Author

Sean Chin

Inspirational

On Creativity

Creativity is rejected

Even people who say they are looking for creativity react negatively to creative ideas, as demonstrated in a 2011 study from the University of Pennsylvania. Uncertainty is an inherent part of new ideas, and it’s also something that most people would do almost anything to avoid. People’s partiality toward certainty biases them against creative ideas and can interfere with their ability to even recognize creative ideas.

This article hits home. I see this everyday. So many hypocrites out there. We need to all learn to embrace good changes. But not for the sake of change it self.

Very much like “Intention” by Apple, there are a thousand no’s for every yes. Yet the outcome is something truly creative and beautiful.

And this topic can be followed up by one of todays design greats, John Maeda:

Technology

December 6, 2013

Google why so evil?

What I do have issue with is that Google has been hiding behind the “Do No Evil” moniker for most of its life and really with what has been transpiring in the last few years, Google really needs to come clean and drop that part of its mission statement.

Daniel goes on to list a number of valid points where Google is up to no good with your personal data. I highly recommend this article, so bookmark it.

Microsoft ends Windows 8 retail sales

But officially, the major PC vendors — like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo — will discontinue most Windows 7 PC sales in October 2014, making Windows 8 and its follow-ups, including Windows 8.1, the default.

This makes me vomit. I work in health care and very few things make me sick, so this means something. I feel so sorry for every future PC owner who is now going to be forced to use Windows 8.

74% of Apple devices running iOS 7

Android, on the other hand, suffers from much worse device fragmentation. Just 1.1% of Android devices are currently running Kit Kat, the latest operating system.

Any OS developer would kill to have this kind of adoption rate.

Technology

November 29, 2013

Privacy And Why It Really Matters

United States President Barack Obama is tragically mistaken with his “we need to find a balance between security and privacy” rhetoric. Let me quote Benjamin Franklin who makes my point more eloquently than I ever could: “they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”. President Obama, or anybody else for that matter, can’t guarantee your safety – sadly nobody can. The only way to guarantee our safety is to find an equilibrium with foreign societies where they have no incentive to harm us. We have all the tools but the will is missing.

Technology

November 28, 2013

The Inequality We Don’t Talk About

Upper-middle-class two-parent families can invest far more time and resources in their children than lower-middle-class single mothers can, no matter how good their intentions. But the impact of family structure on children goes far beyond money. Kids from lone-parent families do worse on many measures. And the marriage gap is reducing upward mobility and sharpening the class divide. “Because the breakdown of the traditional family is overwhelmingly occurring among working-class Americans of all races, these trends threaten to make the U.S. a much more class-based society over time,” writes Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution.

This is a serious issue that is steadily increasing with time. Is it a problem? Yes. Is there a solution to fix it? I don’t know. However, a comment made on the article by Greggore says:

“Solution – wait until you are married to have children and then try to stick it out with the marriage. Also, choose your partner wisely.”

That makes sense. But another comment by Atlas is Struggling says:

“Declining marriage rates exist because it is a garbage deal for men. Men would have to be insane to marry in a climate where a woman could destroy him financially and rob him of his children simply because she isn’t haaaaappy!”

This is also kind of true.

Plastic “ninjas” take on deadly bacteria

The mechanism through which [these polymers] fight bacteria is very different from the way an antibiotic works,” explains Jim Hedrick, a polymer chemist in IBM Research. “They try to mimic what the immune system does: the polymer attaches to the bacteria’s membrane and then facilitates destabilization of the membrane. It falls apart, everything falls out and there’s little opportunity for it to develop resistance to these polymers.”

This is some pretty remarkable progress in the fight against bad bacteria.

Searching for Harddrive with $7.5 Million worth of Bitcoins

James Howells’s hard drive contains 7,500 bitcoins – which is a virtual form of currency for use online.

It had sat in a drawer for years and he had forgotten it contained the bitcoins, which he obtained in 2009 for almost nothing, when he threw it out.

But this week, a single bitcoin’s value hit $1,000 (£613) for the first time.

It means Mr Howells’s collection is now worth $7.5m (£4.6m).

A few years ago Mr Howells, who works in IT, had dismantled his computer after spilling a drink on it.

Oh dear, he must be really kicking himself in the butt. I hope he finds it soon!

Nikon Stock Down Almost 24% Year to Date

This doesn’t come altogether as a surprise, given that Nikon has had to adjust its financial forecast down more than once in recent months. But, surprise or not, it certainly isn’t a headline we relished writing.

As a Nikon photographer, this makes me very sad. They need to really released the successor to the D700 and a make a new D400.

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