Steveism

If this is in fact true, I think it will actually be a good thing. It will highlight the backward direction the entertainment industry is taking for the more casual consumer. There will be significant backlash towards the networks and this will blow up in their face. The networks would be naive to think this would fly under the radar. In today's internet society, people organize and get vocal fast. SOPA/PIPA proved what a scorned internet is capable of doing. Once you're labeled as uncool and out of touch it's hard to come back from that. I'm quite positive the overwhelmingly negative press would be too much of a PR nightmare for Hollywood. Perhaps I underestimate Hollywood though. They've shown in the past how much of a straight face they can keep while feeding you a line of complete BS.

I never thought I'd read a review of keyboards that went to this extent. Shawn even added animations and sound clips. This is a great read for anybody who works in front of a keyboard for a living.

Alas, often in the U.S. legal system it is expected of the accused to produce evidence that disproves the claims made by another party despite them not having any proof to back up their claims. The burden of proof issue can become very murky quickly.

"...biofuels and renewable energy sources are all projected to increase steadily."

That was the only happy thought I took away from that article. At some point the world will just run out of fossil fuels. Regardless of which side of the fence you're on regarding global warming one thing is for certain, we need new forms of energy.

>"It’s unclear how the plan overlaps, if at all, with Google’s other recent search initiative, Google plus Your World, which integrates Google+ results into standard searches."

I would have to assume that going forward any tweak to the Google user experience will in some way benefit their social initiative. It seems to matter a lot to them.

This is another good Alfred extension that does basically the same thing but with an AppleScript: https://github.com/pcal/alfred-terminal-here

I've noticed quite a few Mac and iOS apps using Markdown lately. If anything it seems to be gaining adoption. Of course this isn't based on any actual data just my own observations. Perhaps a Windows user can chime in and comment about it's growth from their perspective.

I'd love to see it being used in more blog commenting systems.

I agree with the sentiment that what matters most to the customer is what should be front and center in marketing. In my opinion what is shown to the customer is a direct indication of the respect level that a company has for their customers. Ever try to buy a domain name at GoDaddy? They bombard you with offers for email, hosting, SSL certs, page builders, etc... To the point that it's amazing they have any conversions at all. I didn't need SOPA or elephant incidents to want to leave. I left long before that because I was sick of being treated with such low regard as a paying customer.

This reminds me of a blog post from Maciej, the creator of Pinboard, regarding why sometimes free services aren't all they're cracked up to be: http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/

As perviously stated, the article touches on data gathering from Twitter in another Wikileaks related case where data was legally seized without a warrant.

It's troubling that this type of data gathering doesn't require a warrant. The American Government can't expect oppressive countries to clean up their act when the example they set is to bypass civil liberties whenever possible.

After taking a gander at Pinterest's Terms of Use I deleted my account. The legal disaster that is Pinterest's terms is just epic. It's bad for its users and awful for the sites that had their content pinned. It puts everybody in a bad spot. I realize they drive a lot of traffic to sites but still they have some legal issues to clean up.

I love that Instagram has been able to grow and be successful without needing much of a website. While they do have a website it sure doesn't do much beyond sharing a photo. This definitely sends a message that designers, developers, and startups can't ignore. Path is another startup that sets this example. Not too long ago the thought of being a hot tech startup without much of a website was crazy to imagine.

I've always been fond of the official navy.mil time site. It's an ascii lovers paradise: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl

I'll choose to ignore the insult. Actually, I'm a web designer and I could quite easily tell them apart. Couldn't you?

All I did was mention that I agreed with Gruber not that he swayed me one way or the other. I think the fonts in ICS along with the rest of the Android interface is just awful. And obviously saying that in a thread which would appeal to an android user would go over like a lead ballon. Just thinking for myself.

Well, he clearly felt that three adjectives to describe the font was sufficient. I would have to agree. Of course everything on Daring Fireball is normally in the context of how a certain topic pertains to Apple which the rest of the article covers succinctly.

John Gruber is extremely well versed in typography. He talks at great length about typefaces in his podcast and has worked for Bare Bones Software on BBEdit, a well known text editor. I would tend to trust his judgements on this matter.

I'm not a Roboto fan. I think Gruber sums it up the best: http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/font_hipsters

As far as aesthetics go I actually prefer the approach Marco takes with Instapaper. I think Readability does have more of a polished feel but in no way does this polish make the service any more usable. The Instapaper apps are top notch in my book.

The moral angle of feeling guilty and thus using Readabilty to compensate authors is total garbage. I disagree with this guilt trip blog post on so many levels. The 30% cut that Readability takes is the whole reason Readability exists. Essentially the writers are providing free content to Readability that they get to make a nice profit on. This is exploiting the writers to a far greater degree than Instapaper. Also, not every article I save I deem worthy of a contribution to the author. I may utterly hate an author's guts and am simply reading their article to better understand their insane philosophies before I decide I despise them. I'll fall back on an old Techdirt term: CwF+RtB. If I like a writer and want to support them I'll visit their site enough to earn them ad impressions, or I'll buy their book, or I purchase something using their affiliate link. I certainly don't need Readability paying people for me while pocketing a handsome chunk of change in the process.

I couldn't agree more with Marco. The App Store rating system is confusing and down right ineffective. It consistently hurts developers and does little to help consumers. Apple really needs to bring some clarity and common sense into the rating system.