Little children’s drawings turned into art – COOL!
Check this link out, there are lots of really fun drawings. The artists take a little kid's drawing and turns it into something amazing. Here's a taste:
This has got to be a joke: “Appendectomy through the mouth”
Check out this post from Boing Boing:
David Pescovitz : Physicians are now removing appendixes by entering the body through the mouth. The procedure, called Natural Orifice Translumenal Endosurgery (NOTES) involves the insertion of tools down the throat and through an incision in the stomach lining. Once the appendix is cut loose, it's pulled out of the mouth. Apparently, there are other variations of the technique, including gall bladder removal through an incision made in the vagina. One big benefit is that these surgeries don't leave any visible scar. Advocates say NOTES can be performed without putting the patient under because there are fewer nerves fibers within the body that transmit pain than on the skin. Recover time is also quicker
(from: Appendectomy through the mouth)
Something I’ve been looking for: Finder Window Manager
Check out this post from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW):
This simple utility allows you "to save and restore your window placement and view options via Window Sets." You can have different Window Sets for different purposes (e.g. different projects, etc.). Just arrange the Finder windows as you'd like them and take a snapshot by creating a Window Set; later you can easily restore these settings through the menubar item (right). There are also a bunch of window management options in the Utilities submenu, such as stacking and tiling, etc.
(from: Finder Window Manager)
Using a cell phone while out of the USA
Lately, for some crazy reason, I've found myself, multiple times, in Toronto, Canada, and Willemstad Curaçao. My Sprint phone doesn't work in either place. As luck would have it, my Sprint contract is about to expire and so I am trying to figure out whether I should change carriers.
If you are in the same boat, here are some very handy links that I came across:
- T-Mobile International Cell Phone Service Information
- Verizon International Cell Phone Service Information
- Cingular Wireless International Cell Phone Service Information
- Sprint International Cell Phone Service Information
From reading these, T-Mobile seems to be the right choice for me and where I live. Do you use T-Mobile? How do you like it?
Blind to Bargains – Jeremy Wagstaff
Here is the full article written by Jeremy Wagstaff…
Blind to Bargains
If We Won't Pay for Software,
People Won't Write It
April 20, 2007Computers would be nothing without programs to run on them, so why do we spend so much time drooling over our hardware -- physical bits and pieces -- and so little over the software that makes the bits and pieces do what we want them to? And why are we so stingy about paying for software?
These thoughts were running through my mind the other day as I read the exchanges on a mailing list devoted to a piece of software I follow closely (a thought organizer called PersonalBrain, which I'll be taking a closer look at in a forthcoming column). When its creator, California-based Harlan Hugh, unveiled the pricing structure of the latest version of the program, there was a collective intake of breath among users. One, a doctoral student from Florida, exclaimed: "I stopped breathing for few seconds when I read the price."
It's true, the jump in price might sound heart-stoppingly steep -- to more than three times the cost of the previous version. But we're not talking massive amounts of money here -- $250, in fact, which nowadays wouldn't get you much more than dinner for two in a posh restaurant. And the people balking at shelling out are the same ones who are passionate enough about the software to spend their spare time reading and contributing to a mailing list entirely devoted to it.
The problem is that we users haven't yet come to terms with what software really is. We understand hardware -- wires, chips, silicon, more wires -- and can see it and touch it. It isn't hard to attach a value to that. But software is, well, soft. It's intangible. And we are still struggling to grasp the fact that hardware is a commodity, and software isn't. Which leaves software and the people who make it in a constant struggle to both produce something and find a way of making money from it.
Take Singaporean Joe Goh, for example. Mr. Goh produces a small tool called FunkeeStory (funkeemonk.com/funkeestory) that does one thing for one select group of people: backs up SMS text messages from a Treo smart phone to a Mac. He's been at it full-time for a year now, and is making between one and three sales a day. He's just about eking out a living, he says, as long as he keeps costs low. He still regrets an early decision: cutting the price from $24.95 to $19.95 in the panic of a quiet first week after launching last year. Even so, he still gets emails saying his tool is too expensive. "That's when it hit me," he says. "No matter [at what level] I price my software, there will always be people out there complaining."
