Tag: technology

~ Mark

Aside from my notebooks about what I’m reading (which I’ve kept pretty religiously for years), I’ve been a terrible journaler. Never got into a groove and stayed there. But a couple months ago, I started using Day One, and have consistently knocked out a few entries every single day, mostly from my phone. I even went through and back-filled a few memorable trips/days from the months before I had the app. Who knows if it will last, but I definitely don’t regret it.

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p>I set up a couple reminders to give me an extra nudge in the morning and afternoon. Sometimes it just ends up as a few bullet points on the day’s goals or failures. Sometimes just a photo and caption. Sometimes something longer. But always something, which is what I’ve been looking for. And, there’s already a few solid, reliable options for exporting, so I have peace of mind if want to jump ship. But so far, so good.

An Old Fogey’s Analysis of a Teenager’s View on Social Media — The Message — Medium

~ Mark

We’ve been down this path before. Andrew is not the first teen to speak as an “actual” teen and have his story picked up. Every few years, a (typically white male) teen with an interest in technology writes about technology among his peers on a popular tech platform and gets traction. Tons of conferences host teen panels, usually drawing on privileged teens in the community or related to the organizers. I’m not bothered by these teens’ comments; I’m bothered by the way they are interpreted and treated by the tech press and the digerati.

An Old Fogey’s Analysis of a Teenager’s View on Social Media — The Message — Medium

Why James Cameron’s Aliens is the best movie about technology

~ Mark

That’s what technology is. It’s the world of things, some impossibly stupid, some smarter than we are, we have assembled around ourselves to cover over our fundamental weaknesses as a species. The strength we have, the advantage this gives us, is our ability to stand apart from the things we’ve made: to use them and set them aside; to make them prosthetic extensions of ourselves and to let them go.

Why James Cameron’s Aliens is the best movie about technology

The Dark Science of Pop Music

~ Mark

While most users think of Shazam as a handy tool for identifying unfamiliar songs, it offers music executives something far more valuable: an early-detection system for hits. By studying 20 million searches every day, Shazam can identify which songs are catching on, and where, before just about anybody else.

The Dark Science of Pop Music

~ Mark

Since my son was born I realized: soon, he’ll be three-and-a-half. Soon, he’ll be able to see who I was. And shortly after that, what he’ll be reading in the oldest blogs will be closer to his age than mine. Now, I write for him.

Anil Dash.
~ Mark

Frank Chimero × Blog × Web Tableaus

The past week has provided a few notable redesigns of popular web services, including Squarespace and MailChimp. It’s interesting to note the visual similarities in how they have chosen to present themselves: photographed tableaus with props around laptops, tablets, and phones.

See also Matt Thomas’s great post on depicting knowledge work in film, and Felix Salmon’s recent tumble on marketing for mobile banking apps.

Both feature a cup of artisanal coffee on a dark wood counter, next to an iPhone 4 displaying the app in question. How to choose between them?

~ Mark

The consumer fallacy the tech-sector surrounds us with is that the progress we need comes in upgrades.

Scott Berkun.

Alex Payne — Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup

~ Mark

Here are some things to consider that, in my experience, you’re less likely to hear about working in startups.

Good essay. I’ve been thinking this for a while:

Startups are portrayed as an exciting, risky, even subversive alternative to traditional corporate work. Startups are thought of as more free, more open and flexible. Some companies surely begin that way, but a few interviews at later-stage startups will make clear just how quickly they ossify into structures that look very much like the organizations that came before them.

As there was in the first dot com bubble, there is a current proliferation of startups, incubators, accelerators, angel/seed funding, and so forth. In order for the “startup community” to replicate itself, nanobot-like, the mechanics of “doing a startup” have been reduced to an easily transmitted sequence of actions accompanied by a shared set of values, norms, and language.

Alex Payne — Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup

Does reading have a future? A noted Canadian philosopher gazes into the future

~ Mark

Via Alan Jacobs, who rightly encourages you to read the whole thing.

It’s not technophobic or Luddite to recognize that the techie questions are largely beside the point. The scope of their effects lies on a time scale that none of us can foresee, thus creating not genuine questions but opportunities for self-serving predictions.

Ha! Also:

The specific concern for the future of the bound-page book should be seen for what it is: a form of fond special pleading whereby a particular (how I like to read) masquerades as a universal (reading!).

His essay is more thoughtful and substantial than those quotes, by the way. I just thought they were funny.

Does reading have a future? A noted Canadian philosopher gazes into the future

~ Mark

What we respond to is not the gadget itself but its promise of some personal and highly specific gratification.

Michelle Orange.

Why techies don’t buy contemporary art | Felix Salmon

~ Mark

This, for me, is the real reason that tech types don’t buy art: they’re busy investing in each other’s startups instead. Being an early-stage investor is in many ways just like being a contemporary art collector: you’re very unlikely to make money at it, even though the potential and anecdotal returns can be enormous; and it’s used in large part as a way of supporting your friends and being seen as being important within a very small world.

Why techies don’t buy contemporary art | Felix Salmon

~ Mark

libraryjournal:

jerumebrunneng:

An image of a page from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, describing The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, on an e-reader that resembles The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

This is the future, guys.