Disqus - Latest Comments for hypermark

Re: The Network Garden - Mark Sigal's Blog: Siri for Seniors: Ruminations on the HomePod mini

hypermark — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 13:48:55 -0000

You will need to set up the HomePod mini in your uncle's place, and set the account associated with the HomePod mini as part of your friends and family in iTunes, but once you have done that, he can use the device by Siri alone.

The device will be visible in your Home app as well, but I have found it to be intermittent that I can get the intercom feature to work remotely, or update the device remotely (though the device should update itself periodically).

Beyond the initial setup, you should be good to go.

Re: Retail Space Available

hypermark — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 12:54:32 -0000

There is a saying. Brick and mortar retail is not dead, but MEDIOCRE retail IS dead or dying. What that means is that retail concepts that can be de-localized, digitized and/or commoditized will be, and so a whole lot of retail concepts and categories that were protected pre-Amazon, pre-iPhone are exposed and vulnerable.

The irony there is that once upon a time, the mom and pop retailer differentiated on personal service and convenience. But, then Main Street got outflanked by Big Box operators who competed principally on inventory and price, which had a homogenizing effect.

That, of course, became a losing proposition in the face of Amazon and show-rooming, so retail has to reinvent itself, and many retailers are. But, there will be plenty of carnage since per capita retail square footage in the US is about 2X that of Australia and 5X that of UK.

Re: Some Thoughts On Checking References

hypermark — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 12:00:49 -0000

To me, it's all about Subtext and Narrative.

I always ask if it was your parent's life savings on the line, and you had to decide whether hire this individual for your team or not, on a scale of one to ten, ten being "definitely" and one being "never," what's the likelihood that you'd hire this individual again?

Long pauses, stammering or heavy qualification is a bit of a "tell."

More often, it will flush out suitability for the role at hand. Often, someone is a great hire, but only in a specific role, and a core part of the reference check is sussing out fit to specific role being hired for.

Re: What Happened In 2017

hypermark — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 16:11:47 -0000

Fred, first and foremost, thanks for being an honest broker of your own personal truth, all the while encouraging diverse perspectives. Anyone who has spent any time in this community over the years knows the earnestness by which you cultivate these discussions.

This is such a great post, and the varying responses show just how reflexively folks default to false dichotomies and false equivalencies. Truth is always more nuanced, a notion that struggles mightily in the age of social media.

As to Crypto, and the analogs to Internet 1.0/2.0, the good news for most of us coming "late" to the party, is that the party really hasn't started yet. Sure, there are multitudes that will make massive "coin" on speculation and mania, but as the prior periods show, real infrastructure will get built, real industries will rise and real businesses will take flight.

The ascendant periods are decade plus in nature, so focus on what is real and take a real time horizon, and the notion of "missed opportunities" goes away.

As to applicable use cases, borderless/decentralized markets, micro currencies, micro incentives, programmable currencies, validated identity, verified general ledger are all areas ripe for innovation. Don't fall prey to reducing this to the Pets.com analog of delivering dog food at a loss via the Internet. You'll miss the next Amazon.

Re the end of White Male Dominance, I am not as sanguine that this is really happening. For one, the reflexive response by a number of folks to the very term "White Male Dominance" is emblematic that the resistance is tough. The number of white males that believe it is **they** who are being discriminated against speaks to how institutionalized this is.

If you watch Fox News as your primary mouthpiece, you are NEVER hearing the concept of sexism, racism or hate as a real problem, and let's face it, the power of tribalism in our country is extreme.

If anything, the moral of the story is that **demographically** speaking, this is the end of White Male Dominance, but unless the Majority can organize and build working coalitions focused on actual policy, this is just a rallying cry for Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.

Finally, as to the Tech Backlash, I'd say I hope so. There is a simultaneous lack of accountability in the tech business (as was the case with Wall Street before it), the blind notion that if it can be built it should, and a general amorality of the leaders of these tech companies.

I find it laughable that so many reflexively dismiss the impact that Facebook, Twitter and Google had on an election where the outcome was shaped by very few **counties** in very few states. Given the ease by which 2016 showed how a motivated alien party (Russia) could micro target highly charged, often verifiability false messages to tens of millions of people, should trouble everyone.

