The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Who Do You Side With on the Google/Microsoft Back and Forth on the Patent Issue?

    An interesting poll by MG Siegler where Google is still favored by most people in this latest spat between the two. I am actually siding with Microsoft on this one (believe it or not) mainly because I do believe all Google has done is: “[whine like a bitch](http://brianshall.com/content/google-are-pussies)”.

  • How I Tracked Down an Entire Family From One Tweet

    Joanna Geary:
    >I’ve gone from one tweet to knowing an entire family’s names, location, address, contact details, what they look like, how they are connected to the military and, potentially, where a part of the US army is coming under fire.

    That’s some seriously good sleuthing, but should be of no surprise to anyone — and if it is, then perhaps you are not ready for the Internet. ((At the very least you need to be more realistic about privacy expectations on one of the least private things the world has ever created.))

  • Apple’s Favorite Make-Android-Awkward Patent

    Florian Mueller with the easiest to understand of all the patent discussions about the cards that Apple is actually holding:

    >And with several such patents, it’s possible for Apple to create a very serious user experience gap between its own products and those of its competitors.

    >Death by a thousand cuts. Well, it won’t literally take a thousand patents. But the key thing is: one such patent has an effect, and several of them can collectively have major impact.

    If you are at all curious as to why Google is so worried, this is the article to read.

  • The Google Patent Whiner

    Last night things got pretty good on Twitter with Brad Smith, Microsoft General Counsel, [tweeting](https://twitter.com/#!/BradSmi/status/98902130412355585):

    >Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.

    Followed by a [Tweet](https://twitter.com/#!/fxshaw/status/98932077327691776) from Frank Shaw, Microsoft Head of Communications, that included a screenshot of an email exchange turning down the offer to partner up on buying the patents.

    Kudos to Microsoft for having the balls to respond in this way — it may not be a savvy move in the end, but it is a great PR move in the short term.

    I do however think that MG Siegler has the best explanation of what is happening with Google and patents right now (which is why I have this post linking to him):

    >And it reinforces something that many observers think about Google’s position here: that they simply weren’t taking the patent situation too seriously until recently, and now they’re all up in arms about it.

  • HoMedics.com | Defender™ Anti-Theft Locking Drawer

    This is a pretty neat drawer safe and what makes it particularly interesting to me is that it has holes for cords to slip through. The intended use is that you charge gadgets while keeping them secure — I wonder if it wouldn’t make a good backup drive safe.

    That is: run the backups with the drawer open for ventilation then lock it up when done. My only concern is what the “locking tether” is and how robust it really is for securing the safe.

    [via Unplggd]

  • Ultrabooks

    Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai reporting on Intel’s new Ultrabook concept for PC manufacturers to compete with the MacBook Air:
    >The sources pointed out that the new MacBook Airs are priced at about US$999-1,599 with rather strong demand in the US; however, designing an ultrabook based on Intel’s technical suggestions will still be unable to reduce the machine’s price level to lower than the MacBook Air’s unless Intel is willing to reduce its prices, which already account for one-third of the total cost.

    Two things to keep in mind here:

    1. Apple (presumably) makes a profit off of MacBook Air sales.
    2. Apple is considered to be *more* expensive than its PC counterparts.

  • Patently Absurd

    John Gruber responding to the hypocrisy that has become Google’s legal defense:
    >They’re effectively arguing against the idea of the patent system itself, simply because Android violates a bunch of patents held by Google’s competitors.

    I could have quoted every word he said in this post.

  • Villainous Robber Baron

    Writer W.W. for The Economist:
    >And then tell me that Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures is not our age’s authentic villainous robber baron, making a fortune gaming America’s dysfunctional patent-law system to shake down would-be innovators.

  • Car Analogies

    In response to my earlier rant, about a certain journalist, David Hayes emailed me in a great comment that he also posted to his blog (which I am linking to here). I particularly love the last paragraph of the post as a way to look at the Mac price versus PC price debate.

    If you look at it the way Hayes frames the argument then it is clear that Macs simply require a higher standard of hardware and thus have a higher price point.

  • Amazon App Store: Rotten to the Core

    Shifty Jelly:
    >Update: (and this one surprised us) you can’t remove apps from their store! You have to ask them for permission via an email. Every other store lets you remove apps from sale.

    The entire story is crazy, but this update they posted is nuts.

    [via DF]

  • Bullying Anti-Piracy Lawyers Fined and Suspended

    A pretty interesting story coming from the UK about actions being taken against a group of lawyers that sent out dunning letters hoping for payouts for alleged piracy. What came of it is fines and suspensions, but perhaps more importantly the news that not all those accused were guilty (shocking, I know).

    I hope we start seeing some of this control of overzealous legal actions come to the US.

  • Measuring Broadband in the U.S.

    A pretty interesting report that tells me three things:

    1. Comcast isn’t as bad for everyone as it is for me.
    2. Verizon fibre is the gold standard right now.
    3. Cablevision, oh Cablevision, you suck.

  • Essential TextMate Shortcuts, Tips and Techniques

    Amazing that people still would think it valuable to readers to put up Tips and Tricks for *such* and outdated text editor. ((No it’s **not** amazing because TextMate still rocks.))

  • What Tiny Thing in Lion Makes You Smile or Has Caught You Off Guard?

    A great thread of the improvements in Lion that really make it shine. There are more than a few that I hadn’t noticed/didn’t know about.

  • The Desktop Transition

    Michael Lopp on Exposé in Lion:
    >How would you react if, whenever you were wondering where something was on your desktop, I’d show up, pull every single thing off it and show it to you in a manner completely different from how you organized it?

    The above so perfectly explains why I was never a huge fan of Exposé.

  • “Microsoft.com is a terrible website”

    Bill Gates in an email to Jim Allchin from 2003 describing his experience trying to download and install Moviemaker from Microsoft’s website:
    >So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package

    Can you imagine getting an email like that from your boss, let alone if your boss was Bill Gates?

  • Full Screen Shortcut

    Great tip, I went with `CMD+CTRL+F`.

  • Camels and Rubber Duckies

    Joel Spolsky on software pricing from 2004. Reading this last night I couldn’t help but think about the effect that App Stores have had on pricing of software since Spolsky wrote this piece. Seems that software en masse when the $0.05 route.

    [via Amitava B]

  • The New Home Button on the iPhone 5 (Allegedly)

    Dan Provost on the rumored iPhone 5 home button redesign:
    >The home button is special. In it’s purest form, it is not used to manipulate what is happening on the screen, but to manipulate the apps themselves (in most cases, closing them and returning to the home screen).

    His entire post is worth a read and a fantastic look at how Apple likely thinks about the home button.

  • AT&T to Implement Data Throttling in Early October

    Cleve Nettles:
    >Rumored to be starting in the first week of October, we’ve heard that AT&T will start throttling the data speeds of the network’s top data hogs.

    Sure AT&T is spotty and not great as a company, but if done correctly (and it sounds as though it will be) it should help out the overall network quality.