An interesting look at service downtimes from Pingdom – Tumblr was down for 47.5 hours on average over the span from Oct 15 to Dec 15, 2010. Not so good for Tumblr, but we already knew that. What was most interesting, to me, was that Blogger experience no downtime.
I did a quick poll on Twitter the other day – asking where people have their Docks positioned. I have had my dock on the left side for a long time, auto-hiding with magnification turned on. Turns out that is not the best place for me – not by a long shot. I don’t have some over arching point – some random insight – into where you should position your dock. No, I just am fascinated by somethings I found out.
I spent a little bit of time moving the dock around and decided that for me this is what works best:
Why the left edge? The only thing I can think of is that being left handed the left edge feels most natural for me.
Why at the bottom and not centered? I used to have it centered for a long time – the problem I always ran into is that I keep Tweetie on the left side and when I go to switch ‘tabs’ I often would pop open the dock. This is no longer a problem when I have it coming up from the bottom as I keep Tweetie pretty high on the screen.
Dude why no magnification? Again I used to have magnification on all the time – I am a huge fan of the way it looks. When I pinned the dock to the bottom magnification would push off the bottom icons as I moved my mouse over the dock. Those icons could still be clicked on, but it made the entire experience, look, and feel wrong. I turned off magnification and I must say I love it this way because:
Hiding…? I don’t know why you wouldn’t hide your dock. Sure it takes a half a tick for it to pop up on screen, but not having icon badges distract you is well worth that extra tick.
I wondered how many others use a similar setup – turns out that isn’t many. Take a look at the results of a small Twitter survey:
What really interests me – more than anything else – is just how many people don’t use magnification. My only guess is that because it is off by default, most don’t see the need for it.
NoteTask. It is a fast, clean, and simple note taking application that can present your text as tasks, completed tasks, and sections/projects. By default it recognizes lines starting with hyphen and spacebar as tasks, and lines starting with exclamation mark as completed tasks. (You can customize this behavior).
There’s a free version, NoteTask Lite. It lacks Simplenote sync but everything else is the same.
NoteTask is on special holiday sale. It’s only $0.99 for limited time.
Martin Bryant:
Under the plan, customers would have to ask the ISP for access to pornography.
Can you imagine how awkward the conversation would be with the guy in India when someone calls to ask for access to porn?
I have posted about nvALT before – the Notational Velocity fork by Brett Terpstra. He now has a project page for it and a new name nvALT. What is nice is that once you download the latest version you can use the in-app update engine from here forward.
Just a quick note – I am stopping the entries for the giveaway tomorrow morning at 8a. Be sure to enter before then if you have not already.
This is incredibly clever – while showing a normal advertisement at a movie theater BMW shot a flash from behind the screen. The end result of the flash was that when the ad ended and viewers were asked to close their eyes they would see the BMW logo with their eyes closed. This works in the same way as staring at a bright light (the Sun) will cause you to see bright spots when you close your eyes. Very clever.
I think if this happened to me I would be the guy sitting there begging for them to do it again…
An interesting Markdown note app from Coding Robots. I gave it a try today and while I don’t particularly care for writing in the app – there is one thing I really like: you can copy the text you wrote in Markdown out of the app as HTML. Basically meaning that I can post to this blog much faster with the iPad now (I am very slow when I must write in HTML).
Neat.
Kevin Quinn:
A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA’s new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.
You have got to be kidding me – we are wasting billions on this ‘security’…
Bruce Schneier may have written the clearest explanation, I have ever heard, of why you can’t ‘trust’ companies like Google and Facebook:
We’re not Google’s customers; we’re Google’s product that they sell to their customers. It’s a three-way relation ship: us, the IT service provider, and the advertiser or data buyer. And as these noncustomer IT relationships proliferate, we’ll see more IT companies treating us as products. If I buy a Dell computer, then I’m obviously a Dell customer; but if I get a Dell computer for free in exchange for access to my life, it’s much less obvious whom I’m entering a business relationship with. Facebook’s continual ratcheting down of user privacy in order to satisfy its actual customers —the advertisers—and enhance its revenue is just a hint of what’s to come.
Brilliant.
A well written and well thought out post about his experience with his 11″ Air. I have no problem with him concluding that the 11″ Air can’t be a primary Mac – I do take exception to him assuming that the 13″ Air also cannot be a primary machine. I guess that makes me crazy for using a 13″ MacBook Air as a primary Mac?
Either way it is a good post and you should take a read of it – I think if he had a 13″ MacBook Air that he would sing a different tune.
Check out the Applescript that uses Mail.app + MailTags to automatically add ticklers in OmniFocus for emails you are waiting to hear back on. I am adding that pronto.
