Hi. I'm Paul Nixon, a designer living in Mountain View California. My days (and some nights) are spent designing websites for a little company in Cupertino. The rest of my time is spent with my beautiful wife and friends, road cycing and reading your blogs.
Thursday, September 30, 2004 09: 53 PM
Wag The Blog Charts Infographics. "Research analysis provided here draws from the comments included in over 3.5 million weblogs." Interesting application of technology in monitoring and graphing the pulse of the bloggin community on the election. Via CNN.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 12: 07 PM
Yahoo CSS Redesign Design. "Yahoo moves from tables to CSS. Is it a good thing and could it be better?" Via Whitespace.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 10: 45 AM
Then and Now - Protecting yourself against nuclear blasts. Interesting. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Via Metafilter
Sunday, September 26, 2004 10: 46 PM
Voter Election Guide for the 2004 US Election Politics. The time is approaching. Via Kottke
Sunday, September 26, 2004 10: 12 PM
Cultural Revolution-Era Clip Art Book on Flickr Design. Via Flickr
Sunday, September 26, 2004 09: 26 PM
National Atlas Infographics. More mapping fun from the U.S. Gov.
Sunday, September 26, 2004 09: 25 PM
USGS National Map Viewer Infographics. Mapping fun from the U.S. Gov.
Sunday, September 26, 2004 07: 03 PM
Special Reference Graphics of Iraq & Middle East Infographics. High resolution maps for download. Via National Geospacial-Intelligence Agency
Sunday, September 26, 2004 06: 51 PM
Airport Diagrams (Links to PDFs) Infographics. Via Cryptome.
Friday, September 24, 2004 11: 19 AM
Testing Mars Edit Technology. Test Mars Edit for Mac.
Thursday, September 23, 2004 11: 33 PM
A visual history of spam (and virus) email Infographics. Via Boing Boing
Tuesday, September 21, 2004 04: 47 PM
It's an election year. Media outlets like to make lots of pretty maps in election years. Enjoy:
Monday, September 20, 2004 12: 36 PM
zipdecode Infographics. Type in a zip code and watch the map zero in number by number. Via Newstoday
Friday, September 17, 2004 04: 49 PM
NWP E-ZINE NO.01 SEP 2004 (28Mb) Design. Oh my...this thing is filled with some great design. Large download, but worth in IMHO. Via The Greatest Story Never Told
Friday, September 17, 2004 04: 12 PM
Spam Shirt Fashion. Pretty clever idea. Via BoingBoing
Friday, September 17, 2004 02: 27 PM
Stephen Colbert's Guide to Dressing and Expressing Like a TV Journalist (PDF) Infographics. "Though fancy journalism schools will tell you otherwise, all you need to be successful in the world of television news is a rudimentary understanding of fashion and six different facial expressions. Oh, and a crippling need to be liked." Via The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents: America (The Book)
Friday, September 17, 2004 02: 24 PM
The audio version of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's new book America (The Book) is going on my list of classics. I downloaded it from Audible.com ($7.95) and loaded onto my iPod about two weeks ago. Since then, my trips from the parking lot to my office and back have been filled with laughs.
The audio version is read by Jon Stewart and the crack staff at The Daily Show. Their tones, characterizations and creativity from the show carried right over to audio in my opinion. The only thing I miss is the audience laughing in the background. These are some creative people doing some incredible writing. If you are a fan of the show, then I recommend this gem. It is just over 3 hours of great content that I've already started listening too again. I only wish school had been this entertaining. (Note: It is getting mostly "love it" but some "hate it" reviews at Audible.com. So read up if you are in doubt.)
