How to blow one balloon inside another
Ethan’s instructions:
1. Blow both balloons up first (to stretch the balloons)
2. Let the air out of both
3. Blow up the balloon that’s supposed to be bigger (on the outside)
4. While holding the outside balloon put the other balloon inside it
5. Blow up the inside balloon6. Blow up the outside balloon just a bit more
7. Tie them both
Picture:
scheduling
Getting 6 people together at the same time on the same date at the same place (even if it’s virtual) is like herding cats.
So when a meeting fits in this nicely, it’s like the parting of the Red Sea … especially when our corporate meeting software shows busy times in red:
Now will they get the zen of Apple?
Sometimes it’s hard to convince PC users of the benefits of Apple computers and Mac OS X.
Since their computers are hardly personal, and just tools, and essentially lacking style and personality, they don’t understand, can’t grasp, cannot fit in their brains the concept of an interface that has been obsessively designed to fit, to function, to form an environment that accepts and welcomes people.
Maybe the iPhone will solve this problem. Check out what this Time reviewer says:
The user interface is crammed with smart little touches — every moment of user interaction has been quietly stage-managed and orchestrated, with such overwhelming attention to detail that when the history of digital interface design is written, whoever managed this project at Apple will be hailed as a Michelangelo, and the iPhone his or her Sistine Chapel (Steve Jobs can be Pope in this scenario). If you’re not a reviewer, chances are you won’t even bother to look at the manual. Translucent, jewel-like, artfully phrased dialogue boxes come and go on cue. Window borders bounce and flex just slightly to cue the user where and how you’re supposed to drop and drag and scroll them. When you switch the phone to “airplane mode” (no electronic transmissions, for use on planes) a tasteful little orange airplane slides into the menu bar, then zooms away when you switch out again. (This was so pleasurable that I repeatedly entered airplane mode while using the iPhone, even though I wasn’t actually on an airplane.) As soon as my phone realized it belonged to someone with a nonsense-name like Lev, it started correcting typos like “Leb” and “Lec” to match.
That’s the zen of Apple taken to a whole new level.
jeroen.ca: art | life
My brother-in-law Jeroen Vermeulen is an amazing artist … one of his 8′ x 5′ paintings hangs in my dining room. Here’s a site that I recently put up for him:
More content to come, as per usual. We’ve only got his recent paintings up … nothing before January of this year. That’ll come with time, however. It was important to get this up as soon as possible as Jeroen just had a show in the Netherlands, and some of his paintings are going up for public display and sale here in Vancouver next week.
Enjoy!
. . .
. . .
PS: Jeroen is pronounced yer-roon. It’s a Dutch name (as is mine, sort of) and Jeroen is originally from the Netherlands.
Tags: jeroen vermeulen, art, website, john koetsier
My new baby
Yes, it’s a little off-topic … but I’m in love:
Tags: car, mini cooper s, mini, john koetsier, love
Knock Knock: cool quicky stuff
I was looking for funky off-the-wall product ideas and a colleague directed my attention to Knock Knock.
Cool stuff!
I especially like the mojo loss and the I’m sorry but cards.
Tags: cool, products, printed, knock knock, john koetsier
Asheville North Carolina trip
Just came back from a conference in Asheville, NC … up in the Smoky Mountains. It was freezing cold … -10 Celcius with windchill … so I only got out of the hotel once, really, and took these shots as I wandered the town.
Click for a larger image of each:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
First life
OK, I’m the last one in the world to see it, but it’s still cool:
Love the tagline: “Your World. Sorry about that.” Very Douglas Adams.
Tags: first life, second life, john koetsier
steve’d: immediate reaction to Apple’s iPhone keynote
Just finished watching the Apple iPhone keynote. What a masterful Jobsian performance.
Random thoughts as I slowly exit the reality distortion field:
- want one, now
- five months is a loooooong time to wait
- pricing is OK
- gonna want more space than 8 GB, and soon
- battery life is a bit of a challenge - this baby will need to be docked every night
- beautiful, beautiful integration
- amazing design
- just to be clear (and to quote his Steveness), I’m not talking about pretty pictures. Design is how it works
- the third-party app universe is going to be amazing … just like the iPod ecosystem today
- he got Google’s CEO and Yahoo’s Cheif Yahoo on the same stage, seconds after each other!
- telecommunications guys are boring
- Eric Schmidt is boring, too, but at least he was quick
Oh, and one more thing. It probably won’t get to Canada for months and months after it launches in the US. Bleh.
Tags: apple, iphone, steve jobs, keynote, john koetsier
Citizen Agency’s new digs
Citizen Agency has finally moved in … and it looks great.
Fun, creative, beautiful, energizing: wow. And that’s just the aesthetics. Here’s what they’re planning on using the space for:
So, here is what we are going to do: have as many amazing gatherings in it as possible…AND open it up to the suggestion that anyone out there who is doing something that is worth a damn in this world can have amazing gatherings in our space. Really. It’s yours. Let’s make some beautiful energy.
Reminds me of when I redid my office space a couple of years ago. (That was when I was managing my company’s tech solutions department - I’ve moved on since then.)
Tags: office, reno, citizen agency, tara hunt, john koetsier
-
-
About
Sparkplug 9 is John Koetsier's blog on life, the universe, and everything,
but mostly the stuff you see big in the tags to the left.
Welcome, enjoy, buy the T-shirt, take a picture, tell your friends. -
Virtual me
-
Blogroll