marks.dk
Pinboard.in as alternative to Delicious.com
I’ve recently started using the bookmarking service “Pinboard” more actively as an alternative to Delicious. It seems as if Yahoo! really doesn’t care about Delicious all that much, and I want to be more in control of my data. Therefore I signed up for Pinboard and the developer keeps adding amazing features I’d wish others would take note of.
First off, it’ll cost you money (MONEY!) to sign up. I don’t remember how much I paid, but currently the price is $6.13 (the price is calculated as number of users * $0.001). This is to discourage spammers and support the costs of running the site, which are both valid arguments for such a nice service.
Another impressive feature set is the ability to auto-add shared items from Google Reader (mine), Twitter favorites (mine), Delicious bookmarks (mine) as well as toread items from Instapaper (mine as RSS). Essentially it saves stuff I mark as great from around the web. Very clever.
The last feature I want to highlight is two bookmarklets that was added yesterday: oldest and random. You can set Pinboard to tag some of your imported bookmarks with “toread” and when clicking either oldest or random, you’re taken to the oldest bookmark you need to read, or a random one.
I hope the features that are added in the future are of equal quality, and that the design gets a bit of an overhaul at some point…
On the iPad
I’ve been trying for a few days to write the blog post that sums up both the praise and criticism of Apple’s iPad. It’s really hard, seeing that so many talented people have already written extensively about it, and continue to do so. Don’t forget to follow my collection of articles and Twitter-favorites as well.
So far, my only comment on the iPad is this:
The platform is closed – and it doesn’t matter. There’s no Flash – and it doesn’t matter. It may lack this or that feature – and it doesn’t fucking matter.
It’s not made for me, and it’s not made for you. It’s made for the kids, the grannies and the people who are scared by the way computers work today.
Today, people compute, and the fact that we haven’t moved beyond that yet is absolutely beyond me. However, I think the iPad might be the first step towards a world, where the ones who want to tinker and hack away, are free to do so.
Then everybody else can start actually working with computers, not on them.
Notable tweets on the iPad
As with the previous post, I’m collecting opinions and blurbs on the iPad. This post is tweets of notable quality in one way or the other, and I’ve divided them into tweets about the platform, user experience and humor (Twitter being the way it is, there will certainly be many more tweets and I’ll update this post accordingly).
A collection of quotes and notes on the iPad
For the past couple of days since the announcement of Apple’s latest and greatest invention, the iPad, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on about it. The following is a collection of noteworthy quotes and opinions from the articles and blog posts on the matter.
I certainly don’t agree with everything, but what is linked to from this post is interesting to read none the less. I’ve divided the posts into categories on what’s been said about the iPad as a platform, stuff that focus on the user experience, posts about Amazon’s Kindle, what it means for magazines and lastly, interesting stuff that doesn’t fit these categories.
“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Steve Jobs
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“The problem is, in hardware you can’t build a computer that’s twice as good as anyone else’s anymore. Too many people know how to do it. You’re lucky if you can do one that’s one and a third times better or one and a half times better. And then it’s only six months before everybody else catches up. But you can do it in software. As a matter of fact, I think that the leap that we’ve made is at least five years ahead of anybody.” – Steve Jobs.
In 1994.
Death of the file system
This week I read two blog posts that deal with the same issue: The metaphorical concept of files in operating systems. And why they suck.
David Shoemaker and John Perry wrote the posts I refer to, and you owe it to yourself to read them.
In short, John Perry wrote about horizontal vs. vertical organizers. He is a horizontal organizer that likes to have everything on the table at once. That way he gains an overview with everything in sight. Vertical organizers can file anything in a cabinet and take it out when they need it again. A terrible method, if you ask me – I tend to be horizontally organized as well.
But my operating system of choice disagrees with me. The desktop metaphor seems to derive from vertical organizers’ idea of filing documents in folders and cabinets. It is directly converted to how Windows, Linux (in general) and OS X handle information. Now, Google has released a beta version of Chrome OS that hopefully kicks off the end of the regime of OSs being structured for the horizontally-focused. With Chrome OS, documents are stored in Google Docs, pictures in Picasa, emails in Gmail etc.
