March 2012
40 posts
4 tags
Stop talking about how humble you are all the time →
Brilliant post by Don Miller on self promotion and why arrogant people think it’s wrong:
If you’re a dancer, dance, a singer, sing and if you write books, write them well. Lose yourself in the work and play with God in the creative process. And please, cut the false humility and religious crap about how you only promote Jesus. It’s annoying. Get in touch with your own depravity and realize...
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Buying Influence
I’m somewhat late to the party with commenting on the ‘cash for access’ saga, but I thought I’d share a few thoughts. (If you’ve been living in a hole, it was triggered by revelations that large Conservative Party doners were getting private dinners with David Cameron thanks to their donations.)
Here’s the thing though. Whilst everyone is in uproar and the media are making as big...
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Google+: The Charge Of The Like Brigade →
Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch:
Google lost its status as a neutral party because of a number of choices that minimized the user and promoted themselves unilaterally. How many of these decisions were made deliberately, and how many innocently? It’s hard to say, but in the end the analysis is merely academic. The reality is that they are no longer trusted. The liberties they took with their best...
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The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs →
Walter Isaacson in an article for HBR:
I think the real lessons from Steve Jobs have to be drawn from looking at what he actually accomplished. I once asked him what he thought was his most important creation, thinking he would answer the iPad or the Macintosh. Instead he said it was Apple the company. Making an enduring company, he said, was both far harder and more important than making a...
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Atheists don’t own reason →
Tom Gilson in the Washington Post:
The new atheists’ difficulty with valid, responsible reasoning is widespread and systemic. Far from being the defenders of reason, they are among the chief offenders against it. It’s time we called them on that.
Whilst on the subject of atheism, I thought this was an interesting read too. I’ve long felt that the new atheists claim to have a monopoly...
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Deliver us from militant atheists →
Robert Shrimsley, a self-proclaimed moderate atheist, in the FT:
It is true that religion is deeply ingrained in public life, but across the western world its grip is loosening, not tightening. So perhaps it is time for a new branch of militant atheism. Our group will be virulently inactive, extremely non-confrontational; staunchly passive and fanatically shoulder-shrugging. So sign up if you...
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The Case Against Google →
Mat Honan in Gizmodo:
Google has forgotten why we loved it. It has degraded its premier product in service of promoting others. It has done devious things to ferret out information from its users that they do not willingly provide. It is too much focused on the future, and conversely too scared of current competition.
This is a very thorough review of how and why Google has been losing our...
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Why video games are GREAT for children
Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney writing in their book ‘Willpower’:
The self-esteem movement, fortunately, never took hold in the video game industry, probably because children would have been too bored by games that began by telling them what great players they were. Instead, children have preferred games in which they start out as lowly “noobs” (as in newbies) who...
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One week on: My take on the new iPad
I’ve now had the new iPad for nearly a week which has given me plenty of time to form an opinion of it. For those of you who aren’t aware, I was an iPad 1 owner who skipped the iPad 2 but has decided to upgrade to the new, third generation, iPad.
I’ve known since late 2011 that I wanted to get the new iPad when it was available. Why? The ’retina’ screen. Having seen the...
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Thoughts on the Budget
Following politics can be really frustrating. Sure, it’s fascinating and intriging - but it can also be deeply frustrating.
Take yesterday’s Budget. George Osborne made his announcements and then, immediately afterwards, listening to Ed Miliband’s response, I was left wondering if he’d even listened to any of the announcements Osborne had just made. Miliband had...
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Budget 2012 at a glance: George Osborne's key... →
Helpful summary from the BBC.
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The Good, Bad and Ugly - Apple, Google, Dell →
Fascinating take on these three companies by Adam Hartung in Forbes.
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Kony 2012: Mobs, Takedowns and Meltdowns, but Very... →
Alex Perry, writing at TIME’s Global Spin blog:
Invisible Children have shown us the almost limitless, instant — and by that I mean wondrous — potential for engaging the world that our new media tools allow. But Invisible Children has also shown us the price we have to expect to pay for that: an almost limitless, instant — and by that I mean thoughtless — response. It’s been enough,...
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Fascinating BBC article on prayer →
Mark Easton on the BBC News website:
Whatever you might think about its links to a supernatural being, intercessory prayer is a straightforward way for an individual to focus the mind on their capacity to think nice thoughts. Anyone can close their eyes and make a wish that bad things do not happen. Right now, Britain is praying that Fabrice Muamba makes a speedy and full recovery.
This is...
