Blake Snow

writer-for-hire, content guy, bestselling author

Hi, I'm Blake.

I run this joint. Don’t know where to start? Let me show you around:

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At the movies: Is applause appropriate in the absence of performers?

Whenever I hear a theater audience applauding for a movie, even one I enthusiastically approve of, I look like this:

awkwardapplause

At the same time, I’m happy to applaud during live events when the recipient of the applause — usually performers or athletes — are in attendance. But it’s always felt “wrong” for me to applaud after a pre-recorded film concludes, unless of course I knew the makers of that film were in the theater and I did in fact approve of their work.

Technically, however, the definition of applause makes no reference to my individual contingency:

Applause is primarily the expression of approval by the act of clapping, or striking the palms of the hands together, in order to create noise. Audiences are usually expected to applaud after a performance, such as a musical concert, speech, play, or sporting event. As a form of mass nonverbal communication, it is a simple indicator of the average relative opinion of the entire group; the louder and longer the noise, the stronger the sign of approval.–Wikipedia

So what do you think, Smooth Harold readers: Is applause appropriate in the absent of performers? If so, in what ways does applause benefit the consumers of the performance, be it live or recorded?

I suppose it can create a sense of belonging or shared beliefs among participants, even in the absence of the actual performers. But then again that would also seem to dilute the purpose of applause, no?

Image via Imugr

You don’t have to “put in your time” to take time off

As I’ve said before, the idea of overworking yourself while you’re young so you can relax later in life is bunk. Which is why I take issue with the below remark by Amber Mac, writing for Fast Company on how to validate your unwillingness to take time off:

I’m not saying that [notable businessmen who leave work after hours and on weekends] don’t work hard. Quite the opposite. Clearly they’ve hustled for years, propelling themselves into fantastic careers that I would argue finally give them the opportunity to design their lives with the freedom they’ve shared as of late.

Wrong. Some success stories just have different priorities than others. If you’re like most people and are driven by a “getting ahead” mentality, then sure: work your tail off while your body is in tip top shape while neglecting family, friends, and hobbies in the process. Then regret it later as you sit in a empty home with lots of stuff, a deteriorating body, and wishing instead you had followed your passions.

Or you can do it the other way: Work hard during the work day. Want less (aka be content with the simple things in life). Take nights and weekends off to foster relationships, listen to good music, eat good food, read great literature, watch film and volunteer. Then pepper that several times a year with wonderful vacations to see the world.

As for me and my house, we choose the latter.

Why I love web comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWcpw3GAAms[/youtube]

Reason #428: The YouTube comment thread for Maurice Ravel’s masterful single-movement crescendo, Boléro. Some of my favorites:

  • doesn’t anyone ever feel bad for the drummer?
  • if i could squeeze my whole childhood into one thing it? would be this song
  • If I had a dollar for every poorly written Ravel piece, I’d have zero? dollars.
  • I love the? part from 0:00 to 14:52
  • Little known fact is that this was originaly going to be the legend of zelda theme. Look? it up.
  • I’m more into house music,hip-hop and reagge but this music is? a master piece.
  • thumbs up? if your awesome taste of music brought you here.
  • The trombone part at 8:00 gives me goosebumps every time i hear it, without fail. amazing how jazz was such an influence in orchestral? 20th century music. love it!
  • As someone who has played this snare part, I can confirm that it is indeed excruciating.?

Although I really like this piece, the only thing I don’t like is the tempo change right at the ending climax. With the flat (or is it sharp?) notes, it comes off sounding a bit sloppy. If I were a conductor, I’d remix it to keep the tempo, kill the flat notes, and finish strong on the last note like it already does. Either way, the YouTube commenters are witty if not insightful.

How to fix online comments in one fell swoop

trollsTrolls — breaking online comments since 1994.

Online comments and reader reaction to news are often enlightening. Unless of course they’re disrupted by attention trolls, which they often are. Which is why commenting for the most part is still broken. Even the world’s largest bloggerprenuers know this.

Blocking trolls, however, is useless. They just create new accounts to perpetuate the insanity. To really nip them in the bud, you have to ensure that they fail to get a reaction.

Here’s how I would do it: Keep comments open, allowing anyone to register and make a remark. Flag the ones (either individually or by email/account) that are off-topic, rude, or spam.

But instead of removing these comments, keep them visible to the IP address from which the comment was made, while hiding it from all other readers. Basically making it visible to only the troll.

In other words, the best way to discourage trolls is to ignore them. Of course, a small minority of technical trolls might wise up and try logging in on different accounts from different IP addresses. But I think this could do wonders to fixing the problem.

Am I wrong?

This wired life: You’re still doing it wrong

machinesThe below commentary by Sherry Turkle in the New York Times is brimming with so much contemporary wisdom, I’m gonna share my favorite excerpts in the hope you’ll not only read the entire article, but ponder what it’s telling you:

I spend the summers at a cottage on Cape Cod, and for decades I walked the same dunes that Thoreau once walked. Not too long ago, people walked with their heads up, looking at the water, the sky, the sand and at one another, talking. Now they often walk with their heads down, typing. Even when they are with friends, partners, children, everyone is on their own devices…

During the years I have spent researching people and their relationships with technology, I have often heard the sentiment “No one is listening to me.” I believe this feeling helps explain why it is so appealing to have a Facebook page or a Twitter feed — each provides so many automatic listeners. And it helps explain why — against all reason — so many of us are willing to talk to machines that seem to care about us…

We think constant connection will make us feel less lonely. The opposite is true. If we are unable to be alone, we are far more likely to be lonely. If we don’t teach our children to be alone, they will know only how to be lonely…

Ignore that advise at your own analog peril.

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Timex “easy reader” is precisely that

timexeasyreader

The Timex easy reader is the best watch I’ve ever owned. The reason: The clock typography is perfectly weighted, sized, and immediately recognizable. You might say a watch is just a watch, or that the time it takes to discern one analog clock from another is immaterial.

It’s not.

After using my smoking hot Puma watch for a year, the milliseconds gained in using the Easy Reader is noticeable. Not enough to lengthen my day. But from a user experience, it just feels right.

I’ll still reach for my Puma for style and casual reasons. But for everything else, I prefer the Easy Reader. Know what font it is by chance? It looks like its from the Bookman family, but I haven’t found an exact match.

Proof that lack of focus kills a company (or how to save Sony)

sony-tv

The New York times ran an insightful piece this weekend on the decline of Sony, which is valued at just a quarter of where it was a decade ago, and just one thirtieth the size of Apple:

“Sony makes too many models, and for none of them can they say, ‘This contains our best, most cutting-edge technology,’ ” Mr. Sakito said. “Apple, on the other hand, makes one amazing phone in just two colors and says, ‘This is the best.’ ”

In addition to department infighting, that really sums up Sony’s troubles: too much product, none of them hits. Continue reading…

What would you say to one million listeners?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2uH9rr5FhY[/youtube]

The problem with social media is that most of what is said falls on deaf ears. You need celebrity, novelty, or credibility, to be heard.

Furthermore, we tend to congregate with like-minded individuals, making it difficult to be exposed to truly new ideas and perspectives.

All of which makes Listserve an interesting social experiment. It’ll probably end up just being spam or generalized thoughts. But if not, I’ll stay subscribed as long as it keeps on giving.

My own private external office

externaloffice

I’ve worked from home for nine years now. That means lunch with the kids almost every day, water cooler talk with my hot wife, afternoon delights, no traffic, more leisure, greater flexibility. Way more pluses than minuses. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

At the same time, Lindsey and I get in each other’s hair on occasion. I have to announce an important conference call to the whole house to remind the kids not to run down my wing. Understandably, Lindsey doesn’t like being told how and when she can use her house during the much more demanding job of raising kids.

Continue reading…

About the book I’m writing

offline-balance-blake-snow-concept-cover-title-2012A long-time Smooth Harold reader — and by long-time I mean four days — writes:

Dear Smooth Harold,

I’m looking forward to the book you’re writing, but your fans want to know: What technology are you using to write a book about life/tech balance?

Yours in blogging,

David Cole
Cambridge, Mass.

Hi David. I’m writing the book in iA Writer. I’ll also require electricity to turn my computer on, an internet connection, and working plumbing. Does that answer your question?

As for the book, I’ll be launching a website, newsletter, and maybe even a podcast soon with sample chapters and the process I’m going through to ensure the book gets maximum visibility (i.e. the best agent, publisher, and distributor my idea can buy). So stay tuned. And by that I mean keep refreshing this page every 30 seconds for the next several weeks.

Thanks for writing.

Survey says: Most people tip more than 15%, take self portraits, think they’re too busy, and call it “soda”

At least according to a few sample surveys by Google (below). For the record, I tip 18% on average (more or less depending on service and pity, but rarely for carry out), have a family friend take our yearly family portrait, exercise regularly because I value my health more than getting ahead, and I call it “Coke.”

Screen shot 2012-03-29 at 2.56.13 PMScreen shot 2012-03-29 at 2.57.37 PMScreen shot 2012-03-29 at 2.58.10 PMScreen shot 2012-03-29 at 2.58.22 PM

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Great nerd story (with bonus material on the difficulty of historical preservation)

mario

Getting an exact date, even for something as recently as 25 years ago, is hard to do, reports Frank Cifaldi. Not only do the victors get to write history, they often do it with faulty memories.

That said, I gotta think that remembering history is a lot more exact depending on the significance of the event — say remembering when a first shot was fired compared to the unassuming release of an iconic video game.

Still, humanity is lousy about keeping records. I’m no different.

Here’s why we’re more comfortable online than offline now

phone in public

Since it’s related to my book, I was fascinated by this excerpt from USA Today:

“Our brains are sensitive to stimuli moment to moment, and if you spend a lot of time with a particular mental experience or stimulus, the neural circuits that control that mental experience will strengthen,” he says. “At the same time, if we neglect certain experiences, the circuits that control those will weaken. If we’re not having conversations or looking people in the eye — human contact skills — they will weaken.”

In essence, we’re willingly training ourselves to favor online virtual stimuli more than offline real stimuli, which is madness.

The most elegant web design I’ve seen in a decade

Screen shot 2012-03-13 at 4.52.28 PM

You can’t tell by just looking at it. But click the above screen capture for what I consider the most elegant web behavior I’ve seen in a decade.

I call it scripted scrolling, and it makes scrolling more experiential and interactive without sacrificing user control of timing and cadence. Here’s an extreme, overkill example, which quickly gets confusing by being too much of a good thing.

But overall, scripted scrolling is lovely. My next redesign will definitely incorporate it in elegant moderation.

This video makes me want to high five the universe (and hug a rock)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU[/youtube]

Not only that, but it makes me want to roast marshmellows around a fire and sing Cumbauya with believers and non-believers alike. Either way, I like watching Neil Tyson on PBS Nova. But I really like him after hearing this wonderful answer put to music and film.

That said, I still think modern NASA is a dinosaur. It’s the equivalent of thinking the Internet still needs a government agency like ARPANET to perpetuate great things.

It doesn’t, although I believe in NASA, ARPANET and similar “start up” public technologies to get the ball rolling, since the private sector would likely never incur the initial hard costs to get these kinds of things going.

So thanks government. But please step aside once you’ve paved the way — we’ll take it from here. (That last line basically sums up most of my political thinking).

My favorite song (and album) of the year so far

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W559OMp-gSA[/youtube]

The song: “All Alright” by Fun. I could sing this refrain all day long. And often do.

The album: Some Nights by Fun. The whole album makes me want to sing out loud, and that’s a pretty solid metric for a memorable album.

