NJS[BLOG]

Certainly some big ideas to consider that will provide much to mull over at stop signs and grocery store lines over the next few weeks. I’d also like to know more about the RSA, so I feel some internet research coming on this weekend.

As promised, the eCampus News article on iPad pilot programs across the country has posted.  It seems to come from a place of comparing the iPad to eReaders that have already been piloted, but it’s still an informative piece.  And I got a few paragraphs in about our Washington College pilot specifically.

Since so many of my web design projects are built on blog platforms – specifically, WordPress – these days, I thought it might be smart to remake my portfolio using the same technology. So, gone is the Flash-based navigation and SlideShowPro display system and in its place is a much more streamlined WP theme that I’ve customized to suit my needs. Added bonus: completely compatible with iPhone and iPad!

Visit at nicholasjsmerker.info/Professional (or from the Portfolio link on the right.)

From the introductory post on my new blog about tablet computing, Case for the iPad:

The desktop computing paradigm is stale – yesterday’s bread. If you are a computer geek, you know this to be true and I can pinpoint a great example of why: I haven’t been excited about a new OS in years. New operating systems are the holiest of holies in PC terms and the last time I actually, truly cared that one was about to be released was April 29, 2005. I preordered Tiger from Apple and was beside myself with glee at the promise of much geeking out to come. And you know what? It was essentially the same thing as Panther in 2003. By the time I guardedly, I installed Leopard in 2007, hoping to be amazed, I discovered…meh.

The same can be said for all software. Adobe Creative Suite 5 is trundling down the pike and, I hate to say it, it stopped being compelling back around Creative Suite 2. Or maybe when it became a suite. Even hardware is less intoxicating, especially since Apple has said they have more or less perfected the shape of products and are committed to a long future of aluminum and glass. There’s a cynical commodification mentality that has set in and, in so doing, destroyed the sense of amazement that once surrounded computing.

(This is going somewhere, I promise.)

The most telling symptom of a stagnating paradigm, though, is my ever-growing fascination with mobile technology. An early 2003 love affair with Nokia’s European products morphed into a complete infatuation with the iPhone at its announcement in 2007. This was computing’s future, I just knew it. The power of information truly and easily being wherever we are – whether it takes the form of maps, music, the latest prices for tomatoes, a message from your mother telling you her flight is taking off late, what have you – is immense. It makes all knowledge and connectivity accessible in ways that it just can’t be with the computer. Biggest hurdle? The tiny (though, mercifully, improved on by iPhone and its touchy ilk) screen.

Enter the tablet. Most notably, the iPad. All the power of mobile, laid back, pervasive information with a screen worthy of the two-way, media-rich flow of the modern web. This is something important. I can feel it. And I want to make sure I document the birth of this truly new way of interfacing with the digital world that is going to reshape everything in…oh…three to five years. At least as far as it touches my immediate environment in higher education, that is.

(See, I told you we’d get there.)

To quote Fake Steve Jobs’ contribution to the Wired article, “How the Tablet Will Change the World,” that got me to finally put all of this into a single blog (an article that made me think “yes, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking” more than once):

An ebook reader that also plays movies and music? And browses the Web? No way. Can’t be done. Well, we did it. And you can fly three times around the globe and watch movies the whole time on a single battery charge. It’s amazing. Phenomenal. Exciting. Magical. Amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous.

I was put on earth to restore a sense of childlike wonder to people’s empty, pathetic lives, and I must say that so far I’m doing a pretty outstanding job.

And that’s really the crux of what I’m on about here. The iPad – the tablet – makes me feel giddy and uneasy and like a million things are possible and like there aren’t enough hours in a day to explore each to the level it deserves. In short, how computing made me feel when I was a tremendously nerdy teenager tinkering into the early morning with a PowerBook 5300ce that I had bought with my lawn-mowing money, just for the fun of doing it. Just because it was new and uncharted and exciting.

To get the conversation started, I’ve collected the blog posts that I’ve been posting on my work blog and my personal blog since November 2009. I’ll be back with much, much more in the days to come.

Onward into the future,

Nick

“It demands so much of my time and concentration,” said Chicago resident Dale Huza, who was confronted by the confusing mound of words early Monday afternoon. “This large block of text, it expects me to figure everything out on my own, and I hate it.”

Excerpt from “Nation Shudders at Large Block of Uninterrupted Text“

Updated with more photos aqui.

Well, friends, I’m here. Here are some photos of our stay in Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo, Mexico so far:

Good morning from Mexico!

The Mexican Rigel – a Mexicat, if you will.

Yes, it really does look like a god damned postcard.

Ah, extravagance!

So, yeah. I do have to say that I’m extremely grateful for being a US citizen at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century. This is beyond amazing – far better than any Mayan king could have imagined – flying thousands of miles to be on a beach in the dead of winter.

We had birds yesterday morning, much to the (wishful) gastronomical delight of the cats.

And then the cooking began – aided by a bottle of Ruinart champagne…

…and observed, of course, by the Smeageltrix.

There were walnut and chocolate chip cookies.

And then a delicious dinner of pork tenderloin medallions wrapped around apple-sage stuffing and accompanied by Boursin mashed potatoes and white asparagus.

Oh, it a was so very good.

And then it was time to open presents from my family. Clyde was very intrigued the cat gift. What is it?

Some sort of weird tunnel. It makes such delightful crinkly sounds…but Rigel is skeptical. This will require further exploration.

Merry Xmas!

Zombie Reagan Raised From Grave To Lead GOP

As is The Onion, where I stole this.

Wal-Mart best symbolizes America, a new poll finds

I mean, in a way, it’s totally correct: Wal-Mart does symbolize everything wrong with this country in one fell swoop. However, I’m so very saddened by everything in this poll, from the responses to the answer choices to the fact that it exists.

Blah. (Thanks, Yahoo! News)

But how will we ever buy products if we can see pores, veins, the natural color of teeth or – heaven forbid – stretch marks?!

According to Gizmodo, the French parliament is considering passing a mandate that would require all advertisers to notify the public whenever an ad has been through the Photoshop perfection engine. The penalty? Fines as high as half the cost of the ad campaign.

Part of me loves this. And part of me loves Mark Wilson’s quote at the end of the article:

“[...] the skeptic in us might see this as the lame excuse of someone not committed enough to rigorous cosmetic surgery.”

Will it only apply to skillful Photoshop work? Because sometimes, it’s damned obvious.