January 2012
128 posts
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Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic →
Brian Lam striking social media gold:
I also stopped reading twitter and facebook regularly, because most of my online acquaintances are nice, but I like to think about these experiences as shallow and yes, also I don’t give a shit about 99% of people I interact with online. I’ve met some great friends online, but once I find them I would prefer to spend that time and energy with the...
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The secrets Apple keeps →
Adam Lashinsky for Fortune, as a teaser for his just-released book “Inside Apple”:
Steve Jobs once said that not talking about the inner workings of the company is something he borrowed from Walt Disney. The creator of the original Magic Kingdom felt the magic the public attributed to Disney would be diminished by excessive focus on what went on behind the scenes.
Interesting...
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Life as a Conscious Practice →
Leo Babauta at Zenhabits:
Be aware, without feeling guilty or angry at yourself, of what you’re doing and thinking. You will forget to do this, but remind yourself.
That’s what I’m trying to do. Be aware.
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iPad Textbooks: Reality Less Revolutionary Than... →
Wired:
“Is there any real learning advantage from electronic textbooks? Probably not,” said Ron Owston, director of the Institute for Research in Learning Technologies at Canada’s York University. “It will just be more up-to-date learning.”
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In defense of slow TV →
Todd VanDerWerff at A.V. Club:
But watching some shows slowly and taking time to savor their episode-by-episode pleasures will often unlock a world you didn’t know existed within a show you’ve been curious about or one you already loved.
He gives the example of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Sopranos. He’s absolutely right.
These shows are like a good bottle of whisky, meant to be enjoyed in...
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Stupid Apple Rumors →
Collecting all rumors that are unfounded.
Too bad almost every media outlet has resorted to posting Apple rumors like they’re Kim Kardashian’s newest failure.
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How the Kindle replaced my iPad...for book reading →
Scott Stein at CNET:
My all-in-one convergence iPad is a distraction machine. I’m a jittery mess. On a plane, I read a few pages, then play half a board game, then watch some of a TV show, then flip through an e-magazine, then read some more. Sure, that probably makes me borderline ADD. My lack of focus isn’t the iPad’s problem. However, I admire the single-use intent of a...
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Google’s Broken Promise: The End of "Don’t Be... →
Creepy line, consider yourself crossed:
Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.
I’ve been mostly using DuckDuckGo (and...
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“Good work tends to happen only at the end of day: when the fear of accomplishing...”
– Alain de Botton (via landay)
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Chuck Palahniuk's 13 Writing Tips →
First rule about Fight Club…:
At the end of writing Fight Club, I had no idea what to do with the office building. But re-reading the first scene, I found the throw-away comment about mixing nitro with paraffin and how it was an iffy method for making plastic explosives. That silly aside (… paraffin has never worked for me…) made the perfect “buried gun” to resurrect at the end...
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Look Lazy, Be Productive →
Scott H Young on the pitfalls of improving your productivity:
Part of the problem is our entire conception of work and life puts them at odds. We talk about work/life “balance” as if the two things were weights on a scale that too much work or too much fun would ruin the equilibrium.
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A Peek Behind the Publishing Curtain →
Veronica Roth, author of ‘DIVERGENT’ (Goodreads’ Favorite Books of 2011), gives a rare insight in how books get published:
I think it’s important to put aside a somewhat romanticized view of book writing in which it’s just the author and the pages and sometimes the editor. And the reason I think it’s important is that there are so many people involved in this...
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Jonathan Coulton on Megaupload and Piracy →
Must-read article:
So I have a lot of trouble with the idea that the federal government is directing resources toward an ultimately ineffective game of piracy whack-a-mole (with some unknown amount of collateral damage to law-abiding citizens), when we are not even sure that piracy is a problem.
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How a Barista and Losing a Quarter of a Million... →
Ryan Waggoner:
You have to ask for what you want. And a surprisingly high percentage of the time, you’ll get it.
