The Worst Gadgets of the Decade: 10 Bonus Dishonorable Mentions

While we’re confident that we nailed our 50 worst gadgets of the decade, you commenters reminded us of a few truly awful gems that didn’t make the cut. So here are ten more worst gadgets for your enjoyment and derision.

And please, suggest any others that you feel strongly about. I’ll be reading the comments all day, adding the most egregiously bad examples to the list. And if you’d rather view the embedded as one long post, we’ve got you covered here.

How to Master the “Art of Apathy”

Now, here’s a different slant on things -found this post at Dumb Little Man.

When we hear the word “apathy”, we may also hear the words “uncaring”, “soulless”, or “lazy”. You may think that an apathetic person doesn’t like to be bothered with the burdens of the world or even in his immediate community. You may picture him having a slothful attitude. Maybe he doesn’t care too much for his appearance, doesn’t watch the news, or probably would seemingly “accept” another’s argument simply because he can’t be bothered to argue over something that, in the grand scheme of things, won’t change my mind or the other person’s mind.

This is me (most of the time).

I get p***ed at something – maybe I’ll let my feelings shine anywhere from a few hours to a few minutes – and next thing you know, I’ve shifted off into another topic. It’s not that I have a low attention span or don’t care about things, it’s just that, for the most part, things that seem big to other people, usually aren’t that big to me. [read]

When Your Company Culture Isn't Ready for Social Media

Are you considering whether your company should use social media to connect not only with your customers, but also with your employees, partners, and suppliers? Before you decide to encourage your key executives to blog, or start looking at private social networking Enterprise 2.0 platforms, consider the following two scenarios based upon real examples and ask how the executives at your company would react:

1. An executive publishes her first blog post, primarily addressing his employees, but open to the public. She intends for the blog to help the survivors of a recent downsizing, mentions that those who left the company are talented employees, and that the survivors should do things that replenish their spirit. The wife of a laid-off employee sends the CEO a letter demanding the resignation of the executive because she finds the section on replenishing the spirit frivolous and insensitive. What would your CEO do? [read: Havard Business Review]

When Your Company Culture Isn't Ready for Social Media

Are you considering whether your company should use social media to connect not only with your customers, but also with your employees, partners, and suppliers? Before you decide to encourage your key executives to blog, or start looking at private social networking Enterprise 2.0 platforms, consider the following two scenarios based upon real examples and ask how the executives at your company would react:

1. An executive publishes her first blog post, primarily addressing his employees, but open to the public. She intends for the blog to help the survivors of a recent downsizing, mentions that those who left the company are talented employees, and that the survivors should do things that replenish their spirit. The wife of a laid-off employee sends the CEO a letter demanding the resignation of the executive because she finds the section on replenishing the spirit frivolous and insensitive. What would your CEO do? [read: Havard Business Review]

Five jobs other browsers do better

In case you haven’t heard, the browser war is over. It’s not that there aren’t still competitors—in fact, there’s a bountiful landscape of Web browsers for OS X. Rather, the war is over because almost all modern browsers are stable, compliant, and free.

While there are good reasons to use either Apple’s Safari or Mozilla Firefox as your default browser, sometimes you need specialty browsers to help with specific tasks. But how do you know which browser to use when? Here are some of the best uses of the lesser-known browsers such as the free Flock, Devon Technologies’ $50 DevonAgent, The Omni Group’s free OmniWeb, Alexander Clauss’ free iCab, and more. [read]

Coffee: Good or Bad?

Hector Sanchez for The Wall Street Journal

This month alone, an analysis in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who drink three to four cups of java a day are 25% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who drink fewer than two cups. And a study presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting found that men who drink at least six cups a day have a 60% lower risk of developing advanced prostate cancer than those who didn’t drink any.

Earlier studies also linked coffee consumption with a lower risk of getting colon, mouth, throat, esophageal and endometrial cancers. People who drink coffee are also less likely to have cavities, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, or to commit suicide, studies have found. Last year, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Madrid assessed data on more than 100,000 people over 20 years and concluded that the more coffee they drank, the less likely they were to die during that period from any cause. [read]

Winter Photography Projects

With the shorter days and colder weather (well, for me here in the States, at least), it’s getting harder to get outside for the beautiful landscape and urban shots. I’m the type of person that always likes to have a new project (or two) to work on, so here’s some things I plan on working on – maybe it will spark some ideas for you!

