Sunny Thaper

Amazon Kindle 2

Sunny Thaper — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:41:19 +0000

I caved to my irresistible desire to buy geeky new things and forked over the cash for this beauty. I wasn’t really sure if I would even like it at first. I’ve never seen a Kindle in person (or any e-book reader) and I haven’t really been reading much in the last two years. It was a gamble, a gamble that totally paid off.

The Kindle 2 is beautiful and awesome. The screen is crisp and doesn’t hurt my eyes one bit. I was so excited the first day that I bought a 300 page book, and read 41% of it in the first day. I haven’t read a book like that in years. I’ve since been reading like a madman and I honestly can’t understand why. At this rate I’ll earn back the money I spent on the Kindle by saving so much on the books! Each book is typically only $10 as compared to the upwards of $30 I was paying for the printed versions.

My only complaint about the Kindle is I freaking wish it could just read a PDF. I can convert PDFs to a Kindle readable format but they come out so badly. Most end up being just one gigantic paragraph of text. Aside from the PDF issue, I would recommend the Kindle to all my friends (and have been). I need some Kindle buddies yo!

6th Photo

Sunny Thaper — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:45:50 +0000

Matt Gist tagged me in the 6th Photo Meme that’s going around. My mission should I chose to accept it: Go to page 6, image 6 on my Flickr stream and post it up. Tag 6 more, call it a post. That image and an explanation follow.

When I worked in Tempe, I used to go to this place all the time. Good food. This particular image is the Corleone’s from San Tan Mall. I guess I was nostalgic that day.

The 6 people I wish to tag are:

Are You Hypermillin’?

Sunny Thaper — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:38:44 +0000

Promise

Sunny Thaper — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:08:06 +0000

I will write blog posts.

In the meantime, I suggest you guys check out teamforty.com

SXSW 2008

Sunny Thaper — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:59:29 +0000

Just an announcement that I will be at SXSW this year in Austin, Texas from March 7th – March 11th. From what I gather, a huge portion of Refresh Phoenix will be there as well!

Official Coachella Lineup 2008

Sunny Thaper — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:30:16 +0000

FRIDAY, APRIL 25: Jack Johnson, The Verve, Raconteurs, The Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, Madness, The Swell Season, The National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santo Gold, Jens Lekman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deacon, Architecture in Helsinki, Sandra Collins, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Professor Murder, Reverend and the Makers, The Bees, Porter, Rogue Wave, Modeselektor, American Bang, Lucky I Am.

SATURDAY, APRIL 26: Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Cafe Tacuba, Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars on Broadway, Islands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noize, Junkie XL, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie T, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Carbon/Silicon, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty!, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Akron Family, MGMT, Institubes DJs (Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic), James Zabiela, Sebastian, Kavinsky, Dredg, The Bird and the Bee, Grand Ole Party, New Young Pony Club, 120 Days, Yoav, Electric Touch, Uffie.

SUNDAY, APRIL 27: Roger Waters (“Dark Side of the Moon”), Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, The Streets, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dmitri from Paris, Autolux, The Field, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Les Savy Fav, The Cool Kids, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Holy Fuck, Black Kids, Black Mountain, The Annuals, Kid Sister w/A-Trak, Man Man, Duffy, I’m from Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, The Horrors, Austin TV, Shout Out Louds, Plastiscines, Brett Dennen.

(Via Stereogum)

Driving in India

Sunny Thaper — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:52:57 +0000

Although it may not seem like it, but India has a far superior record of driver safety. The accident count is substantially less than that of the United States. How can a system with very limited rules and regulations perform better than the one we have in the United States? Constraint inhibits progress.I first started realizing this concept at work. We have a pretty laid back philosophy when it comes to getting work done. We are allowed to come and go at our own times, pick what we want to work on for the most part, and best of all, we don’t have to clock in and out! Now you may think this is a recipe for disaster but it turns out quite the opposite effect is achieved. Though I’m allowed to come and go as I please, I find myself trying to get there early and often times leaving very late. Picking what I want to work on gives me an overall better mood about work, I’m not being assigned “crappy” work that I have to do instead I am doing work which I have chosen to do. I even find myself working on the weekends, something which I have NEVER done at any other job. And probably most amazingly of all, I have never seen work get completed so quickly! We tend to chug through projects in record time.

Nine to five worlds are for geezers, try something new and crazy. Make your employees feel like they are contributing to a company that is their own, not trying to get a paycheck. Drive dangerously and without laws for a while, you might discover that people perform better.