Friday, September 17, 2004 01: 49 PM
Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence Movies. This delicious anime comes out today. Via My Brain.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 06: 36 PM
Spread Firefox (Community call to promote 1M downloads in 10 days) Web. Best browser going right now for PC and Mac. Via Airbag
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 05: 58 PM
Infographics from INA at Princeton Infographics. Great collection of work. Via the capable Number27
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 05: 51 PM
Non-Geographic Mapping Infographics. "Proposed new system of cartography...This map...reconfigures 23 world cities based on travel time between the cities instead of distance." Via XPLANE's xBlog
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 05: 41 PM
Links and Causal Arrows: Ambiguity in Action Infographics. Master Tufte at work again. Via InfoDesign
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 05: 28 PM
Yahoo! Election 2004 Blogs Web. Interesting way to aggregate opinion and news blogs on one topic. Via Yahoo! News.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 04: 16 PM
Electoral Vote Map, Cartogram and Graph Infographics. Interesting information, especially the graph timeline. Via MemeFirst
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 02: 43 AM
DVD compressing to 128mb card for mobile phones Technology. It's only a matter of time before this stuff is the norm. Via Mobilewhack
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 04: 01 PM
Election Fun Starts Early In Florida Politics. Oh Great. Politics. Via Talking Points
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 02: 50 PM
Firefox 1.0 Preview Release Today Technology. Download away. Via Brett
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 10: 42 AM
Map of Springfield (The Simpsons) Infographics. Ahh...the joys of having freetime. Via Kottke
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 10: 33 AM
Bush AWOL Graphic Timeline (GIF) Infographics. Nice graphics -- through all this noise in the media I still didn't have a "picture" of that time until now. Via Modern World
Monday, September 13, 2004 06: 57 PM
"What is the point of having a $400 40GB iPod if your are going to be playing it through a $20 tape deck adapter that makes your favorite Def Leppard CD sound like the tape you had in your Walkman in the seventh grade? The album, if you must know, was Hysteria...and yes, I listened to over and over again on the school bus each day."
(These are thoughts and ideas developed with just a passing glance of the MP3 player and car stereo markets. Please take this information as personal observations and not necessarily hard, research-driven facts. I am commenting on this "problem" as a consumer with limited time to research all possible solutions. If I have made any factual errors, please let me know: nix at nixlog dot com.
My own frustration with iPod/car stereo solutions, combined with one of my best friends dropping $400 on a new 4G iPod, only to be disappointed by audio solutions for his car and this recent boingboing.net post all led to the mess below...)
The Problem: There are tens of millions of people that own MP3 players worldwide. Many of these people drive cars. Current, low-cost solutions for listening to their MP3 players in their cars provide sub-standard audio quality (namely tape adapters and FM transmitters). If you actually care about audio fidelity, using these low cost solutions with a high-quality MP3 player leave much to be desired. After-market solutions exist: RCA audio jacks, AUX inputs, etc. Yet these solutions can be plagued with a high investment of time, energy and cost for users to incorporate them into their car stereo system.
The Crime: There is no leadership in this space. No one wants to build the bridge. Why isn't someone, like Apple or a major automobile manufacturer, taking the lead here??? Is there no real incentive? For the record, I don't believe that an Apple/BMW deal qualifies as taking the lead. It certainly creates buzz in the industry, it's a symbolic lead. Perhaps it's the first baby steps and is laying the foundation for me to eat my words in the next couple of years. But it is far from a mainstream solution for the majority of boot strapping iPod owners of the world. On top of that, I certainly don't have a desire to own a BMW anytime soon.
Additionally, Apple provides very little education in this space. If you go into an Apple store and ask about playing an iPod in your car you are given the 1-2 pitch: Tape adapter or FM transmitter. There may also be a passing mention of after-market "input adapters" or just "buy a new deck with an input"...but this gives little incentive for someone to drop $400 on a new iPod. Especially someone who wants their music EVERYWHERE when they are on the go. Go to the Apple website and search for "iPod, car" and this is the best you get or better yet, this elaborate FAQ. I think Apple is, to some degree, letting customers down by not at least providing greater education about how to get good sounding audio in your car.
Perhaps A Deeper Problem? There is no clear winner in this space. Perhaps this is the real problem. There is no clear winner to absorb the cost of doing this. Automobile manufacturers probably feel they are not going to sell more cars with such a modest feature (and I don't think they will). Car stereo manufacturers aren't going to mass produce something that automobile manufacturers aren't demanding. Apple isn't going to push for this from the industry at the moment because there have enough trouble keeping iPods stocked. Who wins? The little guy that makes the actual hardware for input jacks?
