Bookmarks

The Rock thinks Diablo 3’s been a nice break from Dragon...

Thu, 24 May 2012 09:22:11 -0700

The Rock thinks Diablo 3’s been a nice break from Dragon Soul.

Safari 5.1.7 disables insecure versions of Flash

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:29:00 -0700

Safari 5.1.7 disables insecure versions of Flash:

Software Update:

Safari 5.1.7 contains improvements to performance, stability, compatibility, and security, including changes that:

…

Disable versions of Adobe Flash Player that do not include the latest security updates and provide the option to get the current version from Adobe’s website.

Neat.

AZ Catholic school forfeits championship rather than play against a girl

Sat, 12 May 2012 09:51:04 -0700

AZ Catholic school forfeits championship rather than play against a girl:

A child acts like an adult while the adults act like children.

You want to put your money in a credit union‽

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:31:57 -0700

You want to put your money in a credit union‽

Harder Than It Looks

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:14:40 -0700

Harder Than It Looks:

Yehuda Katz:

Often complex problems seem simple to the naïve observer. … Consider that the implementer of [a refactor using 1/10th the code] may not yet have a deep enough understanding of the problem to shield you the user from the complexity of the problem.

"A serious mistake Apple bears make is to assume that any hardware product has a natural or fair..."

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:39:19 -0700

“

A serious mistake Apple bears make is to assume that any hardware product has a natural or fair profit margin of no more than around 10 percent. … Apple’s products have unique differences that people are willing to pay for.

The fair price for a product isn’t cost-of-goods plus (say) 10 percent. The fair price for a product is what people are willing to pay for it.

”

- John Gruber on Apple’s profit margins. Sage advice if you’re going into business: make things people that are so awesome people are willing to pay for them.

I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:57:29 -0700

I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave:

Truly disturbing look into logistics and fulfillment.

Designer Myopia: How To Stop Designing For Ourselves

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:19:35 -0800

Designer Myopia: How To Stop Designing For Ourselves:

Rian van der Merwe:

How often do we look at a website or app and remark to ourselves (and on Twitter) that “these designers must have been blind!” Sometimes we’re just being whiney about minute details (as we should be), but other times we do have a point: “What were they thinking?”

In this article, we’ll discuss “designer myopia”: the all-too-common phenomenon whereby, despite our best intentions, we sometimes design with a nearsightedness that results in websites and applications that please ourselves and impress our peers but don’t meet user and business goals.

This isn’t just a design problem. The desire to build something technologically beautiful but not beneficial for the business plagues programmers too.

D&D 5th Edition is on the way

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:18:00 -0800

D&D 5th Edition is on the way:

Ethan Gilsdorf:

On Monday, Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro subsidiary that owns the game, announced that a new edition is under development, the first overhaul of the rules since the contentious fourth edition was released in 2008. And Dungeons & Dragons’ designers are also planning to undertake an exceedingly rare effort for the gaming industry over the next few months: asking hundreds of thousands of fans to tell them how exactly they should reboot the franchise.

It’s not surprising. I’ve always believed that their DDI implementation was a huge missed opportunity as Web-based product, and 4th edition hasn’t aged gracefully.

Also, from the buried lede department is the last line of the article:

Even if players increasingly bring their iPads, loaded with Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks, to the gaming table.

Those rulebooks are pirated copies of PDFs on a computer platform unsupported by any of Wizards’ current products.

Now We’re Knuckle-Deep Into This Geek Foolery

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:42:15 -0800

Now We’re Knuckle-Deep Into This Geek Foolery:

I had no idea one of my favorite podcasters, Matthew Jordan, was a wowhead. He writes:

It can be grueling, this fun you’re having. Coldmaker is a little late, not like him, but I think his game privileges were limited, something about a math test. He’s in gun country, the kid’s got a backyard full of broken washing machines now reserved for beer bottles and bullets. Ravheart will be on in a few, this is our third practice this week, one boss, and he’s trying to watch Rescue Me before the evening goes all lumpy. Ichoras is here, the raid leader, and we can hear his son crying in the background.

All of his podcasts are the linguisitc version of a high-end dessert tray, and this one is no exception.

"Programming styles that conceal defects are themselves defective."

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:45:34 -0700

“Programming styles that conceal defects are themselves defective.”

- Paraphrasing Douglas Crockford at #yuiconf. Probably applies to more than programming though.

Totey, The Loneliest Shaman

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:00:00 -0700

Totey, The Loneliest Shaman:

Chris Hanel & Michael Owen:

“Just let me in the raid good sirs,
no disappointment will I be,
and once we’ve stomped heroic mode
we’ll celebrate with PVP!”

but all the server’s raider,
from the Death Knights to the Retadins
just turned away from Totey
though he knew not what could be his sins.

Web Symbols typeface

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:00:18 -0700

Web Symbols typeface:

It’s like Wingdings, only use useful.

Hat tip: @mikebrisk.

Rolling Stone: My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:17:59 -0700

Rolling Stone: My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters:

Great ideas on real reforms for Wall Street, via John Gruber.

From the buried lede department: swine farms and seagulls

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:51:04 -0700

From the buried lede department: swine farms and seagulls:

Maryn McKenna of Wired, in her last paragraph on seagulls spreading multi-drug-resistant E. coli in their feces.

Deep in the medical literature, there’s another suggestion. In 2005, researchers from the CDC, FDA and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the feces of Canada geese living on bodies of water in North Carolina and Georgia. The geese’s carriage of resistant bacteria wasn’t uniform, however. The resistant bacteria appeared only in geese that were living in waters that were close to large-scale swine farms. The resistance patterns in those bacteria matched ones that had already been recorded by federal health agencies in pigs being routinely fed antibiotics in industrial-model agriculture. The geese “could serve to disperse bacteria between widely separated locations,” the researchers concluded.

Îñţérñåţîöñåļîžåţîöñ

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:50:25 -0700

I’m just curious to see if this makes it through the Internets.

The Star Navy Needs You - found at my local coffee shop.

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:12:02 -0700

The Star Navy Needs You - found at my local coffee shop.

HOWTO Use UTF-8 Throughout Your Web Stack

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:18:04 -0700

HOWTO Use UTF-8 Throughout Your Web Stack

It’s about time I updated my On Notice list.

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:40:55 -0700

It’s about time I updated my On Notice list.

Obama: Debt Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions By Both Democrats And Democrats Alike

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:53:17 -0700

Obama: Debt Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions By Both Democrats And Democrats Alike:

via Daring Fireball.