January 2012
2 posts
“Complete ‘realism’ is clearly unattainable, and the question whether...”
– Milton Friedman
“Having dealt with the clean reality of metals, technology, production all his...”
– on Hank Rearden’s political views in Atlas Shrugged
November 2011
2 posts
“A plurality of Americans call themselves independents, and on the most divisive...”
– The Economist
“Tablets” weren’t a category that anyone needed to give a damn about until the...”
– http://www.marco.org/2011/11/17/kindle-fire-review
October 2011
1 post
President Obama on the Passing of Steve Jobs →
…he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
September 2011
1 post
“If Bernanke continues shoveling in hundreds of billions to needy bankers, five...”
– The Importance of Capital Theory - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily
August 2011
2 posts
“In the fall of 1997, Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he were CEO of...”
– http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/09/apple-is-briefly-the-worlds-most-valuable-public-company/
“Our economy is lubricated by a sophisticated and stable credit market whose most...”
– S&P’s credit rating cut: Downgrading our politics | The Economist
July 2011
6 posts
My afternoon
Vendor: Do you think you should have errors?
Me: If the program isn't giving me any results, it would nice if it told me why.
“The president and Congressional Republicans are locked in a staring contest over...”
– Stephen Colbert
“I found out that it’s not good to talk about my troubles. Eighty percent of the...”
– Tommy LaSorda
Microsoft's innovation illness →
Microsoft’s Windows Phone president Andy Lees at the Worldwide Partners Conference once again tried to shoot down hopes for tablets based on Windows Phone 7. The use of the mobile OS would be “in conflict” with Microsoft’s notion of having the full speed of a computer in any design, including truly mobile tablets. He insisted that users would want to do PC-style...
“It is a natural human impulse to think of evolution as a long chain of...”
– Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
“Water is strange stuff. It is formless and transparent, and yet we long to be...”
– Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
June 2011
1 post
“Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do… The best way to...”
– Alan Kay, 1971
May 2011
1 post
April 2011
7 posts
Apple's sentence →
“Keep in mind that Apple’s penalty for losing the PC war in the 1990s is that it is now the most profitable PC maker in the world.”
The most mystical benefit of writing is the way a page or screen becomes a medium through which my mind communicates with itself. The unintentional symbolism strikes me the most — the way certain thoughts have to leave my body, then re-enter before they can be realized.
It’s almost as if the full potential of human mind can’t happen absent writing.
BGR on the Thunderbolt's poor battery performance →
What makes matters worse is the fact that 4G can’t be switched on and off by the user. There is no widget to disable LTE and there’s not even a menu setting you can check on and off to enable or disable 4G. While there is a method floating around to do this by entering into the phone’s field test mode, this doesn’t even come close to cutting it. While enthusiasts might be comfortable with a...
ThunderBolt battery could pose problems for users... →
In four field tests over several days, battery life on a review unit of the ThunderBolt averaged only 4 hours and 22 minutes between charges, two hours below the advertised 6.3 hours for the device’s 1400 mAh battery.
I can’t imagine having a phone that couldn’t even make it 4.5 hours on a charge. How would you travel with it?
“More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming,...”
– Stephen Moore - WSJ.com
March 2011
7 posts
eBay Sees 12K iPad 2 Sales in Two Weeks →
eBay buyers paid a significant premium over retail. On average, buyers paid nearly $200 more for the base 16 GB model, which was the most popular model with 30 percent of overall eBay sales. The second most popular seller, the 64 GB iPad 3G, carried an average additional cost of over $400 above Apple’s official asking price.
Idea: Let’s eliminate fiat money, but instead of gold...
AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom →
Maybe after this acquisition, AT&T will merge with Microsoft. Then, Nokia can start selling Windows Phone 7 phones that run on the Windows Nationwide Network (formerly AT&T’s network). This will move the US even closer to the Utopian ideal of a completely anti-competitive mobile industry.
“IntoMobile readers may be curious to know as to why I’m writing about a product...”
– “Stefan” on August 3rd, 2009.
Apple's iPad Chalks Up Strong Sales →
Because the iPad 2 is a refinement of the original, rather than a complete makeover, some analysts had expected the lines of consumers waiting to buy it to be shorter this time. Instead lines were twice as long in many locations, possibly in part because the company didn’t take pre-orders this time.
February 2011
8 posts
Everything that can go wrong with Windows Phone 7... →
The updates are failing to install in two ways. For lucky individuals, the process merely hangs on step seven (out of ten); rebooting the phone resurrects it, albeit without the upgrade.
10 steps. Now we know why Microsoft left “Windows” in the name of the phone.
(via DF)
A scathing RIM shot: 'shut up and ship' →
… three generations of PlayBook tablets announced in five months and we still haven’t seen a single product make it to market. The media seems enamored with the PlayBook and don’t ask the obvious question — where are the products?
