Greenbackyard

Joe Kraus Blog

Sun, 27 May 2012 18:49:46 +1000

Very powerful argument. I am going to experiment with the TechGap day idea he proposes.

The Naive Optimist • I'm tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:12:01 +1000

The Naive Optimist • I'm tired of the opportunists and their hackathons:

Interesting. Reminds me I really need to organize and formalize my thoughts on this topic for a blog post, especially around the culture of the “work hard, play hard” mentality.

Flaming crepe suzette (Taken with Instagram at Tastevin Bistro...

Sun, 20 May 2012 15:12:46 +1000

Flaming crepe suzette (Taken with Instagram at Tastevin Bistro & Wine Bar)

Art? (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:27:06 +1000

Art? (Taken with instagram)

explore-blog: Yes, great. If Maurice Sendak had drawn The...

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:35:00 +1000

explore-blog:

Yes, great. If Maurice Sendak had drawn The Avengers, a loving homage by designer Hannah Friedrichs.

explore-blog: “That opting out [of creativity] that happens in...

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:33:38 +1000

explore-blog:

“That opting out [of creativity] that happens in childhood … moves in and becomes more ingrained by the time you get to adult life.”

IDEO’s David Kelley on how to build your creative confidence. Also see Jonah Lehrer on how creativity works and some reasons we opt out of it as adults.

animalstalkinginallcaps: I REPLACED ALAN’S GATORADE WITH...

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:31:43 +1000

animalstalkinginallcaps:

I REPLACED ALAN’S GATORADE WITH ANTIFREEZE!

LET’S SEE IF HE NOTICES!

Current view (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:46:39 +1000

Current view (Taken with instagram)

Against Chairs

Wed, 02 May 2012 18:03:02 +1000

Against Chairs:

/ht @pat

When I get a cold sales e-mail from a random service, I'm like

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 10:23:53 +1000

runningastartup:

And Here's The Secret Reason Apple Is Crushing Google...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:56:05 +1000

And Here's The Secret Reason Apple Is Crushing Google...:

Could the author have a point? I think so (maybe because I’m also a college dropout, and no, I do NOT compare myself to the product and business genius of Steve Jobs).

I love it! I wish more slide decks come in this shape...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:36:01 +1100

I love it! I wish more slide decks come in this shape :-)

bustr:

habitlabs:

Here’s one of Habit Labs, Inc.’s top secret technical drawings. Look for more sloppily illustrated answers to all your “how does bud.ge work?” questions soon.

True story.

What has got your attention?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:31:26 +1100

I am trying to remember the details of a conversation I had with Steve Hopkins about the concept that was introduced to him (Steve, please correct me if I am wrong) on “what has got your attention”. Note that it’s not “what are you paying attention to” but “what has got your attention” and the difference is abysmal.

On the first one is the conscious act of what are you currently trying to focus on, the second one is all the stuff that hangs on the background of your mind, the worries, the todo list, the myriad of “little things” that live inside your mind and are keeping your “mindfulness” occupied and distracted. The first step is to realise the difference. It’s not what I am trying to focus on, it’s what are all these other things that are keeping my mind occupied and, most of the time, preventing me from having a mindful reflection about what I want to focus on, what I want to pay attention to.

As you may have noticed (well, this blog is still very “intimate”, not a widely shared source of insight nor interest, I guess) I haven’t posted continuously on the #b03 challenge over the past few days. What got my attention was securing cashflow for the coming months, which I have to say was a problem in March. When you run a small business, there’s a whole bunch of things that you need to start thinking about, usually those are worries of the people that employ you, however in my case, this has become my problem and since I have a very small business still, I don’t have a CFO or a full time accounts/financial person, so I have to worry about all these pesky details. Being a coder, I’d rather be coding however I am also a father, a husband, a guy with a mortgage (so, a bank-slave) and I have those worries in the back of my mind, all day long. I do realise that this causes a big distraction in my mindfulness, I haven’t been able to have a good decent meditation in the last few weeks, as I have been trying to set some projects in motion, dealing with new contracts, new clients, new projects, messing up proposals and trying to get some processes organised so that I don’t have to re-invent the wheel with each proposal that I do or each new project that I get started.

Today, I am finally starting two new projects, which will bring some stability so that I can silence those voices in the back of my head that get worried when the bills from Telstra, TruEnergy, AMP, etc start piling up and my bank account starts looking worryingly empty.

Onwards… with the head up and straight, looking at the horizon. What’s got my attention now is not what got it in the last few weeks.

Conscious Startups: The problem with Google

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:01:25 +1100

Conscious Startups: The problem with Google:

consciousstartups:

Long article at Gizmodo entitled “The case against Google”.

What Google seems to have forgotten is that we were only willing to give them all that data in the first place because it gave us great products and seemed trustworthy.

