The Hooper Chronicles

I don’t think this is anything new, but when it comes to hotel experiences it is all in the details. The Delta hotel I am at now does not get this. It started with the 12 year old Internet connection instructions (“now open Netscape Navigator”??!!), but then the ancient bar staff and the generic Muzak in the pub make for a decidedly sub-par experience.
It comes down to possibilities. When I stay at a funky little boutique hotel I feel like I am some kind of special diplomat or person of influence and importance. It makes me feel like a designer with a capital D. In many ways the Delta is empirically better, but it does not help me re-imagine myself. That is what a better hotel offers – a chance to reimagine the possibilities of who you are or what you can become.

The first state-backed money

One of the ideas that has fascinated me for a number of years now is the idea of am alternative economy that is not based on resource scarcity and does not use money as the medium of exchange. Most of this thinking was inspired by Cory Doctorow’s sci-fi story “Down and out in the magic kingdom“. Recently I have had some more fuel to add to this fire.
I am listening to an excellent podcast series produced by the BBC called “A history of the world in 100 objects”. In today’s episode they talked about the gold coins of King Croesus. These represented the first (along with some money in China) state supported currencies. They were significant because the state provide a guarantee of the weight and purity of the coins. This allowed for much more fluid and efficient commerce, and it was all based on trust. The system worked because people believed in the government to produce fair coins. In the podcast the host points out that this new way of thinking about trade was spurred on by the human desire to value things that represent possibilities. People will aquire wealth and hoard money well beyond what can ever be spent in a lifetime because of the possibilities that such wealth represents. It stirs their imagination.
When not listening to that podcast I am reading the excellent book “Thoughtful interaction design”. Today I read an interesting passage that talked about design ability and how that can be understood as a kind of intelligence oriented toward creating things for certain purposes. They reference a book by R. Musil called “The Man without Qualities” where he talks about a related notion to design ability, something he calls a “sense of possibility”. Someone with such a sense can just as easily perceive what is possible as they can describe that which already exists.
It is this inherent creative ability that exists to a greater or lesser extent in all of us that allows us all to participate in the global fiction that is known as “money”. It is also the fueling of this sense of possibility that seems to drive people to accumulate massive wealth. That is why Doctorow’s notion of a popularity currency is so rational to me. It formalizes the aspect of popularity and power that we all know – the fact that people will give and do things for a person of influence. If you have enough status, the possibilities are endless.

When DVDs first came out there was a lot of people talking about the possibilities that the new medium would offer to the viewing experience. For example they talked about getting access to different camera angles and alternate endings.

I was really excited about that possibility. Not so much the alternate camera angles, but the alternate endings was what interested me. Maybe it is a result of having been brought up on choose your own adventure books and computer games, but I find that in many movies (particularly ones I’m dissatisfied with) I wonder ‘what if?’

Yet despite the promise (and hype) around said features, they failed to materialize. It does not take an MBA to know why. It is expensive to film additional content and most people are happy enough with the single narrative thread.

I’ve often wondered if the cost came down enough if multiple endings might really happen. Now with powerful video editing software, low cost computers, low cost and high quality video cameras, it is easier and less expensive than ever to create movies. Still, the cost of getting a cast of characters can be prohibitive, even if they are underpaid drama school rejects.

This is where new developments like machinima (using a video game to provide virtual scenery and virtual actors) can come in to help. Now with the help of voice actors, who are able to call in their lines from anywhere in the world, the cost of the cast can drop significantly.

Even so, the cost may be too high. How could costs come down further still to the point where it is worthwhile to build the extra content? This is where the power of social networks and crowdsourcing comes into play. With a pool of thousands or even millions of fans to draw upon, a popular story might attract a large number of aspiring screenwriters and set designers.

Provided the right story foundation and the tools to pull people together, a small but original concept can provide the soil in which rich narratives can grow.

It has been a nice long two weeks that I’ve been off, and I am now starting to think about work again.  Inevitably people will ask what I did for my holidays, and it seems so hard to answer.  it’s easy if you go away or do some major activity, but what do you do when you spend your time building lego castles and playing games with the kids it always seems a bit lame to me. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Especially with Callie now really starting to respond to the world around her.  Maya is always making her laugh – it is really adorable.

And so we head into the future.  I can’t believe it is now 2010!  Happy New Year everyone.

