Aaron White

Boundless Learning’s Hubot (named Zion) has an awesome...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:29:00 -0500

Boundless Learning’s Hubot (named Zion) has an awesome outlook on the world

markitechture: Demoing Product

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:31:26 -0500

Excellent demoing tips from Christopher

Most product demos are disastrous. I’ve gone through more trainwrecks than I would care to have, and thought I’d share some of my scars and random learnings on the topic.

Beware the projector. These things are the devil. You have three challenges here: a) severely limited resolution b) severely…

We’re hiring over at Boundless Learning. Adam cooked up an...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:44:36 -0500

We’re hiring over at Boundless Learning. Adam cooked up an awesome company page for us. Know someone high-tech and passionate about fixing education? I’d love to talk!

rafer: rickwebb: brit: This is a fantastic infographic...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:33:42 -0500

rafer:

rickwebb:

brit:

This is a fantastic infographic explaining how bad carbs can be for you. I’ve tried to explain this to many people in person, but a flowchart makes it so much easier. Thanks to Massive Health for designing it.

I wish someone had told me this when I was 18 years old.

Rafer sez:
Go sutha, go.

"Carolyn Reidy, president and chief executive of Simon & Schuster, says the biggest challenge is..."

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:07:22 -0500

“Carolyn Reidy, president and chief executive of Simon & Schuster, says the biggest challenge is to give people a reason to step into Barnes & Noble stores in the first place. “They have figured out how to use the store to sell e-books,” she said of the company. “Now, hopefully, we can figure out how to make that go full circle and see how the e-books can sell the print books.””

- Barnes & Noble, Taking On Amazon in the Fight of Its Life - NYTimes.com (via infoneer-pulse)

Someone needs a sanity check.

From TurningArt to StayingArt, or How I Bought My First Original...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:33:37 -0500

From TurningArt to StayingArt, or How I Bought My First Original Piece of Art.

I’m a huge fan of TurningArt, which is often described as “Netflix for Art”. It’s allowed me to sample all sorts of different art without ever committing to it. (And for a material-phobic minimalist, it’s a slam dunk; own without owning!)

Lately, I’ve been sporting a print-likeness of Christian Bale / Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, one of my favorite movies (don’t read *too* much into it…)

Over a bottle of wine at the Boundless office, good friend Matt Hodgson (CTO TurningArt) was explaining the broader vision: connecting art-novices with great pieces of art. For the tepid, that starts as prints, and for those that find a piece that speaks to them: an original.

Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was Matt’s great story telling, but I took the leap and upgraded from print to the original “Psycho American” by Hector Sandoval Jr.

And while I’m plugging his service, what made it an easy decision is how TurningArt credits your cumulative monthly subscription costs against original artwork you buy. How cool is that?

Now I need to find a new wall to continue my art rotation, until another piece “sticky” enough comes along!

2011 Wistia Recap

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:07:44 -0500

brendanschwartz:

Here’s a video recap of 2011 in Wistia Land. This was a surprise end-of-the-year present from super friends Chris Lavigne and Dan Mills.

Wistia kills it. Great/fun 2011 recap video from them. Hope you guys have a great 2012!

Billion Dollar Startup Idea

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:19:56 -0500

Probably not the first to have this idea, but, “what if….”

What if there was an Apache mod that let all web-devs target WebKit with HTML/CSS and on the fly translated the CSS to support whatever quirks the requesting browser/User-Agent might have.

I’d pay handsomely to target 1 desktop browser, 1 mobile browser, etc. Let some crazy auto-updating plugin handle the rest, and I’d pay a ridiculous monthly amount for it.

If you build this, please email me!

GIT HUB Y U NO HAVE FULL HISTORY/REVISION TEXT SEARCH?? - Y U No | Meme Generator

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:21:27 -0500

GIT HUB Y U NO HAVE FULL HISTORY/REVISION TEXT SEARCH?? - Y U No | Meme Generator:

Seriously though. I love love love github, and would kill kill kill for this. Anyone done this?

