Scriptkit an iPad app that allows you to create prototype iPad apps by simply dragging and dropping code snippets from a library of code and APIs.

The demo version of the app is free, but I just upgraded to the full version ($11.99) which allows you to save your prototype apps.

Pretty badass.

Scriptkit gets me excited about coding the same way Macromedia Adobe Flash used to get me excited about coding. I would never call myself a programmer, but I got to point with Flash where I was doing things like parsing XML and talking with PHP and databases. Flash empowered me to make websites and widgets without being an advanced programmer.

When you give artists and designers the ability to easily work with code amazing things can happen.

via Co.Design

The Silverlight plug-in is required to watch videos on the product page for Surface.

Microsoft is like those Japanese soldiers from World War II who thought the war was on long after it ended.

I still believe the Verge’s scoring system is complete bullshit.

Joshua Topolsky reviewed Microsoft Surface and gave it a score of 7.0 (out of a total 10) and yet says this in his summary:

The promise of the Surface was that it could deliver a best-in-class tablet experience, but then transform into the PC you needed when heavier lifting was required. Instead of putting down my tablet and picking up my laptop, I would just snap on my keyboard and get my work done. But that’s not what the Surface offers, at least not in my experience. It does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market, and it often makes that job harder, not easier. Instead of being a no-compromise device, it often feels like a more-compromise one.

With those sentiments, how the hell do you arrive at a 7.0?

The Verge gave the iPad (3rd generation) a score of 9.3—the highest they’ve given to a tablet. Given that Topolsky says Surface “does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices”, then one should conclude the highest score it should receive is a 4.7.

Are they giving Surface brownie points for the *click* sound the keyboard covers make and the pretty colors they come in?

After reading the Wired and (extensive) Ars Technica reviews of Surface, I’d like to adjust my original feeling Surface is half-baked. It now seems to me that the problem with Surface (and Windows RT) isn’t so much that it’s half-baked, but that it’s trying to be everything, and in doing so is doing no one thing great.

Ironically, by claiming they “won’t compromise” on desktop and tablet experiences, they’re clearly comprimising both.

This is unfortunate, because like the Palm Pre (and webOS), I was really hoping Surface (and WIndows RT) would be a solid contender to the iPad (and iOS).

Sean Gallagher tells geeks to brace for Windows 8:

My wife was home sick today with bronchitis, and wanted to get some work done. But her laptop wasn’t working (my daughter had mislaid the powerbrick), so she turned to me for tech support. I gave her a notebook I had loaded with the Windows 8 RTM and Office 2013 Home preview. I showed her a few basic things, and then went back to work.

That’s right–I gave my sick wife a brand new operating system and an updated Office suite to use with 5 minutes of training. I’m surprised she didn’t call a divorce lawyer.

Oh boy. Get ready for some fun.

Even with Apple’s transition from OS 9 to OS X over 10 years ago, they changed a lot of elements in the operating system, but at the end of the day, they kept all existing UI metaphors: folders, files, desktop, trash can.

With Windows 8, everything is going out the window (no pun intended). Unless, of course, you revert to ‘classic’ mode, where you’re still shit out of luck if you’re looking for the START menu.

As a geek, I’m looking forward trying out Windows 8, but for all the non-geeks out there? It’s not going to be fun.

My parents and I just finished watching John Stewart debate Bill O’Reilly in The Rumble 2012. What should have been a great television experience ended up being a horrible television experience because of an unreliable video stream (Update: If you don’t believe me, check out #rumblefail on Twitter).

We watched it on their Samsung plasma screen TV which was connected via an HDMI cable to a brand new, WiFi-enabled HP laptop. Despite the fact that my parents’ cable modem averages 29 MBps, my father and I had to reload the web page playing the (Flash) video at least a dozen times.

On one hand, it’s great that the debate was available on the web for anyone to watch (granted you had $4.95). What’s unfortunate is how hard it was to watch it at home on a television. Even though the television is Internet-connected, there was no way to watch the debate natively through any of the ‘apps’ on the TV’s software.

The other options were to watch it via Boxee or Apple TV, and my parents have neither (note to self: get parents Apple TV for Christmas).