All the free software out there puts further pressure on prices. No one today, for example, is going to pay for a browser, because you can get good ones free. Part of the blame lies with Microsoft, which has long given away its Internet Explorer. But the Open Source movement -- where volunteers contribute to writing software that is then usually made available to users gratis -- has also contributed with its Firefox browser.
It isn't as if people aren't making money out of software: Microsoft still charges an arm and a leg for its Office Suite: between $250 and $350 in the mid-1990s, against $150 to $680 now. Others have switched to different pricing models. McAfee VirusScan, for example, was a very popular antivirus program in the mid-'90s, selling for a one-time price of $65. Now people cough up the same price every year for a subscription.
The rise of Web-based applications that sit in your browser is also supporting the idea that software should, at least for simple tasks, be free. Google offers basic word processing and spreadsheet applications online at no charge, while other companies, like developer 37 Signals with its collaboration tool Highrise (www.highrisehq.com), offer free basic versions of Web-based programs and charge for advanced features like storage or sharing.
I have no quarrel with this kind of innovation. And the more stuff that's available without shelling out a lot of cash, the better for us as users. But I suspect that, too, it reinforces a growing perception that software is an entitlement, something we just grab out of the refrigerator when we need it. It isn't: It's the lifeblood that flows through the veins of our devices. We need to recognize that what we get out of our machines is nearly all due to software, and the brains that created and that maintain it require food to keep doing so. Sure, the likes of Microsoft probably don't need every one of us to shell out $600 for Office. But the real innovators have always been small artisanal developers, beavering away in obscurity and hoping to make a living. If we keep thinking that software is something that should be free, then, in the words of Singapore-based software developer Bernard Teo, we may find that there aren't many of those people around: "If a developer is not careful, he may find that it's simply not worth his time building and supporting his product, if consumers continue to expect low, low prices without limit."
Next time you balk at paying $30 for a program, think about how little that really is.
Are you blind to a great bargain?
Here's a column that I can really relate to, and a topic that I've written about more than once before.
"Computers would be nothing without programs to run on
them, so why do we spend so much time drooling over our hardware --
physical bits and pieces -- and so little over the software that makes
the bits and pieces do what we want them to? And why are we so stingy
about paying for software?" (from Blind to Bargains, Loose Wire)
Read the whole article, it's really interesting!
Do you remember “Twin Peaks”?
"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it,, don't wait for it, just … let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee…"
Don't ask me why, the quote just strikes me as funny!
A good analysis of the recent (very insider) dust-up over interviews
Check out this post from BuzzMachine:
The interview is outmoded and needs to be rethought.
There’s no better demonstration of this than the recriprocal snipes we’ve been seeing from and around Wired magazine from its attempt to interview people about Michael Arrington. (If you know the tale, skip to the next paragraph.) See Jason Calacanis’ quite reasonable effort to respond to Wired writer Fred Vogelstein’s questions via email and Dave Winer’s equally reasonable offer to respond in public on his blog. Now see the blunderbuss response from Wired in a blog post by Vogelstein recounting the email exchange and his dogmatic rules — “I never do email questions right out of the gate…” — and also in a blog post from his colleague Dylan Tweney, calling Calacanis “cowardly” (it appears to be an awkward attempt to be cute) and in an even clumsier attack from Ryan Singel: “What happens when a top tech figure has an online soap box, a Silicon Valley-size ego, millions in the bank and a grudge against the mainstream media?” Arrington piped in, fearing the fuss would cost him his publicity. And unable to resist any post about Arrington, Valleywag joined the journalism seminar. Vogelstein — who came to Kofi Annan agreement to record an interview with Calacanis — emailed me, too, but I told him I was about to blog about this snit and he probably wouldn’t want me. Finally, Wired Editor Chris Anderson joined in, saying in a comment on Calacanis’ blog, “I don’t impose any one policy.”
But maybe, given your vow of radical transparency at the magazine, Chris, you might want to at least impose openness to new ways, or at least an open discussion about the state of the art of the interview in the time of the empowered interviewee. A few discussion points:
Who says that reporters are in charge of interviews anymore? Why should they set terms? They are the ones who are seeking information. As Calacanis pointed out in their email exchange, Vogelstein was willing to give up two interviews because the subjects would not follow his rules. So the story suffers — it’s less complete, less informative, or less accurate — because of the reporter’s controlling rules? That wouldn’t make me happy as an editor, subject, or reader. If you need the information, shouldn’t you be willing to get it however you can? Isn’t that what reporting is all about?
