tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24342503825312244872024-09-19T16:37:05.751-04:00Learning More BettererWaking up each day and paying close attentionJohn Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-79848079926621864352011-07-24T14:00:00.000-04:002011-07-24T14:00:59.721-04:00Puzzlin' in the Heat In which I go out on a limb (what’s new with that) and see whether the “new Google Plus One generation” are still listening. I’ve noticed that when it comes to introducing new stuff, Google puts a lot of effort into development and execution.  The stuff they build is very high grade, strong, and cool.  But I’ve also noticed that deliveries can arrive with surprises that aren’t John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-14651426400897003542011-07-14T01:54:00.000-04:002011-07-14T01:54:41.252-04:00Ketchin' Up It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.  I have lost all sense of time or responsibility when The Circles call. One of the things I've told myself is that to justify existence here I should put down at least some of what's going on inside the Brainway. With the new stimulus and excitement of new people, all checking out this Buzz Google Plus thing, well, I'm John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-61690829572483931072010-03-18T00:09:00.000-04:002010-03-18T00:09:33.754-04:00Google Office Apps: Not for Everyone I just finished reading Mike Elgan's article in Datamation on the new Google Office moves. The Goog has been busier than just about anyone this past month, managing to aggravate people from Beijing all the way West to Cupertino in a relatively short time. First, a rollout of some new mostly-integrated and improved apps (Mail/Buzz/Reader/Wave) with an audacious plan to provision every userJohn Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-22033874212344467032010-01-02T14:39:00.001-05:002010-01-02T14:39:49.350-05:00The Living Story (as told by Google)Google's come out with a new format called Living Story, which proposes to change the way news is received and digested.  It's kind of a cool idea which permits newsers to produce a destination rather than a story for chosen topics.  Think, "War in Afghanistan" for instance:  one horrendous subject, many small stories which put together make for many sleepless nights.  Oh, sorry!  I meant, which John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-46549119843131007472010-01-02T13:15:00.003-05:002010-01-02T14:19:56.409-05:00The Grassy KnolThis morning, I had the chance to stop by knol.Google.com, a site Google's using in its quest to gather the world's knowledge on the internet (A knol is defined as a unit of knowledge, get it?) Knols seem to be an analog to Tweets: Units of knowledge smaller in content than a full web page with links and sub-texts, Knols are 'free' and on their ownin the world, waiting for someone to sieze John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-44008988927701211452009-12-19T19:12:00.007-05:002009-12-19T19:29:36.067-05:00Sam, Sigourney and James' Excellent AdventureOK so my $.50 about Avatar: THREE "new" things brought to movie-dom:Super-improved stereo (3D) vision. Facial rendering is superb. Combination of 3D and improved tech make nearly all of the large-scale scenes so believable that you don't get the "what an incredible simulation" sensation - that moment when you're pulled back into the realization you're in your seat at ...a theater.I had only TWO John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-34868548219811463132009-04-30T21:58:00.002-04:002009-04-30T22:01:06.260-04:00Easy for YOU to articulate.... Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man's nature.- Ayn Rand, 'Art and Cognition'John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-61442541860029032722008-11-21T13:48:00.002-05:002009-02-11T13:11:48.509-05:00 “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.” - Rene MagritteJohn Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-39435857083356944712008-11-15T02:42:00.002-05:002008-11-15T02:49:00.067-05:00 The process of learning an art can be divided conveniently into two parts: one, the mastery of the theory the other, the mastery of the practice.  If I want to learn the art of medicine, I must first know the facts about the human body, and about various diseases.  When I have all this theoretical knowledge, I am by no means competent in the art of medicine.  I shall become a master in this art John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-16034951936853305222008-11-09T13:30:00.002-05:002008-11-09T13:33:59.329-05:00 "There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun."    - Pablo PicassoJohn Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-21741882469803049722008-11-07T15:56:00.000-05:002008-11-07T15:58:49.316-05:00It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory. John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-89904026755188327472008-11-01T14:16:00.002-04:002008-11-01T14:21:16.862-04:00 "Faith in authorship matters. We read the qualities of a work as the forthright decisions of a particular mind, wanting to let it commandeer our own minds, and we are disappointed when it doesn’t. If we are disappointed enough, when the named artist is familiar, we get suspicious. But we can never be certain in every case that someone—a veiled mind—isn’t playing us for suckers. Art lovers are John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-29888898658712496692008-10-17T09:23:00.002-04:002008-10-17T09:27:02.213-04:00Friedman: Why "How" MattersTom Friedman writes in the NYT about the market problems in an interesting slant: what we do is equally important, to how we do it. This is more than the common 'corner cutting' concept, it's an assertion that the culture changed to get it done from get it done right. Thanks again, Tom.John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-32647294790593365342008-10-15T09:31:00.001-04:002008-10-15T09:33:18.266-04:00Goal Setting For SkepticsLifeHacker has a great article for those of us who have a lot to do, and can't keep our minds wrapped around those things.  Have a read!John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-628924983140294122008-10-15T09:20:00.003-04:002008-10-15T09:23:50.129-04:00Open Thread“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.”                                                         - Jackson PollockJohn Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-27318338671472857892008-10-11T09:23:00.002-04:002008-10-11T09:28:21.858-04:00Open Thread "Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one's will. Virtue, good, evil are nothing but words, unless one takes them apart in order to build something with them; they do not win their true meaning until one knows how to apply them."                                                         - Paul Gauguin John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-50751426319171811922008-09-22T12:18:00.003-04:002008-09-22T12:28:16.443-04:00Open Thread One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever come to sit by it.  Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on the way.                                                          ~Vincent Van Gogh John Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434250382531224487.post-70121757506539947592008-09-16T11:29:00.003-04:002008-09-16T11:33:03.193-04:00How to Wake Up Enthused Every Day via Dumb Little ManI love the Dumb Little Man.  It is a blog of good things each of us would read and absorb, if we had the time.  I secretly envy the proprietor as he is managing to work and run this blog with daily posts from contributors, and yes may even be making a little coin on the side with Ad revenues.  Genius! I've linked to this article to give you a flavor.  So please link and check out:  How to Wake UpJohn Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05972312231916698709noreply@blogger.com0