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March 29, 2008
Rave to the grave
So last night, mid-Zombiefest, my brother got a text message from a bar that he DJ's at saying that the replacement DJ was awful: "He's playing 'let's talk about sex, baby' get over here now". The bar manager needed an emergency DJ, stat.
We deliberated. Neither of us had anything set up for such a thing, we were in the midst of chronicling the undead, and had been drinking since 3pm. Oh, we were also wearing zombie masks. We didn't deliberate long.
The DJ at the bar was none too pleased to be getting the hook. That's what you get for playing George Michael to a bar full of twenty-somethings, buddy.
In our rush out of the house we forgot headphones. Let me suggest that this is a rather vital omission when attempting to play music. Cueing was, you know, impossible. It was all completely impromptu without a matched beat to be heard. But it was damn fun. Just back and forth musical one-upsmanship, echoes of Christmas Party.
In many ways a bar full of drunken patrons is not all that different from an assault of the living dead. Single-minded of purpose, responding only to the crudest instincts, lurching from prey to prey.* Yep, a Friday night bar scene.
The bar manager begged us not to put the zombie masks on. Inexplicably, we did not play Thriller.
The crowd was odd. The manager said they wanted 80's and 90's stuff. OK, can do. But every request that came in (none written on cocktail napkins, alas) was for hip hop, perhaps the most under-represented genre in my library. I mean, I have a good bit, but that's not the point. I probably didn't win the bar repeat customers by being a complete ass about music I didn't want to play. Thankfully we had our pal Chris with us and after a while I just pointed to him as the designated request-taker when someone would approach. Shoulda been wearing this.
The bar wants us back tonight. The undead filmfest has resumed and we're properly organizing tunes for the eve. I'm taking requests online only, so get yours in now.
* This is, in fact, the actual premise of Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave, the inability to distinguish drug-addled revelers from brain-craving corpses. Tom Petty knows.
Posted at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | Topic: Music
March 28, 2008
Zombiefest
The Weekend of the Living Dead has begun over here at Ascent Stage HQ.
My kid brother Joey and I are long-time horror film fans. There isn't a sub-genre that doesn't delight: vampire flicks, Japanese stuff, Italian stuff, classic slashers, supernatural, psychological, torture porn, you name it.
But there's a special place in every horror buff's heart for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead from 1968. It is the granddaddy of the hundreds, possibly thousands, of zombie flicks that have eaten our brains ever since.
Recently I came across a crude "genealogy" of the films spawned by Night of the Living Dead. Got me thinking about doing an undead marathon. Did a little research, added a few films and ... here we are, a birthday present for the Leap Day Kid. 17 films, 25 hours, some beer ok a mini-keg of beer, rum, vodka, and scotch, and two little boys watching scary movies while the family is out of town.
It's wrong to call all these movies a franchise as you'd do with Friday the 13th or Halloween given the divergent creative visions of the two original writers George Romero and John Russo. They each took the series down very different paths. With remakes, unauthorized sequels, and special editions thrown in you get, well, you get a lot of the living dead.
Romero
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Diary of the Dead (2008)
Remakes
Night of the Living Dead (1990, Savini)
Dawn of the Dead (2004, Snyder)
Day of the Dead (2007, Miner)
Russo
Return of the Living Dead (1986)
Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988)
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)
Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005)
Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition (1998)
Children of the Living Dead (2001)
Unofficial
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005)
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)
Netflix provided most of the movies. I'd get three at a time, rip them to the Apple TV and back they'd go. But a few -- the Savini remake, 30th anniversary edition, and Children of the Living Dead -- proved very difficult to find. (Facets and Specialty Video & DVD in Chicago are great places to find the most bizarre of your cinema needs.) At least one had not even made it to video yet. (Thank you, torrenters.) The very last in the list chronologically, Diary of the Dead, just left theaters and is represented here as a trailer only. Boo.
So we've just begun. Joey recommended a strictly chronological progression through the lot, regardless of series coherence. He thinks it'll be interesting to map the evolution against social/historical climate and larger trends in horror. There are of course other ways to slice it, as this chart shows.
We'll no doubt be posting the findings of our research as the weekend proceeds.
If you're interested in trying this out yourself, might I recommend a survival manual?
Posted at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Topic: Movies
March 27, 2008
Platinum, Rhodium, and Palladium
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the most valuable piece of your automobile, at least according to car thieves nowadays.
