The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle

    A while back I had some stock in Oracle, I was amazed by Oracle and specifically by Ellison — it’s CEO and co-founder. When this biography (authorized) came out I immediately read it — it’s one of the few books I chose to read while still in college.

    It is a fascinating look at Ellison. What is so fascinating about this biography is the stipulation Ellison put on his cooperation:

    >Ellison agreed to cooperate with the project, but as part of the deal, he reserved the right to respond, which he does in a series of running footnotes.

    No seriously. The book is massive and most of that is because Ellison is trying to put his spin on everything. It’s excellent.

    If you want to know just how good Ellison is at what he does, this is the best insight into that. He is like an amplified and unrestrained Steve Jobs and really a lot more.

    Anyways Oracle may not be a sexy company to learn about, but it’s CEO certainly is interesting, [for example](http://ellisonfoundation.org/): Ellison started a foundation (as billionaires do), but they aren’t out to cure cancer or other diseases, it’s not about education either — no Ellison’s foundation seeks to cure aging. Yeah, getting old. Now, it’s not all a joke — real research is being done and money given out that most likely does help people — but still, it’s funny.

  • ‘I Didn’t Realize Android Was *This* Open’

    MG Siegler responding to some ‘new’ information being brought to light in the Oracle v. Google spat:
    >Maybe someone should copy Google’s search algorithms and open source them. Google probably has some IP there, but, you know, whatevs.

  • ‘Static Images’

    Alex Knight this April (2012) talking about *Wired* magazine on the iPad:
    >After subscribing, I downloaded the gargantuan April issue at 789MB. The good news is it took less than five minutes to download over LTE (there goes my data cap). The bad news is the user experience is absolutely horrible.

    Shawn Blanc on Wired Magazine back in July of 2011:

    >When downloading an issue of *Wired*, you literally cannot do anything with your iPad but let it download the magazine issue. They weigh in around 300 MB and easily take 20 or 30 minutes to download on a decent Wi-Fi connection.

    and:

    >Apps like Instapaper and Reeder offer more of a “reading environment” (like a library); *Wired* and *The New Yorker* are more like an amusement park with words.

    By my count, not only has *Wired* not gotten any better, it may have actually gotten worse — that’s kind of amazing.

  • Revenue Split Model and the DOJ

    John Gruber talking about the 30% cut Apple takes from every app/publisher:
    >This is one of my biggest questions about the DOJ’s suit against Apple. Why are books any different than music or apps or periodicals? (And, if Apple loses this suit, does it mean their App Store and Music Store 70/30 pricing models are at risk too?)

    Good point. I hadn’t thought about the ramifications beyond just the iBookstore side of things. I doubt the DOJ would go after iTunes and the App Store, but if the DOJ wins the case against Apple wouldn’t it be hypocritical for them not to go after iTunes and the App Store? I think so.

  • ‘Beleaguered Microsoft’

    The Macalope on Windows 8 tablets:
    >The problem for Microsoft is that the “slap full applications on a touchscreen and call it a day” experience has been available for ten years, and only diehards like Brookwood have bought into it. If the Macalope were a betting beast, he’d wager Brookwood that the most successful Windows 8 tablets will be the ARM-based devices that don’t run legacy desktop applications.

    That seems like a safe bet to me. Before Microsoft is going to be able to compete with the iPad though, they are going to need compelling apps. Since devices are now all assumed to be fast enough, and the hardware is mostly back burned to a screen with tablets — it really comes down to: “So what can I *do* with this?”

    That’s the question that Apple answered with the app store: Anything. Luckily for Apple, developers agreed. That has yet to be the case for Microsoft and, largely, is not the case for Android. ((Certainly not to the extent that it is for iOS.))

  • ‘If You Have a Smart Phone, Anyone Can Now Track Your Every Move’

    I don’t particularly like that this is possible, but that doesn’t change the fact that this technology is:

    1. Pretty cool.
    2. Potentially helpful if used in the right circumstances.

  • Dropbox Link Sharing

    You can now share just a link to your Dropbox files for others to view and download. Nice.