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What does the new iPad mean for the future of... →
Andy Ihnatko in his conclusion to his review of the new iPad:
Android tablets? Yikes. Once again I find it impossible to think of a situation in which I’d recommend an Android tablet to any person of whom I’m even remotely fond.
This is a great and thorough review of the new iPad by one of my favourite reviewers. But I’ve chosen to focus on his comment about Android as that to me is a...
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The future of household computing
As many of my regular readers might have suspected, I got the new iPad (third generation) on the day it came out last week. And whilst it is tempting to do some sort of review, that’s not actually what I’m going to do here. I want to focus instead on how I see tablet technology - led by Apple’s iPad - changing the future of household computing.
The case study I shall use as the...
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What UK aid will achieve for the world’s poorest... →
ONE International:
The analysis shows that if UK aid spending commitments remain on track, the result will be millions of lives saved and transformed between now and 2015. We estimate that UK aid plans as they stand in March 2012 will:
Put 15.9 million children in school
Provide over 80 million children with vaccines against life-threatening diseases, saving an estimated 1.4 million...
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"Google is like a crack dealer" →
Bobbie Johnson writing for GigaOM, quoting a startup founder:
“Google is like a crack dealer,” one frustrated startup founder told me recently. “They give you something that gets you hooked, but you end up strung out. You’re so dependent on somebody that you can’t do anything about it.”
Exactly. I used to trust Google, but now I don’t. I still use a few products, but I’ve...
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The new iPad is in a class by itself →
Joshua Topolsky at The Verge reviews the new iPad:
The new iPad is in a class by itself, just as its predecessor was. As the latest product in a lineage of devices that defined this category, the iPad continues to stand head and shoulders above the competition. With the addition of the Retina display, LTE, more memory, and a more powerful CPU, Apple has absolutely held onto the iPad’s...
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Parenting confessional and the importance of green... →
Mark Hoelterhoff:
I am trying to write a blog about playing outside while simultaneously being bothered that my children want to play outside. The real interruption is my attempt to hijack a Saturday afternoon to be a writer. My daughter reminds me it is time for some green play. As parents we know that kids should not be sat inside all day watching TV and playing video games, but sometimes...
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Why I left Google →
James Whittaker:
The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.
This whole post is well worth a read. It’s be an ex-Google employee talking about why he’s left Google after working for them for the last three years. It nicely captures many of...
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Time sensitive invite: Makers of Fire - An...
I just wanted to let people know that Alex McManus is going to be around for the weekend in Sheffield in two weeks time (23rd-24th March).
He’ll be attending an event hosted by Vox Sheffield’s Monkey Butler improv comedy troupe on the Friday night (7.30pm at the Showroom Cafe/Bar) and then he’ll be the guest at the first new quarterly event that the IMN in the UK is...
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Kony 2012: Good but Flawed Is Better than Horrible →
Erika Andersen writing for Forbes:
How is it a bad thing that hundreds of thousands people all over the world are now motivated to help neutralize a horrible man who is responsible for countless heinous crimes against people throughout Central Africa?
This is the right attitude to take when considering the criticism that Invisible Children - the organisation who made the film about Joseph...
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Kony 2012: The issue is bigger than just one... →
Stop The Traffik:
Undeniably we all want Kony to be stopped but as any cases of human trafficking, we need to address this issue as a whole rather than focus on one single person. Kony2012 is useful and interesting – but please do not limit your understanding of the issue simply to the video itself.
I have a lot of respect for Stop The Traffik and was interested to hear - and now share -...
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Apple's new movies in the cloud service is... →
Don McAllister bemoans the pricing of Apple’s new Movies in the Cloud service:
But now [Movie studios] have the opportunity to reinvent or reboot the movie business, handed to them on a virtual plate by Apple. Apple can provide them with the delivery mechanism, the user experience and the back end ecommerce systems. Hand Apple your movie, and get a big fat cheque at the end of each...
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Apple announced a new iPad: Here's what you need...
Since there are about four million other very techie articles out there talking about the iPad that Apple announced, I thought I’d go for the simple, everyman’s approach. Here goes.
In case you weren’t aware Apple had a special event yesterday where they introduced the latest version of the iPad. And yes, you’re right, it’s not called iPad 3 or iPad HD; it’s...
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We Need to Talk About Android →
Fraser Spears writes a brilliant post explaining why, in his educational context, he uses iOS rather than Android. Here’s a few clippings from the piece. It’s well worth reading in its entirety though.
The Android platform is currently stuck in second gear because Google, their OEMs and the carriers can’t, won’t or simply have no incentive to get the installed base past...