Don’t assume, just ask.
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“In education and K-12 we sold twice the number of iPads as Macs. Education...”
– Apple’s earnings call
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Audiobooks.com →
Serious Audible competitor right here:
Unlimited, unlimited, unlimited audiobooks! So fantastic, we said it 3 times! Forget the hassle of waiting for your book credits to arrive or dealing with monthly limits. Now you can listen to all the audio books you want, when you want to hear them. No strings attached. Listen Anywhere, anytime Whether you’re at home, at work or on the go, with...
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Making something work for you isn’t hard. A talk... →
Macgasm doing an interview with the creator of Instacast. Inspiring story behind a great app:
So I looked around a bit in the App Store, but I wasn’t really blown away by what was available. Everything seemed to be over-engineered already and too complicated for a beginner like me. And the apps weren’t very good-looking either. So I decided to start a podcast client project on my own.
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The Fallacy of Information Overload →
Brian Solis at PandoDaily:
We are, for better or for worse, always on. And this is both part of the problem and part of the solution for how we evolve as individuals and as an information society.
I’m writing a book, currently titled “Overload: Living in the Information Age” and have to agree with Brian Solis that there isn’t an ‘Information Overload’ per...
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We need an exit from Google →
Dave Winer:
I want search to be search and just that. I want the same search everyone else gets …
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Rundskop nominated for a "Best Foreing Language... →
It’s a movie about the hormone maffia in the meat industry, and the language is actually my hometown dialect. This is so awesome.
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Amazon Studios →
Great move by Amazon:
Amazon Studios will award a combined $84,000 in January and February, as well as $1.1 million in Annual Awards for the best test movie and script from 2011. There is no charge to participate.
(via Ben Brooks)
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Dropbox CEO: Apple MobileMe team wanted... →
Seeing the direction Apple is taking with iOS and iCloud, I would argue that the file system is on the way out. So I find it a bit weird that the Finder team would have nicked the project:
(Dropbox CEO) Houston said that apparently the team behind the failed cloud service MobileMe wanted to add a Dropbox-style feature directly into OS X (for use with MobileMe) but that the team responsible for...
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TaskRabbit →
Another, similar one:
TaskRabbit gets you in touch with friendly, reliable people who can help you get just about anything you need done, and put some free time back into your life.
Love how this has small works like ‘Change the light fixtures in my bathroom’ on it. Would love to start using this!
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Social, But Not Completely Open →
Randy Murray on the corporate unifying theory of social networks:
I like social separation. I don’t particularly like things that try to munge together every aspect of my life.
That’s why my favorite social networks are GetGlue (entertainment) and Path (true friends).
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David Popely: My GTD Set Up →
Notebook übergeekiness:
I think this entire system can be run using shop-bought plain white ruled paper, with some unlined for printing the odd sheet.
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§ Apple and the Price of Textbooks
Fraser Speirs for Macworld:
It’s worth noting, though, that the iBooks ownership model makes it possible that the education system as a whole will end up spending more on textbooks. Selling a $75 textbook for $15 is break-even for the school if their paper textbooks only lasted five years. Many schools have books older than that.
Very good observation there. Most schools (in Belgium at least)...
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Coffee and Power →
Interesting concept of microjobs:
You tell others what you are willing to do or need done, right now, for how much. The map shows your listings along with those of other people. You use SMS and your mobile phone to quickly make/receive offers and get paid.
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Our Secret Handshake Is Not An Algorithm →
J.D. Bentley writing the best piece of and about blogging ever:
While sites of the past felt like secret clubs which demanded a secret handshake (that human connection), today’s sites are often mass-produced marketing nonsense, their secret handshakes being nothing more than an effortless algorithmic assumption on Google’s servers.
Do not underestimate the power of the niche.
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Elmore Leonard on Writing →
The Daily:
“Everything is written longhand,” Leonard said in a recent interview. “As I’m writing, I’m crossing out as much as I’m writing. Finally, I hit a sound I like and go with it. If I have three or four pages at the end of the day, I’ll think, ‘Good.’ That’s the way I’ve been doing it for 60 years.”
