All projects: Gel, Jobs, Good Todo, Games, Uncle Mark, Blog, Bit Literacy
Archives / January 2009
NYT on self-publishing
"We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind," says the CEO of Lulu, self-publishing company. Overall an interesting NYT piece on the economics and prospects of self-publishing. Good summary:
For some authors, the appeal of self-publishing is that they can put their books on the market much faster than through traditional publishers.Of course, authors who take this route also give up a lot. Not only do they receive no advance payments, but they also often must pay out of their own pockets before seeing a dime. They do not have the benefit of the marketing acumen of traditional publishers, and have diminished access to the vast bookstore distribution pipeline that big publishers can provide.
And the average number of sales, quoted by one self-publishing outfit, is 150. (Not sure why the article didn't mention LightningSource, which is the company I used for Bit Literacy.)
Geoffrey Canada and Harlem Children's Zone featured in the WSJ (he gave a great talk at Gel 2006; video is here).
Fascinating peek at how Hollywood targets movies to audiences:
The collective wisdom is that young males like explosions, blood, cars flying through the air, pratfalls, poop jokes, "you're so gay" banter, and sex--but not romance. Young women like friendship, pop music, fashion, sarcasm, sensitive boys who think with their hearts, and romance--but not sex (though they like to hear the naughty girl telling her friends about it). They go to horror films as much as young men, but they hate gore; you lure them by having the ingénue take her time walking down the dark hall.Older women like feel-good films and Nicholas Sparks-style weepies: they are the core audience for stories of doomed love and triumphs of the human spirit. They enjoy seeing an older woman having her pick of men; they hate seeing a child in danger. Particularly once they reach thirty, these women are the most "review-sensitive": a chorus of critical praise for a movie aimed at older women can increase the opening weekend's gross by five million dollars. In other words, older women are discriminating, which is why so few films are made for them.
Older men like darker films, classic genres such as Westerns and war movies, men protecting their homes, and men behaving like idiots. Older men are easy to please, particularly if a film stars Clint Eastwood and is about guys just like them, but they're hard to motivate. "Guys only get off their couches twice a year, to go to 'Wild Hogs' or '3:10 to Yuma,' " the marketing consultant Terry Press says. "If all you have is older males, it's time to take a pill."
Popling is a site "for people who want to learn, but lack motivation." (via) Tiny instructional tidbits on different topics. Interesting extension of snacky culture online - who has time to read an email when there's a 140-character Twitter message awaiting? Who has time to learn a full-fledged skill when there are tips-n-tricks sites aplenty?
I talked to a successful book agent in New York recently. "Everyone has ideas, but they're all two inches deep," she said. "It's hard to find depth today."
In praise of old truths
One of the many memorable moments of this week's historic inauguration was this part of President Obama's speech:
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.
New challenges and new tools, with a return to old foundations.
I would say the same thing about creating good experience. Especially in the technology field, every week brings a new trend, a shiny new gadget, and new language to talk about it all. People call it "innovation," and it's good and necessary to keep moving forward. But it's not the whole picture.
If we want to do good work, we have to stand on old ground. To truly succeed, the new, the shiny, and the innovative all depend on old - I'd even say ancient - truths.
• Empathy for the other. (User, customer, visitor, patient, student, etc.)
• Genuine intent to create something good. (Not simply to turn a quick buck.)
• Long-term commitment.
• Integrity of vision. (As opposed to opportunistic trend-hopping.)
• Respect for past learnings, no matter their age.
These are truths that undergird all good experience work. In some cases, even the old tools can endure as the right choice. (ASCII text editor, anyone?)
But I'm personally looking forward to this season of new things, that will bring change - even as we "return to these truths." Here's to hope.
- - -
Once you're done watching all the Gel Videos, take a look at the National Film Board of Canada's new site, nfb.ca - with tons of animations and other films available for your viewing pleasure. (Standout picks here.)
Choosing art over fame
Robert Kobayashi has created art for over 30 years in downtown Manhattan.
Never heard of him? He cares primarily about art:
He gave up long ago on trying to sell himself to galleries. He remains unfazed by the lure of fame even as, over the years, he watched many artists he knew gain recognition and become, as he put it, "big shots."
