By John Gruber
WorkOS launches auth.md — an open protocol for agent registration.
Linked List: April 3, 2007
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
- Arrogance ★
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Gundeep Hora says Apple is “arrogant” for skipping some sort of wireless trade show I’ve never heard of. The Macalope sets him straight.
Update: Ends up the iPhone was at the CTIA trade show — AT&T COO Randall L. Stephenson showed it off during his keynote address.
- The Joy of Tech on Adobe CS3 Pricing ★
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“It starts with Adobe CS3 Month’s Salary Edition.”
- Type Directors Club 2007 Design Competition Winners ★
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Worth checking them all out. (Via Jason Santa Maria.)
- Bill Thompson: ‘Why I Was Wrong About Steve Jobs’ ★
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Bill Thompson:
In February Jobs wrote that Apple would stop using DRM “in an instant” if they could, and I was dismissive. “I don’t believe him”, I wrote at the time, going on to argue that “if Apple switched off Fairplay then they would probably sell a lot more songs, on which they make very little money, and a lot fewer iPods, on which they make a lot”. …
Well, he has proved me wrong by opening up the iTunes store to non-DRM music, and showed that I had seriously underestimated his business acumen.
When you’re wrong, just admit it. It’s easy, and it adds to, not detracts from, your credibility.
- David Weiss: Confidence vs. Protectionism ★
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David Weiss on Apple’s move away from DRM:
So what of Buffet’s moats and competitive advantage analysis? I think it still holds, it’s just that Apple’s sustainable competitive advantage is their deep trust in the inherent value of their products and the experiences they provide. Almost no one has that these days.
Very well said.
- Zunester Is an Idiotster ★
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In a post on his “Zunester” weblog titled “More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Audio Formats”, David Caulton describes AAC thusly (emphasis added):
AAC — designed for MPEG, by MPEG. Largely associated with Apple at this point, AAC was designed by a licensing body, complete with patent pool, etc. Licensable by anyone for a (relatively pricey) fee from MPEG-LA. High compression efficiency. Compatibility is fine — as long as you buy Apple products.
Now let’s look at Microsoft’s Zune Media Formats web page:
Zune supports the following audio formats:
- Microsoft Windows Media Audio (.wma)
- MP3 audio (.mp3)
- AAC audio (.m4a, .m4b, .mp4)
Perhaps Caulton should want to know more about audio formats.
- Pig, Meet Lipstick ★
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The Zune, which is currently available in white, brown and black, will soon sport prettier colors. A baby-pink version will be available in May, and another vibrant color will be introduced a few weeks later.
“It could help with reaching more of their target demographic,” says Ross Rubin, an analyst with NPD Group. “Colors like pink could help increase the device’s appeal with women.”
Oh come on, Ross Rubin, admit it. You want a pink one, too.
- Florida Gators Repeat as National Champions ★
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Back to back NCAA basketball championships and they finished this season ranked #1 in football. Remarkable. Their hoops team deserves the accolades — they play a great brand of ball.
- Skim 0.2 ★
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Freeware (BSD-licensed open source) PDF viewer and annotation app, designed for people who read a lot of PDF papers and e-books.
- 3191 ★
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Wonderful photo weblog. (Via Coudal.)
- Users on Crack ★
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Nick Bradbury:
Our support team just received an email from a FeedDemon user which contained a screenshot of an error he was encountering. Clearly visible in the screenshot is a RAR file which contains a crack for FeedDemon.
Classic.