It’s as tragic as any death, but even today I’m learning from Steve Jobs. The video below, his Stanford commencement speech, has been circulated like crazy, but it’s no less profound. Watch it. Think about it. Evaluate your life, as I am now doing, and insist upon doing exactly the things you’re passionate about doing in your life. Do those things. Do only those things. That terrible “agent of change” is coming for us all. And though I do believe in some manner of something out there — something beyond us, beyond this life — we’re all fools if we don’t live the life we have to it’s utter fullest. It may very well be the only life we get. So I’m going to make damn sure I live the life I want to live. I’m going to stay hungry, and stay foolish. Thank you Steve.

Steve Jobs is, in my mind anyway, the Orville Wright of personal computing. He and Steve Wozniak built the first computer intended for use by regular people, and the world was never the same. Like the 1903 Wright Flyer, it wasn’t much to look at. It barely did anything useful. It’s laughably archaic by today’s standards. But what Steve-squared built in their garage in the late ’70s changed the world just as profoundly as the Wright Brothers’ first 120 ft hop in their flying contraption. Where the speed of the airplane soon shrunk the world for everything from parcel delivery to personal travel, the personal computer — especially with the advent of the internet — has made the world all but 2D. I can have a face-to-face conversation with my friends in Japan because that technology is built into my Mac. All of the innovation that brought us here was not of Apple’s making, but they were one of the first to put the computer in the hands of regular people. Every time Jobs gives an Apple Keynote address, I like to think that it’s as close as someone of my generation can get to listening to Orville Wright talk about airplanes. We don’t have many pioneers of this magnitude left, and sadly, I fear we won’t have Steve for a whole lot longer given his poor health.

I think it’s interesting that just like Apple and Google today, the Wright Aeronautical company of the early 20th century had its own high profile rivalry with the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and its well known founder, Glenn Curtiss. The Wrights (correctly) accused Curtiss of stealing trade secrets off a wrecked Flyer, and spent years of time and piles of money fighting to defend their patents from Curtiss and other competitors. It was not completely unlike the patent wars raging between the big technology players like Google and Microsoft today. Ironically, the Wright and Curtis companies merged 1929, and I wonder if in the long run we won’t see two of the current giants (Apple, Microsoft or Google) join forces to fend off the third.

Steve Jobs’ legacy in the technology world is on the tip of the media’s tongue right now, but let’s not forget that in 1986 Steve Jobs was the angel investor in a little computer animation startup called Pixar. A company, like Apple, that went on to revolutionize its industry, dominate its primary area of focus, and inspire several competitors who do it well, but not quite as well as Pixar does. While John Lasseter is to credit for Pixar’s storytelling soul, he’ll be the first to admit that Steve Jobs played no small role in providing strategic vision for the company. It makes me think of the role Wright engines came to play in the years before merging with Curtiss. It was a Wright J-5c “Whirlwind” radial engine that pulled The Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris with Charles Lindbergh at the controls. That flight not only made Lindbergh the world’s first modern superstar celebrity, but it ushered in the era of commercial flight as we know it. In the years since, it’s commercial aviation that keeps the whole economy of flight (and the economies of the world) on the move.

I agree with most that Apple will live on successfully in Jobs’ legacy. The company’s processes, the top-tier talent, and seasoned leadership team at Apple are not only stable, they’re not stupid. They knew this day would come. We all did. The culture and values created at Apple — its very ethos of doing what it does — isn’t going to change any time soon. As remarkable as Steve Jobs is, and as invaluable as his leadership to Apple has been, he hasn’t done it alone. I’m confident that we’ll see a successful post-Jobs Apple that will not only persist, but will continue to innovate in ways that push the boundaries of our expectations and shape the digital culture to come. Just as Orville Wright was eventually eclipsed by other aviation innovators, the spirit of adventure he helped foster, and many of the aerodynamic principles he helped discover still drive aviation innovation today.

Orville Wright died in 1948, but he lived long enough to see his invention change the face of warfare, commerce, travel and exploration. He lived long enough to know a world without flight and a world in which man flew faster than sound. A decade later, man walked on the moon. I don’t know how much longer Steve Jobs will be with us, but under his leadership, Apple has changed the face of consumer technology. He helped reinvent the computer as we knew it. Then the interface. Then Apple did it all over again with the iMac. The iPod conquered music. The iPhone made our telephones smarter. The iPad overcame the world’s doubts to make us feel like we live in the future. What’s next? For Apple and its “me too” competitors, what will the legacy of Steve Jobs’ leadership be decades from now? Time will tell. In the meantime, Godspeed, Steve, and thank you.

VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread – iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

VIV Mag Featurette: A Digital Magazine Motion Cover and Feature for the iPad from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

When it crossed the Atlantic, the Spirit of St. Louis had a silver nose. The whole plane was silver from tip to tail. The nose panels in particular were fabricated by hand out of aluminum sheeting. Those panels were then brush polished with their signature swirl marks — partly for decoration, but mostly to hide the subtle dents left by shaping hammers and english wheels. In the period photography, even though it’s black and white, it’s easy to see that the nose is not, in fact, gold. Yet as she hangs in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, her nose is a bright gold color. None of the historical accounts, including Lindbergh’s autobiography, explained how the nose of the plane went from silver to gold. It was a mystery, and 15 years ago the internet as we know it didn’t exist. We often said that we should just write the Smithsonian and see if they knew, but we never got around to it.

Today people use Google as a verb and Wikipedia makes the most obscure pieces of information available to your mobile telephone. For some unknowable reason, yesterday I had the thought to search the internet for information as to why the nose on The Spirit is gold. The search engines had nothing for me. Wikipedia made no reference to the nose panels whatsoever. Even the Air and Space Museum’s own website didn’t explain the golden nose. But while poking around, I found a contact form where anyone can send an inquiry to the museum archives staff. So I did! I got an email back a couple hours later saying that my question had been forwarded on to the curator. Less than a day later, I received an email from Dr. F. Robert van der Linden, the Chairman of the Aeronautics Division at the National Air and Space Museum. In his email he said the following:

Dear Mr. Salzman:

The nose of the Spirit of St. Louis is a golden color because of a well-intentioned but mistaken attempt by us to preserve the markings on the cowling.  We don’t know exactly when, but soon after the Smithsonian acquired the Spirit in May 1928, we sought to preserve the markings by applying a clear coat of varnish or shellac.  Unfortunately, over the years, this coating has yellowed with age.  While it has taken on a beautiful golden hue, the color is wrong.  The aluminum cowling should be in its natural silver color.  In the future, when we next conserve the aircraft, we will carefully remove the coating.  This can be done by a painting conservator.  Until then, the Spirit will keep its golden nose.

Sincerely,

Bob

What a fantastic answer! Although it would be great to know exactly when the protective lacquer had been applied, finally knowing the the answer as to why is very satisfying. As far as I know, this information isn’t even part of the exhibit. Not that it’s a big secret, it’s just fun to know things that even the great Google can’t find for you. What’s particularly thrilling, however, is that at some point in the future, the plane will go back to its original coloring. How fun. I’m exceedingly grateful to Dr. van der Linden for his quick, complete and candid response. Mystery solved. With information in hand, it’s now time to update the internet so that other people can find this info too. The moral of the story, support the historical societies that protect the history you care about. Without them, we will forget where we’ve come from and have even less idea where we’re headed.

Photos via Flickr users Rob Shenk and wallyg who were kind enough to share their great work via creative commons licensing.

I think Apple is really onto something here. The form factor looks good, aside from the over-rounded corners. The price is way better than expected. Even the data plans seem reasonable. The potential of this device is almost limitless. It’s ability to completely revolutionize how we use computers is very real. However, unless Apple does some nimble evolution of this device, and fast, it’ll be little more than a giant iPod Touch — not the game changing, revolutionary device it should have been. At this point it’s a great little piece of hardware that’s been fatally handicapped by a handful of terrible choices.

The name
I refuse to call it the iPad. It’s a stupid, stupid name that is too close to “iPod”, sounds stupid coming out of your mouth, and will likely never shake its tampon association. It’d be like naming your kid Adolf and then wondering why he gets made fun of at school. This bone-headed, phallocentric oversight on the part of Apple is major face-palm material and I hope they lose their trademark dispute with Fujitsu and take the opportunity to rename the thing.

