By John Gruber
WorkOS launches auth.md — an open protocol for agent registration.
Linked List: November 14, 2006
Tuesday, 14 November 2006
- Public Betas Are a Sham ★
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My broadside against web app “public betas”, particularly those that never end, written for Joyeur back in March.
- New A List Apart T-Shirts ★
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I like the Web 2.0 one quite a bit. (Via Jason Santa Maria.)
- iSight Web Page Trick Is Not a Security Flaw ★
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Jonathan Wight on the recent “live iSight footage in a web page” trick.
- CNN Trashes the Zune ★
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Worth watching to the end. Choice comments:
“Who do they think is going to buy this?”
“Why don’t they get some decent design people that can make things look better? It’s clunky.”
- Craig Hockenberry on Resolution Independence ★
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Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry on using vector images for rendering bigger icons:
Unless you’re dealing with simple line art, effects such as gradients, shadows, and highlights result in enormous files. As an example, compare this 512×512 pixel PNG file of the CandyBar icon with a PDF file containing the same image. The PNG file is about 100 KB while its PDF counterpart is a whopping 3 MB. Consider a five icon toolbar with PNG files versus a toolbar with PDF files — 500 KB versus 15 MB. Your ISP will love you and your PDF icons!
- The Problem Is, the Zune Is Brown ★
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Anil Dash:
But the overriding feeling of the Zune is an almost pathological me-too-ism, as if the team weren’t watching consumers or potential customers, but was too busy saying Hello From Seattle to those who were Made In Cupertino. Instead of aiming at the competition, the team should have been aiming for the lead.
Love the new blog tagline, too.
- Bumgarner: Java Now Open Source (But Not Really Free) ★
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Interesting analysis from Bill Bumgarner regarding Sun’s release of Java under the GPL:
You can negotiate with Sun for a custom license that allows your modifications to remain under your control. Most likely, you’ll be paying Sun for the privilege of actually owning your modifications. Yes, to own your modifications you will need to contact Sun and negotiate a non-GPL license.
There lies one revenue generating opportunity.
Don’t miss his follow-up, either.
- The Online Auteurs ★
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New York Times Magazine profile of online filmmakers and show producers, including Ze Frank. The web is now doing for film and video artists what it long ago did for writers and software developers: disintermediating. Self-publish and let your work speak for itself.
- New Google Earth Beta ★
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Performance improvements and new features.
- Zune Installer’s Teenage Girl-on-Girl Imagery ★
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This really is a curious image for a software installer.
- Second-Hand Smoke ★
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Jonathan Wight figured out how Disco’s “smoke” feature works (thanks to the headers left in the app’s Smoke.framework in the initial public release), and put together a hack to let windows in any app smoke. What’s hilarious is the example document Wight chooses to set afire in the demo movie.
- Open Source Version Numbers ★
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Chris Petrilli:
I feel like open source software often has a version number asymptotically approaching 1.0, but never actually reaching it.
- Apple Teams Up With Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM & United to Deliver iPod Integration ★
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iPod integration with six major airlines:
These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.
- Zune Marketplace’s Absurd Pricing Scheme ★
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James R. Stoup:
Of course, you could just spend all of your points each time you buy music, but would require you to purchase songs in multiples of 31,600 points (that being the LCM of 79 and 400). That works out to 400 songs for $395. A better plan would be to buy 5 songs for 395 points (or $4.94) and just save your 5 remaining points for some future purchase. In effect, Microsoft has created a store that only accepts gift cards as the valid method of payments. And if you don’t think that’s insane then you obviously already have pre-ordered your Zune.
Stoup nails it. This points system shows that Microsoft thinks people are stupid.
- As Math Scores Lag, a New Push for the Basics ★
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Tamar Lewin, reporting on the state of math education in the U.S.:
Shalimar Backman, who put pressure on officials here by starting a parents group called Where’s the Math?, remembers the moment she became concerned.
“When my oldest child, an A-plus stellar student, was in sixth grade, I realized he had no idea, no idea at all, how to do long division,” Ms. Backman said, “so I went to school and talked to the teacher, who said, ‘We don’t teach long division; it stifles their creativity.’”
Jeebus.