Archive for November, 2008

One of the greatest failures of modern computers is the lack of options we have when choosing a way to interact with them. Whether it’s a mouse, keyboard, or pen pad, the medium through which we manipulate our computers is the most important link in our workflow. An 8-core Mac Pro can’t read your mind (yet), so unfortunately we still must rely on rather archaic modes of interaction to get machines to do our bidding. Whether by choice or necessity, most designers use the good old mouse, a device which dates back to 1963 and remains largely unchanged since its inception. Sure, they’ve added lasers, buttons, and scroll wheels, but these aren’t exactly conceptual quantum leaps; the humble mouse still adheres to a fundamentally flawed model for human-machine interaction. I don’t know what’s next, but I can bet it isn’t multi-touch, at least not for us designers.

Pointing devices have always been an important issue for me, when I was in my early 20’s and getting started in design I had to wear a brace for nearly a year and learn to work with my left hand to overcome the repetitive stress syndrome brought on by mousing. This prompted me to get a pen pad, but of course I skimped and got a low end off-brand and really never took to it. I have tried the Wacom tablets, which are admittedly more precise and ergonomic, but after so many years with a mouse it’s hard to make the switch to such a foreign system. That said, I am planning to finally get a good Wacom this week and start the long road to learning it and from what I have heard from other people, I would recommend any young designer not yet set in their ways to strongly consider making the investment and learning Photoshop / Illustrator with a good tablet. Your wrist will thank you and so will your productivity. But the truth remains: most of us still use mice. Go to even the biggest design firms and you’ll see row after row of desks with mice sitting on them. This article is for everyone like me who either doesn’t want to fork out $400 for a decent tablet system or just can’t make the switch from the mouse.

Let me start by saying that I believe Logitech is about the only real player in the mouse game at this point. There are a lot of other competitors, but none offer such a wide variety of options and features in their products. And specs aside, none in my experience come close to the real-world functionality I have found in my Logitech mice. I have looked into many of the specialty companies that offer so-called “ergonomic” mice but have never gone for one since it seems I always have to sacrifice so much in the way of functionality and features to get to the improved ergonomics. I have owned about 10 Logitech mice and all have served me well in different capacities but none have really excelled across the board. I judge my mice on three criteria and in this order: precision (and I don’t mean the quoted DPI of the device, I mean how precise it really handles), ergonomics, features (wheels, buttons etc). What follows is a list of my favorite mice from over the years, why I bought them, and what I liked and didn’t like about them.

Logitech MX518
This was the first “gaming grade” mouse I bought. The proliferation of gaming mice has been great for us as designers. Apparently we aren’t a large enough group to warrant many purpose made mice but there are a whole lot of gamers out there and they’re driving the market for high precision pointing devices, forcing the manufacturers into a game of one-upmanship in regards to resolution and features, both of which benefit us as designers. The MX518 also marks the first time I went back to a corded mouse after the thrill of cordless had faded. I have never been a fan of cordless mice, they run out of batteries, lose reception due to interference, and are generally less precise than their corded brethren. But many of the best mice are only available in the cordless variety (more on that below) so at times I’ve had to compromise. But that’s one of the things that keeps me coming back to Logitech, they always have a very good selection of corded mice while most other manufacturers are obsessed with cordless (as if a small cord on your desk is so cumbersome, it reminds me a lot of the glossy screen craze that has killed off the matte screen.) The MX518 is, to this day, my favorite mouse. I still have it around and plug it in for large projects. It’s extremely precise, has a good tactile feel when moving it across surfaces, and has enough extra features to be pretty competitive. It has a rudimentary DPI toggle with 3 level settings which is a big plus when moving back and forth from Mac to PC on a KVM switch as the two OS’s have very different mouse behaviors. It also helps to be able to adjust the sensitivity on the fly as the situation dictates. The MX518 is also one of the last corded optical mice you can buy as most new mice are laser-based. Unfortunately, this mouse does not have the MicroGear wheel which I love (more on that below).

Logitech G5
I got this mouse because it boasted higher DPI, a laser, braided cord (less tangling) and a custom weighting system. I love heavy mice, I took my MX518 apart and filled it with quarters to make it more solid and precise so the G5 seemed great because it had a built in weighting system out of the box, no quarters required. The only issue I had with it was the lack of a “forward” thumb button, something which the MX518 had. The image below is off the new (and ugly as sin) version of the G5, the old grey one that I had only had one thumb button. It’s still missing the MicroGear scroll wheel, but with the added thumb button this new version would probably be my favorite if I owned it now. Alas, I left mine on stage at a show (San Diego I think) and it was never seen again. R.I.P.

Logitech G9
I bought the G9 when I lost my G5 thinking it would be a logical progression in features and ergonomics to its predecessor. It also sports a MicroGear scroll wheel so I thought I couldn’t go wrong. I did. I never liked this mouse, it feels weird in my hand, is too flat, and only has 2 extra buttons. For $100 I want a little more. But this is all beside the point, I left this mouse on stage at a show (detroit?) and never saw it again. Two G-series mice down.