A Kindle trick changes the reading experience
I recently read the novel "The Pillars of the Earth" and discovered a new trick - on the Kindle, Amazon's digital book reader.
It's something entirely basic and simple in the digital world, but readers have had no easy way to do this, to date, with print-based works. Any e-book reader worth its salt should be able to do it.
"Pillars," if you don't know it, is a huge bestseller from Ken Follett, who otherwise is known for adventure novels - "Code Zero" and that sort of thing. This book is set in 12th century England and involves the building of a Gothic cathedral. The paperback was making the rounds in my office, and I had just bought the Kindle and thought I'd try it out.
And the book - well, I'll say it's a fun story, and the characters are vividly drawn. Fine literature it is not, but that's not what Follett is promising, so fair enough.
On the other hand, with all respect to Mr. Follett, where was the editor who smooths out the text? I empathize with Follett, filling up 400,000 words - you're bound to tap out a cliche or a bad metaphor here or there - and that's why one needs an editor. I couldn't detect one in this book.
The phrase that got me was like a stone in my shoe - noticeable at first, then irritating, then prompting outbursts.
It was "his heart in his mouth."
This is how Follett described a character who was nervous or anxious or frightened. It's not the most refined metaphor to begin with, but there it was - and then a few pages later, someone else's heart was in his mouth - and then, next chapter, another heart in another mouth - and again - more hearts, more mouths - until I finally finished the book and thought, just how many times did Follett use that ONE metaphor in a single book?
Which brings me back to the Kindle.
Digital technology changes the experience of reading books. What might otherwise have taken hours, to scour the text for an irritating phrase, now takes just a few seconds.
And the answer is: 13. Actually 17, if you count the four instances of "her heart in her mouth." (It seems that men are, on the whole, a lot hungrier for coronary snacks.)
The Kindle takes nice screenshots, and here's a representative one of the search results page, for a "heart in his mouth" search:
I don't mean to pick on Ken Follett - he wrote a fun book that's obviously very popular. My point is that the Kindle makes it harder for authors to get away with using a crutch.
And Follett is far from the only author guilty of the practice. A few years ago, before the Kindle, I read a Pulitzer-prize-winning book that had a cliche - the SAME cliche - on almost every other page. I'd reveal it, but I can't yet do the trick to prove my point; it's not digitized for the Kindle. (Yet.)
The question is, will these digital advances force novelists to change their writing style? I can't wait to see. My heart is in... well, you know.
- - -
Oblique Strategies, created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in 1975, now lives on Twitter, sending out a new thought-starter every hour.
(via drawn)
Dick Cavett on insults with wit. Meanwhile, this week PBS debuts its six-part series on American comedy.
Apple introduces revolutionary new laptop with no keyboard. (from the Onion News Network...) thanks, Margot -
For 31 years there's been a room full of dirt in Soho. It's an art project installed in 1977, and the same curator has tended to the room for 19 years.
No photos are allowed of the room, as it's meant to be experienced directly.
What's wrong with this user research?
A scene in the style of Saturday Night Live.
Setting: Offices of Jack and Stan, owners of a popular spatula ecommerce website, spatula-forever.com.
Stan: OK, I'm ready to move forward with our redesign.
Jack: Really? Shouldn't we do some user research first?
Stan: Whoa, partner, already done. Handled it this morning.
Jack: That's... uh, that's pretty fast. What did you find out?
Stan: We need more teal.
Jack: Teal. You mean the blue-green color?
Stan: Yes, teal. Lots more teal. And also a 3-D flythrough of something cool.
Jack: A flythr- ..wait, what kind of research was this?
Stan: I simply asked users what they wanted, and this is what they said.
Jack: People said "teal and a flythrough", really?
Stan: Yep, pretty much. I gave them a list of everything they could ask for - favorite colors, favorite features, that sort of thing.
Jack: A list.
Stan: Yes, like I said. I emailed a bunch of users and said, here's all the colors you can have on the website - which would you like more of? And here are all sorts of cool features, like a 3-D flythrough of something cool - which would you like to see?
Jack: And people liked teal, and the flythrough.
Stan: Yeah. And a Facebook group.
Jack: You asked if they wanted a Facebook group?
Stan: Everyone's on it, Jack. Are you on board or what? Yes, I asked if they wanted a Facebook group.
