what I’m working with a little better. My plan is to run up the engine for a while until the leak appears, then try to determine where it’s coming from. If it’s just the gasket, that should be easy to order and replace. If not, I’ll lay hands on a used a water pump in the next week and swap that out instead.

Mama Loves Chub.

Late To The Party.

I’m using Adobe’s CS3 suite pretty regularly on my MacBook Pro now, and let me just say, it is a GOOD THING. Boot times measured in seconds, faster UI interaction, and, best of all, I don’t have to waste minutes of my day waiting for older, non-Intel applications to wake up and run through the emulator.

Other than that, it’s nose to the grindstone, baby.