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Matt Hickey: >The full versions of Office for Mac and Windows 8 are expected to launch near the end of 2012, though the iPad version could come well ahead of that date. I wonder what percentage of the iPad screen the Microsoft ‘ribbon’ will take up? 40%?
Matt Hickey:
>The full versions of Office for Mac and Windows 8 are expected to launch near the end of 2012, though the iPad version could come well ahead of that date.
I wonder what percentage of the iPad screen the Microsoft ‘ribbon’ will take up? 40%?
An FTC release: >The proposed settlement bars Facebook from making any further deceptive privacy claims, requires that the company get consumers’ approval before it changes the way it shares their data, and requires that it obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years. I hope the FTC…
An FTC release:
>The proposed settlement bars Facebook from making any further deceptive privacy claims, requires that the company get consumers’ approval before it changes the way it shares their data, and requires that it obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years.
I hope the FTC isn’t patting themselves on the back just yet. I don’t know a ton about the FTC or the laws surrounding this “settlement” but in the note at the bottom of the release the FTC states:
>When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000.
So $16k isn’t that much money to Facebook, it’s nothing actually. Where it is interesting is the “each violation” part. Does this mean that one rule break is actually multiplied by the amount of current users? If so, then one violation would be a potential penalty of ~$12,800,000,000? That’d be a sweet incentive for Facebook.
“Instead of that, I recommend that you do what you love because you love doing it. If that means long hours, fantastic. If that means leaving the office by 6pm every day for your underwater basket-weaving class, also fantastic.” — Jamie Zawinski
Dan Frommer: >This is where some sort of iOS “guest mode” would be neat, to be able to sign into your iTunes account for a few minutes, download your favorite app or two, maybe a TV show from your iCloud library, access your email, and then sign out when you’re done and wipe your data…
Dan Frommer:
>This is where some sort of iOS “guest mode” would be neat, to be able to sign into your iTunes account for a few minutes, download your favorite app or two, maybe a TV show from your iCloud library, access your email, and then sign out when you’re done and wipe your data off the device. This would also be useful when you’re visiting friends or relatives and want to access your stuff from their iPad.
>In general, iOS doesn’t seem to be set up very well for sharing, and if the iPad is going to become a public-use device, it would be nice if Apple improved that experience. But for now, it’s better than nothing, I suppose.
This is high up on my wish list too, but in a slightly different vein. I just would like to be able to let someone else use my iPad without them being able to access my email and other stored data. A guest mode: yes — just perhaps one that allowed someone to use just Safari and apps that I designate, where everything else remains walled off. That’d be pretty useful.
John Gruber: >Good point from David Chartier: perhaps the biggest problem with Duplicate is that Apple didn’t give it a standard keyboard shortcut. I’m going to assign Duplicate the old Shift-Command-S shortcut, and see if that helps. I like that tip, so I did that (you can too). Just go to System Preferences > Keyboard…
John Gruber:
>Good point from David Chartier: perhaps the biggest problem with Duplicate is that Apple didn’t give it a standard keyboard shortcut. I’m going to assign Duplicate the old Shift-Command-S shortcut, and see if that helps.
I like that tip, so I did that (you can too). Just go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts, click the Application shortcuts and add [this](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/duplicate.png).
Shawn Blanc has a nice `Save As` hack using Keyboard Maestro to get that functionality back to Lion enabled apps. It works well in my testing. One thing I would caution against is relying on this type of a hack. Apple isn’t likely to double back on this change and so it really is in…
Shawn Blanc has a nice `Save As` hack using Keyboard Maestro to get that functionality back to Lion enabled apps. It works well in my testing.
One thing I would caution against is relying on this type of a hack. Apple isn’t likely to double back on this change and so it really is in your best interest to get used to the `Duplicate` functionality.
