I love Facebook. If you’re on my friends list, you know I use the heck out of it. I post links to things I find interesting 5-10 times daily — indeed, things that are fully-awesome — all in the hope of building a list of wonderful things that may entertain and amuse a few of my friends as they stumble along their way. But, I didn’t always love Facebook. There was a time, many moons ago, when the thought of sharing life stories and whatsits, reconnecting with pre-school crushes, dealing with “pokes” and likes was downright repulsive.... [Read more]
I think it’s fair to say that Amazon is a bellwether for things to come in the swirl of holiday purchases. This year’s announcement that the company fulfilled more ebook sales than paper book sales seems like an appropriately big deal, even if it’s guaranteed to give my mother-in-law palpitations. Likely the biggest culprit at Amazon is the Kindle, and while we don’t know how many were actually sold this year, Amazon says it was the highest-selling product in the company’s history. It beat the iPod touch — historically top-seller around... [Read more]
I was a skinny kid. Through elementary school and middle school, I was the tallest in class, and the scrawniest. I wasn’t very athletic, and dealt with some gross motor coordination issues that kept me from being anything terribly graceful. When I was 11, my dad brought home our first computer, and Apple II in 1983. When I was 13, EA released Bard’s Tale I: Tales of the Unknown. I was 11 when I discovered computers. I was 13 when I fell in love with technology. And, since I wasn’t naturally good at moving around, and had some internal spark of talent at... [Read more]
The great thing about the vast majority of musicians is that they are at the same time gracious and generous people, and hungry for attention. That means, if you point a microphone at them and turn on a little red light, by-in-large, they start singing. So it was when Curt and I started Acoustic Conversations a few years back. The first show was a convoluted mix of stunning flamenco riffs lovingly gifted to us by our good friend John Carlson and poorly mic’d wannabe talk radio. Still, that conversation sparked something cool, and posted a stitch in time that leads... [Read more]
As much as I love Google products, and use them daily, here is a perky brick to the ethical head. The following quote is from Google CEO Eric Schmidt in the current CNBC Google Blockbuster. If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it’s important, for example that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that... [Read more]
So many cool things floating around the internet, I must have been hyped up on sneezing pandas when this most exquisite piece of work bubbled to the surface. It’s “Panic Attack!” by Uraguayan filmmaker, Fede Alvarez. Head over here to watch it for yourself. The news that surrounds this short film is interesting all alone: Alvarez has been signed to Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures to develop and deliver similarly themed freaky flicks. All I can think is “Cloverfield” — which has A) already been made and B) was super-excellent.... [Read more]
Google, sometimes you are water to a drowning man. With your fancy, model-breaking free services, your forever-beta attitude, your kicking font. So many services, so many configurations, so many thoughtful ways for a simple man like myself to divulge my personal information. But this month, you have showered me with useful things. So man, in fact, that I have to shout it from the rooftops. For Google Apps Users I’ve been a raving lunatic for Google Apps since they launched. For those not familiar with the service, Google Apps allows you to take your domain name (like... [Read more]
A quick post and a tip today, and a letter to my friend Tony, a Flash guy. Dear Tony, I think about you often when I work on the web. It starts out fondly, and quickly turns to rage when my browser crashes thanks to over-abundance of Flash advertising which destroys my favorite sites. I think of you, Tony, because, since you’re a Flash developer, this experience makes me hate you, just a little bit. That’s why I’m writing to let you know about ClickToFlash. ClickToFlash is a browser plugin I’ve installed for Safari on the Mac which allows me to... [Read more]
Anyone want to know how much I love this photo? Anyone? Seriously, ask and I’ll tell you. I love it with the white hot passion of a star gone super nova. I love it, because it’s a picture of rocks. It’s a picture of rocks about sex and God, with a dash of good humor and a pinch of humility. I love it because the man who made it is a man who loves more than anything to work with his hands. You can feel it when you pick up one of these rocks, the surface so smooth it’s as if nothing is there. And yet, the messages are at once salient, and impossible... [Read more]
This is a picture of a scorpion embedded in plastic. I’ve had it for about 30 years — grandmother gave it to me when I was a kid — and I have since passed it on to my 7-year-old daughter. Because, you know, nothing says little girl like scorpion embedded in plastic. I like this scorpion because it reminds me of just about every service provider relationship I have. In these relationships, predictably, I am the frog, and they are the scorpion. You know this story, right? From Wikipedia: The story is about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across... [Read more]
Technology blog Techcrunch.com has long held the banner that there will one day come a “Google Phone” — a phone branded by Google itself, bearing the Android operating system, not offered in partnership with a wireless provider. This is sort of big news. See, currently, in the United States, if you want a cell phone, you start at a wireless provider, like AT&T or Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile, and you pick out a phone that works for you. That phone will be locked to that provider, meaning that the wireless company will be subsidizing the cost of the... [Read more]
Tiger Woods lay down his clubs today. From TigerWoods.com: I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What’s most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing. After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person. Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially... [Read more]
I’ve never really worked on the whole “time-to-market” thing with my photography. It’s always just been slogging along there, coming up the rear as I’ve taken on other creative projects for clients. Case in point this picture from a recent family portrait session. The three shots of this sweet little girl came from the first lighting test shots of the session, but somehow unlocked her inner model. She knocked out the “Three Monkeys” poses in succession and, with photoshop magic, we suddenly have triplets. But the inspiration for... [Read more]
The last year has brought a flurry of activity in the project productivity circles around the concept of Social Media. It’s buzzword-heavy discussion, rife with recommendations on using so-called Web 2.0 tools to streamline information sharing, centralize data storage, and build communities online. To be sure, the latest suite of net tools in this basket range from revolutionary, all the way to downright nifty. But the question remains: will your projects benefit by simply embracing fancy new tools? It’s safe to say that up to about two years ago, what we call social... [Read more]
In 1983, when the video game Dragon’s Lair was released, I was 11. The video arcade was on Nevada Avenue. It was next door to Fantasy Adult Video. While the video games in the arcade were not of the adult nature, the dumpster behind the facility certainly was. In a related story, a Canadian university has been unable to track down men in their 20’s who have not been exposed to adult content. I’d like to thank the Fantasy Adult Video dumpster and my friends Dogan and John for making me ineligible for that particular study today. On Saturday mornings they... [Read more]