A Singulatarian Holiday

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:03:43 -0500

My brother & I decided to give exclusively “singulatarian” gifts this holiday. What’s that mean? Digital goods & services. What else could future meta-humans want/use?

A sampling:

Soundcloud Subscription
Minecraft key-code
Kindle eBook gifts
iTunes gift card

Not digital, but closer to meta-human:

TurningArt subscription
Foodzie subscription
etc

It’s all about giving stuff without people actually needing to have… stuff.

Happy minimalist/singulatarian holidays!

Computers Will Entertain Us to Death

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:51:00 -0500

Skyrim was released this winter, and players have already invested millions of hours in its single-player Nordic countryside. World of Warcraft boasts millions of years logged on its massively-multiplayer world of Azeroth. The human experience would claim billions of lifetimes spent in its omni-player reality, if it were to make a comparative claim on its marketing material.

How soon until we spend not hours but entire lifetimes elsewhere?

Most human behavior exists on a gradient: you might be funny, others less so, your 5th grade math teacher not at all. ‘Normal’ behavior can be defined as one or more concentrated areas on the spectrum, fringe or deviant behavior lies furthest out. In all cases, people fall where they fall in part due to culture, and in part due to evolution’s random walk & parental genetics.

That’s why when I see people losing days, relationships, health, and sometimes their lives to video games, I think “ah, this is the canary in the coal mine.”

Self-destructive behavior isn’t new. Long before computers (though more so with them), jealousy, gambling, and gluttony have ruined lives. They share something in common: it’s normal behavior turned sour when taken to the extreme. We’re evolved to be at least somewhat jealous, we’re evolved to repeat activities that bear fruit, and we’re evolved to crave sweets.

Unique to the modern world, technology allows years of well-tuned normal behavior to manifest as the worst deviant behavior. Maybe if you lived as a caveman, your craving for sweets would make you scarf a few too many berries, and yet you’d live a normal, healthy lifestyle. Transplant that same caveman into an apartment with pizza, coke, and chocolate cake on demand, and watch a glutton emerge. Our crave/control system is of little match to our food-technology.

It’s not just modern diets that technology ruins by bringing deviant-results to normal-behavior. Jealousy runs super-fueled by social networks, possessiveness enabled by cellular networks, rage permitted from the relative safety of the drivers seat. At least no-one asks explicitly for a “car that lets me get even angrier at other commuters” or “foods that make me fatter” or “tools to become more jealous” or any other products whose primary use abuses normal behavior into unfortunate results.

Computer games are the big exception. We ASK for them to be immersive, we WANT them to be addictive, and we PRAISE them for ‘losing’ us in another place. It’s hopefully obvious to the reader that the light-speed progression from pong to Skyrim isn’t slowing, and a world as vivid as the Matrix won’t be a prison for human-batteries but Disneyland for the idle-rich.

That other-world won’t be reserved for the rich forever. As the costs of whatever human-computer interface gets us there shrink, it will be accessible as WoW’s $14.99/month, and by the time that happens, the immersion factor will be so high, most normals will be powerless to resist its well-engineered bliss & allure of total reality replacement. It’s at this point that I expect some folks to balk, “games are for the young, and interest wanes with age!” I would remind the cynics that most Americans pay over $100/month for TV experiences far less immersive than what’s here, and certainly than what’s coming. More & more adults play computer games regularly, and not just as the video-game generation ages.

The limiting factors are physical constraints and our own social expectations, but most of my readers already earn their keep by moving bits of information around. In fact, Chinese ‘gold-farmers’ put real food on real tables by virtual-farming virtual-money in virtual-worlds for the real pleasure of real buyers with real money. Canary in the coal mine. How far off are we from closing this loop? Once we can control the game by thought alone (we’re close), imagine an otherwise comatose man controlling his avatar from a hospital bed, and by way of his virtual endeavors, he sends electronic health-care payments to his hospital, and they in turn keep the wifi on, and the nutrient rich IV bag full. That citizen worries not about solid food and real tables, nor is it of practical concern where the line is between ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ money. And for him, the ‘virtual’ world and his ‘virtual’ efforts make all the impact on his ‘real’ existence.

