Operation Gadget

The New Flickr UI Is Great, But News-Related Photo Search Isn't

2013-05-21T03:09:58Z

Yahoo announced a new user interface for Flickr today that is a huge improvement. Kudos to them. I am a bigger Flickr fan than most people know.

What concerns me is that Flickr's search hasn't improved as much as the rest of the UI.

What I was hoping was that when I searched for "moore, ok", I would get photos that gave me an idea of what had happened in the area that was hit hardest in a devastating tornado that occurred in Oklahoma today.

Instead, what I saw was a beautiful sky, pictures of thunderheads from 10 days ago, and photos of some specimens in a skeleton museum. Yahoo, can you guys improve this?

Our prayers go out to the people of the Oklahoma City area at this time of tragedy.

Expansion of NHL Outdoor Games Confirmed; Predicted Here in 2008

2013-05-16T13:27:22Z

You may have seen that the NHL announced two outdoor hockey games at Yankee Stadium next season, including the game between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers scheduled for Sunday, January 26, 2014, and a game between the New York Islanders and the Rangers on Wednesday, January 29.

Way back on January 1, 2008, in an article called How Cool Was The NHL Winter Classic? on this site, I said:

I think the NHL could put on two or three of these games next season in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day as an alternative to College Football on television. I wouldn't be surprised to see games happen in places like Yankee Stadium or Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

Five years ago, the Winter Classic was held at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo (Orchard Park, NY), and I thought the NHL would prefer football stadiums to baseball fields. Subsequently more baseball stadiums than football stadiums have been used.

It's interesting that the NHL decided to feature a single outdoor game for each of the first five seasons of the Winter Classic, and it's only now that they choose to expand it. The NHL is calling the U.S. outdoor games other than the Winter Classic the NHL Coors Light Stadium Series.

I still think that NHL outdoor games could be effective counter programming against college football, but the apparent rationale for the dates of the outdoor games next season is:

The Winter Classic is always January 1, and is a signature event for the NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Detroit Red Wings at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
The outdoor game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles will take place on Saturday January 25 at 7:00pm Pacific Time (Los Angeles Kings versus Anaheim Ducks). You can't take the sun out of the equation in Southern California, especially since the average high temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celcius).
The two outdoor games at Yankee Stadium are scheduled close to each other (which makes complete sense), and in the week leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII which is scheduled for Sunday, February 2, 2014, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The final outdoor game in the United States will take place during Hockey Weekend Across America, which will run from February 28 to March 1. (The Pittsburgh Penguins will take on the Chicago Blackhawks at Soldier Field on Saturday, March 1.)
The outdoor game in Canada, known as the Heritage Classic, will take place on Sunday, March 2 in Vancouver. The Canucks will be hosting the Ottawa Senators at BC Place.

]]> It's hard to imagine a scenario where Canadian hockey fans would accept proliferation of the outdoor game schedule in the United States without at least one game being in Canada. What's probably limiting such games in Canada at this point is the selection of world class outdoor stadiums. There aren't many, if you think about it.

Photo: Winter Classic 2010 Stadium Photo by David Day, dayvidday on Flickr, a photo licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Paris-Roubaix Airing on NBC Sports Network on Sunday Morning, April 7, 2013

2013-04-07T03:09:28Z

Earlier today Phil Liggett reminded me that Paris-Roubaix is airing tomorrow morning on NBC Sports Network:

Live NBCSN coverage of Paris Roubaix presented by @compcyclist & expanded to 3hrs.This Sunday 8am - 11am et on NBCSN
-- Phil Liggett (@PhilLiggett) April 6, 2013

I'll be watching. But the question will be, how do I watch the early part of the coverage without ending up having to watch Scooby Doo?

Is There an App Like PaintCode for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?

2013-03-19T15:16:48Z

Earlier today, John Gruber at Daring Fireball pointed out a recently released app in the MacOS X App Store called PaintCode (on the Web, in the App Store). As the PaintCode website says, "PaintCode is a vector drawing app that generates Objective-C code in real time."

