September 2011
2 posts
Post-PC Has Nothing To Do With Windows →
Microsoft thinks people love their PCs. They don’t. They’ve been chained to them for years. They want to be set free. The iPad allows for that. Tying Windows to their don’t-call-it-post-pc strategy is dangerous for Microsoft. Disdain is starting to outweigh comfort. Further, there are no more windows in this world for chrissakes!
MG Siegler is a great tech writer. He really nails it in this...
August 2011
1 post
June 2011
3 posts
Quote of the Month: Fuck That. This is the Big...
John Gruber on David Pogue’s review of the Samsung Chromebook:
Really? Why? Would everyone have praised Apple for its “noble experiment” if the $500 iPad had been too big and heavy, felt like it was worth only $180, and was “a 3.3-pound paperweight” when offline? Fuck that. This is the big leagues. There is no credit for trying.
May 2011
1 post
April 2011
4 posts
One Year Ago: Flash on Mobile Will Be Awesome by...
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen sat down with the Wall Street Journal to respond to Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash one year ago today. In the video interview, Narayen, goaded by poor interviewing by Alan Murray, talks down Apple and the iPad as a bully keeping out the open system that is Flash.
Galen Gruman in InfoWorld writes the following:
But Flash objects are often slow to load, and some...
RIM Now Understands Why Apple Hates Flash →
Great article about how bad Flash sucks on mobile devices (Chen and Issac are careful not to single out the Playbook, even though the article is about that device). I love this quote:
Even though Adobe touts the plug-in as a “write once, run anywhere” runtime environment, the story right now is more precisely, “write once, work sometimes, on some devices.”
And here is some great spin from...
Calling iPad a Fad Smells like Desperation
I can appreciate people being upset by haters. When the Netbook fad ramped up I was poo-pooing the devices even as friends were hacking Dell Mini9’s to run OS X. No one wants to hear someone tell you that thing you love is a piece of crap. But there is a fundamental difference between the iPad and a Netbook: ecosystem. Net books were nothing more than crappy, crippled laptops with...
March 2011
7 posts
BlackBerry to Ship PlayBook Without Email
…or Messaging or Contacts. Basically the things that their phones do well.
Wired reports that a leaked FAQ states that you need to tether the PlayBook to get these features. Yes, this news came out back in December, but now that it is 15 days from launch, this rumor is nothing but bad news for RIM.
What is the use case for a PlayBook? It runs Flash and Adobe AIR apps? It runs Android 2.3...
4G Networks Nothing but Marketing →
The whole 4G wireless network thing is a joke that I have been telling for some time. If we look to the Book of Knowledge we can see that the 4G spec is written to support speeds around 50Mb up/100Mb down. We know that the advertised speeds are much lower than that. But what is worse is that the carriers are not even making available the crippled speeds they are selling.
Unconscionable.
R.I.P New York Times
In its never-ending quest to figure out how to monetize the web, the New York Times has decided to do exactly what has been so disasterous for so many other newspapers; put up a paywall.
On NYTimes.com, you can view 20 articles each month at no charge (including slide shows, videos and other features). After 20 articles, we will ask you to become a digital subscriber, with full access to our...
How Wide Open West Screwed Up Customer Service
I recently and reluctantly signed up for cable service. The bottom line was that I needed better Internet, having suffered at the hands of DSL for 8 years. The nice thing for me was that Wide Open West just installed in our neighborhood and was offering a great deal. So I signed up.
Two months in and WOW! informed me that they are making a switch to all digital service and that I would need to...
February 2011
2 posts
December 2010
1 post
WatchBriefly:
Andy Rubin brought out a Chrome Tablet at “All Things D”. Uncle Walt grills him with comparisons to the iPad, to which Rubin squirms.
It looks exactly like an iPad but Rubin spends his time trying to show how different it is, pointing out that there are “no buttons at all”.
The big feature he showed was a 3D version of Google Maps that Rubin tries to make...
November 2010
4 posts
More Lies about Naked Body Scanners Revealed →
Gizmodo published 100 photos from a Florida courthouse using a millimeter-wave scanner, much like what is being used in airports. The images were made available using a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request. Our government, and more specifically the TSA, has said that, not only do they not save these images, but that it is not possible to save images from these machines. I particularly like...
I was Writing Something
I was working on a big article about the naked body scanners but John Gruber today linked to a bunch of my source material. I am tired of being called a Daring Fireball fanboy so I have thrown the whole thing away.
I guess I am just feeling sensitive since I am getting older. Or something.
If you are interested in reading more about how branches of our government are subverting our rights,...
Facebook: “I am in your phone, killing all your...
Login on your laptop and see. The app is probably wrong.
My wife said that this evening during a conversation about someone “un-friending” me on Facebook. Apparently the results she gets in Facebook on the iPhone are not always what she gets in the browser. I have established that the functionality of the Facebook app is suspect, but this situation got me thinking about perception.
...
Google Forced to Spit in Bucket Over Buzz Debacle
From an email I just received from Google.
Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.
Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In...
September 2010
1 post
2 tags
Facebook to Fix iPhone App Issues by Building Own... →
Yesterday, Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and the CrunchPad fame wrote:
Facebook is building a mobile phone, says a source who has knowledge of the project. Or rather, they’re building the software for the phone and working with a third party to actually build the hardware.
Based on my experience with the Facebook iPhone app, I hope for consumer’s sakes this never makes it to market. I and my...
April 2010
1 post
Steve's Thoughts on Flash →
Blah, blah, Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed the “Flash issue” today…
The letter has some great points, almost all of which appeared in John Gruber’s Apple, Adobe and Flash which Jobs now infamously referenced in an email response to Greg Slepak, CEO of TaoEffect.
But this is the part I love the most:
This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross...
