how tom works

2009 in words

tom — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:18:46 +0000

Randomly generated wordle of most frequent iChat words of 2009. Larger words were more common.

Making a wordle from your iChat logs isn’t an easy thing to do. Over the last year I’ve accumulated a frighteningly large amount of iChat logs. Now, before they are all put out to pasture [well, at least in theory] I wanted to see what the major themes of the year were.

iChat saves logs of conversations in some type of weird text format so I used an application called Logorrhea to export the logs into one text file. The result: a 30.4 MB text file that contained usernames, date stamps and message content. I then imported this data into Excel making a separate column for each of the three data units. Next I deleted the username and date stamp information and exported the message content as another plain text file (5.3 MB). With another application, Word Counter, I counted the frequency of individual words and this application exported a text file with the word, frequency and length. Then, this document was imported into excel where the length column was deleted and it was exported as a CSV (comma separated value) document. I imported the CSV into Word and replaced ‘,’ with ‘:’ then copy pasted the data into the advanced wordle generator.

The wordle generator makes the word with a higher number larger in the completed wordle. I had to mess around with the list for a while and remove common english words, but what you see above is a result of this convoluted method of quantifying an entire year.

upcoming projects

tom — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:36:32 +0000

Since I won’t make it to Maker Faire in San Mateo this year because of graduation [sad day], I guess we’ll just have to bring the faire to Orange!

Here are some of the exciting projects that are to be featured at Maker Faire Orange 2010 [aka Tom's patio]

With Zach and friends we are going to try to build a laminar flow fountain. Like the ones outside the Imagination pavilion at EPCOT…

Hopefully you’ll be able to tweet to start the show!

Yyou should look forward to secret enhancements too…

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i ‘heart’ themed exit signs

tom — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:45:50 +0000

While I was working at Walt Disney World I had a mission: take a picture of every different type of themed exit sign at EPCOT. This seemingly simple task turned into an epic struggle against the salida gods [that is exit in spanish...not the god part]. Below, you’ll see a collection of the ones I captured. I’m sure I missed a bunch, any ideas which?

One of the many reasons I love EPCOT is the little design touches that contribute to the authenticity of your experience…such as exit signs that match the theme of the space they inhabit. You see, there isn’t any reduction in the safety of the environment by theming an exit sign. It is likely 95% of the visitors don’t ever notice the signs. That is the point. If the parents of Kelsey and Hunter need to exit the building quickly, the exits are clearly marked…but when they are experencing the pavilion or attraction, the signs do not intrude or interrupt the themed experience.

When the exit signs are not themed they clash between the fantasy of the designed environment and the reality of egress safety. Designers should take note of little details like exit signs that separate a novice from a professional. In recent park enhancements there has been a switch to generic exit signs [The Land, California Adventure, etc]. Usually they are black and don’t draw too much attention to themselves, but they certantly don’t match the overall theme. Sure it is a little more expensive to paint the sign or choose a unique typeface, but the subliminal enhancement of authenticity is worth it!

Without further delay, here are some great themed exit signs at EPCOT. See if you can guess what pavilion they are from and click show below the image to find out of you are right!

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

And here are a few at other Disney parks…

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Does anyone have photos of these exit signs?

Mission Space
Test Track
Old Journey Into Imagination
Spaceship Earth

Maybe I should ask, has anyone else noticed these exit signs?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

brick in my window

tom — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:05:58 +0000

Literally. Someone thew a brick and a rock through the front window of my house. On Thursday at 6 something in the morning I heard a loud crash. At first I thought it was part of a dream but decided I would look around to be sure. I walked upstairs and everything was fine, I walked downstairs, opened the door to the bedroom and saw this:

I got my shoes and phone and called the police. There wasn’t anyone outside and no note. I called the non-emergancy line and the police wouldn’t come out because there wasn’t anything stolen. They instructed me to call back after 8 so I could make a report.

Thankfully a friend of mine intervened and got the police to actually come out and and take a look, although that didn’t happen until around 9. I made a homeowners insurance claim and contacted companies to get the window replaced. I even got plywood and boarded up the window myself. I still need to find a general contractor to fix the floor and drywall. Any ideas?

I’m happy no one was hurt and nothing was stolen, but this really freaked me out. I don’t really know if I was targeted or this was just a random act.

excited for NSAC and how i’m feeling

tom — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:34:54 +0000

All in all this week is off to a good start.

I went from a 50 to a 90 in Spanish. It’s amazing how much not having to spell things from memory improved my test score. Unfortunately, the midterm will likely be back to the old style.

Tonight we had the second NSAC meeting and it too went well. I’m really excited to be taking part in at least one team before I leave Chapman. The added bonus is the people all seem really cool. Maybe I’ve found a good place to be.

Troy left for Zion this morning and now is out of cell reception/his phone is off. I really would like to be with him. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been somewhere where I was completely unplugged.

Interesting too, this is the first time we’ve really been seperated in a way where we can’t communicate at all. I feel really middle school bringing it up but it’s new to me! Backpacking I really want to do again. I’ve spent too much time here in Orange lately.

