Sleep And Water

On my way back from Memphis this evening, I read a fiery response by Greg Knauss (one of my favorite writers) to Cory Doctorow’s rant about why he won’t buy an iPad. Now, Doctorow’s rant is just begging for pissed off responses, especially because he ends his title by saying he doesn’t “think you should, either”. An obnoxious tone, to be sure. He also handily dates himself by making a metaphor to Hypercard.

So it’s completely understandable why Greg Knauss and Jon Gruber and Joel Johnson are all calling his post out as condescending, reactionary, and basically just snotty.

The problem with it all is that I think the larger point is being missed – we have allowed Apple to frame the debate as usability versus openness. That gains in one come at a setback in the other. How did such a lie ever take root?

Jon Gruber’s response’s closing line:

Something important and valuable is indeed being lost as Apple shifts to this model of computing. But it’s a trade-off, because something new that is important and valuable has been gained.

And Greg Knauss’:

Yes, yes, this simplicity will come at a cost, of course, just like every other aspect of modern life. But for the benefits of cutting-edge technology in its full flower — to even begin to reap what the future has to offer — it’s more than a fair trade. It always has been.

If we didn’t believe this lie, people like Cory Doctorow, Alex Payne, and Mark Pilgrim would not have to so passionately argue that openness is more important than usability, and people like Knauss, Gruber, and Johnson would not have to smack them down with the obvious fact that people just want to get stuff done. Instead, we could all simply ask Apple for the things that are missing.

The iPad could have the exact same user experience – and still allow alternate music players, web browsers, and other competition on the Store.

The iPad could have the exact same user experience – and charge less than $100 for its development kit. Or simply only ask for money from developers who will ask users for money.

The iPad could have the exact same user experience – without restricting the user only to what is on the App Store. The iPhone version of our door opener app will soon be unusable for our office because apps made by friends, for friends, can be made in limited number and eventually expire. And now we have to scramble to find an alternative.

Why do so many Apple fans put up with this garbage? Because Apple tells them it’s necessary if they want things to Just Work. It’s not. Apple just wants to control things. Apple thinks this will make things better. It won’t.

And Apple has already proved that it won’t: when their competition began to show that phones can have a great user experience, while being vastly more open and capable, Apple knocked over the checker board and sued. Using software patents of all things, the legal validity of which is so flimsy and bogus and exploitative that they are not allowed in Europe.

As long as Apple is allowed to falsely frame this debate as a choice between our security or our ideals, then we all lose. Doctorow watches his world collapse and all the fellow techies he thought were his friends lovingly embrace an authoritarian regime. Greg Knauss lashes out at crusty old hackers getting in between him and the shiny, worry-free future Apple has promised us. And all of us get screwed over because we didn’t challenge Apple to do better.

I’m not frustrated with Apple. They are doing what they do best, and their creation of the digital music market shows they can be a force for good, if they have competition. Debates like this one make me seriously worry about whether competition to the iPad would even be taken seriously.

If openness is seen as the opposite of beauty, then no matter how easy or intuitive your user experience becomes, once people hear you’re “open” or “customizable” (or God help you, “open source”), you’ve already lost – people already know you’re unusable.

isitchristmas.com expands into the mobile space.

Android	iPhone

And year four is sure to be even more exciting.

Update: I made a whole domain name for it.

A lot (a real lot) is being said right now about _why, and I’m not going to do a long post about it (right now, anyway). John Resig did a great job anyhow.

But I did rescue one of my all time favorite artifacts of _why’s, Everyone is Here In The Future 2, from archive.org, which saved the .swf file. This is a movie he produced for a talk he gave at RailsConf 2006 (the last one he went to, and the year before I started going!), which doesn’t have anything to do with Rails, and has everything to do with ridiculous. Unfortunately, the first EIHITF did not seem to get the same treatment by archive.org. If anyone can dig it up, we’ll all be better off.

I don’t think _why is gone forever, at least I hope not. But for now, I post this in his honor.

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Created today inside Sunlight Labs. One of our finest achievements.

