Mis-pinned
I’m in New York for the second time in a week. This trip is for a director meeting on the studio’s dime.
While no one will confuse me for a native, I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the city in the past few years. When people give me cross-streets, I generally have some idea what area they’re talking about. I’m a fast walker and subway enthusiast, so a visit to New York City is an adventure.
The biggest challenge for me is that beginning with my first visit in 1994, I flipped Manhattan north-south in my head. I don’t know how it happened, but whatever map I first studied was 180 degrees wrong, and it’s taken every brain cell to get the city reoriented.1
For years, I’ve been relying on my trusty laminated flat maps of the city. Nothing screams tourist like pulling one of these out while waiting at a crosswalk.
The advent of Google Maps on the iPhone changes all that. Quickly setting a few bookmarks, I can zoom in and out of the city. And if I have to refer to it at an intersection, I just look like everyone else checking email. But it’s not perfect.
You can show where you are, or what you’re looking for, but not both. At least a dozen times, I’ve searched and found what I wanted — only to forget where I was at the moment. Yes, you can bookmark both locations and pull up directions, but a persistent “I Am Here” flag would be a great addition for version 2.0.
Don’t automatically trust the pins. Upon arriving in the city, I searched for my hotel, and bookmarked it. However, it was four blocks wrong — a fact I only discovered when trying to get back to my room after a morning trip to Hamilton Heights. Fortunately, I remembered that I’m right next to the Directors Guild Theater, so it was simple to re-map.
It always assumes you’re driving. When you use the directions, a “walking” option would be a huge help, since it could ignore one-way streets and other restrictions.
Once Apple releases the SDK, I hope one of the first applications is an iPhone-native version of Métro. It’s a terrific mass-transit mapper for the Treo and other platforms, which I’ve used to get around New York, Paris, London and Tokyo. There’s a web version, but that’s not especially helpful when you’re underground and out of signal range.
- It’s not unlike that damn spinning dancer, which is strictly clockwise for me. I can’t even fathom her going the other way. ↩
Articles
October 24th, 2007 at 10:14 am
There is no possible way for the spinning dancer to go counterclockwise. It has to ONLY go one way to make people feel they are creative.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I tried to see the spinning dancer going counter-clockwise. I closed an eye. I closed an eye, re-launched the page, but she is still spinning clockwise.
And, I think it isn’t really about seeing the dancer, there is a subliminal message we see while we look at the dancer.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:59 am
What the heck is that spinning dancer thing? I see it going both ways. It goes one way, then it switches quite abruptly. It happened once when I sort of focused through it. And don’t worry, I’ve never trusted pins. They lie. Always, they lie.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:02 am
That dancer thing is freaking me out. I’ve actually seen her go both clockwise and counterclockwise. I looked away for a moment when she was spinning clockwise, and suddenly she was spinning the other way. I don’t understand!
October 24th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Indeed. Preferably via GPS-esque technology.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:27 am
JA - I don’t believe the iPhone has GPS capability, so a persistent “I Am Hereâ€? flag” won’t be available until that upgrade happens. ($800.00 iPhone?!) Email me if you want to catch a movie while you’re in town!
October 24th, 2007 at 11:28 am
OT: John, If you’re staying where I think you are, there is a “hidden” restaurant there called Burger Joint that is not to be missed.
ZAK
October 24th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Just concentrate on the dancer’s foot (the one that touches the floor), and then convince yourself that it goes the other way round. Or, if you prefer that, imagine that the dancer turns in mid-motion when the foot faces you / away from you. It worked for me.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Even without GPS, the ability to place a marker representing yourself would be a big bonus. That’s a very simple software upgrade.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
The orientation of my original New York map was wrong and it took forever to put it in my head properly. Peter is right about concentrating on the foot of the dancer. I see her go both ways and it melts my head.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
I always wanted to see a map website incorporate traffic data. That way you’d know whether to leave 15 minutes early to get downtown or not.
Living in between Tampa and Orlando there have been times where I will arrive somewhere 30+ minutes earlier than I should have due to the unknown traffic situations.
If I was more enterprising/tech saavy I’d try and create the site myself… but I’m not.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Ok - spinning dancer is tripping me out. My first look and she is spinning gracefully clockwise. Then, if I look down and to the left, she starts spinning the other way. Look at the text ‘the right brain’ just below the dancer at the moment when her foot passes above. I swear. I can make her rock back and forth.
I feel like I am completely stoned.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Dang. Counter-clockwise. After much heavy lifting (one eye at a time, looking from different angles, etc) I finally got her to change directions. All because I want to think of myself as creative.
Then again, it is only with much heavy lifting that I get through the writing of one of my scripts.
RED
October 24th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Mike (#11):
Google Maps on the iPhone does this. Just click the little car. It’s a miracle.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Fuck the direction… I can’t stop looking at that nipple!
October 24th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
The I Am Here flag sounds like a no-brainer. Though while you’re in Manhattan and checking destinations waiting at an intersection, you can just look up at your cross streets. A here-to-there isn’t terribly vital when virtually all the streets are a numbered, regular grid.
Unless you want to go downtown. But hey. Getting lost in Alphabet City builds character.
As an aside, I was firmly of the “It can’t possibly be going the other way” camp on the dancer.
