This week, Myke and I show off our completed Lego projects, and talk about my phone, CNET and censorship.
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Ten year ago, the space shuttle Columbia launched for the last time.
The mission — STS–107 — was the 113th flown.
Everything was normal until re-entry, but the disaster was a result of an incident at take-off. A briefcase-sized piece of foam came off the external tank, striking Columbia on the leading edge of the left wing.
Such foam strikes were considered normal. In fact, on STS–112, a 4”x5”x12” section of foam came off the external tank and struck Atlantis’ left solid rocket booster, leaving a 3“ deep dent just shy of 4” wide.
James Galbraith:
Apple’s largest all-in-one desktop computer, the 27-inch iMac, was recently updated with a long list of under-the-hood changes, but it’s the strikingly thin design that people notice first. And while the 5mm edge on the new iMac is certainly impressive, you can’t help but wonder if the tradeoffs Apple made for the new design are worth it.
While the 27-inch model does include user-upgradable RAM, Galbraith bemoans the loss of the internal optical drive and Firewire ports. That said, he likes the less reflective screen, speed, speakers, FaceTime camera and the Fusion Drive.
Chris Foresman at Ars Technica:
Apple isn’t giving up on Thunderbolt anytime soon. All of its computers come with at least one Thunderbolt port—save the Mac Pro, which Apple CEO Tim Cook has all but promised would be upgraded in 2013. The latest Retina MacBook Pros include two Thunderbolt ports. And it appears that its Thunderbolt Display is due for a refresh sometime soon.
Though Thunderbolt hasn’t exactly taken the Windows PC world by storm, several motherboard makers now offer options for built-in or add-on Thunderbolt support. And notebook makers are adding Thunderbolt as well—Intel’s booth this year featured a classy-looking HP Envy Spectre Ultrabook for demonstration purposes.
For months, Poster has been my go-to app for posting to 512 Pixels when on an iOS device.
Today, the app hits version 2.0. The new version includes lots of helpful goodies. If you run a WordPress site, this $3 app is well worth the money.
Be sure to check out Viticci’s review of the update.
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Lindsey Turrentine, Editor-in-Chief at CNET:
We were in an impossible situation as journalists. The conflict of interest was real — a legal case can impact the bottom line of our company and introduce the possibility of bias — but the circumstances demanded more transparency and not hurried policy.
I could have quit right then. Maybe I should have. I decided that the best thing for my team was to get through the day as best we could and to fight the fight from the other side. Every single member of the CNET Reviews team is a dedicated, ethical, passionate technology critic. If I abandoned them now, I would be abandoning the ship.
Here’s his tweet on the matter:
Hello all. Sad to report that I’ve resigned from CNET. I no longer have confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence.
His resignation comes in the wake of CBS forbidding CNET from covering or giving CES Awards to products whose owners were litigation with the parent network.
This isn’t the first time a book has popped up leaking a software announcement from Apple. I used Aperture 3 for ages, but last year started storing all my photos on Dropbox. While time will tell if I ever go back to Aperture, there’s no denying the current app is feeling forgotten.
This weekend, my wife and I drove to Little Rock for a wedding.
As I mentioned on Twitter last night, the groom is one of my oldest friends. In fact, we met in second grade and have been close ever since. It was a blast seeing him marry an awesome woman.
Being in any wedding is an honor, and it usually means a lot of work before, during and after the ceremony itself. I ran errands, moved cars and packed bags, all while spending time with old and new friends.
Today is a dark day for the Internet community, and a stark reminder of just how powerful of a disease depression can be.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?