If I could take a pill to skip meals or sleep in a healthy way, I would. I’m not alone. We are eager abstracters, and ready to trade not-yet-equivalents for the promise of ‘better’ and even sometimes just ‘different’. That man’s virtual life from his hospital bed would already be more desirable than some people’s real lives today. When it becomes accessible, we’ll escape by linking ourselves into it, and as it improves, and becomes more feasible, we’ll only be more eager to do so.

I’m of the opinion that macro, this is OK. We’ve moved from caves to houses, villages to cities, and soon reality to virtual reality. Passing moral judgment on technology is pointless, what matters is that we praise accomplishment and punish criminals, or when we need to, grant achievements and grief the griefers.

Life itself is nearly online. Socialization is online, work is online, relationships are online, education is online, play is online. We only need to wire up birth and the existence that follows.

As we pour hours into the unique conflicts that beset the world of Skyrim, we support the ecosystem that create immersive experiences, we move deviant to normal, and real to virtual, I truly believe, for better or worse, the digital age in the most literal way lies ahead us, and that video games are its herald.

——

This post isn’t as far reaching as I would love to go. What about computer games simulating its players based on their behavior? Digital re-incarnation? What happens when we can’t tell what’s real? How do you know you’re not playing an MMO right now? There are a thousand interesting ideas to stew on when our mastery of the world becomes mastery of reality, and whether that reality is ‘virtual’ or ‘real’ becomes a question on the order of ‘is life but a dream?’ and does it even matter?

At a future date, or by request, happy to add links and definitions for some depth/color. Sound off in the comments.

Want a Coffee? A Brief Guide for Neophytes

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:58:00 -0500

Some quick thoughts on what I’ve learned, and how I prefer to conduct coffee meetings. Here follow my guidelines for whoever wants to set up a java-jam:

Why Meet At All?

When reaching out to ask for a coffee meeting, be immensely specific with you want to meet, and what you hope to get out if it. If the reason is only as good as “let’s connect!” don’t be sour if they pass / forget about it. That kind of “just saying hi” serendipity is best for parties/networking events you both happen to be at, not worthy of asking someone to carve out a new slot in their schedule

Seriously, Get Specific

The more specific you are, the more value you’ll get from your potential coffee-partner. If you communicate a clear possible path for the conversation, coffee partners who can’t provide value will self-select out, but even then if your ask is clear, it will make it so much easier for them to forward you to the right person. And if they do take the meeting, they are far more likely to show up prepared & ready to help.

Be a Good Conversationalist

Two things can tank a meeting: boring conversation, and bad coffee. Starbucks works hard on their end, make sure you cover yours.

Ask How You Can Help Them

It’s simple: if someone is taking time out of their schedule to help you, it’s nice to offer your help in return, even if you may not be able to deliver. It’s nice to ask and understand what other folks are working on.

That is it! I think young networkers will be surprised by how open people are for quick, focused coffee meetings, especially if they feel they can help you. Constructively take advantage of good will, and don’t forget to pay it forward.

journo-geekery: Retention, Cohorts, and Visualisations | The...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:22:52 -0500

journo-geekery:

Retention, Cohorts, and Visualisations | The Intercom Blog

When I started designing cohorts for clients applications, something always bugged me about the visualisation. When you’re looking at a cohort you have a few different questions:

How is our retention rate overall?

Where do we lose customers?

Is the rate at which we lose customers getting better or worse?

Whilst the above grid of squares can be useful, and augmenting them with sparklines helps, there are still comparisons that are difficult to make.

…

Cohorts are useful for visualising where customers are lost, if the results of a cohort analysis shock you, then you’re not in regular enough contact with your customers. Solve that problem first; there’s no use knowing exactly what’s happening if you don’t know why.

This, I like. Definitely read further if mapping cohorts as cycle plots (the sparklines underlying the trend line) are new to you. There’s a LOT of information packed into this one end-result graphic and the post breaks down the steps before it. Good stuff.

