I AM NOT ROBOT

http://www.forbes.com/sites/venkateshrao/2011/12/05/the-rise-of-developeronomics/

“At the moment, the only thing potentially more valuable than a relationship with a great developer is a relationship with a survivalist who is good with things like guns, bunkers and cabins in woods (that’s in case the apocalypse does come about in 2012, with bullets for currency). Which you think is the better bet depends on exactly how gloomy and bearish you are. I am pretty gloomy, but not yet gloomy enough to turn to survivalist capital investments.”

http://carpeaqua.com/2011/12/04/on-magazines-and-the-ipad/

“Reading magazines on the iPad is an exercise in frustration.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cecile-richards/what-siris-blind-spot-on_b_1125377.html

“It’s fully accessible on mobile devices, and it won’t mislead you about where to find the health services you need. The humans who manage it make sure of that.”

The above quote is from Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Perhaps a little passive aggressive? Siri hasn’t mislead anyone and it’s a bit silly to call Siri’s lack of information on abortion clinics a “programming glitch”. It’s not a glitch. Sometimes Siri’s vocabulary and knowledge just doesn’t cover the question being asked and while Apple has touted Siri as your personal assistant it’s obvious to most people that Siri can’t do everything. If you depend on Siri to help you navigate complicated life issues, then there is something wrong with you. Siri is a novelty.

There are plenty of things Siri doesn’t know the answer to and some things it just likes to have fun with. Skynet will be here before we know it and will be begging again for the days when Siri didn’t even know where the nearest abortion clinic was located.

Everyone knows by now that NYC is quickly becoming a hot bed for upcoming and innovating new technology. Lots of startups have flocked to NYC in the past few years and major (west coast based) companies who have opened wings of their companies in town. If you’re involved in the NYC startup tech scene you probably already know that finding top tier engineering talent can often be very difficult. This is partly due to the fact that there are several existing industries that already greatly absorb the existing engineering talent. Finance, advertising, and big media/ digital agencies recruit a good majority of the engineering talent in NYC. So it’s no surprise that small startups can sometimes have a difficult time recruiting and retaining this talent. With another big company like Facebook coming to town, a company that can afford to hire “thousands of engineers”, I believe we’ll see a bigger strain on the talent pool available to startups in NYC.

For more info on Facebook’s new office announcement:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-to-open-engineering-office-in-new-york-city-in-2012-2011-12-02

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/01/why-siri-is-like-skeuomorphic-uis-the-magic-is-just-skin-deep/

 ”Skeumorphic UIs resemble physical objects, but they cannot hope to emulate the myriad ways we have to emulate physical objects — so they are always doomed to disappoint on some level if we let ourselves be fooled.”

The latest hoopla regarding Apple’s iPhone 4S Siri feature and its lack of information on abortion clinics has tied into another hot topic in the design world: Skeuomorphism. Simply put, I think it’s amazing that consumer technology is getting to the point where things like UI and UX seriously matter to ordinary, non techie, people.