Choosing Smarter

Why the new location-based reminders in iPhone iOS 5 are killing me slowly

The only feature of my new iPhone 4S that I was actually excited about was location-based reminders. Basically, the ability to tell the phone to do things like, “Next time I’m at the hardware store, remind me to pick up furnace filters” or “Next time I leave the house, remind me to check that I have my passport with me.”  As someone with a sieve-live memory for these kinds of things, this is life-changing, and I’ve been waiting for phones that do this for at least 10 years.

And then Apple implemented it inexplicably poorly. Like, intern-bad.

The most egregious, bizarre problem is that, in order to attach a reminder to a location, that location has to be someone’s address in the phone’s Contacts app. So, if I want to create a reminder to pick up milk at the 7-11 on my way back home from the movie theater, I have to enter the 7-11 and its address into the phone's main contact list –even if I don’t expect to ever visit it again. Not only is this a clunky, multi-step process that involves switching between the Reminders app and the Contacts app unnecessarily, but I end up with a contact list that’s cluttered with single-use contacts that were added solely so that I could get a one-time reminder for those locations at some point in the past.

Obvious solution A: In the Reminders app, when specifying a location, add a “Select on map” option.

Obvious solution B: In the Reminders app, enable me to directly type in an address when specifying a location (which, believe it or not, the current Reminders app doesn’t allow), then show me the address I typed in on a map (to verify that the Maps app was able to find it).

Obvious solution C: In the Maps app, when I tap-hold a location on the map (which causes a “pin” to be dropped at that location), give me the option of attaching a reminder to that location.

The number-two problem is that there’s no way to bookmark commonly-used locations, like my local grocery store. I have to create an entry for these in my contact list, and then find and select them from my (long) list of contacts every time I want to attach a reminder to these super-common locations.

Obvious solution A: Use locations that I’ve bookmarked in the Maps app as bookmarked locations in the Reminders app.

Obvious solution B: When selecting a location in the Reminders app, show me the last 10 locations I selected, and allow me to select from that list (or enter a new location).

Obvious solution C: In the Reminders app, give me an “Add frequently-visited location” option, that allows me to select a location in the Maps app / enter an address / select an address from the Contacts app, and add it to the list of commonly-used locations.

(I actually found a work-around for this, but it’s uber-ugly.)

Other BASIC usability problems:

• I have to click two or more “Done” buttons to actually add a reminder (so clicking the first “Done” button doesn’t mean you’re actually done).
• When creating a new reminder, I first have to first name it and add it to the Reminders list, then go back and re-select it to edit it in order to add basic info like time/date or location. One step that’s been inexplicably split into two.
• Even creating simple date-based reminders requires too many taps. I can think of a dozen ways to remove taps from the process without sacrificing intuitiveness.

The whole thing feels like it was designed by an inexperienced UX designer, and Googling  for solutions showed that these gripes are shared by many. Especially from a company like Apple, this kind of amateurish, clunky UI is surprising and disappointing.

But I’m still using it.

But please fix it.

Extracting a number from a string in PHP

Simple right? I needed to extract numbers from strings such as “12 L per 100 km”, “on-sale price: USD$299.99”, “2000 sq. ft.”, etc. PHP’s built-in FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT, however, was completely useless, since it just blindly filters out any character that isn’t a digit, decimal, or sign:

• “12 L per 100 k.m.” returns “12100..”,
• “on-sale price: USD$299.99” returns “-299.99”
• “2000 sq. ft.” returns “2000..”.
• Useless.

The PHP function below extracts numbers from strings far more reliably, with a few caveats:

• Only extracts the first number found in a string.
• Doesn’t support scientific notation (numbers with "e" or "E" in them).
• Doesn’t support French number formatting (thousands/millions/etc. separated by spaces, decimal point represented by a comma).

If anyone feels like remedying these shortcomings (or has any comments whatsoever about this function), please leave a comment.

P.S. Since diving back into coding about 6 weeks ago, I’ve been astonished at how quickly I’ve managed to get up to speed. The incredible smoothness of my learning curve is due ENTIRELY to hundreds of generous developers who’ve posted videos, tutorials and their own code on the net, solely so that others can learn from and use it. As a small contribution back to the community that has helped me so much, I humbly offer the PHP function below, for any and all to use.

