January 2012
1 post
4 tags
Stupid Ideas, Apple Edition Pt.2
Know what Apple should do with the even more massive pile of cash* it’s sitting on? Build its products in America.
*$96.7 billion last quarter
December 2011
1 post
4 tags
Stupid Ideas, Apple Edition
Know what Apple should do with the massive pile of cash* it’s sitting on? Build its products in America.
*$81.57 billion last quarter
August 2011
5 posts
5 tags
On Progress
“Not long ago, if you wanted to take your business laptop on the road with you, you had to strap it on a burro. [Holds up iPhone] I can download 3 million vaginas in a minute onto this.” - Lewis Black
6 tags
Larry? Are You There? Hello?
Jonathan Berger, former Apple intern, recalls a conversation in 2000 during which he asked Steve Jobs why he decided to return to Apple. Jobs’s answer:
When I was trying to decide whether to come back to Apple or not I struggled. I talked to a lot of people and got a lot of opinions. And then there I was, late one night, struggling with this and I called up a friend of mine at 2am. I said,...
9 tags
The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was......
It looks like Facebook is finally winning a PR battle. Good for them.
Earlier this week, it was brought to light (again) that Facebook uses several of its smartphone apps to take all of your contacts and store them on its servers. Numerous sites ran with the news, but Facebook came forward and calmly pointed out the fact that it displays a disclaimer before taking a user’s contact data and...
8 tags
Bias
Every writer who covers tech gets accused of bias. These accusations most often come from young, passionate readers with strong biases. Oh the irony. I get comments and emails accusing me of being biased several times each week. Typically, I ignore them. Sometimes, I reply.
When I do reply, I try to be frank and also to use little-boy words under the assumption that most of the people who send...
The Skeptic
“The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.”
-Miguel de Unamuno
June 2011
1 post
8 tags
Narrowing the Gap
For those keeping score at home, the narrowed gap between product announcements and launches Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker assured us of was just over 3 months for the Veer and over 4.5 months for the HP TouchPad. And the Pre 3? It looks like that will be a gap not even Evel Knievel would have been able to jump.
May 2011
3 posts
7 tags
On Journalism
I was recently asked by Jack Oughton to answer four questions for Catch 22, an endeavor that takes a unique approach to cultivating journalists. Here are the questions, followed by my responses:
1: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring journalists?
Be bold. It doesn’t take much to write a report, but it often takes plenty to have a reader walk away with something he...
6 tags
Greenspun on the BlackBerry PlayBook: Not useful...
Greenspun’s review is just a draft right now, but ouch.
January 2011
1 post
4 tags
Steve Jobs: How to live before you die
November 2010
1 post
8 tags
Confessions of a Professional Cheater
This is easily the most fascinating article I’ve read in months.
The idea that higher education is a joke is hardly new. Reading about it from the perspective of the skilled, underprivileged people responsible for the success of the privileged, however, is beyond captivating.
The Shadow Scholar
from The Chronicle of Higher Education
“I’ve written toward a master’s degree...
October 2010
2 posts
6 tags
Yes, UI Matters
One of these screen captures is Apple’s App Store. The other, is not.
Click the image above to enlarge.
3 tags
Video of a Heidelberg in action at @StudioOnFire.... →
September 2010
1 post
4 tags
How to Clear Google Search History
I find that many people don’t know they can clear their Google search history.
Yes, Google will still store all of this information somewhere on its servers, but there are many reasons to empty out what Google calls your “Web History”.
Here’s how to do it:
Navigate to google.com/history
Toward the bottom of the menu on the left, click Remove items
Along the top, click...
July 2010
2 posts
7 tags
Personae Non Gratae
When asked my opinion on the difference between a journalist and a blogger, my half-joking response never changes:
A blogger tells you what happened and what he thinks about what happened. A journalist tells you what happened and then uses other people’s words to tell you what he thinks about what happened.
In other words, bloggers are forthcoming with their opinions. Journalists feed...
17 tags
iPhone 4 Wallpaper Pack 1
Finding wallpapers suited for the ridiculously crisp Retina Display on the iPhone 4 is no easy task. I spent a few hours this morning scouring deviantART and a few other sites, and walked away with tons of great options.
Here’s the first of what will eventually be a few packs.
No one will like each and every wallpaper found in the pack, but there should at least be something for...
May 2010
2 posts
WRITTEN: This Post
BREAKING: …
EXCLUSIVE: …
EXPLAINED: …
VIDEO: …
REVIEW: …
FEATURE: …
REVEALED: …
UNCOVERED: …
ALERT: …
HOW TO: …
Blogs are getting entirely too caps-happy with eye grabbers.
There must be less annoying ways to go about this. I use “FEATURE” when pumping an article from our features section through the homepage, for...
5 tags
“Your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”
– Barack Hussein Obama, 01/20/2009
April 2010
3 posts
3 tags
5 tags
Yeah, I'd Twit That
UPDATE: It took a bit of prodding but Twitter support came through and reactivated my account. Big thanks to everyone who helped.
