Overdue Thoughts on Apple

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Adam S

It’s been a long time comin’. Apple has engaged in plenty of really lame behaviors lately, and it’s time I sound off on them. Let’s take it section by section, shall we?

I’ll break this down into the following parts: OS X, iPhone, App Store.

OS X

Apple’s operating system, OS X, is still the best OS on the market today. I’ve heard several claims that Apple is proprietary and closed and doesn’t contribute to the open source ecosystem, but here is OS X. It’s built on an open source core, which is good, if nothing else, for auditing code flaws.

OS X is still the most beautiful experience out there, and still gets in my way the least when I’m trying to do work. Webkit still sits as the default browser in the form of step-brother Safari, and Webkit is not only open source, it’s also the available on Windows, super compliant, super fast, and it’s the core of Google’s Chrome browser.

OS X also uses open formats for mail storage, standard XML for most configuration files (yes, some plists are not plain text, but they are trivial to open as well), their backup software produces a browsable volume. Their native office suite produces clean XML file formats. The server system uses Open Directory, RSS, Apache, Ruby on Rails, iCal, WebDAV, Wiki software, Tomcat, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and more. SnowLeopard will implement CardDAV and ZFS. In fact, Apple has been pretty decent about using open source technologies. While they haven’t always given back in this form, certainly basing your apps and system around open formats is better than basing it on closed, proprietary systems, no?

I always say: “If you don’t want your open source work used in commercial derivatives, then don’t use a permissive license.” There’s no clause that says you have to give back when using the BSD license.

Continue reading →

In What Respect, Charlie?

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Adam S

What the f@#* is this world coming to?

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.

I am confident that should John McCain, whose examples of leadership almost universally appear to lie in the past, win the election, he will govern in a much more centrist fashion than he has suggested in the course of this campaign cycle. Although I do not want John McCain to win the election, I do not fear his presidency. But I am terrified of Sarah Palin representing our country.

I Entrust My Data to… Microsoft?

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Adam S

I used to love my iPhone, because it kept me all up-to-date and synced. See – on my mac, Address Book and iCal were fully matched up to my calendar. But then I realized that I really don’t need to sync very often, at first because syncing pre-version 2.1 was painful, but later because it’s just not needed. MobileMe syncs over the air, but I’m not paying $99/yr for that service, especially not after the well covered problems with it, and the fact that I don’t see myself migrating from Gmail anytime soon. IMAP, however, was handling my work mail. When iPhone firmware 2.1 came out, I began immediately using ActiveSync, which easily crawls through port 443 (or 80, I think, if you have no cert) on the firewall. I set it up to handle my email and calendar. Then I realized, now that my calendar was handled by ActiveSync and Exchange, iTunes wasn’t syncing it anymore. And by the way, it was seconds behind live data. And I had to sync my phone even less.

Fast forward a few weeks and I finally decided to sync my contacts. I backed up, then wiped my phone contacts and synced them with Exchange. My contacts all arrived in good shape with their pictures. But now iTunes doesn’t sync Contacts with my iPhone. So the backend is now complex, but only on the Apple side.

On the phone, email, contacts, and calendar are pushed to the phone, often times before they even show up in Outlook itself. I sync my calendar from Outlook to Google and I pull my Google calendar down to iCal, only when I open iCal, since I’m subscribed via an ical file on Google’s servers. I set up Address Book to sync with my Exchange server via the OWA interface that Address Book supports by default, but it only syncs every hour, and only when the Mac is running. So it seemlessly syncs with Windows/Exchange, for free. But it takes several programs to get to the Mac, and then, only once an hour.

I sync less and less these days, but if the iPhone included the ability to sync via Bluetooth or wifi – both of which should be fairly trivial to implement – I’d sync much more regularly and trust my Mac to be the master copy. Instead, due to Apple itself, I rely on Exchange.

All of this makes me wonder if one day in the not too distant future, I’ll be using a phone running Android. After all, if all of my core data is synced elsewhere anyway, why would I want a phone that has no voice dial, can’t do picture messaging, can’t view flash, can’t do copy and paste, doesn’t allow for any wifi syncing, permits apps seemingly at will with no guidelines, gets more closed every month, has shitty battery life, and drops calls randomly? Just because it has a pretty apple on it?

