Howdy! I’m Devin. I’m sensibly impulsive, consistently non-committal, and passionately impartial. I’m a technologist living in Denver, Colorado.
Traveling with an iPad
Sunday, May 30, 2010Traveling with the iPad is great. I recently visited f8 and carried only the iPad in the Apple iPad Case (I was there for just the day). During the conference I could use it to pull up websites, twitter, email, and take notes; arguably the essential needs during a conference.
My low-information, low-focus diet
Wednesday, May 26, 2010Nicholas Carr wrote a great article in WIRED about how the web may be destroying our focus and rewiring our brains to consume information quickly and superficially. Thus, leaving little room for deep knowledge and understanding. In fact, this paragraph may already be too long and you’ve already moved on.
You should read Sh*t My Dad Says
Tuesday, May 25, 2010Most books I read are non-fiction and are related to technology, business, or life in general (much like this blog). The “Sh*t My Dad Says” book was a pleasantly-surprising story of Justin’s life with his irreverent and crass father. I was chuckling and laughing throughout the entire thing. It’s a quick read but if you’re looking for something light, I highly recommend it. It was the first book I read on the iPad using the iBooks app. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the experience (but I still learn towards the Kindle as the better platform).
No. I will not fan you, your brand, or your blog
Saturday, April 10, 2010No. I will not fan you, your brand, or your blog. I find it funny that quasi-famous bloggers feel the need to create a Facebook ‘Fan’ page for themselves. Sure, many people are well-respected, followed by hundreds of thousands of individuals, and want to interact with them all (Matt Mullenweg and Gary V), but the majority of you do not; a few hundred or few thousand ‘fans’ are worthless (prove me wrong?). Jeff may disagree, but I see no purpose in becoming a ‘fan’ of a friend’s blog, or their brand, or their product, or whatever on Facebook. That only serves that individual’s own ego and their desire to grow some metric that rarely translates to value (monetary, goodwill, etc.). Social media: don’t just do it because everyone else is. (I realize this is not new thinking, but I wanted to publish it so my stance is clear. Feel free to point your friends here when you get a ‘Fan’ request.)
The internet looks better in portrait
Tuesday, April 6, 2010If you didn’t know, I recently bought an iPad for myself. Yeah yeah, act surprised. I love it and I knew I would. In fact, I’m authoring this post on it using the WordPress iPad app.
Instant email is good for nobody
Thursday, March 11, 2010Like most project managers, account managers, or client-facing individuals, I have my email inbox open all day. One any given day, there could be a dozen different individuals that can reach out to me with an urgent question. But replying instantly is not always the best action. While we can’t ignore our clients (current and potential), we can help each other by getting into good habits. These are some of mine explained.
Archive your bookmarks with WordPress
Sunday, March 7, 2010Many people use some sort of social bookmarking service to collect their favorite how-to guides, recipes, interesting articles, and funny cat pictures. There are a number of services available: Delicious, Gnolia, and my personal favorite pinboard.in.
NDAs
Tuesday, March 2, 2010Like Alex, I’ve had a post on NDAs ready to draft up any day now. But many people have said it better than I could: NDAs are, in most cases, unnecessary; as if I had the time or energy to implement your idea, assuming it’s even a good one. As with RFPs, NDAs are often a good litmus test: some of the best projects and ideas come without one.
The free software problem
Monday, March 1, 2010Rachel mentioned a story about a college professor who, to paraphrase, said that “we kids have no right to complain about all the websites we use (Google Mail, Facebook) because they’re giving everything to us for free”.