It was funny at hour 3 for me, then I started feeling bad for its users from hours 5-10. Now though this is getting funny-sad again. Where is Marco Arment when Tumblr needs him…
Category: Links
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23 Devices My iPhone Has Replaced
Very interesting list and I would bet it will only grow as the iOS platform matures.
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Paul Graham on Tablets
Paul Graham:
The iPhone isn’t so much a phone as a replacement for a phone. That’s an important distinction, because it’s an early instance of what will become a common pattern. Many if not most of the special-purpose objects around us are going to be replaced by apps running on tablets.
He basically argues that tablets, such as iPhones/iPads, are going to be replacing a great many things in our lives and that is rather hard to argue with.
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Gruber on the Future of Mac OS X
John Gruber for Macworld:
It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light.
Great insight.
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“Shawn Blanc’s 2010 Professional Gift Guide for That Nerdy, Design-Savvy, Coffee-Loving Writer in Your Life”
Nice round up of some items that I haven’ seen on many other sites this year. Be sure to check out the one I put together as well, you can check that out here.
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Reeder and the Keyboard
Shawn Blanc on Reeder for the Mac’s use of keyboard shortcuts:
While the interface design of Reeder for Mac is gorgeous and polished, it seems as if each level of hierarchy stands a bit isolated. It is easy to navigate within the subscriptions list, it’s easy to navigate within a list of items, and the individual item view is big and clear. But getting between one level to another is not so simple (unless you’re using the mouse).
I can’t say that I disagree with Shawn here, NetNewsWire (the only other OS X RSS reader that is worth a damn) does a great job of implementing keyboard shortcuts. Quite a few of you contacted me one way or another and your basic question was when I would be reviewing Reeder. The answer is not until it is a shipping 1.0 release, I just don’t think it is all that fair to review a product that came out less than a week ago, too much changes too fast.
I can’t fault Shawn for writing about this, and I agree it needs some work. That said the first update to Reeder since its public release has added more keyboard functionality. It seems that it is coming, but we can’t expect so much so fast.
Having said that Shawn hits some good points about the awkwardness of some of the iOS details of the app coming over to OS X.
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How our “security” obsession costs us
Tom Engelhardt on how the war on terrorism and the TSA is spiraling out of control:
Consider that a little parable about just how low this country has sunk, how psychologically insecure we’ve become while supposedly guarding ourselves against global danger. There is no question that, at the height of Cold War hysteria, when superpower nuclear arsenals were out of this world and the planet seemed a hair-trigger from destruction, big and small penises were in play, symbolically speaking. Only now, however, facing a ragtag set of fanatics and terrorists — not a mighty nation but a puny crew — are those penises perfectly real and, potentially, completely humiliating.
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Aperture 3 vs Lightroom 3 on Mac Pro
Bare Feats:
If these four tests are indicative, Lightroom is faster to process adjustments while Aperture is faster to process exports.
This explains why I think Lightroom is faster, exporting is only a small part of what I do with images, and I rarely do it in large batches. Export tests are dumb in my opinion because it is going to take time no matter what, I want my workflow while I am at the machine to be fast. I can drink some scotch while stuff exports.
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Samsung Galaxy Tab Sales Pass 1 Million
They are expecting to sell 1.5 million be year end. I don’t doubt it either.
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“Virgin’s new magazine app is crap”
Rex Hammock on the Project “Magazine” iPad app:
Here’s a suggestion, if you call something a “magazine,” maybe you can imagine (try very, very hard) that some people are attracted to magazines because they want to “read.” If you’re creating something for viewers or listeners or players, maybe use another metaphor than magazine — maybe call it a “media noise-maker app,” if all it does is package up bells and whistles.
[via Khoi Vinh on Twitter] -
Why Amazon Removed WikiLeaks
Amazon Web Services:
But, when companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn’t rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won’t injure others, it’s a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere.
Removing WikiLeaks because they don’t own the data makes sense and is a common reason for removing sites. Removing the site though because Amazon can’t be sure it won’t cause harm to others is noble, but an odd thing for this type of company to enforce.
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Chuck Norris to become honorary Texas Ranger
This was too sweet not to post, the AP:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to present the actor and executive director of “Walker, Texas Ranger” with a designation as an honorary member of the famed law enforcement group Thursday.
Admit it, that made you smile a little.
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“Close the Washington Monument”
Bruce Schneier:
What has happened to “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”?
What indeed.
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‘The Evolution of the Hyperlink’
A very cool new hyperlink system from the New York Times that allows people to highlight a particular sentence they are trying to link to on The New York Times. Great stuff can’t wait for the WordPress plugin to come out, there is one that gives you paragraph links called WinerLinks, but it is not the same.
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Agendas App for iPad
This looks really cool, only drawback is everyone in the meeting would need an iPad (if you can call that a drawback).
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“International Albino of Mystery”
Will Wilkinson:
Today, there are millions upon millions of government and corporate employees capable of downloading massive amounts of data onto tiny devices. The only way WikiLeaks-like exposés will stop is if those with the permissions necessary to access and copy sensitive data refuse to do so. But as long as some of those people retain a sense of right and wrong—even if it is only a tiny minority—these leaks and these scandals will continue.
Great point. So let’s all forget about the “international albino of mystery”.
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Aperture 3 vs. Lightroom 3
Interesting how they royally screwed up the test in the beginning, yet still conclude that Aperture is faster. All I can say, unscientifically, is that I am switching to Lightroom because on my MacBook Air it is faster than Aperture, and requires 100% less fan use.
[via The Loop] -
Wikileaks kicked out of Amazon’s cloud
No one actually thought that Amazon would be a long term solution, right?
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Engadget’s Dell Inspiron Duo Review
Joanna Stern on the Duo:
If only we could give such praise to its measurements and weight; the 1.03 to 1.13-inch thick / 3.4-pound netbook is much chunkier than most, which is really disappointing considering you’ll want to pick this one up more than the others out there. In tablet mode we found it best to prop it up on our legs or cradle it in the crook of our arm — unless you’ve got mitts like Shaq, you won’t be using this thing with one hand.
A tablet needs to be able to be held in your hands to read and use – 3.4lbs is just not conducive to that type of use. Reading the rest of the review the Duo sounds like a well made device with crappy software (Windows 7) and reminds me of the crossover cars that manufacturers make. They are supposed to be all purpose devices, while in reality they just really are only good at wasting your money.