February 2012
28 posts
Information does not want to be free
Information (content) does not want to be free. Instead, information just wants to be distributed friction-free. That’s a big difference, and also the massive opportunity that should be at the center right now.
Source Andy Weissman
Who cares? →
Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money.
Like most things that are worth doing, it’s not easy at first and the one who cares isn’t going to get a standing ovation from those that are merely phoning it in. I think it’s this lack of early positive feedback that makes caring in service businesses so rare.
Source Seth Godin
The Biggest Risk to the Economy in 2012, and... →
Modern technologies allow us to shop in real time, often worldwide, for
the lowest prices, highest quality, and best returns. Through the Internet
and advanced software we can now get relevant information instantaneously,
compare deals, and move our money at the speed of electronic impulses. We
can buy goods over the Internet that are delivered right to our homes.
Never before in...
How ridiculous, right? How absolutely petty and meaningless are the things we...
– These iOS vs. Android Flame Wars Have To Stop | TechCrunch
1 tag
Flickr’s Upcoming Makeover
Flickr’s Upcoming Makeover:
The new photo view will hit on Feb. 28, Mr. Spiering said, and with it comes a new upload interface. Flickr’s uploading page now looks more like an app than a website. Goodbye, retro blue links. Hello, swoopy drag-and-drop.
(Via Shawn Blanc) I’m not sure this will be enough for me to want to renew my Pro membership.
Kenya's Startup Boom →
technologyreview.com
Local programmers and homegrown business models are helping to realize the vast promise of using phones to improve health care and save lives. Erick Njenga, a 21-year-old college senior wrapping up his business IT degree at Nairobi’s…
From The "Um, What?!" Department
parislemon:
Google now asks you to enter your credit card as part of the Gmail signup flow. Bold. twitter.com/rmatei/status/…
— Robert Cezar Matei (@rmatei) February 22, 2012
This is going to go over well.
Wow! I guess Apple has 100 million credit cards and Google wants some of that?
parislemon: What If... (Office For iPad Edition) →
parislemon:
Watching the back-and-forth yesterday about the whole Microsoft Office for iPad thing was nothing if not amusing. The basic rundown:
“It’s coming, here it is.” “That’s not it.” “Yes it is.” “No it’s not, but we didn’t say it’s not coming.” “A Microsoft employee showed it to us.” “No…
The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The... →
It's Okay To Be Smart: Where we came from:
10... →
jtotheizzoe:
Where we came from:
10 YEARS: The amount of time that it took to sequence the first human genome, at a cost of $2.7 billion.
9.5 YEARS: The amount of time that it would take you to read the human genome, continuously, were it printed in a book. Oh, and that book would be the size of 200…
Magic.
Warning: You Might Be a Terrorist If You Buy Your... →
underpaidgenius:
[…] under new “Suspicious Activity Reporting” guidelines from the FBI, paying for small purchases in cash should be considered a suspicious activity, perhaps tantamount to reading aloud from the Anarchist’s Cookbook in a public space. The flyers, which offer guidelines to the public about how to determine if that strange man in the coat is plotting to blow you up or merely...
Why Don't Americans Elect Scientists? →
jtotheizzoe:
Among the 435 members of the House, for example, there are one physicist, one chemist, one microbiologist, six engineers and nearly two dozen representatives with medical training. The case of doctors and the body politic is telling. Everyone knows roughly what doctors do, and so those with medical backgrounds escape the anti-intellectual charge of irrelevance often thrown at those...
The Titanic Is Unsinkable! →
parislemon:
Is it just me or does every single comment that Samsung product manager Chris Moseley makes to Pocket-lint read like they’re going to come back to bite him (and his company) in the ass in a few years?
“TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is...
1 tag
How to avoid sounding dumb when you write about...
Via Scoop.it - From the Apple Orchard So, you want to write about Apple? Lots of people do these days. The company is a household name, its financial performance is virtually unparalleled, and it makes products that millions upon millions of users enjoy every single day. Via tuaw.com
In the Sichuan province of China, there is an abundance of orchards but no bees....
– Jed Fuhrman, holder of the McCulloch-Crosby Chair in Marine Biology at USC College (via climateadaptation)
In his book “Time Wars,” Jeremy Rifkin suggests that many of the conflicts...
– A must read for students of Cyber-Anthropology
MODERN PRIMITIVES
(via wildcat2030)
Hello, Mr. Chips →
1 tag
January 2012
36 posts
"Spouting Nonsense" →
parislemon:
Tim Worstall, a Forbes contributor, absolutely rips apart the anti-Apple tone of the recent stories about Chinese factory conditions.
This, alongside Tim Cook’s response and the letter to The New York Times from BSR President and CEO Aron Cramer refuting just about everything attributed to an anonymous “BSR consultant” in the most recent NYT story, certainly makes it seem even more...
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Paula Deen Diabetes: Reactions to The Butter... →
The Huffington Post News Editors, huffingtonpost.com
After serious rumors starting swirling about Paula Deen’s diabetes diagnosis, reactions were swift and of the “well, duh” variety. No one could have been that surprised that a woman who pushes butter- and fat-heavy recipes for a living…
1 tag
Tool! →
MPAA Chairman Christopher Dodd, the former senator from Connecticut, called Wednesday’s protest a “stunt” that will hurt consumers.
“It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services,” Dodd said in a statement. “It is also an abuse of power, given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the...
Switching to Tumblr — Brad W. Allen →
bradwallen.com
January 18th, 2012 I want a blog that doesn’t require maintenance. Simple as that. The content on this site will not be ported over. Mostly because it’s a pain in the ass to get the content from WordPress to Tumblr but a little bit…
Hmmm … for similar reasons I am considering a move back to Wordpress.com from a self hosted Wordpress.org blog. Only thing missing from...
Jorge Quinteros: 11 Random Thoughts From an... →
jorgeqfolio:
You can’t be oversensitive about your work, especially if you’re just starting out. It’s ok to embrace the memories and feelings you felt when you took the photographs but along with that should come the confidence to share them regardless if they’re praised or criticized. Stop glorifying every…
Robert Reich: The Romney Tax Loophole →
robertreich:
After refusing for weeks to release his taxes, Mitt Romney now says he’ll do so — by tax day, April 15. But the real news is what Romney has now admitted about his taxes.
It’s not how much Romney earns. Everyone knows he’s comfortably in the top one-tenth of one percent.
It’s how much he pays of…
Morality and Persecution →
mattgemmell.com
I recently read the Pope’s latest homophobic statements with disgust, though not with surprise. Pride of place [among proper settings for the education of children] goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a…
And to religion, I offer the language of my own ‘faith’, that of science: evolve, or die.
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In comparison to an iPad …
… How many times have you seen someone doing a video call from a tablet? How often have you seen someone hook up a tablet to a 50-inch HDTV and use it to play HD movies and games? How many people do you know who have hooked up a keyboard to their tablet and completely ditched their laptop?
Microsoft Signature
Microsoft:
Many new PCs come filled with lots of trialware and sample software that slows your computer down—removing all that is a pain, so we do it for you! Every PC the Microsoft Store sells is put on a software diet and performance is tuned to run the best it can.
We call this process Microsoft Signature.
Matt Gemmel:
Mac users, on the other hand, call it every computer we’ve...