sangsara.net

  • Reading: Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown

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    Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown | Magazine
    http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/07/ff_att_fail/all/1

    They’d always end up saying, ‘We’re going to have to escalate this to senior AT&T executives,’ and we always said, ‘Fine, we’ll escalate it to Steve and see who wins.’

    (via Instapaper)

    Digging through my Instapaper queue to read this article from eight months ago. Not sure “We’ll escalate this to Tim and see who wins” has quite the same ring to it.

  • ➟ The Modern Concert

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    I've had a few conversations over the last few weeks about our modern state of connectedness, and right now my Facebook feed is filling up with photos from several vacations happening in near-real-time. This Gizmodo article looks at the impact of Instagram sharing on the concert experience, which both takes away and adds to what we traditionally define as being present at a concert, and absorbing – really feeling – what it's like. There are drawbacks to every instance of this now, as long as our interactions are still device-oriented. Every photo you post or update you send on holiday takes precious seconds away from the view, or breaks conversation once sacred and uninterrupted with one's travel companions. Looking at a screen breaks gaze, and advances in technology to change that are far off.

    Most people reject this behavior, and I can understand why, but it's of interest to me that we push this envelope against the grain of comfort, make the sacrifices inherent with any pioneering generation, and see what this connectedness can serendipitously bring us. The immediate countable benefits are obvious: live restaurant recommendations from friends who've been in the same part of Tokyo before, location-aware mapping and transport data, photos and video from a concert you couldn't attend, a greater sense of involvement with a friend's life, and so on. It's what else might come silently with these that I care about. More highly developed neural pathways for social interaction, greater pattern recognition in relationships, augmented emotion, the end of the long-distance relationship. There's so much to be excited about.

    http://gizmodo.com/#!5764994/the-modern-concert

  • Getting goosebumps to music = creativity, openness to experiences

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    Science Daily:

    Most people feel chills and shivers in response to music that thrills them, but some people feel these chills often and others feel them hardly at all. People who are particularly open to new experiences are most likely to have chills in response to music, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science.

    I never knew that some people don’t get goosebumps or chills listening to music they like, whether from some sublime melodic passage or brilliant lyric. Talking about it last night reminded me of this article, which I wanted to find and share.

    Link

  • ➟ Life Below 600px

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    If your clients are always going on about the fold, find some way to have them read this page by Paddy Donnelly. Makes a good draw-’em-in case for scrolling as modern behavior.

    Life Below 600px

  • ➟ Solve Any Problem [Brainstorming]

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    Will Myddelton:

    Chances are you’ve already used the KJ Method or one of its many subtle variations. It’s a group activity that works like this:

    Brainstorm lots of ideas for your problem (individually)
    Sort these ideas into groups and label them (collectively)
    Rank them in any way that makes sense
    Make a decision based on what you’ve done
    Clearly articulate what you’re going to do next.
    If that doesn’t sound familiar, imagine writing ideas on post-its, grouping them, naming them and then prioritising. That’s the KJ Method as most of us know it.

    Solve Any Problem – Hidden Gems (via @iA, who called the post “How (to use Information Architecture) to solve any problem”.

  • History of hip-hop in one beatbox performance

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    All in four minutes, by French beatboxer EKLIPS. I had goosebumps at several points.

  • Recent links – Mid-January 2011

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    I've been sharing more links through Google Reader and Twitter lately; it's just easier to mark out things of interest when going through a huge list of updates, and then laziness means that's the end of the process. Here are a selection of recent ones for archival purposes.

    AKB48’s outfits to go on display in Shinjuku + HP CM – I liked this Japanese HP ad featuring AKB48. It's not unlike previous efforts for their notebooks, but the mix is just right here. An array of products matched to the girls and outlandish costumes, well edited, featuring one of their better songs.

    NHK airs Utada Hikaru’s final interview before her hiatus – Transcript post includes video of the interview, which is intercut with exclusive performances and footage from her farewell concert in Yokohama last month. Worth seeing if you like any of her songs.

    Will Dinner With A Movie Renew The Theater Experience? – I said "This is an insult to cinema, so I suppose it will take off in the US." but I'm sure there are many other countries where people don't care enough about the films they've paid to see, to the extent that they will leave their mobile phones on, eat popcorn out of noisy, rustling bags, and talk to each other. All of those are perfect for this enhanced experience which is sure to include spilt wine, the sound of clattering silverware, open-mouthed chomping, and burps.

    Nicolas Cage Really Wanted To Ruin 'Green Hornet' – Despite the post title, it sounds like Steven Chow wanted to ruin it more. A microchip in his brain that allows Kato to control his movements with a joystick? Sounds exactly like the kind of crap he'd come up with. Although my hopes aren't high for the final product anyway. The Green Hornet should not be a goddamned comedy.

    Drunk scientists pour wine on superconductors and make an incredible discovery – "Someday a crazy discovery like this will save mankind, and it will be hilarious." What's the difference between a Eureka! moment after years of meditation, and a complete accident? Nothing, really.

    Placebos Can Work Even Without Deception – The results of this medical study sound like good news for Scientologists.

    There really isn’t much of a “tablet” market – "Amen. This new demand in the market is for iPads, not necessarily tablets. Most normal people don't know what they can do with a tablet in their lives apart from what they've seen in ads from Apple, and on friends' iPads; those use cases don't all exist on 7" Android tablets."

    Japanese Virtual World Anime Film Aims At Oscar – My favorite animated film of last year, over anything from Pixar. I saw "Summer Wars" twice in theaters and still want the DVD. From Mamoru Hosada, director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's anime remake, it's a gorgeous riot of ideas around net-based interactions set against an idyllic Japanese countryside scene, with the requisite sweet-hearted teenage love story thrown in.

    Up inflight magazine – Very nice designs for an inflight magazine. Portuguese TAP airlines.

    “If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders. So maybe it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here. Like… the public.”

    – George Carlin, our era’s most perceptive political commentator, disguised as a comedian.

  • ➟ Assange should go to jail for these emails

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    Thirty-three-year-old Julian Assange met a 19-year-old girl in a bar and didn’t know how to give up. These emails are embarrassing, creepy, and hilarious.

    Link