A shot of JD

"The iPhone has become an obsession. If we don’t pay attention, we’ll have a mobile web that only..."

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:47:55 +0000

“The iPhone has become an obsession. If we don’t pay attention, we’ll have a mobile web that only works on the iPhone. And then we’ll have the real mobile web that wasn’t made by us and doesn’t give a shit about web standards and best practices. Worse, it seems web developers are happy with this state of affairs.”

- Peter-Paul Koch on Cult of Mac

I love the iPhone, but I agree there is more to the (mobile) web than that single device.

"The creative personality is always one that looks on the world as fit for change and on himself as..."

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:34:55 +0000

“The creative personality is always one that looks on the world as fit for change and on himself as an instrument for change. Otherwise, what are you creating for? If the world is perfectly all right the way it is, you have no place in it. The creative personality thinks of the world as a canvas for change and of himself as a divine agent of change.”

- Jacob Bronowski
(via azspot)

My Tumblr is now on Twitter...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:58:42 +0000

My Tumblr is now on Twitter...:

Ever the social meeja geek, I thought I’d set up a new Twitter account to auto-tweet my Tumblr posts, so as not to annoy/spam existing Twitter followers with a linkfest.

Self-indulgent, I know, but I like playing with this stuff. It’s there if you want it!

"Apparently one of the byproducts of the military operations ordered by [her husband] is that there..."

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:43:00 +0000

“Apparently one of the byproducts of the military operations ordered by [her husband] is that there are now lots of boys in Sierra Leone and Kosovo called Tony Blair.”

- Liverpool Daily Post covering a Cherie Blair fundraising event for the Labour party in Liverpool.

Also interesing to hear about her debates with Dubya Bush and how she was “being a Scouser” by stepping outside Number 10 in her pyjamas.

"Frankly, I could care less about having my real life become a video game. (Is this what happens when..."

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:13:20 +0000

“Frankly, I could care less about having my real life become a video game. (Is this what happens when you become a father?)”

- NYTimes.com

This line about the reward systems in Foursquare made me laugh :-)

Game mechanics

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:15:42 +0000

Game mechanics :

Today in interesting Wikipedia articles…

"The intelligence community is developing a system called A-Space, a sort of Facebook for spies that..."

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:12:03 +0000

“The intelligence community is developing a system called A-Space, a sort of Facebook for spies that holds profiles of analysts from various agencies and allows them to contact one another and to share large amounts of text, graphics, images and videos.”

- “Facebook for spies”? Way to dumb down, The Economist

"The huge loss is one of the biggest black holes ever seen in a private equity-backed business and..."

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:35:00 +0000

“The huge loss is one of the biggest black holes ever seen in a private equity-backed business and threatens to shred the reputation of Guy Hands, the outspoken City financier whose Terra Firma group paid out more than £4bn for EMI just before the credit crunch took hold in the summer of 2007. It could also, ultimately, push the famous record label into the control of US bankers.”

- EMI crashes £1.5bn into the red

"Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your..."

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:28:12 +0000

“Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first.”

- Guy Kawasaki

"A lack of features is a feature in and of itself."

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:55:02 +0000

“A lack of features is a feature in and of itself.”

- Andrew Parker

Solid Advice

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:49:48 +0000

acehotel:

From Lucien, 6, in the mezzanine drawers at Ace Hotel Portland.

My (already pretty good) life would genuinely be made even better by following this advice. I defy anyone to disagree.

"Whenever a new and disruptive technology appears, there is initially a backlash against it before it..."

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:11:53 +0000

“Whenever a new and disruptive technology appears, there is initially a backlash against it before it becomes broadly accepted. Even a seemingly innocent application such as Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet was greeted with much scepticism because managers assumed workers would use it to make lists of their fantasy football teams or their weekend shopping—which is exactly what they did and still do. But along the way, Excel has also become an invaluable business tool.”

- The Economist on social networking in the workplace

"…any theoretical economic argument that can be stated in a sentence is as likely to be untrue as..."

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:11:26 +0000

“…any theoretical economic argument that can be stated in a sentence is as likely to be untrue as true in the real world, no matter how clever or intuitive it is.”

- James Kwak (via azspot)

"After years of defending Microsoft against the Apple fanatics I decided to go to the other side of..."

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:07:10 +0000

“After years of defending Microsoft against the Apple fanatics I decided to go to the other side of the road to see for myself.”

- Microsoft refugee Don Dodge discovers Macs

The article goes on to say “the fact that he hadn’t seen the other side of the road as a Microsoft employee is a symptom of a larger problem at the Redmond company”.

Surely being aware of your competitors’ products is far from heresy - it’s vital?

Unsexy & Profitable: Making $$ Without Hype

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:43:42 +0000

Unsexy & Profitable: Making $$ Without Hype :

This sounds like a cool SXSW panel - it’s a topic I’ve been quite interested in recently.

(via Ars Technica) I didn’t realise Chrome had come so...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:21:00 +0000

(via Ars Technica)

I didn’t realise Chrome had come so (relatively) far so quickly.

The article also has another chart which shows that, although 22% of IE users use the latest version, 20% are still on version 6.

/browserbore

"As a writer and editor I care about connotative differences between words like..."

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:18:31 +0000

“As a writer and editor I care about connotative differences between words like ‘anomalous,’ ‘miraculous’ and ‘awesome,’ and fret over the rhythm of my sentences like a drummer tracking 16th notes in a samba.”

- Jonathon Morgan’s bio

Whether you like the above or not, it’s nice to read an “about me” page that isn’t simply a chronological list of “jobs I’ve done”.

"More and more, I’ve heard entrepreneurs say something like ‘I don’t want to talk to that firm..."

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:23:04 +0000

“More and more, I’ve heard entrepreneurs say something like ‘I don’t want to talk to that firm because they are such jerks.’ In almost all cases these are well-known, older firms who come from the era when capital was scarce.”

- Being friendly has become a competitive advantage in VC (via mikehudack)

"TechChuff made nearly £10 in revenue last year from selling some back-links to a Russian casino site..."

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:16:56 +0000

“TechChuff made nearly £10 in revenue last year from selling some back-links to a Russian casino site and looks to build out the management team by recruiting from local juvenile detention centre.”

- Crunchbase isn’t normally known for its hilarious profiles.

Buster Benson's Rules

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:45:55 +0000

Buster Benson's Rules:

Click through to msg’s post for the story behind these, but basically:

You must not dilly-dally
You must be your word.
You must have good intentions.
You must admit to being the maker of meaning.
You must not feel sorry for yourself.
You must have a vision that you are striving for.
You must tie creativity and experimentation with survival.
You must be the change you want to see.
You must rally others with your vision.
You must stake your reputation on your better self.
You must be comfortable with the consequences of being who you are.
You must share.
You must make your own advice and take it.
You must manage your stress, health, and clarity.
You must make time to enjoy things.
You must study your mistakes.
You must retry things you don’t like every once in a while.