Digital Living

People Expression Around A Great Product! - M-A-G-I-C-A-L!

Have your ever seen people magical expression around a great product? It's awesome!

Take a look at some of these snapshot:

How often do we see this? People showing their joy, pride and care about the "beautiful, lovely, fascinating, joyful, inspiring, imaginative, fun" product that they just got?

Since Apple introduce their latest product, more often perhaps ?? :-)

It's awesome to experience that.

People -- a.ka. WE -- seems instinctively know when we saw a great product. Cool passionated product seem resonates our aura of joy, fun, pride, passion. And the genuine enthusiastic detail excitement of the creator of the product -- seems to resonate with us well too.

Based on that, we respond, and act.

Nobody tell us to take photograph with our iPod, we just love to do so ("automagically"). Nobody ask us to "admire" the sophisticated beauty (and detail) of the Mac box. Or the latest Leopard. We just do.

The "funny thing" is: I believe the same "emotional drive" or "feel" probably happens also to you, to me and everybody each time we experience a great passionated product. (99% accuracy??). Experiencing something great we -- instinctively and/or joyfully, or at least "rightfully" -- take snapshot of that coolest product, record our joy fun and memory .. along with us in it. Or at least -- if we really don't want us to be in it --  we take photograph of "our coolest passionate product" which reflects our persona, believe and passion ... at one point in time ... "without" any image of us in it. :-)

There seems to be something "magical" with great products that we instinctively can feel it the first time we see it or touch it or play with it. Great passionate products seem to has somekind of "aura" or "magic" that reach deeper into our "emotional" reason and feel too, not just stopping at our "logical"/"reasonable" being.

• That's same kind of thing (and feeling) that happens to us when we experienced our first iPod.
• That's the same kind of thing (and feeling) that happens to us when we saw our first blue-color-candy iMac.
• That's the same kind of thing (and feeling) when that happens to us and "affect" us when we tap our first Sony Walkman.
• That's the same kind of thing (and feeling) that happens to us when we experience our first "cool" Sony product (in the past), Apple product (today), and other great stuff (in the "upcoming" future)!

That aura of joy, fun, pride, excitement, passion spreads! No boring "corporate stuff slides nor PR pitch" -- no matter how "boringly crafted" it is -- is ever needed to make each of us act. One person "catch" the "feel" then spreads it to another, then the other "spreads" it further.

We -- consumers of the great connected-digital era -- perhaps simply act "instinctively" based on our honest heart.

Our "true north" instinctively guide us of what we feel, what we "believe", and what we really would like to do. No "oiled sales pitch" nor "boring CEO epitapth" required to move us automatically (and "automagically") ahead.

No loong borring faked "huraarh" CEO dancing sales pitch (nor huge useless marketing budget) would be able to convince us to move us ahead. It's our "true north" instead that would instinctively guide us what to do. It's our instinctive act and decision. No boring useless "huraah huraah" could ever change that.

With these "lesss-logical, yet more emotional" magical modern-age communication process that probably increasingly happens throughout the "magical part" of the "6th dimension" of our senses, the idea about "genuinely great passionated fascinating product" that we touch -- and happen to be "around us" -- spreads. We just genuinely crave and honestly talk/express about that. No "phony marketing statement" ever comes out of our heart. Our "true north" would simply "forbid" us from doing such.

As people start constantly spreading great news about "really good stuff" only, and constantly together "filtering" the bad ones from "spread", the real beauty of  these "modern way of how 'modern society' selects & filter its greatest product" probably starts to show its greatest impact:

1. We -- society as a whole -- start having a "great filtering mechanism" that collectively help us spread, chooose and differentiate "real great stuff" from the "bad rotten ones".
2. As these "great products" start to makes waves ahead, and producing more and more great hit successes (and sales), the news and ideas about them spreads. More and more people in the industry, in the lab, in the design and innovation centers around the globe then start to "get essence of it". They start to "capture the idea" that the key "formula to successful product" in the modern connected digital world that we live in, is perhaps to create the "next" great fascinating product that people will crave about. (And not to craft up just another "MEDIOCRE" boring one out of the shelves or out of the design floor).
3. As this "build a great passionate product, and nothing else but a GREAT PASSIONATE FASCINATING product" idea spreads, hopefully we'll start seeing more and more great passionated product come out of the design lab and factory lines -- in into the market.
   
