I’ve always questioned if technology and electronics would become nostalgic, where electronics, laptops, cell phones, mp3 players would be kept for longer than say two years. In todays society, electronics are thrown away not only because they are behind in technology, but for their looks.(little dings here and there) I was reminded of this question when I saw this post here, about how a scratched up Sony camera actually looked cool, how it had a splendid patina look. In this rare case, a dinged up electronic actually had a good emotional response from someone, much like a beat up leather jacket, worn out ripped jeans, overly wrinkled fashionable shirts, a used baseball glove, a wooden old ladder, a dirty but huggable teddy bear, etc.  As Russell Davies says in his post, “One of the things I hate about the design of most things, especially most electronic things, and definitely most automotive things, is they’re all designed to be new. They’re all at their best when you buy them and they get worse the second you remove them from the packaging.”
So, what’s the solution to this, is there a need for nostalgic electronics, should electronics be made to have more meaning?… I’m not sure, it’s just a thought. I use to think soft materials would add this meaningful value but from what I know, the only integrated soft electronic is this sleek porsche like vertu ascent phone for $5,000. It’s strange how tons of people buy soft cases for their gadgets…. are consumers saying something companies are not realizing?

If your an entrepreneur and missed my post “Entrepreneurialism: the new rock ‘n’ roll“, then you must watch this great video presentation by Guy Kawasaki on his book “The Art of the Start“. Who is he you might ask…don’t ask, just watch, be amazed, get inspired, and google him later. Otherwise, read his post on the “Bozo Explosion“! This guy rocks!!! I’d love to have him on my team anyday!

While in nyc I went down to St. Marks street to grab some grub with some friends at Kenka, a spunky, fun, and wildly popular japanese restaurant streaming with a vibrant crowd of college students and visitors curious about the oddly colorful and punk like scene, though I think the whistling grandmother logo and beaver-like red eyed mascot really caught my curious attention. I’d been to a like place nearby, Yakitori Taisho, right down the street, but thought I’d give this find a try. The wait to get in took some time, but it was worth evey second.

As for the restaurant, the staff was jazzy, the environment was fun and spontaneous, the bizarre menu was full of delicious and surprising items, and the prices just rocked! A bowl of edamame for $1, Seaweed salad $2, japaneses pancake $4, smoked salmon $5, sapporo beer for $1.50!!! The best part was their dessert. Instead of the traditional mint, or chocolate candies, they give you a little bucket of red suger to toss into their cotton candy machine at their entrance. You toss it in, grab a chopstick, and spin it till you have a fluff of carnival like candy to munch on. Kenkas is a great place to kick it with friends and munch down on some fast, hot, and tasty japanese food. If your in nyc, give it a try!

So I walked into Wholefoods today and did my regular routine, picked up my usuals and a few surprise items, but as I walked over to the the cereal section, I saw an empty spot!!!! My new favorite cereal was sold out! I was devastastd over a cereal! Seriously, if you have not tried this cereal (Kashi: Organic Promise, Strawberry Fields) you are missing out. .. it’s crispy, flavorful, and yummy. It’s seriously delicious and I’ve become an addict. Anyhow, I had to resort to the Cinnamon Harvest this week, which is also tasty.

Business 2.0 has a short article on a few great companies that not only listen to what their customers say, but let their customers run their company. “It’s the open-source software concept applied to product marketing”.
Two examples mentioned were Threadless, an awesome ongoing online t-shirt competition that has some great deals and designs, and Etsy, a very unique place to sell all things handmade.
I love the idea of letting customers vote on what gets further developed and perhaps produced. Sure, people are paid to make those decisions and some products take a ton more time to manufacture than t-shirts, but as we all know, the mass market will always surprise us with what customers want. I mean, seriously, we already have TV shows that let viewers decide who the next rock star, singer, dancer, comedian, invention, chef, designer, wife, etc are!
I’m not saying all products need to adopt this method nor am I asking for mass customization… I’m just saying there is such a rich opportunity in this internet infested society that allows us to show and hear from customers before they see what we thought was great. Sure, smart (more…)

I had the wonderful opportunity to donate some of my creative time to create an artist bag for Timbuk2′s Charity Auction for the Homeless Youth taking place June 15th, 2006, from 5-8pm, at TIMBUk2 San Francisco, 506 Hayes Street. TIMBUK2 donates hundreds of messenger bags each year to “At The Crossroads“, which reaches out to homeless youth and young adults at their point of need, and works with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives. You can view my bag on Timbuk2′s website here, my detailed pictures here, or other artist bags here. The bags will be available for viewing starting June 12th, so if your in the area, go check them out, attend the silent auction at 5pm on the 15th, enjoy the cocktails & hor’s d’oeuvres, and rock on an artist bag!

I’ve been using Popurls for the last few days and must say it’s a great little tool for the web. Popurls is much like an rss feed that merges several dynamic content driven sources into one simple easy to read page. These sources include the best of Flickr, Youtube, Digg, del.icio.us, google news, slashdot, odeo, and a few others. The titles also have roll-over blurbs detailing the articles. If you don’t end up using PopUrls, I’d also highly suggest Bloglines, which is an incredible time saver for you blog readers.

I first heard Barry Schwartz speak at the GEL conference about his book, “The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less“. He talks about how freedom is better, but also worse. How the more options we have the better the final outcome, but the worse the experience. How 175 different types of salad dressings is ridiculous. Is too much choice bad? Does it really numb our thinking and decision making? Does variety mean quality? What’s better, Capability vs Usability. Anyhow, his incredible 1 hour Google lecture can be viewed here. For any of you out there that create consumer products, this is a must watch!

In my opinion, there are the services and products that that I love to have choice in, but then there are a ton of services I wished never had options. Airline tickets, phone plans, health plans, cameras, cars, and the everlasting ordeal of figuring out which movie to watch. A few years back, we’d just watch a movie that came out. Now we look at all the trailers, read a bunch of reviews, dive into their websites, ask friends that have seen it, look at their rankings, look at who’s in it, then finally deciding if the movie is worth watching even though we know everything about the movie now. After all that chaos, we have to figure out how to buy the ticket. Should we buy it early, online, offline, as a group, print the ticket, pick it up, matinée, which theater, etc. Many hours later, our choice is made, which is probably a great decision, but the experience to get there has become a job… So, is choice good? Is thinking about this good, bad? Well, enjoy the video which has several other examples of this paradox!

“The art of experimental interaction design” is a great book to have if you want to see some of the best interaction projects that merge and question the physical, interactive, and interface world together. The book contains projects by ideo, antenna design, daniel rozin, golan levin, and many others. It also includes a CD documenting several of the books projects. I’ve had a hard time finding great books dealing with the physicality in interaction design and electronics, but here it is. Most interaction books only cover interfaces and rarely bridge back to the physical world. I’ve had this book for about a year, and it’s been an everlasting source of inspiration.

The cute “ugly dolls” that I love so much are now available in larger 2 foot sizes, mini 7 inchers, the original 12 inch sizes, and itsy bitsy keychains sizes,. They also have a few other goodies based on their popular series. Their great dolls to have in your studio space…nothin like a goofy, ugly, cute, doll to have around to keep ya inspired!