This is why we can’t have nice things.

Short answer: yes. Filed under: things I learned the hard way.

Very interesting to hear. (thanks NextDraft)

While we were working on the new Boston Globe website, we devised a technique to mitigate the size of requests for users that may have limited bandwidth. Before I describe it here, I should really warn you up front: it broke. But we planned for that.

There is currently no easy way to determine where the canonical data in a complex system resides and how it is updated, and my bet is we will see a new set of tools and languages evolve to create abstractions which will make it possible for mere mortal programmers like myself to get these architectures right.

Summary: there is no silver bullet.

Kellan points out a great follow-up to the previously linked Michael Wolfe piece. While the Wolfe piece is extremely entertaining, it’s also very true that there are smart ways to approach planning for software development. The value of experience cannot be overstated in these situations.

I don’t understand why the studios seem so intent on driving people to pirate movies. The experience (warnings about piracy, trailers, etc.) with a legitimate DVD or Blu-Ray is already awful and it seems they are trying to make it worse.

It’s no longer possible to write a single app that takes advantage of the full range of Mac OS X features. Some APIs only work inside the Mac App Store. Others only work outside it. Presumably, this gap will widen as more new features are App Store–exclusive, while sandboxing places greater restrictions on what App Store apps are allowed to do.

A must-read. (thanks Sean)

All variations of this are great.

Insightful overview, as usual, from Steve.

Which leaves us with two possible explanations. One, that the Red Sox see something in Mortensen that no one else does. Or two, that they assessed the Scutaro market and felt that this was the best they could do.

I think the Rockies just got the better of them on this one. The jury is definitely still out on the post-Theo era in Boston.

Words fail me. (via Dave Pell’s Next Draft)

Maybe next time, we won’t notice. Maybe next time, they’ll add it to another bill as an amendment. Maybe next time, they’ll have a sympathetic White House. There are too many ways for the anti-Internet Freedom lobby to win.

A great presentation on SOPA/PIPA.

Or, better yet, it should store the audio and let me replay it later when Siri is working again.

I wish it would store it as a voice memo with a reminder attached. I have miserable success with Siri over the bluetooth connection in my car (y’know where/when I need it most). It works reasonably well when I talk directly into it in a quiet environment – mainly for demoing to others.

I see the same sort of interaction from folks interested in having Crowd Favorite work on projects; but who pretty much refuse to tell us about the project unless we have a meeting, phone call, etc. If we acquiesced to these requests I’d have to hire two more people just to take these meetings.

Luckily, experience has shown that our best customers are ones who have as much respect for our time as we have for theirs.

The low-tech approach that BlackBerry used with magnets in the holster and profiles based on “in holster” worked really well.

The presentation starts by suggesting that JavaScript is typically the #1 place to look for making a website faster.

In case you were wondering why everyone is trying to make JavaScript faster.

This is not random opposition to bad proposed legislation. Mark and his team spent the time to understand what is really going on.

I hope this same thing is happening all over the country, but very proud it is happening in Colorado. Thanks to Brad and Senator Udall.

If you want to make an analogy, for the more geeky out there, the light field (if you look super long-term) is the holodeck.

I’m always amazed when I see the bugs fixes listed in the BBEdit release notes. Not sure I can remember the last time I ran into a bug in BBEdit. I am, however, a big fan of the change to the un/comment line feature.

However, over the past 10 years or so, an entrepreneur has implicitly come to mean someone who creates. A maker.

Interesting. The definition that has taken shape in my head is completely the opposite. “Entrepreneur” only means a “maker” to me in the context of a creating a business for an exit. It holds very little to me in terms of being a creator of products, services, etc. As you can imagine, I don’t consider myself an entrepreneur. I think of myself as a developer. But the main reason for that is the attachment to the “maker” concept.

As Dave and I explored this afternoon, “entrepreneur” and “startup” may be words that have very different meanings to different people.