Seen at a crosswalk in Palo Alto, CA:

I don’t quite get it, but I like it.

Seen this week in TSA bins in Los Angeles… and San Jose… and Seattle… : 

Zappos.com is a great source for online shoe buying. We’ve found that the user comments are helpful, the site is easy to navigate, and the purchase goes smoothly.

What a great place to advertise: right in the bin into which you have to put your shoes and laptop computer as you pass through TSA security screening! You’re thinking about your shoes, you’re looking into the bin, and if the line moves slowly, you have nothing else to look at. Brilliant.

They’ve expanded into accessories (of the leather-goods type), too, hence the following:

Cell phone charms are now common around the world, but three years ago they were already wildly popular in Japan and almost unseen in the U.S. Those in the mobile industry would comment on the personalization of the devices in Japan, and speculate as to why one culture might take up on decorating so much more than another. I think most pundits attributed keitai charms to the love of kawa’i (cute), although it still didn’t quite explain why men were nearly as likely to have decorations hanging from their keitai as women were.

So I was surprised to learn that there is a long history of netsuke — carved ivory charms or accessories, some exceedingly valuable — hung on the hilt of samurai swords. It certainly helps to bridge the gap for me, in terms of understanding acceptance, perception, and mentality regarding phone charms.

(Thanks, Dad, for the tip!) 

Today, at Merkaz HaRav Kook: 

Today begins the [second] Jewish month of Adar. A time when great hidden joy emerges great pain.

Today it is hard to conceive what joy might be hidden in the tragedy.

Today a new home was begun. The wedding was a fairytale one, only built around real, solid love and respect.

Today is one of those days in which life is intense, stunning… and very very real.

Today I am travelling, and feeling so very far from home.

Today is a day when we say: We don’t know where we are being taken, but we know it is a good place. “To Everything there is a Time and a Season to every Purpose under the Heavens.”

An interesting post on the Google Code blog:

“Haptic feedback has been added to the finger down and up events triggered when a keyboard button is clicked. These events have been adapted to create a fingertip-over event which is fired when the finger moves over any button in the interface. When the fingertip-over event is triggered, a 1-beat smooth 70ms high intensity Tacton (2) is presented using the iPhone’s built-in rotational motor.”

I played with some haptic feedback devices at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month and was really disappointed. The vibration comes from somewhere in the back of the phone — from a specific location where the vibrating buzzer is. In other words, the haptic feedback comes from a location not associated with the area with which you’re interacting. For me, it was a distraction rather than a feedback

I love the concept, but in practice it’s not there yet.

Oh, yes!

[via Hacked Gadgets]

I heard an NPR Technology News podcast the other day that got me thinking. The podcast was discussing how a person might try and repair their online image. The reporter brought the example a local real estate agent, whose distributed flier was mocked in a blog, causing the insult to appear as the first result in a Google search. Obviously, the agent was devastated.

Next interviewed was a web expert, who offers to help repair one’s online image (too dowdy? too racy? a scathing review?). He says to forget about getting anything erased or removed from the internet. Once it’s there, it’s there. Instead, he advises getting busy filling the web with the positive references and activity you do want to have found.

I saw a similar idea again today in Seth Godin’s blog:

You’re going to be on people’s radar a lot longer than you think, longer than you’re going to be at your current job and longer than you might want. The web doesn’t forget.

It’s an interesting thought. The web acts more as a social entity in this sense: your identity is less of an official record, and more of a reputation, for better or for worse.

The Talmud teaches that “a good name is more valuable than good oil”. It’s also very hard to fix once it’s been tainted. As true, or truer, today than ever before.

These Jawbone headsets are gorgeous. I have to tell you, though, that I’d find it really, really hard to pick up and purchase any one of these. Sweet Talk? Dirty Talk? Trash Talk?

To the extent that branding taps into our desires and desired identities, this campaign is counterproductive in my case.

On a philosophical level, you might choose to interpret the line as being offensively racist. I probably would. But that’s another story.

[via Engadget Mobile]

Google’s Grand Central providing phone numbers and voice mail service to the homeless:

“When you lose your home, you lose more than your house,” said Google’s spokesman. “You lose a permanent way of staying in touch with family members, employers, and social service providers. Being able to give a phone number to people and access voicemail can be a very powerful thing in sustaining quality of life.” [via CNET, “Google expands free phone number and voicemail project”]

Grand Central has always looked like a good service. Now it looks even better.