——-
Even though I am a fairly active Twitter user, I always thought it was just a silly, tiny habit. I can kick it any time I want…
I enjoyed talking to many people I’ve encountered on Twitter of course, but the whole concept of the service...
5 tags
The Dodo
This morning I watched from my kitchen window as my neighbor emerged from her house. She stumbled down the front steps and across the lawn to the end of her driveway where she collected the morning paper.
The dodo truly is a majestic bird.
March 2010
2 posts
7 tags
WatchWondering if Apple really hates Google? Ask my MacBook Pro, which for whatever reason, won’t allow me to add Google Chrome to my dock.
3 tags
Sergey Brin's Pre-Google Resume →
February 2010
1 post
13 tags
Joe Stack's Letter
I’m not saying the government is doing its citizens a disservice by bailing out automakers and financial institutions while the tax payer hangs out to dry. I’m not saying the system is broken. I’m not saying the IRS and U.S. tax laws in general are archaic and unjust. I’m not saying the current state of health care is a travesty. I’m not saying all hope is lost.
...
January 2010
2 posts
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
– Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899
6 tags
December 2009
6 posts
6 tags
Aggregation services need to get smarter
The screen capture above is from Tech Investor News, one of my favorite Websites. It is an aggregation service that pulls in RSS feeds from a variety of sources, all tech-focused, and organizes the feeds into a variety of relevant categories. The image above is from the “Blogs + Tech Dialogue” section.
While TIN does a great job of assembling content from many great sources and...
5 tags
Philip Greenspun's Weblog » Pittsburgh’s Tuition... →
1 tag
Philip Greenspun's Weblog » Climate change summit... →
6 tags
Why I gave away my company to charity | Derek... →
“The best things in life aren’t things”
4 tags
Over The Counter Culture» It’s happened →
7 tags
Too Much Joy» My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty... →
November 2009
1 post
9 tags
Selectively Disabling Downloaded-File Warnings in... →
Note: Make sure you save your plist file with “Western (Mac OS Roman)” encoding in 10.5.6+
October 2009
5 posts
14 tags
What I did today with a Palm Pre that I couldn't...
Among other things: I just commuted home from Manhattan to Bergen County, NJ. It took about an hour. In that period of time, I streamed Pandora without a single jitter, hiccup or other interruption. I listened to Pandora through a pair of Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 Bluetooth headphones and I was able to control playback volume on the Pre (the IS800 headphones don’t have on-device volume...
Looking for freelance writers
Do you love cell phones? Do you love writing? Do you love money? We need to chat…
Before I go out into the fiery bowels of cyberspace looking for writers, I wanted to see if I could drum up some good leads via Twitter/my readers. Long story short, I’m with a new company now and we’re getting ready to launch a new property that will be focused on the US wireless industry. The...
3 tags
THE SKY IS FALLING!!!
ZOMG!!! TWITTER IS DOWN!!! QUICK!!! MASHABLE, BUSINESS INSIDER… POST POST POST!!!
2 tags
This Is a Photoshop and It Blew My Mind -... →
4 tags
The World of Book Publishing Is About to Change --... →
September 2009
7 posts
5 tags
How To Make Ferrofluid | Popular Science →
7 tags
The death of the greatest human being who ever... →
Now this is how you title an article…
6 tags
1 tag
17 More Images You Won't Believe Aren't... →
2 tags
College for $99 a Month | Washington Monthly →
4 tags
Kurt Vonnegut explains drama | Derek Sivers →
9 tags
WhoPaste || Instant Contacts for Mac OS X →
Great OS X app that will let you copy contact information from an email signature (or elsewhere) and easily create a new Entourage/Address Book/Daylite/Google Contact entry in seconds.
August 2009
16 posts
3 tags
BYO Image Search Lab - Idée Inc. →
“The BYO (‘Bring Your Own’) Image Search Lab is a part of Idée Labs—Idée’s technology playground for visual search. With the BYO Image Search Lab, you can upload an image or point to one on the Internet, and find similar looking images in Alamy’s collection of nearly 3 million stock photographs.”
3 tags
Visual Search Lab - Idée Inc. →
“The Visual Search Lab is a part of Idée Labs—Idée’s technology playground for visual search. With the Visual Search Lab, you can browse through nearly 3 million stock photographs from Alamy, and find images that look visually similar just by clicking on them. Combine keywords with your visual search to return never-before-seen combinations of images.”
8 tags
Get Spotify in the U.S.
If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend following these instructions:
Step One: Visit http://htmlblock.co.uk/anonymous_web_browser/
Step Two: Visit “spotify.com” using the above proxy
Step Three: Sign up for a free account. Enter in all real information except for birthdate. I’m just paranoid is all (yet publicly blogging about it). For postal code, use “EC1M 3HN” (thanks,...