When RealNetworks Settled on DVD Copying, We All Lost
While I don't much care for the tone of the opening paragraph -- I personally think we gave it a great effort; we spent millions fighting the good fight, but ultimately, we simply lost -- the writer is correct: RealDVD was probably the last legitimate effort we'll see to provide consumers with the ability to back up or virtualize their DVD libraries legally. I'm proud to have worked on the team that built it, and I'm sad to see it go. It really was a great little product.
Richard Feynman on Magnetism
Great little video featuring Feynman explaining why he can't really explain magnetism. Not to most of us, anyway.
Privacy in the Age of Persistence
"Welcome to the future, where everything about you is saved. A future where your actions are recorded, your movements are tracked, and your conversations are no longer ephemeral. A future brought to you not by some 1984-like dystopia, but by the natural tendencies of computers to produce data." I love it. Well, maybe love isn't the right word. But I do concur.
First Steps in Flex Screencasts
Screencasts to accompany James Ward's and Bruce Eckel's excellent starter book, First Steps in Flex. I picked up a copy at MAX in October (they were handing them out for free, along with the usual buttons, stickers and tee shirts) and was surprised at how concise and useful it was. Great stuff.
Facebook Snatches User’s URL, Sells it to Harman International
Bad business, Facebook.
You sitting down? Experts Say It'll Kill You
Note to self: Sit less.
Amazon Fires Missile At Book Industry, Launches 70% Kindle Royalty Option
Personally I love the idea of authors earning more for their efforts, but there are so many unintended (by consumers, anyway) costs of Amazon using its reach for this kind of thing -- publishers get squeezed, so they produce fewer books, bookstores get squeezed, so more of them close up shop, commerce flows ever more directly to Amazon, choice gets limited... I just don't like it. I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon, but I'm starting to think maybe that's such a great thing anymore, in the long run.
Khan Academy
Hundreds of math, science and economics videos from Sal Khan, via Hacker News. Some great stuff in here -- it's amazing it was all created by one guy.
Facebook's Move Ain't About Changes in Privacy Norms
Danah Boyd on the recent changes in Facebook's privacy policy, and on Mark Zuckerberg's characterization of them. We don't always agree, she and I, but on this issue we definitely do: "No one makes money off of creating private communities in an era of 'free.' It's in Facebook's economic interest to force people into being public, even if a few people break up with Facebook in the process." Good read, as usual.
Secure Your Checked Bags: Fly with a Gun
Travel tips from BoingBoing.
Guerilla Public Service
The true story of a fake L.A. freeway sign.
Facebook's Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over
Finally, folks are beginning to grow skeptical of the motives of Mark Zuckerberg. I've never trusted this guy -- he's always come off as an arrogant, smarmy wise-ass, frankly -- and I've never gotten the sense he wanted to do anything more with Facebook than milk it for all he possibly could, and that's exactly what he's doing. Privacy? Ha.
The Evolution of a Programmer
Brilliance. (And I especially like the master-level implementation of the IHello interface.)
Photo.net | Learn
I'd almost forgotten what a great resource this site is for the amateur photographer. It's changed quite a bit since its early days, but the core still seems to be there.
The Happiest People
Apparently it's the Costa Ricans, according to Nick Kristof. "That’s because Costa Ricans, asked to rate their own happiness on a 10-point scale, average 8.5. Denmark is next at 8.3, the United States ranks 20th at 7.4 and Togo and Tanzania bring up the caboose at 2.6." Man, 8.5 *on average*? Maybe we should book a ticket and check it out. Not that we're unhappy -- we love Seattle -- but 8.5 ... that's a compelling number. Hmm.
Are Software Patents Evil?
Paul Graham on the subject of software patents. I've never really been able to make up my mind on this issue -- i.e., whether software patents are inherently good or bad -- although I tend to lean toward their being generally-good-with-lots-of-exceptions, like when the invention in question is totally unoriginal.
