Category: Uncategorized

  • Help this writer find examples…

    I’m muddling through a new idea about symbols that have lost their original context, but that hang around in our culture anyway. I have a few examples, but I need more. One example is the “save” icon that looks like a tiny little floppy diskette in most Microsoft programs… even though most people under 35…

  • A better streaming model

    On July 26th, “Veronica Mars” will return for a fourth season, twelve years after the end of the third and five years after a movie that had a slender theatrical release. Instead of UPN or the CW, which broadcast the first three seasons, the fourth will premiere on streaming service Hulu for a short, eight-episode…

  • Ho Hum, Apple’s boring choices with TV+

    There’s a passage toward the end of Walter Isaacson’s majestic biography, Steve Jobs, about what was on the Apple founder’s mind as he was dying of cancer: He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant. “I’d like to create an…

  • No algorithm for serendipity

    What do Mister Rogers and artificial intelligence have to do with each other?  This is a column about the nature of human expertise. That sounds like airy philosophy, but it’s actually an urgent practical question facing us as a species today because of the pressure that algorithms (artificial intelligences and machine learning) put on what we…

  • Journey Back, Journey On: Watching my son rediscover a comic book 4 years later

    Saturday morning. Mom’s at yoga. Dad’s puttering downstairs. 13-year-old Big Sis is hibernating — those pesky teenagers. What’s an almost-9-year boy old to do? That’s my imagination of what W, my son, was thinking after I shushed him for the fifth time when he was playing in the open area right next to where his sister’s puberty-induced coma went…

  • Look Carefully at the New Pew Number: 56% of Americans Have Smart Phones

    [Cross-posted.] Today the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new mobile report stating that 56% of adult Americans now have smart phones, with between 70 to 80% penetration among younger demographics, college grads and the well-off. You can see the full report here. Here’s the thing to look twice at: it’s not 56%…

  • Interesting Tidbits for September 10th

    Things worth reading for August 22nd through September 10th: Gartner Negative on PC Growth – Zacks.com – Last of several links about the lack of growth in the PC market. Gartner Cuts PC Growth Estimates, Blaming Economy, Tablets | News & Opinion | PCMag.com – Third of several links about the lack of growth in…

  • Interesting Tidbits for June 21st

    Things worth reading for May 30th through June 21st: Xbox Will Introduce Interactive Ads to Games – NYTimes.com – Neat! Nielsen sees Web grocery growth, plans new service | Reuters – Digital Lifescapes: More Mobile Broadband Subscribers than on Wireline – Onswipe Wants To Make Slate, Forbes And Your Website Feel Like A Native Tablet…

  • New Evernote Trick: Combine & Print Notes

    Post Updated: Feedback from Adam Boettiger showed me that my initial post wasn’t clear.  I’ve now clarified the paragraph with the asterisk, below, to make my point pointier. I’m becoming more and more fond of Evernote, but I also like having a printed-out copy of my multitudinous To Do lists so that I have an…

  • Interesting Tidbits for May 26th

    Things worth reading for May 19th through May 26th: Edge Perspectives with John Hagel: The Pull of Narrative – In Search of Persistent Context – Interesting piece by John Hagel on the difference between story and narrative. When Ideas Have Sex | WhatTheFuture.tv – Really nice piece of gem cutting from WhatTheFutureTV. 20+ Awesome &…