Linked List: December 18, 2006

Monday, 18 December 2006

Rick LePage:

On Saturday, Dec. 16, a long-time friend and colleague of mine, Bruce Fraser, passed away. He succumbed after a short bout with lung cancer, a few weeks shy of his 53rd birthday.

Good words for a good man.

MacSanta ★

20 percent discount off every app from a terrific lineup of indie Mac developers: Bare Bones, Rogue Amoeba, Flying Meat, C-Command, Potion Factory, Red Sweater, Karelia, Unsanity, and more. Promotion runs from today through December 25.

Bare Bones and Unsanity, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. I love it.

Disgusted by Marketing? ★

Wil Shipley on the MacHeist controversy:

However, I did want to mention one ironic point that gives me a chuckle. Several of the independent developers who are complaining how unfair MacHeist is treating the software companies that have participated in their bundle seem to be, well, almost disgusted by marketing. Marketing is this nasty thing that lessens the value of whatever it is you’re trying to sell.

Really? Who, exactly? Artie MacStrawman?

Digg: What the Hell is ZFS? ★

This might be the most prototypical Digg entry ever.

Michael Crichton, Jurassic Prick ★

Hard to believe Crichton’s publisher actually let him put this in his book. What a jackass.

Theater of the Absurd at the T.S.A. ★

New York Times story on Christopher Soghoian, the grad student (and former Apple intern) whose online fake boarding pass generator drew the ire of the TSA and FBI. The gist of it is that the TSA doesn’t like it when anyone points out how many gaping holes there are in our current airport security system. (In a nice touch, The Times gives a prominent link to Soghoian’s weblog.)

iphone.com ★

Did people really think that Apple, if — and it’s still an “if” — they produce a cell phone, was going to call it “iPhone”? The fact that iphone.com clearly belongs to someone else was a strong hint that they weren’t. (Same reason that I really doubt they’re going to actually call the iTV “iTV” when it ships.)

Jackass of the Week: Gizmodo’s Brian Lam ★

On Thursday, Gizmodo’s Brian Lam “guaranteed” that the iPhone was going to be released today, and that it “wasn’t what [he] expected at all”. It ends up “iPhone”, as a trademark, is owned by Linksys and they’re using it for some sort of VOIP handset. Big whoop. Today he writes:

Macheads — including those from Macrumors, Think Secret, TUAW, and Cult of Mac — know Apple likes to release gear on Tuesdays. So they probably didn’t expect an Apple iPhone today, even after my original post. If you did read into it incorrectly and feel like I misled you, apologies for the discomfort.

I certainly didn’t believe that Apple was going to announce a major new product the Monday before Christmas, but it’s pretty fucking clear that’s exactly what Lam’s teaser was intended to imply. To claim now that it wasn’t shows that he’s a complete jackass.