Say what you will about this piece, I don’t think Steve Jobs is doing anywhere near the amount of good someone like Bill Gates is.
Category: General Tech
Yes, Please...
This is an idea I’ve had (and researched pretty thoroughly) since freshman year in the dorm: the ultimate tool for writing text. A “real” computer is overkill, and an iOS device, with its color LCD screen and multitude of apps, isn’t ideally suited to be a tool for writing text. What is needed is something closer to the Kindle: a (mostly) single-purpose, self-contained device with an always-on wireless connection (whether that’s through 3G like Whispernet or through WiFi) in which every facet of the design of the hardware and software is geared toward one thing: being an efficient tool for translating ideas into words. Essentially this device would be the translation of an application like Byword or TextMate into hardware.
The Helvetindex Card
Why Markdown?
Your documents are cross-platform by nature. You can edit them in any text-capable application on any operating system. Transporting files requires no zipping or archiving, and the filesize is as small as it can possibly get.
That’s the main reason I use Markdown for as much as I possibly can. My life is a stack of plain text files, and I want them to last as long as possible.
Never Bored
Tools and Toys
Twenty Years of Linux
Although Linux hasn’t been a slam-dunk success in every market—it remains a dud on the desktop—the operating system has had a profound impact on the technology industry and on enterprise computing. Columbia University professor Eben Moglen, one of the original authors of the GPL, took a moment at LinuxCon to discuss his views about the role Linux plays in society. He described Linux as the steel and coal of a 21st century industrial revolution. Linux and the Internet, he said, have together changed human civilization more than any other pair of inventions.
Pushy
This is about the single most annoying thing that an app developer can do. I know that the iOS ecosystem revolves around positive reviews, but there has to be a better way to request reviews and ratings than this.
Tron: Duct Tape Commercial
Samsung Cites ’2001’ in Lawsuit
File this story under “Crap you can’t make up.”
‘A Trusted System’
I couldn’t decide what to block quote, since this whole thing is so damn good.
‘A Bicycle for our Minds’
I get chills every time I come across this quote.