JRJ Test Feed

Your Tech Skills Have a Two Year Half-Life - Slashdot

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:31:36 GMT

itwbennett writes "Eric Bloom, an IT leadership coach and former CIO, has answered that eternal question 'does working on old software hurt your professional marketability' with a somewhat surprising 'no.' But, Bloom adds, 'a techie's skill set from a marketability perspective has a two year half-li...

IRIS 9000 voice control module for iPhone & Siri

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:58:37 GMT

Simply place your iPhone into the Iris 9000 cradle and use the included micro remote to trigger Siri up to 50 feet away. Just tap the Iris 9000 remote button once, listen for the Siri chime, and speak your command.

Status Update

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:34:25 GMT

Half napping, half listening to an audiobook... very relaxing.

About Tesla | Tesla Motors

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:26:18 GMT

TESLA MOTORS was founded in 2003 by a group of intrepid Silicon Valley engineers who set out to prove that electric vehicles could be awesome.

Microsoft Earnings Meet Forecasts; Revenue Beats

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:41:23 GMT

Microsoft's earnings hit Wall Street's target and revenue beat, helped by strong sales of its Office applications package. Still, shares skidded.

DeLorean Goes Electric

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:53:52 GMT

"Back to the Future," the movie to most prominently feature John DeLoreanâs gull-winged icon of 1980s cool, ends with the future version of the DeLorean time machine running on household garbage. Well, folks, the future is now, and the new DeLorean doesnât need gas or rubbish. The DMCEV, which will ...

Status Update

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:09:25 GMT

Really tired, caffeine having no effect... Need a nap.

Scientists Trace Heat Wave To Massive Star At Center Of Solar System

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:44:56 GMT

PASADENA, CAâGroundbreaking new findings announced Monday suggest the record-setting heat wave plaguing much of the United States may be due to radiation emitted from an enormous star located in the center of the solar system.

John Nack on Adobe : Adobe demos amazing deblurring tech (new video)

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:06:12 GMT

Now, hereâs the thing: This is just a technology demo, not a pre-announced feature. Itâs very exciting, but much hard work remains to be done. Check out details right from the researchers via the Photsohop.com team blog.

A video shot on the iPhone 4S

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:39:24 GMT

Holy cow. Time to throw my 7D in the bin. Got an iPhone 4S yesterday and got up this morning to go for a surf. No surf, so thought I'd shoot some stuff to see what the new camera is like on the 4S. Got home, looked at the footage, and couldn't believe...

Status Update

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 07:32:20 GMT

JRJs blogging postulate number 34: 30% of all blog posts are apologies for not having posted recently.

Calling All Ice Cream Sandwich Lovers

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:29:13 GMT

Live: YouTube.com/Android, 10/19/11, 10AM, Hong Kong Time (HKT)

Status Update

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:47:47 GMT

Not cool... just found out one of my systems was infected with a virus. What's even worse is that it was not detected by Microsoft's Security Essentials-- there was odd behavior on our network that I traced to a specific machine, and when Security Essentials didn't find anything I ran a Sophos A/V scan on it, and it found and quarantined the virus. Scary stuff... that machine has been disconnected from the network and shut down, and will be restored from an earlier backup and then scanned using Sophos before being re-connected. Paul Thurrott - Do I need to consider a new A/V solution?

Status Update

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:45:07 GMT

While driving yesterday, Rachel Jones told me to turn left on Wright. This is why speech recognition technology will never be 100%.

Link via Guy Kawasaki

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:58:12 GMT

(Sat01) What I Learned From Steve Jobs

Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don't want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.

Experts are clueless.

Experts—journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers, and gurus can't ‘do’ so they ‘advise.’ They can tell you what is wrong with your product, but they cannot make a great one. They can tell you how to sell something, but they cannot sell it themselves. They can tell you how to create great teams, but they only manage a secretary. For example, the experts told us that the two biggest shortcomings of Macintosh in the mid 1980s was the lack of a daisy-wheel printer driver and Lotus 1-2-3; another advice gem from the experts was to buy Compaq. Hear what experts say, but don't always listen to them.

Customers cannot tell you what they need.

‘Apple market research’ is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve's brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, ‘Better, faster, and cheaper’—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use—that's what Steve and Woz did.

Jump to the next curve.

Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness. The best daisy-wheel printer companies were introducing new fonts in more sizes. Apple introduced the next curve: laser printing. Think of ice harvesters, ice factories, and refrigerator companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Are you still harvesting ice during the winter from a frozen pond?

The biggest challenges beget best work.

I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I, or my work, was crap. In public. This fear was a big challenge. Competing with IBM and then Microsoft was a big challenge. Changing the world was a big challenge. I, and Apple employees before me and after me, did their best work because we had to do our best work to meet the big challenges.

Design counts.

Steve drove people nuts with his design demands—some shades of black weren't black enough. Mere mortals think that black is black, and that a trash can is a trash can. Steve was such a perfectionist—a perfectionist Beyond: Thunderdome—and lo and behold he was right: some people care about design and many people at least sense it. Maybe not everyone, but the important ones.

