Steven Leckart

The Venn Diagram of Social Media

Available on a t-shirt for $20.

[via Kevin Kelly]

Lisa Katayama

Snow Leopard ate my data

I was really excited to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook. Yay for more hard drive space and better usability for only $30! Less than 10 minutes into the install process, though, I got an error message. Something about not being able to find my drive or not having enough space. And then the MacBook died. It refused to start up. I got a gray screen, and then it turned itself off. Gray screen, off. Gray screen, off. Three times. Starting in safe mode failed, and starting from the disk got me to a disk utility page where it tried to repair my disk and then told me to back up, reformat, and restore.

Luckily, I'd saved all my stuff on the Time Machine two days prior, so three hours later I am now able to write this blog post from my MacBook, where little has changed except for my wallpaper and a couple of notes I took on some Stickies yesterday. Maybe I did something wrong &mdash I should do my homework, read the instructions or the "things you should do before making the leap to Snow Leopard." But then again, I got a Mac so I could stop worrying about stuff like that.

I'm sure Snow Leopard is awesome once it's installed, but right now I'm not willing to invest the time into reading the precautions or to risk losing everything again.

Steven Leckart

Snow Leopard Review Round-Up

Awesome, yawn-worthy, or a bit of both? The bottom lines are in...

Ed Baig at USA Today:

Snow Leopard isn't a must-have upgrade. There's not much new in the sizzle department. Many feature enrichments are modest, such as the ability to highlight text from a specific column in a PDF. The fine Safari 4 Web browser is also included, but you don't need Snow Leopard to get it. Apple does say the browser is faster and more crash resistant. (My iMac did crash once in my testing.)... Still, Snow Leopard should delight Mac fans...

Brian X. Chen at Wired.com:

This upgrade won't deliver any radical interface changes to blow you away (not that we would want it to), but the $30 price is more than fair for the number of performance improvements Snow Leopard delivers. Stay tuned for Wired.com's full review of Snow Leopard as we continue to test it over the week.

Jim Dalrymple at CNET:

We think the interface tweaks to Expose, Stacks, the Finder, Mail, and iCal make Snow Leopard more than just a service pack and worthy of the $29 upgrade price... Though the system performs well in everyday use, many of our tests indicate it is slightly slower than the older version of Leopard in more intensive application processes. Still, we highly recommend upgrading for all the new features and Microsoft Exchange support.

Andy Ihnatko at Chicago Sun-Times:

...the price represents perhaps the most emphatic middle finger that Apple's ever extended towards Microsoft's general direction. In the past five years, Microsoft has done far less with Windows than Apple has done with the Mac OS.

Galen Gruman at InfoWorld:

When a new OS upgrade costs $29, you can be forgiven for thinking of it as a service pack... an under-the-hood upgrade whose new capabilities won't be so obvious to users, and thus not worth the usual $129. I agree with that price assessment (if only Microsoft had made the same judgment about Windows 7), but I don't agree that what Snow Leopard offers resides merely under the hood. Instead, it provides many enhancements and some new features that Mac users of all persuasions will really like.

Randall C. Kennedy at PC World:

"Where's the beef?"

Brian Lam at Gizmodo:

Some fanboys will ask, incredulously, "This is a new operating system?!" Those people are missing the point. On deeper inspection, Snow Leopard's inconspicuous aspects--performance squeezed from underused CPU multicores/GPUs and basic UI tweaks--are found to be the kind of refinement generally reserved for virtuosity. These speed optimizations are deep, reminding me of when a master martial artist puts the entirety of his weight behind a strike (while a neophyte would flails his limbs like a henchman in a Bruce Lee movie). The little UI tweaks are no different than when a great sculptor's chisel works to remove everything non-essential during the final steps on a statue.

Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal:

Apple already had the best computer operating system in Leopard, and Snow Leopard makes it a little better. But it isn't a big breakthrough for average users, and, even at $29, it isn't a typical Apple lust-provoking product.

