Tag: Technology

Selective enthusiasm

... from what I can see, a large part of today’s technological buzz is what I call gadgetry and a lot of what I read about it is bathed in self-indulgence and navel-gazing. A lot of people in the tech world look mesmerised by all these digital toys and it seems that all they’re interested in are newer, cooler toys to keep playing with...

My enthusiasm is all for new discoveries and technological advances that really make things advance, that really make me feel there’s true progress.Riccardo Mori

I've only recently discovered Riccardo's writing through another contact. I like the way he writes. His articles are thoughful and well articulated.

I understand what he's talking about. Six years ago I would say that I was definitely one of these over-enthusiastic geeks. Everything that Google or Apple did -- no matter insignificant in the grand scheme of things -- was received with glee. But I started to change when I found it harder to explain my excitement to my non-geek family, friends and co-workers. They started to aks questions like "How is that useful?" or "Why do I need that?". I started to realise I had no answer.

Fanboys

Politics, religion, sports, bands — these are the tents under which we typically congregate. Allah, Judas Priest, the Cubs, sure. But smartphones? It seems sort of hard to believe that a graham cracker-sized computer that’s supposed to be a tool, a means to an end, could somehow deliver the same level of ecstatic experience. That it could be powerful enough to feel like a movement.The Verge

Some might consider me a fanboy of Apple products. Perhaps I am. Or perhaps I just like pointing out the factual inaccuracies I see on a lot of Apple-bashing web sites. Opinions are fine with me. Saying “I love product X because of feature Y” is stating an opinion. Stating that another product sucks because it does not have that feature is also just an opinion. But … saying that one product does something that another does not when clearly they both have the same feature, that's disingenuous. It riles me up. Perhaps it shouldn't.

Matt Gemmell is making changes

On a day-to-day basis, not a lot is going to change. This blog hasn’t been exclusively about tech for quite some time now, if it ever was. And it’s not going to exclude tech and software from now on – because I’m still genuinely interested in that industry. Many of my finest friendships have been made there. I’m still keeping up to date. I’m still annoyed at Adobe’s installers. I’m still counting down the days til the next keynote when I can find a reason to buy some new Apple kit. I’m still passionate about user-focused computing and how empowering it can be. I still care. My tweet stream is hardly going to change.Matt Gemmell