Category Thoughts

Entries 25 Total

From where you currently read

Oct 22, ’11 2:32 AM

From where you currently read, look around. How many systems are? supporting and intersecting the place you are? How many are visible, and interestingly, invisible?

What grammar do we have for them? How many ways to measure them? And as for the invisible ones, how many? ways to view them? The physicality of the motion of these?systems, and in turn their physical inefficiency, is impressively ?inaccessible. Meanwhile, we’ve grown accustomed to? inaccessible process taking place all around us.
Via

Supporting and intersecting the place you are. Take a look around, how many invisible systems supported this reading experience?

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Talk to me

Oct 20, ’11 2:40 PM

As usual, Apple’s approach to introducing new-ish technology is to highlight it acting as a human enabler.  Vision impairment?  Here’s the thing for you;

There’s lots of hype (both positive and negative) on the web about Siri, about how it’s an amazing new interface type and how that changes the way we interact with technology.  Of course, there are nay-sayers who would rightly point out that it’s old technology and Apple are claiming to break new ground where others have already been.  Nevertheless, I’m curious to see it in action (youtube videos aside), especially in helping to connect humans to each other, in new, simplified and transparent ways.

This video posted by Ben Bashford made me smile, and gave me reason to track down another, more recent version, from the IT crowd.  Enjoy!

 

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Focus

Oct 19, ’11 11:10 AM

Is not about saying yes. It’s about saying no. It’s about deciding what not to do, which parts of the universe you’re going to leave alone right now. Focus can change, it inevitably must. To have no focus, to chase every opportunity indiscriminately – to have no true yardstick by which you can say for certain that which you are not – is easy. But it’s critical, to your identity, to your character, to your story. Without focus, you’re lost.

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Old Frontiers

Oct 19, ’11 11:06 AM

It’s the old frontier that actually presents the most interesting opportunities, because the shine has worn off. This is your platform for real innovation, innovation in a place or a market or a situation that truly is ready for it.
- Seth Godin

One might also add this image, to give some context. The year is 2011, the hype is fading/growing/plateauing and we all want to shape a better world. Where does the next wave of innovation lie? Our friends Russell and BERG might suggest the next lived innovations will come from technologies which have faded from view, at the bottom of the trough of disillusionment. I think this is easily apparent in the technology sphere, and it’s influence in society of all kinds. When we’re having conversations with government about how to deliver quality customer experience, we’re amazed and suspicious and excited all at once. It’s for certain the first steps down a long path toward genuine, open, transparent engagement (with of course, all of the necessary Chinese walls and private design space needed to actually create something, not just have it designed by committee). When we know more, dear friends, you will too.

20111019-215528.jpg

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start with the customer experience

Oct 12, ’11 5:47 AM

So cogent, so clear.  Steve Jobs at the 1997 WWDC closing Q&A session.

You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology.  you can’t start with the technology, and try to figure out where you’re going to sell it.  When we came up with a strategy and a vision for apple, it started with — what incredible benefits can we give to the customer? I think that’s the right path. 

User experience at the core of any new idea.  And there’s more. 

There is so much more headroom to make the networked world we live in so much more productive, so much easier, and so much more fun than it is now.  That we know how to do, it’s not research, we know how to do this.  To bet on the next 5 years on the results of research [Steve's talking about voice recognition and agent based software], to bet our next 5 years on research would be foolish.  So the core of our strategy is to take advantage of the dramatic headroom to make this connected world so much more productive for the rest of us.

Via Daring Fireball

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The multi platform post-pc era

Oct 11, ’11 1:59 PM

The post-PC era is characterized by an explosion of ideas and application of new talent to software. It’s an era of immediate gratification and painless, one click distribution. App production is a cottage industry not something entrusted to only a few experts or those who can raise venture capital. It allows the small to distribute widely and get a shot at stardom. It has been (thankfully) avoided by enterprise buyers. The result is an explosion of apps: well over half a million new apps have been built in three years on three platforms that did not exist three years ago.

Horace Dediu on the multi-platform future technology landscape.

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Week #1

Oct 8, ’11 4:17 AM

Well, week #1 sure flew by without really stopping to check the time. We’ve now embarked on a new journey, one which will be marked as much by it’s intensity as it’s necessity. We’re a small team, a young team, a new team which brings a new insight into an incredibly well established juggernaut. We will sustain, grow, strive to shift focus, to evolve a culture (indeed, to permeate and grow a culture) and become more core. Basically, change the way things are done. No small task!

We can’t wait.

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What do you want to be known for?

Oct 8, ’11 3:35 AM

Let’s take the Apple out of the equation..

______ pursues timeless style, not fleeting trendiness. This ______ design might be like that of the Porsche 911 — a distinctive, iconic, timeless, instantly-recognizable representation of the product’s brand itself.

the culture of excellence created at ______.

I’m privileged to have had even the briefest experience with the culture of ______ Excellence, quality, passion, attention to detail — those aren’t just attributes of ______ design, they’re attributes of how people at ______ work.

I have to believe that the senior team at ______ knows that their most important job is to continue the culture.

“We have an environment where excellence is really expected,” he said. “What’s really great is to be open when [the work] is not great. My best contribution is not settling for anything but really good stuff, in all the details. That’s my job — to make sure everything is great.”

…that is furthest ahead of their competition, and the more sustainable advantage. It cannot be copied without going through the same sort of decade-long process that ______ went through.

now, each design they create has to be presented alongside a mock-up of how that design might evolve in the second or third generation. That should ensure ______ continued success for a long time, aided, of course, by the tremendous momentum that ______ leadership has provided.

we have ______ design.

What do you want to be known for?

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Everywhere in the universe

Oct 1, ’11 7:50 AM

The old man said, ‘You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.’

From Do androids dream if electric sheep, by Phillip K. Dick.

A new reboot of blade runner inspired a reading of the source material, and another watch of the Ridley Scott directors cut. I have to say, the book makes for a much deeper read, rendering a much fuller picture of the things left unsaid in the film; the artificial owl, the reason why Deckard hunts and the affect this has on his emotional state, the big question seemingly left unanswered by the film, is he an android after all?

Phillip K. Dick has never felt like a patient author (the counter clock world, for instance reads like he’s irritated at how long it takes for the reader to get up to speed..) and this book does suffer from that.
It’s quite a good read, and I’m pleased to say it left the film looking rather shallow (given the film classic status it’s attained, that’s quite a feat) in comparison!

I’m saving up for a real sheep of my own.. Don’t tell anyone, though..

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As noted elsewhere #3

Sep 24, ’11 9:37 AM

Facebook Profiles

It seems that lately MG Siegler is all hyped up over the new Facebook profiles feature. We’re yet to see it in action, but there certainly seems to be a decent amount of google bashing over +.  I’m not convinced there’s a place for + in my social calendar, but we’ll see.

Panic — the story of Audion

The makings of an empire as told by a close observer.  This sparked fond memories of tooling around in winAMP visualisation generator, it’s amazing to hear how clear and focussed Jobs was back then.

 

Where the wild things are

via fyd

Samuel L Ipsum

 

It really does seem like quirky lorem ipsum generators are all the rage right now.  Each week I hear of a new one, so far there’s been hipster ipsum, vegan ipsum, bogan ipsum and now we have Samuel L Ipsum.

 

 3D Archi-text by Chris Labroy

Chris Labroy has produced some incredible 3D renderings inspired by famous architects, like Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid and Oscar Niemeyer.

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