/mark http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/ Mark Privett's log about business, creativity, culture, design, technology, and anything else reasonably entertaining. 2006-02-06T20:08:24-08:00 Top Ten Tech Job Wages http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/02/top_ten_tech_jo.html This list is for "high-impact technology professionals" and what they earn. It doesn't include any user experience or design positions or business owners for that matter. Seems strange that business-owners are left out. And what "impacts" the user more than the experience or interaction they have with technology?

Looks like the 'architecture and technology is driving the experience' is still the dominant para-dig-em. And a Senior Scientist is the next to lowest rate? Too bad.

Wages Released

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Technology mark 2006-02-06T20:08:24-08:00
Ron Burgundy in Iraq http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/02/ron_burgundy_in.html

(via Boing Boing)

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Culture mark 2006-02-06T19:29:50-08:00
100 Best First Lines from Novels http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/02/100_best_first.html My favorite: Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

More at LitLine (via Kottke)

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Culture mark 2006-02-01T09:41:33-08:00
Mouse thrown into fire sets home ablaze http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/01/mouse_thrown_in.html A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man's house and set it on fire.

Poetic justice?

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Humor mark 2006-01-09T10:03:43-08:00
Wacky USB Drives http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/01/wacky_usb_drive.html The other day my friend was riffing on USB drives and the literal/metaphorical sexual nature of connecting (inserting) them to one's computer.In that spirit, here are some products, real and otherwise, that play with the concept of the USB drive:

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Humor mark 2006-01-07T19:47:15-08:00
Intel Launches New Logo and Brand Renewal http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/01/intel_launches.html Repositioning itself as more of a consumer electronics manufacturer, which they've failed to do in the past, Intel is launching its new logo and brand identity at this year's CES.

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Customer Experience mark 2006-01-03T10:13:32-08:00
New Year, New Entry http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2006/01/new_year_new_en.html It's been an incredibly long time since I've posted a message to my blog. Ironically, the whole time I didn't feel like posting I was designing blogging software.

Anyhoo, I felt inspired to post something today. Not necessarily because of the new year.

Here are a couple highlights from today's blog troll.

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Blogging mark 2006-01-03T09:39:32-08:00
World's First Digital Camera http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/09/worlds_first_di.html Story about the Kodak engineer who developed the world's first digital camera. It was the size of a toaster. It took 23 seconds to 'take' the exporsure and read it to digital cassette tape at a resolution of .01 megapixels. It also took 23 seconds to read the image to a monitor. Now Kodak is going to sue the pants off Sony for patent infringement.

Full story in the Seattle P-I

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Art mark 2005-09-09T09:57:13-08:00
Seattle Area Busses to get WiFi Trial http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/09/seattle_area_bu.html Beginning today, some riders on two Metro (Seattle metropolitan area) bus routes will be able to turn on and tune in their laptops to the Internet using Wi-Fi wireless connections in a five-month trial that could expand to other routes, if successful.

Seattle P-I article

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Wi-Fi mark 2005-09-07T09:51:30-08:00
Compassionate Conservatism in Action http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/09/compassionate_c.html In a segment at the top of the show [NPRs Marketplace] on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city [Houston], Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone Ive talked to says we're going to move to Houston."Then she added: "What Im hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them." [emphasis added]

Editor & Publisher

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Picked-up in The Nation with additional feel-good quote from W.

On Friday, when even Republican lawmakers were giving the federal government an "F" for its response to the crisis, President Bush heaped praise on embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown. As thousands of victims of the hurricane continued to plead for food, water, shelter, medical care and a way out of the nightmare to which federal neglect had consigned them, Brown cheerily announced that "people are getting the help they need."

Barbara Bush's son put his arm around the addled FEMA functionary and declared, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Article

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Current Affairs mark 2005-09-05T20:45:14-08:00
President Bush is to blame for the scale of the disaster as a result of his administration's policies and actions http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/09/president_bush.html Here are some of the lowlights of W's head-in-the-sand approach to 'security' in the 'homeland':
  • A year ago the US army corps of engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken

  • When George W. Bush became president, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely potential disasters - after a terrorist attack on New York City (and we know about his response to that one)

  • Since becoming President, Bush has reduced the Army Corps of Engineers budget by 44% (much of that money going to fund the 'war' in Iraq)

  • Many, many decisions to ignore science and have conclusive findings his administration did not 'like,' deleted from government reports
Full article

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Politics mark 2005-09-05T12:28:56-08:00
A Usability Study of Online Fonts http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/08/a_usability_stu.html Bottom line: sans-serif, Verdana; serif, Georgia.

A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which is Best and When?

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Customer Experience mark 2005-08-29T09:36:35-08:00
Is That a Vegetable or Are You Happy to See Me? http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/08/is_that_a_veget.html

Somone's uber-Zucchini -
Original

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mark 2005-08-22T18:39:59-08:00
Google Smartphones and Laptops? http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/08/google_smartpho.html From N.Y. Times article, "Where Does Google Plan to Spend $4 Billion?" (reg. required):

Indeed, largely overlooked last week in the glare of the $4 billion stock announcement was Google's acquisition of Android Inc., a start-up founded by a former Apple hardware designer, Andy Rubin. The move did not go unnoticed, however, by Silicon Valley cognoscenti.

Mr. Rubin, who also worked for General Magic when it was in its start-up phase, went on to be a co-founder of Danger Inc., maker of the Sidekick smart phone, a combination cellphone and personal organizer that is sold by T-Mobile. Mr. Rubin is being joined by Andy Hertzfeld, another Apple and General Magic veteran. General Magic developed a handheld device in the 1990's.

The Sidekick was an early favorite of both Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who wore the units on their belts as all-purpose voice and data communicators several years ago.

A Google-branded smart phone has long been a pet project of Mr. Page, and earlier this year Google invested $2 million in a project by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, to develop a $100 wireless laptop. The smart-phone idea, which the company has not talked about publicly, would be a way to extend Google's reach and give it a more extensive connection with its users by offering Google on a multipurpose mobile device.

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Business mark 2005-08-22T09:09:00-08:00
Timothy Leary http://www.wattfarm.com/mark/archives/2005/08/timothy_leary.html Leary began his career in 1954 as a research psychologist at the Kaiser Foundation in Oakland. While there he published a great many papers, wrote an acclaimed psychology textbook, and developed a standard personality test used by prison officials to help classify prisoners according to their potential escape profile.

(When Leary himself was convicted many years later, prison officials unwittingly gave him the standard "Leary Test." Leary was able to give answers which showed him to be a low flight risk, and that got him into a minimum security facility. He soon escaped.)

Source

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Culture mark 2005-08-12T14:27:54-08:00