Statistics

tcc_mint_statistics.jpg
I’m not quite sure why I’m doing this, but I thought I would open up my stats to everyone, at least for a little while. There’s a little checkbox in Mint letting you do this. Shaun Inman must have put it there for a reason.
allow_anyone.jpg
They’re not too impressive, but I know there’s stats junkies out there like me who might enjoy them.
Statistics for Daily Exhaust (and The Combustion Chamber)
Update: To clarify, Mint is only tracking pages I have added the mint code to. It works the same as Google Analytics.

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

My thoughts on Safari 4 Beta

Safari launched Safari version 4 Beta on Tuesday. There’s some good things and bad things about it.
I won’t go through every facet of the update (you can find a list on Apple’s site). I’ll be focusing on the features that stand out to me the most.

Tabs

Tabs are the most obvious UI change in Safari. In version 3 and earlier, Safari had inverted tabs placed below the address (and bookmarks) bar.

before:
safari_tabs_before.jpg
Now, tabs are integrated into the top window bar and serve 2 functions:
– a draggable bar to move your application window around
– a group of individual tabs you can cycle through
after:
safari_tabs_after.jpg
the bad: Because the top bar is now serving a dual function, it’s harder to focus/select an individual tab. This is because Safari’s first response to an interaction (click/press) with the top bar is to treat it as an application window you can drag. If the interaction hierarchy were flipped, and tab selection was first priority, window dragging would prove to be nearly impossible.
While you can focus a tab by carefully clicking anywhere on the bar, it takes a few tries, unless you start to train yourself to move straight to the right corner of a tab, where you’ll see the ‘grip’ lines.
Bottom line, Fitt’s Law is being comprimised.
the good: On a positive note, about 20 pixels of vertical screen real estate is gained with the combined browser/tab bar. Economy of space is a great thing and it’s especially relevant on laptops.

Web Inspector – Design Consistency & Data Visualizing

A great feature that I probably won’t be using very much is the Web Inspector. For developers out there that use programs like Firebug within Firefox, the Web Inspector will look very familiar. It allows you do to look behind the scenes of a given page and view the HTML and style sheets as well as see how quickly all the elements within a page load. Coupled with the Activity window, it’s a great way to debug websites.

Web_Inspector_elements.jpg
Like all things Apple, its not only how well the Web Inspector works that makes it great, but how well it’s visually designed. When I toggled from Elements view to Resources view, I was again pleasantly surprised to see that they had appropriated repurposed the iTunes Resource visualizations for the iPod and iPhone:
Web Inspector – Resources:
Web_Inspector_resources.jpg
iTunes – iPhone capacity:
itunes_capacity.jpg

RSS Feeds

I don’t get the option to choose what application/service I want to use to read feeds when I click on the RSS icon in the address bar. Firefox gives me the option to choose Google Reader.

What happened, Apple?!

Address Bar & AutoComplete

This is the clincher for me. Safari 4 Beta does not let you type in any part of the address, or title, of the site you want to go to. This has become an integral part of navigating the web for me and the best improvement from Firefox 2.

It’s a feature that’s easy to overlook until you don’t have it anymore, then you realize you can’t live without it.

Summary

Safari 4 is in many way’s a solid step up from from Safari 3. Nothing feels broken or incomplete, and it is dramatically faster (as reports have claimed). Along with the autocomplete issues, the lack of add-ons is the only other major drawback that’s keeping me from switching from Firefox 3. Adblocker, Delicious, Tabs Open Relative – sure I only have 3 add-ons, but they make a world of difference when browsing.

For the non-techie user, Safari is an excellent choice.
It’s like a Porsche without power windows and door locks – sure they’re drawbacks, but the car still drives like a dream.

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

Actions, not Words

obama_speech.jpg
Who gives a shit if Obama’s speech is good? We all know he’s an amazing speaker.
How about we focus on how he presides over this country?
You know, how he actually does his job, not on what he wants to do.

Categories:

Education, Politics

Tags:

Windows Mobile 6.5 FAIL

Editorial: Ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark
Great recap on why Windows Mobile 6.5 blows:

At a distant glance some of those updates seem pretty neat, but get up close to them. The swiping and scrolling gestures are awkward (as noted by Chris Ziegler in his hands-on), in fact, they seem to work almost opposite of what is truly intuitive and “finger friendly.” The honeycomb menu is a glorified grid, a sign that Microsoft has gone out of its way to avoid a grid — but they fail to see (or don’t care) that regular grids make a lot of sense. They essentially fixed something that wasn’t broken.

