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I love listening to these isolated tracks. There’s some great information about the session here as well.

Anthony Colangelo:

The difference between knowledge and intelligence is key here. Knowledge is the collection of skills and information a person has acquired through experience. Intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge. Just because someone lacks knowledge of a particular subject doesn’t mean they can’t apply their intelligence to help solve problems.

I love that.

Google has quietly revealed it plans to retire the Google Wallet API for digital goods on March 2, 2015. The company plans to continue supporting the sale of apps on Google Play as well as in-app payments, but users will not be able to purchase any virtual items offered on the Web through Google Wallet.

You have to love Heineken.

[Via psfk]

Vox:

This chart, from David McCandless’ fascinating new book Knowledge is Beautiful, ranks 87 dog breeds and compares those rankings to the actual popularity of those breeds in the US.

The ranking is based on a number of factors: trainability, life expectancy, lifetime cost (including the price of food and grooming), and suitability for children, among others.

The result: Border Collies, according to McCandless, are the finest dog breed in existence. Labs, Beagles, and Golden Retrievers, while not at the very top, are other popular dogs (at the top right of the chart) that he rates highly.

Where does your dog fit into this chart? If I had a dog, it would likely be a Labrador. Happily, they score highly on this chart.

I totally agree with Gruber here. Flooding the App Store with one-star reviews because a company needs to make money is wrong.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shook up the automotive and aerospace industries with electric cars and cheap rockets. Now, he is focused on satellites, looking at ways to make smaller, less-expensive models that can deliver Internet access across the globe, according to people familiar with the matter.

Elon is definitely as visionary and the man get’s shit done.

It was one of the most hilarious (and important!) moments of the year: Zach Galifianakis interviewing President Obama about…the Affordable Care Act. And it vaulted Funny or Die—the world s greatest comedy site, brought to you by Will Ferrell and friends—to such stratospheric heights of viral-video dominance that the site has now hired some Wall Street guys to evaluate potential buyers. Amy Wallace embeds in the company’s Hollywood HQ and learns why FOD may soon be laughing all the way to the, well, you know

Joe Wilcox:

Clickbait and linkbait also corrupt longstanding, and sensible practices regarding headline writing that negatively affect audience attitudes about what is valuable content. Good headlines should be aggressive or provocative, such that they pull people to read the story. Emphasis: Read. Deliver value. Clickbait and linkbait headlines and stories aren’t written for people but for Google—to capture search ranking and pageviews.

This is worth a read.

3,000,000,000 can now access the Internet.

[Via Swissmiss]

BlackBerry’s new devices suck so bad, they are releasing the “BlackBerry Classic.”

The two people, both familiar with the FTC’s thinking, said Apple representatives have met on multiple occasions with agency officials in recent months, to stress that it will not sell its users’ health data to third-party entities such as marketers or allow third-party developers to do so.

Someone at the FTC confused Apple with Google.

Jason knows all too well that I don’t get the Kindle—never have, and probably never will. Still, I enjoyed Jason’s review. I should note that this is Jason’s new site since he left Macworld—congrats, it looks great.

PetaPixel:

If you’ve never thought to find out why aperture works the way it does, you should definitely check out this simple explanation of optics, aperture and pinholes by MinutePhysics.

As a photographer, I knew this information but this video explanation is the best, clearest I’ve seen.

Samsung this week announced its answer to Apple’s Continuity: a new cross-device sharing feature called “Flow,” intended to allow users to move activities and content between Samsung smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, PCs, and more.

I’m shocked that Samsung would so blatantly copy Apple. SHOCKED!

This is an interesting concept. You can read what Khoi Vinh says about Wildcard on his Web site.

The new album is available today—great to see Dave Grohl making some new music.

Though this ad is old, the feel is more in line with some of the more modern spots, using fewer words and more auditory cues.

Samsung is now reviewing its own products. I guess paying off bloggers and forum posters wasn’t direct enough for them.

Inc:

Imagine going to work for Steve Jobs as a recent college graduate. That’s what happened to Mark Tacchi, who dropped out of graduate school in 1993 to take a job at NeXT, the computer company Jobs founded after being forced out of Apple.

In time, Apple acquired NeXT in a deal that put Jobs back at Apple’s helm. Tacchi spent a total of four years at NeXT and Apple, and he learned a lot about how to run a business, and how not to.

Jobs had a (deserved) reputation as a tyrant but he also taught many in Silicon Valley how to serve the customer.

On October 10, 2014, Avid announced that new Pro Tools and Pro Tools | HD Software purchases, upgrades and crossgrades will include 12 months of upcoming features—such as future cloud collaboration capabilities—as well as a support plan. Even better, customers who buy/upgrade and activate to Pro Tools 11 by December 31, 2014 will receive extended coverage through March 2016.

The only thing that could throw a wrench into this is that audio pros tend to find a version of software that works and stick with it. Upgrading studio hardware and software can be a dangerous proposition when you have clients that want to record music. We’ll see.

I love Field Notes notebooks. I have two with me in my bag wherever I go.

Jim and Shawn talk about the Amazon Echo, how we communicate and left handed guitarists!

Sponsored by Squarespace (use code GUITARS for a free trial and 10% off) and Animoto (Visit the link and use the code AMPLIFIED for 10% off a new Pro Annual subscription).

The New York Times:

The Rosetta spacecraft’s Philae lander has touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Amazing pictures. Amazing achievement.

I don’t post about books very often, but I was listening to a CBC podcast called Writers and Company, where they interviewed the author, Martin Amis, and was very impressed. I’m going to buy this one.

AppleInsider:

Mac and iOS users are protected from viruses and malware by default unless the user bypasses their security systems, by jailbreaking an iOS device; by disabling the protections of Mac OS X’s GateKeeper; or by choosing to “Trust” app installs that iOS identifies as being from an “Untrusted App Developer.” Here’s how those systems work, and how users can avoid being tricked into turning off their own security.

Short version? Don’t be stupid.

I never really thought about this, but advertisers must be wondering what to do when the watch comes out.

Whether you know this as Remembrance Day or Veterans Day, it’s a time to give thanks to all those who fought or died for our freedom and to all of those who still serve in the Armed Forces. Thank you to both of my grandfathers.

Vox:

President Barack Obama announced on Monday that he supports taking strong measures to protect network neutrality. The announcement was not terribly surprising — Obama has long been an avowed supporter of network neutrality. But this is the first time Obama has proposed a specific legal strategy for protecting network neutrality. And his comments will raise the profile of what was already the most contentious policy debate in the technology world.

If you’re just tuning in now, it can seem a little overwhelming. What is network neutrality? What’s “reclassification?” And why have people been arguing so angrily for so long? Here’s an explanation that starts from the very beginning.

This is an important issue but sadly one the vast majority of internet users don’t know or don’t care enough about.

I agree with Graham on this. Far too often I come across mixes that are just packed with plug-ins, and that takes away from the sound you’re trying to achieve. The best way to get yourself out of the habit is to use one channel strip plug-in and shape the sound with it. After you’re comfortable doing that, you can add the odd plug-in to the mix to enhance the sound.