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firefox went 1.0 today
oh yeah – firefox went 1.0 today. eons beyond internet explorer.
get it here:
crafty baby
crafty baby
Posted by Hello
the death of branding
wired had a few great articles this month. of course i can’t remember the epiphanies i had whilst reading them, but perhaps they will return later. maybe one of them had to do w/ us being at this great crossroads where civilization will be defined for centuries based on how we handle intellectual property and software and the internet – a great shared wealth of knowledge, not commoditized, info at your fingertips, that whole thing.
the other one had to do w/ the article on the the slow death of brands, and how people are no longer loyal to brand names like they were generations ago – now that we have cheaper, better products competing w/ brand names, and all the information and reviews we could ever want to judge a product by floating in the ethers of cyberspace, brands mean less than the value the product packs. and so they say that the brand will no longer carry the cache it once did. i nearly entirely agree – the only thing that i’d add would be that when in doubt, i will always side w/ a brand for several reasons:
1. the old mentality that you can count on its quality w/o much knowledge of the product. yes, it may be inferior to cheaper products from lesser names flooding the market, but if you have no idea, you can for the most part rely on the brand you know.
2. jumping from the last point, when in completely uncharted territory, i will almost always choose the product offered by what appears to be clean looking brand. if i stop on the side of the highway for an overnight motel, i’ll pick the one w/ the bright lights and the simple graphic logo – for all i know the world’s best mom and pop motel is across the street. but when i’m in a situation where there’s no time for research, i’ll choose what looks branded. another example of this – if i have to stop for gas, i can almost always count on a station that looks branded to be cleaner, have a nicer layout, and more products.
yeah, that’s pretty much it. but i like the idea that brands as they are are on their way out. look at how network tv has ended up – they rely on the fact that they’re pretty much the only game in town and end up spewing all kinds of garbage to the point where they’re now going to take sitcom ideas from college courses.
rock is bad music to listen to when trying to conc…
rock is bad music to listen to when trying to concentrate. the variability of tones/chords/volumes/frequencies/pitch all vie for your attention – ‘listen to me!’ they scream. it doesn’t matter how much you love the music; it doesn’t matter how good it is – as long as you can’t drown it out into the background of your mind, where ideas percolate, then music is a distraction.
that’s why electronic and ambient music is so great for studying/designing. right from the start, it establishes a rhythm that steadily builds, layers, increases in complexity – but it does so in a nondistracting manner. suddenly its five minutes later, and you realize the song is somehow different than it was before. and plus, you don’t necessarily notice the beginning and end of songs, which are so noticeable in rock. ambient blends into your consciousness; becomes a part of your present psyche. how i long to turn off the rock that’s blaring from the speakers in studio now.
kenny 