Josh Walsh

While having my wisdom teeth out this morning, my awesome wife...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:23:18 -0500

While having my wisdom teeth out this morning, my awesome wife hid this for me on my iPhone.

She knows how to make this geek smile, even if doing so hurts like hell.

"Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors…..."

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

“Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors… Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory”

- Andrew Carnegie

Yamaha Recalling Pianos

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Yamaha has recalled 20,000 pianos due to a problem with the pedal sticking, causing pianists to play faster than they normally would, resulting in a dangerous number of accidentals.

The sticky pedal also makes it harder for pianists to come to a full stop at the end of a piece, making it extremely risky for audiences.

Photo

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Appreciating and Perceiving Beauty

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

A man played six Bach pieces on a violin for 45 minutes in the Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning. During the time he played, approximately two thousand people passed through the station. Of those, only six people stopped and listened, and then only for a very short while. The greatest levels of enthusiasm were displayed by young children, several of whom tugged on their parents, asking to stop and listen, but without success.

This concert, enjoyed by virtually none of the two thousand in the station that day, was given by the renowned violinist Joshua Bell, playing some of the most intricate pieces ever written. Two days before his concert in a theater in Boston had sold out with ticket prices averaging $100. [This] challenges us to ponder what we each are missing. In a common place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

[Summarized from the Harvard Business Review]

I found a clip from the event on YouTube:

The Microsofting of Apple

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The Microsofting of Apple:

This guy doesn’t get it. If Apple is gaining market share, it’s because the experience people have with their products surpasses the products of others.

Take the iPad, which instantly shed the moniker “Jesus tablet” once it saw the light of day. It’s a blown-up iPod Touch, rolled out not to be insanely great but to give Apple an entry in the netbook derby.

Apple is in the business of creating great user experiences. Their strategy is to make casual computing more comfortable. It’s not about the hardware or the software. It’s about the experience you have with their product.

The iPad looks like a device optimized to patronize the iTunes store.

Totally right. Apple is in business to sell products. What’s wrong with that?

Apple refuses to support Flash, which delivers 75% of the video on the Web. […] Flash would also allow iPhone and iPad users to consume video and other entertainment without going through iTunes. Flash would let users freely obtain the kinds of features they can only get now at the Apple App Store.

With a modern browser, like Safari, this isn’t true. HTML5 in Safari natively supports video without flash. It’s a far more flexible, and accessible way of delivering video.

And what about Apple’s decision to exclude Flash? Apple and its supporters stake out aesthetic and philosophical grounds: Flash is buggy. Flash is a power hog. Flash is “proprietary” (horrors). Flash is used to create those annoying Web ads

The leading cause of browser crashes are caused by memory leaks in plugins. We know what plugin they are talking about.

While I only commented on a few key pieces of the article, I fail to see the connection to Microsoft.

Sunflower Solutions of Cleveland brings low-cost power to Africa

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Sunflower Solutions of Cleveland brings low-cost power to Africa:

A very nice article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about a startup company I’m proud to be affiliated with.

Photo

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Photo

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

A simple rule that made me lose 5 pounds in a month

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

I vowed to start taking better care of my health last November. I’m not obese, fat, portly, flabby, or gross by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t living a lifestyle that made me feel healthy.

I started a real exercise regimen in December, but prior to that I made a simple dietary rule for myself. This rule on its own was responsible for my losing 5lbs in a month. It’s not super impressive, but it was a health change that I made without altering my lifestyle or my busy schedule.

The rule: When you are thirsty drink water, and only drink something else when you aren’t thirsty.

It’s that simple. When you crave a soda, have one. But, don’t have one just because you are thirsty.

There is no fold. Love your scrollbar.

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

There is no fold. Love your scrollbar.

Photo

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

I just wanted a vector rectangle with an 8.5x11 ratio. This UX...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

I just wanted a vector rectangle with an 8.5x11 ratio. This UX workflow is horrible, when they made it so easy to do as a raster layer.

Did I miss something here, or is this really the best way to do it?

Feed Reader Overload

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

I’ve observed an interesting pattern in the way I keep up with RSS feeds.

When I have few items in my feed reader, say less than 10, I jump in and read them all. Interesting or not. This means I waste my time reading articles which aren’t interesting to me, because there’s just not a whole lot to read.

The logical next step is to subscribe to more feeds, and ones which are more targeted to my interests. What happens is that I fall behind and have to play catchup, which means I waste time reading posts which are out of date. This becomes frustrating, “screw it” and I stop reading feeds altogether.

Lately, I’ve been subscribing to even more blogs which completely overloads my Google Reader inbox. Mentally I realize that I will never be able to consume the information as fast as it comes in, so I just focus on current relevant posts and let the rest fall by the wayside.

I feel more in touch the past few weeks. More up to date, and interested in my topic again.

I’m one of the partners in a new product, Prfessor, which...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400

I’m one of the partners in a new product, Prfessor, which has launched today.

Video

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500

The 2008 Winning Rails Rumble Team. Our winning submission...

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The 2008 Winning Rails Rumble Team. Our winning submission was MeetInBetween.

Bell Diving with Natalie on our Honeymoon.

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Bell Diving with Natalie on our Honeymoon.

The view from our honeymoon suite.

Wed, 30 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The view from our honeymoon suite.

The best day of my life.

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The best day of my life.