I think this video debuted almost a year ago now, but I only saw it recently, and I had some thoughts, so I figured, why let a thing like being a year behind the times stop me?
Anyway, the video is called Epic, and it discusses the future technology track, with a focus on Google, Microsoft, and the impact of technology on news media in this country. I think it’s a really interesting take on where this country is going in terms of its technology.
Earlier this week, my friend Jessica asked me if CMU was doing anything for World Usability Day. “What’s World Usability Day?” I asked in reply. In retrospect, it seems pretty lame that an HCI practitioner at one of the top notch HCI schools is unaware that a day has been established to celebrate his profession.
But maybe not. If you check out the World Usability Day website, there is a handy map of activities going on around the world to celebrate usability. Notice the glaring lack of activity in California and Georgia. Nothing’s going on at Berkeley, Stanford, Georgia Tech, or CMU - schools I considered to be my top choices back when I was applying. So what’s going on?
You may recall an earlier post mentioning Macromedia’s Free Upgrade policy for the Studio 8 series of products. It worked perfectly - for the price of Flash 8, I got everything from Studio 8 plus Freehand MX, which is no longer being distributed. Nice deal! You can do it too if you find a copy of Studio MX 2004 and submit an upgrade by November 14th.
Be careful if you have a Mac, though. The Flash 8 installer (what I was interested in from the beginning) was wonky - the install had errors and didn’t complete. So I email Macromedia, and they give me access to another installer on their server. Again, same problem - it doesn’t work, and I email Macromedia. Their response:
If this cannot be unpacked using the machine you currently have, you may try to install this on another machine.
Now, as someone who recently rectified a broken computer by getting a new one, I’m a little miffed that Macromedia’s grand solution was to just install on another computer. If I was rich enough to have another computer to install it on, do you think I’d need a free upgrade?