I’m happy my father and I were technically savvy enough to get everything set up to watch (and know what to do when things went wrong), but this experience proves how far we still need to go to make it simple for the average person to access the Internet through their television.

On a positive note, in between the stuttering video stream, the debate was great. Stewart, as I expected, demonstrated he’s still at the top of his game when it comes to clearly articulating his sharp thinking while simultaneously using the term “Bullshit Mountain” through the debate.

via Instagram

Influencer

Influenced

via Yimmy’s Yayo

The CP Lounge Chair by Bernhart Design, designed by Charles Pollock
via Co.Design

The Escapist: Computer Built in Minecraft Has RAM, Performs Division

Last October, I showed you guys a simple CPU that a user named “theinternetftw” created in Minecraft that used torches to ignite redstone wires to add numbers and output that information as binary code. Now, a Minecraft player known as Salaja has created an even more complex machine that is capable of loading 16 lines of code into its RAM, and then performing operations before displaying the results on a screen in hexadecimal notation. In one example video, Salaja loads the “division program” and then successfully divides 9 by 5. The only downfall is that the computation takes a little while for the charge on the redstone to travel, but Salaja’s home-designed computer within a computer game is still quite a mind-boggling feat.

I understand what this guy did on a fundamental level, but trying to fully comprehend this is like trying to fully comprehend infinity or a black hole.
via Missile Test

ScreenRant: No Word Yet On ‘Mad Men’ Season 5 Says Christina Hendricks

The word around Hollywood seems to indicate that a fifth season of Mad Men is inevitable. What’s keeping the renewal from happening are two different agreements that have yet to be made: show creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner hasn’t renewed with Lionsgate TV, and Lionsgate hasn’t renewed with AMC. Though there’s no official word from either party, it’s reasonable to assume that money is the prime negotiating point.

Booooooooooooooo.

In my Inbox yesterday:

Hello, and thanks again for ordering a copy of this year’s
Annual Report.

The bulk of the printing was completed yesterday, now the press
sheets need to dry for a few days before the covers are foil
stamped. Finally the pages will be collated and bound. I
anticipate that I will begin shipping orders within 2 weeks.

I have posted a few photos of an unfinished report to my flickr
account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feltron/

Cheers, Nicholas.

Hell yes.

My good friend Bryan has been writing a column on his site, Missile Test, called ‘Shitty Movie Sundays‘. He’s spent a solid amount of time and effort both viewing shitty movies and writing reviews on them, but I was never interested in deliberately watching any shitty movies (insane, right?). That is, until last week when I rented Trancers from my Apple TV after reading his review of it. I won’t give you a review here (Bryan’s is far more entertaining), but I will say this – it’s really bad.
OK, it’s shitty, but it’s Good Shitty, if you can understand that. It’s hysterically bad and when I say ‘hysterically’ I mean I laughed more than once while watching it. If I laughed, it counts for something in my book.
As I’m sure Bryan will back me up on, there’s a spectrum of shitty the same way there’s a spectrum of anything else. There’s Pointless Shitty, like The A-Team (I had to stop it 30 minutes in). There’s Boring Shitty, Half-Assed Shitty, Over-Produced Shitty. And like Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, you can have a crazy combinations of shitty, like Way Too Many Fake Backdrops Shitty with a scoop of Inconsistent Script Shitty. Get the idea?
I think it’s important to balance things out and see a shitty movie every now and then. It gives you perspective. It’s makes your appreciation for the great films all the more clear.
I won’t say it isn’t dangerous. Be careful what you watch. You won’t get that 1.5-2 hours of your life back.
*you’re not going to understand the title of this post unless you watch at least 30 minutes of Trancers

NYTimes: Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76

In short, Mr. Stanley lent the ’60s a great deal of its color — like White Lightning, Monterey Purple and Blue Cheer, the varieties of his LSD that were among the most popular. (He did not, contrary to popular lore, release a product called Purple Haze; in interviews, he sounded quite miffed that anything emerging from his laboratory could be thought to cause haziness rather than the crystalline clarity for which he personally vouched.)

Link tip Missile Test