August 28, 2008
August 26, 2008
August 24, 2008
August 23, 2008
Your company's computer guy
We've been talking to an exceptional quantity of nerds lately, though they have majorly upgraded in status from the mid-1990s. Back then, they were like "Nick Burns" from the very funny SNL skits of the era (check out the latest Peek post below for some embedded videos of that -- I love the "AOL doesn't even have javascript!!" one).
Now, however, the typical "tech blog" reader has a supercool looking phone in their pocket, a slick mp3 player, a high-design laptop. Not as bad as that Windows NT database admin you used to know...but still a whiff of unpleasant snobby, you know?
A bunch of snippets from the ~100 messages we got from emails and comments this week
Hilarious SNL guy who reminds me QUITE a bit of the “average” gizmodo reader….
August 21, 2008
Digg Peek
http://digg.com/gadgets/Will_Peek_s_100_Lo_Fi_BlackBerry_Take_Off
August 20, 2008
Peek in Silicon Alley Insider
Alley Insider asks who wants Peek
Huffington Post runs this too, saying we may catch the market by surprise
Peak Speaks about the answer Peek isn't for geeks or businessy types; it's for people who want an easy, attractive way to stay connected
August 12, 2008
Being crotchety
Researching a post about email on the Peek Speaks blog, one of my colleagues pointed out these great lines at Neal Stephenson's old homepage:
Umberto Eco: "I don't even have an e-mail address. I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages."
Donald Knuth: "Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. "
Then Stephenson himself: All of my time and attention are spoken for--several times over. Please do not ask for them.
Some years ago, I wrote a document that tried to explain why I am not very diligent about answering my mail, and why I only accept speaking engagements on rare and special occasions. The document is entitled Why I am a bad correspondent and you are welcome to read it.
More recently I found an article in the Atlantic Monthly by Jonathan Rauch that describes my personality with uncanny accuracy. It explains why, whenever I find myself in a room full of people, or discover a lot of e-mail from strangers in my inbox, my first thought is: "where did all these people come from and how do I make them go away?" This---i.e. the discovery that I am a classic introvert---does not render "Bad Correspondent" invalid, but it does fill out the picture a little. In particular, extroverts ought to read this article!
The bottom line is as follows: I simply cannot respond to all incoming stimuli unless I retire from writing novels. And I don't wish to retire at this time.
August 11, 2008
My picture 'server'
When http://home.drownout.com is down, try 71.167.7.201. If you really want...
August 7, 2008
Help me out by blogging about Peek
Write a blog post and link to Peek at getpeek.com
And say something nice while you're at it!!
August 6, 2008
August 3, 2008
McSweeney's lives
Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Short Imagined Monologues
Jeff Bezos
Says Hi to You
in the Waiting Room
of Your Doctors' Office.
BY Evan Johnston
- - - -
Hi, it's me, Jeff Bezos. I was just catching up on some summer reading with my Kindle, which is currently retailing for $359 plus shipping through Amazon. Would you believe we sold out of these little darlings in the first five and a half hours they were available?
Yes, that's a bandage on my hand. I have a massive paper cut. But that's not important right now. Instead, I want to tell you a little bit about myself, and about the common reading experience we all share.
As a small child, I loved books, and dreamed of a way to read them on my Etch A Sketch or calculator. And dreams, as we all know, have a way of coming true.
Now, like you, I get a lot of my reading done in the least hospitable of places. There's the airport, the ensuing plane flight, and the subsequent crash in the middle of an ocean, followed by being marooned on a deserted oil rig.
Well, all right, that last scenario is a bit dramatic. But let's take it as a test of the Kindle's power. You read the Kindle at the airport, catching up on all the blogs you're missing out on. Once on the plane, you start reading a legal thriller about a lawyer who successfully sues the pope. Sorry, gave away the ending. But now let's get to the oil rig.
Assuming it doesn't get wet, the Kindle could become your best friend on that oil rig—unless there are other survivors. In the likely event that those survivors turned against you—let's say they know that you caused the accident by demanding that the pilot look at your Kindle—you would be forced to deal with them. Harshly.
The Kindle can't help you with that particularly gruesome task—but it can help you recover from the psychological trauma of successfully sending your accusers to a watery grave. Reading, of course, is the best therapy a marooned murderer can buy.
Now, if you turn off the wireless function, you could be marooned for up to a week and still have enough battery charge for your Kindle. Not bad! And, unless you can read 125,000 books in seven days, I don't think you'll be getting bored. Unless trying to read in the gloomy light of the oil rig, wondering what will become of you, and what happened to your fellow passengers, is something you would consider boring.
Did I mention that your Kindle knows your name? You can't say that about the fish you'll be catching with your bare hands and killing with your teeth. I can't imagine they'd be too helpful in buying books, either. And if you're curious about any of the kinds of fish you're eating you can look them up on Wikipedia.
But right now, of course, I'm not on an oil rig. And neither are you. But here we are, together, waiting for a doctor.
August 2, 2008
Manhattan prices
A Glut of One-Bedroom Apartments - NYTimes.com
The mind boggles, but in 2007 the price for apartments in Manhattan was UP 21% and for one-bedrooms "only" 7%. While prices are freefalling everywhere else...