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July 14, 2007
July 11, 2007
Terminally Ugly
Condé Nast Portfolio reports this week on the venerable Bloomberg Terminal Design
"...people who rely on Bloomberg’s data terminals have to deal with an interface that’s a throwback to MS-DOS."
However, Bruce Nussbaum at BusinessWeek named the Antenna Designed terminal one of the Best Product Designs back in 2004, quoting:
"It has a dual-screen display plus a keyboard with a fingerprint scanner for access to proprietary analytic software, customized keys and speakers, and a microphone for 'squawking.'"
Not much commentary on the application interface screens themselves, other than the terminal is a "dual-screen", however most traders these days have 3 or 4-screen (or more) setups.
"...company executives see the Bloomberg terminal’s unique presentation as a status symbol and a selling point."
“We have to be religiously consistent” to satisfy users who become attached to terminal’s look and feel, says Bloomberg chief executive Lex Fenwick. “You can see a Bloomberg from a mile away.”
This is true. You do need to tread carefully when fiddling with interfaces that customers have made part of their routines. Nobody wants a "who moved my cheese?" incident, yet if you want to attract new mice to your mousetrap, you need to continually innovate.
Is there potential here for a new player in the terminal game with an eye for better interface design?
"The competition—terminals from Thomson and Reuters (which Thomson just agreed to buy)—isn’t any prettier to look at. So Bloomberg isn’t looking to do a major overhaul of its terminals’ graphic design anytime soon."
Three top design firms, IDEO, thehappycorp and Ziba Design tried their hand at redesigning the Bloomberg interface. IDEO's clean, white background approach is my pick.
July 06, 2007
Africa Through Orange-Colored Glasses?
"The real Africa needs increased trade from the West more than it needs more aid handouts."
What Bono doesn't say about Africa
"If you make Africans rich, they'll be less poor," said Idriss Mohammed, a financier who wants to raise a private equity fund for Sub-Saharan Africa. "Forget making poverty history. I want to make Africans rich."
Africans to Bono: 'For God's sake please stop!'
"Private capital is taking notice. Foreign direct investment in Africa was $32 billion in 2005 (the most recent year available), double the 2004 figure. While Africa still represents less than 2% of world trade, the continent is growing at a 6% clip. Just raising Africa's share of global trade a few percentage points would bring in billions more than any government-funded development aid program ever could. It would also free African governments from dependence on aid."
Investing in Africa
"Eliminating billions of dollars in federal subsidies to American cotton growers each year would reduce American cotton production and exports, raise world prices by about 10 percent and modestly improve the incomes of millions of poor cotton farmers in Africa, according to a new study by Oxfam, the aid group."
If U.S. cuts cotton subsidies, benefits in Africa
Don't buy Red, iPhones or bracelets, buy African!
Quick Menu Planning for Busy Foodies
How do I manage to have a different recipe almost every night, run my own business and have time to be a dad? Ah, a process of course!
1. Check the Food & Wine website for the recipes from this month's issue (its free, you don't need to be a subscriber). Look for the recipes that have a blue dot (fast). Many can be done in 30-45 minutes with minimal prep, or some can be made in advance. Bonus: many recipes have a suggested wine pairing. You don't have to buy/find exactly what they recommend, but you can easily pick up a similar style for under $10.
2. Print out recipes and post on fridge.
3. While printing out recipe, open Peapod (or other online grocery shopping service, if you have one) in another browser window or tab. Copy/paste the various ingredients you may need over to the Peapod search box to make your purchases. I always sort by Unit Price so I can snag the cheaper/bulk items first.
4. Bought more than you need? If you have unused ingredients after your recipe, say too much chicken or tuna, keep it frozen and head over to epicurious.com . Here you can search by main ingredient... and I also throw in the month, so "chicken July". Then you're getting recipes that are taking advantage of seasonal produce (and its another parameter to help narrow down all your choices). Then, filter by "Quick"... you should be able to find something you like within the first dozen results or so.
Now you won't have the problem of having ingredients and not knowing what to make, or having a recipe but no ingredients!
Is Your Wine at the Right Temperature?
What to Drink with What You Eat provides this simple rule from Veritas' Tim Kopec:
"Put your red wine in the refrigerator for 15 minutes before serving - and pull your white wine out of the refrigerator 15 minutes before serving"
This little trick has certainly delivered a noticeable taste difference in my wines... the whites won't be too cold to taste the flavors and the reds will show more of their fruits rather than just alcohol.