This is a fantastic idea, I'd like more than anything to have a use for it. The idea immediately sparked a question in my mind:

Has anybody ever developed an app that like this that generates HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?

I could really use an app that generated code for the web in this fashion.

Is the closest thing to this to a code generator for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript the Mac application called Hype?

Great iOS Application for Evaluating and Managing Sports Concussions

2013-03-18T22:21:44Z

My wife, Kathleen Aiello, MD, recently launched a website called PedsApps.com which covers iPhone and iPad applications that are of interest to Pediatricians, nurse practitioners, and other care providers, as well as to the parents of their patients.

The most interesting article she's written so far is a review of The Concussion Recognition and Response Tool, an app that implements the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "Heads Up" Concussions in Youth Sports initiative.

According to Kathleen, "The app guides an evaluator through an assessment of the injured player, as well as providing an evaluation tool for home monitoring of symptoms and return-to-play guidelines."

The app is really excellent, because it gives coaches and parents a framework they can use to objectively assess a young athlete's head injury. I've heard from parents that the guidance they get from administrators in youth sports when concussions are suspected is not always clear. So, it's good to have a resource that you can turn to that provides some peace of mind.

I think The Concussion Recognition and Response App could be used by anyone who has experienced a head injury. It should be useful to adults playing body contact sports, officials who are injured on the field of play, and in a number of other real world scenarios.

Congratulations to Kathleen on an excellent review. Please take a look at PedsApps.com and follow it for more information in this important and interesting area of the handheld application space.

Getting a Full Day's Use Out of the iPhone 4S

2013-03-13T16:23:05Z

One of the most useful gifts Kathleen has given to me since we got married is the Mophie Juice Pack Plus rechargeable battery case for my iPhone 4S. I really could not get through an entire day meeting with clients in New York City without it.

I generally start the day using my iPhone without a case. I take good care of my phone and I like the small form factor that made the iPhone famous.

When my battery level hits 20 percent for the first time, I take my Mophie out of my backpack and snap the case on to the phone. This increases the size and weight of the total iPhone package, but not that significantly.

The Juice Pack's design allows it to act as a booster for the iPhone's internal battery. This means that the iPhone can show up to a 100% charge after it's been connected to the Juice Pack for a while. But generally, the Juice Pack will boost the iPhone's battery reading to between 60 and 100%, at which point the Juice Pack's battery will be exhausted, and I can take the iPhone out of the case again.

This solution allows me to spend a whole day in New York City meeting with my customers, business prospects, and partners, and generally never have to seek out a wall socket. It can also get me through the day when I need to participate in a long conference call in the middle of the day, but I can't get home until dinner time.

For iPhone 4S users who are not as focused on business as I am, the value of the Mophie Juice Pack is that it can get you through a wedding, a trip to an amusement park, or a child's sporting event with the confidence that your iPhone won't run out of power before you get home.

If you are serious about using an iPhone 4S for personal productivity or for the sheer enjoyment of the experience, you should really consider adding a Mophie Juice Pack to your arsenal.

Update: If you have an iPhone 5, you may be interested in David Chartier's article, A review and comparison of the Juice Pack Helium and Air for iPhone 5, which gives good recommendations for that phone.

Let's Remember Operation Gadget The Way It Used to Be

2013-03-13T06:58:51Z

In a few weeks, no one will remember what Operation Gadget used to look like. Let's keep some memories alive by capturing screenshots of a few of articles that turned out to be milestones that were originaly published with the original website theme .

It's Been a Long Time Since We Laced Up the Blades

2013-03-02T05:06:25Z

My dad and I have a phrase that we use to each other to convey a sense of just having realized how much things have changed:

"It's been a long time since we laced up the blades."

Operation Gadget began life in mid-November 2003, as a way for me to express my views on technology and my belief in electronics and handheld devices as a form of therapy for people like me. Folks who spend too much time doing technology systems integration.

After a long hiatus we're bringing it back-- at least a little-- to give me a platform to say some opinionated things I really can't say to customers, competitors, or business partners in my day job.

