The Emerging Twitter List Arms Race

by Mark Drapeau | @cheeky_geeky | comments: 11

I use Twitter a lot, but I was not among the very first to see the new Lists feature. I can now, though. And what I find much more interesting than actually using the feature myself is the fact that I woke up this morning to find that I was on dozens of other people's lists. (In fact, while I was writing this, I turned up on four more!)

Even though the irony is that Twitter introduced lists about a year after I stopped wanting such a feature, I do think there is some value in having other people put me on their lists. Braggadocio. Oh yes, braggadocio. I'm talking about the incredible hubris that comes from knowing I'm on Ezra Butler's list of people he'd take a rubber bullet for, the chutzpah of telling everyone that luminary Tim O'Reilly's list of Government 2.0 people includes me among its few members, and the extra swagger in my step that comes from the radiant energy of being on professor Jay Rosen's list of the best mindcasters he knows. I always knew I was awesome, but now I can prove it.

I'm joking a bit, of course. But when getting retweeted has been boiled down to a science ("Adding 'please' increases retweets by 12.3%!"), every maven is in search of a social media metric that shows who has "authority." Being on someone's Twitter list is a difficult thing to game because it's about organic usefulness to a community. I recently read Gary Vaynerchuk's inspiring book Crush It, and to me, Twitter lists have the potential to be a metric that measures how generous you are to the communities you're a member of.

So forget about counting your number of followers, or how many retweets you get, or the many "Follow Friday" mentions you land - Those metrics have been blown out for a long time now. The new high fidelity for my vanity is the Twitter list.

Four short links: 14 October 2009

Multitouch Demo, Secrets Site Secrets, Hadoop Futures, Becoming Lucky

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 0

1. 10Gui Video -- demo of a new take on multitouch, a tablet and new GUI conventions. (via titine on Twitter)
2. Behind the Scenes at WhatDoTheyKnow -- numbers and stories from the MySociety project, which provides a public place for Official Information Act requests and responses. The fact information is subject to copyright and restrictions on re-use does not exempt it from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (though there is a closely related exemption relating to “commercial interest”). Occasionally public bodies will offer to reply to a request, but in order to deter wider dissemination of the material they will refuse to reply via WhatDoTheyKnow.com. Southampton University have released information in protected PDF documents and the House of Commons has refused to release information via WhatDoTheyKnow.com which it has said it would be prepared to send to an individual directly.
3. The View from HadoopWorld (RedMonk) -- fascinating glimpse into the Hadoop user and developer world. Hadoop can be used with a variety of languages, from Perl to Python to Ruby, but as Doug Cutting admitted today, they’re all second class citizens relative to Java. The plan, however, is for that to change. Which can’t happen soon enough, in my view. It’s not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with Java, or its audience. The point, rather, is that there are lots and lots of dynamic language developers out there that would be far more productive working in their native tongue versus translating into Java.
4. Be Lucky, It's an Easy Skill to Learn (Telegraph) -- this one resonated with me, as it ties into some life hacking I've been doing lately. And so it is with luck - unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and as a result miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. (via Hacker News)

Four short links: 18 June 2009

Weaker Copyright Good, YQL.gov, GeoSPARQL, Happiness

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 3

1. Harvard Study Finds Weaker Copyright Protection Has Benefited Society (Michael Geist) -- Given the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access conclude that "weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society." This is consistent with the authors' view that weaker copyright is "uambiguously desirable if it does not lessen the incentives of artists and entertainment companies to produce new works." (read the original paper)
2. Using Public Data for Good With the Power of YQL -- The first part is a new batch of YQL tables providing data on the U.S. government, earthquake data, and the non-profit micro-lender Kiva. The second part is an incredibly easy way to render YQL queries on websites. After all, what good is data that no one can see?
3. GeoSPARQL -- RDF meets geo goodness. SELECT ?s ?p ?o WHERE { ?s gn:name "Dallas" . ?s ?p ?o } (via the geowanking mailing list)
4. How To Be Happy in Business -- this Venn diagram makes me happy. (via Ned Batchedler)

Four short links: 14 May 2009

Open Source Ebook Reader, Libraries and Ebooks, Life Lessons, and Government Licenses

