Jay McGavren's Journal

I am DONE with karaoke.

I needed something to do with my commute one day, so I popped out the karaoke CD - the one with songs I knew the karaoke bar had in their catalog. I had decided last time that I simply didn’t know how to sing, so I was going to rap. I had time on my hands, so I chose something moderately challenging (and appropriate for a suburban white boy) - “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz. Over the next couple weeks I put literally hours into rehearsing that song, until I could do it without lyrics or even accompaniment. When my wife’s friends suggested a trip the bar, I got bemused but enthused looks when I told them my planned selection. Late last week, Diana and I practiced together so she could be my backup singer. I know she’s biased, but she said I sounded really impressive.

Moment of truth - mics are handed to me and Diana. I get up, confident that I’m going to sound really, really white, but that I’m going to give a good performance.

And Diana and I proceed to train wreck it. The background music was really, really poor, the rhythm changed up in a few places so that neither Diana nor I were in sync with it, and the displayed lyrics were, well, not in sync with anything.

I know there are quality karaoke CDs out there, but at any given bar they’re likely to be mixed in with crap like this. Trying to choose the right song is like navigating a minefield.

So I’m done. If the karaoke companies and the bars that stock their wares don’t give a damn, why should I?

Sounding boards...

This phenomenon should not be news to anybody, but it should be a consideration in the design of any system that allows collaboration, so I need to jot something about it here…

I had a one-sided IM conversation with a co-worker earlier this week - I suspected he’d stepped away from his desk, and he had, but I was queuing it up in the log for him to review when he returned. In typing out a description of the problem I was having, I mostly worked it out on my own. The resulting “conversation” was rambling, but it resulted in a solution without my co-worker lifting a finger. He later told me that he and another team member use each other as “sounding boards” all the time, working out problems simply by describing them.

And here I am, about to go converse with another person who I know has only incidental knowledge of the system I’m working on. But I’m breaking from the usual workflow, and need to ensure I won’t cause any harm. I feel like I won’t have done my due dilligence until I’ve talked it out with another person.

Enso scratchpad demo...

I’m sure you all remember my earlier rant about Enso 2.0 and the discussion with [ICR] that followed… Well, Andreas Schuderer is even more doubtful about the new design that I - so much so that he’s done a lengthy writeup on his reasoning and a usable demo with a possible fix.

I like his scratchpad a lot better than “open notepad”, that’s for sure.

By not providing (or insisting upon the use of) an editor, Enso has moved away from the noun-verb interaction that Archy encouraged. This may be a step in the right direction again.

Aza, Aza, Aza...

Bloxes. A great idea that Aza Raskin should have sold to someone else to implement.

Look, I know all about distractibility, believe me. I know about having more ideas than you could ever possibly do. That’s why you need to discipline yourself and focus. Archy was a good starting place, and a good final goal. Enso was arguably a necessary detour. (But it’s not making money any more, is it?) The music search service was, well, what the hell was it? And now you’re breaking off into manufacturing?

I have the utmost respect for you and your work. But if you spread yourself too thin, each of your projects is going to disappear the moment you turn your attention away from it.

We’re re-implementing an old 4GL app, and my co-worker made it sound like the log scraper used Deep Black Magicks, so I had him keep that part to drive my new Java, even though it was a clunky solution. Well, now that I’m delving into the 4GL, it’s really not that bad.

I’ll be stepping on my co-worker’s toes if I re-code it, but…