Until one time, at random (I did nothing special), while it was midway through its turn (i.e. its extended leg was hidden in its silhouette, perpendicular to me), it flipped - out of nowhere. I shat bricks. For the next ten minutes, it never made a fully iteration - it just went 180 and then flipped, back and forth.
Then it went back to spinning regularly…the other way.
Since then I’ve resigned it to the realm of wicked sorcery, and that’s the last time I’ve looked at or had anything to do with the Spinning Dancer.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
The iPhone has the capabilities already to pinpoint where exactly you are. In fact, if you had a hacked iPhone, you could be doing this already. Apple just doesn’t want you to yet, for some reason.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Any feedback should go to Apple’s iPhone feedback. I’ll send in a form about this but you might as well. http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
The dancer direction - Squint your eyes a bit and you may well see her spin the other way. At least it did for me.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:34 am
The spinning dancer switches direction after approximately a 30 second interval. You people aren’t going crazy. Look at it this way, it means you’re both creative and logical. Both are positive in my book. Free of charge.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:47 am
Come to Iceland…the capital ReykjavÃk is so small you have no need for a map. Let alone gps.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Two things…one, Zak #7 is absolutley right, if you’re staying at the Le Parker Meridian (which it sounds like you are since it’s right next to the DGA and the only other hotel around there is the Salisbury which is across the street) you really should go down to the lobby by the front desk near the 56th street entrance and look for the massive brown curtain. There’s no indication that there’s anything there except for a small neon burger and an arrow. But back behind the curtain is a great little place. Very simple menu, burgers, fries, shakes, brownies and Sam Adams is pretty much all they do, but it’s great food, and very moderately priced by NYC standards. Second…the damn spinning dancer. This made it around our office the other day and our motion graphics guy and I sat staring at it for a good long while. Both of us only saw it clockwise forever, but I found a trick that worked well for me. If you focus specifically on the shadow of her feet, you may notice that the shadow is moving counterclockwise (or anti-clockwise as the site put it). If you stare at that for a bit and then gradually expand your field of vision to include the dancer you may see her moving counterclockwise as well. Similar to the old Magic Eye pictures where you had to stare at the center and then gradually pull out to see the hidden image. It only worked for a few seconds but it was worth it to run around the office screaming “I SAW IT, DAMMIT!”
October 25th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Hey John,
My husband works for Tele Atlas and collaborates with product developers. I’m forwarding him your post!
October 25th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Johnny (#15)
LOL!! I KNOW. Was that level of detail really necessary? I was wondering if anyone else was ever going to bring that up. I see both directions, but it’s not because of any focus or concentration on my part. She just randomly changes direction from time to time.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:06 am
John! If I might speak on its behalf, NYC welcomes you with open arms )and regrets its lack of sunshine –– you must be properly heralded!) Thanks for your generosity of spirit. I’ve been following your website for weeks now, and am currently reading Charlie’s Angels script and love love loving it. Glad you’re in Manhattan, however briefly. (Restaurant recommendation: If you’re dining on the studio’s dime, try Jean Georges, my favorite –– often they have day of cancellations.)
October 25th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I agree with the group that the feet are the key to the dancer. At first I was convinced that it was a trick; that the animation was reversing itself. I finally asked a co-worker to watch with me, we were able to each see it spinning in a different direction at the same time.
For me, I see a clockwise rotation by default. Staring at the shadow of her foot (center of rotation, not the ’sweeping’ foot) lets me see her go counter-clockwise; staring at the actual foot makes her go clockwise again. Also, I’ve noticed that when she spins clockwise, the sweeping foot appears to remain level, but when she spins count-clockwise, the sweeping foot appears to dip when on the left hand side of the image.
If you enjoy this sort of illusion, check out the video on this page: http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/dragon_illusion/. You can download, cut out, and construct the dragon and see it for yourself. Just be sure to remember that when building your own, it works much better with one eye closed.
October 25th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
John - You need to get installer.app on your iphone. Go to http://www.modmyiphone.com and read up. There is a quasi GPS (It uses Wifi and cell towers to position. It doesn’t always work but it’s a start). There are also some NYC map programs. These are all standalone (IE not web apps). Installer.app brings your iPhone to an all new level of awesomness.
Start here: http://modmyiphone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11048
October 25th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
The spinning dancer switches back and fourth for both my roomate and I. It’s seemingly random, too. We didn’t see it switch at the same times. We can’t force it to spin a certain way, either, no matter how hard we try. Our brains just do it when they feel like it.
October 27th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Take the spinning dancer animation apart and you’ll notice, that each frame can be interpreted as her going in either direction. It’s not a hoax.
Personally I can get her to switch directions by looking at her foot, but mostly it’s clockwise.
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:23 pm
My theory is that the reversal of direction has to do with bodies of water. No, really.
When I moved from Seattle to Manhattan in 1961, I had the same experience (noticed more around confusion between East and West rather than North and South, at least in terms of occurrences that I was aware of). I think it has to do with being oriented to the nearby coast.
It uprighted fine. I stayed in that end of the country for 31 years.
Guess what happened when I moved to California in 1992 and still bothers me a little (now having come full circle to the Puget Sound)? I have to think really hard before choosing East vs. West (but not North vs. South so much, for some reason). Although, now that I think about it, I have this slight, usually caught-in-time urge to take the wrong on-ramp to I-5 here. It’s usually the name of the next major destination city that raises the alarm and triggers my correction.