By: Ryan, on February 24, 2010

I wanted to give a quick shout out to the community team here at Backcountry.com that just launched gear videos. You can upload videos of gear in actions for everyone else to see. This was a huge effort that was completed largely by our programming intern Ross who worked on this effort while also working on his mid-term finals.

Gear video lets you either upload a video file which is then added to our youtube feed and embedded to the product page, or embed a video you already have on Youtube to our product feed. One more way that Backcountry.com lets our customers create killer content about their gear!

Mark Abma Talks About the Salomon Shogun

Tim J From Backcountry.com Talks About the Norrona Lofoten Jacket

Congratulations to the community team! Great work!

By: Ryan, on February 16, 2010

Fascinating. A lot of people in my profession joke that most people think of the computer as being a screen and a mouse/keyboard behind which magic happens. But it never really occurred to me that the vast majority of people (at least in Times Square) don’t even know the difference between a search engine an a browser, let alone why to use one over another.

Via UX Magazine

By: Ryan, on

Yup. There’s not much else to say.

By: Ryan, on January 19, 2010

So you just woke up, downed two shots of Bourbon and you’re ready to go wander around an outdoor shopping area or whatever it is you do with your pathetic self. You look outside to find that there’s mysterious white stuff falling from the sky. Don’t panic! Put down the Wild Turkey and read the following tips for surviving the wintry carpocolypse.

Clear Windows > Snow-Covered Windows

So you made it out the door and the Sherrif/Repo man is nowhere to be seen. Before getting in your Malibu, it’s important to brush the snow and ice off of your windows. Nothing is going to turn a good day bad like wrecking in your parking space because you couldn’t see and didn’t want to invest 3 bucks in a scraper brush.

Yes, this means you.

Spinning Tires > Locked Up Tires

This point might seem obvious be a little tricky to understand, but spinning wheels have significantly more traction than wheels that are not spinning, just ask the guy in the snowbank. The reason for this is actually pretty simple physics rocket science. Imagine that a spinning tire is not actually moving in relationship to the road, whereas a skidding tire is. The traction is significantly greater for the spinning tire (not moving in relation to the road) than the skidding tire (moving in relation to the road).

Moving > Being Stationary

So you made it out of your driveway with clean windows and spinning tires, you’re already well on the way to having a good time. But oh no, there are some things blocking your way (drivers that didn’t read this post and are stuck in the snow bank). Do whatever you can (within reason and safety) to keep moving. Another little physics lesson: It takes less effort (work) to keep an object in motion that is already in motion. Remember how traction is greater when the tire is not moving in relation to the road? Well now the same thing that keeps you rolling straight when you’re moving is working furiously against you to keep you from moving and you don’t have any traction because of those bald tires, which brings us to the next point.

Snow Tires/Chains > Bald/Summer Tires

If you anywhere that has a lot of snow (North of the Mason Dixon Line, the mountains, Mother Russia, etc.) you should consider snow tires during the winter. Skip on to the next point if you’re already a little overwhelmed, because this next bit is complicated. When you’re skidding on ice it’s because of two main factors, 1. the friction coefficient we’ve discussed on end and 2. hydroplaning. Hydroplaning is what happens when water sneaks in between the tire and the road and causes the tire to move in relation to the road (sounding familiar?). Snow tires help you get better traction by 1. increasing the initial friction coefficient (by being made of a softer material) and 2. providing more options for that water to escape. They won’t stop skidding if you try really hard (which I imagine you are), but they will significantly reduce it.

Don't be this guy.

AWD/4WD > 2WD

Now you’re probably saying, “You can’t roll in a Subaru with dubs.” Yes Mr. Stereotype, this is probably true. However, there’s a reason all those people driving Subarus are not buried in a snow bank. Another lesson perhaps? Let’s say an engine has X amount of power, 92bhp like your CRX does. When you try to lay that incredible power down through the front wheels only, you’re towing the back wheels like deadweight (remember trying to overcome that static friction?). However, when all for wheels have power going to them, each wheel is overcoming the dreaded (or celebrated) static friction and moving the car forward more easily.

