May 2013
6 posts
4 tags
'Hangouts... doesn't really unify anything' →
Hangouts is beautiful, and finally you can copy text from conversations, but it’s not as awesome as it should have been. Or could have been.
6 tags
Android Studio: An IDE built for Android →
A new IDE to use when developing for Android. Hopefully it’s easier to work with than Eclipse. The way the code shows the resources dynamically and showing the icons in the side looks sweet, and the NullPointerException warnings look truly helpful.
I’m cautiously excited.
4 tags
'DRM in HTML5 is a victory for the open Web' →
In other words, the alternative to using DRM in browser plugins on the Web is not “abandoning DRM;” it’s “abandoning the Web.”
3 tags
'Teens aren’t abandoning “social.” They’re just... →
You see, we’ve come to define “social” in unintentional Orwellian double-speak. “Social” has come to mean the exact opposite of what it’s meant for centuries. Instead of actual interaction and communication, we define “social” as once- or twice-removed ego validation through button-clicking.
Ding.
4 tags
EA gets multi-year Star Wars games deal →
Uh oh. Considering EA’s recent reputation, do we assume we’re doomed?
1313?
4 tags
The proper way to handle game piracy →
The makers of Game Dev Tycoon, a game where players run a game development company, released a “cracked” version of their own game. It worked just fine, but as the pirates would play, they would start to see this beautiful message:
Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally.
If players...
April 2013
8 posts
7 tags
Android Babel API?
The communication situation on Android has gotten worse with the introduction of Google+. We used to have just Messaging (SMS), and Gtalk, and then they added Messenger. And they did this after Apple introduced iMessage, which simplified messaging. It seemed so counter-productive. So when I read things like this, I jump for joy:
Rumors have been swirling that Google is working on a...
6 tags
'Feed reading is an open web problem' →
Luis Villa raises an excellent question about RSS being an open web problem:
In other words – why is RSS an open web problem? why is it different from, say, email?
His answer:
If my browser doesn’t tightly integrate email, the open web doesn’t suffer. If my browser doesn’t tightly integrate feed discovery and subscription, well, we get exactly what is happening: a mass migration away...
4 tags
Tech sites covering the Boston bombing
The Boston Marathon news is certainly a tragic thing, but to read about it on The Verge felt shockingly out of place. I wasn’t alone. MG Siegler on the coverage of the Boston bombings on tech sites:
Rather than directly send their readers to other places doing actual reporting, these sites all wrote at least one post (and in the case of Mashable, something like a dozen shameful posts)...
4 tags
New 'Star Wars' films to be released every summer →
Great news:
[Disney] has just announced at CinemaCon that it will be releasing a new film in the universe every summer, starting in 2015.
I’m stoked. So this would mean:
2015: Episode VII
2016: Boba Fett?
2017: Episode VIII
2018: Han Solo?
2019: Episode IX
etc
4 tags
Persona Beta 2 →
Oh yeah! So excited about all this hard work the team has put in. And it feels so good to know I helped on these features:
Use your Existing Accounts. We’ve bridged yahoo.com, but of course we built an open system: any domain can now become a Persona Identity Provider so users can reuse their existing accounts on any site that uses Persona.
Built Into Firefox OS. We built in support for...
3 tags
Action Launcher Shutters →
Android launchers have been all pretty similar, just with a few different bits of customization. I can honestly say that Shutters are an awesome new feature added to my Android device. Swipe up on an icon, and it shows the related widget.
I know, right?
4 tags
Disney closes LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 →
That’s it. Like I said, I’ll lead the #OccupyDisneyland movement myself. Who’s with me?
Game Informer says there might still be hope:
We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we’re just looking at different models rather than internal production[…] There’s always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still...
2 tags
Are Pre-Purchase Rewards Ruining the Game... →
You’ve noticed that terrible practice also, right? The one where you see a game trailer, and then at the end it tells you the list of stores you can pre-order it from, and which bonus-piece-of-crap you’ll get from each?
Kyle McArthur has an excellent in-depth critique of the practice:
If you buy the game, you’re voting that whatever the developers, publishers, or retailers did,...
March 2013
10 posts
3 tags
A Facebook Phone? →
If that’s true, the most fascinating thing to me about this invitation is that it mentions Android at all.
Indeed. The phrasing “New Home on Android” makes me think of a Facebook themed launcher, or otherwise some sort of new app that replaces the current Facebook app.
