The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • FCC Passes Compromise Net Neutrality Rules

    Sam Gustin for Wired.com:

    The three new rules, which will go into effect early next year, force ISPs to be transparent about how they handle network congestion, prohibit them from blocking traffic such as Skype on wired networks, and outlaw “unreasonable” discrimination on those networks, meaning they can’t put an online video service in the slow lane to benefit their own video services.

    This is very important. It is a small step — nowhere near where we need to be — but it is a step in the right direction. One thing that irks me is when dissenters of Net Neutrality say that the measures will ‘stifle investment’ — that is just crap. If you need more money then you should charge more money. I pay like $40/mo and would happily pay twice that for faster and more reliable service. They don’t offer these plans because they can’t — stop whining already.

    [Updated: 12/21/10 at 12:38 PM] There are a few who will say this does not go far enough — I agree. It does set the wheels in motion and is certainly better than nothing.

  • In Response to “Cash Cow Disease”

    Kyle Baxter responding the the “Cash Cow Disease” post from Ron Burk:

    Then, once Apple recognized this opportunity, they didn’t just start a half-hearted project and hope that it worked. Instead, they put the entire company into it. They acted like the company was dependent on its success. That’s what good companies do. They recognize precisely what they need to do next and put their entire effort into doing it.

    I found myself nodding my head in agreement the entire time I read this post.

  • Drive Me Crazy

    Keith Barry:

    DriveMeCrazy, developed by Shazam co-founder Philip Inghelbrecht, is a voice-activated app that encourages drivers to report bad behavior by reciting the offender’s license plate into a smartphone. The poor sap gets “flagged” and receives a virtual “ticket,” which may not sound like much until you realize all the information — along with date, time and location of the “offense” — is sent to the DMV and insurance companies.

    That is awesome, particularly because:

    His goal is to cut the number of motor vehicle accidents 1 or 2 percent by 2020, a figure that would represent 700 lives saved annually.

  • Mike Lee on Games

    Mike Lee:

    To release a game that lacks
    fun is to launch a rocket with a damp fuse.

    An
    excellent take on games, Lee goes on to talk in depth about why
    Astronut is not fun to him. I too want to like the game, but find
    it incredibly difficult.

  • Two Months and 47.5 Hours of Downtime

    An interesting look at service downtimes from Pingdom – Tumblr was down for 47.5 hours on average over the span from Oct 15 to Dec 15, 2010. Not so good for Tumblr, but we already knew that. What was most interesting, to me, was that Blogger experience no downtime.

  • All Internet porn “To be blocked” in the UK

    Martin Bryant:

    Under the plan, customers would have to ask the ISP for access to pornography.

    Can you imagine how awkward the conversation would be with the guy in India when someone calls to ask for access to porn?

  • nvALT

    I have posted about nvALT before – the Notational Velocity fork by Brett Terpstra. He now has a project page for it and a new name nvALT. What is nice is that once you download the latest version you can use the in-app update engine from here forward.

  • Last Chance to Enter the First Ever TBR Give Away

    Just a quick note – I am stopping the entries for the giveaway tomorrow morning at 8a. Be sure to enter before then if you have not already.

  • BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers’ Eyes

    This is incredibly clever – while showing a normal advertisement at a movie theater BMW shot a flash from behind the screen. The end result of the flash was that when the ad ended and viewers were asked to close their eyes they would see the BMW logo with their eyes closed. This works in the same way as staring at a bright light (the Sun) will cause you to see bright spots when you close your eyes. Very clever.

    I think if this happened to me I would be the guy sitting there begging for them to do it again…

  • MarkdownNote

    An interesting Markdown note app from Coding Robots. I gave it a try today and while I don’t particularly care for writing in the app – there is one thing I really like: you can copy the text you wrote in Markdown out of the app as HTML. Basically meaning that I can post to this blog much faster with the iPad now (I am very slow when I must write in HTML).

    Neat.

  • TSA has a 70% Failure Rate

    Kevin Quinn:

    A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA’s new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.

