Hello, friends. We’re your usability consultants.

Is your web app tired? Run down? Listless? Does it poop out at diggings? Is it unpopular on del.icio.us?

The answer to all of your problems is in this little bottle consulting package. Hyphenated People Prix Fixe. Yes, Hyphenated People Prix Fixe contains vitamins, meat, vegetables, and minerals and 150% of your daily dosage of usability expertise.

Yes, with Hyphenated People Prix Fixe you can buy your way to web application health. All you do is take a big dose after every meal once. It’s so tasty, too. Tastes just like candy. So why don’t you join the thousands of happy peppy people and order your Hyphenated People Prix Fixe today. That’s Hyphenated People Prix Fixe.

Hyphenated People Prix Fixe

Over at Hyphenated People, we’ve been spending the summer cooking up something new: a fixed-price deal. Fun and challenging for us, and affordable for you.

For a flat rate, you can choose either:

• The Inspector. In which we explore and analyze your entire application¹ and deliver to you a fancy report including a written analysis (including callouts and sketches) and suggestions for improvement. Topics considered include application structure, flow, individual screens’ usability and layout, insights about targeted users, and aesthetics (aka “the pretty”).
• The Drive-By Design. In which we explore your application, and thence, with that knowledge, take any single, full page of your choosing and redesign it from the ground up to be more effective. In this case we deliver to you a fully-realized design, original design source files (PSDs) and a written explanation of our recommendations for that page and its situation in the entire application.

Either package is ideal for smaller companies and startups, and anyone who is having a difficult time loosening the purse strings for hiring usability consultants for a long-term project.

There’s no further obligation. Our reports and advice are yours. We will happily make ourselves available for further assistance (availability permitting), but you can implement our suggestions any way you want, and with whomever you want.

That Price, Which is Fixed

The price for either package is just $3,500 USD. If you’d like further details, drop us a line at yo@hyphenateme.com with your preferred method of contact and we’ll give you a prompt return call or email.

Write us now. You know you want to.

Nota bene: We’re only budgeting the time for a few of these projects this summer. It’d be a clever marketing tactic to make that up and then urge you to contact us now if not sooner, but it’s actually true. This is something we’ll be doing in addition to our normal, larger jobs. We will of course deliver our very best (as we always do), but this is an experiment for us from a business standpoint.

[1] This assumes a fairly typically sized application: similar to or bigger than Basecamp, smaller than Salesforce.

My Dad sent me an op-ed from the New York Times entitled Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave this morning and asked my opinion on it. I agree with a lot of what the author says, but I think that we’re missing the boat entirely on this stuff. People are thinking about this as “how do we replace oil?” The real question they should be asking is “How do I live without oil?”

Not radically different, but if we only look at how to replace oil, we limit the potential of what can happen. Everyone scrambling for a piece of the pie too. “Clean Coal” — which I believe to be the biggest oxymoron since “slightly racist” — sponsored most of the Presidential debates. You know what that got us? Very few questions or discussion about a real energy policy.

Anyway, here’s my reply, in whole, to my father. It was written quickly, not proofread, and is missing links. I’ve tried to add them where appropriate to fill in the context of conversations not shared, but the idea is there. The bold paragraph at the end is the most important thing.

— Begin —

Oh, where do I begin?! :)

deeep breath

Basically, even if we found new reserves in US Territory and sucked them dry, that would only account for something like 8 Billion barrels (gotta find where I read that). At 120 million barrels of world consumption a day, that’s a little more than two months supply.

Two months

Those reserves would take years to find and even longer to bring online, and then we don’t have the transportation in place to get most of that to refineries (well, the coastal shelf stuff we do, but not the ANWR). Also, it’s a reserve. Regardless of what you think might be there, it was set aside for a reason. Is Bush’s next element of the energy policy to open Yosemite to geothermal companies and The George Washington Forest to loggers?

It’s basic macroeconomics: The problem is a combination of an increase in demand without an increase in supply. And there really isn’t any more supply. The OPEC guys can’t get it out of the ground fast enough to keep up with China and India’s demand. And we can’t tell them to not develop. Their people see American culture and want to live that way. Problem is, that culture was built on sixty years of cheap oil.

Alternate energy isn’t much better at this point because all of it – every single thing that’s out there today, relies on an underlying fossil fuel economy in order for it’s manufacture, delivery, marketing, etc. Yes we’ve been losing research jobs in alt energy overseas, but that’s as much to blame on bad policy since 1970. All nuclear engineers go to France or China because we’ve not launched a new plant since Three Mile Island. “Nuclear power is great! except… um… put it in HIS backyard” – that’s the problem.