5 tags
The Real Firefox OS Mission →
Clearly, we hope Firefox OS in itself helps a lot of people. But here’s the real mission:
In this sense, Firefox OS is as much a project to improve the Web as it is a project to build a new mobile operating system. Every Firefox OS API Mozilla can get adopted by other major browsers makes it easier for developers to convert vanilla Web apps into “native” Firefox OS apps, and...
5 tags
Unreal Engine 3 in JavaScript →
This is Epic!1 JavaScript has really been gaining ground recently. Soon we will play triple-AAA quality games by going to a website.
Zing! ↩
5 tags
Friends Don’t Let Friends Curate →
As we all venture further and further into the depths of the internet we find people that share our interests. Lots of them, actually. Letting these people — people you look up to or share interests with or share careers with — curate the content you see starts to make more sense than letting your great aunt Sally run the show.
This sums up why we always want something besides...
4 tags
Google Keep →
After playing with Keep for a few days, here’s my brief brain dump about it:
The design is gorgeous!
It’s oh-so-fast! Using the widget, it’s near instantaneous to hit the the Record button, and be recording a new note that gets transcribed with barely an error. Compared to Evernote, which takes a couple seconds to get up and running with a new note.
It’s already...
““And we lucked out with Reader — imagine how much worse it would be if...”
– Marco Arment in Free works
5 tags
Information Obsession
I’m a week late to the “Google Reader dies” news, but I wanted to collect my thoughts and read other people’s knee-jerk reactions first.
I am quite interested in human data consumption. Obsessed, even. Like, I constantly re-analyze my current setup, making sure I’m getting all the information I want, while keep as much junk out as possible. Maybe sometimes also...
4 tags
Draft →
It’s version control for writing!
3 tags
Sundar Pichai to lead Android →
Surprising in my eyes. It seems Andy Rubin really helped turn Android from the crap of FroYo and Gingerbread into the nice experience we have now in Jelly Bean.
Still, Chrome has been a successful project, and Sundar leads that also.
3 tags
splatmonstar 0.3 →
It used to be tentmonstar, but for various reasons, I’ve renamed it to splatmonstar. Comes with a new color scheme and icon. And improvements!
New name!
New icon
New orange theme
Profile views contain much more info
Performance improvements (HEAD requests for profiles before GET)
Stability
campr.me support
Home page has changed, and you can now follow splatmonstar on Tent.
February 2013
9 posts
5 tags
Google+ Sign-In →
I’ve always thought it’d be awesome if Google could use it’s huge amount of data to make search results more powerful and tailored to us. This is a step in that direction.
And yet, what’s the incentive to do this over the much larger install base of Facebook Connect? Also, looking at the documentation, it’s still easier (and more inclusive!) to just use Persona.
4 tags
5 tags
“What we know for sure is this: monocultures always make more & faster...”
– John Lilly on everyone switching to WebKit
5 tags
Hey -o-, let’s go! →
David Storey:
Only one browser engine remains where the dominant contributions come from an independent vendor who don’t have a vested interest in a large native ecosystem.
It’s a much more thorough breakdown of why Opera’s switch to WebKit isn’t a good thing.
5 tags
Opera Switches to WebKit →
This is not something to celebrate.
Sure, everyone thinks that since WebKit is currently rocking it, that everyone should just switch to it, and stop “wasting” time competing. The truth is, that’s what happened to IE6. It was the new hotness when it came out, but without competition, it sizzled.
A more recent example: CSS gradients. If there were no competing browsers, the...
3 tags
Why Mailbox Won't Fix Your E-Mail →
One of Mailbox’s boldface selling points is that it gets you to inbox zero and keeps you there. OK, but look: Inbox zero is just a construct. It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t have a clean inbox — what matters is that you act on your incoming mail as necessary. Inbox zero is simply an organizational technique to help you accomplish the things you really need to. It is not the end goal; it’s...
5 tags
Fett of the Day →
Awesome concept poster for the upcoming Boba Fett movie.
Dual purpose post: I bothered to make a tumblr that will post something Fett related each day, since I love Boba Fett so much, and the previous tumblrs I followed claiming the same fell over.
2 tags
Gamers are every where →
We’ve been told by the media that our hobby is somehow different and other in some unspoken way, as though it’s okay to have a drink after work and watch a football game, but playing XCOM is somehow wrong.