The Most Boinga Post Ever

Posted on September 22, 2008 by Adam S

Boinga!

Unfortunately, having a baby around means that I often find myself watching shows such as “The Backyardigans”. As someone who has, since I was very young, considered myself pretty in touch with music and appreciative of true musicians, I am strangely compelled by much of the music found in these shows. For every ten terrible songs, there’s one or two good ones that are so catchy you’d never believe it. But if you dig deep enough, you’ll find some interesting lyrics hidden within. Lately, I’ve had several Backyardigans songs in my head, but one of them, the Alicia Keys’ backed “Almost Everything Is Boinga Here” has got me a little worried. Let’s examine:

Austin: Boinga’s a word we don’t understand.
Mommy Martian: Well, words are different in Martian Land.
Pablo: Well, we don’t know your language yet.
Austin: Maybe you could teach us?
Mommy Martian: Sure, you bet.
Baby Boinga: Boinga!

Mommy Martian: Almost everything is boinga here,
Just in case you hadn’t heard.
Almost everything is boinga here,
It’s the Martians’ favorite word.

Uniqua: Do you call these hands?
Mommy Martian: Nope, we call them boinga!
Austin: Do you use pots and pans?
Mommy Martian: Yup, we call them boinga!
Baby Boinga: Boinga!

Pablo: We wear hats on our heads.
Mommy Martian: Really? We wear boinga!
Uniqua: Do you guys sleep in beds?
Mommy Martian: Nope, we sleep in boinga!
Pablo: Hey!
Austin: That’s good.

Mommy Martian: Do your birds say boinga?
Uniqua: No, our birds say tweet!
Mommy Martian: Do your flowers smell boinga?
Pablo: No, they just smell sweet!
Mommy Martian: Do you walk on your boinga?
Austin: No, we walk on our feet!
Mommy Martian: Do you sit on your boinga?
Uniqua: No, we sit on our seat!

Baby Boinga: Boinga! Boinga!

Pablo: You certainly use that word a lot.
Mommy Martian: Well, it means a lot of things, so why not?
Austin: Is there anything boinga doesn’t mean?
Mommy Martian: Well maybe there is but not that I’ve seen.
Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin: Almost everything is boinga here.
Mommy Martian: We boinga all boinga long.
Baby Boinga: Boinga!

Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin: Almost everything is boinga here.
Mommy Martian: So we boinga this boinga song.
Baby Boinga: Boinga!
Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin:Boinga this boinga
Mommy Martian: Boinga!
Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin:Boinga this boinga
Mommy Martian: Boinga!
Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin:This boinga song!
Mommy Martian: Boinga!
Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin:Boinga this boinga
Mommy Martian: Boinga!
Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin: Boinga this boinga
Baby Boinga: Boinga! Boinga! Boinga!

Alright. So let’s take a closer look at few lines, shall we? Let’s start with this one: “We boinga all boinga long.” Aside from the fact that – I promise you – way too many dirty-minded people are going to interpret this as ”we f#@% all night long,” partly because “boinga” sounds a lot like “boing,” which is colloquially used as a cleaner version of “screw,” it proves that the word “boinga” is both a noun and a verb. Once we concede that Martians use “boinga” as a univeral verb and a universal noun, it contradicts earlier sentences.

Shouldn’t “Do your birds say boinga?” be “Do your boinga say boinga?” Actually, given the verb, shouldn’t it be “Do your boinga boinga boinga?” Shouldn’t that whole verse be mostly “boingas?” In fact, why is the word “do” allowed? “Boinga your boinga boinga boinga” just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Stupid Martians.

Let’s assume that we can get over Mommy Martian’s arbitrary use of the word boinga as a replacement for some words but not others. Why would Martians refer to Mars as “Martian Land?” Have you ever refered to our planet as “Earthling Land?” Of course, because it’s just weird.

Also, the Martian Mommy seems awfully fluent in English, and yet, she doesn’t know what birds say or how flowers smell. She can sing an impromptu song, but appears entirely unaware of the words “sweet,” “feet,” “seat,” or “tweet.”

