What makes Boston such a special city?
Over the past few years I've had many discussions and given lots of thought to specific reasons why I love Boston so much. It's hard to quantify what makes me love a city so much despite the cold winters, bad drivers, and unfriendly people (compared to other regions of the US). Despite all of this, it is a city that so many people furiously defend as the only place they ever want to live. So what is it that makes Boston so special?
Many great cities have a core competency or passion that is usually a source for jobs, government policies, and overall spirit. Boston's is health care and education; it is the home to many of the world's best hospitals and colleges. When you contrast that to what other cities revolve around (Technology/entrepreneurship in SF or Wall Street in NY), health care and eduction both center around helping others above all else. As a result, Boston attracts and retains people that want to share their knowledge with others and treat those who are unhealthy. It attracts the best of the best for education and medicine, along with thousands of people in supporting roles. It is this focus on two of the most humanistic industries that I believe is what makes Bostonians so special, even if they won't say hello when you walk by them.
It is also this spirit of caring for others that is coming through in how Boston has so far responded to the horrific tragedy yesterday at the Marathon. The typical Bostonian might not come off as the most friendly person, but deep down Boston is a city that truly cares. I really wish I could be there with my friends and family now, but I know next time I step foot in Boston the spirit of the city will only be stronger than I left it.
What Google Reader, Simcity, and the MotoActv Fitness watch tell us
My friend Sam Kornstein wrote a great blog post recently titled "A Few Thoughts to Add on Google Reader" about Google Reader getting shut down in July, which sparked a few realizations I've had recently about similar services or products. In today's world, our personal lives are becoming more and more dependent on large tech companies focused more on the bottom line than anything else. I was not a Google Reader user myself, but I am certainly dependent on many products from Google and other tech companies, most of which I don't pay anything for (Gmail being the most notable). A product I use quite frequently is my my Motorola Motactv GPS running watch. Unlike my old Garmin, all of the software to view the data is on their website. The problem is that after I purchased the watch, Google bought Motorola and support for the product has stopped. It's only a matter of time I'm sure before the website goes down and my physical (and paid for product) device suddenly stops working as intended.
A second product I've questions is a new version of the class Simcity, put out by Electronic Arts recently which amazingly sold $1 million copies almost immediately. Only problem is that the game requires one to be connected to their servers to play (and to make a huge mess, they didn't have enough servers at the launch of the game). EA claims it is to enhance the game by allowing users to compete against others, critics claim it is to prevent copyright infringements. Either way, is it fair that a game like Simcity can't be played "offline"? If I pay $60 to purchase the game, how long is EA responsible for keeping the servers up and running so that I can continue to play it? A year? 2 years? 10 years?
As more and more data and services become dependent on the cloud, it will be interesting to see how problems like this get resolved. I have no doubts that in the long run consumers will be better off, but I'm sure there will be lots of bumps on the way. In the Google Reader example, the great news is that just like I wrote in my post on Apple dropping Google Maps, I'm sure there are many startups that will jump in shortly and deliver a product far better than the rather stale Google Reader product was.
My quest for the perfect photo of Golden Gate
A few months before I moved to San Francisco from Boston, I decided that I wanted to try to take wall-worthy photos of the iconic bridge in each city. My first attempt in Boston I stumbled across a new walkway that had just opened up near Boston's Zakim Bridge and based on what I could find online at the time I was one of the first photographer's to discover the bridge from that view. It looks pretty nice printed on canvas over my bed right now, but it's a little lonely because I have not been so lucky trying to take a great photo of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I've been trying to take the picture of Golden Gate from a place called Baker's Beach (see map here).
My first attempt I got there, scoped out the scene and walked around a bigt, and then setup my camera and tripod only to realize my battery was just about dead. The few photos I got before my camera died were all before sun had fully gone down. Not what I was envisioning.
My next attempt was much better, the waves were big, it was a nice night, and I knew what I was looking to do. I took a bunch of shots and was pretty excited about how they were turning out based on the display on my camera. I got home and looked at them on a bigger screen and was immediately disappointed They were good, but not great. The water wasn't as smooth as I was hoping for and the sky was kind of boring.
This weekend I went out for shoot #3. Before I went I bought a Tiffen Color Graduated Neutral Density 0.6 Filter, which one puts on the lens to make one half of the photo darker than the other. In this photo, I used it to darken the bridge so I could get let more light in on the water (and slightly increase the "blur motion" of the water). I would say this is by far my favorite, and while it isn't all I had envisioned or hoped for it's a pretty nice photograph and will likely look quite nice on the wall next to the Zakim. I had been hoping for some bigger waves, but in exchange I got a really cool looking sky. Next time I go back I'm going to try the angle/position of attempt #2, but with the filter applied from #3. Here's the final photo:
Favorite songs from 2012
I'm constantly on the lookout for new songs I enjoy and figured I'd share some of my favorites that I discovered in 2012 (all were released in either 2011 or 2012). Each of these songs either never got many plays on the radio or I had started listening to them before they exploded (I'm looking at you Of Monsters and Men). A few are even rather weird, such as the song from the Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack. I'd love to know what you would have put on this list. Spotify playlist so you can listen in is here.
Here's my list :
- Lucky Now - Ryan Adams
- You Will Become - Glen Hansard
- Once There Was a Hushpuppy - Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin (instrumental from Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack)
- Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (this is an older song)
- Blank Maps - Cold Specks
- Somebody that I used to Know - Gotye
- Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
- Black Water - Apparat
- Flaws - Bastille
- Promise - Ben Howard
- America - Imagine Dragons
- Amsterdam - Imagine Dragons
- Stubborn Love - The Lumineers
- San Francisco - The Mowgli's
- Shuffle - Bombay Bicycle Club
A few last minute editions heard last night on KFOG in San Francisco:
- Battles - Hudson Taylor
- Let Her Go - Passenger (I can't decide if I like his voice or if it's annoying)