DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

Technology and Christmas…

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Besides wishing everyone a Happy Holidays, I’ve been thinking about how technology has changed Christmas since I was a lad…

 

  • The pile of presents looks much less impressive with technology constantly getting smaller.
  • It’s very hard to wrap an app or digital download.
  • There’s no excuse that ‘there’s none left in the shops’ thanks to online stock checkers.
  • Christmas TV isn’t exciting at all when you can watch anything at any time.
  • Work may have stopped but emails don’t. Especially Christmas messages from every service you’ve ever used.
  • The need to Instagram every present being unwrapped, and pets in novelty reindeer antlers.
  • Spoiling the surprise with the habit of checking in to every shop on Foursquare.
  • Covering your tablet/phone in ingredients rather than digging out an old cookbook.
  • No need for novelty Christmas CDs thanks to Spotify. As if you haven’t heard them enough.
  • But at least you can follow Santa via NORAD’s online tracker.

Interesting insights from James Dyson

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Wired has a quick interview with James Dyson on their website.

A few things stood out for me, beyond the design ideas that it’s about taking things away, and the current impetus is to make things more efficient and effective to reduce energy consumption etc…

  • He started his company 20 years ago, at the age of 45. I seem to be collecting examples of people launching ideas and products in later life as I get older, to disprove the fact that all entrepreneurs, inventors and digital natives are 20 years old.
  • He spends a bit of time justifying patents – I think everyone on each side of the patent debates agrees that invention should be rewarded, but the devil is in the detail of how it happens.
  • “Well, the moment it works—having built, say, 5,126 prototypes, and you make your 5,127th and it finally works—you immediately lose interest in it. You don’t go off and buy a bottle of champagne and celebrate, because you’re on to the next thing. It sounds like an awful life. Well, it is quite stressful, but it’s hugely enjoyable too, because you spend your time examining why things didn’t work and trying to understand.”
  • And the next thing for Dyson is robotic vacuum cleaners. Which is probably where they really enter the mainstream.