Tuesday, Feb. 7th 2017

Graphic Means ^#

I'll be sure to catch this when it comes out. There's some seriously big names in here, and frankly, I've watched Helvetica too many times.

Tuesday, Feb. 7th 2017

Hello Freelance! ^#

I’ve left my job, which is a shame, because it was a good job.

Nevertheless, I feel that my calling is in other ideas, that until now were relegated to just side projects. For one: Air Lookout is something that demands more of my attention than just nights and weekends. My hope is that it could grow into something much bigger than a $0.99 app for iOS.

Outside of Air Lookout, there are many other ideas that I have. Few are as grand, but they do pertain to other interests that I have—such as running—which I feel are underserved with great well-made tools.

Of course, my main source of income will still be client work; hopefully for quite some time. I love meeting new clients, learning how their business operates and working with them to create great solutions.

There are, in no particular order, a lot of other things I am interested in as well, such as:

• Mentoring aspiring designers
• Becoming a better programmer
• Podcasting
• Improving my design process
• Writing (that includes this blog)
• Working with new, interesting and diverse clients
• More Traveling
• Fixing/rebuilding a vehicle…
• Running, running, running and more running

But above all that: I want to spend more quality time with my my fiancé Val and, of course, our tenacious red heeler Izzy.

I want to make my dreams my reality. Nobody lives forever and I doubt I will be the exception.

If any of this seems interesting to you, I hope you'll continue to follow my blog or say "hi" to me on twitter.

Monday, Nov. 7th 2016

My Favorite Podcasts ^#

I love podcasts. I listen to a lot. My podcast player, Overcast, says that I have saved over 70 223 hours from Smart Speed™ alone. Here's a bunch of my favorite technology, design, development, running and fly fishing podcasts.

Tech

Accidental Tech Podcast
Listening to an earlier podcast made by this trio, Neutral, is actually what got me into regularly listening to podcasts. After hearing that these three personalities, who I usually listened to argue about cars, were starting a tech podcast was all that I need. They usually talk about iOS/macs and other technology news. Recently, a lot of the episodes have been about the atrophied mac lineup, which is definitely a topic that I am passionately interested in.

The Talk Show With John Gruber
If you like the news, opinions and snarkiness that regularly shows up on John Gruber’s blog, Daring Fireball, then you will love this podcast. If you don’t, you definitely won’t enjoy it.

Clockwise
As a fan of the Six Colors blog since its inception, a tech podcast hosted by Jason Snell and Dan Moren, the authors, will easily be well respected by me. Their rapid-fire 30 minute podcast around four topics with two guests is interesting and fresh in a world where 1-2 hour podcasts are becoming fairly common.

Upgrade
OK, two podcasts in a row with Jason Snell. I have a lot of respect for his opinions around technology and especially Apple products. On Upgrade, Myke Hurley joins him as a co-host. This is a must-listen podcast before and after any Apple events.

Design & Development

What's the Point
This podcast, produced by FiveThirthyEight is a newer addition to my podcast playlists. It focuses on data and how it is changing lives. Episode 66, about Cathy O’ Neil’s book Weapons of Math Destruction really drew me in to this podcast.

Design Details
Episode 3 of Design Details featuring Wilson Miner is what initially attracted me to this podcast (it’s still one of my favorites). Their regular production of interesting interviews with designers has kept this podcast as one of my regulars.

Iterate
It has been a few months since there has been a new episode of Iterate, but it’s still one of my favorites. I have a lot of respect for Marc Edwards and his opinions. I hope he returns soon to the podcast format. Unfortunately there hasn’t been a new episode since April 2016.

The Observatory
Michael Bierut is one of the most important and experienced design voices today. Joined by Jessica Helfand, they tackle and discuss real issues facing the world and how design might be able to help. This should be required listening for all designers.

99% Invisible
Speaking of required listening for designers, this is another podcast that should definitely be on your playlist. I think I have listened to Episode 95: Future Screens are Mostly Blue and Episode 97: Numbers Stations about 10 times each.