I have just learned that catalytic converter theft is on the rise in Chicago.
Last week I used a friend's car while he was out of the country. Parked it on a fairly busy street by my house and then today went to move it back to his house. When I started the car it roared alive so loudly you would think I was at a Monster Truck show. Scared the shit out of me. My pal came back into town, took it to a service station and the attendants just laughed. Apparently they see this all the time.
The thieves just slide under the car with a saw or, in the case of our upscale burglars, an acetylene blowtorch, and remove it. Fast and easy. Why? Because the goop inside the converter contains precious metals that can be recycled for -- wait for it -- jewelry. Who knew?
I don't have a good track record with this particular friend. A few years ago I almost burnt his back deck down with a hookah pipe. Now this.
And I'm now thinking that MySweetRide might have been de-catalyzed months ago and I just never noticed. It's such a clanky bucket of bolts it's hard to know what's making which noise.
Posted at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | Topic: Notes
March 26, 2008
In to Africa
So, looks like my resolution not to travel as much in 2008 has officially been deferred to 2009.
Today I was notified that I have been accepted into a new program in IBM called the Corporate Service Corps that will place about 100 employees in "pre-emerging markets" around the world for month-long assignments.
It is a volunteer-oriented effort -- not tied specifically to business goals per se -- in places we have no real market footprint: Tanzania, Ghana, the Philippines, Turkey, Romania, and Vietnam.
The program pairs IBM teams with small businesses in these areas for one month to help modernize their business processes. Teams will be composed of a cross-section of technologists, industry experts, and business strategists. Peace Corps meets small business development.
The competition for the slots in the first waves of the program was pretty intense. Over 5,500 IBM'ers from more than 50 countries applied for about 100 slots. That probably says more about the unique opportunity than it does about general unhappiness with people's dayjobs. Certainly does for me.
I don't know exactly where I will be going, but I strongly suspect it will be Ghana, specifically the city of Kumasi, probably be this Fall. I'm thrilled.
This June I launch my project in China, the largest, most complex undertaking in my career. In August I mark ten years in IBM. To then do something as clearly different as working with a third-world business in a place like Africa is an opportunity for a change of perspective that I simply can't pass up.
This quote from Paul Ingram at Columbia pretty much nails exactly why I applied:
The fact that you are an excellent programmer or salesman, or can lead a project in your own area and culture, doesn't mean you can be a great leader outside of your technical or cultural expertise.
But it wasn't an easy decision. The thought of leaving thelovelywife and midgets continually prompts a what-the-hell-have-I-done response. But they've been amazingly supportive. It is true that something feels very right about this. Maybe it is that I know it will have a significant impact on my career but in ways I can't really foresee. I'm OK with that.
The other thing about Ghana, if that's in fact where I'm headed, is that I have a built-in network of acquaintances there via our long-time (though former) nanny, Margaret Kumi. We haven't told Margaret or any of the dozen other Ghanaian men and women we've befriended over the years, but my guess is that I'll be shlepping a gross ton of gifts over to Africa. I am OK with that, too.
UPDATE: Confirmed, I'm going to Ghana in late September. Hooray!
Something tells me that this is going to rival last year's Italian odyssey.
Some coverage from today:
Volunteering Abroad to Climb at IBM
IBM's Corporate Service Corps Heading to Six Emerging Countries to Spark Socio-Economic Growth While Developing Global Leaders
More on this as I find out more. Yay new things!
Posted at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | Topic: Africa
March 24, 2008
Angioplastic diplomacy
Last week I hosted a small delegation from the Palace Museum in Chicago as we head into the final stretch before launching The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time project.
We planned a working lunch and had asked the Chinese team what they would be interested in eating. They emphatically requested traditional American fare, specifically Chicago grub. After a little hesitation, we went for it calling on the services of Portillo's and Giordano's.
And so, in a scene not so different from me inspecting foreign delicacies at the Night Market in Beijing the Palace Museum team cautiously approached the layout of Italian beef sandwiches, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, pizza and cheesecake.
I'm not sure the team enjoyed it, frankly. That much fast food heaped together was a bit nauseating to behold, even for me. Though the room-wide indigestion of the post-lunch meetings did have the salutary effect of not letting anyone drift off to sleep.
Transcultural and trans-fatty.