4. Our lives and daily living would be so much better because of it.

Such would be a joy, yet the "dangerous consequences" about that is "probably" this:  *wink*

1. As more and more great passionate product comes out (and we love being attached to that), perhaps more and more of us will start filling our vast library of photograph -- everyday -- with more and more  "expressive photos" of us ... with our great products! :-) ** wierd consequences #1 **
2. That way, our photo album, our flickr, our picassa around the world will start not only piled in with our great memoric photo of us with our mom & dad, brother and sister, family, friends ... but also with "us" and our "great stuff. :-) (Sounds magically "wierd" isn't it ??). ** wierd consequces #2 **
3. Years later when somebody take a look at those collective photograph, and asked: "this is you definitely" ... "and this is mom" ... "this is dad" ... "Mary" ... "John" ...and who's this? ... and these??", our "aswer" --  might be/could be/would be (??) --  ... "oh, it's my iPod", and this is "his fiancee the iMac", ... "and this is his daugher the iPod touch", ... and throughout 2007s we go together everywhere!! They're lovely!!  ** super wierd consequences #3!! ** :-) :-)

Oh my! "stop" these future "great fascinating passionated product" from coming pleeease ... it "piled up" our personal (and worldwide) photo libraries !! :-)

A "Picasso" Is A "Picasso", A "Mediocre" Is A MEDIOCRE!

The famous Picasso style drawing
on the original Macintosh

Nick Carr today posted a beautiful piece of thought whereby he argues about "easy to use consumer-software vs. truly complicated off-the-shelf-enterprise-software" that we saw a lot in the market.

I agree fully with Nick's thought and perspective. My view and "thoughts" on how such "wierd" off-the-shelf-enterprise-software thing could ever happen is as follow:

Nick,

Some software probably being designed to be "obvious", intuitive, simple to use since day 1, while some other software probably comes from the "cluttered" mind.

The end result: what you just talk about -- simple vs. complicated software.

It is unfortunate that the process of designing "enterprise software" involve a very "structured", "rigid", "well planned" -- aka "BORING" -- process and mechanism. The end result: a very structured, rigid, well planned, boring software system as well.

On the contrary the consumer software coders try to build something that express fun, joy, excitement, simplicity and "power of the web" at the same time. The end result: powerful software that is obvious and simple (or at least "simpler" to use).

I guess different "mindset" and different "culture" behind the software design and creation process produces the SIGNIFICANTLY different result.

Software in the hand of great few individuals tend to be extremely powerful, friendly and easy to use. (It's a picasso!). Software in the hand of "bunch comittee of 'EXPERTS'" tend to be extremely mediocre, rigid and boring. (It belongs to a bunch of committee of comittee of 'EXPERT' whom report to another bunch of committee of comittee of 'EXPERT' who we don't know -- and they also don't even know each other).

The core DNA of the thought, idea and process seems define the end result that the market got. A picasso becomes a picasso. An "anonymous mediocre" becomes a "mediocre". All is defined since day 1 the company product, culture and team is created.

My two cents. :-) 

Go and read the complete Nick posts logs if you have time. Nick Carr really got this powerful mindset, great practical no-bluff insights, and a truly right-on-time perspectives. It'd be worth your time.

Wisdom Of The Crowd:How The World Knowledge Moving So Fast!

It's amazing to see (and to feel) how fast the world information is spreading and moving fast today.

It was only several days ago that Leopard was released, and the next day you already receive a lot of great, sad, sorry, mad fascinating stories about people experience and opinion installing it. The more you "watch", the more you got.

Click on the picture to "read and see" how people leopard installation experience could look like -- as they "geek out" all night

Some of these "real time thing" tell you a great "story" of how people experience around the world went great, how it went sad, how many went bonker. As collective many, it exposes a great wisdom of the crowd.

Hearing and exposing yourself to this world-stage-at-large (and actively filtering the "garbage" and "irrelevant" noises as well), you start to understand "things" that you do not hear nor never ever understand before. Seeing how -- after people finish scrambling each other and greatly trying to help each other -- they start goes "Yiippieee" and "Yes!" (as their machine and stuff starts to work) is a totally new global world learning experience that you'd never get else where in any formal websites or "corporate training centers" around the world.

