A peculiar e-mail from China landed in my inbox this evening. It began:
“We have learned from the Internet that you are interested in tents.”
Multitasking, in short, is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think.Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information…
Takes a little while to get going, but overall a great article about the virtues of seeking solitude from distractions in order to develop your own original thoughts.
“I think you’ve got a pretty good imagination, despicability-wise!”
“Look Around You - Computer Games”
Can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this BBC series before. Brilliant. Make sure to watch them all. (via daringfireball)
Do you think Chelsea Clinton asks herself if her mom would understand something complex? No. Because her mom is a badass.
If there is a state of the art of end-of-life care, it is this: death with dignity.
This is the most concise, easily understood article on the perils of end-of-like care in the United States I’ve ever read. It is a must-read, and frankly, a must-heed, in my opinion. (via kottke)
These sorts of tests are common for engineering hires, but it’s nice to see an example of a good design-oriented one.
Embarrassed I had never seen this until today. Lovely work all around. (via drawar)
This recently unearthed video of Steve Jobs at work during the early days of NeXT is a remarkable look inside how he ran meetings, how he created culture at his startups, and how others — like Joanna Hoffman around the 11 minute mark — called B.S. on his reality distortion field. It’s also remarkable in that it reveals Jobs to be a man who picks carrots in pressed work shirts.
Sometimes when you are deciding on technologies to use on a new site (e.g. jQuery vs. YUI or MS SQL vs. MySQL) it’s instructive to examine what everyone else is doing. BuiltWith has an incredible amount of trending data to help you out in that regard. Very, very cool.
Lots of good thinking here. No solutions, but a nice reminder that two-dimensional touch interfaces are transitional, not permanent.
Stephen Colbert loses it on-air. Rivals another one of my all-time favorite Colbert on air crack-ups.
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Ha! “From the internet” … they must be onto something.
Here’s the full read.
Deep down, you are really interested in tents.
Interesting. So it looks like they hit Binary Bonsai just a little before me. That’s really weird though since I’ve never seen him at any of the meetings.
I wanna know how they knew I was in the market.
I don’t know about you, but nothing is more dear to me than my love for tents.
The Internet gave me away, the bastard!
I vote we find this “internet” and lynch him or something! My email address is supposed to be private.
Relax, you’re just too tents.
And yet, I didn’t get one.
I am distraught.
Ok, seriously now guys, who’s pitching the tent!?!
One of these days, I tell yah China is gonna be big.
Definately one for Spamusement methinks!
Weird, I just received this one morning.
lol the “internet” hehe :P
Hmm… that one really seems to be making the rounds. I got it last night, as well.
I got that one too.
Oooh I got that one too… weird how it crosses the pond and all that just like that….
/me thinks they must have crawled a popular un-protected blog in the industry…
Ha, yes I can recall that one. Some other weird ones I remember include: “Do you need web page design?”, or “Let us help you with the web site search!”.
Many seem as if they are from foreign countries! (c:
i think tent spam would be rather refreshing.
I feel left out. I’ve only been offered viagra. Which is also useful for “pitching tents”, I might add.
(Editor’s Note: HA!)
Don’t you use a spam filter? I’ve trained MozillaMail to the point that it doesn’t let things like this through and I miss out on gems like this. I feel slighted.
(Editor’s Note: I actually don’t use one now. I switched e-mail addresses a little over a year ago and get hardly any spam. Maybe 2 per week. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time now until the onslaught begins though.)
Hey, I got this one too.
Thanks go to Richard Zhen, who apparently is the Marketing Director of JXTRADE.
Yes, they pitched their tents to me too.
I thought it was a set-up.
I thought it was internets. There’s more than one, you know.
Yep… me too.
Yup, I got it.
tick ….. tack ….. tick …. tack …. now you will feel a little dizzy, and tired ….. tick …. tack …. and you will believe everything I say …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. you like TENTS …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. from now on you believe everything in your mailbox …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. and you will build your own tents …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. by buying all viagra you can get from your mailbox …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. but you will still be left unsatisfied …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. because from the internet I learned that you yearn for MORE TENTS …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. so you will build your own camp site …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack …. and camp sites will conquer the WORLD …. tick ….. tack …. tick …. tack ….
Woah, Mark…Have you been ordering pills from this internet guy?
Why do I not get cool and fun spam like that? I might even buy a tent from them. Everyone can use a good tent. All the spam I get is either phishing or in a foreign language of some sort.
I wonder if the tents are water repellant and stay dry and cool in all conditions. I wonder if they have air conditioning built in… :-)
I got the same offer for tents.
Does anyone still call it the internet anymore? I think we’ve all grown so tired of talking about the ‘net that we refer to it ironcally as intarweb or the internets, etc.
The internet??? is that thing still around
Sorry Mr. Davidson, I think we got out inboxes crossways. >Ithis one is yours. ;)
Damn. A punchline is only funny before you flub it.
Funny… I am not feeling hypnotized, but I am suddenly craving a small mint made up of 60% carnuba wax.
It would’ve been better if it’d said “We have learned from the Internets …”
:-)
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
I tried to buy a few, but they told me my credit was over ex-tent-ed.
*sigh*
Tents? That’s nothing, for some reason a few years back I was constantly being offered large quantities of minerals from the far east.
After mentioning it online somewhere, I then got emails from confused people looking to buy large quantities of minerals. If I was more devious and entrepreneurial I could’ve made a fortune…
Probably sent from some really ‘camp’ guy, trying to ‘pitch’ another sale… arf!
Well, are you interested in tents or not?
For me the most ineffective spam line is simple…
“Perform your best in bed”
I mean come on…HOW did they find out I am bad in bed? I’m not falling for that one again!
Had they said tent instead of bed then I may have opened the email though. Without hope of improving in bed, a tent is my last chance!
[quote]“We have learned from the Internet that you are interested in tents.”[/quote]
Lol :)
I get offered all sorts from all over the world everyday, its amazing how they get hold of your private emails..