Layout
The topics found on the Layout podcast are varied, but they seem to cover most of my favorite topics: design, technology, programming and tech news. Maybe, if they found a way to work in talking about running and fly-fishing, it would be the only podcast I would have to listen to.

Under the Radar
If you’re looking for practical advice as a developer or independant app maker, there’s no better place than this podcast. Two very experienced independant app makers, Marco Arment and David Smith, have joined together to host this under 30 minute podcast.

The Creative Coding Podcast
This has been a somewhat recent discovery of mine. The focus of programming for visual and creative outlets is very interesting to me and was the original impetus for me entering my current field.

iOhYes
This podcast is another recent addition for me that has proven its value very quickly. Most recently, Episode 118: Dependencies All The Way Down was awesome and touched on a subject that is regularly discussed in the Rally Interactive office. This podcast doesn’t exist anymore.

Rally Banter
It’s probably pretty lame to mention a podcast that you ocassionally show up on. Maybe it’s even more lame to admit that you regularly listen to that podcast. But, here it is anyway. Sadly no longer produced :(

Core Intuition I’m not really sure whether to categorize this under Tech of Design & Development. Either way, it’s a great insight into the challenges, ups and downs of indie development with a strong focus on macOS and iOS.

Running

I love to run and I love to run regularly. Hearing from other runners with varying experience about their races, injury prevention, nutrition strategies and what motivates them always keeps me on the lookout for great running podcasts. Here’s a few that I find myself excited to listen to and full of good information.

Trail Runner Nation
Talk Ultra
TrailManners
Ultrarunner Podcast
Trail Talk
Sage Running Podcast
The Rich Roll Podcast
Ginger Runner LIVE Billy Yang Podcast

Misc

Mystery Show
Starlee Kine tackles some of the most interesting, weird and trivial mysteries ever. As a result, it is one of the most entertaining podcasts I have ever listened to.

The Chernobyl Podcast The HBO series of the same name was amazing. This companion podcast adds a lot of flavor. Hosted by Peter Sagal and the series creator Craig Mazin, it’s definitely worth a listen.

FiveThirtyEight Politics For anyone interested in the intersection of data and politics, this is a must.

I would love to know if you enjoy these podcasts, or if you have any recommendations. Talk to me on twitter!

Wednesday, Sept. 7th 2016

My Thoughts on the Apple Watch and Garmin Fenix 3 ^#

From the perspective of a regular runner

I intended to do a full review and long written post about my thoughts on using both devices for regularly running and training for the half and full marathon distance. However, considering that Apple is likely going to be announcing a new Apple Watch 2 tomorrow, I decided that it would be better to post these notes now.

Recently, I switched from using the Apple Watch daily for activity, exercise and "smart watch stuff" to the more accurate and training friendly Garmin Fenix 3. I used the Apple Watch from the day it was released for well over a year. Here's some of my notes and thoughts on the two.

Also, it looks like my list styles are totally messed up right now, so thanks for bearing with the technical difficulties.

Apple Watch

Pros

1. External design is nice… if a bit thick
2. Screen turns off, feels private
3. Being a backlit screen, hard to see in the day, easy to see at night
4. Love having my heart rate tracked whenever I am wearing it
   • Great to see resting and max for day
   • But… HealthKit app is awful and clunky, no real great apps out there for regularly tracking metrics like this
5. The daily activity tracking is simple, straightforward and the difference between calories burned, exercise minutes and standing breaks is clear
6. Type during activity is very clear and legible
   • Glancing at it during technical trail runs is easy and quick

