Hyperlinkminded.

"The quiet transformation of Alaska Airlines into something of a model is one of the most interesting..."

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:55:45 -0800

“The quiet transformation of Alaska Airlines into something of a model is one of the most interesting developments in the industry since low-cost pioneer Southwest revolutionized U.S. air travel in the post-deregulation age.”

- The Weekend Interview with Bill Ayer: An Airline That Makes Money. Really. - WSJ.com

Confirming What We Already Know About the Facebook IPO

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:54:24 -0800

Confirming What We Already Know About the Facebook IPO:

Paul Carr:

Facebook is an amazing company — arguably the most amazing company of our generation — and what Zuckerberg and his team has built is phenomenal… but it has been that way for a while. All today’s filing does is confirms what we already know.

Couldn’t agree more.

Also, I loved this:

… [W]ith the company having just filed and the rest of the tech blogosphere juddering with collective multiple-statgasms, I still can’t find myself getting excited about the contents of Fabebook’s S-1.

I can already see the onslaught of link-baited infographics that tell us nothing new. Like Martin Bryant said, infographics are the plague of lazy journalists and bloggers.

Alaska Airlines and Starbucks Team Up to Serve Freshly Brewed Coffee Onboard

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:56:46 -0800

Alaska Airlines and Starbucks Team Up to Serve Freshly Brewed Coffee Onboard:

Starbucks is now served on Alaska Airlines.

parislemon: The symphony of my life. Awesome.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:34:57 -0800

parislemon:

The symphony of my life.

Awesome.

Alaska Air Group Reports Record Adjusted Full-Year Results

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:55:14 -0800

Alaska Air Group Reports Record Adjusted Full-Year Results:

Alaska Airlines chairman and chief executive officer, Bill Ayer:

We are pleased to report record adjusted earnings for the second year in a row,” said Bill Ayer, chairman and chief executive officer. “The improvement was due to schedule optimization and network expansion, high load factors, lower non-fuel unit costs, and industry-leading customer service and operational performance.

Very proud of all my colleagues that contributed to making last year such a success.

parislemon: Okay, this is really fucking cool. It’s what the...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:28:37 -0800

parislemon:

Okay, this is really fucking cool. It’s what the Internet is all about. Nice work Facebook and Bing.

That is pretty awesome.

When Wikipedia Takes a Stance

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:16:46 -0800

When Wikipedia Takes a Stance:

smarterbits:

Canadian poet and novelist John Degen, on Wikipedia’s stance on SOPA:

Tomorrow, when Wikipedia turns the lights back on, and folks look up SOPA and PIPA to find out what happened, does anyone believe there will be a balanced, unbiased Wikipedia entry on the subject? How unbelievably sad.

I had failed, through all the blackout buzz today, to even consider the implications of Wikipedia publicly taking a stance on a newsworthy and important event. It’s already caused one Wikipedian to resign.

Steve Jobs: What's Wrong With Education Cannot Be Fixed With Technology

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:59:00 -0800

Interesting piece by Wired magazine. Jim Dalrymple calls out a quote from Steve Jobs about education:

I used to think that technology could help education. I’ve probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I’ve had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent.

It’s a political problem. The problems are sociopolitical. The problems are unions. You plot the growth of the NEA [National Education Association] and the dropping of SAT scores, and they’re inversely proportional. The problems are unions in the schools. The problem is bureaucracy.

With all the talk about Apple’s ‘education’ announcement tomorrow - it’ll be curious to see if that quote from 1996 holds true.

Rumors out there suggest that Apple will unveil a revolutionary set of publishing tools for digital books; some people are saying a Garageband-like product, but for iBooks.

Regardless, I’m excited.

via The Loop

Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:32:37 -0800

Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics:

Andrew Sullivan on Obama’s promises:

Politifact recently noted that of 508 specific promises, a third had been fulfilled and only two have not had some action taken on them. To have done all this while simultaneously battling an economic hurricane makes Obama about as honest a follow-through artist as anyone can expect from a politician.

And:

What liberals have never understood about Obama is that he practices a show-don’t-tell, long-game form of domestic politics. What matters to him is what he can get done, not what he can immediately take credit for.

Great piece.

Cruise Ship Runs Aground in Italy

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:01:05 -0800

Cruise Ship Runs Aground in Italy:

Survivors from a luxury cruise ship that ran aground and tipped over, leaving at least three dead and 69 people still unaccounted for, described Saturday a chaotic evacuation.

wabicreations: Sway. Swirl. Smile.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:53:33 -0800

wabicreations:

Sway. Swirl. Smile.

The Wirecutter

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:32:50 -0800

The Wirecutter:

Great new site from Brian Lam of Gizmodo fame that highlights the best gadgets.

Brian has the following to say about the site:

Even though I will be blogging occasionally, The Wirecutter is not another tech blog. The Wirecutter is mostly a list of amazing gadgets.

