Linked List: May 3, 2007

Thursday, 3 May 2007

James Duncan Davidson on why he switched from Aperture to Lightroom. Now that I’m using Lightroom, I’ve found O’Reilly’s Inside Lightroom weblog to be a terrific resource — even better now that Duncan is going to be writing for them.

MacTech VBA to AppleScript Transition Guide ★

Microsoft’s upcoming Office 2008 for Mac no longer supports VBA scripting. MacTech is offering a free version of their VBA to AppleScript transition guide on the web; a PDF version is available for $10.

Rands in Repose: How to Not Throw Up ★

Good public speaking tips:

Use silence as punctuation. My favorite trick in the book, especially since I’m a fast talker. When you hear yourself gaining verbal momentum, stop. Count backwards from 5. Walk across the stage. Resume. These breaks are going to give both you and your audience a chance to mentally regroup.

Jackass of the Week: Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo ★

Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo on the iPod Shuffle, back in January 2005:

So I think the whole industry will just laugh at it, because the flash people — it’s worse than the cheapest Chinese player. Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM.

Creative’s newest player? The display-less, FM-less, 1 GB clip-sized Zen Stone. Play/pause button in the middle, up/down for volume, left/right for previous/next track.

(Via Jussi Hagman.)

David Pogue: ‘Your Life, in a Movie of Top Quality’ ★

David Pogue reviews new hard-drive-based high-def video cameras from Sony and JVC. The Sony seems like a non-starter for most Mac users, as it records in AVCHD, a video format that works in neither iMovie nor Final Cut.

Now on DVD: Fletch (The ‘Jane Doe’ Edition) ★

1985 comedy masterpiece starring Chevy Chase, now digitally remastered. It really is all ball bearings nowadays.

BlackBerry Curve ★

New consumer-oriented smartphone from BlackBerry. The biggest difference from the Pearl is that the Curve has a full QWERTY keyboard. The site is chock full of really corny copywriting; e.g. on the page describing the web browser:

Check the latest fashion, or even automotive trends online. Then send links to friends so they can see what’s hot… and what’s not.

PC World Editor Quits, Reportedly Over Story Titled ‘Ten Things We Hate About Apple’ ★

Kim Zetter:

Colleagues at my former outlet, PC World magazine, have told me that Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit abruptly today because the company’s new CEO, Colin Crawford, tried to kill a story about Apple and Steve Jobs.

The piece, a whimsical article titled “Ten Things We Hate About Apple,” was still in draft form when Crawford killed it. McCracken said no way and walked after Crawford refused to compromise.

Business 2.0 Loses Entire Issue of Magazine, Had No Working Backups ★

Ouch:

Until the night of the crash, the magazine had never had to rely on its backup server, Quittner said, so no one had noticed that its programming was either obsolete or dysfunctional, or both. Just last November, the magazine had listed off-site backup as being among “the usual precautions.”

Good reminder: test your backups regularly. (Via Y Combinator.)