the Mark Pike

This is my whole-hearted endorsement of Zipcar.

For reals, click here and get $25 free driving right now and thank me later.

Since graduating from school, I’ve been living in metropolitan areas where owning a car and trying to park was simply not worth the time, money, and energy. Plus, public transportation options in Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA were so readily available that keeping up with a vehicle just didn’t make sense.

However, each month there seem to be enough random errands, road trips, etc. that having access to a car was still really important. I didn’t want to be the guy that always bums keys from his friends (thanks, guys!), so I looked into other options.

I walked by Zipcar parking spaces all the time in DC so I knew that it might be a convenient option, but I had no idea just how easy the system was until I signed up at the beginning of the year.

In fact, the first time I used Zipcar was on the way back from a vacation when I realized we accidentally booked a return ticket to a different airport than the one where my girlfriend left her car. The cost of a taxi up to BWI from DCA was quoted at more than $80. Renting a Zipcar for 2 hours? Less than $20. We reserved it the same day, didn’t have to deal with the hassle of rental car company paperwork, and the car was sitting there waiting for us to wave the magic membership card on the windshield.

Sure, there are some drawbacks. 

Right now you have to return the car from the same spot you rented it from, so you can’t drive one-way home from IKEA with a trunkful of Ektorp sofas and several dozen swedish meatballs. The likely issue with this is that the registration system is not advanced enough to compute “smart reservations” wherein you leave a car somewhere and then another Zipcar user picks it up and takes it back to its permanent parking space (much less a completely distributed network that does not rely on permanent spaces). Bike-sharing programs have dealt with this “free-rider” issue of people using the bikes to only zoom downhill by offering cheap rides and free credits for those who take bikes back to their uphill parking locations.

Another minor frustration is that many Zipcar users are infrequent drivers and therefore get lost much more frequently than regular drivers who are more familiar with the road system. This leads to late returns, which can have a domino effect and really screw up your schedule. For example, I rented a truck for one hour in San Francisco to pick up a new bed-frame. The person who had the truck before me was 30 minutes late, which only left me 30 minutes to complete my errand. Zipcar penalizes you $50 per hour if you’re late, so this prevents a lot of abuse in the system— but it happens.

They leave a fuel card in the car, so you can always fill up for free and you’re supposed to leave the tank at least 1/4 full (I always leave it 3/4 full!). They even give you a credit of one free hour if you take the car through a car-wash!

The best Zipcar feature, by far, is the mobile phone application.

While you’re on the go, you can search for close-by available Zipcars using an incredible map overlay. There’s over 20 cars within a half-mile of my apartment— everything from Beamers to Tacomas to Priuses. You can rent for as cheap as $7/hr. You can make your reservation via the mobile app on your smartphone and even— this blows my mind— unlock the car using your phone! The keys are always left in the vehicle and you have to swipe in at the beginning of your reservation with your membership card to identify yourself. One time, I accidentally left my wallet with the membership card locked in the car and didn’t think I’d be able to unlock the vehicle. But then I remembered the amazing mobile phone application that sends a signal to outer space and UNLOCKS the vehicle! Awesome.

As the network economy evolves and data-sharing via social apps is widely adopted, I think the co-ownership model will be incredibly convenient for many of us. Right now, you can count me as a happy customer.

If you want to join Zipcar today, check out this referral code that hooks you up with $25 free driving (and I get $25 too!). It’s only $50 per year, and there’s a one-time $25 application fee. 

Join Zipcar and get $25 in free driving!

As you can tell, I think it’s totally worth it. I look forward to sharing a car with you soon!

I’m finishing up one of my first weeks at work and thought I’d watch a video a few people have been passing around the office on “Why It’s All a Game.”

It’s a fantastic and lively presentation by Jesse Schell, a game designer and professor at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He discusses economic incentives and small psychological tricks that are currently utilized in fantasy games and how we can harness them to similar effect in reality (for example, “Tattoogle AdSense!”).

Earlier this week, CNN posted an article called “The Facebook games that millions love (and hate)” which highlights some of the current crop of games that latch onto somebody’s reality-based social network within the fantasy realm.

A lot of these games seem exceptionally silly, but Schell’s presentation details how we can replicate these meaningless fantasy realms to solve a lot of real world problems. And, in doing so, it makes me feel confident that reviewing policy compliance for fake mafia games is a worthy contribution to society at large.

When I wrote my law school application essays several years ago, I talked about my interest in technology policy and where I wanted to be when I graduated. I just took a another quick look at my application again and it surprised me.

First, I’m lucky the admissions committee let me into school with the cheesy, sophomoric, idealistic essay I sent them.

“… I once read an article in Wired magazine about telecommunications firms that were buying railroad routes and installing fiber optic cable, and how they were using archaic laws from the Wild West to solve new legal issues. This was probably the tipping point, the moment I realized I want a legal background. The parallels in American history became apparent: the San Francisco gold rushes, the dot-com bubble bursts, the Pacific railroads, and the Silicon Valleys. There’s a new high-tech frontier, and I want to be a part of it.”

It’s funny how things work out.

Tomorrow morning I start a new job at Facebook in Palo Alto, CA.

I’ll be joining the staff on the Platform Operations team where I’ll participate in policy discussions and help identify ways developers can make applications that will give users the best possible experience.

I’m really excited about this new opportunity and I look forward to working with so many talented people. The ‘app economy’ is just getting started and it’ll be an amazing learning experience to be in the middle of things.

On the eve of Apple’s big announcement, I emailed a local antique radio collector.