Jack: We sell spatulas, Stan.
Stan: The users have spoken, is all I can say.
Jack: Just curious, what's the flythrough of?
Stan: I was thinking either an Egyptian pyramid or maybe Boston City Hall. Either way, award-winning architecture.
- - -
Exercise for the reader: what (if anything) is wrong with this picture, given that Stan reached out to users to get their input? And what would you like to see the 3-D flythrough of?
Fun Stuff 2008
(Also see past annual roundups: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.)
Finally, remember that Good Experience Games has a lot more to explore, which I don't include on this list.
- - -
2008 Fun Stuff Winner: Beatles-tribute band singing Led Zeppelin's "Stairway"
Nine Runners-up:
• Cakes that never should have been made: first this, then this
• All-time classic: Weird Al's "White & Nerdy"
• Great short animation about procrastination
• A breakup that sugar water companies could learn from
• SpongeBob actors overdub classics
• Dads and kids swap places in photos...and here are grandparents and babies
• For married people only: "Oooh, I wanna make weekend plans..."
• Fun rap video from way back in '94, Lucas with the Lid On
• Here Comes Another Bubble, nicely done parody video
- - -
All other Fun Stuff entries in 2008 (posted throughout the year in the email newsletter):
Baby's evil eye:
http://www.break.com/index/baby-gives-the-evil-eye.html
Studio photos from the '70s and '80s:
http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html
Paper airplane flies above Manhattan (tx, boingboing.net):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZmUaFBCoa0
Tony-b, a fun virtual DJ machine:
http://www.tony-b.org/
Backwards singing a well-known tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbkNxYaULBw
Fun calendar with headshots:
http://www.humancalendar.com/
A good thought for the day - why Kevin Kelly is optimistic:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/010288.php
This is one crazy bike trail:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1797566
Map of "last places" on earth:
http://tinyurl.com/2d642n
This is off-the-charts geeky: balrog math. I'm impressed.
http://tinyurl.com/23sx8a
Impressive badminton point:
http://metacafe.com/watch/472036/amazing_badminton_rally_at_aeo_07
Video games seen in Hollywood movies:
http://www.mameworld.net/movies/index.html
Gel speaker Charlie Todd and his Improv Everywhere agents recently
went to Grand Central Terminal and stood still for five minutes.
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/
Neat form to help pick your presidential candidate:
http://www.dehp.net/candidate/index.php
Truth in fast-food advertising:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/010311.php
Several Oscar-winning animated shorts, viewable online:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/010330.php
Fun color illusions:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/08/color-tile-optical-i.html
For the next bad joke in the office... (tx, kottke.org)
http://www.instantrimshot.com/
Bullfrog ballet (thanks, boingboing.net):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKcztOR6UYM
Steve Martin in Smithsonian Magazine:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/funny-martin-200802.html
An alternate opening to Star Wars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z25t-PQDn5A
Whale spill (warning, graphic photos):
http://www.truckspills.com/whale_spill.html
(Part of the larger truckspills website, tx to boingboing.net)
http://www.truckspills.com
Trains of Western Australia. The Web is now complete:
http://www.webace.com.au/~chook/trains/pn2.html
Fun film re-enactments:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/03/among-brandon-hardestys-many-f.php
Charlie Todd's latest prank - a musical in a food court:
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/03/09/food-court-musical/
Balloon panzer (click links up top to see what happened next):
http://ingesidee.de/resourceviewer.php?pgid=63&subpage=1〈=en
English pronunciation foibles:
http://kottke.org/08/03/four-words-that-prove-how-difficult-the
(BTW, do you know how to pronounce "ghoti"?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti
Strange houses around the world (tx, manhattanusersguide.org):
http://www.2spare.com/item_72903.aspx?pagcomm=1
Interesting visual design in this music video by Mika:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be6jlCuMvVQ
Spooky robot dog (tx, informationnation):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
Spooky food sculptures:
http://www.wackyarchives.com/offbeat/creative-food-sculptures.html
Mechanical Belgian tiger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QMaS4pB9rw
Quiz: can you name the elements?
