Trisignia

Dentists: Only for the wealthy?

Jacob Patton — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:04:00 +0000

As an independent web developer, I’m sensitive to the issue of being responsible for heavy taxes, expensive insurance, and paying for medical expenses out of pocket. That’s why I was struck by today’s New York Times [article][nyt] on the rising costs of dentistry in the US.

Here’s a quote [Jason Kottke][kottke] picked up in his post about the article:

> “Most dentists consider themselves to be in the business of dentistry rather than the practice of dentistry,” said Dr. David A. Nash, a professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Kentucky. “I’m a cynic about my profession, but the data are there. It’s embarrassing.

The Times piece notes that average American adults spend about $600 per year for dental care. Many lower-income folks can’t afford these sorts of costs.

[nyt]: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/11decay.html?ei=5090&en=90706e3e81ffd582&ex=1349755200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all “Boom Times for Dentists, but Not for Teeth”
[kottke]: http://www.kottke.org/remainder/07/10/14267.html “Jason Kottke’s post”

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On Browsing eMusic

Jacob Patton — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:31:01 +0000

In a footnote to his [smashing write-up][1] on the business decisions behind Amazon’s recently launched [music download store][2], the inimitable John Gruber gripes about DRM-free music vendor eMusic’s decision to build a “home page that shows you nothing other than a sign-up form.” While eMusic’s [homepage][3] _is_ quite off-putting, there’s an easy way around the snafu: Just visit [http://emusic.com/?show][4], and you can browse to your heart’s content. Actually, _any_ 404ed page on eMusic will let you browse their collection of songs.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as baffled as Gruber that eMusic is so unfriendly to potential customers. At least there’s a workaround, though!

[1]: http://daringfireball.net/2007/09/more_amazon_mp3_store “More on the Amazon MP3 Store”
[2]: http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gw_br_mp3/103-2142349-2265453?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=163856011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-nav-1&pf_rd_r=0G806VQTRAYC30MAH8MA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=311588501&pf_rd_i=507846 “AmazonMP3″
[3]: http://emusic.com/ “eMusic”
[4]: http://emusic.com/?show “eMusic, browsable”

The Importance of View Source: $100 Laptop

Jacob Patton — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:22:12 +0000

Today’s [BBC writeup][1] of the $100 laptop revealed that not only will the laptop be inexpensive, it will be built to withstand the riggors of dusty, damaging environments and outdoors use, and it will also have a key dedicated to **view-source:**

> [T]he keyboard does away with low-use keys such as Caps Lock. In their place are new buttons such as the “geek key” or “view source”, which allows children to quickly see the underlying code used to write the program running on screen.

[1]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6679431.stm “Factfile: XO laptop”

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Picasa, Mi Casa

Jacob Patton — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:08:37 +0000

![Gmail Picasa](http://trisignia.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/gmail-picasa.jpg)

Stowe Boyd just wrote a [quick post][1] to request that Google begin caching attachments (especially photos) uploaded with messages you compose through Gmail and that they should provide a nice interface to browse the photos you upload. As Stowe notes, Gmail already lets you add attachments you _receive_ to your Google Docs collection, and it would be great to have an interface to manage _your own_ attachments.

[1]: http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2007/07/add-one-to-the-.html “Add One To The Google Wishlist”

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Fitts’ Law and the iPhone Keyboard

Jacob Patton — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:30:29 +0000

![Apple iPhone Keyboard](http://trisignia.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/apple-iphone-keyboard1.jpg)

In Apple’s [video overview][1] of the new iPhone’s softscreen keyboard, the company revealed an interesting feature: by using predictive text algorithms, the phone not only offers suggestions for the words you type, but it also subtly changes each key’s clickable area based on the letters it anticipates you’ll click next. For example, if you’re spelling the word _time_ and begin typing _T-I-M…_, the iPhone checks its dictionary for possible words you might intend to type, and it enlarges the clickable area of the letter likely to occur next (in this case the letter _E)_ even letting _E’s_ target area encroach into the surrounding letters on the keyboard (_W_ and _R)_, if those keys aren’t part of the word.

Not only is this feature a savvy way to make typing on the slick, on-screen keyboard a little easier, it’s an excellent application of [Fitt’s law][2].

