Alex Layne

OS X and iOS are not jails

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:42:24 -0400

Chris Rawson:

[F]rom my perspective many arguments from free software advocates come across as the kind of petulant all-or-nothing proposition that’s become an increasingly common argumentative fallacy over the past decade. Essentially it sounds to me like the most fervent of the free software enthusiasts are saying, “Either you give me the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want, or else you’re Hitler.” It’s the kind of argument virtually every one of us pulls on our parents at least once when we’re teenagers, but most of us grow out of that phase and realize that we must trade away some individual freedoms in order to properly function within a society of rules.

Jails don’t give you the option to leave.

What Steve Jobs meant to me

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:28:50 -0400

What Steve Jobs meant to me:

Article from TAB collecting our thoughts on Steve’s death.

Ebert reviews Transformers 3

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:35:21 -0400

Ebert reviews Transformers 3:

Roger Ebert:

Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” is a visually ugly film with an incoherent plot, wooden characters and inane dialog. It provided me with one of the more unpleasant experiences I’ve had at the movies.

Many people will say this is their favorite movie.

Instapaper server gets stolen in unrelated FBI raid

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:41:00 -0400

Instapaper server gets stolen in unrelated FBI raid:

It’s amazing that the FBI and DigitalOne could be so incompetent.

At least he admits when he’s wrong.

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:35:17 -0400

At least he admits when he’s wrong.

Paul Thurrott on Lion reinstallation

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:58:00 -0400

Paul Thurrott on Lion reinstallation:

Paul Thurrott:

it’s download-only, and an upgrade only for those users who have the previous OX [sic] version, Snow Leopard installed. So later system rebuilds will require you to install Snow Leopard first, then Lion.

Wrong, actually. When you install Lion, you get this nifty recovery partition, from which you can reinstall Lion without installing Snow Leopard first.

Odd; the Dashboard buttons aren’t visible, but still...

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:11:32 -0400

Odd; the Dashboard buttons aren’t visible, but still clickable. I’m guessing this is a Safari 5.1 beta issue, since Chrome displays it right, though it displayed fine in Safari yesterday.

"Alexithymia ( /ˌeɪlɛksəˈθaɪmiə/) from the Ancient Greek words λέξις (lexis, “diction”,..."

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:58:46 -0400

“Alexithymia ( /ˌeɪlɛksəˈθaɪmiə/) from the Ancient Greek words λέξις (lexis, “diction”, “word”) and θυμός (thumos, “soul, as the seat of emotion, feeling, and thought”) modified by an alpha-privative—literally “without words for emotions”—is a term coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions.”

- Wikipedia

How Apple Could Kill the Finder

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:50:03 -0400

How Apple Could Kill the Finder:

This article’s gotten the second most comments (83, to be exact) of anything I’ve written for TAB. Most seem to think the Finder is crucial, and couldn’t live without it. Some are completely on board with getting rid of it.

Five features in iOS 5 that show how Apple is now playing catch-up to Google

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:32:00 -0400

Five features in iOS 5 that show how Apple is now playing catch-up to Google:

Alberto Vildosola of Android and Me in response to the WWDC keynote:

You know you’ve fallen behind when most of the features you announce are in response to whatever the competition is doing.

Gee, this video demo of early Android looks an awful lot like BlackBerry OS. And then, after the iPhone was released in 2007, Android suddenly looked like this. Coincidence?

By the time iOS 5 arrives this Fall (in the Fall? really Apple?), Google will be getting ready to release Ice Cream Sandwich.

Yeah, and that’ll be on maybe two phones at launch. The rest will have to wait about six months, and most won’t get it at all.

Why Penn Jillette doesn't drink or do drugs

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:02:00 -0400

Why Penn Jillette doesn't drink or do drugs:

It’s just not his thing.

Microsoft gives the first official look of Windows 8 touch interface

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:40:55 -0400

Microsoft gives the first official look of Windows 8 touch interface:

Peter Bright:

There are plenty of applications that are too complex and fiddly to ever be at home with a touch-first interface—consider a software development environment, or a fully-featured office suite. Leaving these stuck in a Windows 7 ghetto doesn’t seem like a good long-term option.

Exactly. It’d make a lot more sense to develop the touch interface as a separate OS, rather than shoehorning it into Windows. I suppose we’ll see how well it works in time.

BSD For Linux Users

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:54:43 -0400

BSD For Linux Users:

A good primer on some of the differences between the two *nixes.

joshuatopolsky: New York Shitty Street Art du Jour: Hanksy...

Sat, 21 May 2011 10:35:13 -0400

joshuatopolsky:

New York Shitty Street Art du Jour: Hanksy « newyorkshitty.com

Why Chromebooks will fail

Mon, 16 May 2011 06:40:06 -0400

Why Chromebooks will fail:

Mike Elgan:

The Chromebook proposition is not the absence of software, patches, servers and hard drives. It’s the removal of these things from your control.

penllawen: Mashable’s campaign to reduce all posts to insipid...

Sun, 15 May 2011 04:14:57 -0400

penllawen:

Mashable’s campaign to reduce all posts to insipid lists of trivia is proceeding well, I see.

Glad I never started reading Mashable.

"Encomium is a Latin word deriving from the Classical Greek ἐγκώμιον (encomion) meaning the praise of..."

Sun, 08 May 2011 16:53:33 -0400

“Encomium is a Latin word deriving from the Classical Greek ἐγκώμιον (encomion) meaning the praise of a person or thing.”

- Wikipedia

tmurillo: ~Tom Murillo

Fri, 06 May 2011 04:00:44 -0400

tmurillo:

~Tom Murillo

When It Comes to Free Apps, Android Dominates

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:32:00 -0400

When It Comes to Free Apps, Android Dominates:

Jason Fitzpatrick:

By what margin does it dominate? Over half the applications in the Android Marketplace are free compared to less than a third of the iOS applications. What’s interesting about the numbers is how close the raw number of free applications is. Both the Appstore and the Market have roughly 130,000 free applications available for download with Android in the lead; the Appstore has 121,845 apps and the Marketplace has 134,342.

So, having a bigger percentage of free apps somehow makes Android the “dominant” platform for free apps, even though the number of free apps on iOS and Android are so close? Even though iOS has more free apps than Android if you count the iPad? I wouldn’t call that domination.

Android’s percentage of free apps is high because, according to Angry Birds developer Peter Vesterbacka, “Nobody has been successful selling content on Android.” There are multiple factors for why this is and it’s hard to pin them down, but it’s clear that it works perfectly for Google, because they make their money from ads. They would want more apps on their platform to be free and ad-supported, because that means more money for them.

It’s worth pointing out that, in my experience, the quality of Android apps is lower than that of iOS apps. From my perspective, Android has more free apps, but less quality apps, and that’s what really matters for consumers.

For whatever reason, whenever I customize my Tumblr layout, the...

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:23:51 -0400

For whatever reason, whenever I customize my Tumblr layout, the editor switches my header size with my Google Analytics ID, and I have to go in and change it. Annoying.