He also had the following to say, and it made me smile:

Headlines like this: “Exclusive: Motorola Spyder (Droid RAZR for Verizon?) features industry-first qHD Super AMOLED display, LTE, dual-core processor.” Or “Why Not All Jurassic Park Characters Were Created Equal.” No offense meant, but I do not want to spend my remaining days writing stuff like this.

via Daring Fireball

Catching Up to Apple

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:05:00 -0800

Catching Up to Apple:

Yesterday was a big day for the mobile phone industry, and no I’m not talking about the unveiling of the Nokia Lumia 900, (even though I’m personally excited about that device).

Five year’s ago yesterday, Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone to the world. It was unlike anything we had every seen, almost like it was from the future. Then Steve said this:

Now, software on mobile phones is like baby software. It’s not so powerful. And today, we’re going to show you a software breakthrough. Software that’s at least 5 years ahead of what’s on any other phone.

So if five years have passed, do you think the other mobile operating systems have caught up? Dan Frommer say yes and no, but I really like what Shawn Blanc has to say on the topic:

You can use Apple’s ideas and you can copy their products, but you cannot copy the time and energy they put into those products, and you cannot copy their attention to detail. Those you have to do on your own. Five years later, some companies still haven’t figured that out.

It’s not the phone’s hardware or software that other companies have to catch up to; it’s the high-quality experience the Apple brand delivers on a very consistent basis. To me that’s where Apple is still ahead.

"When I write I make a conscious effort to generate a sense of enjoyment–to convey to my readers that..."

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:54:02 -0800

“When I write I make a conscious effort to generate a sense of enjoyment–to convey to my readers that I found the events I’m describing more than ordinarily interesting, or unusual, or amusing, or emotional, or bizarre. Otherwise why bother to describe them? I also try to convey the idea that I was feeling great when I did my writing–which I almost never was; writing well is hard work. But readers have a right to believe that you were having a good time taking them on your chosen voyage.”

- William Zinsser: A Joyful Noise

"Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do..."

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:17:41 -0800

“Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we’ve got to do (3) Things we like doing. I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don’t like because other people read them. Things you ought to do are things like doing one’s school work or being nice to people. Things one has to do are things like dressing and undressing, or household shopping. Things one likes doing — but of course I don’t know what you like. Perhaps you’ll write and tell me one day.”

- C. S. Lewis, in a letter to Sarah, his godchild, on 3 April 1949 via Stan Carey (via bobulate)

"What I Learned Building the Apple Store"

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:21:00 -0800

"What I Learned Building the Apple Store":

Ron Johnson, former VP for retail at Apple:

There isn’t one solution. Each retailer will need to find its own unique formula. But I can say with confidence that the retailers that win the future are the ones that start from scratch and figure out how to create fundamentally new types of value for customers.

That statement applies to more than just retail.

"Your competitive advantage"

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:01:03 -0800

"Your competitive advantage":

Seth Godin:

When you increase your discernment, maximize your awareness of the available options and then go ahead and ship work that scares others… that’s when you succeed.

More time on the problem isn’t the way. More guts is. When you expose yourself to the opportunities that scare you, you create something scarce, something others won’t do.

Overpowering Perspectives

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:21:00 -0800

I love Mandy Brown.

How many of us have read Nicholas Carr’s latest work about the idea of ‘Google making us stupid’ and believed him? Yep, I’m in that camp. In fact, I found his argument so compelling that it kind of terrified me.

Enter Many Brown’s reading note: “How to read in an age of abundance”:

Katherine Hayles points out the oft-overlooked fact that there is more than one (right) way to read:

[Is] reading on the web making us distracted, as Nicholas Carr has argued, or in the more extreme view espoused by Mark Bauerlein…making us stupid? Such arguments overlook the fact that strategic reading practices have always included skimming and scanning, as any scholar can testify. The trick is to have a repertoire of varied reading techniques and the experience to shift to one or another depending on the situation.

Emphasis mine; I’ll go one step further: not only is skimming a kind of reading we can (and should) choose to use, it is the ideal method for dealing with an abundance of reading. When there is much to read, and you want to get to as much of it as you can, skimming is essential. So perhaps our increased agility with skimming is not so much a product of a distracted lifestyle, but of increased abundance—a practice brought on by the wealth of text, not the poverty of attention.

Emphasis mine. Thank you, Mandy, for the reminder that there’s enough room for all different perspectives in life; declaring one right or wrong is a choice. I’m not sure why, but your reading note made my day.

Focus on What Matters Most; Family, Friends & Great Colleagues

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:49:35 -0800

Today I was reminded that life is precious, and all the little things… well, that’s what they are - little things. They can be swept aside for the big things; things like friends, family, and great colleagues. This time of year, it’s easy to lose focus on what matters, so let’s all try harder not to forget.

Bezos: We're Stubborn on Vision, Flexible on Details

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:40:00 -0800

Bezos: We're Stubborn on Vision, Flexible on Details:

My favorite quote from the entire interview:

Our first shareholder letter, in 1997, was entitled, “It’s all about the long term.” If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow—and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details.

How often does our focus migrate from the vision only to get distracted by the details?