Great way to visualize cohorts & cohort trending

Adventurer Mark Moffett has found the world’s biggest insect -...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:08:14 -0500

Adventurer Mark Moffett has found the world’s biggest insect - which is so huge it can eat carrots. The former park ranger discovered the giant weta up a tree and his real life Bugs Bunny has now been declared the largest ever found. He came across the cricket-like creature, which has a wing span of seven inches, after two days of searching on a tiny island. The creepy crawly is only found on Little Barrier Island, in New Zealand. The species was wiped off the mainland by rats accidentally introduced by Europeans. (via caterpillarcowboy, rillawafers, allcreatures)

True: Biology is amazing/disgusting.

UI designer Jeff Broderick has put together a dashboard of...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:55:47 -0500

UI designer Jeff Broderick has put together a dashboard of frequently-used settings icons and has used URL scheming in order to allow the “installed” apps to act as widgets for those deeply-nested settings. (via One-Click Access to iOS Settings with via thenextweb)

This is really slick, as well as the social calls to action while you install them. Also, check Broderick’s great portfolio site out, brdrck.me, kudos Jeff!

Developers: You are not a Language

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:32:23 -0500

Despite what recruiters think, despite what you might think, you are not a language.

Years of hacking have sharpened your mind, your instinct, your reasoning, until you no longer even see the code: you see the answer. You are a problem-crushing warrior, an architect of logic.

So why filter your job opportunities by ‘language’?

I’ve seen this over and over: otherwise smart developers passing on great opportunities because the code-base isn’t written in their language du-jour.

When you seek a Ruby job, you’ll find a Ruby job. When you seek a great opportunity, you’ll find a great opportunity. What is it that you actually want?

It’s ironic too, because as web-developers, we code in Ruby/Scala/Python/Node/Java/PHP/etc and yet still find time to sling HTML/CSS/SASS/HAML/Javascript/CoffeeScript/bash and a dozen other protocols & formats: SQL/HTTP/XML/JSON/Ant/etc and operate a dozen more tools: Git/SVN/Jira/Jenkins/EC2/Linux/etc.

Don’t let your love of one piece of the puzzle narrow your career. Seek the best opportunity, and focus your reasoning through whatever lens/language gets the job done.

The best companies hire the best thinkers, and the best thinkers pursue the best opportunities. The rest is just cosmetic.

brinking.: 24 hours with the Fire

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:18:39 -0500

brinking.: 24 hours with the Fire:

nabeel:

24 hours in with the Kindle Fire and I feel like I’m coming to the same emotional place as I did with the Droid. The first 10 minutes were “wow, I think this might actually make it!” — but it buckled under extended use from lack of polish.

The good.

Hardware: A better form factor for media…

Solid review; definitely share Nabeel’s sentiments.

via Rob McFeeley

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:45:19 -0500

via Rob McFeeley

jcg1013: A couple argues through Siri (language may be...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:33:02 -0500

jcg1013: A couple argues through Siri (language may be NSFW)

Definitely not safe for work, still kinda hilarious.

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:21:44 -0500

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think :

bijan:

Levy: Two years ago, you bought Zappos. Was that an attempt to absorb their so-called culture of happiness and customer service?

Bezos: No, no, no. We like their unique culture, but we don’t want that culture at Amazon. We like our culture, too. Our version of a perfect customer experience is one in which our customer doesn’t want to talk to us. Every time a customer contacts us, we see it as a defect. I’ve been saying for many, many years, people should talk to their friends, not their merchants. And so we use all of our customer service information to find the root cause of any customer contact. What went wrong? Why did that person have to call? Why aren’t they spending that time talking to their family instead of talking to us? How do we fix it? Zappos takes a completely different approach. You call them and ask them for a pizza, and they’ll get out the Yellow Pages for you.

which culture and approach do you like better?

False dilemma :) I LOVE never talking to my merchants, but when I’m forced to, pizza seems like a great way to go!

But the best service is the one you never think about, so I’d much rather build the experience that silently resonates for the majority of my user-base, than the friendly-but-frequently-fallible cousin.