Off-hours mobile usage
August 25, 2006 | CommentsMark Curtis on mobilising our meat based selves: "On Flirtomatic, a flirting community on mobile and web that I'm closely involved with, we see our biggest interaction (chat) levels at 4.30 in the afternoon and between 10 and 12 midnight – and equally on phones and web. These latter users are to some extent choosing a virtual night out."
We see similar behaviour with mobile puzzling. We expected commuting times to be the big hours for it - 7-9am and 5-7am, mirroring the times when crosswords and sudoku are embedded into everyday lives already. (We can track when people are actually wanting to puzzle because Puzzler uses a single download, pay-per-play model)
No way. Usage grows steadily throughout the day and peaks in the wee hours (2-3am). This is complementary to puzzling in the real world.
Making the Most of a Working Day
August 25, 2006 | CommentsMaking the Most of a Working Day: "Big projects in particular come down to planning and not just planning in the sense that you stick some deadlines in a calendar and leave people to it. It's up to each and every one of the members in a team to assess their to-do lists and decide which of the three modes they need to engage in order to accomplish the tasks and communicate them openly"
I liked the recognition of different "modes of working" in this post too:
- If your work requires long periods of un-interrupted concentration
- If your work requires short bursts of intensive activity
- If Your Work Requires Creative Team Input
Graffletopia
August 25, 2006 | CommentsGraffletopia: "As a web designer, I've been using OmniGraffle for years. It's fantastic for designing interfaces — miles better than Adobe Illustrator for most tasks. Stencils are a big part of why Graffle is great. So, hopefully, this website will make it easier to find cool stencils."
Etsy
August 25, 2006 | CommentsEtsy: "an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. Etsy lets you shop by color, place, time and material."
Very cute.
EFF: Frequently Awkward Questions for the Entertainment Industry
August 25, 2006 | CommentsFrequently Awkward Questions for the Entertainment Industry: "The RIAA and MPAA trot out their spokespeople at conferences and public events all over the country, repeating their misleading talking points. Innovators are pirates, fair use is theft, the sky is falling, up is down, and so on. Their rhetoric shouldn't be given a free pass.
To that end, EFF has prepared a sample list of tough questions for times when you hear entertainment industry representatives speaking and want to challenge their positions. Asking hard questions is a way of "keeping honest people honest" and revealing when they're actually being deceptive."