It seems that every conference I go to some company thinks it hip to use USB keys for swag. I’m sure it was hip. In 2001. Now it’s just such a waste.
Especially because the keys usually aren’t even a remotely useful size. If you’re going to splurge the marketing budget on a swag key, then 256MB is just not going to cut it.
I’d rather have a squeeze ball or a yoyo!
PictureCode has released its popular Noise Ninja noise-reduction application as a plug-in for Aperture. Previously available for Photoshop or as a stand-alone application, the Noise Ninja plug-in enables Aperture users to make adjustments to their photographs without having to leave Aperture’s workflow.
We had a pretty wicked line of thunderstorms roll through Chicago last night. I propped my Flip video camera up on the windowsill to capture the hot lightning action. It gets worse as time goes on. Close strike around 3:58.
Leslie T. Chang's Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China is a fascinating ethnography of the young women who labor in the factories of Guangdong, China's richest province, a land of boomtowns where wealth and scams and exploitation and warmth and courage all abound.
Chang is an American-born Chinese writer who won over the confidence of several remarkable young migrant women who came from the distant provinces to work in the factories and find independence, social mobility and status as cash earners. These women experience many setbacks and victories, undergo remarkable personal transformations, and come to lively life under Chang's studious eye.
But Factory Girls is also a memoir of Chang's own family, the Zhangs, migrants who fled China after WWII and the Maoist revolution. Chang and her family are also "migrants," who out-migrated beyond the coastal cities, reinventing themselves in distant America. Chang's camaraderie with the Factory Girls clearly stems in part from this fellow-feeling, this knowing what it means to be from a place but not of it anymore (I'm an immigrant who left the country of my birth, in which my family were also immigrants, so this had all kinds of resonances for me).
In Chang's journey back to her surviving Mainland relatives and her relationship to the Factory Girls of Guangdong we see the inkling of what a new normal might look like, what these remarkable young women might become after the dust settles and they stop reinventing themselves and simple are.
In the meantime, the Factory Girls and their adventures fill the pages of this remarkable book, which chronicles everything from the sleaze of karaoke bars and multi-level direct-sales cults to the heartbreak of romance and speed-dating to the small heroism of the many friendships and noble deeds of the girls of the book.
I must have read fifty books about China this year (I'm working on a novel set partly in China), but this stands out as one of the best.
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:
Basecamp
Keeping track of miles with Basecamp time tracking
“What we are doing now is using a project folder called mileage log and instead of recording time, we record miles. As a manager, it is easier for me to generate reports per person and date range and attach those to the accounting department for reimbursement purposes.”
Basecamp helps barn converters
“For me, the cornerstone of project management isn’t a gantt chart or a risk register, but lists. In Basecamp, I find the ability to create and maintain all the lists that I need to keep track of my barn conversion. It also provides you with the ability to share files, text, and messages and track time & tasks with other members of a project team. The emphasis is on project collaboration and communication.”
Backpack
Two examples of using Backpack to plan a wedding
“Our wedding was an informal affair at a beach-side kiosk location in South Australia. To co-ordinate people involved in the event, friends and family mostly, we used this Backpack public page. It worked wonderfully well and the day was a huge success.”
Campfire
Macworld chooses Campfire and Backpack as tools for “portable office”
“Keeping things unstructured and unscheduled leaves room for us to chat about anything—from what we did over the weekend, to specific issues that crop up while we work. Since our East Coast writer starts earlier than everyone else, we West Coasters catch his posts in Campfire after we wake up and log on. More than any other Web application on this list, Campfire offers a strong sense of working in the same space with your team, even if you’re physically spread out across the country.”
Getting Real
PMBA: Getting Real is one of the 77 best business books in print
The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List is a list of “the 77 best business books in print.” We’re pleased to announce that Getting Real by 37signals is now on the list! It is one of six books in the “Design & Production” category.
How GitHub used Getting Real to pick a fight, scratch their own itch, and stay lean
“We’ve employed Getting Real (with great success) at GitHub since day one. Not because we wanted to, or because we thought it was the One True Way. We’ve done it because we had no choice…Once we eschewed funding, we made a few more decisions: stay lean, give the site an attitude, bust out features quickly, and define the site’s purpose in a single sentence.”
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Weather-proofing topped the list as the most desirable feature camera buyers are looking for, according to a recent survey. J.D.Power’s Camera Usage and Satisfaction Survey revealed that, while point and shoot, and DSLR camera users are missing this attribute in their cameras, a majority of ultra compact users hope for more internal memory in future models. The survey also reveals that Internet product and review sites are the most important resource in guiding buyers with their market research.
Olympus and Panasonic have announced a new, mirrorless format / lens mount based on (and compatible with) Four Thirds. The Micro Four Thirds system uses the same sensor size (18 x 13.5 mm) but allows slimmer cameras by removing the mirror box and optical viewfinder. The new format has three key technical differences: (1) roughly half the flange back distance (distance from mount to the sensor), (2) a smaller diameter lens mount (6 mm smaller) and (3) two additional contact points for lens-to-body communication (now 11 points). Removing the mirror mechanism allows this shorter flange back distance, meaning lenses for the new mount can be considerably smaller than current Four Thirds designs. The format will require framing to be carried out using Live View on either the LCD monitor or an EVF. Existing Four Thirds lenses can be used on Micro Four Thirds cameras using an adapter. Neither company is as yet making product announcements (we expect some more news in this respect closer to Photokina). Read on for our analysis / exclusive illustration.
