“Why would they need that?”

by Jason Preston on June 9, 2009

I think this question is at the root of many technology product failures. Just because the feature you’ve built is “good enough” doesn’t mean it’s going to be worth buying.

The computer industry is no longer a need-based industry. Practically every computer you can buy today meets the “needs” of its user many times over.

Now it’s about what people want.

The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee. Employees of both entities have already been let go.

You can only live for so long off of Duke Nukem 3D.

Later this month, the Pentagon will create a new military “cyber command” to coordinate the defense of Pentagon computer networks and improve U.S. offensive capabilities in cyberwarfare. Gen. Alexander, who is expected to lead the new command, said it would ensure the Pentagon was capable of “evolving to meet and overcome” cyber threats.

Now that just sounds cool.

Jason Preston (@Jasonp107) - Goobye Tolstoy: How to say anything in 140 characters or less Twitter’s greatest contr. to society is: any idea can be shared in 140 chars or less-beyond that, it’s just drivel. See how & why in 5 mins.

I’ll be joining an awesome lineup of presenters, hope to see you there. It’s free, doors open at 7pm tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29th, 2009.

Sounds like what we need is more competition, not necessarily more regulation. Both may be means to the same ends, but one is more flexible.

I remember playing this game on old-school macs in the classroom. You’d name your whole party “Nobody” so that when disease struck, the game would announce: “Nobody has contracted dysentery.”

Steve Broback on, roughly, whether or not we should trust the government.

It’s kind of fun to look at early rumors about the iPhone. This from Daring Fireball in 2002:

The article seems to insinuate that Apple could make Sherlock run on a cell phone; that’s impossible, unless the cell phone were actually running Mac OS X, which definitely is impossible.

Remember, of course, that the iPhone was officially announced in January 2007, and a lot about hardware can (and did) change in five years.

The company introduced a new plan with 100 gigabytes, for $75. Any more than that costs $1 a gigabyte. But there is a $75 cap on the extra fee, meaning unlimited use is capped at $150 a month.

[ April 11, 2009 → ]

Apple's design process

Apple designers come up with 10 entirely different mock ups of any new feature. Not, Lopp said, "seven in order to make three look good", which seems to be a fairly standard practice elsewhere. They'll take ten, and give themselves room to design without restriction. Later they whittle that number to three, spend more months on those three and then finally end up with one strong decision.
[ April 6, 2009 → ]

Win a free ticket for 140 | The Twitter Conference

But then we got to thinking that we’re not really all that clever, especially compared to all of you. So we thought it’d be best to throw it open to everyone in the Twitterverse: come up with a better phrase for the back of the T-shirt, win a free seat at the conference.
[ April 2, 2009 → ]

Tropicana rebranding causes 20% drop in sales

If you ask me, it's because the original packaging (left) looks like a quality product, and the new packaging (right) looks like a generic product.

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Finally, some sensible talk about AIG

Those in Washington who say they represent, or even embody, the public’s anger at bankers should do their constituents a favor by focussing not on whom to demonize but on the hard work of building support for a program that would actually help people. Those who aren’t angry—like, maybe, President Obama—ought to stop pretending they are, and, instead, try to persuade the country that pure rage is not something to be honored and respected at this dangerous moment.
[ March 30, 2009 → ]

The periodic table of fonts