Rather than talk about politics or religion, or something that else that would lose me friends, I'll talk about technology. That was safe until three or four years ago, when Apple started kicking most of its competitors about as hard as RPI beat Clarkson tonight. Now if you talk favorably about Apple, you are considered a fanboi.

I like most Apple products a lot. I have for years. I don't think the world needs another John Gruber, but I think my views differ sufficiently from his to not be considered a mimic.

The biggest problem with bringing Operation Gadget back is that this site looks like The Land That Time Forgot. Everything my friend Robert Minton says about the visual design of most old sites published with Movable Type is true about Operation Gadget at the moment:

Too much margin on each page.
Really terrible display fonts.
Meaningless, partially broken sidebars.

All of this means that we can make huge improvements if we want to invest the time. My colleagues and I have come a long way with in bringing modern web design to some old, neglected websites. But I'm not sure how much time I'll have to indulge our design whims.

Republished on the Latest Version of Movable Type

2013-03-02T03:59:14Z

To all of you Operation Gadget insiders, welcome back.

It's hard to believe how long it's been since I've said anything on the best blog I ever published.

I want you to know that I was able to upgrade this site from Movable Type 4.25 to Movable Type 5.2.3 in about half an hour, door-to-door. I completely rebuilt the site and everything works. Pretty cool.

Some day soon we'll have to start the countdown to the 10th anniversary of Operation Gadget. Well... let's see if I can string together a couple of posts in March first.

Apple Files Patent Application on a Bike Computer

2010-08-06T02:00:43Z

Patently Apple reported that the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application called "Systems and Methods for Integrating a Portable Electronic Device with a Bicycle" that was received from Apple, Inc. According to the article, "Apple's patent is about using a new iPod or iPhone system primarily on a bike so that they could share information with other cyclists riding in a group. It could also provide feedback to cyclists regarding their performance or the performance of other cyclists with whom they are riding."

Images copied from Apple's patent application filed
on August 5, 2010. [ Source: Patently Apple ]

This is really interesting and I didn't expect Apple to have worked on any such device. There are many iPhone apps that offer some of the features discussed in the patent application (such as iMapMyRide+, Fitnio, etc.) but no one has developed an iOS-based app that provides so much integration with bike and personal sensors as well as real-time communications capabilities.

In my opinion, this is not a device that would appeal to the pro peleton at this level of conceptual refinement. For one thing, I think that the user interface described in the patent illustrations will be extremely difficult to operate while moving. Implementing something that sophisticated would need a radically different input mechanism.

I want to say that voice recognition would be helpful, mainly because pro riders wear a radio headphone already. But I have no idea if Apple could implement something like that in any foreseeable iPhone hardware configuration.

Link to original patent application that is the basis for Patently Apple's article.

Using The ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App for the iPhone

2010-06-17T20:05:29Z

I like the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App for the iPhone more than I expected. Perhaps that's because the so-called reviewers in the iTunes App Store were almost universal in their condemnation of this free app. That's not surprising, considering the fact that the app contains the option of purchasing significant additional functionality for US$ 7.99. A lot of the reviewers consider these features, such as live game statistics, to be core to an application like this one.

This is the live game score between Honduras and Chile
on June 16. There is very little information about
matches in progress that's available in the free version
of the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup app.

But when I looked at the app closely, I found a number of useful features available for free. This justifies keeping it on my phone and looking at it regularly during the tournament.

The infamous part of the ESPN World Cup app is the "Get the Full World Cup Experience" dialog. This box seems to pop up everywhere when you first start using the iPhone app. The dialog box says Upgrade to get all of the live audio, in-game video highlights, play-by-play commentary, and alerts for all 64 matches Dig into detailed field visualization, watch studio analysis, and more! You can't miss it.

It's frustrating when this dialog pops up because the app's controls give no indication of what is and what is not premium content. All they needed to do was embed a padlock icon in each control that is inoperative without the $7.99 in app purchase. More after the photo montage and the jump.

]]> Once I got beyond those issues, I appreciated some of the app's features.