Rep. John Culberson of Texas is a true small-gov’t, let-Texans-run-Texas, conservative. He’s also a social media badass, was one of the first, possibly the first, federal legislators on Twitter. Certainly the first one I knew about, and I followed him on Twitter for a long time.

Today a couple of Supreme Court justices (Thomas and Breyer) were testifying before a House committee that Rep. Culberson is on, to ask for more money for the Court’s website. Culberson started pushing the Court, as many have, to let cameras into proceedings, and to stream arguments as they happen. When the justices resisted, as they always have, he actually busted out his camera and started streaming the hearing live, using Qik. See it here:

This LegalTimes analysis describes what happened afterwards, as the other members of the panel joined Culberson’s call for light to be shed inside the hallowed Court. (The guy who speaks to the camera at one point is saying that John “can let your constituents see what a liberal looks like.”)

Now that is how “web 2.0” is supposed to be used. People like to hate on social media sites and their tendency to be used for the inane, but if you’re going to go down that road then you’d better start hating on letters and the telephone. Qik and Twitter are tools for empowerment, and Culberson understands that.

In fact, one of the few cases, maybe the only one, in the last couple years where I’ve preferred a Republican proposal over a Democratic one, is when the House was altering its rules surrounding social media, to let legislators use Twitter and Qik. The Republican proposal was much less restrictive, and was basically: let John Culberson use Qik how John Culberson wants to use Qik. And in the Democratic-controlled House, where the minority is routinely trod upon, the Republicans won.

So this is my salute to John Culberson, one of my favorite Congresspeople. When I first visited DC in July to discuss tech and transparency with House and Senate offices, his was the only Republican office I made an appointment with. And thanks to Dan Schuman for pointing this out to me on the Sunlight blog.

Traveling through the Metro on my way home last night, at about 1am, my brain and body began to shut down. I recall, mainly in a haze, shambling onto an escalator, and then trying to jog up it two steps at a time out of ingrained emotional habit, only to lose the energy and trip, banging my knee on the edge of the steps. By the time I got home, I was falling asleep standing up, and I crashed heartily for about 10 hours.

And that’s how I know this was a good week. I may not have gotten more than 6 hours of sleep on any given night, but I had energy each and every day, and only got more productive at work as the week went on. I practiced piano, took lessons, got out Thursday night to see a Ratatat show (my first exposure, and as it turns out I totally should have been all over this group years ago). I finally published Matt’s and my Android app. I even managed to do my taxes, including the tricky research and calculation from my client work, between 9 and 11pm on the night of the deadline, and I’m at least 80% sure I won’t be audited.

In between the gaps there, I enjoyed the company of my friends and coworkers, who have all conspired to make me feel extremely welcome in DC. If there was one major problem with my time in New York City, it was that I saw, met, and worked with very few people. I’ve probably matched or exceeded those figures in only 6 weeks here in DC, and a few of my new friends have already become quite close. It gives me a sense of real belonging, that I’m in the right place at the right time, and that I’ve navigated another decision point successfully.

I didn’t say much about it at the time, but my first week here, I was pretty much just depressed. I’d dissolved a stable, tranquil existence in Brooklyn, had only 1 or 2 friends in DC, and wasn’t that excited about the apartment I’d signed myself up to move into mid-March. Combine that with the severe angst I suffer when I start a new job, to make sure that I start out productive and valuable despite all my self-distracting habits and the necessary ramp-up time—not to mention all the physical labor that goes with intercity moving—and I was seriously questioning whether I’d made the right decision.

But that feels like a long time ago…and it was. I’ve got a satisfying job, interesting coworkers, good friends, and to top it off, my friend Nathan will be moving in to my place in a few days. I have more energy than I can recall having in quite some time, my optimism seems to be back in place, and along with it a fledgling spark of genuine self-confidence; and that’s something new. More and more, the mantra running through the back of my mind is: I got this.

Who knew a little light could be so pretty?

