Dan Roam's "The Back of the Napkin"

I can't draw. Really. I'm a competent interaction designer, but my graphic design skills are those of a plankton. I can't draw on the right side or the left side of my brain.

Yet, like everyone else in business and technology, I need to communicate. As so many studies -- and common sense -- show, we make decisions better (or, at least, faster) when there are pictures involved. I've written awkward stick figures and embarrassingly asymmetric circles on whiteboards and the backs of napkins and envelopes to make points. And now there's a book to support those of us who have to communicate visually but shouldn't be allowed to. Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin (Portfolio) is breezy in presentation but rigorous in approach. Essentially, it's a framework for understanding why presenting problems in visual form makes it easier to solve them and presenting ideas in visual form makes it easier to develop them and convince others that they're good ideas. Most important, it shows you how to show things, walking through some vivid examples and well-worn metaphors. Chances are you won't pick the same visual metaphors -- but you will think in terms of visual metaphors and that's what will stick.

I hope I've made the case for this book, although I realize I would have done it more effectively if I had drawn something.

Scratch conference

I've been teaching computer classes at the local primary school and have been making use of Scratch, an environment for kids that they control by programming sprites, sounds, and events. I'll post in the New Year about my experiences teaching, but wanted to get the word out about the Scratch conference in July next year. If you volunteer or are thinking of volunteering to work with kids and computers, you should definitely look at Scratch and give a thought to the conference.

A great performance and operations blog

Anybody interested in web performance & operations should read Todd Hoff's High Scalability blog.

When it becomes clear you must grow your website or die, most people have no idea where to start. It's not a skill you learn in school or pick up from a magazine article on a plane flight home. No, building scalable systems is a body of knowledge slowly built up over time from hard won experience and many failed battles. Hopefully this site will move you further and faster along the learning curve of success.

Some of my favorite posts include Scaling Twitter and Log Everything, All The Time.

Todd is doing a great job spreading knowledge and (hopefully) reducing common growing pains. Check out the site and please keep sharing your stories.

Travel Tips: FlightAware

In the course of my travels, I have discovered a few sites that are extremely helpful to get a smooth ride.

Airlines currently have an information advantage over the customers. They have all the data, you have none. Want to know how many seats are free? They know but they don't want to tell you. When is that flight really coming in? Here they usually know, but sometimes they have no idea either!

Useful sites help by leveling the information asymmetry, allowing you to be more efficient and demand the right things.

One that I find immensely valuable, if I am flying or picking someone up, is FlightAware. It tracks all aircraft that are flying, right now. Want to know where the flight is? Go look it up and within a few minutes accuracy, you will see that your friend's flight that was supposed to land at San Francisco in 30 minutes, is actually somewhere over Kansas.

I was stuck at San Diego airport, coming back from ETech. They announced that the incoming aircraft was 20 minutes late, and thus we would be 20 minutes late turning around. After a quick look at FlightAware, it was clear the incoming aircraft was still sitting on the ground at San Francisco. I walked up to the gate agent and asked him if it was really 20 minutes, he assured me it was. When I showed him the map of where the incoming aircraft was, he quickly apologised. He told me that was all the information the dispatchers had given him, and that they rarely get accurate data on delays. I could without any stress go and have a meal while I waited out the 75 minute delay.

They also have an beautiful visualisation of all flights over the US in a 24 hour window.

Verdien: Smart Power Management for Your Machine

It's common to leave computers on all the time. People want their machine to always be there for them. The problem is PCs consume a lot of power -- whether or not they are actually being used. Verdiem has developed SURVEYOR, a product that aims to help PCs be smart about power, save businesses money, and still keep PCs responsive.

SURVEYOR is installed on a business' PCs and develops a profile of the computer user. In time it manages that PCs power settings. It will power down during off hours, power up before an expected morning arrival, and hibernate during work-hour break periods (like lunch).

In an informative interview on Treehugger the founder, Kevin Klustner talks about the product:

What does your product do? It's smart, right?

It's smart. SURVEYOR works by intelligently placing PCs into lower power settings when not in use. SURVEYOR’s Adaptive SmartProfile (TM) analyzes the behavior of the user. This information is used to control the power settings, ensuring that networked PCs are in right power state (on, hibernate, standby, etc.) at the right time. This maximizes energy savings without interfering with end-user productivity. SURVEYOR also features reporting capabilities to quantify savings.

And how much can I save? I assume energy is the big savings but there may be others.

Verdiem helps save energy, but as we all know, energy is money, and it is getting more expensive all the time, particularly in developing countries. A typical PC consumes 600 kWh of electricity a year. We actually provide a money back guarantee that you will save at least 10 percent off your computing energy bill, but we find that SURVEYOR consistently reduces consumption by about a third. That translates into a 3-6% annual reduction in total electricity consumption. Additionally, organizations also reduce associated CO2, greenhouse gas emissions. It averages about $20 per PC, per year.

What is the payback period and return on investment (ROI)?

Our pricing starts at $25 per PC – a one time licensing cost. The payback period averages about 15-18 months or less, depending on the cost of energy. However, we have agreements in place with several US utilities which provide various rebates to organizations that buy and install the software. Companies that take advantage of these rebates will see a significantly faster payback. For example, Southern California Edison offers a $15/PC rebate on SURVEYOR through their Express Efficiency program. Obviously, if you take advantage of this offer, the payback period drops significantly.

The product sounds awesome. Unfortunately, they don't have Mac or Linux clients and there is also no way to get a personal copy on the site currently. If you would like to hear more about the power consumption of PCs Avi Geiger did an excellent Ignite talk on the subject.