It's not the prettiest girls or the most coy.
The ones that sucks you in is the ones with the deepest drama from day-to-day living.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
This is how Customer Care works - via @Lefsetz #apple #mac #freestuff
You see it worked. On paper, it looks like Apple’s losing money. Having its tech support in America, spending all this time on the phone, sending me free software. But now I’m evangelizing. I’m just telling you, you want to be a member of the cult. You want people to take care of you, you want them to care about you. Owning a Mac is like following the Grateful Dead. Jerry took care of you. Steve might not be as benevolent a character, but deep inside we believe he’s taking care of us too.
via lefsetz.com
Even Bob Lefetz is singing Applecare's praise.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Reclaiming | @sachac on why she read -- or not.
So now I write. Mostly blogs, but I’ve experimented with fiction before. I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that other people see me as a writer – maybe not a Writer, but someone who enjoys and does well with words. I read. Mostly nonfiction, but also children’s literature (which I like because it tends to be unpretentious and not over-wrought), classics, and odd discoveries. I still can’t dissect the things I read, although I’m starting to be able to tell why I like some things and not others. I draw. Not the beautiful drawings my friends could make, but enough to make people smile. I revisit the shop and home economic skills that gave me anxiety in the classroom. I reclaim those parts of self that I’d discarded along the way.
via sachachua.com
Friday, November 19, 2010
Who still loves grunge? "Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation?" via @The_AV_Club
The truth is that I feel little nostalgia for ’90s grunge, and almost no connection to the version of myself that once felt part of the Alternative Nation. I once believed that the rise of so-called alternative music in the early ’90s was the greatest thing to happen in my lifetime—world-changing, no less—but now this notion seems almost too embarrassing to admit in print.
via avclub.com
I can't find a single person from my generation who will admit to still listening to grunde... ok, except Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots.
On the other hand, people have no shame about liking old school hiphop.
Same generation of music, very different outcome.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Reality television remaking reality
Then came the “Social Media Challenge.”
“Our industry is changing,” said the prospective employers explaining the twist. “Social media has become an essential front in stakeholder interaction. We need to see how skillful and creative you are with these tools.”
At first blush, the challenge sounded to Fiona, who quietly nursed a raging Facebook addiction like everyone else she knew, like fun: Log in to a special Facebook page and get as many people to “Like” you as possible. But it wasn’t merely a game.
Fiona was told that she was one of two remaining applicants being considered by the company. The “Social Media Challenge” would not be conducted in some isolated spare office space at her potential place of business, but as a public, week-long contest between her and her competitor for anyone, including and especially her friends and family, to see. If and when she won the challenge, it would increase her chances of getting hired.
It hasn’t always been this way. Somewhere in the history of recruiter/recruitee relations, between the advent of “The Apprentice” and the decline of the global financial industry, the rules of the game took a turn for the dramatic. Beyond simple supply-and-demand, securing a job today—even those of the less-than-glamorous variety—has become something akin to a tooth-and-nail fight to the death in the Roman Colosseum: a spectacle of personal desperation for audiences either real or imagined.
via theawl.com
I've seen job posting where part of the job requirement was to have X number of friends on Facebook.
Ridiculous.
Slowly Replacing Conventional PCs « Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM)
One of the more common sentiments heard this weekend was this realization that conventional PCs are being replaced by one or more different types of computing devices. For example, one friend has recently run into issues with his home router, and himself had been using a Palm Pre Plus to get his email and communicate with people. He’d gotten tired of his wife asking for his mobile for email/games/browsing, and she soon also adapted the use of a Palm Pre Plus. Now, their laptop sits mostly unused, and they manage most of their digital lives on smartphones.
The Importance of Abandoning Crap - Modern Nerd
I remember the sad words of my Cello teacher when I announced I was quitting that:
“Don’t tell me you’re starting a bloody rock band.”
I told her I’d defected to the guitar because it doesn’t have a nine-inch steel spike in one end, a missing fret board, or a sad role in a Bond movie where Timothy Dalton uses a £1.4m Stradivarius to steer a makeshift toboggan. The truth is this: the Cello got tough at around grade six, so I switched to an instrument that any talentless shitbag can play.
via modernerd.com
Best quote of the day
The word 'bespoke' always confuses me. Every time. - @brianshall
The word 'bespoke' always confuses me. Every time. No matter how often I look it up in the dictionary.
via brianshall.com
I think it confuses almost everybody.
Monday, November 15, 2010
"Tina Brown Is a Hagfish" - Gawker explains why @DailyBeast @Newsweek merger is a bag of fail
But it's only confusing if you think of Newsweek as a magazine that's not doing very well. Think of it instead as a new host for Tina Brown, a parasite, whose own host—The Daily Beast—is dying.
via gawker.com
Funny and kind of mean.
Don't have an opinion right now about this.
Value Village haven't updated their pricelist for books in awhile
I mean, c'mon. When was the last time a mainstream paperback was listed for under $4.94?
