February 2010
1 post
1 tag
March 2009
3 posts
What's Apple's problem with buttons?
marco:
With both the new buttonless trackpads and the new iPod Shuffle, it seems that Apple’s going on an all-out war to eliminate as many buttons as possible from their products.
There’s a lot of value in simplifying controls, to a point. But nobody was complaining that either the laptop trackpads or the Shuffles had too many buttons before. In both cases, the devices are now worse off than...
1 tag
1 tag
An answer to a small OS X user interface quirk
I have always noticed that in certain dialog boxes, OS X has two types of highlighted buttons. For example, in the dialog below asking if you would like to save the document before closing, the Save… button is filled with blue, but the Don’t Save button only has blue around its border.
I think the intention of the UI is clear here. It is obvious that Save… is the prominent...
February 2009
1 post
1 tag
Install Rails with Phusion Passenger and MySQL on...
Download a Debian etch netinst CD image and start to install.
During the installation process, you will see a Software selection screen. Uncheck the option to install the desktop environment, and check the option to install the web server. This will install Apache for you.
After installing the main system, we don’t need the CD image anymore, yet Debian likes to keep it available as a...
November 2007
1 post
1 tag
September 2007
2 posts
“Here’s a simple rule of thumb: if an honest customer has to even think about the...”
– Daring Fireball Linked List: September 2007
August 2007
13 posts
1 tag
“The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the...”
– Richard Clarke, White House head of counterterrorism, recounting what happened on September 12, 2001
The competition →
“I just got my hands on the first Moto Q9m, and after a couple of hours, I’m ready to send it right back. Seriously, if you buy this phone, you are dumb.”
Apple Bootcamp gets better →
Phil Rizzuto, Yankees Shortstop, Dies at 89 →
What a legend. He was my favorite broadcaster by far.
“All right boys now watch how this is done. The key is to put it all in your...”
– Peter Griffin
Competition is good
Microsoft released “performance and reliability” fixes* for Vista today, making it painfully clear that even after 5 years of development, the OS was still not ready for release this past January. Meanwhile, their competitors relentlessly push forward, with Apple releasing iLife and iWork ‘08 today. iWork completes their productivity suite by adding a new spreadsheet app. So, for $79 you...
Single line of HTML crashes IE 6 →
Damn you IE6!
Family Guy gem
Gillian: Brian, how do I know if I'm Jewish?
Brian: Are you Jewish?
Gillian: No.
Brian: There you go, sport.
Leopard gets UNIX 03 certification →
July 2007
29 posts
“Why do you like your iPod, your iPhone, your Xbox 360, your Google Search? The...”
– Bill Gates
Me and My Mac →
Holy crap I can’t believe this is Dvorak
Encylopaedia Britannica is wrong, and Wikipedia... →
Kodak sells its first CMOS camera sensor to itself →
Cameras are just getting silly cheap
Why Apple stores are killing the competition
Tonight was iPod shopping night with my mom. She wanted to stay in Greece to shop if we could, so that meant no Apple Store in Victor. Our first stop was Best Buy. When we finally found the MP3 player section, I was disappointed right from the start. Every single iPod was tied down to the display, so you couldn’t pick it up and feel it in your hand. This of course is vital to the experience...
Computer Program Can't Lose at Checkers →
Future Implications: Apple's complete home... →
Gears of War and UT3 coming to the Mac →
Apple is outsmarting the iPhone's competition →
“Apple treats its product line-up like a product itself – it is designed to be...”
– Daring Fireball: Regarding OS X-Based iPods
One week with iPhone
Novelty of course wears off with everything. The initial amazement has subsided for me. It has been replaced by a satisfaction knowing that it is as it should be. More than anything, I am thankful for the dedication and passion the engineering team had for this product. The ingenuity is inspiring, and on a more patriotic note (since it’s the week of the 4th) I’m proud that something...
iPhone: Headphone surgery
My one and only complaint about the iPhone is the recessed headphone jack. I really did not want to buy an adapter just to use my other headphones, so I was happy when I found this article on how to modify your existing headphones. I tried it on my Sony noise canceling headphones and it works!
Now the iPhone estimate is at 700,000 sold →
“Every moment of user interaction has been quietly stage-managed and...”
– “I Take the iPhone Home” - TIME
I don't miss Vista
After buying the iPhone, I wanted to wipe my old Windows Mobile phone in order to sell it. So, I figured I would boot up Vista to find out how to get that done. It turns out the answer was in the phone manual which was on the CD it came with, and it was in PDF format. Vista does not let you view PDF’s by default, so I had to install Adobe Reader. Little did I know what pain that this...
When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January, he said that the phone is 5 years ahead of its time. Of course it’s great marketing, but I’m starting to think that there’s a bit of truth in that statement. I know it’s always hard to say given the rapid pace of technology, but after having finally used one for the past couple days, I feel comfortable saying that I’d...
iPhone stress test: how did it do? →
This video is not for the squeamish, but it passed with flying colors.