August 2011
2 posts
Hipstamatic Sucks
I posted a while back about how much I hated Instagram. Turns out I was misinformed. Instagram isn’t the target of my dislike: it’s Hipstamatic.
I spent.. no.. wasted $4 on Hipstamatic and two filter/camera sets today to test out the software. It’s really dumb. The filters are taken to the extreme… to the point where I’m convinced that people who use it don’t...
Chief Operating Officer of Operations →
Jim Rowan is taking on the expanded role of COO, Operations and will continue to be responsible for manufacturing, global supply chain and repair services.
So Rowan’s title is now the Chief Operating Officer of Operations. Yep, this company is doing great!
July 2011
3 posts
Apple and the future of tablets →
If you agree that the main source of growth in consumer technology over the next few years will be in tablets, you should take a look at John Gruber’s article from yesterday.
A big question people have been asking is how to measure tablet market share, particularly because Android doesn’t disclose Android sales outright. They disclose shipments, but that’s only the number of...
Nothing is more humbling about technology than watching someone who doesn’t understand computers try to use a computer. Doesn’t matter how smart you are or how great your engineering is: if a regular person can’t use your product then it’s an utter failure.
Apple's earnings
Looking for a stock pick? Buy Apple. 125% net profit growth year over year and the second largest firm in the world is still a value company at a price to earnings under 20. Q3 top and bottom revenue figures higher than 2010’s holiday season (typically Apple’s most profitable quarter), so you can expect 2011 to be an absolute blowout (especially with a new iPhone coming out in late...
February 2011
1 post
Instasheil →
I started a new project a few days ago which I’m calling Instasheil (creative, I know). It’s a new Tumblr blog featuring photos I’ve taken with the Instagram app on my new iPhone. Yes, I know I’ve spoken out about how much I hate Instagram and Hipstamatic before, but the fact is that Instagram makes sharing photos on Facebook and Tumblr so damn easy, it’s hard...
January 2011
2 posts
December 2010
3 posts
November 2010
6 posts
Ridiculous Mashups That Don't Suck
Just made this mashup mix on 8tracks. I discovered the site today while hunting for new sources of music, and I really like it. The idea of 10-song, human-created mixes is great because it forces people to really hunt for the best songs in their collection. Plus, since it’s human-created, there’s a touch of emotion that Pandora can’t even begin to emulate. Very cool...
Bonnaroo 2011: June 9th - June 12th →
And so it begins. Presale begin Black Friday at noon. Bonnaroo, here I come.
Hawk-Eye in tennis: Why it's broken and how to fix...
A friend and I have been arguing about the topic of Hawk-Eye in tennis for years. For those who may not know, Hawk-Eye is a computer system developed by Hawk-Eye Innovations Inc. that accurately tracks the movement of a ball. It’s used in tennis at all major grand slams to assist chair umpires and linesmen in making correct line calls. A player has the ability to “challenge” a...
Joystiq's Xbox Kinect Review →
For all the talk of revolutionizing the Xbox 360 experience and making gaming more natural/accessible, it’s bordering on absurd how broken Kinect is when it comes to something as simple as working in your home.
Ouch. Kinect requires at least seven feet of space (in other words, your living room needs to look something like this) in order to work. If you don’t have that space,...
October 2010
9 posts
P2P traffic decreasing - the Hulu method works! →
The most interesting statistic from Cisco’s study:
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing is now 25 percent of global broadband traffic, down from 38 percent last year.
I guess that proves what everyone already knew: if media companies offer their content online through distribution networks like Netflix and Hulu, people will stop pirating that content. Of course, I knew this a while ago by...
Instagram
Someone please explain to me why Instagram is so popular. TechCrunch reported last week that the service crossed 100,000 users in six days, but I don’t understand why.
For those of you don’t know, Instagram (with its super-hip www.instagr.am domain name) is a photo-sharing app for the iPhone that allows you to take a photo, add a filter to it, and throw it onto Facebook quickly...
Who is running this team?
