The Daring Fireball Linked List

Wednesday, 10 Mar 2010

Chained Up in the Dungeon of Emperor Xing ★

If you’re not hooked by the end of the second paragraph you might as well stop there.

Birdfeed, Buzz Andersen’s outstanding iPhone Twitter client, has been purchased by Brizzly, updated, and rebranded as Brizzly for iPhone — and is now available from the App Store as a free download. There are some nice additions (such as the addictive pull-down-to-refresh gesture introduced by Tweetie), but a few steps back as well, including the loss of Birdfeed’s visual charm.

My main gripe is that it’s not a direct Twitter client any longer. Rather than sign in to Twitter, you sign in with an account at Brizzly. If you have multiple Twitter accounts, you must hook them up to your Brizzly account. I don’t see any benefit to this, but I do see an extra potential point of failure. The deal breaker for me, alas, is that they seem to have eliminated Birdfeed’s Instapaper support.

On the upside: our long national nightmare of conflating Birdfeed and Birdhouse is now over.

Amazon’s One-Click Patent Confirmed Following Re-Exam ★

Four years.

‘If You Were to See a Viking Today, It’s Best That You Go Some Other Way’ ★

“What’s in the David Foster Wallace Archive?”, from Meredith Blake at The New Yorker:

For Wallace scholars, the real jewel in the crown might be a battered, taped-together copy of Pam Cook’s “The Cinema Book,” used as research for “Infinite Jest.” His handwritten notes include multiple references to “IJ” and, according to a blog post by Scwartzburg, display a “particular interest in sections on the idea of the auteur, the technology of deep focus cinematography, new wave cinema, the Hollywood star system, and most film genres (with the notable exception of the ‘gangster/crime film’).”

Great slide show at the end, too.

The Secret Origin of Windows ★

First-hand report from Tandy Trower, the product manager at Microsoft who shipped Windows 1.0 and 2.0. Great stuff.

Blue Marble ★

Jeff Richardson on the story behind the photo that serves as the iPhone’s default wallpaper.

Unearthed Rolling Stones Tracks Set to Debut on ‘Exile on Main Street’ Reissue ★

My pick as the greatest rock album ever made. Don’t miss: Andy Greene interviews Mick and Keith on the new release. Keith:

Also, it’s the first album with no particular single on it, you know? There was no “Brown Sugar” or whatever. We made it as an album, rather than looking for a hit single.

‘No Other Distribution Authorized Under This Agreement’ ★

Wolf Rentzsch:

I hope section 7.3 comes back to bite Apple during their Department of Justice investigation.

Wired Reread ★

New weblog by Theis Søndergaard, featuring scanned pages from old issues of Wired:

This blog is not intended to be just a point-and-laugh central, picking apart the mistakes of the past and ridiculing those who got it wrong. You won’t have to look long for posts that do that, of course… but the main purpose of this blog is to put the past into perspective. In the fast paced world of tech, we often lure ourselves into believing that everything is different now, and old rules don’t apply. Well, quite often they do (if not always) and checking out our collective tech-past can help us get a perspective on the present.

So good.

Mozilla JetPack Rips Off Design and Graphics From MetaLab ★

Andrew Wilkinson:

I don’t understand why companies think that they can get away with doing this. The internet is a surprisingly small place, and we were notified almost immediately. We’ve all had a good chuckle about this, but we’ve contacted Mozilla and demanded that they take the design down.

Really does seem bizarre that anyone thought this wouldn’t be noticed.

Update: Mozilla apologizes, and is “actively investigating how this happened to ensure that it does not happen again.”

Colosseo ★

New from Cameron Moll: the Roman Coliseum rendered in type.

Marco Arment on Advertising, Entitlement, and Voting With Attention ★

Hyper-rational take on the situation.

Tuesday, 9 Mar 2010

Technologizer: The Future of Windows ★

David Worthington:

Technologizer asked some of the industry’s big brains about what Microsoft needs to do to keep its operating system relevant in the years to come. Their advice ranges from merely simplifying the interface to borrowing ideas from other Microsoft products such as the Xbox to giving the OS a complete reboot. Here’s what they (and we) have to say.

Some interesting (and widely varying) answers. I like Scott Rosenberg’s take best:

Microsoft ought to build a new, modern, stripped-down OS and support the legacy stuff in a virtual machine. Call the new environment WIN instead of WINDOWS, suggesting a new stripped-down nimbleness. Make it clear that the old world will be supported for a long time but not forever. Dazzle people with what they can do in a new world.

Or just maintain Windows in parallel. Point is, there’s no reason why Microsoft should have one and only one PC desktop operating system. Why not two: the new cool no-cruft one; and Windows, the established, familiar, chock-full-of-baggage-and-legacy-compatibility one.

Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for an iPad Price Drop ★

Kevin C. Tofel:

Much of this “wait for the price drop” sentiment stems from the original iPhone 4 GB and 8GB models, which debuted in late June of 2007 for $499 and $599, respectively. By September of that same year, the 4 GB model was scrapped and the 8 GB unit dropped $200 to $399. The situation generated an early adapter uproar by many — myself included — and Apple tried to make good with $100 Apple Store credits for those who paid the higher prices.

The entire event tarnished Apple’s luster in the eyes of consumers and this isn’t a company that repeats mistakes often.

Jonathan Schwartz on Patent Threats From Steve Jobs and Bill Gates ★

Jonathan Schwartz:

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”

AAPLinvestors’s iPad Death Watch ★

Delicious collection of iPad doubters.

Update: Fireballed. Google has it cached, though.

‘Tron: Legacy’ Trailer ★

Oh, yes.

Update: Much better version from the official site, including downloadable 1080p QuickTime.

Amazon Drops Colorado Residents From Affiliates Program ★

Larry Dignan:

Amazon’s response to Colorado’s state tax issue — Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill that puts new restrictions and taxes on out-of-state retailers like Amazon — has been consistent. When things go against Amazon the retailer cuts its affiliate programs in that state.

Follow-Up on HP’s ‘License Plate Domain’ URLs ★

Yesterday, after linking to “http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/Voodoo-Blog/The-HP-s-Slate-Device-Runs-The-Complete-Internet-Including-Flash/ba-p/53838”, I asked what the deal was with that crazy server name. A DF reader who works at HP emailed:

Internally it’s called something stupid, like a “license plate name” or somesuch. HP IT does that so they can physically locate a server when it goes down.

Externally, you’re seeing how one department’s braindead internal policy designed for their convenience reduces the convenience of the entire rest of the company (and our customers). I’d blame Randy Mott (of WalMart pedigree) who has proven to be quite a Napoleon (or perhaps Brutus is a better example?) when it comes to turf battles, but I think that policy pre-dated him.

Many folks internally in HP hate those license plate external URLs but there’s nothing we can do about it. The policy has been set from on-high.

So because of a dictum from the IT department, HP — one of the biggest, proudest, and most successful companies in the history of the computer business — has URLs that are cryptic, long, and ugly. Whereas anyone with, say, a Tumblr account, can get far nicer URLs for free.

Harmony ★

Captivating little HTML5 drawing app by Ricardo Cabello. Works swell on the iPhone too. (Via Federico Viticci.)

Glenn Fleishman on RealNetworks’s DVD Copying Settlement ★

Glenn Fleishman, writing for Boing Boing:

RealNetworks just screwed us all by settling lawsuits in which it might have lost — but which might also have given some new life to fair use for digital media. The post-RealDVD world means that unless there’s a major change to the law surrounding copy protection, there will never be a legal way to perform legal acts of copying or shifting protected movies, music, and games.

Whatever Happened to Programming? ★

Mike Taylor:

I want to make things, not just glue things together.

(Via Rands.)

Yair Reiner on Apple’s IP Threats to Rival Handset Makers ★

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, quoting from a report from Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner on the behind-the-scenes aspects of Apple’s patent suit against HTC:

Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.

Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged.

Reiner concludes that the effect is going to be to drive would-be Android handset makers into the arms of Microsoft and Windows Phone 7.

Vodafone Gives Customer Android Phone Loaded With Botnet and Password-Stealing Malware ★

Pedro Bustamante:

Interestingly enough, the Mariposa bot is not the only malware I found on the Vodafone HTC Magic phone. There’s also a Confiker and a Lineage password stealing malware. I wonder who’s doing QA at Vodafone and HTC these days?

In the comments, Bustamante writes:

Regardless, I don’t think this has to do with factory settings, but rather with poor QA process of refurbished phones.

One would hope this isn’t widespread.

What About Those Multitouch Patents? ★

Farhad Manjoo’s piece for Slate on Apple’s patent infringement legal action against HTC bears the headline “Apple’s Multitouch Lawsuit Is Both Dumb and Dangerous”, which is slightly odd, insofar as that none of the patents Apple cited are related to multitouch.

Which raises the question: Why not? Multitouch is certainly the aspect of the iPhone user interface that has been most-talked about with regard to patents, ever since it debuted at Macworld Expo in 2007 and Jobs flat-out bragged about how patented it was. Maybe the aspects of multitouch that HTC has added to the Nexus One don’t violate the patents?

Update: Nilay Patel says none of Apple’s granted patents cover pinch-to-zoom, which, as far as I can tell, is the only “multitouch” supported on the Nexus One. Apple has pending patents on pinch-to-zoom and other multi-finger gestures, but who knows if they’ll be granted.