David Pogue at the New York Times:

Incredibly, Snow Leopard is only half the size of its predecessor; following the speedy installation (15 minutes), you wind up with 7 gigabytes more free space on your hard drive. That, ladies and gents, is a first... That Snow Leopard's looks haven't changed at all, in other words, betrays the enormous changes under its pretty skin... Either way, the big story here isn't really Snow Leopard. It's the radical concept of a software update that's smaller, faster and better -- instead of bigger, slower and more bloated.

Jason Snell at Macworld:

Snow Leopard is Apple's lowest-priced OS update in eight years. Granted, it's a collection of feature tweaks and upgrades, as well as under-the-hood modifications that might not pay off for users immediately. But the price of upgrading is so low that I've really got to recommend it for all but the most casual, low-impact Mac users.

Peter Svensson at AP:

For most Mac users, Snow Leopard will likely be a no-brainer upgrade, given the low price. But early upgraders often face minor bugs and installation problems, so unless you're dying for one of the new features, waiting a month or so is a safer course... So how does Snow Leopard compare to Windows 7? Snow Leopard's benefits will be most apparent down the road, while Windows 7 promises more of an immediate payoff.

Joshua Topolsky at Engadget:

...the single inescapable fact that hung over our heads as we ran our tests and took our screenshots and made our graphs: it's $30. $30! If you're a Leopard user you have virtually no reason to skip over 10.6... If you're still on Tiger, well, you'll have to decide whether or not you want to drop $130 on what's essentially a spit-shined Leopard, but if you do decide to spend the cash you'll find that the experience of using a Mac has changed dramatically for the better since you last upgraded.

photo by Tambako

Steven Leckart

Review: Two Weeks W/Spotify [Verdict: It Just Works]

Music should live in the cloud. That's obvious. Even a vinyl-loving audiophile with super-powered, magical eardrums would likely agree that most semi-casual listeners — which is most of us — shouldn't have to manage jewel cases or migrate tracks from disc to computer to thumb or hard drive ad nauseam.

I never bought into Rhapsody. I think Lala is a joke (especially with all the pricing flip-flops). I tried imeem and like the interface/functionality, but don't have time to invest in another social network. Pandora is overrated (every time I listen, I skip more tracks than I listen to). Napster's had so many incarnations, I've lost count and interest. I've never given Last.fm a go, because frankly, I've grown tired of all of these services which get close to what I want, but not quite.

My CD collection — which is in the 1,500-2,000 range — is somewhat organized. It lives in a series of alphabetical bins stacked in a hall closet. Once a month, or less, I'll go searching for a disc. Maybe I'll find it. Maybe not. Thus, I'll re-buy. A bummer, but worthwhile if I want to hear the Beach Boys "Let the Wind Blow" and put it on my iPhone, instead of streaming an inferior file on YouTube. $0.99 isn't all that bad. But it adds up. Besides, what else can I do, without illegally downloading?

Spotify is a desktop app that lets you stream 3.8 million songs — for free. While it isn't perfect, it sure does blow away the above-noted competition.

For two weeks, I've been listening and, better yet, collecting hundreds of songs that I've structured into a variety of playlists so that I can listen, on repeat.

In a word, the service is: AWESOME.

Here's the jist:

The Rad

The selection is pretty solid: I've searched and found dozens of albums and artists I haven't listened to in, literally, years. That's my favorite part: no more diving into the closet and flipping through jewel cases; no more re-buying just to hear a song on-demand; no risk of getting sued just cause I want to hear Joy Division's "Digital" 137 times yesterday and today. Plus, new releases from the kinds of bands you'll hear on KCRW and some college radio stations.

The UI is logical and smooth, as is the streaming itself. Tracks play, more or less, instantaneously. No disheartening buffering. The free account features tracks at 160kbps. You can, of course, pay up for better sound. I doubt I ever would or will.

