Year: 2014

The instant-buy micro four thirds lens has long been the excellent (if dodgy AF) Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens. It’s a pancake lens that is very compact, very sharp, and offers a nice compromise in focal length between 35mm and 50mm. It’s a good lens all around and it is a decent price.

Once you start to get more serious about micro four thirds gear, it always became apparent that you must have the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens. It’s exceedingly sharp, focuses fast, and is f/1.4. It was always the next lens you bought. It just made sense, and the 50mm focal length is one of the most popular out there. ((Rivaled only by 35mm, I would guess.))

Recently Olympus announced a 25mm f/1.8 lens — something to take on the legendary Panasonic — and just this week these lenses started making their way in to people’s hands.

I, like Shawn Blanc, have read quite a bit about the lens — and if what I am reading (and seeing) is accurate, the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 is the micro four thirds lens to buy.

It’s almost as sharp, focuses quieter, is much smaller, almost as fast (aperture wise), and costs less than the Panasonic 25mm. You get 99% of the way to the Panasonic offering with a bunch of other benefits — that’s impressive.

I previously told people to get the 20mm f/1.7 to start out with on micro four thirds because it got you a really great, but small lens — but no more because from here on out I strongly feel that you should get the Olympus 25mm f/1.8 to start out with. The focal length is better, the build is better, the AF is better, and it is likely sharper.

The biggest downside to the Olympus lens (and any of their lenses, save the 75mm) is that it is not that great looking. ((The Olympus 45mm in particular looks like a little penis attached to a camera.)) The Panasonic 25mm looks much better — much more professional — but one of the great things about the Olympus is the small size. It doesn’t look bad, but it certainly doesn’t look bad ass either.

I’d wager to bet this lens becomes very popular.

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I mentioned Threema in another post and talked about how there is a lot to do with key exchange that can make such apps insecure. In reading more about Threema in their FAQ, it appears that the app servers can either facilitate the key exchange or it can be done in person via QR codes.

Key exchange is going to be that part of any end to end encryption system. iMessage most certainly holds the keys and are thus subject to court orders, it appears Threema doesn’t hold the keys.

That alone doesn’t make it secure, as they note that they must know who to send the message to. Even though those logs are being stored, there is nothing stopping someone from forcing them to log that data and turn it over (which is what PRISM tracks), but this is where their location comes into play, and I’m not sure the Swiss laws on this stuff.

At the end of the day you have to decide who you are trying to protect your data from.

Shawn Blanc on work:

Well, that got me thinking… perhaps working out of my home office isn’t the best setup for me? I’ve long been leaving the house once a week to work from a coffee shop, but what if it should be more?

When I lived in Seattle my commute to work was 45 minutes on a good day (and those days were rare). Because of that I worked from home on Fridays. Without a doubt, working from my office was more productive for a plethora of reasons.

For me the biggest reason was that I couldn’t just fuck around all day at the office — someone was likely to see my computer screen. There’s something psychological for me, whereby when I enter a space designated for “work” I tend to be more serious about work. Whereas if it is a space that is still apart of my home, I tend to want to work, but I feel less rushed and less serious about it and therefore get less done.

Sometimes this is beneficial, but sometimes you just need to get shit done.

I’ve never used a cowork space (though I would love to) ((I wanted to when I was in Seattle, but the options at the time were very unappealing to me. Since then I have toyed with the idea of opening my own cowork space in Seattle, but haven’t taken it further than that.)) but I imagine I would likely see an even bigger boost to my productivity there. I say that because while I don’t want my employees to see me goofing off, I really wouldn’t want random coworking people to see me goofing off.

Overall, I think cowork spaces are very interesting, and certainly here to stay. I do think that many of them focus too heavily on replicating a “modern” office feeling, instead of focusing on the more specific needs of coworkers, or remote workers in general.

Needs like:

• Podcast studio with computer and mic.
• Large monitors already at the desk.
• Rental lockers for people ‘in-town’ for the day that need a hub.
• Computers in general for those that run around with just a tablet.
• Chargers on site (why should I lug mine).

I’m certain that these amenities exist at some locations, but it doesn’t seem to be the norm from what I can tell. Mostly, from what I can see just by looking at websites, I think there is also too much human interaction to get a desk — it’d be ideal to make no human interaction needed. Book the desk/locker/room/office on your iPhone, walk in and get to work, leave when you are done.

More Uber, less Four Seasons. I don’t know about anyone else, but I hate interacting with people out to sell me something.