Lets BlogOff: Guilty pleasures: what’s your favorite show on television?

This is my first entry into the Lets BlogOff challenge:

I have never been a big fan of TV. I have an ever changing schedule, and I am never around when my favorite shows are on. About four years ago, I got rid of TV altogether. Instead, I watch shows online. I am going to be outing myself as such a “guy” here, but my list of shows is rather short. Family Guy, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. Once or twice a week I will catch these shows, but sometimes weeks go by and I don’t even watch them.

I am a huge fan of cars, I always have been. In my opinion, there isn’t one good car show on American TV. Why? Advertising. When you have a car show and your biggest sponsor makes the car that you are testing, how can you say bad things about it?

Well, a few years ago, I was playing around on YouTube and I came across this video

After watching this clip about five times in a row, I realized something, I was laughing hysterically, yelling at the computer, and I was a bit informed. But most of all, I walked away from that video with an emotional response towards that car. Rather then some dry host regurgitating a fact sheet about this car, Jeremy Clarkson was able to make me emotionally attached to this incredible hunk of metal.

I needed more, like a junkie I opened every browser window on every computer I have (and if you read this blog, you’d know that’s a lot) and downloaded every Top Gear episode that I could find. For hours and hours I watched old episodes of Top Gear. I have never seen super cars driven this way before, tire smoke, sliding sideways, and hosted by three guys who are just “cocking about”. The chemistry between these guys is amazing. Jeremy Clarkson's loud and boisterous personality, James "Captain Slow" May, and Richard Hammond who whitens his teeth.  The challenges are hysterical too: Stuff like “Can a Lotus outrun a helicopter gunship?” “Can this Audi race up a mountain faster then a man?” Or one of my favorites: The Peel P50.

The show is biased, and completely unscientific. They think that anything British is a “scaled down version of God” and that anyone who drives an American Pickup wants to marry their sister. I love it though, and here’s why:

Any car guy, no matter what they say its all about the facts. Any argument between two car guys, before it deteriorates into comments about the other one's parents involves angrily spewing out horsepower facts.

I don’t own any “super cars” so when I look at them, I used to think “This one’s got 40 more horsepower then that one, it must be better” and so on... Until one day I got to ride in two supercars in one day. One was a Ferrari F430. This is an AMAZING car. As precise is a dentist drill, fast as anything, refined down to the smallest screw. The engine sounds like a perfectly tuned symphony. As a technical achievement, it’s a masterpiece. The next car I rode in was a Lamborghini Gallardo. In every measurable sense, this car is worse then the Ferrari. It’s loud, it shakes, it’s hot, small, hard to see out of, and the ride was brutal. But I loved it. Why? From the moment it started up, I was laughing like a little kid. The engine, once it starts just howls and shakes. It’s excessively loud. When you finally thread yourself in the interior, you can turn your head and right over your shoulder you can look at the engine behind a glass panel, shaking around as you drive. The noise this thing made was incredible. Despite the fact that it was shattering my spine as we drove, I was laughing so hard. There are even scoops on the engine cover that pop up like guns from a tank to cool the engine off, AND you can pop these up at the push of a button just to show them off. It’s kind of like flexing the muscles of your car!

Despite the Lambo being “worse” I walked away from that ride with a huge emotional attachment to that car. This was years ago I rode in it, and even now as I write this, I am grinning.

So why do I love Top Gear so much? Because they can convey really well this emotional attachment they have to cars. Every time I watch that show, I grin. Do I learn many facts? Probably not, but that’s not the point of super cars, and Top Gear seems to be the only show in the world that gets this. I love Top Gear, and it’s certainly one of my guilty pleasures.

Sketchup's Grandfather

Just the other day a friend of mine sent me this video.  Its a video of "Sketchpad" developed in 1964 by MIT.  It is a 2d and 3d drawing application that is run off a computer that looks to be the size of an entire room.  As a hand draftperson back then, they must have looked at this and thought that these MIT nerds were crazy...  If they could only have seen the future.

If you thought that was cool you should check out some of the related videos to this one.  Seeing this reminded me of all of the Microsoft Kinect hacks that have been happening since the hardware was released.  If you aren't aware, Microsoft Kinect is a 3D camera that you can add on to your XBOX 360.  The 3D camera makes YOU the controller, rather then a joystick or WiiMote.  To get an idea of how this works, check out this video:

Microsoft has been making the Kinect open source so that anyone can "hack" it to control whatever they want.  Check out these videos to see what folks have been coming up with:

All of those hacks have been done with an inexpensive piece of hardware and just your average home computer.  Add in a dash of Mountain Dew and Hot Pockets, and an episode or two fo Star Trek and you've got yourself a hack.  Its amazing what we can do today with such available technology.

Hopefully in the near future we'll be modeling with our minds and our hands, instead of a mouse and a keyboard!

Reality Distortion Field

Ok, I've got to vent about Apple here. But before I tear into them, let's start with a brief history.

Apple has always been hip and innovative. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started selling computers in the mid-seventies out of a garage. The whole idea behind these computers was that they were completely open source. You built them yourself, and programmed them yourself.

As Apple grew and grew, they became the "Alternative" computer. PC's were for those in suits, and Mac's were supposed to be for the non-conformist, open-minded free thinkers.

