February 2008
28 posts
Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break →
In its campaign to revive the intimate, friendly feel of a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks orchestrated the closing of 7,100 of its American stores at precisely 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for employees.
It’s a nice gesture, but I wouldn’t expect this to do much for Starbucks.
I think a large part of what has made Starbucks Starbucks is that it’s a...
“The web doesn’t forget.”
– Seth Godin
Tuneage wants YOU!
Tuneage, even though it’s only 10 days old, already has over 90 followers. So far, we’re having a great time publishing it, but it’s far from perfect. To that end, we’re looking for another regular contributor, so we’ve decided to see if any readers want to help us.
Anyone interested?
Update: Submissions are now closed; thanks to everyone who sent in a...
cubicle17 turns one!
So far in my lifetime, I’ve had approximately 8,000 blogs, all with success rates that approach 0. That changed (although, only slightly) one year ago today, when I signed up for the 2488th Tumblr account and made my first post. At the time, I’m sure I told myself that this would be the blog that lasted longer than 3 weeks, and for the first time, I was right. My tumblelog has changed...
Ex-music exec claims "Music 1.0 is dead" →
The ridiculousness of versioning something like music aside, the meat of the article is interesting. The article gives the impression that the music industry truly is beginning to realize that the future of their business will look nothing like their business has in the past. And that’s a good thing.
My biggest fear for the music industry, though, is that the public relations damage has...
Seth Godin speaks to Columbia Records →
After Seth Godin proved that he understands what the music industry is doing wrong, he was asked to give a presentation to Columbia Records.
The ~30min presentation (+20min of questions) is excellent, and only confirms that it would be prudent of the music industry to listen to what Seth has to say.
Update: looks like Seth took down the video and will be posting a transcript instead.
Coding Horror: On Escalating Communication →
Jeff Atwood:
Know when to escalate from IM to email, from email to phone, and when to drop the ultimate communication A-bomb: a face-to-face meeting.
I could stand to remember this from time to time.
Meet the Man Who Invented the Album Cover as We... →
It’s hard to imagine now, but during the record industry’s first decades of existence, music releases came packaged almost exclusively in plain brown wrappers. Only occasionally were they adorned with the logos of the companies releasing them.
That is, until Alex Steinweiss came along.
iA: Use Your Real Name When You Comment →
The Information Architects get delightfully draconian:
Here is how it works on our channel. You are free to say whatever you like, as long as you post under:
your real name or with a reference to an identifiable website or anything else that identifies you to other readers […] From today on, we will delete all unidentifiable comments.
An interesting (and, given the typical anonymous...
LOST: A theory on time travel →
I’m a sucker for anything that attempts to explain LOST. Thankfully, this is one of the more interesting theories I’ve read, even if talk of time travel makes my brain hurt.
Tuneage: a music tumblelog →
In an effort to bring good music to the tumbling masses, Richard and I have started a music tumblelog called Tuneage.
If you’re in need of some new music that doesn’t suck, I recommend checking it out.
Putting my iTunes library "On Notice"
I have a large (~45GB) iTunes library, and as anyone with a library that large can tell you, it’s difficult to actually listen to all those tunes. In the past, I’ve tried smart playlists and considered drastic measures, but the smart playlists only worked for a week or two before ultimately failing and the drastic measures are just too drastic for my taste. So I’m trying...
The Appeal of the MacBook Air →
John Gruber:
But I was wrong that the Air was designed to be a secondary machine. It certainly is a compelling secondary machine for anyone whose primary machine is an iMac or Mac Pro, but for many people, the MacBook Air will serve just fine as their one and only computer.
The man makes some good points, as usual.
Obesity, genetics, and responsibility - by William... →
To the extent that genetics overlaps with fattening behavior, old dichotomies have to be chucked. You can’t just blame fat people for eating too much. Nor can you assume that because fat is hereditary, there’s nothing they or society can do about it.
“Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.”
– Conway’s Law.
Amplive remixes "In Rainbows" →
Amplive, a DJ I freely admit to having never heard of, remixed 7 tracks off Radiohead’s In Rainbows, and the result is pretty good. The album is free to download and worth a listen if you enjoyed Radiohead’s latest.
Writer: the internet typewriter →
Think of it as WriteRoom for your web browser, no account required. Might make a nice companion to Instapaper.
No Child Left Behind Is Leaving Designers Behind →
Dan Saffer briefly talks about why teaching to standardized tests is a bad thing:
We’re six years into the No Child Left Behind education program, which is to say about half of a generation has been taught rote-style in order to pass standardized tests. Children have memorized facts and multiplication tables and the like to the detriment of, well, real learning.
Being taught in this rote-style...
Rands is Right
An interesting thing happened yesterday. But before I tell you about that, I want you to read this: it’s a quote from Rands’ recent article about preparing for presentations:
My best piece of advice is a threat: an audience can smell an immature presentation on the very first slide. It has nothing to do with the quality of the content; it’s you standing lamely in front of your slide...
RIAA presses for lower songwriting royalties →
Here’s how far apart the two groups are: when it comes to digital downloads, the NMPA wants 15¢ per track for the songwriters (often split 50/50 between the songwriter and the music publisher), but the RIAA only wants to pay 5¢ or 6¢ a track. DiMA suggests paying even less.
Wow, someone’s talking out of both sides of their mouth.
37Signals: "Years of Irrelevance" →
Ian Clarke:
Which leads me to my point: Requiring X years of experience on platform Y in your job posting is, well, ignorant. As long as applicants have 6 months to a year of experience, consider it a moot point for comparison. Focus on other things instead that’ll make much more of a difference.
Living with Data →
Merlin Mann (of 43Folders fame), gave a presentation at Macworld 2008 discussing how “our ‘always on’ habits (and the technologies that enable them) have left most of us feeling stressed-out, anxious, and perpetually behind on everything we do” and what options we have for dealing with those habits.
If you read the article on multitasking from a few days ago, I think...
bside.com: Before the Music Dies →
BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES tells the story of American music at this precarious moment. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation.
It’s $3 to download (or free if you don’t already have an account with b-side),...
“…nothing on the Internet is so serious it can’t be laughed at, and...”
– Julian Dibbell