“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

Sometimes, I am just floored by the elegance and truthfulness of this quote, when, using some piece of technology, I stop and wonder “how the heck is this working?”  And I think that, at least on some conceptual level, I often know how the technology is working … and this makes it all the more amazing that I still don’t believe that it’s doing what I can clearly see it is doing. Sometimes I resort to just thinking that we are indeed all stuck in the Matrix and that it’s all just some kind of simulation (at which point, I think, that there must be some computer somewhere that is actually running the simulation, at which point I just curl up in my cubicle underneath my desk and start whimpering, which my boss hates!)

Using Google Maps on my cell phone the other day to get some directions, I had one of these moments (the awe kind, not the whimpering kind). But it wasn’t merely that I was able to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B via public transport — I’ve been using Google Maps now for quite a while and I’m kind of used to it (but I never take it for granted!) — it was how I was able to get these instructions … very, very easily. I had this fleeting, preternatural sense of connection to my device, like it was anticipating what I intended to do and all but did it for me. What I started typing it finished on my behalf; just as I recognized the need to provide the application with additional information, it presented me with an interface to do this. For such a mundane interaction, it was an oddly spiritual experience.

And with this, as someone who is interested in the design of user interfaces and user-centered technology, I’d like to provide a front-end-centric corollary to Mr. Clarke’s excellent quote:

“Any thoughtfully designed technology is indistinguishable from magic”

There’s a subtle — but important — difference to the kind of magic referred to in these two quotes.

The magic arising from sufficiently advanced technology might be the kind practiced by an illusionist: you observe something happening — right there in front of your eyes —  yet you don’t believe that what you’re seeing is true, and can’t comprehend how the illusion is effected . The magic arising from thoughtfully designed technology, however … it’s a bit more subtle. It trades in the exhibitionism of an illusionist for the serene omniscience of an oracle. He’s been waiting for you, and he knows why you’re here. He knows your past and he can predict your future.

Take the #24 up Crowchild, get off at 32nd Ave. And quickly, this next bus will be early.

I recently moved from Chicago, IL, USA to Calgary, AB, Canada. Jury’s still out on whether or not trading the El for the C-Train, pizza and hot dogs for Vietnamese subs, or the lake for the mountains (which have their own lakes!) is worth it …. but one thing’s for sure: I’m really happy with my new job as  Usability Specialist with a company called SMART Technologies,  responsible for  many excellent educational technology hardware and software products, most popularly the SMART Board.

But this post is not about SMART (maybe I’ll write one in the future), it’s about parking in Calgary (something I try to not have to do too much of, but there’s just no way around using a car here). Nothing too insightful here, just a funny parking experience I had and also a  kudos to the city-wide parking system, ParkPlus.

The Bad

It took about a million weeks for my car to ship from Chicago -> Calgary (which is funny as my stuff got here in about one). Once it arrived here, I had to visit around eight different places (government offices, registries, dealerships) in order for my car to be blessed as kosher in Alberta. In any event, there was a period where I had a rental car and my imported Volkswagen and had to strategically shuttle them around so I could take the latter to get inspected and then use the former to get home. A funny thing happened when I tried to park them both in the same lot, using my credit card in the automated parking machine. I swiped my card, paid for a couple hours worth of parking for one car, then went to dip my card again, and got the following error message.

It took my quite a while to figure out what the heck was going on here. I eventually just assumed that my credit card info was stored in some central parking database which doesn’t allow one to have multiple simultaneous sessions on the same card. Understandable … it’s an edge use case …. but I still couldn’t figure out what was the rationale for disallowing this. But … what about that error message, huh? Gotta be one of the best I’ve seen. How about ‘Session in Progress’ or ‘Try Different Card’ ? To me, “Impossible Payment” implies that I tried to pay for -i or 1/0 hours of parking time, or attempted to pay with my blockbuster card. I scrounged up enough loonies to pay with cold hard, cash. It didn’t seem to have any problem with that.

The Good

Not that I enjoy paying for parking — especially at work — but if I have to pay, I want it to be as painless as possible. The ParkPlus system makes parking so easy, you don’t even car that you’re getting ripped off!

Here’s how it works. These payment boxes have sprung up all over the city, and many of the streets have signs with zone numbers posted along them. You park your car somewhere, find the nearest box enter the zone number where you’ve parked your car, dip your credit card and you’re done.  Pretty easy, and ingenious for ParkPlus because adding a new zone is as easy as putting up a pole with a number — no need to install a quarter-based parking meter for every parking spot.

