The Brooks Review

Year: 2010

  • How our “security” obsession costs us

    Tom Engelhardt on how the war on terrorism and the TSA is spiraling out of control:

    Consider that a little parable about just how low this country has sunk, how psychologically insecure we’ve become while supposedly guarding ourselves against global danger. There is no question that, at the height of Cold War hysteria, when superpower nuclear arsenals were out of this world and the planet seemed a hair-trigger from destruction, big and small penises were in play, symbolically speaking. Only now, however, facing a ragtag set of fanatics and terrorists — not a mighty nation but a puny crew — are those penises perfectly real and, potentially, completely humiliating.

  • Aperture 3 vs Lightroom 3 on Mac Pro

    Bare Feats:

    If these four tests are indicative, Lightroom is faster to process adjustments while Aperture is faster to process exports.

    This explains why I think Lightroom is faster, exporting is only a small part of what I do with images, and I rarely do it in large batches. Export tests are dumb in my opinion because it is going to take time no matter what, I want my workflow while I am at the machine to be fast. I can drink some scotch while stuff exports.

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab Sales Pass 1 Million

    They are expecting to sell 1.5 million be year end. I don’t doubt it either.

  • “Virgin’s new magazine app is crap”

    Rex Hammock on the Project “Magazine” iPad app:

    Here’s a suggestion, if you call something a “magazine,” maybe you can imagine (try very, very hard) that some people are attracted to magazines because they want to “read.” If you’re creating something for viewers or listeners or players, maybe use another metaphor than magazine — maybe call it a “media noise-maker app,” if all it does is package up bells and whistles.

    [via Khoi Vinh on Twitter]

  • Why Amazon Removed WikiLeaks

    Amazon Web Services:

    But, when companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn’t rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won’t injure others, it’s a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere.

    Removing WikiLeaks because they don’t own the data makes sense and is a common reason for removing sites. Removing the site though because Amazon can’t be sure it won’t cause harm to others is noble, but an odd thing for this type of company to enforce.

  • An Argument for a More Selective App Store

    How do you solve the problem of having too many ‘fart apps’ in your app store? If you are Apple the solution is to blanket ban any new ‘fart apps’, they also blanket banned any new radio apps the other week. I am all for it, in fact I think that perhaps Apple should be more restrictive in what they let in to the App store and what they let stay in the app store.

    I like choices as much as everyone, but there is a difference between having great choices and letting everything in. The best way I can think about this is a Las Vegas buffet, these buffets are huge and normally offer just about every cuisine choice out there. ((Not all of them, just a lot of them.)) On paper this sounds great, something for everyone if you will, in reality though it is simply overwhelming. When you get to such a buffet two things happen: you know you can’t try them all, and you have no clue which ones to try. Usually you can add to that the fact that most of the dishes are just average tasting.

    This is the exact problem Apple’s iOS App store and Android’s Market are facing right now – too many options, not enough quality. So how do you cut down on options? Does Apple decide which apps stay and which apps go? I think they should, but it would be asking for developers to raise all hell if they went that route.

    What if we inject some democracy into the App Store though?

    Perhaps any app with a 100+ ratings that does not make it above 2 stars is removed from the store. You are allowed to resubmit the app, but only after significant changes are made. Apple would then decide whether or not to let it back in. Would that be fair?

    I would love the app store even more if there was less crap and more quality apps – I think everyone would. There will always be those odd cases where some really great sounding app can’t get in, but I think we have proven that if we are vocal enough Apple will, at the very least, hear us. Precisely the reason I think we should let Apple start removing some of the crappier apps from the store.

    I think it would be great if Apple made an arbitrary cap and said only the 50 highest rated Radio apps will remain in the store. Then if a developer is about to be removed she has 7 days to get her ratings back up or she is gone. Let’s breed competition, it’s good for all.

    This accomplishes two things that the app store needs:

    1. Give developers incentive to actively develop their app.
    2. Forces developers to innovate and not to just copy others.

    Changes to Rating System

    In order for any of this to work there needs to be some changes made to the rating system. First, developers need to be able to respond to reviews, either in the review stream (like how blog comments work/used to work) or via emailing that customer directly (perhaps using a masked email system through Apple). This will help to get rid of a lot of negative reviews due to what can only be called user stupidity (e.g. This app requires an online account that you have to pay for, even though it says that in the description – greedy bastards!).

    Apple also would need to hold customers reviewing the apps to high standards. For instance: if you want to rate something below 3 stars you need to give a reason why. This could be accomplished via adding multiple choice type reasons (e.g. costs too much). Certain reasons when selected though would require more explanation, or action before you could leave that feedback – force reviewers to back up what they are saying when it is negative.

