Human Computers

In The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Alan Cooper talks about the need to make computers more like people. This is, in general, a difficult and complex problem. I believe, however, that if a computer could gauge your openness to interruption, it could make specific changes to its behavior in ways that would mirror the response of a person.

For example, notification of available upgrades should be postponed until the user is open to distraction, as should requests for configuration, and even the assigning of file names. Programs are getting better about not interrupting us, but sometimes this means that important tasks are postponed indefinitely. If the computer were more human, it might ask us to deal with administrative details at scheduled times, or when we seem to have a few minutes free, the same way a co-worker or secretary might.

Probably the biggest interruption on the computer is instant messaging. A lot of people have talked about the need for a central console for all computer-based communication, so I'll just add a quick point. IM programs should show you who's messaging and (approximately) what they want without popping up a dialog box or flashing anything. This would allow you to finish your current thought in the same way as when a person walks up and waits for you to give him your attention.

The tought part is figuring out your current tolerance for interruption. Failing a good algorithm, a postonement ability should be added to more interactions. Right now, we're forced to deal with interruptions on the computer because we can't put them off. A person can always come back later, but we don't have the option to wait to name files, or to be reminded later about an email we need to answer. How about a word processor that always saves our documents and lets us name them when we want (or when we create them)? Or an email program that lets us ask it to resend us an email in an hour, or at the end of the day? Natural language understanding may be a long way off, but there are little things than could make computers more human now.

Lessons from the Bourgeois Pig

Beware all green-colored mint chocolate chip ice cream. Too often, the color is a substitute for a real mint flavor. Breyers's is really the only choice.

Also, never serve coffee in a glass. It cools too quickly, and looks ugly besides.

A Brief Lesson in Chicago Demographics

I found these stickers with the office supplies at work.

I'm assuming the third line is Polish.

On The El

Have you ever had a stranger, standing across from you on the train, look up as you were getting off and say “Your name's Dave, isn't it”? Technically, he wasn't a stranger, as he once sold me a print at the Gallery 37 store downtown, but that was months ago. I'm amazed he remembered me. Maybe it was the beard. Still, he even knew what I bought.

It was the sort of thing that makes me question my work-induced inclinations towards solitude and taciturnity. When it's so easy to bring a smile to someone's face, how can we not?

Remembrance of Things Edible

Every book about food needs a Proust number – that is, the number of pages it manages before referring to his Madeleines. Letters to a Young Chef, which I just finished, gets an 18. Maida Heatter holds off until page 206 in her Book of Great Desserts, where she provides a recipe for the cookie.

My brother claims this particular Proustian reference proliferates because it occurs very early in Remembrance of Things Past. I've never read the book, but a flip through my brother's copy reveals that the madeleines (“petites madeleines” in this translation) appear on page 48, 30 pages later than Boulud's mention of them, and 10 more than that pages past my bookmark. I hope there are more food memories later on, so that my future cookbook can include a rarer allusion.