February 2008
86 posts
stretching a moment
I was just sitting on the couch reflecting on what I’ve done lately and found that I recalled things by thinking of a picture I took, or video I captured, or twitter I sent or - you get the picture. This got me thinking about experiencing life, and how I don’t feel as if I’ve truly experienced something unless I captured it or shared it digitally. It’s almost as if the...
“Think of yourself in a concert hall listening to the strains of the sweetest...”
– Anthony De Mello
January 2008
103 posts
At the DMV. Always a painful experience. Wish I could outsource it.
A Smart Pen →
It records audio while you write and allows you to “tap” on your notes to find the accompanying audio. What a novel idea. If only it could reproduce the smell as well. Hmmm…
Netflix in 2010 →
Interesting article from Motley Fool about what the Netflix business model will morph into by 2010, and as an employee of Netflix it is particularly interesting to me.
healthy foods →
1 tag
Jill Sobule's missed opportunity
I recently came across Jill Sobule’s website where she is attempting to raise money from her fans to produce her next record. Interesting, but not the first nor last attempt by an artist to circumvent a label. What I find most interesting are the “prizes” she is offering for donating. Here’s an example: ”$5,000 — Diamond Level: I will come and do a house concert...
1 tag
Yoonew.com - Stock Market For Tickets →
This is a fairly genius idea. From their website: yoonew is the world’s first futures exchange for event tickets. We have created a dynamic marketplace that helps online consumers save money and time when buying and selling tickets. Our real-time trading platform gives fans, traders, and resellers a safe and transparent place to trade tickets.
1 tag
“People are, as Julian Simon used to say, the ultimate resource, and markets are...”
– Quote of a quote from The Economist
The three little bears →
I’ve worked at three different kinds of agencies since starting out in the ad biz. One was small (four people to begin with, eight when I left), one was quite large (like a thousand or something ridiculous) and one that was medium sized (between 100 and 200). Having worked in a variety of environments, I wondered if I could offer up some pros and cons to each, just in case somebody was...
1 tag
open source = a sense of something bigger
I was just thinking about the open source movement and why people actually contribute to it. I mean why do people invest time and energy in something that gives them nothing back - economically speaking? One explanation is that it actually does give each of us something back - we get connections, jobs, better services, etc. There’s also the desire each of us has to be a part of something...
“Business opportunities always come from the clever application of technology,...”
– Andy Grove, CEO of Intel - Fortune
“Synthesize new ideas constantly. Never read passively. Annotate, model, think,...”
– Ed Boyden’s Blog
1 tag
Tim Berners-Lee on the Semantic Web →
Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web) talks about the Semantic Web and explains how he hopes the Semantic Web will be as successful in pulling together all of our data as the World Wide Web was in connecting all of our documents. Source: MIT Technology Review.
1 tag
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-1-27) →
The Byrds Arcade Fire Grace Church Of Africa Nightmares on Wax The Arcade Fire Imported from Last.fm Tumblr
A young girl is dipping her fries in her milk shake. Very innovative.
Mmmm. In-N-Out. Animal Style!
The Reblog Button →
What a great post by Fred Wilson. I agree. This is one such example of the clashing of old and new media and underscores the importance of work being done by Lessig et al on the nature and rights of “digital” media, which are fundamentally different from physical media in its ability to easily be published over and over again and remixed over and over again. Fred’s post: ...
act like you just quit →
Most workplaces are riddled with corporate bureaucracy and office politics, which doesn’t foster the open environment needed for innovation and creativity to take hold. So what’s a person trying to be creative or innovate to do? Act like you just gave two weeks notice. Or, act like you just quit. Have you ever thought about how different we act when we have two weeks left to work at a...
“Ubiquitous Net radio is not in the immediate future. We don’t have either WiMax...”
– Lefsetz Letter
1 tag
Article: Social Networking - A broken system →
This article offers a very interesting critique of social networking as it exists today. A bit heady, but worth the read. Below is a snippet: “Social comfort and coherence require that by far the majority of actual feelings regarding the people in our lives not be made explicit. Having to declare the degree of intimacy you’re willing to grant each friend, whether in public and for...
Clothes That Look Hip and Track Your Vital Signs,... →
Interesting article about clothing that monitors our vital signs. I had a similar thought the other day while on a run. It would be great if my clothing could track my heart rate, location, speed, and calories to give me a summary after a workout.
random thought: why is colonel pronounced kernel?
1 tag
“People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is...”
– Anthony de Mello
1 tag
Twine →
1 tag
Download Lessig's Book "The Future of Ideas" →
Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite: No modern phenomenon better demonstrates the importance of free resources to innovation and creativity than the Internet. To those who argue that control is necessary if innovation is to occur, and that more control will yield more innovation, the Internet is the simplest and most direct reply. For as I will show in the chapters that follow, the...
1 tag
Ecommerce Registration Usability Tips →
1 tag
WatchInstead of walking away awkwardly, I decided to pull out the camera and tape this situation. It felt empowering to not be intimidated nor antagonistic toward the situation, but rather inquisitive and curious. This happened on Jan. 18th, 2008 in Los Gatos CA.
1 tag
I (heart) The Process →
Some of the best advice I got when I started out in this biz was actually given to me by our own Peanuts writer Chairman Jimmy. He said, “You have to love the process of advertising, not the ads.” It was kind of hard to accept at first. All that time flipping through the award annuals got me really loving all those awesome, pretty, and oh so clever ads. I wanted to make some of those. ...
1 tag
1 tag
does anyone else feel like they have way too much work to do?
1 tag
Fear No Music Mix →
The following is a slightly edited version of the email I sent one of my favorite clients last week regarding the audio mix for a TV spot we are working on. “I just got your voicemail expressing concern about whether the music is too loud and the VO too quiet in the mix for our spot. Here’s the thing: John Mennella (owner of id music in Chicago) and I mixed the track, paying scrupulous attention...
1 tag
“What we don’t like is this idea that work is supposed to take care of you, or...”
– Cali & Jody Blog
1 tag
The theory of "Influentials" and the Tipping Point... →
Fast Company’s Jeff Harris examines new research by Duncan Watts of Yahoo that calls into question the theories propagated in The Tipping Point. In my opinion, for all its words, the article can be summed up as follows: Influential people exist, but they can’t make a product that sucks – good. Often we get so caught up in our methods for marketing that we forget about the products we...
1 tag
“How do we balance the importance of creative ideas with the imperative of...”
– Fast Company Blog
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-1-20) →
Andrew Bird Cat Power NPR Thom Yorke Feist Imported from Last.fm Tumblr
1 tag
Has advertising lost its sense of discovery? →
I recently started using StumbleUpon to explore the web. If you’ve never heard of it or used it, I suggest signing up / clicking on the link above to learn more. What I love about StumbleUpon is that it enhances one of the key ways in which I use the web: to discover. This got me thinking about advertising. Has advertising lost it’s ability to tell us (as consumers) something new? Has...
1 tag
“To begin to increase your self-awareness, seek feedback on your performance from...”
– Inc.
Online Books, Poems, Short Stories - Read Print →
Open Source Mac - Free, Open-Source software for... →
i feel as if the more emails i unsubscribe from, the more unwanted / unsolicited offer-emails i receive. how do i make it stop?
Saw Dr. Seuss movie: 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. Now I know why he was only famous for writing books.