Apple Adds High-DPI Versions of Pointers in OS X 10.7.3

Apple Adds High-DPI Versions of Pointers in OS X 10.7.3:



Screenshot from FinerThingsIn.com

DaringFireball notes several changes in some of the icons found in OS X 10.7.3. Several of our readers had also noticed the small changes in pointer icons in the latest version. It seems the changes run a bit deeper than on first glance. The new icons apparently come in high DPI versions that allow them to scale at high resolutions.

Have you noticed that Safari’s hovering-over-a-link pointing-finger cursor looks a little different in Mac OS X 10.7.3? It’s not just that the finger is at a slightly different angle — it’s a new UI resource that scales gracefully to larger sizes. That’s not the only new high-DPI image resource in 10.7.3: the grabby hand in Mail, the camera cursor for selecting an individual window to take a screenshot of, and a few other UI elements got the high-DPI treatment in 10.7.3.

Matt Gemmell shows an enlarged version of the icon when zoomed in Universal Access:

[Hey, wait, i just caught up to the last round…]

Source: MacRumors

Rediscovering the Beatles

Rediscovering the Beatles:

Paul McCartney was, of all the Beatles, the pure songman. He wrote music because he loved music. He really didn’t want to do anything else. For him, being a Beatle was the best deal in the world.

Now that probably still is a gross approximation of who McCartney is. But without the net, without Wikipedia, I didn’t even have that much to go on. Music is a story, like every other human art. It’s the story of one person laid out in a way that others can understand it. A song is saying here I am and this is what I say. Reading the story of the story gives me more to think, and imagine about.

I guess I just wanted to say that all along we had the idea that Lennon was the deep Beatle, and McCartney was somehow the silly one. But I think we got it wrong. As he sang later, there’s nothing wrong with a silly love song. Popular music is popular for a reason, because it engages us in a playful way that makes us feel good. Yes we feel a little silly when this point is touched. But that’s kind of nice too.

[It is also “popular” because something about that story, told that way, at that time, reaches a lot of people. It doesn’t have to be serious, or a narrowly defined “love” song. But there’s is some love or truth it will expose in a way that resonates widely. A tricky prospect on a lot of levels.]

Source: Scripting News

Will energy consumption stay private?

Will energy consumption stay private?:

A significant byproduct of the connection revolution is that things that were private because they were difficult to measure will no longer be private. When devices can talk to each other, the information rarely remains private. It’s not going to stop with energy, of course. Just about all our buying decisions are going to be shared, and that changes the marketers job.

In a world of horizontal marketing, where tribes are aware of what their members are up to, I think it’s going to happen quicker than most people expect.

[It’s not a question of “whether”, we already share this stuff a lot. It’s a question of how easy it’ll be to access it. Will you be notified if I look at your purchase history?]

Source: Seth’s Blog

Is Facebook really a good business?

Is Facebook really a good business?:

Facebook offers nothing that you can’t get elsewhere on the internet in terms of building an online presence, sharing with friends and family, and keeping up with people in an extended circle—it’s simply that right now, many people find them the most convenient way to do that. A long-term bet on Facebook is a bet that this will still be the case 15 years from now—or a bet that, 15 years from now, Facebook will have pivoted in a way that still keeps them just as relevant. That’s a very tall order.

Source: Coyote Tracks

Just Look at What You’ve Done

Fat Cyclist » Blog Archive » Just Look at What You’ve Done:

I love the fact that she’s wearing a 100 Miles of Nowhere t-shirt as she’s making this presentation. And I love even more how the kids react when they hear my name.

But what I love most is the fact that those kids, in that school, in that video, right now, have a better chance at a good life because of something we did. Something you did.

Here, take a look at a few of Katie’s pictures from this trip:

[Right then, she’s 100 Miles of Everywhere. (For those of you who don’t know, years and years ago (2008), Elden (Fatty) Nelson had a terrible idea: He bet a bunch of Fat Cyclist readers that he could ride his rollers for 100 miles. A raised a some money for charity. Next year he invited other’s to join. And it’s been going on in one form or another since. Last year a bunch of us road in a fairly small circle around the Kessina track. Anyway, it just seemed very ironic that in the midst of doing good and important work she wore a shirt that represents such folly. Of course, it also represents great joy and caring about others but in a silly sort of way. Very Elden like. Maybe it was perfect.)]

Neil Young: Piracy is the new radio

Neil Young was working with Apple on super high-def music format:

Young spoke at length about the lack of quality in today’s mainstream digital music formats, arguing that the “low-res world” of MP3s provide just 5% of the data present in the original studio recordings, paling in comparison to the quality of vinyl records back in the 70’s.

[If you watch the video, Neil Young said “Piracy is the new radio”. Interesting to hear from someone like him. I’ve long felt the same way since must of us toil in obscurity, and care more about being heard at all than the nonexistent lost sales. The fidelity thang has been long time issue for him, he’ cared about this as long as I can recall. I hope Apple doesn’t drop work on this altogether.]

SRAM Red 2012

SRAM Red 2012 – Full Details – BikeRadar:

SRAM have bucked the trend of 11-speed cassettes and electronic shifting for their wholly revamped 2012 Red group, preferring instead to stick with 10 rear cogs and conventional cable actuation. The new 1,739g claimed weight lops about 150g off of what was already a superlight package and major improvements to the brakes, derailleurs and drivetrain provide better stopping power, smoother front shifts and quieter running to accompany the updated ergonomics.

[Outside of the front der, which seems like a nice improvement, I’m impatiently waiting for the hydro stuff.]

[Update: It seems that the front der. is not compatible with the previous shifters. These companies think they’ve created a gravy train by obsoleting designs every few years, but considering the cost of a gruppo in the aftermarket, changes like this just make me feel burned.]

Missing refactoring…

Crazy, Heretical, and Awesome: The Way I Write Rails Apps | James on Software:

To decouple the logging from the creation of the database record, we’re going to use something called a service object. A service object is typically used to coordinate two or more objects; usually, the service object doesn’t have any logic of its own (simplified definition). We’re also going to use Dependency Injection so that we can mock everything out and make our tests awesomely fast (seconds not minutes).

[Again, a missing refactoring from the last major project…]

Source: @brynary

Say hello to Bootstrap 2.0

Say hello to Bootstrap 2.0:

Bootstrap 2 brings a plethora of changes and new features to the toolkit, many added as a result feedback from the community. In addition, much of our work was guided by our experiences of working on Twitter.com’s latest redesign where we created a flexible and durable design system. We took the same approach to Bootstrap 2 and came away with more features, better documentation, smarter default styling, and more.

[Allez!]