Linked List: May 6, 2011

Friday, 6 May 2011

Koku 

My thanks to Koku for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Koku is a personal finance app for Mac OS X that lets you track all your financial accounts in one place. Koku looks great and has a slew of features that make it easy to import data and track new transactions, including support for Direct Connect.

Try the free demo version, and use coupon code “DARINGFIREBALL” to save $10 off the regular price of $29.99.

Philip Greenspun Reviews the BlackBerry PlayBook 

“Not useful as a computer; too light to serve as a doorstop.”

Some Days, My Job Feels So Easy, as the Jokes Just Write Themselves 

Ian Paul, PCWorld:

The first thing that came to mind when I heard that Apple may seed OS X 10.7 Lion via the Mac App Store to all users running Snow Leopard: Windows Vista.

The new Apple OS is due out this summer, but the idea of upgrading purely through a digital download does not appeal to me and I think it spells trouble for Apple. Just as Windows users found going from XP to Vista, an upgrade to Lion may be more of a hassle than it’s worth.

(Via Jason Snell.)

‘It Just Looks Thicker’ 

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m not on enough podcasts. Well, you’re in luck, because I was a guest on MacBreak Weekly a few days ago, with Andy Ihnatko, Adam Engst, and Chris Breen.

Apple Hasn’t Yet Released the LGPL WebKit Source Code for iOS 4.3 

Harald Welte:

iOS 4.3.0 was released on March 10, 4.3.1 on March 25, 4.3.2 on April 14 and 4.3.3 on May 4. For all of those releases, no source code has been published. […]

I think it is time that Apple gets their act together and becomes more straight-forward with LGPL compliance. It is not acceptable to delay the source code release for 8 weeks after shipping a LGPL licensed software.

I wonder if this has something to do with the introduction of the Nitro JavaScript engine for MobileSafari, and the security implications of granting MobileSafari — and only MobileSafari — an exception to the system-wide ban on marking memory pages as executable.

‘If You See a Stylus, They Blew It’ 

The distinguishing feature of the $499 HTC Flyer — HTC’s first Android tablet — is that it has a stylus. Which stylus is not included and costs $80. Good luck with that.

When the Boy Cries Wolf 

Guy English:

In the story of the Boy That Cried Wolf the village ultimately paid the price for not being vigilant. The interpretation has always been to take it as a parable to improve personal behaviour but what I enjoy most about that tale is that it works both ways — there are two parties at fault: the attention seeker and those who took the cognitive shortcut of disregarding what the attention seeker was saying because they’d been wrong in the past.

The Talk Show, Episode 41 

Topics on this week’s “show” include curse words, the White House situation room, the thickness of the white iPhone 4, and Apple’s purportedly imminent “iCloud”. Brought to you by two fine sponsors: Webtrends Analytics 10, and MailChimp.

Osama Bin Laden, Pot Smoker? 

The Daily Mail:

High-strength marijuana plants have been found just yards from the luxury home of slain terror chief Osama Bin Laden.

Drank a lot of Coke and Pepsi, apparently, too.