If it was your home, school, church, workplace or community center, wouldn't you at least want to **know** if the back door was left unlocked for would-be evil doers? I sure would, and do.

The fact that Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey have shown no ethical sense of responsibility to govern their platforms against hate, discrimination and divisiveness speaks to a lack of accountability.

A final thought about disruption is that if history teaches us anything, it's that in the long run, disruption creates far more jobs than it disrupts, but in the short run, the disruption is catastrophic for the disrupted AND the nature of the disruption is uneven, with real losers for which a better tomorrow (seemingly) never comes.

This is where real safety nets are critical, and our lazy notions of capitalism "good," government "bad" needs its own version of 2.0 thinking.

Happy New Year everyone. :-)

Re: Longer Tweets

hypermark — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 01:41:43 -0000

Personally, I wish that twitter focused more on supporting richer payloads than longer messages.

As others have noted, for a company that matters so much to so many. they innovate so little, and there is little coherency to their strategy.

The fact that they have never figured out threaded discussions, killed their developer play twice and have never meaningfully evolved the client experience is just a head scratcher.

The twitter app could be Facebook without the walled garden, but they seem to have no vision.

Re: The Network Garden - Mark Sigal's Blog: HomePod: Why Did Apple Give it an A8?

hypermark — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 14:05:55 -0000

Agreed, that is absolutely part of the equation

Re: AI For Legal Cases

hypermark — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 12:30:35 -0000

Two thoughts. One, the legal profession is already an arbitrage between Really High Priced Partner, Still High Priced Associate, Moderately Expensive Paralegal and Cheap-ish Admin/Secretary.

The client's bill is, in part, baked using a combination of the above resources needed to get the job done, and the billable target that the client can stomach. The notion of further segmenting this with a Research Layer that is currently done manually at a Paralegal or Higher cost is an economic no-brainer.

Two, and more fundamentally, law is by definition an industry where past precedence in terms of case law is a primary tool -- if not the primary tool -- in shaping legal outcomes. The notion that systems can add value to identifying patterns and specific "historical" candidate case laws, excerpts and the like is fundamental.

"Show me what the winning outcomes look like, and how they argued that look like my case" is an easy to digest, intuitive narrative.

Feels like a winner, though also a category with not a ton of defensibility.

Re: Feature Friday: Bluetooth Headphones

hypermark — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:59:54 -0000

Non-scientific data point, but I saw the video on the AirPods, showed it to wife and two kids (one teen, one pre-teen), and all four of us instantly coveted. Three of us are not early adopter for sake of early adoption types. One data point on sound quality and stay on ear reliability: http://daringfireball.net/l...

Re: Trapped In A System

hypermark — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 15:49:46 -0000

Great story. Two takeaways. One, is there any better example of the notion that what you incent is what you reap? This woman has conflicting incentives, and her behaviors are governed by that WAY more so than any personal value. Never underestimate the ability of people to convince themselves of **anything** when their livelihood or lives depend on it. We see this truth play out in industry after industry.

Two, is that as a society, we seem to have lost our sense of empathy. It's too easy for people to cite macro numbers that show things getting better in the macro sense, and stick their head in the ground about the sheer numbers falling through the floor and giving up, the gutting of the middle class and the increasing sense of a loaded system.

One thinks back to the Reagans, who were completely anti-stem sell research on the basis of conservative values -- until Ron got Alzheimers. Then they became advocates. Empathy would be the ability to put yourself in the actual shoes of the suffering.

Re: Nailing It

hypermark — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 15:23:16 -0000

"Because there is a certain inevitability about inventions of this sort...the real contribution lies, first, in making the idea work." -- Federico Fagin (on pioneering the first microprocessors at Intel)

Re: Fun Friday: NBA Finals

hypermark — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 18:50:59 -0000

I think this series is 4-1 Warriors, possibly 4-2. It's not about LeBron's psyche, though there is certainly that undertone. It's about one team having the mix of players to play multiple styles on BOTH sides of the ball, and one not.

If you watched the Thunder series, the Warriors did not find open lanes to the basket. They didn't get many alley oops, or back cut their way to easy baskets. Numerous times against the Cavs, though, the Warriors had wide lanes, which is a by product of poor individual and team defense. Conversely, the Warriors defense was rock solid.

