January 20, 2014
Everything in this 1991 Radio Shack ad can be done on an iPhone
I saw this on Huffington Post. It is truly incredible how powerful our devices are these days.
Reset an admin password in OS X ∞
Good article from Alicia Katz Pollock—it might be one of those articles you bookmark just in case.
Where did Universal Orlando get the idea for this great ad?
This is a nice ad, I wonder where they came up with the idea…
Oh yeah, here it is.
Bold move to counter Yale’s blocking of a student course selection web site
A few days ago, I posted about two students at Yale (Harry Yu and Peter Xu) who built a student course selection web site that was far superior to any of the official tools offered by Yale. Yale shut them down.
On Friday, Mary Miller, Dean of Yale College, posted an official response to the controversy.
This past week, students in Yale College lost access to YBB+ because its developers, although acting with good intentions, used university resources without permission and violated the acceptable use policy that applies to all members of the Yale community. The timing for its users could not have been worse: over 1,000 of them had uploaded worksheets during the course selection period and relied on those worksheets to design their course schedules. And the means for shutting down the site immediately — by blocking it — led to charges that the university was suppressing free speech.
Free speech defines Yale’s community; the people who belong to it understand that they are entitled to share their views just as they must tolerate the views of others, no matter how offensive. The right to free speech, however, does not entitle anyone to appropriate university resources. In the case of YBB+, developers were unaware that they were not only violating the appropriate use policy but also breaching the trust the faculty had put in the college to act as stewards of their teaching evaluations. Those evaluations, whose primary purpose is to inform instructors how to improve their teaching, became available to students only in recent years and with the understanding that the information they made available to students would appear only as it currently appears on Yale’s sites — in its entirety.
Members of the YCDO and the University Registrar met this week with the developers, and to good end: the developers learned more about the underlying problems with using data without permission, the importance of communicating in advance with the university on projects that require approval and cooperation, and some of the existing mechanisms for collaborating with the university, among them the Yale College Council. Administrators, for their part, heard more about the demand for better tools and guidelines for the growing number of student developers, the need for a better approach to students who violate the acceptable use policy — in most cases unwittingly — and the value students place on information contained in teaching evaluations. All parties agreed to work toward a positive outcome, and they remain in conversation with each other to that end.
We have not yet seen a public response to this post from Xu and Yu. What has emerged, however, is a surprising response from another Yale student, Sean Haufler. (H/T to Clay Andres)
Sean built a Chrome extension called Banned Bluebook to replace the banned functionality. From Sean’s blog post:
I built a Chrome Extension called Banned Bluebook. It modifies the Chrome browser to add CourseTable’s functionality to Yale’s official course selection website, showing the course’s average rating and workload next to each search result. It also allows students to sort these courses by rating and workload. This is the original site, and this is the site with Banned Bluebook enabled (this demo uses randomly generated rating values).
Banned Bluebook never stores data on any servers. It never talks to any non-Yale servers. Moreover, since my software is smarter at caching data locally than the official Yale course website, I expect that students using this extension will consume less bandwidth over time than students without it. Don’t believe me? You can read the source code. No data ever leaves Yale’s control. Trademarks, copyright infringement, and data security are non-issues. It’s 100% kosher.
It is well worth reading Sean’s post to follow his logic. I hope Dean Miller takes the same reasoned tack with Sean as she did with Harry Yu and Peter Xu. This can still end well for all parties. Seems to me there’s a great combination of lessons learned by all and, most importantly, a better course evaluation and selection process for Yale students.
January 18, 2014
Rethinking the Mac mini ∞
Peter Cohen:
The Mac mini is overdue for a major refresh. It’s been well more than a year, and it’s been several years since the Mac mini had any significant work done to it. That’s got me thinking about what Apple could do it and probably should do to it.
It will certainly be interesting to see what Apple does with the Mac mini. Clearly, Apple’s interest has been with the iPhone and iPad, as well as the MacBooks and Mac Pro in recent years.
St. Louis TV station causes school lockdown, then reports on it ∞
On Thursday night, KSDK in St. Louis reported on a high school lockdown. And it was one that they had caused. Kirkwood High School went into lockdown earlier that day and, after more than an hour, people in St. Louis began finding out why.
I would be pissed off.
