Les Yeux Sans Visage

I was fascinated to read about the success of the face transplant performed on Isabelle Dinoires, the French mother of two. Science has done what most thought was impossible, or at least thought somewhat out of bounds. Dinoires has a new face and can feel like a human again.

I hope she lives a long life now that she’s been given some semblance of a normal one, thanks to her doctors and the donor, Maryline Saint Aubert. Even so, I don’t expect this to happen. Dinoires’s face was ripped off by her dog after she passed out from a drug overdose. Some descriptions of the “attack” make it sound like the dog was vicious, but I don’t think that was the case.

Her dog was in fact a Labrador, a breed about as menacing as a bag of donuts. Dinoires had overdosed on sleeping pills in what some allege may have been a suicide attempt. Instead of attacking her, I believe the dog was only trying to save her life (the dog was later euthanized).

That was just seven months ago. If Dinoires was indeed attempting to end her life, I wonder if this ordeal has changed her mind, showing her the value of life. Then again, if ever she had the motivation to end her life, those seven months spent without a face provided her ample opportunity.

I’d be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt if she hadn’t resumed her chain-smoking habit against her doctors’ orders. Smoking restricts blood flow to the tissues, which can trigger rejection of her new face. On the other hand, one doctor pointed out the tremendous stress she’s been going through.

Will she be able to handle the tremendous stress? Will she successfully avoid becoming some sort of oddity? If she was at one time trying to end her life, how have those seven months changed her mind?

I really, really hope I’m wrong, but I can’t help but wonder if we’ll be seeing that face again.

Training

I’m training 30+ people this week in the product I sell as a sales engineer. It’s added up to long days, especially considering how frequently I’ve been on the road lately.

Blogging has to take a back seat until I can come up for air. In the meantime, help yourself to some woo.

Why I Hate Computer Mice

I was a little groggy when I waited in line for breakfast at the Orange County Airport’s McDonald’s. I noticed the cash registers at Mickey D’s have become far more sophisticated than they used to be; indeed, they are more or less commodity PCs. The only thing different is there is no mouse.

I began thinking about how a cashier would fare having to line up and push a mouse around the screen every time she entered orders. It would take twice as long to take an order, at least! Computer mice aren’t as easy to use from a standing position as they are from a seated one (in my opinion, anyway).

This brings me further into my longstanding issues with a lot of computer interfaces. For all the marketing that went into them, the mouse-and-menu model is spectacularly clumsy. There is little intuitive in steering a mouse around to get what you want. A substantial amount of movement and thought must go into translating those hand movements into a place on the screen.

That’s when I realized how efficient touch screens are. Tablet PCs and PDAs use touch screens. Most use them to an advantage, though not all. My Sharp Zaurus has a brain-dead, menu-driven interface which likely played a role in killing it as a product. Good touch screen interfaces eliminate the translation step of hand movements-equate-to-pointer. The user might not be consciously aware of this mouse-work, but it nevertheless is there, potentially adding stress to her work.

There is little thought wasted in poking a button on a screen to make something happen. Over eons humans have learned that poking something is a good way to provoke a reaction. Interfaces designed to take advantage of this let users get right to the point (no pun intended). Such users spend their time doing their work rather than fighting a mouse.

To summarize: The computer mouse beats typing, but still isn’t as easy as a touch-screen. Interfaces overflowing with menus are bad. Let out the caveman in your users by making your interface caveman easy.

Las Pages

I’m in the middle of a multi-city business trip. A highlight was a stay in Boulder with my good friends the Hibbles. As I told them again and again, its a shame that work had to get in the way of a good visit.

Now I’m sitting in the Las Vegas airport, awaiting my flight to LA. I’ve stopped in the Vegas airport a few times now. Both times didn’t impress me. I was desperate for some food but the vendors offered little that interested me. It was crowded, dark, and noisy from the ever-present slot machines. I found myself wishing to get out of there as fast as possible.

Today, however, I found a saving grace for LAS: free, airport-wide wireless networking! Finally something better to do than surrender money to slot machines or space out watching the Idiot Box. All airports should do this! For real.

(Bonus points for having a power outlet convenient to my chair.)

Promising Day For Travis

Today is a promising day for Travis’s recovery. He slept soundly through the night, woke up happy, got into crawling position by himself in the bed, and only complained a little when I changed his diaper. He chattered happily at breakfast, too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him attempt a few steps today.

This injury has been tough on everyone. On Travis, of course, but also on us – knowing that we can’t really do much for him but watch. It’s good to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

T Is Feeling Much Better

Travis is feeling much better today. It’s amazing the difference a few hours makes. He wasn’t happy this morning when we put him in his clothes. Ever since, though, he’s been pretty bubbly, considering his injury.

We went to the airport after breakfast to look at the planes. It was looking like a warm day but by the time we got out there the wind made things pretty chilly. Travis had a good time on my knee, watching the occasional plane take off or land. Kelly and Hallie raced down the kiddie runways though they never could gain enough speed to leave the ground. After some fun there, we stopped by Goodberrys on the way back to pick up an after-lunch snack.

Lunchtime was a big turning point in Travis’s mood. He kept screeching “DADDY!” with pure delight – one of the first times he’s really called my name (though Kelly says not to be disappointed if he calls the cat Daddy as she’s seen him do). We all had a fun lunch, if not totally filling for the kids, and then proceeded to afternoon naps.

Kelly read Hallie her stories while I did Travis’s naptime. He was close to an hour beyond his normal naptime but didn’t show any signs of stopping. He chattered on my lap for close to an hour! It was fantastic seeing him so happy, but naptimes are for napping! When I finally put him in his crib he wailed more from boredom than pain.

He’s still snoozing now as I write this. Kelly took Hallie out to the fabric store. When they return, we’ll grill up some hamburgers and enjoy the rest of this beautiful Saturday.

Travis is Still Hurting

Our injured Travis had a better night last night, though he’s still not moving his left leg much at all. And he’s still crying out whenever it gets moved for him. Kelly’s got another call in for the pediatrician to see what next steps might be taken.

I want our happy boy back!