Nathaniel Salzman

For my birthday this year, my gift to myself was taking the day off of work. With that time all mine, the trick was figuring out what I wanted to do with myself. My car conundrum is not yet resolved, so I wanted to drive a Honda Insight and a VW Jetta TDi. The Honda was very interesting and obviously very advanced, but like all Hondas, was seriously lacking in soul. The Jetta TDi was shockingly powerful and pretty fun to drive. I can’t go so far as to call it sporty, but it definitely has more character than your average small sedan. Both were interesting, yet neither were compelling enough to open my wallet.

The other b-day activity I wanted to undertake was to make something. Anything. I miss making things with my own two hands. The online DIY community, the Maker movement, and especially Mythbusters has really inspired me to make making much more a part of my daily life. But what to build first? I’ve always loved the trebuchet, an ancient, elegant, and imposing siege weapon. I’ve seen full-scale replicas that throw pianos and have always wanted one of my own. A few weeks ago, I noticed this kit from ThinkGeek.com. I almost bought one, but then thought “I could just build one.” I tucked that into the back of my mind and then on Monday I noticed that one of our neighbors was throwing out a broken crib. The particle board slats were perfect and plentiful, plus the longer pieces would make a perfect throwing arm. So armed only with scrap and a few hand tools, I constructed my very own miniature flinger of doom! The only bits I had to buy were odd nuts and bolts and a small door latch I used for the release mechanism. It’s just perfect for hucking tennis balls or golf balls. It’s my own slice of medieval history and in ancient scale goodness, it’s even powered by tiny boulders. I’m still dialing in the sling, as the release point is still very late, but it’s lots and lots of fun.

DIY catapult, DIY, history, maker, science, trebuchet

Today The Mrs and I got together with a handful of other scooterists for a fresh installment of what was the highlight of last riding season. We met Joe — aka “Kennylibido” — at the Square Peg Diner in Minneapolis for the first of many test rides of the route for the “big ride” at Rattle My Bones this year. This serves a couple of purposes. First, we’ll ride the route to make sure it’s adequately simple, scenic, and lengthy. The route will get tweaked a few times and then locked in. Once the route is set, we’ll ride it at least a half dozen times to familiarize the core blocking crew with what intersections we’re going to have to “lock up” in order to get a mile long caravan of scooters through without incident. And lastly, it’s a great excuse to get together with really good riders and run a nice tight formation over a long route.

Our route today was about three and a half hours — about 80 miles according to Joe. Weather was a little sketchy, with periods of drizzle throughout and the overall cloudy gray motif. It didn’t outright rain on us until The Mrs and I were on our way back home. We shed riders here and there as the ride went on, and had one incident of a flat tire. Thankfully, a spare was generously offered up by another rider in the group.

High points
Riding a great route most of which I’ve never ridden before. It just re-emphasized how much great urban riding there is in the Twin Cities. Also, seeing Doug’s gorgeous new orange Vespa GS. That guy knows how to spend the winter. I thought it would be difficult to top his hot rod caliber red Vespa Allstate 90, but his GS definitely does. Also, one of our compatriots rode a Piaggio MP3 250. I was riding stagger just behind her and watching that bizarre front end do its thing was really, really interesting.

Low points
Getting rained on sucks. Period. It didn’t rain that hard and we didn’t even really get wet, but the wet road just kills my confidence in the road grip. It’s not that big a deal, but it’s just not fun at all.

Scooters Piaggio MP3, rattle my bones, scooter rally, Scooters, Vespa, Vespa GS

Today I rode the same road four times. I’m not complaining, it’s just the way it went down. The point of the excursion was to attend Los Vesparados: The Art Of The Scooter, an art show that featured art inspired by scooters and scooter culture. The Mrs and I headed out about mid day to check out the show, held at the Northrup King Building, home of the NE Minneapolis art district. The posters for Los Vesparados didn’t list a specific time, so we just assumed the show ran all day. Turns out we were wrong. The show started at 6:00, and it was 1:00. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if the rest of the studios had been open, but the place was kind of a ghost town. It was a Saturday afternoon and chances are everybody was up late the night before. With plenty of time to kill we headed home to take our dogs to the park.

