David Beach's Blog

Beatles Yesterday... and Today First State Stereo Butcher Block - Selling

http://cgi.ebay.com/Beatles-Yesterday-and-Today-1st-State-Stereo-RARE-/250841792129

As you know I work for eBay. I do the mobile apps and stuff. When you work for eBay, they encourage you, for obvious reasons, to use the service as much as possible. When I first joined, I decided that I would try to find some toys of my childhood. Micronauts. I'd dig around to see what was familiar and make some bids. I won several of them and they now litter my desk at work. 

When we introduced selling in our iPhone app, I decided it was time to sell some stuff. I sold some books and an old Apple T-Shirt. It was very easy. I had a little something to do with that, but you never know until you try.

Now I'm selling something that is probably worth more than a car or two. My friend has had this album since he found it at a garage sale in 1979. The owners didn't know what they had. My friend did. I'm not sure what he paid for it, but it was possible a buck. He figured it was worth a few hundred at the time, but he didn't care. He is a Beatles fanatic and to own such a cool collectors item was all that mattered. I believe when he found it, it was sealed. It turns out this is one of the rarest records ever. After several years, from what I know he decided to open it, to make sure it was real. I don't know if he ever played it. Perhaps only once. But the cellophane is still wrapped around it and it is in pristine condition considering the years and where it was found. The odd thing about the record, and what makes it even more special, is that there is a blue dot retail sticker in the top center of the cover on the cellophane. This either signifies a price code or a category code. If anyone knows for sure, it'd be great to find out. This was probably in a store, someplace in the Los Angeles area, bought the day it came out, and just sat until 1979. This could be called "The Blue Dot Butcher".

There is plenty of history and lore surrounding the album. It was pulled from stores the day it was supposed to go on sale and most merchants never got the chance to put it on the shelves. As soon as they did, they were asked to remove them. The fact that it is stereo is also significant. They pressed far fewer stereo versions at that time. So this all adds up to being a very very special record and piece of history. A few sealed stereo versions have sold up to $88,000. But this may be the only one in existence with the cellophane still around it and especially with what it most likely a retail sticker in place. It's not easy knowing what it's worth, but I guess we'll find out. 

Frankly I'm nervous about selling it. I'm sure that I'll get a lot of questions, and it's never easy knowing what to start an auction at and what to set a reserve price at.  But everyone tells me to set the reserve at the minimum acceptable price you'd like to get, and to start the auction at a fairly low price. My friend told me what he wants the reserve to be, and I started it at $100. It should be interesting to see what happens.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_and_Today

http://news-antique.com/?id=796406&keys=Beatles-Butcher-Cover-Auction

http://www.rarebeatles.com/album2/discog/discog.htm

My Review of the Superego Podcast

Superego fixed my crossed eyes! (5 stars) by beach - March 10, 2011

I'm an eleven year old swedish boy that developed strabismus as an infant. Strabismus is the medical term for crossed-eyes. I had it bad. I looked like a confused panda bear. No one would listen to me because they didn't know if I was looking at them or not. Or was there just something on my nose? Was my nose that interesting? No way! 

My parents tried all kinds of treatment. Special glasses. Physical therapy. A good whack to the head. Nothing helped. Not until the day I heard the Superego podcast. I was on the Internet trying to find information about super volcanos for a school science project and I accidentally clicked on a link for Superego. Did I mention that my eyes were crossed? I couldn't see straight. Well as I was furiously clicking around the page to find any kind of information about volcanos, one of the podcasts started playing. The people on it sounded like scientists because they were doctors. So I figured it was an audio book about how super volcanos worked or what makes them so super. To my surprise, it had nothing to do with volcanos! There was no mention of volcanos of any kind! Well this was such a shock that I leaned back on my Ikea desk chair and it snapped in two! I fell to the ground and one of the pieces flipped up and hit me right between my eyes! I got a good look at it. It was blue and had all the holes in it. Well this must have knocked my eyeballs straight, because now I don't need those special glasses or leg braces any more! 

My parents are very grateful. We even had our first family photo taken this year. 

Thank you Superego!

Project Moon Colony - Concept

I wrote this brief and unfinished concept document a long time ago. I thought I'd open it up because I still like the idea. The audacity of Web 2.0 at its finest. I'd love to see this happen though, so someone run with it please....

