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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]
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.
No one actually thought that Amazon would be a long term solution, right?
No one actually thought that Amazon would be a long term solution, right?
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…
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.
After reading this I have to ask: has Thurrott even used an iPad? [via DF]
After reading this I have to ask: has Thurrott even used an iPad?
Katherine Noyes showing ignorance: I believe Apple’s iPhone is rapidly becoming a niche device. Its restrictions are too numerous, its approach too condescending, and its choices too few to have the broad appeal it needs to succeed on a grander scale in the long run. Which of course explains why my parents, grandparents and just…
Katherine Noyes showing ignorance:
I believe Apple’s iPhone is rapidly becoming a niche device. Its restrictions are too numerous, its approach too condescending, and its choices too few to have the broad appeal it needs to succeed on a grander scale in the long run.
Which of course explains why my parents, grandparents and just about every other person in the world wants one. Obviously she is saying that the iPhone’s niche market is cellphone users, otherwise this is the dumbest thing I have read in quite some time.
Alex “Sandy” Antunes on the computers used in Star Trek: I mean, come on, the Ship’s Computer is smart enough to build an Artificial Intelligence that itself is so smart it can take over the Ship. But it can’t find something useful it encounters every day? It’s a great point and a great argument for…
Alex “Sandy” Antunes on the computers used in Star Trek:
I mean, come on, the Ship’s Computer is smart enough to build an Artificial Intelligence that itself is so smart it can take over the Ship. But it can’t find something useful it encounters every day?
It’s a great point and a great argument for semantic computing. I never thought about the fake computers used in Star Trek much, but the more I do now the more inconsistencies I see.
Ian Hines on wearing your phone: I guess the bottom line for me is that the belt clip has always been much more about utility than it has been about fashion. I’m married. I’m not exactly the coolest guy on the block. And I really don’t care as much about fashion as I care that…
Ian Hines on wearing your phone:
I guess the bottom line for me is that the belt clip has always been much more about utility than it has been about fashion. I’m married. I’m not exactly the coolest guy on the block. And I really don’t care as much about fashion as I care that I’ve got my tools where I need them.
I hate summer for one reason: I can never figure out where to put my phone. It will usually end up in my pants pocket making my thigh look rectangular. Winter/Fall/Spring in Washington allows for jacket weather, jackets have nice inside breast pockets that hold cell phones like a charm.
My wife says I have more clothes than her ((Yeah, right.)) so I may be too worried about how I look, but I still don’t think there is any excuse for wearing a belt clip. I get why Ian does it, and indeed when I worked in carpentry growing up I wore a tool belt with my hammer, and often my screw gun, hanging from it. For Ian it is about necessity, his job demands that he answers the phone while on the go, his job demands his availability. I can excuse that. The people that really drive me crazy are the ones that so very obviously do not need their phone on their belt.
At the very least, very least, put your phone in a pocket when you are dressing up for a formal event, or even just a semi-formal event. ((Fin.))
I am starting to lose all hope that Tweetie for the Mac will ever be updated. I started a search to find something new, to see if anything out there is better than the rapidly aging Tweetie for Mac. Here is what I found… Kiwi 2 Kiwi 2 is an exercise in letting the user…
I am starting to lose all hope that Tweetie for the Mac will ever be updated. I started a search to find something new, to see if anything out there is better than the rapidly aging Tweetie for Mac. Here is what I found…
Kiwi 2 is an exercise in letting the user pick a theme, while ripping off only the worst parts of Tweetie. It leaves you with a confusing and ugly interface. I don’t like to say bad things about products that people clearly took time and effort to build, but this needs a ground up redesign. The ‘compose’ window is a rip off of Tweetie, yet it is 18 times uglier, that top bar for instance is on steroids. The navigation bar is confusing, trying to follow a new user is too difficult. The ads are implemented poorly and look like they are from 2002 instead of 2011.
You get a rule system where you can define actions that Kiwi should take given parameters you set, which is neat. This works as a way of filtering out, say, Instagram tweets. A pretty neat feature but I would rather just unfollow someone instead of filtering tweets that I see.
The tab system it uses makes absolutely no sense. If I have the Brooks Review tab open and I go to close that tab Kiwi will delete that account from the app. This is not a convenient feature – this is stupid, I can’t fathom why you would want a quick way of deleting an account. Tabs are fine, but honestly why make them closeable if that is not the intended use of tabs? If I want to view the icons across the top in ‘text only’ ((Something I commonly do with apps like Mail)) view to save space and clean up the UI, I can, but the minute I click on one text view goes away. Oops.
No, thanks. ((The app icon is ugly too, but I feel bad enough about trashing this app already.))