We haven’t parked our dogs since moving across town to Eagan, so we weren’t sure where to take them. We decided on the Minnehaha Falls dog park, as it was the closest and, well, I knew how to get there. I expected yet another fenced in field hemmed in by trees. What we found was the most magnificent city park I’ve ever been to, dog or no. There was no field. There was no fence really. What the park did have in spades was space, solitude, and dogs! It’s just acre after acre of trails and what looks like the enchanted forest from every fairy tail movie you’ve ever seen. Go deep enough, and the trail opens up onto a gorgeous sandy beach on the Mississippi River. It’s the western shore, so the whole beach — completely overrun with dogs of every size — was in shade. Fantastic.

We did finally make our way back to Los Vesparados and it was well worth the return trip. Many of the normal Twin Cities scooter crew were in attendance and tons of great scooters and motorcycles showed up. I was so glad to have a good camera on hand. Lots of great art and David Harrington was making the rounds with his microphone recording an episode of the JustGottaScoot.com podcast. [UPDATE] Dave actually interviewed me briefly and that bit is the first segment of the podcast.

High points
Discovering the Minnehaha dog park — which is now my favorite place in the Twin Cities. The show was great, and I was very happy to procure some prints.

Low points
Lots of drama with our beagle at the dog park. Nothing bad, just lots and lots howling!

Scooters, art art, beagle, dogs, los vesparados, Scooters, Vespa

I’ve noticed something in the past few weeks that isn’t at all a new phenomenon, but seems hyper present in our marketplace right now: the artificial confrontation.

On Friday Palm launched their highly anticipated smartphone, the Pre, just as Apple was likely to (and subsequently has) reveal the latest version of the iPhone. So naturally, there are a flurry of tech blog articles and news source stories about “Is the Palm Pre the phone to unthrone the iPhone?”

Microsoft just launched Bing, its answer to Google search. WolframAlpha’s computational engine also just launched a few weeks ago. In both cases, the press coverage, even on NPR, has almost entirely been along the lines of “Will Bing unseat Google?” or “Is WolframAlpha finally the Google killer?”

I know it makes for good copy, but why are so many comparisons of late framed as though we live in an either/or marketplace? Why does the Palm Pre have to “beat” the iPhone? Why does Microsoft Bing or Wolfram Alpha have to “kill Google?” Why can’t the Palm Pre simply be a capable smartphone? Is market dominance the only measure of success anymore? Truth is, the Pre doesn’t have to sell more units than the iPhone in order to be a success. That’s a very good thing for Palm, now that the iPhone 3Gs has debuted to fairly unanimous chants of “long live the king.” The Pre simply has to sell enough. Likewise, I can search Bing, and I can ask Wolfram Alpha more meaningful questions, but that doesn’t mean I have no room for Google. Why have we reframed the discussion as confrontation instead of competition?

My objection to this is primarily that it doesn’t actually reflect the reality of the marketplace. Using the Pre as an example again, I don’t think anyone at Palm anticipated that they’d convert a huge number of current iPhone users, or even significantly cut into new iPhone sales. So in this case, comparing phone to phone is not a really relevant to the buying reality for most of the people shopping for a smartphone. The real factor is network carrier. If I’m with Sprint, the Pre is really appealing — not because of exactly how it stacks up against the iPhone, but because it’s a capable smartphone that’s actually an option for me. Switching networks is a huge barrier if you’re still under contract. That also works both ways. Only the earliest of first generation iPhone users are even approaching the end of their original 2-year contracts, and many re-upped and upgraded to the 3G last year — so it’s not like they can easily or cheaply hop over to Sprint, even if they’re in love with the Pre. What’s the reality then? The reality is that now Sprint users have a great smartphone option that they didn’t have before. New customers have the best options of all, but I’d wager that isn’t who Palm is really going after here. I bet they’re mostly after the folks who don’t want or can’t have the iPhone, and that’s exactly who they should be after. There’s great success in being #2. Just look at Avis. Or even look at a different part of the tech industry — personal computers — where Apple is the stellar #2 player in the marketplace and probably always will be. They’re not out to kill Microsoft, because that’s not really a practical measure of success.

I really do think that there’s room enough for everybody — or at least room enough for lots of competitive choice in the marketplace. Competition is great, but is this artificial sense of confrontation really necessary? Competition leads to more choice, to more innovation, to downward price pressure. If we only allow one winner, that leads to monopoly, to higher prices, and technological stagnation. Being top dog may have made Microsoft a lot of money, but it’s done it few other favors. The real goal then, I think, is not to be the best. The goal is simply to be great. Except perhaps olympic athletes, few who strive simply at being the absolute best at something actually achieve it. Rather, people of passion, determination, and vision with a desire to do something great often inevitably find success. My favorite example of this is the TV show Mythbusters. Here are five people doing what they really like to do, and it happens to make for really good TV. In business, I think that if great sales, rather than sales dominance is the focus, then you’re likely to succeed regardless of what percentage of the marketplace is yours. So let’s forget about being better and focus on being great.