Google has forgotten why we loved it. It has degraded its…

"Again, I’d gladly pay for it. But I have no way to do so, outside of forking over an obscene amount..."

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:56:11 +1100

“Again, I’d gladly pay for it. But I have no way to do so, outside of forking over an obscene amount of money on a monthly basis to a cable company, and/or waiting a year. I’m just not willing to do that. My hand is being forced.”

- Help! I’m Being Forced To Pirate Game Of Thrones Against My Will! | PandoDaily

I’d gladly pay for it. Just I don’t want to pay for it. Gah. Come on.

Pay or wait. It’s not that hard. Or go to a friend’s house. If you’d gladly pay for it, you would. Your hand is not being forced, you are being given consumption choices. Why is it their job to give you exactly the choice you want, exactly, when others are perfectly happy to pay a higher price for that? It’s like saying I should get a BMW for free because I want it for free. I’d pay for it, but I wouldn’t pay $50k for it. Well, other people will, and they are setting the price, not you.

It’s not even a particularly bad deal. I pay $110 a month for ridiculously fast internet, HBO, a phone and hundreds of other awesome channels. It’s a great deal. Shit, it’s cheaper than my entire internet connection just 4 years ago, and three times as fast. Effectively I am getting HBO for free.

Just because the internet made it so we can get some articles for free online without subscribing doesn’t mean every other bundled thing in the world will or should unbundle. Republicans are still going to have to pay taxes that go to health care and I’m still going to have to pay taxes that go to the military. I still can’t buy a single chapter of a book, and that is fine. You still can’t buy a Mac without RAM. You can’t buy a home without insurance.

Even ignoring the cost, you’re not paying an absurd amount to see a show. You’re paying an absurd amount to see a show now, to be first, to see it as it airs, to be a part of the cultural conversation. You don’t have to. You can wait. It’s like paying $10 to see a movie in the theater. It’s more than you’ll have to pay to see it later on a plane or on Netflix. You paid to see it sooner.

I don’t pretend to know the economics of HBO’s business. I don’t know if the cable companies are subsidizing part of my HBO payment. I don’t know if HBO would get its ass handed to it by the cable companies offered it to me a la carte. I assume they would. But even if they offered it a la carte, I wouldn’t turn off my awesome bundle with all these other awesome movie channels, on demand, and my rockin’ internet. I’d keep the bundle. The only complaint I had before was that I couldn’t watch the shows when I wanted, where I wanted. That has been obviated by HBO Go (except where the cable companies won’t let them do it, but, again, that’s not entirely their fault).

This whole argument is based on “hollywood” being dumb and not understanding why people pirate. I don’t think it applies to HBO. HBO has record profits right now. Piracy isn’t hurting them. Plenty of people are able to pay. It’s adding subscribers. I wouldn’t change a thing if I were them. What would it do to their revenue to let anyone buy any show for $40 when it came out? How many people would do that vs. now, when they pay for a monthly subscription? Does anyone really think their profits would go up?

(via rickwebb)

THANK YOU RICK.

(via harryh)

Totally. We are such entitled bitches sometimes.

Plus (and this is where I’ll lose you) Game of Thrones is crap. Put that down and spend your time and money somewhere useful. Create something.

(via bustr)

Uh, Sir, why don’t you just use real cows? Cows don’t look like...

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:39:25 +1100

Uh, Sir, why don’t you just use real cows?

Cows don’t look like cows on film. You gotta use horses.

What do you do if you want something that looks like a horse?

Ehh, usually we just tape a bunch of cats together.

Seeing the smallest things

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:38:54 +1100

A few moments ago, contained within the walls of our small Bondi apartment, #boy4 found great delight and fun in the fact that we had forgot to empty the bath tub. It reminded Danielle and I about the mindless pursuits that our materialistic society forces upon us. Our son, through his innocence and pristine mind showed us that you don’t need the latest gadget or cool widget to have fun or be happy. Happiness is found on small things, like a bathtub full of water or a flower collected from the side of the road and handed over to the first stranger that crosses your path.

Yesterday’s and today’s post have been cancelled and replaced by family time. Sorry...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:55:14 +1100

Yesterday’s and today’s post have been cancelled and replaced by family time. Sorry about the inconvenience. One could spend a while talking about how important time with your loved ones is etc etc. however at the moment, also given the rant nature of my posts, I think they won’t be missed and the time spent with #boy4 and @ladydanika won’t get missed and is irreplaceable. So there you. Choice made :)

Town hall (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:53:40 +1100

Town hall (Taken with instagram)

As a followup from my earlier post today, I’m watching “The Ride”. Very...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:11:52 +1100

As a followup from my earlier post today, I’m watching “The Ride”. Very appropriate.