Not only does Bill Bumgarner explain the benefits of a 50mm lens more coherently than I do, he also has a slick title. Read about The Nifty Fifty. I’ve been using my 50mm a few weeks now. I must admit I was surprised at how close the 50mm gets. I still have lots to learn with this lens but man am I liking what I’m getting so far.
I’ve been thinking about this whole iPhone third party application situation. Specifically, what is up Apple’s sleeve? Well I certainly don’t have any inside scoop on all of this but I do have an opinion.
* I think Apple is quietly putting together a software developer kit that is either already in the hands of a few choice developers with really strong non-disclosure agreement or about to be released to them.
* When it does release, I don’t think the SDK will ever be generally available. I think it will be a relatively short list of select developers and grow over time … s l o w l y.
* Apple will screen and approve everything before it is released to us plebeians. It is all about preserving the user experience. Apple will also make a few bucks off it since the stuff will only be available through iTunes.
* There isn’t going to be a whole lot of innovation but everything that does release will be very slick.
* There will be more games than actual productivity type applications. This will crimp my zen.
There you have it. The MacSparky crystal ball. Now when I’m proven wrong, everyone can laugh.
So last weekend I was catching up with a few RSS feeds and saw lifehacker was doing a bit on what you carry in your pockets. Well my camera was sitting next to my Mac and I figured, “why not?”. Anyway, if you are really bored and curious as to what is in my pockets, go here.
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DailyWritingTips.com, one of my favorite blogs, did a recent summary of proofreading tips and techniques. They are all excellent. I particularly like a few:
Put it on Paper
I have a nice monitor in my office. I know how to fill the screen with text but I still miss errors when proofreading on the screen. I always print out a draft and move away from the computer with a highlighter and my trusty red pen. Just make sure to recycle the paper from your drafts.
Have Someone Else Read It
I often recruit others to read my work as it nears completion. A lot of times I know in my head what I meant to say and, as a result, I completely pass over the fact that I didn’t actually write what I was thinking.
A Half Tip From David…
One tip I’d like to add to the list is to avoid procrastination if at all possible. If you finish your draft early, you then have the luxury to put it down and come back to proofread it the next day. It is amazing the mistakes I’ve found when putting some time between generating drafts and proofreading them.
Check out the full article here.
Today MacZOT has ProfCast on sale for $23.95 (down from $59.95).
The developer describes the software as follows:
ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording presentations including PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides for creating enhanced podcasts. ProfCast provides a low cost solution for recording and distributing lectures, special events, and presentations as podcasts. ProfCast offers an integrated workflow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts easy. It’s as simple as Launch, Load, and Lecture!
I’m actually in the process of reviewing this software for Surfbits and generally pleased with it but it is too early to really give any details. It is certainly much more appealing at $24 than $60.
I thought I’d do a series of articles as I begin preparing for the Leopard upgrade. This is where my windows bias shows through. I was talking to a very knowledgeable Apple friend, Gabe Wilson, and explaining how I was backing everything up and printing out copies of all my license codes so I could do the “big upgrade.” As he watched me his face showed first dismay, then pity, then humor. Finally he relieved me of my suffering. “Dave. It’s a Mac. Don’t wipe your drive. Just upgrade.”
Huh!?
I’m used to windows upgrades. When you upgrade a windows machine you first remove the hard drive then you drive a stake through it (preferably made of silver). Then you pour acid over it and proceed to make all the necessary incantations (which include multiple recitations of random letters and numbers in groups of four). Finally, you put in the install disk and pray to all that is nerdy that the rest of your PC components don’t declare an absolute mutiny (which will probably happen anyway). You then spend the next two days attempting to convince Microsoft that you should be allowed to re-install Office on the new version of their windows software without spending another $500.
Tonight I listened to Steve Stanger confirm Gabe’s sage advice and I’m sold. I’m not going to do the 3 days of reinstall but instead just going to click “update” and see what happens. If it doesn’t work I can always do the “root canal” version of the upgrade later.
Over the weekend I was talking with a tech-savvy friend who knew of my Apple fixation and he asked me, “Boy, you must really be torqued over the iPhone fiasco.”
Really. He said that. Now it is a “Fiasco.”
This comment got me wondering how exactly we have come to this point. The iPhone launch was a smashing success. Apple wanted the phone locked but apparently didn’t do a very good job of locking it with the initial release. They fixed that a few months later and told everyone words to the effect, “If you have tampered with it, we may (I interpreted that word to mean “will”) brick your phone so don’t do it.” We had a few days to consider this statement and then 1.1.1 released. At that point Apple puts a specific dialogue on your screen.
So after getting this second warning people who had hacked their phones for use by other carriers ended up with disabled phones. The word of art for this is “brick” used both as a noun and a verb. (i.e. those mean corporate types bricked my phone. My phone is a brick.) I don’t want to understate the popular use of the term “brick” because I think for a lot of folks that seems to be half the fun. Anyway .. I digress.