This tweet by San Francisco 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco from tonight’s game might be the most symbolic way possible to describe how the Niners’ season is currently going:
.bbpBox26997105800 {background: #EBEBEB;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px...
“In an effort to drum up support for Democratic candidates, President Obama has...”
– Seth Myers, “Saturday Night Live” Oct 2nd, 2010
September 2010
16 posts
WatchThe Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
The funniest new show you’ve never seen.
WatchThe only thing sadder than Lady Gaga holding a political rally are the people that attend a Lady Gaga political rally.
And yes, I’m pretty sure that girl used the word “negatize.”
WatchYup, this is why I love Singletary.
“I love it when people don’t understand why the rest of the world may hate...”
– Daniel Tosh, “Completely Serious”
Jimmy Raye
The 49ers lost badly to the Seahawks last Sunday, and according to “multiple sources familiar with the circumstances,” as Jason Cole from Yahoo! Sports writes, part of the reason was because Jimmy Raye had a hard time getting the team’s plays down to QB Alex Smith on the field:
“It seems like Jimmy calls plays from memory a lot of the time and not exactly the way it’s written...
Rafael Nadal: The Greatest of All-Time
A year and a half ago, I wrote about how impressive Nadal’s career already was after winning his first Australian Open.
Last night, Nadal achieved what was seemingly impossible: earning a career grand slam at 24 years old (it still feels weird writing that now). It’s almost unfathomable that Nadal was able to achieve this feat a such a young age, but what might be even more...
Thoughts about my new Kindle
Took off the plastic screen covering, but there was still some intro text showing on the screen. Figured there must be a second piece of plastic under the first, so I went to remove that. Then I realized the intro text was on the e-ink screen. So cool!
The packaging was surprisingly simple and eco-friendly. Everything, including the instruction manual, was made of some sort of paper...
Matt Buchanan on Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate... →
John Gruber says that Android is open primarily for carriers. I disagree. Android phones can be rooted and their ROMs can be flashed with (relative) ease. Every big Android phone that’s been released has gone through this… everything from the original Motorola Droid to the HTC Incredible to the Samsung Vibrant. Sure, the iPhone can be jailbroken, but it’s a pain to do and...
US Open Spanish Dominance
Given all the talk about how Spanish tennis players excel on slow surfaces like clay, but have a hard time on faster hard courts, this year is certainly proving that statement untrue. Of the sixteen players competing in the fourth round at the US Open this year, six are from Spain. Impressive, indeed.
August 2010
8 posts
The Mosque in NYC
Great quote by John Oliver from the Daily
Show
regarding whether a Muslim religious center should be built near
Ground Zero in New York City:
Jon Stewart: Why should religious groups have to bend to people’s worst suspicions about them?
John Oliver: Jon, it’s because there’s a difference between what you can do and what you should do. For instance, you can build a...
Harvard's Original Facebook
Here’s a fascinating look into the
past
with a Harvard Crimson article from 2004 about Mark Zuckerberg’s “new”
website, thefacebook.com. The most intriguing part may be the
paragraphs about the site’s privacy settings:
Zuckerberg said that the extensive search capabilities are restricted by a myriad of privacy options for members who do not want everyone to be...
Net Neutrality - Wireless Is Different
On August 9th, Google and Verizon introduced a landmark proposal to help guide the FCC in regulating wireless networks and bandwidth in the United States. The proposal was especially important because it was an agreement by two parties with seemingly opposite interests - a content creator (Google) and a bandwidth provider (Verizon). The proposal began with much of the same language regarding net...
Camera+ rejected from App Store
I usually hate reading Gizmodo (especially after their horrible Droid X review), but this is pretty funny. An app called Camera+ got rejected from the App Store because it allowed the user to enable an option in the settings to use the volume button to take photos (because the iPhone doesn’t have a hardware shutter button). Apple removed it, citing this part of their App Developer Terms of...
TIME's travel tips
Anyone find it odd that in its 2009 “Top 50 Travel Tips” article, TIME Magazine suggested to both pack light and bring your own everything?