Category: Good things

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Restrepo – Add to your Queue

Documentaries fascinate me, and Restrepo is gripping. The Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military.

My son Joel recommended this film and I wasn’t disappointed. There is no commentary or narration. The soliders and their actions speak for themselves. It is a gritty look at the harsh reality of life in a war zone and the human side to this band of soliders.

Restrepo is available now to stream now on Netflix.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Daylight Savings Time = Bring on the Weeknight Hikes!

It’s no secret that I love hiking. I’ve devoted my SoCalHiker website to cataloging the hiking trails I explore in Orange County and throughout Southern California. Hiking is a great form of exercise, but it’s also a way to connect with nature, to unplug from the technology-driven world of work and reconnect with friends both old and new. Hiking can be almost a meditation, when done in solitude; or an intensely social activity.

This week marks a significant milestone in 2011 — the first week of daylight savings time. Oh, how I love DST, because it means there’s enough daylight after work to get in a great hike in the evening.

For about 1-1/2 years, I’ve been leading a Wednesday night hike on San Clemente’s Roller Coaster Ridge trail. The hike is cross-posted in two Meetup groups, both the Far South OC Social Events (ugh, what a mouthful) and Hiking OC. We meet at the end of Camino del los Mares just before 6pm each Wednesday during daylight savings time. The trail is a beauty; 4.6 miles with over 900 feet of elevation gain and sweeping 360 degree views of the coastal mountains, the blue Pacific Ocean, Dana Point and the marina, and on clear days like this, San Clemente Island and Catalina Island.

What’s wonderful is that in that past 1-1/2 years, I’ve met some wonderful people on the trails. We’ve hiked many miles together, and shared quite a few tacos afterwards (we like to visit Wahoo’s after the hike). We supported each other as we grew stronger as hikers, and as Joan and I trained for last year’s John Muir Trail backpack trip.

But what I didn’t really realize is what an impact we’ve made. Tonight, on our first Wednesday night hike on Roller Coaster Ridge in 2011, we had ten hikers on the trail. Some old friends, and some new. Something Barbara (one of tonight’s ten) said really touched me.  She told Joan and I what an inspiration we were for hiking the JMT last year, and how that had motivated her for her own goals.

It’s funny, when you set a lofty, difficult goal, and then do the preparation and training, and actually reach that goal, other problems seem insignificant. And that’s the lesson. We all have the ability to achieve far more than we imagine possible. And once we do, it empowers us to do more still.

If you live in south OC and would like to join me on our Wednesday night hikes, let me know!

Special thanks to Allan, Ina, Dave, Amy, Barbara, Cindy, Gloria, Karen and Joan for joining me on the first Wednesday night hike of daylight savings time!

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Better Living Through Gaming

Jane McGonigal believes that we can make the world a better place by playing games that are designed to help solve life’s big challenges. I first heard Jane speak two years ago, when we were both speakers at the inaugural Ignite LA. Last night I watched her TED talk (in beautiful HD thanks to Hulu Plus!). Her message is worth sharing.

A few interesting stats to consider before you watch. A student spends just over 10,000 hours attending school from 6-12th grade. The average teen in the U.S. will spend just over 10,000 hours during that same period playing games — about 22 hours a week (a part-time job!).

These gamers have a sense of optimism — they believe they CAN win the game. So what if we change the game to have a real impact on the world around us? Imagine what problems we could solve.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Starbucks, The New Logo and The Real Customer

It’s been said that there are two kinds of people in the world; those that divide the world into two kinds of people, and those that don’t. I do.

And so…

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those that like Starbucks, and those that don’t. I love Starbucks.Yes, it’s pricey, but I usually visit my local Starbucks on El Camino two or three times a week. My girlfriend would probably guess more frequently, but I’m not ready to admit to that.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/jeffhester/status/45861891599368194″]

This week Starbucks is celebrating their 40th anniversary. Regardless of what you think of their coffee, you have to respect that they’ve done a few things quite well from a business perspective. In conjunction with their 40th anniversary, they rolled out their new logo. It’s not really all that new — but more of a modification. Essentially they stripped out the band with the text that read “Starbucks Coffee,” leaving only the siren.

There was an uproar when they announced the new logo back in January. Some of my designer and marketing friends were up in arms over the new design. “Big mistake” was the consensus. Now that it’s here, I don’t hear much from anyone. Certainly it didn’t seem to reduce the morning lineup at Starbucks. It didn’t confuse, confound or bother the average customer at all. Either they didn’t notice, or didn’t really care. If they did notice, it was a novelty — “Oh, look! They changed the logo!” A sort of positive vibe that keeping it fresh provides the brand.

Mark Hurst profiled Starbucks in last week’s Good Experience newsletter. He notes that the formula that drove success at Starbucks began to falter a couple years ago, but they’ve appeared to turn this around. CEO Howard Schultz explained to the Wall Street Journal how they turned things around. “Putting our feet in the shoes of the customer…” was his key message. Note that the average customer wasn’t bothered by the logo change. The noise generated by the design and branding community was simply that — noise.

