RaffyJohn.com Rocks In My Head

Seth Godin’s post, George Clooney is not normal, hits on the idea of expectations in relation to the people we chose to surrounds ourselves with.

You can’t hire that guy because he’s not as good looking as George. And you can’t believe that speaker because he doesn’t present as well as George. And that guy? He’s short. Short? Well, shorter than George. And you can’t trust him to make good decisions because his skin is much darker than George’s.

This extends to most everything we come into contact with, from where we chose to eat, the music we listen to, to what clothes we wear. We let the wrong sense commandeer our decision process.

Mr. Godin continues:

I was talking to someone at the Federal Reserve this week. He explained that in our electronic age, his relationships often start on the phone or by email. And they usually go extremely well, moving things quickly toward a happy conclusion.

The “electronic age” lets us lose our literal sight to focus on what is important.

I truly believe this. I cannot think of a single good reason not to. And the CEO’s obsession with Microsoft Outlook does not count!

I have helped a few business move to Apple’s Mac OS X and I repeatedly receive praise for the encouragement.

So it was fantastic to hear the IBM is testing such a migration: IBM launches internal pilot program to test migration to Macs

Via http://www.youtube.com/user/boingboingtv

I’ve never been scared of security or identity theft issues before, but this just seems way too easy.

…at least to see where they could lead.

Sure ads suck, but I think marketers will eventually come around and realize what a good ad can be and do for every party.

It is not about doing the same thing that has been done for 75+ years. Twitter offers some really unique advertisement opportunities that could benefit both the users and advertiser. Simple contextual ads would be boring and pointless, other than driving a bit of revenue for Twitter.

(Thought spawned by Twitter Testing Advertising In Twitter Streams)

Russell Beattie announced the End of Mowser (mowser converted any website into a mobile friendly version) yesterday was not a huge shock. Russell said in his blog post that “growth has been flat or falling for the past couple months”, but it seemed more like an indicator to abandon the project than anything else.

Now the question you might be asking is why not stick with it a little longer? Get a contract or something and tough it out since it’s “only” been a year, and many companies have had to struggle for a lot longer than that before taking off. Beyond the fact that I’m irretrievably in debt, the general answer is that I don’t actually believe in the “Mobile Web” anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to.

I’ve written about the importance of mobile Internet access before and I if people perceive hurdles incorrectly, they will not jump through them. There are some annoying hurdles in the mobile web space, many of them mental. When I am at Borders or Barnes & Noble I only sometimes remember I can compare prices at Amazon with my mobile. It is a tough mental shift.

Mobile browsing will not be a simple handoff.

Not a good example of the mobile web, but compare the mobile email usage stats of a blackberry user, versus a windows mobile user (using a non qwerty phone). The difference will be clear because one got mobile emailing right.

I love the mobile web, despite its faults and I think others will come around once they can wrap their heads around it and once the barrier to entry is eliminated.

Is the Mobile Web Dead? Some Mobile Entrepreneurs Say Yes - Marshall Kirkpatrick / April 14, 2008 5:29 PM

Dion Almaer makes a great point, The future of the Mobile Web is strong:

“But, just because he couldn’t find the right niche for Mowser, doesn’t mean the “mobile Web” is dead before born.”

Hmm… And if we look at what Russell Beattie said of Mowser’s traffic:

Easily 80% of Mowser’s traffic has been related to porn

I know zero about the porn industry itself, but this has to be a sign of something. A missed opportunity?

Mobile browsing will be huge.

Imagine taking a snapshot with your camera phone, cropping it, tagging it, maybe even adding a bubble quote, then being able to send it to all your friends without using any built-in software or having to install a 3rd party app - Every piece of software you use can live elsewhere and you can jump around from tool to tool as you see fit.

This is an idea that I was getting at when I wrote The Browser is Dead. The browser is helping remove the need for software to live locally on our systems.

BXP makes a great point:

“The beauty of browsers, though, is that as the Web evolves, the interface stays the same. Remember when browsers were just HTTP viewers? Now browsers can run applications and display dynamic content.” - BXP (The Browser is Dead #comment-69)

It is not only that browsers have changed, but that web servers have changed. Connect-ability is more important than any specific technology or platform. What needs to happen in order for browsers to become better than an OS?

There are hundreds of little home DIY projects that homeowners need to tackle. Installing a new faucet, fixing holes in drywall, painting, the list goes on. The annoying part is not the the actual act of repair, but going to Home Depot or Menards and not knowing exactly what tools you need. Or the pain of running from corner to corner of the store trying to find what you need. Most of these jobs have a common set of tools, tools apartment dwellers often do not have.

Hardware stores could easily throw these common products into a single bag, slap on a label describing its purpose.

The Easy Step 1-2-3 Patch a Drywall Hole Kit

• Spackling Paste
• Self Adhesive Mesh Tape
• Sandpaper
• Putty Knives

Grab it and go.

Browsing the internet on my blackberry via an EDGE network is slow. It’s damn slow. But I love it! It actually helps me get more done!

Because of the speed restrictions I think about and question every link I encounter. It is like the anti-stumbleupon. I am more considerate when reading articles and blogs, making them much more enjoyable.

In turn, I actually read more, gather more information in full as I am not skipping, guzzling information, hoarding it as fast as I forget it.

I just get in and get out.

Michael Arrington on TechCrunch writes:

For most early adopters (and all Mac users), the browser is increasingly the only operating system that matters anyway. Windows isn’t really that relevant any more just because of the increasing utility of online applications like Google Docs, which competes with Microsoft Office. - Gartner Says Vista Will Collapse. And That’s Why The Yahoo Deal Must Happen

With the increasing popularity of widgets over the last few years, I honestly believed that the browser was at and end, it had hit a wall. There are even Firefox plug-ins that allow the browser to NOT act like a browser.

The problem is in the general thinking of the OS, as a platform for apps to run. By definition this is true. That’s all it is.

Why the browser is so popular is that it is a tangible interface to the internet. People got the “pamphlet” pitch back when the internet first entered the publics’ conscience.

It is going to take a young mind, someone who sees the OS as something completely different, to bring its next iteration. Not simply as a serving tray for apps.

I think it’s less “the OS is dead” and more that the OS needs to be re-thought. (Windows is ‘collapsing,’ Gartner analysts warn)

Seth Godin points out today in a blog post entitled Why downloading Firefox is like getting into college that the act of going to college does not guarantee success, but it is rather a symptom of someone who will succeed at other things. He continues his argument with reference to Firefox users:

…if someone is using Firefox, they’re way more likely to be using other power tools online. The reasoning: In order to use Firefox, you need to be confident enough to download and use a browser that wasn’t the default when you first turned on your computer.

That’s an empowering thing to do. It isolates you as a different kind of web user.

Paul Graham relates such actions to hackers who choose to use the best tools when hacking on their own instead of the tools they are confined to use at work.

Whenever you are passionate about something you are usually willing to go out of your way to learn as much as possible, use the tools you want to, take on projects that are “beneath you” or “over your head” and even jump through hoops if it means you will succeed or get what you want. You do not see them as to-do items, but building blocks to which you climb.