Joseph Jaffe hates spam

Joseph Jaffe is a new media prognosticator who publishes a podcast called "Across the Sound".

In a recent episode, he went off on a tirade about spam and spammers that really cracked me up. I think he was genuinely frustrated, as opposed to hamming it up, which makes it even funnier.

Blogger spellcheck update: "prognosticator" is a known word, but "Blogger" and "podcast" are not. Unbelievable!

WWJD?

God bless Engadget.

Looking forward to tomorrow's Apple announcements...

The making of a fake "leaked" video iPod photo

Cool video.

Microsoft vs. Apple distilled

Microsoft iPod packaging parody.

Features Danny Elfman's "Breakfast Machine" from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", which is one of the best pieces of music ever.

This is what they invented camcorders for

Fireworks factory explosion.  Courtesy Mike.

"Life in the Goodleplex"

A Time Magazine photo essay

Good call, Jordan

Jordan brought my attention to a photo of Mayor Bloomberg in today's New York Times, taken in 2002, that was remarkably ahead of its time.

Good overall summary of the BlackBerry patent infringement situation

At Ars Technica.

Google just released a Blogger Dashboard widget

It's very cool.  I'm using it now.

"It's pretty awesome when it works."

Here's a great collection of Steve Jobs keynote bloopers.

FeedBurner

I've switched my site feed from Blogger's default ATOM format to a dynamic format provided by FeedBurner. If you subscribe to this site, please update your subscription to point to http://feeds.feedburner.com/jeffsolomon.

FeedBurner is a really cool service; I'll describe it in more detail in a later post.

Switching feeds

Please stand by as some behind the scenes technical stuff happens. I'll keep you posted.

Mac OS X security

Here's the third (and most serious) security exploit to surface for OS X within the past week.

Apple needs to act FAST to prove that Macs ARE more secure, as opposed to just having been safer due to hacker negligence. This is a critical time for Apple; it needs to nail this issue and lock down OS X.

That said (port security redux)...

This deal sounds like a really bad idea, for two reasons:

1. No company that is owned by and beholden to a foreign government (as opposed to being just foreign-owned) should have a controlling interest in US critical infrastructure.
2. It sounds like there could be some cronyism type rationale behind Bush's bizarre insistence on this deal going through (but I've seen no evidence).

I don't think this deal should go through. I stand behind my charges of hypocrisy at many of the politicians who are publicly opposed to this deal because the foreign country is Middle Eastern- yet who are opposed to profiling.

Port security brou-haha

The ruckus over President Bush's plan to allow a Dubai-owned company to assume control over port terminals in New York and other major American cities smacks of serious hypocrisy to me.

First: any issue relating to oversight of vulnerable or critical infrastructure should receive as much scrutiny as humanly possible.

Second: given the above, it should not be possible to investigate any single instance of infrastructure control more than any other (since they should all be scrutinized as closely as possible)- BUT, certainly companies of "controversial" origin would merit additional scrutiny in principle.

Third: I don't think anyone would disagree with either of those two points.

But let's call a spade a spade: investigating a company (or an individual) based on their origin is PROFILING. And I don't think it's wrong to do it in certain circumstances.

So anyone who thinks Bush is insane to allow a Middle Eastern company to control US ports and demands increased oversight, yet rails against the administration (and others) who favor other kinds of profiling in the aim of catching terrorists, is a hypocrite.

I am vehemently anti-Bush and pro civil liberties, but above all else, I think it's critical to be consistent.

Deauthorize all iTunes computers

This is a FANTASTIC piece of information!

Great Mac software development how-to (and why) podcast

Last year, Wil Shipley put together a really informative podcast (and accompanying slide show) about his thoughts on how and why to become an independent Mac software developer.

Re-tired?

Someday I will look back at these puns and cringe even harder than I do these days.

Interesting story.

High as a kite

Progress on the space elevator...

43 Folders and "Getting Things Done"

43 Folders and "Getting Things Done" are popular topics with the geek/blogger crowd, and I'm throwing in.

I'm in the middle of "Getting Things Done" and I like what I'm reading.

CocoaRadio

There's no doubt that we're currently in a golden age of independent software development for the Mac. The richness of OS X, coupled with Apple's enormous growth as a pop culture tech company, has created a very healthy marketplace for Mac applications.

Not only is there good software out there, there are charismatic and passionate small companies and individuals who are behind many of the products. And those developers are interacting with themselves and their users through blogging and podcasting, which has the effect of enriching the entire experience. Products are made better through the developer/user conversation, and developers are enriched by the advice of fellow developers.

Examples of this include Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster, Brent Simmons with NetNewsWire, and Gus Mueller of Flying Meat. (Just to name of few of the "celebrity" OS X developers.)

I'm not a programmer per se, but I love following the software development process and getting immersed in the technical, behind the scenes details of how software and computers work.

To that end, CocoaRadio is a fantastic podcast that features interviews with Mac software developers (including those mentioned above). Each interview runs the gamut from talking about the real-world details of being a developer (how to form a small business, how to charge for software, how to handle tech support, etc.), to the philosophies and inspirations behind the programs, to the actual technical and architectural implementations of the software itself.

If you love software and are fond of the Mac, you'll love listening to CocoaRadio.

This is a test.

When I retire

I will travel the world in style.