Geothermal is great too. This would work well in the Northern central plains where heating is critical more so than anything else. But how do you tell an out of work auto worker or small family farmer that they need to drop thousands of dollars on a new geothermal heat pump? Only if it’s cheaper than their heating bill from oil. Wave energy looks cool too, and would be quite successful in our area I feel (with the sheer area covered by the massively tidal Chesapeake, it could be quite a boon) and is also working 24-7. But that’s a lot of investment and maintenance (corrosive salt water).

Solar? Cool stuff. We have a massive desert in the southwest, the majority of which is still federally held land. Smack some arrays down there and make a combo solar/wind farm. Or do Algae. Some big Texas oil men are already dumping money into wind to take advantage of the free stuff they get on the plains. Again, manufacture and transportation rely on oil. Photovalactic cells have come a long way, and are still progressing. Same with battery banks. They all have a shelf life as well.

Another issue with solar is cost. In the state of Virginia, I can’t make back my investment because of the way that Dominion power doesn’t really pay you for the power you generate back to the grid. Waldo has an excellent article on this from last year. With energy starting to skyrocket tho, it might become cost effective in the math.

On a smaller scale, you can do what they did at Gaviotas in Columbia. A solar reflector (basically aluminum) heats water and creates a turbine. It’s like a coal fired engine but with the sun. Now that is renewable and not oil dependent (except maybe for milling of pipe, etc). That can also be used as just a water heater for showers and for distilling water.

Ethanol? Corn is such a crappy fuel. We put almost as much into it via petrochemicals (that also pollute the crap out of the Mississippi and turn the Gulf of Mexico into an algae bloom, killing off other species) that it’s a zero gain situation. And with world grain consumption and crop failures up (3 million acres of corn lost from these recent floods) you’re going to have food riots (already happening overseas) and all food prices are going to increase and stay high (see this article about the CEO of Nestle ). We could use switchgrass, but you’ve got farmers paid to raise corn, not switchgrass. Brazil is all ethanol based, and look what sugar production is doing to the Amazon.

That algae based idea would be great if they could get it into production. The return per acre would make the american southwest the algae ethanol king. Heck, Mexico could even be better than us in the Sonora states.

The author, James Howard Kunstler, writes about a lot of these technologies in his book “The Long Emergency”, which, while quite dour, is a potential vision of what we’re up against. I’ve already seen many of the ideas he espoused years ago in main stream media outlets (McMansions are the new ghettos, etc). (See his article in the Washington Post from May.)

I agree that a real President would get up and do a Kennedy-esque speech of energy independence before the next decade is out. Seeing as I don’t foresee Sen. McCain making it through the next decade, that leaves the only logical choice :) But it’s not just energy. It’s about sustainable human settlement patterns. It’s about bringing back victory gardens. It’s about effective mass transit. It’s about tearing down the temples of commerce sitting in seas of asphalt (e.g. malls, strip malls, etc) and building livable, walkable communities. It’s about reverting the way america lives to pre-WWII. It’s about family farming. It’s about sustainable agriculture.

I expect to see replays of the 1970s sooner rather than later, regardless of the direction taken by any President or Congress. We’ve already had rice rationing in some states. It’s like getting prepared for a massive hurricane that will leave you without power, food, or gas for years.

Man. I want a farm.

— End —

So yeah. Um. Discuss?

Here’s what just went up on the HBA blog on MySpace:

Dear friends and fans of HBA:

It is with a heavy heart that I announce my departure from Honor By August. Over the last (almost) two years, I’ve had the time of my life on the road with the guys but it’s come to the point where I cannot give my full attention and energies to furthering the band. I feel that in this critical stage in the band’s development, they need an individual who will be there in full mind and body at every moment. And I sadly am not that person right now in my life.

Some of you know that I’ve been working on my solo project, Rotoscope (www.myspace.com/rotoscope) for many years and also my electronic project, Boboroshi and Kynz (www.myspace.com/boboroshikynz). Both projects have full-length records coming out before the end of the year. I’m also starting a production career with Brian Frederick of Juniper Lane called Borealis Studios.

So I, as my predecessor Joe, will pass the torch to the next person. I will miss every moment on stage and will hold this time close to my heart. I’ll be going away for a while to the studio and performing locally both solo and with Juniper Lane (www.myspace.com/juniperlane). In the words of Bono, it’s “time to go away and dream it all up again…”

I hope to see you in the audience at an HBA show in the future. This time standing next to you as a fan.

