Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA

I can't say how freaking glad I am that someone finally made this video!

Favorite line: "It ain't crack or nothin', but it's still REALLY BAD!"

Vertical videos really bug me. Especially once you get the video onto a desktop computer to edit or play it back. It becomes a sea of black with a tiny bit of vertical video in the middle. Not only is it weird to look at, but it's a waste of data space (all that black doesn't come from nothing, it still has to be stored somewhere). Worst of all, it just limits the experience of what can be a great video.

That said, I won't be surprised if vertical videos become increasingly popular, just as high-quality photographs have given way to lower quality mobile photos. The fact is, most people look at media on their mobile devices as much or more than anywhere else. If you take a vertical video on your iPhone and play it back on the iPhone, you can still see it full screen in vertical orientation. With Facetime and Skype available on mobile devices, looking at vertical videos will become more and more normal.

Besides, shooting vertically sometimes comes in handy, like when recording yourself dancing and need to see the feet and upper body which just won't fit in the frame when you're up close. I still think we should all learn a little bit of good technique and use cameras like they were meant to be used.

Awesome Writing Apps

If you enjoy writing and have a Mac, you have to check out these apps.

Ok, I'm not a writer. At least not at heart. I still remember one fateful day in 3rd grade the day I learned that I hate to write. I was in Mrs. Brown's class and we had a daily journal assignment. It was probably as simple as writing 1 paragraph of what we did the day before. I wouldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I sat there in class without writing a single thing. She made me stay in during recess to finish it. I still didn't write anything. So she made me stay after school. Still, I didn't write. I tried to explain why I couldn't, how nothing came out right. After lots of stubborn fussing, and exclamations of "I can't!" on my part, and lots of firm prodding and encouragement on her part, I somehow started writing. I remember that I wrote about riding my bicycle at the park across the street. I think I fell and skinned my knee. (I was probably picking at the scab instead of scribbling in my notebook.) I also wrote a bit about my grandma who lived with us, and about my trip to the dentist. Mrs. Brown was impressed that I knew how to spell 'anaesthesia'. (What can I say? I was genius at putting letters together… just not multiple words.) Being forced to write when I felt like I couldn't was a pretty tragic experience for me. And it didn't just happen that once. It continued on through the rest of my schooling career. Paper after paper in middle school, high school, and college tormented me. It also tormented my mother who tried her best to coach me through it. I'll never forget spending my lunch hour in her classroom trying to finish a paper that was due later that day. I was stressed because nothing was coming out right. Mom was frustrated because I shot down every suggestion she gave me, saying it wasn't good enough. I guess she just couldn't take it anymore and flat out cursed at me. "#^@!, Nathan! Just write something! It doesn't have to be perfect!"

So, I'm definitely not a writer. But I'm trying to write more. I like the concept of writing that idyllic lifestyle of sitting in a café with a moleskine notebook or MacBook, sharing ideas on important subjects by combining eloquent words in creative ways. The more I read blog posts, non-fiction books, best-sellers (and audiobooks) the more I become enamored with the idea of being a writer, especially if it includes adventures like Bill Bryson's excursion along the Appalachian Trail. I just really hate the practice of writing. I am drawn to rules and structure, so I tend to edit and correct my spelling, grammar, and punctuation which slows me down. Worse than that, sometimes, if I really get into the flow of writing, it's as if a rip tide pulls me into an ocean of thoughts that I didn't even know were there, and I can't stop writing until I manage to deal with them somehow. So to overcome these challenges, I did what any Mac geek like myself would do I turned to the App Store. There are a handful of apps for Mac, and for iOS devices like the iPad, that are built specifically for writing. I've tried a bunch of them, and here are my favorites.

Writeroom

The original minimalistic writing tool. I found this app over 5 years ago when it was still free. Its simple black interface opens full screen and just lets you write. Awesome.
$9.99 Mac App Store
$4.99 iOS App Store

OmmWriter Dana II

My all time favorite! OmmWriter allows you to become one with your inner Buddha while writing. It's also a simple fullscreen app, but oh so much more elegant. You have 4 or so choices of ethereal, full-screen backgrounds along with soothing ambient music. Optional typing noises can really get you into the rhythm of writing. This is a writing experience you have to try.
$4.99 Mac App Store
$4.99 iOS App Store

iA Writer

My current pick. I wrote this post using iA Writer on my iMac, MacBook, and iPad over a few weeks extended period of time. Thanks to iCloud integration, I can access a single document on all of my devices. But the reason I was drawn to it in the first place was a unique feature: single line focus. While writing, you can enter 'Focus Mode' which fades everything but the current sentence you are typing. This is excellent for those who are easily distracted by grammar, typos, and general clutter, like me. iA Writer is also great for bloggers, since it supports Markdown formatting. That's a geeky way to type in plain-text using special codes like hashtags and stars to easily define titles, bold text, and lists without messing with formatting during the writing process. Oh, and it gives you the more relevant measure of 'Reading Time' in addition to the traditional character and word count.
$8.99 Mac App Store
$0.99 iOS App Store (promotional pricing)

