Zachary Seward:
Pull media has quickly been replaced by push media, as the Times report makes clear in so many words. Information—status updates, photos of your friends, videos of Solange, and sometimes even news articles—come at you; they find you. And media that don’t are hardly found at all.
Quite a few apps I didn’t know about.
This just sky rocketed to the top of my “want” list.
Jamie Hoyle:
In any other industry, we’d call this racketeering. For cable companies, it’s a business practice.
We had tons of requests, and we gave it a lot of thought, and we finally decided to switch from reference links to inline links when copying/exporting to Markdown.
Finally.
Melissa Dahl:
This means that “it’s not just a phone call that counts as an interruption — just the ringing counts … even if all you want to do is find your phone and shut it off,” the study’s lead author, Michigan State University psychologist Erik Altmann, said in an email.
Conor McClure on the Fujifilm X100s:
If I had to recommend one camera to anyone, it would be the X100S. Everything is built to top-notch quality, and what it cannot do means that what it can do is that much better. And it can do everything you need it to.
Agreed. It’s a fantastic camera and I emailed Ginter just today to recommend that to him as well. I love my X-E2, but the X100s is a camera I will buy for sure.
Art Brodsky on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler:
He is refusing to recognize reality.
Nate Barham on the silly notion of an action based iOS launcher:
I agree that this situation is frustrating, but what Mitchell assumes here, and throughout his article is that users want an action-based interface. The brilliance of the iPhone interface was—and is—in the simple genius of “Tap to open an app, home button to close.”
And:
In a truly action-based interface, the Text action could possibly take me to any of these as well as Notes, Reminders, and countless others. What used to take me one tap in a familiar app now takes at least two taps, one of which includes a leap of faith that the action I’ve chosen corresponds to the secondary actions that might follow.
Good post, read it.
Glenn Greenwald:
It is quite possible that Chinese firms are implanting surveillance mechanisms in their network devices. But the US is certainly doing the same.
David Sparks:
In the end, it’s worth remembering that both efficiency and productivity are about your time. And your time isn’t simply a scalar quantity, with shorter being better—it’s a vector that takes into account whether that time is spent in enjoyment or frustration.
Something to keep an eye on:
Syncthing replaces Dropbox and BitTorrent Sync with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, if it is shared with some third party and how it’s transmitted over the Internet.
For now I will stick with BTSync (which has been fantastic for me, truly), but this could be promising once it gets a little further along.
Here’s another addition of ‘your review doesn’t match your rating’. This time from Mark Goldstein, at the fantastic PhotographyBLOG, where he ends his Leica T Review as follows:
In summary the new Leica T is an incredibly well-built, beautiful camera that delivers excellent image quality, but it’s also a camera that’s frustrating to use (especially for power users), slow to focus, lacking in features and undeniably expensive. If ever there was a camera that you should try before you buy, the Leica T is definitely it…
He then goes on to give it four stars (out of five) and labels the camera ‘recommended’. Now, maybe you think that is in line with his concluding paragraph (I don’t), but then skip back up a couple paragraphs to:
Having said all of that, for us the Leica T ultimately doesn’t offer enough to satisfy either the camera-phone upgrader or the affordable Leica camp.
“It’s not great, but we recommend it.”
Ken Rockwell on the 56mm from Fuji:
The Fuji XF 56mm f/1.2 ASPH is an extraordinary lens. When a lens is just about optically and mechanically perfect, there isn’t much to say, other than to get one.
I’ve been dreaming of buying this lens ever since I tested it. Simply a fantastic lens.
Shawn Blanc:
A surprisingly critical part of maintaining a consistently creative lifestyle is stepping away from the creative work at hand in order to recharge.
Good advice all around, but the above is one I struggle with in particular. I try to take at least one straight week off from writing anything for this site each year. I find people to fill in for me for no other reason than to tell myself: someone else is covering it, forget about it.
If you write a blog regularly I suggest you find a way to take at least a week off each year. Every time I do so I come back with a storm of ideas. Taking time off is a fantastic productivity and creativity tool.
Gautham Nagesh on FCC Chairmen Tom Wheeler’s proposed changes to his shit ‘net neutrality’ plan:
The redrafting reflects the challenge Mr. Wheeler faces as he pushes forward with a vote Thursday on the plan that would then open the proposal to public comment. The chairman, agency officials said, is trying to address the backlash to his initial proposal while sticking to what he thinks will be the fastest course of action.
Read the last four words again. Not the “best course of action”, no sir, the fastest course of action.
Because screw doing it right, let’s just do something, you with me? U.S.A, U.S.A., U.s…
Wheeler needs to go.
Very neat, I have yet to try it but am told it works.
Josh Ginter:
Begin gives a sense of delight greater than any other to-do app I’ve tried.
Ken Rockwell on the Fujifilm X-T1:
The Fuji X-T1 is a real camera, made of metal, not plastic, for real photographers.
The X-T1 has shutter and aperture dials. Nikon and Canon don't any more.
The X-T1 has a real exposure compensation dial. LEICA and Nikon don't any more.
The X-T1 has a real ISO dial. LEICA, Canon and Nikon don't any more.
Overall, a glowing review from Rockwell.
Matthew Guay:
Ulysses III was everything a web or print writer needed in one Markdown-powered app. You could write, easily keep up with all of your texts, and export in any format, all in one app. It’s a one-stop-shop for all your writing needs, and a beautiful one at that.
Great review, and agreed on all accounts.