Coincidence aside, this is sad. He seemed like a great guy.

Valleywag:

The most absolutely awful thing about the story of Nick Starr is not that he exists, but that there are surely more people like him: the Seattle IT drone threw a Facebook fit when he was asked to take off his face-camera at a cafe. “I would love an explanation, apology, clarification…or her termination.”

Here’s your explanation – you’re a douchebag.

Macleans:

Nothing has gutted the indies, emotionally as well as financially, as the practice known as “showrooming.” Prospective buyers come into bookshops, wander the stacks, peruse the artful displays and even — unkindest cut of all — seek the advice of staff. Then they leave and order the books they want online.

Sadly, this is all too common in many retail environments. I see it a lot on the Motorcycle Retail space – going to the local bike shop, trying on gear, then buying that same gear online. Then, to make matters worse, those are the first people to whine when their local shop shuts down and they have no place to get their bike serviced.

Forbes:

Miranker’s passion for Holmes continued when he joined Apple in 1996 to help launch the iMac, eventually becoming the chief technology officer until he retired in 2004. His collection is also rich in letters and other documents relating to early Sherlock Holmes fandom.

I’ve always been a big Sherlock Holmes fan and it would be great to have the resources to invest in creating the kind of collection Miranker has.

Via iOS Dev Weekly:

Brennan Moore’s grandfather was an Apollo engineer. This is from his personal memoirs. It’s the story of a problem he helped fix during the launch of an unmanned Saturn V rocket on November 9th, 1967.

A taste:

Our goal was to enter this two level hermetically sealed, all welded steel coffin called the Mobil Launcher Base topped by a fully loaded 363 ft. high Saturn V, weighing 6.2 million pounds, and the permanently attached 380 ft. high Umbilical Tower, weighing 500k pounds. We finally stopped and left our van to walk up and into the second level of the Mobile Launcher Base. About this time, it came to my mind that during one of our training sessions we were told that one of the fully fueled prototype S-II rocket stages had been exploded out in the desert. The results showed that all buildings better be at least three miles from the launch pads – which they are. We were now within 25 feet of this 363ft tall bomb that sounded like it’s giant fuse had been lit, and we were soon going to get much closer.

Business Insider:

Both IBM and Adobe are reporting that Apple’s iOS, which powers iPhones and iPads, is destroying Google’s Android in mobile shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Repeat after me: “Market share means nothing if it doesn’t generate revenue”.

Thanks to Velocity for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Velocity is the only speed reading app designed and developed exclusively for iOS 7. Using a well-researched speed reading technique, you can breeze through your Instapaper or Pocket queue at superhuman speeds of up to 1,000 words per minute. Speed read websites, documents, or just about any text in one of Velocity’s 3 gorgeous themes and save more time than you know what to do with. See Velocity in action.

Larson-Green, who is executive vice-president of Devices and Studios at Microsoft, said that the aim of Windows RT was “our first go at creating that more closed, turnkey experience [that Apple has on the iPad]…” but that Microsoft now has three mobile operating systems: “We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We’re not going to have three.”

People are nuts.

This was published earlier this year, but there are so many great Slash quotes, it’s worth a read.

All kinds of examples and code here.

This looks great. It’s a grid setup, so you can place the pedals where they are most comfortable for you and it has eight regulated 9v connections and two regulated 12v connections, so you always have power.

Tesla is a non-traditional automaker and faces a constant battle against lawmakers protecting the existing auto sales infrastructure. This article lays out the Tesla strategy to battle that entrenched mindset.

Tesla Motors was in trouble in North Carolina. Prohibited from opening showrooms there, it was on the way to being unable to sell cars at all when the state Senate voted unanimously to block online auto sales.

Then Tesla turned out a lobbying weapon that, in the home state of stock-car racing’s hall of fame, spoke louder than money: It parked a Model S at the Capitol and invited lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory, R, to take it for a spin.

“When you accelerate it, it was the same sort of feeling I got when I test-drove a Mustang Boss back when I was probably 23 years old,” Republican House Speaker Thomas Tillis, 53, told the Raleigh News & Observer.

So ended the anti-Tesla legislation. Tillis’s chamber never voted on it.

If you are interested in travel hacking, this is a good place to get started. Andrew Liszewski talks you through the process he followed to gather huge numbers of frequent flyer miles, all without flying. Lots of helpful links, tips, and hints.

Click around for some great pictures.

These things drive me crazy.

Love it. What an innovative idea.

According to Futuremark, “when a device is suspected of breaking our rules it is delisted”. Among those that have been delisted – in other words, sent right to the bottom of Futuremark’s official performance chart and stripped of their scores – are HTC’s One and One Mini smartphones, and Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note III tablets.

I’m shocked Samsung would stoop to such levels.

Fantastic story, sure to inspire treasure hunters the world over. James Howells jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon early, turning his computer into a mining device, generating a stash of 7500 bitcoins when the currency had little value. At some point, with the bitcoin value still relatively low, James accidentally trashed his computer and sold it off for parts. He kept the hard drive in a drawer, but tossed it in the trash at some point, in a moment of ill-fated housecleaning.

Since then, the value of each bitcoin has soared past $1,000, making his hard drive worth more than $7.5 million. And, no, he does not have a backup. Yikes.

I have to say, my expectations were mixed, with trepidation based on the ill-conceived video trailer but balanced by my anticipation of a story well told by a seasoned writer. As I’m sure the vast majority of us are, I am a big fan of Sir Jony Ive and his work and want his story to be treated just-so.

If you don’t already have this book in hand, take a read through the excerpt. Compelling story with lots of little details and some terrific images. The only thing I’d argue with is the author’s premise. Unsung hero, certainly. But “The Genius” takes away from the hard work done by so many other people, not to mention Steve Jobs. That quibble aside, there’s plenty to enjoy here.

Unless Apple makes some unexpected changes to Newsstand, it will not be helping publishers win that fight for attention. For The Magazine’s Fleishman, at least, that means it’s time to seek solutions outside the product that Apple once marketed as a great hope for publishers.

Says Fleishman: “I hooked my wagon to a star that has dimmed in Apple’s eyes.”

Jim and Dan talk about Thanksgiving Day rules, Black Friday, the value of AppleCare, how Jim keeps on top of the news, Samsung leaving Android, discounted phones, PrimeSense 3D, remote controls, Photo Stream, Jim’s robot tuning system, and more.

My Paper is a simple and easy to use RSS reader that is compatible with Feedly and Feed Wrangler.

And it’s free.

Ben Bajarin:

There is no single unified Android codebase which is dominating the world. There is no single Android app store, there is no single Android ecosystem. What does exist is a vast array of different platforms and different ecosystem running this underlying kernel called Android.