Well, the streets around my work building are Park-Plus-ified, and I’d seen signs advertising a way to pay with your mobile. So one day, instead of walking the extra 250 feet past the front door to the machine, I decided I’d pay with my mobile. I navigated to parkplus.ca with my mobile phone and found it to be not a mobile-optimized site, and I was a bit confused by this. When I got to my desk, I spent some more time navigating around the site from my browser on my PC, and as it turns out, you actually need to call a phone number from your phone to pay for parking — how adorably quaint!! The website is only used to create an account and for you to add money to that account.

Paying exorbitant fees every month to Fido for use of their mobile internet, I was a bit upset that there wasn’t a web site — or better yet a mobile app — I could use to do this, but I thought I’d put some money in my ParkPlus account and give it a go using the ‘ol Dialer app on my Android Phone.  It’s a pretty fluid interaction:

• Place the call
• Press 1 to create a new parking session or cancel current one
• Enter zone number
• System reads it back, press 1 to confirm
• It thanks me, tells me when my session expires and hangs up.

Total time expended ….. 33 seconds. That’s pretty great (as great as paying for parking gets), and quite the relief after having used Fido’s ridiculously inefficient voicemail system. I hope to post more on this later.

Sad fun fact of the day: ParkPlus is at the top of my mobile’s automatically generated ‘Favorites’ list (based on frequency of calls).

I think it’s easiest to think of it as glue between a voice call and a server-side application. So I call up an assigned, and my called is ‘handled’ by a script written in TwiML (Twilio’s custom markup) language which can gather information from me, in the form of keypad inputs, and then send this information (via POST) to an application running somewhere on the web.

TwiML defines several tags that your application can use:

<Say> <Play> <Gather> <Record> <Dial>

which can perform actions such as rendering text as voice, playing an mp3, gathering keypad input, recording the user’s voice, or ‘redirecting’ to another number.

At it’s core, this seems like a brilliantly simple, elegant system.  I also think that the potential here is huge, especially for markets in which data access on device is not ubiquitous. Given the single mode of communication (i.e. voice), there’s certainly not the same level of sexiness associated with iPhone or Android applications which can have lush visual representations, engaging interactions etc., but I still think that there is tons of potential here from a utilitarian perspective. Also, I can see some interesting things coming out in the Assistive Technology domain.

But that’s just my small mind trying to make sense of this all . The most exciting thing about innovative platforms is that there’s no way to predict what people will do with it, or how it will be adapted, appropriated, tweaked and twisted to do things never thought possible. I’m really excited about this new realm of ‘voice applications’ and will definitely keep an eye on how things progress …

Hexceptionally Delicious

Originally uploaded by ante10pe

From Ralston, the makers of ‘Powdered Parallelograms’ and ‘Munch, Munch Moebius Strips’ comes a new product, ‘Crispy Hexagons.’

If my memory sewrves me correctly, aren’t Chex (of Chex Mix fame) hexagonally shaped as well? I’m sure the good folks over at Chex wanted to name their cereal ‘Crispy Hexagons,’ but found that the name had been copyrighted by Ralston Foods, so they settled for the far less mathematically descriptive truncation,’CHex.’

When trying to remember where I heard the name ‘Ralston,’ I realized that it usually preceded the name ‘Purina.’ AFAIK Purina is it’s own company now (?). I guess we know which of the child companies got the marketing department; I don’t recall seeing ‘Chewy Lamb and Other Animal Meat Cylinders’ at my local PetSmart.

Originally uploaded by ante10pe

I awake with a tryptophan hangover, from a four-day long turkey-bender, shirt drenched in some ungodly combination of sweat and gravy, giblets stuck to the ceiling, to find that winter in chicago is finally upon us.

But there are so many more questions than answers. How long was i asleep for? Why am I wearing this necklace made of turkey vertebrae? Where the hell is my turkey ribcage crown? And how’d this stuffing get in my pants?

Sigh. Back to work.

Using Flickr’s send-to-blog feature.

That’s my girlfriend’s cat, named Sasa. She features prominently into my photostream, as you can see.

Sasa is not an LOLcat. She’s very serious and hates cheezburgers.

Hi Poppy -

I look forward to receiving the gift certificates you had mentioned in the mail.

