Author Archive
More iPad preamble – “a clear window into the software”
“People who are focussed on the hardware are missing the key thing: – software and services” – Walt Mossberg Wall St Journal “One thing you have to understand about this gadget is that the gadget disappears pretty quickly. You’re looking into pure software.” – David Carr NY Times On the Amazon Kindle: “It looked like […]
Intelligence finds a way to express itself
Shon Hopwood, Mediocre Criminal Turned Top Jailhouse Lawyer “A Mediocre Criminal, but an Unmatched Jailhouse Lawyer” Cool story from the NYTimes.com
Johnny Dankworth RIP
Jazz legend Johnny Dankworth dies aged 82 BBC 7 Feb 2010 Sir John Dankworth, a mainstay of the British jazz scene for over 60 years, has died. Saxophonist Sir John, 82, served as musical director to the likes of Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. Sir John, known as Johnny, died in a London hospital […]
Doctrinaire aggression vs physical aggression
Wole Soyinka: On origins of religious strife… In Mr. Soyinka’s view, the origins of the current phase of the world’s religious strife—including all of the bloodshed in Nigeria—lie with Ayatollah Khomeini and his fatwa against Salman Rushdie, in 1989. “It all began when he assumed the power of life and death over the life of […]
The rise (and fall) of the value of online advertising
Following a report on Apple boss Steve Jobs pitiching the iPad distribution channel to NY newspaper chiefs… The highlighted bit (see below) about online advertising space being (a) infinite in supply and therefore (b) valueless accords with my thinking (although I am not a genius, nor all that experienced). I’ve done some online advertising and […]
Apple’s iPad: “a replacement for computing”
“The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing.” — Mike Monteiro, muledesign.com A vision of the future…. As many others have noted, the release of the iPad might be the cannonball into the consumer device pool the iPhone dipped its toes in. It’s also been referred to as a thing that sits between […]
“Bringing a large dose of common sense into the equation…”
Somebody thinking clearly about the internet copyright ‘three strikes, you’re disconnected’ proposals: An Australian judge has ruled that ISP iiNet is not responsible for its customers breaking copyright laws. (Of course it will be appealed!) Aussie ISP strikes landmark blow in copyright war By Pat Pilcher NZ Herald Thursday Feb 4, 2010 Aussie ISP iiNet […]
More unintended consequences?
How’s this for taking things a leetle bit too far… (It makes a good point though.) Did the US Supreme Court consider that by ruling the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections (on the basis that it’s a ‘free speech’ right!) that it was, in effect, giving corporations ‘human rights’? […]
Social media as high school reunion
What they didn’t know, and never could’ve predicted, was that the Web would also transform itself into an enormous, never-ending high school reunion (See also: hell). … Let’s see, so the digital revolution led us all to this: a gigantic, commercial, high school reunion/mall filthy with insipid tabloid trivia, populated by perpetually distracted, texting, tweeting […]
The state of the media
Oh, this is very funny … a true spoof. The cliches fall like autumn leaves. (Pwah!) I have a serious book somewhere called Bending Reality: The state of the media (James Curran) which, among other things, discusses the compromises and distortions those in the news media routinely can and do make in the effort to ‘package’ […]
RIP JD Salinger
“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing,” J.D. Salinger told The New York Times in 1974. “Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.” Farewell. The New Yorker has made his stories available. Good on them.
iPad? Yeah. OK, probably. Why not?
Yes, I’ll probably get one of these. It looks useful, and some of the applications seem like an improvement. Apple does lead the world in industrial design (the ‘cool’ factor), and this shows it again. An e-book reader should have a high quality colour screen, in my opinion. Is it a ‘game-changer’, as pundits are […]
Unintended consequences
A fair minded person seeks to put themselves in the other person’s shoes … I find myself doing that more and more. (… and I’m not saying, ‘Aren’t I wonderful?’ by that comment, I assure you.) I would hate for some of the things I’ve said about the activities and behaviour of others to be […]
Talking with Dave: thoughts about media blur
I’m part way through an online conversation with Dave, who I like, about hyperbolic opinion pieces masquerading as news (what I call the Glenn Beck/Fox News effect). We’re discussing Dave’s frustration with the “blur” between news and opinion. Dave said: I wouldn’t mind if the media did genuinely report as an opinion piece. At least […]
