I started my career working in laboratories measuring the particular attributes of a product. The focus was consistency and ensuring that the product fell into a certain range of measurements. But this focus was around consistency and fitness for purpose. When I got to read Robert M Pirsig’s Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance quality took on a difference aspect.
According to Pirsig quality, or value, as he called it, cannot be defined because it empirically precedes any intellectual construction of it. It exists always as a perceptual experience before it is ever thought of descriptively or academically.
Pirsig drew on his knowledge of western and eastern philosophy to try and define it by understanding its metaphysics. Inspired by the Tao, Pirsig proposes that value is the fundamental force in the universe. That it stimulates everything from atoms to animals to evolve and incorporate ever greater levels of quality.
He broke it down into two forms: static and dynamic quality. Quality is one, but it manifests itself in different ways.
So went much of the conversations that I had with my housemate and landlord Ian during my last year in university. I started my appreciation of quality through the influence of my father who was an engineer by both trade and inclination. Pirsig’s work tapped deep into my belief system and lodged there ever since. This was why you have this section of my site. Sometimes things grab me with regards to quality.
This gives an apparently random aspect to this category, but it isn’t really random at all.
When I started off having an interest in DJing I went around to a a friend’s house whose older brother was into audio engineering. As well as having one of the first set of Technics 1200s I had ever seen he had a Revox B77 tape recorder. He used to record tracks on to the tape reels and then splice the tape to make tracks longer by extending breaks, or extend the breakdown or vocal hook of a track into staccato repetitions; which sounded like Max Headroom-esque stutters of vocal hook or ‘machine gun’ drum breaks.
Splicing tape took patience, practice and a modicum of skill to achieve. At the time however it was the Revox B77 tape machine itself that I fell in love with. These machines were made in Switzerland and felt like they were hewn from aluminum. Even the buttons were solid, giving positive feedback through a satisfying clunk when pushed and the VU meters glowed with a warm light and needles danced as the sound levels went up and down. As interfaces went, the analogue controls of the tape machine have yet to be beaten by anything that Apple has come up with. All of this belied the complex engineering that happened inside. All of this engineering expertise turned out machines that were about the best recorded sound that money could buy. Many artists today record digitally, transfer on to an analogue tape machine like the B77 and then master back to digital for CD manufacture and iTunes reproduction because of the way analogue treats sound.
Revox was a consumer facing brand of Swiss professional audio manufacturer Studer (now part of Harman International) and much of that professional engineering went into the Revox products. The Revox tape machines were professional ‘wolves’ in consumer electronics ‘sheep’s’ branding.
The B77 series of machines came out in 1979 and sported full logic controls (which made things smoother) and direct drive motors (which meant that everything got up to speed faster), but otherwise improved on the A77 of the late 1960s. The machine used 10 1/2 tape spools to make its recordings on with a tape throughput of 15 inches per second on most models which was the professional master recording standard and one could vary the speed up to over 20 inches per second if you wanted to – this operated a bit like pitch control on a Technics SL-1200 turntable.
The B77 series came in a number of guises:
The LS ran at low speeds for radio stations and call centres that needed to log everything that happened
The basic model which ran only at consumer speeds
The HS which ran at professional tape recording speeds
The PR99 (Mk I, II and III) which were designed to be more edit friendly and had less knob controls which could get in the way of the manual tape splicing process
All of this engineering came at a cost and the Revox B77 weighed a proverbial ton (actually closer to 20Kg for the machine itself plus whatever you carted it around in, like a studio rack or a flight case)
Quarter inch tape recording isn’t dead, the tape is still made around the world by Quantegy, RMGI, ATR Magnetics and Jai Electronic Industries. Otari Inc still makes an analogue studio master machine and Denon still sells a similar machine for broadcast purposes in Asia.
In addition, high end studios still use multi-track digital reel-to-reel machines when you want to record to 48 tracks as the time code technology and audio encoding technology used in them is superior to more modern computer-based solutions. More related content can be found here.
Ferdinand A. Porsche, 76, Dies – Designed Celebrated 911 – NYTimes.com – Butzi Porsche dead. Butzi Porsche came from a family of engineers. His grandfather led the original team behind the Volkswagen Beetle. His father had been part of that engineering team and went on to found what we now know as Porsche. However, Butzi Porsche wasn’t engineer but a designer with technical chops. After an infamous meeting of the Porsche family, no members were allowed to work at Porsche. Butzi Porsche didn’t get to do more after he designed the 911. Instead Butzi Porsche started Porsche Design. Butzi Porsche did product design for other companies. Porsche Design also came out with its own products with Butzi Porsche designing watches, glasses and more. Butzi Porsche resigned from Porsche Design in 2005 due to ill health.
Why Are So Many Americans Single? : The New Yorker – single living was not a social aberration but an inevitable outgrowth of mainstream liberal values. Supported by modern communications platforms and urban living infrastructure: coffee shops, laundrettes
Kraft break-up yields marketing shift: Warc.com – the break-up is ironic when you look at the trouble they went to, in order to buy Cadburys and then break their business down broadly into Cadburys + Jacobs Suchard vs Kraft US.