Categories:

Technology

Tags:

Being happy with second (or third) place

creative_labs_likes_second_place.jpg
Whether they admit it or not, I realized that Creative Labs is happy being in second place to Apple in digital media players. If they thought they had a chance to be #1, they wouldn’t be making accessories for the iPod and iPhone.
If you can’t be the greatest, be part of the greatest.

Categories:

Uncategorized

Tags:

Facts & Specificity

I was watching the movie Transformers last night with my wife, occasionally rattling off the names of the various aircraft that show up – A-10 Warthog, F-22 Raptor, MH-53 Pave Low…. and on and on. She asked me how I knew all these names and I explained it was the result of growing up with a father who played flight simulator & war games (OK, I played them too).
As we watched the movie, I decided to read up on these aircraft on Wikipedia, since my knowledge was very superficial. As I skimmed through a few articles I began to get really frustrated and realized why there’s people bitching about how the openness of Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Here’s an example from the entry on the F-22 Raptor (emphasis added):

The opportunity for export is currently non-existent because the export sale of the F-22 is barred by American federal law. Most current customers for U.S. fighters are either acquiring earlier designs like the F-15 or F-16, or else are waiting to acquire the F-35, which contains technology from the F-22 but is designed to be cheaper and more flexible.

Currently? Current to what? Granted, this entry is probably not the best since the subject of the entry is still fairly new, but at what point in the future will someone decide to update the wording to reflect events that have transpired?
While you can see when an entry was last updated, is that the best way to check on relevance and accuracy? My friend Bryan suggests setting an entry as closed after it is completed and that not be editable until a certain point in the future. While Wikipedia has explicitly policies and guidelines – the website is open and thus, errors will show up. Given the amount of entries, not all errors are going to be found in a timely manner.
Keep this in mind if you’re a teacher, student, or just someone reading up on aircraft you saw in the Transformers movie.

Categories:

Education, Image

Tags:

Captain Obvious dissects market trends

From MacNN:

Analysis of trends reveals the dynamics of how and why iPhone applications sell, claims Pinch Media. The advertising firm notes for instance that popularity feeds popularity, as appearing in a top 100 list increases new users by 2.3 times, on average. The jump is said to be even more dramatic once in the top 10 or 25 apps of a particular category, though Pinch warns that the App Store is structured for rapid turnover.

Popularity feeds popularity?
No fuckin’ way! Since WHEN?!?!?!

Categories:

Uncategorized

Tags:

Rengim Mutevellioglu

i_swam.jpg
I came across the photography of Rengim Mutevellioglu on QBN. According to her portfolio page on Krop Creative Pro, she’s 17 years old.
Even if she was 37 years old these photographs would still be amazing.
Whatever the case may be for the enigmatic Rengim, great work.

Categories:

Image

Tags:

Heed

heed.gif
Now’s as good a time as any to mention my newest endeavor with my good friend Jory at Analogue – HEED. HEED is very much in it’s infancy but the driving force behind it is Design. Design meaning ideas. Solutions to problems – product problems, technology problems, social problems, transportation problems.
HEED is not about arguing the appropriateness of a font or gloss of a button.
Similar to how Steve Jobs announced iTV a few years ago as a ‘hobby’ so too is HEED for us. Jory and I know where we want to take it, but it will take time.
I expressed my fear to Jory one day on IM last month that I didn’t want HEED to become brain crack (thank you zefrank). I was afraid we would continue to evolve our ideas for HEED on IM ad infinitum without ever creating anything.
The important thing was for us to get HEED off the cinder blocks in the back yard and get it running.
Well, we’re up and running.
Slowly, but surely.

Categories:

Uncategorized

Tags:

Walken doesn’t do punctuation

Goddamn, the reasons I love Walken just keep multiplying.
From the Ellen DeGeneres Show:

When i was a kid, I always resented …when I was in school …having to put the period here and the comma here …I felt that it was an imposition …so whenever I wrote anything, I would write it without punctuation. And guess I grew up ending up that way.

Watch it at around the 4 minute mark:

Categories:

Education

Tags:

Galvanize


Guess I missed this one when it dropped. Hot track featuring Q-Tip.

Categories:

Music

Tags: