Thinkcage

Note: This post was originally posted on the ElementFusion blog.

One of the things about the internet that has always appealed to me is the powerful independent spirit that drives so much of the creative work being produced. When I first learned HTML it was a revelation to me that you could learn to make a webpage by visiting sites on the web for free. No books, classes, or anything proprietary involved. Amazing — especially in the field of graphic design where $1000 software packages are the norm. But on the web I could make a website using Windows Notepad.

Today the web is much different in many ways as massive data-driven websites deliver millions of pages of dynamically generated content distributed via XML streams and server sockets. Information moves seamlessly between mobile phones, desktop browsers, and database servers. But the things I learned in 1996 still apply today. I can still build a website from start to finish by myself with little to no cost save for my time. What’s more, in this day and age anyone can publish on the web. The rise of blogs and content management systems have ushered in an age where nearly anyone with the desire and basic computer or word-processing skills can create and maintain their own website. From high school students on MySpace.com to business owners everywhere, people are publishing on the web. And it is this leveling of the playing field where anyone can be a newspaper publisher, a sports reporter, a writer, an entertainer, or editorialist and have instant access to a worldwide audience no matter who they are that gives anyone the opportunity to really do something great. Technology levels the playing field.

A great example of this is My Date With Drew by filmmaker Brian Herzlinger who stars in his own documentary of his quest to score a date with actress Drew Barrymore. The film is a pretty entertaining exercise in the “six rules of separation” idea as an everyman tries to use his personal network (my friend has a friend, who has a friend, who…) to propose a date to his boyhood crush. But what really appealed to me was the inspirational story of a regular guy who did something amazing fueled only by his creativity and independent spirit. You see, the hitch is that Brian doesn’t really know anyone famous and only has an $1100 budget and a 30 day deadline to make his film. Yes, 30 days because he purchased a video camera on a credit card and needed to return it within the store’s 30 day return policy. And of course if he fails to score the date, he really doesn’t have a film. Without giving away too much, he is met with remarkable luck in his search but eventually reaches the limits of his network without reaching his goal.

That is where the internet comes in. Late in the process Brian sets up a website detailing his quest. Within days the site is overwhelmed with traffic as the link is passed from person to person across the web. Suddenly his personal network is worldwide. That is how he reaches Drew. That is how he made it happen. Weeks of phone calls and meetings and rejections were instantly forgotten as the power of the web took over. Without his website, Brain would have most certainly failed. But he wasn’t a geek or a programmer just a normal guy with an idea. In today’s internet anyone with an idea has the power to make it happen. Anyone with even a moderately priced computer and video camera can be a film maker or a publisher. Thanks to technology and the web any of us has a place on a worldwide stage. I think that is really fascinating. So where is your website?

Stole this from Jeffrey Zeldman.

Four jobs I’ve had

1. Retail sales floor at Target Store #841
2. Bank Teller for Bank of America
3. Graphic Designer
4. Creative Director for ElementFusion

Four movies I can watch over and over

1. Dazed & Confused
2. Hero
3. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
4. Spirited Away

Four places I’ve lived

1. Milwaukee, WI
2. Tucson, AZ
3. Portland, OR
4. Edmond, OK

Four TV shows I love

1. The Office
2. 24
3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
4. X-Play

Four places I’ve vacationed

1. Branson, MO
2. Yellowstone National Park
3. Disneyland
4. Green Bay, WI

Four of my favorite dishes

1. Lamb Curry at Taj India Cuisine
2. Box Lunch at Tokyo Japanese Restaurant
3. Grandma Tony’s Pizza
4. Sanchez Burrito Company

Four sites I visit daily

1. Engadget
2. My Yahoo
3. Dooce
4. Digg

Four places I would rather be right now

1. On the couch playing xbox.
2. In bed with a book.
3. Playing with the kids.
4. Somewhere I’ve never been before.

Four bloggers I am tagging

1. Radical Wacko
2. Solargarlic
3. Fiftymillimeter
4. Petrorabbit

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.

ESPN is beating to death the idea that the Packers should bench Brett Favre and look toward the future. I’m pretty sure they just copy and paste this line into each week’s Power Rankings and Morning After columns:

Regardless of whether Brett Favre comes back next year, it’s time for Aaron Rodgers to get some playing time, sort of like what the Browns are doing with Charlie Frye, giving him a series here and there. If he’s the future, Green Bay has to start preparing for it. With a loss at Philly on Sunday, the Packers (2-9) are assured their first losing season of the Favre era.

Are you kidding me? The Packers aren’t losing this year because of Favre. They’ve been competitive in every game this year – losing all but two by less than a touchdown. Favre has been his usual self playing with a ragtag group of second-tier talent. Much respect for Donald Driver getting it done every week despite being the only legitimate threat in the passing game. And the Gado is doing well despite being the fifth starting running back this season. The talent just isn’t there to push the Pack over the top in these close games. That said, benching Favre and getting Rogers some playing time is a worthless idea. What is the point of throwing Rogers out there surrounded by talent so deficient that even one of the greatest quarterbacks in the NFL history can’t win with?

Is that really the kind of experience we want him to get? Not to mention the idea that benching Favre however inconsequential to the season’s outcome would most assuredly hasten his retirement. This is the NFL, with a little luck on the injury front and maybe a couple of fresh faces and the Packers could be right in the thick of it again.

From a Reuters story:

Young rioters are using blog messages to incite violence and cellphones to organize attacks in guerrilla-like tactics they have copied from anti-globalisation protesters, security experts say.

Something about affluent youth using the internet, cellphones, and blogs to organize rioting seems really contradictory to me.

Read the full article ».

Today is our ten year wedding anniversary. Words cannot express what spending the last decade with Holly and our family means to me.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos of us together:

And here is to many, many more.