You can't go wrong with big graphics and big fonts.

Take a look at Steve's slides. The font is sixty points. There's usually one big screenshot or graphic. Look at other tech speaker's slides—even the ones who have seen Steve in action. The font is eight points, and there are no graphics. So many people say that Steve was the world's greatest product introduction guy..don't you wonder why more people don't copy his style?

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.

When Apple first shipped the iPhone there was no such thing as apps. Apps, Steve decreed, were a bad thing because you never know what they could be doing to your phone. Safari web apps were the way to go until six months later when Steve decided, or someone convinced Steve, that apps were the way to go—but of course. Duh! Apple came a long way in a short time from Safari web apps to ‘there's an app for that.’

‘Value’ is different from ‘price.’

Woe unto you if you decide everything based on price. Even more woe unto you if you compete solely on price. Price is not all that matters—what is important, at least to some people, is value. And value takes into account training, support, and the intrinsic joy of using the best tool that's made. It's pretty safe to say that no one buys Apple products because of their low price.

A players hire A+ players.

Actually, Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It's clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called ‘the bozo explosion’ to happen in your organization.

Real CEOs demo.

Steve Jobs could demo a pod, pad, phone, and Mac two to three times a year with millions of people watching, why is it that many CEOs call upon their vice-president of engineering to do a product demo? Maybe it's to show that there's a team effort in play. Maybe. It's more likely that the CEO doesn't understand what his/her company is making well enough to explain it. How pathetic is that?

Real CEOs ship.

For all his perfectionism, Steve could ship. Maybe the product wasn't perfect every time, but it was almost always great enough to go. The lesson is that Steve wasn't tinkering for the sake of tinkering—he had a goal: shipping and achieving worldwide domination of existing markets or creation of new markets. Apple is an engineering-centric company, not a research-centric one. Which would you rather be: Apple or Xerox PARC?

Marketing boils down to providing unique value.

Think of a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis measures how your product differs from the competition. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product. Bottom right: valuable but not unique—you'll have to compete on price. Top left: unique but not valuable—you'll own a market that doesn't exist. Bottom left: not unique and not value—you're a bozo. Top right: unique and valuable—this is where you make margin, money, and history. For example, the iPod was unique and valuable because it was the only way to legally, inexpensively, and easily download music from the six biggest record labels.

Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen. When you are jumping curves, defying/ignoring the experts, facing off against big challenges, obsessing about design, and focusing on unique value, you will need to convince people to believe in what you are doing in order to see your efforts come to fruition. People needed to believe in Macintosh to see it become real. Ditto for iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Not everyone will believe—that's okay. But the starting point of changing the world is changing a few minds. This is the greatest lesson of all that I learned from Steve.

Status Update

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 04:02:30 GMT

I did wind up pre-ordering a new iPhone 4GS... if my current phones camera werent scratched up beyond usefulness I wouldnt have. On a positive note, it gave me an opportunity to switch to Verizon.

Status Update

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:14:37 GMT

Was talking to a friend about startupsâ¦ he wants to sell his idea to an entrepreneur or investor. I was trying to make clear to him that in startups, ideas are a dime a dozen, it's execution that matters. It seems to be difficult for people to grasp-- your business idea is worthless unless you have the wherewithall to make it happen in the real world.

xkcd: Eternal Flame

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:14:36 GMT

President Obama on the Passing of Steve Jobs: "He changed the way each of us sees the world."

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:00:45 GMT

President Obama remembers one of "the greatest American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it."

Status Update

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:47:57 GMT

Steve Jobs' death is a huge loss the entire industry-- his vision and even the reality distortion field will be missed. Now I'm off to go figure out how we can use this to blame Obama for losing even more Jobs. (Bad joke... too soon?)

Apple - Apple Events - Apple Special Event October 2011

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:57:28 GMT

Watch the streaming video from today's special event.

Cloud-Powered Facial Recognition Is Terrifying

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:30:54 GMT

By harnessing the vast wealth of publicly available cloud-based data, researchers are taking facial recognition technology to unprecedented levels

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Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:46:56 GMT

Loki looking sad

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Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:43:37 GMT

I decided to order a Kindle Touch-- since I already have multiple tablets, I figure the touch is a better fit for my needs. Can't wait for it to arrive!

Status Update

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:12:42 GMT

Trying to decide what Kindle to buy. Touch or Fire? I'm leaning towards Touch since I want to be able to read in the hammock in the back yard or on the beach.

Can you watch this without flinching? - BBC Top Gear

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:23:10 GMT

John Nack on Adobe : Tom Selleckâs moustache makes every movie better

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:51:33 GMT

Status Update

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:33:22 GMT

I'm digging the new Facebook timeline-- good layout, much more flexible.

Feds: Full Tilt Poker a Giant 'Ponzi Scheme'

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:07:13 GMT

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that a popular online poker site already accused of money laundering and bank fraud operated essentially as a giant Ponzi scheme.

Link via Randall Munroe

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:14:39 GMT

Its been pointed out on various interesting-fact lists that Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landings than to the construction of the pyramids.

Reading todays news, it occurred to me that 9/11 happened closer to the fall of the Soviet Union (December 1991) than to the present day.