I explained to him that a few years ago I bought a very large Farnsworth radio at a garage sale. It was a beautiful vintage machine, harkening back to the era of wooden analog machines that matched the living room furniture.

The inside of the machine was a mess, but I was inspired by a blog post that detailed how to gut the machine and transform it into a modern iPod jukebox. I never got around to such an elaborate project, and all I did was put old computer speakers inside of the chassis with an auxiliary cable sticking out the top.

But I’ll be moving soon and there’s simply no space for the old Farnsworth. I wanted to make sure the antique radio found a good home if it was actually something in-demand. So that’s why I wrote the antique radio collector.

He wrote back:

Consoles can be difficult to find homes for in the best of conditions: Zenith, Scott, and a couple others are exceptions.

Your Farnsworth is a middle grade console which looks like an AC series which was released Oct. 1939 for the 1940 model year or possibly a BC series which is 1941.

If you get me the exact model number (look for numbers in the format like I have suggested), I can tell you more and maybe find you an ad from a trade journal. I can send you a high res scan if it would be of interest.

The cabinet itself does not look too bad from what I can see. The two killers are the broken dial glass which has the dial scales on it, making replacement a real problem. There are people who silkscreen dials on glass but generally only for popular models or at great expense for a one-off product. The second is typical of many radios from 1940 to 41 and 1946 thru 49. The marbled looking dial bezel was made from a material called “tenite”. Like its big brother catalin, it did not age well.

The aging process, accelerated by exposure to UV, causes it to shrink, typical of the dial bezel, and crystalize, typical for the pushbuttons.

You combine these problems for which there is no solution, with a soft market for consoles, and it is currently an undesirable radio for collectors.

The decorator market, however, goes through cycles, occasionally seeking “vintage” objects for rec rooms, but I am not knowledgeable about which way that breeze is blowing.

With Apple’s Press Conference about to kick-off to announce the iPad, or Tablet, or whatever it will be called, I thought this brief email exchange with an antique electronics collector gives some excellent perspective on why we get excited about these events.

Of course I looked up Philo Farnsworth on Wikipedia in order to learn more about my radio’s namesake. The man invented electronic television, and yet he lived much of his life wondering if it actually contributed to the advancement of society. I was struck by this exchange he had with his wife upon seeing men land on the moon on television.

Elma Farnsworth: We were watching it, and, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Phil turned to me and said, “Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.” Before then, he wasn’t too sure.

We put a man on the moon back then. Nowadays, NASA is getting outsourced and consumer electronics get thrown out every 18 months.

I’m not sure if these new devices will be worthwhile, or whether they’ll contribute to the advancement of society, or whether they’ll even be collectable—but I’ll be watching.

“What happened here?”

The question lingered in the air as our rental car sped along Route 54 in Kansas, somewhere between Wichita and Dodge City. We had no idea exactly where we were, or what had happened until we saw a sign.

GREENSBURG, KS
Rebuilding…
STRONGER, BETTER, GREENER
Home of the “BIG WELL”

That’s when I remembered the Tornado—and everything that came after it.

(Thanks to Chris Cheatham’s consistent coverage of Greensburg on Green Building Law Update)

On May 4, 2007, Greensburg was hit by an EF5 tornado, which destroyed 95% of the city and left the other 5% severely damaged (see e.g., Mike Theiss’ photos, and Jon Person’s photos). Only one building was left standing on Main Street (it’s now an antique store).

But the city decided to rebuild; and, it decided to rebuild “green.” In the words of then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius, “We have an opportunity of having the greenest town in rural America.”

Greensburg had to decide what policies to enact in order to achieve such a green goal. Just 12 weeks after the tornado flattened the town, the City Council presented a thorough long-term plan (.pdf, amazing that they made this so quickly and so well). The Public Square Steering Committee stated it’s vision statement therein:

“Blessed with a unique opportunity to create a strong community devoted to family, fostering businesses, working together for future growth.”

On December 17, 2007, Greensburg made history (.pdf) by being the first place in the country to require all city-owned buildings larger than 4,000 square feet to become certified LEED® Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council and requiring all city-owned buildings to reduce energy use by 42% over current building requirements.

As a passerby on a road trip, it was inspiring to look out the car windows and see such an incredible story of rebirth in America’s Heartland.

Check out the full photo set from our drive.

Stories about typewriters seem to be popping up all over the place this December. I thought I’d collect them here.

• Cormac McCarthy, author extraordinaire, put his Olivetti Lettera 32 up for auction at Christie’s to benefit charity. It sold for over $250,000 after he had knocked out more than 5 million words on it over 50 years. His friend bought him a replacement typewriter for less than $20. In the letter of authenticity, McCarthy typed that the machine “has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose…”
• Robert Caro, biographer extraordinaire, recently wrote his own quick bio for Esquire. Caro wrote, “Every time one of my books comes out, profiles mention that I write on a typewriter that hasn’t been manufactured in twenty-five years. And people send me their old Smith-Corona 210’s for free. I used to have seventeen spares to cannibalize the parts. I’m down to eleven.”
• In Tampa, Florida, a writer chronicled the demise of the county library’s last working typewriter. “[T]he downtown library’s last typewriter sits alone behind a locked door, shrouded with a paper sign, which in big, bold letters reads: OUT OF ORDER. Typed on a computer.”

After reading all these articles, I ran across this great typewriter illustration by Robert Samuel Hanson, whose work in Monocle is fantastic.

Reminds me of a picture I took with my lovely Olivetti Valentine.

In conclusion, I need to type more.