January 2010
1 post
Thoughts on the iPad
I have not yet touched an iPad. Neither has virtually every person I have read panning the device. So far, every person I have read that actually laid their hands upon a demo unit and used it for a few minutes has had very good things to say about it.
When the iPhone was to be released in 2007 I was working for Apple. In the days leading up to the launch I could not sleep. I had the sweats. I...
December 2008
1 post
My Assistant is Leaving Me →
Sandy, the killer calendar app from Values of n is going off-line on December 12th. The developer, Rael Dornfest, has been hired by Twitter and will be abandoning the product. There are currently no plans to incorporate the technology into Twitter.
The potential good news is that it looks like a team of Open-source programmers is working on a replacement. This is a great example of the...
August 2008
6 posts
"Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief... →
I may have mentioned that I think the RIAA is a bunch of crybaby, cock-sucking assholes who’s members hate their customers. I don’t remember. The point is, they are on a mission to ensure that the public never enjoys music again. Or perhaps they are trying to drive themselves into bankruptcy. I can’t tell.
The good news? Lots of savvy programmers are out to create great...
We both like... Soup. →
This is my new Soup. It combines several of my feeds (including this one) into one simple, easy to get page. Seems easy enough. So if you just can’t get enough of me and are tiring of having to jump to three or more sites just to see what brilliant thing I said or found today (I know there are lots of you out there), I just made your life easier.
You’re welcome.
Pandora and the Sinking Ship
I was gearing up to write a “Your Website Sucks” post when I ran across this little tidbit about the wonderful Pandora music service.
Technical shortcomings aside, the Pandora service itself is fantastic. Not because it offers users a bunch of “free” music, but because it introduces listeners to music they otherwise would never have heard. In my short stints with the service, I have added...
Get Your War On: The Race Card
This shit is funny. And totally NSFW.
I've been analog.
Though I have not posted in some time, I have been writing. I was on the road a chose to leave the “connected” technology behind. I have to say that it was an enjoyable and pleasant experience. No laptop, no cellphone, no way for someone to get ahold of me for some petty reason that they, of course, think is the most important thing in my life.
In the absence of these devices I...
“Blogging is like masturbating into a mirror while you videotape yourself so you...”
– Lewis Black (via kung fu grippe)
June 2008
6 posts
“Email combines intimacy and distance in a way that sociopaths seem to really...”
– Merlin Mann via hotdogsladies.
FIrefox 3: 'Failed to open page' →
I am unapologetically anti-Firefox. I know it is hugely unpopular to admit to using Safari, but it makes me happy. I use other browsers, but I just really don’t like Firefox. Extensions look useful but they suffer when browser updates invariably break them. And if I wanted a PC-like experience, I would open Opera.
When I saw the World Record announcement, all I could think was,...
IM Can Reduce Workplace Interruptions, Study Shows →
Highlight:
“People see a new technology and they are innovative in how they use it. They will tailor their use of the technology to their needs and their expectations. And with IM, people had enough time to learn about the technology at home and to find ways to use it productively,” Garrett said.
This certainly seems better than the insane calls I get all day. Problem is, people need to...
25 Beautifully Dark Websites →
I quite enjoy a good dark website. My mockups for my “real” site (currently on a Microsoft-esque release timeline of 1-10 years) are dark. Not necessarily because I want a dramatic site, but because it lends itself to the design concepts (crazy, I know. I also quite enjoy the ease on the eyes that light text on dark background provides. I stare a a monitor all day at work, using...
Your Website Sucks, Pt. 1: CrunchGear
This is the first article in what I hope will be a series of raving rants against websites that suck. And not sites that just suck (there are way too many) but sites that, but for one fundamental failing, could otherwise be a decent experience.
I am having a particularly bad evening. It was 92F, ~85% humidity and I worked outside most of the day. I came in and sat on the couch with a beer and...
May 2008
10 posts
Delicious Library 2.0 →
I’ve loved v1 since I got it two-and-a-half years ago and have made great use of it to manage titles from my collection as I have loaned them out. This version brings so much more greatness including new toys and tools categories, three click selling and (for you writers out there) bibliography export. If you have a large collection of books, CDs and DVDs, you should own this exceptional...
Stuff White People Like: Grammar →
Any time I feel like I am improving myself and becoming less of an asshole, all I have to do is see how well I fit into the latest Stuff White People Like article. I happen to meet most of the criteria in this recent Grammar post. Having not taken my Liberal Arts studies too seriously (and taking my early education in midwest farm country public schools), I had not until recently exhibited such...
Neither your Genius nor your Cute Pre-loader Keep...
My friend over at the mutual slump posted a tumble about the recent Beck/Danger Mouse collaboration. Clicking his link brought me to the new Beck website but not to the news article about the partnership. At first I was disappointed by the slump’s inability to make a good link. Then I realized the real reason; Beck’s site is 100% Flash. Flash in and of itself is not a wholly...
System is Down →
I received some fun responses to my Twitter rant. This one isn’t specific to Twitter but is something many of us can relate to. And it’s damn funny. When I clicked on this link in the email I received, I thought the world was coming to an end. What is the appropriate response when an Internet Explorer error page pops up in Safari? Thanks Azrael.
Is Twitter Down? →
I have encountered many instances when Twitter has been down when trying to view posts but this is the first time that a Twitter shutdown has hindered me from posting for an extended period. And it was a good post. Scratch that, it was a great post. A potential classic, even. This was a post that everyone should have seen. But thanks to their flaky service, the world has been robbed of my...
10 Reasons Gen Xers are Unhappy at Work →
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.
NBC makes video deal with Zune →
Hey, at least it’s better than Hulu. At least now I can download videos to my Zune. And what a great deal for NBC. They get the huge Zune installed user-base.
