Linked List: September 12, 2007

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Kirk McElhearn on the New iPod Interface ★

Kirk McElhearn:

When you are on the main menu (the top-level menu), or the Music menu (which leads to Playlists, Artists, Albums, etc.), you see album art on the right half of the iPod screen. This is a random cover from your music, and it changes about every 8 seconds. It also moves around; you know, like those annoying Flash ads on web pages that distract you so you can’t read articles?

Lessons on the Surge From Economics 101 ★

Oliver R. Goodenough, on the U.S. occupation of Iraq:

Economics professors have a standard game they use to demonstrate how apparently rational decisions can create a disastrous result. They call it a “dollar auction.” The rules are simple. The professor offers a dollar for sale to the highest bidder, with only one wrinkle: the second-highest bidder has to pay up on their losing bid as well. Several students almost always get sucked in.

Exporting the iPhone ★

Canadian Dave Shea, on the SIM unlocking hacks for the iPhone:

If you’re an American iPhone owner, you probably still remember what June 29th felt like. To a lesser degree, that was what today felt like for the rest of the world.

Sun to Become Windows Server OEM ★

Scott McNealy is rolling over in his grave.

All Cool ★

Emma Story, on Microsoft’s customer support for Xbox 360:

I don’t know if you’ve ever called Microsoft about a problem with your Xbox, but the whole experience seems clumsily targeted at teenage boys and fills me with murderous rage. The automated voice system has that sort of fake-cool tone you get in soda commercials, and the rep I spoke with kept asserting that various things were cool. The Xbox serial number, the color of the power supply light, my zip code: all cool. He also didn’t know what he was talking about. (“It sounds like your AV cables just, uh, died. I guess.”)

MemoryMiner and PulpMotion Cross-Promotion ★

Sounds like a good deal.

Doofus ★

Paul Boutin in Slate, on why he prefers his BlackBerry to an iPhone:

When I’m in a tight spot, my BlackBerry always helps me out. It also sends a subtle signal to my correspondents that I’m getting a lot done. An e-mail that says “Sent from my BlackBerry” gives the impression that you’re on the move but still chained to work, e-mailing from the elevator. An e-mail that says “Sent from my iPhone” conjures an image of a doofus who wants you to know he has an iPhone.

One could, of course, simply change the email sig in the iPhone Settings app to read “Sent from my BlackBerry”. Your colleagues will think you’re working your ass off. (Some of Boutin’s other observations, especially about BlackBerry’s AutoText feature, are actually practical.)

Billable 1.2 ★

Bunch of new features added to Clickable Bliss’s neato $35 invoicing app for Mac OS X. Top of the list: AppleScript support and the ability to send PDF invoices by email with a single click. Check out the screencasts to learn more.

MessagePad 2007 ★

Andy Ihnatko’s iPhone.

Free iPhone Unlock Software? ★

According to MacApper, iPhone hackers have duplicated the iPhoneSIMfree technique for unlocking an iPhone to run on any SIM card. (If it’s true that the technique depends on a buffer overflow, kiss it goodbye with the next iPhone OS update.)