Linked List: October 13, 2009

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

SuperDuper 2.6.2 

Terrific update to one of my essential utilities. Not often that you get 2-3 times performance improvements in a minor-version-number update.

iMovie 8.0.5 Update Adds Support for New ‘iFrame’ Video Format 

Based on H.264 and AAC audio, iFrame is already the native shooting format of two new cameras from Sanyo.

Speaking of Regrets 

Unix co-creator Ken Thompson, asked what he’d do differently if had it do all over again, replied that he’d include the trailing “e” in the creat() system call.

Flatland 

Lukas Mathis’s detailed, thoughtful critique of Tog’s proposed Springboard redesign. Worth it just for the illustrations, which show just how much complexity Tog’s proposal would add.

Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists 

Derek Powazek:

The problem with SEO is that the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work, and it’s poisoning the web. I’m going to tell you about the problems, and then tell you the one true way to generate traffic on the web, based on my own 14 years of hits and misses.

Tim Berners-Lee’s One Regret Regarding the Web 

Steve Lohr, interviewing Tim Berners-Lee:

If he were do it over again today, would he do anything differently? Any regrets?

Mr. Berners-Lee smiled and admitted he might make one change — a small one. He would get rid of the double slash “//” after the “http:” in Web addresses.

@font-face and Performance 

Steve Souders on how loading web fonts via @font-face affects web site performance. Short answer: adversely. (Via H&FJ.)

Who’s the Real ‘Mr. October’? 

All it takes is one great game.

Snow Leopard Bug Can Wipe Out Home Directory After Guest Account Login 

Erica Ogg:

For the past month, some Mac OS X users have been reporting their personal data missing after logging into their guest accounts, and Apple now says it’s working on finding a fix.

“We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix,” an Apple representative said in a prepared statement Monday.

What happens, according to numerous reports, is that after logging in and out of a Guest account (which, upon logout, wipes out any data stored within the Guest account’s home folder), and then logging in to a regular account, people are finding that their regular account has been wiped too.

Seems to be at least somewhat rare, and definitely doesn’t occur in all cases. I’ve tried it here and can’t reproduce it. Needless to say, though, I’d disable Guest account access until Apple releases a fix.

I’m Liking the Sound of the ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ Movie More and More 

I like this:

Reporter: “What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?”

Sendak: “I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.”

Reporter: “Because kids can handle it?”

Sendak: “If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered.”