Linked List: August 13, 2010

Friday, 13 August 2010

My thanks to Shacked Software for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote Flickpad, their iPad app for browsing photos from Facebook and Flickr. I love it. I don’t use Facebook, but I can vouch that Flickpad is a great way to browse Flickr. It’s one of those things that feels better and more natural on the iPad than it ever could on a Mac. You don’t spend much time touching UI controls — you touch photos. Check out the screencast and see for yourself. Buy it for just $6.99 in the App Store.

Announcing the jQuery Mobile Project ★

John Resig:

The jQuery project is really excited to announce the work that we’ve been doing to bring jQuery to mobile devices. Not only is the core jQuery library being improved to work across all of the major mobile platforms, but we’re also working to release a complete, unified, mobile UI framework.

Looks great.

Bogus TweetDeck for Android App in Android Market ★

TweetDeck:

Someone has uploaded a “TweetDeck” app to the Android Market and is charging for it. THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL APP. Do NOT download.

Here’s the listing in DoubleTwist’s Android Market site.

Voogle Wireless ★

I liked 2006 Google’s stance on net neutrality a lot better than 2010 Google’s.

Journalism Warning Labels ★

We need a Safari extension to enable these online.

Miguel de Icaza on Oracle’s Patent Suit Against Google ★

Intriguing stuff. I think he’s dreaming when he thinks Google could just switch from Java to .NET, but he makes a good case that Jonathan Schwartz “shopped Sun with a big ‘Sue Google’ sign.”

Drew Thaler’s JavaScript Blacklist ★

One of my favorite Safari Extensions (and one that didn’t make Frakes’s aforelinked list), blocks annoying scripts from “services” like Tynt and Intellitxt. If you tried it a few weeks ago and found it crashy, that was a bug in Safari 5.0, fixed in Safari 5.0.1, so try it again.

Dan Frakes’s Top 25 Safari Extensions ★

Some good ones I hadn’t seen before, like BetterSource.

Java Creator James Gosling on the Oracle/Google Lawsuit ★

James Gosling (who left Oracle after the Sun acquisition):

During the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer’s eyes sparkle.

How Google Routed Around Sun’s IP-Based Licensing Restrictions on Java ME ★

I linked to this keen piece by Stefano Mazzocchi back in November 2007, but it’s worth a re-link in light of the lawsuit Oracle just filed against Google over Android’s use of Java. Google is avoiding Sun’s (now Oracle’s) Java ME licensing restrictions by using their own virtual machine, Dalvik:

But Android’s programs are written in Java, using Java-oriented IDEs (it also comes with an Eclipse plugin)… it just doesn’t compile the Java code into Java bytecode but (oops, Sun didn’t see this one coming) into Dalvik bytecode.

So, Android uses the syntax of the Java platform (the Java “language”, if you wish, which is enough to make Java programmers feel at home and IDEs to support the editing smoothly) and the Java SE class library but not the Java bytecode or the Java virtual machine to execute it on the phone (and, note, Android’s implementation of the Java SE class library is, indeed, Apache Harmony’s!)

‘Give the Gordon Gekko Speech Already’ ★

MG Siegler:

The problem is that Google themselves are unwilling to admit that greed is what’s at play here. They’re still trying to put on this charade that this is all about what’s best for us. That’s insulting. What’s best for us is net neutrality, pure and simple.

If someone at Google just stood up and gave a Gordon Gekko-esque speech about their passion for expansion and securing deals it would be easier to stomach.

British Network ITV Responds to Apple iTV Rumor ★

It’s just a rumor, dudes. (My understanding, though, is that this is why Apple went with the name “Apple TV” instead of “iTV” in the first place, back in 2006.)

The iPad and Autism ★

Ashley Harrell, reporting for SF Weekly:

Though there are other computers designed for children with autism, a growing number of experts say that the iPad is better. It’s cheaper, faster, more versatile, more user-friendly, more portable, more engaging, and infinitely cooler for young people. “I just couldn’t imagine not introducing this to a parent of a child who has autism,” says Tammy Mastropietro, a speech pathologist based outside Boston who uses the technology with numerous clients. She sees it as a game changer for those with autism, particularly those most severely affected.

The iPad wasn’t designed with autistic children in mind, but, anecdotally, the results are seemingly miraculous. My guess is that it has something to do with the lack of indirection — fingers touching screen elements directly, rather than pushing hardware buttons or manipulating an on-screen pointer using a mouse or trackpad.

Stanley Kubrick, on the Set of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ ★

Great photo by Dmitri Kasterine. (Be sure to click it to show the whole thing; the web page defaults to showing just a small crop of it.)