Cons

1. Notifications are too slow
   • Animation feels like it takes an eternity
2. Apps are so slow to the point of being worthless
   • I know, I made my own for Air Lookout and as simple as it is it is crazy slow
3. Screen turns off, takes awhile for it to turn on
4. There's not a great reason for all watch faces, especially circular, not to support 5 complications
5. Inaccurate, sometimes off by as much as +/- 30% with GPS. Seems to get more inaccurate the longer the activity, especially over 10 mile runs
   • Seems to have improved slightly in later updates
6. Apple Watch battery barely lasts a full marathon finished in 4:30. Battery life was in single digits at the end! Fully charged at start.
7. Running workouts are impossible on it. No way to do manual laps for any kind of track workout.
8. Not clear in the UI if GPS reception is currently good or bad…
   • Should I wait to start for it to get a better fix?
   • Sometimes weird distance jumps during activity, I assume because of GPS fix issues but it's not apparent in the UI that this is happening
9. Missing some important metrics for running: cadence, vertical oscillation
   • more customizable data fields would be great
   • Seeing more data at once without requiring to swipe would be fantastic
10. Heart rate sensor digs into my wrist, sometimes hurting quite a bit on days where I have to type a lot
11. Worthy Mention: Strava Apple Watch app is pretty worthless
    • Measures in 1/10ths of a mile! This is crazy. Seems that maybe a runner wasn't involved in the design... Runners, at least I do, need (prefer?) 1/100ths of a mile displayed!

Garmin Fenix 3

Pros

1. Notifications, no animation and instant
   • Sadly probably not a design decision, but a hardware limitation
   • Buggy… sometimes unreliable
2. Screen is always on
3. Being a transflective screen, great in the day, hard to see at night, sometimes weird angle is required with headlamp to see when running at night
4. Manual laps are possible. Great for running workouts.
5. Long battery life
   • I love using it all day and seeing the battery life only drop to 99%

Cons

1. Color barely shows up
2. Condensed typeface has legibility and rendering issues
   • Often hard to read during technical night trail runs
   • 8 vs 9 glyph bowls…
3. Daily activity tracking isn't clear… I'm still not sure how often or when I need to clear my "move bars"
4. Takes forever to set up the watch and activity data fields "just right"
   • Can't do this on the iPhone app, have to do it through the watch UI
5. Very limited watch complications
6. Pretty huge external design… I, and many others than run a bit, seem to have pretty small wrists

10 things I'd like to see in a smart watch

For me, in the mindset of someone who regularly runs (ranked by highest to lowest priority)

1. Accurate
2. Reliable
3. Battery life that can easily last a marathon
   • Probably more: 50k? 100k? 100mi? 24hr?
   • Smart to lower GPS polling for long activities? Or ways to save battery?
4. Multi sport
   • Running (indoor/outdoor), biking (indoor/outdoor), hiking, swimming (indoor/outdoor) at the very least
5. Easy to customize and adjust settings and data fields
   • Data metrics should be incredible legible
6. Turns out having a display on all the time is really nice
   • Not having to do weird hand waving to get the display to turn on is great
7. Simple and straightforward notifications that are fast and reliable
   • Please don't try to surprise and delight me when I'm trying to quickly read a notification
8. Variety of watch face complications, especially sunrise/sunset and upcoming calendar events
9. Waterproof for regular swimming, showering, etc
10. GPX export and wireless syncing to Strava and other services
    • I gotta get those Strava kudos and PRs!
    • But seriously… Apple Activity app is not enough for anyone serious about tracking their training
    • Need a way to upload for trainers and coaches to a variety of services
11. BONUS: Fast. Everything should launch fast. Exercise tracking should start fast. Watch should turn on fast. Updates should install fast. Watch should charge fast. But to me, that's more an expectation than a feature priority…

Please note that 3rd party apps do not show up, for me, as a priority.

Other random thoughts

Hydration reminder or tracking? Caffeine tracking?

Tuesday, Aug. 9th 2016

The typography is sad ^#

Milton glaser reviews Olympic logos throughout the years. My favorite scathing criticism is of London – Summer Olympics 1948. Milton claims: "This logo reveals that not all images will work together. The rings and parliament remain unrelated. The typography is sad."

I've always had a strong affinity towards Tokyo Summer 1964 by Yusaku Kamekura and Mexico Summer 1968 by Lance Wyman.