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 22

1. Open Library Book Reader -- the page-turning book reader software that the Internet Archive uses is open source. One of the reasons library scanning programs are ineffective is that they try to build new viewing software for each scan-a-bundle-of-books project they get funding for.
2. Should Libraries Have eBooks? -- blog post from an electronic publisher made nervous by the potential for libraries to lend unlimited "copies" of an electronic work simultaneously. He suggests turning libraries into bookstores, compensating publishers for each loan (interestingly, some of the first circulating libraries were established by publishers and booksellers precisely to have a rental trade). I'm wary of the effort to profit from every use of a work, though. I'd rather see libraries limit simultaneous access to in-copyright materials if there's no negotiated license opening access to more. Unlike the author, I don't see this as a situation that justifies DRM, whose poison extends past the term of copyright. (via Paul Reynolds)
3. Lessons Learned from Previous Employment (Adam Shand) -- great summary of what he learned in the different jobs he's had over the years. Sample:
   • More than any other single thing, being successful at something means not giving up.
   • Everything takes longer than you expect. Lots longer.
   • In a volunteer based non-profit people don't have the shared goal of making money. Instead every single person has their own personal agenda to pursue.
   • Unfortunately "dreaming big" is more fun and less work than "doing big".
4. Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos (Wired) -- photos from the White House photographer were originally CC-licensed (yay, a step forward) but when it was pointed out that as government-produced information those photos weren't allowed to be copyright, the White House relicensed as "United States Government Work". Flickr had to add the category, which differs from "No Known Copyright", and it's something that all sharing sites will need to consider if they are going to offer their service to the Government.

Four short links: 4 Mar 2009

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 0

1. Wall Street on the Tundra -- Michael Lewis's long but fascinating glimpse into Iceland's rise and fall as hubris-filled banker to the world. One of the many lessons is not to believe the post-hoc explanations for success: "Icelanders—or at any rate Icelandic men—had their own explanations for why, when they leapt into global finance, they broke world records: the natural superiority of Icelanders. Because they were small and isolated it had taken 1,100 years for them—and the world—to understand and exploit their natural gifts, but now that the world was flat and money flowed freely, unfair disadvantages had vanished. Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, gave speeches abroad in which he explained why Icelanders were banking prodigies.". For more on the financial meltdown, also read The Real Cause of the Financial Crisis--it's spot on.
2. The Cult of Done Manifesto (Bre Pettis) -- magnificent call to arms for JFDI, Just Do It.
3. Twilio -- your web apps can trigger voice calls and respond to incoming calls through a simple REST and XML API. It's wildly simple. Using it, This Line Is Secure was able to launch very quickly. I'm still not able to think in terms of phones, unable to see when a voice-drop or numeric-key interface works for an app, but I'll bet that playing with Twilio will help me develop that sense without the cost of Asterisk hardware.
4. Let Startups Bail Us Out -- Reid Hoffman writes in favour of ensuring an adequate supply of startups. "Consider a few start-ups from the past century: Microsoft, MTV, CNN, FedEx, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Burger King. Each opened during a period of economic downturn. Today, these brands employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. We need to prepare for the next Burger King. By empowering individuals and small businesses, an innovation stimulus can help germinate stable industry players for the long term." (via Caterina)

When Distraction is Good

by Linda Stone | comments: 8

Distraction is getting a bad name.

This past month, I've been heads down on a few projects and noticing something I'd not been very conscious of before now. When I get "stuck" or when I reach a natural break point on a piece of work, the menu of potential distractions includes everything from email and telephone calls to getting food, socializing and more.

I did an informal audit. Sometimes I would check email. Other times, I would pace, get a glass of iced-tea, or walk outside for a few minutes. When I did the latter -- any activity that was quiet, reflective and receptive, I would feel refreshed. I was open to receiving an insight and to being in the moment. When I returned to the project that had momentarily stumped me, I would enjoy new energy. I started calling this receptive distraction. Receptive distraction is any sort of distraction that creates mental space.