[1]: http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/keyboard_large.html “Apple’s video overview of the new iPhone keyboard”
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27_law “Fitts’ Law on Wikipedia”

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How (Not) to Bottle a Generation

Jacob Patton — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:29:11 +0000

> She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It’s intense. For right now.
–_press copy from Calvin Klein’s_ in2u _fragrance_

Need to get in good with bloggers and social-network-ites? Doing the opposite of [what Calvin Klein’s doing][ck] couldn’t hurt.

[ck]: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/fashion/08CALVIN.html?ex=1331182800&en=b64fffc68152e253&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink “NYT piece on Calvin Klein’s new marketing push”

Twitter and the Virginia Tech Emergency

Jacob Patton — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:55:53 +0000

![Twitter Alert](http://trisignia.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/twitter-alert.jpg) School shootings are always shocking in their suddenness and their brutality, and the one yesterday morning at Virginia Tech is no different. According to news reports, 32 people and the gunmen were killed in the attack, making it one of the worst in the nation’s history.

People are already wondering, though, whether the attack could have been mitigated somewhat by quicker action on the part of the university. Via [BoingBoing][boing], I learned of [this New York Times report][1], which notes that the shooting was first reported to police at 7:15 after two people had been killed. It wasn’t until the gunmen moved to the schools engineering building at 9:45 that he killed the remaining 30 victims. In a [second Times article][2], they report that the school didn’t notify faculty and staff of the emergency until they sent out a campus-wide email at 9:26, and even then, some people did not receive the message until after their nine o’clock classes were over.

[boing]: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/17/va_tech_questions_co.html “Boing Boing”
[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17virginia.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=3b4ba06207da3bcf&ex=1334462400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss “Virginia Gunman Identified as a Student”
[2]: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17scene.html?ex=1334462400&en=7eb42f678d2775d4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss “Drumbeat of Shots, Broken by Pauses to Reload”

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ExpoCal! and Conferenceer

Jacob Patton — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:53:45 +0000

Just minutes after launching [Conferenceer][1], someone wrote in to remind me of O’Reilly’s [ExpoCal][2] calendar for their [Web 2.0 Expo][3] conference. The two services provide some common services–displaying the conference calendar and speaker lists–but they have different roles. ExpoCal is an organizational tool that answers the question _What panels am I going to attend?_ Conferenceer is a networking tool that helps you keep track of the folks you meet (and also read up on their blogs, right from the site!)

[1]: http://conferenceer.com/ “Conferenceer”
[2]: http://cal.web2expo.com/ “ExpoCal”
[3]: http://web2expo.com/ “Web 2.0 Expo”

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Conferenceer for Web 2.0 Expo

Jacob Patton — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:33:35 +0000

I’ve just relaunched [Conferenceer][1] for the [Web 2.0 Expo][2] conference taking place in San Francisco over the next several days. Conferenceer is a social networking site for conferences, and on the site you can upload your profile, mark the sessions you plan to attend, and create relationships with other conference-goers. A special perq of the site is that it collects the blog feeds of all the participants so that you can easily subscribe to the blogs of your favorite panelists or–more ambitiously–subscribe to _all_ of the attendees blogs to get a feel for what _everyone’s_ posting during the conference.

On Conferenceer, you can subscribe to the panel calendar in iCal, download vCards of all the folks you meet, and mash up all of the info to your heart’s content due to the liberal use of [microformats][3] throughout the site.

[1]: http://conferenceer.com “Conferenceer: Social Networking for Conferences”
[2]: http://web2expo.com/ “Web 2.0 Expo”
[3]: http://microformats.org/ “MicroFormats.org”

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The Speechless Department

Jacob Patton — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 01:15:40 +0000

From Wikipedia’s entry on [Muammar Gaddafi][1]:

> Gaddafi’s personal bodyguard, the Amazonian guard, is composed of 40 African women who are martial arts experts and highly-trained in the use of weapons….

> The Amazonian Guard sparked an international incident in 2006 when Gaddafi landed in Nigeria with over 200 heavily armed female guards for a summit. Nigerian security officials refused to allow the Libyans entry based on their armaments, and Gaddafi angrily resolved to set off on foot 40 km to Nigeria’s capital from the airport.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadaffi “Muammar al-Gaddafi on Wikipedia”