Strange the difference three minutes makes. Coachella general admission tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. PST. I made an early attempt at 9:57, expecting to be denied access but got through to the standby page […]
Category: Media
Sometimes I Really Miss Working for CNET
Now this is news reporting, and in a few words: How I got T-Mobile’s CEO kicked out of AT&T’s CES party. My apologies for the late highlight. The story as told in a couple tweets is Twitter […]
Finally, a Sensible Story sets the Chromebook Record Straight
Gregg Keizer corrects the record regarding Chromebook sales. Somebody had to. Gregg is consistently a thorough reporter who actually reports rather than hypes or falls into The Echo Chamber.
NPD’s press release clearly states U.S. “commercial channels” not all retail sales, as has been widely misreported. That 21 percent number isn’t the whole pie but a much smaller portion of it. This misreading, misunderstanding, or misreporting (take your pick) fostered an echo chamber of stories predicting 2014 as the year of the Chromebook. In your dreams.
Buzz Cut Wireless
I can’t help but wonder why a Barber Shop offers free WiFi. For what? Snapchat selfies while getting a buzz cut? I took the photo using the Fujifilm X-E1 and 18-55mm kit lens. I enhanced […]
'Comic-Con Heroes' Play
My ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth is finally up on Google Play, after long delay (in part because of Kindle Store’s exclusive). Google Play cut the price to […]
Chromebook Matters
My fourth ebook, Chromebook Matters, published over the holiday, and this one is available from Kindle Store, Google Play, and Smashwords. I’m done with Amazon exclusives.
Chromebook Matters is not a how-to book. It’s all “why” and “what”—why Chromebook matters and what it can do for you. I write an introduction for anyone—businesses, consumers, government agencies, or schools—considering buying Chromebook. I also address anti-Chromebook propaganda. Some claims are valid. Most are not.
Caturday Christmas
Neko sends his best holiday wishes.
Black Friday Stinks
What a fantastic headline: (in story context): For Retailers Today Really is the Shittiest Day of the Year. Some journalists squawk at Gawker sites for cheesy, sleazy headlines and content. I see Gawker as a […]
You Belong to the Fifth Estate
My wife and I just returned home from watching “The Fifth Estate“. My problem isn’t the film but the trailer, which makes the movie look more like a political thriller. The film is nothing like […]
Lestat’s West
I am hanging at a local coffee shop while waiting on car repair—stunned by the amount of business going on here: A physical therapist calling clients; what looks like a professor teaching college students; two […]
All This Googlism disturbs Me
Today, Ian Betteridge posts: “One thing that is impossible not to notice on Google+: There’s a very distinct skew towards big Google fans in commenting. It doesn’t matter which tech site’s page you look at, the (in my view, tedious) ‘fanboy’ mentality is hotter here than on any other social network”.
I commented on his post but want to draw more attention to Ian’s observation, to which I concur. I am rethinking my social service presence because of pervasive Googlism. While now immersed in the Google lifestyle, I am not a Google fanboy. But the leanings here are quite strong now, and tipping more all the time. Also, there is increasingly less tolerance for non-Google tech posts and more criticism of those regarding competitors like Apple.
Gladwell Makes Me Sad
One of my pet themes is what I call “David Thinking“, and until today I worked on an ebook espousing the concept as a lifestyle philosophy. Now that’s on hold, and it’s not a choice easily made.
I first wrote about David Thinking here in May 2009 post “Why Apple Succeeds and Always Will“. Writer Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker article “How David Beats Goliath: When underdogs break the rules” inspired the concept. He used Ivan Arreguín-Toft‘s research about so-called Davids beating Goliaths as basis for the story. I took the political scientist’s concepts someplace Gladwell didn’t, applying them as a way of thinking differently. I have written about David Thinking often, in posts here and elsewhere.