HK’s rich hesitate to have babies | SCMP.com – interesting takeaways: didn’t want the emotional commitment, time poverty, financial stability / too small a living space and concerned about the local environment not being suitable for children. It was interesting that the education system was given such a hard time, given that it’s better than the UK system (paywall)
agnès b. | VICE – great interview with French fashion designer agnés b
Marketing
Fueling the hunger for The Hunger Games – The New York Times – really interesting comment: …during the 1980s you bought the poster and once a year went to a convention and met your people for something like Star Trek (and Star Wars). It misses out the fact that you are likely to have had real-world friends that you would have talked about it with as well – marketers now seem blindsided to the real-world
I didn’t have time to try many of the independent coffee shops around Seoul but did try a few in Gyeongju and Ulsan. Here is a little about two of the best that I came across.
Cafe 737
Cafe 737 is a family-run coffee in the tourist town of Gyeongju. I loved it because of the vibe; as a third space it has a homely vibe that Starbucks can’t emulate. The coffee shop greeter is an elderly golden retriever. The restaurant itself is bright and clean inside with some nice touches including bric-a-brac, both English and Korean books and a selection of pot plants. Even by the standards of the best independent coffee shops, they make a mean cup of coffee and had great food to accompany it. I would love this coffee shop as a regular hang-out.
Cafe 57 is in the old town centre of industrial city Ulsan; the city has tried to spur redevelopment of the area by promoting businesses aimed at, and run by young people. This means that the area is full of restaurants, fashion shops and small coffee shops.
Cafe 57 has a clean minimalist interior with a black ash counter area and coffee bean roasting apparatus on the floor. What made Cafe 57 unique for me was the unswerving focus on making a great cup of coffee. It is not about a third space or a lifestyle expression of the consumer – it is just about making the very best cup of coffee available.
Watching the cup of ‘hand drip’ coffee being made by the owner was the experience of watching the craftsman at work. This was the best cup of Ethiopian coffee I have every had.
Pat Law published her list of 50 things that make her happy, which reminded me of a list I made back in November 2008 on things that made my day. Why 50 tings that make me happy? The 50 is a challenge and a limitation in the writing of this post. Like Pat, I am not from Bhutan and maybe the wrong person to write about happiness, but what the heck. So this is where I started in coming up with my 50 things in no particular order:
When someone gives their seat up on the tube for an elderly person or pregnant woman. Its a nice reminder that although civic society is on its knees, it isn’t dead yet. Saying that I once offered to give up my seat and the woman attempted to hit me, it seems she was just fat rather than pregnant – but don’t let that put you off being civic-minded
Hallowe’en. Hallowe’en is my favourite holiday of the year. Its celebration doesn’t start in August like Christmas does in most supermarkets, it finishes the following day. It’s has the kitsch of Christmas trappings, but without the expense. Oh and settling down with a bag of popcorn to watch The Exorcist and The Crow is more fun to watch than an epsiode from the James Bond movie franchise and White Christmas
A sunny spring day on Thurstaston Hill. Spring on the Wirral has an immense sense of energy, a sunny day lying on Thor’s Stone watching the clouds coming in from Liverpool Bay like a candy floss armada sailing over the Wirral
Knowing that I love and am loved
Getting to watch St Helens Saints winning games. Rugby league was once described by an Australian writer as a working-class opera and St Helens have been one of the most successful teams in recent years. I only really gained an appreciation of rugby league during my time at college in Huddersfield. Despite the poor performance of the Huddersfield Giants, the town had league in its bones – The George Hotel by the train station being the birthplace of rugby league. Unfortunately I don’t get to see them as much as I would like and the sport still doesn’t get the coverage that it deserves on television
Fly New Balance kicks, my current favourites are the MT580 which I have in various colour-ways
Flying business-class with Cathay Pacific – they won’t go on strike, the food is decent and there is bound to be a couple of films on the entertainment system that I haven’t seen and are worth watching
Getting to put on my favourite flannel shirt. This shirt is an old workshirt from back when I worked in the oil industry that has been washed a huge number of times, making it unbelievably soft and giving it a faded check pattern that would be at home on My Name Is Earl. After putting this on, you can understand why grunge took off as a style – I know that my Australian colleague Nick Osborne thinks that this is a classic Bogan-style
Getting to watch For A Few Dollars More. No matter how many times I see this film it still gives me an immense amount of pleasure to watch it. It is not as grand as Once Upon A Time In The West and not as well known as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but it has probably the best performances of Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood together on screen
Watching pretty much any Wong Kar-wai film, but I have a particular soft spot for 2046 and In The Mood for Love
Getting some time on my decks. Whilst many DJs have moved on to MP3s and CD players there is nothing quite like the tactile experience of mixing with vinyl records. Being able to read the track by the changes in the grooves, the sensation of low frequency sounds and the feel of cueing a heavy vinyl platter are unique
Eating a slice of freshly cooked soda bread. Unlike yeast bread, I prefer to let the soda bread cool properly first and then tuck in.There is something about the whole tactile experience of eating soda bread with a thin scrape of butter and honey or as a side to some Galtee black pudding and white pudding
A warm autumn day with haze so thick you can smell it
