Printed Antimatter

Vista's waste problem

Brad Plumer at The New Republic Online writes [free reg. required, or go here] about an unintended effect of Vista's launch: The 10 million un-upgradeable computers that will be discarded and converted into pure POISON.

...A recent survey by Softchoice Corporation found that only half of all business computers in North America meet the minimum requirements for Microsoft's new operating system. Many of those machines can be upgraded, true, but many will just get replaced entirely. In the United Kingdom, analysts estimate that only about 5 percent of household PCs are capable of enjoying the "full Vista experience"--whatever that entails--and so more than 10 million computers will be tossed out in the next two years alone...
 
...About half of all discarded computers (and a large number of "recycled" machines) simply get shipped off to developing countries like China, India, and Nigeria, where salvagers and scavengers use appalling means to "process" the waste--burning lead-tin circuit boards, dipping parts in acid to retrieve gold, and pouring out the resultant sludge into rivers and streams. Since the regulations for treating waste over there aren't exactly cutting edge, toxic materials like lead, cadmium, and mercury get dumped into the environment in alarming qualities, leading to a rash of health problems.

The rest of the story goes off into the kind of specifics only a Green Wombat could love.

I have to say I find the premise dubious. Not the fact that electronic waste can be harmful, but the idea that Vista would provoke a sudden landslide of it. The article doesn't give any baseline for the number of computers discarded each year to compare with the unnamed UK analysts's figure of 10 million over the next two years, so I hit the Google. I found this 2005 TechSoup article claiming that the US alone discards 48.5 million computers a year. And Microsoft themselves said that 118 million computers were "decommisioned" in 2004. I can't be sure if I'm comparing apples to apples, but an extra 5 million a year (even assuming that Vista-related trashings are above and beyond the normal count, which is  doubtful) is looking like the proverbial drop in the bucket.

If anyone out there can set me straight on the actual numbers, and is aware of this UK analyst study, I would appreciate it. Until then, I'll just point you toward the article's menu-bar headline: "How Microsoft Vista could destroy the planet." I wouldn't be surprised if it did, but if so, I bet it will be more of a WOPR or SkyNet kind of deal.

SF to ban plastic bags. How will we survive?

  Plastic Bag 
  Originally uploaded by Kables.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has voted to outlaw plastic grocery bags at large supermarkets and pharmacies within the next year. The reasoning of course involves the environment, but they apparently did not foresee the atmospheric heating caused by the invective this decision unleashed. Arguments that I have seen against this decision seem to run along these lines:

1. Paper bags are worse-- or at least not any better-- for the environment. This can be argued, as can the reverse, but the fact is that this decision is not meant to steer grocers or shoppers toward paper-- it is meant to inspire the use of biodegradable corn starch bags (which can go in the green recycling bin) or reusable cloth bags.

2. The corn starch bags are more expensive, and the cost will be passed onto the consumer. This seems to be expressed mainly by store owners feigning concern for their customers. The corn-starch bags cost the same as paper bags, which even small businesses seem able to afford. And as a Chron editorial suggests, the stores can buy the bags in greater bulk to offset the extra price.

3. The ban is being selectively applied to supermarkets and pharmacies, while other businesses can still use plastic. You gotta start somewhere.

4. San Francisco is run by stupid damn limousine-liberal hippies, and everything they do is stupid and unrealistic. SF may be the first city in the US to adopt this ban, but we were beat to the punch by such hotbeds of hippie-dom as South Africa, Ireland, and Germany.

From a design perspective, the corn-starch bags will have all the functionality of the plastic ones, but with the added bonus of being reclaimable, so it sounds like a win-win. Arguments against the ban amount to mere inertia against progress. Society has not had a problem adapting to Spudware or corn-starch packing peanuts, so I'm not too worried about the supposed consequences.

Besides, SF should make as much of its plastic out of plant products as possible, so that when the Big One hits and we're all trapped in the rubble, we can subsist on our bags, cutlery, and packing material.

David Lynch discusses product placement in films

Attack of the 50-foot Michael Jackson

The serenity, sophistication, and elegance of Las Vegas will soon be shattered, if Michael Jackson has his way. The Daily News reports that he is planning to construct a 50-foot robot version of himself, complete with laser eyes, in the desert nearby.

"It would be in the desert sands," said Mike Luckman of Luckman Van Pier, consultants to large entertainment companies. "Laser beams would shoot out of it so it would be the first thing people flying would see. Neon is wonderful, but it's old school."

My original source told me that the robot Michael Jackson would actually wander the desert (shooting lasers out of its eyes), but that detail seems to be absent in the report. However, like Michael, I refuse to be limited by the bonds of the everyday, and damn it,  if a guy can look like he's walking forwards when he's really walking backwards there's no reason he can't make a 50-foot robot version of himself stride menacingly through the sands (with laser eyes). [UPDATE: This Yahoo article actually describes the robot as roaming and striding.]

