Yearly Archives: 2012

RIM layoffs

Written by

Rose Simone:

RIM spokesperson Tenille Kennedy confirmed on Tuesday that RIM has reduced some positions as part of its cutback program, “and may continue to do so as the company methodically works through a review of the business.”

I hate seeing people lose their jobs because executives mismanaged the company.

3D printed guitar bodies

Written by

Anthony Doesburg:

Diegel is an exponent of 3D printing. His zany guitar bodies are created using computer-aided design (CAD) software, output in one piece on an EOS 3D printer. This is the new world of additive manufacturing.

Part of a guitars tone comes from the woods used in the guitar. I’m not sure how this would sound.

Apple posts WWDC 2012 session videos

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Apple has posted more than 100 WWDC 2012 session videos to its Web site, available to any and all registered developers (even free ones).

Educating an NPR intern about stealing music

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David Lowery at The Trichordist aims to educate Emily White, an NPR intern who admits to buying only 15 CDs in her life, but has 11,000 songs in her library. Lowery says he doesn’t want to embarrass or shame her, but I think she should be horrified at what she’s done.

No price, no date, no apps, no problem. No wait — problem

Written by

Parislemon:

I’m just now catching up on the news about the new Microsoft Surface. Reactions seem mixed, tilting slightly positive or at least hopeful. People seem to want to believe Microsoft can pull this off and that’s understandable — competition is good, and right now, the iPad has no competition. My hunch is that whatever tablet Google announces shortly will be more of a Kindle Fire competitor than an iPad competitor. This Surface is a full-on iPad competitor.On the surface — see what I did there? — the thing seems compelling. It’s a tablet that runs Windows, and Office, and has a keyboard. There’s no denying that the keyboard/cover hybrid is a smart thing to try.Two years ago, I think this thing would have been pretty competitive. Today? Color me very skeptical.

Everyone, especially the tech media, should be skeptical about this tablet. Microsoft? Shut up and ship.

The pageview beast

Written by

MG Siegler:

Most are stories written with little or no research done. They’re written as quickly as possible. The faster the better. Most are just rehashing information that spread by some other means. But that’s great, it means stories can be written without any burden beyond the writer having to read a little bit and type words fast. Many are written without the writer even having to think.

I am glad that I don’t make my money based on pageviews. I say what I want, when I want because I believe it to be true. That’s it.

The stupid continues

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This time with CNN’s “5 ways Microsoft’s Surface may be better than an iPad.” But what about the COM and Parallel ports?

Comparison chart of 20 real life spaceships with the Starship Enterprise

Written by

io9:

Check out this elegant infographic by Invader Xan, molecular astrophysicist and master of ceremonies at astronomy blog Supernova Condensate. Here, silhouetted in colors that correspond to their present state of operation, you’ll find twenty iconic spaceships and space stations situated beneath the only fictional spacecraft of the bunch: the U.S.S. Enterprise.What’s great about this image is that all the spacecraft have been drawn to scale. This gives you a real sense of perspective.

I love that he has listed the Starship Enterprise as “in development”.

WTF Gizmodo

Written by

Jesus Diaz for Gizmodo:

That weapon is Microsoft Surface. And it is beautiful. Beautiful and functional and simple and honest. Surface just bumped the MacBook Air and the iPad to the back seat…

Really? Remember this morning I said that New York Times article was really stupid — Jesus just took the stupid to a whole new level.

Then again, Giz seemed to like the PlayBook too.

Announcing vs. shipping

Written by

Dermot Daly on the differences between Microsoft’s and Apple’s strategy of announcing products:

People’s reactions are then about sprinting to their local Apple store, or reaching for their credit card.

He’s right. Apple creates a furor around its products and people race to buy it. It shows a real lack of planning and knowledge when you don’t even know how much it’s going to cost.

Bento 4 for iPad now available

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Bento 4 for iPad adds easier customization capabilities, spreadsheet like table view and calculations, and more functionality.

Kodak sues Apple over patent sales

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Apple and Kodak’s legal battles continue as bankrupt Kodak is now suing Apple to stop it from interfering with attempts to sell a large portfolio of digital imaging patents.

Video: Playing guitar at the beard party

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This is the first video I’ve seen online, so I thought I’d post it. I was playing an EVH Wolfgang guitar through an Avid Eleven Rack. I was very pleased with the tone from the Eleven Rack. […]

Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion pack

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This robust expansion covers the entire scope of time from founding your first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying your spies in enemy cities in order to steal information and technology.

Stupid New York Times

Written by

Sam Grobart for The New York Times:

Microsoft’s answer to this question seems to be: “Of course you can!” The new Surface runs Windows — either a lightweight, tablet-friendly Windows RT version or the original gangster Windows 8. It has a keyboard. The Pro version has a stylus.

Usually with these stupid articles, I highlight a paragraph for the readers. With this one, I could have just put brackets around the whole thing.

Sam, Microsoft and its partners tried the tablet-as-a-PC-replacement thing for a decade and it didn’t work. Consumers didn’t like it because tablet computing is different than desktop computing.

Apple knows that it’s different and so do consumers — it’s time Sam and Microsoft faced that too.