Jon Stribling

My own piece of the Internet
 
Jon Stribling

Surviving the big idea

I was watching the Survivor final last week and was amused that the evil Russell thought that he had won “the game” even though Sandra had walked away with the $1 million. Clearly Russell was playing a different game. He was playing the big man in town game and Sandra was playing to win. I know which game I would rather be playing. Often when working in teams to produce products or interfaces you come across someone playing the big man in town game. The thing about them is that they are always right and they can never be told …

The importance of lying

Are you a liar? I am. I lie continually. I am like that Jim Carrey character who lies so much he is forced to spend a whole day telling the truth. Lying, whether it be stretching the truth or a bald faced porky pie is an important skill. Federal opposition leader Tony Abbott has established that he is a compulsive liar. According to Abbott things can be said in the heat of the moment that aren’t true. So if they aren’t true they are lies. And that’s OK because it happened in the heat of the moment. With professional and …

I really want to delete my facebook account

I really want to delete my facebook account. I was enthusiastic about the idea after all the changes the Zuck made to “privacy” this year and then I read this polemic by Jason Calacanis about how facebook is evil and the Zuck has Zucked his way to the top. I was kinda gratified because it meant that my suspicion and anxiety about facebook was felt tenfold over by an industry observer. It meant that my doubts about the business model were in part justified because eroding privacy for commercial gain is clearly unethical. And not being transparent about it is …

Is Twitter just a million moronic conversations

Once watching the TV was a complete passive act of slovenly consumption. The evening show was watched while slumped on the couch all senses dulled by the blue rays of the box. Now watching the TV is only one part of watching the TV. In face “TV events” can be enjoyed by hooking into the Twitter firehose and looking for the right hashtag. During the Logies, an Australian TV award show for all US folks, I noticed that the digital hipsters at the event were tweeting, that people on the couch were tweeting, that journalists were tweeting. Everybody was talking …

Why there are no stupid users online

When you’re one of the cool kids, it is pretty easy to forget that not everyone is in the cool club. In fact, some people are so far removed from the cool club that they haven’t heard of Twitter, social media, ecommerce, WordPress, Android, the Nexus 1, or the RunKeeper iPhone application. But generally, every human living in an advanced economy who can read has heard of Google and Facebook. We’re so connected these days that it is easy to forget that there are a bunch of people who are not connected; who are yet to realise the liberating potential …

Getting it done

One of the hardest things to do is get a project, a blog, a business or a wacky plan started when you have a job and a life. I have fallen in to the trap of creating great plans in my mind and then finding something else to do. Like watching So You Think You Can Dance, Lost or Mad Men. Or perhaps the footy game or cricket game just demands watching. Or there might be a drink at a nice bar with some friends calling your name. If you have dreams of being a player and work in a …

Twitter growing up through acquisitions and advertising

You’re a small start-up. You’ve invested heaps of time and money in your twitter client which will be supported by advertising and suddenly Twitter throw a spanner at your well greased wheel. What do you do? Last week Twitter announced that they had acquired atebits, the folks behind the Twitter iPhone app tweetie. As soon as they did there were a heap of tweets lamenting that Twitter had done so and saying “I feel sorry for all devs”. There are people forming unions and grabbing the pitchforks to storm the barricades. They are talking about creating a new open platform …

Jumping the sofa, or how to be good at what you do

Once upon a time there was a Hollywood star called Tom Cruise who had the world at his feet. He was famous, rich and in love with a beautiful young woman called Katie. Being rich and successful, woman loved him and men envied him. Then one day late in 2005 whilst talking with talk-show host Oprah, Tom celebrated his success and the joy of life by dancing a jig on her sofa; by jumping the sofa. Tom’s fans were appalled and ashamed for him. This irrational exuberance was not the Tom they loved and respected, it was a freaky guy …

Beware the fexpert

An expert is an almighty and powerful entity. The expert arrives in town to the sound of cannon firing, jets displaying tricks above, an appreciative crowd and a gleeful clanging marching band. A fexpert is a fake or faux expert (aka guru) and they tend to slink into town with no one noticing. Some Fexperts even carry their own one man band just to make sure you know that they are there. Whilst some folks might specialise in an area and have a good knowledge of the tricks, the tips and the pitfalls, few are experts. An expert, as the …

The buzz of social media

Google just released Google Buzz which has demands that we “go beyond status messages”. To me this appears to echo the feeling many people had, including me, when confronted with micro-blogging sites like Twitter – so what. It represents a profound misunderstanding of what a status message actually is. Status messages are really: part of a conversation the start of a conversation a cry for help a complaint a grandiose aphorism about what’s wrong with the world a proclamation of love and of course a comedy. Whilst twitter and Facebook might appear to a Google engineer to be merely a …