And:
We’re already running the country. We treat you when you’re sick. We help you fill out forms for your home loan. We protect you in court, and we may arrest you when you break the...
3 tags
A Boba Fett Film →
Revealed during Disney’s quarterly earning calls:
A bounty hunter adventure with Boba Fett at the center of a rogue’s gallery of galactic scum. […] The Boba Fett film would take place either between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, or between Empire and Jedi.
Yes please!
January 2013
10 posts
Microsoft hires Minimally Minimal designer →
Really exciting news for Xbox. If you haven’t seen his proposed designs from last summer, they’re worth the time.
3 tags
J.J. Abrams to Direct Episode VII →
Mixed feelings come with this news: The Star Trek movie was fantastic. But my friend Caleb says it best:
I don’t know how I feel about this… it’s almost like sci-fi incest. We need the creative diversity and distinction between the two IPs. They are ‘rivals’ after all.
1 tag
New Tumblr Dashboard →
staff:
An upgrade, years in the making…
5 tags
Facebook Search →
Interesting trend that Tim Carmody notices:
Facebook, effectively, becomes the new Yahoo, but something closer to what Yahoo, or AOL before that, was before the rise of Google.
It is interesting to think about how when the web was starting, we all used AOL and Yahoo as launching points to other parts of the web. Eventually, those things died, and we went straight to the URL bar. However,...
6 tags
An Introduction to Persona →
I wrote a guest post for @davidwalshblog about how to get started using Persona.
1 tag
VIM Adventures →
Learn how to use VIM while playing a game. Splendid.
/via Scott Banwart
3 tags
An HTML5 Fastbook →
Sencha came along and showed Facebook the right way to use HTML5.
3 tags
Ubuntu Phone →
Some interesting conceptual ideas in the video. But, I don’t really see the selling point, other than perhaps its true open source?
4 tags
"After Sandy Hook And Virginia Tech, I’m Done With... →
Another perspective on violent video games + the shooting. I enjoyed Jeremy Norman’s pull quote here:
I don’t want to explain to my son why daddy is shooting the guys on the television. Why that’s okay, but when it happens in real life, people cry.
4 tags
Game journalism is its own worst enemy →
Game journalism is an oxymoron. There’s no point in reading more than one game news site, because they all say the same thing, literally:
In mainstream news outlets it’s a scandal when someone is caught plagiarizing work, and the writers usually lose their jobs. In gaming news when someone is caught plagiarizing work it’s Tuesday.
3 tags
"It’s healthy, and important, to discuss our... →
Ben Kuchara has a wonderful and balanced article about video game violence in reponse to the recent Connecticut shooting:
Here is a fun thought experiment: if you could do anything, be anyone, or have any power, what would you want to do? Fly? Swim to the bottom of the ocean? Be an officer on a starship and explore space? Make love to a beautiful or handsome man or woman? How far down the list...
December 2012
12 posts
2 tags
The fans are in control of Star Wars now →
So I’m not worried. We’re about to enter into a era where the fans are going to be in control of Star Wars. And that’s really the most exciting part.
Exactly. KOTOR, The Force Unleashed, and Dark Forces were some awesome stories set in the Star Wars Universe, made my people who were fans first, producers second, of Star Wars.
“there’s another way of using time that’s common among people who...”
– Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule
2 tags
Levels of boiling
As you brew tea, you notice that different types demand different temperatures. I don’t use a fancy kettle, simply a pot filled with water. I also don’t have a thermometer, but I was sure there had to be a way to tell the temperature using my eyes. Wikipedia came to the rescue:
shrimp eyes: about 70-80 °C (155–175 °F) – separate bubbles, rising to top
crab eyes: about...
3 tags
'No, Instagram can't sell your photos' →
Nilay Patel, ghostbuster:
There’s no way Instagram can up and sell your photos to anyone, and advertisers are fairly limited in what they can do with those photos. Here’s what’s going on.
2 tags
3 tags
Starbucks + Teavana →
Starbucks buying Teavana could do great things for tea:
If Starbucks is willing to do the heavy lifting, willing to suggest to a populace that Chinese teas are more than a complement to General Tso’s chicken, willing to point out the difference between an oolong and a pu-erh, I will be much obliged.
This article reminded me of what Starbucks did previously to coffee: made otherwise...