Status Update

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:21:17 GMT

The movie "Contagion" was boring, and even the score was distracting. However, there was one pretty good line:

"Blogging isnt journalism, its graffiti with punctuation."

The Car Show - Episode 8: Ferrari vs. Toyota

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:11:18 GMT

Matt Farah and Dan Neil take a Ferrari and DeLorean and pit them against a Toyota Camry and Sienna - can the supercars of yesterday stay on top? --- Funnyman...

Status Update

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 02:11:43 GMT

Redesigned the front page of my site (www.jrj.org) to better emphasize various social networks, since I dont really post to the blog much anymore.

Couple fun features: if youre using a modern browser (IE9, Chrome, Firefox 4, Safari 5, etc.) then the page scales nicely. If youre not it will probably look like crap... one of the nice things about being an individual instead of a business is I dont have to care how my page looks in old browsers. :)

Also works nicely on phones.

Status Update

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:17:34 GMT

Sometimes, website defacements and hacker pranks are mildly amusing. This is not one of those times.

Boo, hiss... very poor taste. Fortunately, Twitter acted quickly and suspended NBC News account for the time being, as well as the account of the hackers that claimed credit.

Status Update

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:39:14 GMT

Yeah, great... so NASA can use Photoshop to cover up the obvious hoax of the various moon landings. KIDDING! These are awesome-- by far the best photos weve seen to date. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html

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Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:40:30 GMT

If you show up 15 minutes late to a 30 minute job interview you should have a good excuse... otherwise, I have to assume your excuse is "I dont want this job."

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Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:50:47 GMT

Officially on vacation... heading to Vegas in the morning to celebrate my nieces 21st birthday, and to play a little poker and enjoy some Mr. Fancypants food.

Status Update

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:54:55 GMT

The watershed milestone products in the computer industry are few. You may argue with this list, but I think it's pretty reasonable.*

1975 - MITS Altair â the first ‘personal computer’
1977 - Apple II â the first modern personal computer
1981 - IBM PC â the first PC from the MS/Intel/IBM powerhouse, and the basis of the computers most of us use today
1984 - Mac 128 â the first Macintosh and first commercial product with a real GUI
2010 â iPad

Three of those 5 were ushered in by Steve Jobs. Our industry owes a lot to his leadership. Don't get me wrong—he's no saint. He's a megalomaniac, a near Machiavellian presence in the industry who's been ruthless and unapologetic about stealing great ideas and spinning/misrepresenting/lying to customers for decades but the computer industry would be a very different place without him. Thank you for your contributions to computing Mr. Jobs.

* I love my Commodore as much as the next guy, but it does not belong on this list. The Altair wasn't really a computer, it was a kit—more analogous to a HAM radio than a modern PC. I thought about including the Palm Pilot on this list. Also, you could conceivably include Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows XP on this list, but I kept it to hardware.

Status Update

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:14:26 GMT

Heres wishing Apples new CEO good luck-- those are some huge shoes to fill.

Status Update

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:13:57 GMT

The new iOS release of @Evernote is a huge update to an already excellent tool. What a great tool.

Status Update

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:51:00 GMT

Awesome time in San Francisco with Paul and his family-- did a boat tour around Alcatraz, Ghirardelli Square, 6 pounds of Dungeness Crab, and a few other sights. Exhausted and letgs and feet hurt, but worth it. The weather even cooperated!

Status Update

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:31:42 GMT

I have no words to describe this. (OK, maybe http://paulthurrott.isdestroyingamerica.com)

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Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:00:34 GMT

Let me see if I have this straight: Al Gores old campaign manager is the front-runner for the Republican nomination? We live in Bizarro-world.

Status Update

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:59:49 GMT

Was finally able to set up a G+ account-- had to associate it with my work email, since my personal account uses Google Apps. Looking forward to playing in this particular sandbox, as it is a much better fit to the way I want to use a social network than any of the alternatives.

JRJ Test Feed

Your Tech Skills Have a Two Year Half-Life - Slashdot

IRIS 9000 voice control module for iPhone & Siri

Status Update

About Tesla | Tesla Motors

Microsoft Earnings Meet Forecasts; Revenue Beats

DeLorean Goes Electric

Status Update

Scientists Trace Heat Wave To Massive Star At Center Of Solar System

John Nack on Adobe : Adobe demos amazing deblurring tech (new video)

A video shot on the iPhone 4S

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Calling All Ice Cream Sandwich Lovers

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Link via Guy Kawasaki

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xkcd: Eternal Flame

President Obama on the Passing of Steve Jobs: "He changed the way each of us sees the world."

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Apple - Apple Events - Apple Special Event October 2011

Cloud-Powered Facial Recognition Is Terrifying

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Can you watch this without flinching? - BBC Top Gear

John Nack on Adobe : Tom Selleckâs moustache makes every movie better

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Feds: Full Tilt Poker a Giant 'Ponzi Scheme'

Link via Randall Munroe

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The Car Show - Episode 8: Ferrari vs. Toyota

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John Nack on Adobe : Tom Selleckâs moustache makes every movie better