Dave Pell has an excellently written, if slightly melodramatic, post on forgetting telephone numbers, My Head is in the Clouds:

“…My head was once filled with bits and pieces of information like phone numbers, to-do lists, and addresses. I’ve ceded that responsibility to technology. Last summer, I forgot my friend Norman’s birthday. We’ve known each other since elementary school.

…Now, after a few years of this, I realize that when I look up from the screen I know almost nothing. And maybe that would be fine if the absent phone numbers and upcoming dates were freeing space for deeper and more introspective thought.”

While the picture he paints is engaging and on the face of it convincing, he needs to get off the hyperbole horse. Seriously, think about it, how many phone numbers, addresses, birthdates, etc. did you use to remember?

Personally, I never had more than 3-5 phone numbers memorized at a time, but then again why would I have to? Pre-cellphone, the only place I’d normally make calls is from home where I had my address book; if I was out and about usually the only number I ever called was home. It’s only since the invention of the cellphone, where every single person we know has a phone number and we call people all the time from anywhere, that we need to have phone numbers with us at all times.

These days the only addresses I remember fully are my work and my home, but this really isn’t any different than before. I still manage to get to places just like I always have without an address, by remembering the street and knowing what their house looks like.

As to birthday’s, well I never had much of a head for dates so I never remembered more than my family’s birthdays and if I was lucky the person I was dating. Pell lamented forgetting his friend Norman’s birthday who he’s known since elementary school. He blames this on the fact that he’s grown used to being reminded of birthdays via facebook/twitter/etc and Norman isn’t as active online. But is this really the reason? When you are a kid, birthdays are huge deals, but when you get older they tend to pass on by. They become less important, with less celebration, and thus less reason to remember them.

Pell speaks of freeing up space like the brain is a computer with a limited hard drive, but this is not how memory works. The fact that we no longer remember phone numbers is not because technology has made our brains lazy—it’s because we don’t physically dial numbers any more. There is no data being off loaded; we are not freeing up storage. It’s just not something we do and without doing there is no memory. If Pell wanted to, he could start remembering phone numbers again by dialing it using the key pad. Just like he could reinforce the memory of Norman’s birthday by planning a birthday party for him next year.

Rob Foster’s recent post /the/path/of/most/resistance is a brilliant write up on the inherent lacking of the visual file system. as he says:

…for the average person, the file system is so complex that everything outside of the desktop and the documents folder appears to be a vast labyrinth which most likely hides booby traps and minotaurs.

I think this is even true for many advanced users—even if they refuse to admit it. Even I have come to realize the more I have begun to use my iPhone, the more I see that I don’t need a file system for most of my tasks. I consider myself an experienced user and even I would love for the file system on my main computer to if not disappear at least further hide itself. Do I need to always have the system folder visible? No. Nor do I really need to see the applications folder as long as I can search and see a list. Actually come to think of it nor do I need the music folder or photos folder. A dedicated music/photo app does a better job sorting those file types then the I would manually creating folders.

The last point says it best. The visual file system is a generalist tool (like the CLI). We’ve moved away from the concept of sitting down to use a computer; instead now, we are sitting down to do a specific task: i.e., write a report, listen to music, post a tweet, check out facebook, watch a show, build a website, etc. The computer itself needs to get out of the stinking way so we can just do what we sit down to do. Having a global visual file system is just more clutter and doesn’t really help any of those tasks—not even webdev.

Yes you heard me: I do not need access to my computer’s file system to do web development. All I need is access to the project’s files on the server and a local store of the same, both of which I really only need to see when I’m in my IDE. I don’t really need to even know where this local store is as long as I can just click on the name of the project and it loads (like Coda and other IDEs). The local store could for all intents just be archive that opens when I open my IDE. Well there is the photoshop graphic editor issue but that could be easily solved by having a list of web projects show up when I “save to web.” You know how much time I’d save if I could just select from a project list whenever I “save to web” rather than have to dig around in my folders for where ever the images folder is for a certain website?

Speaking of, Panic please make an iPad version of Coda!

p.s. this brings to mind one of my gripes about Windows—fonts. To install fonts on OS X you click on it and then click install font. On Windows, even the new Windows 7, you have to copy it in the font folder (usually C:\Windows\Fonts), which is a granted not too hard but it’s still annoying to have to manually dig into the system folder to install a font.

