🔗 WWW
There are a lot of links out to different parts of the web on this site. I try to mark them all so they get listed here.
🔗 Pakistani military use age-old tactics to keep Imran Khan away from election.
Any pretence of due judicial process being followed was abandoned entirely at both cases where Khan was sentenced this week. Instead of an open courtroom, the trials were conducted inside the jail where Khan is being detained and his lawyers were not allowed to choose or cross-examine any witnesses.
🔗Elon Musk’s $56bn Tesla pay package is too much, judge rules.
A line in the sand has been drawn.
That said - not quite where the 🖇️‘limitareanists think it should be drawn.
But it is a start.
Listening to Ingrid Robeyns talking to Sean Illing about ‘limitar(ian)ism’ - nice counterpoint to the ‘me centric’ alternative.
Later
Finished Listening. The Episode was called The case for banning millionaires - a very good case was made.
Listen to it yourself on 🔗 🎙️ VoxMedia
🔗 Fossil Is Quitting Smartwatches
Wait, What?
If they quit Smartwatches - don’t they just stop doing business?
TIL that Fossil offer a vast range of fashion accessories that I knew nothing about.
Next question.
I noticed this
… which got me to thinking. Do Fossil need that partnership any longer now that Mickey is out of copyright? Wouldn’t they make more money?
🔗 Where Logos Meet Album Covers: Designer Ivan Chermayeff
Its a Substack about a designer of iconic logos that turned his hand to (not so iconic) album covers.
I like some of them - but probably not iconic because the artists of the albums aren’t as big as the corporates either the logos.
🔗 Man who stole and leaked Trump tax records sentenced to 5 years in prison (Apple News)
If it is 5 years for this and 4 months for Navarro;
1] are the punishments commensurate?
2] If so what the likely total sentence time will be for the Orange clown?
🎈030/366 | 🔗 Just A ‘Few’ Links
Still battling with my ‘in process’ (I am being generous) archive that 🖇️ I referenced here. Tucked away I had literally hundreds of links - some of which I have no clue why I saved them to drafts - rather than 🔗 Raindrop (a far more logical place). This is a random election from said list. Trust me - you don’t want the whole thing!
- Together - A social reader.
- An app.
- The Connecticut CyberHub Initiative.
- Provides a pipeline of talent to fill security jobs.
- National Cyber Group.
- A national version of same.
- John Wooden - Wikipedia.
- It’s funny who gets places named after them, a bar/restaurant in LA I frequented in the early part of 2023 had a John Wooden room. Famous apparently. I had never heard of him.
- Is “stream” as a design paradigm over?.
- One of ‘Om’s’ - I started to write about ‘Streams’ at the time.
- Streams of Consciousness · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer.
- So did Matthias.
- Adactio: Journal—Home stream.
- …and Jeremy.
- Organizing my blog - Ben Werdmuller.
- Ben on - well - organizing hi blog, which is what I was doing at the time. Still am! Witness this 366 entry.
- Every Company Disney Owns: A Map of Disney’s Worldwide Assets.
- Always loved these kind of visuals.
- Reflect.
- An app
- Andrew Corser.
- a small blog by a long time family friend that I didn’t even know had a blog.
- Geyerhof StockWerk Grüner Veltliner, Kremstal 2021
- Organic wines anyone?
- Sky Bridge.
- A bridge - twixt Mastodon and BlueSky.
- AI risk must be treated as seriously as climate crisis, says Google DeepMind chief.
- A Guardian Article
- Obsidian ✍️ A new take on notes .
- A newsletter.
- Grupa Trias.
- a company I met in Poland.
- Personal Digital Agent - Google Slides.
- It is what it says on the tin.
- Motion | Pricing.
- An app.
- The Great Cash For Carbon Hustle.
- Is it? I am mixNo doubt it makes a lot of money for people - but we all know thatisnt right - don’t we.
- Micro.blog Feature Requests - Developers - Micro.blog Help Center
- MicroBlog feature requests.
- Struck | No Mercy / No Malice.
- A link I have saved for a future post - not yet. I think (know?) he is wrong.
- Seven Gigabytes.
- Robin Rendle.
🔗 Still struggling with emojis on my site - (The link takes you to a quick conversation with ChatGPT).
Most of them render correctly - but odd ones don’t … like this one for example : ❓
In my book that should be red?
🔗 The True Blue Ocean – ProjectVRM (2020 - I know - another old one!)
To understand the problem here, it helps to hear marketing talk to itself. Customers, it says, are targets to herd on a journey into a funnel through which they are acquired, managed, controlled and locked in.
This is the language of ranching and slavery. Not a way to talk about human beings.
Four years later nothing has changed.
🎈029/366 | 🎙️ Is Honesty The Best Policy❓
Don’t worry - this isn’t what you think it is.
If you are married or single, a writer or manager, paid for what you do or just for the love, delivered or received feedback, good or bad this is worth every minute of the 11 minutes and 44 seconds it will take you to listen to it.
