The Brooks Review

Author: Ben Brooks

  • How to Keep Computer Screens From Destroying Your Eyes

  • The Gray

    I’ve been analyzing the response I get to opinions that I post on this site, and what’s interesting to me is that most opinions are polarized towards emphatic disagreement, or slow-clap-inducing agreement. I wondered why that was, so I started paying attention to my own writing a bit to see what correlation I could find. It’s probably obvious to most, but it wasn’t to me until a month ago: I state almost everything in a black or white manner. I either love the product, or think it’s a piece of shit.

    So with statements, reviews, and sentiments expressed in such a way, the readership naturally becomes polarized towards my thoughts. This makes for very interesting interactions on social networks and my email inbox, but I digress.

    Armed with this knowledge I started to think about why I lacked in one key area: the middle. In my writing there seems to be only black and white, so where’s *the gray*?

    The immediate fear that leaped into my head was that I am *Dan Lyons-ing* myself. That is, intentionally being a jackass to serve up more page views and controversy.

    So I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of my feelings on this, diving deep into thinking about why I write about things in such a black and white manner. I think I have it sorted now.

    The other night I was washing a sink full of baby bottles and other baby related items and I reached for a paper towel. I grabbed the paper towel, pulled out a sheet, and did the old one-handed jerking motion to try and free the paper towel from the roll. As always happens, the paper towel holder tipped a bit, the towel tore, and the paper towel stand wobbled about until it found a new spot on the counter.

    The thought that jumped into my head: I hate [this](http://www.target.com/p/euro-paper-towel-holder/-/A-13856426) fucking paper towel stand.

    Then it occurred to me. Here is something that I say I hate with a vengeance, yet my wife and I have had this paper towel stand for close to 4 years now. It’s not fancy, it’s rather cheap, we could replace it at anytime — yet we haven’t. Instead it just annoys me everyday. On the surface it certainly does its job well: the paper towels are held up off the counter enough to be free from sopping up any water, the rolls spin on it, and it looks nice enough. In fact the only thing this stand really sucks at is allowing me to tear a sheet from it one-handed. So in fact this paper towel stand sits in the middle as an average thing in my life if you take everything into account, however, I hate it. I wouldn’t recommend it to my enemy. And yet, truly the paper towel stand *is* in the gray.

    That’s when it dawned on me — when I finally figured out why I write in the black and white, the extremes — it’s not me being disingenuous about my feelings, it’s about discerning the most important part and analyzing that part. So while the paper towel stand truly is *average*, it also sucks at one primary function that effects me the most: allowing me to tear a single paper towel from it with one hand. For me, that’s *the* factor that matters most and *the* factor on which I will judge this item, only taking into consideration other factors if I am ambivalent on the things ability to perform *the* factor.

    So the paper towel holder, is shit — even though if you listed out the “specs” for it, it would look fairly average.

    Likewise, I recently traded in my BMW to get a Dodge Journey to fit our family better. It is, by all accounts, an average car. If you asked me if I would recommend it, I’d say no. Flat out, no. It’s not a *good* car. However, it is a very good car for my family — just not for me.

    I judge a car on how it drives, the Journey drives like shit compared to the BMWs I am used to owning. How a car drives is *the* most important thing to me in a car, however in life *the* most important thing to me is my family — so I bought the car that best worked for our family, but I still think it sucks. ((For the record it actually is a nice family car, but I get zero joy from driving it.))

    ## The Future

    I’ve thought long and hard about how and if I should change my writing based on this insight. I don’t think I will, because that wouldn’t be me being honest and to me that is *the* factor for my writing here on this site.

    What I do think needs to change, the thing that I’ve failed to be clear about, is which factor of any given *thing* is most important to me and therefore the factor that *I* will be weighting my judgement on something. I hope to be more clear about this than I have been in the past.

    If you’ll excuse me, I need a new paper towel holder.

    **Update:** Don’t read this as me changing the way I write. I just want to be more clear going forward.

  • Software Architecture Cheat Sheet

  • ‘HiddenRadio Speaker Is Clever but Disappointing’

    Lex Friedman, for Macworld on the HiddenRadio:
    >But even if sound quality wasn’t an issue, the HiddenRadio’s frustrating ports and volume-dial mechanism keep me from endorsing it over its rivals.

    I received mine yesterday and I was pumped — no really, I was. I opened it and was met with a beautiful packaging, and a solid feeling product. Then came the problems:

    1. I had to charge the device for 4-5 hours before using it if I didn’t want to damage the long-term life of the battery. Or so said the card that came with the speaker.
    2. I then struggled to get the USB plugged into the speaker, as Friedman notes, it’s a huge pain in the ass.
    3. Then I waited 6 hours for it to fully charge.
    4. Now at home I quickly paired the speaker with my iPhone and started playing some Al Green (my daughters current favorite artist).
    5. The speaker turned off before the song finished.
    6. I restarted the speaker and kept going.
    7. I complained on App.net
    8. I restarted and re-paired everything.
    9. I came to the conclusion that the speaker shuts off between 1:30-2:50minutes of playing audio. From responses I have gotten, I am not alone.

