Yearly Archives: 2012

Jim Marshall: The Father of Loud

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Shortly before his death last week, Jim Marshall, creator of the famous amplifier, gave his last interview to Alfred Hickling. He talked about his debt to Hendrix and Spinal Tap – and his final invention, the one-watt amp.

DOJ sues Apple, publishers over eBook pricing

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WSJ:

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, alleges Apple and the publishers reached an agreement where retail price competition would cease, retail e-books prices would increase significantly and Apple would be guarantee a 30% “commission” on each e-book sold.

Metroptimizer: A simple iPhone app for the NY Metro

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A drop dead simple utility for any New Yorker. You tell the little robot, (we call him Metro for short) how much money you have on your metrocard, he spits back out you what you need to put on it to get an even fare.

A simple utility, but I can see how useful this would be.

The new Google+

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More than 170 million people have upgraded to Google+, enjoying new ways to share in Search, Gmail, YouTube and lots of other places. It’s still early days, and there’s plenty left to do, but we’re more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google.

The right reason to build an app

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Kyle Baxter on why he made Basil:

Simple: I love to cook, but couldn’t find the app I wanted, so I built it.

To me this is the perfect reason to build an app. You love to do something, but can’t find the perfect app to do it.

New quarter features glow-in-the-dark Alberta dinosaur

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The Vancouver Sun:

The image of a dinosaur whose remains were discovered in Alberta’s Peace Country will be featured on our newest quarter — the first Canadian coin with a glow-in-the dark picture.The quarter, being released by the Royal Canadian Mint April 16, features Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a large herbivore whose bone fragments were discovered by Grande Prairie, Alta., science teacher Al Lakusta in 1974.

It’s a glow in the dark 25 cent piece that costs $30. Silly Canadians.

500px aims to take out Flickr

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The Next Web:

In a move that should be a surprise to nobody, technology darling 500px is moving to take out Flickr with a new Plus plan. The company had previously held a high-level plan that was priced at $50 per year, but the Plus membership’s $20 per year pricing is aiming to hit Flickr where it hurts against its own pro-level plan at $25 per year.As for the features? Here’s what you’ll get – unlimited uploads and storage, access to files, unlimited number of collections, market functionality included, and advanced statistics on engagement.Another, smaller announcement is coming today as well. The site is introducing a desktop uploader app, for the Mac only. It’s doing so in response to the 30,000 photos per day that are uploaded to the service via the manual process, with 25% of its users on Mac machines.

I was a big fan and user of Flickr but it hasn’t really moved forward. Lots of photographers are checking out what 500px offers.

Space Shuttle Discovery to fly over Washington, DC

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NASA: NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Discovery mounted atop will fly approximately 1,500 feet above various parts of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, April 17. The flight, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, … Continued

U.S. government, carriers plan a national database of stolen cellphones

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Wall Street Journal:

The nation’s major wireless providers have agreed to a deal with the U.S. government to build a central database of stolen cellphones—part of a broad effort to tame an explosion of thefts nationwide.The database, which the wireless companies will build and maintain, will be designed to track phones that are reported as lost or stolen and deny them voice and data service. The idea is to reduce crime by making it difficult or impossible to actually use a stolen device, reducing resale value.

Oh RIM, you morons

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Remember back in the day (last week) when RIM’s Vice President of Developer Relations Alec Saunders said the company was removing sideloading from the PlayBook.

Surprise, no they’re not.

Successful Web design is in the details

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Carrie Cousins:

Pay attention to alignment, contrast, type effects and color because these items can make or break your website design.

Solid advice. It’s the small things that often kill us.

The man who broke Atlantic City casinos

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The Atlantic: Don Johnson won nearly $6 million playing blackjack in one night, single-handedly decimating the monthly revenue of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino. Not long before that, he’d taken the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. Here’s … Continued

Marriott hotels stop ISP ad hijacking

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The Marriott hotel chain says it’s ordered its ISP to stop using technology that allows it to hijack Web page loading with its own ads.