When I went to email, however, I would "spin out." That is, I would completely lose track of what I had been working on and get immersed in all sorts of other issues. I started calling this deceptive distraction. I thought I could take a short break and crank out a few emails, but it took longer to do the emails than I thought, and longer to get back into my project afterward.

I asked friends about their experiences with receptive distraction.

Don, a retired judge, related that he had always had a shower available in his chambers. On one occasion, during a twenty-minute recess at a custody case, Don took a five-minute shower. "I let the water roll over me and let my mind go. Things that were subtle, that I'd heard but that had not sunk in -- body language and other impressions -- drifted through my mind, and surfaced. When I got out of the shower, I had a decision."

Receptive distraction. "It's like a palate cleanser," commented Walt, a journalist.

Are your distractions receptive or deceptive?

When Distraction is Good

by Linda Stone | comments: 8

Distraction is getting a bad name.

This past month, I've been heads down on a few projects and noticing something I'd not been very conscious of before now. When I get "stuck" or when I reach a natural break point on a piece of work, the menu of potential distractions includes everything from email and telephone calls to getting food, socializing and more.

I did an informal audit. Sometimes I would check email. Other times, I would pace, get a glass of iced-tea, or walk outside for a few minutes. When I did the latter -- any activity that was quiet, reflective and receptive, I would feel refreshed. I was open to receiving an insight and to being in the moment. When I returned to the project that had momentarily stumped me, I would enjoy new energy. I started calling this receptive distraction. Receptive distraction is any sort of distraction that creates mental space.

When I went to email, however, I would "spin out." That is, I would completely lose track of what I had been working on and get immersed in all sorts of other issues. I started calling this deceptive distraction. I thought I could take a short break and crank out a few emails, but it took longer to do the emails than I thought, and longer to get back into my project afterward.

I asked friends about their experiences with receptive distraction.

Don, a retired judge, related that he had always had a shower available in his chambers. On one occasion, during a twenty-minute recess at a custody case, Don took a five-minute shower. "I let the water roll over me and let my mind go. Things that were subtle, that I'd heard but that had not sunk in -- body language and other impressions -- drifted through my mind, and surfaced. When I got out of the shower, I had a decision."

Receptive distraction. "It's like a palate cleanser," commented Walt, a journalist.

Are your distractions receptive or deceptive?

It’s at the Scene of the Crime, but it’s not the Criminal

by Linda Stone | comments: 7

People are saying technology is making us stupid. Technology is shattering our attention. Technology is ruining our children. Technology is making us busier than ever.

Taking that train of thought a step further: technology can fix the problem. I believe we can make smarter email and smarter phones - and we should. It just won’t fix the problem.

We can think of technology like cupcakes. The cupcake is at the scene of the crime, but it’s not the criminal. We can make smarter cupcakes -- sugar free, higher in fiber, but that doesn’t seem to be making any difference. The cupcake isn’t saying, “Eat five of me.” We make the choice. “I’ll have one and take a walk. I won’t have one.” Or, “I’ll have five.”

Why will it be different with technology? Technology is at the scene of the crime. The criminal is that voice inside of each of us that says, “Do it all. Have it all. Don’t stop to consider what you’re doing or why. Run fast and do as much as you can.”

Sharon, a former professor turned consultant, says it always seems easier to respond to emails than to work on the project files sitting right in front of her. Is she making this choice because picking up a project file requires focused attention and emailing requires less of a commitment? Or is there a buzz of completion and immediate gratification each time the send button is pressed in contrast to the delayed gratification from a meatier project?

The technology is at the scene of the crime - a weapon of mass communication turning productivity opportunities into an excuse for procrastination. How do the choices we make in each moment, about what we choose to do and what we choose to ignore, tell the story of what matters to us?

When a day begins and ends with a list of action items, it can lack a sense of purpose. Without a sense of purpose, we have no framework to guide our choices.
As we plan our day, while reviewing what we hope to do, we can ask ourselves: Why is each of these things on the list? What can I do to bring into focus what really matters to me? What can I exclude that would allow me closer alignment with my sense of purpose and my intentions?

Technology, just like cupcakes, is there -- for our pleasure. The crime only happens when we forget our sense of purpose and fail to make choices as to what we include or exclude.

