Linked List: April 15, 2009

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Last Call for New DF T-Shirts 

Final reminder: today is the last day to place your order for DF t-shirts. Order now or you’ll have to wait for the next print run. A few reminders:

  • I’ve added girls cut sizes for both designs. Same price.
  • If you’ve already ordered, double-check the shipping address on the email confirmation. It’s pretty common to have an old mailing address associated with your PayPal account. (If yours is wrong, shoot me an email at support@daringfireball.net.)
  • If you’ve already sent me an email asking with a shipping address or shirt-size correction, I’m going through the emails tonight.

Thanks for supporting Daring Fireball.

Digg to Relent on DiggBar 

Digg VP of engineering John Quinn on changes coming “over the next week or so”:

  1. New treatment to the behavior of Digg short URLs. All anonymous users, on or off Digg will be taken directly to the publishers content via a permanent redirect (301), no toolbar, straight to the site. Logged in users that have not opted out will continue to see the DiggBar (200). These changes ensure that content providers receive full search engine ‘juice’ or credit for all links on and off Digg. They also ensure that Digg short URLs won’t appear in the indexes of any major search engines.

  2. Because we want to ensure the best user experience, the DiggBar will soon only be shown to you when you are logged into Digg.

This is a fine solution, and once put into place, I’ll remove my DiggBar blocking code. These two points are exactly what makes the DiggBar more objectionable than similar features from StumbleUpon and Facebook.

In the meantime, I’ve updated my message.

A Nagging Feeling 

Brent Simmons on the aforelinked essay by Steven Frank:

There’s a nagging feeling that we’re doing it wrong, that there are some leaps forward we’re missing, that we’re still stuck in 1984.

Steven Frank on the State of UI Innovation 

Big picture essay by Steven Frank on the state of UI metaphors:

Every geek I know shares, to some degree, the notion that the “desktop” metaphor for computers is outdated. What nobody seems to have a solid opinion on is what would take its place.

He offers a good explanation for why we’re seeing far more UI innovation on mobile devices than on desktop computers, despite the fact that they offer only a fraction of the processing power, memory, and screen space.

Free as in ‘Me’ 

Lovely epic rant from Merlin Mann on the corrupting influence of CPM ad revenue and the motivations that drive creativity.

Spokane to Detonate Squirrels Tearing Up Parks 

Sounds a lot like the plan Carl devised in Caddyshack to deal with the gopher. (Via Steven Frank.)

Jayson Stark on Harry Kalas 

Jayson Stark:

He was so much more than the voice of the Phillies. Harry Kalas was the Phillies.

I’ve been thinking about it since he died yesterday, and I think Harry Kalas might have been the most popular and beloved person in Philadelphia.

WSJ: AT&T’s Exclusive Deal for iPhone in U.S. Only Runs Through Next Year  

Amol Sharma, reporting for The Wall Street Journal:

But AT&T’s exclusive deal to carry the iPhone in the U.S. expires next year, according to people familiar with the matter, and Mr. Stephenson is now in discussions with Apple Inc. to get an extension until 2011.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, saying only, “We have a great relationship with AT&T.”

This is in direct conflict with several reports from USA Today back in 2007, which claimed the exclusive deal was for five years. E.g. this report by Leslie Cauley on 23 May 2007:

AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years — an eternity in the go-go cellphone world. And Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks.

That ban is no small thing. AT&T rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint are both CDMA shops. AT&T uses GSM, a global standard incompatible with CDMA.

You Look Birdhouse Today 

New episode of the iPhone Alley podcast, with host Michael Johnston and his guests Adam Lisagor and Cameron Hunt regarding their new iPhone app Birdhouse. (Via Lucius Kwok.)