Yesterday I asked you to fill out a quick survey about how you use electronics when you fly. Given all the hubbub out there I wanted to know how my very tech centric audience dealt with the rules. For take off and landing I asked what you did with your electronics in multiple choice. After…
Yesterday I asked you to fill out a quick survey about how you use electronics when you fly. Given all the hubbub out there I wanted to know how my very tech centric audience dealt with the rules. For take off and landing I asked what you did with your electronics in multiple choice. After 696 responses (as of this writing, here is the [live link to the results](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvxECnheEuzKdEo2ZThJTnhpZXZTRGcxWFBPdF9HN1E)) here is what you said:
– **63%** said that they “Turn on Airplane mode or otherwise make sure all radios are off before sleeping the device.“
– **16%** said that they “Turn the device power completely off.” (The current rule.)
– **13%** said that they “Just sleep the device.”
– **8%** are rebels saying they “Willfully ignore all instructions.”
– And one dubious fellow said: “I don’t fly with electronics.”
Say this data is someone representative of all tech fliers. That means that 8% off all nerds flying are leaving everything on. Let’s say that 10% of people flying are nerds. So out of 1,000,000 fliers that would be 100,000 nerds. So 8,000 people out of a 1,000,000 ignore all instructions leaving their devices fully on during take off and landing.
Hmm, where’s the fireball crashes?
More interesting is how people handle the devices while in flight:
– **74%** say that they “Make sure the device is in airplane mode.”
– **15%** say that they “Keep WiFi on so that I can hope that there is a free WiFi.”
– **11%** say that they “Leave everything on.”
– And one guy is still in the stone age.
Look at those numbers again. During the flight more people break the rules than they do during take off and landing. Still, flying has only been getting safer…
If anything I just wanted this survey to show that there certainly are people who break the rules without the horrific outcomes the FAA would have you believe.
What outcomes? I asked what people have heard would happen if they don’t power down devices and here are some of *my* favorite responses:
– “death”
– “The nice lady says so”
– “Because our advanced electronics systems aren’t capable of filtering out a little radio noise. I’m fairly sure this hasn’t a problem since the late 90s but, whatever.”
– “Theyd rather be safe than sorry. “
– “I am British and therefor used to stupid rules that make no sense.”
– “It may explode the plane.”
– “Otherwise the plane could crash into a mountain because of interference.”
– “Not quite on topic, but on one flight, the pilot came on just as we were pushing back from the gate and stated that there was a cell phone still on in the plane and they couldn’t take off until it was turned off. I watched at least 10 people dig into their bags to turn off a phone. Mine stayed on. We took off just fine.”
– “Spontaneous human combustion”
There are a lot of good answers, mostly people have heard that cell phones cause interference with the airplane communications. A couple of pilots wrote in, and I reached out to a commercial pilot I know about the issue. The consensus from these pilots is that only older, non-3G, devices cause interference — the same way they might cause a buzzing sound to come through your car speakers. This however is gone by 10,000 feet.
However I have been told by a couple of the people that I spoke with that not only do *they* leave their cell phones on while flying, many pilots don’t turn off their phones.
It seems this is largely a B.S. rule, then again I doubt the FAA would want to gamble 120+ lives when they *know* that asking all phones to be turned off *is* safe.
Matt Gemmell turned off comments on his blog yesterday (well done) and offers three ways to comment on his site instead. His first way is: >Write a response on your own blog. Considered, long-form follow-ups by an identifiable, accountable person are the ultimate form of feedback and discussion. I’d love to read what you have…
Matt Gemmell turned off comments on his blog yesterday (well done) and offers three ways to comment on his site instead. His first way is:
>Write a response on your own blog. Considered, long-form follow-ups by an identifiable, accountable person are the ultimate form of feedback and discussion. I’d love to read what you have to say. Let me know about it via email or a tweet.
He also adds Twitter and Email to the list, but the above is his preference. It is my preference too. When you comment on something I write by posting on your own blog you are doing two important things:
1. Owning what you say.
2. Allowing me to publicly respond if I want too.
Many people think that commenting this way is a surefire way for it to not be seen. To address that let me tell you how you can make me aware of it:
1. Click a link that takes you from your comment to my site. Then you show up in my referrers and I try to look and read what and who is linking to me. Obviously the more traffic you have the quicker I notice this.
