shake & chug
morning: 10am
I wish I could buy Naked Juice in bulk, surely there is an outlet there somewhere.
Hmmmm ramble to ramble what to ramble on? Hmmmmm life caching, we've messed with ideas on this for journaling user experiences, the more "fresh"ness the better ya know.
"This LIFE CACHING introduction is just the tip of the iceberg. Obviously, providing consumers with the software, hardware and storage space to start building, unlocking and showcasing their 'lifelogs' should be high on your priority list if your business is in any way related to the world of photography, publishing, video, music, SMS, instant messaging, search, blogging, cell phones, email, memory sticks, PDAs etc etc etc. (And don't forget the vast amounts of non-digital, non-organised LIFE CACHING artifacts waiting to be digitized: think millions of shoeboxes, photo albums & framed photos, home movies/videos, old bundles of letters, CDs, DVDs, bookshelves and filing cabinets!)"
I kinda miss traditional photo albums really and sadly due to an incomplete universal printing solution many of the pics taken today just don't get printed so the album is fading away. My mother has dozens of photo albums and hundreds of slides. The traditional photo album is far more comfy then the warm glow of a computer monitor screen. PC's aren't that social either really, they are fine 1 on 1 but you get a few people in the room and well that PC is gettin turned off. Plus they haven't made their way into the living room yet and god forbid if they ever did for my mother she'd have a fit. I suppose something like a TiVO playing photos off the hard drive on yer TV monitor would work but even then thats not that comfy either. I want good ole fashioned photo albums back. My father struggles with digital photo printing, he'd like to do it at home but more so its take yer flash card to the photo mat and get the photos done and typically they are more expensive to develop which doesnt brighten his day any.
I thought about getting him a wifi photoframe to put in the living room. Kinda like an experiment really, to see if mom would like it.. bear its presence in the living room amongst all her classic photograph frames of the kids, classic books, oddities etc. Doubtful really. Not that she's anti-technology its more like a comfort level. What is that comfort level and how do you achive it.
Eventually I see the traditional photo album replaced by the digital photo album that looks identical to old one, the pages show digital, maybe 15 frame movable animations of the moment trapped in time. The book isnt powered by AAA batteries or fuel cells, its powered by turning pages. It looks like it belongs, its comfortable. You can sit in yer favorite chair and flip back in time. Its a record that remains.
Records that remain. Maybe thats the issue with computers, they are so fleeting at times. So fragile in their presence and make up.. one minute stable, the next dead! Perhaps flickr will be the gmail all archived never lost approch to pictures. Still one big problem remains, well a few actually, getting yer pics to up and if yer not connected ya got nothin. This ramble runs into net existance one. Are you anyone without the net? Where we headed now? How many idenity agencies rely on the net. Teens in japan define their social status with cell phones and thier new gadgetness goodness. When was the last time you met someone that didn't have an email address? The more connected we get the more I need a big holiday away from it. For as much as I need the net, the new fix isnt more of the net its less. I need withdrawl to provide perspective.... hmm maybe thats not correct.. why do I need withdrawl? Why unplug? Cause I can. Define that. I choose. Where are the studies on people connected vs those who are not... who's evolving? who's stressed? who's happier? Wouldn't ya love talkin to someone who didn't know what the net definition of spam was? A spamless existance. There's some guy building boats on beaches thats never heard of spam, no the spam i know.
Its a little too late to consider the problems really, yer in the stream baby, ride it or fight it, yer goin with it.
I ditched netflix awhile back but this concept... books....? Hmmm thats kinda interesting. I still need to get back to the WWMX project as well.
Sometimes I wonder about devices like ShockFish, no doubt initally its damn cool- another unique edge to add to a conference where you dont know who is who etc, and ya the radar is very cool. Soon cellphones will have this kinda of tech built in, and hopefully established on one universal platfrom so that dozens of manufactures of cellphones can keep this one consistant functionality base for the end user to rely on.. yet.. YET.. a device like this makes it too easy. I mean we can all go straight to the CEO to kiss ass now. At a social event I'd want to talk, drink my glass of wine and have a conversation with you, not yer device. Tech like this is good, good for experimentation but reality wise? Does it apply? Well people carry cellphones into everyday conversations already so ok i'll give ya that, but the phone still has its place. At a socail event people rely on the basic good ole me talkin to you. Barbaric as that seems.
break for lunch: 12 noon
todays bad design item: the snapple a day bottle, not a bad drink really, but the top features a poorly designed "tug the crap outa me and i'll open up and all over you" bottle cover. I thought the first time i had one was kinda odd, then the second one harder, this third time i approched it with a fork to assure victory. They taste as good as Naked Juice, but well its one of those rush lunches so I opted to down one. Fighting with the "pull tab" is really a hassle, who tested this thing. Just watching one of the gals trying to open one in the kitchen was just too painful to watch as well, she got smart though, fork it!
Its coming, check out the Mogi: Socially Connected GPS Gaming mogi video, very cool. And umm ya. Soooo many phones so little time. Man I really need that camera phone. Now thats spiffy!
I've reading more and more articles, magazines, books, etc on Venture Captial and Entrepreneur mindset lately. The wants, needs, the drive and all the various aspects of it. One more ball to juggle, least part of me thinks that. The jack of all trades here but maybe cause at heart like my father and my brothers I've got a bit of that entrepreneural spirit as well. Luckily there are plenty of blogs on the topic. Today I came across this little tid bit and chuckled a "oh ya baby.. you got that right". Its really nuff said, saw this way back and it continues to be "goal" for many companines I think.
"I have concluded that the best and fastest way to build another billion dollar company (assuming, of course, that MyFamily.com gets a billion dollar market cap someday) is to create a subscription product that one million people will eventually pay $10-20 per month to use. A million customers paying $15 per month would generate $180 million in revenue. If the company had a profit margin of 25% and a P/E ratio of 20, the company's market cap would be $900 million."
Everquest and every other online game comes to mind right away. Paul Allen writes on this here and here. Soon despite my poor communication skills, spelling especially, I am going to venture into the world of press writing as I take on more abilities here at work in regards to marketing etc. Writing the google aware press release could be handy.
Dan remind yerself to install this tonight.
time: 2:40pm
RFID, ok its big and gonna be huge when it hits. But what about the juicy research potential? I say we're behind already, we should be researching this now, I mean, we that is lextant should be. Wired has an excellent article on the subject and the store of the future they talk about is here, lots of great video on there, check it out!
Well time to end this ramble! Much to do as always. Shake and Chug!