MetaMoon:

Project Moon Colony/MetaMoon

Yahoo! Brickhouse and NASA Ames Research Center propose to create an online virtual world and community based on the actual geography and physics of the earth's moon. This virtual world would be an interative, online 3-dimensional environment, with support for "massively multiplayer" interactions, and would incorporate a set of 3D data analysis tools to explore and extend existing datasets.This would would be built as an open platform, and designed inherently to be extensible and customizable .

Background

Virtual worlds such as Second Life or World of Warcraft have become a "second" home for people as they live their daily lives. Yahoo! has very little insight on the impact and power that online virtual worlds represent. NASA is looking for an interesting opportunity to work with Yahoo! They are also very interested in virtual worlds and the wisdom of the crowds that they can represent.

In order to colonize space, many experts believe that a moon colony needs to be established first. A virtual moon colony could become one of first steps in understanding how people would interact and live in such an environment.

 

Context (where did this come from?)

Many people have had dreams of space travel and a moon visit. This could provide people with the ability to explore that dream. I enjoy moon science and lore as well as exploration history. I want to create an educational and entertaining environment based on the moon, its history, and its potential to colonize space.

+the potential of virtual environments for scientific data analysis and participatory exploration

 

Problem (what is the problem area?)

Many virtual worlds exist in a fantasy environment. Second Life is not reality based, nor is WOW or other MMOGs such as SPORE. This would provide the public with a realistic environment based on real science and actual data to interact with and participate in.

+there have been several scientifically accurate planetary data browsers created, and there have obviously been several very successful MMORPGs, but these have yet to be brought together in a meaningful way.

+separately, lack of standards and adoption of 3D immersive environments is a problem.

Prior Work/Competitors (what else is going on or has happened?)

Modern Virtual Environments

• Second Life
• SPORE
• WOW
• There
• SIMS
• MetaPlace

 

Space-related

• VirtuArts
• Google Mars/Earth/Moon
• http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/virtual

Objectives (what are we trying to accomplish?)

• Develop a working relationship with NASA
• Create a completely new experience for the Yahoo! brand
• Build an active and sustainable virtual world based on the science of the earth's moon
• Advance the state of the art in open, extensible, collaborative, immersive, and networked virtual environments, with a particular emphasis on science.
• build support/customer base for NASA and Yahoo! products and services
• get an early foothold in a key emerging technology
• develop interactive, immersive scientific and data analysis tools with the goal of making science more accessible to more people.
• raising scientific literacy about and interest in the moon,
• building awareness and support of space exploration,

Concept Explanation (describe the idea) 

Overview

Create an online virtual world community in conjunction with NASA based on the actual geography and physics of the earth's moon.

Use Cases (examples of how this will be used)

• A virtual meeting place and community
• An experimental environment for moon colonization
• Potential game or reward system for innovation and use within the environment
• An educational environment for teachers and students to study the moon and space colonization

Issues/Risks/Questions (what needs to be overcome, mitigated, answered?)

• Time. Can something be built that proves concept in a matter of months?
• Building a virtual environment compelling enough for people to visit and use
• Building a virtual world that replicates the moon and its properties

Implementation Possibilities

• Build a small portion of the moon first, to prove concept. Concentrate on Apollo mission landing sites or even just Apollo 11 first.
• Use open source software and environments
• Allow participants to build tools and scientific utilities for others to use to run experiements
• Consider a virtual economy to support developement
• Consider implementing two modes.
  • 1. Scientific/Educational
  • 2. Experimental/Entertaining

 

Android Aftermath

 

I want to make something clear. I like, if not love, Android. I'm glad Android is around.  From my perspective, the more people with decent smart phones that can download the apps I make, the better. I don't really care about the platform. Android is really good for my business. This is the reason why I wrote the post last week. I want Android to succeed, so I needed to say some stuff to help push it in the right direction. It seems to have worked. At least a little bit. (1,000 comments! heh.).

Listen, I expect more from Google. Do they have the same experience creating and marketing products and operating systems as Apple? No. Should they be doing a better job with Android? Yes. This isn't about technology (I'll let others discuss that). It's about the consumer experience. And until Google decides to finally be more "open" about how closed Android really is, it's going to get worse. If Google openly embraced Android as the commercial product it is, then perhaps we'd get a more consistent and unified Android experience. When I say "closed", I'm talking about the handset OEM environment-- the pre-load system, not the post-load software/app developer environment.

