Jon Orlin's Blog

"My iPhone has 2 million times the storage of the 1969 Apollo 11 spacecraft computer. They went to..."

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:10:00 -0400

“My iPhone has 2 million times the storage of the 1969 Apollo 11 spacecraft computer. They went to the moon. I throw birds at pig houses.”

- @BillMurray

This is from a 2009 TED talk, but if you haven’t seen this...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:56:19 -0400

This is from a 2009 TED talk, but if you haven’t seen this yet, its worth watching. You’ve never seen anyone play the piano like this before. (via Eric Lewis rocks the jazz world) I had the pleasure of speaking with Eric at our Crunchies event a few years ago.

Flashmob Beethoven Symphony No. 9 from July 2012. It’s...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 01:14:00 -0400

Flashmob Beethoven Symphony No. 9 from July 2012. It’s been around for awhile and has more than 1 million views. But its of the best flashmob videos. Done by a Spanish bank, Banc Sabadell, for its 130th anniversary.

"There’s always a defect, always a slow drip, somewhere. Every plan, every organization, every..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:26:37 -0400

“There’s always a defect, always a slow drip, somewhere. Every plan, every organization, every venture has a glitch.
The question isn’t, “is this perfect?” The question is, “will this get me there?”
Sometimes we make the mistake of ignoring the big leaks, the ones that threaten our journey.
More often, though, we’re so busy fixing tiny leaks that we get distracted from the real goal, which is to go somewhere.”

- Seth Godin

@SHAQ , Shaquille O’Neal, (7 ft 1 in) picks up our TCTV...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:02:45 -0400

@SHAQ , Shaquille O’Neal, (7 ft 1 in) picks up our TCTV Reporter Colleen Taylor following our interview at SXSW. I had asked him if we could get a photo of both of them after the interview and this is what he did.

How Google Pulled Off Their Live Video Skydiving With Glasses Demo

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:40:51 -0400

This robot wins at Rock Paper Scissors every time. Wow. Is it...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 01:00:00 -0400

This robot wins at Rock Paper Scissors every time. Wow.

Is it cheating? here is how it does it. http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/fusion/Janken/index-e.html

Facebook Had a Master Password Its Early Employees Could Use to Log In as Any User

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:49:17 -0400

This interesting nugget in a Wall Street Journal article today, called “The Woman in the Facebook Frat House”:

Once we learned how the software worked, he taught us, without batting an eye, the master password with which we could log in as any Facebook user and gain access to all messages and data. “You can’t write it down,” he said, and so we committed it to memory.

I briefly experienced stunned disbelief: They just hand over the password with no background check to make sure that I am not a crazed stalker?

Security measures would be implemented later that made it impossible for anyone to use the master password without authenticating themselves as an employee. And a year after that, the password would disappear entirely in favor of other, more secure forms of logging in to repair accounts. But at the beginning, there was only one password. For us, as administrators, everything on Facebook really was there for the seeing.

I’m told this is normal and was also true at Twitter.

How many early Facebook users were aware Mark Zuckerberg and any Facebook employee could easily log into their account on a whim?

The WSJ article is an excerpt from a new book by Katherine Losse, who joined Facebook in 2005 as an early member of its customer-relations staff.

Dan Dorfman (1929-2012) Gave To The Masses What Was Known To A Chosen Few

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:41:00 -0400

The financial journalist Dan Dorfman died this past weekend at 82. Dan was known for reporting stock market takeover rumors and other news that would cause stocks to skyrocket or fall. Dan wrote the Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column in the ’70s and later worked at CNBC in the ’90s.

I had the honor and pleasure of working with Dan in the ’80s when I was the Producer of Moneyline at CNN and Dan was one of our nightly commentators. I would speak to Dan (or his kind assistant Jeannette Walls, who later became a MSNBC gossip columnist and New York Times best selling author for her memoir, “The Glass Castle”) almost daily to find out what story he was planning to report on and order up any necessary graphics. I’d wait until after the markets had closed, because I didn’t want to know about Dan’s info while the market was open, so I could avoid even the appearance of anything unethical.

Dan was always so excited about his stories, sometimes breathless. When he arrived, he was always so full of energy and humor. In his segments at Moneyline, he reported some big scoops. Sometimes he was right, and sometimes he got it wrong. But he always had a purpose. He really wanted the little guy, the small investor to have the same knowledge as the big guys.

In an interview in 2008, he said “On my tombstone, I would like it to read, ‘Here lies Dan Dorfman, a reporter who cared.’ All that I’ve tried to do is to give to the masses what was known to a chosen few. That was my contribution.” It certainly was. And it lead the way for many business journalists who came after him.

Dan would always come up with something for the show, even if it was last minute and changed several times. One night, it might be one big takeover scoop. Other nights, when he didn’t have something great, he would string five minor stories together to fill his slot. He knew those weren’t his best nights.

Or, he would share a research report that only the big institutional investors would get. You have to remember it was a very different time back then, with no Internet and all the small investor had to rely on was a daily newspaper, weekly magazine or our nightly tv show.

I heard that Dan Dorfman was the basis of one of the scenes in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street movie. As I recall, traders are heard leaking some news to a financial reporter, and everyone on Wall Street knew Dan Dorfman would be that reporter in real life.