Posted at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Topic: America
March 23, 2008
DJ Internets
Had to get that egostroke of a post off the front, so here's a fairly cool use -- the first to my knowledge -- of the EchoNest song analysis API that let's you create custom beat-matched playlists just by pointing to tunes (or your Last.fm feed). Not at all perfect, but an interesting start. Here's a quick one.
More fun at thisismyjam.com.
Posted at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Topic: Music
March 22, 2008
But enough about you
Once upon a time when I was going to be an English professor I studied at Washington University is St. Louis. I bailed out with an MA only and set down a path that took me not as far away from there as I might have thought.
Recently Wash U.'s alumni mag did a feature on me. It's fluffy, but I'm certain generous alumni benefactors are now crawling out of the woodwork to donate to the school.
That's where I work, by the way. On the bridge of a starship.
There's great work being done at Wash U. in the digital humanities these days. If that's your thing I'd recommend keeping an eye on The Spenser Archive.
Posted at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | Topic: Work
March 21, 2008
Smurf grammar
I've been a cataloger of nouns used as verbs since Jeff Spicoli opened my mind to the possibilities with "hey bud, let's party" in 1982. There's "google" and "calendar" and "lunch," but the original utilitarian nounverb has got to be "smurf".
The children over here are all about Apple TV and they recently found the Smurfs cartoon. The show was way before their time and slightly after mine (I'm a product of The Superfriends and Scooby-Doo, thank you very much) but it captivated them. So last night, post-concert, home alone, I watched a few episodes. Like a chill-out room at a rave.
Here is a lexicographical analysis of a single episode, called "The Smurf's Apprentice," for the varied uses of the word "smurf". You can, in fact, get the gist of the whole show just from these lines.
"Watch where you're Smurfing!"
"Smurfic acid"
"A half-Smurf of burnt siena"
"Three Smurfs of sarsaparilla leaves"
"Now to see if the experiment Smurfs"
"I've finally Smurfed spontaneous germination"
"I have a real gift for Smurfin' magic"
"I want to Smurf magic right now"
"Now's the time to Smurf a look at his magic book"
"What are you Smurfing in here?"
"A Smurf of quicklime"
"Smurf over a low flame"
"A monster! Smurf for your lives!"
"I Smurfed a magic potion"
"We'll have to Smurf something else"
"You mean i'll be this way for the rest of my whole Smurf?"
"I'll find an Anti-smurf and i'll call you"
"Smurf it, Grouchy!"
"Smurf's-eye!"
"I need volunteers to Smurf me three hairs from a cat's tail"
"We'll all Smurf you a hand"
"The rest of us will start making the anti-Smurf"
Gerunds, exclamations, even an adjective in there. Does English have a word this useful, a Swiss Army word? I suppose certain expletives might work. Go ahead, swap out "Smurf" for "fuck." Doesn't quite work, but will make you smile.
Posted at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Topic: Notes
Do it Justice
Many consider the Daft Punk headlining of Lollapalooza the most amazing arena rock show of 2007. But after tonight I gotta think Justice will one day claim the same title. Crazy Frenchmen. I've heard it called it the "French touch" but something's in the water of Seine because these frogs can seriously rock out. It is 1970's proto-headbanging in the electronic milieu. Just fantastic.
Here's a concert-goer from the show. Looks like vector art, but he was human after all.
Posted at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Topic: Music
March 20, 2008
Iraqi on the corner
Yesterday I hosted some Chinese partners from the Forbidden City in Beijing. They missed the Tibet protest march by one day which surely spared me some awkward questions, but we could not escape the Iraq war anniversary march. As the protesters filed past our restaurant window last night, the translator asked me "Why doesn't your government stop it?" Which, you will admit, I could plausibly have taken to mean "the protest" given the inability to do such a thing in China -- but she meant the war itself. I had to chuckle at the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of that question.
I tried to explain America post-9/11. I tried to explain the difference between urban centers and middle America. I tried to explain my personal beliefs. I did none of these well at all.
Later that night, after I had bid the Chinese 再见, I stopped at our corner store. The owner there is an Iraqi fellow named Amir. He knows my family and we know him. He's the genial, Jacobsian neighborhood shopkeeper. The kind of guy who always rounds down the amount at the register.
But last night he was irate. He pointed to the television that's always on, loudly, to an Iraqi satellite station. The coverage was all about an Iraqi cleric who had been murdered, the archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic church, the biggest Christian Iraqi community. Amir is Christian too. He said "They killed him. They are evil." I asked who "they" was and he spewed "Muslims". "There are no good Muslims," he said.
