“…the best super power that hypnosis gives you is a different world view. Nothing in this life makes sense if you assume people are rational most of the time. Hypnosis teaches you how easily people’s memories and impressions can be altered. And it’s not just the gullible people, it’s all of us. It’s humbling. And it’s the most useful skill I’ve ever learned.” [Full post]
iPhone Confessions: Dave Morris (Week One)
Dave Morris is the voice of great radio stations and television stations, film studios, syndicated shows and more. World wide. I know this because it says so on his website. He’s also a blogger (a good one). And a gadget junkie.
He was one of those crazies standing in line the day the iPhone went on sale, so we called him up for a report on Week One.
Unlike some of the others we’ve chatted with for this series, Dave is not a Mac guy. Windows all the way. But he’s only slightly less “gushy” about Apple’s latest creation.
DVD: Not Just the Best of Larry Sanders
The Larry Sanders Show was a satirical television sitcom that aired from 1992 to 1998 on HBO, starring stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders. The series was partly inspired by Shandling’s stint as a guest host on The Tonight Show.
The Larry Sanders Show is easily one of the best five TV shows of all time (I’m sorry, this is not open for debate). And now I own a DVD with 23 of “the best episodes” of the series as well as eight hours of new stuff. I’m going to try to hoard this like the last baggie of ganja but suspect I’ll burn through these in a week or so. This is just one more reason why it’s better to be me than you.
Radio’s “discarded audience”
“First the standards vanished from radio, as stations that played lots of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald went dark. Then over the past couple of years, the oldies format collapsed, and suddenly the sounds of Motown, Elvis and the Beach Boys were hard to find on the radio. Now, even classic rock stations are starting to feel the pressure, as commercial radio strains to find ways to connect with younger listeners who find most of their music online.”
AARP is happy to address the frustration that there’s “not enough choices on the radio.” The organization is finding that its 39 million members are eager for programming they can tap into through the latest technologies. AARP is podcasting, Web streaming and even offering a branded version of Pandora.com. AARP’s next wave of audio programming will be “user-created media a la YouTube.”
— WashingtonPost.com – Thanks, Kay
On speaking differently
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“Men who believe they are accomplishing something by speaking, speak in a different way from men who believe speaking is a waste of time.”
— pg.372 of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
NYT: The Road Home
“It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush’s plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans’ demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened — the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war.
This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage — with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading.” — New York Times editorial
Rounders vs. Accumulators
“Most people have at least a few big problems in their life. But the vast majority of life’s problems are the little kind. There are two ways to deal with the little problems.
ROUNDERS: This group rounds things off. A problem that’s a two on a scale of one to ten gets rounded to zero. If a rounder has five problems that are all about a two on a scale of one to ten, he’ll tell you he has no problems.
ACCUMULATORS: Accumulators add up all the little problems until they equal one big problem. If an accumulator has five problems that are each a two on a scale of one to ten, that feels like having one problem that’s a ten.
At the end of this thought-provoking post, Mr. Adams gives his readers an assignment: Describe your own job in one sentence. For example: “I help people hate each other.” (Divorce Lawyer)
That “in one sentence” part makes it very difficult. The best I could come up with is: “I drive one of the Sunday School buses for the Church of the Web.”
A new media model?
“The business of news is changing in ways that reduce traditional newsroom career opportunities, while opening more options for journalists who are willing and able to do more than simply report for someone else’s venue. I suspect we’ll start seeing some major news brands morph into alliances between scaled-back in-house newsrooms and independent, online-focused news and content operations – including more hyper-local and niche news.”
[E-Media Tidbits/Poynteronline]
iPhone Confessions: Tom Piper (Week One)
If the hype surrounding the iPhone hasn’t subsided yet, it will soon. Then what? Once the new has worn off this Next New Thing, will users still love ’em, or will they –like your mom’s cooking– be taken for granted. Or, worse yet, will the shortcomings (so well chronicled) become annoying and tiresome?
Those are some of the questions I hope to answer with a series of interviews I’m calling The iPhone Confessions. Brief visits with a few friends who took the iPhone plunge. Are they still gushing at the end of Week One? Or grumbling?
We’ll start with a visit with Tom Piper, a looonnnggg time Mac enthusiast and Early Adopter (LTMEEA). He was there when the iPhone was announced and in line to buy one of the first batch. The interview runs about 12 minutes.
iPhone: The Music Video
This little ditty –by NYT tech writer David Pogue (and friends)– was posted sometime earlier today and (as I type this) has been viewed 3,772 times. I found it on the digg home page so we can assume it will be seen many more times.
I have to wonder if anyone has felt moved to this kind of hijinx by any previous cell phone? Maybe. I just missed it.