Looking out on Victoria Harbour from the Harbour City branch of Starbucks
My Cuisinart coffee machine in action
Motorway driving at night with The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld or The KLF’s Chillout album on the stereo
Finding myself in an airport on the far side of the world and being able to find a good newspaper stall, and have the time to sit down and read a copy of the Irish Independent or The Examiner
Wondering around the Science Museum with my Dad and have him tell me about the different equipment in there and the machines that he has come across in his 50 or so years in engineering from lorry engines, to ships pumps and industrial motors
Pottering around Gosh Comics and discovering a new graphic novel author. Forbidden Planet feels too much like a supermarket in many ways, whereas Gosh feels like the independent vinyl record shops that are rapidly disappearing from Soho
Watching a good film in a decent cinema, despite all the technology there is still nothing quite the big screen. I love the passive entertainment of the cinema – very un-tech of me I know, but its true
Waking up on a Sunday morning and hearing it raining outside whilst I am tucked up in bed
The mid point in 50 things that make me happy: Hong Kong-style milk tea though its pretty hard to track down a good cup even in Chinatown, London. Caffiene and condensed milk mean that all the main food groups are covered
Eating with friends in the Tsui Wah restaurant chain
The smell of a turf fire
Getting a new watch
Taking a really great picture, mainly because it’s due to serendipity rather than any skill on my part
Buying vinyl records, I love rifling through the trays at Phonica in Soho, it breaks my heart that great shops with knowledgeable shop assistants like Anthony Cox at the former Flying Records in Soho have been replaced by vegan fast food joints, wine bars and hedge funds
Tripped out visuals like SIGGRAPH CGI shorts
Reading the print editions of Wired (US edition) and Monocle magazines
Shopping at a 7-Eleven in East Asia when the jetlag won’t let me get to sleep – its something about the colourful packaging design, retina-toasting lighting and junk food that they sell which fits in with the disconnectedness I feel
The half-awake feeling you have when your duvet feels like you are wrapped in cotton wool
Walking around Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Its a weird mix of space station and holy place. The light through the stained glass is spectacular
Touch typing on a decent keyboard. How people are supposed to cope with the modern rubbery keys on Apple’s defaults keyboards now I have no idea. How the hell does a keyboard make you happy? I feel at one with the machine, I become less conscious of my own typing. The same goes for using a Kensington Expert Mouse rather than a conventional ‘hockey puck’ or trackpad
Enjoying a modern art exhibition with someone knowledgeable so that you can discuss what you’ve seen
Oil refineries at night, they way they are lit up like fallen down Christmas trees. I love asian cityscapes like Hong Kong island and Tokyo for the information overload and the intricate lights
Going to sleep to the sound of a washing machine, sends me straight off, the white noise seems to give me interesting dreams as well. No idea why
The night sky on a clear summer night at my uncle’s farm so I can see the delicate star structures
The feeling of smugness that I get after I have cleaned the house from top-to-bottom
Buried in a good book whether its Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, a business book, graphic novel or an old counterculture text
Sitting on my sofa and doing nothing after I have come in from a great night out. I tend to enjoy warehouse and squat parties now more than clubs in London at the moment. Think its the music and the vibe
Finding a really great piece of design, whether its a cool piece of software, website, my Mystery Ranch backpack or accessible product design (like the Red Bull ring-pull with the bull cut out)
Finishing a blog post, particularly if I have been using the post to think a concept out fully. I will often mind-map it in my moleskine as well
Seeing my ideas make a difference, whether its to a clients business, changing the outlook of a course or conference attendee or having someone come up and discuss something articulated on here
Winning an eBay auction, paying less than I had intended to
Going to a really good thought provoking event like LIFT or some of the Barcamps
This has felt like a marathon of a post! The final item in my 50 things that make me happy: when I interact with a bureaucracy and things turn out alright with little-to-no effort
You’ve heard about the 50 things that make me happy, what would be the 50 things that make you happy?
One of the first things that I noticed about the Shenzhen streets was the prevalence of the electric scooter. They are ridden by young people and old people. They’re used for delivery services, commuting to and from work and going to the buy the groceries.
They aren’t slick looking Tron light bike type conveyances, or Something worthy of Shotaro Kaneda’s bike that would fit into the Neo Tokyo-like streets of central Shenzhen. Instead the electric scooter looks like an emaciated Honda Cub. It all comes across a bit half-arsed.
They represent the cheapest form of powered transport in urban China.
These are probably the scariest things that you are likely to encounter in China, short of being invited to drink tea with the authorities. They are fast enough to be dangerous, but slow enough to be annoying for other road users. They make no sound, not even the rushing of tires on road surface.
The riders tend to have little skill and view fellow road users as potential targets. They are also not ridden only ridden on the road, but on the pavements and pedestrians have to be constantly in a high state of vigilance watching out for errant electric scooter riders. This being China, no fucks are given. If you wipe out on the pavement, they’ll just ride on. They’re absurdly dangerous.
Finally, given that most of China’s electricity supply comes from coal fired power stations; and your scooter will last a few years at best – their green credentials are somewhat lacking. More design related content here.
