International icebreaker
I am not even twelve hours into the Italy trip and it is clear that the iPhone may be the surprise social lubricant of the journey. People are unabashed about asking about it, wanting to hold it, play with it. And I am of course obliging.
The great thing is that being wowed by the iPhone has nothing to do with language. It is visual and tactile and immediate. An Italian at O’Hare and an Indian in Milan (where I am now) were flicking through my kids’ photos in no time flat. A great conversation-starter.
For what it’s worth, the phone works great over here and EDGE isn’t too bad either.
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
I'm a co-founder of Cityfi, a strategic urban consultancy.This is all my other stuff.
Here's a little bit about me and how to get in touch.
Views From The Tank
Elegance Coral
Catalaphyllia jardinei
Speaking
- You wanna talk?
Marginalia
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Here comes GPT-3.
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"The board is extremely concerned that “irrudinous” is not a word."
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Interface design fundamentals by way of LEGO bricks and a dive into Soviet control panels? /swoon
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This sample size of one agrees.
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This warmth is what I miss most about Chicago.
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"Noesis now includes a Roomba script. It will track your Roomba, store tracking data, allow you to visualize that data in a variety of ways, and, of course, turn that data into a randomized DOOM map."
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Architects love it when real life looks like a plan diagram.
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Competition closed to design the worst possible logo. Smorts!
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Late capitalism. Early zombie outbreak.
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Wonderfully soothing. Kraftwerk had this figured out way back with Trans-Europe Express.