When I first started using Twitter this is what I used. I went to give it another run through, but you needed Flash to install it, I don’t have Flash installed in Safari. That is the precise point that I remembered it runs on Adobe’s Air platform. So I just looked at the screenshots and decided: no way.
Ok that is not fair, I installed it using Chrome and updated Air on my machine and added an account. Then I sent a tweet from it, then I deleted it from my MacBook Air.
Thoroughly tested.
It really is just ugly and very overwhelming to use, not for me in any way. On the plus side I don’t hate the icon. Tweetdeck has gained new features since I last used it, but it is still the same cluttered Windows inspired app that it was back when I started with Twitter. The sad thing is I know so many people that use it, I wish they knew better.
Within the first ten-seconds of running this app I started to like it. It was recommended to me by Justin Blanton and I can see why he uses it. Echofon, unlike Kiwi, takes a lot of the good design cues from Tweetie. I really do like Echofon a lot and think that it has some really great things going for it.
Did you know that Echofon will position sync with the iOS apps, thus keeping you right where you left off on all your devices? That is pretty damn cool. I particularly like the design of the top bar and how you compose a new tweet.
What I really didn’t like is how you switch between accounts, the inactive account kinda gets forgotten in the UI especially if you don’t look at your dock. There needs to be better indication of the fact that you are running multiple accounts, and it would be nice to get a better more Tweetie like direct message view. That said this app doesn’t lack on keyboard shortcuts and has some nice OS integrations like adding the current Safari pages URL in the compose window.
If there is one thing I hate about the app it is the you must view Tweets with a username instead of the real name field – people pick stupid Avatars and stupid usernames that confuse the stupid out of me. ((Hat trick))
Kept breaking and crashing when I tried to switch views… the app is really not usable. At least on my machine.
Free version has only one account supported ((I could not find if the paid version was any different.)) and the app acts more like a desktop widget and not so much an app. That means that by default it sits on top of everything else and yet it feels like something to keep you up to date, not something you should be interacting with. The way the app was designed is very different from all other Twitter apps I tried. I don’t dislike it, but I also don’t like it very much – Twitterrific just does not fit my workflow and how I integrate Twitter on my Mac.
Having said that it is an interesting option and I urge you to try it out at least once to see if it is something that fits with your workflow.
I need to start by saying that the icon for Hibari is the worst one of the lot. Hibari is not for me, it is a one Twitter account type of app (meaning you can’t have multiple accounts with it). If you are the type that is not that active on Twitter this would be a fantastic little app for you. I would bet that I would find it very serviceable if I could get some extra accounts going, until then it won’t work for me.
Like with Kiwi you can ‘mute’ certain tweets. Unlike Kiwi it looks damn nice. After the lack of multiple Twitter accounts my biggest complaint is the ‘new tweet’ area – it isn’t ugly, but it does look like the developer just gave up when it came time to make this.
This is a nice little minimal app though.
Tweetie still wins, and do you want to know why? Aside from Tweetdeck and Twitterrific, the others are just crappy knockoffs of Tweetie. Now for me (for now) Tweetie and DMs are still working, when that stops I am all over Echofon, at which point I may also cry. ((Because I miss Tweetie, not because of Echofon.))
If you are trying to figure out which app to use and you have never used Tweetie then get Echofon because at least then you know it will work. Oh, that and you know that you won’t fall in love with an app that seems forgotten.
[Updated: 12/1/10 at 6:35 AM]
I forgot to add Itsy to the list of apps I tried. I don’t have much to say about it other than it is not the type of app I am looking for. It takes up minimal space and gives you minimal options (only one account). It is nice looking, but not great looking.
Very beta version is available. [Updated: 11/30/10 at 10:31 PM] What a great app it is.
Very beta version is available.
[Updated: 11/30/10 at 10:31 PM] What a great app it is.
John Biggs with an excellent look at the Comcast and Level 3 crap: In fact, given the value of Internet connectivity to the average user, Comcast could do itself a favor and offer faster, better service to its current subscribers for a little more money instead of shaking down Level 3 (and then probably shaking…
John Biggs with an excellent look at the Comcast and Level 3 crap:
In fact, given the value of Internet connectivity to the average user, Comcast could do itself a favor and offer faster, better service to its current subscribers for a little more money instead of shaking down Level 3 (and then probably shaking us down by telling us it can offer “Gold++ Netflix Streaming Service” for $50 a month). As it stands, cable and DSL service is abysmally slow and underperforming in the first place. Clearly Comcast needs to get its own house in order before crying victim.