Obviously, the “items” (text documents, pictures and emails) are still stored in a database, but for the user, the real strength comes in archiving these items with metadata wrapped around them. No need to scan for the right email – just search for it. No need to figure out in which document you wrote about “football” – just search for it. Want to find your dad in a picture? The face recognition makes sure you can search for it (well, at least that’s how it should/will be).
David Shoemaker points out that within OS X, the developers form Apple have a slight disagreement on how to approach files vs. items. iTunes and iPhoto treats what you put into them as items that you can manage, whereas iWork handles documents and files.
Today, I’ve wiped my hard disk and reinstalled OS X. I do this every now and then to clean out all the junk I tend to gather. It’s also a way for me to rethink how I work with my computer and which apps are essential to me. One thing I noticed this time, is that I need something like iTunes/iPhoto for my pdf-files. Previously, I’ve used Evernote, but it’s unstable and slow, so I’m looking for something that can help sort my documents horizontally, not vertically. Papers looks interesting, but is there anything better out there?
It’s a small step towards a new way of working with information, and I can’t wait for Apple to start treating textual information as items, not documents.
On experiences and the value of those
I’ve started jotting down the ideas I have for blog posts in Things, which is not a groundbreaking idea, but I actually want to fulfill some of the promises I’ve made myself and wrote about last week. One of the promises is to blog a bit more – say, once a week – and this is one of those posts.
So far this year, the biggest change in my everyday intake of information is the “newness” of the stuff I read. I’ve removed almost everything resembling news sites in my Google Reader, and started focusing a lot more on crafted blog posts as well as visual blogs about architecture and interior design. Now, when I flip through the items in Google Reader, I rest more; I spend a bit more time reading every blog post than I did before, and I appreciate the ones that are well-written a whole lot more (plus I get to look at nice photos of people’s homes).
It’s a change that has already happened in other aspects, without me thinking about the pretty obvious connection. I don’t listen to music on CDs and I don’t watch movies on DVDs anymore – I stream it from my iPhone, Mac or a hard disk plugged into my tv (an absolutely beautiful feature), and I do it because it’s easier.
It also means that I tend to rush through it without thinking about what I listen to, or sometimes even what I watch (unless it’s The Wire which is the best series I’ve ever watched – more on that in another blog post).
So, the other day I put on a vinyl, sat down and studied the cover, sleeve, lyrics, artwork. The whole package. And I thought about how much work had gone into making the album – it was so more than the music. It was a complete experience.
An experience I actually want to pay for – and that’s the rub.
The other day, we had a long, and heated, discussion on “Bølgen“, a Danish magazine published and maintained by Bjarne Tveskov on Google Wave, about the future of newspapers. I argue that the problem with newspapers lie in the name; it’s news. On paper. Paper is slow. News are fast. They are mutually exclusive now.
Where did I learn about the earthquake in Haiti? Twitter. Where do I keep getting the latest updates about it? Yes. Twitter. It’s too fast for even the newspaper’s websites, so why do they even keep on fighting the battle? (Oh yeah, advertising. Forgot about that.)
If I want something on paper, it needs to be something more than yesterday’s news, because I won’t appreciate it – nor pay for it.
Make me a weekly magazine in Google Wave, curated by a guy I like to follow on his blog, Twitter-profile etc. and I’ll gladly pay for it. Which I did. Same goes for Daring Fireball; I love that blog and read it religiously, so when John Gruber printed a new round of t-shirts, I bought two. Panic also made a new t-shirt with the leaf from Coda embroidered – bought one of those as well. Mikkel Malmberg releases an EP every year around Christmas and I happily paid for that as well.
It’s the stuff that I feel is of the highest quality, and relevance, I want to pay for. It’s the stuff that I know people cared about creating that I can truly appreciate, and are willing to pay for; whether it’s a magazine in Google Wave, a well-written blog, a piece of software, an iPhone app, an album on 220g luxury vinyl with included poster signed by the band etc.
Create value for me by giving me an experience, and I’d be happy to pay for it. Try to keep up with every startup in the world, give me yesterday’s news, pour gallons of water on the rumor mill or cover every ridiculous celebrity’s latest steps, and I’ll take my money with me elsewhere.
Update: To those of you who want to see what I read in Google Reader, you can follow my shared items at 2kg.dk/shared and/or see the whole list of feeds I subscribe to at marks.dk/greader.
Google has removed the annoying "Sent on behalf of"-message in Gmail
Apparently, when you create an account nowadays on Gmail, and add another custom domain (e.g. @marks.dk), it doesn’t add the message “xxx@gmail.com sent on behalf of xxx@marks.dk” as it used to.
I just tested it with a couple of email addresses, in the following way:
1. Create a new Gmail-account
2. Go to Settings > Accounts and Import
3. Click “Send mail from another address”
4. Enter the email-address you want to send form (e.g. test@marks.dk)
5. Choose “Send through Gmail”
6. Click “Send Verification”
7. Gmail sends an email to the email-address you want to send on behalf of. Click the link.
8. Now you can send emails from gmail.com through a custom email-address with your own domain.
This behavior is new, but I really appreciate the change. A quick search will reveal lots of arguments from Google on why they had to add the text for security measures etc., but it’s changed now. Yay.
A personal note on 2009 and what 2010 will – hopefully – be like
Ever since the Christmas holiday I’ve wanted to make a post on what a crazy year 2009 was, as well as what I expect of 2010. Now I finally have the time to do so, and it’s personal so feel free to skip it.
2009:
On New Years Eve 2008/2009, I had just arrived back in Copenhagen from a semester abroad in Boston that was far from perfect. I had a nice time now and then, but I felt that the daily life on a campus 12 miles from Boston is too unlike my way of living that it became unbearable as the months went by.
I missed Copenhagen, I missed my girlfriend, friends and family and I just wanted it to be over.
I came back, and I got a new job at zyb/Vodafone that I was very happy about. I enjoyed working there until this fall when budget-related issues popped up, and I was relieved from my consultancy contract. Now I work at 23 which is something completely different, yet somehow very related. I don’t get these jobs because I apply for them, but because I spend crazy amounts of time on Twitter and at events around Copenhagen, talking to people that share my interests. This is something I want to continue doing, and especially Copenhagen Twestival has established some relationships that I value a lot, and hope to nurture more in the future.
It seems that 2009 was all about breaking down and establishing. In the summer I became a bachelor in more than one way, and I like the diploma I got from CBS, but not the feeling of being all alone that the breakup created. It’s over now and I learned a lot from it. “Taking less for granted” is sure as hell one of the lessons I took with me on that account.
2010:
I normally don’t do New Year’s resolutions, and I don’t plan on starting now, but there are still some things I’d like to focus more on in the coming year.
Listen:
Listening isn’t always my best skill, but I need to listen a lot more than I speak. I want to read more, and have removed a bunch of the shitty feeds clogging up my feed reader (Mashable, TechCrunch, TUAW etc. are all gone – it’s too much fast noise). I’m looking for good writers (hopefully making me a better one as well) that don’t publish often, but publish something worthwhile. I’ll share what I’ve found soon.
Act slow:
Again, this relates to the fast news being thrown out from Google Reader. More slow, less fast. Hopefully that affects how I work and think as well – it’s been too much fast stuff blazing past and too little of the meaty blogging/article-writing that really matters, and gives a worthwhile perspective on things.
Build more and learn new stuff:
I really really want to learn how to write better html(5) and css(3), as well as starting from scratch on how to do jQuery. I don’t know shit about programming in Python, Ruby on Rails, Javascript and what else is there, but jQuery seems like a nice place to start doing a bit of web app-stuff. This will in turn, hopefully, do wonders to what I can share and ship, and I already have a couple of ideas laid out that I would love to work on (a local version of Internet Garage Sale is one of them).
Be happier:
I’ll stop bitching about shit on Twitter. No more tweeting from the queue in the supermarket, no more whining about this and that, and hopefully I’ll start noticing the good stuff more.