Are interviews about information or gotcha moments? Vogelstein said in his email that he wants phone interviews to get the tone of the subject. Why? If this is about information, what does that really add? Or is it about the reporter’s effort to characterize the players in a narrative? Is this about information or drama? As a subject, wouldn’t you be wary of that? Or does the reporter want to catch the subject in a slip of the tongue? But what does that really accomplish? Isn’t it better to get considered, complete answers? What’s so wrong with enabling a subject to think about an answer, to review it and get it right before sending it? Isn’t accuracy and completeness the goal? When I came up in the business, I was taught not to review quotes with subjects before publication but now I see magazines doing just that; as Valleywag points out, reporters even negotiate quote approval. The only reason not to do that is that you don’t want to ruin the gotcha moment: ‘You said that.’ ‘Well, I didn’t mean it.’ ‘But you said it. Gotcha.’ ‘But it’s wrong, so can’t we correct that?’ ‘Gotcha.’ We’ve all misspoken. Should we be able to take back our own words? The only reason not to is if the reporter believes he has indeed caught us. And there is a place for catching people (George Allen couldn’t take back “macaca”). But in most stories, that’s simply not the case, unless your agenda is to get someone.
Too many reporters get too much wrong. Listen to what both Calacanis and Winer — not to mention veteran journalist Dan Gillmor — are saying: They’ve been burned when their words in stories end up incomplete or wrong. Gillmor’s right that reporters should be the subjects of stories to learn what it’s like to be on the other end of that pen. I’ve certainly learned that lesson myself.And by making complete interviews public, as Calacanis insisted, even on audio, we get to check the reporter. If, again, the goal is accuracy, there’s nothing wrong with that.
There’s a better way. Try combining the Calacanis and Winer methods: Perform the interview in writing, in public. As Winer says: “So if you want to work together, let’s find a new way to do it. I’m fed up with the old system. The way we start the reboot is to do all our work out in the open, real-time. Not via email, but in full view of everyone.” Examine the possible benefits of this: The reporter asks a question and I answer it. But I get it wrong and a reader pipes in to give a correction. Isn’t that a better way? I read my answers as I write them and improve them myself. What’s wrong with that? Why should the reporter get the opportunity to rewrite and edit and I don’t? Why should the reporter get to look smarter than the subjects? The best reporters, after all, go to find people who are smarter and know more than they do to get the best story. Ah, but I can hear some of you saying, wouldn’t this blow an exclusive? Well the exclusive has a fleeting value of about 30 seconds anymore anyway. And what’s exclusive about what Dave Winer has to say about Mike Arrington? If anyone owns that exclusive, it’s Dave, no? And Dave’s stance is that if he has anything to say on a subject, he’ll say it on his blog. Welcome to the transparent era, my fellow journalists. You want transparency? This is transparency.
My words are mine. Enough said.
Quotes need no longer be taken out of context. Isn’t that the greatest problem subjects have with how their words are treated? But that need no longer be a complaint. Why shouldn’t every quote, every snippet and soundbite, link to its context in the fuller interview? If the reporter has done a great job on the story, no one need click on those links. But if you want more or if you want to investigate the context in which this person said this thing, why not make that readily available, now that we have the ability, thanks to hyperlinks and permalinks? In fact, doesn’t this change the very structure of the story? Why shouldn’t that change, too? I’ve been arguing for sometime that online, there’s no reason to insert the standard background paragraph when you can link to full background. Ditto for interviews. Think of the finished story as a summary, a guide to more information. It may give you everything you want. Or it may link you to background if you’re new to the tale. Or it may link you to more depth if you want to dig deeper. Every story becomes a table of contents to knowledge. Let’s not just reexamine the interview. Let’s reexamine the architecture of the article.