Think of it this way; with Curry and Thompson basically not scoring, the game was pretty much led by the Warriors the whole way, and it was the Warriors bench that busted the game open. The Warriors are deep, disciplined and play both sides.

Conversely, the Cavs have to make tradeoffs in their lineups. If they want offense, Love and Irving are great scorers but terrible defenders. If they want defense, Dellavadova and Shumpert are great defenders, but poor scorers.

Cavs won't roll over by any stretch, but the outcome feels clear.

Re: Biodigital

hypermark — Thu, 26 May 2016 17:15:59 -0000

Back in the days when Flash was the best way to do Embeds (and really one of the primary reasons that YouTube took off), there was a strong belief that "Embed and Spread" was going to emerge as THE de facto way to create virality.

To me, one of the biggest missed opportunities for Twitter (beyond killing their developer ecosystem twice) was that in focusing so hard on driving users to their web site, they opted not to grow Twitter into a kind of Wall-less Wall (i.e., decentralized).

In this scenario, the Twitter embed would have been an ever improving, purpose based runtime that, in addition to supporting tweets, URLs, and rich media, would have supported the ability to build lightweight, embed-able apps that were a hybrid of client-server-cloud. Alas.

Re: When You Have Concerns

hypermark — Wed, 18 May 2016 16:22:21 -0000

Three thoughts:
1. There is a tendency to fall into the All or None. People are great until they suck. I support you 100% until I support you 0%. And so on. Recognize that trap, and be more discerning about the WHAT and WHY.

2. The best way to figure this stuff out is by taking inventory. The act of actually writing down, and putting the narrative on things is usually illuminating as to the right path forward.

3. First thought, best thought. There is a lot of goodness in heavily weighting your first conclusion...before Analysis Paralysis sets in.

Re: An AI First World

hypermark — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:41:44 -0000

“The business plans of the next 10,000 startups are easy to forecast: Take X & add AI. This is a big deal, and now it’s here.” — Kevin Kelly

That is a great and logical quote, and a fun exercise is to go segment by segment, and scenario plan what "Take X & Add AI" looks like in the 1.0 stage, the 2.0 stage, and fully realized at 3.0 for each market.

Re: Fun Friday: AR and VR

hypermark — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 19:46:01 -0000

A great app that captures the near term potential for AR is MSQRD by Masquerade Technologies. It is essentially a live mask (the category is face swapping) that instantly, and with no manipulation by the user, overlays the user's face with a dynamic, form fitting mask.

If you hold your phone over a TV screen, you can get a sense of the potential for augmented entertainment programming, whereby you, your family or a favorite actor can play the lead character in a show, sporting event or movie.

Imagine seeing yourself as Stephen Curry in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, or being Tyrion for a season of Game of Thrones.

Now, merge this concept with the nascent approach to filmed entertainment that incorporates point of view into the production process (e.g., 'Hardcore Henry'), and you see how a new medium emerges.

MSQRD App: https://itunes.apple.com/us...

Hardcore Henry: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: Privacy Absolutism

hypermark — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 17:28:10 -0000

I think the two most scary things about the notion of absolutism being a bad thing are:

1) The ability for mobile carriers and internet service providers to autonomously track users a priori over time, and then at ANY time in the future, mine their past history. The fact that the AT&T's of the world are happy to provide this service to the government only amplifies this fear. In this realm, the entire lives of future generations literally become a series of bread crumbs that can be re-traced, connected and amplified. It's not simply about going forward surveillance as is the case with wire taps, nor is it manual, analog and defined by scarcity.

2) History shows just how easy these backdoors become extended to a number off actors, be they insurance companies, corporate interests, tax collecting entities, political foes, hackers and terrorists. Illustrative of this is the simple example this weekend about how in NYC there are master keys for every elevator in the city, major construction sites, subways and skyscrapers are being freely sold online, despite a city law that makes it illegal for unauthorized persons to possess them. Image that as access to your "file."

