BillSullivan takes pictures of people when they aren’t looking, when they aren’t trying to show their game face. He finds these moments in elevators and subways and in the middle of Time Square. He finds them by studying common situations. Check out ‘More Turns’ then look at his other work to see what I’m talking about.
I found this on Design Observer
Read about DVD Flick over on LifeHacker. Downloaded and tried it. Now am burning all the movies I’ve picked up onto DVD. I’d tried a few other programs (including DVD Shrink which is pretty good), but always found that some stuff just wouldn’t play.
It seems like LifeHacker is always there for me. Schooling me to the cool stuff before the other kids know about it. Or, making sure I don’t blow my fingers off on the 4th of July . I’ll add DVD Flick to the list of Life Lessons that my Big Bro’ LifeHacker has passed on. Thanks Bro.
Here’s the article:
Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD - Lifehacker
Just got done reading Ben Stein’s piece for the New York Times,”The Hard Rain Falling on Capitalism“. Based on the description of his home in California, he is obviously living well, but he sees a real problem with our economy and government–the rich continue to get richer, while the wages and opportunity for the rest are stagnating.
The thing we have to remember is that this isn’t a necessity of capitalism. Yes, the wealthy can invest to expand their wealth, and some people will get paid more for their work. Yet, traditionally, American capitalism meant that anyone with a great idea could seek capital to make that idea reality; it meant your contributions and compensation would be correlated (you’d get what you’re worth or close to it).
For Stein, the issue is trust. How can we continue to believe in a system [capitalism] that doesn’t compensate based on value, but rather allows the top percentiles to decree what the rest of us will get (while demanding their own ever-increasing pay). He’s really focusing on the ridiculous salaries of CEOs, but this also applies to the connection between corporations and the public. We trust government to tax corporations that use public resources and use that money to better society. But oil companies reap billions in profit, then are able to squirrel away these funds in tax havens AND further enrich themselves with subsidies. Government allows this because those who govern receive their share while the rest of us watch our opportunities evaporate.
Stein writes that capitalism is,
“built on man’s notion that he can trust his neighbor with his money, and that if the neighbor misbehaves, the law will chase him and catch him, and that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom, that even the nobles get properly handled (Bob Dylan again) once they have been caught.”
I don’t expect CEOs or governments to forget profit or their own interests, but I expect them to pursue those interests in a way that leaves the middle-class and lower-incomes with mobility. Their greed and cronyism, coupled with our apathy or skepticism means we will eventually lose the trust in capitalism that lets janitors become millionaires and crooked executives become inmates.
Read the interview ‘Ten Questions with Donald Trump’ (its short). Gives a little insight into the mind of an entrepreneur: you have to believe in what you’re doing & you need to believe in your eventual success.
Having been there, done that, then done it again, Donald Trump knows what it means to start and build a business. I’m not a fan of the ‘Apprentice’, but this is good stuff. Just what I expect from Guy Kawasaki’s blog.
Friends regularly ask me for an update on my business and I love to give it to them because I like talking about what I do, but I sometimes feel like I’m boring them because not everyday is ‘exciting’. Find a faster way to do my accounting or a cheaper phone plan is awesome, but doesn’t make for great conversation. Truthfully, a lot of what you do operationally is only fun if you are part of the operation. I have my passion, but can’t always convey why.
Donald’s a great example of what energy and drive will accomplish. While his name is synonymous with success, his actual story is more balanced (from broke back to billionaire).
Just got done reading a blurb about Web 2.0 from the BBC Davos blog. If you don’t know, Davos is the the site of the World Economic Forum : the place where the bigshots of Finance and Business come together and discuss whats going on in the world and what is going to happen.
The blog post is about how user input (read: your input) is changing the web and business. The panel that discussed this topic at Davos was pretty impressive:
YouTube’s Chad Hurley;
Microsoft founder Bill Gates;
Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr;
Nike chief executive Mark Parker;
and EU commissioner Viviane Reding
but I’d say only 2 out of 5 speakers have really been on the ball (YouTube, Flickr). Nike is letting people design their own shoes online, but the choices are limited (its really a redesign of a few overpriced styles) and Microsoft only listens to corporate customers, so I can’t get too excited when Gates talks about the potential.
Still, 2.0 is Now. This it the idea thats driving the new sites to come on the scene. Hopefully, the big boys will embrace it a little faster —Before 3.0 comes around
No, I’m not really into bugs or parasites. But I read this and was just like ‘damn’ (imagine my scrunched up face). I’m waiting for the Sci-Fi Channel to make a movie about what happens when these things grow to human-size and try to take over New York.
The roach has been my nemesis since I saw Creepshow, but now I’m feeling sorry for them. No one deserves to be turned into a zombie.
Read the article:
The Loom : The Wisdom of Parasites