Daily Kos: A Voice From the 1%

Daily Kos: A Voice From the 1%: Thus you can imagine my amazement this summer when I watched the Republicans in Congress push the United States to the brink of default – and the world to the brink of ruin – over whether to repeal a portion of the Bush tax cuts and raise my taxes by 3.5%.  I know a lot of people with high incomes and even the conservatives among them were confused by that sequence of events.  Here is a secret about rich people:  we wouldn’t have noticed a 3.5% tax increase.  That is not only because there isn’t a material difference between having $1 million and $965,000, which is obvious, but also because most of us don’t actually know how much money we are going to make in a given year.  Most income at that level is the result of profits rather than salary, whether it comes in the form of bonuses, stock options, partnership distributions, dividends or capital gains.  Profits are unpredictable and they tend to vary wildly.  At my own firm, the general rule of thumb is that if we are within 5% of our budget for the year, everyone is happy and no one complains.  A variation of 3.5% is merely a random blip.

[So right on it hurts.]

A Week With iOS 5

A Week With iOS 5: Put it this way: I’m home now and there’s not one task that cropped up during the week that I had to say “I’ll have to wait until I get back to my Mac to finish this”. That, to me, is the interesting bit.

[Indeed. If you have a chance, hook up a blutooth keyboard to your iPhone. It can be an eye opening experience to have a full sized keyboard attached to that device.]
Source: Fraser Speirs

My Favorite Pen: The Pilot Razor Point II, super fine, in black

My Favorite Pen: The Zebra Sarasa 0.4mm:

Black ink, of course. Been using it for a few years now, nothing else comes close. (Well, the Uni-ball Signo RT 0.38mm comes close.) Anyway, if you’re not buying pens from JetPens, your pen probably sucks.

[Well I haven’t bought from them (yet) but my favorite pen is the Pilot Razor Point II, super fine, in black (natch). It does not suck. 9That’s for general use (daily scribbling with a touch of sketching and whatnot.) Other uses demand other pens…]
Source: Daring Fireball

52×52.org



52×52.org:

The lovely Jessica Hische just revealed her latest do-good-side-project called 52×52.org here at BrooklynBeta.

The idea: 52×52.org will help you give to charity, every week, for one year. Her site will act as a messenger, not a middle-man, asking you to donate $52 directly to the featured charity. If $52 is too much, donate $25, $15 or $10! Give whatever you can, each and every week for one year, and together we will make a giant difference. Here’s the site: 52×52.org.

If you want to help Jessica to make it easier to donate/give and help her build out the site, please get in touch with her!

[Nice idea.]
Source: swissmiss

Clayton Christensen and Siri

Clayton Christensen and Siri: But it takes time. Like any truly useful breakthrough, it takes a long time to mature. And also like any disruption, the potential of Siri is rooted in four principles:

  • Humble early goals which it accomplishes well
  • A large population of enthusiastic adopters who give it sustenance
  • Plenty of headroom in improvement giving it areas to grow into with positive feedback
  • A patient sponsor who makes a stable living

There’s no magic to it. In fact it’s banal. These are only the principles that every parent uses to raise a child.

[I’d love for a large population of enthusiastic adopters to give Noah sustenance. Queue starts on the right… thanks! :)]
Source: asymco

Was it ever mine?

Was it ever mine?: How different this notion is from a sense of scarcity, of needing to learn to let go each and every time we give.  I find this notion freeing.  We approach giving with the knowledge that what we are giving away was never ours; we approach giving with a sense of humility and with the knowledge that good fortune has played a role in our own good circumstances, and we are passing on a bit of that good fortune to another.

[Very well said. I can’t help wonder if this notion eases my ability to give. That is, if it was never mine, it’s easier to give. What if I consider it all mine? Is it harder? Still working on this for myself.]
Source: Sasha Dichter’s Blog

Samsung Lawyer Cannot Tell Samsung Tablet From Apple iPad

Samsung Lawyer Cannot Tell Samsung Tablet From Apple iPad: John Paczkowski, AllThingsD:

Fielding questions from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan was asked if she could distinguish between Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, which Koh held up for all the court to see. Her reply, as first reported by Reuters: “Not at this distance, your honor.”

The distance in question was ten feet.

I bring this up not (solely) for mocking purposes, but because it underlines something that many people I’ve heard from about this case don’t seem to get. Apple is not, to the best of my knowledge, claiming that they’ve patented fundamental and obvious things about iPad-like devices, they’re claiming that Samsung deliberately copied the iPad. There are a lot of tablet makers that Apple is not suing, and Samsung was not chosen as an arbitrary example.

[every market has this. Designers do there thing and if it transits at all it gets knocked off. Talk to anyone in the jewelry or “shmata” business. That doesn’t make it right, good, or anything, but only the largest companies can actually afford to do anything about it.]
Source: Coyote Tracks

Jamie Chung Captures the History of Apple

Jamie Chung Captures the History of Apple:

Jamie Chung photographs the history of Apple products for Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine’s latest issue pays tribute to the late Steve Jobs and his visionary legacy at Apple. Chung’s photographs chart the history of Apple products, from the very first computer Jobs created to the iPhone and the iPad. The slideshow includes commentary from Jobs, the company’s history, and product information.

Chung captured the new and old Apple products in a computer archive in New York City. The shoot was a nostalgic for Chung as he’d once had one of the company’s older models. He says he is “glad to participate in the tribute to Jobs’s legacy.”

See more of Jamie Chung’s photographs of Apple products here.

[Beautiful.]
Source: The Bernstein & Andriulli Blog