Aidan

johannestevans:

the intimacy of sliding your fingers along the underside of a device’s surface as you search for its ports

(via maple-syrup-drinker)

foone:

Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?

They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.

Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?

So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.

And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn’t compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn’t sell.

And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at… putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.

If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn’t have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that’s what they did.

I don’t know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.

(via metallic-scaled-scarf)

femgineerasolution:

secondbeatsongs:

somehow instead of saying “as a treat”, I’ve started using the phrase “for morale”, as if my body is a ship and its crew, and I (the captain) have to keep us in high spirits, lest we suffer a mutiny in the coming days.

and so I will eat this small block of fancy cheese, for morale. I will take a break and drink some tea, for morale. I will pick up that weird bug, for morale.

I’m not sure if it helps, but it does entertain me

this works because if i don’t get a little treat my brain will absolutely stage a mutiny

(via macleod)

faewithoutconsequence:

jcrewguy:

ALT

ALT

(via anthroriley)

vicholas:

Barefoot Gen introduction by author Keiji Nakazawa, from the 2004 English edition.

(via hungwy)

littleguysdaily:

feralho3:

Please don’t kill

(via hungwy)

• Question:

  i just realized that your pfp is a wizard, i never really looked and kinda looks like a cat so i thought it was a evil wizard cat

  - mammoneythegreat
• Answer:

  evilwizard:

  r0zeclawz:

  evilwizard:

  hm? what are you talking about?

  youre a fucking genius for this one man

  

  

  i can be your angle 👼 …or yuor devil 😈

demilypyro:

demilypyro:

okay here we go THERE’S NO CHARACTER NAMED N. SANE YOU STANK BITCH THERE’S JUST N. SANITY ISLAND WHICH IS WHERE CRASH LIVES

show fucking sucks ass

hkblack:

Hi folks. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what we as fans can and can’t do with the striking happening. So I made a flowchart.

Let me make this SUPER DUPER EXTRA CLEAR. Unless an AMPTP studio reaches out and says “We would like to give you X (money/swag/whatever) to create content for us” (that would include writing or acting in anyway on your part) you will NOT be crossing a picket line.

Cosplay, fanart, fanfic, going feral, sharing marketing posts, watching your favorite show, getting your friends to watch your favorite show, etc does not count.

It is ONLY scabbing if you are getting REIMBURSED by the STUDIO.

Please take this flowchart, repost it, spread it everywhere!

The studios benefit from us being confused. The studios benefit from us not promoting and not watching and cancelling our subscriptions. The unions, the actors, the writers, they all benefit from us promoting in their absence, they get paid when we watch the shows, we bolster their argument when we boost the shows numbers. If we make the media popular and successful the studios have to meet the writers and actors at the table, and the writers and actors will be in the position of power.

(via neil-gaiman)

nathanielthecurious:

one of my professors, a historian who has been interviewed as an expert in various documentaries, said that the secret to documentaries is saying something very obvious, as slowly as possible. for example, if you say “the romans…….. enjoyed their dinner parties” or “being a gladiator… was… very… dangerous” then the filmmakers can get that clip and immediately pan over some cool pictures of mosaics or something. this has forever changed the way i view documentaries

(via roach-works)