December 2011
“There is one case-study by a man, with a very, very interesting mustache, who is...”
– Merlin Mann recounts Malcolm Gladwell.
November 2011
"Ultrabook Prices May Fall 5-10% In The First Part... →
And most likely 30% in Q2, due to unsold inventory.
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US judge orders hundreds of sites "de-indexed"... →
Ars reports on the setting of a ominous precident:
After a series of one-sided hearings, luxury goods maker Chanel has won recent court orders against hundreds of websites trafficking in counterfeit luxury goods. A federal judge in Nevada has agreed that Chanel can seize the domain names in question and transfer them all to US-based registrar GoDaddy. The judge also ordered “all Internet...
“Security researchers at Columbia University have accused HP of selling printers...”
– Ars Technica
Straight out of techno thrillers from the 1990s.
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“The trouble begins with a design philosophy that equates “more...”
– Brian Eno on the current state of software and hardware design (Via Wired)
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“General managers submit weekly reports, measuring factors like traffic and...”
– NYTimes.com on Zynga.
Ignore the rest of this article for a moment and just focus on Zynga’s data obsession, an obsession shared by many other start ups and one being adopted by established companies.
Here’s the rub: anything Excel can’t measure, Pincus can’t see.
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A Few Bad Apples
If you think the collapse of Groupon’s stock price signals the bursting of the tech bubble, I suggest you pull all your assets out of tech investments now.
Because you don’t understand ‘tech’ in the least.
Using Demand Media and Groupon as barometers for the technology industry is idiotic.
There’s no other way to put it.
It the near equivalent of declaring the...
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Awkward Language Today
Following up on this morning’s observation, here are some examples of awkward language as a sign of innovation or change:
Smart Phone: This is a horrible phrase because it has no opposite. ‘Feature phone’ is a nonsense euphemism used by people who work for carriers and device makers. ‘Dumb phone’ is dismissive term used by smart phone users, who can’t...
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The NYT on the NYPD's Tactics Against Reporters →
More than anything else surrounding OWS, this trend is what worries me most:
Over several days, New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers.
Reporters with The Associated Press and The Daily News were arrested while taking notes. A radio reporter was arrested as she recorded several blocks from the park.
All...
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Where language is awkward, innovation is occurring. New experiences precede their proper descriptors. The starkest sign we’re experiencing something completely new is a lack of appropriate words.
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Par for the Course
Business Insider was founded by a guy who made millions off banner advertising and someone convicted of securities fraud. Somehow this makes it not seem as evil. Just expected.
I bet their third employee is a guy who’s a wizard at tentatively tying technology business news to pictures of hot ladies.
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Business Insider: What's your favorite Steve Jobs memory?
Susan Kare: Among my favorite memories is watching the movie "Flashdance" with him three different times. (He insisted that Jay Chiat see it too).
Netflix is Reviving Arrested Development →
Very cool, but feels years late.
Fast Company: LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman On Groupon's... →
fastcompany:
FC: Big data is also why you have faith in Groupon
RH: Yes. There’s two points on which a lot of the discussion about Groupon misses key insights. First is what exists with Groupon today: both scale and data. Data becomes important because of the scale. If you look at the core service that…
When dealing with data, it’s good to think about the data’s...
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Ultrabooks We'll Meet at CES
Since last year’s Tabletcetera failed to produce a challenger to the iPad, PC makers are shifting their sputtering-flashlight-like focus up Apple’s product line towards the red hot MacBook Air.
According to TechCrunch, manufacturers will field 30-50 Ultrabooks at this year’s CES 2012. Given the learning curve of today’s PC industry, I fully expect ASUS, Acer, and their...
“Being hand-drawn, each piece is different, even when the same design is drawn by...”
– A computer scientist at Michigan State is developing a system for identifying and attributing graffiti, reports New Scientist.
The tag as a Captcha, which is translated into a check-in so it may be visualized with a map, illustrating a tagger’s history.
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The Difference Between Amazon and Apple
Let the Kindle Fire reviews wash over you and you’ll notice a theme: the price is mentioned early and often. The price is employed as a caveat for both detractions and compliments.
Reading these reviews has helped me realize, or at least find the words to describe, the fundamental difference between Amazon and Apple. The two companies can be summed up simply:
Amazon creates great deals.
...
Demonstration Sports at the 1900 Olympics →
Via Wikipedia:
Angling
Ballooning
Boules
Cannon shooting
Fire fighting
Kite flying
Jeu de paume
Lifesaving
Longue paume
Motorsport
Pigeon racing
Water motor-sports
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The Good Kind of Control
One can’t read Isaacson’s Steve Jobs without thinking about focus, a demand for control, and the costs and benefits of each.
Isaacson examines (clumsily) how Job’s focus produced massive success while causing him to abandon basic social graces. His refusal to compromise in pursuit of a product made everything else disposable, including people. Discovering a tray-loading CD-ROM...
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“We’re introducing a method that lets you opt out of having your wireless access...”
– From the Official Google Blog post, “Greater choice for wireless access point owners”.
To stretch a metaphor, I’d suggest all retailers should append “_notake” to all their product tags if they don’t want me to steal them.
Seems fair. Now they have a choice.
“In a hypothetical future world, Harte says the bank will offer a futures market...”
– Australian bank CommBank will trade you financial incentives for your social network data.
A stark example of an emerging trading floor.
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“It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it...”
– NYTimes.com.
These are the dreams of agoraphobic over-sharers who want to get back to disruption free programming.
Either our future selves are the most boring people alive or Google needs to hire an anthropologist.
Bill Clinton: Steve Jobs' Go-Between
What do people do when they can’t talk to Steve Jobs? They talk to Bill Clinton.
Many years later, after Friedland had become a billionaire copper and gold mining executive—working out of Vancouver, Singapore, and Mongolia—I met him for drinks in New York. That evening I emailed Jobs and mentioned my encounter. He telephoned me from California within an hour and warned me against...
“I mean, I have it all!” said Patricia Dugan, a senior majoring in management,...”
– The NYTimes on converting abandoned McMansions into UC Merced dorms.
This article is an odd mix. Sure, that’s NY Times language. But do I detect a bit of NY Post privileged liberal scorn?
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“We looked at the impact of user-generated content and social media, CNN...”
– CNN Senior VP Jack Womack, an a staff email announcing dozens of job cuts. (Via TVNewser)
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Zynga Asks Employees to Give Back Stock →
CNET reports. Add this to reasons to run away from your current employer:
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock...
“She sees a nutritionist, who has measured her body’s muscle mass, fat...”
– The Telegraph profiles Adriana Lima and what she does to be a Victoria’s Secret model.
“Imagine the U.S. Census as conducted by direct marketers - that’s the...”
– The Pinboard Blog.
Yup.
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“Many people credit Nook purchases to in-store customer service. Where do users...”
– My friend Brian paraphrasing Nook Evangelist Ted Patrick, who spoke at an event last night.
To answer his question: if your device sells because people see it in person, but your competitor is selling more and has a higher retention rate, logic dictates more and more people will be exposed to your...
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Device Specs have Become Meaningless
We’ve talked before about the diffusion of physical, contained devices across servers and services. The iPhone 4S’s Siri only works with the help of a server farm in North Carolina. The Kindle Fire’s Silk browser derives a speed boost by routing requests and processing through Amazon’s web services. Both devices cache files in cloud storage.
These types of devices disrupt...
“But the most impressive thing about the Nook Tablet — and the whole Nook...”
– Dan Frommer on the freshly announced Nook Tablet.
Let’s think about the Nook for a moment. More than any other consumer electronics device, the Nook drives me mad. It short circuits the marketplace by appealing to tech writers, not consumers, and uses shiny features to hide the single...
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“We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years. We spent a lot of time...”
– Laurene Powell, Steve Job’s wife, in Isaacson’s book. (Via The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell)
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If you believe Groupon is worth $12.6 billion, I have a discounted hot rock massage to sell you (a $255 value).
“Similarly, when iPod sales took off in 2001, Apple realized it could pack so...”
– Businessweek details Apple’s operational innovations.
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The era of the tall ‘infographic’ cannot end soon enough.
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“[One Laptop Per Child]’s Nicholas Negroponte, speaking at the Open Mobile summit...”
– TechCrunch.
If you ignore how goofy this is in actual practice, you may realize this is the perfect engineering and design constraint for approaching a new product.