November 2010
1 post
Plan, build, ship, and scale. →
So don’t let all the news of the day slow you down. Don’t let your competitors press releases and launch parties get inside your head. Plan, build, ship, and scale. Assess. Repeat again and again. Win.
September 2010
2 posts
Initial thoughts on the Blackberry "Playbook"
Blackberry just unveiled their response to Apple’s iPad, the playbook.
Gut reactions:
Why 7”? Does their research run counter to Apple’s? Or is their a constraint on display availability?
The pixel density on the screen is better than iPad.
The ad didn’t really show me anything uniquely blackberry. Why not show off something that only I can do on a blackberry? It...
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
– Ayn Rand (via heyamberrae)
I’ll add:
“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.”
again from Mrs. Rand
August 2010
3 posts
The strange case of virtual machines on telephones →
“Look, theory says that a JIT can run as fast as, or maybe faster than, a statically compiled language. It might be slow right now, but it’ll be much better when we get a real/better JIT. Plus, the new version is already a lot faster, and I’m looking forward to the next version, which they promise will have huge speed improvements.”
— Every Java user since...
Flood Lite: Apple's Attention to Detail →
In July 2002, Appled filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”
The average…
What a great find.
Oracle v. Google
So, we now have a more detailed answer to the question “Why did Oracle buy Sun?”:
So now we know that Jonathan shopped Sun with a big “Sue Google” sign. So much for his visionary patent defense against Apple and of course this jewel
and, from James Gosling (“The father of the Java programming language”):
Oracle finally filed a patent lawsuit against...
June 2010
1 post
“In the first quarter of 2010, net sales at Zappos were up almost 50 percent, and...”
– Tony Hseih, “Why I Sold Zappos”
May 2010
1 post
MacPorts/ImageMagick Installation and Missing...
For the google archives…
After installing MacPorts, I ran into a problem when I tried to get ImageMagick running (as per these instructions):
Warning: No index(es) found! Have you synced your source indexes?
The MacPorts installation page mentions that you must do a system update right after installation, as such:
sudo port selfupdate
Unfortunately, this resulted in the same error....
March 2010
1 post
People don't like change →
Not even kids.
February 2010
4 posts
“Yes, these frictionless tools make it so anyone can say anything about any...”
– Rands
60,000 a day? →
According to MobileCrunch, Android is shipping on 60,000 “handsets” a day. Thats 21.9 million a year…up from 6 million devices in 2009.
I wonder if “handsets” is correct? Or does the number include other devices like the Nook? How many of these other devices are there?
It’s such a large jump that I have to wonder if there was a misquote, or if it will...
Facebook Login →
Anyone who makes things on the internet needs to keep this at top of mind — it goes hand in hand with “Would/Could my mom ever use this?”
On iPads, Grandmas and Game-changing →
To me, the most striking thing about the iPad launch has been how many ‘techies’ are overlooking the big picture. Rob Foster gets it.
January 2010
4 posts
“I can’t listen to Pandora on it while I browse the web.”
– Are you listening to Pandora right now?
The iPad Big Picture →
“Apple doesn’t talk much about the technical details of the iPhone. They never talk about CPU speed or the name of the chip being used. They don’t tell you how much RAM is in there. Part of their vision for moving computers from technical culture to popular culture is about getting away from defining these things by their technical specs. So the prominent talk about A4 is telling. This is...
Textbooks (iPad)
Textbooks only received a 5 second mention today during the Stevenote. Thanks to the McGraw-Hill CEO on CNBC yesterday?
(update, insiders say this is the case: http://venturebeat.com/2010/01/27/mcgraw-ipad/)
2 tags
Should Apple do Free Trials?
A good friend of mine just posted an interesting idea — apple should give 30-day, free macbook pro trials. This got me thinking a bit, first because the idea of the delight response curve is quite an interesting one, and second because, I wonder what other strategies could be employed to achieve a similar goal (namely, allowing consumers to experience the Zone of Delight).
The Delight...
December 2009
1 post
NBComcast →
Mr. Roberts had long wanted to control not just the pipes into people’s homes, but the television shows and movies that flow over them. But since 2004, when he sought and failed to buy the Walt Disney Company, the media industry’s economics had cratered. Broadcast television was suffering through ratings declines, and a falloff in DVD sales had dented profits in Hollywood. But cable channels, of...
November 2009
1 post
October 2009
2 posts
“As a rule it is just as risky, just as arduous, and just as uncertain to do...”
