In which, I confess I am a Nerd.

So, I'm a fan of Babylon 5. Season 1 was almost universally awful (except for the finale) and most of season 5 was unremarkable (except for the final few episodes), but the bulk of the series had enough good moments to outweight the cringe-inducing moments.

Part of the problem with the original run of B5 was that it started out on The WB network, and was shifted to TNT, neither network known for quality original programming, or a large audience. You also had budget problems (small, unknown series with lots of makeup, sets, and special effects on smaller networks), scheduling problems (constant schedule changes, including a jump from broadcast to cable), and an always uncertain future (the season finale for season 4 was filmed separately, and the series final filmed at the end of season 4 because B5 was not renewed until partway through its season 4 run. There were casting problem (poor actors). But the biggest problem was that there had never been a similar series on American TV before, and no one knew what to do with it.

B5 was an experiment, essentially: A sci-fi series, with a planned 5 year run. Set beginning, middle and end points. Allowances made for cast changes. Extensive use of CGI. A real relationship with Earth, politics, homelessness, religion, poverty and crime. Truly alien aliens and environments. Unforunately, early on, Warner Brothers wanted a Star Trek like 'alien of the week' series, and it shows.

And if the whole series was re-made today, starting from scratch, every single problem would be solved.

Planned Series

Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and others. All planned. Well, Lost WAS planned - but they were extended by an extra 2-3 seasons, and it shows. But, generally speaking, networks (and viewers) know how to deal with that now.

No Sci-fi Stigma

Sure, BSG isn't considered strictly sci-fi, but it's made it 'cool.' The last run of superhero movies haven't hurt to dimished the nerd stigma around sci-fi either. Just as importantly, sci-fi has also expanded past Star Wars and Star Trek. It'd be easier to attract quality actors and staff, and have some sway with the networks.

CGI

The occasionally hilariously bad CGI can be traced to both its pioneering use, and the low budgets. Better CGI is available now, for lower cost.

Of course, I'm not a TV executive, producer, director or writer. But it's nice to dream. It could be done. Of course, B5 has already been made once. There's no real need to do it again (for 20 years or so - look at BSG.

Aquent: Shooting Themselves in the Foot

Aquent, for those who might be unaware, is a talent staffing company. They're large, multinational, and supposedly reputable. Theoretically, I'm a ‘Registered Talent’ with them, though that's merely a technicality (I have, in 5 years, received 1 job lead and no interviews, nor do I receive any correspondence from them whether I initiate it or not). They also have a partnership of sorts with the AIGA.

Last week, Aquent created a contest on 99Designs (no link, because they don't deserve one) where anyone could submit a design for their website. The winner would receive $500, and their design would be produced.

Curiously, the AIGA has a very strong stance against spec work (working for free in an attempt to win paying work), and design contests.

Essentially, the AIGA says that spec work and design contests cheapen and devalue our profession. It's true. It sets up the designer to essentially have your work stolen, and to have a company get away with work for free or at an extremely steep discount. This is different (though the AIGA does not make the distinction) from a new business pitch for an agency. In the case of contests, it's essentially irredeemable for a large company like Aquent to actually attempt this. Besides seeming cheap (a website the size of Aquent costs more than $500) it devalues Aquent's position of design as a rare skill, to be cultivated and promoted. Instead, Aquent has said, “Any idiot with Photoshop can do this. Why bother paying for our talent?” It hurts both designers and Aquent.

Certainly spec work & design contests have their place. Non-profits who have no money, and rely on donations for their labor can be excused for soliciting designs. Agencies and studios do spec work all the time in the form of business pitches. But the situations where it's appropriate are few and far between, and it's sad to see Aquent devalue themselves so.

This could have been a win for Aquent though. The contest could have been opened to its members (and prospective members) with the winner receiving a consulting-type placement with the shop that's actually building the site. They get experience, exposure and a paycheck. Aquent gets a good reputation by turning to its own members for design. Better yet, Aquent could have truly opened up to its community, and open sourced the design on its website – finding exactly what members think is broken, and how they'd fix it (and allow the community to work with the production team to prioritize and integration changes).

Cryptonomicon

Actually, it ended up being Sony.

It ended up being a slightly better deal to go with the Sony, once you start counting wireless internet access and other benefits.

Apple Made Me Buy Microsoft.

I want an iPhone. I really do. Or rather, I did.

Oh, I'm still of the opinion that the iPhone is a solid piece of phone hardware, with a pretty good system behind it (No matter what the people at the Free Software Foundation think. Hint: Apple plans to make money off it, so they don't like it). But lately, even commuting back into the city, I don't miss my recently deceased 30GB iPod that much. Sure, it's nice for when I don't feel like reading, but since I walk to work from Penn Station, well, I just don't miss it.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to buy one. But, I have a job. I could, theoretically, get in line at 7:30AM at a store in NYC, but that involves getting on a 6AM train. There are still 2 hour lines at the 5^th Ave. Apple Store and the others don't open until 9AM, so I can't both buy and iPhone and make it to work on time. And no, I don't think this is some crazy conspiracy theory that Apple is holding back on units. You can only manufacture anything so quickly, and judging by the demand, it wouldn't matter how many of the phone Apple has - there'd still be people complaining about a lack of availability.

So, screw it. I'm giving up an iPhone (for now), my wife is skipping buying a GPS unit for her car (for now) and I'm taking our money and buying an XBox 360 & Rock Band.

Stop Animating.

FI/ThinkSwedish has some pretty cool tips for how animation relates to user interfaces. Essentially, stop animating everything.

It's nice to see my preferred approach to animating UI elements (i.e. minimal and fast) validated.

Oh, sure, there's plenty of places it's appropriate or even ideal to use alot of motion, but when it comes to application or portal design, I think it's more important to make sure the user is never left waiting for an animation to finish.

You don't want to end up like Avenue A/Razorfish. Not only did they pretty blatantly borrow a look from Group94, they did it poorly. Continuing the theme of the post, the site feels slow, despite running at a high, smooth frame rate due to the fact that everything needs to animate in and out. It feels slow, rather than snappy. It's a shame. (But it's still an improvement over their old site).

The Floor is Finished

Once I put in the knee-wall doors (to access the storage space), we are ready for the final inspection.

We're waiting on the inspection to put up the baseboard trim and fix the last 2 or 3 spots of drywall that still need work, just in case something else comes up. Once that's all done, we'll actually be taking a break until Fall. I'd like to get another raised bed into the backyard, and we have some minor painting and stuff on the first floor to take care of.

Also, we're not painting or moving anything up there right away since we still need somewhere to put the extra flooring, etc for the other half of the attic - there's no point in painting if we're just going to end up scuffing the walls later. If the floor gets damaged, though, there will be blood.

More Attic Photos

The closet interior

You're whining about the iPhone? Seriously?

The camera sucks? So do most, if not all camera phones. Go buy a real camera if you want quality. 35MM, not digital.

The pricing sucks? Not really. Comparable phones are the same price, or more. You're not getting a special plan, you're getting the same plans AT&T offers for every other phone. The base plan is the same one I've had for years. Yes, idiot, it costs $30 for unlimited wireless. It went up $10 because you're getting faster access now. So you're looking at $75, roughly, for a base fee. Also, yes, it costs $18 to upgrade your phone. $36 if you're a new customer. It's a fee. Do you think Verizon or Sprint don't charge you stupid fees for that sort of thing?

Yes, text messaging rates are extortion. All cell providers do it. Don't just pick on AT&T. Alternatively, you could use this wonderful thing called email (it's got internet access, you know), IM or your voice. No, texting isn't less obtrusive - you're just as oblivious to the world around you, and it's just as irritating when my phone 'rings.' Also, in the 2 minutes it took you to text me, you could've called me, gotten your answer, and 3 more.

No, it's still not fast. 3G internet access is, practically, about as fast as slow DSL.

No one over the age of 13 cares about MMS. Give it up already.

Converting HTML to Flash (and design blogs I like).

Fantasy Interactive is a polarizing company. Initially know for completely overblown design and Flash use that would make even the most ardent defender cringe, they have a history of pushing its limits, particularly in portal/app design. Lately, they've toned down the worst of their stylistic excesses, and done some really nice work (unfortunately, it didn't carry over to their site redesign).

Think Swedish gets a little self-serving at times, but hey - it's their blog. Good for them. I'm not sure why they decided to build the whole damn thing in Flash (given that a blog is one of those things I need my right-click functionality for), but their media players are great.

Labs.bigspaceship.com is another great blog by a great agency. It's pretty much strictly code, but it's always relevent and interesting, even when the code or concept is over my head (fairly simple, since I'm not really a developer).

TheSerif.net is my favorite design blog. It's more focused than most, and has a higher level of quality. I like Design Observer and Subtraction as much as the next guy, but The Serif rocks for 'pretty pictures.'