We are grateful to Greenpeace for a new website urging Apple to be more green. Bear in mind, Greenpeace is picking on Apple for a reason: Apple is a cutting-edge, forward-thinking company that should be setting high standards for other technology companies. We couldn’t agree more.

We love Apple. Apple knows more about “clean” design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned? A cutting edge company shouldn’t be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That’s why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple.

Esquire is running a lengthy article about a photograph taken by Richard Drew at 9:41 AM, September 11, 2001. It’s a fascinating picture which I had seen only once before and, frankly, assumed it was an illustration or a collage. No, it’s a photo, and the story behind it is as haunting as the events of that morning.

(as seen in Speak Up)

Robert Cringely has written up an excelent analysis of Apple’s forthcoming iTV product. It seems as though they’re really thinking ahead, and waiting for, as many suspect, the 802.11n specification to take hold next year. This will allow streaming wireless video as fast as most any wire can carry them.

But Blu-ray and HD-DVD are both deploying slowly and there’s a risk that they’ll destroy each other with market confusion, so then what? Then the iPod, that’s what. Apple can present to its studio buddies the idea that iPods are perfectly good movie containers. Remember the same H.264 movie plays on your iPod or your TV, meaning the iPod carries the same code, making it a viable HD-DVD or Blu-Ray equivalent. Why else would you need an 80-gig iPod?

(As noted on Daring Fireball)

Here’s a couple books we’ve been enjoying, and some quick thoughts about them.

The Elements of Style

I adore this book, from the lovely red hardcover, to the full-color artwork to the text itself. It’s as good a read as it ever was, and much more enjoyable this time around. A great way to improve your online communication, no matter what your job is.

Naked Conversations

This is a good book but somewhat long-winded. I found myself skimming a lot. However, the authors have some great suggestions about blogs, and certainly know their topic. If you run a business, and you’re thinking about starting a blog, this would be a great book for you to read.

The Long Tail

This book was much-anticipated, written by the editor of Wired magazine, so I had to pick it up. It’s especially helpful if you’re not familiar with the concepts, because they’re important to understand in terms of business in the 21st Century. If you are familiar with the long tail idea already, it’s still pretty good to read, because he goes into a lot more detail, and explores a lot more ideas than I expected.

The Now Habit

Ironically, this has been on my shelf for a year and I haven’t gotten around to reading it. I’m glad I finally did. Unlike other books in a similar space, such as Getting Things Done, this book doesn’t lay out a very specific plan per se, but spends more time exploring the reasons that we procrastinate, and general ideas for conquering that procrastination.

Small is the New Big

Seth Godin is always an enjoyable author, but this reads like a bunch of blog entries. Which, basically, it is. That’s okay, though, because I’d much rather read this stuff in print than on a computer screen, and the quality is fairly consistent.

A few years ago a “stereo” version of the classic Pet Sounds was released. The remarkable thing was that it was a work overseen by the brilliant Brian Wilson, producer and co-author of the original (mono) album. What’s even more remarkable is that Brian Wilson can only hear through one ear! So most of the old Beach Boys music was never in stereo, for this very reason.

Now, the stereo version of Pet Sounds was great. They did a great job, because it was really understated. I recently picked up a four-disc boxed set called The Motown Box. I adore old Motown tracks, music that will doubtless never be equaled in popular music. It’s a great set to have, and they did a thoughtful job putting together the set.

However, they made one mistake. The stereo. Most of these were never released in stereo, so the producers of the box set took the liberty of going back to the four track versions and making their own stereo “versions” of these songs, to put on the box set. Unfortunately, they took a lot of liberties with these versions. A good example is the clapping that kicks off “Where Did Our Love Go,” the immortal track by Diana Ross and The Supremes. Apparently eight claps in sequence is in and of itself too boring for contemporary audiences, so in this version the claps pan from left to right and back again, before the song starts. Many, many tracks in the box set do this sort of thing.

Why? Is a lack of stereo that much of a problem? Would folks feel like they weren’t getting their money’s worth if the discs weren’t in stereo? Would they feel as though one of their speakers was being wasted? Somehow I doubt this, I doubt that most would even notice that the songs were in mono. Myself, I only notice when the claps run from one side to the other. It’s a distraction! I should also point out that in the process the balance of the mixes has changed, in some cases quite significantly. The immortal “Uptight” by Stevie Wonder has so much more bass and background vocals that it just doesn’t sound as exciting.

The real point of stereo audio (to a purist, anyway) is to simulate the presence of performers on a stage. To make the recording seem a bit more real. And that’s what’s so great about the re-release of Pet Sounds. It brings you a little closer to the performance itself. But this box set fails to do so, forcing you to imagine a small crowd of clapping performers dashing madly from one side of the stage to the other. I doubt The Supremes did this on stage.

Maybe it’s just not a fair comparison, but those old records sound so damn much better.