Dan told me a story that for some reason I remember to this day. Dan once had this new fancy luxury car and we’d heard he got it from one of his employers. I asked him, “How did you get that into your contract?” He said “I just asked for it. You won’t get things unless you ask for them.” Back then, his employers knew how valuable Dan was and wanted to give him what he asked for so he could keep bringing his scoops to the public.

"Traditional ideas about what is opinion and what is news, what is advertising and what is editorial,..."

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:56:00 -0400

“

Traditional ideas about what is opinion and what is news, what is advertising and what is editorial, and the separation between content makers and consumers, are evaporating each day.

Those consumers will decide where the line is drawn, not those of us who are vested by belief or self-interest in the old order.

”

- Sadly, David Carr’s got it right in his article “Digital Media’s Ever-Swifter Incursion”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/business/media/huffington-magazine-continues-digital-medias-incursion.html

InBox To Zero Achieved

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:01:00 -0400

I’ve finally achieved Inbox To Zero. It’s a state of bliss that probably won’t last long. A big part of getting to here involved not using Email as a To Do list. I’m a big GTD groupie (Getting Things Done, by David Allen) and following those ideas really helped.

Here are some of the tools I used:

OmniFocus - I just started using this GTD software. At first, I thought OmniFocus was too complex and tasks would slip thru unnoticed. But once I learned the power of its Perspectives, the software becomes incredible. Before, I had tried many other GTD tools such as Toodledo and my own custom-coded php/mysql solution. But OmniFocus syncs to all my Mac’s, iPhone, and iPad over a WebDav server and has so many more features. Its easy to add tasks from anywhere and its context and project taxonomy matches the GTD approach better than anything else I’ve seen.

Sanebox - Technically, my Inbox is zero. But, I’ve still got hundreds of emails setting in other mail folders. Sanebox helps get the lesser important emails out of the main inbox. I’ve scanned these other folders, so I know I’m not missing anything essential and I’ll get to the emails in these other folders one by one later.

Evernote & Dropbox - I put certain types of reference material into these boxes, where they are easier to find.

Two GTD observations for those that follow GTD and won’t make any sense if you don’t.

1. The idea of Contexts has changed since the book came out. Contexts used to be places like Home, Work, Errands, or People/Agenda’s where certain tasks could only be done. But, computer work is now done everywhere, at home, work, or even when traveling. I still find some of the Contexts useful, but the nature of work has changed them.

2. Some GTD systems let you classify by tags or keywords and others force you to pick a specific Context for a Task. I’ve tried both, but like using Contexts more. But, I’ve also discovered a hybrid system that uses both.

Let’s say I want to know what tasks I should do over the weekend. Weekend isn’t a project or really a Context by GTD rules. And it doesn’t really make sense to give weekend tasks a start date of this coming weekend unless they must get done on a certain dates. Using dates, you would spend too much time advances tasks not done until the next weekend.

So, I’ve started using a tag like #weekend in the task title. Those are all searchable in Omnifocus and give an easy want to find all those tasks without touching the date info.

The Struggle

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:46:32 -0400

Every great entrepreneur from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg went through The Struggle and struggle they did, so you are not alone. But that does not mean that you will make it. You may not make it. That is why it is The Struggle.

The Struggle is where greatness comes from.

From Ben Horowitz’s post on “The Struggle” http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/14/the-struggle/

How Common Is Your Birthday?

Thu, 17 May 2012 03:22:00 -0400

This is a great visual, informative display of information.

More about the background at http://thedailyviz.com/2012/05/12/how-common-is-your-birthday/

hat tip: Beth Fouhy

How To Handle Telemarketing Calls

Sat, 12 May 2012 14:40:00 -0400

I just told a telemarketer who called me at home to give me her home phone number. And that I would call them back at their home number.

She says “Well, I’m not at home.”

I say “Well, I AM at home.”

She says “I can’t call you from my home.”

I say “Good, then don’t call me at my home. And don’t call me back. Good day.”

Text editing on the iPad is lousy. But here’s a way to...

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:20:24 -0400

Text editing on the iPad is lousy. But here’s a way to fix that. Will Apple listen?

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 02:47:00 -0400

“

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.

That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

”

- Steve Jobs, Wired Interview

Hey Scott - Lying On Your Resume At Yahoo! Could Result In Immediate Discharge!

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/03/hey-scott-lying-on-your-resume-at-yahoo-could-result-in-immediate-discharge/

"Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate..."

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:54:00 -0400

“Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.”

- 5 good items for the top of your to do list, from Paul Graham, who inverted 5 regrets heard from palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware. http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

"3D is inevitable because it’s about aligning our entertainment systems to our sensory system. We all..."

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:38:14 -0400

“3D is inevitable because it’s about aligning our entertainment systems to our sensory system. We all have two eyes, we all see the world in 3D. And it’s natural for us to want our entertainment in 3D as well.”

- James Cameron, Titanic and Avatar director, from my TechCrunch interview.

James Cameron: The Future Of 3D Will Be Defined By TV

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

My interview with the Blockbuster director: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/20/james-cameron-the-future-of-3d-will-be-defined-by-tv/