Thoughts about design and technology.

Sam and Max is a video game series that originally started back in 1993. It made a comeback a couple of years ago in the form of episodic gaming, releasing one ‘episode’ each month for a ’season’ of six episodes. It’s sorta like a tv show where each episode can be played on its own, but with an overall storyline that connects the episodes together.

Sam and Max is the first successful episode-based video game series. Part of its success is based its interesting plot and characters which is what made the original 1993 version a cult classic. And part of the reason the writing is such an important aspect is because of the ‘adventure’ format of gaming which typically relies on the storyline.

The way adventure video games work is sort of like watching a movie you can interact with at certain points. It’s a little more complex as it also lets you interact with the environment and your interactions don’t always have to be made in a certain order. But unlike other video games, your goal isn’t to earn points or shoot your way through levels, it’s to solve a problem. You watch the story unfold then interact with the environment and its characters to get clues on how to further develop the storyline. And that’s why the writing is so important. And with good writing is how the episode format can work, since it basically turns into a good television show you interact with.

The GTD method is basically a method for increasing personal organization. To me it meant somewhat more than that as it taught me about how just by changing my thinking about something could lead to really powerful results. If you’re not familiar with the book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity“, or its author David Allen, I recommend you first watch this video of a talk he gave at Google a while ago.

I originally heard about the GTD method a couple of years ago and spent almost a year and a half to finish reading the book. The reason it took so long was because I kept stopping to try and implement what I read in the book. It probably would’ve been a better idea to just read it and then refer back to it, but I eventually did finish it, at which point I already had my system working for me.

The system could be as basic as working with simple lists of things that need to get done daily, weekly, monthly or “someday.” It could also be done using just pencil and paper. In my case, I started with an online Wiki tool called PBWiki. I later switched to using PBWiki just for my ideas and “someday” projects and moved on to Ta-da Lists for my daily, weekly and monthly tasks. I recently replaced Ta-da Lists with voo2do which is based on the GTD technique and is designed specifically for working in that way.

Like I mentioned, an aspect of the book that was important to me was how it talked a lot about paying attention to your own thinking process. This ultimately leads not only to being able to organize your thoughts, but to also being able to follow through with them and analyze their results for better further planning. At least this is the way it worked for me. I found that as I was getting my thoughts out of my head and into my system, I was able to accomplish things in a logical way that lead to better focus of my upcoming goals.

And as I focused more on my thinking, I was able to better handle information consumption. Until reading the book, I didn’t realize how much of an issue it was for me working online all day with information on everything available at my fingertips. I was always good at finding the information I needed, but now I’m also able to control it in a way that works for me.

Since there is so much talk about change, I figured it was about time I made some changes of my own. This site and blog will undergo some changes within the next few weeks.

The first change is a long overdue switch to use WordPress instead of the primitive blog system I developed. With this also comes commenting which was the deciding factor for the switch. A somewhat related change to this is this blog’s XML feed which will go through Feedburner. Please bear with me through the glitches that may will occur while I’m getting both of these setup.

The next change will be the content format of the blog. Up until this point, there was no regularity for blog posts. You can now expect to see a guaranteed post at least once a month. Along with that, I am considering trying out a ‘magazine format’ for posts where there will be certain ‘issues’ of related topics. This means a different way that articles will be archived and the possibility of series of articles about one topic.

This post is a little overdue, so since I’m sure many of you have already visited sites like Engadget for CES coverage, I’ll keep this short. There are three areas that I thought there was a lot of focus which we’ll be hearing a lot more about this year.

HD Proliferation

Well, it looks like Blu-ray may have won the format war. Along with that, HD technology is spreading to everything. From digital cameras that use the 16×19 aspect ratio to more affordable HD camcorders.

Content Delivery

In another step closer to TV going online, these new set-top boxes could be replacing your cable box:

• Slingcatcher - A product that was a big hit last year now offers HD
• Netflix and LG - Could be the ultimate movie-playing device
• Vudu - Server and receiver for downloading and storing movies

One problem these boxes solve is multi-room support, allowing for viewing selected media throughout the home. Of course a fast reliable internet connection is required.

Smart Devices

Another use of your internet connection is for networked devices that respond to online data or data networked from your computer. Your future home appliances won’t just have a computer chip, they’ll also be connected to the internet.

Also worth pointing out is the evolving technology in touchscreens and ebooks.

In the last couple of years, I’ve gotten used to subscribing to blogs as my main source of news and information. Mix that with listening to most of my music through a portable player and it’s gotten me thinking about how I consume media.

My primary music player is a Zune, both as a portable device and on my computer. The software allows for a service of paying a monthly subscription fee to download any amount of music to listen to (through the Zune software and player, ofcourse). What if instead of buying albums as I do currently, I just subscribed to the Zune service and downloaded any albums I wanted at anytime. It would be much simpler and in the end cheaper. I figure on average I get about 2-3 albums a month. If each album is about $15, it would be cheaper for me to just subscribe to the Zune service at $15 a month to get those albums.

The biggest problem a lot of people struggle with and is the idea of owning their music. It’s why albums still have top sales and why individual downloads are more successful than the subscription model. But what about instead of getting music, we just listened to music, where instead of owning the music we liked, we just had a list of it and played it from different places, be it online or off a hard drive or other music device. If we thought in that way, our library of music could potentially be limitless and there would be less effort getting to it.