    So as a speaker the HiddenRadio is a huge piece of shit (I emailed support, no response yet, but I emailed late at like 6pm) for me right now. If mine worked, it sounds like I’d still hate it. But hey, it makes a fantastic paperweight.

    Side note: Friedman notes that it is hard to turn with one hand, I found that to be the case only if you didn’t also apply downward pressure, as you would if you were using a screwdriver on a screw. When you apply downward pressure it turns just fine one-handed.

  • Reachability

    Dustin Curtis analyzing the design decisions behind changing the iPhone 5’s screen size:
    >It’s easy to see Apple’s thinking here – the benefits of having half an inch more of display area far outweigh the downsides in reachability. Every area of the screen *is* reachable, after all (unlike many Android phones with 4-inch+ screens), it’s just slightly uncomfortable.

    You really need to read this entire post, or at the very least the bulleted list of reasons why the iPhone 5’s other design elements makes the 4-inch screen more reachable than it otherwise would be. Things like a thinner phone allowing your hand to wrap around more easily is something obvious, but also something I hadn’t even realized was going on.

    Personally I don’t like the extra difficulty at doing rare tasks, and I don’t like the extra height of the phone when in my pocket. However, I love all the extra screen real estate when viewing lists, reading things, and typing — which accounts for about 90% of what I do on the phone. So on the one hand it is a slight inconvenience, but on the other it improves the more routine things I do on the phone so much, that I find it hard to complain about the former.

    Overall, the screen size increase is a huge win for users of any hand size.

  • Apple’s Next (Full-Size) iPad Is Going to Be an Incredible Tool for Photographers

  • Facebook Tops 1 Billion Active Users

  • Tigers’ Cabrera Earns Baseball’s First Triple Crown in 45 Years

  • Quote of the Day: Om Malik

    “It doesn’t matter who you were, how great your resume is and how many billions you have in the bank.”

  • ‘The Larch (Camera)’

    Andy Ihnatko on the iPhone 5 camera, comparing it to the Samsung Galaxy SIII and GX1:
    >The Samsung Galaxy S III takes just as good pictures as the iPhone 5, when the lighting is at least halfway decent.

    And then:

    >The GS III still has a ways to go before it can match the iPhone’s photographic abilities.

    Really interesting analysis from Ihnatko on the cameras, I don’t agree with his overall assessment of the iPhone 5 camera, but if his examples are the only ones than it is hard not to agree. Overall I have found the iPhone 5 camera to be 50% better than that of the 4S. It’s a really good *camera*.

  • Crossposting

    [I missed this feature with my initial look at Netbot](https://alpha.app.net/netbot/post/639827):

    >To crosspost to Twitter from Netbot for iPhone, just tap on the Navbar in the Post window. On Netbot for iPad, tap on your Avatar.

    I get why a lot of people will be happy about this, but to me this is the fundamental flaw facing App.net. Most people simply do not have the bandwidth to keep up with Twitter and App.net (I don’t), so why would you use both services? Crossposting is something I hate and I really think is bad for the overall health of both Twitter and App.net.

    To me, cross posting is like that person that calls you, leaves a voicemail, and then texts you the same thing they just left your a voicemail about. That is to say: annoying.

    **Update:** Also, [this is the best thing ever](http://cl.ly/image/0W1o2Q0C2T2L) (courtesy of [Panzer](https://alpha.app.net/panzer/post/641778)). And [here’s another](http://cl.ly/JuC1) from [Dan Frakes](https://alpha.app.net/danfrakes/post/641881). I love that because of the passive-aggressive nature of the dig to Twitter — well played Tapbots.

  • ‘Netbot for iPad, an App.net Client for iPad’

    Netbot, however, is the best client so far for the iPad. My reservations still stand about the overall ideology of the Netbot product. What that doesn’t mean though, is that I am opposed to using the app at all. The iPad app is very good, especially compared to the field.

  • The Dimensions at Safeco

  • ‘Netbot: Tweetbot Reborn for App.net’

    I was rather outspoken about Tweetbot when it came out, I’m sweeping that under the rug as history, call me names if you want.

    [Federico Viticci has written up a nice review of Netbot](http://www.macstories.net/reviews/netbot-tweetbot-reborn-for-app-net/) — which is essentially a working version of Tweetbot for App.net. I wasn’t on the beta (for obvious reasons), but I did download it to check it out.

    It’s exactly what it is billed to be, but it’s not for me. That’s not to say Netbot is bad, but [here’s what Stephen Hackett said](https://alpha.app.net/ismh/post/632916):

    >Netbot is nice, but this is weird. Think I might prefer different app experiences for different services.

    [Robb Lewis has a similar feeling](https://alpha.app.net/rmlewisuk/post/633544):

    >Huh. I keep forgetting which app I’m in.

    That’s a problem — I think — because the two services are hardly the same. Say what you will about the value of either, but it is hard to deny that they are identical — yet Netbot and Tweetbot are pretty much identical.

    I don’t much care what app you use, but I will say that I find Netbot to be more of a “hedging our bets” move — not that this is a bad move — than a true let’s see what we can do *differently* for a new service. I had actually hoped that Tapbots would come out with a client that was radically different from Tweetbot, so part of this may be my disappointment there.