It’s at the Scene of the Crime, but it’s not the Criminal

by Linda Stone | comments: 7

People are saying technology is making us stupid. Technology is shattering our attention. Technology is ruining our children. Technology is making us busier than ever.

Taking that train of thought a step further: technology can fix the problem. I believe we can make smarter email and smarter phones - and we should. It just won’t fix the problem.

We can think of technology like cupcakes. The cupcake is at the scene of the crime, but it’s not the criminal. We can make smarter cupcakes -- sugar free, higher in fiber, but that doesn’t seem to be making any difference. The cupcake isn’t saying, “Eat five of me.” We make the choice. “I’ll have one and take a walk. I won’t have one.” Or, “I’ll have five.”

Why will it be different with technology? Technology is at the scene of the crime. The criminal is that voice inside of each of us that says, “Do it all. Have it all. Don’t stop to consider what you’re doing or why. Run fast and do as much as you can.”

Sharon, a former professor turned consultant, says it always seems easier to respond to emails than to work on the project files sitting right in front of her. Is she making this choice because picking up a project file requires focused attention and emailing requires less of a commitment? Or is there a buzz of completion and immediate gratification each time the send button is pressed in contrast to the delayed gratification from a meatier project?

The technology is at the scene of the crime - a weapon of mass communication turning productivity opportunities into an excuse for procrastination. How do the choices we make in each moment, about what we choose to do and what we choose to ignore, tell the story of what matters to us?

When a day begins and ends with a list of action items, it can lack a sense of purpose. Without a sense of purpose, we have no framework to guide our choices.
As we plan our day, while reviewing what we hope to do, we can ask ourselves: Why is each of these things on the list? What can I do to bring into focus what really matters to me? What can I exclude that would allow me closer alignment with my sense of purpose and my intentions?

Technology, just like cupcakes, is there -- for our pleasure. The crime only happens when we forget our sense of purpose and fail to make choices as to what we include or exclude.

RIP: Returned Every Email

by Linda Stone | comments: 10

I fell in love with email in 1983. I was a computer-savvy educator and children’s librarian teaching teachers about the new technologies 
available to them. Email came into my life, offering immediate gratification: no stamp, no trip to the post office, no phone tag, no long messages. Questions were answered quickly. Personal exchanges often felt as intimate as a written letter or a phone call, but were immediate and more frequent.

Years later, in 1990, I was working at Apple, and I missed a weekend call to my mother. She chided me: “Your tombstone isn’t going to say ‘Returned every email, returned every call.’ It could say, ‘Loving daughter of…” My mother was thinking about my tombstone and I was thinking about email.

Then, between 2000-2002, when I was working for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, it wasn’t unusual for my inbox to have a thousand new emails a day. Everybody and their dog seemed to be on email. I filed, filtered, deleted, and delegated. And I called my mother on the weekends.

When I left Microsoft, my emails tapered off to 100-200 a day. In 2006, met Bruno, a mid-level manager in Silicon Valley. When I sent him an email, a message bounced back into my inbox:

“My email response time is 1-2 weeks. 

If you need immediate assistance, you can I.M. me between 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 pm PST or call me between 9:30 -11 a.m. PST.

For issues related to contracts, please contact…”

Bruno, GenY and twenty-something, named three communication tools: email, I.M., and the telephone. He spelled out his response habits. That got my attention.
Why don’t we all take a cue from Bruno? We could start a social movement. We can take back the inbox. I’ll call it eFree.

In the “signature” at the end of an email, people often include name, contact information, a quote, or a legal disclaimer. Let’s modify that. How about cutting and pasting the eFree signature below into your email signature? By adding it, you’re communicating your preferences, just like Bruno did. You’re letting the recipient know how to communicate with you.

eFree
1. Reply all is usually a bad idea. 

2. If you’re cc’d, there’s no need to reply.

3. A short, thoughtful email gets a quicker response. Long emails are read last.

4. If this issue cannot be resolved in 3 emails, consider scheduling a call or a meeting.

5. Thank you. Always lovely. Sometimes not necessary.

Are you ready to take back the inbox? Is there a funnier or more compelling way to say this? Radar readers have great suggestions, so thank you in advance!