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How to discover your passion
I’m thinking a lot about passion at the moment. We’re about to embark on a series of conversations about it at Mosaic, and I’m also doing some research for a separate project.
One thought that struck me today when thinking about passion though was how often people find their passion through a disaster or tragic experience. The rape victim who becomes a counsellor for others who...
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Windows 8: A Giant Misstep Forward →
John Gruber:
The recurring theme of these Windows 8 reviews: the brand-new Metro UI is elegant, clever, original and shows much promise; the updated classic Windows desktop is better than ever; the two environments don’t flow well together.
This is Gruber’s summary and very much matches my own take on the reviews I’ve read. Lot’s of genuinely positive comments but...
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What Makes a Thought Leader? →
Shel Israel, writing for Forbes:
A thought leader is someone who looks at the future and sets a course for it that others will follow. Thought leaders look at existing best practices then come up with better practices. They foment change, often causing great disruption.
Thought leaders are people, not companies. But very often an enterprise employs, encourages and embraces individual...
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Why do developers prefer iOS over Android? Try 75%... →
The Next Web, quoting Chris Sauve:
iOS 5 captured approximately 75% of all iOS users in the same amount of time it took Gingerbread to get 4% of all Android users. Even more astounding is that 15 weeks after launch iOS 4 was at 70% and iOS 5 was at 60% while Ice Cream Sandwich got to just 1% share at the same age.
The problem Android fans pretend isn’t there! It’s a real problem...
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John Piper says the fierce tornadoes in the US are... →
John Piper:
Why would God reach down his hand and drag his fierce fingers across rural America killing at least 38 people with 90 tornadoes in 12 states, and leaving some small towns with scarcely a building standing, including churches? …
We do not ascribe such independent power to Mother Nature or to the devil. God alone has the last say in where and how the wind blows. If a...
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Unemployment matters more than GDP or inflation →
Mehdi Hasan in The Guardian:
Poll after poll shows voters across the EU care much more about the jobs deficit than they do about the budget deficit. Nonetheless, the proverbial Martian, landing in Brussels last week, would have been stunned to witness the complacency and indifference of the continent’s political elites to the crisis of spiralling joblessness. EU leaders continue to...
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Does prayer change things? →
Dean Sharp:
Prayer changes things.
In my mind this is an incontrovertible fact.
You may call it supernatural, or psychological, or an electromagnetic field distortion, or focused intentionality, or quantum entanglement.
Its influence may be transcendental, or physical, or purely internal, or proximal, or utterly non-local.
But prayer changes things.
Except perhaps the...
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The 50p tax rate is a bomb that a brave Chancellor... →
Fraser Nelson:
In opposition, Osborne saw the 50p tax only as a political debate: no research was conducted to estimate how much Britain would lose. Now, he’s beginning to realise. A Treasury study currently underway still has too little data to draw any proper conclusions, but anecdotal evidence is flooding in. London is full of leaving parties for people heading to Dubai or Asia. A recent...
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Put Down the Phone and Learn to Be Alone (And to... →
Liz Gannes, reporting on a TED talk by Sherry Turkle:
All this time spent communicating digitally gives us “the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship,” Turkle said. “If we’re not able to be alone, we’re going to be more lonely.”
Some interesting and challenging thoughts. I definitely think that technology and social networking can create the illusion of friendship, but...
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A Lesson in Focus and Clarity →
Alex McManus:
Whatever your enterprise, consider the exercise of focusing …and focusing until the thing you seek to do becomes really clear.
Focus helps you know who you are and what you are all about.
Great article. And I love the story Alex tells about a restaurant in San Francisco.
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How Great Leaders Grow →
Ken Blanchard:
The biggest obstacle that stalls leaders’ growth is the human ego. When leaders start to think they know it all, they stop growing. Growing for leaders is like oxygen to a deep sea diver. Without learning and growing, leaders die in terms of their effectiveness.
The whole interview that this quote is taken from with Ken is well checking out.
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Readability for iOS Review →
Federico Viticci with another of his very thorough reviews. This one is a review of Readability, a service that I’ve come to love for reading articles on the web free from clutter.
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The virtue of doubt and the unknown →
Joseph Thompson:
On the cross, Jesus didn’t doubt God’s existence (My God, my God), but He questioned—and by extension doubted—God’s unwavering presence around him (why have You forsaken me?) to Identify honestly with “The suffering of the cross,” we must be willing to step over the edge of an approach to religion that suggests that everything will...
