- Get-organized-now hysteria
- “In the electronic, gadgetized age of e-mail, BlackBerrys and ever-more-sophisticated desktop software—all designed theoretically to manage digital information efficiently—we’ve become overwhelmed. That’s where the productivity industry comes in. The question is, however, whether this newfound emphasis on productivity is helping—or just making us crazier.”
- Detect available fonts using JavaScript and CSS
- “I wrote a JavaScript code which can be used to guess if a particular font is present in a machine. This may be help of desktop-like web application developers when they want to provide different skins or fonts preferences to their users.”
- Tim Cook on Apple, iPhone, Apple TV
- “I can’t stress this enough, the thing separates Apple from others is that we have this very simple culture. Our company revolves around product and we focus on making the very best…We believe in giving people great value. Many companies put a computer out and its not what the customer really wants, so they have to add this and that (wireless, video camera). The customer winds up having to jump through many hoops before they finally get something that they think they want and it, unfortunately, doesn’t really work that well, then. We don’t do that.”
- The graphic design of Idiocracy
- “The movie spares no detail in the satire of branding and graphic design, turning every logo, sign and poster into a dumbed-down, Web 2.0-ish, futuristic-looking style that may come sooner than 500 years from now…Idiocracy displays some of the best graphic humor to appear in a feature film. Here are some of my favorite screen-captured moments.”
- A "bedouin" is someone who transforms a laptop, cell phone and coffeehouse into an office
- “A new breed of worker, fueled by caffeine and using the tools of modern technology, is flourishing in the coffeehouses of San Francisco. Roaming from cafe to cafe and borrowing a name from the nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, they’ve come to be known as “bedouins.” San Francisco’s modern-day bedouins are typically armed with laptops and cell phones, paying for their office space and Internet access by buying coffee and muffins.”
- The Web 2.0 Bubble
- “There are some similarities between the current ‘bubble’ and the last one that burst in 2000. Lots of incomplete and underexperienced teams, business models based more on eyeballs than cash flow, and a rash of incremental and ‘me too’ deals.”
- Eyetracking shows decorative images are wasted space
- “Users treat pages with superfluous images like obstacle courses: The images create barriers to content…If an article is about a signature meal at a restaurant, say a tuna dish, display a scrumptious-looking picture of the plate of food. Don’t show a generic picture of a spoon and fork, as many sites do.” [via JK]
- Do page views still matter?
- “Ajax is enabling flashier, more convenient sites. It’s also contributing to Yahoo’s decline in page views, a yardstick long used for bragging rights and advertising sales. ‘These technologies have outgrown the metrics.’” [tx CSJ]
- Larry Page and Eric Schmidt offer tips for entrepreneurs
- Tip 1: Just don’t settle. Especially with employees, it is very important to find great people you are compatible with. Tip 2: There is a benefit from being real experts. Experience pays off. Tip 3: Have a healthy disregard for the impossible. Stretch your goals. Tip 4: It is OK to solve a hard problem. Solving hard problems is where you will get the big leverage. Tip 5: Don’t pay attention to the VC Bandwagon. Don’t start a company just because you can, have a really good idea that is good regardless of the funding situation.
Jason G
on 16 Mar 07Funny, my iMac came with both a camera and wireless…
Mike
on 16 Mar 07Yes, Apple is all about giving the customer all they want. That’s why when I buy music on iTunes, in order to get it to play on my MP3 player, I do the following steps:
1. Download music in Apple’s proprietary format 2. Burn onto CD 3. Eject my CD and reinsert. 4. Windows Media Player recognizes it and asks if I want to add to my library. 5. Add music to my library. 6. Connect MP3 player to computer. 7. Add newly purchased music to my MP3 player.
Thanks, Apple, for not making me jump thru any hoops!
Stephen L
on 16 Mar 07@Jason G: My interpretation of the Apple quote is that other computer manufacturers put out a basic model, to which the customer then needs to add his various “must haves” (wireless, video camera, and so forth).
With a Mac, it’s all included as standard (as was the case with your iMac), so the customer doesn’t need to faff about adding optional extra in order to get the machine he wants.
Seth Aldridge
on 16 Mar 07I second Mike
AaronS
on 16 Mar 07@Mike: If Apple is making you jump through all those hoops, why use iTunes? Who is forcing you to do that? Just curious.
Anonymous Coward
on 16 Mar 07Apple is giving the customer what they want. A song which they can play on their computer and their ipod or on their CD player. That’s what the customer wants. The idea that the customer wants to move their music to like 5 different devices and all that jazz is just edge case lunacy. People want music on their Mac and their iPod and Apple gives them the easiest possible way to get that done.
Mike Swimm
on 16 Mar 07That article on the branding design of Idiocracy, coupled with Kottke’s 4/5 rating caused me to move it to the top of my Netflix queue.
BIG MISTAKE!
One of the WORST films I have seen in a LONG time. Horrendous, seriously HORRENDOUS!
Deepak
on 16 Mar 07Obviously the apple model works, but so far it hasn’t worked with some, e.g. myself, because we do like choice and like avoiding vendor locking. Now with laptops it’s different, since getting an integrated piece of kit is somewhat useful (less things to carry). What makes things work for them is product design and the fact that while they lock you in, they do it in style :).
I still don’t own any apple products!!!
Anonymous Coward
on 16 Mar 07Deepak, I hope you don’t own any MS products either. Talk about lock-in!
Anonymous really brave person
on 16 Mar 07Mike : just curious, if those hoops are too much for you to jump through, why not buy it somewhere else? Emusic…amazon, or take a walk to a cd store?
darrel
on 16 Mar 07Mike:
The DRM hoop isn’t Apple’s. Blame the RIAA for that.
In the meantime, spend your money at eMusic instead.
“Obviously the apple model works, but so far it hasn’t worked with some, e.g. myself”
Right. That’s kind of the point. Apple is targeting a demographic unlike some other computer manufacturers who attempt to target everyone. That rarely works.
Deepak
on 16 Mar 07AC
The only MS software I use (on my non-work machine) is the OS, since most of the software I need to record music isn’t available on Linux. Otherwise, the latter is all I would use.
Don’t get me wrong, I think OSX rocks, and the iPod is the mp3 player I would like to have, and the macbook pro my wife has is much much better than the laptop I use. But I do think Apple’s policies, historically, have been one of “our way or the highway” and I’ve chosen the highway so far.
Darrel … never said their marketing strategy was a bad one :). Just not one that works with some (and with the move to Intel chips and parallels, it’s getting hard to resist).
Stavanger
on 16 Mar 07Apple is giving the customer all they want, but sometimes they also decide what the customer want. They seem to outdate floppies and PC card a bit too fast for my taste.
Alan
on 17 Mar 07As to the Web 2.0 bubble: quick thought experiment. If it burst tomorrow, and every little W2.0 co was suddenly out of business, what difference would it really make? (Let’s leave Google out of it for the moment…)
I can’t think of anyone I know who owns stock in a “Web 2.0” company. Last time, tons of people had their whole investments wrapped up in nonsense like Razorknish or Suckient or whatever. So when those popped, people’s actual money was gone. This time, sure you might be unhappy if your Amazon stock or Google stock dipped, but mostly it’s just VCs who’d be hurt by it.
Jason Liebe
on 17 Mar 07If the Web2.0 bubble popped I’d be scurrying to get all my data I have scattered around the Web. I’d be really screwed if I lost my 20+ projects in basecamp or my invoices in Blinksale, images in Flickr, bookmarks on del.icio.us, and so on.
Although I would sure as hell not miss Twitter or Dodgeball.
Ryan Bergeman
on 17 Mar 07Amen!
Jack
on 17 Mar 07Re: the ‘bedouins’ – I love new labels for old ways.
I wonder if I still counted as a ‘bedouin’ when I went to a pub after a gig to write up a review in pencil before going to a ‘phone box to call a copytaker, or sat in the post office waiting room listening to a promo tape on my Walkman before going to a corner shop to fax in a review of the album five minutes before the deadline. (All that seems much more nomadic – and more fun! – than plonking yourself down in a caff with all the tools of the web at your disposal.)
Adam Derbyshire
on 18 Mar 07I agree with Jason. Its scary to think of how much stuff is just scattered all over the place. I bet I’ve got information floating around in services that I’ve long forgotten about.
some guy
on 18 Mar 07it’s interesting how this blog uses title information as a substitute for categories or tags. if you want to find all the posts on a given topic (sunspots, product launches, product previews, getting real stuff, etc etc) you can just google for it (with a helpful interface provided in the navigation on the right).
google has already indexed this post! (remember when it used to take months? now it apparently happens within days.)
some guy
on 18 Mar 07to clarify what i said: the use of title prefixes as a substitute for keywords works because the authors use it consistently and thoroughly. posts with the same kind of content usually have very similar titles. “sunpots: the (whatever) edition” or “LAUNCH: (some product)” or “LAUNCH: (something about features) (mention of product name)”, etc.
Rob Goodlatte
on 18 Mar 07Offtopic, but you guys should configure your 404 to be more verbose. I just got served a 404 by 37signals.com/svn and it had some gibbrish about changing the error message. Same with the file not found errors – http://www.37signals.com/svn/foo
Chris Messina
on 18 Mar 07Re: bedouin
You guys should should take a look at what we’re building with the coworking community. We’re going beyond cafes and setting up actual spaces for independents all across the world.
The end game is to create a global network of interlinked spaces that provide community, resources and productive, cafe-like environment to get things done.
JoshuaRule
on 19 Mar 07About half of my new record is being put together in a coffee shop. Every chance I have to not be sitting in my bedroom studio and be a part of “life” I try to take.
Anonymous Coward
on 20 Mar 07“Many companies put a computer out and its not what the customer really wants, so they have to add this and that (wireless, video camera). The customer winds up having to jump through many hoops before they finally get something that they think they want and it, unfortunately, doesn’t really work that well”
Like the $2500 MacPros we just bought that didn’t come with Bluetooth or AirPort, and that required a $100+ adaptor (that’s the size of a laptop) to connect our (5-year-old Apple ADC) monitors?
otilie
on 23 Mar 07Interesting site. Very useful informations to me. Thanks.
This discussion is closed.