Radiohead’s In Rainbows Dumb Business Move?

Sunny Thaper — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:42:57 +0000

Fortune Magazine claims that Radiohead’s latest album “In Rainbows” is the 58th dumbest moment in business. I’m sorry Fortune Magazine, but you are utterly wrong. First off, can you think of any other album ever that has been so publicly advertised? The band saved incredible amounts of money not advertising alone, mix that in with selling their product without a record label collecting their dues and you have instant success. According to Wired, Radiohead was able to raise $3 million dollars in their first month alone! $3 million dollars…. let me repeat that, $3 million dollars in one month… of which $0 went to a record label. And to back that up, they will still be releasing the record via cd come the new year. I know that I will be purchasing it… even though I spent $8 bucks on the digital download.

Anyone that actually pays good money to subscribe to Fortune magazine, I feel sorry for you. And just to stick it to Fortune some more, Radiohead is even doing a free new years eve show!

Think Small, In A Big Way!

Sunny Thaper — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:20:49 +0000

I’m currently enthralled with John Maeda’s book “The Laws of Simplicity.” “Simplicity requires a book” you say? As crazy as it sounds, simplicity is actually a very complicated subject. Think for a moment about the iPod. What makes the iPod so popular? If you compare the iPod to other media players available on the market you will actually find that the iPod is quite lacking in the features department. Players such as the Zune offer far more advanced functionality than the iPod does. What makes people buy a technically inferior product then? Simplicity. The beauty of the iPod comes from it’s easy of use, from the intuitive interface to the iTunes software, the iPod provides an experience that is strangely familiar.

Maeda’s book breaks down the idea of designing with simplicity in mind into 10 easy to remember laws, written within 100 pages exactly and reinforced with easy to remember acronyms, making even the act of reading and learning from the book an act of simplicity.

One of the ideas that really stuck with me was the law of reduction. One of the key objectives of reduction, Maeda explains, is the idea of shrinking.

When a small, unassuming object exceeds our expectations, we are not only surprised but pleased. Our usual reaction is something like, “That little thing did all that?” Simplicity is about the unexpected pleasure derived from what is likely to be insignificant and would otherwise go unnoticed. The smaller the object, the more forgiving we can be when it misbehaves.

A company that successfully employs this reduction principle is Google. When you visit their home page you are greeted with a search box and two buttons. Compare this to the other less popular search engines and you will notice a striking difference. Other search engines seem bloated and full of unnecessary elements. Google thrives off the fact that people visit search engines in order to search, not to be swamped with content and links that have no relevance to them.

Still think simplicity is a commonly known idea? Learn more about simplicity by picking up a copy of Maeda’s book.

BBC Beta: Now With Less Self Respect!

Sunny Thaper — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 04:00:06 +0000

Apparently BBC is joining the bandwagon and completely selling out. The new BBC site, currently in beta (so beta it hurts), is full of gigantic fonts, ajax-fied widgets, and an extreme lack of content. Really BBC, what were you thinking?

The Bad

Anytime I see the word “beta” I cringe a little. Not only do I feel like they are calling me a moron that can’t tell a dev site from a live site, but I also feel like they are saying “Hi, I’m cool!” I don’t know about you guys but if anyone comes up to me and says that, my first reaction is “no… no you aren’t.”What the hell is this? Seriously, a major news provider is going to crunch possibly the biggest reason why people visit their site into this tiny box? That header and edit button area alone could have given me two more headlines! Now that I think about it, I really should have grouped this under “The Worst” section because this just shows a poor understanding of your audience, of design, and of common sense.Could they have made this any bigger (so big that I had to include the thumbnail with a link to the full image)? Now I’m not dissing the design, but the application of this to a news site… come on. I feel as if I’m being fed “cool” like I actually asked for it. I’d almost much rather prefer BBC to strip all design and whatnot and keep their site text only… I go there for content, not for gigantic fluffy space taking graphics.

The Worst

What the hell is this? Why the hell is this on the site? Why would I possibly want to click on this? It’s not even one of those curiously quirky ads that you just have to click on… it’s nothing short of completely annoying. Not only does the inclusion of this make no sense to me, but WHY the headings? Like the ad wasn’t big and crazy enough?Really? Really? I mean I get it, it’s a retro bring back of the old BBC clock they used to have… I feel as if this was a knife meant to stab me in the eyes. Do I really need a clock on my website?Please…

The Cool

The one cool thing out of all of this is I can add BBC news feeds to Google Reader and never ever have to visit their homepage again.