    Anyway, I did my natural thing and goaded out some responses between my favorite client, Felix, and the blogger’s wet dream, Netbot. [You can read all the responses to it here](https://alpha.app.net/benbrooks/post/633816), to get an idea of the sentiment surrounding the two (spoiler: I am in the minority). ((Keep in mind, I naturally bring out the anger in people, don’t hold them to nasty remarks.))

    Here’s my theory: those that embrace Netbot are those that *want* App.net to replace/duplicate/be Twitter ([perhaps the same people that do these things](https://brooksreview.net/2012/10/whining/)). That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a *thing*.

  • Over and Over Again

    Alli Dryer reviewing Felix, an iPhone ADN client:
    >The main problem with the icons, though, is that there are just way too many of them. A row of icons (reply, view conversation, repost, and star) accompanies every single post, and is therefore repeated over and over AND OVER on every screen that displays a stream. Coupled with the generous 256 character limit on App.net, this creates a situation where only two or three posts fit on screen at any time on my squatty iPhone 4S. I’d prefer it if these icons only revealed themselves after I tapped on a post (in order to save space).

    When I first started testing [Felix](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/felix-for-app.net/id562447652?mt=8) I felt the same way. The fact that the actions for each post are repeated makes the app look less visually appealing and I felt it detracted from the surrounding beauty of the app. Here’s what we are talking about:

    Timeline view of Felix.

    It would present a much cleaner view if these icons were hidden until the user took some action as Dryer suggests. However, after using this app exclusively (it’s in my dock after all) I can say that I no longer want these icons tucked away. Having them readily available is simply better for me. I can respond with less taps/gestures and because of that the entire app’s flow feels faster to me.

    I’ve tested a few ADN clients that use the old Tweetie style of “swipe to reveal the actions” and now they just feel slow to me. This is one instance where I am happy to let the beauty of something be slightly marred for the benefit of utility.

  • Woz

    [Slashdot held an open Q&A with Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak](http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/10/01/1527257/ask-steve-wozniak-anything#comments), it’s a rather long thread to read through, and like a lot of these open Q&A’s it is terribly unorganized and presented like someone would present something to people that they hate, anyways, here’s my choice quote from Woz:

    >If you remember, we ported iTunes to Windows. We now addressed 100% of the world’s market with this integrated system (iPod/iTunes) and it began the era of Apple that we are now in. So why don’t we port iTunes to Android? Did something get closed up? I love Apple products and iTunes and wish it were on my Android products too.

    There’s two fascinating things in this quote. I want to break them down a bit more.

    ## Android iTunes

    I like the idea that Apple is shooting themselves in the foot a bit with iTunes — at least at first glance. Apple undoubtedly ported iTunes to Windows — not to gain a Windows foot hold — but to expand the iPod market. What good is an iPod to a Windows user if you can’t sync it with Windows? Limiting the iPod to just the Mac market, also limits the growth potential to *just* the Mac market.

    However, *not* porting iTunes to Android does nothing to limit Apple. Instead it effectively locks in iTunes customers to Apple devices. That’s just as savvy a business move as porting iTunes to Windows was. Apple needed iTunes on Windows to grow the iPod and later the iOS market. Apple doesn’t need iTunes on Android and in fact likely sees doing so as opening up the door to competition.

    ## We

    It is very interesting to me that Woz chose the wording of “we”. There’s no doubt that Woz had a large part in Apple, but I very seriously doubt he currently has a hand in Apple affairs. I could be way off, but that’s the sense that I get. So using “we” sounds very odd to me.

    This is especially odd given the next post he makes, writing:

    >I wish that instead of all these lawsuits Apple was sitting down and cross-licensing with the other players. They have come up some very good features without complicating the UI

    Now that Woz is talking about something he loathes, he switches from “we” to “they”. I won’t harp too much on this, I just thought it was very telling about how Woz still associates and doesn’t associate with Apple.

    This doesn’t really matter, but I always find it interesting how Woz seems to waffle between embracing what Apple does and condemning what Apple does.

  • Sorry if He Was Too Real

  • For Cable Modem Advice: The B&B Podcast #14

    [Brian X. Chen](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/time-warner-cable-modem-rental/):
    >Time Warner Cable, the big broadband and cable provider, is planning to start charging customers a monthly fee of $3.95 for renting a cable modem from the company. It said in notifications mailed to customers this week that the new fee would go into effect over the next two months.

    I am linking to the fourteenth episode of The B&B Podcast where Shawn and I talked about cable modems. The bottom line is that you want to buy your own — they aren’t much money, rarely fail, and don’t line the pockets of greedy cable companies. [You can check if Time Warner supports it here](http://www.timewarnercable.com/nynj/support/topic.ashx/Buy+or+Lease+Your+Modem), also most cable modem manufacturers tell you where it is compatible. I personally only use Motorola Surfboard Modems.

  • Apple Maps Up to Five Times More Data Efficient Than Google Maps

  • Motorola Reneges on Ice Cream Sandwich Software Update