My Building Has Genovese Syndrome

I love my condo building. I really do. It’s located in a great area. Most of the residents are nice people. I have the top floor corner unit. My next door neighbor is hot. I could go on and on.

But someone spilled powdered laundry detergent in our one elevator over a week ago, and despite probably every single one of the building’s 50-odd residents using the elevator during that time, no one has cleaned it up. It’s like non-lethal Genovese Syndrome.

Someone took the time to write a note with a bold red Sharpie asking the perpetrator to take responsibility for their spillage. Another person took the time to take that note down. And just today, I saw that the words “clean me” had been scrawled in the powder. Cute. Kind of reminded me of an extremely dirty white Honda I saw once, with the words “Also available in white” written on the window.

So today I finally broke down and vacuumed the stuff up. As one of the only renters in the building, I was probably the least likely candidate to care enough to do so, but what can I say. It wasn’t even the detergent itself that was killing me. It was the constant reminder that I live in a building of people too wrapped up in their own lives to deal with even 30 seconds of pro-bono energy exertion… myself included.

Interpretation of “Several”

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We’re having a bit of a disagreement in the office about the meaning of the word “several”. Since such a vague term is only meaningful based on what the population thinks of it, I thought it best to put it up for a vote.

Without looking it up, please answer the question on the right.

July Randoms

Some possibly interesting items from the month of July:

• A follow-up to the Subjective Group Decision Making and Carpets post is coming soon. The choices are narrowed down to two now and I should know what the final decision is in a few days. Such drama.
• I’m heading down to Portland for WebVisions today. Will be speaking about “Designing for Community Interaction” and participating on another design panel as well on Friday. Come say hi if you’re in the Land of Port.
• Lord Byron’s new book “Publish and Prosper” is out. If you’re running a business and thinking about maintaining a company blog for it, you should read this book for an overview of the important issues involved with such a thing.
• Tivo Series 3 boxes are allegedly very close at hand. Comcast, you may have just been spared the gallows. We’ll see.
• I’m thinking about getting a Slingbox, just for kicks. Anybody ever use one? Is the quality any good?
• The new season of Reno 911 has begun. Rejoice.
• I went coldwater diving in a dry suit for the first time last week off of Alki Beach. Not sure I’m going to do that again. There is some beautiful stuff down there, as is evidenced from my friend Calvin’s great photography, but man, it’s just too much gear. My idea of scuba diving is throwing on a shorty, hopping on a boat, and jumping in the 80 degree waters of a tropical island destination.
• Has anybody else noticed a style of commercial on TV lately where a company will spend the first 25 seconds or so describing the product and then during the last 5 seconds, they will actually repeat a specific line mechanically three times in a row? One I saw yesterday said “Apply directly to the forehead. Apply directly to the forehead. Apply directly to the forehead.” Really weird and disturbing. I’ve seen a few more of these as well, all for different products. They seem to run a lot on cable news channels like MSNBC.
• This is one of the best user experience design quotes I’ve ever read and it’s not even a user experience design quote.

Subjective Group Decision Making and Carpeting

Pink Comic Sans. A perfect indication of how this process has gone so far.I live in a condo building with four floors and 40 units. The time has come to replace the carpet in the hallways and all common areas. It is a pretty big job that will cost $20,000 or so and obviously affects everybody’s living experience. It is slightly complicated by the fact that the walls are a light mauve and the current carpet is a dark mauve and painting the walls is not part of this project.

Certain things have happened already in the selection/replacement process which, in my opinion, have been an unmitigated disaster. So without revealing the details of the situation, I’d like to ask this question:

If you were either the president or a member of a condo board, what exact process would you undertake to select new carpeting? It can be one sentence or one paragraph. Dictatorial or democratic. Or anything in between…

Wither The Halogen Torchiere?

The halogen torchiere. You know it well. It was the portable upright lamp seen in every living room, dorm room, and bedroom during most of the 1990s. Available for not much more than $15 at any home and hardware store during the height of its popularity, this ultra-soft source of light was a staple of urban living.

Has anybody noticed, though, how difficult it is to find one of these badboys today? Everywhere you go, it seems this bastion of illumination has been replaced by either an awful flourescent bulb version or a weak incandescent model, both usually with the dreaded “three-way switch” instead of the full-range dimmer. What gives?

I went into my local Lowe’s Hardware Store to find out.

As it turns out, there have been a rash of accidents over the last several years resulting from the use of these lamps. Apparently, the bulbs burn extremely hot and if the fixture tips over or some moron throws a shirt on top of it, a fire can start. Hmmmm, seems like a reasonable cause for alarm, but my halogen of 15 years just went out and I need a new one! How prevalent could this safety hazard really be?

After work today, I went down to the last place I knew of which carried something resembling my current model: Fred Meyer in Ballard. Fred Meyer is a combination hardware store/grocery store and they have a ton of stuff. Sure enough, I spotted a Holmes 300 Watt Halogen Torchiere with full-range dimmer!!! And better yet, it seemed to have all sorts of new safety features built in like auto-off and a cage around the bulb. According to the packaging, its “new technology and design exceeds new 1999 UL 153 Safety Standards”… whatever that means.

So I threw two of them in the cart and went over to the food section for some groceries. No sooner do I run into Keith’s wife and start talking about how Disneyland beats the crap out of Disneyworld, than a woman interrupts our conversation and politely says the following (pointing to the torchieres in my cart):

“Sorry to interrupt you, but my entire house burned down because of one of those lamps.”

Apparently it’s kind of prevalent!!!

I went on to explain that these new lamps were safer than the ones from the past but she didn’t seem impressed. I don’t blame her.

And so with that, I proceeded to the checkout to purchase my death torches. I’m taking the Holmes company at their word since they are a reputable manufacturer, but if my condo or the Newsvine offices catch fire and kill me, somebody please hack into my server and delete this blog post.

Sizing Up A Grill

It’s about a month into grilling season here in Seattle, and after an unappetizing experience with MatchLight “Easy Lighting” (viz. “Soaked With Fuel”) Charcoal the other day, I finally decided to go out and get a proper gas grill for my deck. A couple of weeks ago, I had spotted an unusually cool clam-shaped barbecue at my friend Stephanie’s house so I decided to look it up on the interwebs.

After a few minutes, I determined it was one of the “Weber Q Series” grills. The problem was, there were three sizes and I had no idea which would be ideal. Luckily, Weber put together this extremely helpful diagram on their spec page:

Now that is some great information design. I don’t care if the grill is X inches by Y inches. I don’t care if it’s “small”, “medium”, or “large”. I just care what I can grill on it. Weber’s diagram tells me I can cook 10 hamburgers, 16 hot dogs, 55 shrimp, or 2 lobsters on it, and that’s all I need in order to determine that the 100 Series is big enough for me (I ended up getting the 120… it has flaps).

Anyway, great grill so far. I definitely recommend it. It’s small enough to throw in the back seat of your car as well so you can take it down to the beach or wherever you need to heat up tasty foodstuffs.