December 2009
24 posts
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Monkeys attack Chinese master with martial arts →
From MSN New Zealand:
A Chinese monkey trainer who trained his animals to do martial arts reportedly got the shock of his life when his proteges suddenly turned on him.
File under: Should have seen it coming. (via Kevin Pang)
Dinner Plans
Shawn Morrison: I haven't found a good place to go yet.
Me: Is there a Chuck E. Cheese in the East Village?
Me: I know there's one in Queens...
Me: HINT HINT QUEENS HINT.
Shawn Morrison: Oh, there's one in Harlem!
Me: Let's each go to one and bring our laptops and video chat from the ball pits.
Me: I doubt any human beings have ever done that before.
Shawn Morrison: That's the best idea I've heard in a long time.
Shawn Morrison: EVENING: PLANNED.
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“This update eliminates the noise made by the optical disk drive during system...”
– Apple MacBook Pro Firmware Note
As long as I can remember, Apple laptops’ optical drives made that WAH-WUH-WAH sound when the computer started or woke from sleep. No longer. It was very bizarre to wake my MBP up this morning and hear no audio feedback.
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WatchSNL Digital Short: Rihanna and Shy Ronnie (via sarahcooley)
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Rate iPhone Apps Friday
It’s that time again: Take 10 or 15 minutes out of your day today and rate/review some of the apps you use on your iPhone in the App Store. Most people have tons of apps on their phones, many of which they love, but we’re all guilty of forgetting or not bothering to review them in the store.
Today my ratings included IMDB (4★) and Dragon’s Lair (3★).
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Tumblr Backup App Beta →
Marco Arment:
Unlike other publishing sites’ approach to backups, our goal was to create a useful copy of your blog’s content that can be viewed on any computer, burned to a CD, or hosted as an archive of static HTML files.
Wherever possible, we use simple file formats. Our backup structure is optimized for Mac OS X’s Spotlight for searching and Quick Look for browsing, and...
The Grownup's Card
Shawn Morrison: There's something about having an American Express Card that makes me feel like an adult.
Shawn Morrison: Probably all the porn I'm buying with it.
Me: Yeah, Amex is great for pornography.
Me: And I agree, it is the grownup's card.
Me: My Amex biz card says "Platinum" on it and has a picture of Gladiator's head, so it's extra manly and grown up.
Shawn Morrison: Oh man, I need to upgrade to that one.
Shawn Morrison: Mine has a picture of classy hobo.
Me: We all have to start somewhere, you know?
Me: I was once a hobo, just like you.
Me: Classy, sure, but a hobo.
Shawn Morrison: Listen, this burlap spots jacket and mismatched bowtie is working just fine for me thank you very much.
Shawn Morrison: *sports
Shawn Morrison: (dammit)
Me: What a classic hobo typo.
Shawn Morrison: It's these damn cat-fur mittens.
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Showtime, the iPhone web app →
Neven Mrgan:
Nial Giacomelli has done a bang-up job with Showtime, his web app for keeping track of your favorite TV shows. It’s not fabulous “for a web app”, it’s fabulous period.
I’ve complained before about web apps versus native apps and how web apps can’t compete for the most part, but Showtime shows how great a web app can really be. Simple, focused, well designed, with good...
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Multi-faceted: An Interview with Garrett Murray →
Chris Bowler interviewed me over the course of a month, and we talked about my experience with design, developing iPhone apps, filmmaking and being a neat freak.
On not considering myself a designer:
All my design work is for my own projects—things like Ego, my sites, other web applications—I’m the client and I’m not forced to work on a deadline. I could never be a designer by trade because I’m...
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Me: Where did you find that, anyway?
Brian Fling: Usenet.
Me: When you say "usenet" I immediately think "SCSI".
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Let Me Push You
Shawn Morrison: I don't get Gmail's push service. I've been using both IMAP and push Gmail for about a month, and push does not necessarily update quicker.
Shawn Morrison: And doesn't load any folder content.
Me: But if you think about it, it's cool to say you're pushing email all over the place.
Shawn Morrison: Yeah it's true.
Shawn Morrison: "Let me push you," I've been saying.
Shawn Morrison: "Push that up in my business," I'll say if I want something from someone.
Me: Yeah, I like that.
Shawn Morrison: I like using professional terms for things, it makes me feel like an adult.
Me: Roger that, I copy.
Me: (I like using radio jargon for the same reasons.)
Shawn Morrison: I may steal that from you.
Me: 10-4, go ahead.
Me: People especially love it when in meetings I interrupt and say I'm "oscar mike to take a shit."
Shawn Morrison: Hmm, tried combining them, didn't work.
Shawn Morrison: Just screamed at my coworker, "BREAKER BREAKER PUSH ALL UP ON ME!"
Shawn Morrison: But she didn't email me anything.
Shawn Morrison: And called the police.
Me: Just watch out, in radio terms that means drop a concrete wall on you.
Me: Granted, it comes up infrequently, but still.
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“Who would choose to be there? I guess I just don’t have the type of...”
– Shawn, on clubs
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Editor's Choice
Neven Mrgan:
The New York Times has a ridiculous interview with Jeff Bezos about the Kindle:
Barnes & Noble claims on its Web site that the Nook has several advantages over the Kindle — for one thing, a Nook book can be lent to friends. You can forward the text to another user.
The current thing being talked about is extremely limited. You can lend to one friend. One time. You can’t pick...
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The Importance of Crediting the Creator
For the longest time I used the Tumblr parlance of “via” when posting items to this site created by others. Recently, however, I realized that in a lot of cases this isn’t accurate. For instance, when posting a Flickr photo from a user directly, “via” should really be “by”. Using “via” only makes sense when you’re giving someone credit...
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Music Purchases, December 2009
Jonathan Boulet by Jonathan Boulet
The Fame Monster by Lady GaGa
Radio Wars by Howling Bells
Mean Everything to Nothing by Manchester Orchestra
Manners by Passion Pit
Voxtrot by Voxtrot
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“It’s like some brainstorming genius was able to turn the Costco shopping...”
– eMusic user BlocHead’s review of Owl City’s Maybe I’m Dreaming