I've been friends with Paige Maguire for many many years and she's always had a brilliantly sharp mind for technology and design (in all its form). So, seeing this talk on Conversation Design for Disappearing Interfaces with her leading a thoughtful and insightful charge on the next wave of content interaction is a fascinating viewing. I'll admit that much of it is over my head but I'm happy to start wrapping my head around these concepts, particularly when being informed of them from a longtime friend.
The Art of Cringe has really been perfected thanks to the Internet. Or, rather, documenting Cringe-worthy creations has really been perfected. It's always existed.
Enter Catatonic Youths, an Instagram that does a superb job of documenting such absurdities. Want a Hard Rock band fueled by Banjo? He got you. How about a drum kit on suspension springs? Oh yea. A Slim Goodbody cover that defies description from inside of a Hot Topic? You better believe it.
I tend to think some of the subjects are in on the ridiculousness but that just makes it more enjoyable.
Another October and this house has kicked off its annual “Month of Listening to Curse Walk Every Day”. Thanks @Shaboi and @yewknee !
https://t.co/mzT88TS2tC
Back in July I posted about a Vanity Fair piece with Tim Berners-Lee (founder of the World Wide Web) and his vision for a democratized, decentralized Internet.*
Now there's a FastCompany piece with Berners-Lee in which he explains that he is leaving his position at MIT to focus on his startup Inrupt, an application of his framework Solid. If that sounds a little convoluted, that's fair. Simply put, "Solid empowers users and organizations to separate their data from the applications that use it." Inrupt is a company that makes apps with that technology.
Berners-Lee wrote up a blog post explaining his decision to leave MIT to focus on Inrupt and it's hard not to get behind. He envisioned the web as a place of innovation and safety of information; some of which is sorely lacking.
It's a huge undertaking and not likely one that will be easy to pull off. Hopefully more developers and more users will adopt the technology and it will prove itself as the way forward for protecting our identities and our data. No pressure.
*If that sounds like a nod to the fifth season of Silicon Valley, tip your hat to Mike Judge for being on top the zeitgeist.
This new LCD Soundsystem video for "Oh Baby" was directed by Rian Johnson, stars Sissy Spacek and David Strathairn and is a perfect bit of heartfelt sci-fi. There's nothing else necessary to say beyond that. Enjoy.
The newest episode of Bandsplainer, and technically the first original release on the We Own This Town network, is now available. It's an in-depth talk between host Olivia Ladd and Nashville journalist Charlie Zaillian discussing Squeeze, the largely unsung UK pop band.
I have returned from my work trip to Bangladore, India... aka Bengaluru aka "Silicon Valley of India" aka "Garden City." I have never traveled so far abroad and have never been in the position of being a day ahead of everyone else I know back in non-India Standard Time zones. It was a rather disconnecting feeling.
I've tried to articulate a succinct summary of my time there but I honestly can't put my finger on it. The people that I met (particularly my co-workers) were wonderfully nice, kind, helpful, funny people. The city itself is one born of an incredibly speedy tech boom; I'm told the majority of growth happened in just the last 15 years. That's a very short time to plan a city, establish reliable infrastructure and actually build it all.
So, I won't try to summarize it all. I saw a bunch of great buildings, marveled at the traffic, felt immense fear riding in the traffic, enjoyed a few good meals and delighted in the company of my coworkers. I posted pics over on the ole IG, specifically here, here and here if you're interested.
I generally agree with the sentiment that public businesses shouldn’t password protect their guest WiFi networks; however, when your password is JarvisCocker it frequently provides an opportunity to have cool conversations with awesome people. #RBQ
You Drive, feat. @jasminkaset
and @vanityset, are alone together in the vid for "Home in My Love." Give it a spin. https://t.co/YsiyebhrKx https://t.co/1AeeQAFGjH
