> There was too much noise. Even with the relatively small number of feeds to which I was subscribed, almost none of it was interesting to me. I realized that, for some reason I couldn’t quite recall, I felt obligated to stay abreast of new developments in technology and such. – Brett Kelly, Reading Intentionally: Why I Quit Reading RSS [http://nerdgap.com/reading-intentionally-why-i-quit-rss/] When I left for Las Vegas, I knew I would be going without one component that has been with me for...
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iPad for Work
> It is not a sacrifice to use the iPad as a primary device. — Shawn Blanc, Why the iPad is My New Laptop [http://shawnblanc.net/2012/04/ipad-laptop/] Shawn writes about how he’s using his iPad [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009W8YQ6K/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009W8YQ6K&linkCode=as2&tag=four0b-20&linkId=A6IZHCBNMKAA7KNO] more for regular tasks without missing a beat without using his laptop. I wrote about this earlier when I talked about how I am Changi...
Keys to Success by John Gruber
> John Gruber’s Keys to Success 1. Fussy coffee drinker 2. Clicky keyboard 3. Soda Stream — The Talk Show #87 | 5by5 Network [http://www.5by5.tv/talkshow/87] Few quick notes: * in order to qualify as a fussy coffee drinker, you must grind your beans on a daily basis before making the coffee. * the more popular examples of clicky keyboards that I keep hearing about are the Das keyboard [https://amzn.to/3cTTd4U] and Apple Extended keyboard [https://amzn.to/2zvBylr] * the Soda S...
Sunday Reading - April 15th, 2012
I consider myself to be a fairly well-read man, and I tend to come across some fairly interesting finds each week. I tweet them as I find them, for the most part, but thought I would share some more links for your Sunday reading. They offer more variety than most sites share. Instagram’s Growth [http://alexisohanian.com/instagram-from-zero-to-a-billion-pretty-visua] – By now, everyone has heard about Facebook’s billion dollar acquisition of Instagram. Here is a visual representation of their gr...
Mike Monteiro's New Book, Design is a Job
> There’s a difference between being enjoyable to work with and being “nice.” Being nice means worrying about keeping up the appearance of harmony at the expense of being straightforward and fully engaged. Sometimes you need to tell a client they’re making the wrong call. Part of client services is being able to do that without coming off as a dick. But being afraid to do it because you’re too invested in being “nice” is worse than being a dick. Mike Monteiro, Design Is A Job [http://www.abooka...
Sons of Anarchy: Season One = Pure Awesomeness
I just finished watching Sons of Anarchy, Season 1 [http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=IfAPAqe/hTs&offerid=162397&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=3664&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Ftv-season%2Fsons-of-anarchy-season-1%2Fid289274652%3Fuo%3D4%26partnerId%3D30] after a strong recommendation from John Bell (Start Your Novel [http://www.startyournovel.com/]). After watching the pilot episode, I was hooked. I honestly couldn’t stop watching it, and it’s rare for a show like that to come...
Aligning with My Needs
> The more features you add to a product, the more it dilutes the core reason for a product’s existence and confuses people. — Marco Arment [http://www.marco.org], Build and Analyze Show #68 [http://www.5by5.tv/buildanalyze/68] I came across that quote while listening to Marco’s show last week. It inspired me to write a post on my business blog about Aligning with Your Guest’s Needs [http://foursidesconsulting.com/notebook/2012/03/aligning-with-your-guests-needs] , but I’m realizing now that...
To People Who Complain About Being Tired Without Kids
> If I ever hear you whine about being soooo fatigued from all of your adult socializing and physical activity, I am going to come to your house and _fight you_. But before we fight, can I just ask that you go easy on me? I’m really bagged. In fact, can I take a nap at your house first? And then we’ll get right to fighting as soon as I wake up. Promise. Zzzz. –Geof Harries [http://gdharries.com/journal/text/13465048] This is by far the biggest adjustment to fatherhood that I still struggle wi...
Spring Renewal and Revamping
There’s something quite liberating when you start from scratch instead of building upon a previous structure. I was thinking about this when I cleaned out the design of this site and installed a new theme, removing the advertisements and most of the other nonsense. I decided to do something that I had only done before with my Windows machines of the past: wipe the drive and start over. It was the first time I had done a clean install of my Mac since I purchased it – over five years ago.1 I sta...
An Invitation to the Future
> The popular image of the visionary is someone with a clear view of the future, but empirically it may be better to have a blurry one. — Paul Graham, Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas [http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html] This past week could be deemed the Week of the Future. It’s hosted the launch of the new iPad [http://amzn.to/2r4mS81], the successive launches (and updates) of several popular apps (Highlight [http://highlig.ht/], Sonar [http://www.sonar.me], Path [http://www.path.com...