More Weight > Less Weight

Of course you already knew this, didn’t you, fatty? Remember the guy in the pickup from before?

Yeah, this guy.

Another factor influencing your traction is weight. A vehicle with more weight exerts more downward pressure on the road (on account of gravity, a lesson for another day) and increases the friction (assuming the wheels are spinning) between the tires and the road. So while your manly man’s pickup might have 4WD, it won’t do you a lot of good if you’ve got the equivalent of a midget pushing the back wheels down.

Your pickup's traction solution.

The simple solution is to add some sand bags to the bed, or more midgets, whatever is easier to come by.

Being Smart > Being An Idiot

So let’s say you’ve got a car or truck with 4WD/AWD, clean windows, snow tires and an even weight distribution/team of circus midgets. Well, you probably don’t really need to know this because you already graduated from Basic Driving Knowledge School (not required to receive a driver’s license in the US). But driving in poor conditions is dangerous, and it’s not just because of you or the drunk idiot in the Malibu with bald tires going 70mph. It’s dangerous because 95% of the other people on the road are just like the idiot. So try as you might, you will probably get stuck or wrecked because of at least one of these people (probably more). The easiest way to stay safe out there is to NOT GO OUT THERE. Settle down with that bottle of Wild Turkey and turn on the Xbox, you’ve got a long day of fun ahead of you!

By: Ryan, on January 14, 2010

I stumbled across a link in one of those IxDA LinkedIn group emails this morning to a thread about the new Staples home page redesign. I was going to write the OP a note letting him know that I liked the design overall, however, the more I looked at it the more I noticed some serious deficiencies in this design. So instead I wanted to write a quick case on e-commerce home pages and use this page as a singular example.

Read Entire Post

By: Ryan, on January 13, 2010

Punch him in his raptor balls indeed. How Long Could You Survive Chained To A Bunk Bed With A Velociraptor? [theoatmeal]

Via Geekologie

By: Ryan, on January 12, 2010

Last night I was browsing CNN before going to bed and I clicked on the link to this article about upcoming blockbuster movies from the main page. I was surprised (as were the rest of the readers) to find out that Avatar 2 was going to be coming out in 2010, despite the lack of a script. The Book of Eli was left off the list entirely. The original Clash Of The Titans was released nearly 20 years ago instead of the more historically accurate nearly 30 years ago and would be starring an actor named “San Worthington” who seems to have gotten a pretty big break here. Finally the article also pointed out that Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time was going to be based on the original 1989 Prince Of Persia video game instead of the 2003 Sands Of Time installment of the franchise on which the movie is actually based.

San Worthington?

Post “Almost 20 years after the first…” edits.

Now, admittedly this is all pretty nit-picky. But five fairly large errors in one article (possibly more that I didn’t catch) speaks volumes about CNN’s editorial review process. It makes you wonder how rigorous their research is on more important topics and bigger headlines. Do they only bother to read the first few sentences of a Wikipedia entry when they’re reporting on world events as well?

I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of the mistakes observed in the comments had been edited this morning. However, the ones that hadn’t been pointed out were still sitting there clear as day, meaning no one at CNN actually bothered to go re-research the article and do some basic editing and fact-checking. That’s just poor journalism, even if it’s a fluff article.

The last thing, and this is probably an article unto itself, CNN’s profile management is completely broken. I struggled through trying to get my chosen screen name and profile image to show up in my profile last night, but sadly after 8 attempts I decided it was a fruitless endeavor and gave up. That’s a big usability fail, CNN.

By: Ryan, on January 4, 2010

I love this post over on the Signal vs Noise blog about the Suckage to Usage ratio of a product’s features. I think this will be a great tool to utilize on every project I work on in the future.

By: Ryan, on December 10, 2009

By: Ryan, on December 3, 2009

The original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngf5Oo_XrjI

Hilarious and nerdy.