#117: The Plague In Portland
It's Wednesday!
(A 1919 public service announcement in an Oregon newspaper. [Image: The Sunday Oregonian/University of Oregon Archives])
MUSIC THINGS:
This guy wanted to replicate the tactile experience of vinyl records but didn’t want to have a bunch of records taking up space in his house, so he removed the insides of an old Sonos Boost to turn it into a Raspberry Pi- and NFC-powered music player.
The whole thing cost about $62 to make and the link below features how they did it as well as the code you need to make it real. I believe vinyl is still a great listening experience, but if you don’t have the space, maybe this is an affordable solution?
Who needs vinyl records when you’ve got Raspberry Pi and NFC? (Raspberry Pi)
MARKETING THING:
(imaginasium.com)
Does anyone else struggle with branding? For me, one of the hardest things to do when launching a new product is what feels like it should be the easiest: trying to define it clearly to someone. If a stranger asked you what your creation is about, can you define it? If someone asked why they should use your service vs the competitions, do you have the confidence in your positioning?
This template will give you a fill-in-the-blank document that’s perfect for identifying and clearly communicating the brand and positioning of your product, creation or service.
Creative Positioning Mad Libs (Article Group)
I got this from Josh Spector’s For The Interested newsletter, by the way! Check out what he’s doing, it’s really great.
CULTURE THING:
Good thing everyone spent so much time giving that nonsense a platform for a solid week, right?
Today perhaps more than ever, data is ephemeral. Despite Stephen Hawking's late-in-life revelation that information can never truly be destroyed, it can absolutely disappear from public access without leaving a trace.
It’s not just analogue data, either. Just as books go out of print, websites can drop offline, taking with them the wealth of knowledge, opinions, and facts they contain. (You won't find the complete pre-herb archives of old Deadspin on that site, for instance.) And in an era where updates to stories or songs or short-form videos happen with the ease of a click, edits happen and often leave no indication of what came before. There is an entire generation of adults who are unaware that a certain firefight in the Mos Eisley Cantina was a cold-blooded murder, for instance.
I have worried aloud about what is going to happen to Datpiff and other cultural archives like it. This story about the digital archivists — the hoarders of the internet, if you will — gives me…relief?
Digital hoarders: “Our terabytes are put to use for the betterment of mankind” (Ars Technica)
SIX EASY STEPS TO HELP BLACK LIVES:
Carve out 30 minutes in your calendar this week. Do it now!
Click a link and make a call or donate or sign a petition.
This weekend, share the link with your three closest friends and say, “Hey, I’m (calling/donating/signing a petition). If you’re interested, here’s the link!” If you have a group chat, drop it into your group chat!
Bookmark this link.
Repeat the following week.
Do it while you online shop, do it while you’re on a boring call, hell, you can do it while you poop, I truly don’t care! Whatever it takes! It is truly the absolute least that you can do!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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