Microsoft
After failing to reverse the declining fortunes of the fourth largest company in the world, outgoing Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer teared up this week in his exit interview with WSJ.
“Maybe I’m an emblem of an old era, and I have to move on,” he said. “As much as I love what I’m doing, the best way for Microsoft to enter a new era is with a new leader.”
That must be an incredibly difficult thing to admit. I respect that. To ease his pain, Ballmer gets $18 billion in retirement. Pity him.
Blake Snow
See how my daughter is wearing her socks? I’m the only other person I know that does that, particularly if my ankles get hot.
Your ankles get hot? Yeah, my ankles get hot.
The complexing thing about this behavior, however, is that I haven’t “half socked” in years, certainly not since my daughter was old enough to notice. “Where did you learn to do that??!!” I asked in amazement the first time I witnessed her doing it. “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Why?” I followed up. “Because my feet were hot.”
Maybe my daughter did observe me doing it and followed suit. Maybe she saw some other weirdo do it and mimicked them. I don’t doubt other explanations.
But maybe, just maybe, my daughter did it because her genetics told her to. Maybe, just maybe, human offspring remember select quirks that having nothing to do with evolution and everything to do with social continuity.
As a father, it was an exhilarating connection that I imagine gets better with age.
AP Photo/Tom Stromme
Had a lot of fun recording the latest podcast with Josh this week:
In this Halloween Special of The Offline Podcast, Josh and I discuss the “new normal” work week, an app that supposedly boosts offline encounters, how to turn a small reward into something you’ll treasure forever, and doorbell ditching (aka the best offline experience of the week). Enjoy your life! Music by KC & The Sunshine Band and Tales from the Crypt.
MP3 (23 min) | iTunes | Feed | Reruns
Happy Halloween, readers. May all your Pagan dreams come true.
Honest Slogans
Honest Slogans is good stuff. Here are my favorites: Continue reading…
Engadget
My latest for Fox News: Why the death of the PC is a myth
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls9Cg8iaq1s#t=30[/youtube]
Synopsis: British kid fails math, then passes after a year of hard work. Father loses it.
Warner Bros.
Is it wise to make an audience feel physically disoriented, claustrophobic, and unsettled? I’m not so sure. In addition to immense stress and one-too-many suspense hangers, that’s exactly how Gravity will make you feel.
This is due to director Alfonso Cuarón’s excessive use of first-person and single-shots that are heavy on pans. The effect certainly made me empathize with the lost in space heroine. But I’ve seen a lot of other movies that make me empathize with characters, not because of cinematography tricks, but because of powerful acting. Continue reading…
Yahoo
It should be obvious, but for many it isn’t. They’ve forgotten how to live in the moment, be alone with their thoughts, and use “forever empty” as motivation to better themselves. Continue reading…
Imgur
For me, 2013 is a year of tens. Ten years of marriage. Ten years of taking care of business. Continue reading…
Dungeons & Dragons
Imgur
Friends and family know this about me—a side effect of being energetic, passionate, and critical.
Interpretation of dreams
Few things make my ears hurt more than listening to an untrained violinist. It’s insufferable. On the contrary, hearing a skilled violinist is a delight, perhaps second only to an expert piano player.
I listened to an accomplished violinist by accident recently. I was working. My window was open. It was raining. And then it started: a faint viola. A good one. It played for a solid hour without hitting a single stray note. It was the best live performance I’ve heard in a while.
I wonder if the player even knew their was an audience. I hope they practice again soon.
Readers: What’s your favorite unaccompanied solo instrument?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3QrhdfLCO8[/youtube]
You can find it here. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Ultimate Ears Boom
Reporting for Fox, here are 7 low-tech goods I’ve enjoyed this year.
Blake Snow
In addition to sporadic columns and the upcoming book, I’m publishing the first episode of The Offline Podcast today to help spread the message. Here’s what you can expect from the show: 
Continue reading…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8[/youtube]
“I see the way people use smartphones as a phenomenon that looks to me like a publicly-accepted decline in the way people interact with each other.”—Peter Cohen via Josh Steimle
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhZrONoR29E[/youtube]
From the singer/songwriter of one of my favorite aught bands, Grandaddy. Made with a dash of Rentals.
In an effort to reduce the spam I email to friends and family, take this:
My household is in the minority. We don’t use our iPad much, preferring instead smartphones, TV apps, and good old-fashioned laptops with keyboards.
That changed this week when I discovered an accessory that transformed the family iPad into something mesmerizing. A simple, $10 wall dock. Adhere it to the wall. Slip in any old tablet, enable slideshow mode, and voila! The device becomes useful wall art.
Since assembling the dock, I’ve caught most members of the family staring at, smiling at, and enjoying the iPad for extending periods of time, thanks to the 10 years of photographic evidence on display. It’s the best way I know to move albums from a hard drive into the living room.
“I don’t mean to alarm you, but she may have brain cancer.”
That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever heard as a parent. Uttered to me by a confused pediatrician after failing to diagnose my two year-old daughter for the umpteenth time, the sentence dashed my hopes and struck fear in me like no other.
It started like this. Two weeks prior, my daughter began vomiting in her sleep. Curiously, she would upchuck like clockwork — three hours after bed. After a few days, she begin dropping weight. Her eyes sunk in. She looked sicker than any of my children had before. Continue reading…
Humans are usually influenced in one of six ways, argues Robert Cialdini in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I suspect there are a lot more subtle and intricate ways to influence, but I think Cialdini certainly covered the highlights in his popular book published in 1984. They are as follows:
- Reciprocity. Humans feel obligated to return favors and gifts, even unwelcome ones—which partially explains why their are so many free samples in life. Hence, giving away something for free is an effective way to influence. You can avoid this influence by distinguishing uninvited gifts from welcome ones. For example, “I didn’t want this free food sample to being with, so I won’t feel obligated in giving you anything in return if I take it. Another thing to beware of are unwelcome concessions; say a door-to-door salesman that asks you to donate a large sum to a cause you aren’t interested in, only to lower the donation amount in the hopes you’ll donate something. The takeaway: Don’t donate unless you want to, not because someone is seemingly compromising. Continue reading…
Seinfeld
In a market economy, I believe state run economic development can sometimes be a good thing. But I suspect it’s usually a bad thing. Here’s why, in which a Rhode Island state treasurer cautioned against backing a celebrity owned company that would ultimately become a $75 million bath for taxpayers:
“In general, I would proceed very carefully on this. [The company] is in the Boston area where there are 200 venture capital firms, and it is in a very hot area of gaming so if it were in fact a compelling investment I would have to think it would be well funded already by venture capitalist; the fact that many have looked at it and passed is a red flag.” Continue reading…
I was asked to compile a list of my top 25 songs for a recent family reunion. Here it is for all to see.
As for my methodology, I didn’t submit a single political or consensus vote (i.e. notice no Beatles songs or critically acclaimed “Smells like Teen Spirit”). I only picked songs that are personal favorites; great songs that have special meaning to me, even if some of them are admittedly inferior to others not included on this list. And since my remembering self is biased, the list skews to recent favorites.
Enjoy. Continue reading…
Last month, iTunes shuffled a humble group of songs to my playlist and with them a wave of nostalgia.
The tracks themselves aren’t much, just old, amateur recordings from a short-lived college band I played in. Before iTunes recalled them, I hadn’t heard them in almost a decade.
But they ain’t bad, either. I played drums. My good friend Robert played bass. And the older brother and manager (Hi, Mac!) from the singer of Imagine Dragons played guitar. That totally sounded like the 31 Flavors girl from Ferris Bueller or Chunk from Goonies, but whatever. Continue reading…
Build character, not intelligence. That’s the gist of what parents, educators, and society should do to help children succeed, argues Paul Tough in his new book.
Many of Tough’s “findings” are obvious, mind you. More scientific validation of common sense than childrearing enlightenment, at least for balanced parents.
Nevertheless, Tough succeeds in synthesizing some important focal points for raising upstanding kids. Here they are, with my added commentary:
- Let children fail. It’s tempting to want to force a child to learn from yours and other’s mistakes. Life doesn’t work that way. You should certainly own up to your mistakes while showing them others’ and hope the child listens. But you must respect a child’s right to fail. It’s the only way they’ll feel the full experience of life. Let them own their failures as much as society lets them own (if not coddles) their victories. And let them know that failure is not who they are, it’s just something they do en route to winning. Continue reading…
Ang Sarap
Like many of you, I go through food phases. Here’s what I’m particularly keen on eating, making, and cooking right now: Continue reading…
If you’re reading this, you’ve successfully traversed a foreign array of tubes, electrons, and cyberspace servers to my new home.
Welcome.
As you can see, it’s all about “me, me, me” now. It’s a vain attempt to self-promote more and a concerted effort to reduce the number of people that mistakenly call me “Harold.”
It was time. 2007 was the last time I redesigned this eight year-old website.
So I updated a bunch of stuff and added new pages of interest, including: Continue reading…
The consultant I paid (Hi, Josh!) to tell me what I already knew — and I’d do it again with a 10 foot pole… Am I saying that right? — said I needed to promote myself more. To that end, here are a few work-related accomplishments I’m proud of:
- Have written for half of the top 20 U.S. media (dozens more in the top 100)
- Have worked for a handful of Fortune 100 companies, dozens of Fortune 500 ones, and some of the coolest little guys I know. Continue reading…
God, how did you get pork ribs to taste so delicious and why didn’t you make beef or chicken ribs this scrumptious?
That’s what I’d ask him. Here’s why: Lindsey and I have made these oven baked ribs several times this summer. They’re ridiculously easy. Can be made using baby or spare ribs. The meat falls of the bone with the slightest of bites. And there are virtually no ligaments or tendons to mess with — the closest thing to cartoon characters eating hunks of meat off single bones.
It’s my new favorite BBQ dish.
Photo credit: rays of sunshine
Google decided to shut down their popular Reader service on my birthday. In other words, RSS subscriptions are dead.
So if you’d like to keep your free Smooth Harold subscription current, subscribe by email today.
Those who do will be the first to receive next week’s post: The one question I would ask God.
And since I’m teasing stuff, be on the look out for my upcoming newsletters, including my official spam newsletter which my friends and family already lovingly filter, my music newsletter, book newsletter, and writing newsletter.
Email is the future, I tell ya!
Since moving to the Western United States 11 years ago, I’ve hiked many majestic trails. All are proof the area is still very wild and as breathtaking as ever.
Last week, I hiked the most impressive trail of them all: The Narrows, which I was unable to do the first time I visited Zion. In short, The Narrows is like a taller and deeper Little Wild Horse Canyon — my second favorite hike — with a river running through it. It’s so beautiful, I think it’s all I’ll do next time I visit Zion. I need that canyon in my life.
Readers: What’s the best hike you’ve ever been on?
The Reach Total Care + Whitening. Seriously, this thing is my version of the Ora-Dent for the following reasons:
- Unlike most plastic bristles, these babies don’t just slide across your rocks, they actually have grip and texture, which help remove build-up. After using this brush, your teeth feel as though the’ve just been polished by a dental hygienist. I know because I lick my teeth after every brush now.
- The angle of the brush gives you maximum leverage, making it easier than any brush I’ve used before to access those hard-to-reach places.
- Most brush handles narrow towards the end. Not the Reach Total Care + Whitening. This handle widens at the end, providing the best grip possible. I own my teeth now!
That said, I don’t fully buy the whitening bit. If Reach is saying the brush is capable of removing more external gunk than other brushes thanks to the above, then fine. But if they’re claiming it whitens like my bleech trays, I’ll call their bluff. After all, they’re whitening claim is asterisked by “lab tests,” aka “clinically proven,” aka “this doesn’t really do what we claim, but we’d like to think it does.”
Secondly, at $3.50 a pop, the brush is 3X the price of average brushes. Regardless, I’ll never buy another toothbrush. It’s that good.
(For what it’s worth, here is the toothpaste I use. Also awesome.)
Originally published March 2011
A client recently asked for links to some of my favorite personal writings. This is what I sent him:
Photo credit: Sara Snow
Feature story I wrote for the fair & balanced dept. of Fox News: Next great Internet revolution is coming, AOL founder says
My wife and I went to a screening of Unfortunate Brothers last night. It’s an affecting documentary by Dodge Billingsley about the political, economic, and cultural divide of North and South Korea.
The film is touching, insightful, and kept me engaged for 55 minutes. It also made me sympathize with the plight of North Koreans.
The only problem: The movie was screened to a group of eggheads at BYU, my alma mater, and all the academic and naive student types that congregate there. And not just any kind of academics—the “international relations” kind that like to talk political theory, solve other country’s problems from afar, and use big words to make themselves feel like they’re contributing to society.
For example: After the screening, an expert panel of three pleasant fellows including the filmmaker fielded questions from about 80-100 attendees. The second “question” came from an assumed student that liked to hear himself talk. He talked about how the movie “moved” him. In between lengthy pontifications, he said, “I guess my question is” three times. He talked a lot. He was the opposite of concise. Continue reading…
With a little help from her mother and I, our second child learned to ride a bike last week.
As she darted ahead of me into the horizon, I thought to myself, “She’s beautiful. The world is in good hands. This little gipper is gonna be alright.”
That all changes in teenage years, I’m told. But I’ll be damned if I’m not going to fight for her innocence as long as I can, then treat her like an adult as soon as she is mentally able. (I’ll be on my best guardian behavior, world—I swear it.)
But I digress. The experience reminded me of other sappy moments that have defined my short stint as a father. The first time your child smiles at you or says your name. Their first wobbly steps, subsequent hard fall, and immediate resolve in getting back up. The first time they excitedly greet you at the door. The first time you read a book in their class or celebrate an award they won on their own merit without any prodding or helicoptering by you.
Their first dance recital. The look on their face when they solve basic math. The first time they read a book, let loose on the dance floor, or help a younger sibling or child without being asked. The time my toddler son grabbed a twig to mimic my fishing the Provo River.
The list goes on. And I don’t even have a child older than eight, or a boy older than two. I can only imagine what wonderful things they’ll do as the years go on. I can only imagine how young at heart they’ll keep me.
For any parents in the room, what are your favorite childhood milestones?
See also: 10 reasons my Dad is awesome
If there’s one certainty I’ve observed in life, it is this: Rather than just eating more produce, less meat, and smaller portions of food, humans will vilify something in an effort to simplify complex food choices. Instead of accepting a “moderation in all things” approach to life — which limits superiority complexes and indulgence — they insist on inventing artificial food guidelines to live by.
For example: In the ’80s, butter and natual sugar was bad, so Americans (at least) ate lots of margarine and artificial sweeteners. But those turned out to be worse, so now butter and sugar are back on the menu. In the ’90s, it was the low-fat diet, which in many ways still influences our culture, although not to the extent the diet did in its hey day. In the 2000s, it was low-carbs: Atkin’s diet, South Beach, and other variations. Nowadays, popular grains like wheat bread, oats, and barley are suddenly the enemy. Even though we’ve been eating gluten for thousands of years, it’s just as bad for us as other fad diets. Which is to say it’s not.
Continue reading…
Hey, you. Yeah, you—the one reading this. The one that says ignorant things like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” “I’m busier than you,” or “I only require 3-4 hours of sleep.”
This research by Harvard obviously doesn’t apply to you, because you’re the exception in life. You’re superhuman.
For the rest of us, the study is a convincing reminder of mortality. Not only convincing, but alarming.
Continue reading…
2013 might be to the ’10s what 1991 was to the ’90s — a monstrous year for name brand music.
Phoenix already released their 4-star keeper. Vampire Weekend releases their third album next week to rave reviews (and another really great song). An all analog Daft Punk album follows a week later, which is also garnering favorable reviews and has a catchy summer single.
Then, Empire of the Sun, makers of one of my favorite albums of 2008, releases their second album in June. The first single is good stuff (and shot, by the way, in Bryce Canyon, Utah). And if the first five months are any indication, even more good vibes could crop up in the second half of the year.
As someone who likes to sing, dance, and play air guitar, I’m excited by the prospects. Calendar years are more memorable with good music.
I’m a cheese lover. I’ve sampled some of the finest from three different continents. In fact, I’ve never met a cheese I didn’t like, except for Colby. (Yuck!)
My absolute favorite varient of cheese, however, is Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar. It comes from grass-fed cows in Vermont that sleep on warm blankets and are often whispered words of encouragement by loving humans. It’s gluten-free, low-carb, 100% organic, and makes your bowel movements smell like cinnamon. It’s aged for 24 hours, helps save the planet, and will even impress your sycophant friends.
Not really. But Seriously Sharp is the most pungent and satisfying cheese I’ve ever tasted. It’s perfectly textured—slightly crumbly without being overly dry. Dense and mouthwatering. It’s so delectable, I often sink in my chair after savoring the final slice.