For instance, I bought two lovely sweaters today. It’s really cold in Copenhagen these days and I’m cold all the time. What to do? Buy nice sweaters. So I did. And now I’m warm. I like that.
Consume less but better:
I already have too much shit, and I really don’t need anymore. Everything I buy in 2010 will be thought through, and either replace something of lesser value, or fill a gap that is justified in making me do my work, or everyday chores, better. This means getting rid of my CD and DVD-collection (I don’t listen to music or watch movies one physical media anymore), and a bunch of electronics that lie around but are never used (thus making the Internet Garage Sale-clone).
This a bunch of introvert self-praising, but it helps me write what I want to do in the coming year, if I want to complete it. Last year I wrote I wanted to take a photo and blog every day. That didn’t happen. Hopefully I can write one blog post every week; if I stop bitching about shit on Twitter, I should save right about the same amount of time every week it takes for me to write a blog post.
How to download the Spotify iPhone application without a UK credit card
- Go to the iTunes Store and change country to UK (at the bottom)
- Find the Spotify application
- Click “Download”
- Create an account (remember that you need to use an email-address different from any other iTunes-account you might have).
- Choose “none” as payment method and provide your UK-address
- You now have the Spotify application.
Proof that the option appears:
Of course you can not do this if you are not a UK resident as the EULA says, but you already knew that, right?
[dk] Noter fra Ræsons årskonference 2009
Her er mine noter fra Ræsons årskonference, og de giver muligvis ikke fantastisk meget mening for alle, men det er en start. Interessante meldinger er markeret med fed. Husk på det er hvad jeg lige har fået skrevet ned på notesblokken og kan derfor være fejlagtige – hvis det er sagen så skriv til mig og jeg skal ændre direkte forkerte udmeldinger. Der kommer også video på et tidspunkt (det blev i hvert fald filmet), så kan alt jo heldigvis verificeres og konteksten i hvilken svarene blev givet blive tydeligere.
Johannes Friis, Gyldendal:
- Vil ikke have forudsigelighed, men en avis der tør stå ved sine meninger
- “Hakkelse” – gør strå mindre for at gæs bedre kan spise dem.
- Frygter for den dag en netavis/gratisavis ligner en “rigtig avis”
- Aviser skal have holdninger, men ikke forudindtagethed.
- Vil ikke have Sidney Lee samt Anni og Erik
- Efter partierne er rykket på midten er aviserne rykket mere ud på fløjene
- Harry Potter tjente intet til forlagene i US og UK -> godt for forfatterne, skidt for forlagene.
Kommentar: Er mellemmanden (/forlaget) ikke snart overflødiggjort af fremspring i teknologien? Det virkede mest som et indlæg hvor en gammel (men ganske flink) mand i en udtjent branche gjorde status på hvorfor det hele ikke bare kunne være som i gamle dage. Jo, han har ganske vist ret i at det er ærgeligt at Anni og Erik i samarbejde med Sidney Lee optager halvdelen af alle avisers pageviews på nettet, men viser det ikke bare at det er det folk generelt går efter?
Lisbeth Knudsen, Berlingske:
- Aviserne har brug for nyt mindset – de skal være indholdsleverandører.
- Ugen.dk er 1 ud af 6 eksperimenter – resten bliver søsat i løbet af 2010.
- Print er ikke død, men det forandrer sig.
- Ugen.dk er en test af digitalt indhold der kan konsumeres både on- og offline.
- “Unik” er nøgleordet for indhold.
- Micropayments skal foregå via mobilen.
- Berlingske er villige til at indgå i samarbejde om distribution af online-indhold med andre.
- Satser på TV på Mecom-niveau.
- “Nytte-videoer” er de mest populære.
- Journalister er for traditionelt tænkende. Møder stadig journalister der mener det er deres job at belære/oplære befolkningen.
- Journalister er nødt til at lære at bruge Twitter – også til at markedsføre det indhold de selv producerer.
Kommentar: Udemærket oplæg fra Lisbeth Knudsen der ikke er helt så verdensfjern som man kunne frygte. Jeg er ikke enig i at micropayments for redaktionelt indhold virker – heller ikke via mobilen.