I shook my head and said that there are plenty of good Muslims and quite a few who would agree with his outrage at the murder. But he would have none of it. He told me I only thought that because I knew American Muslims who have moderated their views in public. But he assured me that they too were evil, deep down. I started to explain that in fact most of the Muslims I know are devout and live in Cairo, but I could not get a word in. He was on the verge of tears. I told him I would prefer not to argue, shook his hand, and left.
I was troubled by it all, on this fifth anniversary of invading a country on a weapons-hunt. So I e-mailed an Iraqi colleague of mine, who also happens to be Christian, for her perspective.
Sad to say that even growing up under Saddam Hussein's regime, I never felt any of this animosity. We were all in the same deep shit, Christians and Muslims alike, both being equal victims of a cruel regime. But at least we were free to practice our religion without any threats or dangers from Muslims. I wish I could say the same today.
There are moderate, loving, peaceful Muslims, but unfortunately their numbers are dwindling and their voices shrinking. What bugged me about the archbishop's killing is the hypocrisy: can you imagine for a second how the Muslim community would've reacted if a senior religious figure was kidnapped by Christians and found dead? So while I don't agree with Amir's feelings, I kind of understand why he feels like that. A dangerous catch-22.
It's all upsetting but maybe the more so because the cleaving of national identity along religious lines is not unique to Iraq. You see it here too.
The media and blogosphere of course is alight with commentary on five years of occupation. Lots of acrimony and analysis. But I return to the thought that there must be many people like Amir on both sides, full of hate, deeply sad, and not giving a damn about the cartographic assemblage known as Iraq.
Posted at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Topic: America
March 15, 2008
Soar with turkeys
Flickr's Paul Hammond made a comment in his panel at SXSW that's resonating a bit with a colleague or two.
Process is an antidote to working with stupid people.
It is an understandly resonant phrase at a conference like SXSW where the predominant vibe is entrepreneurial and innovative and all about small-scale Getting Real-inspired business models.
Truth is, I couldn't agree more. When not everyone is at the same skill or knowledge level (i.e., when they are "idiots" compared to you) a common methodology enables collaboration where sheer similarity of perspective can't.
But the statement has stuck with me and I think now that it might not be as simple as that. I do, of course, work in a gigantic, process-laden company where there are many arguments for following a common process. Quality assurance is one, presenting a unified approach and brand to customers is another. But both of those could legitimately be accomplished with a small team of non-idiots.
The real value of process comes from the inherent inability of small, smart teams to scale. When your team is based solely on shared perspective (whether of educational background, skill set, or job experience) there are only so many people you can add before that perspective will fray. I don't know what the limit is, but I imagine it can't be more than maybe 20 people. At this size some sort of common process needs to be implemented if for no other reason than to allow everyone to speak the same language.
Now, many small companies, especially in tech, recognize this and find it to be no limitation at all. They don't want to scale beyond their current size. And that's just fine. Note that I'm not referring to the scale of a project that can be undertaken or the scale of customers that can be served. Small teams can do this as effectively as large companies in many instances.
But if you do want to make your company larger -- or if you actively seek diversity of perspective -- then having some common framework for working is really the only way to do it. For instance when working on international projects, I find that process, in some cases rigid process, is the only way to work together. In the absence of cultural or language understanding it is sometimes the only common platform from which to work.
Too much process, the wrong process, sometimes any process at all can kill creativity. I see it all the time. And, in truth, I'm lucky to have worked with some of the smartest people in my field for the last seven years. I rarely encounter the need for process. But I do recognize the need and can see where it might usefully be applied with nary an idiot in sight.
Posted at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Topic: Notes | Topic: Work
March 13, 2008
Southbyline
I'm back from a bunch of great days in Austin at SXSW. As usual I came away excited and ready to quit my day job. But this time it took a lot longer to feel that excitement, whether that was because of the quality of the programming (or my choice of what to attend) or just that I know more than everyone else. To be safe I'll go with knowing more than everyone else.
Maybe because work pays me to attend that I started by attending panels most relevant to my job and ended up somewhat nonplussed. But as I started to drift into things I was merely interested in -- and made an effort to meet people I didn't know -- things got a lot better. I don't think you ever get over your first SXSW, which for me was a while back. Everything's new, everyone (mostly) is new and it is just an amazingly heady experience.