    If you want to leave a 1-star rating because it crashed you can, but you must agree to allow Apple to let the developer contact you directly. If you want to leave a 1-star review because the price is too high, you need to write 10 words saying why you think it is too high.

    A person should not be allowed to rate an app if the iOS device records that they have used it for less than some arbitrary amount of time (e.g. 15 minutes) and an app should be given a full 6 months to establish itself before it can be removed. If you just downloaded the app, used it for 5 seconds and then want to rate it – there is no way this should be allowed. If you allow this you might as well let people who have yet to install the apps rate them.

    Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, each app shopper should be able to see what the person rating the app has rated other apps. Think about that for a second, would you care what Joe thought of this app if you see that he rates everything 5 stars, what about if he only rates things 1 star. Even better what if he only rates paid apps, to complain about the fact that they cost money? It would be nice to see what raters think of other apps, apps that perhaps you have already formed an opinion about.

    The Exceptions

    As with anything there needs to be some exceptions in the App store. First categories like games should have no limit to the amount allowed, instead just getting rid of the low rated apps. Same goes for other categories where no two apps really can be the same.

    Twitter apps though would not fall under this rule, those should have a limit, as should fart apps and tip calculators. There is many exceptions that would need to be put in place, and contrary to the way Apple works right now, these rules need to be spelled out to developers.

    The Goal

    I want to stress that in doing this the idea is not to just rid the app store of crappy apps, instead the goal would be to change the app store from a place where finding good apps is like trying to find a needle in a haystack instead I want good apps to be staring you in the face. No, scratch that, good apps should be hitting you in the head.

    I want to encourage both users and developers to raise their standards. I also want to force users to defend their ratings, and not allow developers who get crap into the app store to continue to pollute ((For lack of a better word.)) the environment.

    I chatted with a few people about this, the question I was most often asked is why. After reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Tab and using Android for an extended period of time it was evident that the biggest difference between iOS and Android is Apps. Android lacks any good apps on the platform, without such apps Android is going to struggle to gain the popularity and love that people show towards iOS devices. ((Not talking about sales.)) I want iOS to shine because that is the platform that I use, the above argument though could easily be implemented with Android, changing the Android Market for the better.

    More curation is not a bad thing for users, it is a great thing for users. For developers it is a cumbersome task, but if you succeed it will be well worth your effort. Think about it like baseball, there is a ton of kids who want to grow up to be in the Majors, these kids get cut down in drafts and minor leagues throughout the years. The minor leagues then get cut down to just a 25 man team in the Majors. What you see when you watch Major League Baseball is a carefully selected group of athletes, you don’t just see anyone who can swing a bat and throw a ball. ((Unless you were a Mariners fan this past season, God help us.))

    Do you have any idea how crappy going to a baseball game would be if just anybody was allowed to play ((Again M’s fans know this already.)) , let alone if minor leagues played against major leaguers. In fact that is what the iOS app store is like, minor league players mixed in with major league players – I vote we only allow major league players. ((Android’s Market though is like letting anyone who can swing a bat play, truly.)) This also helps developers, a smaller pool of competition raises the rates you can charge, just look at some of the MLB salaries.

    I am not trying to argue that we make the iOS app store so competitive and prohibitive that developers must raise the price of their apps in order to make it worth their while, a smaller selection means more sales for each developer (hopefully). What I want is an app store with consistently excellent quality through and through – I think we all want that.

  • Chuck Norris to become honorary Texas Ranger

    This was too sweet not to post, the AP:

    Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to present the actor and executive director of “Walker, Texas Ranger” with a designation as an honorary member of the famed law enforcement group Thursday.

    Admit it, that made you smile a little.

  • “Close the Washington Monument”

    Bruce Schneier:

    What has happened to “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”?

    What indeed.

  • ‘The Evolution of the Hyperlink’

    A very cool new hyperlink system from the New York Times that allows people to highlight a particular sentence they are trying to link to on The New York Times. Great stuff can’t wait for the WordPress plugin to come out, there is one that gives you paragraph links called WinerLinks, but it is not the same.

  • Agendas App for iPad

    This looks really cool, only drawback is everyone in the meeting would need an iPad (if you can call that a drawback).

  • Mac Must Have: Hazel

    Have you ever heard of a little preference pane utility called Hazel?

