In case you haven’t heard. Microsoft just payed 240 million to own 1.6 percent of Facebook stock. Facebook is currently worth 15 billion. Microsoft pays 250 million to own 1.6 percent, this gives you a really good idea about what 15 billion dollars actually is. I hate Mark Zuckerberg, 23 .. Ok, I don’t … I’m just really really jealous. http://www.bangkokpost.com/gadget/gadget.php?id=237
On that note I’m also jealous of Brian, he’s a fellow programmer here at Schipul and he wrote a Facebook song. Don’t ask me why he stuck his Facebook song on MySpace. http://www.myspace.com/thebrianleblancexperience
Another transition; There’s a MySpace Song by Gym Class Heroes, it’s cool.
This is still my favorite Gym Class Hereos Song/Video though.
Stare at the image and tell me if you see it going clock-wise or counter clock-wise. It’s suppose to tell you if you’re a logical thinker or more of a “feely” kind of person. I’m freaking out, I can see both of them. I’m scared.
If you’re a giver check out Kiva.org Kiva allows you to give loans on a one-on-one basis. You search through a list of entreprenuers where you’ll find out details about where they live, their names, what they would like the loan for, and when they need to repay you.
An interesting twist on donating to a ’cause that takes out the ambiguity of where your money actually ends up. Kiva allows you to easily keep up with your family and find out exactly where your money is being used. Kiva does not take any of your loan for their own cause, but does allow you to donate in case you’d like to support Kiva. The members of the Kiva community can also keep journals which allows you to learn more about your contributions and the life style your new found friend.
If I could program (e.g. design, develop) at any time it would be now. We’re actually at a point where functionality is more about getting our electronic devices to move in fluid motions. The future of development will not consist of walking down a side walk while you stare at a screen resolution that smaller than the span of your hand. This is just one more look out how programmers are thinking more like humans … and it is good. I would go more in to a speech about usability, but I’m not ready yet.
I realize that it’s hard to get excited about such small steps, but the reality is … Programmers didn’t give a “hoot” about aesthetics like this in the past. A programmer was genius if he could get his “machine” to work. Even if it did take 435 confusing steps from start to end with no undo button. Now getting something to work, is nothing to “blog” about. I don’t care if it works. I want to know that it works, it’s easy, and that I don’t have to read instructions to “get it.”
With the growth of transparency across the world, automation, and social-networking; it’s believed that the future might just belong to right brained thinkers. The left brain is used to control logic while the right brain covers the imagination and the funner ends of life.
Logic can now easily be automated. Thought of once and built into a function. If this is the case then there’s only one place for humans to go. A computer up to this point cannot be creative all on it’s own. Does this mean all “serious” jobs will belong to the computer + mechanical world and we’ll be left with nothing to do but play.
This doesn’t mean that you should abandon you’re left brain completely. It just means that you should now consider inviting your right brain a little bit more. For some, this tasks might be easier than for others.
This is the thought in a new book by Pink called A Whole New Mind. Think about it, or better yet … don’t.
