Thinkcage

I was fortunate to spend the last few days in Austin, Texas for the 2007 edition of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference. This was my first trip to the big show since 2003 and it was great to return. SXSW is an unbelievable experience as a conference without pretense. Not only is it probably the best value in the field at about $225 for early registration, but it’s the only design related conference I’ve been to where the panelists aren’t held on a pedestal and separate from the plebeian masses. Here you may see Jeffrey Zeldman as a panelist in one session and sit next to him in the one that follows. For the most part everyone is approachable, friendly and most of all, genuinely passionate about their little slice of the web.

SXSW is hard to describe — my head is swimming with cool things, ideas, new techniques, and inspiration. I’ve got a list a mile long of things to try and websites to visit. Every year, SXSW seems to have a flavor. Themes, memes, and fun things that seem to capture everyone’s attention. In 2003 everyone was abuzz with online communities and the power of blogs. This year the theme seemed to be Web 2.0 and especially excellent web application design. Oh and don’t forget Twitter. It seems as if every panelist mentioned his or her Twitter obsession. If you happen to twitter, add me as a friend.

I have more to write, but I need to collect my thoughts first. There is nothing like the creative high that you ride on the tails of a good design conference.

Just days after this clearly-manipulated photo of Katie Couric started making the rounds (first on the web, but my wife pointed it out in People Magazine, too) we get the word that HP has announced a new digital camera with a “Slimming” function. According to the page on HP.com:

They say cameras add ten pounds, but HP digital cameras can help reverse that effect. The slimming feature, available on select HP digital camera models, is a subtle effect that can instantly trim off pounds from the subjects in your photos!

And to think we all thought that CBS used Photoshop.

I wrote a little article about podcasting on the Element Fusion blog. Normally, I’d cross-post something like this, but this one is just not something that belongs here at Thinkcage as I am never, ever going to podcast. I’m just not one of those who is gifted with the kind of pipes that anyone would want to listen to. Heck it is bad enough that you have to read my rambling — I can’t imagine having to listen.

That said, this one was written as a overview for those who are new to podcasting. We’re getting tons of questions from our customers who have heard the buzzword but don’t know much else. Especially from churches who are very keen to offer audio versions of their weekly sermons; podcasting is a perfect delivery mechanism for that. Maybe this is a link you can pass to your clients to help them along.

Check it out, Podcasting 101.

Note: This is a comment to a ZDNET blog post – I refuse to register with them just to comment on a blog entry. Get with it, guys.

Dana Gardner’s reaction to the new Intel-based Macs announced today at the Macworld Expo really got me going today. In Apple needs to watch its back on the OS 9 app crowd, he suggests that Apple had better worry about it’s installed base of users that still haven’t made the leap to OS X. You know, OS X, Apple’s operating system that was released in 2000. I understand that users have legacy applications on old boxes, but I really don’t think it is in Apple’s best interest to continue to support those users. Things move too quickly in technology to worry about users that are so far behind the curve. This is arguably Microsoft’s biggest problem. One thing that many Windows users have been calling for over the past years is a clean, consise re-write of windows that reversed the years of bloat and gave us the clean, stable, and quick OS the Windows should be. But no, Microsoft couldn’t cut the life support to the legacy users and so we have Windows XP that, while it is one of the more solid releases (ok, Windows 2000) but falls far short of its potential. This is largely due to the legacy code.

For years we watched Apple release new versions of OS X that each ran fast than the previous version on the same hardware while adding even more functionality. Meanwhile Windows just got bigger and more bloated. And Apple developers have followed suit updating their apps with each new release to offer more at the expense of the users who refuse to upgrade.

Personally, I can’t imagine still using an OS 9 system these days. The suggestion that these legacy users will go to ebay for hardware is a good one. But let’s not encourage Apple to sacrifice innovation for the sake of a few dinosaurs. The third-party and reseller market can keep them happy while the rest of us enjoy the latest in computer innovation.

I reshuffed a few things in the XML feeds for the site. So if you’re a subscriber (and really, why wouldn’t you be) you’ll see a little more than normal in the feeds. The biggest yet most transparent change is that I am using Feedburner to serve this blog’s XML feed. For most of you this will be transparent as the change was made via a server redirect. However you will notice that in addition to the none-too-frequent text posts you will also see pictures. After playing around for the past few months, I’ve decided to abandon my homebrew moblog for the ease of use of Flikr. Flikr is great, offers nice presentation and lots of community features. What’s more, Feedburner allows me to splice my Flickr images right into my regular RSS feed.

So, if you’re still subscribed to the Moblog feed – thank you! And you’ll see photos exlusively from Flikr for the time beging. However, those photos will now be automagically shown in the main feed so why not just use that one?

Later on I’ll integrate this all better with the site. I’d like to display the Flikr content in this template as well. I am also contemplating a move to Word Press or some other ready-made system.

According to this article, Wal*Mart has given up the fight against Netflix for their online DVD rental business. I have to give credit to Wal*Mart here for not taking the typical bully role *cough* Microsoft *cough* and simply squashing Netflix with their nearly limitless resources.

Clearly, Wal*Mart cares much more about profit and value than pride.

As a Blockbuster online subscriber I will be watching this battle closely.