    I use it everyday and it just may be the single most under appreciated app on my Mac. It is that good. Hazel basically allows you to preform preset actions based on a set of rules that you create. All of this sounds rather boring – best just to share how I use Hazel.

    Trash

    Let’s start with the straight forward Trash options that Hazel provides, here is what mine looks like:

    trash-tmb.png

    Essentially I have decided that I want day old items to never be in the trash, and I don’t want my trash to ever exceed 1GB in size. Pretty straight forward, the gem of this screen is the ‘Enable App Sweep’ checkbox, when activated (checked) this option will preform the same basic functions of a utility like AppZapper. The benefit though is that you can just delete the app like normal and Hazel will pop up an alert with additional files it wants to remove with the app. You don’t have to remember to drag apps you want to delete on to another app.

    Pure gold I tell ya.

    Folders

    The Folders tab is where the heart of Hazel is, this is where the true power really can be unleashed. The uses are so great that I am just going to share a few ways that I use it.

    Downloads

    I have two active rules in the downloads folder: ‘Ooops Files’ and ‘Move Torrents’.

    ooops-tmb.png

    Ooops Files is a little rule that I have which deletes any file in my Downloads folder that has an ‘.html’ file extension. Why? Simple, sometimes I hit ‘option’ instead of command when I click a link, which of course downloads the link. It actually happens only a few times a week, but Hazel saves me from ever having to see those files that I accidentally download. I never keep ‘.html’ files in this folder anyway so it all works out rather well.

    torrents-tmb.png

    The next little rule is to move torrent files out of my downloads folder. I don’t run bit-torrent on my MacBook Air, but I do run it on my Mac mini that is back at my house. I would never remember to send those files to that machine for download, so I enlisted Hazel to do the task for me. All this rule does is takes any ‘.torrent’ files and moves them to a specific folder in Dropbox. That folder is watched by the Mac mini and Torrent files auto-start once they are detected.

    Desktop

    The next folder that I run Hazel rules on is the Desktop itself – I cannot stand to have anything stored there; but there are times when it is the most convenient place to “hold” a file. I still though do not want to be forced to remember to clean off all the files, when Hazel could do it for me.

    clean-desktop-tmb.png

    I take any file that sits on the desktop and has not been opened in the last hour and move it to my Inbox folder that resides in Dropbox. Now, this works great 99% of the time. It fails miserably when I forget and leave a few movies or folders of pictures that I am working with, that will kill your Dropbox size allotment very quickly – pay attention.

    Inbox

    I run three actions in my ‘Inbox’ folder, which is the folder that I keep all active work in. ((Of course this folder resides in Dropbox too.)) The first action changes the color of the files label to red if it has not been opened in the last day. The second action changes the files label to none if it has been opened in the last 3 hours. The final action moves any file that has not been opened in the last 2 weeks and modified in the last 3 days to a folder aptly named ‘to file’.

    color-red-tmb.png

    Ok so the first action is flagging items that are not really active, and perhaps that I should delete or archive.

    no-color-tmb.png

    The second action reverses the first rule if I open the file, opening the file signifies to me that I am still actively using it.

    move-old-tmb.png

    The last action simply gets the file out of my active files list. NOW, the last rule is a two parter where two conditions must be met for an important reason. I keep sub-folders within the ‘inbox’ folder and without the ‘modified’ rule these folders will get moved out; even if they have files in them that I have been using lately. Basically so long as I am actively using the files in the sub-folders on a regular basis, the folder will remain un-touched. The reason for 3 days is because it accounts for the weekend nicely.

    That’s how I keep my inbox folder organized.

    To File

    This folder is just a single rule thing, if a file in the folder has not been opened for 3 weeks (one week after it was moved to the folder) then a Growl notification pops up reminding me to empty the folder out. The same nag will pop up if there is a file that is greater than 1GB in the folder. This folder though is kept outside of Dropbox so that it can hold much larger files with no consequences.

    empty-nag-tmb.png

    Without these reminders I have a tendency to forget about this folder…

    Hazel

    That is how I use Hazel.

    Hazel is one of those utilities that molds to how you work and it is incredibly powerful and flexible. A good way to get going with Hazel is to install it and then pay attention to what you do on the computer. If you find yourself doing the same task over and over again, see if you can create a Hazel rule to accomplish that task for you. I am using very simple rules, but you can have Hazel execute shell/apple/automator scripts to really make it do some cool stuff.

    One thing I have been toying with is creating folder that auto-resizes and renames images for posting inline on this site, using Automator and Hazel to do that upon dumping pictures in a folder. In fact I think I’ll go do that now…

    resize-rename-tmb.png

    Ok done, works like a charm, gives me a reason to not delete Automator from my Mac.

