I caught the last 20 minutes of one of Oprah’s shows earlier this week, and was fascinated to listen to a couple of upstart stars, Jurnee Smollett and Nate Parker, talk about what they had learned from Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker while making the film The Great Debaters.
Jurnee and Nate impressed me with how they had clearly worked hard to learn all they could from working with with Denzel and Forest. When I was their age, I was rebellious and thought I knew it all. Consequently, I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. Hopefully the fine attitudes of these young gentlemen will help them to not have to learn the hard way.
I wish I had jotted down more of the wisdom they learned from these greats, but at least I remembered to write down one good quote:
Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.
This reminds me of Lou Holtz’s saying
Discipline is not what you do to yourself; it is what you do for yourself.
(This latter quote comes from Lou’s book Winning Every Day: The Game Plan for Success
Anyway, I considered this to be something really worthy of sharing with you, because self-discipline is so important.
Via Marc Orchant we learn that UsingMac has a post on 200+ Mac Keyboard Shortcuts. I am a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts … learning them can really boost your productivity at a computer. Just about any Mac user, no matter how experienced, can probably learn something from this comprehensive shortcut listing.
Engadget has an article Verizon Wireless opens network to “Any Apps, Any Device” in 2008. This is fantastic news, and is the first solid sign that Google may shake up the whole telecommunications market. Thank you, Google! And, of course, thank you Verizon. Does this mean we may see AT&T do something similar? At some point they may be forced to, but I would be surprised if they announce anything like this in the near-term. Anyway, again, I think is really great news for the consumer.
Jason Calacanis has a post on what appears to me to be a misuse by Facebook of their user’s data. [via Techmeme] I have really mixed feelings about Facebook.
- On one hand, I am really glad I got out of Facebook a few months ago (and had them delete all of my data from their servers). I don’t follow the goings-on related to Facebook much anymore, but I became distrusting of how they would treat my data when I learned that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had apparently turned down a bid of over $1 billion for Facebook. (See this May 2007 TechCrunch article, for example.) That told me that his ambitions are not just about money. So, I assumed his ambitions must be more about power and control, and that it could spell trouble for my data. Of course, I could be hugely wrong, and Zuckerberg may be purely altruistic in his motivations. I don’t know. I do not know him at all. I am just glad I pulled out when I did: I don’t trust what I don’t understand, and I don’t understand turning down a billion dollars.
- On the other hand, I think Facebook is a fascinating tool. Despite my concerns with data, I have been mulling over whether it might be suitable for our family to use, as another way for us to stay in touch.
From what I have read, it appears that many people have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I really want to be open-minded about it. So, if you are a Facebook fan, please enlighten me more on the value of Facebook and your views on how they treat you and your data. If I am reading it all wrong, I’d like to know so.
I’d like to know that myself. Though I have a Facebook, I don’t do much with it. By the same token, I don’t really get Twitter either. I figured it was probably just an age thing, but then again, maybe I’m missing the point too.
Hi capo,
Twitter is something I ignored for the longest, tried it out, stopped using it, then began using it a fair amount. I don’t follow a lot of people on it, but I really like the ones that I do and they are always coming up with something interesting. Of course, like my tweets, a lot of theirs are just chatter, but I like a bit of that, too … helps me feel less isolated. But, it is one those things you either like or dislike. Maybe you can give it a shot and see what you think. I’m not a promoter of it, but I get more out of it than I thought I would.
But, as for the age, I understand where you are coming from. Although a lot of folks in our basic age group do use social networking, like Facebook, it is more a phenomena for younger people. Neat concept, though, and I really would like to be more trusting of it …