the michael galpert experience

"“I’m the worst kinda celebrity, because all I do is make music. All I do is sit in the studio and..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:56:15 -0400

“

“I’m the worst kinda celebrity, because all I do is make music.

All I do is sit in the studio and make real, real shit, and that’s it. That’s motherfucking it.

I ain’t here to apologize to no motherfuckers man. It ain’t about me humanizing myself. At what point did I become unhuman where I had to turn myself back?

I ain’t no motherfucking celebrity. I ain’t running for office. I ain’t kissing nobody’s motherfucking babies. I’m trying to make music that inspires people to be the best they can be. I don’t want nobody to ask nothing else of me. This my goddamn life. This ain’t no motherfucking joke. That’s it.

”

- Kanye (via yancey)

Ronen found the longer version of the Kanye rant that makes it even more awesome.

"When you’re tired, sleep, when you’re hungry, eat, when you’re depressed, work, when you’re horny,..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:37:11 -0400

“

When you’re tired, sleep, when you’re hungry, eat, when you’re depressed, work, when you’re horny, fuck, when you’re sad, cry, and when you’re happy, smile. When you’re bored, imagine, when you’re restless, exercise. When you’re afraid, breath, when you’re excited, jump, when you’re lost, explore, when you’re thinking, think, when you’re talking, listen, and when a pretty girl smiles at you, smile back.

When there’s music in your heart, dance to it.

”

- Ronen V

"Whatever happens, this place was something special for me, and continues to be for many others. I..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:52:00 -0400

“Whatever happens, this place was something special for me, and continues to be for many others. I really enjoyed the time I spent here.”

- SoupSoup on Tumblr’s [upcoming] sale

"I ain’t humanizing myself. It ain’t about me humanizing myself. At what point did I become unhuman?"

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:25:42 -0400

““I ain’t humanizing myself. It ain’t about me humanizing myself. At what point did I become unhuman?””

- Kanye (via yancey)

"Technology should do the hard work so that people can get on with doing the things that make them..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:08:18 -0400

“Technology should do the hard work so that people can get on with doing the things that make them happiest in life.”

- Larry Page

Strong Opinions @marksbirch: What Startups Are Like

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:14:54 -0400

Strong Opinions @marksbirch: What Startups Are Like:

marksbirch:

Here is a collection of uplifting and heartwarming words of encouragement from the most sage voices in the tech startup world as you begin your own entrepreneurial journey.

Throwing yourself off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down. - Reif Hoffman

Being an entrepreneur is…

via A New MailChimp Is Coming

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:21:25 -0400

via A New MailChimp Is Coming

"Is that really how gigantic I look to my children? I remember adults being huge when I was a child,..."

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:06:26 -0400

“

Is that really how gigantic I look to my children? I remember adults being huge when I was a child, but I’d forgotten just how big until now.

Seeing mundane photographs from the natural height and angle of their eyes gives them life and makes the photographer relatable. These photos are not artistic, but they have a human soul.

”

- Avi Muchnick: A weekend using Google Glass as my only camera

africanfashion: For those of you who criticize Janelle’s...

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:57:16 -0400

africanfashion:

For those of you who criticize Janelle’s signature monochromatic look.

From her speech on “Black Girls Rock”:

“When I started my music career, I was a maid. I used to clean houses. My mother was a proud janitor. My stepfather, who raised me like his very own, worked at the post office and my father was a trashman. They all wore uniforms and that’s why I stand here today, in my black and white, and I wear my uniform to honor them.

This is a reminder that I have work to do. I have people to uplift. I have people to inspire. And today, I wear my uniform proudly as a Cover Girl. I want to be clear, young girls, I didn’t have to change who I was to become a Cover Girl. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.

Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable.” - Janelle Monáe

New design pattern: Livatars

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:15:09 -0400

avimuchnick:

“Livatars,” a Portmanteau for “live avatars,” is a pretty simple concept: Take a traditional headshot and make it subtly animated so the person in it appears alive. It’s an homage to the living newspapers in Harry Potter and player popup profiles that appear on tv during sportscasts. We tried this on Aviary’s company page and have gotten great feedback on it from people who stumbled across it by accident.

I wouldn’t even call it a pattern yet, except I just noticed it has also popped up on wefollow’s company page as well. They did a more technically elegant implementation than us (if you don’t care about IE7-8 support): We used animated gifs and they used HTML5 background video with a CSS vector mask on top of it.

Benefits over a traditional headshot:

Not boring, without being too over the top or trying too hard. It will probably make the viewer smile when they notice what’s going on.

Makes the people in the photo that much more relatable.

Seeing one makes you want to see a photo yourself alive on that page as well. What better way to unconsciously recruit?

Simpler to implement than other about page easter eggs: Just record a few seconds of video of someone standing still and loop it back and forth.

The trick is to shoot for subtlety and have everyone try to stand completely still when you record them. You want the viewer to do a double take when they think a static snapshot blinks at them out of the corner of their eye as they quickly scan a page.

