Linked List: April 30, 2008

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Engadget Tests Psystar Open Computer 

Nilay Patel, on using a Psystar Open Computer running a hacked version of Leopard:

It’s LOUD. Crazy loud. OS X doesn’t seem to interface with the fan controller, so it runs at full tilt all the time. It doesn’t really come across on the video, but it’s loud enough so that it’s hard to talk on the phone when the machine is running. There’s no way we could deal with this thing on a daily basis.

I’m tempted to order one for Hockenberry.

Hivelogic: Regarding Backups 

Dan Benjamin goes long on backups. In a nutshell, here’s what I do: (1) nightly SuperDuper clones to an external FireWire volume; (2) Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule; (3) monthly SuperDuper clones to a FireWire volume stored off-site.

The Missing iPhone Ringtone 

I never noticed this, but the ringtone Apple uses in some iPhone commercials isn’t actually one that ships with the phone by default. Ends up it’s a sound file that ships with iLife, though; LifeClever shows where to find it and how to turn it into a ringtone for iTunes, and, for the lazy, they have a .m4r file you can download.

If you like this sort of ringtone, you might prefer this one from Helder Luis, which sounds very similar but fades in progressively, so it starts quiet but gets louder the longer you go without answering the call.

Warner Brothers To Rent Movies Online Sooner 

Saul Hansell:

Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive, said that the company’s Warner Brothers studio will now release movies for video-on-demand systems on the same day they are released as DVDs.

(Via MacDailyNews.)

Wii Friend Codes From Twitter 

Nifty service from Wii Transfer author Manton Reece: share your Wii friend codes via Twitter.

RIM Looking for Cocoa Developers 

I’m with Chris Foresman here, I think AppleInsider’s description of the job sounds more like a Mac app for BlackBerry synching than an iPhone OS app. But it could be both.

The Five Circles of Hell 

Insightful analysis making the business case for customer-focused companies like Apple and Netflix:

Why do I love Apple? They intend to make money because of my desires, not despite them.

Matias Tactile Pro 2.0 Keyboard Reviews 

Aaron R. Deutsch was not impressed by the $150 Matias Tactile Pro 2. Update: Nor was Jake Seliger, who reports that the Tactile Pro 2’s circuitry is flawed:

Problems occur when you type anything ending in “ion”, like “division,” which appears as “divisioqn” if you strike the keys in rapid succesion.

Next-Gen iPhone Claim Chowder Alert 

Everyone and their sister is linking up this report at Fortune by Scott Moritz, that AT&T is planning $200 subsidies for next-gen iPhones later this year — i.e. so that one can buy a $399 phone for just $199 with a two-year service contract. I don’t believe it, but we’ll see. It’s worth noting that Moritz’s track record on the iPhone and Apple is, to be kind, horrible.

More interesting to me is this claim about the form factor:

A few details about the new iPhone have also been confirmed by the source. The new iPhone will be 2.5 mm thinner than the 11.7 mm original.

Interesting, because it directly contradicts Ryan Block’s report for Engadget last week that the next-gen iPhones are slightly thicker. One of these guys is wrong.

Things I Learned About My Dad (in Therapy) 

New collection of humorous and/or poignant essays on fatherhood. Edited and with two pieces by Heather B. Armstrong of Dooce fame, and including essays from a crackerjack lineup of writers, including Kevin Guilfoile, Matthew Baldwin, Greg Knauss, and Gail Armstrong.

As of this writing, it’s at #40 in Amazon’s bestseller list. (!)

Color Profiles in Firefox 3 

John Resig on Firefox’s new support for color profiles.

Marc Garrett’s February 2007 Interview With Mark Hamburg 

Worth a re-link: Marc Garrett did a splendid, thoughtful interview with Mark Hamburg a little over a year ago when Lightroom first shipped, including this on their extensive use of the Lua scripting language:

Pretty much every piece of code in the app that could be described as making decisions or implementing features is in Lua until you get down to the raw processing, which is in C++. The database engine is in C; the interface to the OS is in C++ and Objective C as appropriate to platform. But most of the actually interesting material in the app beyond the core database code (which is SQLite) and the raw processing code (which is essentially Adobe Camera Raw) is all in Lua.

John Nack: ‘So Long and Thanks for All the Pixels’ 

John Nack on Mark Hamburg (long-time Photoshop architect, lead developer/designer of Lightroom) leaving Adobe for Microsoft:

Mark is not going to go work on other digital imaging tools. After 17+ years of driving Photoshop and subsequently Lightroom, he’s looking for a complete change of pace and wants to work on operating system technologies related to user experience. Given that Mark has always been a huge Mac guy (developing Lightroom first on the Mac, etc.), it’s kind of a Nixon-goes-to-China moment.

Nack then deftly deflates this jacktastic report from Mary Jo Foley that Hamburg is going to work on “SmartFlow”, a supposed Lightroom/Aperture competitor she says Microsoft is working on. Think about it — if Hamburg wanted to work on photo library/imaging tools, wouldn’t he continue to lead Lightroom — an app whose UI and (very interesting, very original) internal architecture he completely oversaw from its inception?