Simplicity Rules

Adam DuVander on keeping it simple

Paradox of Choice

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A couple years ago, I got a neat little camera, a Canon SD200. I’ve been wanting to get a second camera and I really would have liked to get the same one, but it’s not available. Canon has moved on to newer models.

The trouble is I can’t tell them apart. The two in this picture were released a week apart, they look the same, and have many identical features. The prices aren’t even very different.

I have looked over the many SD choices on Amazon, but I could never make up my mind.

Barry Schwartz calls this The Paradox of Choice, which he sums up nicely in this TEDTalk:

“All of this choice… produces paralysis, rather than liberation. With so many options to choose from, people find it difficult to choose at all.”

I didn’t end up with a Canon, as much as that was my intention in the beginning. There were just too many to choose from.

BestPlaces zooming away

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Earlier this week, BestPlaces added a small new feature, which drastically increases the usefulness of the site. Internally, we call it the zoomer, and it allows our visitors to view a greater area around places they are researching.

BestPlaces zoomer in action

Essentially, when viewing a city (Portland, for example), you can zoom in on zip codes and zoom out to the county, metro area, or state. Similarly, you can zoom back in, perhaps locating places you didn’t know existed.

We’ve always had data on tens of thousands of places. We did pretty good at showing cities, an okay job of profiling neighborhoods, but now we’re showing everything.

Two weeks ago, we launched a new design. For a number of reasons, the previous one had degraded. I’m quite pleased with what came out of the work done by Encrich Media, which gave us a clean slate to work with in adding on this new feature. And I’m proud of what our small team did to get the zoomer out, especially Al, who was very patient with my many nit-picks. Also, thanks to Tom and John for providing me with their expert advice.

There’s a lot more coming from BestPlaces, some of which I’ll probably share here. It’s fun to be involved with a company doing some big things, and I’m happy to be part of it.

Have it all, brownie-wise

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The great thing about a cake pan is that it’s so simple. Pour in some batter, heat it up, and you have cake. We’ve been doing this for ages. Do we really need to fix what ain’t broke?

My friend Jason explains why the standard cake pan isn’t great for brownies:

One problem we always have is that both Holly and I both love the corners and edges, and Holly has no problem cutting out the four corners and eating those first, something I got in trouble for growing up.

Sides a plenty with this brownie pan

Every brownie has two sides. This pan doubles the number of corner pieces.

Sure, the folks at Baker’s Edge have added complexity to their pan, but they also solved a problem very simply. All they did was add a few small dividers to a normal pan.

At about $35, it’s a little steep for a pan, but can you really put a price on better brownies?

Video is hard and video is easy

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Though I’ve done a healthy amount of video production in my past, I haven’t been involved in the big online video push of the last two years, from a producer standpoint. As a viewer, it’s never been simpler. I haven’t worried about video codecs in ages.

Last week, I finally got around to uploading a video. Some friends and I create We Were Aces: A Che Gomez Wifflementary back in 2002. We always wanted to put it online, but getting it small enough and viewable by most browsers was a huge hurdle. For five years, it sat around on a DVD, but now you can see it here.

Producing web video, like watching it, is easier than ever before. But it’s still pretty hard. Since my copy is on a DVD, I had to find software that could extract a video file. I felt like a investment banker walking into a back alley looking for some smack, trudging the dirty web. One tutorial placed “home movie” in quotes, assuming I was ripping a hollywood movie. I chuckled, figuring I was one of few who was actually extracting my own work.

Finally, I remembered HandBrake, recommended by a couple friends in the past. It’s about as easy as it gets right now. Still, there are a million settings, none of which seem to actually affect quality of file size. And it still made me feel dirty.

Finally, another t-shirt company

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If you’re plugged into the web, you’re probably tired of t-shirts, and the little startups that sell them. Now TextMarks (the folks with the awesome two way SMS service) has created Reactee, and it’s way different.

Reactees let people SMS your shirt slogan

Buy other Reactees, or create your own. Let people find out more via SMS. It’s a neat idea and a great way to tie online to offline, simply.

via Shaun Inman