Amazon Hiring Web Browser Developers ★

Michael Calore:

A job posting for a browser engineer at Lab126, the division of Amazon that develops the Kindle, indicates the company is looking for somebody to develop “an innovative embedded web browser” for a consumer product. […]

The Kindle’s current browsing experience is notably sub-par. It’s good enough to check your e-mail, post to Twitter or read Wikipedia, but it doesn’t handle images or more complex web apps particularly well. It certainly doesn’t live up to the same vision of the mobile web being outlined by the iPhone, or Android phones like the Droid or Nexus One.

Calore is right that the current Kindle browser is poor, but I wonder whether this job opening is for the Kindle. One problem Amazon would have with a Kindle armed with a good mobile browser is that it might encourage too much use of the browser — existing Kindles don’t have Wi-Fi and only access the Internet via “free” 3G networking. The reason Amazon can provide free 3G is that it’s typically only used for buying books. Add a great browser and I don’t see how they could afford free 3G. (Maybe future Kindles will be Wi-Fi only?)

Monday, 8 Mar 2010

The Panic Status Board ★

If I didn’t love these guys I would hate them.

Steve Jobs at the 2010 Oscars ★

Great photo by Zadi Diaz. (Via Dave Winer.)

Jim Dalrymple: iPhone, iPad Operating System to Unify With OS 4.1 ★

Jim Dalrymple:

However, it doesn’t make sense for Apple to unify the two operating systems for 4.0 with the timeline they are working with. Rather, I expect Apple to release OS 4.1 in September or October. It will not only address issues with the 4.0 release, but also unify the operating systems.

Jim’s expectations tend to be pretty good, to say the least.

Download Squad: ‘Microsoft Set to Destroy Apple in Every Games Market’ ★

Oh, you thought the gaming news was all sunshine and roses for Apple today? Not so, reports Sebastian Anthony at Download Squad:

Apple, with its locked-down, isolated sandbox is in trouble. Do game developers have any reason to continue working on games for the iPhone or iPad now that Microsoft is offering so much more? […]

Can Apple really see themselves competing, with a minuscule desktop market share and 25% of the smartphone sector? Steve Jobs has announced Apple’s intent to move into mobile gaming, but can you really see developers siding with the iPhone when Windows Phone 7 is just around the corner?

Nice Presentation From Cameron Daigle on iPad UI Design ★

Answering the question, “Is the iPad just a big iPhone?” in the negative. Love this bit about the lack of hovering:

Here’s why this section is about Controls: every day, your cursor protects you from unclear UI. It helpfully turns into a text cursor as you hover over textboxes, or a hand as you hover over a link or action item.

iPad has no such thing. Bad UI will stick out like a sore thumb, both in apps and on websites. Your tappable areas had better look tappable. Your controls had better look controllable.

AT&T’s Crummy Android Phone ★

AT&T’s first Android phone, the Motorola Backflip, ships with an outdated version of the OS (1.5; current version is 2.1) and comes with a bunch of AT&T-added apps that can’t be deleted. They’d do the same with the iPhone if it were up to them.

New Promo Video From HP and Adobe on Upcoming ‘Slate Device’ ★

HP is banking heavily on the inclusion of Flash to be a selling point vs. the iPad. My gut feeling is that Flash will prove irrelevant, and that this thing will go nowhere simply because Windows 7 is terribly suited to a touchscreen tablet.

(And what in the world is the deal with the crazy server name in HP’s weblog URLs?)

Mediagazer ★

New site from Gabe Rivera: “Mediagazer is to media as Techmeme is to tech.”

GDC Summit Devoted Entirely to iPhone OS Gaming ★

Speaking of game-related Apple news.

Valve Announces That Its Games and Steam Service Are Coming to the Mac ★

Big news for the Mac as a game platform:

If players already own the PC versions of Valve games, they’ll get Mac versions at no extra charge through a feature called Steam Play. […] By using the Steam Cloud feature that the company introduced in 2008, players can save in-progress games online, then call up those saved games no matter which version they’re playing. If you’re playing Half-Life 2 on your home PC but then head out on the road with your MacBook, you can continue your game-in-progress.

The David Foster Wallace Audio Project ★

Interviews, readings, and more, “lovingly collected by Ryan Walsh in early 2009”. It’s a gold mine.

Carmi Levy’s Conspiracy Theory Regarding Apple’s Removal of Wi-Fi Scanning Apps from the App Store ★

He thinks it’s a scam to make it harder for iPhone (and soon, iPad) owners to use Wi-Fi, so that they instead use 3G and run up service charges. This is nutty. The carriers — AT&T especially — really do want iPhone owners to use Wi-Fi. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is practically begging iPad users to use Wi-Fi.

Plus, the iPhone has built-in features for finding open Wi-Fi networks, right there in the Settings app. By default it even lets you know when it finds an open network. It boggles the mind that anyone would think there’s something fishy about these apps being removed.