Admittedly, the lyrics are cringe inducing at times. The first song is absolutely trash — I deleted it. But eight of the other 10 tracks are a blast to sing to. And at 2 minutes in, “Stars” features the most groovy breakdown I’ve heard in years.

Individual song ratings after the break. Continue reading…

How I use technology: 2012 edition

evolution

In order of most-used to least-used technology in my house, here’s how I rank ’em:

  1. Running water. Since I suck down water all day, I go to the bathroom a lot. I’m also regular in other ways too, so working plumbing keeps my house and body sanitary and fresh. Love it.
  2. Permanent shelter. You know, to keep my family warm, dry, and cozy.
  3. Piped in power and gas. Not only does this utility extend our days and heat and cools, it enables my families digital lifestyle. The meter man still gives me a scare in the rare times I spot him near our back door. But other than that, this is nothing but upside.
  4. Broadband internet. It’s my office cubicle, research tool, educator, informer, and pipes in much of the on-demand entertainment we bring into our home.
  5. Smartphone. Primarily used to communicate with friends and loved ones (voice, SMS, portable email) but also used as my new personal computer, one I largely carry with me. Continue reading…

The web made us smarter. Is Facebook making us dumber?

NBC/KSL—Like AOL before it, Facebook is the latest in a long line of mainstream technologies to introduce a lot of new users to the power, utility, and network effect of the Internet.

At the same time, the popular hangout has negatively impacted the number of public comments taking place online. Case in point: The number of people making online remarks has dwindled from a record 15% five years ago to an estimated 7% last year, according to market research by Nielson.

The reason: “Conversations around stories are moving off the news page and onto social networks,” says Steve Rubel, a longtime observer of social media since 2004. “With time spent on social networks like Facebook skyrocketing, it leaves little left to engage at the source of the news.”

Is that a problem? Continue reading…

How I made a living last year

As an independent contractor, I get asked a lot on how I make a living. The easiest answer is “I work from home.” If that doesn’t satisfy the interviewer, however, I’ll usually say “I’m a writer,” which is only partly true.

In many ways, I’m a jack of all trades. Writing and developing content for others is my forte. But I also enjoy critiquing software and games, moonlighting in online advertising, content marketing, and one-off projects that present a unique but hard-to-screw up challenge.

That said, I never over promise. I’m quick to tell a potential client or existing client “I don’t do that” when asked about other disciplines and send them on their way—mostly because I do crappy work when I’m not passionate about it. That and I refuse to engage in work I don’t like doing, regardless of how well it pays.

(Seriously, doing stuff you don’t enjoy solely for money or status is the epitome of living a lie. I realize some people have no choice in the short-term and often have to take one for the team to make ends me. But EVERYONE has a choice in the long term. It just takes planning, sacrifice, and guts.)

Anways, long story short, here’s how I became a thousandaire last year: Continue reading…

“Except once my pants are on, I make dubstep mixes”

turntableI’m just like the rest of you. I put my pants on one leg at a time. Only once my pants are on, I make amateur dubstep mixes.

I first heard dubstep a couple of years ago and largely wrote it off. A handful of kids in my community and some online colleagues swear by the stuff though. So instead of holding onto the opinion that it’s mostly noise, I decided to keep with the times and find out for myself.

After listening to hundreds of tracks, I hand pick 20 of my favorites and mixed them with my new decks. Then I recorded and edited the mix at 140 bpm in Ableton 8.

The result: I really like dubstep now and hope my mix can serve as a teaser to fans and non-fans alike. The genre works especially well as audio wallpaper and workout music, me thinks.

Enjoy. Listen here (right click to save) Track list here

Life, liberty, and hope: 6 ways to make American government more “hell yeah!”

I’ve been thinking lately how we can make America great again. And all these shallow thoughts are causing me to overstate things like how the oppressed, poor, and innocent abroad no longer want to come here. Or how the current president is taking the country to hell in a hand basket, just like the last president of an opposing party did.