It's legal, thanks to licensing. Supposedly there are ads that get inserted into your playlists. In the two weeks I've been listening, I haven't seen or heard one ad. That's great for me. That's not so good for the advertisers. Go figure.

There are a bevy of fun, useful features which you can dive into — drag-and-drop playlist creation, artist/song search, artist radio (not great, imho, but comparable to other streaming radio stations), collaborative playlists, sharing to Facebook — OR NOT. If you have no interest in exploring these, no problem. The UI isn't gunked up with tons of buttons or links to confuse a casual listener. As such, it's unbelievably easy to get started and just listen to music.

You can also choose genres, years, and mix and match: 80s goth, 90s dance, or even something like 70s country/reggae:

The Not-So-Rad

Spotify sports a list of similar artists and artist radio, but I'm not finding this to be all that much of a mind-blowing music discovery tool. At least, not to the point that I've gone ahead and purchased or saved many "new" artists I've never heard of or lesser-known tracks from artists I do know.

The Meh

1) No Beatles. No LedZep. Even mid-level bands are noticeably absent or incomplete: Wolf Parade's second album but not it's first (and best).

2) Oh, and because of legal issues, it's currently available only in the UK, France, Spain, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

3) I can't imagine Apple will ever allow the iPhone app to pass go and collect $200m [via Lifehacker]:

photo by RodBegbie

Steven Leckart

Why Overt Gaming Could Take Over Social Networks & Recommendation Engines

I'm the Mayor of my local dog park. For two days, I was also the Mayor of Wired Magazine's San Francisco office. I'm now recovering from a disconcerting case of TMI-tus. All thanks to Foursquare, a GPS-enabled app I downloaded to my phone.

If you're unfamiliar, here's how it works: You launch the app, your phone determines your location, and you then have the option to broadcast this "news" to your friends, Twitter followers, etc. and add tips about, say, a restaurant &mdash what to order, what table to sit at, what time to go, etc.

But here's the catch: it's a game. Points are awarded every time you check in. Additional points are handed out if you do this frequently at multiple locations. Even more points are earned every time you add a new location to Foursquare's database.

The result: I ranked #14 on the San Francisco leaderboard after a long, exhausting weekend.

The purpose: I have no clue.

...Or actually, maybe I do. Find out after the jump.

photos by Adam Jackson & Filmoculous

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Apple's latest Final Cut Studio reviewed by Xeni

Xeni got a look at the latest edition of Apple's Final Cut Studio, and takes it for a spin. It's impressive stuff:

Bottom line: normally I wouldn't be so jazzed about an application update, but as someone who's spent the better part of the last two years working on web video production, this struck me and others in the room as "workflow-changing" (some said "life-changing!") and a nice big leap forward.

Apple's New Final Cut [BB]

Rob Beschizza

Apple rejects native Google app

From the Googles:

We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users. After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles.

Google Latitude. Now for iPhone. [Google via Daring Fireball]

Steven Leckart

Movie Makeup Tip: It's OK To Go Old School

Movie makeup and special effects wizardy is very much a study and exercise in materials science. Since the dawn of film, artists have been been toying with synthetic appliances, pigments, and all kinds of organic matter. Through the years, new materials, digital tools and rendering software, like ZBrush, have boosted efficiency and creativity.

Rick Baker, the legendary makeup artist behind films like An American Werewolf in London, Thriller, and those Eddie-Murphy-fat-guy films, isn't a purist when it comes to adopting new technologies. He's stated very clearly that he embraces the use of CGI because it can accomplish what's literally impossible &mdash even for him.

And yet, for the upcoming film The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro (pic above), the guru of gore decided to go old school. As an homage to makeup artist Jack Pierce, who created the effects in the original film from 1941, the Academy Award-winning special effects master decided to ditch silicone and other newfangled materials for the stuff of yesteryear &mdash foam rubber, acrylic teeth and yak hair. Yes, yak hair, which Pierce used along with kelp to transform Lon Chaney into the o.g. wolfman.

