People love photos. They always have. It’s the crappy snapshot of you and your sister at 3 and 5 playing on the new swing set in the backyard that is your favorite. It’s not the technical quality of that photo that makes it special. It’s the emotional connection. The brilliance of Instagram isn’t just about…
Category Archives: tech
Future Computing
Predicting the future of computing is difficult, and these days possibly the word “computing” itself brings along baggage of its own. Today’s computers don’t spend a lot of their time computing. What we find useful in them is farther removed from computing in every succeeding generation of these systems. Think about the implications of
The Internet Is Worth Protecting
I’ve been on the internet more than half my life. I consider myself a digital native. Today many people are protesting the SOPA and Protect IP Act legislation that threatens the internet. This threat is real, as this legislation breaks some fundamental things about how the internet works. If you are interested in the technical…
Google Plus and Google Wave
Google Plus is promising. Even the tech pundits that are quick to find flaws are having a hard time coming up with anything to complain about. There’s a lot of talk about how much Google has learned. As Gina Trapani says: I’ve been been watching Google flail around social web apps for a few years…
Flock or Rockmelt? Neither.
This morning I spent a few minutes using Rockmelt and Flock, two new “social browsers” that integrate your social networks into the browsing interface. Both browsers are built in Chromium, the open source version of the Google Chrome browser. Because they are built on Chromium, both are fast and relatively lightweight and stable. Rockmeltdownload This…
IIW Fascinates Me
Since the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW11) last week, I’ve been reflecting on how far we’ve come – and how far we still have to go. My Google ID, Yahoo ID, Facebook ID, and even my own domain’s OpenID can all be used to create and maintain accounts around the internet. Many services also have connections between…
Liberating your contacts from Facebook
Here is a simple method of getting your contacts out of Facebook and into your Gmail. It starts with Yahoo! Facebook allows exporting of contacts to Yahoo!, reportedly through a lucrative arrangement. You will need a Yahoo Mail account, but they are free: ? http://www.yahoo.com/ – and click “Signup” if you don’t already have an account….
Why your computer runs slow – Flash
My computers are all set up with Adobe Flash installed. I also run a Flash Blocker on every browser. Since first installing a Flash blocker, my computer is more reliable and websites load faster. Adobe’s CTO is happy to blame Apple, of course: “That’s what upsets me the most,” he says. “That people put energy…
Great products start with meaning
Great quote from Jeff Bezos on the connection between great products and meaning: I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that’s not why you do it. You…
Enthusiasm – the real “Focus”
MG Siegler at TechCrunch wrote a great piece a couple days ago on the role of enthusiasm. I think he’s dead-on, but I’ll add my little bit of advice: Make sure your Enthusiasm is the right kind. The Enthusiasm you need is really a deep love for what you’re doing. This is the kind of…
