Friday, February 3, 2012
David Heinemeier Hansson at Signal vs. Noise:
Macs were (and are) just better. Not just because they were better built or put together, but because Apple was a better company. A braver company. A company that stood for higher ideals. When compared to the empire of Microsoft and the Dells, Sonys of the time, it simply felt like they were more right.
When I looked at that, it seemed like an injustice that Macs and Apple were the odd ones out. Like quality was being held back and barred a chance to shine just because the dominant gorillas in the room had so much power and inertia going for them.
You may or may not agree with this. You may even think this statement is ironic; that Apple is now the evil empire.
But think about this: If Apple is the gorilla now, who are they keeping down? Samsung? Sony? Microsoft? RIM? Google?
Don't get me wrong; Apple has made its fair share of blunders. However, the list of players in the personal computing industry that are actively proving their general ineptitude, indifference and/or outright malice toward their customers in one way or another is long and growing.
While Apple has certainly shown that at times they’ve let their power corrupt, they’re still guided by the fundamental principle we fell in love with: Superior products through superior design.
If Apple isn't that, the company with the higher ideal, to actually create a superior product, we are in a sad state of affairs.
Monday, January 9, 2012
A short film by Corey Rich asking an extreme kayaker, a free soloist, and a long distance mountain biker "why?".
The entire film is shot on the brand-new Nikon D4.
Inspiring.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
This is so well done — the right cursors and everything.
Via Daring Fireball.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Oatmeal:
You remember those Magic Eye books from the 1990s? The ones where you'd look at them, relax your eyes, and a 3D picture would pop out? Saying that 3D movies are the future of cinema is like saying that Magic Eye books were the future of literature.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
If you'd like to judge the 2012 Republican presidential candidates by the size of their entourage, or lack thereof, this is the graphic for you.
Rick Santorum:
I've just had my hopes of registering "ni.ck" dashed — the Cook Islands, the country for whom .ck is the country code top-level domain, has chosen to employ a second-level scheme for their domain.
Businesses in the Cook Islands may or may not appreciate this decision. As it turns out, it means they may register a name under the ".co.ck" second-level domain.
And don't get any funny ideas; there is a no-vulgarity policy in place. Strangely, that doesn't preclude the .co.ck category itself.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Struggling to come up with a New Year's resolution? Learn to code. Code Year, a site put together by Codecademy, is offering a weekly interactive lesson delivered to email.
The interactive lessons on Codecademy consist of a Javascript console that inserts the instructions in the console itself as you complete each task. Here's the first:
How long is your name? Find out by typing your name in quotes and ending it with .length
For me, that'd be "Ryan".length
Very cool.
Love this quote on Code Year by Fred Wilson:
A young man asked me for advice for 'those who aren't technical.' I said he should try to get technical.
Dan Frommer (at splatf.com):
2. Apple is happy to go a whole year without a major hardware design revision.
The iPad 2 wasn’t that much different than the first iPad. The iPhone 4S was, famously, “just a 4S”. (Still no LTE, NFC, etc. — for good reasons.) The iPod, Mac, and Apple TV lineups didn’t change much this year, either. And Apple still grew at a crazy rate, setting new sales records in every line.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Scott Johnson writes:
This year’s number one word is ‘creative’. ‘Creative’ took the number one spot in many countries across the world and wasn’t even on the list last year.
What is changing? ... What is driving it is a shift in workplace dynamics. The Facebook generation enters the workforce with different expectations and ambitions than previous generations. Those expectations are leading to a realization that the only competitive edge anybody can have in this day and age is the ability to be creative.
LinkedIn calls their list "overused buzzwords", and some of them are. I like Scott's take; the move to creativity is a real shift in marketplace values.