Will Hines Dot Net

With my new day job, I’m absorbing a lot of information fast about the latest in Web programming. Terms like Web 2.0 and Ajax, which I knew nothing about, are filling my brain. As a man who is part robot, it’s actually a fun experience.

Derek Sivers’ blog is a really fun read if you’re a web tech geek. He’s the guy who made CD Baby — apparently he’s the SOLE PROGRAMMER behind it, which fascinates me, especially because at my new job I’m going to be expected to heft some pretty epic projects with just me and not many other people. He talks a lot about keeping things simple — doing only the features you NEED, not just the ones you CAN HAVE.

There’s been a push for simplicity over the last five or so years in the tech world: the stripped-down look of Google, the minimally featured iPod, etc. People don’t want every option. They want just the necessary ones.

In one of his posts he mentioned a article written by a guy who spent 10 days living only with technology available in 1954. There’s only five pages online, but what I could read was fascinating and it almost — ALMOST — makes me want to give up email for a while.

But first I have to burn a few mixes on my iMac.