Last week at Linked OC, Seth Godin shared an interesting anecdote about Starbucks. He noted that when they originally opened, they did not sell coffee. They sold coffee beans, but not coffee by the cup. The formula faltered until they brought in a new CEO who brought in the idea of serving espresso drinks such as he had seen in Italy, and the rest is history.

Where is all this headed? Well, we’ve established that I like Starbucks. Two out of my three offspring have worked for Starbucks (one still does). And Starbucks, in spite of all their success was not and is not immune to mis-steps, either. The key has been, and remains — keeping the customer in mind.

So then, who is your customer? And are they on your mind?

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Cutting the Cable: Nine Months Later

Last year I got fed up with my cable TV bill. I was paying about $120/month for cable TV alone! I don’t watch that much TV, yet somehow I had put up with paying for two premium channels and a package that included at least a hundred channels that I would never watch.

Just about nine months ago, I decided to cut that cable. I called Cox and asked them to discontinue both my land line phone service (which I never used) and my cable TV. It was weird, but I don’t think they really believed that I was truly canceling my regular television programming. They asked if I was switching to satellite (I wasn’t). They enticed me to stay with lower monthly rates (I didn’t). The only service I kept was their broadband Internet.

It was a calculated decision. I already had Netflix, with streaming movie capabilities. I had Xbox Live and iTunes, allowing access to still more movies and shows. I have a cable from my Mac Mini to my 47″ Visio so I can play movies or shows I’ve downloaded. Most of the programming that I cared about was available at a much lower cost.

How has it worked out?

The biggest gaps in my programming are live coverage such as news and sports. Of course, the Internet is also a great source for updates on both, but certain sporting events are just more enjoyable to watch as their played. For this, I met up with friends at a local sports pub to catch a game, and relied on Internet news sites rather than cable news for the latest happenings around the globe.

I’ve also found new sources of programming. Last fall I added a wifi-enabled Samsung Bluray player that I’ve ended up using more as a streaming device than for playing discs. I use it regularly with Hulu Plus, Vudu, Netflix, Vimeo and Pandora.

Xbox Live added ESPN3 back in November 2010. So far, this hasn’t been much use to me. They don’t include any NFL games; my primary sport. But I have used it to watch tennis.

Still, there are times when I miss turning on the TV to catch the local news as I get ready to start my day. Not a big deal, but missed. For a while, ivi TV looked promising. They offered streaming of broadcast TV channels from major cities including New York and Los Angeles. Unfortunately the networks have tied them up in the courts and shut down most of the programming they once had.

For now, my experiment in cutting the cable has been a huge success. I’ve saved about $1,000 over the past nine months, even after you add in my Hulu Plus subscription. If you’re comfortable with streaming and downloading programming, you may want to consider joining the ranks of cable cutters, too.

Have you cut the cord? If so, what has your experience been? If not, what’s holding you back?

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Upgrading the iPad

Last week, Apple announced the iPad 2. It’s not a revolutionary upgrade, but a natural evolution of an already great product. I shared my thoughts on the iPad 2 over at BigBlueBall.

I’ve had my iPad since last October, and love it. Now that the iPad 2 is out, the natural question is whether to upgrade.

In my case, the decision is pretty easy. My girlfriend already has her eye on my “old” iPad, so I won’t have any problem finding it a good home. But what do you do if you don’t have a built-in buyer?

One of my co-workers Richard told me about a site called Gazelle where you can resell used electronic devices. It’s a much simpler process than selling direct through Craigslist. They even send you a prepaid Fedex box to ship your device in. He sold two first-generation iPads, and is ready to upgrade next weekend.

Of course, before you ship it off, you’ll want to erase all your personal data.

Restore to factory settings

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. On your iPad home screen, tap the Settings icon.
  2. Tap General in the menu to the left of the screen, then tap Reset.
  3. Here, you will have two options: “Reset All Settings” and “Erase All Content and Settings.” The former will restore all of your app settings to their original status. The latter will reset all app settings and erase all of your data (photos, apps, bookmarks, music, etc.). Choose “Erase All Content and Settings.”

At this point, the iPad will need to be reconnected to iTunes in order to be activated again. Let the new owner take care of that. You’re set!

 

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Creating Time-Lapse Videos on an iPhone

Time lapse videos have always fascinated me. Maybe it’s the illusion of condensing time to a higher data density. All I know is I’m not alone. Vimeo has an entire channel devoted to time-lapse videos, such as this:

I honestly don’t know how the pros do it, but thanks to the ReelMoments iPhone app, you can join in the fun. Here’s an example that I shot this evening. I used my GorillaMobile iPhone 4 tripod (which rocks), pointed the camera out my living room window and let it run.

You can take this a step further using iMovie for the iPhone to add in a soundtrack, like I did for this sunset at Doheny beach.

Reel Moments is $1.99; a small price for the capability.

One thing I’d still like to investigate is how to move the camera as well. I figure I could rig something up with servos. Any suggestions?