From time to time I list some items on eBay. As we’re moving in the not-too-distant future into our new location, I thought it might be a good time to get rid of some of the extra stuff around here. This time, I decided to try to make the process a little less painful (eBay sure is painful) by purchasing some software to help.

After spending a few days in “trial period mode” for both GarageSale and iSale, I decided on the latter. I purchased the software, licensed my computer, and got ready to sell stuff.

Of course, I was also switching computers right around that time. So there was suddenly a Big Problem using iSale on my new Mac. Several emails to support later, they “reset” my license and I could use it on my new Mac. I proceeded to list a few items, only to find that the template graphics were all missing! They looked terrible! I was also frustrated that I couldn’t add a simple link to my page without switching to “non-template” mode, which meant that I lost all the template features completely. I couldn’t help but wonder, why was I even using this software? It wasn’t really helping, and it set me back a week on my auctions.

So finally I just asked the tech support people to refund my purchase. As they have very restrictive licensing, and can apparently enable and revoke licenses at will, I figured it would be no big deal for equinux to do so. Just to keep a customer happy. Unfortunately, I was told:

Because we offer demo versions of all our products, all our sales are final and we cannot grant a refund. I ask for your understanding.

So I’m curious. What’s your opinion? Does offering a “trial version” of software mean you don’t have to offer a refund to dissatisfied customers?

As readers of Needmore Notes are surely already aware, I despise the font Comic Sans. In Design Observer’s The Global Curse of Comic Sans, Jessica Helfand notes:

In Typophile’s online forums, a designer rightly observes that the vast majority of laymen love Comic Sans. “Why do you think it’s all over the place?” he asks. “No ‘decent’ corporation cares what a minority of specialists thinks.”

And I suppose that’s a good enough point. Let them have their cartoon font. It seemingly comes with every computer ever built. I’m just praying I don’t go blind from seeing it one more time.

Quite excited about working on our new Mac Pro, we ordered some memory from one of the very few places that even sells it, Crucial. Imagine our disappointment when it arrived in a box larger than the one our last laptop came in.

Just look at all that plastic! It’s not even recyclable! Maybe this was an unusual circumstance, as our memory usually comes in pretty small envelopes. But we certainly won’t be buying memory from Cruical for a long time to come.

Today, Kathy Sierra notes the disparity between success in the corporate sense and doing that which one loves.

Isn’t it about time we quit measuring professional success in one dimension, vertically, and start considering how much your actual work matches your desired work?

Businesses have a similar choice to make in terms of measuring success; each must decide if they are going to be measured by an ability to move vertically and accumulate wealth (or shareholder value) or map out their own standards.

Clif Bar has created their own success standards:

We asked ourselves what would make us proud at the end of each year. We knew it wasn’t all about the money for us…the term sustainability came up again and again… (from Raising the Bar)

Given their interest in sustainability, Clif Bar measures their success not by company wealth, but by their ability to sustain their brands, business, people, community and the planet!

Here at Needmore, we’re passionate about sustainability as well as art and creativity and have been working to incorporate both into our everyday existence.

For example, we’re constantly looking for ways to leave a smaller ecological footprint while sustaining our community. We’re using renewable energy, supporting local businesses (such as our weekly Organics to You Delivery) and are seeking new ideas for continual evolution of this goal; we know there is much more we can do!

We are also individuals who are most joyful when being artistic. Thus, we seek out projects that not only allow us to work with fabulously creative people, but also to be creative and overall enjoy what we do. This often means saying no to paying work! And, we’ve decided that this is OK because we’re measuring our success by our enjoyment, not necessarily our pocketbook.

We also focus our time and resources on pursuing our own artist, through classes and events. Lately, we’ve had a fantastic time as bustling away getting ready for our first Neighbormates event tonight (The show…Hello! Video, The Kelley and Jason Show, bands…at Holocene, 8 pm, $5) .

Overall, our question is continuously, what are our passions and how can those passions be a part of each day here at Needmore.

I’ve long been a fan of Getting Things Done. It’s a simple but elegant principle, yet I have only been able to really stick to it for a week at a time, and then I fall back into my old sloppy habits.

As an avid Mac user, I’ve tried many different things. Using dozens of folders and thousands of notecards doesn’t work for me, so I’ve tried a number of software solutions. I’ve tried the online Tracks, but found it cumbersome and didn’t like the browser interface. I’ve tried just using Backpack, but that’s not really what it’s for, and it feels like a kludge. I’ve even tried a system that integrates with my favorite text editor, but couldn’t even get the hang of that one.

So it was with much excitement that I downloaded the beta version of Midnight Beep Softworks’ Mac-only Midnight Inbox. Wow. This combines the elegance of iTunes and everything possible using Mac OS X with the simple concepts of Getting Things Done. With the little time I’ve had to play around with it, I really feel this is one that could work for me.