But I digress. After taking an interest in politics twenty minutes ago, here’s what I’ve come up with. From better loopholes to land deals, and political entrepreneurship to corporate welfare, here are six ways America can better protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the rest of us: Continue reading…

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How long could you go unwired?

USA Today recently published one of those corny but entertaining “man on the street” stories asking people how long they can stay offline. The answers ranged from never, to one hour, to a few days.

In recent years, I suppose the longest I’ve gone offline is a week, what I call my life-changing “Montana Moment” in 2009. Since then, I’ve gone entire nights and weekends offline, but I’ll usually reach for my iPhone for sports scores and other little personal interests over the weekend (but never for work-related reasons on nights and weekends).

What about you: How long and how frequent can you stay offline? And when you do, how much of it is work-related?

Looking for a good book to read? Here are two by one great author

laurahillenbrandbookcovers

I read Unbroken last year and liked it so much I emailed the author after finishing it because it was so well researched, written, and told. Yesterday I finished Seabiscuit, Hillenbrand’s first book. Despite seeing and really liking the movie first, reading the story allowed me to cheer for the Biscuit as if I were there. A lot of fun. 4 stars out of 5. Not quite as accomplished as Unbroken, which I give 4.5 stars out of 5. But certainly more “exciting” non-fiction with more endearing characters. Either way, both are wonderful.

You’re welcome.

Today’s paper had two funny cartoons

The first…

cj011012_color

I like Tim Tebow. A lot. I think he’s an admirable Christian, role model, and gridiron gamer. I find his overt, quickie-prayers a little vain and repetitious. But I think he means well. As for the above cartoon, it’s undoubtedly witty. More so if Tebow actually prays for a favorable result, less so if he’s praying to be the best individual he can be (which I suspect he is and take no issue with). Continue reading…

My secondary computer just got better (and cheaper)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC303x2XqWw[/youtube]

Over the last year, my wife and I have really enjoyed our Samsung Chromebook. In terms of quickness, it’s like buying a web-only Macbook Air for under $500. We reach for it often — more than conventional laptops, as much as our iPad.

With the above announcement, I’ll probably reach for it even more once the refresh becomes available in April. For $400, you get an aluminum case with a faster processor and DVI out for streaming stuff to TV. There’s also a Chromebox version for computer labs and corporate minions.

Should be fun to see if Google can get more traction with these—I think they’re a great computing companion device.

Proud papa: My daughter mixed her first song last week

numark_mixtrack_ortho_large-31343e004d6c0147c6d3eedfe302bc61

As a father of six years, I finally had my first “Holy crap, my child is going to be smarter than me!” moment.

Granted, I knew she was on to something when she started playing complex bass and treble clef chords on the piano — not to mention her ability to read music (I can only play by ear, and even then it’s only to poke around). I also like how she questions and shows an interest in almost anything.

But last week she reached a tipping point. I had gotten a new mixer (pictured) for Christmas. I was mixing some music and she immediately gravitated towards the mix deck. “You wanna try?” I asked.

She looked up with a beaming smile and nodding head.

I then proceeded to teach her about beat matching, BPM syncing, cross fading, pitch bends, and killing the bass of incoming songs to produce seamless transitions. After a little instruction, and help from Virtual DJs track visualizer, she blended her first mix: Deadmau5 + Rhiana.

I was blown away. I stepped out of the room to gloat to her mother, and while I was away she managed her second song blend. Lindsey and I just laughed, we were so impressed. A six-year old beat matching pop songs in the other room.

Look, I don’t expect nor particularly want Sadie to become a DJ. And she was only demonstrating initial interest; having fun doing something daddy does. But in that moment, I had a parental epiphany. I realized that I want to teach her everything I know (including art, science, writing, math, athletics, music, the whole she-bang) for as long as she’ll listen. Then she can combine the adopted disciplines learned from her mother and I and couple them with ones she discovers on her own to create something entirely new.

Now that’s what I call a mash-up.