Panel om “Fremtidens journalist” ved Mark Blach-Ørsten, leder af Inst. for Journalistik, RUC (MBØ); Susanne Hegelund, chef for TV-Avisen (SH); Anne-Marie Dohm, Rektor, Danmarks Journalisthøjskole og Mette Vibe Utzon (MVU), studievært, DR:
- MBØ: De akademiske journalister skal kunne se strømme i samfundet på et højere plan.
- Alle: Tvær-mediel forståelse er vigtig.
- SH: De skal have kildeforeståelse og være parate til omstiling.
- AMD: Som udd.inst. skal DJH ikke identificere nutidens problemer og uddanne efter det, men se fem-ti år frem. Iværksætteri er også en kvalitet man skal besidde. De skal udvikle egne medier.
- (Både RUC og DJH har iværksætterkursus)
- MBØ: Vi blander humaniora, samfundsvidenskab (/-lære) og teknisk forståelse.
- SH: Det klassiske tv-indslag hvor journalisten får bøjet sit navn i neon er ovre.
- MVU: Får vi A- og B-journalister der hhv. fordyber sig eller skøjter rundt mellem medierne?
- AMD: Vi får flere og bedre uddannede journalister. Vi skal ikke være i en klokke hvor en journalist klarer alt selv.
- MBØ: Tidligere var en journalist-branchen lukket – det er mediebranchen ikke.
- SH: Faglighed på den moderne måde. Man er ikke ekspert i Uganda, men udlandsstof og ved hvor man finder det man mangler af viden.
- AMD: Vi laver bedre journalistik nu end tidligere.
- MVU: Hvor skal Cavling-priserne komme fra?
- AMD: Så længe der er journalistik i særklasse kommer de af sig selv.
- Dorte Toft: Det er at stikke blår i øjnene af de studerende at bilde dem ind de bare skal lave deres eget medie og så går det nok.
- MBØ: Vi gør det for at give den studerende ideen om at det er noget de også kan gøre.
- AMD: De skal være i stand til udvikle medierne, også de klassiske.
- @lolula: Hvordan ruster i de studerende i brug af medier som fx Twitter?
- MBØ: Vi behøver ikke give dem kompetencer i sociale medier etc. – det klarer de selv.
- MVU: Hvis deres navn ikke står bøjet i neon mere, hvad er så motivationen? Redde verden?
- AMD: Den er intakt, men man skal i højere grad give borgerne det de vil have. Vi har stadig en pligt til at være alment dannende.
- MVU: Hvor skal Cavling-vækstlaget komme fra?
- SH: “Nyhedsfabrikken” skal financiere “grave-talenterne”.
- MVU: Hvorfor sætter man værdifulde, kostbare journalistresourcer til at skrive Britney-historier?
- AMD: Jesper Woldenhof tog en Cavling-pris sidste år (for “Forbrydelsen” på Berlingske) og var multimedie-student.
- MVU: Men gravede han benet frem?
- AMD: Han var i stand til at facilitere borgerne vha. nettet
- Lisbeth Knudsen: I snakker rigtig meget om Cavling-journalistik, men undersøgelser viser 49% af borgerne ikke mener en eneste af de 70000 historier på en uge var relevante. Vi skal snakke mere om at skrive relevant journalistik end det opsøgende. Dét skal nok komme af sig selv.
- AMD: Vi skal bruge dialog med læserne. Åbne op. Journalistik er pr. definition kritisk.
- SH: Vi bliver mere åbne de næste år.
Kommentar: Interessant oplæg om journalistuddannelserne. Dog irriterer det mig de snakker så meget om Cavling-prisen, men det er vel enhver journalists vådeste drøm at kramme sådan en figur. Jeg er for en gangs skyld enig med Lisbeth Knudsen; sørg for at skrive relevant journalistik (måske endda om andet og mere end Sidney Lee, Anni og Erik etc.) så skal Cavlingen nok komme af sig selv til dem der går ud over det sædvanlige (som fx “Forbrydelsen” gjorde det sidste år).
