512 Pixels

Complaining has never been easier.

via “Inspired” by Apple

Paul Miller:

The surprise was ruined, but Canonical is indeed bringing a TV to CES. But it’s not about hardware just yet: Ubuntu TV is a brand new derivative of Ubuntu, with a full-in TV-optimized UI inspired by Unity, and full-on media center and DVR features. There’s a movie, TV and music store, a YouTube app, and of course it’s all optimized for a lean-back remote experience. The software will be free for manufacturers to package with their TVs, and Ubuntu says there will be TVs on shelves by the end of the year.

It can’t be worse than Google TV, right? Right?!

I’m more than happy to give Dave $3 a month for his work. You should be, too.

This comic is just about perfect.

via Laughing Squid

Want.

This looks pretty good, but I can’t pass up a chance to complain about The Verge’s Thomas Ricker writing off Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt Display as a “$999 Thunderbolt dock.” Sheesh.

NASA:

Today we are launching code.nasa.gov, the latest member of the open NASA web family. Through this website, we will continue, unify, and expand NASA’s open source activities. The site will serve to surface existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.

via The Verge

I had forgotten about the cybercafe thing. Yikes.

These machines look familiar, though.

I’ve applied some new paint to the site in a few places since the fall. Headers, titles and several other items are now set in Chicago, while body copy is now set in Garamond. These two typefaces helped define the Apple experience for years, and I think they play nicely with the 512 Pixels brand.

Read more about Apple and typefaces here:

• Typography of Apple Inc. - Wikipedia
• List of Apple typefaces - Wikipedia
• Mac OS 7.x, 8.x 9.x: Fonts Included With Major System Releases - Apple Support

In the coming weeks, I hope to have the responsive design finished up (thanks to my pal PJ McCormick) to make reading on an iPad or iPhone more enjoyable.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope these changes make the experience better and easier for you all. (RSS readers, if you haven’t visited the site recently, drop by.)

Update: If you are seeing Palatino as the body font, try emptying your browser’s cache.

Myke Hurley:

This year has been incredible. We launched the network in October, which saw the bundling of the existing shows and the additions of the new ones. We were also contacted by Apple at this time to help us set up our provider page and it’s got us featured in the UK store. This was such a great achievement for us, I had dreamt of this and could not believe it when it happened. We’ve come an awful long way in 12 short months and this fills me with such anticipation and excitement for what we can do in 2012.

It’s a blast to be a part of it. I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for the network.

People who have worked with — and for — me know this about me:

Half-baked work sold as a complete and acceptable solution will get under my skin every time.

If the person cannot grasp that their work could even be potentially shoddy, and I’m prone to having an aneurism.

I have found over the years that this character trait ¹ shows up in all sorts of weird situations. One of the most disconnected one might be tech products and announcements.

That’s why I get angry every year when CES rolls around.

Every January, tech companies use the event to showcase their newest products. Over the years, these companies have pushed out hundreds of netbooks, TVs, e-readers, cameras and Android tablets into the world.

And most of them really, really suck.

Companies like Palm and Microsoft have used the show to off their plans and products. The original Pre was announced there in 2009, while the boys and girls from Redmond have talked about Windows Slates for what seems like an eternity.

It seems that things announced at CES are cursed. Maybe it’s because the event takes place in January, and these companies don’t have much to show off right after the holidays that’s any good.

While I’m sure that has a lot to do with it,² I think that most of these companies simply don’t have any decent products to announce. Without a doubt, this year’s CES coverage will be full of semi-decent ultrabooks, cheap tablets, some crazy new television technology no one will actually want (or be able) to use and about a million new iPhone accessories.

None of these products will change the world. None of them will create blocks-long lines at their launch. It is hard to get people excited for cheap, shoddy devices that more and more look like knock-offs of Cupertino’s work.

In short, CES doesn’t have the magic a show of its size should have. I just don’t understand why people — mainly, the tech press — keep pretending it does.