Linked List: January 19, 2011

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Brett Smith, for the Free Software Foundation:

We applaud Google for this change; it’s a positive step for free software, its users, and everyone who uses the Web. For a while now, watching video on the Web has been fraught with peril. Most of it is delivered with Flash, which is proprietary, nonstandard software. Free software alternatives like GNU Gnash are available, but the user experience isn’t always as seamless as it ought to be.

To say the least.

In order to make sure the Web stays free for everyone, we need a free codec to prevail as the de facto standard with HTML5. WebM can be that codec: Google provides a patent license with the standard that is compatible with free software licenses, and even got the development ball rolling by releasing a free implementation.

All it takes now is for everyone to switch entirely to free software. Easy.

Some reaction to Google’s move has suggested that it represents a step back for standards on the Web, because H.264 is supported by more hardware and software. Those comments represent a fundamental misunderstanding of the vision of the Web as free and unencumbered. We can only be free if we reject data formats that are restricted by patents.

This paragraph represents a fundamental misunderstanding that standards and freedom aren’t the same thing.

Today, we’re also urging Web site operators to distribute videos in the WebM format, and abandon H.264.

Free beards for everyone.

Professional Analysts’ First Year iPad Sale Forecasts ★

Everyone, myself included, underestimated how many iPads Apple would sell in 2010. But some of these numbers are laughably low. 1.1 million?

Using Moore’s Law to Project When the iPad Will Get a Retina Display ★

Clever analysis by Avery Pennarun. Spoiler: 2014 if Apple waits for 330 pixels per inch, but 2012 if they’re willing to settle for 2048 × 1536 at the same physical size, which works out to 264 pixels per inch. His conclusion jibes with what I’m hearing.

Goldman vs. Apple ★

John Cassidy compares and contrasts Goldman Sachs and Apple:

Another thing that differentiates Goldman from Apple is how much it pays its employees. In 2010, Goldman’s 35,700 employees took home an average of $430,700. Apple doesn’t publish much information about its labor costs. According to the jobs Web site Simply Hired, the average salary at Apple is $46,000. Another Web site, Salary List, quotes a substantially higher figure—$107,719—but that doesn’t appear to include people working at Apple’s more than three hundred retail stores. Whichever number is more accurate, the basic message is the same. Apple employees earn a lot less than their counterparts at Goldman despite the fact they generate a much higher return — private and social — on the capital they use.

Time to ask for a raise if you work at Apple.

HTML Is the New HTML5 ★

Ian Hickson:

The WHATWG HTML spec can now be considered a “living standard”. It’s more mature than any version of the HTML specification to date, so it made no sense for us to keep referring to it as merely a draft. We will no longer be following the “snapshot” model of spec development, with the occasional “call for comments”, “call for implementations”, and so forth.

Low on hype, high on practicality — that’s why I admire the WHATWG.

Creating James Bond ★

Nice essay by Robert Cotton on how Terence Young, who directed the first, second, and fourth James Bond films, created the screen character:

Charm. The one thing no one can accuse the Bond of the books of possessing to any great degree. Young reasoned that a 1962 audience might not buy a hero who simply did his job and in the meantime slept with any woman he felt like, without seeming as derelict as the villain he was disposing of. Young knew that if James Bond were going to differentiate himself from the standard, run of the mill hero, he needed three things that heretofore the character was lacking. Style, wit, and charm.

Hypercritical and Back to Work ★

Speaking of podcasts at 5by5 co-hosted by Dan Benjamin, there are two new ones: Hypercritical, with John Siracusa; and Back to Work, with Merlin Mann. Almost enough to make me wish I had a daily commute.

The Talk Show, Episode 25 ★

Blah blah blah with Apple financial news and iPad 2 display resolution. Then the good stuff: talking about my favorite James Bond movie, 1963’s From Russia With Love.

Brought to you by two fine sponsors: Postmark and Rackspace.

Glenn Beck: ‘Philadelphia Sucks’ ★

This, one day after Beck’s radio show was canceled here in Philly:

Talk-radio host Glenn Beck took a shot at Philadelphia on the air Tuesday, calling the area around Independence Hall “the killing streets” and proclaiming that the city was “not a place you want to be.”

The remarks irked city officials. Mayor Nutter’s spokesman told The Inquirer that Beck was suffering from a case of “verb-arrhea.” Philadelphia Police Lt. Ray Evers called Beck “misinformed.” The historic district, Evers said, “is actually one of the safest parts of the city, if not the country, with the number of law enforcement. Who listens to him, anyway?”

I can vouch that the area around Independence Hall is almost absurdly safe. Philly radio host John DeBella is going to walk around there today with money literally hanging out of his pockets.

Keeping Score on Apple Finance Predictions ★

Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

In our ranking of the best and worst Apple (AAPL) analysts for Q1 2011, which lists them based on how accurately they predicted seven key numbers — revenue, earnings, gross margins and unit sales — the unaffiliated analysts (blue in the chart at right) took 9 out of the 10 top spots.

The bottom 20 spots were all held by professionals working for the banks and brokerage houses. Taken as a whole, the numbers they sent their paying clients were off by a margin (9.04%) more than twice as big as those generated by the guys who do it for free (3.94%).

The Problem With Not Going 2× With a Higher-Resolution iPad Display ★

When I say the UI scaling math only works out with a scaling factor of 2, this piece by Rene Ritchie is exactly what I mean. Nicely illustrated, too. At any factor in between 1 and 2, there’s no way to avoid resorting to anti-aliasing — and anti-aliasing is just a nice word for “blurriness”.

On the Title Sequence for ‘From Russia With Love’ ★

Astute piece by Emily King on the terrific opening title credits of 1963’s From Russia With Love. Not a bad rumination on the early Bond films as a whole, either. (Thanks to DF reader Martin Stroschein.)