So how does Baker's wolf compare?

Not sure. The film was originally due in April, got bumped to November. Color me curious to see the transformation and F/X, but concerned about everything else.

Rob Beschizza

Not with a bang but a big fat check: Pirate Bay interview

Xeni recently interviewed Peter Sunde and the video just went up. it is required viewing in light of today's news.

Steven Leckart

Mr.Taggy & the History of Search at PARC

There are plenty of nifty search engines that don't begin with "Goo" and end with "gle," as Wired points out. But one site they forgot to include is MrTaggy, which was created by PARC's Augmented Social Cognition Area.

Unlike other engines, this one doesn't index the content of web pages. Instead, it uses PARC's TagSearch algorithm, which aggregates and sorts the user-generated tags added to social bookmarking sites like Delicious. From there, users can give thumbs up or down for each and every result. The goal: be part-search, part-recommendation engine by tapping the wisdom of the crowd.

BBG asked the ASCA researchers to connect the dots between PARC's earlier forays into search and MrTaggy. Here's what Ed Chi, Manager of ASCA, shared with us:

First, one of the most efficient ways of browsing and navigating toward a desired information space was illustrated by the pioneering research on Scatter/Gather, a collaborative project on large-scale document space navigation between amazing researchers such as Doug Cutting (of Lucene, Hadoop fame) and Jan Pedersen (chief scientist at AltaVista, Yahoo, Microsoft for search).

The research done in early to mid 90s, showed how a textual clustering algorithm can be used to quickly divide up an information space (scatter step), ask the user to specify which subspaces they're interested in (gather step). By iterating over this process, one can very quickly narrow down to just the subset of information items they're interested in. Think of it as playing 20 questions with the computer.

Second, also around the mid-90s, an important information access theory was being developed at PARC in our research group called Information Foraging, which showed that you can mathematically model the way people seek information using the same ecological equations used to model how animals forage for food. We noticed that we can use information foraging ideas to model how people used Scatter/Gather to browse for information. It turns out that it was possible to predict how people use the information cues (which we called 'information scent') in each cluster to determine whether they were interested in the contents inside the cluster. It turns out that Scatter/Gather can be shown to be a very efficient way to communicate to the user the topic structure of a very large document collection. In other words, people learned the structure of the information space much more efficiently using Scatter/Gather interfaces.

I hope it is quite clear that the relevance feedback mechanisms are very much inspired by Scatter/Gather. The related tags communicate the topic structure of what's available in the collection. Through this process, we designed MrTaggy, hoping that it would be just as efficient as Scatter/Gather in communicating the topic structure of the space.

Third, our group had developed Information Scent algorithms and concepts to build real search and recommendation systems. These algorithms build upon earlier work on a human memory model called Spreading Activation.

TagSearch algorithm uses similar concepts here. It constructs a kind of Bayesian modeling of the topic space using the tag co-occurrence patterns.

TagSearch's algorithm owes its heart and soul in concepts in Spreading Activation, which helps us find documents that are related to certain tags, and vice versa.

So what it's like to actually use MrTaggy?

I started a search with the suggested tags "funny" and "video." Less than 30 seconds later, I discovered this Bruno-related gem from FunnyorDie that had, until now, somehow escaped my attention.

Good find, MrTaggy!

Joel Johnson

Video: Web Side Story

I am increasingly impressed by the quality of College Humor's videos, but if they start doing Broadway musicals parodies I'm going to weep rainbow tears of joy.

Rob Beschizza

Layers of Abstraction

JWZ on porting the classic melty-numbers Dali Clock app to Palm Pré:

It's a little slow. It is, in fact, a bit slower than the PalmOS "Classic" port. And, for that matter, the original Xerox Alto version. Why, you may ask? Because this port is written entirely in Javascript.

frsrs.

Let's take a moment to ponder this version and the Alto version, and just how many wasted instructions, layers of abstraction, frameworks, toolkits and outright cruft have gotten between the algorithm and the frame buffer in the intervening twenty-seven years. This program makes my phone hot.