Possible Solutions:
The Automobile Industry: Suck it up and innovate. To start, provide stock car stereos with RCA/AUX inputs right in the front of the deck. Don't worry about fancy display integration and all that crap. Just provide a conduit to get music from an iPod to those speakers. Take a risk (and then offset that risk by adding $99 to the cost of the car if you don't think it will fly.) If one mainstream manufacturer (mainstream being one who's car prices a quite a bit lower than that of BMW) did this, it seems most would follow suit. It happened when we transitioned from radio to tape decks, and now tape decks to CDs. Stop focusing on supplying decks that can play MP3 CDs - and start focusing on the growing hub of digital music, the MP3 player. Ironically, I think supply (stock car stereos with a RCA/AUX input) would drive demand for MP3 players) making the MP3 manufacturers even happier. If I'm average joe and bought a car with a funny little jack in the radio and then someone told me that with an MP3 player that little jack would allow you play all your CDs from a single MP3 player, that might be pretty strong incentive to get one.
Car Stereo Manufacturers and Installers: Start and/or continue pushing automobile industry to go stock with decks that have inputs. After-market manufacturers and installers: Find a way to bring down the price on these things. Do they really cost this much to produce or is it a bit of price gouging because you know the true audiophiles will foot the bill? And why not advertise that these after-market products even exist? The local New Times is littered with car stereo ads, but no seems to be pushing the AUX input route for getting MP3 players in your car.
Apple (and other major MP3 player manufacturers): If anyone, Apple should be pounding home any and all high-quality audio solutions for your car. In the short-term, local Apple stores should have examples of equipment that can be installed in your car stereo. They should have a list of name and phone numbers of local car stereo shops that do installs. Better yet, develop partnerships with some of these guys and show a deck or two in the Apple store with an iPod plugged in. We know Apple cares about music, so why aren't they showing their passion for music in cars??? Somehow they can make money in the hand off.
My experience in summary:(In criticizing the two solutions below, please note I am criticizing a limitation of the technologies employed, not the actual product quality. Both companies make solid products with excellent build quality - it's just the technology doesn't inherently provide high quality audio.)
Purchased an iPod. Love it. Wanted the convenience of listening to it in our Jetta with that beautiful Monsoon sound system.
Solution #1: Tape adapter. This wasn't good. Tape adapter actually didn't even work in our Jetta since it sucks the tape in and up. Wouldn't accept adapter. Tried it in our other car. It worked. Sound was sub-par. Would rather pop in a CD.
Solution #2: We were getting ready for a long road trip in the Jetta. We wanted to iPod. We dropped cash on an FM Transmitter. This wasn't great either. While bearable on the open road (with the steady background noise of the car, road, etc.), in stop and go traffic around town, there is just not enough ummmph in this solution to produce great sound.
Potential Solution #3: Drop money on RCA/AUX inputs for one or both cars. Cursory research looks like it would be between $80-200/vehicle. $80 is pushing my personal threshold for how much I want to drop to make this happen. In the future I hope our next new car comes with it stock.
Some supporting material:
· MP3 Players in the marketplace: 24 million units worldwide shipped in 2003 (In-Stat/MDR)
· MP3 Market Penetration: 23% of all households in U.S. had some form of a digital audio player (In-Stat/MDR)
iPods sold: 4 million since launch (CNET)
NOTE:
· Increasing numbers of smart phones and pdas support music and could also be used in vehicles.
· This wouldn't just be for MP3 players - laptops could plug-in and be used to play music or broadcast movie sound throughout the vehicle.
Links:
Def Leppard Hysteria
Monday, September 13, 2004 11: 49 AM
CXT - Commercial Extreme Truck Environment. Ummm...ok. It's only a matter of time before some mom "needs" to have one for her grocery getter. Via Jeff
Monday, September 13, 2004 01: 19 AM
Boston Globe: "At least 37 people were killed in Baghdad alone. Many of them died when a US helicopter fired on a disabled US Bradley Fighting Vehicle as Iraqis swarmed around it, cheering, throwing stones, and waving the black-and-yellow sunburst banner of Iraq's most-feared terrorist organization."
