I hate these damn sayings-made-into-graphics, but I do sometimes agree with them. :

allicette:

I Believe in Good People

Yeah, I love fictional characters, too!!

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost (via cheesegasm)

Um, no it doesn’t. Not for all of us.

I really dislike glib sayings like this. They’re meant to make us feel better but really you’re just treating the symptoms with this sort of pithy crap.  The reality is that for some people life does *not* go on and ignoring that fact gives Mr. and Mrs. Hallmark a hard-on because they know they can sell more cards with useless drivel to people like YOU who can’t think for themselves.

I say this as someone who’s come close to death more than once, had friends who have died, other friends who almost died and hey, I know someone who *is* dying, someone very close to me, actually. So, do me a favor Glibby Von Piths-a-lot and go take a long walk off a short pier—I bet that death will be contrived and cliche enough for your tastes.

"Zuckerberg needs your data..."

“Zuckerberg needs your data. His business is built upon it. The most important thing to understand about Facebook is that you are not Facebook’s customer, you are its inventory. You are the product Facebook is selling. Facebook’s real customers are advertisers. You, as a Facebook member, are useful only because you can be packaged up and sold to advertisers. The more information Facebook can get from you, the more you are worth. In response, a FB spokesman told me: “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Lyons, on Facebook (via newsweek)

But isn’t this the same with any ad-supported service? MySpace? GMail? Etc?  Hell, even advertising on the old TV is built this way. It’s our behavior that is the product.

All that said, I wonder if most people understand this dynamic.  No one is getting “free hosting services” for their pics and status updates—they are getting hosting services in exchange for their pics and status updates.  Maybe not the literal content, but the behavior patterns behind the content is sold to advertisers.  How else are these sites supposed to remain “free”?

Rather than killing off the netbook...

Nick Farrell, in the dramatically titled “Why Apple might regret the Ipad,” in the Inquirer.

So…yeah. Even if you accept that cannibalizing yourself is by definition a bad idea, I’d like to do a basic arithmetic check here.

Let’s say that we’re talking about 1,000 iPad buyers. 24% of them — 240 people — purchased a bare bones iPad ($500) rather than, say, a bare bones MacBook ($1,000).

Loss to Apple from iPad sales? 240 * $500, or $120,000 

But wait — that’s only 240 of our 1,000 people, which means that we’ve got 760 people for whom that iPad purchase was not eliminating an Apple laptop purchase.

Bonus to Apple from iPad sales? 760 * $500 = $380,000

Apple’s top line bumps up by around a quarter of a million dollars.

The horror, the horror.

(via whitneymcn)

I still think the iPad will end up a bit of a joke in the long run. Once current iPad-owners work out how much less useful the thing is compared to a netbook or a laptop, word will get around.

Just my ¥2, of course.  I could be wrong.

It turns out that the legendary inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla...

“It turns out that the legendary inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla (1856 to 1943) predicted mobile phones in 1909. In an interview with the New York Times (pictured below), published in Popular Mechanics, Tesla states that “It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear in type in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call from his desk and talk with any telephone subscriber in the world. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument no bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles.”

-Nikola Tesla predicted mobile phones in 1909 - Recombu

Nikola Tesla is history’s best kept amazing secret.  It’s a crime how little we hear about this guy.  Sure Edison may have invented the light bulb but without Tesla, only the rich could afford to light their homes with them.

Tesla created Alternating Current—that’s the stuff that comes out of your wall outlet.
Yeah, Tesla rocks.

Scientists working at Edinburgh University have discovered...

“Scientists working at Edinburgh University have discovered a way of transmitting wireless data through lightbulbs, an invention that could revolutionise the way we receive the internet.”

The Herald, 2 May 2010

Scottish Enterprise are backing the development of the new technology through Proof of Concept funding. There will be a prototype built next year.

(via glasgow-effect)

Apple’s control-freak nature didn’t matter as much when it was a plucky underdog...

“Apple’s control-freak nature didn’t matter as much when it was a plucky underdog. Yes, Jobs was a demanding boss and a finicky perfectionist—but he created great products. We rooted for Apple, and wanted it to survive. Apple seemed like the anti-Microsoft, a company that was on our side. But this year Apple will do nearly $60 billion in sales, and its market value stands at $240 billion—the third-largest in the United States, bigger than Coca-Cola and Pepsi combined. Any company that big can seem a little scary. So when police start breaking down doors over a lost phone, it’s a PR disaster, especially for Apple. The company works hard to cultivate a counterculture image, with ads that have featured Gandhi and John Lennon, not to mention the “I’m a Mac” hipster. Yet lately Apple has started to look like the big bully of the tech industry, the kid who doesn’t play well others. Over the long haul, that can put customers off.”

Lyons, on Apple v. Gizmodo (via newsweek)

Read more about my feelings on the “Apple Vs. Everyone” story on my lifestream.