Re: The Twitter Contradiction

hypermark — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 16:55:13 -0000

Twitter is a big fat paradox. It is on the one hand, in the bones, sinew and tissue of its many dedicated users. On the other hand, it is a cluster-f-ck of confusion about what exactly its mission is, how the product will evolve to support that mission, and the business that will drive it.

Put it alongside Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon, and the contrast is pretty start in terms of clarity vs. confusion.

Put another way, as a product and as a business, Twitter **feels** like one big A/B Test. As a service, it's indispensable. The incongruity between the two axes confuses and frustrates users, investors and partners alike.

Re: The Retrade

hypermark — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 02:51:14 -0000

The axiom that comes to mind here is that 'if you want to see how it ends, look at how it begins.' When the relationship begins with an investor or entrepreneur fundamentally changing the terms -- absent material news -- that's a harbinger.

Like Fred says, don't get emotional, but also don't be surprised when it plays out in other forms down the road.

Re: Feature Friday: Paying With Your Phone

hypermark — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 13:38:37 -0000

That is good detail. Thanks.

Re: Feature Friday: Paying With Your Phone

hypermark — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 13:13:37 -0000

There is a bit of inconsistency of experience from store to store (and even Whole Foods to Whole Foods), but the "magical" experience are the stores configured so you just hold the phone over the Debit/Credit Controller, use Touch ID and you are done. Period.

Some make you got the extra step of choosing debit or credit, and signing, which is decidedly less magical (i.e., only incrementally better than a physical card).

Re: End To End Encryption

hypermark — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 15:23:01 -0000

I think the simple calculus here is that what makes digital data different is that in absence of unbreakable encryption, you have a recipe for governments, large corporations or bad actors to maintain an: A) Automatic; B) Ever growing; C) Never ceasing data store of every communication you have -- good, bad or gray.

That store of data can be mined, categorized, or combined based upon a seemingly endless array of algorithms, and you wouldn't know until it's too late that, for example, five seemingly innocuous conversations you had over multiple years leave you f-cked for:

A) Identity Theft
B) False Prosecution
C) Discrimination by Insurance Companies, Financial Institutions, etc.

As we have seen in the wake of Post-911, what can be exploited in terms of monitoring and misuse of personal data, WILL be exploited.

Hence, it's not a question of giving the backdoor to the good actor, as if US has it, its allies will have it, its favored business lobby will have it, and so too, will its adversaries have it.

The litmus test for personal rights like Miranda Rights, are specifically whether we push those rights down to even the bad, unsavory characters. Why? Experience and wisdom dictates that the tool that can be plied against the guilty will be just as sharply used against the innocent.

Re: Get The Strategy Right And The Execution Is Easy

hypermark — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 21:41:13 -0000

thanks.

Re: Get The Strategy Right And The Execution Is Easy

hypermark — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 05:10:17 -0000

There is a subtle truth in this that a VC friend once conveyed. He was always challenging entrepreneurs by asking, "Where's the current? Birds don't fly because they flap their wings. They fly because they find the current, and let it carry them aloft higher."

Strategy is, at a base level, figuring out the current, and how to manifest it.

Re: Contextual Runtimes

hypermark — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 03:46:56 -0000

Here's a narrative. We are moving to an Applied model of thinking about Runtimes. Uber is a beautiful example of this applied model of thinking in action. The context of what the Uber run time experience is all about -- from passenger to driver to Uber, and back -- is beautifully thought out and more incredibly executed.

In terms of how all of these runtimes are plumbed together, I think there is a third path that is emerging: A) Embeddable, so it’s Spreadable; B) Can run within a Web Environment; and C) Can be pulled into a Native App Environment from A) or B). This is a logical anchor for where HTML5 takes root, and where Flash once had a foothold. HTML is easily sucked into native environments, as it is.

Re: App Streaming

hypermark — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 20:23:40 -0000

Thanks for the note. When you say unnecessary, artificial burden, for who? Presumably, developers do what they see as in their best interest, and Apple especially provides a great Mobile Web environment.

If you are arguing that Consumers are being artificially forced to download apps, that's another argument, but one I'd question since download is a tax on engagement. Hence, if the consumer truly has a choice between two equal services, and one is click and view web and the other requires a download, presumably the consumer would choose path of least resistance, right?