"The dead from the helicopter strike included Arab television reporter Mazen al-Tumeizi, who screamed, "I'm dying, I'm dying," as a cameraman recorded the chaotic scene..."
No comment.
Monday, September 13, 2004 01: 08 AM
Browse Happy Web. Why not browse happy? Via Mezzoblue
Monday, September 13, 2004 12: 47 AM
That Wicked Worn List Design. Nice List. Via My Daily Visits
Sunday, September 12, 2004 12: 56 AM
Site Diagrams: Maping an Information Space Web Design/Infographics. Helpful article. Via Airbag
Saturday, September 11, 2004 04: 44 PM
ITEDO Technical Illustration Gallery Infographics. In awe. Via ITEDO Site
Saturday, September 11, 2004 04: 39 PM
ITEDO Graphic of the Week Infographics. Yummy Illustrations. Via Google
Saturday, September 11, 2004 02: 26 AM
Currently working on a new nixlog to launch sometime this weekend. Shouldn't I be doing other (better?) things with my time???
With this redesign I just need to expose a new love:Flickr. Simple. Tight integration. Did I mention simple. Amazing service. It has motivated me to get the camera out again -- and, of all things, actually use the camera in my phone. No app or service had broken down that barrier for me - but this one did...
Flickr integration on the new design
My Flickr Photos Page
Saturday, September 11, 2004 01: 58 AM
From 9/11 and the draining days that followed: Infographics from September 11th (Some links may be broken -- hopefully media outlets are staying true to their links.)
Some backstory: Many memories from three years ago. All of which experienced so far removed geographically (Arizona) from those who saw 9/11 quite literally in their own backyard. Apart from all the horror and emotion that filled that day and the days that followed I remember the urgency I felt to do something...anything...
I thought to myself, "What can I do to help?" Bloggers were doing a phenomenal job of gathering news, photos, etc. from the web. I didn't think I could add much there. Then as I started reading up on the event myself I kept coming across infographics from various media outlets. I knew infographics were helping me get a "big picture" grasp on what had happened. It was then I decided then to gather and list links to infographics on the attacks.
I don't know if compiling a list of infographics qualifies as helping -- but in the days that followed I felt a faint sense of contribution by at least helping people understand it all a little more.
Saturday, September 11, 2004 12: 27 AM
Unplugged Robot Seeks Love (JPG) Art. Pefect Balance. Via Evhead
Saturday, September 11, 2004 12: 20 AM
Modest Mouse 1997, 2000 and now Music. Currently entranced by their lyrics and music. Via My iPod
Saturday, September 11, 2004 12: 10 AM
Apple Through The Ages Design. Interesting historial journey. Via Stopdesign
Saturday, September 11, 2004 12: 04 AM
CSS Vault Galleries Design. Great Inspiration. Via My Bookmarks
Saturday, September 11, 2004 12: 00 AM
Jeff Croft's personal site. Design. Beautiful site. Via CSS Vault
Friday, September 10, 2004 06: 40 PM
The last several months have been a blur. Phoenix is history and Tucson is now our home. Rebecca and I took a flying leap from both our jobs as I pursued a graphic/web design position with the University of Arizona. Chandler-Gilbert was a lot of fun and it certainly wasn't an easy choice -- but in long run it was the best choice.
Rebecca left the comforts of Desert Schools Federal Credit Union and quickly found a job as a manager with Compass Bank down here. I don't know how she does it. Must be the fact that she's so talented and personable.
Life at the University of Arizona is great. We just started the web redesign process and are going to be relaunching next summer.
Friday, September 10, 2004 06: 32 PM
Fake NYC Subway map for RNC (GIF) Inforgraphics. Funny, if someone could pull it off. Via Kottke
Friday, September 10, 2004 04: 36 PM
Flickr - The tool managing my photos above. Technology. I love it this photo management/sharing service. Via People Like You
Friday, September 10, 2004 04: 28 PM
Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom (Wired) Technology. Interesting possibilities. Via My Mailbox