Probably the most interesting feature from my perspective is the specific information about venues, which is what ESPN is calling the stadiums where the games are being played.

The top of the venue information page for Soccer City in Soweto shows a photo of the stadium, the year the stadium was completed, the cost of construction, capacity, and professional home team. This is is pretty basic stuff, but further down the page there is a lot of useful information for attendees. The "Where to Go, What to See" section features parking info, travel arrangement options, good restaurants, and site seeing in the vicinity.

This information isn't comprehensive, but if I were in South Africa, I would use it as the basis for further research.

On the Overview of Venues page, the map view shows the stadiums and their locations relative to each other in South Africa. The list view lists the stadiums alphabetically by name. They could have done much more with this view to expose first time visitors to South Africa to stadium locations as well as stadium comparative information.

The Team Information pages are pretty deep and they offer a lot more information than they appear to offer at first glance. The most interesting feature of this page is the National Anthem. Each team page has a playable version of the team's National Anthem. The songs are streamed from a remote server and is subject to interruption when you are listening over 3G.

My sons (ages 4 and 16-months) found the National Anthem feature really interesting.

Additional team information includes scores of earlier World Cup games and international friendlies, fairly detailed player information, and news.

On the Overview of Teams page, team information is expressed in four different ways: a grid of flags, a world map, an alphabetical list by name of the country, and a breakdown of each group in the tournament. This is what they should have done with the Venues section of the app.

Drilling down to the group view shows collective news for the group members, which seems interesting for the opening round of the World Cup.

I was surprised that video highlights are available for free in the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup app. The highlights appear to include all of the games that have already been completed. This includes Maicon's nearly impossible goal from the Brazil - North Korea game.

The Main News page is well executed. It includes a headlines that would be very appropriate for travelers to South Africa, and it will be useful to commuters in a number of countries. It's nice that you can flip between Global and US views.

It would be nicer if the view choice supported the favorite teams you selected in the app as well. But, there are other, more prominent ways to get to that information.

Finally, the Settings Page you set your favorite teams, add alerts in the paid app, sign into myESPN, tell a friend, and provide feedback.

The problem with the Settings Page isn't visible in my photos. The only way I've found to access it is by tapping the gear or sprocket icon at the bottom right of the app's Main Page. There ought to be another way to get to this, but I haven't found it.

My big issues with the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup app are:

The app doesn't make clear (or perhaps reinforce) what it considers premium features. If it did that, I think this app would have gotten a different reception.
The $7.99 in app purchase is a problem for me because I am already an ESPN subscriber. It makes no sense that I, as a Verizon FiOS subscriber, can watch World Cup games streamed over the Internet via ESPN 3, but I have to pay $7.99 to access real-time data in the ESPN iPhone app.

The only reason I can think of that ESPN would require a payment from an existing customer is because of ESPN's contract with Apple and the current definition of in app purchases.

On balance I like the ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup app and it will stay on my iPhone for the duration of the tournament. It isn't a perfect iPhone app by any stretch of the imagination, but it is useful.

More Useful Writing

2010-04-27T04:44:58Z

Sunday night I had dinner with my good friends Ramona Morel and Mike Devivo as well as Mike's girlfriend Na'ama. We reminisced about times we had spent together over the years and remembered our friend Peter Frank who was Ramona's husband. Peter passed away in August 2003, almost seven years ago. I rode the 2004 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope in Peter's memory.

We were talking about my trip to Zürich seven years ago to be with Peter and Ramona before Peter died, and the three of us remembered the photo I posted back then of Peter, his father Dieter, and me at the Sprüngli Chocolate Cafe in Zürich on a spring day in May 2003. The weather on that day was not unlike the weather we experienced in this area on Saturday.

I managed to find this photo using my iPhone before the conversation ended. The only place I had the photo posted online was in the original Operation Gadget post where I stated the reasons why I was riding the Tour of Hope in 2004.

The thought occurred to me a little while later that it was really pointless to maintain the infrastructure that supports Operation Gadget and my other web properties unless I use them. Using them for reference isn't truly enough for me.

