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I was initially skeptical about The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. While a number of friends had recommended the book, I generally try to avoid preachy lifestyle books—especially the ones about food. I’m not interested in the politics of food and subscribe to the “if it tastes good, eat it” school of food theory. Then I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma…

The basic message of The Omnivore’s Dilemma is that we need to begin thinking more about the foods we eat—we have become far too removed from our meals as a society. Relatively new advances in technology have created a bounty of cheap and readily accessible food sources. The growth of food supply chains, agribusiness, and transportation has created this boon, but it has come at a huge cost to our natural resources and health. To demonstrate this, the author takes us through four meals – a fast food meal on side of the scale and a completed hunted and gathered meal on the other.

The most compelling (and disturbing) part of the book is the in-depth investigation of the industrial food chain. Pollan traces the creation of a McDonald’s dinner all the way back to the corn fields of Middle-America, where farmers grow massive crops of genetically-engineered corn, most of which is consumed by cattle or chickens inside industrial feed lots. In addition to corn, these animals are fed a number of antibiotics, hormones, and steroids that fatten them up faster and quicken their journey to the slaughterhouse. After being process and treated with more chemicals and preservatives, the meat is shipped across the country to fast food joints and readily consumed by millions of people every day.

Get the picture? By deconstructing the industrial food chain, Pollan gives us alarming insights into the true cost of our meals and the stress it puts on natural resources and the health or our nation.

Pollan also analyzes meals originating from “industrial organic” and sustainable farms. He also creates a meal that is made from food he hunted and gathered in his community.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is not a preachy or political book. The author is a true food lover and he takes care not to criticize the choices of others. The book informs and avoids sermonizing. Pollan’s simple process of meal deconstruction is incredibly compelling.

Related links:

• Michael Pollan’s website
• Omnivore’s Dilemma Wikipedia Entry

I was channel-surfing this weekend and ended up catching a good chunk of the film Startup.com. I remember seeing it in the theaters back in 2001. Its release seemed perfectly timed with the bursting of 90′s Internet bubble.

The documentary follows the rise and fall of Govworks.com, a quintessential VC-funded start-up. The film follows the company’s growth from idea (there’s an amazing sequence when the founders ponder for hours about what to name the company…) to getting funded to an eventual flat-lining.

Parts of the movie are cringe-worthy—specifically the scenes of the CEO forecasting how rich he’s going to get, and a number of very dot-com era events like awkward company retreats and team cheers. Ouch…it brings you back.

Startup.com is definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it. Seven years wasn’t really that long ago, and many of the stumbles and mistakes made by the Govworks.com team can still be learned from.

NewScientistTech magazine is reporting that a group of UCLA researchers have developed a WiFi music polling system that could one day replace live DJs.

The device scrubs the music files from wireless music devices and uses smart technology to create ordered playlists that match the preferences of party-goers. Partygoers are triangulated by their wireless system and when they leave the room (or party) their music is removed from the list.

There’s been an interesting thread going on at the IxDA discussion boards that gets down to a critical issue in the interaction design field: is investing in design really worth the investment by product manufactures?

The post, entitled “Why Do Crappy Interfaces Sell?“, raises some important issues. Do end users really care about great design? Is amazing user experience really worth the investment required by product developers and manufacturers?

I think the answer is a resounding “no”. Outside of our small community of designers there are very few people who would consider paying a premium for an above-average user interface.

Take for example probably the most purchased consumer product: the mobile phone. The vast majority of phones have hideous UIs—many are close to unusable. Still, the vast majority of users barely take the user interface into consideration when buying a phone. I wonder if the normal buyer would pay a premium for a better UI…

I was recently profiled at Communication Arts as part of their “Insights” feature. Check out the article. I basically ramble about why I love social bookmarking, Edward Tufte, 80s music and rotisserie ovens (set it and forget it). It’s great to get a little bit of press…although I hope I don’t seem like too much of a dork!

Communication Arts recently went through a redesign and rolled Design Interact into the main site. The new site looks great and is improved by the integration of their interactive stuff.

Check out Boston Food & Whine, a relatively new blog about the Boston dining scene. There are a number of reviews. The reviews are all scheduled according to the author’s date nights or GNOs (Girls Nights Out). The tone of the reviews is decidedly “non-foodie” – always a good thing.

