On mobile
The New York Times on SMS advertising,
The vast majority of people say they are averse to having advertisements text-messaged or otherwise sent to their cellphones. But nearly a quarter of people who have gotten such ads say they have responded at least once, a figure that is highly encouraging to marketers.
True as far as it goes – though the “vast majority of people” say that they’re averse to any kind of advertising, so that isn’t much of a surprise. The Times does find a correlation between availability of unlimited text plans and ad response rates. Even so, advertising is the nail for those with only a hammer. It’s still nice to know that consumers are coming around to having their walls perforated with nail holes.
This underscores our approach to SMS: provide a useful service first.
The Economist has an incredible piece on the global cultural impact of mobile phones, The Apparatgeist calls, ”How you use your mobile phone has long reflected where you live. But the spirit of the machines may be wiping away cultural differences.” It demands deeper commentary than I’m offering here.
Two related stories: teachers are finally starting to use cell phones in the classroom, here and here. To the doomsayers I say, relax, embrace foenetic speling and cold showers. You’ll live longer. Also, smoke a lot more and eat a lot less.
Boston police have had great success with an anonymous SMS tip line:
In Boston, the first city to heavily promote texting for crime tips, police have received more than 1,000 tips since the program began two years ago. Police credit text tips for providing them with key leads in at least four high-profile killings
A Jewish Mother in Your Cell Phone: “How nagging text messages can make you healthier and richer.”
How Gambian beggars became mobile SIM vendors.
African mobile subscriptions grew 550 percent in 5 years.
On GSM hackery
The Athens Affair, “How some extremely smart hackers pulled off the most audacious cell-network break-in ever.”
OpenBTS, a cheap, easy-to-deploy cellular network for the developing world.
On products
Des Traynor of the stellar dev shop, Contrast, illustrates the elegant idea that “quality is fractal” in The Thickness of Napkins. And have a look at another excellent post of their’s on entrepreneurship: Good or Lucky?.
An awesome example of an XP Team Room, via William Pietri of the Lean Startup Circle.
37Signals reflects on a comment by Steve Jobs, who says that “Great products are triumphs of taste.” Something I emphatically agree with, though I could do without 37s’ treacly Mid-Century Modern affectations, even if I share them; like how Jason Long’s smugness makes me want to use Windows though it spites the face, and makes me want to spite his face with my fist.
The downside is that having taste only informs, not catalyzes, creation. There aren’t shortcuts to mastery, even if Tim Ferriss can tell you how to fake it - useful advice for aspiring polymaths looking to emulate Richard Feynman’s linguistic prowess (scroll down), but not his Nobel recognition.
I previously cited Ira Glass on the subject of taste - the curse is knowing the music, but struggling with the words. It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect, straight out of the Book of Job, or at least a Coen brothers screenplay (“Why does he make us feel the questions if he’s not gonna give us any answers?“).
While we’re on the subject of Jobsian aphorisms, my favorite and most referenced:
Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
In the same piece, Jonathan Ive, Apple’s VP of Industrial Design, describes the iterative design process at Apple:
…the key to the iPod wasn’t sudden flashes of genius, but the design process. His [Ive's] design group collaborated closely with manufacturers and engineers, constantly tweaking and refining the design. ”It’s not serial… It’s not one person passing something on to the next.”
Oh, speaking of Job, Marc Suster writes about the physical trials and struggles with faith of the entrepreneur (alright, the allusion wears thin, and raises exegetical questions about the examined life/substitute faith) in The Yo-Yo Life of a Tech Entrepreneur – A Cautionary Tale (see also Paul Graham’s notes on the subject). Even if most of us don’t have Steve Jobs emerging from a cloud to rain vitriol like Malcolm Tucker, below.
On stuff I liked
I’ve been watching the brilliant BBC series, The Thick of It (on which the film In the Loop is based). Here’s some dialog, Malcolm Tucker on reality.
Searching for the Wiki links just now, I came across The Thick of It (U.S.). An adaptation produced by Mitch Hurwitz, with Christopher Guest directing? And the result was awful? A new attempt might make it to HBO? Does anyone know anything about this? Or will this go the way of the Deadwood or Arrested Development movies? Questions, questions.
The Wisdom of Children, from The New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs. Brilliant.
Does anyone know where I can get Aziz Ansari’s shirt from Parks and Rec[reation]? I’m serious. It’s the precursor to intimate moments for a sensual evening. Oh no, I just had a vision of myself on Twitter. Strike all of that.
The brilliant photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto.
I’m trying to stay away from politics on this blog, but I give this a pass as it doesn’t directly advocate policy (perhaps because, frighteningly, any victory on this front will be Pyrrhic): Christopher Hitchens on North Korea (and the WSJ review of the book referenced, a good read whether or not you believe that the paper has jumped the shark). As for policy, I’m reminded of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave,
… if they were somehow able to get their hands on and kill the man who attempts to release and lead up, wouldn’t they kill him?
Knut Haugland, sailor on Kon-Tiki (and so much more), dies at 92. A bit on his shipmate, Thor Heyerdahl. For more tales of true-life derring-do, see Was Ian Fleming the real 007?, “The war heroes, spymasters and beautiful women who inspired Ian Fleming to create James Bond.”
Hey Yury,
Thanks for the link out and the kind words about me/Contrast.
I’ll be sure to keep an eye on this blog.
Regards,
Des
Des, thanks for the comment. You guys do exceptional work, I’m glad you visited here.