Apple, for years, has been a niche market computer. I have always thought they were great. I am typing on a nice MacBook Pro right now. Since Apple's business model is a "vertical stack" meaning they develop the hardware and the software, they are quite nimble in terms of being able to innovate. This has resulted in some great products over the years. I am a huge fan of Macs because of their ease of use, and reliability.

Then in 2007 the iPhone came out. I don't have to tell you, but it was a pretty big deal. Apple was profitable before, and now because of the iPhone they have more cash then they know what to do with.

I think all of the success at Apple has gone to their CEO's head. Take a listen to Apple's latest earnings call. And then strap in for an angry rant.

Ok, so lets break down some of Steve's comments. First, he says that Google calling its platform "Open" is disengeniuos. This couldn't be further from the truth. Lets look at Apple's iOS operating system. It's a completely closed eco system. You can only use it on specific Apple devices. As a developer, you are only allowed to use certain features of the phone. Your only method of distribution is through Apple's App store. Your apps can only get on the App store if Apple says it's OK for them to be on there. If you've been paying any attention over the past three years, you know that Apple exercises its right to remove apps from its app store for a variety of unfair reasons. I don't know about you, but this seems like Draconian control to me. It's Apple's way or the highway. Apple used to lockdown their app developers in NDA's so that they couldn't even talk to other developers about their apps!

Then there is Google Android. Google gives its Android software away for free. Anyone can use it on any device they can shoehorn the software into. Google provides an app store, and also allows apps to be sold though other app stores, and even directly off of developers' websites. In a nutshell, you can sell an app to an Android device anyway you want, with or without Google's help.

As a devoloper, you also have access to the entire phone. Do you want to make an app that will replace features that the phone already has? No problem, just write it. Apple would smite you to hell for even thinking about that!

Google's Android is a lot like Windows. Anyone who can write software can do anything they want with it. The only real difference is that Android is free, and Windows costs money.

This is the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion field at its best.

Steve also goes on to say that Android is fragmented. He's a little right on this one, but it works well. HTC and Motorola sell phones with customized versions of Android on them. I have used both, and they are both very easy and pleasant to use. The user doesn't need to be a "Systems integrator". That is complete bullshit. These phones are just as easy to use as Apple's conveted iPhone.

Steve Jobs also called out the devoloper of TweetDeck, a Twitter app for iPhone and Android. He said that TweetDeck had to make only one version of its software for Apple, and 244 versions for Android. This is completely untrue. See this Tweet from the TweetDeck CEO

In fact, not only did he Tweet this, he was quoted as saying that it only took two people to create and deploy their app for Android. Does that sound like a nightmare? Two people create and deploy an app that will work on many more devices then its Apple varient will? And these developers don't have to worry about Google approving, or disapproving their app. Google lets the public do that.

Even Andy Rubin jumped into the fray. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is the "father" of Google Android. He responded with this tweet:

This is the command line used where any developer can build its own version of Android.

I think all the success and fame has gone to Apple's head. Steve Jobs has to get his head out of the clouds and look around. His company's arrogance and obsessiveness may work in their favor now, but with more and more "open" platforms being offered, I'm not sure how long it will last. Once I made the move to Android, I realized that open is the future. I like freedom of speech, and since most speech is electronic, I like an open platform to do it on. Apple has jaded me, and I don't think I am alone.

I'll continue to use my MacBook. Anyone can develop for Mac OS, and let's face it, Mac's are better than Windows machines in my opinion. As far as mobile devices go, I'll stick to the open ones, no matter what the OS is. Until Apple releases its grip on iOS, you can count me out.

I'll leave you with one last thing, back in 1984, when Mac was the "Alternative, Free thinkers" computer, they ran this incredible commercial. You can see that the runner represents the Apple user, and the "drones" are all PC users. It's funny looking at that commercial now and I can't help but think how the roles have reversed.

So what are your thoughts? Open, or closed?

Destroyed in Seconds

I am not a destructive person by nature... But the other day I was getting frustrated because I just couldn't get this design I was working on right. I was about to get up from the computer and go do something different when I thought of something that would be a great stress reliever: Destroy my new design right in the computer!

In Sketchup, there is this wonderful physics simulator plugin called "SketchyPhysics". It's now in its third iteration.

SketchyPhysics is based on a video game physics engine. It can simulate a lot of real world variables like gravity, magnetism, buoyancy, and others. It allows you to make things called "Motors" and "Servo's". I'll let YouTube do some talking here. The following is the video I made after installing SketchyPhysics.

This isn't exactly the most useful application for kitchen designers, but it certainly put a smile on my face after working on this design for hours and not really getting anywhere. It took me only a few minutes to setup this scene. First, you flag all the components as something you want to be able to take part in the "Physics" of your model. Next, I made an invisible ramp, and set the giant boulder on top of it. When I click start, the boulder rolls down the ramp, and smashes into the cabinets.

I have also used this plugin to simulate the workings of a hobby CNC machine that I built. If you open that model in Sketchup, and have SketchyPhysics installed, you can move the machine about on all three of its axes. I used this to check for clearance before I built the machine.

Now, to see some real examples of what SketchyPhysics can do, check out these videos:

So, if you ever need to take out some frustrations, simulate a robot, or an assembly line, this plugin can help you out!