The Brooks Review

Year: 2016

  • Just Glass

    I started a new experiment the other day, born out of a few comments from readers. They all remarked how much better it is to edit writing with the software keyboard, over a physical one on the iPad. Which is funny because I was actually thinking about working on setting up a mechanical keyboard again, but realized I packed them away (getting ready to hopefully move).

    So I tore off my Smart Keyboards and stowed them in a drawer and committed to using the software keyboard for a week. I expected long fits of rage, but what I’ve found is that I quite like it.

    (more…)

  • Dropping Dropbox

    Duncan Davidson on the nefarious shit Dropbox is pulling:

    After all, every time you ask permission, you not only annoy the user, you’re making them consider saying no, which is bad for numbers in a company driven by the almighty gods of daily, weekly, and monthly active usage.

    I bitched about this on twitter and Dropbox responded with an overly dense statement. It’s not about whether they need this access, it’s how they go about getting it.

  • What a Week

    I’ve started a new newsletter, and it is ad supported. I’d love it if you signed up, it’s a weekly affair. Here’s a taste from this week’s:

    I wasn’t going to mention all the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Fire Editions, but umm, well it burned a Jeep to the ground (and if the story couldn’t be better, FLORIDA). I don’t even know what to say, but my bigger question is: how does anyone ever trust Samsung again? This isn’t like a Tesla catching fire — people feel like they can escape from cars. This is a potential bomb you are putting in your pocket, right next to your sensitive areas there. Good lord. Even Australian airlines are banning these phones from flight and the FAA is wanting you to keep them off. I joke a bit, but I am serious about the implications: how long until people question whether their phone is going to burn down their house while they sleep? Amazingly, this isn’t getting the news coverage it really should be.

    Sign up here.

  • Special B&B Throwback Episode: The iPhone 7 Event

    I texted Shawn on Tuesday to see if he wanted to do a special show, and amazingly we both had time to fit it in. We talk about the iPhone 7 stuff, as well as paying for new devices. Shawn also explains math to me. All in all: good times.

  • How My Friends Described Some Colors To Me When I Couldn’t See

    This is one of those things you read when you are having a rough day.

    (Via Kottke)

  • So This Thing About Files on iOS

    There is a very frustrating notion circling — the idea that managing files, or sharing files between apps, is hard on iOS. I’ve read three posts of late about them, each I will omit for varying reasons. The fact of the matter is that managing files on iOS is not hard — it is tricky and requires a modicum of brain power at times — but hard it is not.

    In general the complaints are two fold:

    1. Sharing files between apps is difficult.
    2. Opening certain types of files is so cumbersome that many users will think it is not possible.

    I’ve been using iOS full time for long enough now, I actually wondered if it is me who is out of touch with the level of difficulty, so I took this as a problem to investigate.

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  • Fastmail, end of an era

    When I started this site, my email was hosted on Google Apps, then I moved to Media Temple, and from there my @brooksreview.net emails have been hosted on whatever server my website was hosted on. This was never an issue for me, and I always wondered why people hated hosting email themselves, because it’s taken me 6 years to come to a breaking point. I was pumped to finally move to a Mac mini server so I could host all my email on a Mac using Mac tools. That was quite some time ago, and it’s been chugging along ever since. Sure, it goes down when I screw up the server, but thats part of the fun.

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  • How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics for Artificial Intelligence

    The report also does not consider the belief of some computer specialists about the possibility of a “singularity” that might lead to machines that are more intelligent and possibly threaten humans.

    How do you not even consider that possibility? See, this is how we go extinct.

  • Automated Killing Machines

    Completely unregulated.

  • Why Do “Women in Tech” Communities thrive, while Women in Tech don’t?

    Ellen Chisa:

    If we don’t have women included from the beginning of communities, and we don’t give them a safe space to exist in, they are likely to leave.

    Fantastic post — my quote doesn’t do it justice.

  • Is Calendar Based Productivity a Fad?

    Some really good thoughts from Chris.

  • New Bullet Ruck

    Nice comparison between the two models (version 1 and 2). The changes honestly make the bag less desirable for me, so I’m glad I still have the first version.

  • NVSBL

    Editor’s note: these shirts were sent to me at no cost for the purposes of reviewing.

    It’s been a while since I reviewed undershirts — the regular ones, not fancy merino undershirts — but I received some NVSBL undershirts to test and then I took my damn sweet time testing them. There’s two types of people who wear undershirts: those who want their undershirt to be seen and those who don’t want it to be seen. I don’t understand the former group — but the latter group is doing it right.

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  • Vesper to Ulysses

    Clever tool for importing, but too bad it requires a Mac.

  • Vesper No More

    John Gruber on the shut down of Vesper:

    It’s also entirely possible that a notes app was never going to work, financially. That it was a bad idea from the get-go, and no matter how nicely designed the app was, no matter how lovingly well-crafted, no matter what price point we had picked (higher or lower), it wasn’t going to work financially.

    That quoted bit should be framed and looked at daily by anyone making apps. Whether it was the consulting I did on Begin and Horizon, or the work I do daily with apps at MartianCraft — that rings true in all cases.

    If you have the money or time, or ideally both, you can make an amazing app relatively easily. The problem isn’t lack of ideas, or lack of talent, the problem is: no matter what, you cannot guarantee you will make your money/time back.

    I’m not arguing sustainable pricing is the issue, or that you can’t make money with apps. I’m saying two things:

    1. You can never be assured of money.
    2. You can never be assured of money.

    Oh, that’s one thing, my bad.

  • Why do pull quotes exist on the web?

    Jeremey Keith:

    I’m genuinely curious to hear the design justification for pull quotes on the web (particularly on mobile), because as a reader, I can give plenty of reasons for their removal.

    I mentioned this on Twitter, but pull quotes don’t serve readers, they serve skimmers. What I mean by this is that it is all too common to come to an article and scroll through it before reading — to look at images, to see if the story looks interesting, if it is long. Pull quotes, do two things to help convince a skimmer to read the article:

    1. They break up the monotony of the text so that things don’t look as dull or long as they otherwise would.
    2. They try to hook a skimmer with some interesting sentence they might want to know more about.

    Either way: I hate them. I have a method to do them on this site, but each time I have done them I shake my head and try to remember to never do them again.

  • What Exactly Fits in a GORUCK GR1

    Holy crap.

  • Failing

    Fail early, fail often?

    No.

    Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back from doing something you think you can do?

    Yes.

    Though.

    Not as catchy.

    (more…)

  • Ultimate Merino T-Shirt List

    Great resource. Remember, when thinking about price: you really only need one to two.

  • Canvas #17: 2Do with Ben Brooks

    I had a lot of fun filling in for Federico. A huge thanks to Federico and Fraser for having me as a guest. We dive into 2Do but also talk about my iPad only journey.