John Haro’s Blahg

posts from a technologist and ne'er-do-well
 

Bruce Tate on Learning Many Programming Languages

A practice I employ myself, ESPECIALLY since, as management, I do not code for my supper.

I firmly believe that we expand our minds by exposing them to different ideas. The ultimate exercise for someone learning about the world is learning new spoken languages. Learning a new programming language does very much the same thing. The whole exercise shapes the way you think, and in the very best ways.
Bruce Tate pragprog.com

I fully intend on purchasing and coding my way through Bruce's new book

Posted May 6, 2010
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ABC Player for iPad Update Supports 3G

This morning sees the release of the updated ABC Player for iPad WITH 3G streaming capabilities.  Others had suspected there may have been a licensing problem that prevented ABC from enabling the feature or possibly ATT not wanting to swamp their networks with video.  That seems not to be the case.   Just make sure you are on an unlimited plan before you start streaming Dancing With The Stars on the bus to work.  

Posted May 4, 2010
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Thoughts on Flash from Steve Jobs

Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath.
via apple.com

You can't teach common sense, but this open letter from Steve Jobs regarding Adobe's Flash makes the attempt. What Mr. Jobs mentions above is constantly forgotten or ignored by many even fairly technical people that should know better.
There are no mobile devices that run Flash. Period. There will be... fine. But we have open standards today that don't require flash, and any web development shop worth a nickel already creates "no flash" alternative experiences for any site they develop.

Posted April 29, 2010
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Rock Poster Recovery

Recently found a water damaged roll of my old posters and despite their sad state, I could not bring myself to throw them out. So they now live on in photography...

Filed under  //   music   photography  
Posted April 21, 2010
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Why I May Actually Buy eBooks from Apple instead of Amazon

An incredibly dim lightbulb went off for me this morning about the iPad, iPhone, iWhatever. It never occurred to me that Apple's app and book DRM would work the same way their other media DRM works, in that you can share with 5 authorized computers.

I find all DRM annoying but as much as I love the Kindle, it is very locked down in that you can not share a book with ANYONE.  I can understand the desire to not have your books posted all over the intertubes for free, but the fact that I could not lend a book with someone in my household bugged me.  I forgive DRM, as most people do, for the convenience offered by the kindle (a devil's bargain).  

So, back to the dim lightbulb.  Apple's ebook DRM is the same as its application DRM and movie DRM, that is, you can authorize the content on 5 devices.  

Books downloaded from the iBookstore can be placed on up to five computers you own that you’ve authorized with your iTunes Store account. You can sync your books to any iPads you own. Audiobooks and ePub files you've added to iTunes will appear in Books under Library. To sync Books to your iPad, connect it to your computer using the cable it came with. In iTunes, select iPad under Devices, then click the Books tab. Choose the books you would like to read on iPad then press Sync. Books will sync to iPad even if iBooks is not installed; to read synced books, download iBooks from the App Store.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4059

I still love the Kindle and for pure reading it surpasses the iPad, but this slightly less restriced level of sharing with Apple is making me think twice.  Or at least making me think about WHERE I buy a book before I buy it.  

Filed under  //   Amazon   Apple   technology  
Posted April 6, 2010
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My .02 On The iPad

Ok, so you want to know what I think of the iPad that I bought for my dear wife that I won't let her use so that I can type this post on it? Here go:

1. It is fast. Really. Surprisingly. Fast. I think the fact that it is fit-to-purpose computing it just seems snappier than even my overpowered MacBook Pro. Switching between applications, zooming, scrolling, keyboard... It's snappy

2. The keyboard is unexpectedly usable. I'm a fast iPhone dual-thumb typist despite not matching what i do on a full keyboard. I'm finding using the same sort of zen-let-the-autocorrect-prediction-work-for-you way that serves me well on the iPhone works doubly well here on the iPad. No, it's not a full size keyboard by any stretch, but it's plenty good for me to write a long email without suffering, or even to write this post. I could see taking this into meetings instead of a notebook.

3. The industrial design is excellent but this is hardly worth mentioning because its the same level of quality we have all grown used to with the iPhone and MacBook. That being said the screen is big and bright and beautiful. Text is crisp and it's easy on the eyes all around.

4. The applications on launch day are impressive. I'll save a list of favorites for another post, but what is important is that there are thousands written specifically for the iPad. Enough to keep you busy downloading for a while and if this is day 1, I can't wait to see what is out next month or next year.

5. It is the ultimate web browser. It's amazingly comfortable and intuitive way to browse. Reading a web page in portrait and intelligently sized for the ipad has a completely different feel than browsing on a computer with even a very large screen. You can actually sit back and browse and it feels more like you are reading a book. Think about it the next time you hunch over the laptop on your coffee table. I can't overstate the importance of this most basic "feature".

 

Thats enough for now.  Its great, Its met my expectations and then some.  Can't wait to get my own :)

 

Filed under  //   Apple   technology  
Posted April 3, 2010
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Board Games on the iPad

via mashable.com

Multi-player board games on the iPad. A no brainer. It will be great to see the great table top game companies embrace the platform as well. Chess is cool, but Settlers of Catan is cooler!

Filed under  //   Apple   technology  
Posted March 31, 2010
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iMockups for iPad

via youtube.com

iMockups looks great. What it really has me thinking about are business and productivity applications for the iPad that could make the iPad a killer-device outside of books, games, video, etc.
I'm already looking forward to the applications The Omni Group  has planned, since I live and die by OmniFocus on the Mac and iPhone, and OmniGraffle could be useful to me in meetings, sketching up system diagrams, software architecture, etc.  

Basically, I'm saying that I'm sick of writing stuff down with a pen.  I'm left handed and I'm tired of ink stains.  Bring it. Down with paper!

Filed under  //   Apple   technology  
Posted March 29, 2010
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Better Than The iPad: A Homemade Turing Machine

via youtube.com

A true piece of art created by Mike Davey, from Wisconsin. I totally want this in my office.

Filed under  //   art   technology   video  
Posted March 27, 2010
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