RAD

"People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole."

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:06:06 -0400

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.”

- Theodore Levitt (via marksweep)

jayparkinsonmd: ilovecharts: via cakostopoulos This chart has...

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:11:20 -0400

jayparkinsonmd:

ilovecharts:

via cakostopoulos

This chart has one misleading bit. You don’t really overdose from cocaine. The vast majority of deaths from cocaine occur from an impossible-to-predict fatal heart rhythm. You snort some coke and your heart stops beating normally and you die. Cocaine is an interesting drug in that this rhythm can occur in anyone at any time and it’s not associated with the dose. It can happen the first time you do coke or the 1,000th. It can happen with just a small amount or it can happen after your 4th hit that night. It’s just sheer bad luck. Note that cocaine kills more people than heroin every year.

In case you were wondering: this is why I don’t do coke.

ronenv: Imagine your leg falls asleep, and you never walk again to avoid that one moment of...

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:31:11 -0400

ronenv:

Imagine your leg falls asleep, and you never walk again to avoid that one moment of discomfort waking it. That’s most people psychologically.

Luke Wroblewski shares his thoughts after a week with Google...

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:42:00 -0400

Luke Wroblewski shares his thoughts after a week with Google Glass [entire post]

All that said, I’m still optimistic of the future of a device like Google Glass. Consider the impact of what it has the potential to enable:

Instant access to a camera that captures the world as your eyes currently see it

The ability to share that perspective with others in real time

An alternate digital plane of information you can view at any time

A private audio channel only you can hear

The combination of this digital plane and audio to amplify (augment) what you are doing and seeing in the real world

Any of these features alone could be considered magical, but together they’re a vision of the future. Google Glass today is an imperfect prototype of the future because its value does not yet outweigh its pain. But I have to assume that’s why it’s called the Explorer Edition.

"If I get a cup of tea, it’s a cup of tea — there isn’t a chance that it’s actually made out of solid..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 16:34:31 -0400

“If I get a cup of tea, it’s a cup of tea — there isn’t a chance that it’s actually made out of solid gold. But that’s how this works.”

- YC’s Paul Buchheit explaining why the public doesn’t understand startup economics. (via parislemon)

===

It can also be a cup of piss

The Naive Optimist: How to use a Reddit-clone to boost company culture

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:40:00 -0400

The Naive Optimist: How to use a Reddit-clone to boost company culture:

ryanleecarson:

Recently we tried something new at Treehouse and it’s working wonderfully well, so I thought I’d share the secret with you.

We recently crossed the invisible it’s-impossible-to-communicate-effectively line. The strange place where it feels like you’re small enough as a company not to have ‘communication procedures’ but large enough that somehow everyone is no longer on the same page (and misinformation spreads like wildfire). For us, that number was around 30 employees. We’re at 53 now, so it was time for a new strategy.

The Treehouse team works remotely and are trying to make it work.

They built a product (Convoy) that enables them to share culture/ideas without distracting productivity.

Read the whole post if you’re interested; I wanted to highlight their approach to communication

Phone or Google Hangout: Need an answer immediately

IM: Need an answer in the next hour

Email: Need an answer in next day or two

Convoy: No answer required

kskobac: I love the simplistic, beautiful onboarding...

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:59:47 -0400

kskobac:

I love the simplistic, beautiful onboarding experiences that betaworks creates for its apps. The screenshots above are from the first time you open the new Dots game betaworks released. The intro experience for Tapestry was really enjoyable too.

Credit for the beauty+joy of Dots and Tapestry should go to Patrick Moberg

"The problem is you cannot selectively numb emotion. So when you numb those, we numb joy, we numb..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:58:25 -0400

“The problem is you cannot selectively numb emotion. So when you numb those, we numb joy, we numb gratitude, we numb happiness. And then we are miserable, so then we have a couple of beers and a banana nut muffin.”

- Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability | Video on TED.com (via soxiam)

"Complaints without solutions are meaningless. Don’t just complain about what you don’t like -..."

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:38:29 -0400

“

Complaints without solutions are meaningless.

Don’t just complain about what you don’t like - provide solutions that could be equally or more effective in the given scenario(s).

Cause I’ve got to tell you, if it’s just whining and insults, it comes off as someone with no intent of making a difference themselves. Anyone can complain, but people who provide solutions make a difference. The two go hand in hand - “This is wrong, here is how it should be handled.” - but one can’t exist without the other if real change is the actual intent.

”

- Barrett Garese (via ronenreblogs)

"It doesn’t matter what users think of YOU. What matters is what they think and feel about..."

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:10:42 -0400

“It doesn’t matter what users think of YOU. What matters is what they think and feel about themselves as a result of interacting with (using) your product or service.”

- Kathy Sierra / Why we love “users”

===

If you are not familiar with Kathy’s blog, Creating Passionate Users, I recommend you get familiar with the archives.

The internet has 2 major flaws IMHO: it’s love for cats and its inability to protect Kathy from the trolls.