Sometimes it’s hard to convince PC users of the benefits of Apple computers and Mac OS X. Since their computers are hardly personal, and just tools, and essentially lacking style and personality, they don’t understand, can’t grasp, cannot fit in their brains the concept of an interface that has been obsessively designed to fit,...
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Archive for June, 2007
Now will they get the zen of Apple?
Calling a spade an implement for excavation
Umm … really … can we please just say richer? more socioeconomically advantaged From the Freakonomics blog.
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Sold!
The first reviews of iPhone are starting to come out. Saw this on the NY Times: On the iPhone, you don’t check your voice mail; it checks you. One button press reveals your waiting messages, listed like e-mail. There’s no dialing in, no password — and no sleepy robot intoning, “You…have…twenty…one…messages.” I so so...
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Umm … which one?
In a discussion on the burning question of “who Bill Gates really is,” we get the following brilliant insight: “Bill Gates is the proxy for how Microsoft will be remembered. First and foremost, he’s a businessman. He’s not an inventor or technologist, per se, and I don’t think he would claim to be. He’s...
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eWeek and iPhone: fear and loathing?
Is 3 negative articles in one day a coincidence? Analysts: iPhone Has Neither Security nor Relevance Enterprise Hurdles Await iPhone Fear and Loathing in IT: iPhone and Macintosh Holy mother, what on earth is going on here? Could it be an extremely Windows-centric empire of analysts and business media is absolutely terrified that their...
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Clipblast: well that sucked
If Scoble says it’s good, it’s usually worth a look. So when Scoble says that ClipBlast is a “killer video search engine”, I thought I’d check it out. One thing I’ve been looking for lately is video footage of Alexander Ovechkin’s lying-on-the-ice backhander goal from last year. We’re talking ice-hockey, in case you’re wondering....
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Possible is not probable
Every time I see something like this in the mainstream press I think: clueless. There’s little question the iPhone pulls a lot of great wireless functions and applications into a very cool package. But most of those features aren’t exactly new. Google Maps for mobile? Practically any smartphone user can download the application to...
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Word and the web: incompatible
It’s hard to believe that people at major weblogs and web content companies don’t know this yet, but Microsoft Word and the web don’t really see eye to eye: (At least for people on non-Microsoft browsers and platforms.)
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Trashing ‘creating passionate users’
Today I trashed Creating Passionate Users from my bloglines feeds – holy mother that sucks. Those who have followed the blog know that Kathy Sierra had some nastier-than-usual trolls in her audience whose words and actions seemed to be threats against Kathy’s physical and emotional wellbeing. You can find the details on Wikipedia. Most...
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Don’t bother me with the facts
“People do not care about facts, they care about stories.” Was just reading Eric Enge’s interview with Seth Godin, and that little tidbit resonates. It resonates strong. It explains a lot about media and their stories, it explains a lot about successful and unsuccessful marketing, and it explains a lot about good presentations versus...
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Buzz starts in the hive
Seth Godin fingered this post at The Messaging Times about buzz. Key point: it starts with the people who want the buzz to spread. It starts with the people who are building/creating/growing/nurturing the product/process/market/widget. Buzz starts in the hive. No buzz in the hive – no buzz on the street. You gotta drink your...
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Made to stick … sticks
Not a single person has passed through my office and seen the cover of this book without touching it to see if, in fact, the cover has duct tape stuck to it: (It does not.) But it is bumpy and tactile, just as if it was. And the book is very, very good.
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Relaxing throughout the workday
Having endured years of chronic neck pain in my life, I know something about the need to intentionally relax your muscles. I saw a good tip today intended to help prevent near-sightedness, but a major side-benefit (or perhaps the main benefit) is muscle relaxation. I find that I tend to get a little more...
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Apple on speed?
Since when is speed the most important factor in a browser’s performance? Safari 3 is the fastest browser running on Windows, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, based on the industry standard iBench tests. Like others, I was a little...
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Most ridiculous opt-out page ever
This has got to be the most ridiculous opt-out page in the history of permission marketing: First name, last name, job role, department, industry, company name, address, city, state/province, zip/postal code, country, phone, fax, email, and comments. Unbelievable. Email address and UNSUBSCRIBE is the max expected. Better yet is a link in the email...
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About this site
Welcome to Sparkplug 9, John Koetsier's blog on technology, social media, education, innovation ... and anything else that catches my fancy.