Advertising, Design, Tech business, competition, iPhone, Palm Pre

I’m not saying that I’ve made up my mind, but if I were going to order another Cooper S it’d probably look like this. It’s what I think is the perfect blend of nice options and economical restraint. It’s also a spec aimed more at comfort than performance. 

• Pepper White w/Black roof and bonnet stripes
• 16″ wheels / all-season tires
• Premium / Cold packages
• LSD
• Cloth seats, cream interior accents, piano black dash, interior chrome package
• Sat Nav (pricy, but it cleans up the center stack very nicely)
• Driving lights, rear fogs

See the full spec in the MINI Configurator (note: won’t work in Safari)

Cars Cars, MINI

One sunny autumn afternoon when I was about 13, my dad and I were out collecting canned goods door to door as part of a Thanksgiving charity drive. We strolled house to house, our paper grocery bags filling with dusty boxes of mac ‘n’ cheese and squatty little neglected cans of tuna. The sun was getting low in the sky and as we entered yet another cull de sac, I saw something I’d never seen before.

“What the heck is that?” I asked, pointing toward an open garage across the street.

“Ooh! That’s a Mini, son. C’mon, you won’t see one of these every day.” My dad replied.

Twenty yards from us was an open one-car garage with a faded blue classic Mini Cooper inside. In the dim light of the garage, I could just make out its squatty little stance and Union Jack roof graphic. I’ve inherited a big soft spot for british motors, as my dad is the original owner of a 1969 MGb GT. Dad talked to the owner about one thing or another, but I was transfixed by this groovy little car and wondered what the hell it was doing in northwest Louisiana. As we left, I was nothing but questions. I was sad to learn that emission standards and bumper height regulations meant that the Mini was only imported for a few years. Still, I was determined that someday I’d simply have to own one. Read more…

Cars Cars, MINI

DIY, Scooters Scooters, Vespa

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On a lazy and otherwise cloudy and cozy Sabbath, The Mrs and I needed to just get the heck out of the house. With a couple of hours daylight left, we shot across the Mendota bridge and up the Mississippi River Parkway. I just love the Grand Rounds. They’re such a great default route. We finally turned around in the shadow of The Guthrie Theater to head home, but would have kept going with a little more daylight. The temperature was just cool enough to be refreshing and the crisp air made for such a relaxing cruise up the parkway.

High points
The whole ride! I’m still getting used to the Vespa finally being able to corner correctly. It’s a very nice adjustment to make. Also the hilarity at how many guys in their cars feel the need to prove to me or them that their car is faster than my scooter. Really, man? Hilarious. Especially when it turns out that they’re NOT.

Low points
Running out of daylight and having our hopes of a Star Trek movie marathon dashed when Best Buy didn’t have them. Oh well.

Scooters Scooters, Vespa

Today was the first day this week with a scoot-worthy weather forecast. I’d been relegated to my cage since my first day at the new job on Monday, but used the car commute to scout out the best route for the 17 miles from Eagan to Eden Prairie. Riding my scooter adds 10-15 minutes to my commute depending on traffic, but at three times the gas mileage of my MINI it’s totally worth it. That and my Vespa is possibly the only thing more fun than the MINI. In a lot of ways, my Vespa Grantourismo is to motorcycles what my MINI Cooper S is to cars. Small, quick, efficient, stylish, retro-fabulous, and just not what people expect. Love it.

High points
Making it to work on time and working out what really does seem to be not only the quickest way to/from work, but a relaxed, even scenic route in places. Zipping down these side streets I really do feel like I’m getting away with something. They are my very own urban shortcut. Also, as part of work, I got to tour the Cambria quartz countertops production facility. Very cool stuff. It was like an episode of How It’s Made, but live! It’s a lot like making brownies, actually. Only instead of a tasty treat, you get ridiculously durable synthetic stone. 

Low points
Feeling rushed in the morning is no fun. I need to get up and going a little earlier so that I can really enjoy the ride.

Scooters Scooters, Vespa