Love and Peace -
John Athayde/Kid A

Catch you all on the flip side…

1000 Abstract Brushes for Photoshop | These are the things I live on to do a lot of my design work. PaulW put out all these free brushes and they’re pretty cool. Enjoy!

Science vs. Religion | An xkcd style comic of science vs religion commentary.

Orphan Works: A Collosal Mess | The new orphan works proposed revision to the Copyright code is a crappy fix to a problem the copyright office brought upon itself. A nice op-ed piece by Lawrence Lessig.

As Homes Foreclus in US, Squatters Move In | Homeless are taking over empty houses owned by the banks and local authorities are having a headache getting them out and then keeping them out. And the squatters are getting smart about it too, forcing the banks into courts or offering to leave for cash.

People Moving Off Grid | In this case, off the grid means living out of their car. The city of Santa Barbara actually has set up lots where people can sleep in their cards form 7pm until 7am. How long until this starts to look like the 1930s?

$200-a-Barrel Crude Prediction | the NY Times has a article that references a Goldman Sachs analyst who believes that a super-spike could drive oil prices up to $200 a barrel.

As we’re off to play at the Bitter End in NYC tonight, I present the Friday link collection. Enjoy!

Houdini for Mac OS X | For you visual effects people, SideEffects is finally releasing a new version of Houdini for Mac that will bring it in line with the Windows and Linux versions. Just shows you how far the platform has come in the last ten years.

Foreclosure Filings Hit Record in April | Up 65% from last year, foreclosures are not only hurting families, but municipalities as well as their tax revenue plummets. Without property taxes, cities and towns will have to find new revenue streams, which means new and or different taxes.

Oregon: Our Laws Our Copyrighted And You CAn’t Publish Them | Cory Doctorow rips the state of Oregon on their recent claim that their laws are copyrighted and that they can’t be published outside of the state site. I’d be interested to see this go into court with the whole provision of critique or ridicule being considered fair-use. (via Waldo)

Farmer Outside Boston Preserving Endangered Livestock | A PhD in Pathology and fourth generation farmer, Jennifer Cermak has a small farm in Berlin, outside Boston, and helps maintain populations of endangered livestock species, many of them from the colonial era.

As Food Prices Shoot Up, So Do Backyard Gardens | I’ve got a balcony garden and it’s the same idea. The best way to eat local is to start in your own back yard. Then join a CSA locally. Then buy from local farmers markets. You’d be suprised how little you have to get from the actual grocery store.

Slow Down a Little, Save a Lot of Gas | What your parents always told you is true. You can save a lot of money, especially with gas prices going through the roof, by driving at a lower speed. The goal is to keep the RPMs of the engine as low as possible, so cruising in your highest gear at the lowest RPMs. This won’t work for those of you on the mountain, but it’s a good practice to get into anyway.

Ecobeam Systems | An interesting technology for construction that utilizes wood and steel girder-like beams to replace typical stud construction that can be curved, assembled on site, used to span larger distances, and utilize sandbags as bricks. Keeping this on the list for when I build to see how it could help in a passive solar system (thick masonry like wall = thermal stability)

Helvetica Serif | Joey the “Accordion Guy” posted the most brilliant and offensive type joke of the last year. Or call it Arial Serif. Everyone knows they’re the same thing.

Chloe the Labrador Retriever | Daily Puppy would be my downfall if my apartment building allowed for dogs. Instead, I can just say “aww so cute!” about other people’s labradors.

What WMATA Is Really Suggesting | New metro proposal for the system in 2030. I wish this existed today. It would be nice. Check out the map drawn based on the presentation by the guys at Greater Greater Washington.

California: Disappearing is $6Trillion in housing Wealth | At the rate housing prices are falling, the average homeowner will experience a loss of $85,000 in this year alone.

HCFS Not Natural says FDA | Finally, the FDA has declared high fructose corn syrup is not a natural ingredient, and therefore products containing it cannot be labeled as such. HFCS is one of the main components, in this author’s humble opinion, of our national nutrition and obesity problems..

Pizza Hut Delivery Driver Fired for Shooting Armed Robber | In more of the “don’t defend yourself!” news, Pizza Hut fired a driver because of a policy violation, even though he kept himself from being robbed. Another point of stupid corporate policies being followed to the letter because of fear of lawsuits.

BBC: Do You Need To Stock Up The Bunker? | Even the Brits are getting in on the end of the world preparations. It’s based off Barton Biggs’ book “Wealth, War and Wisdom” which talks about wealth preservation during war, specifically, World War II in Europe. Lessons are applicable to modern day life.

The Clean Energy Scam | Agricultural biofuels are not going to save the planet. In fact, they are hurting it just as much as oil through deforestation, agrochemicals, and more.

