LATEST ENTRY

RANDOM | Noah Brier

Cold Friday

It's 40-freaking-2 degrees in New York City and I've got links pouring out of me.

October 13, 2006 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 3 COMMENTS

It's Friday and it's been a while since I pumped you chock full of links. So how about it? (As usual in no order.)

  1. Techdirt announces the Techdirt Insight Community. "Companies sign up to engage the Techdirt Insight Community to raise issues, get feedback, test ideas, review products, make strategy suggestions, help with purchasing decisions or any number of other services that require a dedicated group of experts." I really like ideas like this. Find a way to tap into your audience and provide a service that benefits all parties involved.
  2. PhotoJojo's "How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way". They even covered my one a day photos, saying, "In a more self-reflective variation, our pal Noah takes a photo a day using the webcam built into his MacBook." In case you were wondering, those are the photos on the homepage.
  3. Bruce Schneir on "Screening People with Clearances". Mostly about a specific security situation, but it also speaks to some larger issues: "Security is a trade-off. We don't have infinite dollars to spend on security. We need to choose where to spend our money, and we're best off if we spend it in ways that give us the most security for our dollar."
  4. Aaron Swartz on "The Awfulness of College Lectures". Having seen a fair amount of academic presentations lately, they're not any better. I have so little patience for people that don't care about the audience's engagement level. Tell a story, bring the audience into your world. It's not that foreign a concept.
  5. Avram Miller on Everything. This is from 1999, but it says a lot of what everyone else is talking about right now. Headings include "Deals are not about money." "Goodbye, company. Hello value." "Give up control. (Guess what? You already have." and "Intuition rules." There's some pretty amazing wisdom in there.
  6. Scott Berkun on "Why innovation efforts fail". Scott is working on a book on innovation and he's pulled together some of the worst offenders for ruining innovation. In an effort to avoid complete negativity, though, he also includes innovation efforts that work.
  7. Susan Mernit on "What Google didn't buy". Mainly, the New York Times.
  8. TheGoogleCache on "Should I Make a Flash Site?" The best flowchart I've ever seen.
  9. "20 Smart Companies to Start Now". Some business bigwigs (Howard Schultz, Steve Case, etc.) give up their venture ideas and offer up money to build their ideas.
  10. Sony's ex-chairman on why Sony went down the tubes. "Mr Idei also cast doubt on whether it had ever been a good idea for Sony to get involved in Hollywood through its acquisition of Columbia pictures in 1989. 'The mistake was to buy the company,' he said." Strong words.
  11. Finally, a question from abstract dynamics: "Why is it that anytime you read about the advertising or video game industry, both of which are massive profitable and pretty much icons of our culture, they always claim to be struggling? Are industries based upon rapid fire information inherantly less stable than ones based on selling material goods?" Anyone have any ideas?

That's all for now minus one reminder: We've announced the next likemind.ny date for October 20. It'll be at 8am again at sNice. All the info at likemind.us.

Have a good weekend.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY

LEAVE A COMMENT

First name, first and last, whatever you feel like.

Required, but not displayed (so don't worry about spam).

If you've got one, flaunt it.

You can use some HTML (a's, br's, p's, oh my!) if you'd like, if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it.
REMEMBER ME?

COMMENTS

1Charles

Hey, thanks for posting that link that rips on Flash, jerkface. I'll remember that the next time we make a flash project.

October 13, 2006

2Noah Brier

Oh come on man, you've said the same thing.

October 13, 2006

3charles

I've agreed with the blunt "tone" of that viewpoint, because many people see flash as a "cooler" (and therefore "better") version of HTML, and that's just not the case.

It's a more complicated question than "Use flash: yes or no." The decision should be motivated by the idea that you're trying to communicate. If it's important to your idea to make an animated & cinematic experience, then flash might be an option. Some sites don't need search engines to accomplish their goals.

...jerkface...

October 13, 2006