Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Problems with the iPad
April 26, 2010

I expect that the common consumer dodders along, taking what they’re given, and doesn’t see many mistakes with the products that they use day-to-day. Some products are pretty easy to get right the first time, since they’re simple and elegant. Others, particularly those involving technology, are harder to get right, and usually require some revision to get as good as they could be.

My personal gripe with cell phones over the years to make them into the devices they should be is a great example of how technology exists to make a device really good, but for one reason or another, it just never gets there. Another great example is the iPad.

We Spectators of the Robot Uprising
March 29, 2010

I recently bought a Wowwee Rovio robot from Woot at a significant discount. Woot is notorious for selling “too good to be true” gadgets, and although this robot seemed to be an exception, recent events may indicate otherwise. (If you’ve heard me talk about the Rovio, you’ll still want to read this – it gets more interesting.)

I’ve bought many things from Woot over the years. Many things are interesting trinkets. A good majority of items are junk. The portable TV-in-a-pair-of-glasses? Junk. The Tom Tom GPS? DOA. So I was expecting similar from the Rovio.

Where BaseRep Fails
March 26, 2010

Back in December of 2000, I was checking out games for the PS2, and was particularly interested in a particular racing game. I bought the game, Midnight Club: Street Racing, played it, disliked it, and wrote a review about why I disliked the game on Amazon. This is where my discovery of the failure of the baserep system starts.

Perhaps I should describe baserep. I’d been looking for a term to associate with this system of rating that allows you to rate an item (and it could be any item - a game, a book, a movie, even people) on a scale, and then have your rating averaged in with the overall number of responses.