thedailywhat:
Worst Nightmare Realized of the Day: The man responsible for the ringing cellphone that silenced a performance of the New York Philharmonic earlier this week says he hasn’t slept since.
“Patron X”, a 60-something business exec seated in the front row, interrupted Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with his iPhone’s marimba ring, inciting the ire of conductor Alan Gilbert, who stopped the show cold.
“You can imagine how devastating it is to know you had a hand in that,” said the 20-year orchestra subscriber who was pelted with “angry shouts” from audience members while he fumbled for his phone for several very long seconds.
Speaking to The New York Times, Patron X blamed his brand new iPhone’s alarm clock — which he claims he didn’t know existed — but apologized just the same. ”I hope the people at that performance and members of the orchestra can certainly forgive me for this whole event,” he said. “I apologize to the whole audience.”
The man also apologized to Gilbert when the two spoke on the phone yesterday afternoon. Gilbert said he felt sorry Patron X “had to go through this,” and accepted his apology.
In light of this incident, do yourself a favor next time you’re in Avery Fisher Hall and follow composer Daniel Dorff’s example: “Changed my ringtone to play #Mahler 9 just in case.”
[nyt / video: reenactment.]
Or: turn off your phone.
If you can’t be “off the grid” for all of two-three hours, maybe you shouldn’t be inside a theater in the first place.
Images by Stan Brakhage
This is what I love about Kill Screen magazine.
Scouting An Abandoned Cold War Missile Base Hidden In The Adirondacks
Scouting NY, one of my favorite blogs ever, does a proper tour of this unique location.
From the sales site: “This the finest retrofit of a missile site accomplished to date. It is a one-of-a-kind most unique property in the world, with its strength, history and now its opulent refurbishment into living space.”
In other news, Samsung wins the Best Troller award of CES 2012.
For The 5th Year In A Row, Apple Wins CES. Before It Starts. Without Showing Up.
Mg Siegler, techcrunch.com
Are you ready for CES? I know I am. The PR emails are flowing in and I’m going to respond to every single one of them. I can’t wait to hear about Samsung’s social media stuff. And Vizio’s new thingy. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one thi…
Companies that aren’t Apple are having a hard time trying to forget Apple’s successes and move on.
Yes, stop making crap laptops, but perhaps don’t make your “ultrabooks” look exactly like MacBook Airs. You’re not building loyalty, you’re only drawing more attention to Apple as the clear leader worth copying. And unless you’re actually making products better than they are, you’ll only make them realize that they really wanted that Mac instead.
This isn’t new advice. We’ve been saying this since the Resurgence, since PC brands borrowed Bondi blue and transparent plastics. They’ve been shelling out mindshare for short-term attention instead of focusing on improving their business to survive the long-term shift that’s occurring thanks to the Internet and mobility.
No excuses. They knew it was coming: The original UMPC vision could have worked if it hadn’t been half-assed into an overpriced, highly compromised version of the tablet PC that people already didn’t want.
Who are the companies that are fighting best today? Google and Amazon, two companies with serious roots neither in PC components nor OSes, who built up their ecosystems enough to answer the only question that actually matters anymore: “Well, what do they do that Apple doesn’t?”
One thing that seems missing in all of this social media is the ability to take conversations on Twitter and easily flesh them out into complete posts.
This popped up as I watched @chrisfahey and @vanderwal have a fantastic discussion about the application of Dunbar’s number. I found myself wishing that there was a easy switch they could have flipped mid-post that could have moved the content into a better, longer space.
There are a number of systems that are Twitter-aware and can serve as long-tweet exchanges: Shortmail’s “public emails” are just one of them. But unless Twitter itself supports it, that export step won’t be effortless enough to make such a tool pervasive.
I don’t think such a product is inherently anti-Twitter either — it seems like something that would fit the Discover model of news stories, and further establish Twitter as a complete destination for content — and is really something Twitter itself should be considering adding to its feature set.
jtotheizzoe:
The Suit That Makes You Feel 75 Years Old
Getting old is no fun. The stiff joints, the constant urination, the diminishing eyesight, the wrinkles … and that’s just 40! As more and more of us get old (by 2030 20% of the population will be over 65) it’s important to allow designers, engineers and others to fully understand the needs of this aging population.
Enter AGNES (Age Gain Now Empathy System), a suit outfitted with braces to stiffen your joints, goggles that make it hard to read, a neck brace that crooks your spine, and rubber bands that make it impossible to extend your limbs.
Sounds real peachy.
(via Discoblog)
What a great idea. A concern like this doesn’t often cross designers’ minds until it happens to them personally (close family, self, etc.).
“Let’s face it: Drinking scotch isn’t about geekery, it’s about appreciating the finer things in life while enjoying good company, ideally in a room decorated with rich mahogany.” - Fast Design via @arainert
