Linked List: July 26, 2010

Monday, 26 July 2010

Settling Scores With MLB At Bat 

Speaking of Khoi Vinh, I’ll ditto his complaint about the excellent MLB At Bat app for the iPad: the “Condensed Game” videos are terrific, but they’re very difficult to access without spoiling the final score of the game.

A Real Web Design Application 

Jason Santa Maria on how he designs websites, and what he craves in a new design app:

I’m asking for something that sits on the fence between all of this. I don’t think any of the current desktop apps or any given browser gets the job done. They all do a pretty good job at a few things, but no single one does well enough to really make it a solid prospect.

Free Registration for Macworld Expo 2011 Ends in a Few Hours 

Get in while the getting’s good.

The Laff Box 

Fascinating interview by Mike Sacks with Ben Glenn II, a TV historian and perhaps the world’s preeminent expert on the laugh track. (Via Liz Danzico.)

The Deck 

Ever wonder how to get a display ad on Daring Fireball? There’s only one way: The Deck, the web’s best ad network.

Update: And it just got better: Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction is back in The Deck, starting next week.

Carl Howe Sets the Record Straight on That Survey Regarding iPhone and Android Customer Satisfaction 

Remember that link Friday about the survey that showed a startling difference in iPhone and Android customer satisfaction? Not so fast. Yes, 77 percent of iPhone owners plan to buy another iPhone. But, as Howe (the analyst who wrote the report) explains, their Android numbers were specific to owners of “Google-branded” phones:

You’ll note in the excerpt above, we were careful to say “Google-branded Android phone owners”. That’s because our data keys on the manufacturer of the phone as the way to determine what type of phone a consumer owns. Because all non-Google Android brands make phones using other operating systems, Google-branded phones are the only ones we can be certain run Android. However, restricting ourselves to that category means that we leave out a big segment of Android owners, specifically those who own Motorola Droids and HTC EVOs among others.

The only Google-branded phones are the Nexus One and the clunky 2008 G1, so the results clearly aren’t representative of Android owners in general.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Kubrick 

Maybe The Shining tonight, to celebrate.

The Ins-N-Outs of an in-N-Out Double-Double, Animal-Style 

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s obsessively detailed deconstruction of the In-N-Out Animal Style Double-Double hamburger. Consider it a sequel to his research on perfect McDonald’s-style french fries from a few months ago. (Via Kottke.)

The Talk Show Returns 

My pal Dan Benjamin is off the sauce and we’re celebrating by putting our podcast back on the air, on a weekly schedule. Listen live this Wednesday at 1pm ET. We’ll have much to talk about, what with the new Mac Pros (finally, right?), speed-bump iMacs, and the gorgeous new 16:9 27-inch Cinema Display that Apple might hypothetically release tomorrow.

Update: Doubly-hypothetical, but who knows, maybe even that desktop multitouch trackpad device I first mentioned last October, too.

Reviving Caslon 

William Berkson, on creating a new revival of William Caslon’s 18th century typefaces:

To go back to the analogy of the performance of an old song or old music score, the situation reminds me of what Ira Gershwin said when he heard Ella Fitzgerald’s recording of the Gershwin song book. “I never knew we were so good until I heard Ella sing our songs.”

Here’s the ruling itself from the Librarian of Congress. This is good news, but I don’t think there will be much of a practical effect — just because it’s legal doesn’t mean Apple must support it.