May 2009
153 posts
5 tags
Connected Flow - Making Changes →
Fraser Speirs talks about his recent acquisition of Changes.app (an OS X File Comparison and Diff-ing application).
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Palm Pre: An also-ran →
Good to see a unusually fresh, hype-free approach to the Pre from a TechCrunch property. Ahem.
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Microsoft Sells 30 Million XBox 360's. →
I’d hate to think how many they’ve had to replace with red-rings-of-death if they’ve actually sold 30 million at retail.
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“According to the first empirical study of its kind in the UK, by Cambridge law...”
– Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all - Ars Technica
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All Your Rebase Are Belong To Us Tee →
Great geeky Tee for Github users.
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“The practice of putting a period before your @ reply to get around the recent...”
– Justin Williams, via Twitter
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“The Catch 22 of browsers: session saving restores tabs/windows on a crash, but...”
– Patrick Haney, via Twitter
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“Dear ‘spies’, surely if you were doing your job properly, I...”
– Utku, via Twitter.
I couldn’t agree more: I’m sick to the teeth of Spymaster
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Meme Scenery - Waxy.org →
Andy Baio:
So I had this silly idea to isolate the backgrounds from famous Internet memes, removing all the subjects from every photo or video. I’m pretty happy with the results.
It’s certainly pretty crazy. I’ve realised just how few memes I know, though maybe that’s a good thing.
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Wither our Clickers?
Just over a week ago I reviewed the iPod shuffle for The Guardian here in the UK and made it absolutely clear of my feelings towards Apple’s decision to prevent any headphones with clickers (Apple or otherwise) working with the latest shuffle - an otherwise excellent piece of kit.
Wearable, and designed to be used without a screen, [the iPod shuffle] seems to scream for use when you’re...
7 tags
Daring Fireball: Excerpts From the Diary of an App... →
There’s so much good stuff in here - my particular favourites:
I reply with the exact same message as last week, word for word. Spend the rest of the day playing Flight Control.
and
Began examining new Flickr client app. Ends up it is surprisingly difficult to find pornographic content on Flickr. Entire day wasted.
Utter, utter genius.
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“Stuart: You can use all the French you like it doesn’t make you...”
– Tonight’s Big Bang Theory
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Scooplet: the Palm Pre syncs with iTunes - Apple... →
I’m going to guess this doesn’t last long - at least, not without some deal being made.
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Stanford University's iPhone Programming Course →
I’ve been following this for some time on iTunes U. There’s some great content.
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How Mailchimp turned to Mechanical Turk for their... →
Some interesting notes on using Mechanical Turk for User Research, via Harry Brignull
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Going Full Time - The M Cubed Blog →
Congratulations to Martin Pilkington for going full-time-indie today. We use Martin’s Lighthouse Keeper app at Realmac HQ, and can’t wait to see what else he’s got in the pipeline.
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Intel's USB Rockstar TV ad →
Funny ad featuring the creator of USB, with a great tagline:
Our rockstars aren’t like your rockstars
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The D7 Interview: Twitter Co-CEOs Biz Stone and... →
There’s also a video highlights of the interview available on the AllThingsD website.
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Not safe for work: The truth at Last →
Paul Carr chases the truth over the Last.fm / TechCrunch spat.
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Clarke - An OS X App that Updates Fire Eagle →
It’s a super-neat OS X app that uses the Skyhook WIreless API to find your location and update Fire Eagle.
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The Corporate Gibberish Generator →
The best way to generate bullshit Corporate Mission Statements to check the buzzword boxes, via Chris Phin.
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Gizmodo - The Mystery of the Zune HD →
It’s like the original iPhone, except it has screws on the case and the word Marketplace doesn’t fit on the frickin’ screen.
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“Verified by Visa: because typing financial credentials in to an iFrame on an...”
– Simon Willison, via Twitter
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“I got a free Android phone a while back, but it has this weird bug where...”
– Alex Payne, via Twitter
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Needle in a haystack: efficient storage of... →
via Dan W:
Up to date, users have uploaded over 15 billion photos which makes Facebook the biggest photo sharing website. For each uploaded photo, Facebook generates and stores four images of different sizes, which translates to a total of 60 billion images and 1.5PB of storage. The current growth rate is 220 million new photos per week, which translates to 25TB of additional storage consumed...
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Awesome Threadless Tee: Hooray for sarcasm! →
Another great tee from Threadless - srsly.
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“We give Adobe UI’s a lot of flack, but Final Cut Pro is easily just as...”