I think we’ve all come to automatically dismiss claims made on infomercials. No those pancake puffs probably don’t taste as good as look, or will the Navy Seal pushup gadget get you ripped. However, I can attest that one infomercialized product—the Bose Noise Cancelling headphones indeed lives up to their claims.

I bought a pair of the QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones to help me through a number of cross-country trips I have planned. I’ve never been able to get comfortable on an airplane, and can never seem to relax. The constant engine and passenger noise gets to me after awhile and tends to accentuate my fidgetiness. I couple of frequent travelers I know swear by the noise cancelling headphones, so I decided to give it a try.

The Bose headphones are not cheap. The latest generate go for well over $300.00. While there are cheaper knock-offs available, I was warned that Bose sells the only “real deal” when it comes to noise cancelling technology. The headphones come with a nifty case and a handful of jacks and cords. The QuietComfort 3 comes with a rechargeable battery (previous models required battery replacement) which, according to the sales guy, lasts up to eight hours. My headphones made it through a six-hour flight without problem.

So in practice…they really work. They cancelled out the majority of underlying airplane engine noise. While they don’t filter out all sounds, even the loud noises are subdued and muffled. Sound quality from my iPod was great, although I did think it could be better; noise cancellation is the real value of this product – not the audio quality. I’ve also used them on the MBTA and noticed that even filter out a good portion of the subway noise. Too bad Bose doesn’t make a smell canceller.

Another more subtle element of these headphones is that they send out a strong signal that you do not want to be disturbed. This is nice if you’re not a fan of airline chit-chat. While they didn’t completely filter out the grad student behind me from describing his thesis in painful detail, I can safely say that the headphones muted him enough so that it didn’t bug me.

I highly recommend picking up a pair if you’re a frequent traveler who, like me, has difficulty relaxing on long flights. The price is on the high side but if you think about in terms of increased airline productivity, it could be a good investment. Believe the infomercial hype. Now about the Kinoki Detox foot pads…

My company, RDVO, is looking to hire a number of new people in our digital strategy and research group. This is the team I lead and we work with clients to develop the underlying strategy and direction for projects ranging for digital products, web applications, and large-scale websites. We do a lot of cutting-edge work and our strategy folks are really on the front-lines.

Responsibilities will include:

• Work closely with the client to intimately understand user needs and become the advocate for those needs throughout the development lifecycle.
  
• Conduct or lead contextual and usability research to gather user requirements, analyze/recommend experience design, and oversee execution of those requirements.
  
• Lead project research initiatives, gathering detailed user, competitor, and industry research.
  
• Create and maintain all information architecture deliverables (which may include any of the following: comparative and competitive research, content audit, persona creation / user and audience profiles, user scenarios, use cases, business process and task flow diagrams, information hierarchy and relationships / site map, classification schemes, detailed wire frames and interaction flows, UI specification, copy direction, and prototyping mock-ups).
  
• Collaborate with art director and tech lead on information design solutions and prototypes.
  

The full job description and information on how to apply is available at rdvo.com.

CNN’s election coverage is boasting some cool new technologies—specifically the new “Magic Wall”, an interactive Touch-screen provided on Jeff Han’s Perceptive Pixel multi-touch technology. According to this article from Broadcast Engineering, Perceptive Pixel developers created customized software for use during the election coverage.

CNN reporters have been using the Magic Wall to toggle between screen views and zoom-in on data sets. During the Iowa coverage, they also had a slick “delegate-sorting” interface. Last night, one reporter used the multi-touch resizing to show some campaign picture. Overall…very cool stuff and, like any design geek, I can’t wait to get my hands on one those (although I hear they go for a cool $100,000.00).

As they cool as the screens are, watching a reporter interact with them feels broken – there’s an unevenness watching them work with the device that doesn’t translate well to TV coverage. The screens also create some challenging body positioning issues. Reporters have to face away from the camera to interact with screens, creating some choppy communications. This is similar to some of the problems people have when presenting projected PowerPoint presentations.

All in all, it’s great to see nifty new technologies like multi-touch interfaces being put to practical use, but there are some clear kinks that need to be worked out…

Treonauts.com is showing some first images of the Treo 800 were seen at CES—reportedly as part of Bill Gates’ keynote address. While the image is grainy and stretched, it looks much slimmer than by 750. The touchscreen and keyboard look about the same size.

The form factor looks more like the Centro than some of the other new Treo product designs that have been showing up around the web. I liked the design of the Centro as a great entry-level smartphone.

The 800 is rumored to have a number of major advancements, including WiFi.