(special thanks to Michael Tubach, an attorney with O’Melveny & Myers LLP, who helped craft the eFree principles)

This post originally appeared on BusinessWeek.com.

RIP: Returned Every Email

by Linda Stone | comments: 10

I fell in love with email in 1983. I was a computer-savvy educator and children’s librarian teaching teachers about the new technologies 
available to them. Email came into my life, offering immediate gratification: no stamp, no trip to the post office, no phone tag, no long messages. Questions were answered quickly. Personal exchanges often felt as intimate as a written letter or a phone call, but were immediate and more frequent.

Years later, in 1990, I was working at Apple, and I missed a weekend call to my mother. She chided me: “Your tombstone isn’t going to say ‘Returned every email, returned every call.’ It could say, ‘Loving daughter of…” My mother was thinking about my tombstone and I was thinking about email.

Then, between 2000-2002, when I was working for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, it wasn’t unusual for my inbox to have a thousand new emails a day. Everybody and their dog seemed to be on email. I filed, filtered, deleted, and delegated. And I called my mother on the weekends.

When I left Microsoft, my emails tapered off to 100-200 a day. In 2006, met Bruno, a mid-level manager in Silicon Valley. When I sent him an email, a message bounced back into my inbox:

“My email response time is 1-2 weeks. 

If you need immediate assistance, you can I.M. me between 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 pm PST or call me between 9:30 -11 a.m. PST.

For issues related to contracts, please contact…”

Bruno, GenY and twenty-something, named three communication tools: email, I.M., and the telephone. He spelled out his response habits. That got my attention.
Why don’t we all take a cue from Bruno? We could start a social movement. We can take back the inbox. I’ll call it eFree.

In the “signature” at the end of an email, people often include name, contact information, a quote, or a legal disclaimer. Let’s modify that. How about cutting and pasting the eFree signature below into your email signature? By adding it, you’re communicating your preferences, just like Bruno did. You’re letting the recipient know how to communicate with you.

eFree
1. Reply all is usually a bad idea. 

2. If you’re cc’d, there’s no need to reply.

3. A short, thoughtful email gets a quicker response. Long emails are read last.

4. If this issue cannot be resolved in 3 emails, consider scheduling a call or a meeting.

5. Thank you. Always lovely. Sometimes not necessary.

Are you ready to take back the inbox? Is there a funnier or more compelling way to say this? Radar readers have great suggestions, so thank you in advance!

(special thanks to Michael Tubach, an attorney with O’Melveny & Myers LLP, who helped craft the eFree principles)

This post originally appeared on BusinessWeek.com.

Phone in the Toilet?

by Linda Stone | comments: 8

My friend Sara sent me an email: "Linda, Sorry that I'm not able to call you back. My phone fell into the toilet."

We live in a world where phones can fall into toilets because our phones are following us everywhere. Untethered. Free. Free to fall into the toilet.

Last week, a high school sophomore told me that she brings her phone into the shower with her--in a Ziploc bag. She didn't want to miss an incoming text message. When I asked her if, in her sleep, she had missed life-altering messages, she looked at me blankly.

We are better at rationalizing what we do than being rational about what we're doing.
Untethered technology gives us the freedom to do nearly anything, anytime, anywhere. It can also enslave us when we feel compelled to use it wherever it is. Technology is neutral. How, when and where we use it is up to us.

When I recently visited an old high school friend in Ipswitch, Mass., I witnessed something unusual for most families today. Everything had a place. Cell phones were used at people's desks. Computers were used at desks. The kitchen was a place for meals and family fellowship. Family members were fully present for conversations--enjoying eye contact, listening and a meaningful exchange.

I mentioned this to a friend living in the Silicon Valley area, a former high-tech executive. She approved. "I moved the computer out of my kitchen. Now it's in the office. The office is an office, and the kitchen is a kitchen. I love it."

"Freedom" [free-d uhm] is the absence of or release from ties, obligations, etc. The promise of a phone that could go anywhere was and is the promise of freedom--freedom from being tethered to a place.

"Enslave" means to bring into servitude. Our phones have enslaved us even as they set us free.