Algae: The Ultimate In Renewable Energy | Making biofuels from algae farms can produce 100,000 gallons of biofuel in an acre per year. Compare this to 30 for corn and 50 for soybeans. Bring on the pond scum!

Buffett Says Recession May Be Worse Than Feared | Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the world’s richest man at $62B, stated that this “recession will be longer and deeper than most people think” and “think[s] consumers are feeling gas and food prices and not feeling they’ve got a lot of money for other things.”

Gardening in Suburbia: Hot New Trend | Watch out, it’s the new hot trend! Turn your lawn into a garden! This is awesome to see and fits in nicely with the article from last week’s remaindered links about the town in Hampshire doing something similar.

The End of Flight as We Know It | An op-ed from the great Bacon’s Rebellion e-magazine this week about the end of cheap air travel and looking ahead at an era when international travel at the drop of the hat will only be for those “at the top of the economic pyramid”. “There is no way to have “low cost, safe, convenient flights.” No amount of traditional subsidy or oversight can mask realty. The only way that there can be safe, on-time air travel is for every ticket to cost far more than it has in the past.” All too true.

Costco Food Rationing | In certain Costco’s they are limiting the amount of certain items that people can buy due to international shortages (or perceived shortages) in things such as rice, oil and flour. Toss this into the debunk file for “it could never happen here”. Also see Riots, Instability Spread as Food Prices Skyrocket and Time Magazine’s No Grain, Big Pain article. And finally: The Wall Street Journal Suggests Americans Stockpile Food

A Message to Pennsylvanians from Bill Clinton | Bill Clinton’s speech for John Kerry in October 2004.

Now one of Clinton’s laws of politics is this: If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other one is trying to get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope. That’s the best.

Oops. Bill, I guess Hillary didn’t hear that speech. Nor did anyone in Pennsylvania seem to remember it this past Tuesday. Pity.

Urban Planners vs. City Residents | Even the best laid plans are laid to waste by people who simply do not want to leave the place they live. Youngstown, Ohio’s city planners would love to shut down and raze vacant and run down areas, but the few remaining residents don’t agree.

We’ve released the music video for the Honor By August single Into the Light, Directed by our good friend Timothy Devine

Check it out!!

Texas Oil Billionaire Bets on Wind | It’s nice to see private industry going after alternative energy. Mesa Power, owned by Texas oil man T. Boon Pickens, has put forth a plan to spend $10 Billion to build the largest wind farm on the planet. And it’s not from his “let’s save the environment” reasoning. He sees the profit in going green.

An Entire Village in UK Grows its Own Food | The village of Martin, nestled into the Hampshire countryside, is pretty nondescript. But the village has rolled back the clock and now over 2/3rds of residents participate in a program to grown their own food. The nearest supermarket is only six miles away, but most people are buying their food from the community allotment, which sells 45 different vegetables and over 100 chickens a week.

Nuclear Attack on DC: A Hypothetical Disaster | The Washington Times (which has typically been a very right-wing leaning paper) has an interesting “what-if” about a 10-kiloton detonation at street level near the White House. Some of the experts interviewed, such as Cham Dallas of the University of Georgia, claim that it’s a likely occurrence in the next 20 years. The bigger concern? The Metro area is in no way, shape, or form prepared to respond to something of this nature.

Coptic Priest Fights Fire with Fire | A Coptic (Christian) priest in Egypt has been named Islam’s Public Enemy #1 by an Arabic Newspaper. He has forged a discussion of the Koran and some of the more archaic laws present in the Hadith. He preaches in Arabic and asks deep questions and responds with a point by point argument that would win some of the toughest debates. The result? A frustrated ulema (a body of prominent Muslim theologians) and a large number of converts to Christianity.

Vitamins May Increase Mortality | Looks like highly processed vitamins aren’t that good for you after all. Michael Pollan’s points from The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food ring more and more true every day.

Nalgene to Phase Out Hard-Plastic Bottles | Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical present in certain hard-plastic Nalgene bottles, is being phased out. The chemical has been linked to neurological and behavioral problems as well as obesity, cancer and diabetes.

Food Riots to Worsen Without Global Action | The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation stated that “food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor.” Too bad all that grain is going to ethanol production.

Here Comes China | It was the British empire, then the American. It looks like China will be stepping up to the plate next. The power shift is beginning to make itself evident with the weakening Western economies and the surging growth in China’s economic house.

Email Sufficient to Modify Contract | Interesting business note that a series of emails can be considered signed writings used to modify an employment agreement. So, save those emails that are important, but just not in your inbox.

