Greg Knauss at American McCarver describes why the Fourth of July is the true American holiday:
There is nothing more American than the Fourth, and nothing more ideal: picnics and fireworks and no gift-giving and exactly zero obligation to see your extended family.
Have a good one, and don't blow yourself up.
Another year has come to an end, but this particular year closes out not only itself, but also a decade. The past decade has been something to behold for technology, to say the least.
We have seen the culmination of the iPod, Mac OS X, the iPad, and the iconic iPhone, which was by far the largest game changer in my book. Of course, amazing technology didn’t only come out of the secret labs in Cupertino.
Broadband Internet connections went mainstream, bringing with it a richer, more vibrant World Wide Web that focused on connecting us to each other through always-on communication, photography, videos, & more. Facebook, for all of its privacy concerns, has been an amazing tool to connect, and reconnect us, to others. For me, though, the more useful tool is Twitter, which has not only connected me to many new people (cf. Facebook tends to reconnect me with people from my past), and fostered lasting friendships.
Video chat has become a crucial part of my family’s life, as we live hundreds of miles from our relatives. This has boomed in the past couple months with the advent of Apple’s FaceTime for Mac, as my wife & I can use our iPhones to see our parents, and they can in turn see us and their grandson. My son will grow up being able to see his grandparents at any given moment, and that is simply amazing.
There are so many different things to ponder about the past decade, far too many to cover here. All I know is that things are about to become even more amazing.
Happy New Year.
For the past five years since I started blogging, I’ve relied mainly on using WYSIWYG editors (first Blogger, then Wordpress, and now Squarespace) and occasionally switching into raw HTML when needed to finesse a few things. I recently noticed that my current host, Squarespace, offers several different markup styles including one I’ve been wanting to try out called Markdown, which is coincidentally developed by one of my favorite writers, John Gruber.
or
Good question. The Markdown documentation states:
Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).
Thus, “Markdown” is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML.
And here is why I’m attracted to using it:
The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is the format of plain text email.
Well, just a few paragraphs in, I already like it. I previewed the post a moment ago to see how things are going, and found that the equivalent of <H2> tags looked too big so I easily bumped it down to <H3> by just adding an extra # symbol. Nice.
It’s definitely much faster to encode something like a link to my wife’s blog than to do it via WYSIWYG.
I am a little unsure how to get a link to target offsite and show the offsite indicator in Markdown syntax. I don’t see an example in the syntax documentation.
Thanks for making it through my little test. Not sure if I will stick with Markdown or not, but I could see it happening with a bit more practice. (Don’t worry, I won’t let you know next time, I just wanted to write about my experience in real time).
Just a tasty little nugget from Macrumors:
…if you visit CBS.com using the iPad SDK Simulator or spoofing your browser’s User-Agent to impersonate an iPad, you are sent to a different version of the video: [image]
This new version of the video does not yet work but appears to be based on HTML5. The css filesreference HTML5 and have a number of “webkit” specific calls. Webkit is the browser engine used in the iPad’s mobile safari. While the videos don’t currently play, the “fullscreen mode” reportedly already works in the iPad simulator.
and:
Apple has been a strong proponent of HTML5 and has suggested it as an alternative solution to Flash. It appears at least one major network will be supporting HTML5 alongside Flash video to deliver their content at iPad launch.
Imagine if Hulu were to do something like this. I can’t wait for most of the Internet to transition away from Flash.
The fearless leader of our favorite fruit company turned 55 today. Jobs is one of the most influential people in the tech industry, and has revolutionized the way we live with the Apple II, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, and soon, the future of computing, the iPad.
Whether you love Apple or despise it, no one can argue the impact of Mr. Jobs’ achievements in our day to day lives.
Happy birthday, Steve. I wish you many happy returns.
If you’ve been around twitter for a while now, I’m sure you’ve seen Ollie in many places (though it should be noted, he’s used quite often without consent from his creators). Ollie is the mascot and icon of Twitterrific, the popular twitter client for the Mac and iPhone from The Iconfactory.
Twitterrific pioneered twitter clients on the Mac (where it has unfortunately stagnated, but I’ve been told by Ged from Iconfactory that they are diligently working on a stellar update). It was also one of the first native iPhone twitter clients, and won an Apple Design Award.
Ollie has branched out from software in the past year, as he now adorns a t-shirt (which I own) and now the above pictured collectible figurine. Ollie is made of vinyl and comes in two flavors — straight vinyl or flocked. The flocked version is fuzzy. I opted for the straight vinyl Ollie as I figured he will likely sit on my desk, and the flocking may attract dust.
Overall the build quality is fantastic. It’s neat to see a 2D icon become a 3D figure. And hey, now I have my own Ollie to stare me down with his beady eyes until I check Twitterrific.