Home Energy Displays
Via CNET. One of my friends just picked up one of these, although I don't remember which one. I love the idea of being able to monitor power consumption on a device-by-device (or at least outlet-by-outlet) basis, although I also wonder whether it might just map out the obvious: fridge turns on here, turns off there, then on, then off -- oh, and that's where we turned on the dryer...
Windows 7's "GodMode"
Great little Windows hack, via CNET.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)
An impressive (seven-part, seventy-minute-total) video review of a movie I've always -- well, ahem, had a bit of a hard time with. Watch all seven parts if you can -- it's a bit on the kooky side presentationally, but it packs in some pretty good film-credibility criticism as well.
Web App Business Models: User Needs and What People Pay For
Via Hacker News. This is anything but a complete list, but an interesting read nonetheless.
Books and Stuff: Three Years of Amazon Addiction
From Paul Buchheit. An inspiring idea -- although I'm almost afraid of what I might learn about myself by looking so closely at my own order history. Maybe over lunch.
The Perils of Automatic Payments
I could never understand why relinquishing control of paying your bills could ever be a good idea.
Which Is the Top Tech Company to Work For?
Disappointed to see Real at the lower end of the list, since my own experience there's been so positive, but so it goes -- I'm one dude amoung thousands, I guess.
Huston Smith
The professor's Wikipedia page.
Building iPhone Applications with Flash
Lee Brimelow demonstrates how simple it is to create and deploy an iPhone app with Flash CS5. Great stuff.
Obama's Brilliant First Year
Jacob Weisberg, at Slate, on why Obama is having the best first year of any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
Microsoft Pivot
Looks interesting. This is exactly the kind of UI I've been imagining lately to handle large data sets of the kind we're experiencing more and more often in the Web world.
Criterion's Little F*ck-Ups
Via Kottke, Vice Magazine's list of movies that never should've been Criterioned. (Criterionized?) Personally I disagree with the inclusions of Night on Earth and Fear and Loathing, but agree in general with the others, and I'd probably extend this list to include all Wes Anderson films post-Bottle Rocket, because they suck.
$29,000 for 5 minutes in the ER Raises Health Care Questions
I wish I could think of something more eloquent to say than "That's fucked up," but I can't. It's fucked up. And you should care about it.
UnicodeData.txt
A complete list of all Unicode characters, descriptions and code points, among other bits of interesting data about each of them. I'm currently reading Yannis Haralambous's (amazing O'Reilly) book "Fonts and Encodings," and having this list handy helps anchor these concepts to actualities.
ImageCropper
A nice example of an image-cropper tool done with Flex.
Google Voice Lite: No New Number Required
Just signed up, and already digging it. Google Voice proper, the Big Version, didn't quite work for me, mainly because it required adopting a new phone number, but this version will -- at last, all those folks leaving me cellular voice-mail messages can finally be sure I'll get them and actually return their calls in timely fashion. (I *hate* checking my mobile voice mail, as many, particularly my family, will attest.) Two of my favorite things about Vonage, in fact, are its voice-mail forwarding (as .WAV attachments) and transcription features. Having them for my mobile phone as well now makes me, well, happy.
Going Offline in Search of Freedom
From the New York Times. "Those mythical [sirens] didn’t seduce with beauty or carnality — not with petty diversions — but with the promise of unending knowledge. 'Over all the generous earth we know everything that happens,' they crooned to passing ships, vowing that any sailor who heeded their voices would emerge a 'wiser man.' That is precisely the draw of the Internet."
Flex Videos Galore!
Ran across this awesome list while looking around for Flex intros for a friend. I'll never be bored again.
Loading MP3 Files with a FileReference in Flash
From FlexibleFactory, more ActionScript goodness.
Flex Components Month End Review
Various Flex components from Ben Stucki, including stuff related to ID3 parsing and audio visualization. A little dated, but probably still useful.
Fiddler Web Debugger | Writing Inspectors
This will come in handy soon, I'm sure.