Thøger Seidenfaden, Politiken:
- Medierne sætter ikke dagsorden for krig.
- Når den amerikanske mediedækning er ekstremt kritisk bliver den moderat kritisk i Danmark.
- Først når Obama siger vi tænke os om vedr. Afghanistan lægger vi an til en debat i Danmark.
- Medierne dikterer ikke debatten – det gør de folkevalgte, hvilket i og for sig er ok, men vagthunden mangler.
- Politikens udgivelse af Jæger-bogen var intuitiv og spontan.
- Temaerne der fulgte var lidt om Geneve-konventionen, men mest om krænkelse af ophavsretten.
- Er der nogen det pt. følger de to auditørundersøgelser?
- Jæger-sagen er kun begyndelsen.
- Vi er for autoritetstro.
- Folket bakker op om krigen fordi tre debatter er slået sammen: integration, terrorisme og den generelle politiske debat. Det handler groft sagt om at slå muslimer ihjel.
- Løkke er ikke identitetspolitiker og han er regionalt trænet.
- “DF er et frådende xenofobisk parti”.
- Der er sket et ryk, en begyndende realisering af at Danmark skal ud af Afghanistan og det er et kæmpe skridt fra for et par år siden hvor der blev sagt vi skal være der i årtier om nødvendigt.
Panel om “Mediernes fremtid” med Kenneth Plummer, DR og Jørn Mikkelsen, Jyllands-Posten:
Kommentar: Kedeligt panel hvor Jørn hurtigt lagde sig ned med ørene lagt bagud og lod sig overhale af en eller post-julefrokost-ramt Plummer der tilmed satte trumf på ved at forære Chris Andersons “Free” til Jørn Mikkelsen.
Panel om den økonomiske krise ved Stig Ørskov, Politiken (SØ); Leif Beck Fallesen, Børsen (LBF) modereret af Kurt Strand, DR (KS):
- SØ: Krisen fortsætter og der er mange flere skelletter i skabet.
- LBF: Har vi sået frø til næste krise med understøttelsen?
- SØ: Der er behov for at bankerne bliver polstret. Der kommer nok ikke reformer da bankerne er i gang med at betale tilbage fordi de er bange for reguleringer.
- LBF: Vi kan ikke bruge samme opskrift igen. Vi har en boble igen nu.
- SØ: Der er for massive stigninger i aktierne nu. Vi har ikke oplevet et lignende vækstfald – der er på 5-6% fra november sidste år til i år – siden 1856.
- LBF: Krisen slår ikke igennem før folket mærker det på ledigheden.
Kommentar: Udemærket oplæg med et par kompetente herrer der dog tegnede et noget dystert billede af hvordan den næste tid ser ud økonomisk.
(Efter det indlæg løb min kuglepen tør for blæk og da jeg var uden computer bliver beskrivelsen af sidste indlæg kort)
Panel med Jon Lund, konsulent; Jacob Bøtter, Wemind; Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, 23video; Sune Aagaard, Kontrabande modereret af Clement Kjærsgaard, DR:
Startede ud med Thomas Madsen-Mygdal der igen fremlagde sin ide om at fundraise 1 million kr. til et par sultne journalister der har lyst til og mod på at starte deres egen redaktion i en kælder på Nørrebro for at få sparket noget gang i branchen. Der er ikke brug for 6,5 mia. i støtte til distribution til de etablerede medier, men en pulje til nye initiativer der kan søsættes af driftige journalister.
Sune Aagaard og Jacob Bøtter har lavet www.mediemodeller.dk hvor de kommer med 7 bud på hvordan man kan tjene penge på sit indhold på nettet. Det er absolut læsværdigt og et godt indlæg i en debat der handler om “Hvorfor tjener vi ikke penge?” fremfor “Hvordan kan vi tjene penge?”.
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Alt i alt et godt arrangement hvor jeg desværre gik glip af bloggernes panel i starten af dagen og bl.a. Dorte Tofts senere på aftenen. Hvis der er noter eller andet fra disse smider jeg dem gerne ind i indlægget i en opdatering.