By John Gruber
Mux — Video for developers
Linked List: November 10, 2008
Monday, 10 November 2008
- Non-Compete Clauses and California ★
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So the big question with Mark Papermaster is whether the non-compete clause in his IBM contract is enforceable. I had forgotten about this, but a few months ago the California State Supreme Court ruled non-competes unenforceable in California. I don’t think it applies in this case, though, because IBM isn’t a California company.
Update 1: Here’s the conclusion from the ruling in Application Group, Inc. v. Hunter Group, Inc., 61 Cal.App.4th 881 (1998), a California non-compete clause case:
We further conclude, in agreement with the trial court, that California law may be applied to determine the enforceability of a covenant not to compete, in an employment agreement between an employee who is not a resident of California and an employer whose business is based outside of California, when a California-based employer seeks to recruit or hire the nonresident for employment in California.
(Thanks to DF reader Adam Younker.)
Update 2: Here’s the full text of the decision.
- iLife Support 8.3.1 ★
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Bug-fix and security update to the iLife ’08 suite for users running Mac OS X 10.4.11.
- Finder Tab Completion ★
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Good tip from Brent Simmons. It also works in the Go To Folder sheet in Open and Save dialog boxes (which sheet is accessible using the keystroke Command-Shift-G). Update: Several readers emailed to point out that, in Open and Save dialogs, you can also invoke the Go To Folder sheet just by typing “/” or “~”.
- Count It Off, From Sketches to Finished iPhone App ★
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Brian Cooke on the design of his new iPhone calorie counter Count It Off.
- They’re Paying People to Take New Razrs ★
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The NPD Group is reporting that the iPhone 3G is now the top-selling consumer mobile phone in the U.S., beating the Motorola Razr for the top spot. The BlackBerry Curve is third. To put this in perspective, LetsTalk is offering rebates that wind up paying you $30 to take a new Razr V3.
- WSJ: Dell Cancels New Digital Music Player ★
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(Linking through Google News in an attempt to route around the Journal’s subscriber wall.) Justin Scheck and Christopher Lawton report:
Dell has decided not to launch an ambitious consumer product it hoped to release before the holidays — a digital music player tied to online entertainment software — says a person familiar with the matter.
This, presumably, was the initiative for which Dell brought on Rob Enderle as a consultant.
- Fortune Profiles Tim Cook ★
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Good profile of Tim Cook by Adam Lashinsky.
In my opinion there’s no question that if Jobs left Apple in the near future, Cook would replace him as CEO. Could Cook replace Jobs as a product visionary? No, of course not. But no one could. There is only one Steve Jobs, and any effort to find “another Steve Jobs” is bound to fail. Better to have a gifted operations manager running a federated Apple than an inferior imitation Jobs. And long-term — say, assuming Jobs remains CEO for the next 10 or even 20 years — there’s no use speculating about successors.
- The Papermaster Chronicles: An Apple vs. IBM Timeline ★
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt runs down the increasingly complex saga of Apple’s new senior VP Mark Papermaster. On Friday, IBM won an injunction in court to force Papermaster to at least temporarily cease working for Apple, based on a non-compete clause in his contract with IBM.
- NYT Profile on Nate Silver ★
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A lot of people asked me over the last few weeks why I was so certain Obama would win, or why I wasn’t a nervous wreck (especially for the brief period in September when McCain took a small lead in most polls). The answer is Nate Silver. Or, more specifically, Nate Silver’s math. Silver, along with his colleagues at FiveThirtyEight, established themselves as the gold standard in electoral analysis — and this was the first election they’ve covered.