- Kicker Studio: Everything I’ve Ever Learned About Giving Design Critiques I Learned from Tim Gunn
You could apply these set of rules to any form of critique/review not just design, and you'd probably come out doing pretty well.
- The Times’ Paywall and Newsletter Economics « Clay Shirky
Lots in here, but here's the key thing: "This re-engineering suggests that paywalls don’t and can’t rescue current organizational forms. They offer instead yet another transformed alternative to it."
- danah boyd | apophenia » Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook
Not blogging this as an anti-Facebook thing, just as some interesting information about non-standard ways people use social networking software in a privacy intensive manner.
- EaaS (ECONOMY as a SERVICE) – Global Guerrillas
It's one way of looking at MMOs (and related industries), I guess. I'm aware that Warcrack has a GPD higher than some countries, and that there was a point (I haven't checked, it may still be true) where the virtual currency in Eve online was worth more that the currency of Iceland, where the game is based, but they're both entirely virtual, and I'm not 100% convinced that we're going to get the ability to rapid deploy and re-use these things in a full physical-world context (that a full EaaS would need) any time in the next five years.
Tag: business
Bookmarks for October 5, 2010
- Why Wesabe Lost to Mint – Marc Hedlund's blog
Fascinating reading – the former CEO of Websabe, about why his site was beaten (and eventually, closed down) by his major competitor. Very honest, and quite a clear eyed look at his own mistakes. (I note in passing that I am still (eagerly) waiting for the UK version of Mint or Websabe.)
- Open Data for the Arts – Human Scale Data and Synecdoche – Blog – BERG
I would love for our client to allow us to make some of the data generated by their various systems open. I've no idea what the result would be, possibly nothing, but I'd be interested to see, especially as I've been thinking about the vast aggregate of similar data we've got across several clients…
Bookmarks for September 21, 2010
- Politics of storytelling – Laurie Penny interviews China Mieville
This is food for thought. Key quote: "Storytelling is clearly an extremely important function of societies, but it's nonetheless unproven that to be human is to be a storytelling being. Even if it is the case that human beings are completely intrinsically storytelling animals, it doesn't follow that that's something to celebrate, any more than we should celebrate the fact that human beings are defecating animals."
There're a number of obvious counter-arguments, that can essentially be lumped in as "the power of art to bring about change" but it's still a point of view worth remembering.
- I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat (but farm it right) | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian
I think I'm going to have to pick this book up. A lot of the numbers around the environmental impact of livestock farming have seemed off to me particularly in relation to arguments about grain (because, well, what's wrong with grass-fed?) and water (because invariably, the numbers seem to assume that any water fed to a cow never leaves the cow, which is pretty self-evidently wrong). It's nice to see that someone's actually taken the numbers apart and proved them wrong/fallacious, and done so in a way that convinces even a big hippy like Monbiot.
- Alex Payne — The Very Last Thing I'll Write About Twitter
A clear and sensible statement about the need to decentralise services like Twitter, Facebook, and really, almost any service, if you want it around for the long (decade+) haul. Idle thought: Someday, someone will figure out how to massively decentralise search, and than things will get really interesting. (Google have, of course, effectively done this internally in that their search architecture is spread over cluster after cluster, but that's not the same as true decentralisation…)
- Diaspora Developer Release
I really want this to succeed – once it's out of beta, and at the more-or-less easy to install stage, I'll probably put some time and cash, into setting up a Seed. I absolutely know that there are people I've lost touch with since leaving Facebook, and I know my social life has suffered for it. I've felt quite disconnected from many of my friends this year, and it's bugging me quite a lot of late. I'm not blaming anyone, you understand and I'm not going to be one of those arseholes who think that it's everyone else's fault – I knew what I was doing when I walked away from Farcebook – I'm just a little sad that people don't seem to use any other contact medium any more. So as soon as I can, I'll help offer a better alternative…
Bookmarks for August 13, 2010
- McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Our Daughter Isn't a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn't Read "Atlas Shrugged".
"The thing is, in this family we take the philosophies of Ayn Rand seriously. We conspicuously reward ourselves for our own hard work, we never give to charity, and we only pay our taxes very, very begrudgingly. "
- Cyberoptix TieLab: hand silkscreened TIES THAT DON'T SUCK!
Actually, really true. There are absolutely hordes of ties in here that I would actually wear. Astonishing.
- Mike Marcus – Contemporary Artist and Photographer
This guy is offering ten quid portrait photography to, essentially, passers-by, so that everyone can have a decent profile pic on any on-line service they care to use it on. Wish I'd thought of this. And also that I wasn't a total bag of arse at portrait photography.
- Mule Design Studio’s Blog: Tips On Buying Design
This is, frankly excellent. It can be boiled down to: expect to pay money, so have an idea how much you can afford. And also, be absolutely sure that you actually need to buy design, rather than doing it yourself, or buying off the shelf. I've had a half written post on selecting an agency in my queue for a while, and this has obviated my need to write it quite nicely.