Enable proximity solutions with Bleu Station from Twocanoes Software ∞
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It’s all about lack of trust with Google ∞
Sam Rijver:
I’m using quite a few iHealth products to measure a few things regarding my health. I have measurements of my blood pressure, blood-oxigen levels, weight, activity and sleep patterns and more. I do this because it’s useful information I can use to monitor my own health. More importantly I can (choose to) provide this information to my physician during my yearly check-up. I have yearly check-ups due to heart disease running in the family and with the iHealth products I can provide a great amount of data points for about 80% of the tests they run on such a check. It’s great. It’s useful. It’s also scaring the crap out of me that Google might go out and buy the company for an insane amount of money. I just can’t shake the feeling that if that happens I would feel worried about the implications of Google getting their hands on that kind of data.
For me, all of this commentary comes back to simple point: people don’t trust Google. Eventually that has to come back and bite them in the ass.
7 classic versions of Windows and Mac OS you can run in a browser ∞
Not perfect. I struggled to get some features to work. But I definitely had myself a fond walk down memory lane. Enjoy!
The story of Wish You Were Here
Back in September, 1975, Pink Floyd released the album Wish You Were Here. My brother and I have always loved that album and it often comes up in our musical conversations.
Yesterday, my brother sent me a photo of Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of the band who supposedly suffered from a crippling mental illness combined with drug addiction. After penning some of the bands earliest successes, Syd left the band in April 1968. He meant a tremendous amount to the band and they missed him. He was their primary voice and they had to reinvent themselves after he left.
Wish You Were Here was an emotional reaching out to Barrett. This video tells the story of the creation of the album. About 53 minutes in, you’ll hear the story of Barrett’s return. If you don’t have the bandwidth to watch the whole video, jump there and watch for about 5 minutes and you’ll see the picture that Stu sent me.
If you are a fan of Pink Floyd, I think you’ll really enjoy this.
January 17, 2014
Transfer files from Pro Tools to Logic Pro and back again ∞
Everyone has their favorite DAW to work in, and most people are very attached to their workstation of choice, but eventually there comes a time when it becomes necessary to transfer the individual elements of a project to a different program.
Transferring projects has always been problematic, but there’s some good tips here.
Logic Pro X Skins ∞
I kind of like the default look of Logic Pro Pro X, but if you want a different look, the modding community has been hard at work.
Google Play Store lets your kid spend like a drunken sailor ∞
That’s quite a headline from Consumer Reports. And the FTC goes after Apple.
YouTube gives you an early jump on 2014 Super Bowl ads ∞
CNET News:
If you’re one of the people more interested in watching Super Bowl commercials than watching the actual game, you’re in luck. YouTube has offered early access to Super Bowl commercials for those who just can’t wait.The Google-owned company on Thursday announced the Ad Blitz channel on YouTube.
Or, if you are unlucky enough to live in a place like Canada where the Super Bowl ads are replaced by local market ads for mufflers and mattress superstores, this channel lets you see what all the buzz is about.
14 minutes of pissed off goalies
Goalies are known as “The drummers of hockey” so 14 minutes of insanity from netminders is pure gold.
An illustrated account of the “Great Maple Syrup Heist” ∞
Modern Farmer:
About 80% of the world’s maple syrup comes from Canada and 90% of that comes from Quebec which produced 96.1 million lbs of syrup valued at $270 million in 2012.
We wrote about this when it first came to light in 2012 but this “illustrated update” is interesting too. The idea of a “International Strategic Reserve” of maple syrup still cracks me up.
An oral history of Hoop Dreams, 20 years after its première ∞
The Dissolve:
In January 1994, a group of filmmakers from Chicago went to the Sundance Film Festival to accomplish the impossible, by selling a three-hour documentary about two inner-city teens hoping to get to the NBA. By the time they left, their lives had changed, and so had the way non-fiction filmmaking is perceived.
The movie still holds up as a powerful commentary on sports and the role it plays in the lives of too many “disadvantaged youths”.
But it’s also a wonderful film in and of itself. Even if you’re not a fan of documentaries, I’d encourage you to watch it.
What The Fuck is My Wearable Strategy? ∞
Don’t forget to hit reload, there are some real gems in there.
One diabetic’s take on Google’s Smart Contact Lenses ∞
Om Malik has diabetes and thought about some things Google didn’t.
Samsung pop-up ads on your TV ∞
I would lose my fucking mind if this happened to me.
Net Neutrality Endgame ∞
Matt Drance:
Put simply: the Internet we know and depend on will become something very different. The business relationship with your provider will change its focus from consumption (how many ones and zeros came over the wire) to behavior (what kind of ones and zeros). The latter is much more discriminatory and insidious.
Apple widens US smartphone lead ∞
Research firm NPD today announced the results of its latest Connected Home Report, showing that Apple increased its share of the U.S. smartphone installed user base by seven percentage points, from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 42 percent in the same quarter of 2013. Second-place Samsung increased its share of the market by a smaller margin from 22 percent to 26 percent, while other major manufacturers saw their shares drop.