It's wisdom of the crowd. This social medium of the internet expose us to the rich "beautiful knowledge" of the world, and bring us the truest, honest, "most helpful advise and experiences" that the internet got (and can offer). Everybody can tap to these vast knowledge of knowhow, understanding and "valuable wisdom". It enhances our experiences, understanding, "collective wisdom", ... and lives.

Here's a look how the "WISDOM OF THE CROWD" "sound" and "feel" on my tweet screen today (click the image to enlarge) :

This is amazing amazing development. Never before society has such tremendous power to voice their opinion, to connect, observe and embrace each other like the web and the social web enables us today.

In the future -- as the web more or more being surrounded by these passionate technology people (and society people, and social people, and "daily people" that just love being there to share and help each other)  -- these kind of thing -- I surely believe -- would bring even more tremendous result and power.

Imagine:

• No matter what kind of experiences that people had -- great, sad, kind, interesting, "boring", "exhilirating", "amazing" or even "normal as usual" -- expressing and sharing it online eventually makes the world knowledge expand at large.

• Our world become a much closer place to be, resembling a "smaller village surrounded by great helpful people and resonating community".

• The net becomes a place where everybody is connected, informing and helping each other at anytime.

• The web becomes a "place" spread across the world where everybody learn and advanced together; where together these community at large create, influence, shape and "define" the next "great possible experience" and "next step  powerful thinking" that world of the future would be crafted and built upon.

Imagine that kind of world of joy, "power", kindness and fun.

Fascinating!

The "Fake Steve Ballmer Blogspot"? Oh My God!!

We have been entertained ourselves with the fascinating Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) secret diary journal and website (or call it blogs if you like). It was chic, it was fun, it was so much feel like el senor Jobso himself all along!

Yet today I discover -- hoham wala wala -- the Fake Steve Ballmer Blogspot!!!

Hwarakadah! Who on earth would spent his time faking himself as the monkey dancing king of the Microsoft empire???

Yet, once reading the blogspot, in all fairness the content is pretty crazy "fun" inspiring reading too. (Although it never change the crucial perspective that Mr. Ballmer is indeed perhaps one of the "wierdest leader" of all the annal history of the Microsoft great empire).

Here's a look at some of its content.

Hwarakadah!!! :-) :-) :-) Wierdo? Crazy huh? (Yet occassionally refreshingly "funny" -- and satirically (though not artistically) -- "true" too). :-)

I still wonder who would spend the precious living moments of their daily live, the most crucial time of their living, the most fascinating days of their dreaming, and using it  instead to everyday faking ... everyday wasting ... everyday impersonating ...  the "Fake" Steve Ballmer ???. Don't he/she/they/"it" have better "things" to doo ??? :-) :-) :-) *joking*. I mean, his/her/they/it materials indeed is entertaining us and give us "enlightment" (or "darklightment"?) on the "truest dark side" of the person being impersonated. For some very "odd reason" it could be a medium of "great inspiration and wierdest 'fun'" for us. But for the person that have to delve into it, reflect and resonate the "true" Mr. Ballmer that he/she/they/it has to impersonate? That must be the toughest, cruelest, "most ridiculed" job on earth.

Being able to stand that, to be able to overcome all nay say and obstacles ahead, and to be able to wake up, stand up, think up and come up daily (as well as  periodically) with such "hogwash cloud" act must be a really though job.

I put my salute to that someone (which could be a he, a she, a they, or an "it" may be??) that really standing up and trying to do that. He/she/they/it really got an amazing tough job.

High five!

Skype Mobile Phone Is Out!

If you like Skype for its ability to allow you to talk and chat with everyone around the world through your desktop, then be prepared to be even more amazed by this:

Skype is releasing its groundbreaking, mindspiring mobile phone series. It's officially out now! With it, people can now have their handphone with skype built-in! The price? $100 (that "magic" awesome $100 number again!), with  pay-as-you-go-plan for the non-skype-calls. But for the rest of the other skype-calls that we made around? It's free!

Skype as we "knew" it today

Skype in its "new" mobile-phone-form-factor. Awesome!!