(via DF)
WSJ: Sony Ericsson Reveals New PlayStation Phone →
The new device, named Xperia Play, is the first attempt by a major manufacturer to combine cellphone and full gaming capabilities in the same product since Nokia Corp. launched the sophisticated but ill-fated N-Gage in 2003, an expensive commercial failure that didn’t satisfy the demands of either the gaming community or cellphone aficionados.
The iPhone has one or two games too, but its...
Mark Ferdman thinks app markets are unnecessary →
“Apps are going to die away in favor of simple mobile websites,” said Mr. Ferdman, chief executive of Pushkart, a start-up he launched early last year that offers discounts for local merchants through an application for the iPhone and other smartphones. Biting the hand that feeds him, Mr. Ferdman said, “Steve Jobs has done a great job of creating a marketplace that is...
1 tag
Verizon Says It May 'Throttle' Heavy Data Users... →
To combat potential traffic jams that might arise down the line, Verizon said, in a notice posted Thursday on its website, that it is reserving the right to throttle the customers who fall in the top 5% of bandwidth use.
Getting ready for the iPhone, eh?
Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said the introduction of the policy wasn’t related to the coming debut of the iPhone....
John Gruber likes the Verizon iPhone 4 →
Main points
Verizon call quality superior
AT&T data network faster
Verizon data and voice networks exist in more places
Hotspot feature is awesome
WSJ: Google Accuses Microsoft's Bing of 'Cheating' →
For example, Google changed its algorithm to show a link to the website for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. if users searched for “mbzrxpgjys.” Later, the same result showed up on Bing, Google said.
Well that explains that.
January 2011
15 posts
HP’s New Plan: No More Worthless Hype →
From now on, HP will only announce tech products that are a few weeks away from shipping, Apotheker said in an interview with the BBC. “”HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have.” […] In other words, HP is taking a cue from Apple by announcing only real products instead of lofty ambitions.
I hope HP is able to make good on this early announcement that they are no...
Facebook for Android Gets Updated With Deals →
Unfortunately, Android’s fragmentation rears its ugly head here, as many of the comments on the official Facebook post complain about bugs not being fixed, new bugs appearing or some features going missing – depending on what version of Android the commenters use.
As an Android developer, how in the world do you test every ROM on every Android device? Answer: you can’t.
AT&T wireless subscribers hit 95.5M, besting... →
iPhone magnetism.
Lifehacker: Everything You Need to Know About the... →
Pre-orders for existing Verizon customers start Feb. 3. General sales start Feb. 10. […] Pre-orders will be offered on Verizon’s web site, or taken in-store. Verizon and Apple retail stores will offer the phone on Feb. 10.
Doesn’t mention phone orders, but I have to believe you could call too. . . or maybe they’re targeting existing AT&T customers, in which case ...
Verizon CEO confirms $30 unlimited data plan for... →
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam on Tuesday confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that Verizon Wireless will offer a $30 unlimited data plan for the iPhone 4. McAdam said that offering the iPhone with a capped data plan would create an unnecessary barrier for customers looking to switch from AT&T.
Update: Unlimited only for a “limited time.”
Researchers turn USB cable into attack tool →
The researchers have created exploit software to run on a computer, and an exploit to run on Android that is a modification of the Android operating system kernel. Scripts can then be written for the actual attack.
Android’s “openness” extends to hackers, too.
Motorola Sticks To Guns On Locking Down Android →
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ proclaims Motorola, maker of the popular Android smartphones such as the Droid 2 and Droid X. At least, not if you have any intention of loading a customized operating system. According to Motorola’s own YouTube channel, ‘If you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is...
Why some companies are ditching their spreadsheets →
As decision-making becomes more collaborative and workforces grow more distributed and global, the days of compiling a spreadsheet, mailing or e-mailing it to colleagues, then manually inputting updates and re-sending it seem antiquated.
Marco on too much Android hardware choice →
People hate choosing between similar things. The more choice we have at the time of purchase, the more stress we feel making the choice, and the less satisfied we feel afterward because we’re worried that we made the wrong choice.
I see this more and more among friends that are shopping for Android devices. It really is a difficult thing for the average consumer to evaluate all of the...
Microsoft fights Apple trademark on 'App Store' →
Microsoft is asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to deny Apple a trademark on the name “App Store,” saying the term is generic and competitors should be able to use it.
Can’t innovate? No problem: just sue those who do.
Windows Everywhere? Wake Up, Microsoft. It's 2011 →
If you perform an impressive engineering feat and no one buys the resulting product, is it still an impressive engineering feat?
(via DF)
CES: What Microsoft's Ballmer didn't say →
Most alarmingly, he didn’t have anything to say about how Microsoft plans to address the slate market beyond what company officials have said already — namely, that Windows 7 makes a darn good slate/tablet operating system and will be the operating system that Microsoft makes available to its partners for the next two-plus years. I strongly disagree, as even the nicest looking Windows slates...