If you go to Amazon.com and type “Traffic,” you will find three top listings. There is a book, Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt, about how we drive the way we do. Read it. Then there is a listing for a movie starring Michael Douglas and Benicio Del Toro. If you have not watched it, then watch it. And then there is a … Continue reading Ben Smith’s Traffic
It has been a long time since I went back to New York. A very long time indeed. It was a work trip with some pockets of free time, so I took my camera with me — hoping to see New York differently. While those photos still sit on the camera’s memory card, waiting to be edited, I had enough time on my flight back to edit my photos made with my iPhone 14 Pro Max on my M2-powered iPad using the latest beta version of Adobe Lightroom.
Continue reading “Reflections of New York”WordPress, the open-source blogging software, is twenty years old. The software’s first official release (WordPress 1.0) was made available on May 27, 2003. I had been using the software for a little longer when it was still in alpha. In 2004, I switched my old website to WordPress, becoming the first major blog to embrace … Continue reading Wow, WordPress is 20
Did you know that 10.08 million new tracks were uploaded to online music streaming services in the first three months of 2023? That’s 120,000 new tracks every day, according to estimates from Nashville-based Luminate, a company that tracks music industry data. At this rate, we are looking at 43 million new tracks into the services by the end of 2023. In comparison, they saw 93,400 new tracks being uploaded daily in 2022, or roughly 34.1 million tracks. In 2021, that number stood at 30.5 million new tracks.
It was a major news day for Leica — the Wetzlar, Germany-based company known for its iconic cameras released Q3, the latest version of the Q, the best-selling fixed lens camera. And new as it might be, Q3 is a big step backward for a product that won a Red Dot award for design when it first came to the market in 2015.
Continue reading “What’s wrong with Leica Q3”Shall we put this one in the “I told you so category?”
If you have been reading my blog and my twice-a-month newsletter, you know this was coming. For the past year, I have argued that Twitter is Elon Musk’s Bully Pulpit and the new Fox. Yesterday, that reality manifested itself.
Continue reading “The Musk of a Fox”We, humans, like to think we are important. We think we can create the planet’s future. Or that we destroy that future. We think we are rich and powerful. We think we are beautiful. And yet, we are nothing when plotted on a long arc of time. Not even a blip. We come, and we go, and we are all forgotten. Or as Seneca said, “Life, if well lived, is long enough.”
Continue reading “The context of time”
We live in a society where everything is tradable. There is a marketplace for everything, from sneakers to cameras, pens to watches to clothes. A house is not a home but a cashable asset to be listed on Zillow. It is no surprise why everyone focuses on resale or whatever they own. It also explains why NFTs became such a phenomenon — they were not for ownership, but the original intent was to buy and flip. Resale is just a weird word. Ben Brooks sums it up nicely:
Continue reading “Resale”In my latest piece in The Spectator. As a financial investment, I make a case that Twitter will be a bust. However, the power it gives Elon Musk is unprecedented. Musk has bought the Fox News of the post-TV reality for $44 billion, a pittance considering how much power it gives him over his rivals … Continue reading The Musky Fox
Hi! In case you are new around here, I am Om. If you are new around here, here is something About Me and why you should read my newsletter. In this letter, I share what’s on my mind, my latest writings, articles worth reading from around the web, my recommendations & sometimes my photography. It’s mostly about technology … Continue reading A Letter from Om. Issue #05/2023