Unbelievable insight in the man behind “3:10 to Yuma”, “Out of...
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Piracy is part of the digital ecosystem →
Frédéric Filloux in an excellent Monday Note for The Guardian:
By slicing the global audience in regional markets, both the industry (Apple for instance) and the local governments neglect a key fact: today’s digital audience is getting increasingly multilingual or at least more eager to consume contents in English as they are released.
Just look at the graph he offers up, comparing US to...
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RIM CEOs Give Up Top Posts in Shuffle →
The Wall Street Journal:
After 20 years together at the helm of Research In Motion Ltd., Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the company’s co-chief executives, turned over the top job late Sunday to a little-known insider as part of a board and management shuffle.
RIMshot.
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§ The Case for Books
A book is not a piece of art, it’s a new world of thought created by the author. It’s not only a story, but also the stage. It’s not only a thought, but also argumentative researching.
It’s not a blogpost, just depicting an idea.
It’s not a tweet, offering information that’s only relevant for a certain small amount of time.
It’s not a podcast, just...
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Pinboard Blog: Don't Be A Free User →
@MrBerre points me to this blogpost by Pinboard, in regards to the Formulists news:
So stop getting caught off guard when your favorite project sells out! “They were getting so popular, why did they have to shut it down?” Because it’s hard to resist a big payday when you are rapidly heading into debt. And because it’s culturally acceptable to leave your user base high and dry if you...
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Formulists: Goodbye from Formulists →
This is very sad. A service I used and enjoyed very much. It will be missed.
formulists:
Like all start-ups, we have been working within a very tight budget for a while now, and are sad to announce today that due to cash constraints we will have to shut down…
(via Pieter Massoels)
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The Productivity Donkey →
Nice metaphor by Derek Sivers:
Buridan’s donkey is standing halfway between a pile of hay and a bucket of water. It keeps looking left and right, trying to decide between hay and water. Unable to decide, it eventually falls over and dies of hunger and thirst.
(via Asian Efficiency)
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The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author... →
Dan Wineman:
Apple, in this EULA, is claiming a right not just to its software, but to its software’s output. It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty. As far as I know, in the consumer software industry, this practice is unprecedented.
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One Thing Google Failed At (Despite Billions... →
Sarah Lacy at PandoDaily:
Whatever the reason, my guess is if Google didn’t figure out the next great business model of the Web in the last seven years, the company never will.
And betting their ‘one trick’ for a strong foothold in social might even make things worse.
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“I consider Tweetbot to be the best designed Android app available for iOS.”
– Justin Williams speaking the truth.
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The Evil New Tactic Behind Anonymous’ Massive... →
Disturbing:
With previous versions of LOIC, participants had to acknowledge this risk and press a button labeled “fire.” But now, it appears some enterprising anonymous member has retooled it so that it automatically fires if you click an unassuming link and leave a window open.
(via Bert Heymans on Google+)
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iBooks Author for Authors →
Matt Gemmell:
As with any publishing workflow, you will want to do the writing and editing first, and then put the book together (as much as possible). iBooks Author is resolutely not a writing environment.
It will be an interesting exercise to do this when (if) my book ever gets finished.
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DailyPath →
Looks promising:
DailyPath is a community of people learning and accomplishing new things together. Pick your Path, subscribe in 10 seconds, and get a short, actionable lesson in your inbox every day for two weeks.
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Megaupload.com Gets Hit By Mega Piracy Indictment →
While we all know MegaUpload was used for illegal stuff, this still is scary:
The indictment alleges that the website and a shell company associated with the website, Vestor Limited, caused an estimated half-billion dollars in copyright losses and made an estimated $175 million in proceeds.
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“But if we can make the textbooks free, and they come with the iPad, then they...”
– Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson