John Carey, at the wonderful fiftyfootshadows.net:
I find that I sit somewhere between the ultra minimal lifestyle that many tout on their blogs and social networks and those attached to older, kitschy nostalgia. I like having old books on my bookshelf and small trinkets from my travels scattered around my living space. I like both the minimal forms of modern trends in product design and the warm feeling an old wooden bookshelf can bring.
A series of satellite photographs conveys the epic scale of the floods sweeping through Pakistan, leaving millions homeless and the world aghast at an extreme weather disaster that experts consider the new normal.
The images are haunting.
From the video:
We’ll take a document and print it out with Word for Windows and with Word for Macintosh. Take the two sheets of paper, overlay them…hold them up to the light. If we see any difference, we consider that a bug that we have to fix.
It’s taken them this long to decide that printing differences between versions is a bug?
This explains a lot about how Microsoft views products, sadly.
Panic cofounder Steven Frank (yes, that Steven Frank) is building a Retro Room:
I went insane and decided to start collecting computer and video game paraphernalia from my youth.
He is also cataloging his finds over on Tumblr. My favorite may be the literature for the 20th Anniversary Mac.
It’s a great look at the technology that defined a generation. It makes me a little sad that I’m too young to have experienced the PC Revolution. By the time I was old enough to care about computers, the world was dominated by Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, and Apple was churning out lots of garbage.
Textbooks don’t have to be text. They don’t have to be books.
Stunning. The future of textbooks aren’t in dead trees.
Brian Lam lost his phone. A lady turned it in to the restaurant.
[ via DF]
Update: Here’s Google’s cache on Lam’s now-locked Twitter account.
More and more, I get the feeling that if there’s a rift between the old “Don’t be evil” Google and the new “Let’s do whatever we want” Google, that it’s a rift between Schmidt and Larry/Sergey — if not personally, then at least culturally within the company. On the one side, the Larry/Sergey Google that makes amazing cool things — the search engine, Gmail, Android. On the other, the Schmidt Google that, in its efforts to serve ads as efficiently as possible, no longer seems concerned with the traditional Western concept of personal privacy.
I love the simplicity of the MacBook Air — when I have to use someone else’s MacBook Pro, it feels heavy and clunky. Don’t get me started on how it feels to use someone else’s Window machine. It would be nice if my Air lasted for 20 years.
I agree. The Air is a piece of art. While it doesn’t meet my day-to-day needs, I really wish it did.
As for mobile platforms, the NPR News iPhone app has a slight bump in traffic in the mid-morning and evens out throughout the day. Curiously, this is a unique pattern among NPR mobile platforms, and may indicate a strong use of that particular app during the morning commute.
[…]
The Android app, iPad app and mobile website all see more steady use throughout the day until late evening, when the mobile site and iPad app experience a bit of a second wind of traffic, perhaps as people get their last dose of news before bed.
After spending time playing with Flash Player 10.1 on the new Droid 2, the first Android 2.2 phone to come with the player pre-installed, I’m sad to admit that Steve Jobs was right. Adobe’s offering seems like it’s too little, too late.
Please note the date. People were complaining about the iPhone’ lack of Flash way back in 2007. Three years later, Adobe’s mobile implementation is still rubbish.
The new Mac Office 2011, currently in development, will easily best iWork ’09, and with every feature update demonstrates just how far behind iWork has fallen.
I’ll take iWork over Office any day of the week.
Media Matters has confirmed Bloomberg’s report using publicly available IRS filings. We also found no evidence of corresponding donations to the Democratic Governors Association in the current political cycle. News Corp. wants Republicans elected to office, and they’re willing to spend money to make it happen.
According to the article, News Corp. is actually the RGA’s “biggest corporate donor.” Bloomberg suggests that News Corp. has made these donations due to their opposition to “proposed federal rule changes that would weaken the position of its Fox network in negotiations with cable companies,” stating that “Governors may have a stake in the issue.”
Facepalm.