Awesome, amazing! No other technology would be so much convenient, so much nice, yet at the same time so much groundbreaking to our social daily living behaviour as this!

I still remember talking to somebody over the international telephone line for 1 hour sometime ago and have to pay almost $200 buck for that. With Skype? No more. I would even spend the money "wisely": $100 bucks to buy the skype-mobile-phone, the other $100 buck for the upcoming XO laptop.

Such would be really digitally awesome!

Affordable Computing?

Just a thought I had this morning:

Probably soon we just need to carry the USB, as cheap/affordable computing spreads everywhere?? :-)

Magnificent! Wonderful !! Splendidly awesome!

The 3 Important OpenComputing Initiatives That Worxcode Embrace ... (And Why)

There are 3 open computing initiatives that we at Worxcode believe the world need to enable, empower, embrace, extend and expand.

One is the OpenOffice.org which will give people access to computing power to create knowledge and to communicate, connect and integrate with others. Second is the OpenOS initiatives which will give people the foundation for them to integrate with the machine they need to do their work. And third is the OpenLaptop initiative (the XO computer) which will give people (and especially children around the world) the foundation to learn, educate, enhance, connect and integrate their lives and knowledge with the lives and knowledge of many others around the world.

When these three initiatives combined, people (and our future children -- whereever they are, whatever background they had, wherever they are born, however their condition) will have the medium for interaction, means for communication and collaboration, as well as "means of production" that would help them all contribute their work, thoughts and mind to the work and progress of the world at large. Through that, each one of them, (and everyone of us) could expand the world together, and make our "shrinked world" (due to the global access and connectivity we now got) a better place to be.

"Connectivity that shrink the world, access to ideas that expands the world" -- what a beauty that will emerge when these things start to happen. - Arvino, Worxcode

Worxcode will try to contribute thought and effort to society through these kind of act and initiatives. We would like to bring opencomputing, "social computing" and "accessible/affordable computing" to the masses, and see it come true as the new strong core foundation (or DNA) of people's modern living, and daily living activity.

At its innermost intimate heart, we truly believe the soul and purpose and true value of business really exist in the business' potential to do contribution and advancement to the betterness of  greater society.  At this juncture, we believe supporting, embracing, extending and contributing to these three world initiatives is key. The future shape, DNA and texture of our digital modern society depends on its success.

Three thousand years of our modern society's accessible future depends on all of us working together, choices we made, decisions we take, and actions we do.

Participations welcomed.

Apple vs Microsoft: Through "Parody" See How The Two Opposing-World's Culture Are Different!

See a parody that shows how the two opposing-world of Apple and Microsoft are totally different:

• At the top is a Steve Jobs' original iPod commercial. It's cool, chic, awesome piece of advertisement that appeal to the masses.
• At the bottom is the Mr. Ballmer's monkey dance parody version -- adapted for the "zune".

See how the two world's culture (and mass-persuasion style) are different. (And have a good laugh too). :-) ... if you don't get it ... see the Mr. Baller "original monkey dance version" here first, then you'll get what the "parody" means. :-)

Apple Styling

Microsoft Doing

No offense to Mr. Ballmer, but I seriously think Microsoft recent "increasingly BAD" attitude and "ARROGANT culture" really need to change. Poooh-pooh-ing iPod and iPhone -- like Mr. Ballmer always did all the time -- simply won't help things getting better. Keep doing the "monkey dancing thing" proven to be embarrassing and demoralizing for the "old Microsoft fans", rather than helping Microsoft recover its (older) great spirit, attitude and image. It's disastrous!

If things not changed under Mr. Baller, like I said earlier, probably Microsoft really need Bill Gates to step up once more back into the stage.

I was a serious Microsoft "fans" during Gates era, at the same time I have so much respect for Steve Jobs works (Apple, Next Computer) too. They are both excellent. Microsoft during Gates was really a well attitude company at that time. A tough competitor yes, but the one with a good fighting spirit, strong-drive underdog attitude, and great ability in making things happen. They were awesome. Everybody likes them (which is one the reason they come to become the biggest player in the industry).

Under Mr. Ballmer, the whole good-humble-underdog-value-attitude collapse. How sad.

I really hope things would change for the better at Microsoft. The world would be a better place to be ... if such ever happen.