There are only two players in the smartphone business.
Amplified: Nobody’s Getting My Panties ∞
This week, Merlin Mann sits in to chat with Jim about the Nest acquisition, the problem with Google’s opaque creepiness, Jim’s upcoming trip to NAMM, plus some special interactive tips from Jim on working the pentatonic blues solo.
Homework: Practice on GnR’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”
5by5’s bandwidth for January provided by CacheFly: The fastest, most reliable CDN in the business.
Sponsors this week:
- Ting ($25 off)
- Shutterstock (25% off everything with discount code “DANSENTME114”)
- Freshbooks (They’re giving away birthday cakes!)
- Squarespace (10% off everything with discount code “NEWYEARS”)
Heroic bro saves skunk with cup stuck on its head ∞
I wish this video was better quality and I wish it was shot landscape instead of portrait. But soldier on, it’s a great little story. You’ll be rooting for both the bro and the skunk by the end.
Yale students made a better version of their course catalogue. Then Yale shut it down. ∞
A major challenge in registering for classes is working out schedule conflicts from overlapping classes, finding a solution that allows you to take the classes you need to take while sprinkling in courses you’d love to take or maximizing your sleep schedule. This is a complex problem with a lot of moving parts. Most universities offer, at best, some primitive calendaring solutions, even though the ability to optimize your schedule based on specified priorities is eminently solvable using software.
Two Yale students did their fellow students a huge solid by building a nice little system. It became quite popular. Then Yale shut them down.
As first reported by the Yale Daily News, representatives of the registrar’s office contacted Yu and Xu last week asking how they had obtained their data, with whose permission, and where it was hosted. Officials also expressed concerns that the site was making course evaluation information available to individuals not authorized to view the information. While the site required Yale credentials to log in, it did not have a way to sort between undergrad students and other members of the academic community. In later correspondence, the administration cited concerns about the prominence of evaluation information and unauthorized use of the words “Yale,” “Bluebook,” and the Yale logo.
At a meeting Friday, the brothers say they were told they needed to shut down the site due to these issues. “They seemed to be panicking a little bit about it,” Xu said in an interview. But the brothers countered with proposals aimed at addressing the university’s concerns and they rushed to implement changes over the weekend — including changing the name to CourseTable and adjusting how they displayed rating data. “We thought we could work out all of these issues,” says Xu, “up until Sunday night.”
Then, without further warning, Yale blocked the page from university networks — effectively cutting off students who intended to use their service to guide their shopping period.
Do the right thing here, Yale. Address this. These students should be lauded for their service work, not frozen out. This is potential egg on your face, easily avoided.
The most profitable price for an ebook ∞
Part of the problem with selling eBooks is determining the price. You want to find the sweet spot that maximizes your profit.
Turns out that that sweet spot varies with geography and genre. Rachel Willmer at TechCrunch used the Luzme eBook search service to build a rough eBook pricing model. Interesting read.
Nintendo heads for third consecutive annual loss as Wii U flops ∞
To me, it all comes down to this:
Pressure will likely mount on the architect of the Wii success in 2006 to step aside or shift course to focus on making money from “Super Mario” and other software titles. Nintendo so far has refused to allow its games to be played on machines built by competitors or on tablets or other mobile devices that are used by gamers.
The pressure is building. Nintendo needs to either reinvent themselves entirely, shrink to focus on their handheld success, and/or start licensing franchise brands like Zelda and Mario to Microsoft or Sony.
Nintendo will be around for a while, no doubt. They project a loss of about $335 million this fiscal year and they have about $14 billion in the bank. That’s excellent news for them and gives them plenty of planning time. I worry that their hand-held business might deteriorate once the phone game controller market matures over the next few years. The longer they wait, the fewer the options.
Google builds prototype contact lens that can measure glucose levels ∞
This has the potential to be a real boon for diabetics. The contact lens has an embedded glucose sensor, a wireless transmitter, and a tiny antenna, all tucked high enough on the lens to not interfere with the wearer’s vision.
I see so much potential here. But plenty of room for harm. What else can you learn from tears? Is it possible to do illicit drug screening? DNA sampling? Personally, if I’m going to allow Google access to my body, I want the source code that communicates with the lens to be open and available so I can verify/rebuild it myself.
January 16, 2014
Drum Werks XXVII: Groove Rock Drum Loops ∞
I love Beta Monkey drum loops—I use them on a lot of my songs.