This is awesome: a paper on “single serving sites”, on its own single serving site. The author is Ryan Greenberg, a student of Information Science at UC Berkeley. It’s a cool paper, written in a pleasant tone that takes you around to many oddities of the net, many of which I never knew about. Also interesting is his list of the 130 single serving sites that he used in writing his report. They’re not all YES/NO things – Umbrella Today makes his list, along with the original Hamster Dance.

Since I saw IsItTuesday pop up 6 days after I “launched” IsItChristmas, I’ve been watching all the sites that IIC inspired (and who in some cases just copy/pasted my source code), and there are many. I like to take a little credit for this leading to a paper, and that paper’s site following that model.

And as I am a proud man who enjoys pointing out his accomplishments to others, here is a chart, adapted from Ryan’s data, to back me up:

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“I’m gonna restart in ubuntu. Windows is sucking the life out of me right now. You must be proud. :)”

My girlfriend

All right, enough delay! In just a little over a week, I’ll be heading up to Boston with my essentials, and spending the next 2 and 1/2 months there working for the Obama campaign’s website, at a company called Blue State Digital. They’re the primary builders and caretakers for the Obama campaign site, and I’ll be joining in the work. This decision comes at a cost – chiefly, I’m apart from my loved ones, and I’ll pay double rent – but that hasn’t stopped me from being ridiculously excited. This is exactly what I want to do, and I will be doing it. It’s a temporary role, but not a temporary decision; one way or another, I intend on continuing to work in government and the public interest. Caution has been thrown to the winds.

The process that got me here began about 6 weeks ago.

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Courtesy of the Emperor of Fuffletonia.

It’s a buzzing.

I just watched an incredible episode of an incredible show. I’ve never been more affected by a TV show. Thanks to my brother Karl for the fervent recommendation. After the show, I sat down to continue checking out unread items from my RSS reader, and after about 2 minutes I couldn’t take it anymore. I could feel the pure emotion and potential seed of inspiration slipping away, muted and diluted by the oncoming buzz. Inside the buzz, I can’t have passion, only curiosity. In the middle of the buzz, I can’t feel sorrow, only a vague dissatisfaction. And in the sound of the buzz, my inner monologue is pushed steadily closer to the word I hate the most: “Meh.”

I show terrible symptoms of the buzz.

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Lately I’ve been getting real excited about OpenID. It’s not a new thing, and it’s not a new concept, but at this point I’m convinced that it does everything right, and that it’s hit the point where it will become totally mainstream within the next few years. Also, let me preface this by saying this is not a techy-only post, this is relevant to anybody who’s ever created a username and password.

OpenID lets you have one user account that you can use anywhere [that supports OpenID]. And if you have an AIM or Flickr account, you already have one. If you don’t, you can get one somewhere else, like myOpenID. This is because OpenID isn’t a service, but a protocol, not tied to any one organization. If you have one, then logging in to a site that supports OpenID means entering only your OpenID. In other words, no password. As long as you are logged in to your OpenID-providing account, it’ll log you right in. If you’re not logged in to your OpenID-providing account, then you’ll be redirected there to sign in, then redirected back right where you left off when you’re done.

This is awesome.

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Basically all of thoughtbot went to Portland for RailsConf this year, and we had an awesome time. We also took a lot of photos, and put them on Flickr (see mine, Mike’s, and Tammer’s). Portland is an awesome city, thoughtbot is full of awesome people, and the Rails community has some gems of people in it too.

I guess RailsConf was a technical conference, but I don’t remember any of that stuff. The trip turned out to be filled with moments of zen for me. Here are just a few that I acquired in Portland this year:

• At a nearly empty Dante’s on a quiet Thursday night, a DJ plays music that nobody appreciates but a lone undulating man figure in front of the stage. A TV screen above the stage plays Escape From New York for a half an hour before silently switching over to Asian pornography.
• Playing Robotron 2084 at Ground Kontrol while a DJ spins up Judas Priest’s Exciter.
• At Powell’s Technical Books, in response to my question about which books he’s been reading here for fun, my art-history-graduate-turned-web-entrepreneur friend Greg calmly leads me to a book on Erlang.
• At the famous 24-hour donut shop Voodoo Donut, I order a Triple Chocolate Penetration, but am told they’re out, so I settle for a Diablo Rex.
• Wandering with Ben and Greg through the 3-floor parking garage under Whole Foods for over an hour in search of Greg’s 2-door blue Honda Civic.
• A vigorous conversation with Ben and Greg at the Portland City Grill, in full view of the city at night, 30 floors up.
  