Bookmarks for August 12, 2010
- What Happened to Yahoo
Yahoo was somewhere that, ten years ago, I would have love to have worked. I would have loved to have worked at some of the companies they've since bought. But I wouldn't have taken a job there any time in the last six years or so – I'm sure it would have been, y'know, fine, but it wouldn't have been what I really wanted in working for a internet company. This article does a pretty good job of explaining why.
- Words on Devour.com
Watch this. It will be the best three minutes you spend all day.
- Smart Swarm: popular science book on emergence meets business-advice book – Boing Boing
Reminder to self to pick this book up.
- YouTube – Nathan Barley
The complete Nathan Barley on the YouTubes. I imagine that some of you might like this.
Bookmarks for February 12, 2010
- Light Blue Touchpaper » Blog Archive » Chip and PIN is broken
The tech details will be lost on most of you, but in brief: if an attacker can get your card cloned, then they can also pretend to know your PIN – fraudulent transactions they make will be reported to the bank as "Verified by PIN". This is bad, because if a transaction is reported as "Verfiied by PIN" then as far as the bank is concerned it's legit, and not disputable. Chip and PIN is, and always was, design to protect the banks, and not the consumers. Just y'know, saying. You might want to write angry letters to your banks, and suchlike.
- Liberal Conspiracy » Astonishing transcript of Boris evading questions
Well, what did you expect when you all voted for the fuck? Someone who might be good for public services in London? I know Ken was a weasel too, but he was at least London's weasel, with the interests in London in his weaselly little heart (possibly some distance behind his own interests, but they were *there*), and every time I read a story about Boris, my blood pressure spikes something dreadful.
- Liberal Conspiracy » Glenn Beck comes to UK; advertisers run away!
This, I feel rather neatly sums up some key differences between the UK and the US. Just occasionally, I'm happy to live in the country I do.
- Fuck you, Google « Fugitivus
And this is why google buzz is poorly implemented, badly designed, and generally a massive fuck you to all google's users. I'm still trying to work out how to switch it off completely.
- Introduction to Square
Not sure if this is available to people in the UK yet, but if and when it is, this is could make life a lot easier.
- Cope » Caillois completeness
Interesting set of metrics for judging the game-ness of something.
Bookmarks for January 20, 2010
- Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic: case report — Rogozov and Bermel 339: b4965 — BMJ
Ever wondered what it would be like to perform surgery on yourself? No? Why not? Well, anyway: here's a description of what it's like to have to give yourself an appendectomy. In the Antarctic. With next to no help.
- A Rant About Women « Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky opens up a serious can of worms, noting that women do not push themselves forward in the way men do. Part of me wants to say "well, *duh*". Shirky suggests that if women behaved in a more self-aggrandising manner, they'd get more equal treatment. I'm just not sure that I want to encourage any more people to behave like some of the self-promoting male pricks I've met.
- plasticbag.org: Should we encourage self-promotion and lies?
Tom Coates identifies some of the problems with what Shirky is suggesting – the problem isn't just that women don't push themselves forward, but often that the wrong people do, and what we should be focusing on is ensuring that everyone correctly advertises their own level of experience and ability – that those that *do* self-promote heavily while they can be useful, can just as often be a total pain.
- apophenia: whose voice do you hear? gender issues and success
Danah Boyd's repose to Shirky and Coates is excellent reading.
- Mass Photo Gathering – I'm a Photographer, not a Terrorist
Trafalgar Square at noon on Saturday. Anyone interested?
Bookmarks for December 18, 2009
- Apparent Software blog » Blog Archive » “Is PayPal good for your microISV business?” A short PayPal horror story
Just a thing worth noting, should I ever be required to set up a service that needs payment processing with Paypal. Shitty behaviour.
- Auschwitz sign stolen | The Jewish Chronicle
Weird, and sick. I cannot fathom a motive to do this that doesn't leave me faintly nauseous.
Bookmarks for December 3, 2009
- PhrankDaChicken launches XpGnome script to convert Ubuntu into Windows XP lookalike
OK, this might actually give non-techy users a reasonable chance of using Ubuntu – they've made it behave more or less like the most popular version of Windows. I shall have to experiment, and see what's what.
- Too Much Joy» Blog Archive » My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement
Here's a nice dissection of how one of the major music players is handling digital stuff. The answer is "shamefully badly", and this article explains why. For what it's worth, this dovetails very directly with my experience of working at a record label – that they could do things well, and there are probably some people there who know how to, but that there is a such a culture against digital in the rest of the business that they are ignored, and the improvements they suggest actively held back by people who like the sloppy, incompetent status quo. (Also worth it for the explanation of advances toward the end, just in case you hadn't heard that little injustice before, either.)
Bookmarks for December 1, 2009
- Local Bookstores, Social Hubs, and Mutualization « Clay Shirky
Clary Shirky on the future of the bookstore. I think that the local bookstore probably has a longer future that the local record store did – I think it'll take a generational shift or two, until we've got people who are more used to reading on the screen than they are on paper, but I think he's right that they're going to need to make massive practical changes in the way they do business – perhaps becoming hubs for local POD services…