Logitech MX Revolution
This is without a doubt the most advanced mouse you can get. It has a thumb wheel, MicroGear Scroll wheel, and three extra buttons. The only things lacking are a DPI toggle and a cord. I really wish the revolution came in a corded version, the battery life is pretty bad and the battery itself is prone to failure (a fact well-documented in forums all over the web). Mine is sort of in half-failure mode. Sometimes it charges and sometimes it doesn’t, but it always says the battery is dead which is annoying. It’s also not quite as precise as the corded mice above. Regardless of all that, it now serves as my primary mouse for everyday use. The thumbwheel is amazing for OS X (expose etc.) and if Logitech either worked out the battery issue or offered a corded version, this would be the only mouse I’d ever use.

Logitech MX1100
I bought this for two reasons: It seemed to have all of the features of the MX Revolution but with replaceable batteries (thereby fixing my main gripe with the Revolution), and it sported a DPI toggle. I also has a new feature which allows you to lock out the MicroGear scroll wheel which is very nice depending on the situation. It takes AA batteries, has an on/off switch, and boasts an extremely long battery life. I put Eneloop rechargeables in it and it worked out great. I love the ergonomics of this mouse and I love the features, but it’s just not very precise. When I got it I noticed something was off and kept trying to tweak settings to get it right to no avail. I run Steermouse on OS X and the Logitech software on Windows and no matter what I tried I couldn’t get this mouse to act right. All in all this thing was a huge disappointment if only for the fact that I had such high hopes for it. I now use it when I travel since it has the on/off switch and doesn’t require a charging station. It works great in this role but I certainly don’t use it to design at home. For some reason, when trying to make very small circular motions with its resolution breaks up and you end up drawing little squares instead. Not a huge deal for browsing the web, but a deal-killer for graphic design tasks.

So there you have it, my admittedly biased mini-reviews of the Logitech lineup. In the end it’s all about your preference so I encourage you to try out as many as you can to find what suits you best. Hopefully I’ll have a tablet review in a month or so once I get up to speed with the Wacom. If you have any experience with these mice or recommendations of others that I haven’t mentioned here please speak up in the comments.

Hamburg’s Tensnake maybe best known for his remixes for musicians like Junior Boys or Sally Shapiro but I just picked up this tropical slow burner from Beatport last week and it has helped me with cold walks to the subway. All the synth noodling and night drive long chords that keep the song flowing makes this track a recent favorite. It all reminds me of a 80s jam that I can’t put my finger on that I use to listen, let me know something pops in your head because its buggin’ me.
Vancouver’s Cobblestone Jazz helps me with my attempt to get some people here into deep house once again, there is a lot more than just the Wal-mart electronic select fav Mark Farina’s Mushroom Jazz series.
Nathan Fake at one time had me really excited, I thought he’d be the one to really stretch his sound and nail down where melodic techno and prettier synth rock would go hand and hand. I’ve really haven’t been impressed since his debut album “Drowning In A Sea Of Love” which features this beautiful Superposition song.
I was thinking what’s the best way to start off December? Vince Guaraldi Trio that’s how.

Tensnake – Congolal

Cobblestone Jazz – 5th Element

Nathan Fake – Superposition

Vince Guaraldi Trio – Skating

I got a chance to check out the M83 / School of Seven Bells show last night at the Fillmore (sorry for the bad pic, all I had was my iPhone). School of Seven Bells is a recent signing to Ghostly so it was nice to finally see them after hearing so much via the label and Jakub’s posts. M83 put on a great show as well, I saw them a couple years back at Bimbo’s 365 with Ulrich Schnauss and it was somewhat tame so I wasn’t sure what to expect this time. It was still your average shoegazy affair but there was definitely a different level of energy to the whole thing. A nice touch to the was their synth rig. I spotted a Doepfar Modular and a DSI Prophet 8. I could have sword I saw a Jupiter (6 or 8, not sure) in there, but given that all their other analogs were modern I’m betting it was something else. The only thing I was disappointed by was the lack of visuals, although the lighting did a pretty good job of making up for it. Anybody else catch the show?

And here are the videos for Teen Angst and Don’t Save Us From The Flames, both of which fit very well stylistically with the Graveyard Girl video.

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice short time off, I definitely did by digging thru some older songs and found a few favorites that we’re hiding. It’s a tiny bit crazy that this blog has pretty much a list of all my favorite songs and posting 4 a day sometimes will really make you dig deep thru old mp3s and burn old cds onto the computer that weren’t on before. Scott is definitely working on a player for the blog and pretty much that will make me close my iTunes and Pandora and i’ll just sit on iso50 all day.
These 4 tracks today are all on the gentle tip but all different styles. The first song I remember buying it at a record store in Royal Oak, MI called Neptune Records, the clerks would suggest some of the best music and i’d end up going broke a few times. I found a great description of the song below on Boomkat out of the UK – “‘A Spire’ hits a more gradually rhythmic pace, a hypnotic banjo strum loops into infinity over which a developing cresta of vibraphone notes, guitar stabs and tonewaves congregate. By the midpoint all that’s left is a lonesome acoustic guitar and piano replaying a sublime melody before slowly all the other instrumentation rejoins taking the track to a deep blue finish”.
This Studio song is a favorite, this record is never left out of anything I do, everything from loading my iPod, DJ sets, mixes for friends, whatever you name off this is on it. It’s like Surf music served up for an eager disco crowd, each part brought in gives you more of what you’d be asking for if they were right in front of you and making it for you.
If you follow any Detroit Techno scene then you know Maurizio, its like stripped down hypnotic techno from a distance, I always picture a thick python slowly wrapping around its prey and squeezing tighter with every lap up the body that it makes.
We’ve all seen Crocodile Dundee and if you make music I feel everyone once in their life has tried to fit in a digeridoo in a song they’re working on, don’t lie and say you haven’t because you have because you wanted to make this exact song but i’m going to share this with you that it can’t be done because Peter Best killed it and it can’t be topped.