Cheney's words

I've got to give Cheney some credit (though it hurts to do so)- here's a bit from his interview with Brit Hume yesterday:

Q: Well, what -- you must have recognized, though, with all your
experience in Washington, that this was going to be a big story.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, true, it was unprecedented. I've been
in the business for a long time and never seen a situation quite like
this. We've had experiences where the President has been shot; we've
never had a situation where the Vice President shot somebody.

Q: Not since Aaron Burr.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Not since Aaron Burr --

Q: Different circumstances.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Different circumstances.

It's official

Mac OS X has its first real virus (or Trojan). This was bound to happen and hopefully Apple will take serious steps to address security in its OS.

I would say 75% of the reason why it's taken so long for an OS X virus to emerge has been due to a lack of interest on the behalf of virus writers- not because OS X is in some ways more secure than Windows (though it is).

A key aspect of the Mac experience is not having to deal with viruses and adware. Apple needs to make it a top priority to maintain this experience, and it's going to require a lot more proactive work now that OS X's profile is rising.

Now we're getting somewhere

How to control Roomba via USB or Bluetooth

Improv Everywhere

These guys are fantastic. Check out "Even Better Than The Real Thing" for starters.

Union Square subway 4, 5, 6 trains sound like NBC's "The More You Know" PSAs when they screech

Anyone who's been in that station knows how unbearably loud and annoying the screeching is, but sometimes, when a train is pulling out, the sound it makes sounds exactly like the theme ditty from NBC's "The More You Know" public service announcements.

I'm putting myself out there with this, but I notice it every time I hear a 4, 5, or 6 train pull out of the Union Square subway station (and possibly Grand Central- I need to look into this).

And now you Know.

BlackBerry BrickBreaker

BlackBerries have an Arkanoid-style game called BrickBreaker, and I've become somewhat addicted to it. My current high score- attained just this evening- is 7415.

Suspecting that others might have a similar competitive streak, I did a little digging around in the web, and sure enough, there were some interesting results. Here's one of them.

Jordan, I think you'll appreciate this.

Avid vs. Final Cut Pro

Both programs are mature and fully capable editing solutions. Personally, I learned how to edit on an Avid but have been using Final Cut Pro for the past 5 years, and I've developed a strong preference for the FCP way of doing things (I'm sure it would be the other way around if my situation were reversed).

This article provides a nice overview of some of the key workflow differences.

Behind Firefox

Ben Goodger is the lead engineer for Mozilla Firefox, and keeps an interesting blog related to Firefox development here.

He's got a particularly interesting entry about the history of the Mozilla Firefox effort, going back to the early days of the Mozilla/Netscape genesis, here

The history of Firefox "goes back years, spans continents, and includes a cast of thousands. It's a fantastic story, with all of your standard themes- greed, rage, turmoil, love lost. But mostly it's a story of dedicated people laboring to create something they truly believe in."

I think Firefox is a fantastic browser and is probably the best case study of the type of product that open source development can and should produce. (Linux is also an incredible effort, but it is more of a technology than a specific product that has appeal to a mass audience.)

(As an interesting sidenote, the Blogger spell checker does NOT know the words "Firefox" or "blog"!)

"Brokeback to the Future"

This is- by far- the best "Brokeback Mountain" parody I've seen.

That's what I'm TALKIN' about

Interesting NYT article about a study that finds no link between a low-fat diet and reduced cancer/heart disease risk.

Of course, a high-fat diet does make one fat.

Pilot's eye view

Here's a cool video that shows a pilot's perspective of a three day trip. To minimize the awkwardness factor, turn off the audio.

Super Bowl advertising

It's common for new media commentators to lambast companies that blow their marketing wad on the Super Bowl (and I would tend to agree with them). But it's 6:15 on Super Bowl Sunday (15 minutes before the coin toss), and I've already canceled my Netflix account and switched to Blockbuster's online rental service.

The pre-game show was on as I was getting ready for dinner, and I caught a portion of a Blockbuster commercial in the background. About 20 minutes later, the Blockbuster commercial ran again, and since I'd had my interest subtly primed by the initial exposure, I paid attention to the ad this time. Frequency paid off.

10 minutes later, I'd ditched Netflix and gone to Blockbuster. A picture-perfect example of every aspect of advertising coming together to convince me to switch subscription services, which is an extremely difficult and expensive thing for a subscription-based company to do.

I'm sure Netflix and Blockbuster are actively monitoring their subscriptions during the Super Bowl tonight, and I'd bet Blockbuster's going to come out quite nicely.

777-200LR ready to go

Certified.

Slowly, trying to enforce discipline and focus attention

When I'm sitting at my desk at work, I've got at least six different channels of input to deal with. They are:

- My Windows laptop on the left of my desk, which handles my work e-mail.
- My Mac laptop on the right of my desk, which handles my personal e-mail.
- My cell phone in my left pocket, which handles my personal phone calls and text messages.
- My office phone in the middle of my desk, which handles my work phone calls.
- My BlackBerry on my right hip, which handles work-related e-mail and text messages.
- People walking over to me to talk.

Barely 30 seconds go by without something coming through on one of those channels. Knowing how to prioritize and triage this input- and how to block it out entirely to actually be able to focus on work- is an art and a skill that has so far evaded me.

I am working on it.

Here's an interesting set of e-mail productivity tips, from an interesting site.

This is big

Analog TV signing off in 2009.