That’s what building a set of tools made for others ought to be all about. Self-effacement. Facilitating the goals and successes of others by means of an apparatus or implement, rather than making every touch and strike of that tool return some favor or back-pat to its creator. The problem is, corporations today (and tech companies in particular) are too selfish to care. Software platforms aren’t made for making things anymore. They are made for pledging fealty to a technology king.
You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single second of every single day. So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colours fill your mind.
Jac Vanek (via psych-facts)
Being Open
I’m going to shift into an even more pretentious-sounding gear here, but I think of creative acts as having a source somewhere outside our minds, and I think that what we call “making something" is actually us being “open to something that made itself.“ Please forgive me, anyone reading this, I’m just being honest about how I feel. Anyway, the act of “being open” to these things it’s our job to channel is the agonizing part. You can open yourself to a single idea but as soon as you have one, your ego starts going “okay I’ll take it from here" and the channel closes. Staying open beyond a certain point, keeping your ego from spasming, is like standing on one foot or sustaining a fake yawn for 8 hours.
Dan Harmon dropping some great knowledge on the act of creativity.
Hungry Bear Wheels Away an Entire Dumpster Two Nights in a Row
Oh how I love the wonderful things we get to see because of YouTube.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Thumb Drives
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ran a test in which staffers dropped flash drives in the parking lot of government and contractor buildings. Sixty percent of folks who picked them up simply plugged them into networked computers. That percentage jumped to 90 percent if the drive had an official logo.
Who doesn’t want to see what’s on that random thumb drive?
On a recent trip to the popular tourist island Enoshima this week I saw that the city of Fujisawa had installed camera stands in scenic spots popular for kinen-shashin 記念写真, commemoration photos.
Created by Sunpole, a manufacturer of flagpoles and all sorts of outdoor all-weather items found in Japan, these camera stands rotate 360 degrees and are positioned at just the right height and distance to include everyone in the frame. The stand provides a safe and level spot to place any camera and as you can see in the picture above there is an upright slot to place smartphones in as well.
The fact that people don’t need to approach a stranger to request a photo is an obvious benefit from such an invention but at the same time it saves those fellow tourists who might be asked a »
the michael galpert experience: Why Uber Ice Cream Tasted So Good.
the michael galpert experience: Why Uber Ice Cream Tasted So Good.
msg:
The #UberIceCream marketing campaign is the best social campaign I’ve experienced.
Last friday, Uber, the company that is growing faster than ebay, had their 2nd annual ice cream day, in which you could order an ice cream truck to a desired location for a cool $30* (price varied…
This is a ridiculously smart campaign.
In the car industry, Formula 1 provides a commercial testbed for cutting-edge technologies. The Ubuntu Edge project aims to do the same for the mobile phone industry – to provide a low-volume, high-technology platform, crowdfunded by enthusiasts and mobile computing professionals. A pioneering project that accelerates the adoption of new technologies and drives them down into the mainstream.
This is an exciting development, lets hope they get the funds!
Talking Heads vs. Television (Once in a Lifetime)
A BBC Channel 4 production in 1984 which includes interviews, concert footage and clips right out of David Byrne’s genius head (he was the creative consultant). Crank it up.
Life as understood by Mr. Byrne.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
DEVELOPING: Top NSA and DOJ Officials Have Fled the U.S. – Obama Admin. Files Espionage Charges
DEVELOPING: Top NSA and DOJ Officials Have Fled the U.S. – Obama Admin. Files Espionage Charges
In a stunning development, Deputy Director of the NSA, John Inglis, along with Assistant Attorney General, James Cole, have fled the United States after their participation in a contentious congressional meeting on Capitol Hill.In that meeting, both Ingils and Cole revealed that the depth of NSA spying far surpassed anything that whistleblower Edward Snowden has leaked to date. The unauthorized leaks to Congress by Ingils and Cole, which exposed more about NSA spying than anything Snowden has revealed, shook congressional leaders to their core.
Is it just me, or is anyone else suspicious as to how anyone at the NSA received clearance to fly to Hong Kong or Venezuela?
PT Anderson Interview
I asked Anderson what was the first film he remembered seeing? “Rocky,” he replied. “With Sylvester Stallone. That was a really big deal to me. I told my mom, ‘I want to be a boxer.’ She said, ‘No, no, no – you want to be a writer – Rocky also wrote the movie!’ I went out running a couple of mornings to be like Rocky and I thought, ‘Fuck this – I’ll take my mom’s advice and write.’”
“I never considered myself anything more than as a craftsman, a hell of a skilled craftsman, if I may so myself, but nothing more. I create things that are meant to be useful, films or theatrical productions. I’ve never felt the need for … what’s the word? … sub specie aeternitatis. I have never created for the sake of eternity. I was only interested in producing the good work of a fine craftsman. Yes, I am proud to call myself a craftsman who makes chairs and tables that are useful to people.”
Ingmar Bergman
July 14, 1918 — July 30, 2007
Art as craft.
FQ: If you have an Instagram account, you can slap a price tag on anything, take a picture of it, and sell it. For instance, you could take this can of San Pellegrino, paint it pink, put a heart on it, call it yours, and declare it for sale. Even my grandmother has an Instagram business! She sells dried fruit. A friend’s cousin is selling weird potted plants that use Astroturf. People are creating, you know, hacked products.
Kuwait’s booming Instagram economy
So many people sell things on Instagram in Kuwait that they’re having conferences about it.
(via prophecyboy)
This is interesting to me because I ironically claimed to have a product for sale on Instagram and they deleted it as spam.
Also: have you checked the Instagram Explore tab lately? Half of the images are from people selling »
feynman on computer heuristics, human/machine thinking, having fun.
Richard Feynman, at the age of 67 here in the year 1985, looks like he could have just walked out of uniqlo. This is a must watch later video.
Dictionary of IBM Jargon
This dictionary is full of so many gems.
arm waving n. A technique used to convey excited dedication to an idea, even though not supported by arguments or facts. “The pitch had much arm waving but little content”. The technique may be attempting to emulate the effect of waving one’s arms (as if trying to fly) near a flock of seagulls [or wild ducks?] who will then all take off together.
rusty iron n. Out-of-date, hard-to-repair equipment that, when it works, does the job better and cheaper than anything to be found in the current sales manual. (Especially true of non-IBM electrical or mechanical tools.) See also pig iron, tired iron.
Paths of Glory screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Jim Thompson [pdf]. (NOTE: For educational purposes only).
In 1956, a 26-year-old Stanley Kubrick asked Thompson to adapt Lionel White’s “Clean Break.” Retitled The Killing for the screen, it became Kubrick’s breakthrough movie. Thompson’s multi-narrative, tightly-wound script about a racetrack heist going wrong would resound down the years in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Jim also collaborated on Kubrick’s next venture, the World War I drama Paths of Glory.
In 1956, when Stanly Kubrick and producing partner James B. Harris secured the film rights to Lionel White’s caper novel Clean Break, it was Kubrick’s idea to recruit Thompson as his co-writer. “Are you familiar with a guy named Jim Thompson,” he asked Harris. “He’s a terrific writer who’s written some stuff »
