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Why is Flickr such a relatively civil place?
"Champ doesn't just shepherd along the Flickr ethos; she's a larger advocate of intelligent growth in an often chaotic zone.
"People become disassociated from one another online. The computer somehow nullifies the social contract," she says. In other words, people sometimes go nuts amid the anonymity of the Internet."
WalMart pulls the plug on its DRM server, tells customers to deal with it.
According to an e-mail sent out to Walmart.com Music customers, the DRM servers are gettin’ the boot come October 9th. Users are being told to burn their music to CDs to back it up. Rather than finding a cheap way to keep the DRM servers online (which should be relatively easy - seeing as DRM songs haven’t been sold in 7 months, both the track and customer lists should be static), they’re pushing the hassle on the customer.
The theme song from Shaft, performed by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
O'Reilly: It's time to do something worthy with the Web.
Mann: We can do better.
Dan Lyons: Is this the best geeks can do?
Money quote from Lyons:
My first reaction was that in the greater scheme of things (economy in free fall, war in Iraq, global warming, energy crisis, not to mention the old reliables like cancer and poverty and AIDS, etc.) this challenge of finding a good restaurant seems like a fairly trivial and unimportant problem for our big geek brains to be trying to solve. If I were funding these guys I might go home scratching my head about what those kids are doing with all of my millions. Maybe there is a point to what they’re doing, but honestly, what great problem are these companies trying to solve? Sitting there watching this spectacle — watching these guys unable to simply explain what they do and and how they are going to make a business out of it – it was staggering to think that someone has entrusted these people with very large sums of money. But someone has. I weep for those people.
Not that this means the disappearance of frivolity from the interwebs, but could this be a sign of creeping impatience with big brains focusing on insignificant things?
UPDATE: I appreciate the irony of this post's placement between two, yes, frivolous amusements.
I SUSPENDED MY CAMPAIGN SO I CAN UPDATE MY SYSTEM
AND I'M A PC.
I submitted one -- your turn.
Film geeks are familiar with the excellent Criterion Collection, which offers a catalog of classic movies. I've got a few in my collection, including the deliciously whacked out Branded to Kill.
How is Criterion preparing for increasing demand for HD movies? Gizmodo has a look behind the scenes.
"So, if your world already revolves around Google services, you may find that the G1 fits like a glove. If not, you may be disappointed."
A compelling look at the Android operating system.
The importance of Libor:
"Judged by the amount of money directly dependent on it, the British Bankers’ Association’s London Interbank Offered Rate matters more than any other set of numbers in the world."
Would it surprise you to know that the calculation of this most important set of numbers is managed by a staff of two? Of course, they have some backup:
"It’s the back-up arrangements that tell you something about how much the calculation matters. The co-ordinators have dedicated phone lines laid into their homes so they can still work if a terrorist attack or other incident stops them reaching the office. A similarly equipped building, near the office, is kept in constant readiness, and there’s a permanently staffed back-up site in a small town around 150 miles from London (I won’t be any more precise than that). Its employees periodically work in the London office, so that they’re ready to take over if need be."
Why the precautions? Because "if Libor suddenly became unavailable, large parts of the global financial system would be paralysed."
It's that time of the year: The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2008 Fellows (aka "Genius Grants"). The list includes a farmer, an historian of medicine, and a music critic.
I’m Ian Joyce, principal of August Communication Consultants, where I help businesses create good online experiences for customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders. I'm also a writer, and contribute the odd column to the Business Journal of the Triad.
You can follow me on Twitter, see some of my photos on Flickr, thumb (metaphorically speaking) through my retired blog, Ian@work, or read my musings on bicycling.
Send me email.