In the meantime, I just wanted to confirm: is it reasonable to expect to be charged  $2.50 for a buttered bagel + medium coffee combo? This price reflects the $1.99 plain bagel + medium coffee combo, plus an additional $.25 for butter, plus 12% tax.

Thanks, and I look forward to your reply, so I can once again visit my neighborhood Cosi with full knowledge that I am being charged fairly.

Best,

Dan

Ah, the confusing math of bagelnomics. Well, I guess he doesn’t want me to be his guest at Cosi, after all. How’s that for customer service?!?

You know what, Poppy, I’m not sure I want your gift certificates any more. But I’ll keep it in my bag just in case. That is, just in case I need to wipe my hands of the melted butter, oozing from my well-toasted bagel purchased at my friendly neighborhood Corner Bakery, Dunkin Donuts, or assorted non-chain bakeries which litter my downtown neighborhood.

<maniacal cackling>

Yelp review to follow ….

Re: About our menu

Dear Mr. Greenblatt,
I apologize for the confusion and inconsistency you are experiencing regarding the price or our square bagels or squagels.  I have researched the pricing and believe that I can offer some clarity.  To answer your 4 questions: 1. Butter on a bagel is $.25.  2. Cream Cheese is a $1.00
charge. 3. The cost of a bagel with butter and a grande coffee is $3.04 ($1.79 for the coffee, $.99 for the bagel and $.25 for the butter) plus tax in the majority of our locations in the Chicago area.  However, there are a few locations in Chicago that have a different price, in
those stores the price is $3.24 plus tax.  This type of “tier pricing” is consistent with most national restaurant companies due to location and costs of doing business, but can be confusing to customers that visit different locations.  4. Our company invented the square bagel a little over 7 years ago in New York City.  It was actually called a “Squagel” originally but customers were confused by the name.  The shape is a result of our process of making the dough and makes them unique to Cosi.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a way of making the cost equal $2.22.  I have contacted all stores in the Chicago market to make sure all managers are reviewing how to enter your order (and many others) correctly.

Thank you for taking the time to bring this to our attention.  It is through guest feedback like yours that we are able to continue to improve our service and meet our guests’ needs.  I would like to take this time to invite you to Cosi as my guest.  If you could forward me your mailing address we will send certificates for your next visit to Cosi.

Once again, thank you for your time.  I hope that I was able to answer your questions.  If I can be of further help please contact me directly. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Poppy Asiago

Poppy Asiago
District Manager
Cosi, Inc
 

I changed the name, of course. It would be way too funny if a guy named ‘Poppy Asiago’ worked at Cosi. While I am psyched about being Poppy’s guest and the free squagelage, this reply left me with something to be desired, as I explain in my response. I still don’t understand the economics of the bagel combo:

Hi Poppy -

Thank you for your detailed and prompt response.

I guess my confusion arose from the fact that, at least from a philosophical level (and probably a cost-of-goods level as well) a buttered bagel seems like it should cost less than a cream-cheesedbagel. The $2.99+tax combo (including a bagel with cream cheese and a grande coffee) represents a 70-something cent discount off the ‘list price’ of these items, which by your metrics shouldbe $1.79 (coffee) + $.99 (bagel) + $1.00 (cream cheese) == $3.78 before tax, and I would assume that a bagel + butter + coffee combo should cost something south of that (but north of the $1.99 naked bagel + coffee combination that Cosi offers). However, I understand that the economics of combo deals can be inscrutable, and that it may not be economically feasible for Cosi to offer a comparably discounted bagel+butter combo, as it is to offer such a bargain with its higher priced (and perhaps higher profit?) cousin, cream cheese.

That being said, I certainly don’t plan on letting a measly $1.10 get in the way of my morning Squagel combo, even if I have some reservations out of principle! I’ll gladly accept your generous offer of gift certificates for my next visit at Cosi (which, in all likelihood, will be redeemed the morning after I receive them). They can be
sent to:

Daniel Greenblatt
300 N. Canal St.
Apartment #1409
Chicago, IL 60606

Thanks again for your prompt assistance, and please let me know if I can provide you with any more information.

Best,
Dan

I guess I could have been a bit more assertive about the mysterious inflation of buttered bagel — why can’t I just get a bagel+coffee combo at $1.99 and add butter for an additional quarter? This should come out to around $2.50 including tax, as opposed to the $3.30 I pay now. We’ll see what kind of response I get!

Do you enjoy making your friends feel badly about themselves by explaining to them in very complicated terms how, for example, their choice of tic-tac flavor can have severe environmental impacts on bird migration patterns? Also, do you like saving the earth? Then this is the site for you!