You too can have your very own Ollie at the Iconfactory Store. The regular Ollie is $19.95 and the flocked Ollie is $26.95 (you’ll also find that Ollie t-shirt there).
Not only is a new year upon us, but also a new decade. When looking back at the past decade of technology advancement, it is hard to comprehend what to look forward to in the next ten years.
Think about it, the past 10 years have seen a move from desktop computers, to notebook computers, and now to pocket computers. PDAs and mobile phones have merged not only into smartphones, but with the advent of the iPhone, into what I call Genius-phones.
Speaking of the iPhone, look at what that did to the mobile phone market. Carriers aren’t calling as many shots anymore, buttons are so last-millennium, and everybody and their grandpa has an internet-connected phone.
The Mac has revolutionized computing from being just a tool to a lifestyle. The Mac lineup has become a source of design-inspiration for just about everything.
The noughties saw the arrival of Mac OS X, which has seen 7 major revisions. Apple even shifted from PowerPC processors to Intel. Let’s also not forget that Microsoft fumbled with Vista, but this past year finally gave Windows users a reason to get off of XP with Windows 7, which, in my opinion, is the most Mac-like Windows yet.
We’ve seen Apple return from near-death as a company to being one of the few super-successful corporations in a down economy. Not only is Apple debt-free and int he black, but they have $30 BILLION+ cash on hand.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t toss in something that we probably take for granted now. The iPod. This device changed everything. I remember when I first heard of the iPod in 2001. I didn’t understand it. I thought it would flop. I’m glad I was wrong. I’ve purchased very few CDs since I bought my first iPod in 2003, mostly because that is the year the iTunes Music Store landed. The iPod has helped Apple become the largest music retailer in the world! And now Apple has hit another home run with the App Store and the iPhone and iPod touch.
There is so much more that could be covered in tech for the past decade outside of Apple, but it would likely take me until after midnight to write about all of it.
I look forward to witnessing what happens in the next ten years, because right now, I can’t even begin to imagine.
Happy New Year, everyone! To Twenty-Ten and Beyond!
Merry Christmas to you, my dear readers! May your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day be filled with family, friends, fun, joy, wonderful food, and shiny new Apple toys under the tree.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Magic Mouse.
The iPods were extending their warranties with AppleCare,
In hopes that Steve Jobs soon would be there.
I don’t usually post non-tech related things here, but this is my blog, and I can do what I want, right? Besides, circuits and code are inspired by geeks who consume mass amounts of caffeine, right?
Well, tonight, I had a great customer service experience at one of the local Starbucks.
10:10 pm. I have a half hour drive ahead of me and I am worn out. I want some coffee to perk me up for the drive, and I know a Starbucks is just down the block. I’m also pretty sure they close at 10.
As I approach, I notice that the lights are on and people are inside. I pull in. I walk up to the door, and go inside. The guy behind the counter glances up at me and says, “What can get started for you?”
I put in my order for a tall caramel apple spice for my wife, and a venti caramel brulée latte for me. (Yes, venti. Yes, after 10 pm. I know, I’m addicted to caffeine). The guy sets about to making the drinks.
I pull out my wallet, waiting for him to have a chance to ring me up. He glances up from the espresso machine. “Ah, don’t worry about it. The registers locked me out at 10. I just left the doors open so the folks sitting inside can take their time. It’s on the house.”
This is great customer service. Sure, the company lost out on five and a half bucks or so, but this deepened the loyalty of an already loyal customer. The server took care of the customer instead of turning me away, when he surely could have just said, “Sorry, we’re closed.”
Too often, customer service gets thrown down the drain these days. This experience was a refreshing change of pace.
And yes, free coffee does taste a little better.
A couple days ago, MMS finally arrived for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the United States. Here in Nebraska, the rollout from AT&T seemed to be a success. Granted, we don’t have near the amount of iPhones on the AT&T network here in the land of corn as San Francisco does.
My experience occurred around 12:15 pm on Friday, when I saw Twitter light up with reports that the carrier profile update was available in iTunes. So I slapped my iPhone into my Griffin Simplifi (if you don’t have on these on your desk, you seriously should get one), and clicked Check for Update in iTunes. The new profile installed in about 2 seconds.
Then I hopped into the Messages app on my iPhone, and was baffled as to why I didn’t have the little camera icon. Silly me, I had to reboot the phone. After doing so, I now had MMS on my iPhone.
Naturally, I snapped a picture of my son and sent it to his Grandma. She claims she didn’t get it, but said she’s also been mass deleting texts from friends and family after a surgery she underwent recently. However, I did shortly receive a picture from a friend’s Blackberry, along with the nice little note, “Let me introduce you to a new technology called Picture Messaging. LAUGH.” Har har.
Anyway, that’s my experience. Care to share yours in the poll and/or comments?