I need to be writing regularly about the topics of this blog. Writing interesting articles will keep me interested and producing better quality work over time.

The only way to get back into it is to start now and write more often than I think I can. We'll see how this goes.

Every time I think of Peter, I'm reminded of a few bars of the lyrics of my school's Alma Mater:

Here's to those olden days.
Here's to those golden days.
Here's to the friends we made at Dear Old RPI.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

2010-04-27T04:16:15Z

I've been sitting at my desk doing real work today, watching the unfolding controversy over the iPhone Prototype purchase that Gizmodo made. The latest development (if you have been completely avoiding media today) is that the Editor of Gizmodo had his home searched by the police for some reason and a fairly substantial amount of electronic gear was taken away.

It's hard to know what police motives were for what they did. They could be considering Gizmodo's purchase of the iPhone prototype a theft. They could be looking for information leading to the arrest of the person from whom Gizmodo purchased the iPhone prototype.

A warrant-based search of a blogger's home is scary proposition. But the Gawker's handling of the case is a clear violation of several California laws. The editor of Gizmodo and his superiors should not have bought the prototype when they were informed that the device was lost. They should not have named the Apple engineer who lost the phone.

I can understand why the first offense took place. But the second offense illustrates that these people didn't care about the engineer's career in the least.

My mother often said that "two wrongs don't make a right" and this is certainly the case here. Gizmodo never should have trafficked in stolen equipment as a way to attract an audience, and the police could have pursued their investigation by other means.

Gizmodo's sneering disregard for professional conduct undermines our technology culture. The police's heavy-handed tactics make some members of the public question whether their investigation is politically motivated (in the sense that Apple is using its extreme influence in its home county).

Most names left out of this post because providing more attention for the wrong reasons is not the point.

Two Great Hockey Teams Will Meet to Settle a 21-Year Old Score

2010-03-24T05:29:32Z

In 1989, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association decided not to play the Boys' Ice Hockey State Tournament Final. The schools that were supposed to play, Delbarton School and St. Joseph Regional High School couldn't play because 15 students at Delbarton came down with the measles.

Everybody on both teams has wondered what might have been ever since. To the extent that people involved in New Jersey hockey have come to know this game as "The Greatest Game Never Played".

Twenty-one years later, the alumni from those teams will reunite to play the game at Mennen Arena in Morristown in what's being called the Frozen Flashback. The game will be played on Saturday, April 3, at 2:00 pm, with proceeds going to charity.

This game has caught the interest of national media. It's the subject of a Page One article in The Wall Street Journal, and an article in New York Magazine. It will be broadcast on MSG Varsity, a Cablevision network based in the New York Metropolitan Area.

I have no idea if I will be able to attend, but I'd love to go. I'd also like to see the NHL Network pick up this game. Who cares if the youngest guys in the game are 38 or 39? This kind of spirit is what hockey is all about.

Go to the game, and if you can't go, make a donation.

Flip Mino HD on a One-Day Sale for $119.99 at Amazon.com

2009-12-16T13:53:21Z

Amazon.com has a one-day sale on the Flip Mino HD in black finish, $119.99 while supplies last. Amazon says that this offer is only valid on December 16, 2009.

I gave Kathleen a Flip Mino HD just like this one last Christmas and she loves it. It has allowed us to quickly and easily shoot family videos in 720p. It makes a great companion to an iMac or a MacBook, especially if you don't have an iPhone 3GS.

The Flip Mino HD has a one-hour recording capacity. Flip now has a second generation Flip MinoHD Camcorder that records up to two hours of video. This is also a great choice, but the price difference between the Flip Mino HD and the second generation would make me think twice.

This is a good gift for someone with a fast laptop. The built-in software is a pretty good video clip manager and editor, especially if you use a PC. On my Mac, I use iMovie, which gives me enough control to produce video that's not boring to our family.

It will be interesting to see what the price of the first-generation Flip Mino HD is after this one-day sale is over. If I have time, I'll check the post-sale price and update this article.