I think this is my absolutely favorite podcast.
- Short - so there is always time to listen
- Good story telling, to keep your attention.
- Serious points made with humor.
W H A T - I S - N O T - T O - L O V E ❓
Sometimes There Is No Pleasing People
Another old note, that deserves to see the light of day. I have 🖇️ written before on my position (a fan - not a fanboy), still …
The Masses:
“Apple hasn’t produced anything new since the iPhone.”
But surely: …
- Apple TV
- AirPods revenue roughly equivalent to Netflix
- Apple Watch
- A whole new range of Apple Silicon
- Apple Services …
The Masses:
“Yeah yeah yeah … but nothing like the iPhone. Nothing innovative.”
Apple … hold by beer.
Behold, not just a new product, a new category that we call ‘Spatial Computing’, to give you an idea of what we mean.
The Masses:
“Yeah - that sucks it is going to fail.”
A couple of links.
This is about ‘that’ Andreesen post/ But first … context, because I know - life has moved on.
I am in the process of trying to catch up on a massive backlog of notes that I am steadily
- deleting
- filing in Obsidian
- posting to 🖇️John.Philpin
Not sure if this will end up taking longer than the 🖇️ category deletion. We will see.
This one is in the third category. The news has been and gone now - but my opinion hasn’t changed.
Some of you might have stumbled across Andreesen’s Substack :
TL;DR .. who cares.
Despite what he wrote, he’s wrong … not least of which being that word ‘world’ .. it will be fine - regardless of what Marc thinks. People? Yeah - that’s different. Anyway …
What you might NOT have stumbled across are these;
🔗 Alan Jacobs (pdf)
Just read that …
Hilton, together with 🔗 11:11 (Paris Hilton’s agency) launched a Roblox experience where players can earn 🔗 real-world travel rewards
.. and in all honesty I really do not care, except to say that in case you ever have any doubt … it really is a case of it’s not what you know - but who you know.
📺 Fool Me Once
I have watched a lot of the Harlan Coban mini series on Netflix. The early ones used to be really good … and then somehow I think the way was lost. This latest, while not the best, certainly represents a turning of the order for ‘good story’.
That said .. final episode .. last 5 minutes? Yeah … No. Totally unnecessary.
Fool Me Once on 🔗 Reelgood
🔗 Private Public Letters - I am guessing that it is fully subscribed?
🎬 🔗 Netflix Has The Best Assassin Movie of 2024 — Why Is It Being Buried? (Apple News)
Never heard of it. But then it isn’t coming out until June. Added to my list for sure. But why is it being ‘buried’? Well first we have to ask is it being buried? I am not sure it is?
🔗 Matt Gaetz Reveals Narcissistic Reason He Pushed Out Kevin McCarthy (🍏 News) - one day they will nail him. Funny how little old George was cast out so ‘quickly’ (life is rrelative) - and yet this predator has been hanging out in the hallowed halls for years.
🔗 Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees
Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week. While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted by the cuts.
Sometimes you forget how sprawling companies like Microsoft are. With 1900 gone - there are still over 20,000 left.
And that’s just the ‘gaming’ bit.
🔗 ProPublica Hires First Senior Director for Technology
Awesome. So many congratulations @werd
🎈025/366 | 🐫 Do Not Put ‘Product’ In Charge
Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of time and respect for 🖇️ Dana Blankenhorn - as you can see … so this one caught my attention
There’s a single rule I’ve learned studying technology this last half century. Product must be in charge.
.. and 🔗then he goes on
I totally disagree, so had to comment and did. Reproduced here for posterity
I don’t disagree on taking the finance wonks out .. but not sure I agree on putting product in … I know lots of companies that lead with product .. and it doesn’t work unless there is wider purview which is often missing in product thinking. Our friends in Cupertino don’t lead with product .. though many pundits think they do .. they lead with vision, experience and story that the product delivers against.
The ‘top’ needs to be market, future market, visionary oriented. Disciplines that used to fall under marketing … though sadly not anymore .. as they are all chasing data and models and RoI .. but those people exist. In all of those disciplines. The dude at the top can still be a focussed finance wonk … their ancillary skill (beyond those three core requirements) is to listen to everyone, take advice and pay attention.
Again .. the man at the top of Cupertino is ‘operations and supply chain’ ( by history ) but to the casual observer, that isn’t so obvious. Meanwhile, the man before him was vision and experience and story .. sure he definitely had a say in product … but from an holistic viewpoint -
Just one slice of the holisticism (is that even a word)… how many ‘product’ people get what good design can do.
If they do .. I mean REALLY do .. why are there so many badly designed, poorly performing products out there?
What Do You Think?
Postscript - sometimes the Leonardo images take a few tweaks to get even close to my underlying message - but in this case - third go - and was only generating 1 image at a time. Sometimes I run out of the 150 free credits that I get every day - and have to choose from a bad lot.
This image just spoke volumes to me as ‘the house that ‘product’ built.
Funnily enough - today’s emoji was also absolutely clear.