Google ultimately controls the pre-load. This means it can control the aforementioned OOBE. Which means it can hopefully deliver an awesome and consistent UI and user experience across all Android devices. Choice is good, but fragmentation isn't. It makes it more difficult to create quality software. It's that simple. 

Instead, Google allows carriers and handset manufacturers to install their own garbage and flavors of the OS because it's supposedly "open". This garbage further fragments the experience. There should be a new classification for this kind of open source software. Ajar source? Exclusive source? Android is as open as a southern, private golf course. Android is open for business. 

Read all about it on TechCrunch. MG's latest is spot on.

Read this too about how "open" Android is... Good stuff.

I don't mean to suggest that everything has to be like Apple. That thought frightens me. I'm thinking about this from a pure product and user experience perspective.

Android can do a lot! My colleague, Michael Galpin (who is writing a book about Android), does a great job explaining the awesomeness of Android and its capabilities. I totally agree. This is one of the reasons why I think the eBay app for Android can be so much better. Trust me, we're working on it. But knowing what it can do and getting it to do that stuff are two different things. This is has been the struggle.

I'll tell you, from my point of view, it's shocking to see the surge of growth Android has experienced the past 60 days. I can only judge this by the number of downloads of my app, but it's astonishing. I think it's a combination of the lack of variety of carriers and the whole iPhone 4 hardware debacle. When something becomes a societal joke, such as AT&Ts sucky service and the faulty iPhone 4 antennae... people don't want to become (in part) the butt of that joke. They don't want to be made fun of. Android is the safer choice. 

 

I was at an eBay seller event this past week in Santa Clara. These sellers were average people. Small business people that supplement or derive their income from selling on eBay. I had more people coming up to me with brand new Android phones (mostly the Droid X) than iPhones. These people showed me their phones like it was made by aliens, but they were all happy about the purchase. I had several folks tell me that they just got their phone "yesterday". Most of them wanted help. How to find the eBay app, how to use the Market, even how to use the basic functions of the phone. I was happy to help, but this experience supported my view that Google/Android need to do a better job with the post-transaction experience. This is no longer a phone for nerds, it's a phone for your mom.

A couple of thoughts about some of the comments I've seen... 

"But the Developer Console doesn't handle commas, so I have nearly 2000000 downloads. Wow. Just wow. This is what bothers you?"

Yes it bothers me. It bothers me because I know that this means that the Android Developer Console must have a backlog of bugs and improvements a mile long. This is probably a P3 in their eyes. If that's the case, what's ahead of it? This tells me that they are rather resource constrained and that's troubling.

"Android does have a HIG, but few people follow it: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.html And yeah the Market sucks."

This is a start, but we need more. It's not the kind of thing I'm looking for as a product manager or designer. And if no one follows them, then what good are they?

About an hour ago, I was handed an HTC Droid Incredible. Which looks not at all like the Motorola Droids (Droid, Droid 2, Droid X). I really don't like the HTC flavor of Android. That big clock and the weird curved bar that needs to be swiped to start it up. But I'm going to try to use it as my primary phone for at least a week. I'll use it for calls, email, apps, music, photos, social networking, and anything else I use my iPhone for. This will be interesting. I doubt it will be "Incredible", but at least it will bring me close to the OS and possibly the people that use it. 

I'll keep you posted. Follow me here: @beach for regular updates.

Developing for Android

 

Like it or not, Android is huge. Creating an open source mobile platform was one of the smarter things Google has done. It's too bad that they haven't done that great of a job doing it. Android has succeeded despite Google. In fact it's safe to say that Android is successful for one primary reason. The iPhone is only available on AT&T. If the iPhone was on Verizon a year ago. Android would be no where near as popular. But since this has yet to happen, Android has become a huge market that isn't going away. 

If you are a company that builds/has iPhone apps, you better be thinking about developing for Android ASAP. But you should also be prepared for the pitfalls. 