Interviews and articles need never end. And never start. A story can begin with a reader’s blog post: ‘I wish I knew…’ Or it can begin with a reporter’s blog post: ‘I’m looking at doing a story about ____. What do you know? What do you want to know? What should I ask? Whom should I ask?’ Who says the reporters should ask all the questions? Shouldn’t the readers? Shouldn’t even the subjects (good interviewers usually ask whether there’s anything they didn’t ask)? Then the interviews can appear online to be challenged, amended, and corrected by writers, readers, and subjects alike. Why shouldn’t it be a collaborative effort when it can be? Won’t that only yield better information? Then the reporter writes a story. Make no mistake: There is still and always will be great value in that. For the vast majority of subjects and stories, I don’t want to go digging through original material and reporting-in-progress. I want the reporter to do the work of packaging it for me. Absolutely. So the article remains a keystone. But who says the story should be over then — done, fishwrap — just because the reporter’s finished writing it? The story is online and as we see every day, it continues to live and grow as people add their knowledge and perspectives and corrections via links and comments and remixes of the information. So the article isn’t a product. It is a process. It is collaborative. It is three-dimensional, linking to background and depth. It’s alive.
Yes, it is a favor. Vogelstein said in his email to Jason that “no one talks to me to do me any favors.” Oh, they most certainly do. In our gift economy, every act of sharing is an act of generosity, a favor. No reporter or reader should ever forget that. This is the essential human trait that makes the internet — let alone libraries, newspapers, and magazines — valuable. Reporters think that they are the ones doing the subjects the favor and, indeed, that used to be the case and to a lesser and lesser extent, for some, it still is: The reporter holds the key to the presses and with the reporter’s choices — ‘I’ll quote you but not you’ — the reporter grants attention, publicity, legitimacy. Or that’s the way they thought it worked. But this is the essential lesson of the democratization of media: We don’t need you and your presses to be heard. Calacanis in his email to Vogelstein: “Besides I have 10,000 people come to my blog every day–i don’t need wired to talk to the tech industry.” Winer: “Like Jason, I don’t have any trouble getting my ideas out on my own.” Or hear the students at Virginia Tech who got sick of reporters bugging them about the stories they’d already told on their own .
That should force reporters to reexamine the human economics of the interview: because they have to and because they can, because the power dynamics of journalist-subject have changed and because they now have new tools to do interviews — and articles — in better ways. Why not at least try?
Vogelstein wanted to talk to me about Arrington. But I didn’t want to talk to him about that. I wanted to talk to him about this. And I just did it, in writing, in public. And I hope he talks back and that you will, too. Yes, news really is a conversation.
Meanwhile, elsewhere at Wired, they are trying radical new ways working with Jay Rosen and NewAssignment.net on their Assignment Zero. I was interviewed via email and posted the results immediately, as did the reporter; they also solicited questions and wrote about doing interviews this way. Not a lot of conversation around that because I was long-winded, pontifical, and boring. But hey, the internet and conversation are meritocracies. We talk about what’s worth talking about.
(from: The obsolete interview)
Steve Balmer read my blog (in my dream)
I've been setting up a new Windows Vista notebook over the last few days for use by a non technical user. What a basket case. What a disaster. And I am referring to Vista not the user 🙂
I've been mentally working on a blog post titled either "Has Microsoft Lost its mojo" or "Has Microsoft Jumped the shark"?
I have encountered multiple absolutely shockingly and incomprehensibly bad usability issues. I am making a mental list as I go along. Joel on Software found one and wrote about it extensively: read about the design of the "Start menu" and what it takes to shut down a Vista computer. But just to give you a taste, all the documentation calls that thing the "Start" menu, except the word "Start" doesn't appear anywhere on or near the menu.
But as I say, that's all material for another post.
Last night I had a dream that I worked at Microsoft and Steve Balmer singled me out in a company meeting, came up to me (with a printout 🙂 pointing to the page saying, and "THIS is from YOUR blog…". I think I might have gotten fired in the dream…
Really interesting story about why good used cars don’t sell
Ok it's not exactly about that, but the answer to that question is answered. Check out this post from Schneier on Security:
More than a year ago, I wrote about the increasing risks of data loss because more and more data fits in smaller and smaller packages. Today I use a 4-GB USB memory stick for backup while I am traveling. I like the convenience, but if I lose the tiny thing I risk all my data.
(from: A Security Market for Lemons)