Clued in by Daring Fireball about a recent NYTimes article on the Game changing nature of the iPhone App Store. There are a number of good quotes in the article, but the one Gruber pulled was the one that made me think:

“Our goal is very simple: We want to have the best platform for applications that there has ever been on any product,” notes Mr. Schiller, the marketing executive. “We know we’re not perfect, but we know we’re better than anything else that has been and we want to keep improving it.”

He’s right too. Of course the app store has issues—often of the highly annoying and stupid kind. However, it has succeeded to do something remarkable. In the article, Craig Moffett says “The iPhone will be remembered as the first true handheld computer.” However, he’s missing half the story:

The iPhone app store is amazing not because of all the things it allows a phone to do—just ask any iPhone hater and they’ll name a number of features that it’s missing. What is truly remarkable about the app store is how it’s normalized the process of searching for, finding, purchasing, installing, and even upgrading applications.

In the world of computers, it’s only the geek and the early adopter who even thinks about new software. Whereas, the average user seldom installs any new software. Your normal user will often use what’s already installed or what IT (or their son/daughter) installs for them, and they are also often terrified of upgrading anything. The iPhone app store has changed the all this. This is why the app store is a game changer. Suddenly the audience for shiny new applications isn’t just the computer know-it-all, it’s anyone.

Pillow aftermath by Gretchen Robinette

A recent article in the SF Chronicle indicated that the recent 2009 Valentines Day Pillow Fight incurred at least $19,000 in city cleanup costs. As a result, the city is looking into cracking down on this and other related messy events like the Zombie Mob which leaves a trail of fake blood and the Pie Fight with it’s splattering of shaving cream pies. Of course, fake blood and shaving cream is much easier to just hose away than feathers.

As many of you know, I’ve been involved in a number of these events, either as a UN CCH Observer at the Pillow Fight or one of the hoards of undead at Zombie Mob. I admittedly have had a bargeload of fun at these events and left my quota of blood behind upon the sidewalks; while I spilt no feathers myself as a UN Observer, we did little to stem the flow. I am also a firm believer in Leave No Trace at Burning Man, Balsa Man, and whenever I go camping; unlike most, I even pick up after myself at movie theaters. Why then do I participate in events that leaves such a wreck in it’s wake? This is a good question‚ one that I was already beginning to ask myself before reading the article in the Chronicle.

Rowdy analogues around the world

While contemplating the nature of these events it is important to realize that these large entertaining mob events have analogues in the rest of the world: the chaotic stampedes of Pamplona Spain’s Running of the Bulls, the actual bloodletting during the Shi’a celebration of Ashura, the rowdy Haxley Hood game in England, and the citric squashing of the Battle of the Oranges in Italy. The Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight may not have the history behind it that these events have, but it is arguably similar in both style and messy aftermath. Also, it seems fitting that as Americans our large mob events would have no connection with history.

Pie Fight Aftermath by Steve Rhodes

That said, Pillow Fight did leave quite a pricy sludge of feathers behind which is hard to just shrug off. As stated so eloquently by NinaVizz (aka Nina Alter), all this highlights “why the Leave No Trace ethos in anarchist art making is so fundamental.”

The Pillow Fight, Zombie Mob, et al. have no meaningful historical connection and thus are essentially anarchistic celebratory expressions of the community. While the Italian government may shake it’s head when cleaning up the smashed citrus covering it’s streets after the Battle of the Oranges, the celebration resonates with a historical toppling of the tyrant Raineri di Biandrate (and the subsequent tyrant Marquis Gugliemo of Monferrato). Because of this deep connection with the past, the Battle of the Oranges can be celebrated by all and the resultant cleanup can be shouldered by all. Whereas the Pillow Fight is essentially an event enjoyed by but a few and shouldered by everyone else in the city with a number of pissed off citizens.

The responsibility of participation

Whether you want to call them flash mobs, pranks, or celebrations, I think there is a need in society for these sorts of events. By their very nature these events guarantee that at least some artistic flotsam and jetsam is left behind. However, I believe those who participate should work to make the event fun for all ‚Äî including those responsible for cleaning up. In the very least, we should reduce the impact it has on our city’s workers and others.

In this regard, the Obama/Bush street sign change was a perfect execution as the signs were easy to remove and by many accounts the city workers got a laugh out of the whole thing. I doubt this was true for those cleaning up the sopping feathery sludge left behind after Valentine’s Day, and personally I don’t see any way for the chaos of Pillow Fight to be contained or diminished, so I will no longer be participating in it. As for other events, like much of life, I will consider my level and style of participation on a case by case basis.