Shawn Parker: The WordPress TextMate Bundle is a TextMate bundle built with the sole purpose of reducing the amount of time spent digging around the WordPress core to look up the little things that we work with every day. Nice! [via Jonathan Christopher]
Shawn Parker:
The WordPress TextMate Bundle is a TextMate bundle built with the sole purpose of reducing the amount of time spent digging around the WordPress core to look up the little things that we work with every day.
Nice!
Over the holiday weekend here in the States I had some lively discussions about the new TSA backscatter machines with family members. As with any political discussion I tend to be mellow and not get to heated with people, it just isn’t worth it to have a shouting match on Thanksgiving. One question that seemed…
Over the holiday weekend here in the States I had some lively discussions about the new TSA backscatter machines with family members. As with any political discussion I tend to be mellow and not get to heated with people, it just isn’t worth it to have a shouting match on Thanksgiving. One question that seemed to keep popping up is the notion that lack of privacy is worth overall safety. To which I argued that better trained agents would allow safety and privacy, over what the backscatter machines currently offer.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argues that backscatter machines are necessary because they have no other means of checking for concealed weaponry on a person (things that do not set off metal detectors). This is incredibly valid and true, they have no way. Now whether backscatter machines solve this problem and whether or not these machines are health hazards is not important. What is important is that these machines solve a problem using a strict set of rules, that are defined to each traveler.
Making the rules known and steadfast is the security hole, or loop-hole if you prefer.
Everybody knows that lie detector machines can be beaten ((Hollywood teaches us so.)) , that is if you train hard enough you can beat a lie detector. The reason you can train to beat a lie detector is because you know how that machine operates – you know what AND how it is looking for lies. That knowledge is incredibly powerful and allows smart and creative people to find a way around those rules, without breaking them. Thus allowing them to ‘beat’ a lie detector.
All of the checks that TSA and DHS implement at airports work the same way: within a set of rules and procedures readily available to all travelers.
If a terrorist really wanted to bomb an airplane, nothing will stop him. He knows how to beat the backscatter machines by: avoidance (finding and airport/line without the machines), pat-down (placing the bomb in a body cavity that will not be felt). The only wild card in that process is the TSA agents watching over all the procedures. A TSA agent may see something out of sorts and pull them aside for further screening, they don’t know what the agent may see so the potential for failure is incredibly high – which is why most terrorists have multiple people set to carry out the same thing at the same time, thus TSA would not be able to react quick enough if they caught one of the people.
I posted this link a while back, but as reported by Cathal Kelly of TheStar.com here is how Israel does security: ((This is important because Israel is under a much more imminent security threat than the U.S..))
Armed guards outside the terminal are trained to observe passengers as they move toward the doors, again looking for odd behaviour. At Ben Gurion’s half-dozen entrances, another layer of security are watching. At this point, some travellers will be randomly taken aside, and their person and their luggage run through a magnometer.
According to the article the last time Israeli security was breached at an Airport was 2002. 2002. That is absurd. Each guard at the Israeli airport is trained in observation and profiling to help stop potential threats, all without subjecting travelers to undue inspections or wasted time. Basically you are not beating a set of rules (other than the magnometer) you must instead beat a highly trained human. Now you know they are looking for ‘suspicious behavior’ but what that actually looks like to each agent differs.
Israel knows that the greatest threat to a terrorists success is the human factor: the ‘will our guy be caught factor’. Any little slip up of a terrorist in Israel could lead to a search and arrest of the terrorist – the variables for success are so huge that to succeed is astronomical.
So the question that has been circling the net is whether such a system would work in the U.S. The answer is maybe, maybe not. The U.S. is massive in size compared to Israel and training that many people would be a huge financial cost and time consuming action. Better trained agents would have to be smarter and therefore paid more. Isn’t that what we want as a nation though: smarter and better paid people?
What if each U.S. airport security check point was required to have four agents on duty all the time watching the passengers, these agents would be trained by FBI/CIA deception experts to weed out potential threats. Perhaps only those identified as threats would be subjected to further screening, the rest of us can go back to bringing on our water and only having to be checked by metal detectors.
What would that do?
Maybe, just maybe, Bruce Schneier said it best:
It’s not even a fair game. It’s not that the terrorist picks an attack and we pick a defense, and we see who wins. It’s that we pick a defense, and then the terrorists look at our defense and pick an attack designed to get around it. Our security measures only work if we happen to guess the plot correctly. If we get it wrong, we’ve wasted our money. This isn’t security; it’s security theater.
and later:
Airport security is the last line of defense, and it’s not a very good one. What works is investigation and intelligence: security that works regardless of the terrorist tactic or target. Yes, the target matters too; all this airport security is only effective if the terrorists target airports. If they decide to bomb crowded shopping malls instead, we’ve wasted our money.
