He’s Still Building Blue Boxes

Before the iPhone came along, there was this thing called the Blue Box. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first digital version and made quite a bit of money selling them to university students. Because if you had a Blue Box – you could make long distance calls to anyone in the world…for free.

In other words – Steve Job got his start by creating technology that was ripping off AT&T.

Did I mention that Blue Boxes were illegal?

Fast forward a couple of decades. Got an iPhone? Know someone else with an iPhone? Did you know that if both of you have Viber you can call each other over Wi-Fi or your 3G data plan? Viber uses your iPhone’s data (rather than cellular) plan to make phone calls to other iPhones. Once you download and install the free app you authenticate your cell number associated to your phone, which then nicely syncs your contacts and indicates anyone that already uses Viber.

Viber to Viber calls are free. You’ll pay only for data.

Why use Viber? Data is data, baby. But your phone company charges you widely varying rates based on the data type. For example:

• Text Plan: If you’re paying 10 cents for 160 text characters that’s roughly $650/MB. That’s over $600,000/GB.
• Cell Plan: $60 for 15 hours (900 minutes). Of course this doesn’t include roaming and international calls.
• Data Plan: $25 for 2GB. Over 50 hours of talk time (at 3MB/minute).
• Wi-Fi: Nearly ubiquitous. And frequently free. And nobody is going to notice a 1MB/minute hit to their network while you talk to your friend around the corner (or world).

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Apple bought Viber and bundled it into every iPhone? Many have suggested that Apple wants to enter the cell phone provider market. But I don’t think they’ll do this by entering the present cellular playing field. What’s more likely (and interesting) is Apple disrupting the cellular market by entering VOIP and bundling the technology with every iPhone sold.

But in the meantime, it seems like Steve’s still in the business of building Blue Boxes. It’s called the iPhone. And AT&T can’t do a damn thing about it.

Mi Viaje a Santiago

I recently returned from a trip to Santiago, Chile during which I shared my experiences with BIM. It was quite an extraordinary journey that I have documented on Life@HOK. Read more about it…

Happy Monday

Are you sitting at your desk, staring at your screen and already asking yourself how you came to be surrounded by a sea of soul sucking cubicles?

A few weeks ago, a very dear friend who (like us all) periodically struggles to juggle family, career and other commitments was told by a superior that he could either have a successful career or a family – not both. The frank implication of the message was that he needed to jettison his family if he was going to move up the corporate ladder. While the message seems rather blunt, it’s strangely familiar. For those of us who have studied Architecture it’s not the first time we’ve heard it.Architecture school requires an extraordinary commitment of time, and this often comes at the expense of other relationships and experiences. As we work countless hours in studio surrounded by equally dedicated classmates, we indirectly learn that it’s not just appropriate – but even noble to “suffer” for our art. And then we finish our studies, hopeful and full of expectation believing that through our creative passions we will eventually improve the order of things. But as is often the case, deeply creative people soon find themselves at odds with the kinds of organizations that employ them:

“A large organization’s first order of business is the preservation of the organization. From my experience this is frequently believed to be accomplished by developing rigid structures, dependable formulas and a bias that favors loyalty over competence.”

– Steve Byram via Theoryhaus

You may not yet know what deeply inspires you, but knowing what doesn’t is an important start; identifying restrictions is an important part of any design process. Yet learning to say “no” is something very difficult if you’re a passionate, creative person that is driven by the innate desire to preform (regardless of compensation).

Bottom Line? Keep doing what you’re doing and the most you’ll ever accomplish is becoming that guy down the hall in the corner office. And then you’ll die. And your kids will follow in your footsteps. And they’ll wash, rinse and repeat with your grand kids…ad nauseum.

So unless you really dream of becoming that guy down the hall, you’ll eventually have to GTFO. So then what? What if you had enough resources to do anything, but not enough to do nothing?

What would you really believe in?

Sorry to dump this on you on a Monday. I didn’t want to spoil the weekend.

Friday Reprieve #33

We’re done!

over 1500 pages
2 books
OMG. I can’t believe it’s over.A few quick words:
man, it’s a lot of work, but thank you, so much, to our team, especially Liz, Laurene, Dick, Dassi, Tony, Adam, and of course the perpetual con-man, Willem. you guys are the best.

For some happy, I’d like to introduce you to Christoph Niemann.
he’s a hoot. After all this work, I certainly need a bit of something light.

California Dreaming

FYI! Having quickly reached the “early bird” limit for attendees of Revit Technology Conference this year in Huntington Beach, CA early bird registration will close as of this Monday, 4 April (midnight PST). So far registrations have been received from 17 States across the USA as well as several other countries.Interestingly, over 80% of registrations received have been from outside of California (including international registrations). So mark your calendars, book your flights early and let’s get together to teach, share and support:

• Carl Bass, President and CEO of Autodesk, is providing the Keynote Address.
• Paul Doherty, Senior Vice President of Screampoint, is providing the Closing Address.
• Top Speakers from around the world including 7 authors on Revit and BIM related books
• The Conference Program can be viewed here along with other information of interest.

For all of you that have already registered, thank you for your support! For the rest of you, keep in mind these three important points:

RTC is keenly focused. We’re deliberately concentrating on BIM and related AEC technologies!

BIM isn’t just one technology. It takes an ecosystem of customers, developers and exhibitors to make it all work!

Time is money! RTC is incredibly complimentary to Autodesk University. And because Autodesk historically releases new software in the spring of each year, RTC is strategically timed to help you get up to speed quickly as possible – then share your success with others this December in Las Vegas!

Early bird registration ends Monday (and what you’ll save could cover your airfare!). So sign up today and we’ll see you in Huntington Beach this June!

 

FLAT TIRES @ BONNAROO!!!

Everyone – please help us out! The FLAT TIRES are working their asses off and trying to get to the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, TN from June 9th-12th.

By clicking on this link and downloading the FLAT TIRES song “Pretty Lady”, we’ll be ranked according to the number of votes received. Only two bands – selected from the TOP EIGHT – will get to play at the festival. Voting ends April 15th so don’t wait!So you’ve never heard the FLAT TIRES????!!!! Click the image below to download “Pretty Lady” by the FLAT TIRES!!!!

You can also help by going to the FLAT TIRES Official Facebook page and click “Like”.

Please Twitter, Blog, Email the link (http://tinyurl.com/5w5p2ef) to your friends.

Keep trying till you get through – servers are really, really busy.

If the FLAT TIRES get selected to play at Bonnaroo I give you my word I’ll bring them to Vegas during AU!!!! 🙂