At least the rain tonight is soothing.

On a related note this semester, I need to cheer up. I’m lost in a sea of projects and being miserable doesn’t make it any easier. So please, force me out of the house. I want to enjoy senior year as much as I want to do well with these projects.

What do you do to keep your spirits up?

Virgin America gets a lot right

tom — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:04 +0000

Virgin America seems to understand why we all hate airlines and is trying to do something about it. You mean I don’t need to treated as a necessary hassle? Ugh, more paying customers! Yes, Continental I’m looking at you.

Being a new airline with new planes has it’s advantages. All VA planes are equiped with Gogo wireless Internet. Gogo is probably the most amazing discovery since roast penuts. VA’s RED entertainment system is also cool; it provides Dish Network live TV, on demand movies, music and TV, in plane chat. Oh yeah, on demand food service too.

Did I mention the LED lighting that changes color depending on the time of day? Or the Method handsoap and swanky music in the bathroom? What about the power outlets at every seat? Or the ingenuous idea of mounting AVOD hardware under the floorboards then in your foot space?

There is so much that Virgin America gets right that I wish they flew to more places so I wouldn’t have to go back to being treated as cattle.

Virgin America is great but does have some odd problems:

They don’t have a mobile site. Want to check in on your phone? Good luck with that.
When you check in for your flight the website may offer an upgrade (for an aditional cost). But just kidding!! The ‘friendly’ rep on the phone said actually NO upgrades were available. To this moment, 10 hours later, the website is still trying to sell upgrades that apparently don’t exist. How evil is that?
You might sit with Satan children and adults who don’t control them. If it wasn’t for Gogo I might have gone mad. Thanks to these folks, our flight broke the world record for number of flight attendant call button pushes in 6 hours. If you still don’t get it, this same party had a 7 year old in first class, unattended, because she ‘loves the attention.’

This is what was left over from the monster child and family. Yay children?

yogurt and digital displays that both need help [cherry on top]

tom — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:03:04 +0000

Frozen yogurt. It seems easy enough. First off, what would you think “natural frozen yogurt” means? One might say that ‘natural’ means free from artificial flavors, colors and preservatives. Well, Cherry On Top believes that natural actually means “mostly all natural ingredients.”

Every single one of their products has artificial flavor in the ingredient list. Click here to see this PDF of their nutrition facts. In July, I went to the website and submitted a comment about how calling an artificial product natural is misleading. The agent from the company apologized and told me that the Orange store was one of the first stores and that is why it still has items with their old catchphrase “Natural Frozen Yogurt.” It is now September and as you can see, the cups still say “natural.” What is worse, they have now switched the name placards in front of the machines so they do not contain the ingredient list any longer (yes, they used to list nutrition and ingredient facts on the placards). Now, if you want to know about the artificial flavor in their yogurt, you’ll have to ask for an ingredient list. Tricky.

But I degrees, the real issue is the displays they have behind the payment area. Last night I ended up going to buy some unnatural frozen yogurt to cleanse my palate of the Haven Gastropub (nice theming, meh food) and noticed that they were not working correctly.

It appears that the displays are actually running from one Windows XP computer that displays flash animation in Internet Explorer windows. Why could I tell this? Take a look:

Oops. This does explain why the animation is jerky and jagged. Annoyingly, the content of the display changes in such a way that the price per ounce of ice cream isn’t constantly displayed. It would be better for Cherry On Top to create content that is synced with all three displays, ensuring that important information (such as the price) is constantly available. Flash and Internet Explorer do not appear to be providing a seamless experience either.

As the displays are currently setup, they function only as a novelty.

Each of the three displays is an off-the-shelf Samsung LCD television. The bezel on this model is not uniformly sized and the samsung logo and model name is printed on the plastic. Cherry On Top has decided to mount the displays in a portrait format which makes the logo seem even more out of place. I feel like they might not be properly aligned but I need to take a picture with a real camera to check.

digital menus done right! [peiwei]

tom — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:57:16 +0000

Have you been to Pei Wei Asian Diner lately? You haven’t? No bueno. Why don’t you go right now? Why? Because you can check out the new digital menus and [at some locations] Coca-Cola Freestyle vending device!

First off just so you know, Pei Wei was established in 2001 and now has over 150 locations in 15 states. They serve wok-seared contemporary pan-Asian cuisine and are a “faster more casual take of our parent company, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro.”

– Thanks Pei Wei website. If you read my other post on bad displays, you know how I think that the design of a information display shouldn’t distract the users from the information. Pei Wei seems to have the same obsession I have. [yay] As you can see, the new menu displays are seamlessly integrated into the existing containers without any branding or ugly bezel.

The actual content on the displays is also well designed. It is dynamic but easy to read. You can see there is a section on each display that shows some type of video loop but the text areas are crisp.

The brightness level is more than adequate, it is perhaps even too bright in the hip perpetual darkness of Pei Wei Asian Diner. I imagine that the displays can be updated from the mothership in Arizona, ensuring that you will have the same experience at every location.