How is this also true? Because we can, we do! Because we can, the phone accompanies us to the toilet, to the shower and to bed. Because it rings, we feel compelled to see who is calling and, often, to pick up. Because we can be accessible, we feel we must be accessible.

Is "freedom" just another word for nothing left to lose? Let the phone keep ringing the next time someone calls and you're in the midst of something else. When the caller later asks you why you didn't answer or where you were, you can smile and say: "I'm free. Free. I'm free to enjoy being in the moment."

And that's when you will become more powerful than any gadget on the planet.

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?

by Linda Stone | comments: 12

One afternoon, earlier this year, as I was scanning a long list that I was adding to endlessly, I realized, I'll never get it all done. That's probably just fine. But this endless list and this feeling of being completely scheduled's not working right now.

I met some friends for dinner and put the question out: Do you have a never-ending list? Do you manage your time? Do you manage minutes, tasks, and lists? Do you start each day with a list that has more on it at the end of the day than it did at the beginning of the day, in spite of how many items are completed and crossed off?

Or do you manage your attention? Do you manage emotions, intention, and make choices about what will and will not get done? What are your favorite ways to do this?
I got such an interesting set of answers, that, these last few months, I made a point of asking a variety of people: office workers, surgeons, physicians, artists, parents, and CEOs. Here's what I've learned.

(continue reading)

Paging systems and Conference Bridges for startups & small teams

by Jesse Robbins | @jesserobbins | comments: 17

Early registration for the Velocity Web Performance & Operations Conference has opened. To help spread the word, I've written this "simplest thing that will work" hack to a common Operations need: Paging systems and Conference Bridges.

Step 1: Establish a team contact list with SMS email addresses

Create a Google Spreadsheet to create a team roster like this one. My recommendation is to let people enter and manage their own information. Most cell providers have an email to SMS gateway of some kind. In the US, these are:

• ATT: phonenumber@txt.att.net
• Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
• Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
• T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
• Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com

Step 2: Set up a notification email list

Set up an email alias and add people by email address and SMS gateway address. If you don't have a way of creating an alias, you can use a mailing list provider such as Google Groups.

Step 3: Set up the Conference Bridges

I am really happy with FreeConferenceCall.com which, amazingly, provides free conference call bridges. I recommend setting up three different bridges, and naming them by color so you can refer to them as the "Red Line", "Blue line", etc.

Step 4: Test your notification & conference bridges

Test your notification system to make sure people get the pages and can dial in and use the conference bridges as expected. I've found that it's easier just to give everybody the "host code" instead of having some people using the "participant code". Your mileage may vary. Once you have verified that people are getting pages and can dial into the conference bridges you should...

(continue reading)

Kathy Sierra: Creating Passionate Users at TOC

by Tim O'Reilly | @timoreilly | comments: 4

We'd hoped to get Kathy Sierra at our Tools of Change for Publishing conference, but had to settle for a video. I interviewed Kathy a couple of months ago about her approach to creating passionate users via the "I rule" moment, what publishers of all stripes (as well as anyone making presentations) can learn from her ideas about storyboarding non-fiction, as well as such things as why people are turned on by learning new skills, and why every day can be a kind of hero's quest.

That turns out to be good news, since we can share that video with you. (More video from the conference coming soon.)

The video we showed at the conference is about a half-hour long, cut from a much longer interview of about two hours. We hope to have more material from the original longer interview available on Safari soon.

A Passion for Reading

by Dale Dougherty | @dalepd | comments: 2

Several items about books:

Stephen Levy writes in his Newsweek cover story on the Kindle and Jeff Bezos:

"When making mental lists of the most whiz-bangy technological creations in our lives, [...] we may overlook an object that is superbly designed, wickedly functional, infinitely useful and beloved more passionately than any gadget in a Best Buy: the book."

Elizabeth Hardwick, a Kentucky-born writer who died last week in NY, said this:

"The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is moral illumination."

A remembrance of Hardwick, titled "The Bohemian from Kentucky", appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal newspaper last weekend. Hardwick along with her then husband, the poet Robert Lowell, were among the founders of the "New York Review of Books," which got its start during a newspaper strike in NY.