 

<?php

// This function extracts a number from a string.
// It takes a single string as a parameter, and returns either a number with sign (+/-) (if found in input string) or NULL (no number found in string).
//
// Known limitations:
// * Does not support French number formatting (spaces instead of commas, decimal point represented by a comma).
// * Only extracts the first number found in a string.
// * Does not support scientific notation (numbers with "e" or "E" in them).

function extractNumber($string)
{
    // Return NULL if input string is NULL:
    if (!$string) {
        return NULL;
    }
   
    // Break input string into an array of single characters:
    $chars = str_split($string);
   
    // Set up some arrays for later use:
    $all_num_chars = array(    "-",
                            "+",
                            ".",
                            "0",
                            "1",
                            "2",
                            "3",
                            "4",
                            "5",
                            "6",
                            "7",
                            "8",
                            "9");
                       
    $digits_and_decimal = array(".",
                                "0",
                                "1",
                                "2",
                                "3",
                                "4",
                                "5",
                                "6",
                                "7",
                                "8",
                                "9");
                           
    $just_digits = array(    "0",
                            "1",
                            "2",
                            "3",
                            "4",
                            "5",
                            "6",
                            "7",
                            "8",
                            "9");
   
    foreach ($chars as $key => $char) {
       
        if ($char == ",") {
           
            // If a comma is found before a number has been encountered in the input string, skip it and iterate to next char.
            if (!$number) {
                continue;               
            }
           
            // If a comma is found, make sure that it's preceded by a digit, followed by 3 digits and that the 4th digit is not a number, and that the comma is not found after a decimal:
            if (in_array($chars[$key-1], $just_digits)
            && in_array($chars[$key+1], $just_digits)
            && in_array($chars[$key+2], $just_digits)
            && in_array($chars[$key+3], $just_digits)
            && !in_array($chars[$key+4], $just_digits)
            && !$decimal_found) {
               
                continue; // $char is a "legit comma" and should be skipped, and the main loop should iterate to the next char.
               
            } else { // $char is a "rogue comma" and the number found up to the rogue comma is returned:
                return $number;
            }
           
        }
       
        if ($number && !in_array($char, $all_num_chars)) { // If a $number has been started and $char is a non-numerical char, return $number:
            return $number;
        }
       
        if (!$number && !in_array($char, $all_num_chars)) { // If a $number has not been started and $char is a non-numerical char, continue (iterate to next char):
            continue;
        }
           
        if (in_array($char, $just_digits)) { // $char is a digit, and should be appended to $number.               
            $number .= $char;
            continue;
        }
       
        if ($char == ".") {
           
            if ($decimal_found) { // $char is a "rogue decimal" and the number up to the rogue decimal is returned:
                return $number;
            }
           
            if (!in_array($chars[$key+1], $just_digits)) { // If the char following the decimal is not a number, return $number.
                return $number;
            }
           
            // $char is a "legit decimal" and should be appended to $number.
            $number .= $char;
            $decimal_found = true;
            continue;
           
           
        } else { // $char is a sign (+ or -):
           
            if (!$number && in_array($chars[$key + 1], $digits_and_decimal)) { // Sign occurs at beginning of number and should be added to $number.
               
                $number .= $char;
                continue;
               
            }
           
            if (!$number && !in_array($chars[$key + 1], $digits_and_decimal)) { // Sign occurs before the beginning of a number and should be ignored.
               
                continue;
               
            }
           
            if ($number) { // Sign occurs in the middle of a number. Number before the sign is returned.
           
                return $number;
               
            }
           
        }
       
    }
   
    return $number;
}

?>

Book review: "The End of Faith", by Sam Harris

This book is a mixed bag.

Harris makes some excellent arguments and insights, and brings to light many important facts about the World's major religions that all "non-believers" should be aware of. Unfortunately, however, he oscillates dizzyingly between truly incisive reasoning and scholarship, and vitriolic sarcasm and outright insults levied at religious followers.

Truly interesting and scary revelations, such as the fact that the Bible, Qur'an and most other books at the center of a major religion explicitly require the faithful to seek out non-believers and kill them is unsettling, to say the least. The fact that these books contain not one, but usually dozens of such edicts is eye-opening. Actually reciting every single such edict from the Qur'an, however, is a bit much, and constituted at least 8 minutes of my audiobook version. OK, I get it.

The basic theme of the book is that letting go of the need for proof in order to believe a proposition -religious or otherwise- is more dangerous than most non-religious people realize. That beliefs based on evidence must prevail over beliefs based on faith or we are all likely doomed, because faith-based beliefs are invariably mutually incompatible and require believers to destroy the "incompatibilities". Wow. Scary, interesting and well-documented. All religious people are, in so many words, irrational at best and insane at worst? That was unnecessary.

Most non-religious people are aware that virtually all religious texts contain some truly bizarre passages, and often internally contradictory ones, so normally this would make easy fodder for rational criticism. Harris, however, does a superlative job of elucidating just how truly bizarre and contradictory many of them are. Unfortunately, he then sarcastically and unnecessarily equates such beliefs with beliefs in unicorns and sea monsters. Why? The facts themselves are more than enough.

Harris makes some truly valuable points (though I don't agree with all the details, particularly with respect to US foreign policy). I just wish he had presented them with a little more detachment...

Still, read this book.

Book review: Superfreakonomics

In the introduction to Freakonomics (to which Superfreakonomics is a "sequel"), authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner basically apologize to the reader, because the book has no theme. No underlying message, or even moral. It consists of a collection of disjointed stories with nothing apparently in common, other than that they are all stories that resulted from applying economic analysis to non-economics data.

I thought there was, in fact, a very powerful theme in Freakonomics, and expected the introduction of Superfreakonomics to address it. But it didn't. In fact, the only reference they make to the "theme" that I thought was very clear and consistent throughout both books was in the subtitle of Freakonomics: "A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything".

To me, the books illustrate with jaw-dropping power that many of the "facts" that we encounter every day have surprisingly little basis in reality. That relatively little of the information we hear and read can be assumed to be completely true. Car seats make kids safer, right? Well, according to Levitt's analysis of 45,000 crash records, no. No-one knows for sure how much cheating there is in professional sports, right? Well, actually, you can answer this "unanswerable" question with almost complete certainty (again, through analysis of large samples of data).

The message that accepting "facts" as being complete certainties can get societies into a lot of trouble is a powerful message indeed, and a more useful "moral" than most novels provide. Ultimately, if people were even a little more uncertain about the facts that are presented to them by the news, advertising, etc., our society would be in much better shape.

So if, by some miracle of the Interwebz, one of the authors is reading this review, don't sell yourselves short. Your books have a brilliant theme, and a powerful message that is communicated with stunning persuasiveness. Sure, the wisdom you share is disguised as "entertaining stories", but hey, the bible was just a bunch of "entertaining stories" too... (no, I'm not saying Freakonomics is biblical -it just uses the same literary tricks to present its message...)

It's not perfect -there were certain cases where I could think of alternative ways to interpret the data they present- but these are minor imperfections in books that, I think, should be on every high school reading list.

Video - My TEDx Ottawa talk (now in HD!) (12 mins)

My TEDxOttawa talk from December 6, 2009 about how software could be much better at helping people make complex decisions. Agree? Disagree? Comments welcome below...

All of the amazing talks from that day are available here.

Why the Apple iPad will flop: it's unpocketable

The iPhone is successful because it's basically a computer. As far as computers go, though, it's a pretty crappy one. Can't play most modern video games. Can't run office suite software (i.e., the most popular kind of software in the world). Can't play Flash or online video from sources other than YouTube or iTunes. Can't can't can't... So why do people (like me) love it? One reason, and one reason only. It's a pocketable computer.

With the iPad, if I want to be able to use it whenever I need it, I would have to sacrifice the use one of my hands carrying it around for almost every waking hour. No-one is going to do that. People don't carry netbooks around with them 24/7, even though having access to a netbook 24/7 would be handy. It's just too much of a hassle to have something in your hand all the time.

People do carry their iPhone with them 24/7, though, because when not in use, you can stick an iPhone in your pocket or on a belt clip and it is, for all intents and purposes, gone. The iPhone is a success because it's a crappy computer that's there whenever you happen to need it (even when you're not expecting to need it). That's a killer combination. The iPad is a crappy computer that won't always be there when you need it. Dead in the water, baby.

While the iPad is smaller than most laptops and even netbooks, if I have to carry it in a backpack or briefcase, it's just as unpocketable as any other laptop or netbook. That makes it a netbook, regardless of what uncle Steve says.