Other bloggers commenting on this story have all gone for the cheap shot, but since this is a serious business blog, I refuse to follow suit. Instead, I will discuss the potential business ramifications of the 50-foot robot Michael Jackson with laser eyes. To wit:

1. Supporting our boys in Iraq. How obvious can it be? The robot Michael Jackson is optimized for desert operation and fitted with the cutting edge in laser weaponry. I feel certain it was originally designed for deployment in Iraq. As the robot Michael Jacksons are deployed, our troops will be able to return home, secure in the knowledge that Iraq's fragile democracy is safe under the watchful gaze of their laser eyes.

2. Keeping our borders secure. Let's see, what other desert needs patrolling? Let's just say that undocumented visitors from our southern neighbor will think twice about coming here to earn a decent wage to support their families, once they see a 50-foot Michael Jackson lumber over the sierra, clutching its crotch and emitting a piercing shriek.

3. Space exploration. Anyone who saw Michael's late eighties film Moonwalker will recall with shudders of awe the scene in which he transforms into a giant robot (right) to save the children. It may have taken twenty years for the technology to catch up to his vision, but now that Michael will have his army of 50-foot robot replicas with laser eyes, can actual moon-walking be far behind?

Many disruptive, transformative technologies start as entertainment. But as we enter an uncertain age, a giant Michael Jackson (with laser eyes) means giant things for us all.

Life to fold, be reborn as glorious online photo archive

When writing about riveting magazine covers last week, another idea that popped into my head was Life's über-famous photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on VJ-Day. That photo has so possessed the public imagination, how could it not be one of the top contenders? Well, turns out it was never on the cover! Alas.

Sadly, Life (a cousin publication to Business 2.0) will never have a riveting image on the cover again, as it will cease publication as of April 20th issue. Not that this is the first time Life's life has ended; it was first shuttered in 1972, and then again in 2000. The difference this time is that rather than ceasing to be altogether, it will become a free online archive of its 10 million photos. Free!

Until that happens, poke around Life's online cover archive to see some examples of why it became such a photographic phenomenon. Also, try putting in some random keywords to see what comes up! The results can be pretty strange.

Power strip envy!

Do you use electricity? Then check out this 4-foot long, 24-outlet power strip! We bought one for a photo shoot prop and I fell in love with it immediately. So much so that I had to desperately rack my mind to come up with an excuse to use it. My entertainment center at home currently has about 14 items (!) plugged into two power strips, but even that would only occupy half the sockets on this magnificent beast. Then again, if I took full advantage of all 24, I would probably burn down my apartment building.

Part of the reason is that this beauty features a circuit breaker, but no surge protection. I had always been fuzzy on the distinction, so I read up a bit on How Stuff Works. Turns out surge protection is like flossing... if you don't use it all the time, your expensive electronic equipment is eroding away from slight fluctuations in the current. So I'd have to plug this into a surge protector anyway, and the only one-socket surge protector I found didn't look up to that awesome task. And if I'm going to plug this power strip into another, surge-protected power strip... Well, even I can see that's silly.

In the end, I wound up installing this in my office when it turned out I needed an extension cord. It only has 5 things plugged into it, and it's hidden away in a trough under my desk. What a sad, sorry waste. But at least I know it's there if I suddenly need to, I don't know, charge 19 cell phones.

Speaking of cool power strips, this lovely strip in the shape of a container ship was floating around the web a while back. The creator has a rationale about how it reminds us that our electronics come from China, but I find that entirely unnecessary for the enjoyment of it. This is a power strip that can go on your desk, not under it. Makes me wonder why there aren't any fun novelty power strips being sold, when there are millions of USB hubs shaped like pigs or Hello Kitty or whatever.

AppleTV reviews are in. Still not gonna buy it

  AppleTV (boxed) 
  Originally uploaded by WookieeByte.

The AppleTV made its debut this week, and mixed reviews have been plastered all over the web. Back when it was first announced, I posted that from what I knew of it, it sounded like something I wouldn't use. And now that some reviewers have played with them and reported back, that's still the case. But the review in Computerworld raised an interesting possibility:

"The cable companies have had a great deal of success with subscription video-on-demand for premium channels," Heynen said. "A lot of subscribers see [on-demand programming] as better than having a DVR because it begs the question: Why do I need a TiVo if my service provider will offer content on-demand?"

Olausson added that products such as Apple TV are even better than on-demand programming because they don't require users to pay for expensive cable TV or satellite subscriptions. "If I'm into Desperate Housewives or 24, I can just buy that. I don't have to pay for anything else but a broadband connection."

Good ol' Apple. So not only are they taking on Microsoft and Netflix, but also TiVo and Comcast and Time Warner Cable et cetera. What's that saying about knowing a man's mettle by the caliber of his enemies? 

