February 2012
19 posts
parislemon: To Catch A Hypocrite →
parislemon:
Yesterday, Jason Kincaid posted damning evidence of VEVO, the online music video entity jointly owned by a few major record labels, committing piracy at their boozy event at Sundance this year.
Watch the video, then read Jason’s full story. It’s worth it.
Today, VEVO’s CEO has responded….
Oh wow…
Clean Kitchen →
Patrick Rhone:
My Great Grandmother Handy always kept her kitchen clean. Despite the fact that it seemed she spent most of the day within it in a state of constant activity.
A really good read that had me thinking.
Brain Matter(s): Impossible Happens →
brainmatter:
But here’s the beauty part, not only did Steve Jobs have to find a way to fix Apple’s products and restore its broken relationship with all but the most hardcore of customers and fans, he had to do something that must have seemed distasteful to the point of impossibility - he had to pick up the phone and ask Bill Gates for help.
Some Word Association
dcpierson:
“Hey, what does the word ‘impulsive’ mean to you?”
“‘Selfish and irresponsible.’”
“Okay. What about the phrase ‘I want this?’ What do you think that means?”
“Huh, I think…I think ‘I want this’ also means ‘I deserve this.’”
“Great, and who are you again?”
“Oh, me? I’m everyone your age, apparently.”
“Great, thanks for talking to me.”
“My pleasure. By which I mean, the most...
“Apple had just one customer. He passed away last year.”
– Seth Godin — Seth’s Blog: Who is your customer? (via minimalmac)
You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never... →
Paul Tassi:
I believe in paying money for products that earn it. I do not believe in a pricing and distribution model that still thinks it’s 1998. And I really don’t believe in censoring the internet so that studio and label executives can add a few more millions onto their already enormous money pile.
Treat your customers with respect , and they’ll do the same to you. And that is how you fight...
AAPL Orchard: Not Everyone Copies Apple →
aaplorchard:
“[Apple is] going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.”
- Tim Cook in his first email to Apple employees as Apple’s new CEO sent August 25, 2011
“The path [Sony] must take is clear: to drive the…
The Case of Moe
postsfromyokosuka:
A while ago, I saw some passionate discourse in my feed regarding pop sensation AKB48. I felt that I should lend a male opinion to the whole concept of females and cute culture in Japan.
First of all, let it be known that I am not a fan of AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, or any of the other hellish cookie-cutter nubile girl groups spawned forth by the Japanese media. I don’t like them...
SMBC: This comic is so true →
Just read it!
Video: Wat →
Such a hilarious presentation for anyone familiar with code.
/via Tory Briggs for TThor Newsletter
Designers, it's not their fault when clients don't... →
PJ:
And that won’t be the client’s fault. Even the crazy ones.
The fault will lie with those who call themselves design professionals and yet clearly do not value design.
January 2012
47 posts
Beautiful Web Type →
9-bits:
A showcase of the best typefaces from the Google web fonts directory.
The project is also on Github.
This is so good…
This American Life 454: Mr. Daisey and the Apple... →
In supplement to the last link, here is an hour podcast episode of This American Life on the same topic. A must-listen.
The Apple Boycott: People Are Spouting Nonsense... →
Tim Worstall, for Forbes:
Further, wages in China have been growing strongly recently. Since the late 1990s they have been growing at 14% per year (yes, after inflation is accounted for) and accelerating in the last couple of years. With compounding this means that manufacturing wages in China have risen four times since the turn of the century. The cause of this? Those vast factories built by...
Gridiron League →
cameronmoll:
Wes Kull:
This is not an exercise in nostalgia but an interpretation of the league’s founding principles through the symbols that we, as football fans, identify with most.
Many NFL franchises — Patriots, Broncos, Rams, Lions — have updated their uniforms and logos to a swooshed-out, dropped-shadowed, and more commercial-ready image, ignoring a good deal of their team’s heritage...
Hollywood Still Hates You →
Matt Drance:
[Hollywood] continues to punish the people who play by the rules with an insufferable customer experience. This is the sole reason piracy is up and profits are down: because doing it right totally sucks. And that’s apparently how the studios want it.
High Schools Are Step One Of Two →
mckaythomas:
MG Siegler in his latest TechCrunch article posits that although Apple’s new iBooks strategy is admirable in its effort to fix problems in public high schools, that it’s not realistic and that their market strategy should revolve around colleges and college textbooks.
On the surface, which seems logical enough, his argument is sound. But It ignores the one, HUGE driving force in...
C.Y. Reid: In Favour of iBook Author →
cyreid:
This post is about something that irritates the living hell out of me, almost as much as people who see ebooks as a bad and terrible thing, despite the fact that they have got so many people reading who wouldn’t normally read.
It’s called iBook Author, and some people don’t like it.
At first,…
Piracy is Part of the Ecosystem →
smarterbits:
Frédéric Filloux:
Today we have entertainment products, carefully designed to fit a global audience, waiting months before becoming available on the global market. As long as this absurdity remains, piracy will flourish.
Piracy is a legitimate issue that needs addressing, but content providers also have their part to play. People are willing to pay for content, but they must be...
Katy Perry's Perfect Game →
smarterbits:
NPR’s Zoe Chase:
If you listen to commercial radio, this is not news: Katy Perry had a huge year. She went No.1 five times. She was the most played artist on the radio. But the record industry is so weird, it’s hard to know whether this kind of success translates into huge amounts of money.
So we asked.
Fascinating look at exactly how, and how much, music studios actually earn...
3 tags
iTunes U needs more attention
I am sure by now that most people are sick of hearing about the Apple Education event but here comes another post.
I am in my final year of University at the moment, so a lot of the new stuff introduced will not stick with me. The new things for iTunes U however, will stick.
I have too broad an interest. I have been very interested in computing and Languages, even though I am an Aeronautical...
“This is another case of people acting surprised and/or disappointed that Apple,...”
– John Gruber - Daring Fireball
Apple's announcements further iPad revolution in... →
Fraiser Spiers:
Apple already revolutionized education when it invented the iPad. While iBooks textbooks are a bridge from the past to the future—and we do need a way to get to the future—they are not that future. If Henry Ford had been an educational publisher, his customers would have asked for electronic textbooks instead of faster horses.
He would know with his background. I especially...
Kill Hollywood, Not Movies
parislemon:
The fallout from the failure of SOPA and PIPA is just as interesting as the main topics themselves. First, many on the web with loud voices are finally waking up to how corrupt the lobbying/political system is in this country. Second, directly-related, there’s a quickly growing anti-Hollywood sentiment.
The most forceful stance has to be Y Combinator putting out a new RFS (Request...
Coyote Tracks: The enemy of my enemy →
chipotle:
Yesterday a huge file sharing site, “Megaupload.com,” was taken offline due to a criminal conspiracy indictment. Do the copyright wars have a new martyr? At first glance, maybe! Everybody gets to blame their favorite villain: the evil media industry, the draconian federal government, or both. It…
Kill Hollywood →
Y Combinator:
Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a...
When Labels Become Prisons
biglovelittlehouse:
My sister and I LOVED Legos growing up. At one time, I took inventory and estimated that we had accumulated about $2000 worth. I can still hear the sound they made when we’d dump the buckets onto the floor. I can still feel that horrible feeling that can only come from stepping on a “two piece, thin”. Yes, we had names for the different sizes and shapes. As we’d put together...
Squashed: Dumb Metaphor Friday: "Growing the pie" →
squashed:
The conservative criticism of redistribution is a claim that conservatives would rather expand the (economic) pie than ensure that it is divided evenly among everybody. The theory is that everybody then even the guy destined to have a smaller piece comes out ahead, even if the pieces aren’t the…
A Technical Examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP →
A Must Read…