– Cabel Sasser, via Twitter
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Ovi, Nokia's New App Store, Off to Rocky Start -... →
I’m not keen on knocking an App Store competitor so quickly, but it seems as though the whole execution of the Ovi store - so far - has been nothing short of terrible.
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Hi, I'm Roberta from Spotify! →
Thanks to my Realmac comrade Luke Hefson for the link to this (unattributed) website dedicated to Roberta from Spotify. As he puts it:
Great tip for all you newly-wedded husbands out there. When the wife is out change your browser homepage to this.
Don’t forget the T-shirt, either.
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“Unlike software on the Desktop, mobile software will have a finite development...”
– Done Point Oh « carpeaqua
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“Today I saw a woman lighting a cigarette w/her right hand and texting with her...”
– Dave Caolo, via Twitter
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Dinky pocketbooks with WebKit transforms →
Another ‘I meant to post it last week’ item, Natalie Downe posted a seriously slick way to make pocketbooks through the awesomeness and magic of WebKit. There’s also some handy Terminal command ones too.
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To Tweet or Not to Tweet - The New York Times →
It may be from last month, but I found myself re-reading the NYTimes’ recent - and petty - op-ed on Twitter. This gem (which closes an interview with Twitter’s Biz Stone and Ev Williams) continues to make me chuckle.
Maureen Dowd: I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account. Is there...
3 tags
Some iPhone Snaps from Counting Crows →
I was fortunate enough to score a ticket to see Counting Crows in Brighton last night (thanks to Realmac comrade Danny). Given they’re from an iPhone the photos are, as they say, not too shabby.
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“Busy sending data to the RIAA… Oh wait, no, that’s still nonsense.”
– Richard Jones (CTO at last.fm), via Twitter
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Deny This, Last.fm - The TechCrunch Ambush →
I’m totally fine with TechCrunch posting about further ‘evidence’ that last.fm may (or may not) have shared listener data - even unintentionally - with the RIAA. But it seems totally deliberate that - on each occasion - they’ve posted accusations after last.fm leave the office for the weekend. Kudos, then, to last.fm for responding incredibly promptly each time.
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“Last night I carefully timed my run so I could see the fireworks downtown. I...”
– Cabel Sasser, via Twitter
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Crowd Raises Hell, Apple Approves App Holiday... →
Eucalyptus, the eBook reader for iPhone, has finally been approved after yet another round of “the crowd raises hell, Cupertino backtracks”. Apple, I get it: you just don’t care about the uproar things like this cause. But developers whose applications get rejected should not have to rely on the crowd raising hell to ensure an application gets approved eventually.
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Make your opinions known to Apple about this App... →
As per Craig Hockenberry’s recommendation (hat-tip to Mr Chartier), I’m writing some feedback to Apple on this App Store approval nonsense. Enough is enough: Cupertino you’re on notice.
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“Honest question: Anyone up for a protest at WWDC regarding the App Store...”
– Steve Streza, via Twitter
“I suspect that no-one at Apple knows how genuinely torturous the app store...”
– Whither Eucalyptus? - Jamie’s Web Log
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Amazon Web Services Blog: AWS Import/Export: Ship... →
Amazon have just announced the ability to ship them a hard-disk, and they’ll then upload it to a specified S3 bucket and return the drive to you. Awesome if you’re dealing with large amounts of data.
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“Twitter was more fun when I could bitch about a company without them replying to...”
– Derek Powazek (via maniacalrage)
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“First of all, the script – there wasn’t one. At least, not one written by...”
– Paul Carr’s review of Terminator Salvation
Tweeting Too Hard →
“Where self-important tweets get the recognition they deserve.”
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My iPod shuffle review for The Guardian →
My mini-review of the iPod shuffle for the Guardian’s Technophile column, which went live today. It’s also in the print edition of today’s Technology supplement, found on page 4.
“The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews...”
– Google Searches for Staffing Answers - WSJ.com
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“Call me obsessed, but the numbers on top of the Tumblarity page remind me of the...”
– via FUCK YEAH LOST! (which may just be my favourite-recently-discovered Tumblog). Also: the similarity can’t be a mere coincidence, can it?
T-Shirts From the Iconfactory →
After a few Threadless purchases of late - ‘The Internet was closed’ and ‘Gaming Revolution’ - I’m adding a red IF tee to the collection. I was fortunate enough to score a Twitterrific tee at Macworld (thanks to Tony Walla) but there’s a great range available - and the obligatory Flickr group for your pictures.
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A Guide to Advanced Cat Yodelling →
This had me in fits of laughter throughout. Thanks Rebecca.