May 12, 2008
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Microsoft’s mission was to “put a computer on every office desk and in every home.”
Today Microsoft faces that most terrifying question, “Now what?”
Bill Gates is leaving to avoid that question, and an organization full of people in “guard my fiefdom” mode can’t answer it.
I wonder if a different mission like “Build the most desirable software in the world” would have served them better in the long run. Notice that MSFT’s original mission doesn’t say anything about people being passionate about the products. Putting software in offices means writing software that CIOs like, not software that users love.
Anyway, Google has the right idea with their mission statement: “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” because it’s a goal that can never be reached*. The world is just going to generate more and more information forever. Google will never run out of things to do.
This also works on a personal level. For example, my life’s mission is: “Make a living with creativity and help others do the same.” This can incorporate everything I do like sculpting monsters, drawing, blogging, and helping people build web sites. It gives me a specific direction without being too specific about how I have to arrive. There isn’t some arbitrary dollar amount I have to obsess about. Instead if I just work on my mission every day, I’ll succeed.
* Somewhere I read a quote by someone famous (a scientist I think): “If your goals can be achieved in your lifetime you aren’t thinking big enough” but I can’t find a definitive citation.
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May 8, 2008
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Why does this page, which millions of us see every day, not remember my preference?
I have never selected “Add to Google homepage” and I never ever will. RSS sucks enough without you adding another smidge of friction.
You can do it. You have the technology.
Hugs and kisses,
Nathan
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May 8, 2008
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This is an exquisitely rendered schematic of my desk:
You can see that I had difficulty fitting everything on a 3×5 card. Any system that be can’t comfortably diagrammed on an index card is too complicated to be user friendly, so I’ve taken about 5 minutes out of my busy day to solve the problem for the whole world.
Step1: The entire table surface needs to be a wireless charging pad. We’ll need some magic and/or fairy dust to make monitors, laptops, and external hard drives draw enough juice wirelessly without frying our nether regions.
Step 2: Every device pictured needs to communicate via secure, terabit fast, tiny wireless transponders. Also everything needs to work as easily as today’s USB. The “easy use” part will probably require more fairy dust than the actual wireless technology.
Step 3: Magic happens
Step 4: Profit!
No…more…hanging…wires! Also, no more unplugging a million things just to take my laptop off a desk. Of course any desk at a coffee shop, hotel, or office should have the same technology to complete the circle. What do you say Apple? Can you have this for me by July?
Previous desk schematic: Budget KVM solution
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May 8, 2008
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I used markers instead of paint, but paint would have been better. Markers work better on smooth surfaces (canvas is rough).
You need a blank canvas sketchbook from your local art or craft supply store and markers or paint. You also need years to hone your artistic ability, or if you’re like me and skipped all that pesky training, you can embrace abstract art.
Not super confident working directly with markers? You can do a design in pencil and fill it in with ink. Present for mom? Draw like you did in kindergarten and she’ll probably love it even more.
If all that’s too hard, just drop some paint on the book from about 3 feet up Pollock-style. That’s what’s great about the improvisational arts. There is no “wrong”. There’s just “do”.
This is the front (click to enlarge):
→ Click to see the back, spine, and black and white version →
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May 8, 2008
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“Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.” — ancient Jedi proverb
Back in the mid 1990s (a golden age IMHO), my friend John made a duct tape wallet from instructions featured in the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royale magazine.
In the spirit of that long dead publication I give you this camera case:
My new chocolate colored Canon SD1100 IS came with a paper sleeve to which I added duct tape and spare velcro. It fits the camera better than any case I could have bought.
I put the camera in the sleeve for bulk, then loosely taped the outside. It’s important that you don’t tape everything too tightly or your camera won’t fit well.
A long time ago I did this with my MacBookPro’s paper sleeve* and it worked reasonably well, but I stopped using it because airport security doesn’t like seeing anything wrapped in silvery tape.
* Huh, looking at that old Newshutch blog post I see comments from my new Twitter friend Jeton. Hopefully he approves of this post ;~)
See also: The duct tape DSLR camera bag. Awesome.
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May 6, 2008
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This weekend I dropped about $60 for more Copic markers. The Sharpies just feel wrong now. Here’s my Copic arsenal:
Below are my latest pieces. At the bottom of this post are links to all previous drawings.
So far my favorite of all the 3×5s is the one in the middle below, though I’m really liking the bottom B&W one that was done with the 0.7mm pen.
Any feedback, suggestions, or offers of extravagant patronage? Please share in the comments. I’ve got a thick skin and I’m not afraid to use it :~)
← Click to enlarge all →
Previous drawings:
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May 5, 2008
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…is Copyblogger’s The Snowboard, the Subdural Hematoma, and the Secret of Life:
It’s all too easy to tell ourselves we can’t really do what we want. That it’s not practical, or it’s too hard, or that our dreams are selfish and not the “right thing” to do.
I got over that really fast. Every delusional and self-defeating system of thought I had carried around with me for years was revealed for what it was… my own mind creating false limitations.
Usually our worldviews, routines, and obligations evolve over a period of years.
But sometimes your world can change instantly, like when you have a baby, or you realize that decades of school can’t teach you how to live, or that hairy mole turns out to be cancer.
Instant clarity. Too bad it’s hard to access that clarity until you’re at the precipice.
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May 5, 2008
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David Seah’s laptop took a tumble and his hard drive died. There are some lessons we can learn from his experience:
- Apple Support will take your old hard drive and do God knows what with it. Dave Winer also found this out the hard way and made plenty of noise about it. Whether you’re on Mac or PC, encrypt your sensitive data before hard drive trouble strikes. That way when Apple steals your hard drive they’re not getting your data. The other option is to learn to install your own hard drive. It’s not easy with a MacBookPro and it voids your warranty, but MacBook hard drives are meant to be “user serviceable” so it’s easy to replace their hard drives.
- Always have a bootable backup with you if you’re working on the road. David didn’t lose data, but having a bootable backup would have kept him up and running. My friend’s hard drive died the day before she had to speak at a conference and she was stuck. A bootable backup would have saved her.
- Don’t bother with Apple Care (or any extended warranties for that matter). The techs probably won’t help you recover data, they’ll just slap in a new hard drive, keep your old one, and send you on your way. I say just buy things with an American Express card. This automatically gives you an extra year warranty on top of the manufacturer warranty. Let’s face it, if your computer craps out after two years and it’s not simple to fix, you’ll want a new computer anyway.
I’m shocked that Apple gets the hard drive service experience so wrong. What kind of message does it send to say: “No, you can’t have your old drive back to attempt data recovery. Also, we aren’t saying why we keep this broken hard drive. Maybe we’ll refurb it and give it to someone else. Muahahahah!” This is a horrible message delivered to customers at the moment when they’re most upset. Why not make it an opportunity to sell backup solutions and data disaster recovery as a premium service instead? Also, even if a hard drive can be refurbished, it can never be trusted again, so what’s the point of keeping it?
Need help making OS X bootable backups or upgrading your MacBookPro hard drive? See my earlier posts:
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