By John Gruber
WorkOS launches auth.md — an open protocol for agent registration.
Linked List: April 6, 2007
Friday, 6 April 2007
- Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Extreme Network ★
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New $10 e-book by Wi-Fi expert Glenn Fleishman. Includes a whole section on hooking up an Apple TV to an AirPort network.
- The Garrett Murray Podcast: Rename the Podcast Contest ★
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Win an iPod Nano if you come up with the winning name.
- How the Mainstream Press Works ★
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Michael Gartenberg:
Had another funny call with a media outlet this morning. When I called them back on the Apple/EMI news, first question was. “Do you think this is a bad thing for Apple and EMI.” When I said “no, it’s a good thing”, they said “thanks for calling but we only want to talk to someone who thinks this is a bad thing.”
This is exactly why so many people have so little respect for “the media”: because so many reporters are hacks. Gartenberg should name the outlet and, if possible, the reporter in question.
(Thanks to Rajesh.)
- Walt Mossberg on the Shitty First-Run Experience of a New Windows PC ★
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Walt Mossberg:
The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don’t act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.
That really nails it: A total and utter lack of respect for the consumer.
Apple is the one and only PC maker that sees the first-run experience as an opportunity to make you happy, rather than as an opportunity to make a few bucks by showing you ads and stuffing trialware down your throat.
- Apple Patent for Multi-Sized Icon Interface ★
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AppleInsider reports on an Apple patent for a Finder UI that dynamically sizes the icons in proportion to how important they are. The mock-up from the patent application uses BBEdit 5.0’s distribution folder as the example, which dates the application to around 1999.
- Our Little Secret ★
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Michael Bierut on Gary Huswit’s Helvetica:
There was a time when we designers had this obsession all to ourselves. Before the introduction of the Macintosh computer and desktop publishing in the mid-eighties, the names of fonts were something that normal people encountered rarely.
- Magnetbox ★
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Fantastic weblog design by Ben Tesch. Sure, it’s a gimmick, but it’s a good, clever gimmick. The deal is closed by the writing, the tone of which matches the visual conceit.
- iPod Takes Bullet for Soldier in Iraq ★
- Kevin Garrad, a U.S. soldier in Iraq, was shot in the chest during a gunfight with an insurgent. The bullet hit Garrad’s fourth-generation iPod, which was in his jacket pocket, quite possibly saving his life. (Thanks to Jamie Hardt.)
- Merlin Mann on Google Desktop for Mac ★
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Merlin Mann:
So far, my Google Desktop returns — both in the browser and from the Quicksilver-like search field — seem like a less intelligent dump. It seems convenient without being useful. Maybe I need to spend more time with it. Or maybe I need to hold out for the inevitable Quicksilver plug-in.
- Jackasses of the Week: Kaspersky Lab ★
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Published and publicized a supposed “iPod virus” proof-of-concept, which (a) only affects iPods which are running Linux, and (b) which the user must manually install onto the iPod. As Joris Evers says:
That’s an interesting way of calling something an iPod virus, similar to calling something a virus for Mac OS X if it only works when also running Windows on the Apple hardware.
Kaspersky’s “iPod virus” is even more convoluted than that, though, given that running Windows on Apple hardware is actually supported.