1. No HIG. Human Interface Guidelines. UI for Android is a free-for-all. Anything goes. Some would argue that it's a good thing.  But all this does is promote weak, hodgepodge designs and user experiences. If there were standards or basic guidelines and UI elements, it would be easier to design and develop for Android. It would become faster to bring apps to market. My advice would be to look at the most used apps for similarities and inspiration. The "springboard" home screen is quite useful with the Facebook and Twitter apps. Also large, top-of-screen tabs work well to switch context. Remember that for most Android phones, the touch-screen is far less responsive and accurate as compared with the iPhone, so bigger and more spaced-out tappable areas are recommended. And remember it's not all touch-screen. You have a permanent back button, a menu button where you can hide controls, and of course landscape mode becomes more of a requirement because of the several popular phones with landscape sliding keyboards.
2. Too many OS versions in the marketplace. This type of thing will become a theme. Because any version from 1.5 to 2.2 might be available in large quantities, developing and testing for compatibility across all OS versions becomes quite difficult. The stability of these OS versions is also questionable, and of course the carriers might mess with them to make their own flavors, so you'll have that to contend with. If' you're building complex applications with lots of service calls and internationalization, you have a QA perfect storm... but wait it gets worse.
3. Too many different handsets in the marketplace. Every handset has its idiosyncrasies. So they all might treat your code differently. This, combined with the aforementioned OS issue makes that perfect QA storm even bigger. I recommend throwing out OS 1.5 and just contend with 1.6 and above. Hopefully soon you'll be able to only worry about 2.x and above, but for now you're dreaming. Then get as many phones as possible to test with. You have to have a Droid and a variety of HTC phones. But don't ignore new comers. Watch your logs and make sure you are optimizing for the predominant flavor of OS and device. Your app reviews will also tell you where people are leaning. With the iPhone you have consistency. There are a very small number of OS versions to worry about, almost everyone upgrades and one iPhone pretty much works like another. Developing for the iPhone is a piece of cake compared to Android.
4.  The app market sucks. The first thing you should do if you're developing an Android app is to create an independent Google/Gmail account to manage your apps. If you use a personal account, and want to let others help manage the account, you're screwed. Trust me, I know from experience. Do not upload an app under your personal account. You'll never be able to untether it without losing all your download data. At least not yet. The Market is also only available on the phone. And each carrier might have different views of that market. So the market is not as easy to explore and discover apps as iTunes. The web version of the market is a joke. Don't even think about looking at it; it's a bizarre wasteland of weirdness. I have no idea how it displays what it displays. And the search sucks. I would think that Google would do everything possible to fix this ASAP,  since the web and that search thing seems to be their thing, but so far it's been all talk. The one good thing about the app market really only being available on phones is that the reviews are usually quite concise and to the point. This helps cut the crap and provides some pretty snappy commentary. Both good and bad, which is good. 
5. The app market sucks some more. Beyond the clunky consumer experience, the market provides very little data about downloads and app performance. It got slightly better recently with the addition of error reports, but beyond this, it's very difficult to tell what's going on with your app. The app I manage and help build has nearly 2,000,000 downloads. But the Developer Console doesn't handle commas, so I have nearly 2000000 downloads. Much easier to read. I have released it in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, but I have no idea how many downloads each country has performed. I'm about to release it in around 15 more nations... I'm not looking forward to creating my reports. It's all guess work. Yes, I have my own analytics set up, but this doesn't tell the full story. It's also common for there to be data hiccups where all of a sudden 60,000 downloads disappear, then maybe reappear as a different number some time later. The console does provide active user data, which is defined by Google as the number of users that have not deleted the app after downloading it. So you have a total download number and an active user number. This data is helpful, but I've been experiencing wild swings up and down with this number recently, so I don't know how trustworthy it is. We may have to build some kind of background operation that tells us directly if the app is installed on a device to verify the Android Market numbers.
6. One more thing about the app market... Android Apps don't sell. Not nearly as well as iPhone apps. First, the quality of apps aren't there. Gaming hasn't been a focus either (perhaps Angry Birds for Android will help change the tide...) but the biggest thing holding back the sales of apps is the limitation of the market itself. Again, it's only on the phone. People are not as comfortable buying on a mobile device compared with a PC or notebook. Hardly any time seems to have been spent creating a market that makes it easy, comfortable, and convenient, to purchase an app. For Android app sales to take off, the market needs an off-phone sister that can really merchandise and market apps in a way that the phone version can not. It should also create a marketplace for giving the app a try... if you keep it, you buy it. I wish iTunes would do this legitimately. 
7. Some good things... There are some good things. Don't get me wrong. In fact over the past 9 months, I've sort of fallen in love with Android and all its quirks. It's a tough love, but love nonetheless. One awesome thing is that it's super easy to release the app to the market. It takes about 2 minutes and it's live and ready for download. I can also easily change the marketing text or screen shots without worrying about having another version available. And for all my complaining about a lack of HIG, there is a certain freedom in designing an Android app. Anything goes? Sure, why not? The users seem to be more passionate about the OS as well. They seem defiant in their choice to not be part of the iPhone masses. Android users are a proud people. They are proud and super smart. While this might be changing a bit with the ubiquitousness of the platform, the core users are the best kinds of nerds. Passionate, intelligent, and very willing to help debug any issues that arise. The open source foundation of the platform generates this good naturedness. We all seem to be in this together... the developer and the user. 

