Category: Links

Excellent new book from David Sparks. Well, actually, what I have read *so far* has been excellent. This is coming from someone who has inbox zero most of the day.

I’ve gotten very good at email, but David offers some great advice that helps me be even better.

So far he has convinced me to turn off all email notifications on my Mac (I had turned them off a few months ago on iOS) — loving the feeling of no nagging badges. (That’s the only major change as the ones I have read so far I already do, more or less.)

Go buy this, I doubt anyone would regret this knowledge.

Greg Pierce [writing about the URL scheme security in Drafts](http://agiletortoise.com/blog/2013/11/18/url-scheme-security/):

> If you use Drafts automation features and are concerned about the security implications, I highly recommend you enable the URL key setting. As with most security measures, the downside of this setting is convenience. You will have edit custom actions you download to include this “key=[your key]” parameter for them to work. Note that since the value is editable, if you use Drafts on multiple devices you can set the value to match on all your devices to more easily share actions.

He is responding to Guillaume Ross’ [post on security vulnerabilities](https://brooksreview.net/2013/11/guest-post_scheming-for-privacy-and-security/).

Good post giving an overview of Seattle’s mesh network of surveillance cameras. Cameras that SPD officers have access to in their cars, and that other federal agencies have access to as well. Even mentioning the hotly debated issue of port cameras, installed for maritime security, facing inward to the city.

Sounds like SPD has committed to dismantling some of the network, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.

Solid iPad Air review from Stephen Hackett. I’m in agreement, but have yet to have any issues with the Smart Cover on my Air.

John Gruber:

> Hence, I think, the name change for the 9.7-inch model, from last year’s “iPad” to “iPad Air”. There no longer is a main or regular or standard iPad. Last year Apple billed the Mini as “every inch an iPad”, and that was true, but it was every inch an iPad 2. This, year, it’s every inch a top-of-the-line iPad.

Most insightful iPad mini review I have seen yet. ((Not surprising, just saying.))

Lia Pas:

> How strange that technology that is only three years old feels cludgy in our hands now. How strange what high expectations we have for responsiveness from a thin board of glass and metal. How easily these things have become “necessities” and ubiquitous in our presence. How will we play with light three years from now? How old will this device I’m using now feel beneath my hands?

Michael Lopp on the simplification of Keynote:

> There’s the simplification where you clean your desk. The clutter on your desk is bugging you, so you decide to clean it up. This small act of simplification gives you the pleasant illusion that world contains less chaos and you can suddenly magically focus on the task that you were procrastinating on while you were cleaning your desk.

Good read.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a long time Windows user, on preferring OS X, iOS, and Android over Windows now:

> My primary work system is a MacBook Pro, and in the ten months I’ve had it it’s flawlessly done everything I’ve asked of it, from run Microsoft Word to render 4K video. I’ve lost count of the number of notebooks I’ve owned over the years, but this MacBook Pro is, by far, the most reliable system I’ve owned, and I put part of that down to the fact that it doesn’t run Windows.

And, on tablets:

> My experience of Windows on tablets closely resembles that of my ZDNet colleague James Kendrick. Bottom line, they let me down too much to want to bother with them. Why would I trade a reliable iPad or Android tablet for an unreliable Windows 8.1 tablet? Why trade a tablet that just works for one that regularly sends me on quests, roaming the Internet looking for the right elixir to fix the system?

Good read.

Great post detailing how Apple may use sapphire displays. Think of the sapphire more as a protective layer on top — Zagg is probably praying this is all rumors.

Trevor Timm:
> So let’s get one thing straight: when the NSA vacuums up millions of innocent people’s communications and metadata, the agency is not limiting itself to counter-terrorism uses. Pretending there is a narrower scope is not an honest way to have a debate.

I linked to [John Carey’s excellent iOS wallpapers](http://fiftyfootshadows.net/2013/11/06/ios-7-parallax-wallpaper-pack/) the other day, but Carey just posted details on how he came up with an ideal size for the parallax effect to work. Noting:

> I tested this by cropping images to Apples default wallpaper resolution then drawing a red box on top the pixel size of the iPhones screen resolution. I then loaded the resulting image into my iPhone and checked to see where the edges of the red box fell on screen. After trying a number of different cropped resolutions I discovered if I made any changes to the resolution set by apple the box would no longer line up ideally on the screen at a neutral position.

No wonder they look amazing — they weren’t just cropped down, they are considered for each device. Something that is evident when you compare the iPad and iPhone versions of the same wallpaper that Carey sells. If you just set the image and don’t fiddle with it at all the end result is a fantastic looking image. I cannot imagine how big of a pain in the ass all this testing and tinkering was.

This is a really great update to my favorite syncing service. It adds two major features:

1. An iPad version.
2. The ability to use “open in” for images, and save images to camera roll.

Now the only major shortcoming of the iOS app is a passcode to open it.