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Dear “Landlord”

Dear “Landlord” – raganwald’s:

I used to sell things for a living. One thing I remember is that there is a tremendous gulf between free and a dollar. In companies, you can’t spend a dollar without having to justify it to someone, to make a case for it. Everyone wants to know who the vendor is, how long they’ve been around, whether we can trust them, and whether what they’re selling is worth a dollar.
So, although your offices are crowded, that actually doesn’t provide me with any security that other people have thought things through and decided you are a good bet. For all I know, they could decamp tomorrow for some other hot, free thing. This feels like fashion, not business, and it’s going to keep feeling that way until you can show me some tenants who actually pay, not just squat.

[The irony here is that this was posted to posterous, which was just bought by Twitter, and which everyone suspects will disappear before too long. Twitter purchased them for their talent, not their product, and business dictates that they’ll shut it down at some point relatively soon. But @raganwald really makes an excellent point about all see services. If you’re getting something of value, and your not paying for it, you must ask who is and why. But never consider a service for which you don’t pay yourself reliable. It’s not.]

Rands In Repose: Hacking is Important

Rands In Repose: Hacking is Important:

It happens quietly, but the projects that could be the most disruptive to the company begin in silence. Someone, somewhere has a bright idea and a handful of talented engineers are whisked off to a different building behind a locked door. Their status is “elsewhere” and their project is “need to know.”

[Nice idea. Nothing I have to worry about at the moment, but filed for future use.]

Source: Daring Fireball

Sir Jonathan Ive: The iMan cometh

Sir Jonathan Ive: The iMan cometh:

Q: What makes a great designer?

A: It is so important to be light on your feet, inquisitive and interested in being wrong. You have that  wonderful fascination with the what if questions, but you also need absolute focus and a keen insight into the context and what is important – that is really terribly important. Its about contradictions you have to navigate.

[I loved this answer. Also… “Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can’t imagine any other way. Simplicity is not the absence of clutter. Get it right, and you become closer and more focused on the object. For instance, the iPhoto app we created for the new iPad, it completely consumes you and you forget you are using an iPad.” and this “One of the things we’ve really learnt over the last 20 years is that while people would often struggle to articulate why they like something – as consumers we are incredibly discerning, we sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed. It’s one of the thing we’ve found really encouraging.”]

How Anyone Can Get Anything Past The Scanners

$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog — How Anyone Can Get Anything Past The Scanners « TSA Out of Our Pants!:

This video is here to demonstrate that the TSA’s insistence that the nude body scanner program is effective and necessary is nothing but a fraud, just like their claims that the program is safe (radiation what?) and non-invasive (nude pictures who?). The scanners are now effectively worthless, as anyone can beat them with virtually no effort. The TSA has been provided this video in advance of it being made public to give them an opportunity to turn off the scanners and revert to the metal detectors. I personally believe they now have no choice but to turn them off.

[The TSA has seemed like a hint government waste from the beginning. It continues to get worse and worse. A fairy tale for the American public.]

WSJ: U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers on E-Book Pricing

WSJ: U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers on E-Book Pricing:

Apple suggested the move to the agency model, which is what they’ve been using with other digital sales. Most publishers embraced that idea because they didn’t want to see Amazon end up with a natural near-monopoly on e-books… the way Apple has ended up with one on legal digital music.

I am not sure how many layers this irony cake has in it, but it’s a mighty big slice.

[Sure ’nuff is.]

Source: Coyote Tracks

Apple’s press conference showed a brand unraveling | VentureBeat

Apple’s press conference tie dyed logo

Apple’s press conference showed a brand unraveling | VentureBeat:

At some point in the future, it’s within the scope of my own limited imagination to envision Apple products that bear little or no resemblance to anything Steve Jobs created.

[I disagree with this piece, and really love that modernized version of the older logo. To me anyway, it invoked the sense of life that the Apple folks I’ve spoken to retained. Steve’s gone and technology will march on. Sad but true So of course Apple should produce products that “bear little or no resemblance to anything Steve Jobs created.” How could they do otherwise if Apple stays true to his ideals? The Nest thermostat proves to me that Apple has seeded new trees. Some great pushback here.]

Source: Daring Fireball

★ Only Apple

★ Only Apple:

“Only Apple could deliver this kind of innovation, in such a
beautiful, integrated, and easy-to-use way. It’s what we love to
do. It’s what we stand for. And across the year, you’re going to
see a lot more of this kind of innovation. We are just getting
started.”

That was Tim Cook, closing yesterday’s event introducing the new retina display iPad. Here’s the thing: he was right. To pretend otherwise you have to put your head in the sand (or some other hole).

[snip -Ed]

Nothing is guaranteed to last. The future’s uncertain and the end is always near. Apple’s position atop the industry may prove fleeting. But right now, Apple is Secretariat at the Belmont. And the company, to a person, seems hell-bent on not letting any competitor catch up.

[On point.]

Source: Daring Fireball

If You’re Still Whining About AT&T’s 3G Data Throttling, You’re Part Of The Problem – SplatF

If You’re Still Whining About AT&T’s 3G Data Throttling, You’re Part Of The Problem – SplatF:

Here’s the big picture bottom line: If you use a lot of data, you are clearly getting some sort of value out of it. Value isn’t free. The world’s finite resources simply aren’t trending toward free. That isn’t logical. I predict most of you will be spending significantly more per month for wireless data in 5 and 10 years than you do today. You’ll be getting faster and better service, and more value out of it, but it won’t be cheaper.

Please get over your emotional battle — and extinguish any legal threats, that’s silly — and join us in reality. If you use a lot of mobile data, be happy about it, and be happy paying for it. It’s worth it. And consider trying the add-on tethering plan for the iPhone, it can be useful if you carry a laptop or iPad.

*Telecom joke, told to me by a big-company CEO: If you’re AT&T, how do you get to 80% market share? Start with 100%!

[This is the false promise and problem with free. This is why “free” doesn’t work. If something cost something to do, you have to pay for it. If it isn’t with money, ask how exactly you are… you might be surprised (see Facebook, Google, and your privacy)]

Earth to Cable: You don’t control us.

Earth to Cable: You don’t control us.:

Whether or not cable and phone companies succeed  in building out the fully licensed world (that is, sucking everywhere down under the lids of their closed systems), we will remain free. We can live without you if we have to. Always could, always will.

[Amazing how quickly Noah got used to not watching TV when he lost the privilege. It’ll never be back in its old form.]

Source: Doc Searls Weblog