Don’t blame “information overload” for your tiny attention span, blame yourself

Screen shot 2012-01-06 at 3.46.40 PMSince the dawn of the web, humans have become increasingly distracted. Our attention spans are crap now.

But it’s not because of information overload (which is bunk), argues Clay Shirky. It’s because most people don’t know how to filter useful information from noise. Or worse, they have no self discipline and are incapable of saying “no,” “this isn’t or no longer is helping me,” “when,” or “enough is enough.”

As Shirky calls it, “filter failure.”

So the next time you hear someone blaming “information overload” for their lack of focus, remind them to grow and pair and prioritize their life to the point of quitting useless or excessive behavior.

Next!

Why Internet access (or any technology for that matter) is NOT a human right

According to Vin Cerf, any early pioneer of the internet:

Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it. The best way to characterize human rights is to identify the outcomes that we are trying to ensure. These include critical freedoms like freedom of speech and freedom of access to information — and those are not necessarily bound to any particular technology at any particular time.

The first time I told my wife I loved her

imageSaying “I love you” for the first time is always a crap shoot.

It’s easier to do when the other one says it first. Difficult to do when you’re the emotional, head-over-heals, and “want to lay it on the line” type like me.

That was the case when I first expressed my love to Lindsey. If I remember right, the conversation went something like this (probably after one of our legendary make-out sessions):

Me: “I love you.”

Lindsey: “Thank you.”

Crash and burn.

Not to worry, though. I was flying high again a few months later, after hot stuff reciprocated. And we lived happily ever after.

Thank you, Lindsey.

See also:

Too close to call: Mat Kearney, M83 and Kooks in three way tie for album of year

album

What’s the best album of 2011? After tallying the votes, the venerable Smooth Harold announced today that the debate was “too close to call” and hereby awarded the honor to both Junk of the Heart by The Kooks and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83.

“I couldn’t name just one,” Harold said via satellite transmission, while vacationing on an uncharted island with the Most Interesting Man in the World. “Junk of the Heart packs a tighter, more accessible punch, but the two disc Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is more rocking; more anthemic.

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Either way, you won’t hit the skip button on either of these records — a very difficult feat for any musician to accomplish. That alone is a testament to each album’s worthiness.”

Another album Harold liked from start to finish was the excellent Young Love by Mat Kearney. “Dude’s the new Coldplay,” Harold said, “when they were still releasing really good albums 10 years ago before burning out. Rant aside: Young Love is as beautiful and fun to listen as Junk of the Heart is poppy and Hurry Up is ’80s rocky.”

When asked what other albums he discovered and enjoyed this year, including records from previous years, Harold named Hymns for the Rebel Soul, Tourist History, Jimmy Cliff Ultimate Collection, Bag Raiders, AC/DC Greatest Hits, Holy Ghost!, This is Country Music, 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music, When Animals Stare, A-1-A, and 100 Christmas Classics as memorable favorites.

Readers: What was your album of the year?

The anti-technologist: How to smartphone without a data plan

iphoneEditor’s note: The Anti-Technologist is a new column by Blake Snow. It advocates late adoption of consumer technology and expels the wonders of finding offline balance in an online world.

I’m convinced that cellular data plans will someday replace the broadband cable lines most of us still use to access the internet. I also think data plans are great for mobile workers, extended-stay vacationers, or anyone else who doesn’t have access to the internet for the entirety of the work day.

I also know, however, that the last four years of my life after quitting my data plan have been irreversibly better than the four previous years in which I subscribed to a plan. The reason I abandoned the portable internet? In short, I did it because I was tired of being on a self-imposed work leash. That and the “always there” internet didn’t mesh well with my indulgent lust for information. So I cut it.

A lot of people I encounter are surprised by this, mostly because the mainstream view incorrectly assumes that staying on an internet-connected smartphone for extended periods lets you get ahead in life (i.e. make more money). It doesn’t. It’s just an illusion. In fact, all-day internetting actually leads to less inspired work, since obsessive users are never able to truly break away, recharge their batteries, and return to work with a hungry mind.