Goes well with red grapes, almonds, crackers, french bread and salami, strawberries, cantaloup, and white sauces. I buy it at Walmart right after doorbell ditching struggling mom-and-pop grocers.
Enjoy.
Some small search-outfit announced today that they’re bringing Google Fiber to Provo later this year, pending the city’s no-brainer approval next week.
This is really great news for my home town. It means free 5 mbps internet for every household, free 1000 mbps Internet for 25 public institutions, and $70/mo. 1000 mbps Internet for anyone who wants it. For reference, I pay $50/mo. for 15-20 mbps from Comcast. From a math perspective, we see that 1000 is a lot better than 15-20.
From a consumer perspective, it’s the most coveted internet in the nation. Provo will be just the third U.S. city to offer Google Fiber, in addition to Kansas City and Austin, Texas.
Here they are:
They didn’t always look that way. Like most smartphone users, I used to set all my alerts to interrupt my life the second anything came in. Voice calls. Emails. Texts. Software alerts. Website comments. RSS updates. (Keep in mind this was before social media, so things have gotten worse.)
These distractions understandably drove my wife crazy because I was, in essence, having an affair with my phone. White lies were told when asked, “Blake, what were you doing?” Often times I’d leave the room – or wherever it was we were vacationing – for “a quickie” to avoid sideways glances that accurately accused me of being elsewhere in thought, priority, and identity.
I did this for a couple of years until it drove me crazy. I had formed a love/hate disorder with my phone. I liked it for the conveniences it did then (and now), but I knew I was unable to have a personal life with my leash-phone around. So I began purposefully leaving it behind on nights and weekends. Continue reading…
Random Access Memories, the fourth album by Daft Punk, coming May 21.
A friend and I have been discussing touring band members and studio musicians today. After I complimented Phoenix’s rockin’ touring drummer, my buddy emailed this:
“I always have mixed feelings about the use of utility musicians in live performances. While I appreciate Phoenix having them all clearly visible on stage, it drives me a little spare to see The Killers or Muse bury their spare fellas off behind some speakers. And then you have Green Day, who have had a second guitarist helping them out for over ten years, but he still isn’t a member of the band.”
Here was my reply: Continue reading…
Hey, Internet. I found the secret to life. It comes in five parts. Here it is:
Continue reading…
Amazon has been my favorite store (and website) for nearly a decade.
As I’ve said many times before, they are the greatest store known to man. They have saved me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time spent shopping. They do unto customers as they would do unto themselves. They are my movie store. My book store. My music store that auto syncs with iTunes. They are a treasure trove of user data, helping me reach for products that are consumer approved and well rated so I get burned less often. They ship free and often return free.
Plus it’s just fun getting brown cardboard boxes wrapped up in shipping tape. Heck, their boxes even have a smile on them. For that, I unabashedly love Amazon.
And then they go and do something like this, as if I needed any more reason to shout my love for them from the rooftops with free word of mouth advertising: Continue reading…
I heard an advance preview of Phoenix’s upcoming album, Bankrupt. It does not disappoint. Overall, it rivals the must-own quality of their last three albums, and runs circles around their forgettable debut album.
While Bankrupt doesn’t charter new territory, it’s undeniably fun. It will make you want to dance and sing. It’s like eating a perfectly ripe peach in August after waiting a really long time to indulge in the familiar sweetness.
For all the people with good taste who plan on adding this album to their library, here are five essential tracks I suspect you’ll be humming most: Continue reading…
My wife looked at me with bright amber eyes the other day and laughed in my face. “Is no hobby off limits for you?” she mused.
We were cleaning our attic and going through an old box of mine. It was a veritable time capsule of previous hobbies I once held dear. The one that made Lindsey laugh most were my magic tricks.
“How much did you spend on these?” she asked. “A few hundred,” I responded. “Let me guess, you only played with them for a few weeks,” she countered.
Probably.
You see, I lose interest in hobbies as quickly as I discover them. I do have lifelong passions—music and sports chief among them. But most of my hobbies are fleeting. I get what I need and then move on to new hobbies. The old ones remain as slice of my former self; a talking point with anyone who has shared my enthusiasm for x, y, or z.
But it’s not out of boredom that I lose interest in hobbies. It’s out of a desire to experience as many things as I can. Someday I’ll list a comprehensive set of passions that I chased in this life. But for now, here are personal hobbies I’m particularly keen on at the moment: Continue reading…
