Recent Articles

Federico Viticci:

The larger screen was, for me, the biggest concern in switching back from the iPad mini to the iPad Air. After an initial period of shock where every iPad app looked unreasonably large and spacious, three months of daily usage have rewired my perception of the Air's screen size. I prefer the Air's bigger screen to the mini one now, but only because the design changes in the latest model make it as comfortable and painless as the mini to hold with one or two hands. The iPad is, after all, a screen that you keep in your hands, and the practical consequences of that screen are a product of the comfort you find in holding the device.

I could quote damn near his entire post. The iPad I near perfect, it just needs to be a touch bigger.

Salim Virani on why you must get off Facebook:

According to the FTC settlement from a few years ago, after Facebook was sued by the US goverment for its privacy practices, Facebook is “required to prevent anyone from accessing a user’s material more than 30 days after the user has deleted his or her account;”

There are different interpretations of this. Some say you need to delete each post separately, others say delete your account, and some say they’ll still keep your data anyway — that all you can do is stop giving them more data.

I’m going to do both as a precaution. There are a few helpful browser add-ons that will delete your posts individually, which I’m running now but needs some baby-sitting to keep running. And some great instructions on actually deleting your account while Facebook tries to trick you into deactivating it instead.

He does a far better job verbalizing why this is important than I can, but the above quote is very telling if you ask me. Facebook makes it so hard to clean your data off their servers that people make tools to help you.

Good list from Casey Liss. And that Sleep Pillow app he mentions, yeah we use that too and it is fantastic.

Kriston Capps:

So chili: no beans. Chili is beef plus hot and smoky. No macaroni, no cinnamon (c’mon), and certainly no tofu.

This is what I always tell people.

Thomas Wong:

When I’m asked about the Isar, my elevator pitch is this: it’s basically a thin laptop backpack with a duffel bag grafted right onto it. That’s a brutal way of putting it that strips out all the magic of the design, but it gets the point across.

The Isar is the one bag that I keep looking at, wanting to try out to see how it stacks up. It's a gorgeous looking bag.

Garrett Murray, disagrees with me that fixed-lens cameras take some getting used to:

There’s nothing to get used to with a fixed-lens camera. You can still use it point-and-shoot, or you can take the next step, learn more, and make better photos.

He makes good points, I still think it’s not the right camera to recommend to the non-photographically inclined. As I think it is harder to get used to zooming with your feet, and to find the composition for your one focal length instead of just “zooming” to make it work. Meaning, raise your camera to capture a stunning sunset, only to realize it looks too distant, or you are getting to little of the surroundings — you have to think about what might work, or forgo capturing it. Whereas most beginners would just “zoom” so it looks more like a postcard. ((I don’t mean that as an insult, just an example.))

I glossed over this whole position in my post because I’m still too new to only having a fixed lens camera. However, I did mostly shoot all my other cameras with just one lens. That said I still think there is a large distinction to be made, and a large enough one that beginners aren’t well suited towards fixed lens. ((Then again watch me change my mind in another month.))

The only thing I can't figure out about this app is just how creepy I think it is.