#Admob and its pervy ways makes me sad about #Android
I am probably one of the few people in the world who switched from an Android to a Symbian (a little bit of Maemo in-between) and then an iPhone. All in the same year. All three platforms have their strengths and weaknesses.
I am happy with my iPhone now. Thinking back, one of the big problems with Android is Admob.
- It slows down apps as the ad needs to be downloaded first.
- It takes away a lot of screen real estate in an already small screen.
- It sometime gives you really disturbing, pervy ads. Like this one.
Facebook Messaging sounds a lot like Google #Wave with a properly thought out use case.
“This is not an email killer. This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it,” Zuckerberg said. It’s all about making communication simpler. “This is the way that the future should work,” he continued.
Here are the keys to what a modern messaging system needs according to Zuckerberg:
- seamless
- informal
- immediate
- personal
- simple
- minimal
- short
To do that, Facebook has created three key things: Seamless messaging, conversation history, and a social inbox. Essentially, they’ve created a way to communicate no matter what format you want to use: email, chat, SMS — they’re all included. “People should share however they want to share,” engineer Andrew Bosworth said.
All of this messaging is kept in a single social inbox. And all of your conversation history with people is kept.
via techcrunch.com
Wil Wheaton @wilw likes Scott Pilgrim
 Wil Wheaton (@wilw)10-11-14 23:37 Just watched Scott Pilgrim using Amazon on-demand via Roku, and loved every second; it blew away my expectations. 4.5 out of 5 evil exes. |
Sent from my mobile
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Okaay .... @TheDailyBeast @Newsweek to merge. @TheTinaBeast is new Editor-in-Chief
After weeks of rumor, 77-year-old weekly print publication Newsweek, and 2-year-old online news and opinion site The Daily Beast have announced a 50/50 joint merger — and the union’s first casualty is Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim, according to The New York Post.
The new company — to be called The Newsweek Daily Beast Company — will be owned equally by Sidney Harman, who purchased Newsweek for a reported $1 from The Washington Post Co. this summer, and the The Daily Beast’s owner, IAC.
Tina Brown, the current editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and former editor of Vanity Fair, Tatler and The New Yorker, will serve as editor-in-chief of both Newsweek and The Daily Beast. The news of the merger was officially released this morning.
via mashable.com
Wow. I know I don't read Newsweek much anymore. I kinda knew this was coming. But to see this up on Mashables ... all lined up together is scary.
Yeah. This is a takeover.
I still remember when the Daily Beast first started: people were wondering openly if Tina Brown has lost her sanity for choosing to participate in some blog. Now, they are taking over Newsweek.
Who knows what is going to happen? Maybe this is the mini-"Times Warner-AOL" deal for the 2010's. I wonder if anybody used the word "synergy" in their pitch.
The 12 Timeless Rules for Making a Good Publication - Alexis Madrigal - The Atlantic
Here's a transcription of the whole list, for search engines' sakes:
- When in doubt, let a manuscript go back.
- Always remember that the fastidious element in the Atlantic audience is its permanent and valuable core.
- Don't over-edit. You will often estrange an author by too elaborate a revision, and furthermore, take away from the magazine the variety of style that keeps it fresh.
- Avoid mistakes of fact. If a paper is statistical, question the author closely.
- The Atlantic has always been recognized as belonging to the Liberal wing. Be liberal, but be radical only as a challenge to be answered.
- Be careful about expenses. Calculate the cost of each number. Remember that our margin is always narrow.
- A sound editor never has a three-months' full supply in his cupboard. When you over-buy, you narrow your future choice.
- Follow the news. Remember that timeliness means being on time, not before the time.
- Interesting papers on conscience, personal religion, theory of living, are always precious. The Atlantic has three dimensions -- breadth of interest, height of interest, depth of interest. Individual personal philosophy always adds to the depth.
- Keep all suggestions in the Black Book, so that they can be followed up.
- Humor is precious and correspondingly hard to find. Most humor that reaches us is merely jocularity, and it is well to be jocular only when really funny.
- Quick decisions -- except in poetry. Collect groups of verse and make a selection after several readings.
via theatlantic.com
Blogging it here so I can chew on it later.
4Chan and Tumblr.com war? Look like my Tumblr will be down for sunday.
4Chan and Tumblr.com war?
November 12, 2010 By 21 Comments
4Chan's "Operation Overlord Tumblr" poster
Tumblr and 4Chan war? “Ideas” and not copyright are the reason.
via popherald.com
But I guess I can still use my Posterous account.
Monday, November 08, 2010
A Hack for Managing Business Relationships - "How to tell who will waste your time."
the same approach is applicable to a lot of business relationships where you need to prioritize who you spend your time with. I will take an initial thirty minute phone call with anyone; I love how many interesting people this allows me to discover.
via readwriteweb.com
Saturday, November 06, 2010
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