NYT and Wash Post Cover Preparedness | I was a little disturbed but also happy to see that the Washington Post and the New York Times both cover preparedness this week, albeit in different ways. The NYT appeared to go for the style angle of “isn’t that cute” while the Post had more of a proper view point of it all. Nothing wrong with being a Boy Scout, kids.

USA 2008: The Great Depression | The UK paper, The INdependent, puts forth some statistics about how we could be approaching a similar storm of economic hardship not seen since before World War II. They also point out use of food stamps and their increase.

Food for Thought | The Economist’s April issue takes on the food crisis and possible solutions. This article discusses the issues related to biofuels and how commodities prices jumping 300% are causing headaches for agencies like USAID and politicians alike. One of the solutions? the WFP’s proposed changes to shift away from emergency food and towards stabilizing production globally.

Find Your Dream Homestead | Tips on finding your little patch of land where you can start a farm. After 12 years in DC, this sounds absolutely amazing. Even Alaska. Anything but the typical trash filing into and out of the various chichi clubs.

Rick Rolled | Never giving you up, never letting you down… sounds like a dream guy, right? Well, the 80s hit has made a come back as a new internet meme called “Rickrolling”.

Simplicity: What we can learn about Usability | Pretty much the most succinct visual representation of why every client’s current app simply needs to be moved to the trash heap before beginning a redesign.

Shawn Baldwin Photography | A lot of amazing photography straight out of the Iraq conflict. Browse around the site, this guy has captured some powerful images.

April Foolery | A cool program that lets you change the message on an HP printer. Hours of fun will ensure. Be sure to setup secret camera.

Way overdue, but I finally have posted my SXSW photos to flickr.

Amy and I gave our panel on the first day of SXSW interactive and it was a blast. It was nice to have it out of the way so we could chill and enjoy the rest of the week. Despite a one day sickness that I warded off (and developed into South By Scurvy upon my return to DC) I was out and about at the conference center and Sixth Street Environs.

Here’s the breakdown of Photos:

SXSW Interactive

SXSW Music

Hotel Café Tour @ Parish

Sara Bareilles @ Parish

Honor by August (my band) at the 7th & Trinity Guitar Hero Stage (photos by our manager Trish on my camera)

and finally, but not least of all, Paramore at La Zona Rosa

Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place | Seriously. A walking Coke machine? This either speaks lowly of the Japanese populous that they believe such a trick will work or even lower of the Japanese criminal mind that they would fall for such a trick.

High Prices Spark Fresh Gold Rush in California | Gold has gone from $300 to $1000 an ounce in about 7 years, and this in turn has create a second California gold rush of sorts. Maybe I should pay a visit to my family in the El Dorado Hills with a pick-axe and pan and start digging for Gold.

A Pre-fab Off Grid House | There’s been a lot of interesting work in the last few years in the pre-fab industry. Some very nice structures indeed have been created. This is a design for an off the grid house to be deployed in remote and hostile locations with all sorts of off-the-grid goodies. (via .sara)

New Wheat Crisis Plagues World Food Supply | Ug99 has been causing all sorts of Wheat failures starting in Africa and moving slowly East into Iran and Asia. Wheat prices were already skyrocketing, and this will only add to the demand. Expect food prices to continue to rise.

PA Judge Sentences Three to Learn English | Three Spanish-speaking men who appeared in a Pennsylvania court were ordered to learn English, earn a GED and get full-time jobs or their parole would be revoked and they would be placed in prison. Now that is creative sentencing.

The $53 Trillion Asteroid | Again, I dislike this guy (Glenn Beck) on television, but he’s got another good article about the Social Security and Medicare promises that cannot ever be repaid due to pure basic economics.

New Government Surveillance Tools | A vehicle traveling at 70 miles per hour past a federal observer with a new tool can be scanned for nuclear material. What else do they have?

I sent Jim Bacon an email last night asking about why the Virginia Railway Express had not utilized the westbound rail corridor heading out towards Charlottesville (and through a lot of the boom area in Fairfax and Loudoun counties) as a new line. For those of you who follow the Virginia transportation mess, and care about sustainable development, you really should check out Jim’s blog Bacon’s Rebellion Blog and his bi-weekly e-zine of Bacon’s Rebellion.

Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Jim saying that he had checked out Rotoscope (myspace) (via the link in my email signature) and liked it enough to put up a post on the Bacon’s Rebellion Blog. Looking at the comments, Waldo might have felt that he had stepped into the twilight zone when he opened up his RSS feed this morning.

I think I might need to gather my thoughts and write an article about the VRE…