Since the unlockers ignored the warning and their phones are disabled there is this perceived outrage over the terrible things Apple has done. Lawsuits are being filed, articles are written about Apple’s PR nightmare, and tech friends are asking me about the “fiasco.” I actually have two points about this hubbub. First, I don’t lay blame at Apple’s feet and second, I don’t think this is as big of a deal as most people are making of it.
Why should Apple have to spend time and resources making product upgrades for what was sold as a closed system device compatible with hacks and unlocks? They told the hacking gang that they shouldn’t upgrade and they could have all kept their phones at 1.02 forever without having any troubles. I, frankly, would prefer that Apple spent their time making the system work better for the 90 percent of the owners that don’t want to hack their phones.
My second point relates to the perceived outrage over this event. There are some very vocal bloggers documenting this event as the turning point for Apple when they have abandoned the Mac Faithful. I don’t really see it that way. I think Apple has always been a bit ruthless to their customers. One of the reasons it took me so long to buy a Mac was because when I initially became interested in them you had to buy the whole system (hardware, printers, floppy drives *no hard drives then*, and software) from Apple and it was really expensive. That was their business plan. It still is on some levels. With the iPhone, you are buying the product they want you to have in your hand. If you want something hackable, there are many smart phones out there that you can get. I had a few of them. On my Treo, I ran about 20 third party applications and yet it still wasn’t as functional (or nearly as stable) as my iPhone. I’m comfortable keeping my smartphone experience in Apple’s hands. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have bought the phone. I think a lot of people agree with me.
As for the extent of this “fiasco”, I think it really boils down to a group of perturbed geeks. For example, I was talking to my brother-in-law this weekend. The iPhone is his only Apple product and he loves it. He checks his fantasy football scores on it while sitting on the couch and couldn’t be happier. He told how he updated his iPhone. I asked him if he heard about the problems with the update and he replied, “what problem?” I think for most of the iPhone users out there, this is a complete non-issue.
I really don’t have an axe to grind against the hacking community. I put installer.app on my phone but found nothing of much interest so I removed it. I really don’t need a dorky game on my iPhone where I zap Microsoft Zunes. I sure hope that Apple eventually does open the phone up to some limited third party development but not at the cost of stability. I just think the attitude that because you’ve hacked your phone, you are entitled to some special consideration is ridiculous.
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iphone, MacSparky
Lifehacker did a great article where several Mac users submitted shots and descriptions of their Menu Bars. I learned quite a bit looking through them. It was interesting to note how many folks are using MagiCal which I screencasted right here. Check it out
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os x, menubar
At work I manage many different projects and have a very good system for keeping track of what needs to get done. I’m using the OmniFocus beta and very pleased with it. There are two weaknesses with this systems however: Capture and simple lists. By “capture”, I’m talking about getting tasks from your brain into your system and by “simple lists”, I’m talking about that day to day flotsom and jetsom. Those little lists that remind me to pick up a certain book at the library, or spicy carrots at Trader Joe’s. It would help if the iPhone had a task list manager but frankly, I’m not sure I want my spicy carrots getting mixed in with all of my work tasks. Anyway, I stumbled upon a great little web 2.0 app solves both of these problems, www.tadalist.com.
This web application from 37 Signals is a simple to do list with a very clean interface. Each list is just a name (like “Trader Joe’s”) and a group of items (like “Carrots”) They have an Edge-friendly iPhone interface and you can both add new items and check off items from anywhere. It also has a memory for items you have already checked off so the next time I need more carrots, I can simply uncheck rather than create a new entry.
While these tools are great for shopping, I also use them for other recurring lists. I’ve got the business trip list, the “giving a presentation” list, the beach list, and a variety of others. The nice thing is I can change, delete, add, check, and uncheck items from any computer plugged into the internet, including the iPhone in my pocket.
For capturing tasks on the go I have a list called OmniFocus. If I think of something that needs to be tracked and I’m not near my Mac I put it in the OmniFocus Tada list and code it into OmniFocus later.
This is not the high powered stuff you are going to get from iGTD or the soon to be released OmniFocus. Neither is it robust as the feature set found at todoist.com as recently reviewed by Darren Rolfe. However, for a system to keep simple repeating lists and capture tasks while on the go, it really scratches the itch.
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MacSparky, web 2.0, tadalist
I corresponded a little more the 1Passwd folks concerning security of the 1Passwd bookmarklet after it synchronizes to your iPhone. He explained they use 448 Bit blowfish encryption. There is more. Here is an excerpt from Dave Teare’s explanation.
“Re: your questions about security and hackability, all your confidential information is encrypted. On your Mac, it is stored in Apple’s Keychain, which uses Triple-DES encryption to secure your confidential data. On the iPhone, we did not have access to the keychain, so we used Blowfish to encrypt your data using 448 bits, and we do other cool things like using Cipher-Block-Chaining and randomized Salt to keep your data extra secure. We use OpenSSL to perform the Blowfish algorithm. OpenSSL is open source and is installed on hundreds of millions of machines worldwide.”
I’ve been playing more with the 1Passwd data file on my iPhone and had no problems at all. The developers explain it in more detail at their blog.
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1passwd, iphone, MacSparky