The OS
I have an iPhone. I don’t need or want a bigger one. This brilliant little device needs an OS that’s as capable as its interface hardware and the iPhone OS just doesn’t cut it. Is the solution full OS-X? Not necessarily, but if there were a Tablet OS that were closer in function and software support to OS-X it would solve most of the major gripes about the device. It’d be able to run Flash, be able to multi-task, it could run dashboard widgets on the home screen, plus any number of other touch-only UI features that would make people drool. Running the tablet verbatim on iPhone 3.2 OS stinks of laziness in my opinion. Instead of investing in a fully-capable touch computer OS, they seem to have spent all their time developing fancier tablet-optimized iPhone apps. Putting seemingly no extra thought into the OS of the device makes the whole interface seem like an afterthought. They’re merely lucky that it’s as good an interface as it is to begin with. Sure, they’ve created better versions of the photo viewer and the iPod functionality, but aside from screen size this device does nothing of interest that my iPhone doesn’t do already. Meanwhile it lacks a whole list of things that my iPhone can do — make phone calls, take photos, know my exact GPS location, fit in my pocket, etc.

It’ll run apps. Super. App Store integration is great…for Apple. The whole thing frankly stinks of profiteering on Apple’s part — like the only reason the Tablet exists is to increase App Store and iTunes sales and further establish Apple as the mobile content and app platform of choice. That doesn’t bother me ethically, but it bothers me because this device could have changed the world of personal computing in ways it simply won’t without a more robust and intentional OS. Think of the apps that could be written if the tablet knew its actual GPS location or could multi-task! It’s obviously expedient and efficient for the iPhone and the tablet to share the same OS, but I say it’s the biggest hinderance to the tablet’s ultimate potential. The interface, which ought to be the most important part of this device, seems like an afterthought. Look no further than the size/proportion of the app icons to the size of the screen. They’re hopelessly spread out and what looks tight and robust on the iPhone is now disjointed and unintentional looking. It looks like it was made by somebody other than Apple, actually, who ripped off the iPhone OS and crammed it into a bigger device.

No Flash
I’ve never had a major beef with my iPhone’s inability to play flash content. It’s a phone! But on this tablet device, a lack of even basic Flash integration is simply unforgivable. How can Apple claim that this device is now the best way to experience the internet when some of the internet’s richest and most vibrant content is not viewable? What’s so frustrating is that they’re right about the hands-on experience. Being able to navigate the internet with my hands on such a laptastic piece of hardware is a web surfing dream…except for all the stuff I can’t see ’cause it’s in Flash. If big Safari can run Flash, then dammit little Safari should too. The previous hemming and hawing about performance are null and void on this tablet. As much as I’d like to see Flash give way completely to AJAX, that’s not going to happen any time soon and Apple needs to accept that and give me the full internet before they expect five hundred of my dollars.

No GPS hardware
I’m deeply disappointed by the tablet’s lack of a GPS receiver. Putting the Google Maps app on the tablet without location awareness is almost a slap in the face. Here’s this big beautiful map with satellite photos and street view, but if you want to know where you are, too bad? When I saw the maps app being demoed during the keynote, my mind immediately went to my wife and I on a road trip using the tablet to navigate. Geocaching could actually get fun on a device like the tablet. FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook and whatever the next big social media thing turns out to be — they’re all going to be location smart. But think beyond computing for a second. What if you had a docking station for the Apple tablet in your car’s dashboard? It could be your navigation system, your entertainment system, your weather report, all of that and more! But without real GPS location, what’s the point? Why should I take it anywhere? Why should I even own one?

Positioning
I don’t recall where I read this in the flood of coverage today, but I want to give proper credit that the following is not my but someone else’s brilliant observation. Positioning the Apple tablet as something between your smart phone and your laptop does a huge injustice to the device. This is not a netbook killer. By comparing it to netbooks, all Apple does is highlight what the tablet can’t do. It can’t run more than one app at a time. It can’t display Flash content. It isn’t a proper typing platform (although the keyboard dock is a great way to address that). Instead, Apple should have presented the tablet as the ultimate personal media viewer — which it has legitimate potential for being just that. Basically, they should have aimed the discussion squarely at the Kindle and the Nook and not at netbooks at all. Looking at the Apple tablet in contrast to eReaders highlights all its greatest strengths. It has a full color, beautiful display that’s optimized for shared viewing. It can explore the internet in ways eReaders can’t even begin to touch. It’s fast. It plays video. It has an immersive interface and a world of 3rd party add-on applications. It’s price competitive with the most notable eReader of the same size, the Kindle DX. Compare it to a netbook and it’s a loser. Show it next to the Kindle and it’s a rock star. There are some who argue that it’s not a Kindle killer either, but I say it very well could have been if that’s how they’d chosen to talk about it. Sure, it’s not e-ink, but I read a high-quality LCD display all day long. Crank down the brightness on the tablet, and I’m pretty sure I’d still fall asleep reading long before my eyes got bothered.