Levenger, whose tagline is "Tools for Serious Readers", offered a tempting holiday gift: a limited-edition reproduction of the Grimani Breviary, an illuminated manuscript of 1520.

Breviaries have another important place in history ... : they marked the early days of making books for a single reader. (They were shorter books than the communal ones, hence their name—an abbreviation, or summary.)

Unfortunately, the Breviary appears to be sold out at Levenger.

The recent New York Times Book Review podcast introduced me to the book "Little Heathens", an Iowa farm memoir by Mildred Armstrong Kalish, an 85-year-old, first-time author. The Times picked it as one of the best books of 2007. It also sounds like a book for the readers of Make.

From the book's home page:

I have noticed a resurgence of public interest in the rural matters where people yearn to engage in satisfying activities that have direct meaning in their lives. Perhaps this is because our current national and international challenges result in individuals feeling helpless and disconnected. My book tells of a life of total involvement.

Little Heathens' focus is on how my siblings and I were raised on a working farm in Iowa by aging grandparents (photo) imbued with Puritan values and the Protestant work ethic, while our somewhat different and indifferent mother did her insufficient best to rear us...

Our farm had no running water, no central heat, and no electricity. Above all, we had no money. Side-by-side, the adults integrated all of the children into the work force. My three siblings and I — along with our cousins who lived on a farm directly across the road — had a part in practically every aspect of making the family and the farm a successful operation. My book relates what and how we lived and learned in that very challenging world so that my story is also a how-to manual — how to scrub a pig’s head in preparation for making head- cheese, how to tame a raccoon, how to plant potatoes, and how to wean a calf.

Ms. Kalish remarks in the podcast that growing up on a farm taught her dependability, resourcefulness, and, above all, thrift. I've ordered copies for myself and for others as a holiday gift.

Mastering Information Through the Ages

by Tim O'Reilly | @timoreilly | comments: 1

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of the Long Now Foundation's Seminars on Long Term Thinking. Tonight's seminar looks like a good one. Stewart Brand sent out the following writeup:

In a classic case of reperceiving the present via a very-long-now perspective, Alex Wright invokes examples from evolutionary biology, cultural anthropology, mythology, mysticism, the history of printing, scientific method, 18th-century taxonomy, Victorian librarians, and early computer history to get a fresh grip on what the hell is going on with information these days. Past mastery and future mastery, he finds, involves crafting the right byplay between bottom-up distributed self-organization and structural hierarchy.

Kevin Kelly says of Wright's new book, Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages, "I found Alex Wright's quick, clear history of past methods for managing oceans of information to be a handy clue to where we are going. He introduces you to an ecosystem of information organizations far more complex and interesting than the mere 'search' tool."

"The Deep History of the Information Age," Alex Wright, Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 7pm, Friday, August 17. The lecture starts promptly at 7:30pm. Admission is free (a $10 donation is always welcome, not required).

While only Bay Area readers are likely to be able to attend, video of all seminars is available to Long Now subscribers, usually within a few weeks after each seminar.

Surprises on the Bookshelves of CEOs

by Tim O'Reilly | @timoreilly | comments: 26

There was a lovely article in the New York Times a few weeks ago, entitled Surprises on the Bookshelves of CEOs that I've been trying to find time to write about since it appeared. I was particularly taken with the subtitle: "In personal libraries, more literature and poetry than business bestsellers." I have always felt slightly guilty for not keeping up with the latest business and management advice, so I was heartened to see Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital echoing my own confession: "I rarely read business books," and that Dee Hock, the creator of the Visa card, finds everything he needs to know in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

On that note, here are a few of the books that provide me with enduring insight:

• The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu in the wonderful Witter Bynner translation. There is so much practical advice here on both human relations and personal happiness that I find myself returning again and again to this book. Of course, I've read it so often that I've got much of it memorized.

• The Palm at the End of the Mind, by Wallace Stevens. Poetic meditations on the nature of reality, the power of the imagination, and the dialog between the two. "It is not in the premise that reality is a solid." Indeed. Our science and our art are both the imposition of creative vision, and new discoveries are as much aesthetic revisioning as they are "truth" in some objective sense.

