When the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile comes to town, it’s important to go visit it. I’m not sure exactly why, but the sight of a 20 foot long hot dog on wheels makes me think of a time when gas didn’t cost $3+ a gallon, and America was a bit more … silly.
Or perhaps sometimes a banana is just a banana. Either way, it was neat to see one of these.
Apparently, they were first created in 1936.
See the official weinermobile page and the wikipedia entry
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Uploaded by gregmeyer on 15 Sep 07, 11.30AM PDT.
Our orb-weavers are active again. This is a good example of their work, on the gazebo on the deck. On a foggy morning, it’s easy to see the strands flecked with dew. On other mornings, it’s easy to walk right through and get a mouthful of spider web. Yuch. 
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No, this isn’t an apocryphal post or some sort of parody from the Onion of a typical navel-gazing blogger. Ok, perhaps this is a navel-gazing exercise. I was simply amazed looking back at the site today and finding that I haven’t sat down to write anything in almost two months. I could blame school, other things, simple procrastination, but I guess the answer is of course: the buck stops here.
So here are a few things that I’ve noticed recently:
1) more design doesn’t equal better design. Many electronic devices that I use try to give me more and more options instead of presenting the simple options that owrk.
2) make it simple and it will “feel” easier. I just got a new computer at work and it “feels” easier to use that my old one because I was able to transfer all of my old applications, links, and folders there.
3) more design doesn’t equal better design. Make it easy enough for a caveman to use and more people will use it, but spend too much time designing it and only folks who read Boxes and Arrows will appreciate it.
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The New York Daily News has a post today about an interesting innovation: “rat-proof” garbage bags. The trick? Apparently the scent of Eucalyptus is very effective at getting the little buggers to go away. Just a reminder that little ideas with good execution can get a product to market just as effectively (or perhaps more effectively) than a huge idea with a longer lead time.
→ No CommentsTags: What I learned today · process improvement
Here’s a neat idea: make a device that powers up your devices the second you lay the device down on the object. Looks like it actually works, as reported on by Gizmodo, but there’s a catch.
To use this device you must purchase an adapter that snaps on to your existing electronic device. The company currently has attachments for a Motorola Razr and and an Apple iPod.
This is very cool technology, but I think to reach beyond the “people who are really annoyed with their chargers” market they will need to implement a version of this that simply finds your battery when you place the device on the charging plate and charges it up. Otherwise, I think I’ll go on using my universal charger (to charge my Razr, my BlackBerry Pearl, and my headset, it works just fine).