These poor decisions on Apple’s part make the tablet disappointingly useless in my digital life. I don’t even own a laptop and I’m really struggling to think of how or where I’d really use this thing. It has the potential to be the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Instead, it’s a giant iPod Touch (a device that I also think is pretty pointless in a world where I can buy an iPhone). Do I really need another way to cart around my media and check my email? With an iPhone in my pocket, no, I don’t. But could I enjoy a more personal way to experience that media both at home and abroad? Sure. But Apple’s going to have to do better than this. When the iPhone came out, I needed it. This? There’s a lot I like about it, but it’s too fatally flawed to get any of my money, and I’m really sad about that. I wanted to want this device, and I just don’t. Here’s hoping that just like the iPhone, the software evolution of this device will bring it into full blossom in short order. Until then, keep trying, Apple. You’re so close.

I’ve been stuck in the house with a cold since Wednesday night and hadn’t been on my Vespa since last Saturday. I was itching for some road time. Weather was in the 50s. That’s just cool enough to separate the casual riders from the enthusiasts. Specifically I wanted to investigate Lilydale Road —  a scenic looking side road I’d seen on last Saturday’s ride up Sibley Memorial Highway.

As I waited for the turning arrow at the junction of Highway 13 and SMH, I saw something remarkable across the intersection. I saw something that had seemingly jumped out of the drawing board in my head and on to the road. It was a recumbent trike retrofit with a small gasoline engine. I couldn’t help but wave at the guy and give him a hearty “you rock” gesture with my two outer fingers extended. He laughed and returned my wave. My arrow turned green and I pulled off to the side of the road after making my turn. He pulled over too once the light let him through the intersection and we chatted about our respective rides. His was just DIY fantastic — a brilliant assembly of mostly off-the-shelf parts and a few simple pieces of custom aluminum. He told me about a number of different tinker projects he had going on and the genesis of this one in particular. Apparently, depending on what final drive sprocket he uses, he can get this machine up to 60 mph with the 140cc Honda engine he’s using. Today he had his “40 mph” sprocket installed and was out for a quick cruise after a tire repair curious how well it would climb hills.

He was as much a character as his machine. “I’ll show you.” he said as we pulled away from the shoulder. I’d place this gentleman in at least his 60s. He had mischievous retiree written all over him. We cruised a couple miles and I had so much fun watching his machine do its thing. The rear wheels of the trike had a healthy amount of camber on them, which seemed to really add to stability in the corners. The engine and drive wheel trailed behind eagerly — creating a look that was instantly recognizable as DIY — but really well executed DIY. Most noticeably, the little trike just seemed to get on effortlessly. At no point did it seem like he was hanging on for dear life or having to wrangle it into doing something it didn’t want to do.

We stopped and chatted again and he told me some harrowing tales about a broken throttle cable. The disk brakes weren’t enough to overcome the power of the motor, and he finally had to find his way up onto the sidewalk and ditch it into a hedge. He told this story all too nonchalantly. Great guy, great machine. It’s not exactly what I have in mind to build, but it has my mind racing with possibilities.

The second great part of the ride was Lilydale Road. I soon recognized it as part of the Rattle My Bones history ride route from a year ago. It’s an isolated but smooth little two lane that much to my surprise opened up into a fantastically scenic little river lane. A tunnel of trees gave way to a colorful panorama of the opposite bank of the merged Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. It wound its way along the river and inserted me into downtown St. Paul as though through a secret entrance, right next to the St. Paul Yacht Club. That fabulous route, plus my new tires, equalled total riding bliss. With the St. Paul riverfront sprawled before me, I was pleasantly satisfied with my outing. It was chilly enough and I’m still runny nosed enough that it was time to head home. I retraced my tracks and this little stretch of road is my new favorite route. I’m going to make a point of riding it as much as I can before the end of this riding season. Anybody want to come along?