Today Is A "Special" Day, Because ...

Today is special because today is the day Apple Leopard -- the most advanced operating system on the planet, and probably the O/S that will redefine the look, behavior and feel of future generation OSes  that is about to come -- being premiered.

Leopard being released - Awesome!

Oh that look! ... those sense of perfection, wonderful creativity, ingenuity and awesome beauty!

Today is also special because soon it is also going to be the birthday of Bill Gates, a day when the Ballmer's Microsoft troops perhaps would gathered, and being proud a bit (or a lot ?) about the great result of "Vista & Desktop System Sales" (which was skyrocketing like Microsoft never experienced before), at a time when the real look and behavior of the "latest Vista OS" still look (and oddly feel) like this:

"Vista": Mixed reincarnation that is not yet "fully done"! -- half Apple-Leopard half Microsoft-Longhorn today -- half Linux Berryl 3D later on?? -- How would it be at the end?? ...

Bill Gates birthday, at the point where Vista got "skyrocketing sales numbers" ... but does it already come with "real great engine + solid UI capabilities" too? -- (May be not)

Today is also probably special because today is the day the possible shapes of the "future of internet and work" is being explored, defined and refined. Everybody is conferencing [or "unconferencing"] about Web 2.0, "WebNext" and the future of "work". As the result, something that is so much fascinating, cool and fun for our future; something that would -- probably -- one day would change society for the better is being invented. Next leap innovations will flourish because of that.

With all that, within 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 20+ years from now probably it would be interesting for us all to look back across history, relook and see once again the significance of "simultaneous things" that is coincidentally happening this day, and nostalgically wonder how many great things that might have happened in the future that day might not have happened at all if its not because of series of events that is happening simultaneously around the world -- sometime, somewhere around today.

That's what makes today is so special.

Apple Greatest Hits (So Far) ... !

Above picture shows list of Apple greatest hit product so far. It's an amazing collection of software and hardware craftmanship.

Existence of these "hit product" -- and the return of Apple iconic leadership and Apple financial recovery as the result -- probably proves again that -- across time and history -- when tenacity, endurance (especially in terrible near-death daring situation), persistence, consistency, right vision, innovation, perfection, imagination, leadership and most important: continuous innovation -- is being applied rigorously to achieve a strategic goal against all odds, .. then success would eventually emerge as the result.

The magnitude of such success could be tremendous. It was said that Apple valuation is now bigger than IBM. Walt Mossberg recently report that "Leopard is faster, easier than Vista".

Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, what Apple accomplished so far is amazing. Apple product now resonates very well with the masses. It excites both the masses and the industry as a whole. Apple product now drives the industry towards better standard, they also seem to have the "same" magic to the masses" just the way  Sony does during the reign of Akio Morita.

Looking at these recent development, I'm really curious what Mr. Monkey Dance Ballmer would really do about these list of great product that emerge from the Apple Lab. Would he admit its superiority (in silent) and immediately give these awesome product an immediate competitive punch, or would he simply continue "pooh pooh" about it ... as he usually does? .. and buying time?

Looking at these competition coming from all front, would Microsoft -- under Mr. Ballmer -- get  their act together in truest entrepreneurship and leadership spirit? Would they accept errors, mis-steps and mistake that they had, and then translate that into immediate remedial action -- just like when Microsoft was still really tiny" company lead by Bill Gates? Or would it continue concentrate acting "evil" in the era of great did?

That's the biggest question that remain to be seen. It's sad to see how Microsoft has changed -- especially during these "terrible reign" of Mr. Ballmer -- from good attitude corporate giant producting great products into becoming a "visious monster" that is busy suing everybody and/or "pooh-pooh"-ing competitor's product.

Never in Microsoft history -- from the tiny start up to what it is today -- Microsoft combine the worst attitude of them all:  becoming the most arrogant company of them all, ... which -- if not careful -- could turn the company to become the "most evil" of them all.

We'll see how the future at Microsoft would change with all these latest changes and happening. Finger crossed.

For now, we'll admire the greatest hits that Apple has. One day -- across the annal of computer and software history -- such great act probably would be remembered as one of the most amazing company turn-around, most innovative innovation and most inspiring leadership story of the 21st century.

We'll together see.