Project: Rampture Calculator

January 5, 2013 – 10:58 pm

If you live in the westside of Los Angeles and drive along the 405 freeway daily, then you’ve probably experienced traffic jams caused by the Wilshire Boulevard construction. “Carmagedon” happened in 2010 when the 405 was closed for a weekend, and its sequel in 2011. The Rampture closures of the Wilshire Blvd exits on both sides of the freeway spans an entire year, hopefully ending this summer.

Rampture CalculatorAfter experiencing the first wrath of Rampture last June, I tried looking up the closure dates on Metro’s website and quickly got frustrated. After a few beers and some free time, I was inspired to write the Rampture Calculator, a web app that will save others the time in calculating how many days they won’t have freeway access to/from Wilshire Blvd. I found a PDF on Metro’s site and wrote some date calculations based on a person’s on/off ramp access. A user just needs to enter their on/off ramp access and exit (west or east Wilshire) and the web app will display how many days they won’t have access.

To write the web app, I used javascript to handle the user interaction and logic. For the design, I used Twitter Bootstrap which saved me a ton of time knowing I would have been obsessed with the design. I love Bootstrap. We use it for our projects at UCLA. Web apps are great because I didn’t need to create separate apps for different phones and platforms. Anyone with a web browser can access it. The only thing I regret not doing is using Responsive Design, so the layout can be optimized for different screens.

Promoting the App

Next came the hard part: promoting it. Using some strategies I’ve learned from conferences and at work, I needed to find an influential person who was in tune with the transportation scene and in technology. Enter my friend Sirinya Matute. She’s an awesome transporation guru who lives and breathes what she preaches about traveling green. There’s hardly a time I don’t see her with a bike or scooter in tow. She writes for LA Streets Blog and was able to do a story about my app. From there she called up a few other bloggers and got more coverage. The web app was mentioned on several sites including: LAist, Curbed LA, UCLA Newsroom, and even a retweet from the Mayor!

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Truth In Design

January 4, 2013 – 9:03 pm

The “10 Principles for Good Design” by Dieter Rams is a must read for anyone in love or obsessed with design. It will alter your life like when Neo took the blue pill in the Matrix. Your mind will be opened and you will begin to see and question why things were designed in specific ways.

“Good Design Is Honest”

Why doesn’t Ford or GM design a car that looks like a super car like Ferrari and use the same engine as their other cars and sell it for less? If Ferrari can only make and sell a small batch of their cars per year, I figured the Big 3 can use economies of scale to their advantage and crank out great looking cars for a fraction of a super car’s sticker price. Would it make sense for something that looks like a Ferrari to handle and drive like a Ford Fiesta? I would argue for most it doesn’t, but the design wouldn’t be honest. This type of design would violate the principle of good design. It “attempt[s] to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.” 

Leica

Leica M, 2012Take a look at your cell phone, computer, car, or kitchen equipment. Are there buttons you don’t need, or extra bulky plastic that just take up space? Industrial design was a key factor in my decision to choose Leica for my camera. The M system is classic. Great designs evolve with time and always give a nod to the past while moving forward. The M system was a film range finder camera that finally turned digital in 2007, well behind SLRs and digital point and shoot cameras. What attracted me most to it was its aesthetics. It felt solid to hold as its magnesium body was cool to the touch. The camera is hand assembled and tested in Germany, taking up to 8 hours each. There was something romantic knowing there were humans who put this sophisticated piece of technology together and not a line of robots. Like pulling a cork out of a wine bottle, there are just some things you can’t replace. Its design is long lasting, honest, unobtrusive, innovative, and is as little design as possible. Everything Dieter Rams would be proud of.