Adobe InContext Editing
This looks interesting.
AdobeTV | MAX 2009 | Envision
Digital media from this year's MAX conference in LA. I already miss being there. Sigh.
DVD Jon Breaks the iPhone Leash
Jon Lech Johansen, who became known as DVD Jon after he cracked the encryption used on DVDs when he was 15, has released a new version of his doubleTwist software that allows iPod owners to completely bypass iTunes and iPhoto when buying and managing their music, videos and photos.
New ActionScript and Flex Spell Checking Engine on Adobe Labs
Via Christian Cantrell. Very nice.
RegExBuddy
Note to self: Check this out. It cold save you from pulling out all your hair next time. (Thx, Charles!)
How To Store Beer
From BeerAdvocate. This is going to come in handy.
Observations on Film Art
Ooh, look! David Bordwell has a blog! Sweetness.
FlexPMD Is Up on Adobe Labs
The best-practices app, based on JavaPMD, analyzes ActionScript and Flex source code to help detect common problems. Via Ben Forta's blog.
Flash Security Basics
A nice explanation of how security works in Flash.
Evernote, a Free Storage App, Seeks More Paying Users
I've been following Evernote for a while now, both as a sometime (and non-paying) user and as someone just generally interested in seeing whether such a product could find a significant following. Looks like it has, which is great, but it's also apparently having trouble figuring out how to squeeze enough money out of that following to pay its employees. Ah, Web-user monetization -- the perennial problem that's been killing off companies since the dawn of Internet-time.
Owners of Struggling Café des Artistes Decide to Close
Sucks. Nice job, unions! Way to serve your workers.
Hello, My Name Is Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116
In 1991, in response to a fine imposed on them for failing to name their child by his fifth birthday (apparently in protest to a law with which they disagreed), parents Elisabeth Hallin and Lasse Diding submitted this name to a Swedish court. Not surprisingly, the court rejected it. (The boy was eventually named Albin Gustaf Tarzan.)
Helen Keller Video
Via Kottke.org, a 1930 newsreel showing how Helen Keller learned to speak.
A Strong Gain in New-Home Sales in July
Via the NYTimes. Rejoice! The carnage may finally be over.
Travis Heying: Visual Journalism
Some nice photo- and video-journalistic work worth checking out.
London Calling
Keillor on a recent trip, citing a few things I remember myself. "The sign in the backseat of the cab, 'Please keep your feet off the seats,' is something my own mother might have said, but nothing you'd find in any public conveyance in America, where a sign like that would only stimulate certain people to plant their shoes directly on the seats. Better not to mention it. Beside it is another warning sign: 'If you soil this vehicle, a charge will be made.' This one is certainly aimed at drunks who climb into the cab with unsettled stomachs at 1 a.m. with a long ride ahead over rough streets. The sign doesn't tell you, 'No Hurling, Puking, Or Yorking.' It simply reminds you that actions have consequences and that if you disgorge your gorge on the floor or seats, you will have to pay for someone to clean it up."
Quentin Tarantino's Top 20 Movies
I'm not sure I'd agree (in fact I'm sure I wouldn't) with all of these, but I did love Battle Royale, The Insider, Lost in Translation and Fight Club, among others. Unbreakable, on the other hand, was a major stinker.
Hollywood Should Trade Control for Innovation, Work with RealNetworks and Kaleidescape
From the L.A. Times. "RealNetworks' RealDVD software and Kaleidescape's home servers drew fire in part because they can make permanent copies of the rented or borrowed discs. But people who are so inclined can do that already with tools that are cheaper and less restrictive. More important to the studios, RealNetworks and Kaleidescape add value to a movie collection by making it easier to manage and watch. In so doing, they increase the incentive to own a movie rather than just rent it." Absolutely right. RealDVD made having, experiencing, and -- most importantly -- expanding your DVD collection more fun. That's what Hollywood just didn't get.