Cool infographics: Science as tumbleweed and an orbital calendar

"I can't get over how pretty this is:" That's what my colleague Saheli said to me about this Nature Map of Science, as reported in Seed magazine. It's a very cool image, and you need to download the 5.3MB version in order to really appreciate it. Here's how the creators, Information Esthetics (aka i|e), describe it:

As to what the image depicts, it was constructed by sorting roughly 800,000 scientific papers into 776 different scientific paradigms (shown as red and blue circular nodes) based on how often the papers were cited together by authors of other papers. Links (curved lines) were made between the paradigms that shared common members, then treated as rubber bands, holding similar paradigms closer to one another when a physical simulation forced them all apart: thus the layout derives directly from the data. Larger paradigms have more papers. Labels list common words unique to each paradigm.

Um, okay. So, I think I get what this is showing, but I am totally at a loss for why they're showing it this way. It's certainly impressive, but how am I to utilize this graphic to learn something about the data within? I know, let's ask one of the guys who made it, W. Bradford Paley:

...they are used daily as a tool by Dick Klavans to determine such things as which areas of science are most closely connected to one another, are most and least intellectually vital, or which scientific areas produce the most patents. Here’s an image on which he and I collaborated (again, with Kevin Boyack’s help & ISI’s data) that discusses the variations in how different nations pursue science.

Oh, okay, it's to see where research is vital and where it's flagging (during 2003, which is where the data came from). And it would be most useful if we made versions for every nation, for comparison purposes. All right, I guess it's not of any use to me, but at least I can still keep not getting over how pretty this is.

On the other hand, i|e also came up with this absolutely brilliant calendar called Once More Around the Sun. Follow the link and download the PDF, because (once again) the thumbnail doesn't begin to convey what's going on. It actually displays the entire year in the form of the Earth's revolution around the sun, visually connecting the organization of time to the physical process from which that organization arose! So brilliant-- It makes the traditional grid calendar look like a graceless (though practical) kludge. Even more awesome, this calendar actually shows every hour of the year. So you can use it as your day planner as well! (Though a highly non-portable one.) But just imagine using this for a year, and being able to see the way you used your time, all spread out at once. So cool! Or more likely, depressing. But at least it is of obvious use to anyone, not just those big-time science dudes. Put that in your pipes and smoke it, big-time science dudes!

Newsweek: The most riveting magazine cover since... that last one

Speaking of Newsweek, my colleague Owen pointed me to this Jon Friedman column about Newsweek's reaction to Time's redesign. Specifically, this quote:

A magazine can look hip and newsy at the same time though, and Newsweek proved that too. It told a riveting story when it put a young, disabled female soldier on its cover -- the most riveting magazine image in memory.

The cover Friedman is talking about:

Which makes me wonder whether Jon Friedman's memory extends as far back as January.

Seriously, though, despite the fact that the subject matter is nearly identical, I much prefer the Newsweek cover. With the Esquire version, my attention was immediately drawn to the  "tattooed" prosthetic forearm, and then to the hand and purple heart, and I didn't even realize that his legs were missing for a good while. This was also caused by the visual confusion of Esquire's new cover type style, and the angle and framing of the shot. I also found the thrusting of the purple heart toward the viewer to be fairly ham-fisted. I don't need to see a medal to know that this guy was hurt doing his duty. And surrounding him with names like Alan Arkin, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jaime Pressly blunt the impact anyway.

By contrast, the Newsweek cover's angle, white space, and minimal type ensure you can't possibly overlook the soldier's loss. Her disconnected prosthetic legs-- standing at attention to the side-- makes it all the more poignant.

Anyway, kudos to both magazines, for portraying the war not as a political abstraction but as a human tragedy.

Back to Owen-- In response to Friedman's statement, he asked me "What is, in fact, the most riveting magazine image in memory?" That's a damn good question, and one that's beyond the purview of a single blog post to plumb. I may come back to this several times, but anyone reading this should feel free to post or email me nominees. I'll start you off with one-- National Geographic's famous "Afghan Girl" cover, shot by Steve McCurry.

For some reason I could only find the actual cover in this washed-out, pathetic state, but click here to see the photo in all its riveting, eyes-piercing-your-soul glory.

Get your official Eric Siry poster from AllPosters.com!

I googled my own name for the first time in a while just to see whether this blog was the first result, and I saw something strange:

Eric Siry Posters at AllPosters.com
Eric Siry Posters at AllPosters.com. Choose from over 300000 posters and prints. Professional custom framing available.

Posters of me? What the hell?

Turns out AllPosters is selling a poster of a Rolling Stone cover I did back in '94, when I was but an Assistant Art Director, learning at the knee of Gail Anderson and Fred Woodward. I did all the Illustrator work and typography, so I wind up with the credit. Crazy! I can't imagine anyone actually wanting this to hang on their wall, but hey, it comes with a subscription to RS anyway.

Creating all this type in the style of the RS logo led me to spend more than a little free time working on a modernized version of the logo, something a little less Victorian. Gail and Fred never bit. But then, a logo change for an established company is an expensive proposition, when you think of all the stationery and signage that needs to be updated. And a logo with 27 years of history (at the time) has a lot of inertia.

By the way, turns out my blog is the second hit on Google. First is a PR page for Time Inc. You win this round, Time Inc.!