Rob Beschizza

Emacs on a G1

Rob Beschizza

Johan Van den Brande's Commodore 64 Twitter client

Rob Beschizza

Microsoft won't pay for RIM or iPhone data plans any more

Microsoft is reportedly saving some dough by only reimbursing employees' data plans if they're using a Windows-based cellphone. Gruber masters the art of understatment: "man, look at what a piece of crap Windows Mobile is, today."

Joel Johnson

The Facebook Username Debacle

Anil Dash:

June 13, 4:04pm: A white guy named David discovers every variation of his name on Facebook is already taken, and finally reconsiders the condescending contempt he's always had for black people who give their kids unique names. This tiny bit of racial reconsideration is the only unequivocally good news to come out of the Facebook Usernames launch.

Rob Beschizza

No Snow Leopards for PowerPC

Wired's Charlie Sorrel:

If you have an old PowerPC Mac, you should probably make it its favorite dinner, throw an arm around its shoulder and - as you shed a single, silent tear - lead it round behind the back of the house. Lowering it gently into the old, rusted bathtub you whisper, almost inaudibly, "sorry." You then pull out a gun and finish off your faithful old friend.

Apple Euthanizes PowerPC Macs with Snow Leopard

Steven Leckart

Review: A Few Days with a SNIF Tag

My pug Gus is a lazy sack. No disrespect, but it's true. Which is why I'm not at all opposed to putting him to work and/or keeping more rigorous tabs on his extreme indolence so that I can hold it over his head.

Enter the SNIF system, an accelerometer built into an RFID tag that logs and transmits motion data to an Ethernet base station that plugs into your router. In addition to streaming real-time, online status updates (sleeping, sitting, walking, etc.), the SNIF web site creates a browse-able history of your pets activity or, in Gus' case, inactivity.

Check out my pug's data, and observations after the jump...

READ THE REST

Rob Beschizza

Report: Sony working on Android-based gadgets

Sony's talked a lot about abandoning its proprietary ways, but the company's DRM shenanigans and format wars always sprung to mind. This is something of a surprise! [CrunchGear]

Photo: Moff

Joel Johnson

"Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension"

Brian Krebs:

Big deal, you say? I can just uninstall the add-on via Firefox's handy Add-ons interface, right? Not so fast. The trouble is, Microsoft has disabled the "uninstall" button on the extension. What's more, Microsoft tells us that the only way to get rid of this thing is to modify the Windows registry, an exercise that -- if done imprecisely -- can cause Windows systems to fail to boot up.

Joel Johnson

Video: Panic Sale!

Panic, makers of fine Macrintorsh softwares, are having a 50% sale.

Joel Johnson

Eucalyptus ebook reader app allowed on iTunes

Proving that the best way to publicity for your iPhone app is to have one of the prudish worrywarts that attend Apple's iTunes proving grounds ban your application, the ebook app "Eucalyptus" has been sheepishly led into the App Store after all. Good news all around the the developer, who now is left with only the challenge of explaining to the public why they should pay $10 for an ebook app when Stanza is available for free.

(Here's a starter: Amazon, makers of the Kindle ebook device, as well as a free iPhone ebook reader, recently acquired Lexcycle, makes of Stanza. So if you'd like to support an independent developer until his company is acquired...)

Joel Johnson

A short chat with a programmer who is dabbling with the Palm webOS SDK

Palmer Eldritch: btw, if the palm emulator is anything to go buy, this thing's going to fucking rock
Palmer Eldritch: that is, if the software works as well on the device as it does in emulation

Joel Johnson: I presume all the fretting about the "web environment" not being powerful enough is bullshit?