Treewala is a project by an organization called Greenwala. Their goal is “to provide a destination where people can learn to be green, brag about being green and even gain rewards for being green.” I think this is a noble goal, and they are off to a great start. The premise of Treewala is simple: you attempt to define ecology-related vocabulary terms, such as “plantlet” or “multiple use” (don’t worry, you slacker, it’s multiple choice, not short answer ). For each one you get correct, you earn a leaf. And for about every twenty leaves you earn, they plant a tree in a place called Los Gaviotas in the eastern plains of Colombia.

So how does it work? No, the good folks at Treewala are not emptying out their pockets on account of your expansive knowledge of obscure ecological terms. It works off of ad revenue: each time a new question is loaded, a banner ad is displayed on the bottom of the page. Greenwala must be getting paid for impressions, so each new question you see means a couple more fractions of a cent towards planting a baby tree!

I think this site is great. I’ve always been a fan of informal learning, especially so when it has to do with environmental consciousness. I’d be curious to see how the site’s business model fares over time – do enough people click on the links for this to be sustainable? Also, I’m interested in what the patterns of use look like: is this something people would do throughout the day? Only on their lunchbreak? Or are people just too busy during the workday to take these quizzes. So here’s where I think the mobile context is really relevant. I often look to my phone to fill small gaps in time – waiting on a line or for the elevator, bored at a meeting, etc. – and these time-filling interactions normally consist of me pressing Send/Receive on my GMail acccount or fiddling with settings. If it were possible to put a Treewala-like portal on my mobile phone, either web-based (think WAP or iPhone web app), J2ME, or any other development platform that could support dynamically-provisioned advertising, then I think this would make for a supremely fulfilling (both on a personal and and environmental level) time-wasting experience.

Want to know what a co-fire is? Go on over to Treewala to find out!

To Whom It May Concern -

I’m a frequent Cosi customer (I go at least three days a week), but I’ve been troubled lately by a phenomenon I’ve been calling “The Incredible Price-Shifting Squagel.”

Some explanation: I call it a “Squagel” because where I come from (Long Island, a suburban area of New York) bagels are round, but the ones at Cosi are square. I call it “Incredible Price-Shifting” because every time I go in there, it seems to cost a different price!!

There’s a Cosi in my building (233 N. Michigan) and I always stop in on the walk to work. I start looking forward to my bagel around Lake & Wells, and by Wacker & State, I can hardly contain myself!

I always get the same exact thing: everything bagel, toasted double (I always say “until dark, please”), with a medium coffee. Sometimes it doesn’t come out as dark as I’d like, but I understand there are other customers and the toaster machines can be finnicky. A lightly toasted squagel is better than a charred squagel.

Sometimes, these items cost me a total of $3.20. Other times, this cost $3.30. A few times, it cost me $3.60! And for a while, one employee would always ring it up as costing $2.20. I would repeatedly ask her (just once per visit, I’m not crazy or anything): “Are you sure it’s supposed to cost $2.20? It always rings up as $3.30!” to which she would say “Yes. The bagel and coffee combo includes cream cheese, but you got butter, and we don’t charge for butter, so that’s why it’s less,” to which I’d say “yay!” (in my head) and hand over my credit card to be charged a total of $2.22. I’ve got a receipt that shows this, and I can arrange to send it if that would be helpful.

Whenever someone else rings me up, the total is always higher, and while they’re always very helpful in trying to arrive at the magic triple-2’s, they’re never successful in doing so.

I feel bad, because I don’t want to hold up the line every morning while the cashier tries to hack the cash register, and be known as “that cheapskate $2.22 guy,” but at the same time, from $2.22 to $3.20 is almost a 50% increase in price! (I just want to reiterate that the staff have been very helpful and professional, and my requests to “ring it up again, like this receipt” have never been met with nasty responses of any kind.)

So, can you please clarify:
1) Do you charge for butter?
2) If so, does butter cost less than cream cheese?
3) What should an everything bagel, double toasted with butter, and a medium coffee cost?
4) Who came up with the idea for a square bagel, anyway?

Thanks in advance for your help, and please let me know if I can provide any more information to help in this investigation.

Best,
Cheapskate $2.22 Guy

Here is a copy of two receipts showing the price differential:

The Rising Cost of Bagels

Has any one else run into this?!? I’ll post a response from Cosi Corporate when I hear back….