A few weeks ago I wrote about gestures on the Mac vs. Windows 8. By and large, I’ve shifted to using my Mac with most apps in full-screen, and really making the most of the gestures included in OS X 10.8. It isn’t always easy, as certain apps (looking at you, Word 2011), don’t optimally use full-screen. Word has Focus mode (its own full-screen model) and now supports OS X’s full-screen mode – but not together. Meaning if you shift…
Yesterday I read Paul Miller’s piece on The Verge, I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet. Having decided not nearly as long ago (4 days) to take a break from Twitter and Facebook, I found the piece timely. I recently decided to take a bit of a timeout from Twitter – and even more from Facebook – because I felt that the energy I put into them, and the negative energy I received from them was…
A friend recently posted a link to this blog. It’s an interesting read about where you should focus when building your app; should you have one app for each platform, or an API that goes as high up as possible into each platform? In particular, he quotes the expression, “the API is the asset, the UI is simply throwaway”. I get the point he’s trying to say. Platforms come and go – but an API should be designed to be durable….
“It’s increasingly likely that a small group of well-financed people are going to be able to really bring this country to its knees.” I couldn’t agree more, which is why we shouldn’t let them be re-elected. Anyone willing to grab a pitchfork and stab the rule of law in the name of fear doesn’t deserve to hold office in this country. Fox News: Republican lawmaker defends call to torture (Linked from USA Today)
Stop buying more stuff, believing that buying more stuff will make you happy. Happy Earth Day.
Alright – shake out the giggles from the title, and let me show you why I said that. Until recently I had been using Windows 8 every day – and recently switched to a Mac (running 10.8 Mountain Lion) as my primary computing device. The more I have used Mountain Lion – especially with apps in full-screen mode – the more certain things felt subtly similar to Windows 8. I believe that Mountain Lion is yet another step in Apple’s gradual…
I’ve been pondering the existence of devices like the Asus PadFone and PadFone 2 recently. Not really convertible devices, not really hybrid devices, they’re an electronic centaur. Like an Amphicar or a Taylor Aerocar, the PadFone devices compromise their ability to be one good device by instead being two less than great devices. I haven’t found a good description of devices like the PadFone – I refer to them as “form integrated”. One device is a dumb terminal and relies…
Just under one year from now, on April 8, 2014, Windows XP leaves Extended Support. There are three key questions I’ve been asked a lot during the past week, related to this milestone: What even happens when Windows XP leaves Extended Support? Will Microsoft balk, and continue to support Windows XP after that date? What will happen to systems running Windows XP after that date? All important questions. The first question can be exceedingly complex to answer. But for all…
Over a year ago, I wrote a missive about how idiotic Hollywood’s “Rental Window” was. Luckily, things have changed, and now you can easily stream a movie from almost any streaming service the same day it comes out on Blu-ray and DVD. I kid. You know that’s never going to happen. I recall as a kid when we wanted to rent a movie on VHS, we had to go to the video store and see if they a) stocked it…
Beginning with Windows NT Embedded, an effort was started to refactor the Windows operating system in such a way that embedded device manufacturers could tweak the operating system to only include the parts that they needed to run their application or workload. Though it wasn’t completely decomposed/recomposable, it was a huge step in the right direction. By removing components not necessary to run a certain workload (say a point of sale terminal or a control system for manufacturing), the security…