• Riding in a cycle rickshaw at midnight, past a forlorn Pete who utters to us “I waited a long time.” without elaboration as he fades into the distance.
• Standing with Josh on the “Steel Bridge” at the river in the middle of the night, above at least 30 sleeping ducks on the riverbanks.
• I listen to Jared tell me that he also attempted to visit Voodoo Donut, but was halted at the door by a sign reading “Marriage in Progress”.
• Inside the Gravitron, I want to capture the bizarre gravity, so I take a photo of whoever is near me. It happens to be an n-teen-year old girl, whose nearby father is none too pleased when I show her the picture after the ride.
• Riding silently and alone on the Light Rail, when suddenly my friends and coworkers all come on board the train at once, surround me, and start laughing and grabbing me and yelling my name.
• Sitting motionless with Tammer for half a minute at the top of The Skyscraper in an open chair, 165 feet above Portland, staring at the nearby buildings and mountains, before beginning a second 75-mph journey through the sky.

Recently, I arrived at my usual morning grill/deli/market, my most reliable source of Vault in increasingly sparing Vault times, only to find that Vault was no longer a presence on its shelves. Deeply alarmed, I stopped by my most reliable backup source, the Walgreen’s near Astor Place, at lunch time to find that it, also, had run dry.

There have been signs on the wall for months now.

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I can’t escape the feeling that no matter how much I may read of senseless tragedy in autobiographies, watch it reported on news, and see the edges of it in my own neighborhood, I am still untouched and naive. I have simply had too easy of a life. Even the one time my apartment was violated by someone desperate and scared, I conversed with the robber, retrieved my things, and calmly let him out the door. No one I know has ever been murdered, or beaten. I have never had anything or anyone that I depended on taken from me that I did not deserve. So, I listen to mostly upbeat music, and believe humans to be fundamentally decent creatures. What the fuck.

About the worst of it was when my friend Phil Sallese passed away in May of 2005. He was an epileptic, and suffered a seizure in the night. Phil was about the nicest guy I have ever known. He was a big guy, would get angry at a moment’s notice, then turn right back to sweetness after another moment. Totally loyal, vulnerable, judged you little, and quietly expected the best out of you (which is the best way to get the best out of you). The fucking last guy who needs to lose his life in the night, discovered by his girlfriend that he lived with, in the apartment above his granddad’s, out in the woods of Palenville.

That was bad – no, that was terrible. I’ve never been more acutely sad. But I got over it, I could measure my loss and at least stand it next to all the churchgoers gone secular that have suffered similar random acts of God. It hasn’t fundamentally altered the course of my life, or my worldview. I’ve left a romantic relationship so bad that I was depressed for a year following, maybe two, but again, those are the kinds of things that most people go through, and you bounce back from—look at me now. That look like someone weighted down by the cruelty of the universe?

Well, I can’t make myself cynical, and after all, we fought for a free and safe country so that no one would have to be. But you read the words of people who have truly suffered, who have succeeded or failed at coming to terms with irrational violence or untreatable disease, and they sure do seem to know something that I don’t. I’m drawn to it, but never close enough for me to go volunteer down at the police station. I remember thinking about doing that before moving to NYC. But no, I’ve stuck with showing up at my job in Soho 5 days a week and catching movies or dinners with MaryBeth on the weekend. I play with my cat in there, pretty much all the time. So here I am, happy music in the headphones and typing on a Macbook my company has given me for as long as I’ll turn my thoughts into code for them. What the fuck.