smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Kath, my wonderful and insightful partner, has something to tell door-to-door bible bashers.

If someone wandered into the woods and came back proclaiming he’d discovered gold tablets with a whole new gospel on them I’d be doubtful. If he said he was the only one who was allowed to see them I’d be skeptical. If he said they told him he was allowed more than one wife but it didn’t go the other way — only one husband for the ladies — I’d be laughing.

It never ever seems to strike those who go from house to house, attempting to subvert smart people into believing that their God is the “right” God, that we just aren’t that stupid. It’s like George Bush meets Leisure Suit Larry — all the wrong idiots in all the wrong places.

Another blogger gets it.

I’m all for communication between author and reader, but comments are the lowest possible denominator. More often than not, they bring out the absolute worst in people. via.

There are far better ways to converse, rather than a comment field that is just plain designed to invite commentary from everyone except those who actually have something real and wise and vibrant to add.

On a side note, Steven’s new minimalist design helps get the message across, without cruft.

Jesper speaks with a clear and (in my humble opinion) wise voice in his post The Sliding Scale of Right.

The real takeaway is that when Apple does shit like this, it degrades Software Update and the extent to which people can unconditionally recommend it as a useful and convenient security precaution. Good security precautions don’t come with caveats.

Apple has dropped the ball here. And it is as simple as that. Automatic select-and-install of anything the user hasn’t specifically said “yes, please install application n, I approve that action by selection” by default is bad form. It’s wrong.

The Operating System in question is irrelevant, the principle is the same. Do not install shit I do not ask for, especially if you try and hide it as an “update”, purposefully or no. Apple’s software update hasn’t done this in the past (at least not on the Windows platform) and whilst it’s obvious Apple seeks to push their browser of choice, it should never be at the expense of user knowledge or by sneak attack.

The single best option is to revert the action back to what it had always been prior to the latest release of Safari. That is what the user expects. And thus that is what it should be — if I have not requested installation of the application, it remains un-installed.

Jeff Barlow has distilled the art of understanding and importance down to a simple catch phrase — pay attention and give a shit.

And it left me thinking, what have I learned? And more importantly what have I learned that I could share. Of late, I’ve simplified some lessons-learned into two ideas I keep repeating to myself: Pay Attention and Give a Shit.

A great article that breaks down the idea of keeping it real and building importance.

Bravo! Michael gets it — blogging is a journey.

For the longest time, I thought blogging was about you. That’s what everyone told me. “Blogging is a conversation”. Not my blog. My blog is a place where I share my thoughts. Where I write what I want to write. Not for you. For me.

When you understand that blogging is in many respects a gift given freely to others, you begin to understand that the finish line, fame and fortune really isn’t the goal.

Blogging isn’t conversation — with it’s propensity for short duration and expectation of feedback — it’s communication. There are simply no limits in what one can achieve when the journey becomes more important than the end.

Seth Godin is, as usual, right on the mark — no user servicable parts inside:

That’s what it says on countless electronic and mechanical devices. “Don’t touch this,” it says, “you’re way too dumb to open it… you’ll get hurt”

The problem, of course, is that pretty soon you start looking at the entire world that way. Whether it’s web design or Google analytics or backing up your hard drive or just talking to the guys in the plant about your new ideas, it’s really easy to see the world as a black box.

Here’s a simple secret of success: ignore the sticker.

I’m a geek. I work with servers, infrastructure and network hardware. I know how a good deal of my industry’s stuff works because I was never afraid to rip the cover off and get my hands dirty — a parentally challenging (and initially somewhat destructive) habit as a child has lead to a busy and often productive work ethic as a result.

When I tackle something new, be it technology or software, I still whip the cover off for at least a brief look at the clockwork action below.

Dougal notes that he has ditched the daily Twitter posts:

“Just as with my daily del.icio.us link posting experiment in the past, I have decided to discontinue my automated daily Twitter summary.”

By all that is precious in this world, thank-you. If I want to read your tweets, I’ll follow you. If I want to see your daily del.icio.us hoarding, I’ll subscribe to that feed too.

Blogs that I once read every day — often with quite some anticipation — have become at best a catch-all for random comment, pointless new-media fads and scraped mindless regurgitation, all of which have their own place and time.

I cannot help but echo Shawn Blanc, who perhaps said it best — “I want to read what you have to say.”

Seth on dumbing down products:

The thing is, when you dumb stuff down, you know what you get?
Dumb customers.

This is very true — to a point. Sure, one person can be smart, forward thinking, adventurous and a potential zealot for the cause. One person can cope with far more than we might naturally expect.

But a group of people can be dumb, staunchly conservative, quick to assume, easily scared and in some cases, downright dangerous. That may sound like a harsh critique, but I assure you that isn’t the case. It’s part of a group instinct, something that ensures longevity and safety.

And no matter what business or service you provide, some won’t care about the mechanics, or features. They just want product A to fit need B. How that happens is entirely irrelevant.

“Dumbing down” a product or service doesn’t work, Seth is bang on there. However, neither is pitching it with an Einstein-like intellect. Balance the delivery and temper it with an understanding of your target market, or audience.

When you know what customers want and how they think or react as a group, you’ll know how best to deliver.

My partner on the vagaries of speculative fiction:

“Yes, it’s hard to guess by looking at a person whether they’re in the speculative fiction section for sci-fi or fantasy. Seriously, though, it’s like expecting all black people to be gangsta rappers, all Asians to be grocers, or all Arabs to be terrorists.”

She has a wonderful way of viewing the world and it’s fundamental truths.

Seth Godin on lessons de musique:

“The biggest opportunity for the music business is to combine permission with subscription. The possibilities are endless.”

There is so much understanding packed into this I hardly know where to begin.

Whilst labels fight to retain a business they have profiteered from for years, artists are embracing this ideal directly, forging new partnerships with the consumer and fan alike. It’s a level of intimacy the big labels have only ever dreamed of achieving.

Translation? Lables have to evolve, grow and most importantly adapt to new technologies and mediums.. or face eventual extinction.