Also there is a script for moving from Things to OmniFocus – don’t forget OmniFocus has a great OTA sync option.
Within the first hour of owning the original iPhone I snapped my very first blurry iPhone picture. Crap. The iPhone suffers from the same problem every camera ever made has suffered from – low light photography means blurry pictures. If you have thousands of dollars to spend you can get a dSLR that has extremely high ISO settings – the setting that determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light. Of course with all technology that seems impossible there are drawbacks to using high ISO – the main drawback being a lot of digital noise (looks like odd colored specs throughout the image).
It is safe to say that if you are indoors you are working in a low light situation. So for most iPhone owners the cute pictures you want to take of your cats may come out a little blurry. The iPhone 4 helps with this by adding a flash and HDR settings – helps but doesn’t solve the problem.
HDR will do you little good because it requires snapping at least two images in rapid succession – which is great when you have fast shutter speeds, but leads to a ghost like figures appearing in your image at low shutter speeds (the shutter speed you use in low light).
The iPhone 4 flash helps a lot more, but leaves you with harsh unflattering pictures of people. Photographers will tell you that you need soft light on a person to make them look great. You get soft light by making the light “wrap around” the person you are shooting. Generally speaking this can be achieved by making the light source relatively larger than the subject and by diffusing the light with something as basic as a white bed sheet.
None of these items and techniques are likely to be carried by the average iPhone user.
This is where the Glif can come into help – it is not the first tripod mount for the iPhone, nor will it be the last. It is the best though.
Let me save you some reading and tell you: iPhone 4 + Glif + Joby Gorilla Pod = awesomely sharp shots.
Let me save you even more time and tell you: You can use the Glif as a tripod for the iPhone – all by its self.
When Glif started raising funds on Kickstarter I immediately gave $50 to the cause – this meant I got a pre-production unit and a production unit. Pretty sweet deal. When the pre-production unit arrived I was damned excited – turns out that unit wasn’t that great. It was good, but not great.
When I got home the other day though and the production unit had come in the mail I was again excited – though admittedly I tempered my excitement. Upon touching the production Glif I knew it was going to be great.
The pre-production Glif was made out of rigid plastic – the production model is made out of a flexible rubbery plastic. This makes a huge difference and is the reason that the production model Glif is, not just great, but excellent.
The thing I love about the Glif is that you needn’t have any special attachments for you iPhone – of any kind – the Glif secures the iPhone with friction. Now the flexibility of the plastic is what really holds the iPhone in. I noted when I first posted about the Glif that it never was able to hold my iPhone in when turned upside down. I can happily report that the production model Glif will not only hold your iPhone in while upside down – it will do so while you try and shake it out. How cool is that?
Now the Glif over all is not that useful if you don’t have a tripod with you – which for most people is all the time. So it would seem that the Glif would not be that useable for most – thinking like that will get you made fun of though (by me).
You see the Glif was also made to work as a rudimentary stand – in landscape orientation the stand works exceptionally well. Flip to portrait though and well the phone doesn’t rest in a viewable position. BUT, if you slide the Glif all the way to the bottom of the phone you can stand the iPhone up 90° off of a flat surface – much more stable than it would be without the Glif. This also works for the landscape orientation.
Meaning: if you have a flat surface near you and an iPhone+Glif, then you are going to get some crisp pictures.
Here is the bottom-line: I have one pre-production Glif and one production Glif – I am still going to buy at least a couple more.
I have decided that so long as I sell one sponsorship a month I am going to give out something for free. It won’t always be new, but it will be new to who ever wins it. I also will not be giving away something that I hate – these will be items that I like.
A Griffin Technology A-Frame stand for iPad.
This item is not new, but since it is made out of a solid chunk of aluminum it looks brand new. I don’t have the packaging and the item will be shipped via USPS the day after a winner is chosen.
The A-Frame is a solid stand, perhaps the most solid iPad stand I have tried thus far. I rarely use it because I have 3 other iPad stands, so it sits in a corner. It is not the best looking stand, but it does its job very well. This normally sells for $49.99 from Griffin.
Once I receive 50 entries I will wait 48 hours for more entries before selecting a winner. So be sure to submit something before then to ensure you are counted. (I will let you know when I hit 50 on Twitter) Also it should go without saying the winner will be picked at random.
There are two parts to a successful site: great content and great readers. I want to thank my readers.
Jon Ying on the Dropbox blog:
You now can choose which folders get downloaded to which computers.
I have been using Dropbox for a long time now – I think since you could get it. This is a great release and I have had no problems with the beta builds of it. Selective Sync has been a top requested feature for a very long time – it is implemented very well.
BTW if you are not a Dropbox user and would like to sign up – using this link will give us both an extra 250mb, even if you only sign up for the free account.