Palmer Eldritch: yeah, assuming the handheld can keep up with everything
Palmer Eldritch: the api looks pretty thorough
Palmer Eldritch: and the web environment means a nub like me can write an app with about 10 min of reading
Palmer Eldritch: vs the iphone :p

Joel Johnson: Yeah, that is a pretty big deal
Joel Johnson: Even if the apps don't end up as "powerful"

Palmer Eldritch: yeah
Palmer Eldritch: well, how many iphone apps need power?
Palmer Eldritch: obviously some
Palmer Eldritch: but nothing I'd write!
Palmer Eldritch: if I read one of these config options right, you can back your pre up "to the cloud"
Palmer Eldritch: there's going to be some palm service for it
Palmer Eldritch: I'm probably being over optimistic, but I'm really excited about it
Palmer Eldritch: and now I can keep my super cheap sprint plan

Joel Johnson: that's interesting

Palmer Eldritch: I wish MS and RIM would start from scratch on something
Palmer Eldritch: maybe it takes desperation to do that
Palmer Eldritch: but I'm tired of phone software that was built in 1998

Joel Johnson: Yeah, there's nothing wrong with starting over
Joel Johnson: Also, you should post that stuff.
Joel Johnson: It'll make Palm happy.
Joel Johnson: Anonymously, of course.

Palmer Eldritch: haha
Palmer Eldritch: you can, if you want :p

Joel Johnson: There's not enough to go with yet!

Palmer Eldritch: ok, what all do you want to know?

Joel Johnson: let's structure this like an interview
Joel Johnson: Now that you've had a couple of days to dink around with the SDK, what makes you so excited about webOS?

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

8Bitone, a chiptunes synth and sequencer for iPhone

Japanese developer Yudo will soon be releasing "8Bitone", an 8-bit chiptunes synthesizer for iPhone and iPod touch. No idea on the cost—most sequencers have been fairly expensive on the iPhone, in the $10-$20 range. I am fond of their title banner. [via GameSetWatch]

Joel Johnson

Skype on Oprah

Joel Johnson

Programmer Machismo

Nat Torkington:

It makes me realize how much of the macho meritocracy "it's just about how GOOD YOU ARE" individual-excellence cocks-out culture in programming in general and open source in particular isn't about what's necessary to make good programs and good programmers, it's what's necessary to make great egos feel good about themselves.

Joel Johnson

Procedurally generated "Pixel City" by Shamus Young

Shamus Young is the sort of fellow who decides to figure out how to make a procedurally generated city for fun. Even better, he likes to document wresting a city from raw pixels, explaining the entire development process in 10 blog posts.

He didn't even use pixel shaders, the set of specialized instructions that execute directly on modern 3D video cards, which would have given him more real-time Calc-U-Power™. [via Flowing Data]

Rob Beschizza

Hacker claims to have Steve Jobs' Amazon.com history

At Cult of Mac, Leander Kahney scores an exclusive: details of a hacker who claims to have phished Steve Jobs himself. Camillo Miller suggested a perfect title for Kahney's next book, and we're only too happy to dash off a cover for it.

Exclusive: Steve Jobs' Amazon.com Account Hacked, Hacker Claims [Cult of Mac]

Joel Johnson

Plant identification field guide coming to iPhone and more

The National Science Foundation is working on a plant identification guide for the iPhone and other portables, reports the Times:

The field guide, now in prototype for iPhones and other portable devices, has been tested at three sites in the northeastern United States, including Plummers Island in Maryland and Central Park in New York, said W. John Kress, a research botanist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, who is also on the research team. The computer program compares the leaf snapshot to a library of leaf images.

"We believe there is enough information in a single leaf to identify a species," he said. "Our brains can't remember all of these characteristics, but the computer can."

Joel Johnson

2nd Torrent Fire Company sign

Hassan Sign Company of Cohasset, Massachusets, carved this ornate recreation of the 2nd Torrent Fire Company's sign. It's actually a recreation of a recreation—the first sign was made in the 1860s, then remade in 1942.

I don't actually know if that's how you say the fire company's name, but I like the way "2nd Torrent" sounds.