The Brooks Review

Category: Free

  • Technology and Art

    This is a very interesting post from Álvaro Serrano and I mostly agree with it. Either way it is worth your time.

    In a section leading up to the below quote Serrano talks about The David and how it likely would not be any better if it had been made with more advanced tools. In theory I agree, and take the point, even if that is a hard statement to prove.

    Then Serrano starts a new section of the article, in which he says:

    That’s great if you only ever plan to shoot with Olympus cameras and it’ll definitely allow you to capture some gorgeous images but at the end of the day, you haven’t learned anything, and it hasn’t made you a better photographer because it didn’t take any effort or knowledge on your part.

    Worst of all, technology can cheapen the end result. If all it takes to capture a scintillating long exposure is pressing a button, where’s the artistic merit? How is that image compelling in any way?

    What the hell? I can’t agree with this at all. Knowledge of the tools is not, in any way, a prerequisite for art. Art, photography, or any other creative pursuit is in no way lessened or enhanced because of the tools used to make it.

    If someone takes a gorgeous photo, it remains gorgeous no matter if the camera was set to manual or set on auto. Art is art. It’s the vision to create the art that matters, not the knowledge of it.

  • Spoken: Negativity

    A little audio snippet I posted to Spoken.

  • It’s a Jungle Out There? Carry a Pocketknife

    Some time ago the New York Times reached out to interview me about pocket knives. I had no clue what they were working on, but here it is. Neat.

  • Re:quest — Get Answers Fast

    Today we (at MartianCraft) launched Re:quest, an app I have been working on for the past two and a half months with a very talented team of people. It’s a free app and very useful. Give it a download and see what you think.

    UPDATE: We wrote about the launch on the MartianCraft blog.

  • Capturing Light

    My wife is going to presenting at the San Francisco Apple Store on June 10th, at 6:00pm. Take a look at the linked page to make a reservation.

  • A Shit Storm of Speculation

    The title of ‘Chief Design Officer’ is, at best, amorphous, but most likely: bullshit. That’s not to say that real people don’t hold these positions, but rather that even Wikipedia struggles to conjure more than a vague description of the relatively new role. In fact, Wikipedia knows of only four companies in the world that has someone occupying this position.

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  • Beyond Productivity “LIVE” with Mike Vardy

    Looks like a nice workshop from Mike. He might be the most disciplined guy I know.

  • Hurricane Ridge

    Some shots from our trip out to Hurricane Ridge.

  • Horizon 3

    It's been on my home screen for more than 8 months. I love this app.

  • GORUCK for Sale – SOLD

    Selling my GORUCK shoulder bag, if anyone is interested. Looks like it isn't for sale anymore.

    SOLD thanks for playing.

  • A Review of the Livescribe Smart Pen

    I wrote a little review of the Livescribe Smart Pen for Tools & Toys. Fun little device.

  • Confirmation Bias

    I quipped about this on Twitter earlier today, but wanted to mention it here as well: there’s an asinine amount of Apple Watch posts going around, ranging from X minutes with the Apple Watch, to three days with the Apple Watch.

    I haven’t read most, and probably never will — I don’t think you should either. Outside of the handful of journalists which received the Apple Watch before the launch, there isn’t much stock to be put into what people are saying.

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  • QuickSwitch

    My new favorite app. The default Belkin WeMo app is shit, and really slow. QuickSwitch isn’t just a watch app, it’s a far better WeMo controller (works with just the WeMo switches for now). Really great work.

  • SwiftKey Report on Emoji Usage

    This should be all the information you need to delete this keylogger.

  • Managing Across Time

    Over on The Syndicate, I wrote up how we work across a bunch of time zones at MartianCraft.

  • MagSafe Has Never Been Great For Light Laptops

    Yours truly, in my review of the 2010 MacBook Air:

    The computer is so light that when sitting on the couch cushion and charging I am not at all confident that the MagSafe would release before the computer would get yanked to the floor. I thankfully have yet to test this in the “real world” but in giving it a few tugs it seems to be that 60% of the time the MagSafe pops loose. It really depends on the material the Air is sitting on as the lack of weight in the machine means that it needs some friction to help that MagSafe release without pulling the Air to the ground.

    Puts things in perspective a bit.

    (Apologies for the missing images, I’ll have to search for those.)

  • For Bloggers

    I’m actually quite tired of talking about what we call blogs, or don’t call them. Or the permalink structure, or who gives a shit.

    When people ask me what I do, outside of work, I tell them I write. When they ask what I write I tell them I write a blog. If they laugh I tell them the cold hard stats, just as I tell the world.

    At that point they either shut up, or fuck off, either one I am fine with. ((I link to Josh only because that was the tab that was open, and he’s way to nice to use “fuck off” and it really needed to be said here.))

  • Ulysses for iPad

    The wait is over.

    Maybe you weren’t waiting, but I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. And most Ulysses users have been waiting for this day for quite some time as well.

    Today my favorite writing app, Ulysses III (now renamed to just Ulysses and shipping alongside an updated Mac app), gets a full blown iPad app. Gone are the days of syncing your Ulysses documents through Daedalus Touch (no one will miss that).

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  • Ben Brooks’ Morning Routine on My Morning Routine

    I didn’t even realize I came across so hateful to snooze buttons. Live and learn.

    Fun interview and I am honored to be amongst the others on that site.

  • My iPad Week

    On Monday there is an Apple event scheduled, and it’s likely to center around the Apple Watch — this post is not about the Apple Watch — there are two far more interesting rumors about the event for me: the 12″ Retina MacBook Air, and the iPad Pro. Both have had their share of rumors of late and both are things that I really want.

    While I want a watch, I actually need a computer.

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