Month: June 2012

Why Lance matters a lot and not at all

Why Lance matters a lot and not at all:

You also stopped caring because at this point doping is factored into your view of the pro peloton. You know some people are doing it. You know that extraordinary results from ordinary people are suspicious. You know that just like in every other sport, some people will cheat and get away with it. And you know what? Who cares? Catch them if you can, but please let me sit back and enjoy the freak show and don’t remind me every ten minutes that it’s professional wrestling on bikes. And grab me another beer while you’re up.

[Smack on. This applies to all pro sports by the way… at least for me.]

How Apple will turn the Net’s top into TV’s bottom

How Apple will turn the Net’s top into TV’s bottom:

These deals will be motivated by a shared sense that Something Must Be Done, and by knowing that Apple will make TV look and work better than anybody else ever could. The carriers have seen this movie before, and they’d rather have a part in it than outside of it. For a view of the latter, witness the fallen giants called Sony and Nokia.

I don’t know anything about Apple’s plans. But I know a lot about Apple, as do most of us. Here are the operative facts as they now stand (or at least as I see them):

[A must read (if you care about content distribution).]

Source: Doc Searls Weblog

Apple Television, AirPlay and Why the iPad is the new TV Apps Platform

Apple Television, AirPlay and Why the iPad is the new TV Apps Platform – Jeremy Allaire – Voices – AllThingsD:

But it won’t matter, because with Apple TV, cable content is just an app. What matters is that soon potentially tens of millions of HD capable monitors will become a screen for the hundreds of thousands of apps running on devices that are already in your hands.

[Jeremy Allaire priced plenty of reason and detail, but the truth is what else could it be? Dive into the morass that is networks and related contracts? I can’t imagine…]

We Only Think We Know the Truth About Salt

We Only Think We Know the Truth About Salt:

This attitude that studies that go against prevailing beliefs should be ignored on the basis that, well, they go against prevailing beliefs, has been the norm for the anti-salt campaign for decades. Maybe now the prevailing beliefs should be changed. The British scientist and educator Thomas Huxley, known as Darwin’s bulldog for his advocacy of evolution, may have put it best back in 1860. “My business,” he wrote, “is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.”

[Another health care mess that needs cleaning up.]

The Wirecutter: Best Standing Desks

→ The Wirecutter: Best Standing Desks:

Today, there are more electric-lift options with programmable heights: the GeekDesk Max, the NewHeights, and the attractive NextDesk Terra. I’m glad Mark found these: now I don’t need to worry that I won’t be able to replace my desk when the AdjusTables’ unreliable lift mechanism inevitably breaks.

[Or you could spend way less money and not sweat the measurements by buying one of these, and dropping a piece of plywood on it as a top. (I had just the piece I needed in the garage. If you don’t have such stuff in your a garage, IKEA sells tops at reasonable prices) I don’t mind the minor effort.]

Source: Marco.org

Writing with Bitly

Writing with Bitly:

As an art and a practice, writing is no less a product of its instruments than are music and painting. We not only need pianos, drums and brushes, but Steinways, Ludwigs and Langnickels. Microsoft doesn’t cut it. (Word produces horrible html.) Adobe had a good early Web writing tool with GoLive, but killed it in favor of Dreamweaver, which is awful. There are plenty of fine text editors, including old standbys (e.g. vi and emacs) that work in command shells. Geeky wizards can do wonders with them, but there should be many other instruments for many other kinds of artists.

[Great insight.]

Source: Doc Searls Weblog