For Android to win, and believe me, that's a real possibility... Yes, for Android to win, they (Google and perhaps Motorola, HTC, the carriers, and the rest) need to spend more time on the user experience... on the customer experience. The OOBE of Android needs to be killer. I'm not talking about the devices so much, I'm talking about the overarching consumer experience. From the UI, to the Market (both on the phone and elsewhere), to the functionality of the OS. The devices do matter. Consistency is critical. Consistency from one phone to the next, no matter who made it is super important. Right now, you could easily compare two different android phones with the screens on, and not realize they are running the same OS. This makes no sense. For most people to fall in love with Android, an amazing shared experience is key. The phones can be configured differently or have one feature vs. another, but when I turn on that device, I better get the same experience as my neighbor. I want it so we can share in the delight of discovering new apps and things to do with the phone. What's more fun than telling someone about a new app you've found...? well lots of things, but you get my point. 

I hope I get the chance to continue to design and develop for Android in the future. For one thing, I don't feel like I've proven myself yet. I haven't had the chance to really push the platform as much as I think I can. Yes I've built a popular Android app, but it's no where near what I want it to be. I think my friends who have helped me build it would agree. Android developers are a proud people too. 

If you're building your app now, good luck. Keep it clean, keep it simple, keep it focused, and take advantage of what the platform provides. Follow the leaders, but do so in your own unique way. Look for holes and take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. It's still very much a greenfield and your chance to innovate is now. And remember don't add a feature just because you can. Think long and hard about whether it's truly necessary. Apps, by nature are meant to be small and targeted. You've heard me say this before, and I no doubt will say it again and again. The best products do one thing and they do it better than anyone else.

As always, forgive any typos... it's late. :)

I Have A Lot To Say...

It's been too long since my last post. I realize that I have left people hanging. Mostly myself. But I've decided that this blog is important to me. It has helped me through the toughest time of my life. So I'm going to work hard to keep it going. It's just writing, right?

I'm still in remission. Of course. I still have to wait and have the tests and hope it doesn't come back. But I've decided to let go of the burden of worry and start to live my life again. Sure, it's always there. I'm just not going to let it get to me. I have shit to do. 

I am planning for my future. This is something that I haven't been able to do in a long time. I'm just going to decide that I have a future and start to make things happen for me. My health, my career, my family. Goals, accomplishments, and how I want to spend my time. 

First things first. I can't make anything substantial happen until I get into shape. This means I shed the pounds and start moving again. Nothing positive can really take place until I'm fit. It affects everything. So for the first time in my life, my health will be my top priority. Not my job, or kids, or family, or whatever. I can't succeed or proceed without being healthy. Eating and exercise. All of it. I'll keep it simple and make small, obtainable goals. Soon enough I'll be where I need to be, then I can concentrate on the rest of my five year plan. 

In five years I expect to be ruling some kind of world. Dominating the profession I choose, and crushing the competition within that profession. Who knows what that will be? Perhaps it's the thing I'm doing now... but whatever it is, I will own it. 

In five years, I will travel. I will have a great time with my family.  I'll open their eyes to the world. In five years my daughter will be going to college. In five years my son might be taller than me. We'll live where we want to live, and do what we want to do. Nothing will get in our way.

In five years, I'll be alive.