Also, do you find it a smidge naive that Austin and Pablo seem to believe that they are capable of learning the native language in “Martian Land” in the course of one 2 minute song? …and do?

This is the line that kills me: “So we boinga this boinga song.” Please! You can’t convince me that many young moms and dads don’t hear “So we sing this fuckin’ song.“

Who said childrens’ songs were boring?

iPipes

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Adam S

iPipes on the iPhone

Long before the SDK, long before jailbreaking your phone became a one click process, backwhen a jailbreak was a 45 step, multi-hour committment, there were “web apps,” iPipes has been my favorite “web app” for the iPhone since then. There are many apps out there, but – put simply – web apps just don’t compare to native speed, especially on a 1st gen iPhone’s EDGE connection. iPipes, like the other software made by “themacbox,” is top notch, works very well, and is still a challenge long after games like Dominos and Rock, Paper, Scissors have lost their mojo.

iPipes is based on a very simple concept: given a time limit, contruct as long a pipe as possible using the given pieces to contain a crawling green “snake.”It’s easy to string together the first dozen or two pipes, but eventually you may find yourself backed into a corner or wrapped around with no way out. Passing several levels is easy and you will likely do so in the first try. But stringing together 100 pipes is a challenge, even on the early levels.

Although I’ve never really spent too much time obsessing over high scores (I usually get somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-85 per level), I once got 99 and then the counter stopped counting, the green stopped crawling, and it just… stopped. So I sat down determined to finally break 100 and see if the game would crash again. It didn’t. I got a 107 — which could probably be easily beaten by someone with more than 6 minutes to spare — but is still my high score. If you have an iPhone, I encourage you to check out iPipes – it’s free and available online.

Harry Potter Spoiler

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Adam S

The plot of every Harry Potter book written

I don’t know the source of this image. If anyone does, please let me know and I’ll link back to the author’s homepage.

First Impressions: Fringe

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Adam S

Last night was episode 2 of the highly anticipated new series, “Fringe.” I had been looking forward to Fringe for some time with only one reservation: I was hesitant to get into another serialized marathon like Lost or Heroes. But it was so compelling in its ads that I decided to give it a shot.

Last week’s pilot episode set up a great premise. The “translucent” body effect and the mystical “Pattern,” complemented by stone cold Matthew Abadon Agent Broyles left me wanting more. I suspect the second episode was much more indicative, however, of what this show will actually be. Read more after the break.

Continue reading →

One of the Greatest Sandwiches I Ever Had

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Adam S

I don’t know how I came up with it – mostly by doing a mashup of several of the sandwiches on the lunch board at The Virgin Olive Market yesterday. I’ve dubbed it “The Mushmerry,” because it’s a totally random name that makes no sense. Here’s the build:

Smoked turkey
Fresh mozzarella cheese (must be fresh, not slices)
Crispy bacon
Mixed green lettuce
Bartlett pear slices
Croissant

Now, this sandwich might sound a little weird, but let me explain.

There are several varieties of pears, but Bartletts work best for a sandwich

First of the all, the trick ingredient is the pears. I’ve had turkey sandwiches with apple slices before – usually with some sort of cranberry chutney or something – but in this case, the pears provide a lovely crunch, a sweet but crisp texture that gives the whole sandwich I fresh taste you can’t emulate with lettuce or tomato.

It also serves as a beautiful complement to the salty bacon. Bacon makes everything taste better, and when you use real thick cut bacon, it’s just that much better.

The fresh mozzarella is also briney, but soft and rich as well. I don’t know if there’s a better cheese than fresh mozzarella balls. Although pretty mild in flavor, the texture is killer.

The mixed green lettuce is perfect with it. Rather than standard iceberg lettuce, which is good, but mostly bland and tasteless, this is like a small but elegant salad atop your sandwich. The grassy green flavor adds a subtle complexity.

Lastly, the sandwich is served upon a croissant, the second most regal of the breads (behind brioche, natch), which is buttery enough to sustain the sandwich without something as offensive as mayonaisse, something as greasy as oil and vinegar, or something as strong as mustard.

Yes, the Mushmerry is my new favorite sandwich, and I’d highly recommend you try it too.

Update: Behold, the Mushmerry!

The Mushmerry sandwich