The Google Glass feature no one is talking about — Creative Good

The Google Glass feature no one is talking about — Creative Good:

And this is where our story takes a turn, toward a ramification that dwarfs every other issue raised so far on Google Glass. Yes, the glasses look dorky – Google will fix that. And sure, Glass forces users to be permanently plugged-in to Google’s digital world – that’s hardly a concern for the company or, for that matter, most users out there. No. The real issue raised by Google Glass, which will either cause the project to fail or create certain outcomes you may not want (which I’ll describe), has to do with the lifebits. Once again, it’s an issue of experience.

The Google Glass feature that (almost) no one is talking about is the experience – not of the user, but of everyone other than the user. A tweet by David Yee introduces it well:

There is a kid wearing Google Glasses at this restaurant which, until just now, used to be my favorite spot.

The key experiential question of Google Glass isn’t what it’s like to wear them, it’s what it’s like to be around someone else who’s wearing them. I’ll give an easy example. Your one-on-one conversation with someone wearing Google Glass is likely to be annoying, because you’ll suspect that you don’t have their undivided attention. And you can’t comfortably ask them to take the glasses off (especially when, inevitably, the device is integrated into prescription lenses). Finally – here’s where the problems really start – you don’t know if they’re taking a video of you.

[Mark nails it.]

★ Open and Shut

★ Open and Shut:

That’s what bothers people about Apple. Everyone used Windows, why couldn’t Apple just settle for making stylish Windows machines? Smartphones required hardware keyboards and removable batteries; why did Apple make theirs with neither? Everyone knew you needed Flash Player for the “full web experience”, why did Apple drop it? 16 years after the ad campaign, “Think Different” has proven itself to be more than glib marketing. It is a simple, serious motto that serves as a guiding light for the company.

I think what Wu and his brethren believe is not that companies win by being “open”, but that they win by offering choices.

Who is Apple to decide which apps are in the App Store? That no phone will have a hardware keyboard or removable battery? That modern devices are better off without Flash Player and Java?

Where others offer choices, Apple makes decisions. What some of us appreciate is what so rankles the others — that those decisions have so often and consistently been right.

[Great stuff.]

Source: Daring Fireball

Reclining airplane seats are a terrible idea and should be banned

Reclining airplane seats are a terrible idea and should be banned:

Like Kois, and like Merlin, I’ll almost never recline my seat, except on long overnight flights where everyone is expected to be asleep.

It’s a tiny, insigificant form of protest, but it’s a small contribution toward reducing the world’s total annoyance. I think of it like social environmentalism.

[In this case I’d take it one further. I don’t fly unless I have no other choice. The entire experience is awful with one general exception… speed. There’s no faster way to get some places. Even before the TSA existed I stopped flying to Montreal. For a while I ran a dev team there. Every few weeks it was time to check in more personally. I started out flying. Took 5 or so hours with all the usual stresses and costs for a flight time of about an hour. When winter weather was poor it took much longer. Driving always took about 5 and half hours, wasn’t as affected by the weather and gave me the peace of listening to a decent car stereo, controlling my schedule, and reducing cost. Everyone thought I was a heretic. So don’t just not recline, avoid flying if at all possible. What should be banned is the airline/airport experience as it is today.]

Source: Marco.org

Good for Dell (maybe)

Good for Dell (maybe):

For Dell’s part, cutting corners has been their modus operandi for at least a decade, and the race to the bottom—especially in the consumer PC business—has taken them here. If nothing else, it may be easier for them to get out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into without a bevy of analysts screaming that the only solution is to dig faster.

[Agreed.]

Source: Coyote Tracks

CBS Bans SodaStream Ad. Where’s The Outrage?

CBS Bans SodaStream Ad. Where’s The Outrage?:

Now, CBS has essentially opened the door for its biggest advertisers to forever complain about those “annoying little competitors” that are trying to steal share. “Take them off the air. Make them stop!” is what they will scream. “You did it for Coke and Pepsi.”

And it won’t only be CBS. All media will have to bear the burden of this biased, un-capitalistic, anti-progress, move. But, guess what? This isn’t the first time in recent months CBS has overplayed its hand.

Add the fact CBS banned the Dish Network “Hopper” and now we’ve got ourselves a trend.

You heard about this, I’m sure. CBS forced the staff at CNET to change the winner of “Best In Show” at CES this year because, presumably, the technology which had already won the honor, if successful, would mean less money for CBS. It was Dish Network’s “Hopper” technology which allows viewers to skip entire advertising pods with one click. Forbes Contributor, Erik Kain, wrote a great expose on this scandal recently, “CBS Forced CNET To Drop Its ‘Best Of CES 2013′ Winner, The Dish Hopper.”

[Can’t complain about not being a little part of this anymore. Curious to know what they’re thinking over at CBS.]

Report: Aaron Swartz Didn’t Face Prison Until Feds Took Over Case

Report: Aaron Swartz Didn’t Face Prison Until Feds Took Over Case:

Declan McCullagh, writing for CNet:

State prosecutors who investigated the late Aaron Swartz had planned to let him off with a stern warning, but federal prosecutor Carmen Ortiz took over and chose to make an example of the Internet activist, according to a report in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Middlesex County’s district attorney had planned no jail time, “with Swartz duly admonished and then returned to civil society to continue his pioneering electronic work in a less legally questionable manner,” the report (alternate link) said. “Tragedy intervened when Ortiz’s office took over the case to send ‘a message.’”

We all know Ortiz isn’t the only prosecutor to act like this. But a prosecutor “sending a message” is an outrage. It is a plain violation of the accused’s rights for their punishment to be increased because of people unrelated to their case. The more I learn about this case, the more heartbroken and furious I get.

[I’ve nothing to add. On point!]

Source: Daring Fireball

Let’s build a massive meta McDonald’s in Times Square

Let’s build a massive meta McDonald’s in Times Square:

“It is a cornmeal quenelle, extruded at a high speed, and so the extrusion heats the cornmeal ‘polenta’ and flash-cooks it, trapping air and giving it a crispy texture with a striking lightness. It is then dusted with an ‘umami powder’ glutamate and evaporated-dairy-solids blend.”

[The cause of this is the Food Network atmo. Call a chip a chip :)]

Another theory on Apple’s stock price

→ Another theory on Apple’s stock price:

I’ve managed not to lose money, but I probably haven’t made enough to be worth the time and stress of managing these stock positions myself. I’m considering getting myself out of the individual-stock business. It’s more apparent over time that this is a huge game run by an oligarchy with infinite resources, little oversight, and no consequences, and I’m gambling blindly, hoping to piggyback coincidentally on a giant’s massive wins.

I can’t help but think that individuals like me are better off not playing the game, and that my actual work is more worthy of the attention I give those stocks.

[I’d have to agree overall]

Source: Marco.org