But it is fun to see how people change over time. One example. Three years ago standing in a beer line I struck up a conversation with the person behind me, Leslie Chicoine. Just out of design school at Savannah and looking for a job. I had none to offer, but we had a good conversation. Three years later, Leslie's in the thick of things in the Bay Area working at Get Satisfaction, an incredible company working on an even better idea. She was a panelist this year for the first time talking about OAuth and QR codes. Not much more to it than that, except that I've really enjoyed following the career of someone wide-eyed and new to the tech world straight into success. Kinda the whole point of SXSW writ large.
My colleague in IBM Roo Reynolds did (and is still doing) a great job cataloging the highlights of the conference and many of our experiences overlapped, so for the liveblog junkies among you I point you to his site. Good stuff.
Perhaps the entertainment highlight of SXSW was the Jane McGonigal talk on Alternate Reality Games. She's incredibly articulate and enthusiastic about the role of play in life and work. Made me want to go out and design an ARG right then and there. (I just might, buddy.)
As an aside during her talk Jane mentioned learning the Soulja Boy dance why playing an ARG. Immediately someone from the crowd yelled "do it!" Smartly, she said she would at the end of the presentation -- which pretty much kept the entire crowd there whether they were enjoying the talk or not. Sure enough, she did it. Here's Roo's video annotated with my obnoxious laughter.
In an effort to offer a flavor of my experience without being verbose I'll note a few of the panels I attended with the best line (I think) I heard at each. Beware paraphrasing.
The Future of Virtual Worlds and Game Development: Rise of the Indies: "Hi, welcome to my panel. I'm sorry, but I forgot to bring liquor." -- Corey Bridges. Sidenote: Corey made fun of an IBM executive during this panel. I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the room who knew who he was talking about and the only one who laughed out loud.
Opening Remarks with Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson: "The two best shows on TV may represent a real turning point in the form. The Wire may be the last gasp of self-contained, inside-the-box television while Lost may be the first glimmer of new TV, one that exists in a web of 'trans-media extensions'." -- Henry Jenkins.
A General Theory of Creative Relativity: "There is a variable and a constant and finding the association between those two things is the act, the actual thing [of creativity]." -- Jim Coudal.
Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Great Design Hurts: "Does anyone know what IBM does?" -- John Gruber
Tools for Enchantment: 20 Ways to Woo Users: "attention offsets" - like a carbon offset, sponsoring something that supports full attention in exchange for building something that takes someone's partial attention -- Kathy Sierra
Keynote: Jane McGonigal: "To imagine the future, always look back at least twice as far as you are looking forward."
But you know what made it great? Not the panels or keynotes or even the parties. It was a format called Core Conversations where basically a bunch of tables arranged by topic were set up in a room, BarCamp-style. My expectations were low as I had heard a bunch of criticism of them, but it was the end of the last day so what the hell.
I plopped down at Managing Media: Is Your Music Collection About to Become Extinct? and was immediately in music geek heaven talking about file formats, metadata, and genre classification woes. I was so happy to hear an Apple engineer admit that there are "religious wars" in Cupertino over things like whether to separate reggae and dub. It was just perfect, informal, smart discussion and all about what I care about personally. The Songbird team was there as well as a chap from Last.fm.
Well after I had told myself it was time to go drinking I found myself just sliding into the next confab on the Open Media Web. Why can't open standards be applied to digital media? If the web can do it, why not media? Down with Flash, down with record labels, yay!
Well, that's it. No great summing statement. There was no darling like Twitter at its coming-out party last year, as far as I can tell (though it was easily the most used form of communication).
I wonder about the future of SXSW Interactive. It is so damn huge now that the lines for parties and toilets are a real drag. A friend put it best when he said that the parties are suffering load balancing and scalability problems this year. And I have to think that if the parties really do begin to suck that much of the appeal of SXSW will fade. After all, meeting new people is really where the learning happens.
See you next year?
Posted at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | Topic: Notes
March 6, 2008
Back to basics
Two of my resolutions for this year were to simplify things and to run more. These are, in fact, the same thing.
The past several years I've been doing one or more triathlons a summer. Good fun for sure and a great workout, but logistically complex. I mean, I'm all for gear and equipment -- it is, I believe, one of the reasons I wanted children -- but needing a place to swim and the multi-hour stretches of time required to bike had become a bit onerous, especially when traveling. So simplifying for me was running: the perfect, low-tech, do-anywhere workout.
