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Archive for December 2009

The irony of Microsoft’s Plurk code piracy scandal

I have been following the whole Microsoft – Plurk debacle last night and this morning. It makes especially delicious reading given that Microsoft could be construed to have invented the concept of software piracy with a letter complaining to Homebrew Computer Club members copying their BASIC programming language software over three decades ago and its subsequent pirate [...]

What’s on your iPhone?

Back in the day ‘What’s in your handbag?‘ was a popular feature in various magazines and newspapers. I was thinking about what would show a similar kind of personality now given that so much of your life is digital artifacts rather than real things. For instance up to five years ago, someone like myself who [...]

Memewatch: Buy Rage Against The Machine track to rage against X-Factor

I first noticed this meme when my colleague Laura Strong tweeted about it earlier today. When I opened my email, I had a raft of Facebook group recommendations as well. There is a strong groundswell of support to make Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine the christmas number one in the UK [...]

Links of the day

Media Cache – TV Still Has a Hold on Teenagers – NYTimes.com – Forrester survey of European teens. Conventional media still consumed In the Smartphone Era, Can Nokia Recapture Its Glory Days? – NYTimes.com – probably not, but that could be a good thing in this world of change. Apple hasn’t recaptured the glory days [...]

Jargon Watch: Heirloom Design

Saul Griffith in a presentation he gave as part of the Long Now Foundation talked about the environmental impact of our stuff. The possessions that we own make up about a quarter of our lifetime carbon footprint. The way to reduce this is to have stuff that lasts longer, and that we want to keep [...]

I like: Simplex iPhone case

There is something terribly impermanent about iPhone accessories. You know that there will be a new phone along with a subtly changed form-factor or feature that shafts your great looking case design, so I invested in a cheap but functional silicon case. However the spangly goodness of the Simplex case by Japanese makers Factus Design [...]

Links of the day

What deux yeux have teux deux teuxday? – really nice web-based task list Digital Economy Bill: Lords Want To Stamp Out Piracy Chasers | TorrentFreak – “The industry has been extremely slow to listen to the demands of its customers, and has had something of an abusive relationship with them, seeking to punish them before [...]

Out and about: Caffe Paradiso, Shad Thames, London

I took a trip out to the design museum and needed a caffiene fix on my way back to Tower Bridge tube station. It was in the redeveloped warehouses of Shad Thames that I came across Caffe Paradiso. The coffee shop serves italian food, sandwiches and Italian sweet pastries and good coffee. It has a [...]

Links of the day

listimonkey | blankanvas – cool new tool in a potential post-Yahoo! Pipes world UBS Media Week: WPP’s Sorrell: Google’s Fitter Than Ever For Mobile Push | paidContent – “When you boil it down, life is about China and the internet.” Zeptotools; an iPhone App developer blog – The adventures of the Tokyo code cowboys, I [...]

Dieter Rams and web 2.0

I went to see the Dieter Rams exhibition at the design museum featuring the products of Braun and it reminded me of how a successful business can thrive with great design and how meddling marketers and managers more concerned with the concept of shareholder value than focusing on providing something of value to consumers can [...]

Links of the day

What Do Baby Boomers Want From Technology? – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com – some interesting progmatic attitudes to tech Vinyl Record Albums and Turntables Are Gaining Sales – NYTimes.com – so why are Panasonic apparently getting rid of the Technics SL-1200 series? raxraxrax.com » Blog Archive » Social media and its global usage Scotland Yard [...]

Being open to experiences and still being amazed

Part of what I do for a living means being open to looking at things in a different way and retaining that feeling of seeing something remarkable. For better or for worse London’s tube (mass transit) system has been a part of my life for the past 11 1/2 years. And on and off for [...]

Oprah Time: How Customers Think by Gerald Zaltman

Zaltman’s How Customers Think provides an easy-to-read work on consumer behaviour and market research. Illustrated with anecdotes from a range of brands Zaltman talks through the benefits and pitfalls of different research methods, together examples of the ‘law of unintended consequences’. Its a really easy read, I hammered through it on a business trip to [...]

Webby evening videos

I used last week’s Webby evening hosted by Nik Roope, Iain Tait and the guys at Poke London to make some video and work out how iMovie works. Don’t expect Sergio Leone-esque work over at YouTube: Nik Roope interviewing Jonathan from Spotify on web stalking and online obsession Paul Graham from Anomaly presented the work [...]

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