March 2012
“I say just shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
– - John Gruber, Dell Executive: ‘We’re No Longer a PC Company’
I like that Gruber has a memory. He cites Michael Dell in 1997 suggesting that Apple — facing financial difficulties — should shut down and return the money to investors. But regarding Dell: I think he...
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Nobody Gives A Damn About Google+ →
parislemon:
Ouch.
A quote from that site I refuse to link to:
Visitors using personal computers spent an average of about three minutes a month on Google+ between last September and January, versus six to seven hours on Facebook each month over the same period, according to comScore, which didn’t have data on mobile usage.
3 minutes versus seven hours. I mean, 3 minutes!
The sad thing is:...
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“Probably the biggest change is going to come from the changed definition of what...”
– Steven Johnson on the future of reading. (via explore-blog)
February 2012
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Yammer Raises $85 Million in Financing Round Led... →
Yammer raises $85M in a third round, bringing total investment to $142M, after tripling sales, head count, and paid seats in 2011.
Says a lot about the maturation of the work media marketplace.
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“Hopscotching between new Metro programs and old Desktop ones–which is what most...”
– - Harry McCracken, Windows 8 Consumer Preview: One Step Closer to the PC’s Future via TIME.com
Microsoft’s huge gamble. If they lose with Windows 8, they will be just another enterprise software company, with a number of shrinking divisions that should/could be sold off or spun out.
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I Hate Wikis
I confess that I hate using wikis. They’re a mess. I like more fundamental structure, like posts on a group blog, or explicit interviews, and old style long-form writing.
I was having a discussion with Will McInnes about this, and I decided to solicit others’ thoughts, leading to this:
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Amplify/Clipmarks Shutting Down Service... →
I received an email today from Amplify, a Gimme Bar like service that has been around a few years (and a former client of mine), saying that the service was shutting down immediately, which is a bit ungracious. Usually a service will give users a month or two to export or transition. I tried to open my old account but access seems to be closed.
There is the hope that the closed-beta alternative...
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Facebook's New, Entirely Social Ads Will Recreate... →
Purportedly leaked documents make it seem that Facebook is planning to depart from conventional advertising, where brands can muster ‘stories’ from your friends to make the case for their products rather than advertising content:
E.B. Boyd via Fast Company
“When people hear about you from friends, they listen,” the Facebook materials say. “We’ll expand your...
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“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”
– Bertrand Russell
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Metcalfe's Law, Reed's Law, Boyd's Law: A Post...
[originally posted on Aug 20, 2006. I dug out of the archives because of the Knight News Challenge on Networks, which refers to Reed’s Law. It’s still topical reading.]
Back in 2003, at my old, old blog, Timing, I wrote a post, that laid out the basis of Reed’s Law, which is now relevant because of the of the recent IEEE Metcalfe’s Law brouhaha. Fred Wilson recently noted...
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“@futurefeed: Social mobile on the rise http://t.co/a0gejQ5G More than half of US...”
– February 27, 2012 at 06:26AM via http://bit.ly/wG3meS
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Habits Are The New Viral: Why Startups Must Be... →
Eyal makes a good argument: that virality — users inviting their friends to try an app — is less important (and more annoying) than habitual use of apps: habit is the new viral.
Nir Eyal via TechCrunch
The Curated Web Will Run On Habits
Increasingly, companies will become experts at designing user habits. Curated Web companies already rely on these methods. This new breed of ...
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“@stoweboyd: Nearly 40% of all transit commuters in the US are in metro New York...”
– February 27, 2012 at 02:10AM via http://bit.ly/yqrs43
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“@stoweboyd: NYC is top US user of public transportation: 30.7% of all commutes...”
– February 27, 2012 at 02:09AM via http://bit.ly/AlggLa
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“@stoweboyd: in ‘09 just 10% of US workers use car pools; 76% of US workers...”
– February 26, 2012 at 01:55PM via http://bit.ly/zWcPLa
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“@stoweboyd: NYC has the longest average commute time in the United States: 34.6...”
– February 27, 2012 at 02:08AM via http://bit.ly/xJUtTW
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“@stoweboyd: 379.4M Europeans went online in November 2011 for an average of 27.8...”
– February 26, 2012 at 08:33AM via http://bit.ly/ybV3xv
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“You shouldn’t get attached to a feature set. You should get attached to a...”
– Caterina Fake
(via entrepreneurwisdom)
(via msg)
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AOL’s Tim Armstrong Knows How to Play Nice With... →
Goldman: AOL is a brand with a lot of baggage. It makes people remember that dial-up-modem sound and those free CDs.
Armstrong: One of AOL’s biggest assets is its brand. For people over 30 and, due to AOL Instant Messenger, even a lot of people under 30, AOL was their first real interaction with technology in a positive way.
Goldman: You’ve decided to turn it into a content company. But a...
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Mind-reading can be improved with a dose of...
A study in the journal Biological Psychiatry shows that mind-reading can be improved with a dose of oxytocin—a brain chemical often called the ‘love hormone’ because of its role in trust, friendship and bonding.
Researchers at Rostock University, led by Gregor Domes, tested 30 males’ mind-reading ability—how well they could infer the mental state of another person—after either a dose of...