http://www.sporcle.com/games/elements.php
These neat virtual toys...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H5g9VS0ENM
...were made with a tool called Phun:
http://www.phunland.com
Clever alphabet popup book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZr0wiG1Hg
Someone's watching your cursor:
http://cubo.cc/
Charlie Todd rocks a Little League game:
http://improveverywhere.com/2008/04/07/best-game-ever/
Bembo's Zoo is made from the alphabet (tx, CK):
http://www.bemboszoo.com/Bembo.swf
Fun comics-creation tool:
http://makebeliefscomix.com
Charlie Rose interviews himself (tx, waxy.org):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFE2CCfAP1o
Side-by-side pictures of people years ago, and today:
http://colorwar2008.com/submissions/youngnow
Rube Golberg-ish commercial for a printing company:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TsOk-32Q8
A hike not for those with fear of heights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNSVcmBnt-o
Creative solutions to logistical problems:
http://tinyurl.com/62cake
A collection of bizarre collections:
http://tinyurl.com/6oq9wv
Moebius strip (and others) made from Legos:
http://www.maa.org/features/lego.html
A self-explanatory, one-use website:
http://www.sadtrombone.com
A better Youtube interface:
http://www.dipity.com/mashups/timetube
Low/hi-tech todo list - chalkboard on a laptop (tx, boingboing.net):
http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2008/05/blackboardpro.html
Oldie but goodie - "George Lucas in Love":
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5058529870025933880
Recap of Charlie Todd's Camera Flash Experiment:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/05/the-latest-improvever.php
Editing "Garfield" comic strips yields interesting results:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/06/viewing-garfield-with.php
Recaptioning a familiar interface:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/05/todd-moys-photo-shows.php
The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks:
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
Read more fiction and poetry at work... in PowerPoint:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/06/read-poetry-and-short.php
Video of the world's first IT specialist (tx, alan):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=S8scuDaPM7A
Photo montage to "We Didn't Start the Fire" (tx, ep):
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html
The Simpsons as Star Wars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6zuS_h2SYU
The strangest McDonald's imagery I've ever seen:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hOMMQmYwd4I
Bacon floss, mmmmmm:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/archie-mcphees-bacon.html
Geeky fun. Go here and click on "click here":
http://www.bunnyhero.org/2008/05/10/scaring-people-with-fullscreen/
(Note - you can click "Esc" whenever you're ready :)
Charlie Todd launches urbanprankster.com:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/06/charlie-todds-urban-p.php
Spicy language (about language) from the late, great George Carlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67k9eEw9AY
If you missed 'em, several years of Internet memes:
http://www.dipity.com/user/tatercakes/timeline/Internet_Memes
A clever take on a familiar stereo control:
http://www.vimeo.com/1105462
Music, hand-drawn cover art, and stories behind 80s-era mix tapes:
http://www.cassettefrommyex.com/
A drastic street sign:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/07/drastic-street-sign.php
The common thread of reality TV - what everyone doesn't do:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=w536Alnon24
Christoph Niemann's funny and moving tribute to the New York subway
system, as seen through his sons' eyes. A must-read.
http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/the-boys-and-the-subway/
Geeky fun - the URL says it all:
http://tinyurl.com/googleasciiart
Clever traffic-calming scheme:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/30/fake-speed-bumps-pai.html
Neat business card designs (thanks, scott):
http://tinyurl.com/3me3vr
Using rice for pixels makes cool art:
http://coolthingsinrandomplaces.com/rice-field-art/
That's one big sign saying "oops" (thanks, gary):
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2008/07/then-well-grab.html
Hamster and a LEGO elevator (tx, boingboing.net):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeBKHj_WaEY
Instant anagram:
http://www.sternestmeanings.com
Instant rhymes:
http://www.writerhymes.com
Matt Harding's dancing video has made the rounds, but if you missed
it, watch it. A must-see:
http://www.vimeo.com/1211060
Interestingly aged sign:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/07/i-love-how-this-sign.php
Resources for visitors to NYC:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/07/for-visitors-to-nyc-s.php
When skeet shooting clay pigeons is too boring...
