Linked List: January 19, 2009

Monday, 19 January 2009

Flat N All That ★: Matt Taibbi on New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman:

Or how about Friedman’s analysis of America’s foreign policy outlook last May:

The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging. When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.”

First of all, how can any single person be in three holes at once? Secondly, what the fuck is he talking about? If you’re supposed to stop digging when you’re in one hole, why should you dig more in three? How does that even begin to make sense? It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if the editors over at the New York Times editorial page spend their afternoons dropping acid or drinking rubbing alcohol.
My iPhone Is Not a Mac Pro ★: Savoy Software, on optimizing iPhone drawing code:

When looking at the results it gets obvious that there’s a huge difference in performance between a desktop computer and the iPhone. Translating the numbers to a rule of thumb you could say: “What takes one second on a Mac takes one minute on the iPhone”. Or, what sounds even worse to me: “A frame rate of 60Hz on a Mac means one update per second on the iPhone”.
Harper’s Index: A Retrospective of the Bush Era ★: My last-ever link regarding President George W. Bush, before I get to use the “former” prefix:

Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington: 62
‘Are They Just Riding the Shipley Train?’ ★: Cabel Sasser’s catchy theme song for Jessie Char’s soon-to-be-in-production reality podcast regarding just what the hell is going on at Delicious Monster.
Video of a Guy Beating Marble Madness in 2:35 ★: Marble Madness ranks high on my list of video games I desperately wanted to be good at, but frankly just stunk at. (Via Cabel Sasser.)
Belkin Caught Paying for Fake User Reviews ★: Good reporting by Arlen Parsa at The Daily Background. Folks, Mechanical Turk is not a good venue for commissioning fraudulent reviews: the job requests are out in the open.
BlackBerry Application Storefront ★: Becoming more and more clear that the iPhone’s killer app is the App Store.
MacNN Reports Apple Signs Lease for Philly Apple Store ★: 1619 Walnut, which until earlier this month was the spot of Brasserie Perrier, a restaurant. IFO AppleStore has a photograph, and reports that the building is a historical landmark.
The Impossible Project ★: Dutch enthusiasts plan to restart production of Polaroid instant film.