Nevertheless, smartphones are still great, even on dumb plans like mine. Here’s why: Continue reading…

Three reasons the iPhone is more dumbphone than smartphone

3gsAfter six (sometimes) productive years, I abandoned the sinking ship that is BlackBerry last week. In it’s place, I upgraded to the “magical,” status-enhancing iPhone.

As early adopters discovered a few years ago, it’s more than a phone: it’s the greatest piece of personal technology ever invented. Phone, texter, navigator, iPod, mini TV, game console, digital assistant, e-reader, and tiny computer all in one. Not only did it serve as the inspiration for the more popular Android clone, the iPhone is the more organic and less painful version of touchscreen phones, i.e. not unlike what Macs often are to Windows machines.

Of course, like all smartphones, the iPhone can be a total drag on your analog life if you don’t set limits. (In my case, that means shunning a data plan, turning off all alerts except for voice calls, staying away from it as much as possible on nights and weekends, and only connecting to the internet when I need it, as opposed to the more common always-on, always wired, and always distracting “push” internet mode. More on that in my forthcoming book.)

But the iPhone gets a whole lot more right than it gets wrong. In fact, I count only three usability flaws on the device: Continue reading…

My new favorite album pays tribute to catchy ’80s bands without copying them

9510-1Jacket.indd

The two-sided Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83. 22 tracks. Catchy hooks. Soaring synthesizers. Big drums.

So far, Intro, Midnight City, Reunion, Claudia Lewis, This Bright Flash, OK Pal, and Steve Mc Queen are my favorite cuts.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Like father, like son: Using the bathroom for peace and quiet

toilet-newMy dad won’t like me for repeating this on the intertubes, but it’s too good not to.

Growing up, my old man would regularly sneak off to his tiny toilet room to get away from his loud wife and six, know-it-all children. It was one of those “bathroom within a bathroom” type deals where the toilet had its own lockable door—you know, for added privacy and to keep the fumes from offending a significant other using the sinks, bath, or shower.

Funny thing is, that toilet room would have been claustrophobic for an undersized gnome. While sitting on the toilet, small children could have (and regularly did) touch opposing side walls with ease. It couldn’t have been longer than six feet.

Nevertheless, my dad would retreat there for what seemed like hours, reading Rand-McNally maps or whatever almanac or resource books he left in there. It was his sole sanctuary, that is until he took over the entire second floor after the kids left home.

As a stunning teenager, I remember thinking something like this: “Dude bought this big ole house and everything in it, and yet the only space he has to himself is a 6×3′ toilet room.”

Now, as the children have begun overrunning my own house, I have found myself in similar situations. Granted, I have it better than he did. I enjoy a private home office that is only occasionally open to the kids for impromptu dance sessions (since my desktop doubles as the house’s best hi-fi). And my “toilet room” is much larger than his.

But I still stay in the bathroom longer than I should. The only difference is instead of Rand-McNallys, an iPad comes with me.

(Note: I defer all flagging concerns to George Costanza)

Clever ad: Turning the tables on obsessive geek culture

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVkH9Hgvda4[/youtube]

Using iOS is still less of a pain than using Android. That is, the form is still better.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the attached ad is incredibly effective in speaking to the majority of smartphone users who don’t appreciate, nor do they want to associate with, the millions of off-putting Apple fans parodied above.

In any case, wouldn’t it be great if phones could go back to being useful tools rather than modern day golden calves?

I yawn at “built from the ground up”

built-from-the-ground-upI’ve purchased a lot of product in my life. And if there’s one selling point that gets me more than anything else, it’s something that’s “built from the ground up.”

Whenever I read this, all my consumer concerns melt away. I hate nothing more than buying something that’s built from the ceiling down — or worse, built upon or added to something that already has a sound foundation.

Now I realize some people may glaze over this cliche. Not me. It’s irreversibly tied to the action of me removing my wallet and reaching for plastic. Hook, line, and sinker.