Linked List: August 5, 2009

Wednesday, 5 August 2009

The Other Half of the Battle 

Great t-shirt from Nerduo for fans of the old ’80s GI Joe TV series.

Update: Another take on the same gag, from Snorg Tees. (Via Chris Pepper.)

ThatWhichMatter, a Splendid Twitter Feed on Grammar and Usage 

The account is just a few days old, and already chock full of gold. E.g. this story on the hunt for the first use “Ms.”, an essay by Edgar Allen Poe on the importance of precise punctuation, and this clever neologism.

‘We’re Working on It Right Now’ 

Design Glut has a great interview with my friend Jim Coudal:

If it’s a good idea and it gets you excited, try it, and if it bursts into flames, that’s going to be exciting too. People always ask, “What is your greatest failure?” I always have the same answer — We’re working on it right now, it’s gonna be awesome!

iPhone and iPod Revenue  

Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

Apple passed an important milestone last quarter that nobody on Wall Street seems to have noticed: the iPod, once Apple’s No. 1 source of revenue, fell into third place after the Mac (No. 1) and the iPhone (No. 2).

It’s not that no one noticed. It’s just old news. If you count the iPod Touch as an iPhone (given that it runs iPhone OS), the revenue comparison isn’t even close. And CFO Peter Oppenheimer mentioned it specifically:

“This is one of the original reasons we developed the iPhone and the iPod touch,” he said. “We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with the iPod touch and the iPhone. However, we have a great business that we believe will last for many years and which we will continue to manage well and offer the world’s most innovative products.”

Photos of the 1981 Xerox Star 8010 Interface 

Fascinating examples from one of the groundbreaking GUI systems. (Via Darren Geraghty.)