"Because They're Meant to Do a Kurt Cobain"

My new computer

I bought a book at the Byron Bay Writers Festival called
 The FUTURE and #relatednonsense on the Saturday morning that I first got down there.

"The Future...", the book I bought at the BBWF

I bought it so I would have something light and interesting to read in my down time at the festival. 
I started reading it on the Saturday but left it at home on the Sunday on purpose so I would have more room in my rucksack for the other books that I intended to buy.

"Digital Big Bang: expanding horizons
for the work of writers" talk.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that Antony Funnell was doing a talk on the Sunday with some other authors, whose books I purchased on the Sunday.
After buying the two other author's books and asking them to sign them in front of him, I tried to explain to Antony that I had bought a copy of his book the day before, but left it at home, otherwise I would have asked him to sign it, too.
As I was walking away from the signing table I heard him half say to me, and half say to the other two authors, "Well do you want me to sign something? A piece of paper, maybe?"
I just smirked to myself and kept walking, thinking that I wasn't that big of an autograph hound.

The books I bought of the authors in the above talk

The talk was titled  
Digital Big Bang: expanding horizons for the work of writers,
which was very interesting, by the way.
 In fact, it was recorded as a podcast by ABC radio, and you can hear the whole lot by clicking on the link below.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/08/05/3561077.htm
It is really worth a listen, and I'm glad it was recorded, because I got there about 10 minutes into the talk.

Daniel's "Hi, How Are You?" t-shirt.

But getting back to the Kurt Cobain reference in the title of this post.
I've written a bit about Daniel Johnston, after watching the movie
The Devil and Daniel Johnston; 

The Talent of Daniel Johnston  
and 
Daniel Johnston Plane Crash Sync
Now, Daniel Johnston got his second run at fame when Kurt Cobain started wearing Daniel's "Hi, How Are You?" t-shirt everywhere.  

The funny part about all of this is that just after I got back from the BBWF my computer, that was already limping along decided to short out terminally on me.
So, after about two weeks being a computer nomad, using any family member's computer I could get ... when it suited them, I decided it was time to get a brand new one.
This morning while reading Antony Funnell's book 
The FUTURE and #relatednonsense
I came across this passage -
"Nothing lasts forever is sage advice, but why is it that the smarter we get technologically, the less able we are to build products that actually last longer than the time it takes to get them out of the box? 
When I bought a new desktop computer for my office recently, the man in the shop estimated its lifespan at somewhere between 2 and 4 years.
And he was in the business of selling the damn things.
Of course, the fact that today's products stop functioning after such a short period of time has nothing to do with workmanship or knowledge, it's because they're meant to do a Kurt Cobain - to die young - it's expected of them.
In fact, they're actually engineered to be quickly superseded." 

The above You Tube is a talk recorded at the  
Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.
"GoMA Talks 21st Century | Who are we in the world of Web 2.0?"
 With Antony being the chairperson in the interview.
Another interesting talk, if you're into the internet.

Also interesting in hindsight was his remark on his  
"Morning Panic Principle" (page 161)
"The greater the size and complexity of the task, the greater the chance that no one will get around to doing anything about it until the eleventh hour"

During his talk at the BBWF I noticed my watch was on 11:11 and snapped a photo of it.
In case you are wondering about the analogue hands on my watch ... they don't work.
I wound them down to the bottom of the watch so I could see the digital function better.
Another example of the  Kurt Cobain principle, stated above;-)

Brian Gerber

But as I was reading that part of the book I couldn't help thinking about the story of Brian Gerber's suicide not long ago.
"LA Weekly has announced that Hollywood's 11th Hour producer Brian Gerber has died by suicide by propelling himself over a cliff."

Another Hollywood Suicide Leap: Brian Gerber