Andrew Wirtanen is a usability specialist in Cary, NC More »

A Taste of Chicago

I visited Chicago for work (again) from March 3rd-8th. I didn’t have time to explore a lot of the city, but I did stop at some unique places this time around. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Billy Goat Tavern – Ah, the history. My colleague kept calling this place “The Stinky Goat”, which was pretty accurate. We went to the original location, which is hidden in the depths of Chicago below Michigan Ave. It was pretty cool trying to track it down, but it wasn’t too hard because of all the signs. According to history, a goat fell off a truck and wandered in the tavern. The owner, Billy Sianis, adopted the goat and then brought it to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series at Wrigley Field. Because of the goat’s odor, Sianis was kicked out of the park and supposedly placed a curse on the Cubs.I didn’t make it to Wrigley Field (which is nowhere near the Billy Goat Tavern by foot) on this trip, but I hope to someday.

• Ed Debevic’s – When I was on vacation in the Florida Keys, I watched a little bit of the Food Network and saw a special on Chicago. They mentioned Ed Debevic’s and showed how the waiters and waitresses would be rude to you. I thought it was hilarious and wrote down the name of the restaurant.My colleague and I didn’t get picked on that much… I got called a “nerd” when I called a waitresses buttons “flare” (as made famous by Office Space). The group of guys behind us weren’t so lucky. One got called four eyes and the other was called “an old Tom Seller” due to his mustache and curly hair. When they brought out a pitcher of water, the cups were face down in the pitcher! Pretty clever.

  It’s a 50s style restaurant and the waitstaff will take turns singing songs… sometimes they will dedicate songs to their table. On our night, one of the waiters dedicated a song to his table and then sang “The Lady is a Tramp”.

• Cloud Gate aka “The Bean” – Just finished in 2006, “The Bean” has quickly become one of the top symbols of Chicago. It is the centerpiece of Millennium Park, which has many impressive features including an ice rink and the very intriguing Crown Fountain. The Crown Fountain is a video sculpture of two different faces. There is a hole near the mouth of both faces that will spot water out in the summer.

  I find it hard to believe that “The Bean” is made of stainless steel welded together and highly polished on the outside. I now understand that it took a couple years to build. It’s very cool to walk around and underneath.

  Across the road, we wandered in the Chicago Cultural Center, which is home to two impressive domes. One is the largest TIffany Dome in the world and the other is a yellow-toned stained-glass dome.

We did try to go to the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), but it was cloudy so we decided against going up. Check out my full set of Chicago photos on Flickr.

Bill Gates on innovating to zero CO2 emissions

TED 2010 was held on February 9th-13th this year. To attend TED, you have to fill out an application and be invited for the privilege to pay and $6000 to spare (a tax-deductible donation, but a heavy one). Luckily for us normal people, all of the talks from the conference are posted online.

For the past two years, I’ve enjoyed watching Bill Gates. His keynote talks for Microsoft were always pretty boring, but his TED talks are informative and inspiring. Last year, he famously released mosquitoes into the audience. This year, he released fireflies (they didn’t quite leave the jar though). His speech was on why it’s important for us to innovate in energy production, whether you believe in climate change or not.

“If you gave me only one wish for the next 50 years… I can pick who’s president, I can pick a vaccine–which is something I love, or I could pick that this thing that’s half the cost with no CO2 gets invented, this is the wish I would pick. This is the one with the greatest impact.” – Bill Gates

[via TED.com]

Krispy Kreme Challenge Oh Ten

On Saturday, February 6th at 8:30am I was at the NC State Memorial Bell Tower at the starting line of the Krispy Kreme Challenge (KKC). An hour and a few donuts later, I crossed the finish line with my box of leftover donuts. I didn’t complete the Challenge as it was designed, but let’s face it: It’s crazy. After running the first two miles, a box of donuts was the last thing I wanted. I debated whether I should even grab one. I struggled to open the box and eat three donuts before giving up and running the final two miles.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge is perhaps one of the most unique things in Raleigh, and I plan on participating again next year. It was my first road race since I started running last summer (with the help of Couch-to-5k). I ran at a nice, casual pace (finishing at 1:01:28 according to the official results) and paused while looking for friends at the halfway point. Next year, I’m not going to look… and maybe I’ll eat more donuts at the halfway point. I just don’t know if it’s physically possible.

Check out my full set of photos from the KKC.

72-Hour Survival Kit

The Haiti Earthquake and this article on Make got me thinking again about emergency survival kits. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry much about earthquakes and hurricanes in Raleigh. But we do have the threat of tornadoes, and there was a touchdown in 1988 not far from where I live. It turns out that 72 hours is the magic number for being rescued after an impact.  Here’s a handy guide if you want to build your own kit (it’s very comprehensive).

There’s also a nice 72-hour kit you can buy from 4 Survival To Go for $99 (pictured). They’re donating 20% of online sales before February 5th for the entire months of January and February to Haiti. If you buy it, make sure to rotate out the Aqua Blox every five years and check the food.  4 Survival recommends you have one in the home, office, and car ($300 per person!). This does look like a very handy kit for the car though, since there’s no way I could carefully fit everything in a compact bag.

Experience Is The Product

Peter Merholz (Adaptive Path) posted on his blog this week that his slidecast “Experience Is The Product” hit 400,000 views. Peter gave the talk at dConstruct 2007 in Brighton, UK. The presentation argues for focusing on the experience rather than technology and features. It’s a great talk that uses examples of good user experience design that we still use today, three years later (e.g. Nintendo Wii, iPhone, iPod, Tivo, etc.).

By the way. Slideshare doesn’t give you valid XHTML for embedding, but I found this tutorial that shows you how to embed valid slidecasts.