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  • 1 min read

People forgot about iPhone 1.0

Funny to read this:

"The story started in 2007, with the release of the first iPhone. Led by its enigmatic leader Steve Jobs, Apple gave developers their first real taste of independence from the carrier oligarchy. The iPhone’s beauty was manifold, but first and foremost, it allowed developers to build applications and sell them for a fee — to users who could conveniently tap their iTunes account to buy things through the iPhone’s App Store. This bypassed the control of the carriers, which had long dictated what phones featured on their “decks.” (from How HTML5 will kill the native app)

Don't you remember (it's not so long ago) that when the iPhone came out, Apple and Steve Jobs were vehement against opening it up to developers? This is from October 1, 2007:

"We have been trying to come up with a solution to expand the capabilities of the iPhone by letting developers write great apps for it, yet keep the iPhone reliable and secure," Jobs told developers at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That solution was Web-based applications, which is sort of like being told that you can't buy a DVD because HBO shows that movie every month or so, and it was met with tepid applause by Apple's developers." (from "Trouble in iPhone Paradise")

  • 1 min read

Mac Mystery

Just reaching out you mac experts. I used to think I was one, but this one has me stumped.

Using Safari, every so often, while I am doing something (what?) shrinks the fonts of the page being displayed. In other words, does the equivalent of a Command/- or Command/+. It seems to have something to do with dragging the mouse while doing something else.

I know that a command-0 restores things normally. I also know that control- double-fingered-drag will enlarge the whole screen, that is, zoom in on the pixels. This is something else.

I can't figure it out and neither can google. Do you know?

  • 1 min read

Quotidian Quotidian Quotidian

This word "QUOTIDIAN" seems to have become popular suddenly. Did you notice?

Or is it just me that is noticing it more because up to a minute ago I didn't know what it meant?

It's so simple, once you know 🙂

  • 1 min read

Thoughtful advice

No need to paraphrase or editorialize. Just read the whole thing, will ya? Lots of good advice that I wish I had gotten years ago.

How to steal like an artist (and 9 other things nobody told me)

Actually there is one nice tidbit that I got from the Lifehacker article that led me to the above link:

"It's not a new idea—you've very likely heard the phrase "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." It's commonly attributed to Pablo Picasso, or T.S. Eliot, though it likely originated with neither. Kleon illustrates his point in the cartoon above, and has this to say on the subject:

' Here's what artists understand. It's the a three-word sentence that fills me with hope every time I read it:

Nothing is original.

It says it right there in the Bible. Ecclesiastes:

" That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun."

Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of previous ideas. '

Wow, from the bible. Who knew.

  • 1 min read

Why don’t they ask you for identification before letting you vote?

Every time there's an election it seems like someone brings up the odd fact that you are not asked for ID here in Massachusetts before being allowed to cast your ballot. It seems to me that this is especially surprising to people from other countries. Here's a good article that explores some of the reasons and arguments for and against requiring identification at the polling place.

The gist of it is here:

"In many states, an ID is required to vote. The ostensible purpose is to prevent people from casting a ballot for someone else – dead or alive. Historically, it was also used to prevent poor and minority voters, who are less likely to have government IDs, from voting.

No one would (publicly) admit to the second goal today, so the first is always the declared purpose. But does it work?

In my experience as a pollworker in Virginia, the answer is clearly “no”. There are two basic problems – the rules for acceptable IDs are so broad (so as to avoid disenfranchisement) as to be useless, and pollworkers are given no training as to how to verify an ID." (from Do Photo IDs help prevent vote fraud?)

Interesting, eh?

  • 1 min read

Passover, Curaçao style

Here's how we make Garoza (Charoset) in Curaçao.

thumbs

Trust me, add a little horseradish, a couple of matzah, delicious!

  • 1 min read

Christopher Hitchens

A really excellent interview/review of Christopher Hitchens and his memoir, "Hitch-22":

"He could never have guessed how prescient those words would be. In June last year, while on a tour of America to promote the hardback publication of his book, Hitchens was taken ill in New York and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus. Thus did he acquire his visa to a place where nothing can be taken for granted. Hitchens has christened it 'Tumourville’." (from "Godless in Tumourville: Christopher Hitchens interview")

  • 1 min read

Losing Our Way

This New York Times Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert really hits home:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely." (from Losing Our Way)

It's called "Losing Our Way". You should read it.

  • 2 min read

Startup vs. Company

" Oh yeah, I've started 6 companies, and right now I have 3 startups going. I just love starting companies. I don't know what's wrong with me…."

Have you ever heard statements like that?

I hear them, fairly often, and I am never sure what to make of them. My immediate impulse is to call "Bullshit", but I don't because part of me admires that attitude. It's just like the moniker "Serial Entrepreneur" seems to have become a status symbol. It doesn't matter if the result of your seriality is that you are broke or forced the indignity of becoming a 'salaryman' at a regular company, oh, like Google. Being a serial Entrepreneur is cool.

I hope you realize that I am being ironic. I happen to think that Google is an amazing company and people who have a job there have it good and have reason to be proud.

So, I enjoyed reading "Startup vs. Company" a blog post by Spencer Fry, with the subtitle "Startups easy. Companies hard.", in which he says, among other things:

"They tried to claim that they were currently working on a half dozen startups (what I'd term "projects"; a startup needs focused development), and as the dispute developed they also insisted that Facebook and Twitter were still startups and not companies. "You can't use the term for everything," I said, "just because it's an online product." Maybe it's a New York vs. San Francisco thing, but in New York we're building companies, not startups. Maybe it's because it costs more to live here, but we're trying to put food on the table, not be on the cover of Business Week." (from Startup vs. Company)

(It will make Scott Kirsner's heart beat faster when he realizes that the conversation being quoted above was between Spencer Fry, from New York , and 'two guys from San Fransisco " about the meaning of the word 'Startup')

I take Spencer Fry's side in this debate. The term 'startup' and 'company', at least in the mouths of our community, have experienced serious devaluation:

"What makes creating a company so difficult is that it's no longer a couple of people sitting around their apartment fine-tuning an idea. Those were the days! It's a team, all working together to solve a complex problem. Then if you're lucky enough to solve it, you have to sell, market, and support it. It starts to get scary.

Building a business is mind numbing when you think about it. You have to be a little insane to venture down this path. Your chances of succeeding are slim, and even if you do succeed you have to continue to innovate or you'll be obsolete in eighteen months." (from Startup vs. Company)

Just something to keep in mind the next time you say or hear a statement like I began with.