2. Shoot me a link on Twitter. That makes it dead simple for me to send the link to Instapaper, thus ensuring it will be read.
3. You can email the link to me, but I archive a large portion of email while only scanning it. Sorry, but that’s the truth — emailing me a link will likely not get the link read. That’s not the universal case, but if I don’t respond “Instapaper’d” then yeah…
You know what would make your iPad really great? RIM putting its greasy hands all over it.
You know what would make your iPad really great? RIM putting its greasy hands all over it.
My favorite writing app, iA Writer, just came out with an update to both the Mac and iPad apps that adds in iCloud support and folder support for Dropbox. In the few minutes I have had to play with it, the iCloud support looks fantastic — along with a bunch of other nice touches.
My favorite writing app, iA Writer, just came out with an update to both the Mac and iPad apps that adds in iCloud support and folder support for Dropbox. In the few minutes I have had to play with it, the iCloud support looks fantastic — along with a bunch of other nice touches.
Well [that](https://brooksreview.net/2011/11/mall-heatmaps/) was short lived. Interesting quote Maggie Shader has from Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY): >Personal cell phones are just that—personal—and should not be used as tracking devices by private companies. I wonder what implications that has for the [Apple Store system](https://brooksreview.net/2011/11/apple-pick-up/) that locates a person in the store…
Well [that](https://brooksreview.net/2011/11/mall-heatmaps/) was short lived. Interesting quote Maggie Shader has from Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY):
>Personal cell phones are just that—personal—and should not be used as tracking devices by private companies.
I wonder what implications that has for the [Apple Store system](https://brooksreview.net/2011/11/apple-pick-up/) that locates a person in the store…
This is an interesting position that the European Commission is putting Facebook in. If I read this correctly they are essentially telling Facebook that Facebook can only use the information they collect for advertising and such “in the manner that its users expect” if the user gives consent. Even though you basically give consent when…
This is an interesting position that the European Commission is putting Facebook in. If I read this correctly they are essentially telling Facebook that Facebook can only use the information they collect for advertising and such “in the manner that its users expect” if the user gives consent. Even though you basically give consent when you sign up for the service.
Perhaps the EC wants it explicitly stated in clear and simple terms all by itself? I am all for that, but it won’t change anything.
Mike Swanson: >I created a “novelty” app primarily because I didn’t have time to maintain servers or other back-end infrastructure, and I wanted a fun app that nobody would depend on. I also needed an app that the press wouldn’t find very interesting. After all, my day job was still as a Technical Evangelist at…
Mike Swanson:
>I created a “novelty” app primarily because I didn’t have time to maintain servers or other back-end infrastructure, and I wanted a fun app that nobody would depend on. I also needed an app that the press wouldn’t find very interesting. After all, my day job was still as a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, and nobody needed that article.
From Microsoft Evangelist to iOS app developer. I’m not implying he hated his job at Microsoft, but I find it pretty interesting that a Microsoft employee of 11 plus years with the title he had left to just work on iOS apps full time.
That’s a testament to both the iOS app ecosystem and how healthy it is and to Microsoft’s ability to keep people how have been with them for quite a while.
Sean Gallagher: >The technology, from Portsmouth, England-based Path Intelligence, is called Footpath. It uses monitoring units distributed throughout a mall or retail environment to sense the movement of customers by triangulation, using the strength of their cellphone signals. That data is collected and run through analytics by Path, and provided back to retailers through a…
Sean Gallagher:
>The technology, from Portsmouth, England-based Path Intelligence, is called Footpath. It uses monitoring units distributed throughout a mall or retail environment to sense the movement of customers by triangulation, using the strength of their cellphone signals. That data is collected and run through analytics by Path, and provided back to retailers through a secure website.
Apparently the service can then use the data to create a heatmap of the store. While creepy, this is also pretty cool.