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Christmas List 2011

December 2, 2011 – 12:15 am

It’s that time of year again! Christmas! Here are my top items to grab this holiday season for the modern techie:

Roku Streaming Player

Are you a cable cutter? Tired of watching all your content on your laptop? Grab one of these magical little boxes and stream your favorite content right to your HDTV. The Roku Streaming Player ($49) can stream movies from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, NHL Gamecenter, HBO GO, and more. There’s no additional monthly fees, but you do need subscriptions to those video services whenever it applies. It’s really a companion to something like your Netflix streaming subscription. You can install apps as well, but those have been slow to be developed. I’m not really into playing Angry Birds on my big screen.

I chose the Roku over Apple TV. Shocker! I’m an Apple fanboy after all. Add-on boxes and features should be open and support multiple video services. Roku is all about choice. Starting at $49, Roku has superior video quality and more choices for content than Apple TV. Both are easy to use, but Apple TV’s premium price can’t be justified.

Amazon Kindle Touch

When the iPad was announced and Steve Jobs showed a demo of iBooks, I thought “Kindle Killer”. When Amazon released a Kindle reading app for the iPad I thought “suicide”. I was dead wrong. Kindle apps on multiple platforms was the gateway drug. The latest versions of Kindle, starting at $79, is an evolution of their e-Ink reader lineup. Like previous Kindles, it comes with wifi and an optional 3G modem so you can download books anywhere. What I really like is the Kindle Touch ($99), which features an e-Ink touch screen. You can highlight passages, take notes, look up words, and tap the screen to turn pages.

My favorite feature is called X-Ray, which is like a mini Wiki for your book. Ever find yourself stopping your reading session to lookup info on what you just read on wikipedia? X-Ray pulls all that info in for you and makes it readily available.

Why Kindle Touch over iBooks on the iPad? eBooks on Amazon are usually a few dollars cheaper. Buying books on Amazon won’t tie you down to a specific platform the way iBooks does. You can buy a book once and read it on any device, including your browser. Your books are also stored for free on Amazon’s cloud “forever”, so you never have to worry about losing them.

Jambox by Jawbone

Looking for some external speakers to compliment your mobile device? I’ve always admired powerful Bose SoundDock, which was specifically made for the iPod. It’s sexy, portable, and can fill an entire room. However, it came with a big price tag. Enter the super portable Jambox by Jawbone. These are the same guys who make the popular bluetooth headset for your cell phone. Jambox ($199) is a speaker system that packs a 10hr internal rechargeable battery, bluetooth, blast 85 decibels, all enclosed in a beautifully designed package that can comfortable lug around in your cool fanny pack. This thing is tiny, but the sound is impressive. Another cool feature is that you can use it as a speakerphone because it comes with a built in microphone.

Yosemite by James Perse

James Perse clothing embodies Southern California living and its state of mind. Chic, modern, clean, and simple. Yosemite is James Perse’s active wear collection. Think of it as the luxury and stylish version of UnderArmour. Their Raglan performance jersey ($105) for example has an aggressive sporty look, yet it’s elegant and can be worn when walking around the beach. Their flagship store in Malibu is worth checking out. The store front resembles a giant pool deck. It will make you want to grab a chaise longue and a mojito to sip on.

Linus Roadster Sport

I make no effort to hide my distate for hipster culture. Jack Kerouac, v-Neck tees, PBR, and riding around on fixies are not my cup-o-tea. During a visit to Venice beach, a sleek little bike caught my eye. It was thinly framed, cleanly designed, no crazy handle bars. It was “Frenchy” European. A hint of foofoo in a sea of generic street bikes or overly aggressive mountain bikes.

The Linus Roadster ($579) is a beauty. It’s classic like a Porsche Speedster. Form meets function. A beauty to look at or ride. I can get very poetic about this thing, so I’ll make it short. Look at the picture. Close your eyes. Imagine riding it on a sandy path by the beach. Outfit it with a rear rack mount just like a Speedster. I want one.

What’s on your list?

Thanks for reading! So what’s on your list? What items would you like for your December holiday? Go ahead, go crazy! Let everyone know below or tweet me @modernrockstar

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