The journey of creating Playdate, our indie bright-yellow handheld video game system (and now, platform!) was fulfilling, but also challenging, but also really fulfilling. And if you some time to spare, I’d love to share with you a collection of stories about the ups, downs, and inside-outs of hardware development, some key learning moments we had along the way, and maybe even some thoughts about just, you know, running a business in general.
Lovely talk from the infectiously enthusiastic Cabel Sasser about bringing Playdate into the world.
“Weird Al” Yankovic breaks down his most iconic tracks including ‘My Bologna,’ ‘White And Nerdy,’ ‘Another One Rides The Bus,’ ‘Eat It,’ ‘Amish Paraside,’ ‘I Love Rocky Road,’ ‘Smells Like Nirvana,’ ‘Dare To Be Stupid,’ ‘Albuquerque,’ ‘Fat,’ ‘Polka Face,’ ‘Like A Surgeon,’ and ’Hardware Store.’
I’ve always loved how authentic and down to Earth Weird Al is.
Momofuku had been considering a number of ways to handle the trademark, but ultimately the company decided to simply not enforce it, even if that could result in a larger company trying to pick it up. “The risk to the business is that someone comes and says that we’re not defending it and tries to take the mark. But it’s a risk we’re willing to take,” she said.
Chang likened the trademark to the ring in “Lord of the Rings” — nearly impossible to get rid of. “Once we understood the power of this thing, it was like, we’ve got to get rid of it. This is not for us to use,” he said. “But we can’t give it away and we can’t destroy it.”
I don’t think you should focus on the failure of others, or even the success of others. What you do need to do—and what is surprisingly hard—is to define success for your own part of the world, and work towards that. Non-monetary success, because again, money lags.
Via Tom, and I agree with this so much. I think about this every time I see these kinds of headlines, about how companies are doomed and they’re failing and the metric you should be chasing is over here. But I also think about it in the framework of contentment and personal growth. I know it doesn’t pay the bills, and that part’s just as important, but for me it’s about iteration and forward progress on those goals.
CoolTerm is a simple serial port terminal application (no terminal emulation) that is geared towards hobbyists and professionals with a need to exchange data with hardware connected to serial ports such as servo controllers, robotic kits, GPS receivers, microcontrollers, etc.
The Oregon Outback Dark Sky Network (ODSN) has completed the first phase of a multi-phased project to establish a landscape-level International Dark Sky Sanctuary within the largest, contiguous dark sky zone in the lower 48 United States.