Nothing Ever Happens

Fat People Beware

admin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:56:29 +0000

“It’s one of the last untapped energy sources, and one in which the United States leads the world. It’s not just renewable, but almost impossible to get rid of. We’re talking about fat. At about 3,500 calories to the pound, a 300-pound American contains the energy equivalent in fat of roughly 15 gallons of gasoline. How long will we let this resource go unused? OK, no one is proposing drilling fat people for fuel. But when most of us are looking over our shoulders at our carbon footprints, the obese seem a, well, fat target.” Read more, a wonderful insight from Newsweek.

Context Over Dogma

admin — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:56:27 +0000

Inspired by bmw. Can’t wait to meet Gina:

Adapt To Market Realities

admin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:09:38 +0000

Like Nokia:

Pics

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:24:08 +0000

Click “i” to read my comments.

Social Network Fatigue

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:05:01 +0000

Years ago at BYTE Magazine my friend Ben Smith, who was a Unix greybeard even then (now he’s a Unix whitebeard), made a memorable comment that’s always stuck with me. We were in the midst of evaluating a batch of LAN email products. “One of these days,” Ben said in, I think, 1991, “everyone’s going to look up from their little islands of LAN email and see this giant mothership hovering overhead called the Internet.”
Increasingly I’ve begun to feel the same way about the various social networks. How many networks can one person join? How many different identities can one person sanely manage? How many different tagging or photo-uploading or friending protocols can one person deal with?

Recently Gary McGraw echoed Ben Smith’s 1991 observation. “People keep asking me to join the LinkedIn network,” he said, “but I’m already part of a network, it’s called the Internet.”

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/social-network-fatigue-and-the.html

Directly Manipulating Videos

admin — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:52:00 +0000

Nice, and download free.

2 News For You Digerati

admin — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:41:06 +0000

Media Companies ‘Endangered’ by Old Models
Media companies are in danger of following the railroad industry model and becoming “Industrial Age mass distribution vehicles,” warns media economist Jack Myers. “New models must be quickly developed before the economics of the media business collapse.”
http://www.jackmyers.com/commentary/media-business-report/19216529.html

Sorrell: Traditional Media Are Under Pressure
Traditional media are under pressure in developed markets but still growing in newer markets like India, according to Martin Sorrell, CEO of advertising giant WPP Group. Also: Google plans to grow its business in television, radio and print, “and I am sure they will do that.”
http://blogs.reuters.com/summits/2008/05/23/qa-with-wpps-sir-martin-sorrell/

“Ah, I Am So Bored…”

admin — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:41:37 +0000

“I have to use twitter..”

twitter is for the bored, introvert folks, who don’t have anyone to talk to: it’s the new confessional of the digital age. except that the old confessional was ‘always on’.

sometime you can hear smart advice form the priest you are confessing to, but mostly it’s crap.

I Cannot Believe

admin — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:56:23 +0000

Jun, my son, is two years old today. I’m so proud of him and Anja- and humble in front of life.

If you want send him a message - even if you don’t know him, or just want write him about the world we are living in today, or give an advice, or just anything he might find interesting when he grows up: jun.sv.nabergoj [at] gmail.com

The Laws of Media Tetrads

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:35:18 +0000

Marshall McLuhan, the hugely influential guru of the mass media, wrote The Laws of Media Tetrads, which are comprised of four questions- four aspects or effects that apply, without exception, to all creations – intangible or tangible, abstract or concrete – of humankind. They are quoted here from McLuhan’s Laws of Media: The New Science.

First Probe: Enhance
“What does the artifact ENHANCE or intensify or make possible or accelerate? This can be asked concerning a wastebasket, a painting, a steamroller, or a zipper, as well as about a proposition in Euclid or a law of physics. It can be asked about any word or phrase in any language.”

Second Probe: Reverse
“When pushed to the limits of its potential (another complementary action), the new form will tend to reverse what had been its original characteristics. What is the REVERSAL potential of the new form?”

Third Probe: Obsolesce
“If some aspect of a situation is enlarged or enhanced, simultaneously the old condition or unenhanced situation is displaced thereby. What is pushed aside or OBSOLESCED by the new ‘organ’?”

Fourth Probe: Retrieval
“What recurrence or RETRIEVAL of earlier actions and services is brought into play simultaneously by the new form? What older, previously obsolesced ground is brought back and inheres in the new form?”

When applied to any “medium,” these questions help chart the medium’s story arc. The Tetrads help us to understand both the “thing” itself (be it a particular technology, business process, model or concept) and our collective response to it.

The questions are not to be considered sequentially, or in any particular order. The attributes of the four aspects are, in fact, complementary to one another. Their discovery requires careful consideration and observation of the artifact - be it tangible or intangible, an object or a concept - in relation to its context and environment: In McLuhan’s terms, consideration of the figure in relation to its ground.

BONUS for my readers:
Channeling McLuhan
The Wired Interview with the magazine’s patron saint.