But I'm still a sucker for exercise gadgets. (No, not that kind.) I used to run with a Garmin Forerunner GPS. It was bulky and didn't monitor heart rate, so of course I wore a second watch that did do that. Wearing two watches (and an MP3 player) while running was a level of dorkdom I didn't think I could achieve, but achieve I did. And playing with GPS allowed me to do nutty things like using the city as a giant Etch-a-Sketch. Unfortunately neither device played well with the Mac so all this wonderful data I was collecting couldn't be manipulated easily.
Right around this time Nike and Apple introduced the Nike+iPod gadget, basically a wireless pedometer that logs distance and pace to the iPod nano as you run. I ditched the GPS watch (which incidentally don't work so good in awful weather or in weird places like Lower Wacker). The integration with an online tool and ease of just plugging in your iPod after a workout was a perfect solution, all-Flash interface on the Nike site notwithstanding. (Only real gripe: it is made to work with Nike shoes, which I loathe. But that was easily solved with a knife.)
So, it seems that Nike/Apple are rolling out an upgrade to the service. There doesn't seem to be a hardware change, but they're branching out from just running. Apparently Nike is "in talks" with gyms and equipment manufacturers to allow the nano to plug directly into treadmills, ellipticals, stair climbers, and stationary bikes. So, basically, the piezo sensor in the shoe is bypassed and data from the workout is sent directly from the machine to the nano. That's fine, except that in the past when I have run on a treadmill with the current kit I find that the pedometer does not agree with the treadmill distance. (After an 8 mile run the treadmill was off by nearly 3/4 of a mile.) Clearly there will be discrepancies for people who run both outside and inside.
The strangest thing about the announcement is that Nike has developed a new, common workout "unit" called a CardioMile. My guess is that this enables users to "compete" against each other regardless of their preferred machine. But it does seem odd. I mean, mileage is mileage. If you and I are in a competition the person who runs furtherest (or fastest) first wins. But if I use the elliptical for 45 minutes have I "beaten" a person who was on the treadmill for 30? Kinda bizarre.
How it will actually work is another matter entirely. Will it be a retrofit for existing exercise equipment or brand new machines? If the latter that's a hell of a lot of stuff to replace because a few geeks want to plug in their iPods. Will the headphone connectors commonplace on workout equipment today now route audio from your iPod? Does the gym have to provide tech support?
Early this year I looked at a new gym right by my work. They had spanking new treadmills that did allow iPod hookups. Not for workout data, of course, but it seemed promising since there was a large screen embedded in the treadmill too. Excellent, I can watch video straight from my iPod! But ... no. Not only were video functions inoperable, but all it really did was replace your iPod controls with a touchscreen interface for the same controls. Essentially useless. Or rather, no functionality beyond what you could get without hooking your iPod up. (One wonders if the treadmill is the new office desk.)
More promising was a USB port on the treadmill display. OK, now we're talking! Save your workout data (generated from the treadmill) straight to the memory stick. Well, it didn't work. I tried multiple USB keys, multiple treadmills over many days. Never did work. Inquiries to staff were met with blank stares and general dumbfoundity. It went something like this.
"Hi there. Really loving the new treadmills, thanks. I was wondering if you could help me figure out how to use the USB saving function."
" ... "
"You know, the new thing ... where you can plug in this [waves USB key] and save your run data?"
" ... "
"OK, do you have a manual maybe? Something I can look at?"
"Did you want to sign up for pilates?"
And this is why I think the whole Nike+iPod machine integration thing might be doomed. Gyms will need tech support. Now, I'm not saying there aren't a lot of fitness-obsessed geeks or tech-savvy meatheads, but the Venn diagram of hardware debugger vs. personal trainer for your typical club probably has a very tiny circle at its center. I just don't see this sort of thing taking off. Which may be why the press release is on Nike's site, not Apple's.
So, I go basic. Or as basic as I can still swaddled in the loving embrace of technology. Just running, just outside. We've quit our club. The city is now our gym. I'm signed up for a beautiful 10 mile race in April -- my first in many years (and with my wife, who can run further than I can these days). And I'm considering a multi-leg 200 mile relay from Madison to Chicago. Not sure I can take the on-again, off-again but the prospect of running in the dead of night does hold a certain perverse charm.
By the way, I'm still looking for a unified, standardized format for workout data. Microformats anyone?
Posted at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Topic: Fun
