Computers aren't biased, guns don't kill

First let me say I love google news. I hit it twice a day at least. I love the unbiased mix of global news sources and the scanability.

Strangely, at the bottom of the redesigned Google News, it says

"The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program."

Hmm, I wonder if there was a problem at some point, or some hurt feelings.

But in any case, it's strikes me as odd that a company full of smart people would make a disclaiming statement like this, as if humans were not behind the algorithms and code that determines what gets displayed. Or perhaps the implication is that the algorithms are so simple, that they could not be biased?

Bowman, it's not about Data vs. Design

A coworker of mine while at Google, Doug Bowman, recently jumped to Twitter, and let fly an arrow at Google regarding the overuse of user data to make design decisions. Unfortunately it's misguided.

Data is good for design. Data type mismatch is bad for anything. The right level of abstraction equals the right tool for the right job:

Using analytics to make design decisions is like using raw sales numbers to justify green for your new product logo. And, it requires that you ship the product again to test if the color change worked, which can be costly.

Here are the flaws:

• You think you can control for all of the variables, but you can't: "we didn't change anything but the button color, so that must be why people started buying!"


• Customers may respond poorly to churning the UI: changing the UI to see if there is an effect, may cause users to leave your unpredictable UI.


• You must "test" again with the same metrics to know if it worked: requires you to ship the product again. Sometimes costly.

Oh, and it pisses your employees off apparently.

What Google needs to do is stop trying to make small design decisions with broad metrics, and instead isolate the variables, frame the question you are tying to answer, and use the right method.

Here's an oversimplification:

• Design = preference = survey
• Experience = usability = user research
• Features = useful = contextual / workflow

Wyland uses thousands of gallons of paint on Earth Day

In one of the most ridiculous acts of blindness to the Earth on Earth Day, artist Wyland sprayed several thousand gallons of paint on top of the LA Arena, to create an image of the Earth.

Was it low VOC paint? Will it eventually wash off into the water? Are paint manufacturing methods considered "green"?

It may sound silly, but Earth Day is all about asking these questions, and stopping with the silly publicity stunts.

@Apple: stop the proprietary headphone thing

It's pretty obvious at this point that the only reason you are creating products that require your own headphones, is to perpetuate the white headphone ads, and gain free product recognition when people see others using the white headphones.

You did it first with the iPhone, and now with the new iPod Shuffle. Stop!

It's anti-competitive, and bad for your users:

• The headphones don't fit everyone's ears
• They fall out when exercising
• They don't have the best sound quality

Can I go out and buy a better set of headphones? It's not easy, and you are making bank on it!

Windows home server - everything in its right place

Back up your home machine(s) automagically, stream music and movies to your Media Center or Xbox, and generally offload your storage to your big local cloud? Hell yes.

Not to mention remote access to pictures, music, and files for your friends and family. Cool.

The new Power Pack 1 update to Windows Home Server was released a few months ago, and I must say, improves the product tremendously and fixes a few bugs.

Silly iTunes: if it's DRM, why can't I download it again?

Look, Apple knows who I am. For better or worse, they know that I downloaded the song Car Wash by Rose Royce. They know that I can't share it with other people becasue it's digitally rights managed (DRM).

Why can't I download it again? Really. Why?

Even if it's not DRM, I already paid for it, and could copy it many times and share it with many people, so what difference does it make if I download it again?

Google, the great Peeping Tom

Undeniably the streets are public places, but the voyeuristic Google streetview product--now available in almost every backyard--is a bit over the top.

Sure Google blots out faces and licence plate numbers, but the best argument I have heard for the loss of privacy is related to the general expectation that our actions and daily situations are ephemeral: http://thenoisychannel.com/2008/11/25/ephemeral-conversation-is-dying/. There should be no such thing as a peeping tom law if everything visible from the street is fair game. Hey buddy, take a picture, it lasts longer. Well Google is taking a lot of pictures.

Sure the product has merits but it's really an overt play on the basic voyeuristic tendency in all of us: “hey, I can see your house from up here!”