– Peter F. Drucker (The Effective Executive)
August 2009
39 posts
While I was away →
iPhone 3GS vs. Palm Pre Customer Satisfaction →
Philip Elmer-DeWitt: Palm Pre owners love their smartphones, but not as much as owners of Apple’s new 3GS iPhone love theirs. In a survey of 200 3GS users conducted Aug. 4-11 by RBC Capital and…
I hate watching video on my computer, and don’t... →
I hate watching video on my computer, and don’t have cable TV. Instead, I have an Apple TV and an Xbox 360 with Netflix’s on-demand streaming app. I wanted to watch this. iTunes doesn’t have it…
Doctype →
New Stack-Overflow-style question-and-answer site for web designers, from the makers of Litmus.
★
Which Tweets Matter ? →
If you are like me, you have reached your limit of 10 saved searches on Twitter. Searching Twitter to keep track of trends and topics that matter to you is probably a daily function.
The…
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed (Updated) →
Shared by Jon Pospischil
very cool
Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, we’ve learned. We’re gathering details now. At this point details on the acquisition are still very sparse, but it’s …
Note to self: Don’t ‘friend’ your boss on FB and... →
via April Buchheit on Friendfeed
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Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed.
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Marco.org - Planet Calacanis →
Understanding the Kennedy health care... →
This would have severe effects on the more than 100 million Americans who have private health insurance today:
The government would mandate not only that you must buy health insurance, but what…
“Cash for Clunkers” Is a Glorious Success! (Pause... →
Shared by Jon Pospischil
As economic stimulus the program is bogus as well. The money allocated is enough to generate about 250,000 trade-ins. While that may seem like a lot, about 200,000 would…
Trying To Impress The Ladies →
Submitted By: Colette G
Source: Apple And Google Agreed Not To Poach... →
Shared by Jon Pospischil
Uh-oh. I’d normally shrug this off (tech crunch) but siegler isn’t like the other tech crunch guys.
While Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple’s board of directors, the…
Subscription services like Netflix Watch Instantly... →
Now this is one stat from an analyst that we wouldn’t refute, but we do wonder how Versaly Entertainment aquired this information. How exactly does one calculate streaming revenue from a…
The gym shooter's blog diary - was a .NET... →
Comments
"He was talking about the difficulty of getting... →
“ He was talking about the difficulty of getting employees at his company to actually follow his security policies: encrypting data on memory sticks, not sharing passwords, not logging in from…
‘We’re Working on It Right Now’ →
Design Glut has a great interview with my friend Jim Coudal: If it’s a good idea and it gets you excited, try it, and if it bursts into flames, that’s going to be exciting too. People always ask,…
David Pogue on the Google Voice/Apple/AT&T... →
Pogue simply nails it: In short, what Apple and AT&T have accomplished with their heavy-handed, Soviet information-control style is not to bury these useful apps. Instead, Apple/AT&T have…
Honestly, Fester, you make it too easy →
This is the Win7 upgrade path chart that some Borgtards sent to Goatberg and which he published today. It’s pretty stunning. Green boxes represent upgrades that will be painful but won’t…
★ Phil Schiller Responds Regarding Ninjawords and... →
Shared by Jon Pospischil
Here’s how Schiller closed his email to me: Apple’s goals remain aligned with customers and developers — to create an innovative applications platform on the iPhone and…
Coding Horror: Software Pricing: Are We Doing It... →
Shared by Jon Pospischil
Everyone whining about iPhone ‘race to the bottom’ pricing must read this.
I’m not saying these pricing rules should apply to every market and every type of software in…
(305): false alarm. still... →
(305): false alarm. still invincible.
How people spend their time →
Great interactive graphic from the Times depicting how people spend their time. Tags: infoviz
People, please stop mocking those creepy Pre ads.... →
I say this only because those ads are the best thing that has ever happened to us, and we’d hate to see Palm wake up and obtain a clue and stop running them. What we’re all wondering is,…
(650): I just woke up covered In... →
(650): I just woke up covered In blood, I have cuts all over my body, I can’t find my clothes from last night, I’m still wasted, i’m pretty sure I have a sprained ankle, and the best part is, I have…
How to build a long-lived culture of excellence →
Shared by Jon Pospischil
Can’t recommend these slides enough.
I loved this deck of slides from an internal presentation at Netflix on their company’s culture. This slide deck is our current…
RIM files for hybrid capacitive/ resistive... →
good idea
What’s Your Douchebag Name? →
Uncannily accurate.
★
rc3.org - The Wal-Martification of Microsoft →
So Skip Gates calls →
And he’s like, You racist motherfucker! I’m riding across Harvard Square on my giant tricycle and I’m waiting for your call — because don’t you even think that Henry Louis Gates Jr. is…