Tape – A Spire

Studio – Life’s A Beach!

Maurizio – M-4.5 (Untitled A)

Peter Best – Theme from Crocodile Dundee

Gavin Potenza is back with more incredibly authentic stamp designs. You may remember Gavin from his German stamp series I posted on a while back, this time he brings us stamps from all over the world. Loving these, particularly Canada and Brazil. More images and info are over at Gavin’s site.

Jeff Toll turned me on to a new group tonight: the Austin, TX based psych-rock outfit Experimental Aircraft. Loving the intensity of this particular track, “Upper East Side” from their “Third Transmission” album. On a side note, the album cover was auto-generated in MS Paint as part of a machine intelligence experiment. First a machine is fed basic parameters and then it generates various shapes, at each step randomly determining whether or not to anti-alias the shapes. It then adds a lens flare.

Experimental Aircraft – Upper East Side

It’s been over 4 years since Khonnor has released a proper release and today we have an exclusive EP announced here first on the ISO50 blog. Khonnor has always had a strong imagination for genre hopping and quality noisy melodies and this EP has it all and leaves you wanting more but instead you just end up playing songs over and over and get hooked, thats what happened to me. Also, note that PhilistineDSGN made the cover above, if I know the designer i’ll do my best to link to their portfolio.
I first heard this Marz track on a accordion sampler cd that I found in the Ghostly office. Some of the best clapping you’ll ever hear sampled here. Reminds me of Efterklang or Mum but a lot more uplifting.
Animal Collective have a new album coming out in January and I guess Grizzly Bear leaked this song on a blog and its such a treat, they are back to the unique tribal indie sound which I adore, the last minute and a half might be the highlight of the month in what i’ve heard.
Onra is a pretty sample heavy electronic hip hop producer that my friend John turned me onto. I started to go thru the musicians whole catalog and there is gem after gem of interesting sounds.

Khonnor – Pea Mag Gourmet

Marz – 1,2,3,4 bars

Blind Man’s Colour – Brother Sport (Animal Collective Cover)

Onra – The Comet

DDR Design – East German Design from 1949 – 1989.

Taschen most of the time never fails, I could probably close my eyes and grab a book by them at random and find something fascinating to look at. The products here are a showcase of consumer products from East Germany during this period in time. The simple shape and color schemes make today’s consumer product designs look like gimmick covered nonsense in my opinion.

Not to be bias but i’ve listened to plenty of Radiohead “Reckoner” remixes in the last few weeks and this Mux Mool one is the by far the best. You can put it up next to anyone’s even the Flying Lotus and Diplo ones, here it is for free, let me know what you think and if you’re a YTMND fan then you should listen to it this way.
The last few days i’ve had Label owner/musician Peter Kersten(aka Sten or Lawrence) stay at my place and we’ve shared a lot of videos and music back and forth until the early mornings. He has a couple of beautiful releases out this month on Dial and Spectral Sound, this Divided song is out tomorrow, it is by far one of my favorites, if you like any of the softer melodic 4/4 songs i’ve posted then this is a must have.
Kompakt’s Mikkel Metal has his own genre I believe, he puts out these dark shuffle songs that just keep me entranced until the last note and its accompanied by some really nice hints of vocals.
I don’t know much about this Paul Lansky track besides reading somewhere that Radiohead sampled him and this track isn’t for everyone but if you can get in the mindset and take on 9 mins of this then by all mean do it, I think its rewarding in a way and enjoyable.
Last but not least Peter showed me this Werner Herzog footage from “The Great Ecstasy Of The Sculptor Steiner” its the opening scene, I will be hunting this video down, the camera shots and color are breathtaking.

Radiohead – Reckoner (Mux Mool remix)

Lawrence – Divided

Mikkel Metal – Kaluga

Paul Lansky – Idle Chatter

“The Great Ecstasy Of The Sculptor Steiner” – Werner Herzog

I designed the ROOST line of snowboards for Forum and will be giving one away this holiday season. Just purchase anything from the ISO50 Shop between now and January 31st and you’ll be entered to win. The board in question is the Forum ROOST Devun Walsh 161 pro model with all the upgrades. If you win and would prefer a women’s size you can trade it out for an ISO50-designed K2 Solace (women’s). You can also choose to have the board signed or unsigned. All the details are over here. Good luck!