http://www.Break.com/index/target_practice.html
Compiling found notes - the snippier, the better:
http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
Not "fun", but worth learning about. Coney Island now offers a
"Waterboarding Thrill Ride":
http://goodexperience.com/2008/08/its-the-perfect-coney.php
Feel-good drawings of a new father, set to music:
http://www.vimeo.com/1428169
The travails of an artist working for a tiny (young) art director:
http://tinyartdirector.blogspot.com/
Animated short of a Lennon interview (tx, waxy.org):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk
Two videos by Rhett & Link worth watching:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/08/singing-the-lives-of.php
Redesigning the taco for the 21st century consumer:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/chris/videos/47/
Cute cute overload for Katamari Damacy fans:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/19/katamari-damacy-king.html
Persistent dog trying to go up a kiddie slide:
http://www.break.com/index/dog-determined-to-get-up-slide.html
Guinea pigs and a cucumber:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BcAkfxu4E
Strange fences (tx, boingboing.net):
http://tinyurl.com/6koqzx
Building a seven-foot-tall robot out of styrofoam:
http://kk.org/kk/2008/08/the-styrobot.php
Taking a breath of reverse-helium:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/09/adam-savage-inhales.html
The Internet Overdose Song by Rhett & Link, presenters at Gel '08.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyPDHh4d1Xo
Downhill skateboarding, in traffic, at shockingly high speed (don't
try this at home!):
http://vimeo.com/1654340
The sticky-note experiment:
http://vimeo.com/1700732
Beautiful (if not always informative) visualizations of data:
http://tinyurl.com/6lxhc9
Seussian landscape off the African coast (thanks, MUG):
http://tinyurl.com/55tofg
Dominoes made of dominoes:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1831335
Hair-as-face:
http://tinyurl.com/4cnqt3
Broken - ready.gov sign:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/09/broken-readygov-sign.php
A fried-good fried-food fried-experience:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/09/a-friedgood-friedfood.php
Very clever - remixing the VP debate with a beat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGKlrS9SxE
Gadgets of meat:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/10/02/electronics-of-the-m.html
The hairdos alone are worth a record deal:
http://lpcoverlover.com/2008/09/07/hairdoos-and-donts/
Fun with bar codes (thanks, Evan):
http://tinyurl.com/3uwh3k
Small but attractive collection of ray guns:
http://informationnation.blogspot.com/2008/10/fear-moon-no-longer.html
Cool LEGO designs:
http://www.portfolio.com/slideshows/2008/08/Lego-Artist
Painting Mona Lisa extremely quickly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKK933KK6Gg
Errol Morris's video interviews (like the old Apple "switch" ads):
http://www.peopleinthemiddleforobama.org/
Wassup, eight years later:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE
Ron Howard returns to Mayberry, and "Happy Days," for Obama:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d
Old-school Nintendo game, redone in paper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_oPVMrx5g
Anyone for a fruit smoothie?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/12/truck-laden-with-fru.html
Amusing & spicy parody of the photo-a-day collage movie:
http://www.oldeenglish.org/podcast/one-picture-every-day
Still dropping pianos, almost 20 years (?!) since I was there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhaVpicxL-s
Inspired silliness - squirrels dancing to Michael Jackson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A2moFdM1Yo
Cats showing phases of one's job, or something - ? I dunno. Weird.
http://yadogg.com/pictures/6-phases-of-work-explained-with-cat-pics
(tx, informationnation.blogspot.com)
Broken - stock photo in SF Marriott elevator:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/12/broken-stock-photo-in.php
Mario Kart in real life:
http://tinyurl.com/6qe3sa
'Tis the season for office parties. To get in the mood, here are
three office crews, all in San Francisco, acting up (videos
available on the page below). First, pirates from the company
Instructables attack the crew from Three Rings... then zombies from
Three Rings take revenge... and finally, the crew at Digg in San
Francisco get their groove on:
http://goodexperience.com/2008/12/three-office-movies.php
Online crowd sings "Jingle Bells" - by Rhett & Link, Gel08 speakers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_wHSLZI1Q
Video of "Young Girl Talking About Herself" - via waxy.org:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN1ru6_u8lY
Bento box salutes Nintendo's Smash Brothers (great game, btw):
http://tinyurl.com/56dfl3
- - -
That's it for 2008... what, you're still reading? You still want more? MORE?! OK, try these:
• Past years of Fun Stuff: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
• For yet more fun, try Good Experience Games.
