Text Post
Posted 2 weeks ago

Email: “IMMEDIATE CLIAM OF YOUR FUND”

Posted 2 weeks ago

I’ve just received notification that FedEx is holding a package for me:

Attention: Dear Valued Beneficiary,

This is to notify you that your parcel is still in our possession, thisparcel contained an International Cashier Bank Draft Cheque worth the sum of $1,500,000.00(One Million five thundred Thousand USA dollars)only and it is ready for delivery to your door step. Anyway, your cheque was brought to this office by a Lottery Fiduciary Agent Or Claim Agent, signifying that you are a rightful winner to their Lottery Award selected randomly from 10 lucky email addresses which your email address is one of the lucky email address.

FEDEX COURIER MANAGING DIRECTOR
Mr. Julius Crown
Tel (+234) 7041667987
fedexgroup_agent02@yahoo.com.hk

O happy day! What fortune! What fantastic luck! I’ve won the lottery! And all I must do is submit a payment of US $220 to handle customs fees.

Fortunately, as I am in Hong Kong this week, I’ve offered to meet in person with the claims agent and hopefully bypass any customs fees. I’ll notify you as further events unfold.

↩Friday, February 19, 2010

Photo Post
Posted 3 weeks ago
Happy Year of the Tiger, everyone! Zoom

Happy Year of the Tiger, everyone!

↩Monday, February 15, 2010

Text Post 734
Notes
Posted 3 weeks ago

A conversation @dwineman has every month or so

Posted 3 weeks ago

dwineman tries to visit a local restaurant’s website on his phone:

Restaurant website: I require Flash. Fuck off.
Me: I just want to know how late you’re open.
Website: Nope.
Me: But I’m on my phone. Don’t you have a little “HTML Version” link up in the corner or something?
Website: I’m ignoring you.
Me: What if I’m on my phone because I’m out, looking for a place to eat? Didn’t that ever occur to you?
Website: Fuck entirely off.

This is certainly a problem we’ve all had before. I’ve long since given up trying to wrangle restaurant websites on my iPhone; I think the iPhone Yelp app, which can filter results based on “OPEN FOR BURRITOS RIGHT NOW”, is the best solution.

Also, while we’re at it, I think it’s a goddamn travesty that so many restaurant websites are still Flash-only. Even on a computer, it’s an obnoxious experience.

↩Sunday, February 14, 2010

via dwineman
Photo Post
Posted 3 weeks ago
Hong Kong is cloudy, foggy, rainy, and you can’t see the tops of skyscrapers. …so, in other words, it’s a lot like San Francisco. Zoom

Hong Kong is cloudy, foggy, rainy, and you can’t see the tops of skyscrapers.

…so, in other words, it’s a lot like San Francisco.

↩Sunday, February 14, 2010

Photo Post
Posted 3 weeks ago
I’m in Hong Kong visiting family for the week. Here’s my adorable 5-year-old cousin Mimi showing me some pictures on her dad’s iPhone. Mimi can’t use a regular computer without a great deal of help. She doesn’t know what a hard drive is, how a hierarchical folder structure works, or how to browse the web. But she can effortlessly swipe, pinch, and navigate through entire photo libraries on the iPhone. As developers, user interface designers, and interaction designers, this is exactly what we should aspire to: a user experience that’s so simple, so intuitive, so straightforward that a 5-year-old can succeed without any prior instruction. That’s the key: simplify. Then simplify again. Be relentless about it. Zoom

I’m in Hong Kong visiting family for the week. Here’s my adorable 5-year-old cousin Mimi showing me some pictures on her dad’s iPhone.

Mimi can’t use a regular computer without a great deal of help. She doesn’t know what a hard drive is, how a hierarchical folder structure works, or how to browse the web. But she can effortlessly swipe, pinch, and navigate through entire photo libraries on the iPhone.

As developers, user interface designers, and interaction designers, this is exactly what we should aspire to: a user experience that’s so simple, so intuitive, so straightforward that a 5-year-old can succeed without any prior instruction. That’s the key: simplify. Then simplify again. Be relentless about it.

↩Saturday, February 13, 2010

Photo Post
Posted 3 weeks ago
There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over Google Buzz — and some of it is well-deserved. One crucial item to note is that the initial list of people you’re following is based on those whom you email most often. That’s not really okay, Google, as that might be a list of people you’d rather not publish to the Internet. Fortunately, you can disable public display of your followers and following list from your Google Profile page.

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over Google Buzz — and some of it is well-deserved. One crucial item to note is that the initial list of people you’re following is based on those whom you email most often. That’s not really okay, Google, as that might be a list of people you’d rather not publish to the Internet.

Fortunately, you can disable public display of your followers and following list from your Google Profile page.

↩Thursday, February 11, 2010

Link Post
Posted 4 weeks ago

Safer Internet Day

Did you know that February 9 is Safer Internet Day? This year’s theme, a masterstroke of marketing brilliance, is “Think B4 U Post!”.

Safer Internet Day is brought to you by INSAFE, an organization whose mascot is humping Earth.

↩Monday, February 8, 2010

Photo Post
Posted 1 month ago
The next big thing: optical wireless communication will replace WiFi. Already they’ve achieved 1Gbps transfer rates. The system uses a high-powered laser diode — a device that converts electricity into light — as the optical transmitter and an avalanche photo diode — a device that converts light to electricity — as the receiver. The light bounces off the walls and is picked up by the receiver. You could use this to transmit internet and HDTV data, and it’s more secure than WiFi because the network range can be very tightly controlled: optical signals can’t escape a windowless room. Two downsides: Sounds like a bad sci-fi movie: “Sir! The avalanche photo diode has taken a direct hit!” Emos and goths everywhere will boycott it: your walls can’t be painted black.

The next big thing: optical wireless communication will replace WiFi. Already they’ve achieved 1Gbps transfer rates.

The system uses a high-powered laser diode — a device that converts electricity into light — as the optical transmitter and an avalanche photo diode — a device that converts light to electricity — as the receiver. The light bounces off the walls and is picked up by the receiver.

You could use this to transmit internet and HDTV data, and it’s more secure than WiFi because the network range can be very tightly controlled: optical signals can’t escape a windowless room.

Two downsides:

  • Sounds like a bad sci-fi movie: “Sir! The avalanche photo diode has taken a direct hit!”
  • Emos and goths everywhere will boycott it: your walls can’t be painted black.

↩Sunday, January 31, 2010

Text Post
Posted 1 month ago

Final Tablet Thoughts

Posted 1 month ago

Some final thoughts with less than an hour to go until the “our newest creation” event.

Hardware: 10” diagonal screen, as widely reported. Front-facing video camera.

Software: Based on OS X in the same way that iPhone OS is. I’m of the opinion that the McGraw-Hill CEO mess is one of two things:

  • Another example of incompetence from a CEO in the textbook industry
  • Another controlled leak by Apple

I think it’s also possible that he mis-spoke. He did say “[the tablet is] based on iPhone OS”, but remember that he’s not necessarily tech-savvy. Perhaps he meant “based on OS X, like iPhone OS”, or he misunderstood what Apple was telling him.

Hardware and software is one thing, but I bet Steve will frame the larger discussion around content. That’s what the tablet is all about: the digitalization of content. The Tablet is to print media as the iPod was to music. Expect to see a huge influx of magazines, books, and other print media in the iTunes store (pro tip: did you know that there are already magazines and other print media in the iTunes store?)

Lastly, the name. There’s been a lot of talk about “iTablet”, “iPad”, and even bringing back “iBook”, but I think the real name will hit closer to home. This will be the next step in the iPod line.

↩Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Text Post
Posted 1 month ago

LOST

Posted 1 month ago

I published a Tumblr draft yesterday about the Apple Tablet, but the post went missing. It wasn’t on the dashboard nor on my Tumblr history page, and it wasn’t successfully published to Twitter or Facebook. The only place it shows is on the blog homepage. I didn’t get an error message or any indication that anything was wrong. Now, a day after it was first published, it’s still missing from the dashboard and history page.

Really, a silent ongoing failure of this magnitude in a modern webapp like Tumblr is unacceptable.

On a related note, I’ve noticed the dashboard can be slow to load, and sometimes there are minutes-long delays before published content shows on the dashboard. But at least there’s a partial fix for that: try disabling infinite scroll on your preferences page. The dashboard seems a little more responsive without infinite scroll.

↩Tuesday, January 26, 2010