The Quotable John Hughes
A nice collection of great moments from the filmmaker's celluloid legacy, from the New York Times. What an incredible gift that guy was.
Erich Fromm
From Wikipedia. I've been reading Fromm's "The Art of Loving" lately (great, dense little book) and been surprised by how prescient his observations have been, given the book's 50-year age. More on it later.
Disconnect the Tech, Reconnect With Life
"Hear, hear," he said, aware of the irony, as he bookmarked the link on Del.icio.us.
If
A bit of pertinent Kipling, courtesy of M. Chabon.
Better Uploading and Lots of API Improvements
From the Vimeo blog. I've become somewhat enamored of Vimeo lately, since joining and then signing up for the paid version, and I'm hoping I can convince the folks at work to pay closer attention to it as an option for our users. It might "cater to the high def art school crowd," as someone said, but hey, it's still a crowd (if admittedly smaller than YouTube's) that could use a little love from the uploader. IMO.
Baked Good of the Week: Columbia City Bakery
Good lord, this looks delicious. I need to start reading this gal's column regularly.
What Is Hollywood So Afraid Of?
"The studios may have seen RealDVD as the enemy, but it was actually a value enhancer in disguise. The software made the physical DVD that much more valuable to the consumer, by making it flexible. Instead of an outright disc sale or a rental's revenue share, the studio will probably miss out entirely. Celluloid buffs will just see what's on their TiVo or hit up YouTube."
Court Rules RealDVD Violates Copyright Law
Well, shit -- there it is, I guess. Score one for Handbrake, eh?
Panda Lab
A film lab in Queen Anne. I've decided to do a little more film photography, and I've been on the lookout for a good local lab.
Sincerely, John Hughes
Via Kottke.org, more on John Hughes and his relationship with Hollywood.
No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users
I have to admit, I'm glad to see this -- there's nothing more frustrating than standing in line at your favorite coffee shop, picking up a nice cup and a danish, and looking around and seeing nothing but a bunch of parked-out, laptop-engaged jerks taking up every seat in the house.
The Longest Way 1.0
Via Kottke.org, a great little video documenting a man's 4,000-km walk across China, and his consequent (time-lapsed) facial and cranial hair growth. I've seen these kinds of projects done as still photos before, but not yet with video, and the result is a great deal more interesting and fun.
How Different Groups Spend Their Day
Fascinating interactive infographic from the NYTimes.
Washington State Temperature Extremes
Historical numbers, interesting given the current heat wave. Despite the accounts I heard all day yesterday, it doesn't appear the day was the hottest on record at all -- we've had several over-100 days over the years around Seattle, actually. Comforting, in a sense, but at the same time -- well, not.
The Crevasse: The Making of 3D Street Art
Via @bitchwhocodes, a time-lapse video of one of the works of Edgar Muller (metanamorph.com), a German "street painter" who specializes in 3D. Neat stuff -- though I can't say I wouldn't worry a little bit driving over (or even walking a bit close to the edge of) one of these things.
Simple C# and Flash Interop
Comes in handy sometimes, particularly when buildin' prototypes for Windows apps.
The Ultimate Guide to Decoding the Flickr API
From NetTuts, via SmashingMag, a step-by-step guide to working with Flickr's API and data.
Core Human Skills, Enumerated
An excerpt: "You can either choose to hyper-specialize and become the best in the world (top 1%) at doing one very specific thing, or you can try to become very good (top 25%) in as many different areas as possible, which you then can use in combination. The latter strategy is far easier, and is often more effective: by improving your skills in a few different but related areas, you increase your versatility and rarity, making your particular combination of skills more uniquely valuable."
Jeffrey's Exif Viewer
A handy resource for checking the EXIF metadata of online resources.
Norwegian Skies
Seriously gorgeous time-lapse photography.
Vimeo: The YouTube for Artistes
From Farhad Manjoo @ Slate.com. Just a little history about the smaller-but-cooler video-hosting site I'm pretty sure I'll use from here on out.