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LinkedIn Connect Fail Syndrome - Mark Birch →
Birch makes a solid bunch of recommendations, based on the fact that no one has time for unsolicited, empty connections:
LinkedIn Connect Fail Syndrome - Mark Birch
Do not fall into the trap of LinkedIn Connect Fail Syndrome. If you are trying to connect with someone that you do not know, be informative, specific, and brief. I provided some recommendations on using LinkedIn effectively in a...
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“@stoweboyd: To think outside of the box, you first need a box...”
– February 26, 2012 at 04:25AM via http://bit.ly/w0Gu3f
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“@stoweboyd: ~60% of new job in the last two years have gone to 20-34 year-olds...”
– February 25, 2012 at 02:36PM via http://bit.ly/yqP5Yk
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“@stoweboyd: US home ownership rate fell from peak 69.4% in ‘04, by Q4...”
– February 25, 2012 at 02:35PM via http://bit.ly/wAL0zS
“We think in generalities, but we live in detail.”
– Alfred North Whitehead (via courtenaybird)
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5 Minutes on The Verge: Khoi Vinh via The Verge →
Q: Who’s doing the most interesting desktop app design these days?
Vihn: I’m passionate about the Mac and what’s possible on the desktop, and I think independent Mac developers are some of the most creative minds in technology… but right now the most interesting thing happening on the desktop, by far, is Apple’s iOS-ification of OS X. They’re clearly in the...
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“@roxannedarling: @stoweboyd This is a significant trend I’ve noticed too;...”
– February 22, 2012 at 01:59PM via http://bit.ly/xDbqd8
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“@erikstarck: @stoweboyd sliced careers, service jobs, hobbies that generate...”
– February 22, 2012 at 12:54PM via http://bit.ly/ziMXJN
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“@matthew_maurice: @parislemon Is it just me or would MS announcing Office for...”
– February 22, 2012 at 12:41PM via http://bit.ly/xZe5r0
Some notable dates in the far future
intothecontinuum:
Compiled below is a selection of estimated dates for some events given certain assumptions in the evolution of Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe. Most events are of an astronomical and cosmological nature though some are geological. A more complete list from which the ones included here were taken can be found on Wikipedia.
In 10,000 years - The end of humanity,...
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“The right to access every building in the city by private motorcar, in an age...”
– Lewis Mumford
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“@OccupyWallStNYC: “Occupy” Named 2011 Word of the Year...”
– February 20, 2012 at 05:05AM via http://bit.ly/zFsYk9
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“@GigaOMPro: What do dubstep and the future of everything have in common? Read...”
– February 22, 2012 at 12:01PM via http://bit.ly/wGTatH
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On People, Parking, And Cities - Michael Manville... →
Searching for authoritative numbers on how much of urban space is devoted to cars, I found this gem by Manville and Shoup, People, Parking, And Cities. The authors debunk the numbers bandied about by many — two thirds of LA is devoted to car use, etc. — as being undocumented if you follow the trail of citations. They found that Meyer and Gómez-Ibáñez (1983) had proposed an inverse...
“What man had rather were true he more readily believes.”
– Francis Bacon
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Driverless Car Could Defy the Rules of Sprawl -... →
Briegmann wonders if the driverless (autonomous) car would lead to reduced congestion, but also greater sprawl?
Robert Bruegmann via Bloomberg
The driverless car might well substantially alter all the equations: the division between public and private, the collective and individual. Transportation policy has never been as clear as the polemics on the subject would suggest. The taxi, for...
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Aussies' fix for 'stagnated' email - Ben Grubb via... →
Looks like a bunch of ex-Googlers are building the ‘Liquid email’ product I’ve been writing about and dreaming about:
Ben Grubb via Sydney Morning Herald
One thing Fluent aimed to change about email was presenting it in a stream that lets one action items as quickly as possible, Adams said.
“So rather than having to receive a message, look at the subject, click on it,...
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“A well-ordered humanism does not begin with itself, but puts things back in...”
– Claude Lévi-Strauss
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“If we are feeling distracted, we should pay attention to that distraction. It...”
– Cathy N. Davidson - Distraction is Our Friend
In a response to Hanif Kurieshi’s wonderful The Art Of Distraction, Davidson lays down some pretty good thoughts, too.
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This Will Make You Smarter: 151 Big Thinkers Each... →
Popova reviews ‘This Will Make You Smarter’, where various smart people pick a single idea to help you understand the world a bit better:
Wrongologist Kathryn Schulz, whose recent talk on the psychology of regret you might recall, finds optimism in “the pessimistic meta-induction from the history of science” — the idea that, because we now know scientific theories of yore have...
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IPad Killing Printer Use, Paper Sales [Survey] →
emergentfutures:
Paul Higgins: has certainly happened with me. I will email documents to GMail that I need to read or take to meetings. I will send documents to my iPad that I use to run workshops - run sheets, timings , etc. Also send presentations to my iPad into Prezi Viewer so I can practice them on a train or plane. The important difference to my laptop is ease of carrying and the speed of...
“Microsoft’s biggest miss was allowing the world to finally see the truth behind...”
– - Patrick Rhone, Microsoft’s Biggest Miss
(via underpaidgenius)
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“Duhigg notes the efforts Target must make not to “spook” customers with obvious...”
– - Nathan Jurgenson, Predictive analytics and information camouflage – The New Inquiry
Jurgenson coins the term ‘information camouflage’: companies that mine data about us, discern a pattern they can exploit, and then conceal that knowledge by randomizing the torrent of ads and...