Same bits, different name. I was thinking that the Bit Space was getting a little crowded these days so I wanted to pursue some differentiation through assuming the persona of Christian, the everyman from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. I always intended this series to be less geek-focused anyway, and perhaps the new title will convey that.
Playing my part in a viral world. I'm playing my part in helping "The Empire Strikes Barack" continue its viral course.
Defining ourselves by our limitations. Not. Every developer should read this ProBlogger post "What you say is what you are - The Problem of Blogger Inferiority Complex" and substitute the word "developer" where it says "blogger." This post comes on the heels of a post with a similar theme from The Mabster titled "Developing with Confidence." I enjoyed a comment from Nigel to Mab's post, "...of the technologies picked at the beginning of a project 1) one of them will have been wrong, and 2) at least one will have been made obsolete."
May is Zune Awareness Month. Okay, not really. (Though May 1st was RSS Awareness Day. How goofy is that?!) I was in my Doctor's office for a checkup yesterday and placed my Zune on the counter. The Doctor's Assistant sees my Zune and asks, "What's that, your phone?" "No, it's a Zune. From Microsoft. A non-iPod." "Do you like it?" she asks me. I tried to be succinct, "Yes, a lot, bigger screen, better sound, the software works well with files and media. Do you have an iPod?" I ask her. "Oh yes, I like it, but I hear the Zune can connect with other Zunes to share songs and photos," she said. "Yes, that's true, but it only works if there is more than one Zune in the room." Ha, ha. She never saw a Zune before, but she knew it had social functions that the iPod didn't have. Interesting. I'd like to share a song with someone during my lifetime, so I'm making May Zune Awareness Month. Damn it.
Scroll through Smashing Magazine's Best of April 2008. I've said it before, the volume and quality of output from Smashing Magazine is amazing. There's a lot to discover on April 2008's list, but I'll make one call-out to DzineBlog's "Packaging Design Inspiration." Like the title says, inspiring.
Best lead-in to a song recorded live. Tool's Opiate, recorded in 1992 has some live cuts on it, one of which is Cold and Ugly. Before the song begins a member of the band says, "Throw that Bob Marley Wannabe mother f--ker out of here!" I don't know why that cracked me up so much. You can hear it on this mp3sparks full track preview.