An extra bonus at the El Toro location was the Coca-Cola Freestyle ‘future-of-vending’ device. This is that Coke machine that lets you choose over 100 different beverages.

I think the Freestyle machine will be Cokes answer to the increasing dislike of HFCS laced drinks. Basically, you place your cup on the device and utilize the touch screen to choose your beverage. Inside the machine there are ultra concentrated syrup containers and a smart little man who keeps track of what drinks you choose. Oh, it has RFID too.

Here is the deal though, it takes way, way, way too long per transaction. I sat (and ignored my boyfriend) watching people use the machine. On average people took 45 to 60 seconds to choose what they wanted. It wasn’t an issue late at night but during the lunch hour…that is way too long!

I think Coca-Cola can fix the problems with Freestyle pretty easily. First, switch the display from resistive to captive touch screen. I found that I had to press on the display multiple times because it didn’t register. I know passive touch screens are cheeper but this machine could save you…pay for the captive touch to improve the functionality (that’s like the iphone).

Second, give customers a RFID tag of their own. Let users go online and choose their favorite drinks to be associated with their tag. When you go to a Freestyle enabled establishment your tag could enable the machine to to dispense your favorite drink, show all your favorites on one screen or randomly select from one of your favorites…depending what you told it to do. How cool would that be? Maybe it doesn’t even need to be RFID, it could just be facial recognition!

How could you tell this face you can’t have Coca-Cola Zero? So anyway, Pei Wei Asian Diner is a champion of good information display and home to the super cool Coca-Cola Freestyle future of vending device of the future! Go check it out!

sleepless nights and music that connects it all

tom — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:33:16 +0000

Have you ever had one of those nights where you want to sleep but your mind has other ideas? It’s been a long day, you get in bed, close your eyes and bam! your mind jumps into overdrive spewing every last random thought it can generate. Is 2 A.M. really the time you need to be thinking about Spanish class, your significant other, the expiration date of the food in the fridge, how many watts the celling fan uses and how you need to apply Frontline brand anti-flea/tick product to the dog? Apparently my mind thinks so.

It is interesting to me how my memories work. There are many things I can’t actively recall, but magically when I’m trying to sleep long forgotten memories reappear! These memories are sometimes fun but often times leave me wishing that I went a different direction. If only I knew what I know now! Hindsight is annoying like that, I wish I had a better ability to enjoy the moment.

My favorite music for overly contemplative moments like this is the trusty Postal Service album, Give Up[iTunes]. Released back in 2003, and introduced to me during my friend Julie’s senior showcase I knew it was the first album I actually loved. [Well beyond the Disney World music tape, but thats a story for another time. ] If you haven’t heard The Postal Service, you are missing out. If you take a look at my iTunes play counts, I’ve enjoyed more than 1941 cumulative plays of songs from the album. It’s good, I promise.

By far my favorite experience is enjoying this album while flying 35,000 feet in the air, The Postal Service is both relaxing and helps me believe tomorrow can be a better day.

speaking of displays

tom — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:20:59 +0000

If you are going to use displays [what you might commonly call TVs] for menus or to display other forms of dynamic information in a retail, theme park, public transportation center, theater or other publicly accessible area you need to choose the right type of display. If you don’t, it looks sloppy. Plus you’ll make me grouchy…and that’s never magical.

Here are my rules for using off the shelf displays for information signage:

1. Choose LCD, not Plasma.

This is likely the biggest mistake you can make. While it is true that plasma displays have great contrast ratios, deep blacks and provide a more ‘cinematic’ viewing experience, they are not suited to display static information. Why? The evil screen burn, which is when static or repetitive graphics literally become ’stuck’ on the display [as seen below]. Thankfully, well manufactured LCD displays are unlikely to experience this issue. Also, LCD displays have the added benefits of using less energy and being lighter than comparable plasma models.

by Ivana Bosnic

2. Choose a display with a uniformly sized bezel. [Preferably without a large brand logo]

This is a personal pet peeve of mine, especially with displays mounted in ‘themed’ areas. Choosing a display with a bezel that is thicker on one side is distracting and detracts from the goal of making the actual device ‘invisible’ to the reader. One shouldn’t be reviewing the brand of the display but instead the content.

You can see in this example from the queue of Test Track at Epcot that the bottom portion of the bezel is thicker than the other three sides. Also, the model and brand of the display are clearly visible at both the upper left corner and bottom center of the display, these should be covered or removed. Visible logos detract from the themed space. In fact, you could buy this television at your local Best Buy and likely format the content better than has been done by these ‘professionals’. [the original source was a 4:3 image and it is incorrectly formatted for this 16:9 display as you can see the text is chopped off at the upper left]

I hate to admit it, but Universal Studios Hollywood picked great displays for the queue of The Simpsons Ride.

As you can see, both of these displays have uniformly sized bezels and minmal branding. [The second NEC display does display the model but the color is not as distracting as the Toshiba at Test Track]

Keep these guidelines in mind and you will be on your way to good show…and making me happy!