David Emery OnlineFriday Links XXIX
8 September 2007
Throwing Music: Thoughts On Sustainability – “In other words, music grows on trees, but money doesn’t”
Most of your pictures suck – at Reading last weekend I took 1121 pictures, of which 118 were good enough to post to Flickr; a 10% success rate seems to be about my average, with only about 10% of those being what I’d term “quite good”.
Buy a Mac, get TextMate! – I still don’t get TextMate – it just does work “right” for me – but lots of people really, really like it…
NYT: The Music Man – an interesting article, but I’m still not convinced by the whole music subscription thing as he describes it.
Five Facts About Google Phone – Point 1: there are no facts about the Google Phone; we don’t even know it exists. Point 2: why are people so interested in a Google Phone when they have no track record for producing consumer hardware, and a spotty record for consumers UIs?
Soho Coffee – Starbucks is the king for me, but I definitely want to try and find some more authentic, less globalised alternatives. Sadly, every time I’ve tryed somewhere different the coffee has been pretty awful…
A Lengthy Message About A Brief Message – I am so into the idea of properly art directing individual articles on the web; it surely is the future of the industry. Just need to find a site to do it on!
A Brief Message – utterly beautiful design – I love the illustrations – and great content to boot!
Music Moves Place – the younger, mobile using demographic really does do things at odds with conventional wisdom. They’re worth paying attention to.
Klaxons scoop Mercury album prize – definitely the right winner, and who I thought should win right from the start. Not only is their album genuinely original, it’s packed with really good songs and they truly were the trailblazers of a new musical movement. Say what you like about “nu rave”, but it certainly exists (even if the name is rubbish and wholly invented by NME) and has given rise to all sorts of new bands – witness my mentions of Late of the Pier, The Teenagers, Does It Offend You, Yeah? in my Reading coverage last week.
Daring Fireball: Palm Cancels Foleo – the whole thing was a big joke, wasn’t it? Palm really are in a bit of a tight spot now, especially since Apple now make a PDA as well as a phone.
After ditching Apple, NBC opts for flex pricing and more DRM with Amazon – yes, well done guys; move your shows over to a service no-one uses as it’s so draconian.
Why we need standards support in HTML email – I couldn’t agree more. HTML email is a reality that we – like it or not – have to live with, and it seriously needs better standards support.
The Puppet Master – this is the best thing that Cringely has written in years.
HD Radio’s ‘ITunes Tagging’ Could Lead to Another Big Announcement from Apple – I can’t find any solid information about this ‘iTunes Tagging’, but it sounds like it could be very interesting.
Geek Marketing – interesting essay on modern advertising methods from Tara.
Form of… a Book about Forms! – Mmmm, forms… I do particularly like that PayPal credit card form. Yes, I know this makes me exceptionally sad.
Airbag: Caylee – surprisingly moving. It’s worth remembering that, even when we’re playing an online game it is just a game, we’re still playing it with other human beings.
Design the copywriter’s birthday card. They said. – genius
Apple jumps the exclusivity shark – I think Ben gets it a bit wrong; certainly everyone I know (myself included) uses Apple products because they think they are better, not because they are exclusive. There is no doubt they are going after the mainstream, however – and if they can get Ben using a Mac they could well succeed!
iTunes movie rentals… confirmed? – bit of a give-away, although I’ve always thought it was just a matter of when, not if.
Starting up the Hype Machine – consider my curiosity piqued!
I Really Wish I Knew Steve Jobs Better – it’s good to see Mike writing again; I’m still not sure exactly what really went on surrounding the price cut.