Also: time to bust out the tinfoil hats.
If you have a minute I would love to know what you do when you are told to turn off electronics while flying. *(There’s a bonus question about the lame things you have been told for the reasons behind having to turn off electronics. I’ll post the best answers later this week.)*
If you have a minute I would love to know what you do when you are told to turn off electronics while flying.
*(There’s a bonus question about the lame things you have been told for the reasons behind having to turn off electronics. I’ll post the best answers later this week.)*
Nathan Ingraham: >It shows the customer on a map of the store so employees can find them and deliver their purchase, ideally without the customer ever having to ask for help. Now *that* is cool. Relatedly: a bit freaky. More importantly I want to know how they get the location inside the store that accurate.…
Nathan Ingraham:
>It shows the customer on a map of the store so employees can find them and deliver their purchase, ideally without the customer ever having to ask for help.
Now *that* is cool. Relatedly: a bit freaky.
More importantly I want to know how they get the location inside the store that accurate. Google maps has a hard enough time telling one street corner from another.
Kristina Grifantini: >Researchers at Dartmouth College and the University of Bologna in Italy have developed an Android app that uses the camera on a smart phone to detect oncoming traffic. It isn’t amazing that this possible, it *is* amazing that we see a need for such a thing.
Kristina Grifantini:
>Researchers at Dartmouth College and the University of Bologna in Italy have developed an Android app that uses the camera on a smart phone to detect oncoming traffic.
It isn’t amazing that this possible, it *is* amazing that we see a need for such a thing.
Well here’s a reason for shutting off electronics in flight, from Anna Leach: >An iPhone caused a small emergency in an Australian airplane after it inexplicably started to glow red and emit “significant amounts of dense smoke” as the craft touched down in Sydney airport. Check out the picture in [this pdf](http://www.regionalexpress.com.au/MediaRelease/Files/295_MR20111125%20-%20Mobile%20Phone%20Self%20Combustion.pdf). [via James Wilson]
Well here’s a reason for shutting off electronics in flight, from Anna Leach:
>An iPhone caused a small emergency in an Australian airplane after it inexplicably started to glow red and emit “significant amounts of dense smoke” as the craft touched down in Sydney airport.
Check out the picture in [this pdf](http://www.regionalexpress.com.au/MediaRelease/Files/295_MR20111125%20-%20Mobile%20Phone%20Self%20Combustion.pdf).
This statement from Marco Arment rings so true: >His father has many good reasons not to switch, and I don’t understand any of them. Marco’s talking about the feeling of banging your head into a wall that you get when you try to “help” people with their technology problems. I too stopped long ago trying…
This statement from Marco Arment rings so true:
>His father has many good reasons not to switch, and I don’t understand any of them.
Marco’s talking about the feeling of banging your head into a wall that you get when you try to “help” people with their technology problems. I too stopped long ago trying to help anyone because most of the time I just don’t understand why they are doing things the way that they are — and more importantly don’t care to understand why.
#### Another short story ####
I grew up working construction for my father’s company. I am now a property manager and a licensed real estate broker. When it comes to just about any home repair I either know how to repair it, or I have a “buddy” who could do it for me, likely for close to free. It’s a “perk” of my job.
These are things you may not know about me and it really doesn’t matter.
I rent my current place and you would think that given my background and current profession that I would never need to call my landlord to have a repair done — that’d be a wrong thought.
Nothing has occurred other than A/C troubles that I couldn’t fix myself, but I usually always make the landlord come and fix stuff and while I play dumb with the repairman. ((The only exception is if I need it done now and don’t care to wait. That and toilet issues: they are so easy to fix I don’t see making someone waste money on a plumber.)) The reason is the same as why I play dumb with technology: I don’t care to learn why things are being done the way they are, because those things will likely always look “wrong” to me.
If it’s not something that I own, then I want the person who does own it to make the call on how something is fixed because at the end of the day I don’t know the why and don’t care to know it.