Tech Life

A Precious Hour

I am told that the manner by which others understand that I am busy is when my writing coherence suffers. This primarily occurs in email when whole words are dropped, sentences become jumbled, and logic falls on the floor. Rands, I literally did not understand what you were asking in that email. Poorly written emails… more

February 29, 2012 13 Comments

Interview: Scott Berkun

My introduction to Scott Berkun was his amazing talk at Webstock 2008 on the Myths of Innovation, based on one of the three books he’s published in the last decade. I remember his talk not only because of the compelling content, but because he eschewed the traditional get-to-know-you slides in his presentation – he jumped… more

February 28, 2012 1 Comment

How Can I Help You?

Being computer literate means getting asked to help. I’m happy to help. I believe the less you fear your computer, phone, or tablet, the more you’ll get out of it, so, absolutely, How can I help you? However, this free tech support does come at a cost. I have a system for evaluating a problem… more

November 13, 2011 15 Comments

Why?

Early in the design discussion for the logo for the latest Rands in Repose charity t-shirt, Robert Padbury responded to my early design feedback: “You know, I realized something when I was thinking about this the other day – People don’t really have more than the following three responses to a design: It’s awesome. It… more

November 6, 2011 9 Comments

Building Serendipity

Blake looks tired. He’s sitting in the food court at O’Hare Terminal 1. He’s halfway through a beer and the jokes are coming out, but they’re a little labored. Blake is tired. Blake’s tired because Blake goes to a lot of conferences. Earlier in the conversation, he was explaining the next month of travel and… more

October 3, 2011 9 Comments

The Anatomy of a Notification

In an otherwise elegant and well-integrated operating system, the notifications user interface in iOS 4.x feels like a wart — a tacked-on afterthought that offers a bare minimum of usefulness. Competitors have jumped all over this weakness. An early Microsoft Windows Phone ad implies a strategic notifications deficiency by showing users glued to their iPhones…… more

June 5, 2011 18 Comments

Summer Intern Field Guide

Dear Summer Interns: Your stock is up — like way up. Ten years ago when I was hiring interns at the mothership, my incredibly flawed and shortsighted policy was to hire as many as they’d let me, dole ’em out to the teams that screamed the loudest, and see what happened. There were successes, we… more

April 19, 2011 13 Comments

The Noise

It started that morning when you actually had time to go to your favorite coffee shop on that Wednesday morning. You, like many of us, had a bunch of time off for Christmas, so you decided, “I never go to that coffee shop and it’s one of my favorite places to think. Fuck it, I’m… more

February 2, 2011 35 Comments

Interview: Marco Arment

On my list of horrendously bungled acquisitions, I put Delicious near the top. Since its acquisition by Yahoo in 2005, the biggest user-facing change to the site was a visual refresh in 2008. Even with this rampant feature stagnation, I’d stuck with the site because it solved a daily need for me — bookmarks anywhere.… more

January 25, 2011 18 Comments

The Art of Not

I sign up for every single beta, trial, or preview that crosses my inbox as a virtual land grab for the “rands” username. Yes, I am very interested in whatever bleeding edge thingamahoo you’re up to, but the chances are this will be the only time I’m going to login into your service. It is… more

November 12, 2010 4 Comments