Linked List: January 13, 2010

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Best Use of Quotation Marks in a Nixon White House Memo Ever ★

Charles Colson lays the plan for getting Frank Sinatra on Team Nixon:

Preferably they would meet in the Oval Office briefly, then the President should indicate that he has had it for the day and invite Sinatra up to the Residence or over to the EOB office for “refreshments” and for a very informal one-on-one discussion.

Glaser’s Gig Prior to Real Networks: Vice President of Multimedia Systems at Microsoft ★

Looking back at all the great material he provided, I’m sorry to see him go.

Magic 8-Ball Answers Your Questions Regarding Real Networks’ Harmony ★

More classic Rob Glaser strategy.

Rob Glaser Forced Out as RealNetworks CEO ★

John Paczkowski:

Rob Glaser is stepping down as CEO of Real Networks, the company he founded in 1994. Sources say the move was instigated by his own board, but that Glaser cooperated with the decision and was involved with the transition.

Hard to believe this could happen to a genius like Glaser. One of my favorite predictions ever was this one from Glaser in 2003 on the iPod:

“It’s absolutely clear now why five years from now, Apple will have 3 (percent) to 5 percent of the player market. … The history of the world is that hybridization yields better results.”

Apple still has a bit more than 5 percent of the music player market.

Macworld 2010: Indie Developer Spotlight ★

IDG has announced some great new options for indie developers for next month’s Macworld Expo, including a $1,250 “Indie Developer Pavilion” kiosk. For indie developers who conduct so much of their business entirely via the web, a real-life opportunity to meet users — both existing and new — can be so valuable. Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba nailed it back in June.

(Also worth mentioning: yours truly will be speaking at Macworld this year on Friday 12 February.)

Apple’s Multitouch Tech Began as ‘Safari Pad’ Concept ★

I had forgotten about this 2007 article by The Times’s John Markoff, published the day before the iPhone went on sale, until Rene Ritchie linked to it today. Markoff had such great access to Steve Jobs — I can’t recall any other reporter who got this sort of access to him.

The iPhone could have an effect on the cellphone industry akin to the influence the Macintosh computer from Apple had on the personal computer industry in 1984, Mr. Jobs said. He said he thought that the iPhone’s “multitouch” control system, in which the fingers are used to scroll through data or enlarge photos on the screen, was the biggest shift in a computer’s user interface since the Macintosh was introduced.

“It’s the first thing to come along since the mouse and the bit-mapped display and take things to the next level,” he said.

Mr. Jobs seized on the multitouch technology after Apple product designers proposed it as a “safari pad,” a portable Web surfing appliance. Instead, he saw the technology as something that could be used for a similar purpose in a cellphone, a former Apple employee said.

The whole article is well worth a re-read.

Help Relief Efforts in Haiti, Get Seasonality Free ★

Gaucho Software:

To encourage more people to donate to the relief efforts, Gaucho Software will be donating all proceeds from Seasonality sales (minus a $3 fee we pay to process an order) through the end of this month to the Partners In Health organization. In other words, help the cause, get Seasonality for free.

James Higgs: The Concept Is the Execution ★

James Higgs:

There are a number of trigger phrases that people use to try to prevent you focusing on the detail of a project and back to nice, sweeping, high-level thinking, and ‘that’s executional’ is one of them. I think it is supposed to mean that the particular detail you’re focusing on is not central to the service under discussion and is something that can be worked out at a later date.

This attitude frustrates me so much because I think you make great services by obsessing over details. I think one of the ways to make awful services is by developing some pure, abstract concept in isolation from how people will actually use it. To me, the concept is contained in the execution.

I completely agree. The details are everything. (Via Liz Danzico, whose Bobulate has been simply terrific lately.)

Gordon — Open Source Flash Runtime Written in JavaScript ★

Works on the iPhone, too.

The Big Picture: Earthquake in Haiti ★

Scenes of devastation.

Help Haitians With a Donation to the American Red Cross ★

I’m not sure what to say about the devastating earthquake in Haiti, other than to encourage you to help with a donation. (The form includes an Amazon payments option — super easy if you have an Amazon account.)

Another good option: Doctors Without Borders.

Boy Genius: ‘Apple’s Tablet Is an “iPhone on Steroids”’ ★

Everything in BGR’s brief rumor report jibes with what I’ve been hearing. Except maybe instead of thinking of The Tablet as “an iPhone on steroids”, it might be better to think of the iPhone as a slimmed-down, pocket-sized little sibling to The Tablet. I heard a story this week — friend of a friend knows a guy sort of thing — that The Tablet is what Apple set out to build all along, and the iPhone was an offshoot that shipped first because the technology wasn’t there yet to produce The Tablet. In short, that Apple has had something bigger in mind — both physically and conceptually — from the outset.

Could be bullshit, but it’s a heck of a story.