    Give Hazel a try, I think you might like it.

  • “International Albino of Mystery”

    Will Wilkinson:

    Today, there are millions upon millions of government and corporate employees capable of downloading massive amounts of data onto tiny devices. The only way WikiLeaks-like exposés will stop is if those with the permissions necessary to access and copy sensitive data refuse to do so. But as long as some of those people retain a sense of right and wrong—even if it is only a tiny minority—these leaks and these scandals will continue.

    Great point. So let’s all forget about the “international albino of mystery”.

  • Aperture 3 vs. Lightroom 3

    Interesting how they royally screwed up the test in the beginning, yet still conclude that Aperture is faster. All I can say, unscientifically, is that I am switching to Lightroom because on my MacBook Air it is faster than Aperture, and requires 100% less fan use.

    [via The Loop]

  • Seattle Police to Use Twitter in Stolen Car Recovery

    Seattle Police Department blog:

    When a car is reported stolen in Seattle, employees in the Seattle Police 911 Center will tweet the color, year, make, model, body style and license plate of the stolen car.  Twitter followers who spot a car that has been tweeted as stolen on “Get your car back” should call 911.

    That’s pretty neat, they are using the 911 operators to tell you if the car is still stolen, and hopefully they tweet when the car is recovered too. Great use of the technology.

  • Wikileaks kicked out of Amazon’s cloud

    No one actually thought that Amazon would be a long term solution, right?

  • Engadget’s Dell Inspiron Duo Review

    Joanna Stern on the Duo:

    If only we could give such praise to its measurements and weight; the 1.03 to 1.13-inch thick / 3.4-pound netbook is much chunkier than most, which is really disappointing considering you’ll want to pick this one up more than the others out there. In tablet mode we found it best to prop it up on our legs or cradle it in the crook of our arm — unless you’ve got mitts like Shaq, you won’t be using this thing with one hand.

    A tablet needs to be able to be held in your hands to read and use – 3.4lbs is just not conducive to that type of use. Reading the rest of the review the Duo sounds like a well made device with crappy software (Windows 7) and reminds me of the crossover cars that manufacturers make. They are supposed to be all purpose devices, while in reality they just really are only good at wasting your money.

  • Paul Thurrott on iPad

    After reading this I have to ask: has Thurrott even used an iPad?

    [via DF]

  • My Grandparents Love Niche Devices According to PC World

    Katherine Noyes showing ignorance:

    I believe Apple’s iPhone is rapidly becoming a niche device. Its restrictions are too numerous, its approach too condescending, and its choices too few to have the broad appeal it needs to succeed on a grander scale in the long run.

    Which of course explains why my parents, grandparents and just about every other person in the world wants one. Obviously she is saying that the iPhone’s niche market is cellphone users, otherwise this is the dumbest thing I have read in quite some time.

    [via DF, who filed it as claim chowder already]

  • ‘The Star Trek Computer Is Stupid’

    Alex “Sandy” Antunes on the computers used in Star Trek:

    I mean, come on, the Ship’s Computer is smart enough to build an Artificial Intelligence that itself is so smart it can take over the Ship.  But it can’t find something useful it encounters every day?

    It’s a great point and a great argument for semantic computing. I never thought about the fake computers used in Star Trek much, but the more I do now the more inconsistencies I see.

  • Ian Hines Defends Belt Clips

    Ian Hines on wearing your phone:

    I guess the bottom line for me is that the belt clip has always been much more about utility than it has been about fashion. I’m married. I’m not exactly the coolest guy on the block. And I really don’t care as much about fashion as I care that I’ve got my tools where I need them.

    I hate summer for one reason: I can never figure out where to put my phone. It will usually end up in my pants pocket making my thigh look rectangular. Winter/Fall/Spring in Washington allows for jacket weather, jackets have nice inside breast pockets that hold cell phones like a charm.

    My wife says I have more clothes than her ((Yeah, right.)) so I may be too worried about how I look, but I still don’t think there is any excuse for wearing a belt clip. I get why Ian does it, and indeed when I worked in carpentry growing up I wore a tool belt with my hammer, and often my screw gun, hanging from it. For Ian it is about necessity, his job demands that he answers the phone while on the go, his job demands his availability. I can excuse that. The people that really drive me crazy are the ones that so very obviously do not need their phone on their belt.

    At the very least, very least, put your phone in a pocket when you are dressing up for a formal event, or even just a semi-formal event. ((Fin.))