Cameron Moll on His Weblog Redesign ★

He’s very kind to state that DF was an inspiration. I stole the intermingled short-links-and-longer-articles format from Kottke, though.

New York Times Profile on Pandora and Founder Tim Westergren ★

Saved, perhaps, by the iPhone. They turned a profit last year and expect $100 million in revenue this year.

‘Logorama’ ★

Winner of the Oscar for Best Short Film. If you love profanity, ultra violence, and logos, you’re going to enjoy this as much as I did. (Via Kottke.)

‘The Hurt Locker’ Wins Best Picture; Kathryn Bigelow First Woman to Win Best Director ★

Roger Ebert:

Bigelow did it, I believe, because she quite simply made the best film: The tension generated by the film was extraordinary. Yes, situations involving defusing bombs are common enough, but somehow Bigelow made the bomb scenes human, not technical. Perhaps that was the woman in her?

I’d say they pretty much got it right with the winners this year. The tribute to John Hughes was very nice.

(The Hurt Locker was shot on 16mm film; when was the last Best Picture winner (or even nominee?) that was shot on 16mm? Update: Leaving Las Vegas?)

Edward Tufte Presidential Appointment ★

President Obama has appointed Edward Tufte to the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, “whose job is to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds”. Outstanding.

Apple’s iPad Commercial From the Oscars ★

Just like with Apple’s iPhone commercials, the ad focuses on how the device actually looks and works and what it can do. So good.

Sunday, 7 Mar 2010

Ken Fisher of Ars Technica on How Ad Blockers Hurt Revenue ★

A site like Ars, with a tech-savvy audience, is the hardest hit. Fisher claims 40 percent of Ars readers are blocking their ads, and points out that many readers running ad blockers aren’t even aware that they’re costing sites money:

There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won’t hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis.

I have no easy answer, but I will point out that there’s no inherent reason why ads have to be something people are tempted to block. It’s not enough to ask readers not to block ads — you’ve got to work hard at providing ads that readers actually enjoy, or at least aren’t tempted to block.

Update: There’s a prisoners’ dilemma problem with ad blockers, where it doesn’t matter if one site shows reasonable ads if others show crap ads, because those crap ads will drive users to install ad-blocking software, and ad-blocking software casts a wide net and blocks as much as it can. It’s unlikely that most ad-blocker-using Ars readers installed their ad-blocker because of the ads on Ars Technica.

This Is Not Hard to Understand ★

Bill Ray for The Register, on the Wi-Fi scanning apps removed from the App Store last week:

Wi-Fi detection is something of a niche: there were never more than a handful of such applications in iTunes. But now even those have vanished as Apple decided they were using a “private framework”, and has pulled them off the shelves without explanation or apology. […]

“We received a very unfortunate email today from Apple stating that WiFi Where has been removed from sale on the App Store for using private frameworks to access wireless information,” explains one developer, though Apple has apparently declined to explain exactly what rule the scanning applications are breaking.

Uh, the rule against using private frameworks?

Update: Worth noting that this is the same Bill Ray who, in December 2006, a month before the iPhone was unveiled, wrote “Why the Apple Phone Will Fail, and Fail Badly”.

Saturday, 6 Mar 2010

Palm Introduces WebOS Plugin Development Kit ★

They call it a “plugin development kit”, but what it really means is that developers can write compiled C/C++ apps for WebOS now. And according to John Paczkowski:

Perhaps more important, the PDK will allow developers to rewrite mobile apps created for other platforms to run on webOS with minimal modification. Apps that currently run on Apple’s iPhone, for example, can be ported over in a matter of days, sources close to the company tell me, and they don’t really suffer any degradation in performance.

I can only assume that this is in reference to games with cross-platform cores, not utility-type apps that are Cocoa Touch through-and-through.

Friday, 5 Mar 2010

‘60 Days’ ★

I stand corrected regarding the original expectations for iPad availability worldwide. During the iPad introduction event last month, the slide stating that the Wi-Fi models would be available in “60 days” also included this underneath: “Worldwide availability of WiFi models”.

The Mac Sale Bundle ★

Speaking of DF RSS feed sponsorships, I’d like to thank this week’s sponsor, The Mac Sale. They’ve got a terrific bundle of Mac apps for sale through March 15 for just $49.99. The bundle includes: MacGourmet Deluxe, VideoConverter Pro, Supercard, Shovebox, MiniOne Racing, PathFinder, StoryMill, Inkbook, Slideshow, and Finance 6. All 10 apps, just $49.99.

(The Mac Sale is a collaboration between MacZot and The Escapers, makers of the Flux web design app.)

Jason Snell on Google’s Nexus One ★

Speaking of Jason Snell, he’s got a thoughtful look at the Nexus One and Android, particularly in comparison to the iPhone.