[read]

Free Plugin Of The Week – EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Free

If you’re looking for a basic library of Orchestral sounds, and free, well now you can get one from Sounds Online. The “Starter” Version of Symphonic Orchestra PLAY Edition is a FREE (after short survey) Virtual instrument with a ton of superbly recorded Orchestral instruments.

Answer a short survey, CLICK HERE, and get a FREE starter version of the most popular professional symphonic orchestra virtual instrument ever made. It works with most sequencer/notation hosts including Ableton Live, Cubase/Nuendo, Digital Performer, Finale, FL Studio, Garageband, Logic, Pro Tools, Sibelius, Sonar, etc. Or you can use it as a standalone application with your music keyboard.

If you like the starter version, you can upgrade to the Gold, Platinum, or Platinum Plus versions. Using the promotional code in your email, CLICK HERE, enter the promotional code and you will see the discounted price. European customers CLICK HERE. This offer expires January 31, 2010.

Of course, if you choose not to upgrade, you get to keep this version which is not time limited, and not copy protected!!

Sounds like a pretty decent deal. EastWest is considered one of the best in this field but the PLAY Engine can be buggy particularly in Pro Tools. I’m currently downloading mine (a couple hours to go) and as long as it’s stable I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.

Let me know what you think of it. [Source: Audio Geek Zine]

Top 10 Reasons Your Website Should Go Mobile

The mobile web is a fascinating space that is still in its infancy. If the current capabilities of mobile devices are a sign of things to come, I can only imagine what will be possible five years from now.

Here are 10 reasons I think that anyone with an online presence should establish a mobile presence separate from your website:

1. Google has a separate index for mobile content.

Not only do they have a separate index for mobile content, but also it is fairly empty. The other day I performed a search for an Imax theater in Santa Barbara, and it told me that the best option was a theater in San Diego. Really? I jumped on Imax.com and found a theater located just 19 miles away.

I never thought I would miss directory style websites, but in this particular example, a mobile directory for all theaters in the US would have been able to give Google Mobile the correct solution to serve up.

2. Your regular website is not going to cut it.

There is a fundamental design difference between a regular website and a mobile website.

On a mobile phone, there is a very limited amount of screen space. If you have ever had to side scroll to view something on a website, you realize how much of an inconvenience it is. This is magnified on a mobile device. Even with the ability to turn the device lengthwise, the resolution is still extremely small.

There are numerous mobile phone emulators that can show you what your website will look like on a mobile device, and I can guarantee it is probably a terrible experience for a mobile device user. [read]

Choosing an A/D and D/A Converter

Like the mics, preamps, headphones, and speakers we all use, the choice of converters is just that — a choice. Whether chosen via personal research, a printed or online review, word-of-mouth persuasion, simple economics, just purely using your ears, or an amalgamation of these influential factors, A/D and D/A converters are significant pieces of the signal chain in this audio production era of the DAW platform.

Recently, I spoke with a handful of respected engineer/producers about choosing converters. Here are their opinions on the subject.

“I like to use Lynx [Studio Technology] Aurora converters for my tracking A-D and analog summing D-A because they sound better than anything I heard in their price range,” said Fab (Fabrice Dupont), owner of Flux Studios in New York’s East Village. “They have full Pro Tools connectivity, and I can also hook them up to native DAWs with an AES connection. They don’t need an external clock to perform great, are 1U of space for 32 channels of I/O, have no [cooling] fans, and are easily align-able to whatever reference level I like. They also never have any problems of any kind — hard to beat.”

Like some other engineers, Fab uses a varied setup when outputting and monitoring finals. “For printing mixes, I use a Crane Song HEDD [Harmonically Enhanced Digital Device] as it sounds very transparent, has tons of headroom, responds well to being hit hard, and has lots of great options and processing capabilities. For my main monitoring D-A, I use the Dangerous Music’s DAC-ST [D-A conversion for Dangerous' Monitor-ST, a remote-controllable input source, speaker switcher, cue/talkback system and headphone amp] because it’s the most neutral, natural, and opensounding D-A I’ve heard. What I hear is what I get: no color or distraction.” [read]