Exporting with Vegas for Vimeo HD
A great little resource (actually a hugely time-saving one) for getting HDV video from Sony Vegas to Vimeo.
On Eclipse, ColdFusion Builder, And IDEs
From Ben Forta's blog. If you develop Web apps in ColdFusion (as I do from time to time), you know that selecting a ColdFusion-specific IDE is like choosing the lesser of several evils. Here Forta discusses the history behind Allaire/Macromedia/Adobe's various unsuccessful attempts to deliver a solid, complete IDE for CF, and why (and how) Adobe decided to develop ColdFusion Builder.
Performance-Tuning Adobe AIR Applications
From Oliver Goldman, via Adobe Developer Connection. He's an excellent technical resource in general for AIR-related stuff -- I first caught him at last year's MAX conference, presenting on ActionScript performance considerations, and I subscribe to his blog (which I wish he'd update more often).
Debunking the Birthers
The most trusted newsman in America (Jon Stewart, of course) responds to the accusations of the "birther" movement -- a collection of crazies convinced that Barack Obama's presidency is invalid because he wasn't born on American soil. Despite that he was. Via the Huffington Post.
Text Utilities
A handy-dandy online resource for transforming bits of text in all manner of ways -- trims, escapes, encodes, decodes, smart quotes, casing, word counts, letter counts, and so on.
Rob Christensen on AIR
An interview with Adobe AIR product manager Rob Christenson on the state of AIR today and where it might be headed next. Dovetails rather nicely with my last blog post, too.
Adobe Wave: REST API
Developer docs for the new hosted notification service. Must waste some time with this stuff soon. (And oh, look! It supports oAuth! Nice.)
The 88
A great little band whose first album, Kind of Light, I found at the bottom of a PR grab-bag at a film festival in Vegas. You can still get Kind of Light on Amazon (it's a fantastic album -- lots of fun, light, smart pop), but I was disappointed to find this morning that it's not available on Rhapsody.
HTC to Adopt Android for 50% of its Handsets in 2010
Interesting and encouraging news indeed. I'm still wondering whether (or when) Android will start to exert force on the iPhone; as a developer who'd love to be doing more mobile-app work, but who'd rather fall on his sword than capitulate to Apple, it's something I'd certainly like to see.
Adobe: Mobile Flash to Get Accelerometer, Multi-touch Support Early Next Year
From ReadWriteWeb. It's worth noting that "the mobile Flash demonstrations shown today by Adobe were all on Android devices; still no world on Flash for the iPhone. ('It's up to Apple,' was the line again today.) A bevy of beautiful, touchable, turnable, location-aware Flash apps on Android could create a pretty compelling competitor to the contents of the iPhone app store." I would wholeheartedly agree.
A Stroll Down Seattle's First Avenue
A little photoessay from The Morning News. (I take this walk pretty often, myself.)
HTML5 and the Future of the Web
An informative article (considering how few there actually are) From Smashing Magazine.
We Choose the Moon
An interactive re-creation of the Apollo 11 space mission. Pretty sweet.
Memory Performance in the Land of References
Some useful info from Ted Patrick on the subject of ActionScript 3 and garbage collection.
New Modes of Interaction: Some Implications of Microsoft Natal and Google Wave
Insights from Dan Bricklin.
Paperclips Dancing on a Train
A video demonstrating one of the more interesting side-effects of subway travel.
The Virtu Project
Yes! An Apple ][e emulator written in C#, via Scott Hanselman.
The Most Influential Books in UX
A podcast discussing some influential texts, with links.
CMS.txt
A free, open-source, 6KB content-management system. Must give it a try.
ISO Recorder
Still one of the handiest (and free!) Windows tools around, from Alex Feinman.
google-code-prettify
From Google Code, a nice (the nicest I've seen, actually) library for pretty-printing code snippets in HTML markup. Same one used on StackOverflow.