I am so excited to see the new spaceship that Virgin Galactic have just unveiled.  They are calling it the VSS Enterprise and so clearly make it plain that they are catering to all the rich nerds on the planet.  Regardless of the cheesy name, it is an awesome feat of engineering and design to produce such a vehicle.  The entire launch system is comprised of the larger airplane called “Eve” which uses conventional jet engines to carry the Enterprise (seen here in the middle attached to the wing between the twin fuselages of Eve) up to a height of 50,000 feet (approx. 15 km) where it will then be released and the rocket engines will fire up.  The Enterprise will then fly on its rocket powered flight an additional 85km, reaching a peak altitude somewhere around 100km.  After a dramatic plunge back into the atmosphere, it will level out and glide back to Earth on its wings.

The rocket will carry 6 passengers and 2 crew members.  Initially it will cost $200,000 per seat.  The first 100 seats are already sold out.  Hooray for commercial spaceflight!

A while ago I made a little rocket ship for kenton out of an old dishwashing soap container, cardboard and popsicle sticks.  It was a big hit.  Later I dismantled a little keychain LED light and added it to the rocket like fire coming out of the back.  I used some brass envelope closures to work as a switch When I goot my hands on another freebie LED keychain I added it to the rocket so that it now had two lights.  After performing many heroic deep space missions, the rocket batteries started to fail.  Because they were from these keychain devices, they used small watch batteries.  I decided to fix it so that the rocket could run on an easy to procure (and easy to swap out) 9v battery.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten the basics of Ohm’s Law and promptly burned out the LEDs.  I had forgotten to add a proper resistor into the circuit.  So, after buying and burning out 2 more LEDs, I looked online for some help with the creating a proper circuit.  Oh, and I also decided to increase the power of the rocket to 8 LEDs!!!  The job of designing the right circuit could not have been easier with the help of two amazing websites.  The first one, the simply named LED Center,  lets you enter in the voltage of your source (for example 9v) and the number and specs for the LEDs (in my case 8 standard 3.2v lights), and it will generate a schematic circuit diagram!  The next site is useful once you start putting it together.  Resistorscan be told apart by their colour coding.  The actual decoding of the colour bands is a bit arcane, so along comes this handy resistor color code calculator. Tell it the colour of the bands and it will tell you what kind of resistor you have.  Handy for those drawers of miscellaneous electronic parts you are trying to sort through.

Kenton has been a loyal assistant as I solder all the pieces together.  We ran into a little snag last weekend when I mis-wired the new switch we added, but it should all come together next weekend.  And then it is to go boldly where no man has gone before!

Well, I now really do have something to show.  The moustache is starting to itch, it prickles Cheryl and the kids when I give them a kiss, and I feel like an undercover narc.  All that, and I have yet to collect a single penny on my donation page. Well, I suppose the fact that I have not really told anyone why I’m growing a moustache might have something to do with it.  So, here it is, please consider donating to this worthy cause and save me the shame of having to admit that I really just grew the moustache for fun.

You can follow the direct donation link in my previous post, or you can go to this page here:

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/371300

I just read a very amusing comic book on my new iPod. It is really fun being able to flip through the pages using the touch screen. The bold colour and simple text really works well in a portable format. It doesn’t hurt that there are a lot of free comics to check out as well!

I just got an iPod Touch and am actually writing this on it right now. For the most part I find the virtual keyboard to be quite good. I’d say that it is probably just as fast as my Blackberry was, though it feels less natural without the tactile response of the keys. It is also a little annoying that the punctuation keys are on a secondary screen making it a little slow to add things like commas and periods. Anyhow, I am generally liking it – I just wish that there was better wifi coverage in Toronto. The Toronto hydro system “OneZone” really only covers a small area in the downtown core. It really is a shame because once you get used to internet on the go it is hard to go without it.

I have decided to participate in a fundraising effort for prostate cancer.  I’m doing this by growing a Moustache this “Movember”, the month formerly known as November. My commitment is to grow a moustache all November and I am hoping that you will support my efforts by making a donation.  The funds raised go directly to Prostate Cancer Canada.

To make a donation visit my moustache tracking site here: http://ca.movember.com/mospace/371300/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account. All donations are tax deductible.

Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please go to http://ca.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/.