Flow of Logic

What's the Problem, AT&T?

Fri, 09 Oct 09 00:11:44 -0700

A recent Gizmodo entry reports suggestions from the AT&T Wireless CEO to put data caps on smartphone data usage:

PCWorld caught Ralph de la Vega making a few, um, intimations at CTIA yesterday. First, a setup, in which he describes an actual problem:

He cited AT&T research showing that just 3 percent of AT&T's smartphone customers use 40 percent of all smartphone data

So, iPhone users! They use data! Then he adds some connective tissue, to draw a possible—and disagreeable—solution to the problem into view:

Without the proper management of these networks, De la Vega said, regular data users will be "crowded out" by the small number of users who use massive amounts of data.

My apologies if I fail to see the problem here.

It's not like they transfer the same amount of data as iPhones. If 97% of smartphones only need 60% of all smartphone data, then there is no reason they will be "crowded out".
Vega also makes the claim that 3% of smartphone customers use 40% of the smartphone data, not the capacity. If these customers use 40% of the data, but the data used is only 60% of the total capacity, the non-iPhone smartphones have plenty of capacity to use up.

Furthermore, his plan lacks solvency. There is no way that he can even out the bandwidth usage. Putting bandwidth caps won't stop iPhone users from transferring significantly more data than non-iPhone smartphone users (see point number 1 above). So at this point, not only is he not going to solve the "problem" at hand, he is creating another one: the inevitable backlash that will occur should this plan be put into motion.

Google Voice fails at Voicemail Transcriptions

Thu, 30 Jul 09 16:32:35 -0700

Today I received an email saying that I could now sign up for Google Voice. So I signed up for it and got a number, and I decided to test out it’s Voicemail Transcriptions. I recorded something and it turned out sort of okay, except that it couldn't transcribe my French. Maybe it can't understand French, or I have a bad accent. I don't know. And then I had a friend record something. And Google Voice kind of failed. She recited a passage from a Wikipedia Article:

Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory, born Isabella Augusta Persse, was an Irish dramatist and folklorist. With William Butler Yeats and others, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that identified closely with British rule, her conversion to cultural nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of the changes to occur in Ireland during her lifetime.

Here is what Google Voice transcribed it as:

it is about our cost lady gregory on his about casa price listen ours thomases infocell artist with william butler you'd sent others she calls out of the irish literary theater and i'll be theater and road new my short works for both companies baby gregory you produce the number of look for the free telling the stories taken from the irish mythology went to a class that identify closely with british will her conversion to calls from nationalism as evidence by her writings list and grammatical many of of the changes super and i went there in her lifetime

For reference, you can listen to the voicemail and see what you think.

MS Office 2010 Technical Preview - Screenshots!

Wed, 20 May 09 12:39:53 -0700

On Monday, Microsoft Office 2010 was was leaked to the torrents, so I decided to see what the hype was about and grabbed myself a copy.

I am unable to find any difference in actual use, but there are definitely visual changes.

We are all used to the old Office 2007 splash:

Here we have the new Office 2010 splash:
The overall look is more brushed. There is only one theme right now, unlike 2007 which has three:

Here are screenshots of the silver theme of Word 2007 and Excel 2007:

And here are screenshots of Word 2010 and Excel 2010:
And finally the main menu is different. The old one looks like this:

The new one takes up the entire screen, and even has different color schemes based on the product. For example, Word is blue and Excel is green:

What do you guys think of the new look?

EDIT: So I needed to print something and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have changed the Print:

In my opinion, this is very convenient as it offers a large thumbnail and many useful options in the same place.

Hey Facebook: seriously, guys?

Sun, 10 May 09 21:55:20 -0700

For those of you that use Facebook, you know about this "Fan of <something>" that’s been going around. I’ve seen a variety of them, some that are sort of legitimate (like "Fan of <artist>"), and some that are silly.

Now I’ve seen one that is just plain dumb. Come on guys, seriously?

This is silly beyond silly. Who really needs to know that you are a fan of not getting shot in the face? Do you know of anyone that is a fan of getting shot in the face? Do you know of anyone that enjoys getting shot in the face and is still alive?

I Love Minimalist Layouts

Sun, 03 May 09 22:23:24 -0700

Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terre des hommes, 1939

For those of you that do not speak French, this means: "It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to subtract."

I find myself agreeing more and more with this statement in terms of design. I find many designs to be overly flashy and distracting, and that I prefer a good minimalistic layout. Of course, there is always a point at which I draw the line.

I still love good typography; if I ever come across a website in Comic Sans MS, have no doubt that I will never visit that website again. However, if I were to ever come across a site that had perfectly readable and professional-looking text, I would not really care about how plain it looks.

One site that I read often, Perishable Press, had a theme that was, from a design standpoint, breathtaking. He called this Quintessential. However, his new theme, Requiem, is an almost polar opposite compared to Quintessential in terms of design. Yet, Requiem, in my opinion, still manages to be very aesthetically pleasing.

I think that it is time for a redesign for this site, and that a minimalist theme may be in order.

By the way, Lateral Code recently underwent a redesign. The new theme looks great.