I vote for better trained TSA, and a diversion of backscatter funds to help shore up ‘the human factor’.
Ben Kuchera: God I love comments. It’s like your drunken uncle yelling at the TV, but in front of everyone. Ryan Block: One must be aware that loving Photoshop – and most other Adobe products – is actually more akin to software Stockholm syndrome. Mike Monteiro (link NSFW): It must be weird for TSA agents…
God I love comments. It’s like your drunken uncle yelling at the TV, but in front of everyone.
One must be aware that loving Photoshop – and most other Adobe products – is actually more akin to software Stockholm syndrome.
Mike Monteiro (link NSFW):
It must be weird for TSA agents to go to strip clubs and not be able to touch.
There’s no rule saying we can’t thoroughly soak our crotches in lukewarm water right before going through security at the airport, right?
Wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Apple had a CDMA iPhone all along and they spent 4 years convincing Verizon not to put their logo on it.
Bruce Schneier: A short history of airport security: We screen for guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We confiscate box cutters and corkscrews, so they put explosives in their sneakers. We screen footwear, so they try to use liquids. We confiscate liquids, so they put PETN bombs in their underwear. We roll…
Bruce Schneier:
A short history of airport security: We screen for guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We confiscate box cutters and corkscrews, so they put explosives in their sneakers. We screen footwear, so they try to use liquids. We confiscate liquids, so they put PETN bombs in their underwear. We roll out full-body scanners, even though they wouldn’t have caught the Underwear Bomber, so they put a bomb in a printer cartridge. We ban printer cartridges over 16 ounces — the level of magical thinking here is amazing — and they’re going to do something else.
Take all the money spent on new security measures and spend it on investigation and intelligence.
This is a stupid game, and we should stop playing it.
Sounds about right.
I was never interested in Facebook or MySpace because the environment seemed too top-down mediated. They feel like malls to me. But Twitter actually feels like the street. You can bump into anybody on Twitter. – William Gibson
Google has added the ability to have ‘optional attendees’ in invited events. What an awesome move, this makes me very happy and I hope iCal implements this. [via The Next Web]
Google has added the ability to have ‘optional attendees’ in invited events. What an awesome move, this makes me very happy and I hope iCal implements this.
Siracusa thinks that the key to future OS X versions and Mac sales is simplicity. Which can only be a good thing.
Siracusa thinks that the key to future OS X versions and Mac sales is simplicity. Which can only be a good thing.
In the recently released 1985 interview with Playboy, Steve Jobs had this to say about the telegraph in comparison to the telephone: It [the telephone] performed basically the same function as the telegraph, but people already knew how to use it. Also, the neatest thing about it was that besides allowing you to communicate with…
In the recently released 1985 interview with Playboy, Steve Jobs had this to say about the telegraph in comparison to the telephone:
It [the telephone] performed basically the same function as the telegraph, but people already knew how to use it. Also, the neatest thing about it was that besides allowing you to communicate with just words, it allowed you to sing.
He elaborates:
It allowed you to intone your words with meaning beyond the simple linguistics. And we’re in the same situation today. Some people are saying that we ought to put an IBM PC on every desk in America to improve productivity. It won’t work. The special incantations you have to learn this time are “slash q-zs” and things like that. The manual for WordStar, the most popular word-processing program, is 400 pages thick. To write a novel, you have to read a novel–one that reads like a mystery to most people. They’re not going to learn slash q-z any more than they’re going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about. It’s the first “telephone” of our industry. And, besides that, the neatest thing about it, to me, is that the Macintosh lets you sing the way the telephone did. You don’t simply communicate words, you have special print styles and the ability to draw and add pictures to express yourself.
I can’t help but think that Jobs looks at email and thinks that email is very similar to the Telegraph, in fact a great deal of our online communication these days lacks that intonation that is heavily relied on in speech.
Still to this day there is a lot of miscommunication happening due to the lack of intonation in communication mediums such as text messages and emails. People think I am ‘mad’ all the time because I send brief emails, or they think I am joking when I am anything but joking. Is that why Apple decided that FaceTime needs to be an “open” protocol?
I can tell you one thing, communication is never clear unless it is done face to face. Even video conferencing does not solve this. When you stand and talk to another person you take note of every movement they make, you know if they like what you are saying or not based on more than just words and facial expressions, the way they stand, shake your hand, shift their weight – all important things.
There really is no point to this other than to throw the thought out there to everyone – how do you digitally convey all these non-verbal cues?
[This part of an ongoing series on dealing with email, to see more posts look here.]