Linked List: November 10, 2009

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

The Go Programming Language 

New systems level programming language from Google (but, judging from the copyright statements, not an official Google project). Go has built-in garbage collection, a simpler syntax than Java or C++, fast compilation times and excellent performance — and it was designed with concurrency in mind. Interesting and ambitious, to say the least.

Among many interesting details, it ships with a utility named gofmt, which formats Go source code according to a standardized style — which standardized style uses tabs, not spaces (hooray). Go uses a Pascal-style “:=” assignment operator for initializing values (hooray). And, regarding my own tiny sliver of expertise, the Regexp library offers only a crude regular expression syntax (boo).

Update: Some amazing names are behind Go, including Ken Thompson and Rob Pike.

Bada — New Mobile Platform From Samsung 

Samsung bada is a new open platform that enables a richer user experience in applications on Samsung mobile devices.

No idea what it looks like or what the technical details are. Nothing specific at all, really. But one thing is certain: Samsung isn’t comfortable putting their fate in Windows Mobile’s hands. [Insert your own joke about integration with Microsoft’s Bing here.]

Mac OS X 10.6.2 Doesn’t Run on Hackintoshes With Atom CPUs 

“There is no other logical reason why Apple would do this unless they’re going to enter this space with some sort of tablet-type device,” said Shane Spiess, president of Portland, Ore.-based Apple reseller MacForce.

Um, how about the simple explanation that they don’t want people installing Mac OS X on machines other than Macs?

Even simpler explanation: it could just be a bug that’ll be fixed in 10.6.3. Breaking compatibility with a CPU Apple has never used certainly isn’t a high priority.

Theme Park Maps 

I just lost an hour here. Fabulous. (Via Nicholas Felton.)

Analyst: Apple Beats Nokia as World’s Most Profitable Handset-Maker in Last Quarter 

Reuters:

Apple overtook Nokia in the third quarter as the cellphone maker generating the highest total operating profit in the industry, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Tuesday. […]

Apple does not unveil profits per business line, but Strategy Analytics estimated Apple’s operating profit for its iPhone handset unit stood at $1.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with Nokia’s $1.1 billion.

Now seems like a good time to recall the words of former Palm CEO Ed Colligan, a mere three years ago:

Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company — including the wildly popular Apple Computer — could easily win customers in the finicky smart-phone sector.

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

CFPropertyList — PHP and Ruby Libraries for Generating Binary Plists 

Remember this link two weeks ago, where Sam Soffes discovered that for iPhone apps that take data from web services, JSON (parsed with TouchJSON) out-performed XML property lists?

The most common pro-plist retort was that of course XML plists were slow and one should use the binary plist format instead — smaller to transmit, faster to parse. And on iPhone OS, every bit of size reduction and speed counts. The problem with binary plists is how do you generate them from a non-Mac OS X server?

Ends up there’s an open source PHP library by Rodney Rehm and Christian Kruse that does just that, and a Ruby version too.

Editor Takes Constructive Revenge 

Toronto Star editor edits memo from publisher announcing the layoff of 100 in-house editors. Blood bath of red ink.

Redesigning the Worst NFL Helmet Graphics 

I particularly love the re-imagined Buccaneers helmet, and I like how the Redskins one stays true to their established brand. Any discussion of great NFL helmet designs ought to mention the Steelers, though.

Le Petit Dummy 

Crudely funny, exquisitely crafted iPhone gag app by Robert Hodgin and William Lindmeier. It’s the Clutch Cargo trick, with moving lips on a still photo. Interesting business model too — the app is free, but you have to pay (using in-app purchasing) to unlock the ability to use your own pictures or audio.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Has Rare Form of Leukemia 

NPR:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is being treated for a rare form of leukemia, and the basketball great said his prognosis is encouraging. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer was diagnosed last December with chronic myeloid leukemia, he told The Associated Press on Monday.

Godspeed.

One Finger Discount 

20 percent discount, this week only, for Mac software from more than 100 indie developers.

Google Providing Free Airport Wi-Fi for the Holidays 

Google:

Google Inc. today announced that it is working with airports across the country as well as Boingo Wireless, Advanced Wireless Group, Airport Marketing Income and others to provide free Wi-Fi as a holiday gift now through January 15, 2010. The gift currently includes 47 airports, including Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore, Burbank, Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Louis and Charlotte. Additionally, as a result of this project, Burbank and Seattle airports will begin offering airport-wide free Wi-Fi indefinitely.

What’s not to love about that?

Joe Posnanski on the Yankees Payroll 

Here’s the flip side of the Yankees payroll argument. Needless to say, I disagree.