Brian with the OmniGroup:
Starting today, if you can turn the information into an email, you can add it to your OmniFocus inbox. Send an email from your PC, then tap a link on your iPhone to add that email to your database.
Pretty nice, not the best thing in the world, but a very nice addition.
Thomas Hawk writing to Carol Bartz about the leaked layoffs of 4% of Yahoo’s staff:
But you know what? You haven’t taken the time to really explore the social side of Flickr. Hell, you don’t even have an account yourself on Flickr. One of the most highly visible and trafficked Yahoo properties and you don’t even have an account there. Would it be so hard to have your assistant set up an account for you and post some photos of some mountains from a family vacation two years ago?
and:
That’s right. At least according to this report you made $47.2 *million*.
It is absurd to think that a CEO would lay people off while they rake in that much dough – all the while they don’t even have accounts and use the services their company provides. That would be like Ballmer using a Mac with Mac OS X on it – even he isn’t that stupid.
Hawk:
I guarantee you it’s not going to be a thin Christmas at the Bartz household this year.
In a DM on Twitter Milind Alvares sent me this link after I asked him about the availability of a particular Safari Extension. Install all of these extensions because they really do make things a lot better looking. I also love the Reddit Minimal extension and the Pure Reader extension.
If you are not into extensions that re-design a website (which is fare) then just install the Beautifer and Optimize Legibility plug-ins that he lists. I use the font-smoothing commands in my CSS files and it really makes text look great in Safari.
Bonus Tip: Open ‘Font Book’ on your Mac > scroll down to the Arial font faces > right click > choose ‘disable Arial family’. Now any webpage that calls for Arial will most likely be rendered with Helvetica – you are welcome.
I got a thought in my head the other – that thought was the basis for this post and subsequent conclusions that I draw. The thought: Why do I keep thinking Microsoft won’t be a name that my children recognize? One could argue that the reason is because I am an Apple nut – I think it will be because Microsoft is on a severe slide, one that could paralyze the company.
Microsoft first shipped Internet Explorer in 1995 and 15 years later we are only on version 8 of Internet Explorer – meaning Microsoft releases a version of Internet Explorer every 1.87 years. Apple ships a version every 1.4 years (since Safari’s inception), Google every 0.16 years, and Firefox every year. Not surprisingly Microsoft has the slowest release schedule for major version updates to web browsers – this really should surprise no one.
What really blew me away about these numbers though is that Microsoft from 1995-1999 shipped a new version yearly. ((On average, two versions in 95 and none in 98.)) In fact it was not until after 2001 that Microsoft really started slowing down their software launch schedule. Between 1985 and 2001 Microsoft shipped 19 versions ((I did my best to only call something a new version if I remembered it being more than just a bug release.)) of Windows for an average of 0.94 years between new version of Windows, from 2001 to 2010 Microsoft averaged 1.5 years between releases. It is important to note that after 2001 there have only been 2 releases of consumer versions of Windows – the other releases have been major updates to existing systems. ((The new version being Vista and 7 – the updates being XP 64-bit OSes.))
Also, since 2001 Microsoft has only released two versions of Internet Explorer. ((Internet Explorer 9 is available in public beta form, but has not yet been released.)) It is like Microsoft hit a wall around 2001 and was no longer able to ship products as a result.
The big question rattling around in my head after this seemingly innocent research: what the hell happened to Microsoft in 2001?
Prior to 2001 it seemed that Microsoft was banging out release after release – then 2001 comes around and by looking at their software releases alone you would think they had perfected everything because they stopped releasing new stuff.
Immediately I thought of 9/11, the stock markets crashing, and the post-internet bubble society that we lived in during 2001. Then I looked at Apple (among others) and their release schedules seemed unfazed. This tells me that it was not external factors that slowed the launch of new software, so it must have something to do with internal decisions at Microsoft.
In fact, the only product at Microsoft that seemed unfazed was the Office suite – odd stuff.
Then it struck me, at some point in the early part of this century Bill Gates handed over the CEO title to Steve Ballmer ((Disclaimer: I am no fan of Ballmer.)) – it just so happens that this change of guard occurred in January of 2000. It would stand to reason that for the first year of handing over the reigns Gates would stay pretty active in CEO type roles – the rest of the company (including Gates and Ballmer) would use this time to fully acclimate to the change. I think it would be absurd to think that once the hand over happened Ballmer was truly the CEO in anything more than title.
Most who have moved from one position to another within a company could tell you that they still answer questions about stuff they did in their old position. Now take that kind of transformation to a Fortune 500 company and it will be a bit harder for the Founder and former CEO to step into another role without having to juggle both roles for a bit.