    You have got to be kidding me – we are wasting billions on this ‘security’…

  • Schneier on Google, Facebook and the Future

    Bruce Schneier may have written the clearest explanation, I have ever heard, of why you can’t ‘trust’ companies like Google and Facebook:

    We’re not Google’s customers; we’re Google’s product that they sell to their customers. It’s a three-way relation ship: us, the IT service provider, and the advertiser or data buyer. And as these noncustomer IT relationships proliferate, we’ll see more IT companies treating us as products. If I buy a Dell computer, then I’m obviously a Dell customer; but if I get a Dell computer for free in exchange for access to my life, it’s much less obvious whom I’m entering a business relationship with. Facebook’s continual ratcheting down of user privacy in order to satisfy its actual customers —the advertisers—and enhance its revenue is just a hint of what’s to come.

    Brilliant.

  • Cameron Moll Doesn’t Think a MacBook Air Can be a Primary Computer

    A well written and well thought out post about his experience with his 11″ Air. I have no problem with him concluding that the 11″ Air can’t be a primary Mac – I do take exception to him assuming that the 13″ Air also cannot be a primary machine. I guess that makes me crazy for using a 13″ MacBook Air as a primary Mac?

    Either way it is a good post and you should take a read of it – I think if he had a 13″ MacBook Air that he would sing a different tune.

  • Top 5 OmniFocus Applescripts

    Check out the Applescript that uses Mail.app + MailTags to automatically add ticklers in OmniFocus for emails you are waiting to hear back on. I am adding that pronto.

    Also there is a script for moving from Things to OmniFocus – don’t forget OmniFocus has a great OTA sync option.

  • Dropbox hits 1.0

    Jon Ying on the Dropbox blog:

    You now can choose which folders get downloaded to which computers.

    I have been using Dropbox for a long time now – I think since you could get it. This is a great release and I have had no problems with the beta builds of it. Selective Sync has been a top requested feature for a very long time – it is implemented very well.

    BTW if you are not a Dropbox user and would like to sign up – using this link will give us both an extra 250mb, even if you only sign up for the free account.

  • OmniFocus Now Supports Sending Emails to OmniFocus

    Brian with the OmniGroup:

    Starting today, if you can turn the information into an email, you can add it to your OmniFocus inbox. Send an email from your PC, then tap a link on your iPhone to add that email to your database.

    Pretty nice, not the best thing in the world, but a very nice addition.

  • An Open Letter to Carol Bartz, CEO Yahoo Inc.

    Thomas Hawk writing to Carol Bartz about the leaked layoffs of 4% of Yahoo’s staff:

    But you know what? You haven’t taken the time to really explore the social side of Flickr. Hell, you don’t even have an account yourself on Flickr. One of the most highly visible and trafficked Yahoo properties and you don’t even have an account there. Would it be so hard to have your assistant set up an account for you and post some photos of some mountains from a family vacation two years ago?

    and:

    That’s right. At least according to this report you made $47.2 *million*.

    It is absurd to think that a CEO would lay people off while they rake in that much dough – all the while they don’t even have accounts and use the services their company provides. That would be like Ballmer using a Mac with Mac OS X on it – even he isn’t that stupid.

    Hawk:

    I guarantee you it’s not going to be a thin Christmas at the Bartz household this year.

  • 5 Safari Extensions to Beautify Your Internets

    In a DM on Twitter Milind Alvares sent me this link after I asked him about the availability of a particular Safari Extension. Install all of these extensions because they really do make things a lot better looking. I also love the Reddit Minimal extension and the Pure Reader extension.

    If you are not into extensions that re-design a website (which is fare) then just install the Beautifer and Optimize Legibility plug-ins that he lists. I use the font-smoothing commands in my CSS files and it really makes text look great in Safari.

    Bonus Tip: Open ‘Font Book’ on your Mac > scroll down to the Arial font faces > right click > choose ‘disable Arial family’. Now any webpage that calls for Arial will most likely be rendered with Helvetica – you are welcome.

  • Apple’s Mac App Store to Open on January 6

    Apple PR Machine:

    “The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”

    Why call them ‘PC apps’?

  • Sean Sperte on Friends

    Sean Sperte on the first problem he has with the new Friends app for iPhone:

    The app requires a question (“where do I go?/what do I do?”), answer (“I think I want to see what’s new”), and solution (after searching, “I guess I tap Posts”) from the user on its home screen.

    This is a really great, constructive, analysis of the Friends app – its attempt to be your one source for updates on social networks. I haven’t tried it, but from what I gather it falls well whort of its goal.