So the question becomes, how does the iPad stack up against other netbooks and laptops (especially considering that you can get a pretty kickass laptop for $500 nowadays and carriers are giving away netbooks for free with service contracts). Lots of others have gone into depth on this, and my take is "not well". Fanboys keep pointing to the 140,000 iPhone apps that will make it useful, but, um, laptops support pretty much every app ever written (i.e., millions). The iPad has a browser that's comparable to a desktop browser, but even netbooks have a desktop browser.

Yes, the UI is wonderful (it really is), but not wonderful enough to compensate for all the other shortcomings (no support for desktop apps, poor connectivity options, tiny storage, un-interchangeable battery, etc.). I also believe that people will ultimately prefer a mouse. It's not as sexy, but it's faster because it takes less effort to move a mouse around a 2" square surface than to move your whole finger/hand/arm across a 9.5" area, and everyone is already used to using a mouse. Touch is more intuitive, but a mouse is faster.

The Newton wasn't pocketable either...

Why the Apple tablet will flop

It's not pocketable.

While the iPhone is often called "basically a computer", as far as computers go, it's a pretty crappy one. Can't play most modern video games. Can't run office suite software. Can't play Flash or Activex controls. Can't can't can't... So why do people (like me) love it? One reason, and only one reason. It's pocketable.

When not in use, you can stick an iPhone in your pocket or on a belt clip and it is, for all intents and purposes, gone. You have both hands free to do something else. You never have to consciously bring it with you -it's always there. Less danger of leaving it in a cab. Aside from that, it's crappier in every single respect to laptop with a 3G card. It's not even cheaper than a laptop.

While the Apple tablet will likely be smaller than most laptops, it won't be pocketable, which makes its size advantage almost irrelevant. If I have to carry it in a backpack or briefcase, it's just as unpocketable as any other laptop.

So the question becomes, how will the Apple tablet stack up against other netbooks and laptops (especially considering that you can get a pretty kickass laptop for $500 nowadays and carriers are giving away netbooks for free with service contracts). Because of the Apple tablet's expected small size, I'm guessing it will have limited speed, limited memory, limited battery life, and limited connectivity options compared with most laptops (similar to the sacrifices Apple had to make in order to get the Macbook Air to fit in a velum envelope).

If it comes in at the expected $1000 price point, it had better be have some mind-bogglingly awesome other features...

Book Review: "Drive", by Daniel H. Pink

I got my first computer when I was 11. Because it had so little memory, I had to learn how to program in assembly in order to make it do what I wanted, which I was doing by 13. Two years later, I took "Introduction to Computer Science" in grade 10.

I almost failed the class (54%, if you must know).

When I was writing computer programs (well, OK, games) for myself, I would work feverishly for hours (well, OK, months) and produce work that was at least eight years ahead of my grade level without any instruction. When it was assigned to me as homework, I could barely bring myself to even look at it.

Three years following that, I almost failed Psychology 101, then developed a personal interest in it 20 years later. I've been inhaling dozens of books on the subject for last year, and probably have a Masters-level grasp of the field at this point. A grasp that will, at most, contribute only vaguely to how I make a living.

I have to be careful writing this review of Drive, because it advocates many ideas with which I agree. Emphatically. It could be the worse book ever written, but I will still love it.

The basic idea is that businesses and other social institutions have largely failed to recognize that people are motivated by more than just carrots (pay-for-performance, applause, etc.) and sticks (fines, reprimands, etc.). That people do their best work for intrinsic reasons, i.e., reasons that have nothing to do with external (i.e., carrot and stick) motivators. Reasons like achieving mastery of a discipline, or gaining a sense of purpose, for example.

The knee-jerk response by many managers, teachers, etc. is that this sounds nice, but is touchy-feely stuff that doesn't work in the real world. Pink then reviews 40 years of research evidence from an array of disciplines showing that carrot/stick environments consistently yield lower productivity and higher turnover, not to mention employee misery. He explains it far better than this in his entertaining, 18-minute TED talk. But buy the book -the extra detail and actionable lists are well worth it.

I've been following much of Dan's advice my entire life, so it won't change much about the way I work or play. My current company is based on an idea that I pursued out of purely personal interest, and the company itself has been ROWE from day one.

The difference is that, before reading Drive, I had no idea what ROWE was. Before reading Drive, I wasn't aware of the mountains of research that showed that being intrinsically-motivated is actually a mostly good thing. I've always believed that it was, but that belief was challenged almost daily for at least the first half of my life.

Like Dan, being intrinsically-motivated also meant that I did not respond well to extrinsic motivators. Like grades. Or money. (I do like applause, though...) Doing things that don't interest me or for which I don't see the purpose has always been a struggle, and has occasionally earned me assessments such as lazy, undisciplined, unfocused and even learning-delayed. Every report card I ever got had the same thing in the comment field: "Not working to potential."

I produced some pretty crappy work early in my working life because I didn't think that it was necessary, or that it was being done as efficiently as it could be. Thankfully, I discovered entrepreneurship and the work I've produced since then has been remarkably better. (In fact, come to think of it, Drive is the best explanation what makes entrepreneurs tick that I've yet come across. If you're an entrepreneur and someone asks you why the Hell you're doing what you're doing, give them this book.)

So I guess that's what I got from this book. A powerful affirmation that it's OK (and even desirable) to be intrinsically motivated, despite the bumps in the road that this can entail. (A more detailed discussion of the bumps would have been interesting, though... a "Being a Type I in a Type X world" chapter, maybe.)

The writing itself is the kind that's so good that you don't notice how good it is. Potentially dry, hard-to-follow concepts are laid out with seemingly effortless clarity, and often humour (Canadian, eh?). Having read a number of "more advanced" books about related topics, I still gained new insights because of the superior presentation of the same research.

Depending on whether you're a more intrinsically- or extrinsically-motivated person, you'll probably read this book from very different perspectives, but you'll almost certainly get a lot out of it.

Rogers is INCREASING their Home Phone rates?!?!? Are you kidding me?

Just got a letter from Rogers telling me that they are "continually investing in technology", and must increase my home phone monthly fee by $3/month, or about 10% more than what I was paying before.

Just off the top of my head, 4 reasons why this is ABSOLUTELY LUDICROUS:

1. The Rogers Home Phone service has NEVER been upgraded in any way that I've noticed. The features themselves (voicemail, caller ID, etc.) have all been around for 10+ years. Whatever capital costs they incurred to deploy it are almost certainly paid off by now. I'm guessing it's all gravy at this point.
2. The amount of network resources required to route low-bandwidth voice calls is MINISCULE. I would be surprised if it costs Rogers more than $2 or $3 /month to provide this service to me. Including connection fees to other phone networks.
3. Rogers is making a healthy profit, thankyouverymuch, and operates in one of the least competitive telecom markets in the World. Don't talk to me about "business necessities".
4. In a World where Skype can sell me minutes for either FREE or less than $0.03 (and dropping), are they TRYING to get me off of their phone service?

We only keep a landline because we have kids and want to make sure we always have at least one working way to call 9-1-1, but this is getting stupid. With all of the various associated fees, we're at about $40/month plus taxes for this "in case of emergency" service.

Time to shop around. Primus looks like it has some good deals right now...

XP to Windows 7 upgrade: Not smooth

Well, to be fair, frying XP and installing Windows 7 was incredibly easy and problem-free. Getting all of my files and data back up and running again... that was NOT.

All the apps that I use regularly (Thunderbird, iTunes (yuck), TweetDeck, etc.) all installed just fine, but what they DIDN'T like was the fact that default location of "My documents" is different in XP and Win7. Like a good little user, I had kept anything I would be upset about losing in My Documents, but my diligence didn't pay off this time.

Most apps didn't find their data automatically in the new My Documents path, and had to be explained where their data was. When it could be explained... Thunderbird 3.0 apparently refuses to even look outside of its own default email folder (as I discovered after a terror-filled 15 minutes of thinking that it was refusing to show me my email altogether). And iTunes still refuses to acknowledge the existence of my dozens of purchased Audible audiobooks (yes, I re-authorized Audible within iTunes -still no luck). I also lost hours of work that I had invested tagging faces in pictures in Picasa. My pics and videos are still there, but the face data is gone (yes, I used the Picasa backup/restore tool, which is supposed to grab the face data as well).

So now, some of my important files are outside of My Documents, which I hate, because I have to remember to include them anytime I do a backup. I've lost hours of work in Picasa, and I still can't see my Audible audiobooks in iTunes. This is where I'm at after 2 days of work and troubleshooting. And 20+ years of Windows experience. I suspect that all of this has to do with the new Documents folder structure in Win7.

So who do I shake my fist at? That's the most frustrating part of all. Microsoft didn't really fail me, and neither did the app developers (with the possible exception of Mozilla/Thunderbird). The ecosystem failed me.

Damn ecosystem.

I do like the Windows 7 interface though. Very nice.