ByWord

Much like iA Writer, this app keeps gaining excellent features. A beautiful interface with more custom options (font, color, etc.), it is also built around Markdown editing but also includes Markdown Preview so you can see the end result. The disappearing formatting elements fade away while typing, but are there when you want them.
$9.99 Mac App Store
$2.99 iOS App Store (promotional pricing)

Pages

An honorable mention, Pages is Apple's solution to word processing and page layout – neither of which Microsoft Word has ever been very good at. While it's designed as a beginner's tool for designing posters, invitations, and beautiful research papers, the most recent version update included a full-screen mode for writing. So, yeah, that's nice, though a bit pricey.
$19.99 Mac App Store
$9.99 iOS App Store

Why kids are NOT born digital natives.

I keep hearing over and over how kids these days are 'wired differently' than the 'digital immigrant' generation. Because they were born 40 years later than their parents, their genes have somehow mutated to allow them to be comfortable with technologies like the iPhone, iPad, modern computers, and video games.

Well, I call BS!

With my limited understanding of genetics and developmental biology, the idea that kids these days are somewhat different the moment they are born makes absolutely no sense. I will concede that I am no expert in the matter and will defer to anyone with appropriate credentials AND evidence to the contrary. But for the meantime, let me elaborate on my point.

There are two problems with the idea that kids are born with brains prepared to use digital devices.

1. It doesn't fit what we know about biology.

2. The comparison is being made to children who grew up over 40 years ago WITHOUT the ubiquitous technology we have today.

My argument is that rather than human beings adapting at an impossibe rate to technology, new technology has actually changed to become more natural for humans to use.

Human brains today are still genetically programmed to "solve problems related to surviving in an unstable outdoor environment, and to do so in nearly constant motion." (Brain Rules, pg. 31-32) The human genome has not changed in tens of thousands of years, and does not change on a broad scale within just a couple of generations. Children born today are just as capable of picking up a rock or interacting with an iPod as those born in the 1920s. The main difference is that those flappers-to-be were never introduced to the digital devices that babies are now exposed to within the first few years of life.

Those who claim to be of the digital immigrant generation do have a disadvantage. They were conditioned and trained over 10-20 years to use technology that is counter intuitive. It's no wonder they are confused by the simplicity of touch devices.

In an article on gaming user interfaces, by Tim Rogers, a perfect analogy is described. When Apple, aided by Xerox research and followed by other PC manufacturers, produced the first computer mouse, it had a clickable button. Windows PCs soon provided 2 – and even up to 6 – buttons on their mouse enabling the user to perform different tasks with different buttons. For years, a common complaint against Apple computers is that the mouse only has one mouse button, preventing the user from performing a right-click (the ignorance here is actually astounding since Apple has provided an alternative to the right-click for many years via software and key commands, but that's beside the point). As if to infuriate it's users even more, the newest Apple laptops actually ship without any button on the trackpad. But as Tim explains, "It's not a mouse with no buttons—it's a mouse with a million buttons." The Multi-Touch trackpad on the new MacBooks is a larger glass surface below the keyboard, every square centimeter of which can be used as a button, whether by physically clicking or simply tapping with one or more fingers. Not only that, but finger gestures can control the operating system in a number of different ways – swipe two fingers up and down to scroll through a long document, or pinch all five fingers together to see all of the applications you have installed. By getting rid of the button that long time users have grown accustomed to, Apple has introduced new ways to control and navigate their computers.

And think about it, touch control is much more natural than a button. Where else in life do we have to touch a specific part of a device to get it to work, other than poorly designed technology? When you pick up a rock to throw it, you do not have to hold a command key. To draw drapes closed, you do not have to grab them by the bottom left corner instead of the right. In our physical world we can touch any part of an object to interact with it. But that wasn't so with digital devices until the multi-touch interfaces were developed. Now on an iPad or Android tablet, the entire device serves as input and output, just like every other physical object in nature.