  • Migrate iWeb Blog to WordPress

    Nice script for those that need to migrate before MobileMe dies. (Note I don’t have an iWeb site to test this with.)

  • New Nirvana

    Dave Winer responding to the [Denton piece](https://brooksreview.net/2012/04/denton-comments/):

    >Draw a Venn Diagram with two circles on it. On one circle write “articles” and on the other write “comments”. The size of each and how much they overlap tells you everything you need to know about an online publication. If one were to manage to make them completely overlap, so that there’s no difference between the publication and the comments, then imho you’ve reached nirvana.

    Sounds horrible right? Maybe not, after all, the most compelling part of *The Verge* is the forum posts (not coincidentally that is also the only part of the site that I read — when those posts bubble up that is). Maybe he is on to something neat here, but I’d argue we’d only need one such site — any more and it would just be too much noise.

    What’s interesting is that sites like Facebook have seemingly already given people such a platform, but that doesn’t seem to be what people are using it for. The notable exception to this: Google+. Even there, though, it seems to be mostly Google employees and Robert “Super Self-Important” Scoble that post the longer items to the service (granted I no longer use the service so I am generalizing from my past experience).

  • Nick Denton, Gawker, On Comments

    Mathew Ingram reporting on coming changes to the way that Gawker handles comments, has this little nugget:
    >This was actually the original vision behind Gawker: Denton said he noticed the discussion and gossip around a story in the newsroom or at the bar when he worked at the *Financial Times* was often far more interesting than the story itself — and he wanted to turn that discussion into its own form of media.

    This may be true (and I think it is often more interesting), but I have to wonder if promoting comments, in the way that Ingram describes in this post, is the right way to go about this. The problem with comments: too many idiots that just want a to shout and when that gets promoted on a site you *want* to read, well it ruins the site — usually.

  • My New Office

    Just finished putting up the acoustical foam, so here’s a shot of my desk/setup in our new house for your Saturday enjoyment.

  • Google v. Oracle: Day 4

    Florian Mueller reporting on testimony from Lindholm — a key witness in the trial — reports:
    >In short, Lindholm’s denial of his most famous email having referred to any particular licensor comes down to this: Google needed (and still needs) to negotiate a license with Oracle or with Oracle.

    I can’t see Google coming out of this unscathed.

  • Did Soda Kill a Mother of Eight?

    Christopher Hodgkinson was Natasha Marie Harris’ partner and here is his recounting of how much Coke Harris drank:
    >The police say she drank seven liters of Coke a day, but Hodgkinson insists it was more like 10.

    *Holy shit.*

  • Report Text Message Spam to AT&T

    Fantastic, I had no idea I could do this.

  • Range

    Damn does this apply to everything. From personal to corporate, well said, Pat, well said.

  • Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover

    Nice look at the latest, most enticing, entry into the iPad keyboard pool by Dan Frakes. I still love the Origami case, but a 6 month battery life? Well that’s pretty cool.

  • ‘Cocktail Party Effect’ Identified in the Brain

    Fascinating article about how humans are able to pick a voice out in a noisy room and focus on just that voice. It seems the researchers have a working algorithm for how the brain does this, and hope to implement it with voice recognition systems so that things like — oh I don’t know — Siri could better pick out *your* voice in a noisy room.

    Amazing.

  • ‘Skeumorphism & Storytelling’

    Tobias Bjerrome Ahlin on the trend that I love to hate:
    >The functionality of Paper and Brushes are basically the same, yet the perceived purpose is totally different.

    He makes some fantastic points in his post, be sure to read it — I can’t disagree with him.

  • Microsoft Reports: “Operating loss improvement”

    I like MG Siegler’s take on that statement:

    >That’s one way to put it. 

  • ‘Time and Taste’

    Marco Arment:

    >People who naturally *recognize* tasteful, well-designed products are a small subset of the population. But people who can *create* them are a much smaller subset.

    Read this post.