So I'm going to start writing again. Some of it will be personal--about my health, cancer, pain-- but a lot of it will be professional. I have a lot to say. I'll let you know how I'm doing, but also what I'm thinking and what I'm working on. I have a lot to say... about this industry;  iPhones and iPads, Android, m-commerce, product management, social media, process, what I've done and what I plan on doing. A lot of it will be bullshit, but whatever.  I'll write about music too. Interesting things I find and my latest passions. If I can write it down, then it doesn't have to clutter my brain. I can concentrate on more important things. But maybe you'll find some of it interesting and so we'll both win a little. 

Now I'm rambling. I can't help it. I have a lot to say...

Remission

When I was first diagnosed with Lung Cancer, I never said that I had "Lung Cancer". I kept saying that I had a tumor in my lung. And it was cancerous. I had a hard time saying that I actually had Lung Cancer. I had a tumor in my lung. That's how I broke the news to people. I think it made me less scared. And perhaps I thought that it sounded less scary to other people. 

But the fact of the matter is that right now I am in remission for Lung Cancer. Remission. I'm not cured. It can come back. The reality of the situation is that I have a 40% to 50% chance of surviving beyond 4 years. It may be better than that. I like to think so and my doctor says it probably is considering my age... but for the next 4 years, you'll forgive me if I'm a bit jumpy. 

I just made my appointments for my 6 month check. I'll have another full-body CT Scan and blood work done at the end of May. Then I see my Oncologist in early June. I'm sure I'll be fine. Yes I still cough like crazy, and my back hurts, and I have cancer fatigue, and brain fog, and all of that, but I chalk that up to recovering from everything I went through the past year. Not anything new to worry about. At least that's how I stay half sane.

I haven't written about this stuff in a long time. There's a lot to say actually, if I want to be totally honest. But I don't think it's the right time. Basically I've changed, I'm a different person. I don't know if the old me will ever come back and I'm still trying to figure out who the new me is. 

"Tapworthy" Apps

Here are some notes I took from a SXSW presentation about iphone app design by Josh Clark. This applies to Android as well, but the presentation was specifically about iPhone apps. This was by far the best presentation I saw. Mostly because it validated many of the things that I believe to be true already. :)

The presentation can be found here, but it's mostly images:

Tapworthy: Designing iPhone Interfaces for Delight and Usability

View more presentations from Josh Clark.

Notes:

Successful iPhone apps depend on design restraint

Think about making apps like toys. Create an emotional attachment (i think the ebay app is most definitely going in this direction).

Elements of playfulness & luxury help to create that attachment

Use high-touch textures: Wood, glass, metal, etc.

What makes an app mobile?

- I'm Working (micro-tasking)

   - Design ubiquity (consistency of interface)

   - Use big, chunky calls to action (Gowalla, Things)

- I'm local

   - Information Ghosts - There are information ghosts all around us, use the phone's senses to detect them. 

   - the iPhone's senses: touch, sound, sight, location awareness

- I'm bored

   - Games, novelty

Think Big. Build Small.

DO ONE THING AND DO IT WELL

- Stay focused

- Keep things to the bare minimum of what people expect, but do it really really well

Tapworthy Apps:

- Focus on Mobile Content

- Optimized for micro-tasking

- Use sensors to enhance local content

- Create Opportunities

- Make complex things simple

- Do one thing and do it well

Design for the thumb.

- Frequently used buttons on lower left

- Optimize for right handed users (but consider adding options to flip the interface for lefties)

- Buttons should be 44 pixels for comfort

- 44x44 - This is Apple's own mantra

Get into a 44 pixel rhythm 

Avoid buttons at the bottom of the screen that compete with the tab bar

If you do have a small interface, extend the tap area

Clarity over density

Be a scroll skeptic

Finger Friendly Design:

- Use the thumb's hot zone

- Design to a 44 pixel rhythm

- Be generous with space

- Content at top / Controls at bottom

- Avoid scrolling where practical

- Put secondary controls behind hidden doors/buttons (see tweetie)

Cancer and Cadillacs

more noise. the last in the series. just some songs really. i don't know. i ran out of steam. sigh.

Cancer & Cadillacs by quagmire

Hello Sleep

This one's about sleeping. Phones on....

Hello Sleep by quagmire