• Air Guitar, by Dave Hickey, especially the essay "Birth of the Big Beautiful Art Market," which explains such things as the hacker ethic and just why Apple is so successful, despite being written about cars.

• Rasselas, by Samuel Johnson. Johnson has so much insight into the human condition, and the importance of the imagination to both our happiness and unhappiness. "I consider this mighty structure [the Great Pyramid] as a monument to the insufficiency of human enjoyments....It seems to have been erected only in compliance with that hunger of imagination which preys incessantly upon life, and must be always appeased by some employment. Those who have already all that they can enjoy must enlarge their desires. He that has built for use till use is supplied, must begin to build for vanity, and extend his plan to the utmost power of human performance, that he may not be soon reduced to form another wish." If you've never read Johnson, you must! Read also his essays!

In addition to these touchstone books, I have a large clipping file of quotes that I have remembered or written down over the years, and that recur again and again as tools for my thinking. Here are a few of them, some of which you will recognize from my talks and articles:

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Reducing the Power Consumption of Your Gadgets

by Brady Forrest | @brady | comments: 7

Things plugged into wall sockets continue to draw power even if they are off. Chargers plugged in continue to draw power even if the associated device has been charged or unplugged. Until recently, I had not realized this; I doubt many other people really think about or act on this information regularly. There are two products that aim to help solve this problem.

The first is a new set of Nokia phones (Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208 and the Nokia 1650). After the phone is charged it will send out alerts that signal it is time for it and its charger to be unplugged. Realizing that many people will not act on this information, Nokia has already been reducing the unnecessary power consumption and aims to have the charger consume 50% less energy by 2010 when it does not have a device to charge. Personally, I wonder why they can't just detect that the device has been unplugged and stop the draw.

The second is the Smart Power Strip. It will shut off the power draw of peripheral devices when the main computer is shut off. Just like Verdien (Radar post) realized, there is a real need amongst computer owners to save power. The manufacturers recommend Lights Out, a Mac app that gives you more control over your machine's energy consumption, to supplement the power strip.
[Via Gizmodo via Red Ferret]

Soon energy-saving measures will be common place in consumer electronics. If this topic interests you the blog, Electric Metric, has recently appeared. It focuses on measuring the draw of household items and energy-saving news.

Just Give the One Finger Salute and Keep Going

by Tim O'Reilly | @timoreilly | comments: 7

One of the privileges of what we do at O'Reilly is the chance to meet incredible people and share their stories with others. Last night, at a "maker day" that we held as part of the setup for this weekend's Maker Faire, I got a chance to hear an inspiring talk by Col. Joe Kittinger, the man who holds the record for the highest skydives in history, the only man to have gone supersonic without a vehicle. Now nearly 80 years old, Col. Kittinger regaled us with tales of "the right stuff" from his days as a test pilot.

Back in 1959 and 1960, as part of Project Excelsior, Kittinger was the guinea pig for a series of tests for how to do high-altitude test pilot ejections. You see, they discovered that if you ejected from a plane that was flying at very high altitudes, the G forces from deployment of a parachute would kill you. Unfortunately, they also discovered that if you didn't use a parachute, and did a free-fall to lower altitudes, you'd go into a high-speed spin -- which would also kill you.

They eventually figured out that they could stabilize the free fall with a small drogue chute -- a technique that is still used today. Kittinger rode up in a balloon, on the first flight to 74,700 feet. Due to a malfunction, the drogue cords wrapped around his neck, and he fell unconscious for 60,000 feet until his main chute deployed automatically. He survived, and three weeks later went back for another try, which succeeded.

He then went up again, this time to 102,800 feet, or almost twenty miles, and again, took what has been called "the highest step" from his balloon. There's a great video about his adventure, called The Highest Step, shown below:

And that gets me to the title of this post. At the end of the video, when Kittinger has just landed, another man runs up, pats him affectionately on the head, and gives him the finger. What was that about, I ask? "Oh, that was Francis Beaupre, the designer of the parachute. The one-finger salute was for all the people who said we couldn't do it. There are always going to be people around telling you you can't do stuff. Just give them that one-finger salute and keep going."

We all stood up and applauded. "There were giants on the earth in those days."