The Workday Reading: July 13, 2015
Jul 13, 2015
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1) Quartz discusses why women need to get past the idea that career and family are either or.
2) I am obsessed with these leather, refillable notebooks from Graphic Image. They’re perfect for taking notes at work.
3) How a sexist sneaker culture turned men into fashion addicts.
4) This black Tahari business suit with a belted jacket is pretty fantastic and costs under-$175.
5) Technology moves on. Wired reports on the death of the PC, while The New York Times says goodbye to the long, intimate e-mail.
6) Anthropologie has this gorgeous, sunny statement necklace and this chunky aqua-colored link necklace to spruce up any summer dresses.
7) How hosting the Olympics rotted Greece, and how they could save it.
8) A reader sent me a recommendation for the Nubian Skin line of undergarments. They make ‘nude’ intimates for women of color.
9) Gordon Ramsey’s Ultimate Cookery Course teaches basic cooking techniques, like how to properly cook a steak.
*image found here.
I love those notebooks! I’ve actually been in the market for something along those lines; now I’m stuck between something like that, or a, “padfolio,” type thing.
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RE: Wired: I always find it interesting to see outlets reporting on the supposed, “death,” of the PC. As not only someone who works in the IT industry and as an enthusiast, they couldn’t be more wrong. Frankly, their article’s title reeks of clickbait to me.
While it is true your average user isn’t seeking a desktop for personal use these days (most people buy laptops), that doesn’t mean its a dying form. Without getting technical, today’s retail (Best Buy, etc) sub-$500 machines have specs that won’t need to be upgraded for a while – meaning a decline in sales volume due to a more, “future-proof,” product that doesn’t need to be replaced as often. Casual users who just want to check email and Facebook can use a tablet or phone…but that doesn’t mean the PC market is dying.
The bread-and-butter of the PC market, is, and will remain, businesses. You aren’t going to see businesses moving to an exclusively tablet-or-mobile platform for years (optimistic). While our little devices are getting more and more powerful, they aren’t (yet) the workhorses businesses require. The lifespan of a phone or tablet, the lack of ability to repair them, the challenge of securing them in a corporate environment…these are all real challenges.
Businesses are moving to adopt these platforms, yes – and they certainly have their place. But we aren’t actually that close to widespread adoption of mobile devices as powerhouses and legitimate replacements for PCs as people seem to think.
TL;DR: Wired is drunk, PCs aren’t actually dying. Mobile devices are cool and are being adopted and used quite a lot but they are not (yet) equipped to, “kill,” the PC.
I agree. PCs aren’t dying. The market is just getting more diverse. No matter how powerful a laptop is, there’s no way I’m going to want to do the bulk of my work on one.
I see it like this, young people aren’t buying computers. They aren’t buying TVs. I think there will always be a market for PCs, but it’s going to shrink by a lot over the coming years.
I agree re: young people. Perhaps as they have to do more, “real work,” their priorities will shift?
My entire company only has laptops. We have additional external monitors at our work stations, but, lack of desktops doesn’t seem to be hampering their business model.
HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel recently did a segment on the cost of hosting the Olympics. Greece was a key example, but they weren’t the only city to experience the downside. The costs of hosting the World Cup by building these massive stadiums has also been showing up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/28/when-it-comes-to-hosting-the-olympics-more-cities-are-saying-hold-that-thought/
Instead of women getting over the idea of career and family as either/or, employers and policy makers need to step up and start making changes. As long as workers are human beings, we will procreate. They need to step up to the plate and do what’s right instead of keeping the burden solely on women.
I think it’s a societal problem too. It’s not just in the workplace; it’s in the home. As women took on more responsibilities in the workplace, the responsibilities at home weren’t necessarily redistributed. Women still take on a larger share of the child rearing, homemaking responsibilities. We need to acknowledge that until we’re equal outside of the office, we can’t be equal in the office. There’s a reason men never look at work and family as either/or – we’re there to pick up the slack.
The House network is blocking shop style. Very frustrating for a site based around Cap Hill!
Maybe you shouldn’t be shopping at work? Especially if you work on the hill?
As long as most Excel add-ins require a Windows OS, the PC will be alive.
I know it’s being picky, but ‘nude’ shouldn’t be in quotes as if it’s a euphemism. Brown is a nude as much as ivory.