Cuz We Said So

Air NZ Staff Deliver Safety Video Wearing Only Body Paint

From Stuff.co.nz (via @GuyKawasaki); "The airline has decided to expand its use of body painted staff from advertisements to the in-flight safety video used on 737 domestic flights. It hopes to catch the attention of travelers ...who often ignore the safety video despite being told they need to watch it even if they are frequent customers."

Observe, Interpret, and Intervene

How to make decisions outside of your core competencies in BusinessWeek.  “When faced with a new challenge, forget about acting fast. Instead start a three-step process to formulate the best solution.”  As an NT, of course, I love this idea.  Via Lifehacker.

Kindle Books Come to the iPhone

As some had speculated, Amazon today rolled out a Kindle for iPhone app, which lets you read books in your Kindle library on your phone, and which syncs your progress between devices.  I downloaded the app at once, of course, and can report that even with my crummy eyesight, the reading experience is pretty good (and the adjustable text sixe appreciated).  I was surprised at how quickly the book loaded from the Archived Items screen.  Even via 3G, it took just a few seconds for it to pop the book up. 

This strikes me as an interesting segmentation strategy.  Obviously Amazon would love to draw as many of us into their content channel as possible, so that when we buy a book, we buy a Kindle book, and therefore buy from them.  Having the iPhone app gives them an opportunity to pull in people too price sensitive to spring for a Kindle 2, thereby allowing Amazon to sell what I’m guessing is higher margin content without first having to sell (again guessing) lower margin hardware.

Here’s One Way to Slow Down Touch Adoption

Apple popularized multi-touch gestures with the iPhone, and others quickly adopted the approach, including Microsoft with the upcoming Windows 7 and the Microsoft Surface technology, and Palm with the recently announced Palm Pre.  Unfortunately for them, Apple was just awarded a patent for it.  Apple could license the technology of course, but this quote from Apple COO Tim Cook: makes it sound like they might not be in a hurry to share: “We like competition, as long as they don't rip off our IP. And if they do, were going to go after anybody that does.”

There are, on the other hand, already prior art arguments floating around out there (see this from Bill Buxton of Microsoft Research, for example), which I expect we will now see floating into a courtroom somewhere.  Regardless of who wins, multi-touch technology should be a significant step forward for intellectual property lawyers.

Adobe Captivate 4 Released

The new version of Adobe’s flagship rapid e-learning tool hits the streets just in time for ASTD’s TechKnowledge conference next week.  Looks pretty nice—though at $799, it certainly doesn’t come cheap. 

Lots of into on the new version here.

“The US economy glides like a box of rocks”

“Don’t stand under it.”  Eric Janszen at iTulip.com has a lengthy post up breaking down the fundamentals of the economy, including many charts showing historical data.  I’m not sufficiently well-versed in macroeconomics to judge his conclusion (that we’re in for “a deep recession that goes on for years”) but he successfully conveys the impression that things are looking pretty craptacular.

22 Pounds

LaborPains.org: “Ever wondered what a UAW contract looks like?  Here is all 22 pounds of it (in this case, Ford’s 2,215 page 2007 master contract; Coke can is for scale and because I was thirsty).  I’ll tell you this much, those 2,215 pages don’t include much regarding efficiency and competitiveness.”  Click through for the picture—it’s impressive, in its own, sad way.

“Why Are You Pushing This Pro-Hole Agenda?”

The Onion:  In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?   Dan Beucke of BusinessWeek comments, "Here the level of debate is actually higher than what you'll get on typical network TV coverage of the financial crisis."

“I love the money fire!”

“We’re All Hosed”

A Wall Street Insider on the Economic Crisis

“A veteran investment banker dishes on the greed and stupidity that led to the meltdown of the financial system.”  And ultimately, the greed and stupidity of the currently fashionable graft bailouts led by the White House and Congress.  He’s not actually saying we’re all hosed—he’s talking specifically about “the taxpayers who didn't participate in the borrowing frenzy of the last few years, who saved diligently and are now paying the price with their tax dollars.”

I Can Not Help But Be Touched

Rip is skeptical that multi-touch in PCs is going anywhere.  (See Multi-Touch: Not the Future and Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me for the specifics.)

Personally, I’m more bullish, though I’ll admit my thoughts on the matter are no doubt influenced by my membership in the relatively small set of people that have embraced the tablet PC.  My Lenovo X61T works by touch as well as by stylus, and touch works well in the tablet format, because you’re holding the computer in both hands anyway—touching the screen is as natural as writing on paper.  I don’t use it all the time—the stylus works better for detail work.  But I definitely use it, and I find it comes pretty naturally.

So why do I think touch has a place outside of the tablet world?