Young children have very adaptable minds. They have no preconceived notions of how things 'should' work but simply enjoy exploring their world to discover how things work. Adults, on the other hand, have been conditioned over many years to follow procedures which aren't always natural. Consider shutting down your Windows computer by first clicking the Start menu. Or how about the Qwerty keyboard which was actually designed to slow typists down? Adults get stuck repeating patters even though there is often a simpler way (typing apple.com into the address bar, for instance, instead of searching for Apple on Google, then clicking twice to get there). Young minds are free to learn new ways of doing things whether it is crawling, walking, speaking a language, or playing Angry Birds.

It just doesn't make any logical sense to claim that babies born today are wired differently than their great-grandparents were when they were born. 

What are your thoughts?

Snowshoeing and the benefits of inefficiency

I vividly remember one morning in my Exercise Physiology class when we learned about cell metabolism – what happens on a molecular level to all of the energy in the body and how it moves the muscles. I was shocked to learn that our muscle cells are only 20% efficient. In other words, if we exercise for an hour and burn 600 calories, only 120 of those calories actually go towards making our muscles move. The other 480 calories are lost, usually in the form of heat. Imagine how much training an olympic athlete goes through to shave tenths of a second off his sprint time, or how careful we have to be when dieting to balance our caloric intake versus expenditure. And only 1/5 of it matters!

I still recall how easily my mind wandered while the lecture continued: if someone could come up with a way to enable the cells to even use just 10% more of that energy, they would become rich! They could rule the world! The possibilities would be beyond imagination. No more heat stroke, sprinters breaking records with ease, decreased need for consumption of food, allowing for better distribution to third world countries. It could change the world!

Today I finally had the opportunity to use my new snowshoes which I got on sale from Backcountry's Outlet (which happens to be located in West Valley City, UT). I gave a couple of teenaged boarders a lift to Brighton Ski Resort, then stopped at Mineral Fork Trail on the way back down. The snow was pretty well packed, but still deep. I went a couple of miles up the trail, took a detour to blaze a trail of my own, and came to a gorgeous meadow with fresh snow. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing that soft white blanket over rolling knolls and getting to decide whether to disrupt that beautiful chaos. The only marks in the snow to be seen were two sets of deer tracks who must have passed through the day before, if not earlier in the day. The mountains were majestic and the silence rejuvenating.

While hiking in the freezing temperature with nothing but a thermal top and fleece sweater, I became very aware of how much heat my body was generating. If I went too slow I would get very cold, but too fast and my body would begin to compensate for the heat by sweating, which can be dangerous especially when the sun is about to set. It brought to mind that physiology lecture and I realized, 20% efficiency isn't always a bad thing! In the winter, having nearly 80% of your body's energy turn into excess heat is actually a life saver. If my body were any more efficient, I would have frozen to death just moments after getting out of my car.

I threw a handful of trail mix into my mouth and continued trudging happily through the snow in awe of the efficiency – and lack thereof – in the evolutionary process. I'm glad nature isn't the obsessive perfectionist that many of us inadvertently become in our busy lives.

Uncle George's Emerald City Mashup

I was reminded tonight of a broadcast by my late uncle George, a.k.a. Dr. Cosmo, in which he masterfully mashed up the Jackson 5 with some new age funkiness. I was really taken aback when I first heard it and thought I'd share it with you.

Day of Thanks

I know I might be a day late, but it took a little longer for me to figure out what I'm thankful for this year. Because my family we're all going separate ways, I decided to take this Thanksgiving weekend and try to fit in one last camping trip. I planned on going to Zion National Park, and camped just outside the park last night, but this morning I wasn't excited to go on any hikes there, as I've already done nearly all of them. I realized that the Grand Canyon was only a couple of hours away and in newfound spontaneity decided to make the trip.

I haven't been to the Grand Canyon since I was probably about 12 years old. I remember seeing little children running around the edges of the precipice and being afraid they were going to fall. That same acrophobia presented itself years later while visiting Arches national Park. But in recent years I've overcome that fear in a large part. This evening, I climbed out on the jutting rock looking out over the vast canyon below me. I wasn't being reckless, there was plenty of a safe distance between me and the wedge. But as I sat watching the sunset over the Grand Canyon, I realize I had made a lot of improvements in my life. I am more content with who I am, more willing to go with the flow, and better able to deal with the stresses of day today life.

And so today, I am grateful for the ability to change and to grow. I'm grateful to have the freedom to spend a weekend on an adventure. And lastly, I'm thankful for Mother Nature, and that the human race has not altogether killed her just yet.