Now what about other forms of media? Cable TV shows are part of your cable subscription. Plus there are packages like HBO and other film channels. For movies, there are services like Netflix. Videogames have a service called GameFly that’s similar to Netflix. Even books have something called BookSwim. They each have their pluses and minuses. I enjoy all these forms of media but there are times where I can go for months without doing one or the other. Being subscribed to them seems like a waste. But I guess the real problem is finding the time to enjoy them all.

Note: I ended up subscribing to Netflix during the writing of this post.

As I started reading a blog post about a desktop app recommendation, I realized I needed to change out my desktop wallpaper (I usually look for a new one about every 1-2 months). By the time I finished the article, I thought about how desktop wallpaper can be distracting sometimes.

I went into my desktop settings looking for alternatives when I came across a Solid Colors option I never really paid any attention to before since I was always focused on loading the latest graphic I found.

After about a day of having just a one color background (screenshot above), it feels somewhat refreshing. I think I’ll give it a try for a while. Maybe use some color themes from online inspiration sites and do a different theme each month (with a different color from the theme each week).

While going through some of the presentations given at this year’s Mix Conference from Microsoft, I realized that while there was a good amount of effort put into showing how Microsoft is paying attention to the interactive user experience, the main focus seemed to be on advertising and what tools Microsoft provides for advertisers for integrating into content on the web and interactive TV. But while watching what new possibilities there were for advertising, I started thinking about what kind of advertising people would be more attracted towards.

Google showed us that the way advertising works best on the web is by making ads that are very specific to the content of the page they’re placed. Microsoft is following Google’s model but they’re also taking a different approach. Throughout the years they’ve made their way into the television market, most notably with the Xbox and Media Center PCs.

Currently, the way web ads are displayed compared to television is quite different. On the web, your screen is divided with regions for content and others for ads, giving you the option to just ignore the ads completely. On TV, ads split up content during certain time periods, completely taking away what your interested in and giving you no option but to watch the ads. With software like Microsoft’s Media Center, TV ads could also appear around the content, like at the bottom in the form of a ‘bug’ with the ability to interact with it and choose to pause what your watching and view the ad as rich content.

It looks like Microsoft wants to lead the way for next generation television technology where they can also implement their advertising model. Google doesn’t seem to be a competitor on the television side, but their investment in YouTube is leading to some speculation about their future plans. They could also get into the next generation of television through a different route. A potential competitor to the Media Center is Apple’s settop box which works with their already popular iTunes. All Google would need to do is partner with Apple to provide YouTube content and their advertising system and they would be in direct competition with Microsoft.

So there may be a race towards the future of television using the success of advertising on the web. It’ll be interesting to see things progress and which model would work better. Either Microsoft’s standard technique of taking control of a market by throwing money at it or Google’s unique way of easing into other markets.

Rich content based advertising may take longer to catch on, possibly making Microsoft’s effort appear to be ahead of its time (in a similar way as their Web TV venture). Google has always had a pretty clear vision and has a good track record so far. I think for both companies and the next generation of television, targeted advertising is what’s going to change the market.

It was that time again for me to look at new cell phone options. My two-year contract with Cingular was over and I already decided a while ago that Verizon Wireless was looking better this time around. It also meant it was time for a new phone. I had a Windows Mobile-based smartphone the last couple of years which worked well, syncing nicely with my Outlook Calendar and Contacts. I ended up getting the Motorola Q which came with the same version of the Windows Mobile OS on it, but had a bigger nicer screen and QWERTY keyboard, so it was worth the price. The only problem was that about a month prior, I had decided not to use Outlook anymore since Windows Vista had built-in Email, Calendar and Contacts apps.

And that’s where things get messy. It turns out that even though Vista has a new Sync Center, as it’s called, a Windows Mobile 5 device cannot sync with Vista Calendar or Contacts. So I did some research and found out that there will be a Windows Mobile 6 released by the end of the year, but still without support for syncing with Vista Calendar and Contacts. And after even reading a post from a Microsoft developer’s blog where most of the comments posted are people’s pleas to include the sync support, the responses is that there are currently no plans to implement it.

Now, technically, Microsoft hadn’t lost me as I customer. I ended up getting the phone anyway and upgraded to Outlook 2007 (mainly because I had gotten used to the Vista Email and Calendar UI which it’s pretty similar to). But consider an alternative option: A Palm OS-based phone with its own software for Calendar and Contacts for your Desktop that would sync to your phone. All included with the phone, no need to buy additional software.

The way Microsoft is really losing customers though is by disappointing them. I’m sure a lot of people considered Vista Email, Calendar and Contacts as an alternative to Outlook and expected that its fancy new Sync Center would easily be able to sync with their Windows Mobile phones, especially in the new version coming out. But because of the complicated and pricey “solutions” they provide and in a way that seems to take advantage of some of their most devoted customers, they end up losing their customer’s trust, which in the long run is the worst they can do.

Multi-touch computing has been a technology in the works for a while, with a few different companies rushing to make it first to market with a product. Its no surprise that the first to get there is Microsoft with their Surface. They’ve been a head of the game with (single) touch screen tablet PCs for years and have invested a lot into their Microsoft Research division which is behind its development.

Microsoft Surface is targeted at companies that work in the entertainment industry, from casinos to hotels and restaurants. It’s basically a kiosk in the form of a table, using cameras for the detection of more than a dozen touch points and projecting the images using a DLP projector under the table.

At first, I was a little skeptical about the technology since from what I’ve seen working in the past made it seem like it was still in its early stages and needed some fine tuning. But after watching some of the videos of the product in action, I was surprised at how well it in fact worked.

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