It is my guess that Ballmer truly became CEO of Microsoft in 2001 ((In the sense that Gates’ role was very limited and only served as advisory to Ballmer at this point.)) – the exact point when Microsoft stopped shipping products on regular schedules. I have no way of knowing what happened during this transition, but I do think something significantly happened – something that fundamentally changed the way Microsoft thinks about the software it produces.
It would seem that it was at this point Windows stopped dead in its tracks. ((And with it IE releases.))
Apple launched Mac OS X in 2001, the same time when Microsoft launched Windows XP (perhaps the most successful OS to date from a sales standpoint). Since then there has only been two new versions of Windows: Vista and 7. ((You could argue the case for 64-bit versions of XP and Server versions, but none of these are consumer facing products. For the most part those are releases that most consumers wouldn’t give a crap about. Even things like Windows Home Server are such a joke – what normal American wants to administer their own server at their house? I am a huge geek and even I don’t want a server in my home.)) During that same time span Apple has release seven versions of Mac OS X (10.0-10.6). ((Here you could argue that they only have released 5 – two of the releases were more bug fixes than anything else.))
This is not to start an Apple versus Microsoft debate – I simply want to illustrate the point that even in today’s market you can continue to push new software all the time to users. To put it simply: the OS market is not stale and sales have not stopped – Microsoft just stopped shipping. Slowing from releasing a new OS on an almost yearly basis and moving to a release schedule in the magnitude of 3-4 a decade is a drastic change.
Microsoft stopped shipping when its biggest competitor ((Apple)) stepped up its game.
I am anything but a fan of most Microsoft products – Windows Phone 7 might just be the only thing they have done recently that has got my attention. I still think that Microsoft owes its board and stake holders an explanation of just who screwed up in 2001.
Was Bill Gates really that vital to the companies success – even though at the time they had some of the brightest minds working for them? ((This was long before massive talent drains from Google started.))
Obviously Gates did not leave the company – he took a role to focus on the software development at the company. I get the general sense that a lot of things in the works right now at companies of Microsoft and Apple’s size take 5 years before they are ready for the consumer – meaning when Microsoft releases something they have been working on it for 5 years already. ((Five years from concept to shipping product for major things like OS overhauls and phone platforms.))
That means that by the time Microsoft released Windows Vista in late 2006 they had been working on it since – wait for it – 2001. ((Did I just blow your mind?))
In fact I don’t think Gates was the problem for the slow shipping – I think Gates was the reason. Further, I think Gates had an excellent reason for delaying new releases of Windows. From what I have read about Gates, and interviews I have seen conducted with him, it seems to me that he has a keen understanding of both where the market is going and what his faults are. ((Design))
I would guess that he made the move from CEO to chief software architect in 2000 because he saw and imminent need to start innovating the software that Microsoft is making. I would further guess that after XP shipped, Gates walked into the Windows teams building and said: “Cancel everything for the next version of Windows – we are starting over.” Such an event would explain why it took 5 years for Microsoft to release the next major version of Windows (Vista). Two years after that release, they come right back with another – reestablishing some momentum within the division and the company. It would seem a plan was in place once again.
Gates would have been the only person at Microsoft with enough power and big enough balls to make such a radical decision.
Which is essentially why I fear for the long term health of Microsoft right now. Gates has essential left the company – serving only in an advisory role from here on out. Who is left at Microsoft that has the knowledge, foresight, balls, power, and skill to correct course when the company needs to?
Ballmer has all but shown that he cannot do this ((People that throw chairs across the room – while announcing the same product as ‘new’ at CES each year – pretty much confirm that they suck as CEOs.)) – in fact I think this may be a sign of why so many high profile executives have left Microsoft in the past years. Those executives probably tried in vain to correct the course Microsoft is on – when they failed they had no choice but to leave (in one way or another). The fact is that one (Ray Ozzie) of the two guys Bill Gates directly appointed to fill his void is leaving the company. That will hurt.
The future for Microsoft looks bleak to me at this point: Windows 7 is successful, but not as hyped as Mac OS X; Windows Phone 7 has gotten little press; the Kin already failed; and Office users are beginning to wonder why they need to upgrade. The only recent success Microsoft has had is the Xbox Kinect and a $99 gaming device can only take you so far.
This is a very long winded way of saying something that I have said before: Microsoft needs a leader and they need one now – Steve Ballmer is not that leader.
My guess is that Gates laid out a great path for the software guys to follow and at the very least that path should be successful until 2013 (five years after Gates left). I think Gates has enough of a proven track record that we can trust his decisions.
The question becomes: what does Microsoft do after they have implemented all the ideas Gates laid out before he left?
Apple PR Machine:
“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”
Why call them ‘PC apps’?