March 2012
16 posts
A Precious Hour →
via Rands.
Starting at the beginning of February, I made a change. Each day I blocked off a precious hour to build something.
Every day. One hour. No matter what.
One of the things I like so much about reading developers like Michael Lopp is that it’s like listening to my own inner voice but better spoken. I’d like to think if I ever worked on Rands’ team we’d get along...
February 2012
22 posts
2 tags
No Social Media Magic
I’m increasingly of the opinion that executives who obsess over their company’s social media strategy don’t get it at a fundamental level.
Tip 1: If you don’t have a compelling product in the first place, no amount of social media magic is going to help you.
Tip 2: There is no such thing as social media magic. There are a few fairly obvious things to do with Facebook...
How Hollywood Hates Us
How do the movie studios show their hatred for their customers? Let’s list the ways.
Non-Skippable Advertisements on DVDs: I remember the days when you could put a DVD in and it would either start playing the movie right away or go straight to the menu.
Disney’s FastPlay: This should start with the movie. Not trailers.
Region locked DVDs: Who cares where my DVD player is...
Minimal Mac: TV Is Broken →
minimalmac:
“Can I choose?”, Beatrix asks. She’s still confused. She thinks this is like home where one can choose from a selection of things to watch. A well organized list of suggestions and options with clear box cover shots of all of her favorites. I have to explain again that it does not work that way on television. That we have to watch whatever is on and, if there is nothing you want to...
4 tags
Heavy Hangs The Bandwidth That Torrents The Crown →
You’re not into physical media? I’m with you. It’ll be on iTunes soon. See? The store page lists the release date. March 6. You can circle it on the calendar and everything.
Excellent points made by Andy Ihnatko. I’m perfectly okay with waiting a few weeks to get Game Of Thrones from iTunes. There’s plenty of other things for me to do and watch in the meantime. One of things I...
4 tags
Diablo III: The Real Geek Event for 2012
There will be an iPad 3 sometime in the next few months. iOS 6 will happen later this year as will the 6th-gen iPhone. Mountain Lion will be upon us this summer. But the event that’s really going to set geeks on fire this year is Diablo III. Everything will pale in comparison to that. Also, is the next StarCraft installment still happening this year too?
2 tags
Lyric Websites are the Trashiest Places on the...
Music is a very important part of my life. I don’t pay attention to lyrics much though. However, there are times when I want to read the lyrics to a song. Google “[song title] lyrics” and click on the first result. This will always lead to one of the worst experiences one can have on the internet. Lyric websites are some of the most user-hostile websites in existence. They are...
iOS: UIView Rounded Corners
This code will add rounded corners to a UIView.
4 tags
4 tags
Minimal Mac: Microsoft's Biggest Miss →
minimalmac:
Then, she explained, the iPhone came. There was no Office. People got things done. Then the iPad came. There was no Office. People got things done. Android came. People got things done. All of those things that they, just a couple of years ago, were convinced they needed Office to do. They got them done without it. And thus, the truth was revealed.
I would also add that Google...
4 tags
OS X Mountain Lion →
I was just thinking this morning if Apple would do an OS X version of Reminders. I thought they probably wouldn’t because they see that kind of thing as belonging with iOS. If you always have an iPhone or iPad at your side why would you also need a Reminders app on your computer?
I’m glad I was wrong. Also, Messages Beta!
Minimalism: Spotlight Over App Launchers
Spotlight comes with the operating system. It’s already there. It’s going to index your hard drive and store that index somewhere. You may as well use it. Dedicated app launchers do have a bunch of features that Spotlight doesn’t but I don’t need those features and I don’t want a second index sitting on my hard drive for something I would only use once in a while. I...
3 tags
An iOS Catalogue/Store App Template
One of the more challenging things about iOS development is moving past simple examples to something more complex. Unlike web development, iOS apps are not just a bunch of views which can arbitrarily link to each other. It’s more structured. Putting together an application which has the right kind of UI elements in the right places all working together is not trivial. Table views are easy...
A Wave of Distortion
There may not be a scientifically way to ever measure this but I’m wondering… is there a wave of executives and managers who read the Steve Jobs biography and are now trying to establish their own reality distortion fields by asking unreasonable things from their subordinates and expecting it’ll all turn out awesome?
Earth and Mars
There are two meanings of the word ‘earth’. First, ‘Earth’ is the proper name of our planet. Second, ‘earth’ is a word we use to describe soil or dirt. Farmers say they “work the earth”. They might pick up handfuls of soil, rub it in their hands to determine its quality and say, “The earth is rich in minerals here.”
Assume we eventually...
Social Networks and Inertia
When it comes to social networks we geeks can be very fast and nimble. We’ll jump into any new social network that crops up just to check it out. Besides Facebook and Twitter, most geeks have probably also played with Pinterest, Instagram, Path, Google+, Stamped, GetGlue, etc. Checking out new stuff on the Internet is in our DNA. It’s what we do. When something better comes along we...
Jeff Atwood Leaves Stack Exchange →
Great post. Beautiful sentiment. One way I look at it is like this. Every day my kids are a little bit bigger than they were the day before. Literally. It’s really easy to spend a decade of your life working and justify it by telling yourself you’re providing a better future for your family. But kids go from eight to eighteen in those same ten years and you’re never going to be...
Developer Tip: Don't Paste SQL Results Into Emails
If you’re a developer who has to communicate with other people at all here’s a tip. Do not paste SQL results into emails.
The output from the MySQL command line is intended to be displayed in a monospace font so the columns line up neatly. There’s no guarantee your email will be read in a monospace font. It’s very likely it won’t be.
It’s going to wrap. For...
The PaperMate 1.4b →
Stephen Hackett reviews the PaperMate 1.4b. The black version has been my pen of choice for the past few years. Ultra smooth. Nice dark consistent lines. Nice to see it getting some attention.
AAPL Orchard: Not Everyone Copies Apple →
One company sees themselves as being accountable to their customers. Almost every other company in the world sees themselves as being accountable to their shareholders.
“You are blinded by the love of the office you hold.”
– Albus Dumbledore
Covering Up Browser Languages
I’ve been a web-developer for over fifteen years. Over the course of those years I’ve learned to trust my instincts. Going with my instincts usually serves me well and going against them usually causes pain. Right now, my instincts are telling me that languages like HAML, SASS, and CoffeeScript are going to cause me more pain than good.
Web browsers use three different languages to...