Linked List: March 27, 2008

Thursday, 27 March 2008

Daniel Jalkut: ‘It Should Be Free?’ ★

Daniel Jalkut on the argument that relatively simple software, no matter how well-done, “should be free”. I always think that when someone argues that some piece of software should be free, they should just spend the time to create their own app that does the same thing, just as well, and give it away.

MacBook Casing Defect: Prevalent Cracking ★

Brian Ford, on the seemingly-prevalent cracking along the edges of plastic MacBooks. My wife’s MacBook, just a bit over a year old, has this same problem. All the examples in the Flickr Group are white, as is my wife’s, but some of the commenters claim to have seen it on black ones too. Update: A ton of email from readers whose MacBooks, both black and white, have this problem.

The GQ&A: Keith Richards ★

Keith Richards, in an interview with Michael Hainey of GQ, seemingly (it’s hard to tell) on the occasion of Martin Scorsese’s new Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light:

But… I will say this about the Stones, just as an aside: Given the circumstances, we’re probably four of the most straight-up, moral guys you could actually meet.

And:

Apparently, I do have an incredible immune system. I had hepatitis C and cured it by myself.

How?

Just by being me.

(Thanks to Dan Benjamin.)

Piracy and PC Gaming ★

Good essay by Brad Wardell on the economics of Windows game development, but I think the basic idea is applicable to Mac and web app developers, too. (Via Gus Mueller.)

iPhone SDK Beta 1 to Beta 2 API Delta ★

Apple released a new beta of the iPhone SDK today; here’s what’s new. Interface Builder support now works, too. (If you haven’t signed up for (free) access to the iPhone SDK, you won’t be able to follow this link.)

High Leverage Development ★

Jeff Mancuso, on the decision to write ExpanDrive in Python:

With high-level languages and good libraries, small teams can create great products at a rapid pace. We realized that we could write applications for the desktop in the exact same way. We rewrote SftpDrive from top to bottom in Python, with a GUI in Objective-C. It’s called ExpanDrive, and it took 1/3rd the time that SftpDrive took to develop.

U.S. Release Date for Mario Kart Wii: April 27 ★

Holy crap does this game sound fun.