Music recommendations are always really tricky because tastes vary so widely. Which recordings? The studio sessions? That one live show? That’s why I’m not recommending the music of Jonathan Coulton, per say. What I really recommend is the writing that goes into his music. I recommend his exuberance, his unapologetic nerd-i-tude, how his songs can be simultaneously so funny and so sad.

It would be easy to dismiss Coulton as a comedy singer in the vein of Flight of the Conchords or Tenacious D, but that’s missing the depth of his art, in my opinion. He’s not a comedy act. He’s a singer/songwriter who happens to be really, really funny sometimes. If you imagine David Sedaris as a buoyantly cheery sort of folk singer, then you’re getting closer to the bizarre genius of Coulton. He’s some sort of fantastic, humorist minstrel that’s really difficult to describe and really easy to enjoy.

I describe actor/comedian Eddie Izzard as someone “so funny that he can do european history humor” and it’s true — he can and does. Coulton is kind of like that. I haven’t come across any other songwriters who can write a catchy lyric about fractal geometry like Mandelbrot Set, a downright cheery sing-along about zombies like Re: Your Brains, a love song from the perspective of an evil mad scientist such as Skullcrusher Mountain, or so perfectly capture the plight of what it’s like to write software for a living as in Code Monkey. As I re-read that description, it almost sounds like kids’ music. Trust me, it’s not. Because of Coulton’s joyful First of May, I had to look up the meaning of “in flagrante delicto.” His lyrics are downright chewy sometimes and the complexity of songs like I Feel Fantastic and Creepy Doll reveal new jewels on each subsequent listening. This is not music dumbed down for the masses. These are anthems for your inner nerd. This is music so fun, yet so non-condescending, that you can’t help but have a better day.

I don’t think any further attempt at description would really do JoCo justice, so I’ll leave it at this. If you can scrounge up $12, head over to the iTunes music store and pick up Best. Concert. Ever. pronto. This live performance released in 2009 so perfectly captures his exuberance that I really can’t recommend it enough as the place to start. I can listen to its 20 tracks on nearly endless repeat. I love this album and I’m absolutely thrilled that The Mrs and I are going to see him live in October!

The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
(I didn’t actually play Portal until this month. I know, I’m way behind.)

Jonathan Coulton’s Best. Concert. Ever. on iTunes.

“Illustrator and conceptual thinker Norio Fujikawa gets full-marks for this radical Jetscooter concept. Based in San Fransisco the designer has a penchant for futuristic ideas, with retro styling, and transport innovation that might become a reality in, say 2025. Until then we can only marvel and this creative genius.”

I can’t help but greatly admire Mr. Fujikawa’s vision with this design. It’s such a magnificent mix of classic forms and the jet age, technological optimism. This is the future I want to live in — a future imagined in the ’60s and perfected in our post-modern cynicism. Where can I get one? Sign me up.

See the original post, including more fabulous photographs of the concept.

The E-165, aside from its unfortunate name, sounds pretty impressive. It’s reported to not only match the performance of gas scooters (65 mph top end and up to 100 miles on a charge), but also the price range. With the $1,000 extended battery option (which first of all, how cool is it that there’s an option for that?), the MSRP is still only $4,900 — pricing it only $500 more expensive than an arguably comparable Vespa LX-150. Specs aside, the best thing about the E-165 in my opinion is the design. I’m really, really excited about this bike. It looks like nothing else in the marketplace. It looks like the scooter of the future. If KLD can deliver on what they’re promising, it just might be.

There is only one thing that gives me pause. The E-165 is being manufactured in Vietnam. Let me clarify why this bothers me. Vietnam has some baggage when it comes to scooters. The infamous “vietbodge” restored Vespas you can find right this moment on eBay have given Vietnam a really bad reputation here in the states when it comes to scooters. Perhaps it’s a little harsh to paint an entire country with the bad reputation of a small group of Vespa “restorers.” I have hope for the E-165. Texas-based KLD has partnered with Sufat, who is apparently Vietnam’s top scooter manufacturer, simply to do the assembly on this bike using the NEUE power plant that KLD has engineered here in the states. Beyond that, you can count the number of moving parts for an electric scooter on one hand. That inherent simplicity should, hopefully, make the E-165 a hard bike to screw up.

I can’t wait. A bike that trim and cool looking, with all the torque and power of an EV, could be one really sweet ride. The E-165 is debuting in Vietnam in a few months and hopefully some demo models make it over here to the states sometime soon.

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.