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Apple’s Next Macintosh OS | Monday Note:

A few days ago, I downloaded a neat little utility to silence the startup sound on my new 11” MacBook Air. How much did the developer make? Zero, it’s freeware; the programmer didn’t want to spend the time and money to set up a commercial site. How much would I have paid for it from a Mac App Store? Less than $5, more than 99 cents.

And this is just one of the reasons why I know the Mac App Store will be as much of a success as the iOS one. There are a ton of developers who would rather release freeware then to go through the sausage making that is e-commerce. In the new world, these fine folks can let Apple make the sausage and they can collect the cash. Great post as a whole, with many other interesting insights, by former Apple CEO Jean-Louis Gassée.

Mantis Lamp is a prototype LED designed by Moritz Böttcher and Sören Henssler. The compact nature of the LED Strips allows for the construction to be consisted of no more than a few wooden pieces and an aluminum tube. The light can adjust in height, and rotate continuously.

The lamp comes in two different color variations: black stained ash and maple white pigmented. The maple white definitely attracts my attention. Its airy, clean, and elegant composure is just something I would love to have sitting on my desk next to me. I also like the fact that, instead of trying to hide the wire with a white or neutral color, the designer chose to emphasize its presence by giving it a bright contrast.

The IV drip of pleasure you get from solving one little problem at a time | 37Signals Blog:

The overwhelming way: Head down forever and hope there will be a big payoff at the end.

The problem: The finish line always seems like it’s miles away. You spend 99% of your time anxious and only experience joy at the end (if ever). Sometimes you’re so intimidated by the idea, you give up.

A more soothing approach: Break what you’re doing into smaller, incremental units. Then you get to celebrate each step of the way instead of waiting until the end.

Clean Up and Backup Your Mac With “Contents”:

Although Macs don’t come with much of the bloatware suffered by PC users, they do come with a few apps (and associated data) that most users don’t need. The problem is, they hog up hard drive space – often a problem when you also have mammoth video files and thousands of jpegs all fighting for space.

Pack Light, Go Fast:

Photos, links and tips about the art of packing light.

fuckyeahbass:

Avishai Cohen - Chutzpan

It’s hard to mess up a song called Chutzpan.

And while we are in the Jazz mode I’d like to point you again to one of my favorite Presentation Zen posts: Zen, jazz, & creativity: Lessons from the art of jazz (part III)

And Jazz and the art of connecting.

There is something very calming, almost Zen-like, about working with your hands. The activity of using simple tools to create something is very appealing to me.

Unfortunately working with your hands is a dying art. Or maybe not. Still, people doing it are usually outsiders. I wonder why.

Matthew B. Crawford New York Times writes:

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur — the hazards faced by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s poem “To Be of Use,” which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/and a person for work that is real.” Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

He went on and opened a motorcycle repair shop after fisnishing his PhD. He is happy.

I think CEOs and other big time managers should all learn a manual skill. Just get dirty. I think good managers already do this.

Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, started as a blacksmith. He worked with his hand and forged the best climbing equipment back then. He worked hard so every piece of equipment was the best out there. He did the same with the clothing of Patagonia. But it wasn’t easy:

For the next few years, Chouinard forged pitons during the winter months, spent April to July on the walls of Yosemite, then headed out of the heat of summer for the high mountains of Wyoming, Canada, or the Alps, and then back to Yosemite in the fall until the snow fell in November. He supported himself selling gear from the back of his car. The profits were slim, though. For weeks at a time, he’d live on fifty cents to a dollar a day. Before leaving for the Rockies one summer he bought two cases of dented, canned cat tuna from a damaged-can outlet in San Francisco. This food supply was supplemented by oatmeal, potatoes, and poached ground squirrel and porcupines.

Yet he endured.

The same can be said of his son, Fletcher Chouinard. He wanted to make the best suftboards out there. He did. He worked with his hands. Even today, each board is handmade and unique. And top quality.

Or take the Saddleback Leather.

Since 1999, I’ve been using my own personal leather designs daily and so have found a number of ways to improve them. A lot of the changes are ones that most people would never notice such as changing the number of stitches per inch or reinforcing stress points. Those durability details are the ones I’m most proud of.

The people of Saddleback Leather are so confident about their handmade products that they give you a 100 years warranty:

All of our products are fully warranted against all defects in materials and workmanship for 100 years. If you or one of your descendants should have a problem, send it back to me or one of my descendants and we’ll repair or replace it for free or we’ll give you a credit on the website (be sure to mention the warranty in your will).

That is confidence; confidence that come from working with your hands.

I think we should all have a manual skill, however small. Something you can do in your spare time, when you disconnect from the normal routine: write on a piece of paper with a pencil, build something out of wood, work with tools to create something out of metal, paint, take photos and develop them manually, not with a machine. Whatever you decide is your manual skill, put all your heart to it. You’ll feel great, I promise.